Electronic Arts On Digital Gear

A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers report for 2010–14 predicts the global entertainment and media (E&M) market to grow 5% annually to $1.7 trillion by 2014, with the U.S. market to grow 3.8% annually to $517 billion in 2014 from $428 billion in 2009. Globally, the online and wireless video game market will grow 10.6%, compounded from $52.5 billion in 2009 to $86.8 billion in 2014, making it the second-fastest-growing segment of E&M behind wired/mobile Internet advertising. >>>

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Online University Sector Booming

A recent study by the Lumina Foundation projects that the United States needs to add a million graduate students a year for the next 16 years if it wishes to remain a competitive nation. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that in the coming 10 years, jobs requiring higher education will be among the fastest growing jobs in the country. The need for higher education is also being supported by the Obama administration, which talks about three important education goals: first, to have every American receive at least one full year of a college education; second, to have the highest graduation rate among developed countries by 2020; and third, to encourage lifelong learning. Many Americans are in fact going back to school. Further, as 73% of the present student population is now “non-traditional,” according to the Department of Education, these students are juggling other responsibilities, suggesting that the demand for online education will continue to grow. >>>

Micron And NSM In Acquisition Mode

Chipmakers Micron (NYSE:MU) and National Semiconductor (NYSE:NSM) have been in acquisition mode. Micron acquired NOR flash maker Numonyx for $1.27 billion while National Semi recently acquired fabless chipmaker GTronix for an undisclosed sum. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

EDA Consolidation Continues

The EDA Consortium recently announced a second consecutive quarter of sequential revenue growth for overall electronic design automation (EDA) revenues. For Q4 2009, EDA industry revenues of $1.26 billion grew 8.1% over the quarter while declining 4.2% over the year. The consortium noted that the biggest upticks came in the categories of CAE, IC Physical Design, and semiconductor intellectual property (IP). >>>

Accenture Can Be Near-Shore Leader

After five successive quarters of revenue declines, Accenture’s (NYSE:ACN) Q3 revenues finally grew, by 8% over the year to $5.57 billion to exceed the market’s projected revenues of $5.46 billion. On a constant currency basis, revenues grew 4% over the year. EPS for the quarter of $0.73 was significantly higher than the market’s expected $0.69. >>>

Oracle’s Next Move: Data Security

Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) has successfully integrated Sun, and in the first full quarter after the acquisition the company reported a 25% jump in profit. Now that the integration is complete, Oracle is looking at greener pastures. Last month, it announced another acquisition in a new but important sector: database security. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

Dell-RIM Merger In The Cards?

Last week, Research in Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM) reported a disappointing quarter that narrowly missed its guidance. While RIM made its entry into top 5 mobile phone vendor list, replacing Motorola, its share in the smartphone market declined slightly as Motorola in turn became one of top 5 smartphone vendors. Apple’s iPhone and Android devices from Motorola and HTC are eating into RIM’s share of the market. Let’s take a closer look.
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New Era Of Personal Computing Pits Apple Against Adobe

After a long wait, Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) has managed to release its Flash Player for smartphones running on the latest version of Android, Froyo. Adobe has shipped Flash Player 10.1 for Mobile to all the major smartphone vendors save Apple. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

Beneficiaries Of China’s 518 Million Internet Users

According to the China Internet Network Information Center, China has nearly 384 million Internet users – that is more than the entire U.S. population. However, it is still a mere 29% penetration rate for the country’s 1.3 billion population, compared with near 70% penetration in the United States. >>>

TiVo, Garmin Losing Their Luster

TiVo (NASDAQ:TIVO) reported its fifth straight quarterly loss and received a disappointing ruling in its patent infringement case against EchoStar and Dish. This is a big setback for TiVo, which also has lawsuits against AT&T and Verizon. Garmin (NASDAQ:GRMN) is also losing out to the trend of integrating navigation applications in smartphones. Let’s take a closer look. >>>