IBM
- The SoftLayer CEO (Lance Crosby) resigned last week:
IBM acquired SoftLayer in July of 2013 for $2.1 billion and made it the foundation of its cloud strategy. Crosby was deeply involved in the integration of SoftLayer into IBM and was key to transitioning IBM’s overall cloud strategy with SoftLayer.
http://www.eweek.com/it-management/softlayer-ceo-lance-crosby-resigns-from-ibm.html
- Marriott International is moving to IBM Cloud:
Marriott will migrate a significant portion of its core IT systems and apps to IBM’s open cloud platform within the next few years. The SoftLayer infrastructure-as-a-service offers a flexible, scalable platform, which minimizes the need for on-site IT support and upgrades and enables faster deployment of new Marriott digital capabilities.
http://mobileenterprise.edgl.com/news/Marriott-International-Migrates-to-the-Cloud98107
- Pro-IBM post about their perceived growth issues:
There is nothing wrong with repurchasing stock if the price is right, and there is money to pay for it. Both conditions have been true for IBM, and a depressed stock price means the company gets more for its money with each share. And the idea that IBM should spend less on its own shares and more on acquisitions is misguided. Its aversion to expensive purchases of hot tech companies, which often trade at many times sales with little or no profit, is a good quality.
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/02/07/myth-busting-ibms-growth-problem.aspx
- IBM signs nine year IT outsourcing deal with Birla Sun Life Insurance
Indian company: No disclosure on what the deal is worth…This deal could help BSLI realize a cost reduction advantage from consolidation of IT vendors. IBM’s flexible pricing model will enable dynamic ramp up/down and consumption based operational spending along with a roadmap to modernize, consolidate and rationalize the application portfolio, bringing in speed and reduced time to market.
- Why troubles at IBM (and HP) are good for your IT business:
Yet starting from such a small base, IDC estimates the market for public IT cloud services was about $56 billion last year, given total enterprise IT spending of several trillion dollars, means cloud’s disruptive effects are slow to manifest themselves at large, established vendors. The tipping point has come and old tech firms, who can no longer hide the financial ramifications, now recognize that their business models, if not corporate survival, are in peril.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtmarko/2015/02/04/bad-news-for-ibm-and-hp-is-good-news-for-it-and-your-business/
PS: The street is fired up that Ginny got a large raise this year ($3,6M bonus,$13.3M in stock over 3 years, 6.7% raise in base salary (worth around 100k). - IBM ranked best cloud provider in Q4 2014 by synergy research:
http://www.infotechlead.com/cloud/ibm-no-1-cloud-provider-for-4q14-synergy-research-group-27994
Yet AWS keeps the lead…
http://www.businesscloudnews.com/2015/02/03/aws-keeps-lead-over-microsoft-ibm-google-in-cloud/ - Some more on the layoffs (IBM is going after recently released employees for small sums of money)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/05/ibm_chasing_exstaffers_for_20_payments/
Note: Some are saying the reductions are intended to age the company down by targeting long-time employees.
Note 2: IBM just announced 300 new jobs in England over three years focusing on services.
Oracle
- Mark Hurd on Oracle’s transition to the cloud
Hurd continued, “We are one of the few, few cloud companies that frankly we are not only getting bigger, but our growth rate is actually accelerating at the same time and I think that’s because of all the things I described: better training, better sales, more sales people, lots of great products in R&D, some good acquisitions and altogether its combined to this set of results.”
- Why did Oracle spend $1.2B on DataLogix?
There are a certainly good reasons that pushed Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) to spend that huge amount of money to bring Datalogix under its control. Spending on advertising is increasing, and advertisers continue to look for better ways to target ads for better returns. Data analysis is important for advertisers as it provides greater insight about audiences for powerful ad targeting.
http://investcorrectly.com/20150206/oracle-corporation-orcl-pay-1-2b-datalogix/
HP
- Meg Whitman also gets a raise ($19.6 million in cash and stock – base pay up from $1M to $1.5M)
http://www.theday.com/national-business/20150203/hp-boss-gets-big-raise-despite-sales-slump - HP making serious plays in 3D Printer space:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2887786-could-hewlett-packard-be-a-serious-3-d-printing-competitor
Other
- Investors leery of EMC this year:
EMC’s fourth quarter was on target, but guidance for the next year included forex headwinds, VCE dilution, and not much optimism on high-end storage systems
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2868806-patience-with-emc-has-yet-to-pay-off
- Tableau had excellent growth and stock performance based on strength of analytic market:
For its fourth quarter fiscal 2014, DATA posted total revenue of $142.9 million, a 75% increase year over year, and non-GAAP net income (excluding stock-based compensation expense, net of tax) of $31.8 million, or $0.42 per diluted common share, compared to non-GAAP net income of $14.0 million, or $0.20 per diluted common share in the same period the prior year, these results well above the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.11 earnings per share on revenues of $122.58 million for the period.