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- The Accelerator Conundrum
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Technology Stocks
Accenture Should Lead Near-Shore Trend
At a Senate roll call on Tuesday, all forty Republican senators, joined by four Democrats and one independent, voted against advancing to a full debate on legislation that proposed tax benefits to companies that did not outsource jobs and brought jobs back to the United States. Fifty-three senators voted in favor of advancing the proposed bill and 45 against; 60 votes were need for it to advance. While many had been expecting this outcome, outsourcing companies were still waiting anxiously for the result. Meanwhile, the global consulting and outsourcing giant Accenture (NYSE:ACN) continued to deliver a performance far exceeding market expectations. >>>
India’s Microfinance Industry Trying To Scale
Recently, Hyderabad-based SKS Microfinance, the world’s and India’s largest microfinancier listed on India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). This was the first ever microfinance institution (MFI) listing for the Indian market. SKS focuses on providing microfinance products through a group lending model to India’s impoverished women for access to agriculture, livestock purchases, and other micro business ventures. It was founded in 1997 by Vikram Akula as a nonprofit venture with funding of ~$50,000. By 2001, it had over 2,000 borrowers in rural India. >>>
Demand For Bandwidth A Boon For Optical Networking
The optical networking sector is on a strong growth curve as the demand for bandwidth continues unabated. Smartphones, tablets, and netbooks have led to a surge in the demand for online video, social networking, and multimedia applications, which in turn consume a lot of bandwidth. Riding high on these trends, optical networking players, JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ:JDSU) and Finisar (NASDAQ:FNSR) reported strong quarters in their recent results. >>>
Electronic Arts Introduces Gaming On Kindle
According to researchers, retail sales of video game equipment and software in the United States fell 10% in August. Hardware sales declined 5% to $282.9 million and software sales fell 14% to $403.5 million. Overall, from January to August 2010, video game sales dropped 8% over the year. >>>
Adobe Looking At Acquisitions
This week Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) reported a strong quarter driven by the strong momentum for its flagship software Creative Suite 5 released in April as well as Omniture and Enterprise products. However, they missed the sales estimate and also gave a weak outlook. Early this month Apple announced that it will be easing restrictions for developing iPad and iPhone applications and allow developers to use Adobe’s Flash for iPhone apps. Steve Jobs in a blog in April cited Apple’s reasons for not opting for Flash Player.
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U.S. Housing Market Getting Worse
Housing inventories in many U.S. cities continued to rise for the eighth consecutive month in August, reflecting the downtrend in the housing market. The number of available homes for sale in twenty-six major metropolitan areas at the end of August grew 0.4% over the month. The demand in the industry has fallen significantly on account of the expiration of the April deadline for the homeowner tax credit. Researchers estimate that at the current pace, the market is carrying a 12.5-month inventory compared with a six-month inventory that a healthy housing market is expected to carry. According to Zelman Data, national inventories are at their highest levels since November 2008. >>>
Latin America Rising Online
According to a recent study by Visa, e-commerce in Latin America and the Caribbean grew 39% over the year to $21.8 billion in 2009. Between 2007 and 2009, e-spending grew 106% in Latin America and the Caribbean, driven by 170% growth in Brazil, 91% growth in Mexico, and 56% growth in Argentina. Within Latin America, Brazil was the biggest market, contributing 61% of total online consumption, followed by Mexico with 12% and Chile with 5%. >>>
Hurd At Oracle: Great Expectations
Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) reported strong results last week for a seasonally weak quarter. Early this month, Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, recruited his friend and former CEO of HP, Mark Hurd, as a copresident. Hurd will help to manage the recent $7.3 billion acquisition of Sun. Conceivably, Oracle will do many more acquisitions, and Hurd will be managing those as well. Let’s take a closer look. >>>