Oracle Still Not Keen on SaaS

Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) reported its Q4 and FY 08 results on June 25. In a typically strong quarter, Q4 revenue was up 24% to $7.2 billion and net income was up 27% to $2.0 billion. Non-GAAP EPS was $0.47; analysts had estimated $0.44 on revenue of $6.88 billion.

Deal Radar 2008: Xactly

Xactly develops software-as-a-service for managing sales performance. It provides real-time, web-based, on-demand sales compensation solutions that help companies to sell more. The programs are affordable and enable smaller size companies to design, implement and manage sales compensation programs. The company was launched in 2005 by Christopher Cabrera and Satish Palvai and is headquartered in San

Read Full Article »

Dear Radar 2008: Everest Software

Everest Software provides small and mid size companies with a fully integrated business management software so that they can run their businesses more efficiently. It allows companies to quickly manage and track their business operations online and offline in order to increase efficiency and improve their bottom line. It is a comprehensive solution which integrates

Read Full Article »

Lars Dalgaard and his Success Factors (Part 4)

SM: Your technology background is nominal by Silicon Valley standards, it seems. LD: Absolutely. At that time I was a little more humble. I thought technology was intimidating even though I had used it in my different jobs.

Lars Dalgaard and his Success Factors (Part 3)

SM: How long did you stay in that job at Unilever? LD: I moved back to the head office after a year, which is unfortunate because I really liked that job. They moved me back because we bought our biggest competitor, and they asked me if I could travel around the biggest countries and understand

Read Full Article »

Lars Dalgaard and his Success Factors (Part 2)

SM: What happened after you left Novartis? LD: This all ties into how I ended up starting my company. I remember being headhunted by Unilever, a big company with 320,000 employees with $60B in sales at the time, and I felt Novartis had done so much for me … I remember walking into the global

Read Full Article »

Lars Dalgaard and his Success Factors (Part 1)

If you think you need to have Silicon Valley DNA to become a successful technology entrepreneur, Lars Dalgaard proves that it ain’t so. Lars is the CEO of SuccessFactors (Nasdaq: SFSF), a SaaS company which recently went public. SM: Lars, I want to start with your personal background – tell me who you are. LD:

Read Full Article »

Building a New Venture Firm: Brian Jacobs of Emergence Capital (Part 6)

SM: The surprising part of the story, one of the reasons I decided to cover it, is that I have not seen too many major trends in our industry in the Valley that all of the VCs did not run after. The venture industry is like lemmings. Everybody is running after the same trends. Someone

Read Full Article »