Sector Overview: Networking

The economic downturn has slowed down sales in the networking world: a recent report, “Service Provider Routers and Switches”, from Infonetics Research shows that sales of service provider switches and IP core and edge routers have declined 4% sequentially to $3.3 billion in Q308. Networking giant Cisco, which was the first to warn of an economic slowdown, has seen its revenue growth slow down and its market share slide while competitors have gained share. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

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EDA: Bring Costello Back?

EDA stocks were not looking up when the market was good, and they definitely aren’t any better now that economic conditions are bad. It’s time to take another look at the EDA companies. >>>

Media Stocks: News Corp, Viacom

Here is a quick analysis of a couple of media companies thqt announced rather lackluster quarterly results last month. News Corporation (NWS) had been on a roll till last quarter with impressive Q4 results. The Q1 results for their new fiscal were, however, disappointing. >>>

Marvell Cleaning Up Amidst Uncertainties

Yesterday, Marvell (Nasdaq: MRVL), a leading chip maker with annual revenue of $2.9 billion, reported its third quarter results that beat estimates but missed its last quarter projections mainly due to weak demand in the PC market.  >>>

Salesforce.com Shows Strength

Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the leading SaaS vendor, reported strong third quarter results on November 20 that beat Street estimates yet again in an increasingly gloomy economic environment: yesterday the National Bureau of Economic Research officially declared that the US has been in a recession since December 2007. Despite the challenging market conditions, Salesforce.com is set to cross the $1 billion revenue milestone. I believe the SaaS sector is relatively recession proof, and Salesforce.com’s performance this quarter is more evidence of the sector’s strength. >>>

TiVo Changing Strategy

TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the pioneer in digital video recorders (DVRs) with annual revenue of $120.4 million, reported Q3 results yesterday that beat earnings estimates due to litigation damages received from digital media equipment company EchoStar. This short-term boost, however, will not be enough to help TiVo gain market share as it moves beyond the set-top box. >>>

HP Demonstrates Strength

Hewlett-Packard announced strong fourth quarter and fiscal year 2008 results driven by terrific cost control and strength in the HP Services segment, which was helped by the EDS acquisition. >>>

SaaS Acquisitions Recommended For ADP and Intuit

In a recent Automatic Data Processing (ADP) National Employment report, ADP reported a drop of 157,000 jobs, the biggest decline the company has seen since November 2002. With the economic slump becoming more severe, job cuts have spread from automakers, financial and housing-related companies to retailers and other services. ADP and Intuit both also recently cut their outlook. Let’s take a closer look at their results. >>>

Autodesk Long-Term Hold

Leading 2D and 3D design software maker Autodesk (ADSK) announced their Q3 results yesterday. The stock might have taken a beating yesterday to close at $16.82 and is now hovering around $13.17, but the company’s performance makes me remain bullish on it. >>>

Dell Should Do SmartPhone Acquisition

Dell Inc (Nasdaq: DELL), the No.2 PC vendor with annual revenue of $61 billion, reported its third quarter results yesterday. Though slowdown in IT spending and demand saw its revenue decline and miss estimates, Dell’s cost-cutting measures have boosted its earnings, beating expectations. Last quarter, Dell beat revenue estimates but missed earnings estimates. This quarter the focus has been on profitability rather than growth. Let’s take a closer look. >>>