Philly Enterprise Tech News

Philly Tech News Weekly Highlights 9/22 to 9/28/2013

2013-09-30T15:59:00.000-04:00

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AllThingsD is cutting its ties with Dow Jones at year's end, and Comcast's NBCU is reported to be one possible investor in its next life.

Comcast petitioned to have a bankruptcy court oversee a reorganization of troubled Comcast
Sportsnet Houston (complicated story).

Supply Chain planning and optimization software firm Quintiq, with dual headquarters in Radnor and The Netherlands, opened an impressive new tower in The Netherlands as its new EMEA headquarters, and produced a video to give people a visual tour.

EBay's PayPal acquired payment processing platform Braintree for $800 million in cash. Mobile payments app Venmo, which started up in Philly, moved to New York and was acquired last year by Braintree for $26.2 million, was cited as a key component of the deal. I pondered whether Venmo's founders, who started the business while undergrads as Penn, got their fair share of the payout.

Saturday's highlighted links include Dan Shipper's post on what he learned from bootstrapping startup Firefly while a student at Penn.

And Rick Nucci was named the new President of Philly Startup Leaders, succeeding former Boomi mate Bob Moul, who definitely raised the organization's visibility and effectiveness.

Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (12/31/2012 to 1/6/2013)

2013-01-08T18:12:00.000-05:00

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On Philly Tech News:

Wayne-based Cloud Communications provider Evolve IP closed another strong year, GM & COO Guy Fardone told me. The company appeared on the 2012 Inc.500 at #321.

Johnson & Johnson is among several area companies installing Worday's SaaS Human Capital Management solution, several job listings indicate.

Massachusetts-based Parexel International acquired Horsham-based clinical trial software maker Liquent for $72 million.

And I looked back on two events in Philly Tech history, Motorola's 2000 acquisition of General Instrument, and Comcast's rebranding of Versus as The NBC Sports Network one year ago.

From other sources:

Wilmington-based InterDigital had a noisy week, extending its licensing agreement with RIM, filing patent infringement complaints against four other device makers, including Samsung, and launching a machine-to-machine focused joint venture with Sony, which also included a patent licensing agreement.

Plymouth Meeting-based supply chain software vendor WAM Systems was acquired by Connecticut-based Triple Point Technology.

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (12/17/2012 to 12/23/2012)

2012-12-26T18:41:00.001-05:00

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From Philly Tech News:

Newtown-based systems integrator EPAM Systems acquired Empathy Lab, the Conshohocken-based digital strategy and design firm.

The Philly Fed manufacturing index snapped back from a weak, Sandy influenced November reading to go back into positive territory in December, and an indicator of future business confidence also improved.

I looked back to December 2001, when Comcast announced its huge, transformative acquisition of AT&T Broadband.

From other sources:

Google indicated it would try to sell its Horsham-based Motorola Home unit before the end of the year, and it succeeded in reaching a deal to sell it to Georgia-based cable tech firm Arris for $2.35 billion, mostly in cash. Google will end up owning about 16% of Arris.

Comcast crossed the $100 billion market value level for the first time (although it closed today slightly below that level).

Oracle acquired Northern Virginia-based Marketing Software as a Service firm Eloqua, perhaps creating a challenge for Salesforce.com since many of its customers integrate Salesforce solutions with Eloqua.

Wayne-based Healthcare IT firm Medecision is laying off 83 employees, mostly in software and tech support areas.

And First Round Capital released its always anticipated Holiday video, this year a combination of "Call Me Maybe" and "Gangnam Style".

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (12/10/2012 to 12/16/2012)

2012-12-18T18:20:00.001-05:00

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From Philly Tech News:

Comcast quietly launched a new corporate-wide logo last week, featuring the NBC Peacock on top.

Comcast's business services arm, Comcast Business Class, said it was expanding its fiber network to connect to several Center City buildings, as well as to the Navy Yard.

Norman Joseph Woodland, co-inventor of the bar code at Drexel, died in New Jersey at the age of 91.

The Air Force pulled the plug on a $1 billion ERP project, but that isn't the only DoD ERP project that is struggling.

NJTechWeekly's Esther Surden contributed a story on how Bridgewater, NJ-based Synchronoss has helped out in response to Sandy.

I looked back at the 65th anniversary of the invention of the transistor at Bell Labs, and how it did and didn't impact the Philadelphia area.

In news from other sources, in an interview with Fortune Magazine Comcast CEO Brian Roberts discussed how he is trying to apply Apple's business model to Comcast, among other things. Google received bids from Arris and UK-based Pace for its Horsham-based Motorola Home unit. phillyBurbs.com wrote about how Horsham-based EFE Laboratories continues to prosper after 50 years. First Round Capital launched a standard application system for engineers across all of its 170 or so portfolio companies. And Safeguard Scientifics partner company Beyond.com acquired locally based tech job listing site JobCircle.com.

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (12/3/2012 to 12/9/2012)

2012-12-11T15:02:00.000-05:00

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On Philly Tech News, I looked at how Malvern-based Rajant Corp is succeeding
with its Kynetic Mesh Wireless Networks, and spoke with CEO Robert Schena about the company's future prospects.

Comcast has had its problems in Vail and on Martha's Vineyard, and I look at what the stumbling blocks have been with these remote and wealthy communities.

Five Philly-area startups indicated in SEC filings that they have received new funding rounds.

In news from other sources, Friday was apparently the deadline for initial bids for Google's Horham-based Motorola Home unit. Arris and Pace were said to be the leading bidders. Janney's Tony Wible suggested that a Google acquisition of TiVo was conceivable. Such a deal could in part be due to TiVo's patent infringement claims against Motorola Home.

QVC acquired social classifieds website Oodle. And IBM completed its $1.3 billion acquisition of Wayne-based Kenexa.

DreamIt Ventures graduated its Fall 2012 Philadelphia class of 15 startups, and also formally launched a healthcare accelerator in partnership with Independence Blue Cross and Penn Medicine. Also, Blackstone LaunchPad expanded
its student entrpreneurship program to Philadelphia with a $3 million investment.

The Inquirer's Joe DiStefano did an excellent profile of SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott, who is based out of Newtown Square.

Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (11/26/2012 to 12/2/2012)

2012-12-05T12:48:00.001-05:00

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On Philly Tech News, I took a look at signs that coworking is growing in the Burbs, NextFab Studio's scheduled reopening in its new space, and Lehigh Valley Tech's rebranding courtesy of Philly agency At Media.

In news from other sources:

First Round Capital introduced a new website for the holiday season highlighting e-commerce offers from many of its portfolio companies.

Jeff Zucker, who ran NBCU up until the time Comcast acquired it, was named the new head of CNN. Meanwhile, NBC and Verizon's FiOS reached a broad program carriage deal that includes rights to over-the-top delivery to multiple screens for both NBC broadcast and cable channel content. Of course, Comcast and Verizon are partners now.

Wilmington-based SevOne introduced a new version of its Performance Appliance Solution (the PAS-200k), which can monitor and manage 200,000 network elements simultaneously, four times that of any other available product, the company says.

A Northeast Philly data center reported to be under long-term lease to Vanguard was acquired by Carter Validus Mission Critical REIT of Tampa for $65 million, or $540 per square foot, the Business Journal reported.

Tierney v. Tierney? Interpublic, which owns Tierney Communications, has sued its founder Brian Tierney and his current firm, Brian Communications Group, over its use of Tierney's last name in some company literature and its website, something Interpublic says violates an agreement between the two parties that Tierney wouldn't use his name in another business (from the Philadelphia Daily News).

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (11/19/2012 to 11/25/2012)

2012-11-28T18:00:00.000-05:00

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Posts from Philly Tech News:

Eddystone-based InsPro Technologies is the latest high growth insurance software company in the Philly area, having just been named to the Deloitte Fast 500 as #140. I spoke with CEO Robert Oakes.

The Neat Company opened an additional office location in Center City that could eventually house 140 more employees. I spoke with CMO Kevin Garton about Neat's commitment to Philadelphia, among other things.

Retirement plan administration managers Ascensus (Dresher) and ExpertPlan (East Windsor) agreed to merge. The larger partner, Ascensus, cited the value of ExpertPlan's web-enabled technology platform.

I looked at the changing relative fortunes of SAP and HP over the past two years.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners announced it was investing $1.5 million in eight early stage companies.

In news from other sources, HP took a $5 billion writedown from its $11 billion acquisition of Autonomy two years ago, claiming accounting malfeasance. Former Automomy CEO & founder Mike Lynch strongly disputed HP's allegations. Black Friday sales surpassed $1 billion online for the first time, according to comScore data. Comcast's NBC won the November ratings sweeps for the first time in nine years.

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (11/12/2012 to 11/18/2012)

2012-11-21T16:18:00.001-05:00

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Hamilton, NJ-based billing system vendor Billtrust received a $25 million investment
from Bain Capital Ventures.

Avantor, the Center Valley, PA specialty chemical manufacturer run by former Rohm & Haas CEO Raj Gupta and owned by New Mountain Capital, filed suit in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey against IBM, claiming it botched a SAP ERP implementation at Avantor and used what it asserts was inappropriate off-the shelf IBM software. Avantor claims "tens of millions" of damages resulted. SAP was not named in the suit.

American City Buiness Journals, publisher of the Philadelphia Business Journal and similar titles in other cities, announced it had acquired Streetwise Media, which publishes online websites covering tech and other local news in Boston and DC. Radnor-based TL Ventures was an investor in Streetwise.

In news from other sources, reports persist that Arris is a possible buyer of Horsham-based Motorola Home, and one unverified analyst report suggested that Arris technology would be used in a new Apple TV product, and that Comcast might be testing the potential impact of an Apple TV offering on its internet network. The Inquirer's Bob Fernandez noted how rising sports broadcasting rights fees are increasingly driving the price of cable TV subscriptions. And Comcast's NBCU was reported to be cutting about 450 jobs across its different units.

Michael Dell discussed the important role Dell Boomi plays in Dell's emerging software strategy. SAP is adding features to its HANA in-memory platform that will bring it closer to its goal of hosting ERP applications on HANA.

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (11/5/2012 to 11/11/2012)

2012-11-14T13:10:00.001-05:00

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I profiled Wayne-based SaaS CRM vendor PipelineDeals, which aims to take a slice of market share away from Salesforce.com.

Radnor-based NewSpring Capital has filed a preliminary response to a lawsuit filed against it in July by the co-founders and former executives of Clifton Heights-based ProfitPoint, which provides stored value loyalty programs for retailers. The plaintiffs say NewSpring forced their removal and then conducted a smear campaign against them; NewSpring says they reached a settlement to remove the co-founders after serious fiancial irregularities at ProfitPoint were discovered.

Philly Tech News contributor Esther Surden covered the NJ tech community's efforts
to help New Jersey recover from Sandy in NJTechWeekly.com.

In news from other sources, incoming Lockheed CEO Christopher Kubasik was forced to resign over a close personal relationhip with a subordinate. Lockheed employs close to 10,000 in the Philly area. Lockheed also announced job relocations and some possible reductions in South Jersey, although its Advanced Technology Labs in Cherry Hill will not be touched.

The Washington Post did an interesting profile of Paoli-based DuckDuckGo. Oracle acquired project portfolio management vendor Instantis, which may have some overlapping fit with Oracle Primavera, which does much of its business from Bala Cynwyd. Ewing, NJ-based OLED technology provider Universal Display saw its shares plunge after reporting disappointing results and reducing its outlook. And the US Supreme Court heard Comcast's appeal asking it to remove class action status from an antitrust suit against it claiming Comcast engaged in monopolistic behavior in the Philadelphia area.

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (10/29/2012 to 11/4/2012)

2012-11-06T17:40:00.000-05:00

Tom Paine

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Aramark spun off its remaining stake in online food ordering site Seamless to its private equity shareholders. While I don't know Seamless' numbers precisely, it would not be surprising if this is a prelude to an eventual public offering or M&A move.

I previewed last night's PhillyForce/Philly SaaS meetup featuring analyst Michael Fauscette on the evolution of social media for the enterprise ( See photos ).

In news from other sources, SAP laid out roadmaps for its post-acquisition strategy for Ariba, a new social platform, and plans to overhaul its user interfaces. First Round Capital added a new partner, a little more capital, and possibly a somewhat broader focus. The Washington Post did an interesting profile on Comcast's David Cohen and the power he wields in DC. And I did my best to cover Sandy's impact on the technology infrastructure in the Philly area and New Jersey.

Quotes of the week:

“It’s going to be in technology, I don’t have any other skills" - John Chen, former Sybase CEO, on departing after its full integration into SAP. He promptly took on a new role with PE firm Silver Lake.

The "Facebook of the enterprise will be defined in the next one or two years" - Oliver Bussman, SAP CIO, in an interview at SAP TechEd.

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (10/22/2012 to 10/28/2012)

2012-10-30T17:00:00.000-04:00

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I profiled Ben Franklin Technology Partners Northeastern Pennsylvania's expanded TechVentures incubator, which is scheduled to host the first Lehigh Valley Startup Weekend this coming weekend (November 2-4); the power is back on there today.

Comcast posted strong 3rd quarter results on Friday boosted in part by the Olympics, but management is hopeful that there are signs that a longer-term turnaround is beginning at NBCU.

The 2012 Philadephia 100 was named and honored at a ceremony on Wednesday evening;
Dynamic Defense Materials LLC was ranked #1, WebiMax #2.

In news from other sources, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter announced a new seed fund, Startup PHL, which will seek to leverage $3 million coming from the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp with a $3 million match from a fund manager to be selected; there will also be a $500,000 "idea fund".

Safeguard Scientifics announced CFO Stephen T. Zarrilli would succeed Peter Boni as CEO at the beginning of November. SAP raised it's full year revenue outlook after reporting third-quarter software license revenue that beat analyst estimates. There was another outage at Amazon Web Services' Northern Virginia data center, impacting some Philly firms, this one apparently caused by a memory leak and failure of a monitoring alarm system.

Quote of the week: NBCU CEO Steve Burke: "Unfortunately we don’t own any television station in Ohio".

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (10/15/2012 to 10/21/2012)

2012-10-23T17:30:00.001-04:00

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Glenside-based Flash game and video site Newgrounds received a $17.5 million venture capital investment, according to the 3rd quarter MoneyTree report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association using data from Thomson Reuters.

I looked at some numbers related to the recently completed Accenture/Octagon Research Solutions acquisition, and made a rough estimate of how much Accenture might have paid for Octagon.

I reported on Google's earnings release fiasco, and also Horsham-based Motorola Home's results.

Philly-based middle market PE firm Eureka Growth Capital is raising a new fund targeted for $150 million.

NJTechWeekly's Esther Surden contributed a report on national security concerns about China's Huawei and whether they could effect growth of Huawei's new R&D center in Bridgewater, NJ.

In news from other sources, Softbank announced an agreement to buy a 70% stake in Sprint Nextel. SAP TechEd wrapped up in Las Vegas, and Salesforce.com's CloudForce NYC was held on Friday. And Violin Memory, backed by SAP among others whose flash memory products are important to the growth of many in-memory platforms, is reported to have filed for an IPO to raise up to $2 bilion.

Quote of the week: Charlotte Field, Comcast senior vice president of infrastructure and operations: "We want to be the next Apple".

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (10/8/2012 to 10/14/2012)

2012-10-16T19:07:00.000-04:00

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Enterprise cloud software vendor Workday saw its shares rise 74% in its first day of trading after repeatedly increasing its offering price, and its market value approach $8 billion. Workday is seen as a rising competitor to SAP and Oracle.

I discovered that InterDigital had relocated its corporate headquarters from King of Prussia to Wilmington, DE.

There has been a good deal of venture investment activity in the Philly area lately, and I provided a roundup of it.

Safeguard Scientifics held its Investor Day 2012 conference in New York last week.

An unredacted version of a lawsuit against several PE firms released last week alleges that several of them cooperated to hold down bidding in the 2005 $11.4 billion LBO of SunGard Data Systems.

DreamIt Ventures filed to raise a new fund of up to $50 million, suggesting that it will be doing a little more follow on investing in incubator companies.

NJTechWeekly's Esther Surden contributed a report on Princeton Tech Meetup's late August event.

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (10/1/2012 to 10/7/2012)

2012-10-09T16:33:00.002-04:00

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Accenture completed its acquisition of Wayne-based Octagon Research Solutions late last month. I spoke with David Boath, North American managing director for Accenture’s Life Sciences industry group, about its post-acquisition plans for Octagon. With the completion of the deal, I updated Philly Tech News' "Young Companies to Watch", replacing Octagon with Wayne-based SkillSurvey.

SAP announced on Monday it had completed its $4.5 billion acquisition of Ariba, after announcing on Friday the deal had received Justice Department clearance.

Lockheed, which employs 9200 in the Philly area according to the Philadelphia Business Journal, got caught up (perhaps unavoidably) in a heated political controversey over whether employees should be issued layoff warnings under the WARN Act due to the threat of massive defense budget cuts that could occur by year end without a budget deal.

This past Sunday was the 60th anniversary of the awarding of a patent for the barcode
to two Drexel graduate students.

In news from other sources, the Inquirer wrote about the end of Sunoco as an independent entity, and its legacy in Philadelphia. Redbox announced it would begin selling tickets from kiosks, beginning in Philadelphia, and partnering with Comcast-Spectacor's New Era Tickets. Exton-based iPipeline hired Philly native and former SAP and Ariba executive Paul Melchiorre as President.

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (9/24/2012 to 9/30/2012)

2012-10-02T17:15:00.001-04:00

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The US Department of Justice completed its review of SAP's $4.5 billion acquisition of
Ariba, SAP and Ariba announced on Friday. SAP subsequently said it had closed the deal on Monday, October 1.

I wrote about the launch of Blue Kangaroo, a deal search and recommendation site with an office in King of Prussia. The site had been in beta for a year under the name ChoozOn.

Quewey, a business Q&A site that pivoted in August to arranging social gatherings for
individuals with common professional interests, indicated on Twitter and craigslist that it was moving out of its Rittenhouse Square offices at the end of September and was selling off furniture.

The Wall Street Journal Journal revealed its 50 "Next Big Thing" startups. There were no Philly area companies included, but First Round Capital placed four of its portfolio companies on it. Also, Josh Kopelman announced First Round Capital's "Dorm Room Fund", which will dedicate $500,000 to fund ventures by college students in the Philly area, with investments eventually to be chosen by student committees.

Highmark will be taking over responsibility for managing most of Indepedence Blue Cross' information technology.

And I "reintroduced" Philly Tech News' Philly Tech Search Engine, which now covers 1600 sites.

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (9/17/2012 to 9/23/2012)

2012-09-25T16:18:00.002-04:00

I reported on the increasing number of 4G LTE options coming to the Philadelphia area in
the next year.

NJTechWeekly's Esther Surden provided a detailed report on Princeton-based Tigerlabs' first demo day held in July. Last week Tigerlabs took another step forward by announcing the launch of a startup accelerator for the healthcare industry.

First Round Capital announced it had led a seed round for Perceptual Networks, a startup to be located in Philadelphia. FRC also released a splashy video spotlighting the Philadelphia startup scene.

Salesforce.com's annual Dreamforce conference drew a huge crowd in San Francisco, as the company emphasized broadening its solutions to serve more functional areas within an enterprise.

Philly-based mobile development shop appRenaissance took a major step beyond being a
custom development shop by introducing a new mobile app development platform, Artisan.

Radnor-based QlikTech launched its new app exchange, QlikMarket.

And unified communications provider Alteva opened its new national headquarters in Old City Philadelphia.

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (9/10/2012 to 9/16/2012)

2012-09-18T15:28:00.034-04:00

I gave a preview of the IMPACT 2012 Venture Summit Mid-Atlantic, scheduled for November 7 & 8 in Philadelphia. Steve Case will give the keynote address, and PACT plans to have more out of town investors than in past years. The deadline for companies seeking a presentation slot to apply has been extended one week until this Friday, September 21.

At long last, the Philly311 mobile app finally launched, through the assistance of PublicStuff.

Two Philly-area newspaper groups faced pressure, as Yardley-based Journal Register received criticism over its second bankruptcy despite what was said to be a turnaround, and Inquirer/Daily News owner Interstate General Media sought another round of concessions from workers. Meanwhile, Philly-based turnaround firm Versa Capital Management announced it had formed a new group including the newspapers it had acquired, to be called Civitas Media LLC.

SAP co-CEO Jim Hagemann-Snabe opened up to Information Week on SAP's Cloud strategy, HANA platform, and other subjects in an interesting onstage interview.

Janney Capital analyst Tony Wible rated Comcast a buy, saying long-term technology trends were in its favor.

And NJTechWeekly's Esther Surden contributed a writeup on the New Jersey Technology Council's Health Information Technology Summit, held in July in Princeton, which involved several Pennsylvania participants.

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (9/3/2012 to 9/9/2012)

2012-09-11T13:50:00.027-04:00

I look at what had happened to the companies on Philly Tech News' "Young Companies To Watch" from one year ago: ten of the thirty have since been acquired.

Once is not enough: Yardley-based newspaper chain Journal Register filed for bankruptcy for a second time. This time it is to be sold; I wonder if there are any potential local buyers for its Philly-area papers?

A reasonably credible source (The 451 Group) said that Blue Bell-based Fiberlink, whose software helps provide security for mobile devices accessing corporate networks, is looking for a buyer. This would not be surprising, as the company has been looking towards an exit for some time, and an IPO may be too high a hill for it to climb right now.

Apple's talks with media companies (including Comcast) aimed at gaining content for iTV are reported to have bogged down over inevitable conflicts related to the differences in their business models. Speaking of Apple, Business Week did a story on some high-profile Apple bloggers focusing on Philly's John Gruber.

Oracle appealed in federal court to have the $1.3 billion verdict against SAP in the TomorrowNow case, which was sharply reduced by the trial judge, reinstated.

And Neat Company, which in July announced the introduction of its NeatCloud and NeatMobile for iOS products, followed up last week by releasing NeatMobile for Android.

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (8/27/2012 to 9/2/2012)

2012-09-04T16:30:00.026-04:00

IBM announced it would acquire Wayne-based talent management SaaS vendor Kenexa for just less than $1.3 billion. I also looked at IBM's motivations behind the buy and what it might mean for Kenexa's future within IBM.

I took a look at Time Warner Cable's decision to build out fiber to selected New York City business locations, and asked whether Comcast had any similar plans.

Upstart cloud-based SAP & Oracle competitor Workday formally filed for its IPO, which could raise $400 million or more and put a valuation of several billion dollars on the company.

SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott appeared in front of the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley. He recounted what happened when he and Jim Hagemann Snabe were first appointed co-CEOs, and also a phone call with Steve Jobs.

Google was reported to have hired a banker (Barclays) to shop its Horsham-based Motorola Home unit, which engineers equipment and software for the cable industry.

Philly digital health agency Razorfish Health merged with another Publicis unit, Publicis Healthware.

The Harrisburg Patriot-News became the latest Advance Publications daily to announce a move to printing three day per week, raising the question of whether Advance's New Jersey dailies would be next.

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (8/20/2012 to 8/26/2012)

2012-08-28T17:06:00.041-04:00

SAP co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe said in an interview with a German newspaper last week that "further acquisitions are possible", a comment that set off alarms for some because similar comments from him in the past have preceded major SAP buys. However, this time he specified that no particular deal was in the pipeline right now, and it seems unlikely to me that SAP would try to pull something else off until the Ariba deal is settled.

The proxy battle over NextGen Healthcare parent Quality Systems ended with what appears to be a partial victory for dissident shareholder Ahmed Hussein, as he and NextGen Healthcare founder and former Quality President Patrick Cline were elected to the board. Former NextGen President Scott Decker announced he was leaving the company. It was not clear whether the timing of the departure of Decker was related to the proxy battle. Electronic health records vendor NextGen, which is based in Horsham, constitutes most of Quality Systems' business.

Inc. Magazine released its annual Inc. 5000 report, and the top Philly metro companies are shown here. Leading the way are Leadnomics (Philadelphia), Accolade (Plymouth Meeting), and WebiMax (Mount Laurel).

Fallout continued from Comcast's layoffs at NBC's Tonight Show and Jay Leno's pay cut, which created a bit of a chill over the classic car market. Comcast won a stay from the US Court of Appeals' DC Circuit delaying enforcement of the FCC's order that the cable operator place the Tennis Channel on the same tier as the Comcast-owned Golf Channel and NBC Sports Network. And a story broke that Comcast-Spectacor and Live Nation were making a proposal that Virginia Beach build a new arena with the supposed promise of an NBA team (the Kings, it was rumored), though Comcast-Spectacor denied in a statement that any specific pro team was lined up. The proposal to Virginia Beach's City Council was to be made today.

I gave my view on the Department of Justice's approval of the Verizon Wireless-Cable spectrum sale and joint venture agreements.

And I enjoyed this New York Times article about the origins of the Cable TV industry and how it was related to the Philadelphia area.

A Federal judge in Philadelphia ruled that a lawsuit filed by Berwyn-based TruePosition (a unit of Liberty Media) against three major manufacturers alleging that they had effectively shut TruePosition out of an industry standards-setting process could proceed.

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (8/6/2012 to 8/12/2012)

2012-08-14T14:12:00.019-04:00

I looked at how HostMySite, the Newark, Delaware-based small business-oriented web hosting service that was folded into the more enterprise-oriented Hosting.com, has been broken out as a separate division and given increased emphasis.

Liberty Interactive reported that revenue at its QVC unit grew 4% in the 2nd quarter, and that QVC's joint venture in China had been approved by Chinese officials.

SAP expert watcher Dennis Howlett discovered that there were some significant accounting issues at SuccessFactors prior to its acquisition by SAP.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania announced it had invested $1.375 million in seven early stage ventures.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts discussed his vision for the company in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek.

The latest Philly newspapers ownership group, Interstate Media General, told staff in a memo that the papers are still losing millions and it wants more cuts. Apparently, its capital may not be as "patient" as thought.

The city of Philadelphia named its first chief data officer, Mark Headd.

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Highlights on Philly Tech News (7/23/2012 to 8/5/2012): Accenture acquires Octagon; A look at Philly MedAd firms

2012-08-07T17:28:00.023-04:00

Accenture announced last week it would acquire clinical data technology firm Octagon Research Solutions of Wayne. Terms were not disclosed; Accenture said Octagon has a headcount of 380.

Comcast reported positive earnings results last week despite problems in filmed entertainment. Management emphasized that NBC's Olympics ratings were exceeding expectations and that it might even break even on the event, although there was some dispute as to what that meant.

I looked at Medical Marketing & Media's annual agency issue, focusing on the 17 agencies among MM&M's top 100 based in the Philadelphia area.

Quality Systems, parent of Horsham-based NextGen Healthcare (its principal business), saw its shares plunge 33% after reporting disappointing earnings on July 26. Quality Systems faces a major proxy challenge at its annual shareholders meeting on August 16.

Conshohocken-based ShopRunner, a piece of GSI Commerce founder Michael Rubin's Kynetic LLC, brought in ex-Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson as its CEO. Thompson had recently left Yahoo after a discrepancy in his biographical information was uncovered.

SAP reached an agreement to settle Oracle's TomorrowNow lawsuit for $306 million, in addition to the $120 million SAP has already paid to cover legal costs. This eliminates the need for a retrial, which was scheduled to begin late this month. Oracle says it will still appeal a judge's rejection of a $1.3 billion damages award reached by a jury.

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (7/16/2012 to 7/22/2012): Phillies, First Round Capital

2012-07-25T17:03:00.026-04:00

I looked at the Phillies' decision to go with a new ticketing system from a company owned by Major League Baseball, and some of the possible reasons behind it.

There were several significant fundraising rounds for First Round Capital portfolio companies including $105 million for Fab.com, and also one exit.

In this past week's edition of Philly Tech People News, I highlighted some personnel moves (and an award) for some top Comcast executives.

Philly-based off-price retailer Five Below had a very successful IPO, raising its offering price and bringing in $163 million, and then seeing the price shoot up 56% on the first day of trading. Also, the results of the July Philly Fed Business Outlook Survey were once again not very encouraging.

DreamIt Ventures is bringing its program to Austin this winter, and plans to show off its class at SXSW 2013.

The University of Pennsylvania joined CalTech and private VC firms in investing in online higher ed course platform Coursera. UPenn had been among the first schools to offer classes through Coursera.

NBCU reorganized its news operations, placing all of its news-related properties into a new NBCU News Group headed by Patricia Fili-Krushel, who will report to NBCU CEO Steve Burke. And the Wall Street Journal's Holman Jenkins wrote an interesting column questioning Comcast's current strategy of integrating content ownership with being a communications provider.

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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (7/9/2012 to 7/15/2012): Neat Company, Poptent and Fiberlink

2012-07-17T15:34:00.035-04:00

I reported on Philly-based The Neat Company's launch of its new NeatCloud and NeatMobile offerings.

Comcast announced that its partners in A&E Networks, Disney and Hearst, had agreed to buy its 15% stake in the cable networks for slightly more than $3 billion. The possibility of a deal had been reported upon in recent weeks. Comcast continues to move away from partial stakes, seeking either complete ownership of assets or an exit.

I took a look at First Round Capital's job board for its portfolio companies, noting the large number of opportunities and the openings in the Philly area.

Philly Tech News' partner website, NJTechWeekly.com, celebrated its one year anniversary.

Poptent, the crowdsourcing site for video ad production with co-headquarters in Conshohocken and the LA area, raised an additional $5.5 million led by previous investor MK Capital.

Fiberlink Communications of Blue Bell, following Bentley Systems' lead, became the latest suburban tech company to open an office in Philadelphia. The new space, at Three Parkway, could eventually house up to 140 employees.

The Washington Post reported that the Department of Justice may hold up Verizon Wireless' huge spectrum acquisition from a syndicate of cable operators, although other reports have indicated the spectrum sale would glide through but the focus of DOJ and the FCC would be the cross marketing deal between Verizon and the cable companies.

Radnor-based QlikTech announced that it expected revenue to fall below its prior forecast for the 2nd quarter. However, its stock help up fairly well, perhaps because it had already fallen due to other warnings (such as Informatica's) in the prior week.

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Highlights: Last week on Philly Tech News (7/2/2012 to 7/8/2012)

2012-07-10T15:17:00.046-04:00

Slow week with the 4th in the middle of it.

SAP and Ariba received a second request for information from the Department of Justice relating to SAP's bid to acquire Ariba. Not particularly unusual at this point.

After a period of being the unnamed but widely known bidder for Quest Software against Quest's existing PE backer Insight Venture Partners, Dell finally reached a deal to acquire Quest for $2.4 billion. The acquisition could have some synergistic effects for Dell Boomi in terms of products and channels.

First Round Capital was among the investors in Newark Mayor Cory Booker's personalized news startup for teens, #waywire.

The Inquirer reported on how Old City-based WebLinc survived the tech bust and came back to become a very successful ecommerce software firm.

Verizon Wireless claimed its proposed deal with a group of cable operators would not have an anticompetitive impact upon the wireless backhaul industry, which is becoming a big business for Comcast.

California-based data integration software vendor Informatica announced revenue would fall sharply short of estimates, setting off fears in the enterprise software business further exemplified Monday when Radnor-based QlikTech also announced an anticipated revenue shortfall for the 2nd quarter.

Pennsylvania's Department of Community and Economic Development (DECD) announced through the New PA Venture Capital Investment Program an investment of $5.5 million, including a $1.5 million investment in Audubon-based NextStage Capital II LP. This program requires a 3 to 1 match by the VC firm for each dollar invested by the program. NextStage II will make 15 to 21 investments with an average target of $500,000 to $2 million per investment.

And NJTechWeekly.com's Esther Surden contributed a report on California-based Juniper Networks' new OpenLab R&D facility in Bridgewater, NJ.

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