The Great Debate UK
from The Great Debate:
Sun software is the tail wagging the dog
-- Eric Auchard is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own --
When Oracle agreed to buy Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion in April, the headlines made much of the software maker's decision to enter the computer business 30 years late. At less than 10 per cent of sales, Sun's software business seemed an afterthought.
But Sun's software is now center stage after European competition regulators said on Thursday that they would withhold approval for the deal until they finish probing the impact of the Oracle-Sun merger on the database software market. The decision means the transaction faces at least a four-month delay, pushing it into early next year.
Any delay is costly for Oracle. Sun's sales have plunged as key financial, government and communications customers have held back purchases of computers and storage until Oracle is able to clarify its long-run commitment to Sun hardware and software products.
The commission is debating whether, or under what conditions, to allow Oracle to acquire Sun's MySQL database software. Given that the business brings in only $100 million in quarterly revenue, less than 1/25th of Sun sales, the easy way out would be for Oracle to jettison MySQL. However, that would be a mistake.
from The Great Debate:
Can sleeping giant Skype reinvent itself?
-- Eric Auchard is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own --
Do once-hot Internet start-ups who miss a date with destiny ever truly get a second chance? History says no, even for once-great names like Netscape, AOL and MySpace.
Skype hopes to be the exception. On Tuesday, a group led by top Internet financiers in Silicon Valley and Europe agreed to pay eBay $1.9 billion in cash for a 65 percent stake in the one-time web calling sensation.
from The Great Debate:
Forget Microsoft, Yahoo’s value is overseas
-- Eric Auchard is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own --
The fate of Yahoo Inc has become intertwined in the public's imagination with the success or failure of its dealings with Microsoft Corp in recent years.
That's despite the fact that as much as 70 percent of the value investors put on Yahoo's depressed shares are tied up in its international assets or cash holdings -- factors that have nothing to do with Microsoft.
from The Great Debate:
HP has to look beyond cost cuts soon
-- Eric Auchard is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own --
The stock price seems to be the only thing growing at Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest computer company. HP shares have risen 75 percent this year, despite few signs of a revival in technology spending.
The company, best known as a supplier of computer printers, has suffered a 19 percent drop in sales of hardware and ink supplies. In good times, this produced the bulk of HP's profits, but it's the financial engineering under Mark Hurd, the company's chairman and chief executive, that seems to be the main driver now.
from The Great Debate:
China’s Web filtering starts in the West
-- Eric Auchard is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are his own --
The Chinese government has backed away from mandating filtering software on all personal computers in China, in a move that averts a dangerous escalation in its censorship powers.
But however controversial and unworkable China's plan to require Internet filters on PCs proved to be, Western firms have largely themselves to blame for creating and selling such filters in the first place.
from The Great Debate:
Dell’s retail detour starts to look smart
-- Eric Auchard is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own --
Dell Inc's move into retail sales might seem poorly-timed, discretionary spending being what it is. In fact, the world's No. 2 personal computer maker looks like it's making the right choices that can get its long-struggling consumer business rolling again.
Dell is gearing up to feature several refreshed lines of consumer PCs in 30,000 stores around the globe. The company's consumer retail chief Michael Tatelman has set aggressive growth targets for the business.
from The Great Debate:
Bracing for black shoots in tech markets
-- Eric Auchard is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own --
Pundits have been talking endlessly about the possible green shoots of recovery in the ravaged world economy.
But early shoots are not always green. They might want to consider the problem of black shoots. These false starts are familiar to lily growers, when a temporary rise in soil temperature occurs after a cold period.
from The Great Debate:
How Apple can take bite of business market
-- Eric Auchard is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own --
Apple Inc is taking steps to make its computers run on corporate networks, but these moves fall far short of ensuring Mac users win equal standing in business.
Full corporate access for Apple computers inside businesses remains years away. If and when it comes, acceptance is more than likely to be the result of broad trends reshaping the office computer market, rather than Apple's own product genius.
Pension funds should ditch alpha and cut fees
– James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own –
If anyone has reason to pray that the current equity rally holds, it is the world’s active fund managers who need investors to return to the folly of betting on outperforming the markets rather than the uninspiring but reliable business of cutting costs.
from The Great Debate:
Pay a small toll to read this news story
-- Eric Auchard is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own --
There is nothing like the threat of a hanging to concentrate the mind.
The newspaper industry is in a collective panic over its future. The debate centers on the thorny issue of how publishers might find some way, any way, to make online readers to pay for what they read.
The fear is that the newspaper business model has suffered a mortal wound from the collapse of advertising that once funded it, and which has only accelerated in the current economic environment. Or perhaps it's the realization that younger generations reared on digital media will never settle down to buy print.
