How Tech Companies Should Position for Shareholders, Part II

Yesterday I mentioned a conversation with friend and colleague, Chicago-based Ann Logue -- a former financial industry analyst who these days writes and teaches about finance and is the author of Socially Responsible Investing for Dummies (Wiley 2009). The financial services meltdown and resulting shareholder disgust has turned into a market equivalent of psychological transference, where the dour mood of investors can expand like a cloud to other industries. This is having a number of results that have to be of interest to an industry where stock price is so important for acquisition and compensation:

• Oct 14, 2009

Barnes & Noble E-book Reader About Control

There's a growing rumor that Barnes & Noble will announce its own e-book reader device on October 20. But if true, the company would be making a mistake. Clearly the impetus to create and sell an electronics device is a knee-jerk reaction to Amazon's relative success with the Kindle, rememberin...

• Oct 14, 2009

Cisco's Smart Move to Buy Starent

If Cisco is anything, it is acquisition-friendly. Make that acquisition-driven. And given the spread, from video conferencing to consumer video phones, some might say acquisition-manic. Just the other week the company acquired Tandberg. Its moves don't always make sense (Flip to me is a strategic Flop.), but when they do, Cisco is generally a lot smarter in its outward purchases than in some of its whacked notions to make servers internal development efforts. And acquiring Starent is a move that is exceedingly bright.

• Oct 13, 2009

HP Giving SAP New View On Life

HP can give SAP more than Neoview and consulting support for business intelligence software; it can provide a new outlook on life in data centers.

• Oct 13, 2009

How Tech Companies Should Position for Shareholders -- Part I

Financial institutions have been in the crosshairs of public -- and investor -- disgust. Well, duh. But it's not as though other economic sectors are immune for reputation malaise. That's a problem in any industry, but particularly in technology, where share prices become a measure of whom a company...

• Oct 13, 2009

Microsoft Storage Fiasco Doesn't Diminish Cloud

Microsoft's Sidekick/Danger issue doesn't reflect badly on cloud storage, it reflects on cloud storage done badly.

• Oct 13, 2009

Limits of the Cloud Spells Data Loss

It's been quite a week for data loss. First, Microsoft and T-Mobile managed to create an enormous crash, wiping out customer data in both primary and backup storage, without any off-line copies apparently having been included in the system design. Apple uncharacteristically admits a problem with data loss in Snow Leopard, though saying that it only happens in "extremely rare cases," which is little comfort if that's where you find yourself. And Facebook had a database outage that cut 150,000 users from getting into their accounts. And that doesn't even include Google's two Gmail outages last month, which led the Christian Science Monitor to ask if Gmail is the new Twitter. Don't think this is a curious anomaly, as there will be a lot more of this as people move to the cloud.

• Oct 13, 2009

Expect New Services from Dell Targeting SMB

Dell and Salesforce.com have announced that they are partnering to reach the small and medium business market. But the real news appears when you consider Dell's planned acquisition of Perot Systems.

• Oct 12, 2009

Apple, Google Governance Continues Cracking

Looks like ex-Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson has resigned from the board of Google. In some cases that might be enough to get the Federal Trade Commission spotlight off Google and Apple having shared two directors while competitors, but even if this particularly issue goes away, plenty is left on the regulatory front to be a concern for management of either company.

• Oct 12, 2009

Microsoft Mobile Strategy In Danger

Microsoft's Sidekick (via Danger) disaster foretells the end of Windows Mobile and the company's presence in the mobile market.

• Oct 12, 2009

Oracle Following Salesforce.com's Services Lead

Oracle is following in Salesforce.com's footsteps by trying to use knowledge-based applications to strengthen its call center management software offering.

• Oct 12, 2009

Amazon Q2 Revenue Up, Income Down

With its Q2 earning announcement, Amazon has shown its ability to bring in the dollars even in the face of a tough economy. What it's having a difficult time doing is keeping the cash once it's in.

• Oct 9, 2009

Google Voice Can't Win For Losing in Regulation

There's an irony in what Google Voice has been through recently. One moment, it's being "unfairly treated" by Apple and AT&T, being crowned with the role of victim. However, that has lasted about as long as a graphic on the company's search home page. Now some are grumbling how Google is ignorin...

• Oct 9, 2009

R.I.P., Patent Rules Changes, Hello Patent Reform Bill Push

The patent rules changes, proposed under the previous director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, have been officially put down by the same agency under its new head. But that's far from the end of attempts to change the way the patent process currently works.

• Oct 9, 2009

How Google's Ecosystem Changes Everything

Google is creating an online ecosystem that will supplant the desktop and the hegemony of Microsoft.

• Oct 13, 2009

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