4/25: SAP’s Sales Again Top Estimates as Software Spending Grows; Infor Is Buying Birst



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SAP’s Sales Again Top Estimates as Software Spending Grows (Bloomberg)

SAP Rising: Q1 Beats as ‘Hana’ Racks Up Customers (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)


Microsoft unveils LinkedIn as its secret weapon in war against Salesforce (The Register)

Oracle Plans Internal 'Startup' to Outpace Rivals' Innovation (Bloomberg)

Infor Is Buying This Business Intelligence Player [Birst] To Take On Oracle (Fortune)

SuiteWorld 17 – Oracle CEO seeks to reassure NetSuite buyers – ‘More, better, forever’ (Diginomica)


Hulu and the Fight for Real-Time TV
(Fortune)

U.S. FCC to launch 'comprehensive review' of media regulations
(Reuters)





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4/24: Moffett: Verizon Fails Deal Sobriety Test; FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to unveil new net neutrality plans on Wednesday



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Moffett: Verizon Fails Deal Sobriety Test (Multichannel News)


FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to unveil new net neutrality plans on Wednesday (Recode)

Verizon’s $70 gigabit Internet is half the price of older 750Mbps tier (Ars Technica)


Rapidly growing Baltimore software firm eOriginal taps new CEO (Baltimore Business Journal)
LLR Partners invested in eOriginal, and brought in Pilly-based Revitas' (sold to Model N) former CEO to run it.

Two TechVentures startups to move out to larger spaces (LVB.com)

QTS ‘Top Pick’ In Stifel Data Center REITS, Avoid Dupont-Fabros (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)


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How Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us AllHow Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us All (The Atlantic)

How Dish Network could shake up your wireless service (CNET)

AT&T’s Words on Time Warner Deal Say ‘Underdog.’ Its Actions Speak Otherwise. (NY Times)


Comcast says customer service overhaul is showing results (OregonLive)






SAP commits more resources to SMB ERP portfolio (SearchSAP)



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Weekend Highlights: Nasdaq PHLX Trading Floor Now Open at FMC Tower; SAP commits more resources to SMB ERP portfolio



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Nasdaq PHLX Trading Floor Now Open at FMC Tower (PhillyMag)

FCC greenlights small cell free-for-all in the US (The Register)
Small cells vital to 5G.

MeetMe Completes If(We) Buyout, Rebrands to The Meet Group (Zacks)

Pennsylvania eyes leap to internet for casinos, lottery (AP via Madison.com)

How Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us AllHow Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us All (The Atlantic)

How Dish Network could shake up your wireless service (CNET)

AT&T’s Words on Time Warner Deal Say ‘Underdog.’ Its Actions Speak Otherwise. (NY Times)


Comcast says customer service overhaul is showing results (OregonLive)






SAP commits more resources to SMB ERP portfolio (SearchSAP)





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4/21: Pa. awards $10M 'seed-to-sale' medical marijuana tracking contract; DuPont, U of Delaware ask $5M from taxpayers for new start-ups at old labs



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These brothers just sold their company to Oracle for $850 million, and they have their fingers in dozens of other companies (Business Insider)






Bucks restaurant tech company acquires another based in Georgia (Philadelphia Business Journal)


Verizon could be the mystery company in on Time Inc. sale (NY Post)

Verizon: The ‘Tiffany Network’ Tarnished, Says Argus (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)


These are the biggest e-commerce acquisitions of all time (Recode)
Omitted Zulily, GSI Commerce, maybe others.


DuPont, U of Delaware ask $5M from taxpayers for new start-ups at old labs (Philly.com)

Pa. awards $10M 'seed-to-sale' medical marijuana tracking contract (PennLive)
Meanwhile, the vendor, MJ Freeway, picks up another $3 million from its existing investors.

What Top TV Techs Are Looking For At NAB (TVNewsCheck)

NBCUniversal Owned Television Station SVP Jeff Morris: “We are in the process of making a pretty technologically progressive facility in Philadelphia to be home to our Philadelphia businesses." “That will be our first station to ever adopt IP technology at its core,” says Morris, adding he can’t envision ever building a “facility in the future without IP at the heart of it.”


Uber exec "misspoke" about Pittsburgh startup (non)acquisition (Axios)


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4/20: Analysts see Verizon-Comcast combination as a tough sell; Verizon earnings, revenue miss Street estimates as wireless sales fall year-over-year



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Analysts see Verizon-Comcast combination as a tough sell (SNL)

Verizon earnings, revenue miss Street estimates as wireless sales fall year-over-year (CNBC)

Verizon CEO Comments About Media M&A “Taken Out Of Context” – Update (Deadline)

Verizon Loses 13,000 FiOS Pay TV Subs in First Quarter (Hollywood Reporter)






Billtrust, CardConnect Partner To Support Invoice Payments Via Card (Pymnts)
Two leading area companies hook up.




Beacons help Waze users navigate Pittsburgh's tricky tunnel exits (Marketplace)

Comcast Joins LoRA Alliance (Multichannel News)
Will host IoT-focused organization’s all-members rendezvous in June in Philadelphia.

Oracle’s PaaS/IaaS progress – becoming real
(Brian Sommer / Diginomica)

Siemens Healthineers buys health tech firm
(Philly.com)

Baseball CFO Looks to Win with CPM Software (CFO)
Philly native, ex-Comcast guy.



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PetSmart acquiring Chewy for $3.35 billion; Where will that leave Pet360?

Tom Paine



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PetSmart is acquiring Florida-based Chewy.com for $3.35 billion in the largest e-commerce acquisition ever. Notably $50 million more than Walmart's acquisition of Jet.com.

PetSmart made a relatively small bet on ecommerce when it bought Plymouth Meeting-based Pet360 for $130 million plus incentives less than three years ago. This is obviously a much bigger bet.

Pet360 still has a fair number of people in Plymouth Meeting; it will be interesting to see how they fare.

PetSmart's release on the Chewy acquisition makes no mention of Pet360. I've seen no mention of it in any discussions of the Chewy deal.

I asked PetSmart if it had any comment on the role of Pet360 once the Chewy deal was completed, and a spokesperson said that was not something PetSmart would comment on.

In late March, Pet360 took a seven year lease on space for 20 near Grand Central Station NYC.

Mark Vadon, who sold Zulily to Liberty Media / QVC for $2.4 billion, was also behind the Chewy deal as an early investor and chairman.

Meanwhile, Pet360's former CEO Brock Weatherup has gone over to the other side, having sold his latest startup, PetCoach, to Petco and moved to San Diego to work with them as EVP, Strategic Innovation and Digital Experience.

Chewy has a fulfillment center in Mechanicsburg PA.


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Verizon's CEO Is Open to Deal Talks, From Comcast to Disney



Tom Paine



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Verizon CEO Lowell C. McAdam / Verizon Website



Verizon's CEO Is Open to Deal Talks, From Comcast to Disney (Bloomberg)

Verizon CEO said he may be interested in merger with Disney, Comcast or CBS (CNBC)

McAdam told Bloomberg, "If Brian [Roberts] came knocking on the door, I'd have a discussion with him about it."


Market Values (equity)

VZ $201.6bn
CMCSA $178.2bn
DIS $180.6bn


Does Mr McAdam have a strategy in mind? Comcast, Disney, & CBS would each lead to very different outcomes. Although the one common denominator seems to be a major network.

But its difficult to tell whether McAdam wants a 5G-centric strategy, a content-centric strategy, or both.

Verizon doesn't hold all the cards; As you can see from the above numbers, a Verizon merger between either Comcast or Disney would essentially be a marriage of equals.

The analysts I've followed are mostly unconvinced of the logic of a Verizon / Comcast combination in order to achieve 5G.

And any such merger, in the remote possibility it might happen, would have to maintain at least two significant broadband competitors.

Updates as warranted.

Comcast has not responded to McAdam's comments.

This IBD article might be helpful in comparing relative values of Comcast and Verizon.

Verizon's earnings are due out tomorrow morning.

Verizon CFO: McAdam's M&A commentstaken out of context (Deadline)




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4/19: IBM sinks; IntegriChain acquires MontCo firm



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IBM Is Still Not Reaping Rewards from its Big Bets
(Fortune)

IBM Sinks Following 'Lackluster Performance' With Q1 Results, Analyst Cuts (IBD)


Center City health tech company [ IntegriChain] acquires MontCo firm following major investment (Philadelphia Business Journal)








This guy convinced cities to cater to tech-savvy millennials. Now he’s reconsidering. (Washington Post)

Oracle acquires ad measurement company Moat (TechCrunch)

Pai Praises Verizon Fiber Buy (Multichannel News)

Broadband Dominance A Better Stock Play Than Wireless: SunTrust (IBD)

‘Delco Proper’ gets series pilot order from Comedy Central, will film locally in May (Philly.com)

Zulily co-founder Mark Vadon strikes e-commerce gold yet again as pet supply retailer Chewy sells for $3.35B
(GeekWire)
Vadon sold Zulily to QVC.

Inside info: U.S. chases 'Unknown Traders (Philly Deals)

How Many Data Centers Needed World-Wide (Perspectives)
In case you were wondering.
The author is a Distinguished Engineer at Amazon Web Services.

Amazon cloud chief jabs Oracle: 'Customers are sick of it' (CNBC)










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4/18: PTC introduces Kinex, built on ThingWorx: Behind Private Equity’s hunger for Tech Deals



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Steve Ballmer’s new project: find out how the government spends your money (The Verge)

with some help from Penn.











Moffett: 600 MHz Auction Results Suggest Cable Wireless Service Not Much of a Threat (Telecompetitor)

Verizon agrees to $1.05 billion fiber-optic cable deal to grow its Fios platform (CNBC)


Verizon fades from forerunner's namesake Philly tower, as rival Comcast's presence grows (Philly.com)


Dell Boomi teams with CRM Online to integrate field services data into ERP (Tech Day NZ)

Interesting angle.


Philly team that won Qualcomm Tricorder contest focused on human interaction first, diagnostics second (Med City News)

PLM This Week: PTC Introduces Kinex, a New Generation of IoT Applications Built on ThingWorx (Engineering.com)

Behind Private Equity’s Hunger for Tech Deals (Fortune)






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4/17: Lightower For Sale?; Huckabee's Comcast rant



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Lightower For Sale? The Rumor Resurfaces, Stronger Than Ever (Telecom Ramblings)

Is Comcast a potential buyer? In its current config, Lightower is more of an enterprise play than a consumer broadband buy, though its rich in fiber.

Netflix Nears 100 Million Subscribers, Stock Drops as Q1 Gains Fall Short of Expectations (Variety)



Dish Stock Falls On Auction; Could Internet Partner Surface? (IBD)







Comcast apologizes for being late to Mike Huckabee’s house (The Verge)






< Henry Hillman remembered for intellectual curiosity, moving Pittsburgh into future (TribeLive)

Marketing Technology May Never Consolidate (But That's a Good Thing) (Ad Age)


Oracle buys Wercker, a Dutch startup that automates code testing and deployment (VentureBeat)

Oracle Growing ERP in Cloud (Robert Kugel
Senior VP - Research Director at Ventana Research)

Ametek Buying Mocon in $182M Deal
(Twin Cities Business)



Automate this: NewSpring puts $14M in Bucks' Lynn Electronics update (Philly Deals)

Birchbox in the Black, Teams With MAC, Bolsters TV Spots (WWD)
>





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