by Tiernan Ray, Blogger, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Seems the more the Street thinks about Cisco Systems’s announcement Monday that it will sell servers, the less the Street is inclined to be enthusiastic. As I noted Monday, Cisco is expected to lose current revenue from partners Hewlett-Packard and IBM as it comes into deep competition with both. And the effort Cisco will need to make to actually be successful in selling a server against both vendors seems somewhat formidable–however enthusiastic Cisco is about its “Universal Computing System.”
by Brian Caulfield, Senior Technology Writer, Forbes.com
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. Luckily, Hewlett-Packard has a man at the top now who could be called Maalox in human form.
It’s pretty amusing to watch Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems come to grips with what amounts to a Data Center Death Match. Last week, HP declined to comment for my story on Cisco’s upcoming virtualization server, which will thrust Cisco into the server market for the first time.
There’s lots of talk in the tech industry these days about capitalizing on growth in “emerging markets,” countries like China, Vietnam and Brazil where people are rapidly buying computers and printers.
A story in Monday’s Boston Globe says Hewlett-Packard Co. is taking that strategy one step further: Its printers, writes Farah Stockman, “have become a top seller” in Iran–a country whose economy the U.S. government wants to prevent from emerging.
The technology sector, already rocked by the credit crunch and slowing global economies, is facing a bleak 2009, the impact of which is going to be felt across the entire ecosystem. From PC makers to chipmakers to chip equipment makers, almost everyone is bracing for a stomach-churning ride.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Dell shares are down today after a disappointing Black Friday weekend at Best Buy stores. A survey of 35 PC experts indicates that salespeople prefer HP to Dell by a margin of 5 to 1, and that Dell is the only brand at Best Buy with negative comments–pointing to potential quality issues.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron\'s, Tech Trader Daily
Hewlett-Packard’s fiscal fourth-quarter results, reported this afternoon, were pretty much just as expected from its pre-announcement from last week. The company posted revenue of $33.6 billion in the quarter, for a profit of $1.03 a share. Revenue results across its sectors were mixed–the biggest revenue growth happening in the Notebook and Storage sectors. Guidance for 2009 remains as forecast last week.
by Arik Hesseldahl, Technology Writer, BusinessWeek
From the first time Steve Jobs demonstrated “the pinch”–the two-finger gesture used to zoom in and out of photos and Web pages on the iPhone–some Apple observers assumed it was just a matter of time before a multitouch-enabled screen showed up on the Mac.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Numbers aren’t really working out that well for Dell. One of Its rivals scored points today with impressive preliminary results, but–of more significance–there are ominous sounds coming from Intel’s direction regarding the rest of this year and the whole of next year. Cautionary pre-earnings notes took their toll this morning as well, and drove the numbers down.
Hewlett-Packard CFO Cathie Lesjak today told investors at the Bank of America securities conference in San Francisco that the company remains “very confident” it can reach its current guidance for the fiscal fourth quarter ending November.
by Tiernan Ray, Blogger, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Worldwide server sales rose 12.2 percent, year over year, to 2.3 million units, in the second quarter, declares research firm Gartner (IT) in a note today, while revenue was up 5.7 percent for a total of $13.8 billion.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
The steady crumbling of the value of the U.S. dollar over the last two years has given a big boost to reported earnings at many U.S. companies that sell goods overseas in local currencies but report in dollars.
by Eric Jackson, Managing Member, Ironfire Capital LLC
To anyone who says that it’s inconsequential that Yahoo understated the level of shareholder dissatisfaction by more than half thanks to a “tabulation error” by its proxy counter, Broadridge, I say: You couldn’t be more wrong. This incident will have ramifications in the coming weeks for the composition of Yahoo’s board.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
UBS analyst Maynard Um today launched coverage of the PC sector, setting a Buy rating on Apple (AAPL) and Neutral ratings on Dell (DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ).
Um takes over coverage of the stocks from Ben Reitzes, who now covers the sector for Lehman.
by Therese Poletti, Senior Columnist, MarketWatch, Tech Tales
Political pundits speculating on whether Carly Fiorina could end up on the Republican presidential ticket with John McCain have quickly dismissed the former Hewlett-Packard chief as a long shot, given her scant experience in politics.
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