A Solid Splunk Expands Through Channel Partnerships

According to Gartner’s recently released report on big data market projections, big data will account for $54.6 billion in IT spending in 2016, compared with $27.1 billion in 2011. Over this five-year period, organizations are expected to spend a total of $232 billion on big data–related services and infrastructure. Big data IT services spending will

Read Full Article »

Online Travel Sector Consolidates

A major headline in this quarter’s coverage of the online travel industry is that Priceline made a notable acquisition. Last week, Priceline (NASDAQ:PCLN) announced plans to acquire travel search player Kayak for $1.8 billion. Kayak (Nasdaq:KAYK) had released its long-awaited IPO four months ago.

Square Gearing Up Toward IPO

Gartner’s report Forecast: Mobile Payment, Worldwide, 2009-2016, released earlier this year  predicts that worldwide mobile payment transactions will grow from 62% over the year from $105.9 billion to $171.5 billion this year. From 2011 through 2016, the global mobile transaction market is estimated to grow to $617 billion, and Gartner projects an annual growth rate

Read Full Article »

Pandora’s Business Model Woes

According to market reports, broadcast advertising on the radio accounts for 83% of the overall radio advertising market. Broadcast advertising is projected to grow 2.7% annually from 2011 through 2016. Growth will be driven by the online radio advertising market, where analysts project an annual growth rate of 11.5% over the period.

Need for Better Mobile Strategy Grows More Urgent at Dell

The recent Gartner report on the PC market saw worldwide PC shipments fall 8.3% over the year to 87.5 million units. As we saw in yesterday’s Tech Stocks post, HP fell from its leading position to the second spot, with market share declining from 17% to 15.5% as Lenovo’s share grew from 13.1% a year

Read Full Article »

Identity Crisis at HP

According to Gartner’s latest Worldwide PC shipment report, during the third quarter of this year, worldwide PC shipments fell 8.3% over the year to 87.5 million units. Gartner estimates that the decline was partly on account of delay in consumer buying decisions as many waited for Windows 8 to be released this quarter. HP finally

Read Full Article »

Competition Continues for Solid CRM Acquisitions

Cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings continue to remain a high-growth segment according to several research reports. Recently published Gartner’s Market Trends: Platform as a Service, Worldwide, 2012-2016 estimates that SaaS and cloud-based business application services will grow at an annual rate of 19% from 2011 through 2016. The industry will be worth $32.2 billion

Read Full Article »

Gilt Groupe Needs to Focus on Profitability

According to comScore, during the first quarter of this year, online retail sales grew 17% over the year to $44 billion. The quarter was the tenth consecutive quarter of positive growth, and the sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Online retail sales were driven by growth in digital content and subscriptions, computer software, consumer electronics,

Read Full Article »