HP Still Has $13 Billion In Cash

Yesterday Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), the leader in the PC market with annual revenue of $118.4 billion, reported second quarter results that were in line with estimates thanks to its cost-cutting efforts. While some companies like Cisco and Intel were signaling a stabilizing economy, HP reported a fall in sales and profit. >>>

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Comcast Goes Digital

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) was optimistic last quarter about its performance in the troubled economy, and the recently announced Q1 results are proof that this optimism wasn’t entirely unfounded. Q1 revenues of $8.84 billion grew 5% over the year and beat the market’s expected $8.76 billion. EPS of $0.27 was higher than the Street’s expected $0.23 and grew 11% over the year. >>>

Networking Sector: Changing Landscape

Early in the month, Cisco said that the networking industry is showing signs of stabilizing despite an 18% slump in sales. 3Com too has been showing signs of pulling off a turnaround. Nortel, however, filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. And Brocade is likely an acquisition target. Let’s now analyze the performance of the remaining networking networking players of which F5 is the strongest, and Alcatel-Lucent the weakest. >>>

Online Travel Retrospective For Q1

The online travel majors recently announced impressive quarterly results for these troubled times. Priceline regained lost ground in terms of valuation and revenue growth and Expedia gained market share, but Orbitz continued to flounder. >>>

Incumbents And Innovators In SaaS

Yesterday we looked at the performances and acquisition prospects of SaaS players NetSuite, SuccessFactors, and Citrix. Let’s now take a closer look at their peers Omniture, Concur, and RightNow. >>>

Acquisition Prospects in SaaS

The global recession, which not surprisingly has forced companies to cut operating costs and streamline IT operations, has been something of a boon for the SaaS sector, with major companies turning to cloud computing. I expect to see acquisitions in the SaaS space this year. SaaS companies like NetSuite, SuccessFactors, and Citrix, which all recently reported solid quarters, are likely targets. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

Chip Makers AMD, NVIDIA Recovering

According to recent report published by research firm IDC, the PC microprocessor market was weak in Q109 but that the decline is slowing due to inventory replenishment by OEMs at the end of the quarter. The report further noted market share gains for AMD. NVIDIA also reported market share gains. Let’s take a closer look at their performances this quarter. >>>

Nightmare In Networking, IBM Sniffing Around

Yesterday Cisco, the networking giant with annual revenue of $39.5 billion, reported a mixed third quarter that beat analyst expectations even as profits and sales declined. Like its rival Juniper, Cisco saw signs of stability in the industry. >>>

Akamai Continues To Be Critical To Net’s Future

Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM), the leading web acceleration provider with annual revenue of $790.9 million, reported first quarter results on April 29. The increasing use of online video and IP connected mobiles are the trends driving Akamai’s growth even during the current economic conditions. An interesting read to understand these trends is my discussion with Tom Leighton, co-founder of Akamai. In this post, let’s look at the performance of Akamai and its rival, Level 3. >>>

Wireless Only Ray Of Light For Chip Vendors

Last week, in our post on the three chip companies, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Texas Instruments, we saw that demand had improved, especially in China. In its first quarter report on April 29, STM, which had annual revenue of $10 billion in 2008, observed improved demand in Asia but said it needed time to confirm the trend. Let’s take a closer look at its performance as well as that of Infineon and Tessera. >>>