Concur’s Stock Gyrations and SaaS Investing

In this morning’s Trend Radar 2008: SaaS in the Enterprise, I said I will keep recommending SaaS stocks despite rumblings of a recession. Concur (Nasdaq: CNQR) is such a stock. It is a leading provider of on-demand Employee Spend Management services in the niche area of Travel.

Jon Rubinstein (Palm) vs. Steve Jobs (iPhone)

2007 has been a turbulent and eventful year for Palm. A quarter of Palm was bought by Elevation Partners for $325 Million, and Jon Rubinstein, the former Apple executive who was behind the invention of iPod, joined as Executive Chairman. In my analysis prior to the Elevation deal, I suggested a turnaround formula based on

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Is Google Invincible?

Google is powerful. Of course. But is it invincible? According to Hitwise, Google accounted for 64.49% of all U.S. Searches in the four weeks ending October 27, 2007. According to RimmKaufman, Google controls 79% of the pay-per-click ad market. Google derives 99% of its revenue from advertising.

RIM is already replacing Laptops

Yet another smartphone company that I expect will continue to do well in 2008 is RIM (Nasdaq: RIMM). Most importantly, it is validating one of my hypothesis of the smartphone gradually becoming a laptop replacement device. It had a fantastic year owing to the momentum in the smartphone market catalyzed by the iPhone launch. It

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Apple of Our Eye

2007 was a big year for Apple. With the launch of the iPhone, it has galvanized the convergence device movement and changed the landscape of the mobile industry, as well as my blog. Shares hit $200 for the first time, recently, although it is now back down to around $195. Conceivably, the stock price will

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Microsoft, The Sleeping Giant

In 2008, I hope Microsoft wakes up. With Google and Apple going gangbusters, Microsoft has threats coming at it from every direction. As we discussed earlier, Microsoft earned revenues of $13.76 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2007, a 27% increase over the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and

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Will Magma Die on the Vine?

Magma Design Automation, Inc. (LAVA) provides electronic design automation software products and related services, and is our fourth and final company in the EDA review. In February 2007 I reviewed Magma and noted they were a potential acquisition target given their legal problems in a losing patent fight with Synopsys. I pondered on the possibility

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Interdigital: The Apple deal

By Vijay Nagarajan, Guest Author So far, I have presented an argument for why Interdigital stands to gain from the iPhone. Early this fall, the company signed a 7-year licensing agreement with Apple. Here is my interpretation of the license –