It’s the question of the moment in the technology world: have we hit bottom?
Tech execs appeared at a bunch of investor events this week and gave their best guess on what’s going on in this murky economy of ours. Some said things seemed a bit better, while others said visibility is as bad as ever. Here’s a collection of their comments:
Yahoo Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen, who is leaving the company, said advertisers are “in shock” at the moment because of the economy, but cited the superior return on investments that they get online compared with traditional marketing mediums.
Cisco Chief Executive John Chambers said most people seem to expect the economic downturn to last “well into 2010″ but he is more optimistic and sees business conditions beginning to recover around the end of 2009.
Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini said, “You’re starting to see a pattern of purchases emerge again that’s more predictable. I’m not saying we know where the bottom is or that we’ve hit the bottom (but) the predictability is starting to come back into the system.” He added, “I think you have seen the global shock and now people are starting to figure out how to work out of it.”
