Links 11/4: TruePosition included in Liberty Broadband tracking stock; Comcast suffers X1 outages

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


EPAM Systems Reports Results for Third Quarter 2014 (MarketWatch)

Liberty Broadband Begins When Issued Trading Nov. 4 (Multichannel News)
Will include Berwyn-based TruePosition, as well as Liberty's stake in Charter Communications.

Greatland Connections Inc. would arise from Comcast-TWC merger (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Comcast’s X1 Hit By Connectivity Issues (Multichannel News)

Discovery CEO Questions Ad Prospects, And Comcast-Time Warner Cable Deal (Deadline)



Alibaba Posts Strong Earnings in First Report Since I.P.O. (New York Times)

Alibaba's next purchase could be big (SNL: Rumor Mill)
PayPal or eBay (after split)? Content company?

Google Partners with SAP to Get More Devs & Apps in Glass At Work Program (Glass Almanac)

Workday Streamlines Mobile Apps, Unveils Big Data Plans (Information
Week)


Microsoft Teams Up With Dropbox (TechCrunch)

5 THINGS I LEARNED FROM STARTING A BUSINESS AND A MARRIAGE AT THE SAME TIME (Fast Company)
By SevOne's Vess Bakalov.

Fisker gears up for hybrid relaunch (The News Journal)
Some stories never die.

Links 11/3/2014: Publicis to acquire Sapient for $3.7 billion; Princeton CRO Covance sold for $6.1 billion

Publicis to buy US digital ad firm Sapient for $3.7 billion (Reuters)
Sapient has no Philly office, though Publicis has several offices in the area. Will be interesting to see how Sapient works with Publicis' Rosetta, which is based in Hamilton NJ.

Why Buy Sapient? Publicis Wants to Compete with Digital Media and Consultancies (AD Age)


LabCorp to Buy Covance for $6.1 Billion (New York Times: DealBook)
Covance will remain headquartered in Princeton.

Samsung in talks with SAP, MS about healthcare (Korea Times)

Rovi Buys Fanhattan to Pitch Startup’s Fan TV Box to Cable Operators
(Variety)
Rovi has a group based in Radnor, though I don't think Fanhattan will be part of that group.

NYC Mayor Slams Proposed Comcast/TWC Merger (Multichannel News)

OTT is Dead * * Long Live OTT
(Mike Farrell/Multichannel News)

Unisys to create up to 700 jobs in Richmond County (WRDW Augusta)
Always good for a governor to have an announcement like this to make the day before he's up for reelection.

Announcements at the Bentley Year in Infrastructure 2014 and Trimble Dimensions 2014 Conferences Underscore Joint Undertakings and Benefits (Marketwatch)

DirecTV, Comcast installer UniTek is bankrupt (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

TIBCO TAKES ON ORACLE, QLIK AND TABLEAU IN BIG DATA WAR (Computer Business Review)

Oracle Stokes 'Hostile' Customer Relations, Study Says
(Information Week)

Philly Tech People News 11/2/2014: DailyWorth's new editor-in-chief tells why she left Google; veteran area exec & VC Murdoch is new Bryn Mawr Bank chairman

Follow @phillytechnews


Subscribe to Philly Tech People News by Email



Safeguard Scientifics Appoints Mara G. Aspinall to its Board of Directors (Safeguard Scientifics)

Why I Quit My Job at Google (DailyWorth.com)

QVC Names EVP, Commerce Platforms (Consumer Goods Technology)

Venture capitalist becomes new Bryn Mawr Bank chairman (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Elemica Adds CFO With Global Business Finance Experience to Support World Wide Growth

PointRoll Announces Kathy Callaghan as Vice President, East Coast Sales (Marketwatch)



PeopleFluent Appoints Former SAP and SuccessFactors Executive Juan Albelo to Senior Vice President of Sales (Business Wire)

Israeli company picks Philadelphia for U.S. headquarters (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Lockheed Martin: Tax break needed to save 250 jobs (Courier-Post)

Lancaster named Google eCity; Pennsylvania's digital capital (WGAL)

Qlik, EPAM and Heartland Payment Systems announced acquisitions on Friday

Tom Paine

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Three area tech firms announced acquisitions yesterday:

Qlik Technologies, Radnor, acquired DataMarket for a maximum price of $13.5 million, Qlik reported in an SEC filing yesterday, and DataMarket subsequently shared the news on its blog. DataMarket is based in Cambridge, MA with a development office in Iceland (its country of origin). Its strength lies in sophisticated data visualization.

DataMarket Founder Hjalmar Gislason wrote in the blog post, "We are not disclosing a lot about our joint plans at this time, but I’ll still say that we see some very interesting opportunities in bringing together Qlik’s superb analytics products, with DataMarket’s unique abilities to pull in, maintain and normalize data from a vast range of 3rd party sources – all in an effort to fulfill the Qlik vision of simplifying decisions for everyone, everywhere."

EPAM Systems, Newtown, acquired UK-based Great Fridays, which also has offices in the US. Great Fridays "focuses on bridging the gap between business and design," EPAM said in its release. Terms were not available.

Great Fridays posted about the deal, describing it as an extension of EPAM's transformation that began with the 2012 acquisition of Conshohocken-based Empathy Labs.

And Heartland Payment Systems, Princeton, acquired xPient Solutions of Charlotte, a leading provider of retail POS (Point-Of-Sale) systems, to further strengthen its position in that market. Again, terms haven't been disclosed yet.

Links 10/31/2014: FCC said close to reclassifying ISPs as common carriers; EPAM makes acquisition

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Veeva Systems Flies High On Cloud For Life Sciences (Investors' Business Daily)
Good read on Veeva and Delaware County native, co-founder and president Matt Wallach, who is still based in Radnor, on his role in building business.

Marc Benioff tethers Salesforce cloud to Blighty
First European data centre spotted off west London (The Register)
I'm sure that Veeva, with its large number of European customers using its CRM built on Salesforce1, welcomes this, with European concerns over US data security practices.

FCC reportedly close to reclassifying ISPs as common carriers (Ars Technica)

Comcast Looms In TWC Dodger Sports Carriage Fracas (Investors' Business Daily)

CSN Houston ruling clears way for new network, but Comcast appeals decision (Houston Chronicle)


Monetate announced a round of layoffs yesterday (Technical.ly Philly)

EPAM Acquires Great Fridays, Expands Product and Service Capabilities
(EPAM Release)

Technology Outsourcer Epam Systems Knows The Big Deal (Investors' Business Daily)

We have some big news to share! DataMarket has been acquired by Qlik. (Qlik Blog)

SORRELL: WPP's $25 Million Stake In AppNexus Leaves Publicis And Omnicom With 'Nowhere To Go' (Business Insider)

InterDigital Third Quarter 2014 Financial Results Driven by 57% Increase in Recurring Revenue (Globe Newswire)

The Power of Community Comes to Life at SAP’s TechEd (Enterprise Irregulars)

Stewart Butterfield explains why Slack is now worth more than $1 billion (Fortune Tech)

Links 10/30/2014: LiquidHub acquires digital marketing agency Foundry9; Uber urges Philly to follow DC model

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



SAP's Bill McDermott provides a CEO's plan to defy disruption (Fortune)

Forrester Shows Little Love for SAP, Marketo in Marketing Wave (CMS Wire)

Concur CEO says SAP acquisition is a ‘big bet’ that will accelerate company growth (GeekWire)
How many times have you heard this before an acquisition?
"Singh said that the tie-up between SAP and Concur won’t be a typical acquisition deal. He emphatically stressed that his company won’t disappear as a result of the acquisition closing. Instead, Concur’s partnership with SAP will provide tools and funding to expand the business."

Security Is Focus in SAP's Government Cloud Portfolio (CIO Today)


LiquidHub Acquires Digital Marketing Agency Foundry9
(Business Wire)


Uber exec Plouffe urges Philadelphia to model D.C.'s laws (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Time Warner Cable Misses Estimates on Drop in TV Users (Bloomberg)

Arris Beats The Street In Q3 (Multichannel News)
Arris acquired the Horsham-based business formerly known as Motorola Home from Google last year.

Study: Comcast and Verizon connections to Cogent dropped below 0.5Mbps (Ars Technica)


Verizon Ventures Seeks To Double Portfolio And Investment Capital (TechCrunch)

Execs From Apple Pay Competitor Finally Speak, but Big Questions Remain (Re/code)


Merger reflects growth in retail-store data analytics (Crain's New York)
First Round Capital-backed NOMi (New York) merges with Brickstream.

Blackstone’s Tac-Ops Adds Philadelphia Insurer in Blitzer’s Bet (Bloomberg)

ChargeItSpot: The Next Indispensable Retail Service? (Wharton Entrepreneurship Blog)

Social media management tool Buffer goes truly "open book"

Tom Paine

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


I have sometimes complimented Safeguard Scientifics on the level of transparency it provides in its quarterly reporting. Though as a public company it is required to report more than a private VC or PE firm, Safeguard goes well beyond what's minimally required.

But one startup is taking transparency a step further. San Francisco-based Buffer, a social media management tool, just says it closed on a $3.5 million round at a $56.5 million pre-money valuation, and it laid out in plain sight on the web its term sheet, financials, and just about every little metric about the company you would ever want to know. Even every employee's salary.

Now its trying to raise more: "Update: We closed a first syndicate on AngelList today, October 27th. We have opened a new one with VegasTechFund now here."

Links 10/29/2014: Comcast settles Philly-area antitrust suit, was once went to Supreme Court, for $50 million

Comcast settles lawsuit over overcharging cable TV subscribers (Reuters)

Comcast agrees to $50M settlement in 11-year-old class action antitrust suit (Ars Technica)

FCC mulls regulating Internet video like cable, satellite TV (CNET)

Aereo Sees a Potential Path Forward in FCC's Online Proposal (Ad Age)

Philadelphia Surging with Digital Health Innovation: EY, Ben Franklin, PACT, Fairmount Partners, CEO Council for Growth Align to Explore; $900M+ invested in sector since 2008 (PR Newswire)


Pennsylvania pension cancels $100 mln Centerbridge commitment (PE Hub)

In shift, software firms buy digital ad firms (Philly.com: Philly Deals)
Report: LiquidHub to acquire Foundry9

Mobile Internet investment hits record $19.2B — up 232% in last 12 months (VentureBeat)

SAP HANA supports multi-tenancy – now what? (Diginomica)


SoonSpoon-acquirer Reserve, backed by Uber co-founder, launches restaurant 'concierge' service (Boston Business Journal)
Backed by First Round Capital, Google Ventures.

Garfield Group adds eight new clients; broadens geographical footprint

Tom Paine

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email

This past spring, Newtown-based Garfield Group, one of the leading tech PR/marketing communications firms in the Philadelphia area, announced a rebranding and repositioning initiative. Goals were to build its digital, content and creative capabilities and become a more fully integrated marketing services firm, establish new ties to the tech startup scene, and broaden its regional footprint.

Recently, Garfield demonstrated progress towards these goals by announcing the addition of eight new clients over the past six months. Four of the firms are local, two are in the Chicago area, one is in San Francisco and one is in Atlanta.

A prominent local tech addition is Conshohocken-based NextDocs, whose enterprise-scale eTMF, regulatory and quality solutions automate workflow and document management to speed FDA submission, automating compliance to improve efficiency while reducing costs. The end goal is to get needed new medicines to market faster. NextDocs has substantial venture backing from OpenView Venture Partners.

Peak Equity Partners, Radnor, is a newly formed private equity firm focused on buyouts and recapitalizations of enterprise software and solutions companies. Its co-founders, Greg Case and Paul Winn, were previously responsible for much of LLR Partners' tech investing.

Turnberry Solutions of Blue Bell is an IT staffing and consulting firm; its practice areas include the latest cloud, collaboration, and information security technologies. Bethelehem-based FamilyWize is a community service partnership focused on lowering the cost of prescription drugs, through a discount prescription card.

The other four are:

Chicago Community Loan Fund (CCLF) Chicago

Trulify San Francisco

Navman Wireless Glenview, Illinois

iMedX Atlanta


“We’re excited to have the opportunity to work with these dynamic companies,” said Larry Garfield, president and founder of Garfield Group, in a statement. “These are organizations run by people who are disrupting the status quo in a number of very interesting ways. They present the kinds of challenges we live for — the chance to tell stories that can change the dynamics of an entire industry, and truly make a difference in peoples’ lives.”

Links 10/28/2014: Anexinet completes recap with Marlin Equity; InterDigital Rises After Beating ZTE in Phone Patent Suit

Anexinet Completes a Recapitalization with Marlin Equity Partners (PR Newswire)

Programmers in Comcast-TWC battle air concern over viewership data (New York Post)

Cox Starts Gigabit Rollout In Virginia (Multichannel News)

Comcast Starts To Deploy IP-Only Boxes For X1 (Multichannel News)

Apple Pay ‘no-data-collection’ isn’t a feature. It’s a problem (VentureBeat)

SAP extends maintenance for Business Suite 7 to 2025; pledges continued investment in innovation (Inside SAP)

Google’s Business Software Arm Gains Big Customer (and Partner) (Wall Street Journal: Digits)

EMC snaps up three startups to help build hybrid clouds (PC World)

Oracle Growing In Cloud, But Challenges Remain (Investor's Business Daily)


InterDigital Rises After Beating ZTE in Phone Patent Suit (Bloomberg)

Synchronoss Technologies Q3 Soars In The Cloud (Investor's Business Daily)
Synchronoss is based in Bridgewater NJ, with engineering offices in Bethlehem, PA.