Voices » cost-cutting

Marketers Are Never Gonna Dance Again, Thanks to Google

Andrew LaVallee and Jessica Vascellaro — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:11:42 +0000

By Andrew LaVallee and Jessica Vascellaro, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal

Some people go to conferences for the networking, others go for the keynote session and still others, apparently, go for the dancing. Not this year.

One of the highlights of the annual Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, Calif., has been Google’s (GOOG) party, known as “Google Dance,” at its Mountain View headquarters. The search giant canceled it this year, however, citing cost-cutting efforts.

“Like most companies are doing these days, we’ve been looking carefully at our expenses and are being more mindful about how we spend our money,” Google spokesman Matt Furman said. “Though we’ve enjoyed hosting the Google Dance in conjunction with SES in past years, we’ve decided not to host it this year.”

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How HP Mastered the Pain Game

Brian Caulfield — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:02:25 +0000

By Brian Caulfield, Senior Technology Writer, Forbes.com

Burlingame, Calif.–Wednesday would be a really bad day for Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Mark Hurd to break his winning streak. Central bankers around the globe are sweatily trying to revive faltering banks. Politicians are passing stimulus packages. Consumers are seeing the values of their homes tank.

Luckily, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has a man at the top now who could be called Maalox in human form. Over the past four years, Hurd has reshaped a company once known for its manic earnings swings into a steady-earning powerhouse and the world’s largest information technology provider. BernsteinResearch notes that HP has met or beaten the guidance Hurd has laid down for the company’s performance, and then guided earnings-per-share expectations up, every quarter since he became HP’s chief in 2005.

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SAP: Merrill Upgrades; Sees Cost-Cutting Story

Eric Savitz — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:04:08 +0000

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily

Nothing warns the heart of the Street more than a nice cost-cutting story.

Merrill Lynch analyst Raimo Lenschow this morning raised his rating on the German enterprise software giant SAP (SAP) to Buy from Neutral, upping his price target to $43.80 from $38.30, “predicated on the 2009 cost-saving story,” which he says the market isn’t getting. To reflect the increased belt-tightening, he upped his EPS estimates for the company to 2.11 Euros a share from 1.91 for 2009; for 2010, he goes to 2.31 Euros, from 2.21.

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