Salesforce Focuses on AI

According to MarketandMarkets, the artificial intelligence (AI) market is estimated to grow from $419.7 million in 2014 to $5.05 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 53.65% from 2015 to 2020. The Media and Advertising sector is expected to drive the growth of AI during this period. IBM, Microsoft, and Google are key players in the market, and now Salesforce is trying to make inroads into it. >>>

Vertical Expansion and MarTech Dominate Oracle’s Cloud Buying Spree

Over the past 10 years, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) has spent more than $50 billion on making more than 100 acquisitions. While the year 2015 was a bit tepid on the acquisition front, it has made up for it this year by already announcing five acquisitions, three of which were announced over the past month. >>>

Billion Dollar Unicorns: Decolar is the Latin American Entry to the Club

Analysts at Phocuswright estimate the Latin American total travel market to be a $100 billion market opportunity this year with online travel accounting for an average 15% of the spend across more than 20 countries in the region. The region is dominated by six key markets – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru with Brazil accounting for $36 billion gross booking market opportunity this year. Decolar is a leading player in the market and also a rare Billion Dollar Unicorn from the region.

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SAP Eyes Cloud and Mobile Spend

SAP (NYSE: SAP) ended the year 2015 with a bang, surpassing all market expectations and causing its stock to touch 52-week high levels. But if the market was expecting a similar performance for the first quarter of the year, it was disappointed. The company reported rather lackluster results, following the footsteps of most of the other tech giants. Its recent investments in the Cloud and Mobile space are expected to improve its performance.

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eBay Getting Into Wine

The market hasn’t been too pleased with eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) lately after it hived off PayPal as an independent company. Over the past few quarters, eBay has been delivering lackluster performance for its e-commerce division and has failed to keep pace with e-tail giant Amazon. To make matters worse, the company is facing increasing competition from newer and smaller niche players like Etsy and Poshmark and has also suffered from its vulnerability to Google’s algorithm changes in the recent past. But the recent quarter’s results suggest that all is not lost.

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Billion Dollar Unicorns: Square Post Its IPO

According to eMarketer, mobile payments in the US are estimated to grow 210% to $27.05 billion in 2016 from $8.71 billion in 2015. The number of people in the US using proximity mobile payments is expected to grow 61.8% to 37.5 million by 2016. Square became a Billion Dollar Unicorn raising funds on ridiculously high valuations, but it recently went public that halved its valuation to a more realistic level. >>>

Billion Dollar Unicorns: Age of Learning Monetizing in Educational Apps

According to a ReportsnReports report, the global education gamification market is estimated to grow 64% annually over the period 2014 through 2019. Gamification within education refers to a process of implementing game mechanics into non-gaming context so that users are engaged and are able to solve problems. It involves the appointment of points, badges, challenges, a leaderboard, and rewards as part of this strategy. Within education, gamification strategies lead to users learning concepts through game techniques. Age of Learning is a recent entrant to the Billion Dollar Unicorn club that is using these techniques to developed apps focused on a niche group.

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2016 IPO Prospects: NantHealth Testing the IPO Markets, Yet Again

According to a recent report by Grand View Research Inc., the global molecular diagnostics market size is expected to reach $8.02 billion by 2020 driven by the increasing prevalence of infectious and cardiovascular diseases along with rising geriatric population.

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