ADP’s and Paychex’s Results Improve

Payroll companies ADP (NASDAQ:ADP) and Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) recently reported better than expected results. Their results reflect a modest improvement in economic conditions, but the companies remain cautious in their outlook. Let’s take a closer look.

Can Windows Phone 7 Change The Smartphone Game?

IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC tracker released for Q3 saw 10.5% growth in PC sales compared with the 14% projected for the quarter. Weaker-than-expected growth was driven by weak consumer spending in the United States, where PC shipments grew a mere 3.8% over the year compared with the 11% projected. Only Apple saw better-than-expected sales in

Read Full Article »

SAP Just Gained Strong Allies Against Oracle

SAP (NYSE:SAP) this week reported strong sales in its third quarter, but the upcoming trial for the Oracle lawsuit and drama that will likely ensue is a dampener. Oracle recently accused former CEO of SAP, Leo Apotheker, of overseeing an espionage scheme. Leo Apotheker has recently been hired as the new CEO of HP, while Mark

Read Full Article »

Will The iPad Save The New York Times And McClatchy?

A study by the Audit Bureau of Circulations showed that average daily circulation of newspapers in the country fell 5% over the year in the six months ending September, and Sunday circulation fell 4.5% in the period. Another reason to worry for the newspaper industry is Moody’s downgrading of the industry; Moody’s projects a 5%–6% decline in the

Read Full Article »

Weakness In Consumer Chip Markets

Chipmakers Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) and Atheros (NASDAQ:ATHR) in their recent earnings results reported some weakness in the semiconductor markets due to slowing consumer demand. Market research firm iSuppli has also trimmed its 2010 semiconductor revenue forecast to 32%, down from its previous outlook of 35.1%. Let’s take a closer look.

CEO Switch Coming At Yahoo?

The online search market may be recording good growth, as was reported by Efficient Frontier’s estimates that Q3 paid search ad spending grew 19% over the year, making it the third consecutive quarter of double digit growth. But Yahoo! is still struggling to find the key to tapping this growth.

Nokia Hopes To Reinvent Itself With New CEO

Last month, Nokia (NYSE:NOK) hired its new CEO, Stephen Elop. Former president of Microsoft’s Business Division, Elop is Nokia’s first non-Finnish and North American CEO. Last week Nokia, under the leadership of its new CEO, reported a higher than expected profit and announced plans to restructure its smartphone business by cutting 1,800 jobs. Let’s take

Read Full Article »

VMWare Making Acquisitions; Parent EMC Target For Oracle

Earlier this year, IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Server Virtualization Tracker reported that virtualized servers constitute 18.2% of all new servers shipped during Q4 of 2009, compared with 15.2% a year ago. Further, IDC expects the number of deployed virtual servers to outnumber physical servers for the first time ever in 2010. Riding high on this virtualization

Read Full Article »