Check Point Software Looks Strong and Secure

An Infonetics research report reveals that the global network security appliance and software market was worth $1.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013. For the full year 2013, the total network security market grew 2.6% over the year to $6.4 billion. The market mainly comprises of integrated security products, which includes integrated security appliances, secure routers, SSL VPN gateways, and VPN and firewall software.

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IBM Delivers Disappointing Quarter, But Interesting Future Moves

IBM’s (Nasdaq: IBM) recently reported quarter may have been disappointing, but Big Blue does not seem too concerned. After entering into an agreement with Apple, they recently announced the acquisition of Lighthouse Software. They seem to be going all guns blazing into the quarters to come.

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Zynga Continues to Lose Ground

Online games maker Zynga (Nasdaq: ZNGA) is still struggling to find its mojo. The recent result announcement did not bring any respite as the company’s stock tanked to a 52-week low figure driven by a failure to meet expectations. As the fad for its existing games wanes out, Zynga needs to come up with newer, addictive titles faster than it seems to be able to.

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SAP’s New Motto: Keep it Simple

According to market reports, the growth in the global ERP and CRM markets is driven by the shift of the industry to the Cloud and Software-as-a-Solution-based offerings. According to a Gartner report, more than 40% of the sales last year in these two markets were SaaS-based. ERP market leader SAP is relying on leveraging their Cloud and HANA offerings to continue to dig deeper into the market.

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Groupon Still Struggling

Recently, online travel player Priceline purchased online restaurant reservation service provider OpenTable for $2.6 billion. The acquisition has sparked merger interest in several other local focused online players such as Yelp. Recently, analysts have also been speculating the possibility that daily deals site Groupon (Nasdaq: GRPN) could be a possible take-over target and that someone like Google may be interested in buying it to beef up their Google Offers service.

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Twitter’s Shopping Bag Grows

According to eMarketer, social networking company Twitter’s (NYSE: TWTR) growth in the US is beginning to slow down. During the current year, Twitter’s user base is estimated to grow a modest 11.6%  in the US. Compare that to growth anticipated in the other regions. eMarketer estimates that Asia Pacific will see a growth of 33% over the year and will account for nearly a third of Twitter’s user base by the end of the current year. Slowing growth in the US, however, has not slowed down Twitter’s financial performance or their shopping spree.

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Surprise, Yelp Rings in Profits

The growing importance of local review sites like Yelp (NYSE: YELP) can no longer be underestimated. Recent studies have revealed that for every additional star that is earned on Yelp by a local business, the business sees a 5% increase in revenues. The research has found that positive Yelp reviews saw revenues of independent restaurants improve while taking share away from branded, restaurant chains.

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All Guns Blazing at LinkedIn

Professional networking site LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) reported a stellar quarter recently. They are seeing strong growth driven by investments in international and mobile operations. Here is a quick peek into what is driving the company’s growth engine.

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Competition Toughens for Pandora

According to a survey conducted by Edison research, Internet Radio popularity has been increasing over the last year. As of this year, there are 67% more people listening to Internet Radio compared to only 23% more people listening to “Over-the-Air” AM/FM Radio. The shift to the online streaming services has been driven by the increasing availability of content and convenience associated with the internet radio services.

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Nothing Can Stop Facebook Now

The share of mobile advertisements continues to be on the rise. According to an eMarketer report, spending on mobile advertising is projected to grow 83% over the year to $18 billion this year compared with $17 billion on newspaper and $15.5 billion on radio advertisements. Here is an interesting infographic, courtesy The Wall Street Journal, that depicts the rising importance of mobile advertising in the coming years.

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