Eric Benhamou: The Saga Of Palm (Part 13)

SM: What is Elevation’s investment thesis regarding positioning? Is it still a prosumer play? EB: The Elevation thesis is pretty simple. It basically says that smartphone market is at its very infancy, and the arrival of the iPhone is expanding the opportunity, making it more real to more people. It is very clear that it

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Eric Benhamou: The Saga Of Palm (Part 12)

Palm’s Elevation Partners deal is a smart move to give the cmpany its best shot at a turnaround. Jonathan Rubinstein joins as Executive Chairman, as part of the deal, and the transition is due to happen soon. SM: What about the CEO though? EB: What was critical was to be able to add this talent

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Eric Benhamou: The Saga Of Palm (Part 11)

SM: So services as a key strategic initiative you think is still in beta! EB: Well, this was a core opportunity. In the Spring of 2005, at an annual strategy board meeting, it was decided that a key goal for the company would be in the subscription area. We had not been able to execute

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iPhone As Primary Computer

I have been talking a lot about the laptop replacement device. Here’s a great article on the subject: Three Weeks With The iPhone As My Primary Computer by Mitch Wagner at Information Week. Seems like the email client is a problem …

Taking Stock

Here are a few technology stocks that I own and cover. My method had been investing in trends, and in markets that have momentum. Akamai (AKAM) Coverage: Online Video Beneficiaries: Akamai and Level 3’s Impact on Akamai? Clearly, my bet is on the growth in Online Video, and how the network infrastructure needs to scale

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3Com Is Now REALLY Going After Cisco

I just got off the phone with Eric Benhamou, with whom, as you know, I have been discussing 3Com and Palm recently. I said earlier, that 3Com is trying to take on Cisco with its Chinese JV H3C in my Online Video Beneficiaries series, and that Cisco is a fat company that deserves to be

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Eric Benhamou: The Saga Of Palm (Part 10)

SM: The big opportunity that I felt Palm missed out on was on the software side. There was a huge opportunity for enterprise integration. RIM was very good with the email, but that was it. They didn’t push it any further. Palm had good implementation of the Windows OS, and they could have gone in

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Eric Benhamou: The Saga Of Palm (Part 9)

SM: You were losing market position at this point. Did you ever consider selling to Apple? EB: There might have been an opportunity to do that before the iTune/iPod product division was too far along, but I do not think this became a real opportunity in the timeframe that would have interested us. Had we

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