While 2008 finished off with companies doing their best to cling on to anything to avoid from being sucked into the maelstrom, I think - despite the continued stock market meltdown - that many companies are seeing some stabilization in their core business. In other words: yes, 2008 Q4 saw a rapid evaporation of booked business, but 2009 is not looking as dire as some expected.
Online Remains a Beacon of Growth continue reading...
The following is a perpetual-work-in-progress. Once you start to compile a list of mergers and acquisitions, you realize why it’s nearly impossible to have a complete list. We are quite confident that the following is a very good, comprehensive list of the largest, more notable deals… but it is not - and no list will be - fully complete because there are too many countries around the world and too many industries to report (it is highly possible that the Wall Street Journal or Financial Post, for example, has such a list… but it would be thick and unwieldy).
We have included: continue reading...
Editor’s note: I knew we were speaking too soon. One more deal to add to the list: Time Warner to buy Quigo. Added to the bottom of the list, under ad networks.
According to The Jordan Edmiston Group Inc.’s October 2007 Client Briefing report, the number of deals through the first three quarters of 2007 exceeded full year 2006 figures: 637 transactions with $95B in value thus far. Do the math and that is $150M per deal, quite rich. continue reading...
“In April 2000, Cisco weighed in at $555.4 billion, Microsoft closed with a value of $541.6 billion. Microsoft was king of software and computing, whereas Cisco was king of networks and the Web’s infrastructure.”
That’s a quote from my first book Course To Success. When I wrote the book, both MSFT and CSCO had tumbled in value and GE stood tallest when measured in market capitalization. continue reading...
This morning I read that Cisco was buying Tribe. It was odd, admittedly, but I chose not to write about it because I am no expert in networking - as in what Cisco does vis-a-vis routers, hubs and deflingers. But reading the blogosphere cry foul and run with Marc Andreessen’s quote that “The idea that Cisco is going to be a force in social networking is about as plausible as Ning being a force in optical switches.”
That’s cute and all but with all due respect to Marc and Ning, please don’t cast Ning in the same breath as Cisco, especially when it comes to M&A. continue reading...
You got to hand it to Cisco CEO and Chairman John Chambers. He recently came out and labeled video the “killer app.” When I was reading his comments, I thought: “man, I hate that word: ‘killer app.’”
Of course, like a major league hypocrito, I just penned a post on how Google can put the kybosh on Salesforce.com and used the dreaded term myself. So, I’ll tone down the lashing I was going to hand out over the excessive use of the term. continue reading...
PLAY
