New Payment Models Mean Acquisitions for Athenahealth

According to a recent IDC report, electronic health record (EHR) penetration is projected to grow to 80% by 2016. Growth will be driven by continued government incentives, expansion in cloud computing, and advances in mobility technology. In 2009, EHR market adoption stood at 25%. Healthcare IT players are benefiting from this strong growth.

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Leapfrog Faces a Challenging Holiday Season

The holiday season usually marks a good run for the toy industry. However, recent news reports suggest that all may not be well in Toyland. Analysts believe that continuing macroeconomic conditions may impact sales of toys during the season. Researcher NPD Group saw U.S. retail sales of toys drop in the low-to-mid-single digit in the first quarter and fall at a double-digit rate in the second quarter of this year. Last year, toy sales fell 2% to $21.2 billion. But that isn’t stopping the industry from delivering newer toys to the market.

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HomeAway Makes Big Acquistions in Europe and China

Analysts believe that the vacation rental market in the U.S. will see strong growth in the coming quarters. In 2010, the vacation rentals earned $85 billion in income. PhoCusWright research estimates that at present, only 10% of the American population has used a vacation rental. Surely there is a large market to tap. This potential is driving bigger travel players like Priceline and Orbitz into the market. Recently Priceline added Bed and Breakfast offerings to its website, and Orbitz launched its own website for condo and vacation home rentals.

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Audience Stabilizes Position as Smartphone Demand Grows

According to a study published by Strategy Analytics, during the previous quarter, mobile sales as a whole reported growth of a mere 1% over the year. However, within mobile phones, smartphone shipments reported stellar 32% growth in the quarter. Growth was driven by sales of phones by Samsung and Apple. Smartphone shipments in the last quarter grew to 146.1 million units. The increased demand of smartphones is driving growth among other players that supply products for these phones.

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Strong Performances and Several Acquisitions from Indian IT Outsourcers

Indian exporters, especially the $100 billion IT outsourcing industry, is worried about the rupee’s exchange rate fluctuations. The rupee was the worst performing currency in Asia in the first half of 2012. However, the currency recently recovered as a reaction to the Indian government’s plans to allow foreign investment in retail and the airline industry. A rising rupee hurts the reported earnings of the IT outsourcing industry, which sees profits fall as costs, when converted to dollars, grow.

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Rovio Would Do Well to Wait on IPO

Researcher DFC Intelligence’s Worldwide Market Forecasts for the Video Game and Interactive Entertainment Industry report estimates the global market for video games will grow from $67 billion this year to $82 billion by the year 2017.  Of late, gaming console sales have declined, but the industry is experiencing strong growth within the mobile gaming segment. Another report by the researcher, Online Games Market Forecasts, projects the online games market to grow from $11 billion last year to $35 billion by 2017.

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Violin Memory Aims to Simplify the Data Center

According to the IHS iSuppli Data Flash Market Tracker, the NAND Flash memory market  is projected to grow 8% this year to $22.9 billion. Memory market growth is driven by strength in smartphones, tablets, and ultrabooks. The market is projected to grow to $30.9 billion by 2016. The researcher estimates that overall NAND flash consumption for smartphones will grow to 5.7 billion gigabytes this year, up from 3.1 billion gigabytes a year ago. By 2016, NAND memory content in smartphones is projected to reach 18.9 gigabytes and will amount to 16% of total NAND bit shipments. Besides consumer equipment–related growth, the Flash memory market is also seeing strong growth in the enterprise-related flash memory segment.

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Pandora: Business or Non-Profit?

Analysts estimate traditional radio advertising market in the U.S. to be worth $14 billion-$16 billion. Internet players like Pandora (NYSE:P) are lauching a full-fledged attack on this advertising market and are seeing good results. Today, Pandora is ranked as the largest radio station for listeners aged 18 and above in more than 25 markets in the country. It is the biggest radio station in the New York and Los Angeles markets. Among online radio stations, Pandora commands an impressive 75% market share.

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Splunk Performs Following IPO

Market experts CRISIL GR&A believe that the global Big Data market will grow at 45% annually to reach $25 billion by 2015. Last year, global Big Data market was estimated to be worth $5.3 billion. Data analytics and management of this volume of data will become critical for growth. Researchers estimate that 90% of Fortune 500 companies will have Big Data initiatives underway by the end of this year. Companies supporting these Big Data initiatives are seeing strong growth.

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Infoblox Aims to Fend Off BlueCat with New Products

Recently listed automated network control solutions provider Infoblox (NYSE:BLOX) is counting on the growth of “dynamic networks.” Infoblox believes that as businesses switch to automated network control demand for data centers that perform virtualization, cloud computing, software-as-a-service, and high-speed networking, support multiple business operations will grow. The company is riding on the wave of this trend. According to Gartner, Infoblox is a market leader in the segment with nearly 40% of the network control automation market.

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