News and Analysis to 13th May 2004
Cisco looking good
Recent quarterly results from Internet plumbing company
Cisco show that the market upturn is underway, with a quarter on quarter 20%
increase in net income. It also announced its intention to increase headcount
by 1,000.
Microsoft – Game on
Whilst it isn’t big business today, Microsoft is keen to be
a player in the online videogame market. To that end it has patched up its
differences with videogame maker Electronic Arts (EA), who will now make
versions of its games for Microsoft’s Xbox console. Look out for a future when
you proudly tell your friends that your child has won their first ever golfing
tournament. The fact that young Tiger has never held a golf club and won an
online tournament will not detract from your pride.
IBM – Coming to a desktop near you
IBM has just announced that it has a viable alternative to
the Microsoft-based desktop. Its solution will enable companies to manage
desktops, laptops and palmtops centrally. IBM also claims its solution will
provide a robust staging post should a company want to migrate away from
Windows. Microsoft will need to study this carefully.
Google committed to ‘e’
I don’t mean electronic, or even the recreational drug, but
the base value for natural logarithms, which happens to equal 2.718281828. Why?
Because that is the figure Google has put in its IPO manifesto for its
anticipated value (when expressed in $Bn). Mathematicians and physicists will
find Google’s joke hilarious. I am not so sure that this will tickle potential
buyers. If you can’t see the funny side either, try the following formula - e =
limn->infinity (1 + 1/n)n.
China Syndrome
When it comes to spam, 60.5% comes from the US and only 6.2%
from China. More surprising according to Commtouch, an anti-spam software
vendor, 71% of URLs found in spam point to servers in China, compared to 22% in
the US and 2.2% in Brazil.
Worm maker hooked
German authorities have arrested an 18 year-old in
connection with the Sasser and Netsky worms. It would appear that Microsoft’s
$5m reward programme is creating a new breed of e-bounty (bount-e?) hunter.
Should a conviction be secured then the claimant will receive $250,000.
CRM - CEO Relationship Management
This will be put to the test at CRM market inventor Siebel.
Tom ‘my way or the highway’ Siebel who up until recently was both CEO and
chairman has relinquished the CEO role to Mike Lawrie, an IBM veteran with a
strong sales background. Can Tom bite his tongue and let Mr Lawrie get on with
running the business? We’ll have to wait and see.
