For weeks we have been asking if Java is dead… while the rumors of its demise may have been greatly exaggerated, Google may have created the final nail for Java’s future coffin.
Speaking of the future, does IBM have their eyes set on the golden goose Cerner? Acquiring Cerner would finally get them access to hospital information they so desperately want. While IBM is pining for a purchase, Oracle made a big one happen by grabbing NetSuite for $9.3B. Of course we can’t ignore Verizon’s purchase of Yahoo, oh wait I dedicated a whole podcast to that move.
Microsoft seems to be in a funk this week with news that they are cutting employees and potentially misrepresenting their cloud growth (yes, Microsoft too).
IBM
- Cerner Could Be a Prized Asset for IBM
To date the only active buyer on the health care front when it comes to large mega cap companies is IBM (IBM) , though its one missing link is access to hospitals, explained Mohan Naidu of Oppenheimer on Tuesday.
While Cerner would fill that gap, Naidu cautioned that the likelihood of a potential deal comes down to both timing and how much IBM would be willing to pay. The health care IT firm’s scarcity value would likely require a pretty hefty premium, he said.
Morningstar Inc. analyst Vishnu Lekraj added on Tuesday that Cerner is viewed as a “crowned jewel” in the health care IT space, describing its software assets as top tier in the industry and a “big prize” to gain: “To a company that’s lacking in servicing health care it would be a prime target,” he said.
https://www.thestreet.com/story/13653083/1/cerner-could-be-a-prized-asset-for-ibm.html
Note: IBM has approximately $14B in cash as of 3/31/2016 (credit: Spoons) - IBM Hired Hundreds of Designers to Figure Out What Customers Want
So to shake up the status quo, IBM, Cognizant, Infosys and others have been racing to hire thousands of designers who once would have taken more specialized jobs—at an ad agency, say, or an industrial-design shop. At IBM, they team up with engineers and consultants and embed with a multiplicity of clients. Besides providing customer insights, the teams encourage constant feedback and tweak products as they’re built—a process aimed at getting them out faster. It’s how successful Silicon Valley startups operate but radical for the IT services industry.
- IBM to deploy recruitment process automation at ITC Infotech
The implementation will help us enhance employee experience. This will create visibility in social media and provide real time data and dashboards. We hope that this will also help us improve recruitment efficiency in terms of cost, productivity and time to fulfill, added Anand Talwar, Chief Human Resource Officer, ITC Infotech.
Oracle
- Oracle buys enterprise cloud services company NetSuite for $9.3B
The rumors are true…Oracle will acquire NetSuite for about $9.3 billion, or $109 per share in an all-cash deal, the companies announced Thursday. Both Oracle and NetSuite’s cloud service offerings aimed at enterprise customers will continue to operate and “coexist in the marketplace forever,” according to a statement by Oracle CEO Mark Hurd.
https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/28/oracle-buys-enterprise-cloud-services-company-netsuite-for-9-3b/
The Flawed Logic Behind Oracle’s NetSuite DealOracle Corp.’s $9.3 billion bid for cloud financial software provider NetSuite should help boost Oracle’s lagging cloud business. But Oracle is paying a high price, particularly as NetSuite is too small to really move the needle for Oracle. Another big issue: NetSuite plays in a software category—financial management systems—whose mojo is being sapped by newer apps.
https://www.theinformation.com/the-flawed-logic-behind-oracles-netsuite-deal
A look at Oracle’s 10 biggest acquisitions
http://www.networkworld.com/article/3101876/software/a-look-at-oracle-s-10-biggest-acquisitions.html - Pulling back the covers on Oracle lawsuit: State could spend $27 million in legal fees
According to the Oregon Legislative Fiscal Office, the state has spent nearly $16 million so far building its case that the giant software company badly bungled development of the Cover Oregon heath-care exchange. With the trial not set to begin until January, the Department of Justice has estimated the cost of the lawsuit could top $27 million by next April, making it one of the most expensive in department history.
“I had feared it would be extremely high, but my God, I’m shocked by that number,” said Mike McLane, House Republican leader.
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2016/07/puling_back_the_covers_on_orac.html
Microsoft
- Is Microsoft Massively Overstating Its Cloud Revenues?
Another cloud provider, another rumor of misreported revenues…In its quarterly 10-Q filing with the SEC from April, Microsoft breaks out the specific products it includes in its commercial cloud figure in the following way, “Our commercial cloud … primarily comprises Office 365 Commercial, Microsoft Azure, and Dynamics CRM Online.” As such, Microsoft’s commercial cloud pulls sales from two different official reporting divisions — intelligent cloud and productivity and business processes — each of which contains several unique products, making it guesswork at best to glean how much of that stated $12 billion in sales belongs to which product.
The same problem exists in the intelligent cloud reporting segment, making it frustratingly difficult to gauge the progress of this strategic imperative. When Microsoft announced its new financial reporting structure, it outlined intelligent cloud as including “results from public, private and hybrid server products and services such as Windows Server, SQL Server, System Center, Azure, and Enterprise Services.”
- Microsoft is laying off an additional 2,850 employees
The latest round of job cuts is in addition to the 1,850 layoffs that were announced in May, reports Engadget. Microsoft made the announcement in its latest SEC filing. Most of the layoffs are ex-Nokia employees, the company Microsoft acquired to try to become a hardware player in the smartphone space. Microsoft says that 900 of the 2,850 employees it plans on laying off have already been notified, with the rest of the additional layoffs coming before mid-2017
https://news.fastcompany.com/microsoft-is-laying-off-an-additional-2850-employees-4015477
- Microsoft misjudges millennials, spectacularly
Since this spring Microsoft has had to apologize publicly three times for offensive, anti-Semitic, sexist, homophobic and racist words and acts, all in the name of getting millennials onboard. One of the incidents could be deemed unintentional, but a lack of foresight certainly contributed to the resulting marketing calamity. Memo to Microsoft: There are much better ways to lure millennials to your brand. In fact, thinking that any of this might help is deeply insulting to your target audience.
Storage (Dell | Infinidate | Netapp)
- Ditch your Macs, Dell tells EMC staff
Amid Dell’s looming takeover of EMC, an edict has been issued insisting that Dell customers must only ever see Dell laptops during meetings and consulting engagements, EMC insiders have told The Register.
At least EMC staff after being offered nice replacement kit, in the form of the gaming-bred XPS machines, that another insider told us have been promised to incoming Dell employees.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/29/ditch_your_macs_dell_emc/
- Two in five execs grumble flash technology is too expensive, research finds
Yet NetApp argues that the benefits of flash go beyond the bottom line. “Our research shows that while the business value of flash in terms of performance and responsiveness is understood by IT decision makers, education on the true value of flash needs to continue further up the chain,” said Laurence James, EMEA products, alliances and solutions manager at NetApp. “Flash is a long-term investment that can transform business performance and should not be analysed in terms of capital investment alone.”
That is a TERRIBLE sales tactic, you are either saving money or going after a performance boost.
http://www.cloudcomputing-news.net/news/2016/jul/29/execs-grumble-flash-technology-too-expensive-research-finds/
Other
- Verizon buys Yahoo for $4.8B
As a side note to all this, some anecdotal evidence. We’ve been hearing for months that AOL offices in different regions have been readying themselves for a future with more purple in it. That’s run the gamut from keeping a holding pattern over new office space and future hires, through to strategic ‘sprints’ to consider developments in coming months around R&D initiatives, advertising and more.
“We are preparing. It sometimes feels like the only thing we talk about,” one AOL executive told me. It may be a sign of how confident Verizon and AOL are of a winning bid, but also of how they would like to kickstart an integration and get working together as quickly as possible. (Poor integrations being one of the killers of so many mergers, of course.)
https://sn.joeylombardi.com/?p=1927
Why a Verizon and Yahoo merger would be like Microsoft snapping up CompuServeHere’s the other infuriating part of Verizon and AOL “purchasing” Yahoo assets. What assets? I know the one-time competitor to Google has some of the highest traffic on the planet, what with all of their weather apps and such. But even Google has figured out how to break free from the old “click my banner” trick so popular in 2007. Major companies like eyeballs, consumers like innovation. That’s the problem with investors who still use a BlackBerry. They want to buy a logo. They see brand acquisition as a conquest, not a business strategy.
- Salesforce’s Benioff says he would have paid more than $26B for LinkedIn
Of course, the Benioff email didn’t say how much more he would have offered, or how the revised bid would have been restructured. Microsoft won in part because of the amount on the table, but also because if offered all cash. Salesforce had offered a mix of cash and stock.
I wouldn’t be proud of that…
http://venturebeat.com/2016/07/25/salesforces-benioff-says-he-would-have-paid-more-than-26b-for-linkedin/ - Teradata agrees to acquire data company, to expand services
Miami Township-based Teradata (NYSE: TDC) will acquire Big Data Partnership, a London-based EMEA-based services provider of big data solutions and training. Big Data Partnership has what Teradata calls deep expertise in disruptive technologies, including Apache Hadoop, and helps its clients discover how to become more data driven and data savvy through data science and the adoption of the latest big data technologies.
- FireEye Stock Jumps on Takeover Speculation
Possible acquirers include Symantec, which reportedly made an offer for FireEye in June before ultimately buying Blue Coat Systems. International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) may also be interested in the company, with both tech titans aiming to grow their respective security businesses.
- Why open source programming languages are crushing proprietary peers
Even more impressive than R, however, is Go, the open source language first released by Google. Based in large measure on a 5X boom in active GitHub repositories defaulting to Go as their primary language, developers have gone gaga for Go. Go may even give the venerable Java a run for its money, given developers’ propensity to use it to build cloud applications.
- CSC reportedly plans layoffs ahead of HPE merger
Computer Sciences Corp. plans to lay off about 500 workers ahead of its merger with Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s enterprise services business, according to a Computerworld report. But the company says the layoffs are unrelated to the proposed merger.
http://www.ciodive.com/news/csc-reportedly-plans-layoffs-ahead-of-hpe-merger/423504/
Photo: Austin Neill