Wall Street Beat: IT gets hammered in Q1
The worst quarter for tech stocks in five-and-a-half years has ended, but even though mobile technology and spending news sparked some hope this week, IT investors can't breathe a sigh of relief yet.
The worst quarter for tech stocks in five-and-a-half years has ended, but even though mobile technology and spending news sparked some hope this week, IT investors can't breathe a sigh of relief yet.
Concerns about Oracle earnings and Google's ad business added to the usual worries about the economy this week, as Motorola's plan to split up sparked some enthusiasm among company watchers.
A weak forecast from Cisco marked another roller coaster week for technology companies on the stock market.
Gadgets have always taken center stage at the Consumer Electronics Show, but this year more than ever, even the coolest devices seem to be mere means to an end -- access to content and services whenever and wherever you want them.
Microsoft co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates has been giving keynote speeches at Las Vegas conventions, including the Consumer Electronics Show and the now-defunct Comdex, for decades. Before his last CES keynote speech as a full-time company employee, he talked with the IDG News Service about his legacy as an innovator, the background behind some of the deals announced at CES this week and directions for Microsoft.
This year has been a time of realignment and redefinition, as Apple launched its second zeitgeist-defining product of the new century, Dell and Intel battled to regain their former dominance, the software sector consolidated, Google rallied industry heavyweights around a common mobile device platform, and major vendors scrambled to embrace social networking. These, not necessarily in order of importance, are the IDG News Service picks for the top 10 stories of the year:
Though technology vendors are coming off a solid quarter, a decline in orders from troubled sectors of the U.S. economy is expected to have an impact on IT bellwethers as diverse as Cisco, Oracle and Sun.
Oracle said that BEA Systems has officially rejected its offer to acquire the company. BEA had previously said the offer was too low.
Amid uncertainty about the greater economy, technology companies are looking good to investors. Strong earnings from Red Hat this week and Oracle last week, continued excitement over mergers and acquisitions, and solid forecasts for global component sales have been pushing shares of tech vendors up.
With shares of major technology companies trading as high as they have ever done in the post dot-com era, IT investors this week are scrutinising quarterly results from the world's biggest vendors to judge how the market will hold up for the rest of the year.
Microsoft is at a crucial point in its expanding efforts in the consumer arena. Company Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates used his keynote address at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to unveil the Windows Home Server and announce that major service providers like AT&T would offer the Xbox 360 as a set-top box alternative. These announcements follow the launch of the Zune MP3 player and come right before the late January release of the retail version of Vista.
The specter of moderate global IT growth continues to hang over vendors' financial news, which this week includes IBM's stock buyback, distributor CDW's plan to go private, and layoff news from Motorola.
Market reaction to BEA Systems' stock options backdating inquiry this week provided a clue to investor psychology, while RealNetworks and Microsoft offered a look at the future of aspects of the software and services business.
Job description: The head of IT finance analyzes, forecasts and reports the operational budget for the IT department. Executives in this position also vet costs for the IT component of business plans for other departments. The precise job title for the position varies, but companies with an IT staff of more than 100 typically would have a vice president of IT finance reporting directly to the CIO (chief information officer).
Google's acquisition of YouTube and a shakeup at security vendor McAfee are giving IT investors something to mull over as they brace for the wave of technology-vendor financial reports due next week.