E-Commerce Times : Archives

Thursday - May 24, 2012

A quick look at the wireless industry over the last several years shows wave after wave of innovation and success. In fact, success has been bigger than anyone's wildest dreams. However, success does not come to all. Why do some companies, like AT&T and Verizon, seem to hit the ball out of the park, while Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile keep striking out? And what can they do about it? When Dan Hesse joined Sprint several years ago, I expected a rapid recovery. That didn't happen. He made several important improvements with the service, but it is still struggling compared to the major competitors. So what's the problem? [More...]

Dell Shares Take Thrashing After Sour Earnings Report

Wednesday - May 23, 2012

Dell took a hard hit on Wall Street Wednesday after it revealed sluggish PC sales and a disappointing quarterly earnings report. Shares of Dell were down 17 percent Wednesday, Dell's biggest one-day drop since 2000. The stock, already down 15 percent on the year, closed at $12.49. Shareholders expressed disappointment with the company's Tuesday earnings report. [More...]

Apple, Samsung Chiefs Pick Up Their Marbles and Go Home

Wednesday - May 23, 2012

Before Apple and Samsung launched a new chapter in their multicountry, multiargument patent dispute, Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, told the two sides to sit down and try to iron out their differences. Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung duly complied with the judge's orders, spending at least nine hours in each other's company over the course of two days. [More...]

SAP Gets New Stairway to the Cloud With Ariba Buy

Wednesday - May 23, 2012

SAP has revealed plans to acquire Ariba, an enterprise e-commerce network, for US$4.3 billion as part of the German company's expansion into cloud computing. SAP will purchase Ariba for $45 per share -- about 20 percent more than its market price. Ariba's board approved the purchase unanimously. The sale is expected to be completed during the third calendar quarter of 2012, dependent on Ariba shareholder approval. [More...]

Facebook Fallout Widely Scattered

Wednesday - May 23, 2012

After dropping to $31 per share on Tuesday, Facebook's stock is hinting at a turnaround Wednesday morning, hovering around $32.15 per unit. Unless the stock surges past its $38 per unit launch price, however, it is hard to imagine how those responsible for its disappointing debut will be able to redeem themselves in the eyes of irate investors, disappointed employees and suspicious regulators. [More...]

Under Google's Wing, Motorola Can Stop Dabbling

Wednesday - May 23, 2012

Motorola Mobility's financial performance has been less than stellar in the last three years, so its acquisition by Google for $12.5 billion could be a boon for the company. "Motorola has been running at an operating loss for quite a few quarters," observed Ramon T. Llamas, who analyzes mobile devices technology and trends for IDC. [More...]

GOVERNMENT IT REPORT
New Venture Firms See Major Opps in Federal IT Market

Wednesday - May 23, 2012

U.S. government agencies are looking everywhere they can to cut costs -- including the cost of information technology. Tight budgets will be the dominating factor in federal IT procurement over the next several years -- at least. Yet in the face of budget discipline -- and even slightly projected declines in spending -- two venture capital companies see great promise in the federal IT market. [More...]

Are Amazon Pre-Orders a Sign of Galaxy S III Fever?

Tuesday - May 22, 2012

Amazon has begun taking pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S III, a handset that will become available in Europe at the end of this month. The offering has caused some head-scratching: If this were the newest iPhone, the rush to get one might be understandable. However, the unlocked Galaxy S III smartphone will cost an eye-popping $799.99, and it won't be fully compatible with any U.S. network. [More...]

Google Gets Motorola's Patents - and Problems

Tuesday - May 22, 2012

Google has officially closed its acquisition of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. This could transform the search engine giant from a software player to a maker of hardware: smartphones, tablet PCs and even set-top boxes. More importantly for Google is gaining control of Motorola's patent portfolio, which could help it fend off lawsuits from rivals such as Apple and Microsoft. [More...]

Is Google Stuck in EU Antitrust Locomotive's Headlight?

Tuesday - May 22, 2012

The European Union's antitrust ax is about to fall on Google, but the company can still avoid the worst repercussions. That is the essence of the message from EU antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia. After a year-and-a-half investigation into Google's activities in the market, there are four areas of concern that need to be rectified, he said. [More...]

ANALYSIS
Intel's New Xeon CPUs: The Next Stage in the x86 Revolution

Tuesday - May 22, 2012

The x86 data center revolution has been a tale of industry standard upward mobility pressuring and displacing traditional systems. In essence, continually evolving x86-based systems and complementary technologies -- particularly virtualization, memory and I/O -- have provided hardware vendors the means to develop systems capable of challenging and beating traditional enterprise server platforms. [More...]

Facebook's Balloon May Have Sprung a Leak

Monday - May 21, 2012

No one could accuse Facebook of having beginner's luck on Wall Street. The company's initial public offering on Friday was delayed by two hours due to a glitch in Nasdaq's trading system, prompting many traders to cancel orders because they were not sure of the stock's price. The day, in general, was arguably a disappointment for the social media giant, with its per share price ending only slightly above the $38 starting price. [More...]

Cable ISPs Form Fellowship of the WiFi

Monday - May 21, 2012

Five major cable service providers in the United States are teaming up to allow their high-speed Internet customers access each other's metro WiFi networks. The five are Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable. The agreement will create a chain of more than 50,000 hotspots. [More...]

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