Outsourcing: View From Accenture

The New Year doesn’t seem to be bringing any cheer to the market. Though the $20 billion consulting giant, Accenture, continued to beat the market’s expectations with its Q1 results, the company lowered its outlook for the coming year.

Paychex Reflects Dismal Broader Economic Outlook

Right before the holidays, on December 17, Paychex, the leading payroll and personnel services provider with annual revenue of $2.06 billion, reported second quarter earnings that fell below analyst expectations. But what is even more telling is the gloomy snapshot Paychex provides of the economy. Let’s take a closer look.

Oracle Will Shop SaaS in 2009

Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) reported its Q209 results on December 18. Revenue was up 6% to $5.6 billion, missing analyst estimates of $5.84 billion. However, as the company cut costs aggressively across the board, non-GAAP EPS of $0.34 met analyst estimates for earnings. Operating margin improved 166 basis points to 35% versus 34% last year. GAAP net income

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Sector Overview: Handsets

An IDC report released last week said that the mobile phone market will slow down in 2009, with mobile phone volumes expected to decline 1.9% due to the global economic crisis. However, the converged device market is still expected to grow, although at a slower pace of 8.9% in 2009. IDC expects the handset market to

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Adobe Delivers Solid Results

This Tuesday, Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: ADBE), the leading maker of creative applications, reported its Q4 and FY08 results. Earnings matched the top end of the company’s lowered forecast from earlier this month.

Sector Overview: Semiconductors

The atmosphere is gloomy in the semiconductor sector: preliminary findings from research firms Gartner and iSuppli show decline in chip sales of 4.4% and 2% respectively. Earlier TI, Broadcom, and NSM cut back their respective outlooks. And according to Gartner, 2009 is going to be worse than this year. But there is a silver lining for

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Sector Overview: SaaS

The SaaS sector has been relatively unaffected by the weak economy. Since the SaaS business model helps cut costs, business has been good, with most companies beating estimates quarter after quarter. However, the stock prices have taken a beating in the later half of the year. This presents a great opportunity for the stronger players

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Semiconductor Infrastructure Sector Overview

2008 was a particularly bad year for many industries, and for the already failing semiconductor infrastructure industry the recession could not have come at a worse time. Here is a quick discussion of how semiconductor infrastructure stocks fared during the year.