ChannelAdvisor Files for an IPO

According to eMarketer’s recent report, in 2012 online business to consumer (B2C) sales passed the $1 trillion milestone, reporting growth of 21% over the year. North America remained the largest e-commerce market, with sales growing 14% to $364.66 billion. The Asia Pacific market is catching on. Last year, e-commerce sales in the region grew 33% to $332.46 billion, driven by the strong adoption of the channel in China. As more and more people become connected to the web, e-commerce retail market will continue to exhibit such strong growth. eMarketer projects 2013 e-commerce retail sales to grow 18% to $1.3 trillion.

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MuleSoft Prepares for IPO

According to Gartner, the market for SaaS- and cloud-based business application services is projected to grow at an annual rate of 20% over 2011 through 2016. The market is estimated to be worth more than $32.8 billion in 2016, compared with $13.5 billion in 2011. Increasing adoption of these new technologies has also led to the problem of integration. Organizations are looking for platforms that will help simplify the communication between multiple SaaS services with mobile and on-premise legacy systems.
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Zendesk’s IPO Plans

Today there is a growing need for a helpdesk support system that is able to address multiple modes of communication that a consumer may have with organizations. According to NMincite, nearly 47% of all social media users have used social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to send in customer service requests. Another report by Forrester showed that in the last three years, use of the Web self-service option grew 12%, live chat and social media usage increased by nearly 25% each as options to submit customer service requests. This trend has led to the creation of SaaS-based help desk systems that address these multiple channels for organizations.

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Okta Leads in IDaaS

A report by Gartner published in 2010 estimated the global identity and access management market to grow from $9.2 billion in 2009 to $11.9 billion by the end of the current year. Growth will be driven by the emergence of cloud-based identity management being offered as a service, or IDaaS. IDaaS is a growing need for both midsize and large enterprises, which must manage access to applications both in the cloud and on their on-premises legacy networks.

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Dropbox Plans (Likely Frothy) IPO in 2013

According to an IDC report, IT spending on both public and private cloud storage segments will be worth $22.6 billion by 2015. Growth will be driven by an annual 24% increase in the public cloud segment and a 29% increase in the private cloud segment over the five-year period from 2010-2015.

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Evernote’s Capital-Intensive Freemium Model Works

A report by Juniper Research released last year estimated that the market for consumer mobile applications will be worth $52 billion by the year 2016. Growth will be driven by the increasing adoption of smartphones and tablets by consumers. Last year, tablet apps accounted for 7% of global app revenues. That number is projected to grow to 25% by 2016.

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More on Sky-High Valuations: Palantir

A recent report by Transparency Market Research titled “Big Data Market – Global Scenario, Trends, Industry Analysis, Size, Share and Forecast, 2012- 2018” projects the big data market to grow at an annual rate of 40.5% to $48.3 billion from $6.3 billion last year. North America will remain the leading contributor to the segment, commanding 55% of the market share. The analytic tools surrounding big data segment are being used to help businesses leverage the vast amounts of data gathered by their systems.  But it is not just businesses that are using big data analytics. There are several government agencies that are also using these tools to come up with solutions to the world’s pressing problems.

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Autotrader.com Backs Out of IPO Plans Yet Again

According to Forrester research, with more than $22 billion spent on automotive advertising last year, the segment is among the largest advertising markets in the country. The researcher estimates that the growth in online viewership by consumers is causing dealers and manufacturers to spend more of their advertising dollars on the Internet. In 2008, just 5% of automotive advertising was through the Internet. That number grew to 15% in 2011. The Internet is also playing a bigger role in the decision making surrounding the trade of a car.

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Is Workday Worth $10.22 Billion?

According to a Forrester Research report, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) market will grow 25% annually to $59 billion this year. The market is expected to be worth $75 billion by 2014. The market opportunity is helping to drive recently listed Workday’s (NYSE:WDAY) stock upward. Despite the high growth in revenues, some analysts believe that the company’s continuously loss-making operations don’t justify their huge valuation. Let’s look at the numbers.

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Is BlackBerry on the Rebound?

It appears that BlackBerry (Nasdaq:BBRY), formerly known as Research in Motion, is finally seeing a turnaround. Cost control measures and a new product pipeline has steered BlackBerry’s stock performance upward. Furthermore, management is convinced that the recent quarter’s performance was not a “one-time effect” but rather is reflective of the “efficient engine” that has been established in the organization. I hope it is true, as I am keen to see more of a four-horse race then a two-horse race in the mobile device market.

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