Why Is Microsoft At 52-Week High?

Microsoft estimates that last quarter, consumer PC sales fell 6% over the year. Surprisingly, the decline was led by the falling sales of netbooks, which are being replaced by iPads and the recently released Kindle Fire. Excluding sales of netbooks, PC sales would have reported growth of 2% last quarter. A year ago, netbooks accounted for nearly 8% of the PC market. However, recent reports suggest that they account for only 2%. In addition, macroeconomic factors of supply chain shortages because of floods in Thailand and the continuing recession that hurt market growth. Gartner too estimates that global PC sales fell 1.4% over the year last quarter and were particularly hurt by the shortage of hard disk drives because of the flooding in Thailand.

>>>

Online Advertising Will Overtake Print in 2012

According to eMarketer’s latest report, this year, U.S. online advertising will exceed print-based advertising spending for the first time. Online advertising spending is projected to grow 20% this year to $40 billion, while print advertising is expected to decline 6% over the year to $33.8 billion. Last year, online advertising revenues also grew more than 20%. Online advertising spending is expected to grow to $62 billion by 2016, while print advertising will continue to decline during the same period to $32.3 billion. Below is an infographic charting the growth of online advertising, courtesy of CNBC.

>>>

Twitter Still Far From An IPO

With the Facebook IPO expected in May of this year, speculations regarding Twitter’s IPO have come to the fore. Twitter is estimated to have hit revenue of $139.5 million in 2011, more than three times its revenue of $45 million in 2010. In September 2011, Twitter raised $800 million in an investment round that valued the company at $8.4 billion. Though Twitter has started to generate revenue, it is still vastly unprofitable, and it is hard to justify the company’s sky-high valuation or an IPO. >>>

Amsterdam-Based AVG Files For IPO On NYSE

Last week, antivirus maker AVG Technologies filed with the SEC to list on the New York Stock Exchange for an IPO. The Amsterdam-based company was founded in 1991 to keep computer systems safe from virus attacks. Today they help more than 106 million consumers across 185 countries ward off online attacks and provide real-time defenses against real-time threats on desktop, laptop, and mobile devices.

>>>

Newspaper Digital Subscriptions Gaining Steam

In the Audit Bureau of Circulation’s recently released circulation figures for the six months ending September 2011, the bureau not only compiled circulation figures for print newspapers but also released a list for digital subscriptions. According to their report, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The New York Times were among the leading print papers with the Journal reporting nearly 2.1 million subscribers, followed by USA Today’s 1.78 million and The New York Times’s 1.15 million during the period. As expected, digital editions continued to increase in popularity and the number of subscribers increased 47% over the period. The Journal remained the leader in the digital segment with more than 537,000 subscribers.

>>>

Dropbox IPO Also Coming Soon?

According to a recent IDC report, Worldwide Enterprise Storage for Public and Private Cloud 2011-2015 Forecast: Enabling Public Cloud Service Providers and Private Clouds, cloud computing will drive IT spending over the next five years. Overall spending by public cloud service providers on storage hardware, software, and professional services is projected to grow annually at 23.6% from 2010-2015. During the same period, enterprise spending on storage for the private cloud is projected to grow at CAGR of 28.9%. Together, both the public and private cloud storage segments are expected to account for $22.6 billion in spending worldwide. But it is not only the enterprises that use cloud storage services. Many individuals and smaller groups are also reaping the benefits of being able to store data on the cloud.

>>>

SunGard IPO Soon?

Analysts believe that in 2012, not only will the market see a continued increase in the number tech IPOs, but other companies that went private earlier may want to cash out and go public again. Wayne, Philadelphia– based technology player SunGard is expected to be among that second group. SunGard provides software and processing solutions for financial services, education, and the public sector.  They also provide disaster recovery and managed IT services in addition to consulting services for information availability and business continuity management.
>>>

Adobe Shifting Business Mix

A SaaS roll-up has been triggered by Oracle’s recently acquisition of SaaS vendor RightNow for $1.5 billion. In 2009, Adobe acquired SaaS web analytics vendor Omniture for $1.8 billion and since then has been making small acquisitions to sharpen their focus on digital marketing. Adobe recently reported fourth-quarter results that beat estimates. The company also announced changes in their reporting structure to accommodate recent activity in digital marketing.

>>>