Intuit Needs a Painful Business Model Re-engineering

Last week, Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) reported its financial results. Earlier coverage is available here and here, where I have discussed that Intuit needs to move to a SaaS model, and get more of an International business going. >>>

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No Weakness in ADP, Paychex

We have been looking at various Human Resources related services businesses recently, especially with a multi-part interview series with Michael Gregoire, CEO of Taleo (Nasdaq: TLEO). Taleo has not signaled any weakness due to the economy. One would expect the payroll providers to signal weakness. Let’s take a look at their numbers. >>>

Chips Look Cheap

I had earlier covered ST Micro, Texas Instruments, and ARM in the iPhone and The Future series and the iPhone’s Component Ecosystem series. Let’s take a look at them based on the Q4 earnings and current market dynamics. >>>

HP Results Delight, What Recession?

Are we in a recession? HP says a resounding NO.

Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HPQ) joined Microsoft and IBM in producing excellent results. HP announced their first quarter results yesterday and beat all market expectations. With revenues of $28.5 Billion, they recorded a 13% growth over $25.1 Billion reported in the same period previous year. Sequentially the revenue was up marginally by 0.7% from $28.3 Billion for the previous quarter. The revenues were higher than market expectations of $27.6 Billion. >>>

SaaS Companies Perform Despite Recession Fears

In an earlier post, I had said that SaaS companies will see growth over the next 3-5 years with potentially some M&A activity this year. Let us look at them again based on recent results.
You can also read my interview with Michael Gregoire, CEO of Taleo and with Steve Singh of Concur. You can also read my Forbes article on why I think the next VMWare will emerge out of SaaS.

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Akamai Key to Net’s Future

On Feb 6, Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) reported its Q4 and 2007 financial results that were way above its guidance, driven by unexpected strength in media and entertainment. In after hours trading, Akamai shares went up 87 cents, or 2.9%, to $30.60.

I had earlier covered Akamai as part of the Online Video Beneficiaries series. I have also done an interview with its founder, Tom Leighton. >>>

SAP’s Next Acquisition?

Many in the industry are asking where would SAP’s innovation come from in the future? With Shai Agassi’s departure, many of the Silicon Valley executives who came with him have left. On the positive side, they have opened up to major acquisitions, and bought Business Objects last year. I am particularly interested in seeing SAP go for a comprehensive collaboration strategy, and would like to explore the idea of Citrix in that context. >>>

PDF Offers Value, Finds Scaling Difficult

I reiterate – not much has been happening in the EDA space. With Cadence having crashed earlier this month, the industry continues towards its bleak financial future, unless it takes necessary decisive steps. (Read more on Future of EDA and Future of EDA Addendum).

Yield is one of the big problems facing the EDA industry – as chips grow denser, yields suffer. EDA has done very little so far to impact yield. Design for Yield remains, by and large, a distant dream. A real pity! >>>

Major Trends Driving Storage Vendors SanDisk, Seagate

With the booming digital content adoption, storage vendors are predictably showing strong performance. Sandisk is also benefiting from the convergence device movement, as the devices are becoming increasingly storage-heavy. Weaker consumer market notwithstanding, I think, both movements would continue. >>>

Cadence Crashes. Now What?

Cadence (NASDAQ: CDNS) reported its Q4 results on January 30, 2008. The quarter’s revenue at $457.9 million showed a 6% year on year growth over $431.0 million reported the previous year and a 14% sequential growth (over $401 million Q3 revenue).

The stock took a major beating as Q4 revenue was below market expectations of $470.3 million. On January 31, the stock fell to a new 52 week low of $9.89 – a 53% erosion of market value from the previous day close of $15.16. It has since recovered marginally and closed at $10.69 with a market cap of $2.9 Billion, its lowest in the last decade, yesterday. >>>