Short-Term Troubles For ERI Don’t Dampen Prospects

According to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), 1.8 billion people will be living in regions plagued by absolute water scarcity by the year 2025. The agency predicts that two-thirds of the global population will be under “water stress conditions.” Global water shortages will drive the need for efficient water supply solutions not only in the emerging markets like China, India, and Latin America, but also in the United States. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) predicts spending of $277 billion by 2020 to maintain present standards. The American Society of Civil Engineers pegs domestic infrastructure spending needs to reach $1 trillion over the next two decades. What’s more, early last year the California Department of Water Resources reported that drought conditions in the state’s Central Valley, its main agricultural region and provider of much produce to the entire United States, were so severe that farmers had to bulldoze orchards and artichoke fields for lack of water. In such conditions, water desalination will be a big growth industry. Annual production of desalinated water is expected to reach 14.2 trillion gallons by 2020. Water desalination players like Energy Recovery Inc. (NASDAQ: ERII) will benefit from this demand in the long run. But in the near future, they are still struggling.

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Talent Management Leans Toward Learning

The year 2010 saw a great deal of M&A activity in the talent management sector as Taleo (NASDAQ:TLEO) acquired Learn.com; SuccessFactors (NASDAQ:SFSF) acquired CubeTree, Inform, and YouCalc; and Kennexa acquired Salary.com. That trend looks set to continue this year: Taleo already announced an acquisition and Learn.com’s rival GeoLearning was acquired by talent management vendor SumTotal Systems. GeoLearning was a close partner for SuccessFactors, and this acquisition forces the latter to consider an acquisition in the space.

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Can Yelp Stand Up To Google’s Wrath?

One of the key trends of the previous decade has been that of local search and classifieds. Yelp is a leading player in the segment that leverages user-generated content in the form of local business reviews and ratings. By drawing on the concept of niche community, Yelp has been able to greatly expand the functions of the traditional Yellow Pages. This week, Yelp is in the news again as it tries to deal with Google’s ultimatum on free content or no search indexing. >>>

Groupon Fastest-Growing Company (Thus Far)?

By offering local service marketing using social Web behavior patterns, Groupon has taken local classifieds and group buying to a new level of precision and creativity. The site was in the news  last year when it turned down Google’s $6 billion offer. This is not surprising in the least considering the pace at which the company has grown. >>>

LinkedIn’s IPO Will Usher In New Crop Of Internet Stocks

The social networking trend has become a mainstream practice courtesy of Facebook. While Facebook has yet to go public, LinkedIn, which is positioned as the leading social network for professionals, recently announced plans to go public this year. It will become the first social network to do so. It is also one of the first in a series of Internet IPOs expected to follow over the next year or two, products of a wave of innovation that was set in motion after the dot-com crash. All of the companies involved are taking advantage of the social behavior now prevalent on the Web. In 2003, when LinkedIn was founded, such behavior was not mainstream, and it took several years for the trend to catch on. But now, the results speak for themselves. >>>

Strong Growth In SaaS CRM

According to research firm Gartner, SaaS within the customer relationship management (CRM) industry is expected to exceed $4 billion in total software revenue in 2014, representing more than 32% of the overall CRM market. Salesforce.com, the pioneer of SaaS CRM, recently reported strong sales and said it expected cross the $2 billion revenue milestone this year.

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Dell Needs To Up The Ante On Its Tablet Strategy

HP this week reported weak sales in its consumer PC business. Rival Dell also saw consumer sales decline slightly. However, according to IDC, Dell had solid growth in emerging markets that helped it to grow at 4.2%, a rate slightly above the market, and regain the No. 2 position in total PC shipments. The consumer PC market has been affected by the iPad and the numerous tablets being launched by other PC vendors. Consumers are stalling in their decisions to buy new desktops or laptops as tablets compete for their attention. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

HP’s Strategy Under Apothekar

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) this week reported mixed results and gave a weak outlook that missed analyst estimates and sent the stock tumbling about 12%. This was Leo Apotheker’s first quarter as CEO, and though it doesn’t reflect on his performance, there is no question that it highlights the challenges he will face.

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Shutterfly, Vistaprint Morphing With The Social Web

According to The U.S. Photo Industry 2010: Review and Forecast Report, the digital camera market is estimated to be worth $5.2 billion in the U.S., with 81% of the population owning digital cameras. The country is estimated to have generated 13.9 billion digital prints in 2010. As more 8-by-10 inch photos are now being printed at home, the growth in digital photo printing revenues is expected to be driven by photo cards. The latest holiday season saw a surge of photo cards and helped to boost the results of online photo services players. >>>

Should Disney Buy LeapFrog?

Cord-cutting has remained a serious threat to cable services providers over the past several months, and Time Warner and Disney recently came together to try to combat this threat. The two are bundling ESPN broadband streams with cable, and TV Everywhere customers can now view ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU programming online. Through the tie-up, Warner hopes to make TV Everywhere more compelling and thus help to retain customers. Both companies recently released their fourth quarter results, which exceeded market expectations.

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