The May Report: 3/30/2011: University of Chicago undergrads are onto something big: A site for college hook-ups and casual s**, now spreading to other campuses like VD (or wild fire) — and only a week or so old, Jay Leno has already joked about them; Whatever happened to SwapSimple?; Gary Slack’s site bizydeal, a Groupon knock-off launches with a silly deal; Radian6, not a Chicago firm but a Canadian one, sold to Salesforce.com for $326MM or $340MM if you count the $14MM for the founders; Roy Santoro is the producer at WFLD who puts Howerton on TV; Thornton’s numbers, to be continued; Dr. Robert J. Sobel defends his practice’s decision to dump Medicare patients and cites his dad, Dr. Gerald Sobel, saying “You don’t get paid for your brain.”

Editor and publisher: ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com, www.themayreport.com , 773-525-3944.

Assistant editor: Melanie Adcock, iPHONE: 312-259-0610, melanie_adcock@msn.com

If you missed an article, go here: www.tmronline.com/A55951/tmrarticles.nsf/vwFullNewsletter
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Chicago Opera Theater presents the Midwest Premiere of

DEATH AND THE POWERS, THE ROBOT’S OPERA

OPENS SATURDAY!

That’s right. Robots. And Opera. Together.

Live on stage at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park

April 2-10 for four performances only!.

Composer Tod Machover, the man behind Guitar Hero, developed “Death and the Powers” at the MIT Media Lab using specially designed technology including a musical chandelier, a disembodied performance system, and a chorus of robots.

Time Out gives it “5 Stars” and called it “an impressive piece of theatre.”

Use code MAYREPORT for $10 off your tickets!

ChicagoOperaTheater.org 312.704.8414
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First Annual Entrepreneurial Fair-Pair Hosted at IBM’s Innovation Center

Today’s entrepreneurs don’t have a lot of time to research how other business and services can support them. To help you get a quick peek at organizations that can support your business, MIT Enterprise Forum is hosting our first annual Entrepreneur Fair-Pair.

This event is a one-stop shop featuring 12 companies that support small-to-medium sized businesses. Each business will be paired up with a local food or beverage vendor to provide a tasty sample of their wares while you get a brief presentation from the paired company.

To make it even more interesting, we will rotate groups of people through each station in 10 minute intervals — like speed dating.

REGISTER TODAY

bit.ly/hdvj3j

Currently Participating Businesses

* Fee Fighters – Helps small companies find the lowest cost e-commerce merchant provider

* Insperity formerly Administaff – Outsourced HR/Payroll Services

* KnowledgeShift – Mobi-RolePlay and IVR tool to optimize marketing, training and customer service

* Wells Fargo Bank

* Ungaretti & Harris – Law firm for IP, copyright, and patent services

* Funding Feeding Frenzy-Extraordinary Success, LLC

* Frost Rothblatt & Ruttenberg, P.C – CPA firm

* CTCreative – Branding and Marketing Firm

When:
5 pm – 8 pm
Tuesday, April 19

Where:
IBM Innovation Center
71 S. Wacker Drive, 6th Floor, Chicago

Cost:
Free to members.
$35 for pre-registered guests.
$30 for WBE Certified guests.

REGISTER TODAY

bit.ly/hdvj3j

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Scoop section:

– Briefly noted, by Ron May
– Reuters on Salesforce.com buying Radian6 and they have the sale at $326MM
– But with a former Crains’ writer Peter Elstrom as editor, Bloomberg has the sale at $340MM because they include $14MM for the founders
– Radian6 is a Canadian firm and here is the contact info. from the site
– Brad Wilkening thinks that the video we ran Tuesday the 29th showing the woman who wants to bottle air from different parts of the world is a put-on because of a number of suspicious things
– Melanie in LOL mode and a clip that shows how she reacted to this video
– Anonymous: Reader does not like Howerton being on Fox News because it is embarrassing and Ron provides a handy number to call
– Melanie has two more videos to cheer you up
– Randy Lawrence: Looking for freelancers with project manager-type work – Financial Services experience a requirement, Higher Education a plus
– Zenah Khawaja updates Ron on how she is doing
– UIC Confidential – please do not print sender, date or time
– Dave McMurray gives his response to what he calls “some crackpot today on western medicine”
– Geoff Domoracki on who to contact in his absence
– Brian Mayer with a new email address
– Dr. Robert J. Sobel: Not a happy ending
– Ron May responds to Dr. Robert’s note and Dr. Robert responds, plus what May originally wrote on Monday of this week about being dumped after 16 years by the Sobel practice along with other Medicare patients
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________________________________
The Scoop section:
_____________________
Briefly noted, by Ron May

* There is much behind the scenes activity with respect to Tom Thornton, with respect to the UIC OTM investigation, and a few other things but I want to be careful about what I write right now and despite the fact that McGuire Woods LLP sent three Cease and Desist letters on behalf of Terry Howerton (one to me and one to each of two other people I have been talking to), I am not dropping the issue at all. In fact, it will ramp up. But for now, first things first and top of the list is TVT, not TIHII.

I really wish I could tell you fully what is going on but alas, I can’t. There is another hearing scheduled for Friday at noon, the end of the legislative session. But guess who is not showing up to testify. That is right. Tom is conveniently out of town. But the #2 guy there, former Governor Carlin, will testify in Tom’s stead. Why does that not surprise me? Meanwhile, here are a few facts about our buddy Tom that might interest you:

– He paid a consulting firm $20K to do compensation strategy review so he could sell his own board on the idea that he and his underlings should be paid what they are now being paid.
– He paid a consultant $10K to help decide if someone was eligible for an Eminent Scholar’s grant — never mind that he has a number of Ph.Ds on his staff that might have helped with that decision.
– Jude Sullivan, the lawyer from Divine, Inc., now at K&L Gates, known for being discount lawyers at low prices, is getting direct business from Thornton to the tune of just over $42K last year and $11K just for January this year. K&L may change its name to Dewey Cheatem & Howe.
– Now we’re getting into Howerton type numbers: Thornton spent $1,009 for a meeting here in Chicago at the China Grill Restaurant with the U. of I. tech transfer and NABF people. Could that have included Nancy Sullivan and her buddy Jeremy Hollis? Let’s say they had 10 people there, even 15. How to you rack up a tab over a grand at a Chinese restaurant? Must have ordered booze. Lots of drinks is all I can think of.
– Why is Vranicar of the KBA staff picking up a $152 tab at a Triathlon Medical Ventures meeting at Paulo and Bill’s restaurant in Shawnee, KS? Shouldn’t the VCs be paying their own freight? Vranicar pulled the same thing with an $86 expense for a meeting with Neuterra Capital at Bristol Restaurant.
– Terry Osborn spent a lot of dough in Israel on a U. S. Trade Mission trip, but we can get to that later.
– Look, forget about the meals at McDonald’s for $3 each. All the Meeting and Travel expenses for FY 2010 added up to $85,000. In some places that is like having another person.

– But the total contractual and consulting services for FY 2010 ended up at $373,886.
– And the budget projected for FY 2011 is a whopping $511,200! Of that, $120,000 is budgeted for Armand Yambao of Hewitt EnnisKnupp and $75,000 is budgeted for Christopher Brandely of the same firm for Venture capital fund back office support. There are some gems here. ‘Who is Jodi Crisp and why is she budgeted for $80,000 for Peer review facilitation services? Who is Mark Long and why is his firm getting $15,000 for incubator operating policy/procedure development? Tom, call Tim Lavengood or Nik Rokop. Why are you re-inventing the wheel?

You can easily see that I could be here all night. But most of this is the small stuff. I have some more big dollar issues for you but it has to wait a day or two.

* Speaking of Thornton, Gary Slack has launched his Groupon knock-off site: www.bizydeal.com and it is just ridiculous. The deal was offered on 3/28 and it is still up even though they already sold the used van which they bought to sell — go figure! They still have seven days left so they are milking it for all it is worth. Here is what the site says:
“$11,700 for one of the hottest-selling, most fuel-efficient small business cargo vans: 2011 XLT Ford Transit Connect (50% off a $23,400 value)”

* The University of Chicago is once again putting Chicago on the map — this time once again for an internet firm started by some undergrads who wish to remain anonymous. Their tag line is “Where fun goes to die” and the idea is that they offer students casual sex and even now as a result of requests they’ve added serious sex and Platonic relationships and they are expanding to Northwestern and Columbia College. They have a slew of other campuses in the hopper. The site is called www.eduHOOKUPS.com and even Jay Leno has already joked about it.

This is from their home page:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

www.eduhookups.com

In the early 20th century, British intelligence chief Mansfield Cummings found that semen made a good invisible ink.
Home Listings Chat ShoutBox Safety Ads FAQ About Contact Us

Join the conversation Welcome to eduHookups, where college and university students can find casual encounters, hookups, and more!

Due to popular demand, we will launch at DePaul University and Loyola University starting Thursday, March 31st, at 12am!

WashU in St. Louis and Yale University students – stay tuned for Friday, April 1st!

Brown University launch: April 4, 2011

We need new members – register now!

We currently serve the following campuses:
Columbia College Chicago
Northwestern University
University of Chicago
Site News
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
We’ve revamped our chat system with the option to display your gender and sexual orientation. We would like to emphasize that this is optional; you may disclose, none, one, or both pieces of information. If you experience issues or malformed nicknames, please try clearing your browser’s cookies.

Monday, March 28th, 2011
Once again, we have been featured on CBS 2 Chicago, Huffington Post, and RedEye. We are grateful for the continuing coverage of our expansion.
Additionally, we now have 800 registered members and are coming up on 2000 private messages sent by our members. We owe our expansion and continued success to our dedicated and enthusiastic user base, which now encompasses Northwestern University and Columbia College in Chicago. The eduHookups team is motivated to bring our presence to even more colleges and universities across the nation.

Sunday, March 27, 2011
UPDATE: Registration is now open to Northwestern and Columbia College Chicago students!

We will be postponing the Brown University launch to April 4th, as the school is on spring break this week.
Also, be sure to check out this clip from The Tonight Show!

Saturday, March 26, 2011
All known bugs in the site have been ironed out. If you come across any, please let us know. We are on schedule for the first phase of our expansion – eduHookups will be coming to Northwestern University, Columbia College in Chicago, and Brown University on Monday!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Welcome to the grand opening of eduHookups, formerly known as UChicago Hookups! Our new URL has changed accordingly: www.eduhookups.com. Our old URL will still remain valid for now and will simply redirect. With the rebranding now complete, we’re now in a position to begin rolling out to other schools, starting with Northwestern University.
Additionally, we’ve deployed some new features on the site in preparation for our expansion to other schools. For example, you can now ban other users to prevent them from contacting you again. There’s also an option in the control panel that allows you to decide whether or not you want to receive email alerts for new private messages.

Monday, March 21, 2011
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Due to a snafu with our email provider, it seems that all messages sent to us (both email and via our Contact form) have been purged. We sincerely apologize for this technical mishap. If you sent us a message within the past week and were expecting a reply back, please resend your message. Again, we are deeply sorry for this.

Friday, March 18, 2011
We’ve now been featured in the Huffington Post, RedEye, and even the Daily Mail in the UK! The widespread news coverage has led to an explosion in traffic: we now have more than 300 registered users, who have collectively sent more than 1,300 private messages.
The next step on our roadmap includes expansion to other college campuses, starting with those in the greater Chicago area. Although nothing formal has been worked out yet, we may decide to re-brand ourselves in order to cater to a more general college/university audience. Here’s another thank you to our loyal and growing user base!

Thursday, March 17, 2011
NOTICE: We’ve had some issues with our email server. If you have not received an activation email, please contact us and we will manually activate you.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011
UPDATE: People with @uchicagbooth.edu email addresses can now register.
CBS 2 Chicago has featured us in one of their local news stories! The segment is available for viewing below. Also, be sure to check out the story featured on the front page of CBS 2′s website. Thanks to our userbase for taking us this far!

Saturday, March 12, 2011
We’ve sorted the ad situation out. Please let us know if you see any inappropriate/NSFW ads.

Friday, March 11, 2011
eduHookups has set another milestone – we now have over 200 registered users, who have collectively sent more than 1,000 private messages. In other news, the Contact Us page now has a reply form. Send us your questions, comments, concerns, or any issues you’ve had with the website, all while staying anonymous.

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
We’re honored to be featured once again in the Maroon, this time in a full-length article!
Websites offer U of C romance, Harunobu Coryne, News, March 8th, 2011
In other news, our chat system has been overhauled. We are now running chat off of a third-party IRC server. This should greatly improve reliability and speed while reducing bugs. However, since the chat server is off-site, there are a few extra steps necessary if you are want to be able to PM others. Just head over to the chat page for more info.

Monday, March 7th, 2011
Our new chat room is now live! Participate in a group chat, or privately message someone. The service is currently in beta, so let us know if you come across any problems.

Friday, March 4th, 2011
The ShoutBox has now been integrated with Facebook as well, so you can like your favorite shouts. A few minor fixes were also made to the rest of the site, including the new PM system.

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011
NOTICE: We have gotten several bug reports about the new PM system. We are currently working on cleaning up these bugs, so until then please let us know if you also have problems.
Our new thread-based private messaging system is now live. As with every new piece of software, there may be bugs; please let us know if anything breaks!

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
All of our public listing view pages are now Facebook-integrated, so you can Like posts and share them with your friends.
A minor change has been made to the Casuals browse and view pages: the usernames of post authors are now shown if they have previously communicated with you. This should cut down on unnecessary duplicate replies, while still maintaining a high degree of user privacy.

Monday, February 28, 2011
As you’ve probably noticed, the site has received a facelift. Let us know what you think of the new redesign. Also, be sure to check out our brand-new shoutbox feature. Say whatever you want (within reason, of course) – no registration required!
In other news, we’ve just purged all unactivated users from our database. If you wish to register again, please do so. As always, contact us with any trouble you experience activating your account.

Sunday, February 27, 2011
To further protect the privacy of our users, we have made more changes in the way usernames are displayed, effective immediately. When you reply to a public post, the username of the post author will be shown as “Anonymous” in your outbox unless he/she has replied back.

Saturday, February 26, 2011
Following further consideration, we have decided to keep usernames for functionality and practicality reasons.
UPDATE: Usernames are now omitted on the Casuals browse page and when viewing posts. However, they will still be shown if you reply to a message.
After receiving suggestions from several users, we have decided to move to a fully-anonymous system with no usernames. Look for the change in the next few days.

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
Check it out – we’ve been mentioned in the Chicago Maroon!
Also, the password reset page and the change password function in the user control panel are now working again. Thanks to a user who first alerted us to the issue.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

May again. Here is their About Us section and they have changed their tag line:
+++++++++++++++++++++++

www.eduhookups.com/about.php

About the site
eduHookups – “Where fun comes to thrive”. Originally started as a service exclusively for University of Chicago undergrads, eduHookups is the second generation of the original UChicago Hookups idea, getting its start from widespread media attention and demand from students on other campuses.

The site was originally intended as a coding project and learning experience by a small team of University of Chicago undergraduates, to change the age-old belief that UChicago is a place where “fun comes to die” and “the squirrels are cuter than the girls and more aggressive than the guys”. However, our media proliferation and the resulting traffic have shown that finding relationships and meeting new people is not limited to the “nerdiest of Universities”. Comedian Jay Leno probably described it best: “A place to hookup with college kids? There’s already a place for that. It’s called college.” Clearly, the desire for the services we offer is also shared by students across the nation.

Although our user base has changed, our goals and motivations have not. eduHookups was, is, and always will be targeted towards students that believe working hard and having fun are not mutually exclusive. As before, our eligible user base is only limited to university students, so users can rest assured that those who are on this site are the same motivated and forward-looking individuals that they are. Although rivalry between schools may be intense, you will find that the slacker from Northwestern or the nerd from Uchicago has a lot more in common with you than you think, and is certainly a lot more interesting and intelligent than the weird old guy you met at the pub last week.

So why wait? With our expanded services, there’s no longer an excuse for not getting out there and meeting new people. Students across the nation are looking for the exact same things in a relationship that you are, whether that’s a no-strings-attached encounter or having a drink at the local pub. It’s now easier than ever to broaden your horizons beyond your own campus boundaries. If you haven’t already, register today and put yourself out there!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

May again. I suspect that this type of talk will be considered fighting words at NU: ” …the slacker from Northwestern or the nerd from Uchicago has a lot more in common with you than you think, and is certainly a lot more interesting and intelligent than the weird old guy you met at the pub last week.”

Anyway, the site should catch on and it will be great fun seeing it grow.

The chat room has sayings from Woody Allen movies such as “I’m such a good lover because I practice a lot on my own.” and other quips and this one I had to think about but it hit me.
This line on the site is:
“Living in a single has its benefits on this site.”

A single here is a single room.

* I clicked on an ad on the site for www.chegg.com which is site for renting text books.

This it occurred to me that this is like the firm SwapSimple, www.swapsimple.com that
Elliot Hirsch and his buddies Eric Haszlakiewicz and Dave Goldblatt started years ago but maybe they changed their name I thought. Articles were being written by The Chicago Tribune about them in August 2006. They were hot then. But no such luck. The firm on the www.eduhookups.com site is not SwapSimple renamed.

Here is the management team for the firm called Chegg:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

www.chegg.com/managementteam/

Dan Rosensweig
President and Chief Executive Officer
Dan serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Chegg.com, where he oversees the overall business operations and executive management. Dan brings successful, high-growth consumer business experience to Chegg having served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Guitar Hero and Chief Operating Officer at Yahoo!. In addition to learning to yodel “Yahooooo!,” Dan was responsible for product development, marketing, international operations and North American operations. Prior to Yahoo!, Dan also served as President of ZDNet where he managed the successful merger with CNET. Dan received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Hobart College in Geneva, New York. When Dan isn’t attending a Springsteen concert or enjoying quality time with his wife and two daughters, he participates on the Advisory Board of the non-profit DonorsChoose.org, contributes as member of the Executives in Residence program at Columbia University and resides on the Board of Directors of Adobe Systems, Inc., & Katalyst Media, Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg’s leading social media company.
Aayush Phumbhra
Senior Vice President and Co-Founder
Aayush Phumbhra is Co-Founder and Senior Vice President of Chegg.com, where he is involved in the key strategic decisions with the current and future direction of the company. He leads logistics and infrastructure deployment and is largely responsible for scaling Chegg’s supply chain to keep pace with its torrid growth. Inspired by his personal experience and frustration with his own university’s bookstore, Aayush believes in the mission of Chegg: to enable college students to save a significant amount of money by letting them rent textbooks rather than buy them. Prior to the founding of Chegg, Aayush was an analyst at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and a management and technology consultant at BearingPoint. Aayush holds a master of business administration in marketing and accounting from Iowa State University. Before moving to the United States in 2001, Aayush launched two companies, one of which introduced peanut butter and chocolate spreads to his native country, India.
Greg Stanger
Chief Financial Officer
As CFO of Chegg.com, Greg’s goal is to help drive the financial performance of the company. Over the past 20 years, Greg has been involved in technology companies as a finance professional, as an investor and as a director. He held senior positions in corporate development at Microsoft and was CFO of Expedia where he led the company’s IPO and helped manage the company’s growth to $1 billion in revenue. More recently, he has been a venture partner at Technology Crossover Ventures and has served on the boards of several companies including Netflix, drugstore.com and NexTag. Outside of the office, Greg loves to spend time with his wife and three kids, and occasionally sneak in a round of golf. Greg is a graduate of Williams College and received an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
Chuck Geiger
Chief Technology Officer
Chuck Geiger serves as the Chief Technology Officer at Chegg.com and brings significant experience running technology and product organizations at some of the largest online ecommerce sites in the world. As the former CTO of Ask.com, PayPal, Wine.com, VP of Product Development at eBay, and executive positions at InterActive Corp (IAC), Chuck brings an array of experience poised to run Chegg at optimum capacity. Chuck is a partner of Silicon Valley Product Group, focused on helping large companies and start-ups build product and technology strategies, technology due diligence, and architectural assessment. His clients include Wal-Mart, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres, NASCAR, Palm, IAC and Motorola. Chuck earned his Bachelor of Science in computer science at the University of Kansas. Chuck lives in San Jose with his wife, two children, and something that closely resembles a dog. Chuck’s children are convinced they will both be doctors and so Chegg’s value proposition hits right at home for him!
Robert Chesnut
Senior Vice President and General Counsel
As Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Chegg.com, Rob oversees the company’s corporate and legal relations. Rob brings over twenty five years of legal experience from high profile e-commerce and technology companies. Prior to Chegg.com, Rob served as the Senior Vice President and General Counsel for LiveOps, Inc., a leading provider of call center outsourcing services. Before LiveOps Inc., he worked as eBay’s Senior Vice President of the Trust and Safety Department, where he oversaw the development of the company’s global detection infrastructure. With extensive experience in the U.S. Justice Department, Rob is the recipient of the Department’s John Marshall award for litigation, and the CIA’s Outstanding Service Medallion. When he’s not working, Rob loves to spend time with his family or head out to the golf course. Rob earned his B.A. from the University of Virginia and is a graduate of Harvard Law School.
Gibson Biddle
Senior Vice President of Product
As Senior Vice President of Product of Chegg.com, Gib provides creative and business leadership for the company. Gib began his product management career at Electronic Arts, was a co-founder of an educational software startup (a joint venture of EA/Disney called “Creative Wonders”) and led product at both The Learning Company and Mattel. More recently, Gib ran product management at Netflix, helping the company grow from 3 to 13M subscribers in less than five years, while consistently achieving a #1 rating among ecommerce companies, and helping the company transition from DVD to digital delivery. In his spare time, Gib skis, windsurfs, and spends time with his wife and two daughters. His goal is to help Chegg become a world-class company by the time his oldest daughter goes to college– in 2013! Gib is a graduate of Amherst College and received an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Tina Couch
Vice President of Public Relations
Tina Couch leads the company’s communications efforts as the Vice President of Public Relations for Chegg.com. Before joining Chegg, Tina held senior-level positions with companies, including Microsoft, Match.com, Publicis and Waggener Edstrom. While at Match.com, Tina earned several industry awards for her work on Chemistry.com, including Bronze Anvil, Gold SABRE, Bronze Mercury and Bronze Magellan awards. In addition, she was included among the top U.S. public relations professionals when PR News named her as one of “15 to Watch.” Tina resides in Santa Clara with her husband, Kiley, and their three Chihuahuas. When she’s not practicing Bikram Yoga or updating her Facebook status, she supports a variety of charities, including High Five Hope and Fetal Hope Foundation.
Tim Wenzel
Vice President of Human Resources
Tim Wenzel is Chegg.com‘s Vice President of Human Resources, and he brings more than 15 years of Silicon Valley recruiting and HR experience to Chegg. Prior to joining Chegg, Tim was Vice President of Human Resources at TokBox, a Sequoia-backed video communications start-up in San Francisco. Before TokBox, Tim was Vice President of Human Resources at Tesla Motors, where he enjoyed taking candidates for rides in prototype vehicles and led the growth of the company from 150 to 300 people. Earlier in his career, Tim spent seven years with PayPal, where he was the company’s first recruiter. He built the staffing team and scaled the company from 50 to 5,000 employees. In addition to managing recruiting, Tim also provided employee relations, performance management and executive coaching support for all of the business groups at PayPal. He holds a master of business administration as well as a Bachelor of Science in finance from San Jose State University. Tim and his wife have two daughters and a Dalmatian.
Nathan Schultz
Vice President of Supply Chain Management
Nathan Schultz serves as Chegg.com‘s Vice President of Supply Chain. He has over a decade of experience working with higher education publishers and suppliers. Prior to joining Chegg, Nathan has spent time working in several sectors of the publishing industry, and he was responsible for developing the business intelligence tools used by higher education publishers for monitoring sales and adoption trends. Before joining Chegg, Nathan worked at Bowker as the Business Intelligence Product Manager. Before Bowker, he served as the Director of Business Development for Monument Information Services, and has held Marketing Manager roles at both Pearson Higher Education and Jones & Bartlett Publishers. He attended Elon University in North Carolina, receiving his BA in History and English and continued his education at Stevens Institute of Technology, where he mastered in Finance. In his spare time, Nathan enjoys traveling and getting outside to tear it up.

MEDIA CONTACTS
Tina Couch, Vice President of PR
Tina@chegg.com

Angela Pontarolo, PR Manager
Angela@chegg.com

SOCIALIZE
INVESTORS

#1 source of college textbook rentals, Student Monitor LifeStyle & Media report, Spring 2010
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

May again. It does appear that SwapSimple is still around and here is their management team:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

www.swapsimple.com/about-used-textbooks.jsp

Team SwapSimple:

——————————————————————————–
Elliot E. Hirsch

Co-Founder & President
Elliot’s swap profile | contact Elliot
Elliot is the 24hr leader of SwapSimple (we swear, he never sleeps). Whether he’s designing new SwapSimple features at 4am in bed, grinding out front end changes at an all night coffee shop, or sleeping on the office balcony (fire escape), he’s always working to make SwapSimple better for everyone.

Eric R. Haszlakiewicz

Co-Founder & System Architect
Eric’s swap profile | contact Eric
Resident genius, skydiver, rock climber, serious Coca-Cola connoisseur. When Eric’s not turning all our crazy ideas into web-reality, he’s solving mission-critical problems for Fortune-50 companies, doing favors for friends (like helping people move almost every week), or walking his Rottweiler, Shade. If you email him, and you want to stay on his good side, just be sure to bottom-post!

David J. Goldblatt

Co-Founder & Vice President
David’s swap profile | contact David
A.K.A. “Mr. Map” – David is our resident financial expert and GIS guru. Recently engaged (Congrats Dave & Kowa!), you can very well expect to see some wedding planning books popping up in his swap profile sometime soon. If you ever need someone to start a company for you, or plot invasive species, just give him a ring. If you see him power-biking around Chicago, chowing-down at a local vegetarian restaurant, or wandering around with a GPS unit, be sure to say, “Hi Dave!”

Lakshmi Rengarajan

Director of PR & Marketing
Lakshmi’s swap profile | contact Lakshmi
Able to generate more “buzz” than a swarm of killer bees, Lakshmi (or ‘Shmi’ to those in-the-know) spends every waking moment telling people about SwapSimple, and acting as head “Den Mother” for the SwapSimple community. There is nothing that happens in the world, or on SwapSimple, that Shmi doesn’t know about. Send her a nice email for tagging all our hot items, and maybe she’ll send you a link to her and her troupe doing some bhangra dancing!

Shilpa Chopra

Developer Extraordinarre
Shilpa’s swap profile | contact Shilpa
With her snappy new, and well deserved laptop (she refuses to take the plastic off!), Shilpa is developing some serious feature enhancements for SwapSimple. With an over 1.5hr commute to the SwapSimple office, and daily adventures on the famous Chicago “El,” Shilpa and her big smile show nothing but total dedication to the SwapSimple community, and to creating the best online swapping experience possible. She’s small, but she’s powerful – so watch out!

John Grenholm

Developer Extraordinarre
John “Lord of the Cart” Grenholm is another SwapSimple magic-maker. You can’t tell from the photo, but he’s large – so we all try to stay on his good side. Seriously though, John is the nicest guy you’ll ever meet, and it shows in the care he exhibits when crafting the finer features of SwapSimple’s inner-space.

Yogeswaran Linga Devaraj

Developer Extraordinarre
Yogesh’s swap profile | contact Yogesh
With unlimited skill, energy, and commitment, Yogesh is cooking up some really tasty stuff for the SwapSimple community. Pretty soon you’ll have him to thank for the floods of new items and swaps that will be generated by his handiwork, and constant drive for innovation. We’d tell you more, but you’ll just have to wait and see!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

May again. But I have no idea how successful SwapSimple is in dollar terms. Elliot, if you still read the report, please give us an update — and what happened to that other firm you were starting?.

* Lundin sent me this YouTube link to give me an idea about what SXSW is all about and it is a promo for BUMP which comes out of ChicagoBooth if I have the firm right.

www.youtube.com/user/BUMPdotCOM

Not the Bump I was thinking of:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Subject: RE: Linda, is the firm called BUMP below the same co. that won the NVC + funding?
Date: 3/30/2011 5:51:07 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: Linda.Darragh@chicagobooth.edu
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com

No. They are Bump Technologies.

Linda L. Darragh
Director of Entrepreneurship Programs
Clinical Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship
Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship
Chicago Booth
5807 S. Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
Voice 773-702-9108 / Fax 773-834-4046
linda.darragh@chicagobooth.edu

Visit us at www.ChicagoBooth.edu

From: RONALDMAY@aol.com [mailto:RONALDMAY@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 5:42 PM
To: Darragh, Linda L.
Cc: ronaldmay@aol.com
Subject: Linda, is the firm called BUMP below the same co. that won the NVC + funding

www.youtube.com/user/BUMPdotCOM

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

* Phil Burnstine hits the big 55 this week and his B-Day party is Saturday night.
Address

1824 W Division St, Chicago, IL 60622-3113 ·
7 PM

Here is some of TMR’s limited coverage of Radian6 which we mistakenly thought was a Chicago firm. That confusion was furthered by the fact that Amber Naslund lives in Chicago and she has a VP title at Radian6 and recently co-authored a book.

++++++++++++++++++
From 10/6/2010: 4. Radian6 offers non-profit accounts for tracking and managing social media presence.
This was in a write-up of a SMCC event written by Avery Cohen.

From TMR: 7/3/2009: Brian Connolly told me about the implications of a deal just made between Radian6 and Salesforce.com.

blog.webtrends.com/2009/06/24/radian6-integrates-webtrends-and-salesforce-data/

[May here from today, March 30th. I just checked this site and it has been taken down. Connolly likens what Radian6 does for marketers to what shills do for elixir salesmen in small towns. The shills work the crowd, find out information about the denizens so that the elixir salesman can make his case more convincingly. With respect to Amber Naslund, Connolly finds her "sooooh irritating -- sort of like the fat pompom girl in high school who belongs to every club imaginable.."]

If you can track behavior and tie it into social media, it can be a powerful tool for marketers. There are lines that have been drawn for years.

From TMR: 2/14/2011:
Amber Naslund is a communication and business strategist and the VP of Social Strategy for Radian6. She’s worked with businesses of all sizes to solve business problems through better communication.

* Melanie attended the Bricks+ Mobile conference today, I believe at the Spertus Institute in Chicago, which drew about 75 business people including a bunch of people from Acquity Group such as Kelly Stuckel and Phil Berman from Appletite; Uki Lucas from Sears Holdings and others. Melanie told me that two former colleagues from the SAVO Group were there.

* But thankfully Sweis did not show up. The more I learn about Juno Wallet, the more I sense that Chris Sweis is at the center of the controversy. And Todor Krecu was only helping out and he was never an employee of Juno Wallet. Plus there seems to be some mystery surrounding the founders other than Sweis. Who are they? Where do they come from? Are they full time with Juno?
________________________________
Reuters on Salesforce.com buying Radian6 and they have the sale at $326MM

www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/30/salesforcecom-radian-idUSL3E7EU2AH20110330

UPDATE 3-Salesforce.com seeks social media edge with Radian6 buy
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Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:25am EDT

* To buy Radian6 for $326 mln in cash and stock

* Sees FY adj EPS $1.24-$1.27

* Sees deal to add $45-$50 mln to FY rev (Rewrites; adds CEO, analyst comments, background, shares)

By Siddharth Cavale and Supantha Mukherjee

BANGALORE, March 30 (Reuters) – Salesforce.com‘s $326 million purchase of privately held Radian6 will allow the cloud-based software maker help its clients track customer trends on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Salesforce.com has been jostling with rivals such as IBM and Dell Inc to differentiate itself in the highly competitive cloud computing market, by picking up small companies with promising technologies.

In December, Salesforce.com, the world’s biggest provider of software delivered via the Web bought Heroku, another cloud-platform company, for $212 million.[ID:nSGE6B709P]

Radian6 is its third buy this year, after web-conferencing service Dimdim and ManyMoon, which makes productivity and collaboration tools to Web apps.

Last year, IBM bought privately held Cast Iron Systems and Dell Inc picked up Boomi to boost their cloud offerings. [ID:nN03206373] [ID:nN02226898]

Radian6′s products will allow Salesforce.com integrate feeds from sites such as Facebook, which boasts more than 500 million users, into its own social media offering for companies — Chatter — launched last year.

“We really believe the explosive growth of social media is just beginning and the ability to bring that deeply into our application and platform will be a critical next step,” Chief Executive Marc Benioff said on a conference call.

Radian6, based in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, was founded in 2006 and had over 120 employees as of June last, according to the firm’s website. It counts Dell , Kodak , PepsiCo , and UPS among its customers.

“The acquisition fits in very nicely with their strategy to go ahead in social media,” Gleacher and Company analyst Brad Whitt told Reuters.

Salesforce.com, with a market value of $17 billion, expects the deal to add about $45-$50 million in revenue for the full year but sees a fall in adjusted earnings of 11 cents per share.

The company now expects full-year earnings of about $1.24-$1.27 per share, on revenue of $2.08-$2.1 billion.

Shares of the company were rose about 2 percent to $129.56 in early trade on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Siddharth Cavale and Supantha Mukherjee; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Unnikrishnan Nair)
________________________________-
But with a former Crains’ writer Peter Elstrom as editor, Bloomberg has the sale at $340MM because they include $14MM for the founders

www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-30/salesforce-com-to-buy-radian6-for-340-million-to-add-web-tracking-service.html

Salesforce.com to Buy Web Monitor Radian6 for About $340 Million
By Greg Bensinger – Mar 30, 2011 8:39 AM CT inShare28More
Business Exchange Buzz up! Digg Print Email Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM), the largest supplier of customer-management software, agreed to buy Radian6 Technologies Inc. for about $340 million in cash and stock to add Web-monitoring services.

The price includes $276 million of cash and $50 million of stock, and Salesforce also agreed to pay an additional $10 million in stock and $4 million in cash to Radian6′s founders. The purchase should close by the end of July, Salesforce said today in a statement.

Radian6 tracks what is being said about companies or products on websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. San Francisco-based Salesforce, which helps businesses manage client relationships online, said the acquisition will boost its fiscal 2012 revenue by $45 million to $50 million and reduce earnings per share, excluding some items, by 11 cents.

Salesforce added $1.19 to $128.59 at 9:37 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Before today, it had dropped 3.5 percent this year. Radian6, based in Fredericton, New Brunswick, is closely held.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Bensinger in New York at gbensinger1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net
_________________________________
Radian6 is a Canadian firm and here is the contact info. from the site

www.radian6.com/company/contact-us/

Contact Us
We love hearing from you! Here are several ways to get in touch so we can lend a hand:
Sign Up for A Product Demo
Visit our signup page to get registered for a web demo of the product. One of our account folks will connect to get you scheduled for a 30 minute live session where we can give you the tour and answer your questions.

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1-888-6RADIAN or 1-888-672-3426
direct line: (506) 452-9039
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In the UK? Dial +44 (0)203-468-3939

Contact Customer Support:
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Or, Call us at 1.888.672.3426 or 1.506.452.9039 and select option 2 for customer support.

Our live support hours are between Sunday 9:00 PM to Friday 9:00 PM Eastern Time. If you require after hours support, please email our team using the email address above and we’ll get back in touch as soon as possible.

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Fredericton Office
Radian6 Technologies Inc.
30 Knowledge Park Drive
2nd Floor
Fredericton, NB
E3C 2R2
Canada
Saint John Office
Radian6 Technologies Inc.
87 Canterbury Street
Saint John, NB
E2L 2C7
Canada
Halifax Office
Radian6 Technologies Inc.
1505 Barrington Street
3 North
Halifax, NS
B3J 3K5
Canada
United Kingdom Office
Radian6 Technologies UK Ltd.
506 Centennial Ave
Centennial Park
Elstree, WD6 3FG
United Kingdom
_________________________________
Brad Wilkening thinks that the video we ran Tuesday the 29th showing the woman who wants to bottle air from different parts of the world is a put-on because of a number of suspicious things

Subject: FW: Shenanigans
Date: 3/29/2011 3:23:41 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: melanie_adcock@msn.com
To: ronaldmay@aol.com, ron@themayreport.com

Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:02:57 -0500
Subject: Shenanigans
From: brad.wilkening@devmynd.com
To: melanie_adcock@msn.com

I call shenanigans on the video. It has way too many things that are way too “sharp” about it.

Her math adding up to 103%
The videographer focuses in on her feet
The people in the audience are far too behaved for such an atrocity
Her first name is the same as one of the biggest VCs
Her lips look like she is Mr Bill

I could go on, but its really great. . . I want to produce a video equally as silly. ‘

Brad
__________________________________
Melanie in LOL mode and a clip that shows how she reacted to this video

Subject: RE: The May Report: 3/29/2011: No time to consult the headline writers for TMR. I just can’t sit on this: Melanie has cured my depression over the doc situation with this YouTube video — tell your boss you have to watch it even if it is in the middle
Date: 3/29/2011 2:33:46 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: melanie_adcock@msn.com
To: ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com

LOL! Ron, My response to this report can be summed up nicely with yet another YouTube clip.

-Melanie

Melanie Adcock
Assistant Editor of The May Report
312-259-0610 melanie_adcock@msn.com
LinkedIn: linkd.in/MelanieAdcock
The May Report Facebook Page: on.fb.me/TheMayReport
Visit The May Report Archives: bit.ly/TheMayReportArchives
Subscribe to The May Report: bit.ly/TheMayReportSubscribe

_________________________________
Anonymous: Reader does not like Howerton being on Fox News because it is embarrassing and Ron provides a handy number to call

Subject: TH on mobile
Date: 3/28/2011 4:26:35 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: Name and email withheld upon request
To: ronaldmay@aol.com

Bad idea to have him on. Ratings and other options must have dropped significantly. I have to say there are much better companies and execs to represent our space, mobile, than Terry Howerton. I don’t understand why anyone calls him given his history. Embarrassing in my personal opinion, but I have standards. Please don’t publish my email or name.
___________________________________
Ron May here. The producer of Good Day Chicago on WFLD is Roy Santoro who can be reached at 312-565-5513. Call him if you want to and let him know — pro, con, indifferent or neutral — what you think of Terry Howerton being used by Fox Chicago for interviews on technology. Let the people speak.
____________________________________
Melanie has two more videos to cheer you up

Subject: RE: The May Report: 3/29/2011: No time to consult the headline writers for TM…
Date: 3/29/2011 2:53:17 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: melanie_adcock@msn.com
To: ronaldmay@aol.com
CC: mike@syncubator.com

Here, try this. It always cheers me up. -Melanie

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWT3y2CZXVQ

This one is also pretty good, LOL!!

Melanie Adcock
Assistant Editor of The May Report
312-259-0610 melanie_adcock@msn.com
LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/MelanieAdcock
The May Report Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/TheMayReport
Visit The May Report Archives: http://bit.ly/TheMayReportArchives
Subscribe to The May Report: http://bit.ly/TheMayReportSubscribe
_______________________________
Randy Lawrence: Looking for freelancers with project manager-type work – Financial Services experience a requirement, Higher Education a plus

Subject: Looking for freelancers
Date: 3/28/2011 5:42:08 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: randy@technotribe.com
To: ronaldmay@aol.com

Ron,

After 10+ years of reading, I’m glad to see TheMayReport continues to be at the center of technology reporting in Chicago.

I’d like to tap into your readers to see if any are available for offsite, freelance project manager-type work – Financial Services experience a requirement, Higher Education a plus.

Thanks!
–
Randy Lawrence
Technotribe Communications
847.462.1960
888.908.7423 x14
www.technotribe.com
_____________________________________
Zenah Khawaja updates Ron on how she is doing

Subject: Re: Fw: Zenah, I haven’t seen you in ages. How are you & what are youdoing these days?
Date: 3/28/2011 5:35:31 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: z.khawaja2009@gmail.com
To: ronaldmay@aol.com

Zenah Khawaja (z.khawaja2009@gmail.com) added themselves to your Guest List | Remove them | Block them

Hi,

Thanks for checking in with me. I am doing well. Thanks for asking. I
read the recent reports regarding your & Melanie’s health
circumstances and hope you are both recovering well.

Though I did attend one of the 2010 holiday events (ITA Women’s
Roundtable), my colleagues at Semiautomatic Semiotics & I have been
busy exploring strategic alliances in recent weeks. Therefore, I have
not had time to attend many other events.

In case it’s of assistance, I believe Melanie is currently following
my Twitter profile @the_z_direction if not the Semiautomatic Semiotics
profile @semiautomatic3d.

Going forward, please contact me at this email address for fastest reply.

Many thanks,

Zenah Khawaja
Semiautomatic Semiotics

http://semiautomatic3d.com

> —– Forwarded Message —-
> From: “RONALDMAY@aol.com”
> To:
> Cc: ronaldmay@aol.com
> Sent: Sun, March 27, 2011 7:09:31 PM
> Subject: Zenah, I haven’t seen you in ages. How are you & what are you doing
> these days?
_____________________________________
UIC Confidential – please do not print sender, date or time

UIC Confidential – please do not print sender, date or time

Inbox
X

Reply
|Name withheld] to me

show details 11:34 PM (7 hours ago)

from Name and email withheld
to ron@themayreport.com
date [Date withheld upon request]
subject UIC Confidential – please do not print sender, date or time
mailed-by gmail.com
signed-by gmail.com

hide details [time withheld]

Hi Ron,

UIC OTM story seems to be getting very interesting- almost surreal. We have harassment of senior personnel such as Dr. Connie Cleary, Colin James and Dr. Jay Vijayan (among others who were forced out by unethical tactics used by Ms. Nancy Sullivan). We have the potential kickback issue with the Dave Carley angle. We have naked favoritism with Jeremy Brown Noser ( the real name seems Jeremy Hollis) and hiring of old friends like Kathy Liu. To top it all we have good reasons to believe Dr. Sullivan ( I mean Nancy, she would not be such a sorry insecure soul if she had a JD or a PhD) is inflating figures. It appears Ms. Nancy Sullivan Insecure has wantonly abused powers. All this could make into a nice movie!

One wonders why all the people at OTM who have suffered so much never voiced their concerns to the HR? I mean the university must be having exit interview policies. Can you please help the readers by looking into that issue. Who is the HR?

Also, was Avijit Ghosh aware of all this? I mean it looks funky that he left leaving a legacy of problems with the new Vice President.
__________________________________
Dave McMurray gives his response to what he calls “some crackpot today on western medicine”

re: the response from some crackpot today on western medicine
InboxX

Reply |dave mcmurray to me
show details 5:19 PM (3 hours ago)

fromdave mcmurray
toron@themayreport.com

dateMon, Mar 28, 2011 at 5:19 PM
subjectre: the response from some crackpot today on western medicine
mailed-byyahoo.com
signed-byyahoo.com

hide details 5:19 PM (3 hours ago)

Hi Ron –

While many of us understand the extent of the medical delivery problems facing the country today (none more so than yourself, I’d wager), whomever sent that message about abandoning Western medicine for the mystical and allegedly superior Chinese treatments sounds a lot like someone who’s never had to face an actual medical emergency. I ran into these types of shamans regularly way back when, and they always knew what the real cure was for whatever ailed you at the moment, and rest assured it was never in the realm of anything current in the accredited medical fields. If you tried to question them too closely about what studies had been done that validated their claimed theories of miracle cures, they’d usually retreat into vast conspiracy theories and dark forces at work undermining the heroic work of alternative medical practitioners. While there is no doubt real value inherent in many alternative therapies, this kind of fantastical thinking makes some people far sicker than they need to be, and in some cases they die needlessly as a result (remember Laetrille?).

Regards,

Dave McMurray
__________________________________
Geoff Domoracki on who to contact in his absence

In case I do not respond to your email March 28 – April 5th:
InboxX

Reply |Geoff Domoracki to me
show details 3:33 PM (5 hours ago)

fromGeoff Domoracki
toThe May Report

dateMon, Mar 28, 2011 at 3:33 PM
subjectIn case I do not respond to your email March 28 – April 5th:
mailed-byserver.midventures.com

hide details 3:33 PM (5 hours ago)

Thank you for emailing me. In case I do not respond to your email between the dates of March 28th through April 5th, below are other midVentures team members you can contact.

Conference Press / Media
Arabella Santiago
arabella@midventures.com
415 378 2344

Conference Logistics
Jon Pasky
jon@midventures.com
219 331 1794

Conference Sales
Ashley Dawkins
Ashley@midventures.com
312 568 6247

Conference Sponsor Management
Danny Bloomfield
danny@midventures.com
718 986 8629

Conference Startup and Judging Logistics
Naureen Nayyar
Nora@midventures.com
858 436 5506
___________________________________
Brian Mayer with a new email address

New Email Address
InboxX

Reply |Brian Mayer to me
show details 3:36 PM (5 hours ago)

fromBrian Mayer
toThe May Report

dateMon, Mar 28, 2011 at 3:36 PM
subjectNew Email Address
mailed-byserver.midventures.com

hide details 3:36 PM (5 hours ago)

Greetings,

I am no longer working at midVentures. I will receive your email and get back to you, but please feel free to reach me at my personal email, bmmayer@gmail.com, from now on.

Thanks!

-b

Brian Mayer | Co-Founder

midVentures | 333 N Michigan Ave, Suite 1022 | Chicago, IL 60601 | m 203.984.0646

www.midventures.com | @midventures
____________________________________

Dr. Robert J. Sobel: Not a happy ending

[Editor's note: Ron May here. At my dialysis clinic there are 70 patients and 5 have commercial insurance. Every commercially covered patient really makes a big difference in the economics of a clinic. Add two more commercial patients to my clinic and that is big money for them since private insurance pays about $800 per session (there are 156 or more sessions a year) and Medicare pays something like $150 per session -- it may be somewhat more than that because of the Epogen, etc. In 1972, Congress added dialysis patients to Medicare coverage and it was signed by that "arch-conservative" (NOT) Richard Milhaus Nixon. A dialysis patient with a few exceptions is required to be on Medicare and not on regular insurance like Humana after two years -- it might be 18 months -- on dialysis. That is so that there will not be a two-tiered system in which doctors favor patients with private insurance. At one time, until the federal government stepped in to stop it in the late 1990s??, kidney doctors owned their own clinics and decided which patients would be referred to them -- a euphemism for live or die. The kidney docs got rich -- OK fairly wealthy -- when they sold the clinics to firms like Fresenius and Davita, the two firms that now own the vast majority of clinics. Fresenius is German owned. If I were to get a successful transplant, since my age is still far lower than that of normal retirees, I might be kicked off of Medicare after two or three years and I would have to pay for my own anti rejection meds which you are required to take for your entire life. This is all according to Mike Novak, "Mr. Gabby" at the clinic whose info. is sometimes wrong and he's the social worker. But a transplant could still be years away. I have to check into that, but the vast majority of the folks who are being jettisoned by the Sobel practice are older people. My clinic which is called North Center at 2620 W. Addison is doing very well. The North Center clinic, my clinic, was ranked #1 for two months in a row out of 1,700 clinics nationally, at least according to Jessie Espinosa (spelling?), the clinic manager. They factor in the blood chemistry results which are monitored closely and things like sessions missed and attended, etc.]

Not a happy ending
InboxX

Reply |Robert J Sobel to me
show details 10:18 PM (6 hours ago)

fromRobert J Sobel
toron@themayreport.com

dateMon, Mar 28, 2011 at 10:18 PM
subjectNot a happy ending
mailed-bynorthwestern.edu

hide details 10:18 PM (6 hours ago)

Dear Ron:

I thought I would check out the report and see how our opt-out decision went over.
I only heard indirectly about the goings on Friday, our staff asking for security to
assist you out, and maybe some foul-mouthed words you uttered about me and the rest.
I certainly can’t blame you for being angry; I expected a little more anger from
others over these last three months, but only a few episodes come to mind.

The problem is that there is no middle ground with Medicare. It is essentially
mandatory insurance for those over 65, those on dialysis without superimposed
employer based insurance, and those on disability. As it became financially
untenable (many issues, flat reimbursement with threats of 30% cuts, extremely
disruptive third-party hassles regarding everything from medications to testing
strips to your aforementioned oxygen, new mandates for electronifying before proof
of benefit), we looked for what our legal options were. The opt-out was the only
one. Unfortunately, it involves pricing ourselves out of the range for many
patients, even though our charges compare favorably with some of the other expenses
that have been passed onto patients over the years. It is designed to be difficult
and to put us at a competitive disadvantage.

I have totally understood that this appears a lack of loyalty. I take full
responsibility for this process. The problem isn’t one of cherry-picking. It is
one of trying to keep independent practice viable. The comparisons to the past can
no longer apply in the dys-regulated modern health care environment. Seeing how
difficult this maneuver has been to explain and justify, I agree with you on how it
bodes poorly for the future of even more bureaucratic hassles to the practice of
medicine.

Keep up your fight. Despite the forced separation, I do wish you the best.

Sincerely,

Dr. Robert
____________________________________
Ron May responds to Dr. Robert’s note and Dr. Robert responds, plus what May originally wrote on Monday of this week about being dumped after 16 years by the Sobel practice along with other Medicare patients

Dr. Robert Sobel’s responses are in bold.

Subject: Re: Dr. Robert, responding to your thoughtful email.
Date: 3/29/2011 7:20:53 A.M. Central Daylight Time
From: soapsuds@northwestern.edu
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com

On 3/29/2011 5:35 AM, RONALDMAY@aol.com wrote:
March 29, 2011

Dear Dr. Robert,

1. I have no issue with you, Dr. Pick, or your dad.

2. You guys have been good docs, and caring docs and informed docs and have done right by me.

3. I see the economics of this and I hope I understand them properly. You could clarify that a bit.

4. But the way this was handled was poor to say the least. How does it look to a loyal patient to suddenly have the introduction of family members that patient has never met and a brother/lawyer to boot?

Not good. Jeff Sobel has never even met me.

My off hand quip about how Gerry is getting old was just typical Ron May kidding around. I admire the fact that age 80 plus, he is still going strong. But if you don’t know me, and you’re on pins and needles to begin with, it comes off as “rude.”

Read the Yelp comments about the rude staff there. I don’t know if the staff is rude or not since rude does not matter or register with me — as you well know. I wish more of us would be rude. Lives would be saved.

I wish Jim Tyree at U. of C. Hospitals had been rude to them — he might still be alive! Rude can save lives. He was killed by an air embolism which hit him as they were removing a dialysis catheter. I told Dr. Pick about this and he referred me to a study I will look up. What happened to Jim Tyree, a really good guy who tied to do good for the community, should not have happened. Years ago, he wrote some harrowing confidential emails to me about how he almost died of a diabetic coma several times. He was the head of the JDRF and after his KP transplant at UW Madison, he was not even diabetic anymore. Then, sadly, he got stage 4 stomach cancer.

Was a sad story. If he was going strong, as they said on Chicago Tonight, then he may have had a post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (that often remits when we reduce immunosuppression). Either way, I wish we had better for you guys than hemodialysis. I understand your point on institutional safety issues.

5. But when we get past Jeff and your mom really overstepping their bounds by telling me things that are a direct contradiction to what Dr. Pick told me behind closed doors, they are interfering in the patient/doctor relationship and even though Pick is “just an employee” there as he says, he is still officially my doctor and he has a right to use his judgement in caring for his patients.

The legal reality is simple. Medicare laws make it clear that our relationship is severed on April Fools, unless you acknowledge our Opt Out and are willing to accept financial responsibility to pay (200-400 f/u 600-800 new). We would communicate with physicians to enlighten, but not resume a true doctor-patient relationship. A pretty harsh April Fools.

6. The question I had asked Dr. Pick was what happens if end up inside NMH as a patient. He said he could work with the hospitalist on the phone. He has access to the records and your mom won’t be there overseeing the process — I presume.

See Above

That seemed to me to be a reasonable idea and it was my mistake to get into it with your mom and with your brother. Your mom was trying to be helpful, but your brother was in the role of cop.

7. Calling security was really my idea. I was in the wheelchair and I needed someone to take me downstairs which is exactly what the security guy did and he helped me get a cab.

8. Dr. Robert, read what I wrote if you have not already. I have pasted it below. It is complimentary and fair to you and your dad and Dr. Pick — who is not a happy camper from what I can tell.

It is objective fact that you guys are good doctors. And that you have a great bedside manner.

You can’t rewrite history and I can’t take 16 years and just throw it down the stairs. My connection to Northwestern is still on-going. I am on the transplant list there. Dr. Gracin is my cardiologist. The vascular surgeons who have operated on me are there. Dr. Martin who did the ERCPs is there. Etc, etc.

9. Where I need help in understanding this is the whole lab reimbursement issue. Someone has to do lab work and someone has to get paid for it. So, why is Medicare willing to pay for lab work done by an outside provider but not by your office, as I am understanding it?

A long story that goes back to 1965 and includes Stark laws, fee schedules, and actually saving money by doing less (why it does not work is that you squeeze the cognitive guys and pay for procedures. my dad’s line: you don’t get paid for your brain.) The institution is supposed to thrive, and then assume it will treat doctors well. No one cared about independent guys.

I have to leave for dialysis so my other questions on Medicare will have to wait until later. And your column Ask Dr. Robert can continue of course. I am not dead yet. Just kicked out. But your brother is still in the TMR stockade.

Ron
+++++++++++++++++++++++

I indeed checked it out last night, prompting e-mail.

I’ll try to answer questions generically for you.

Take care.

What I wrote on Monday, March 28th:
++++++++++++++

A very sad and disillusioning experience I had on Friday at my internists’ office, which while it personally infuriated and depressed me, is a big sign of things to come in the delivery of health care in this country. A trend — I don’t know yet how major — but a growing one nonetheless, that can’t be ignored or missed. That trend is toward a boutique practice for doctors geared toward high-end patients who have the money to pay their own way and even join a “club” of sorts for $2,000 or $2,500 a year. The doctors will have far fewer patients but provide better service — supposedly.

Let me take a stab at understanding the basic economics of the problem. I am piecing together things said by Dr. Robert Sobel who has written the Ask Dr. Robert column in this report! and things said at my dialysis clinic about CMS (Medicare) and bundling, and some things that Dr. Pick told me. If I understand it correctly “fee for service” means fee for each service. The Sobel medical practice has its own lab and a lab manager and lab workers. The first thing they do when a patient goes to their offices is take blood and run the CBC (Complete Blood Count). That has, I gather, been reimbursed separately by Medicare in the past, but that is changing because Medicare is offering a flat rate for each patient. Hence, the economics work against the docs because they are now lumped in with all the other expenses. That is happening in my clinic too. They were checking my INR every week which is the way they track how thin or thick my blood is as a result of Warfarin. But now with bundling, they no longer check it weekly. I could go to Northwestern every week and they would do it there, but my cardiologist, Dr. Nancy Gracin, who was referred to me by Dr. Pick told me it is OK to do it every other week. The same trend is happening with many other things.

So, to deal with the Sobel issue specifically, they have a staff of 17 or so, including Monica, the long-time dietician and that includes a lab manager and lab techs. Dr. Gerald Sobel is 82 or 83 and he cannot work forever and many of his patients are on Medicare. That means that when he retires, Dr. Robert Sobel and Dr. Pick will be swamped by Gerald’s old patients and the mix of their practice will be even less beneficial than it is today. So, I am guessing here, that they are figuring that they will try to get new better heeled patients and cut their losses.

I can tell you that Dr. Pick was not happy with this and wanted an independent third party evaluation of the numbers and he even looked for a new position but did not find one that was suitable yet. www.vitals.com/doctors/Dr_Anthony_Pick.htm Pick told me he was offered a buy-in for the partnership but who wants 49%, he told me, when the decisions are being made by the 51% guys? Dr. Pick likes to just focus on his patients and giving the best care he can for them. It was my impression that the interest in the business issue has always been the province of Dr. Robert Sobel who can be outright loquacious when it comes to such matters. www.yelp.com/biz/robert-j-sobel-md-chicago

As you can see, Dr. Robert gets good reviews on Yelp! but the staff at Sobel & Associates is not well liked and even considered rude. I don’t care about rude in case you did not know. All of these guys, including Gerald who was affiliated for many years with Michael Reese Hospital, are tied to Northwestern and I believe they have assistant professor status, but that may be old info. fsmweb.northwestern.edu/faculty/facultyprofile.cfm?xid=16578

I have been loyal to these docs for 16 years and they have done a great job for me and many others, so it is very sad and distressing. When I was in Illinois Masonic three times since March of last year, the primary doc there (Gaziano) asked me several times if I would consider switching to him. I said emphatically “No” because I am loyal to my regular primary docs for many years and I was not about to switch now.

Unfortunately, they operate out of Northwestern and I have had problems with NMH (mainly that the ER is based on the crudest triage and is unbearable and that when I had FUO — fevers of unknown origin — last year and they were going to do a CT scan of my abdomen, the radiologist refused to allow the test to go forward with the contract dye regardless of the fact that I had taken the steroid preparation and was ready for it (I have an allergic reaction to the iodine dye). As a result, Northwestern missed the problem I had with the interabdominal wall abscesses and the liver abscesses and that is why I figured I would try out Masonic when I got hit by a high fever (above 102) last March and Masonic did find the problem right away. The infection was not showing up in blood tests. Despite the long-term problems with NMH including the “hospitalist” system which NMH implemented to save money years ago and that the Sobels and Pick hated, we worked around it. They still did their rounds but cut back somewhat.

Well, maybe I was loyal to them, but it does not appear to be going both ways! And the tacky way that this was done with the son/brother of the two main docs in the practice who is a lawyer and a scrappy nebishy (if I may say so) one at that (his name is Jeff Sobel and I think he may be Jeffrey Gordon Sobel at 30 N. Michigan) doing the dirty work! Also, the guy who is officially my doc, Anthony J. Pick, is not happy with being railroaded into this whole thing and my suspicion is that he may quit. He is not a partner in the practice, just a salaried employee, he told me in our closed door private meeting.

But the economics of the practice issue is not just that Medicare pays less for office visits. They can deal with that. The problem is that they have done their own lab work for years and they have received reimbursement from Medicare for it, but that is changing now if I am understanding correctly. And these changes actually started three years ago, before the Obama health care bill was enacted. But as of April 1, 2011, the Sobel Associates Medical practice is agreeing to a two-year opt-out on Medicare patients and those patients will not be strictly on a fee-for-service basis with cash or credit card paid up-front at the time of service.

Pacific Pulmonary just called at 1:07pm today, Monday. Dr. Pick’s office is now refusing if you can believe it, to fill out the paper work for my oxygen! Pick wrote the script on Friday while I was seeing him. Some woman named Anita at the Sobel office told Dolly at Pacific Pulmonary that they “refuse to complete the paperwork.” Dolly said that she had another patient where this same thing happened last week. That doctor was also getting rid of Medicare patients. I have a pulmonary doctor, Dr. Kachru whom I saw at Masonic who can sign the papers, I am sure. But this is just tacky beyond belief.

Never mind that what Dr. Pick who is a really nice guy told me in private did not square with what that buttinsky Jeff Sobel told me in the lobby in front of the already highly agitated staff, and that what Mrs. Sobel (Gerald’s wife) told me as well. I asked Pick what happens if I end up in the hospital at NMH. He told me that we could work with that because i would be covered at NMH and he could talk to the hospitalist. But when I mentioned this to Mrs. Sobel, she said “No, we can’t do that” and she kept saying “It’s a business decision.”

That reminds me of Wally Wompers in the play and movie “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying” who says at the end: “Now I have to decide what to do and who to do it to.”

You bet, Mrs. Sobel, dumping loyal patients of many years who can’t help that they are on dialysis and on the transplant list, is just business. Maybe when you were younger, Mrs. Sobel, people didn’t go into medicine just for the money. I recall the scene with Bert Lancaster from the movie Field of Dreams in which the young baseball player has to make the decision to leave baseball and come into the real world as a doctor. Doctors in general care about patients and the Sobels and Pick always spent time with me, unlike, I might add, Dr. Kumar, a cardiologist who was called in on a consult at Masonic and he was in and out in about thirty seconds. And Dr. Robert as they call him to distinguish him from his dad, has been very generous in writing the “Ask Dr. Robert” column in this report. I appreciate that which makes this whole thing even more depressing. But Dr. Robert and Gerald cannot be blamed for the behavior of the staff or Jeff Sobel. They are medical professionals. The others are not.

It dawned on me this weekend as I tried to make sense of this upsetting situation, that I have really been loyal to all the characters who “grace” the pages of this report. Thornton, Weinstein, Kurgan, Tomes, Churchwell, Reck, Glickson, Jerry Mitchell, Tebbe, and many more. It would be easy to forget about ‘em as the saying goes, but Ron May does not forget and the only publicity many of them get is right here — while Crain’s and The Trib. has long ago moved on to the latest “it” people, the latest fad stories — no, not here.

Is what is happening consistent with the president’s claim that “You will get to keep your doctor.”? What if your doctor does not keep you? I told Mrs. Sobel that I had been with them since 1995 and she told me that they have some patients who have been there since 1970. First, even if it is a “family” practice of sorts, bringing non-medical family members into the process of dumping patients was tacky and inappropriate. Dr. Robert Sobel, Dr. Gerald Sobel and Dr. Pick plus Dr. Sidiki who left them already for Florida (they are spinning it that she has family there) have great bed side manners. Back in 2003 and 2004 and even much later into 2007 and 2008, they did rounds every single day, weekends included, and one of them came every day so we really got to know each other!

Not so for the business people in the family, Jeff Sobel who is a lawyer and Mrs. Sobel who was trying to helpful, but nonetheless should not have been involved, plus I believe that she crossed the line as did Jeff when she started telling me things that did not square with what Dr. Pick said. I have to use my options as the publisher of this report and put Jeffrey G. Sobel in the TMR stockade for 60 days! More on that later. You know, I came home on Friday and was so depressed that I could not get the report out. I went to sleep about 9pm which is very early for me. After leaving Sobel Associates Friday at about 2:40pm, I saw Dr. Barry Herst (Diversy and Sheridan) because my right eye is bloodshot. Herst calls it a subconjunctival hemorrhage and he also mentioned a word I don’t know — valsalva.

Here it is: Val·sal·va maneuver noun \val-ˈsal-vÉ™-\
Definition of VALSALVA MANEUVER: a forceful attempt at expiration when the airway is closed at some point; especially : a conscious attempt made while holding the nostrils closed and keeping the mouth shut (as for the purpose of adjusting middle ear pressure) -called also Valsalva
Origin of VALSALVA MANEUVER
Antonio Maria Valsalva †1723 Italian anatomist
First Known Use: 1886

In other words, the hemorrhage could have been caused by coughing. Herst is one of my two eye docs and he told me that this trend is catching on if the doctors have an affluent clientele. They will start charging $2K or $2,500 for an annual “membership.” My mother knows of someone who is paying this.

Sobel and Company said that they are not doing that, but that is for now. BTW, Dr. Herst also had Jim Tyree as a patient. You see, I have a hard time with the idea of being a nice guy like Jim Tyree was. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire and to heck with turning the other cheek. I was not planning to write about this, but there it is, I did it. Don’t write when you’re angry or mad. But I am glad I let two days go before writing. You can imagine how this would have sounded Friday night.

Ironically, I got to Sobel in 1995 through Ray Carroll of the MEF who knew about them through the Howard Hughes Institute tied to the University of Chicago where he worked. At that time, there was no Dr. Robert or Dr. Pick. It was just Gerald and his staff that included Monica, the dietician, who once told me that there are no fat people who eat breakfast when I told her that I don’t eat breakfast.

Here is my best guess about who the “bad” guy is and he’ll be 60 days in the stockade for TMR. If I have the wrong Jeff Sobel, I will apologize for it, but this is probably the one since his office is in the same building as the doctors just on a different floor. And Gerald Sobel got his MD at Texas in 1954 so it very well could be his son. Trust me, I don’t hold parents or siblings responsible for the behavior of their siblings or children since one would hate to think about how that would boomerang on my own mother and brothers.

In the TMR stockade for sixty days starting now:

Jeffrey G. Sobel – Lawyer Profile

30 N. Michigan Ave., Ste. 900
Chicago, Illinois
(Cook Co.)

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Experience & Credentials

University University of Michigan, B.A.
Law School University of Texas at Austin, J.D.
Admitted 1983
ISLN 903569291
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