Super Bowl is best watched TV of all time, will Comcast see an NBC bump? [Roundup]

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an email subscription for our weekly Comcast roundup or other news updates.

• OVERNIGHT TECH: Franken wants probe of Verizon cable deal [The Hill]
• Financial Relief for Mets May Come From TV Partners [New York Times] — Comcast could have some investment
• Super Bowl with pomp and promotion [Associated Press] — On Comcast’s NBC using the Super Bowl stage
• Verizon’s Cozying Up With Comcast Draws Attention [New York Times]
• FCC Enforcement Bureau Recommends Denying Comcast Request to Stay Tennis Channel Decision [Broadcasting & Cable] — “Comcast had claimed that enforcement would violate its constitutional rights”
• Comcast Employee Hit by Car, Charges Possible [News Channel 9]
• Verizon-Comcast Alliance Seeing Pushback [Marketwatch] — Video discussion

Safeguard consolidates + 5 local startups get funded

Welcome to the VC Roundup, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.

MUST READ

Last week, Technically Philly happily attended Investor’s Circle, a pitch event where several socially minded companies seek funding. However, despite Philadelphia’s strong infrastructure for “triple bottom line” businesses, there was only one representative from Philadelphia: The Daily Worth.

It turns out that the DuckDuckGo funding amounted to $3 million.

First Round Capital company SimpleGeo has been acquired by Urban Airship for $3.5 million. SimpleGeo was the once-hot location data provider with former Digg CEO Jay Adelson as CEO. The exit is widely panned in the press as a disappointment.

Safeguard Scientifics reported a Q3 income of $22.3 million, up 3 cents per share. As the Inquirer’s Mike Armstrong points out, much of that profit came from the sale of Portico Systems, to McKesson. The company also consolidated its life science and tech departments after the resignation of Kevin Kemmerer.

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Piano concerts, venture fairs and Philly Tech Meetup [Event Highlights]

We hope you’ve recovered from BarCamp Philadelphia. And for those of you who ventured to attend Startup Weekend and BarCamp Philadelphia during the past two weekends, you’re a trooper.

But it’s not time for rest, there are plenty worthy tech events on our calendar.

This week: get serenaded, get social and then get pitched.

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Michael Nutter answers resident questions on NBC 10 Ask the Mayor program [VIDEO]

In a unique town hall of sorts befitting of the times, Mayor Nutter answered resident questions by way of email, Twitter and Facebook put to him on NBC 10 this week, as we reported, during its Ask the Mayor program.

NBC 10 has since posted video of the entire hour-long event. Watch the first of five segments below and the rest of the segments here:

Philadelphia Geek Awards 2011 full video now online

The full 90-minute video of the inaugural Philadelphia Geek Awards is now live. Check it out here.

Thanks to our weekly sponsors

Technically Philly is made possible by advertisers and sponsors that are important to Philadelphia’s technology community. This week we’d like to thank:

Alteva — Reduce your total cost of telecom ownership and improve employee efficiency and customer satisfaction with Alteva’s cloud-based Voice over IP phone systems and services.

Reed Technology — Reed Technology’s Web Archiving Service is a litigation protection, web compliance and e-discovery solution for all your online assets.

The University City Science Center — The Science Center has officially opened Quorum, a central gathering space to enable the entrepreneurship and innovation communities to meet, share and learn.

Splat Productions — Splat Productions provides smart, brand-centric website design and internet marketing services to privileged clients in the Philadelphia region and beyond.

Caffeine Fish — Caffeine Fish develops iOS apps including Trainboard and PhillySubway and offers consulting in the Philadelphia area.

Newsworks — NewsWorks is the online home of WHYY News and its growing network of journalism partners. This public media service covers the Philadelphia region, Delaware and South Jersey, with a focus on regional issues, neighborhoods, health and science, and arts.

Morgan Lewis — Morgan Lewis provides comprehensive transactional, litigation, labor and employment, regulatory, and intellectual property legal services to clients of all sizes—from global Fortune 100 companies to just-conceived startups—across all major industries.

Interested in joining these organizations and individuals in supporting Technically Philly? Check out our ad packages and contact our Ad Sales Manager. Can’t find something that fits? We’ll customize a package for you.

Villanova University to open classroom at Navy Yard

Forget the Regional Rail to Paoli. Students can now pursue their Villanova graduate degree by way of video conferencing. The university has announced that it will provide graduate classes to students at a technology park in the Navy Yard.

Starting in August, the operation will gives students access to a small 40-seat classroom and a bay of 10 teleconferencing workstations that will take advantage of the Yard’s data center, Philadelphia Technology Park, and its broadband capacity.

Villanova’s Dean of Engineering, Dr. Gary Gabriele says, in a press release:

“This partnership allows us to offer our students the opportunity to learn in a new world-class research, development and industrial setting. It also allows our faculty to develop new research relationships, and strengthen existing ones, which will yield new challenges in the classroom and new opportunities for student research.”

For the for-profit technology park, access to classes and additional training gives its colocation facilities — that is, the Park offers corporate clients office space — more skin in the game.

Startup Roundup: More on the GSI Commerce deal; Startup Leaders executing

Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup parses out the small pieces that make our greater Startup ecosystem thrive. We want to keep you in touch with the innovations that we can’t quite get to covering, but that deserve highlight. Follow along with the Startup Roundup’s dedicated newsletter or RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

MUST READS

The $2.4 billion GSI Commerce deal is everywhere. Mike Armstrong wonders how First Round Capital’s Josh Koppelman might have impacted the deal, considering he joined GSI’s board in February and sold his own company, Half.com, to the auction giant. Law firm Morgan, Lewis and Bockius worked on the deal locally, along with a handful of other local advisers. ABCNews reports that GSI is doing well on the market, up almost $10 to $29.16 after Monday’s announcement. The Wall Street Journal ran a piece about eBay’s poor bets on deal-making, including acquisitions of StumbleUpon, Shopping.com and Bill Me Later. Reuters reports that two of GSI’s merchandise businesses, Rue La La and ShopRunner, won’t be important to eBay’s long term strategy.

Startup Leaders is gearing up for Entrepreneur Expo tomorrow. Forty folks will be showing off their startups. The group also posted a link to its Philly Tech Week event Tech Talent Found, which hopes to pair startups with talented developers. The site was down this morning, but tickets are available here.

Read more

Thanks to our weekly sponsors

Technically Philly is made possible by advertisers and sponsors that are important to Philadelphia’s technology community. This week we’d like to thank:

Optimized Cable Company – OCC is a distributor of high end electronic cable products, at a much lower price than most physical storefronts. Pick up some HDMI cables for your upcoming football parties today!

Springboard Media – Springboard Media is a certified Apple Specialist and retailer based in Center City and now, in E, ton. They’ve got a ton of accessories and a great trade-in program that can score you up to $1,500 when you’re ready to upgrade.

Volpe and Koenig, P.C. — Since 1987, intellectual property boutique law firm Volpe and Koenig has provided guidance on matters relating to patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, e-commerce, technology joint ventures, non-disclosure agreements, technology acquisitions, licensing and litigation. Whatever your intellectual property law issue… Volpe and Koenig bring law to your ideas.

GOPromos Promotional Pens – GOPromos has great promotional items, like custom envelopes, for you to use with your company or for personal use. Get great products to give away!

OpenDesks – OpenDesks.com lets you monetize unused workspaces – a cubicle, a conference room, an office or a seat in the lunchroom – as long as there’s somewhere to sit and work, you can post it. Join OpenDesks.com‘s Founders Circle today for a low-cost lifetime membership.

Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce – The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce is dedicated to promoting growth and economic development, advocating for sound public policy, and serving its members with outstanding programs and benefits. GPCC is the premier advocate of the region’s business community, representing members in 11 counties across three states with one voice.

Caffeine Fish – Caffeine Fish develops the Trainboard iPhone app and offers iPhone development consulting in the Philadelphia area.

Empowerkit MLM Software – Empowerkit roots are in Philadelphia where it started as a company. It creates websites for Franchisees through powerful software solutions.

Interested in joining these organizations and individuals in supporting Technically Philly? Check out our ad packages and contact our Ad Sales Manager. Can’t find something that fits? We’ll customize a package for you.

Thanks to our weekly sponsors

Technically Philly is made possible by advertisers and sponsors that are important to Philadelphia’s technology community. This week we’d like to thank:

Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce – The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce is dedicated to promoting growth and economic development, advocating for sound public policy, and serving its members with outstanding programs and benefits. GPCC is the premier advocate of the region’s business community, representing members in 11 counties across three states with one voice.

Caffeine Fish – Caffeine Fish develops the Trainboard iPhone app and offers iPhone development consulting in the Philadelphia area.

Empowerkit MLM Software – Empowerkit roots are in Philadelphia where it started as a company. It creates websites for Franchisees through powerful software solutions.

Optimized Cable Company – OCC is a distributor of high end electronic cable products, at a much lower price than most physical storefronts. Pick up some HDMI cables for your upcoming football parties today!

Springboard Media – Springboard Media is a certified Apple Specialist and retailer based in Center City and now, in Exton. They’ve got a ton of accessories and a great trade-in program that can score you up to $1,500 when you’re ready to upgrade.

Volpe and Koenig, P.C. — Since 1987, intellectual property boutique law firm Volpe and Koenig has provided guidance on matters relating to patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, e-commerce, technology joint ventures, non-disclosure agreements, technology acquisitions, licensing and litigation. Whatever your intellectual property law issue… Volpe and Koenig bring law to your ideas.

OpenDesks – OpenDesks.com lets you monetize unused workspaces – a cubicle, a conference room, an office or a seat in the lunchroom – as long as there’s somewhere to sit and work, you can post it. Join OpenDesks.com‘s Founders Circle today for a low-cost lifetime membership.

Interested in joining these organizations and individuals in supporting Technically Philly? Check out our ad packages and contact our Ad Sales Manager. Can’t find something that fits? We’ll customize a package for you.