eClinicalWorks Is and Planning to Stay Private

According to an IDC report, the electronic health reform (EHR) market is projected to grow from $1.9 billion in 2009 to $3.8 billion by 2015, with outpatient EHR contributing $1.41 billion of the market and inpatient EHR services bringing in the remaining $2.4 billion. One of privately held players in the industry, eClinicalWorks, is seeing strong traction in its customer base that supports such projections.

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Valuation Without Revenue

Facebook’s IPO may not have gone nearly as well as hoped. But that hasn’t stopped the market from placing big bets on another social media site, Pinterest. Despite Pinterest’s much lower usage statistics, analysts believe that it is a strong IPO candidate. I have my reservations. In general, as you know from my writing, I am not so hot on the valuation-without-revenue deals.

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Kids Want iPads, Not Toys

Research firm NPD Group’s recent toy industry report showed that overall toy sales in the U.S. fell 0.6% last year. The industry was able to contain the decline in sales due to stronger demand reported in the last two weeks of the year, when sales grew 10% over the year. Overall, domestic toy sales last year were $16.5 billion, compared with $16.6 billion a year ago. The decline in the toy industry is attributed not only to the continuing weak economy, but also to the growing impact of mobile devices, which have become the ‘toys’ of choice for children. A Nielsen study conducted during the holiday season last year found that for kids aged 6 to 12, their most desired gift was an iPad. To successfully compete in such an environment, most toy makers are aligning themselves to this trend by either releasing their own mobile device versions or by developing versions of their existing games that can interact with the iPad and similar devices.

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SAP’s Acquisitions Keep Stock Price Up

According to Gartner’s Forecast Analysis: Enterprise Application Software, Worldwide, 2011-2016, 4Q12 Update, global spending on enterprise application software is projected to grow to $158 billion by the year 2016. Enterprise Software spending stood at $115.1 billion in 2011. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) will dominate spending on software with 20.8% being spent on them by the year 2016. The ERP market is projected to grow annually at 6.7% over the period 2011 through 2016 to reach $32.9 billion worldwide.

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IBM’s Big Data Moves

Gartner’s latest estimates on worldwide IT spending peg the market to grow 4.2% this year to $3.7 trillion. Earlier last year, Gartner was anticipating growth of 3.8% for the year 2013. The report estimates that worldwide spending on devices, which includes PCs, tablets, mobile phones, and printers, will rise 6.3% to $666 billion. Enterprise software spending is projected to grow 6.4% during the year to $296 billion as customers invest more in security, storage management, and customer relationship management. Starting in 2014, Gartner expects organizations to increase their big data and information management–related spending.

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Salesforce Rides High on Strong CRM Growth

According to Gartner’s report, sales of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are projected to grow 7% annually over the period 2011 through 2016 to $32.9 billion. Within the industry, the global CRM market will see strong growth at annualized rates of 9% over the period to $18.6 billion. The report also reveals that enterprise application software spending will grow annually at 6.5% over the period to $158 billion by 2016. Within enterprise application software, 20.8% of the market will be dominated by ERP systems and 12% by CRM software. SaaS-based CRM will be a big market as well. More than half of the CRM market opportunity will be SaaS based in 2016, compared with 36% during the past year. SaaS-based CRM will see annual growth rates of 15% compared with the 9% growth projected for the overall CRM market.

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Intel Diversifies

According to a Gartner report, Worldwide PC Shipments in Fourth Quarter of 2012, global PC Shipments fell 5% last quarter to 90.3 million units. The increasing availability of lower cost tablet devices has eaten into PC sales. The launch of significant new operating systems such as Windows 8 is also not able to stir up demand. PC chip maker Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) is facing the heat.

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Zynga’s Online Gamble

A report by Lazard Capital released last year expects the social gaming market to be worth $9 billion by 2015. The social gaming market has seen growth through the increased adoption of social networking sites, such as Facebook. The report suggests that nearly 41% of the U.S. Internet-using population accesses social games through these networking sites.

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Success on iOS but Weak Console Game Performance for Electronic Arts

According to investment firm Digi Capital, in their Global Games Investment Review 2013, the digital games industry is projected to grow at an annual rate of 12.2% over 2012 through 2016 to reach $83 billion. Online and mobile games will continue to drive growth in the market as sales of console games dwindle. In 2012, online and mobile games amounted to 49% of total global video games revenues. Their share is projected to grow to 57%, translating to $48 billion, by the year 2016.

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Baidu, Alibaba Grow on China’s Increasing Internet Usage

China continues to make strong progress in deepening their internet penetration rates. As of last year, 42% of the country’s population had access to the internet, compared with a mere 4.6% in 2002. According to the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) China will continue to improve the user experience of the service by increasing the number of households with broadband access. By the end of the current year, more than 70% of China’s Internet users will have access to broadband service, adding nearly 35 million households this year. Last year, the number of households with broadband grew 49% to 94 million. Increasing access to faster Internet speeds ensures strong growth for the Internet players in the country.

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