Stories by Marc Ferranti

Wall Street Beat: Dow means little to IT

The Dow Jones Industrial Average broke a record this week, but that doesn't mean that the technology sector has recovered from its half-decade hangover after the burst of the dot-com bubble. The Nasdaq has made gains in recent weeks and closed the third quarter up about 4 percent, compared with the second quarter, but it is still is about 55 percent down from its peak in March 2000.

Wall Street Beat: Ill winds for open source?

Red Hat's woes this week raise the issue of whether IT investors are turning sour on open source. A somewhat disappointing forecast for the next quarter has investors fleeing, just as they have from the company's open-source rival, Novell.

Cisco banks on 'quad play' for sustained growth

Cisco Systems Chief Executive Officer John Chambers Wednesday stoked the networking vendor's love affair with IT investors by pointing to the company's unified communications strategy and broad product portfolio as a way to sustain growth over the long term.

Dell loses its edge

Dell's earnings warning last week amounts to a public goodbye to the days when it could rely on its superb logistics and supply-management controls to undercut competition and simultaneously maintain profits.

The top 10 stories of 2005

Midway through the decade, new pricing and business models championed by relative upstarts such as Google and Salesforce.com are forcing established players to reinvent themselves. Meanwhile, old-line companies that have failed to meet the challenges of the new millennium are cleaning house, sometimes starting with the chief executive. Here, not necessarily in order of importance, are the IDG News Service's pick of the top stories of the year, significant in themselves but often indicating larger IT trends.

Venture capitalists track enterprise trends

If you want to find out what's hot for the enterprise, follow the money: the venture capital money, that is. Interest in old-school business models and applications has waned, but startups that offer enterprises innovative, secure solutions at low cost are attracting big money.

Nervousness belies spending forecasts

With the Nasdaq Composite Index down from its third-quarter peak, and several high-profile IT stocks under scrutiny this week, technology investors appear to be somewhat skittish about how vendors will fare in the next few quarters as general economic concerns grow. Recent IT spending surveys, however, shed some light on the matter and are generally upbeat.

Acquisitions reflect optimism

With the Oracle-Siebel Systems and eBay-Skype Technologies acquisitions rocking IT this week, technology investors are asking whether the stage is set for more industry consolidation, and if so, what does it mean?

Softbank, Avanquest form distribution venture

Softbank BB and the Avanquest Software group have formed a joint venture to bring foreign software products into the Japanese market, and to help developers in the country get products distributed in the U.S. and Europe.

Ex WorldCom CFO Sullivan gets 5 years in jail

Former WorldCom Chief Financial Officer Scott Sullivan was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday for his role in engineering the US$11 billion accounting fraud that led to the bankruptcy of the telecommunications powerhouse.

Wall Street: Antitrust, M&A issues move market

IT investors and corporate buyers who are wondering what effect consolidation will have on the software market had news to chew on this week: a positive Oracle financial report and Sun Microsystems' purchase of SeeBeyond Technology. Meanwhile, Advanced Micro Devices' lawsuit against Intel roiled the processor sector while Google shares broke the US$300 barrier.

Wall Street: Online is hot as M&A continues

The sight of e-commerce giants jockeying for position in the Internet arena livened up the week for technology investors, while an IBM acquisition and disappointing news from chip maker ATI Technologies pointed to pricing and consolidation trends.

Wall Street: M&A, good forecasts make news

Acquisitions on the part of Network Appliance (NetApp) and Integrated Device Technology (IDT), plus a spate of relatively healthy IT spending forecasts gave investors food for thought in the tech market this week.

Wall Street: Apple, Google make history

Tech-company investors this week faced a mixed bag of news, including some historic events, as Apple Computer and Intel joined forces, Texas Instruments (TI) issued an upbeat earnings forecast and Google shares headed skyward in a moment reminiscent of the dot-com boom.

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