Acquisitions And A Site Revamp As Holiday Season Approaches For Amazon, eBay

According to analysts, online sales in the U.S. for November and December will increase 16% over the year to $52 billion. In the same period, the National Retail Federation puts overall retail sales growth at a mere 2.3% to $447.1 billion, an indicator that e-commerce continues to steal brick-and-mortar store sale shares. This is obviously good news for e-tailers Amazon and eBay. >>>

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Cognizant And Genpact Deliver As Outsourcing Again Takes Center Stage

It’s been a high-profile week for outsourcing: President Obama was in India to discuss, among other issues, bilateral trade, and his trip included a meeting with the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh. During the trip, Obama seemed to soften his stance on outsourcing, saying “Trade between our countries is not just a one-way street of American jobs and companies moving to India. It is a dynamic two-way relationship that is creating jobs, growth and higher standards in both our countries.” At the same time, many Indian industry leaders are upset that the United States is taking protectionist measures, such as raising visa fees. In the face of almost 10% unemployment in the United States, a negative perception of the outsourcing industry persists. But Indian outsourcing players are reporting strong results, and the trend is continuing with U.S.-based players as well. Obama should offer incentives for Indian outsourcers to expand their operations in America to help lower unemployment levels and leverage the pool of highly skilled engineers and other workers, because (and others have made the same point) Obama is right; outsourcing does benefit both countries.
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Mobile Devices A Boon for QCOM, BRCM

Energy Recovery Looks Out On Massive Global Water Shortage

A recent report from Global Water Intelligence pegs the contracted desalination capacity in 2009 at 68 million cubic meters/day. Capacity is expected to grow to 130 million cubic meters/day in 2016, taking the market value to $30 billion a year in the next six years. The top five markets for desalination technology are projected to be Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, China, and Israel. But, despite positive market projections, Energy Recovery Inc. (NASDAQ: ERII) has failed to deliver quarterly results that meet the market’s projections primarily due to the macroeconomic uncertainty and credit crunch impacting large scale infrastructure projects. >>>

Outsourcers Look To China, As Obama Goes To India

Currency volatility, rising costs, growing near-shore demand, increasing rural outsourcing capacity, and political and protectionist measures are troubling the Indian outsourcing sector. The Indian rupee has been one of the best performing currencies this year and has appreciated over 5.6% with the dollar since January. The U.S Senate may have vetoed the outsourcing bill, but the country which accounts for over 70 percent of Indian outsourcing revenues has levied higher visa costs which amount to an additional spending of an estimated $200 million by Indian IT outsourcers. A state ban by Ohio passed to stop outsourcing of government work has added to protectionist policies. Yet amid such pressures, the leading players in the sector continued to deliver strong quarterly results. >>>

ADP’s and Paychex’s Results Improve

Payroll companies ADP (NASDAQ:ADP) and Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) recently reported better than expected results. Their results reflect a modest improvement in economic conditions, but the companies remain cautious in their outlook. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

Can Windows Phone 7 Change The Smartphone Game?

IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC tracker released for Q3 saw 10.5% growth in PC sales compared with the 14% projected for the quarter. Weaker-than-expected growth was driven by weak consumer spending in the United States, where PC shipments grew a mere 3.8% over the year compared with the 11% projected. Only Apple saw better-than-expected sales in the U.S., primarily on account of its iPad. Over the year, Apple recorded 24% growth in PC shipments, and the company moved to the third position in the U.S market. But despite Apple’s continued growth, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) does not seem to be worried about their Windows division and claims to be confident that tablets “will expand the PC market” and will “bring Windows to additional form factors and new usage scenario.” >>>

SAP Just Gained Strong Allies Against Oracle

SAP (NYSE:SAP) this week reported strong sales in its third quarter, but the upcoming trial for the Oracle lawsuit and drama that will likely ensue is a dampener. Oracle recently accused former CEO of SAP, Leo Apotheker, of overseeing an espionage scheme. Leo Apotheker has recently been hired as the new CEO of HP, while Mark Hurd has been hired by Oracle as one of its presidents. Apotheker’s appointment has led to the speculation that HP may acquire SAP. Let’s take a closer look.

Will The iPad Save The New York Times And McClatchy?

A study by the Audit Bureau of Circulations showed that average daily circulation of newspapers in the country fell 5% over the year in the six months ending September, and Sunday circulation fell 4.5% in the period. Another reason to worry for the newspaper industry is Moody’s downgrading of the industry; Moody’s projects a 5%–6% decline in the industry’s revenues this year, followed by a mid-single-digit decline in 2011. A bright spot for newspapers is their growing reach in the online community. According to a comScore report for September, newspaper websites are accessed by over 102.8 million unique visitors in the United States – that accounts for nearly 61% of Internet users aged 18 and above. Further, newspaper website users generated nearly 4.1 billion page views and spent more than 3.3 billion minutes browsing news sites. >>>

Weakness In Consumer Chip Markets

Chipmakers Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) and Atheros (NASDAQ:ATHR) in their recent earnings results reported some weakness in the semiconductor markets due to slowing consumer demand. Market research firm iSuppli has also trimmed its 2010 semiconductor revenue forecast to 32%, down from its previous outlook of 35.1%. Let’s take a closer look. >>>