Websense Open For Takeover As Security Firms Strengthen Mobile Offerings

The security market seems to be riding a consolidation wave. Earlier last month, Intel agreed to acquire McAfee for a staggering $7.7 billion. HP also added to its security portfolio by buying the application security provider, Fortify Security. IBM had recently bought another security firm, BigFix, to accelerate its smart data center and security initiatives. Meanwhile, Websense’s (NASDAQ:WBSN) CEO, Gene Hodges, has said that Websense is open to a takeover bid. >>>

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New Twist In The Intel–ARM Tale

The Intel–ARM rivalry took a new turn this week with Intel announcing plans to acquire Infineon’s wireless chip business for $1.4 billion. Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, has been eyeing the smartphone microprocessor market, which is dominated by ARM (NASDAQ:ARMH). ARM, on the other hand, is pushing its low-power processors for netbooks. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

Efficiency Is The Priority For First Solar, SunPower

With Germany’s feed-in tariff cuts for the solar industry kicking in from February 2011 and Spain having announced 45% tariff cuts for new solar farms, 25% for large rooftop installations, and 5% for residential systems, solar players are looking at alternative markets for growth. The United States itself offers tremendous opportunity because solar demand is expected to grow 75% over the year in 2011. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, in 2009, Germany was the leader in global installed solar capacity with 9.79 GW, followed by Spain with 4.01 GW, Japan with 2.68 GW and the United States with 2.09 GW. But analysts estimate installed capacity within the United States to grow faster than international capacity growth, making it a more dominant market by 2014. Today, 23 GW, equivalent to the needs of 4.4 million households, is already under development in the country. >>>

Citrix Becomes Latest Cloud Consolidator

Early this week, Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS), a leader in virtualization with annual revenue of $1.58 billion, announced its plans to acquire VMLogix, a leading provider of virtualization management for private and public clouds. The VMLogix acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter, and Citrix plans to use the technology from VMLogix to extend the Citrix OpenCloud platform and add an intuitive self-service interface to to its popular XenServer virtualization platform. Gartner expects the market for server virtualization management to reach $2 billion in 2014, growing at a compound annual rate of 39.2%. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

Still Too Many Players In EDA

For the fiscal 2010, Gartner projects the global semiconductor market to grow 27% over the year to $290 billion after having dropped 9% over the year in 2009 to $225 billion. Recently reported results of major electronic design automation (EDA) industry players saw growth exceed market expectations. >>>

Dolby, On A Roll, Courts Apple

Dolby (NYSE:DLB), the industry leader in audio technology, has expanded from cinema to home entertainment, PCs, Blu-ray DVDs, 3-D, and mobile markets. Airtel Digital TV, one of India’s leading commercial broadcast services, recently announced its selection of Dolby Digital Plus for its high-definition programming. With the global transition from analog to digital broadcasting, Dolby can expect continued strong growth. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

Netflix’s Time Has Come

The television landscape is changing rapidly, with players such as Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), entering into deals aimed to attract more viewers by increasing streaming content library and thus posing stiff competition for cable giants such as Comcast. Earlier, Netflix signed a billion-dollar deal with Epix for exclusive digital rights to stream Lionsgate, MGM, and Paramount content. It also recently announced exclusive rights to stream part of Relativity Media’s movie catalogue, which includes titles such as Nicolas Cage’s Season of the Witch. These deals are win–win situations for both parties. Epix for instance, currently has nearly 3 million–4 million subscribers. Through the deal, Epix will reach Netflix’s 15 million subscribers. Meanwhile, Netflix can now boast of a library of over 24,000 streaming titles and 100,000 DVD titles. Clearly, if there’s a company whose time has come, it would be Netflix. Reed Hastings had a vision of online film distribution a long, long time back. The market and the infrastructure wasn’t ready. Well, now it is. >>>

Social Networking: A Major Trend in SaaS CRM

Last week Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM), the pioneer of SaaS customer relationship management (CRM) with annual revenue of $1.3 billion, reported strong results that beat estimates. Earlier this month, Salesforce.com settled its legal dispute with Microsoft. RightNow (NASDAQ:RNOW), another SaaS CRM vendor, also reported strong results this quarter. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

Time Warner And Disney Focused On Magazines, iPad, And Social Gaming

As the U.S economy recovers, analysts expect spending on media and communications to increase at an annual average rate of 6.1% to $1.42 trillion over 2009 to 2014. Entertainment and leisure media spending will grow 6.3% annually to $353.9 billion by 2014. Internet and mobile services within the segment are forecast to increase 15% annually during the same period. Media giants reporting their quarterly earnings are already seeing strong growth. Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) had its highest growth in revenues in two years. >>>

Intuit Sees Strong Growth With Acquisitions

Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU), the leading small business accounting and tax software provider, last week reported strong fourth quarter results that beat estimates. Early in the month, it acquired the assets of personal finance management application Cha-Ching. Let’s take a closer look. >>>