Business currents

How tech start-ups plan on getting by

So how are tech start-ups going to get through this current squall? First it helps to have some historical perspective. Everyone's weighing in, but perhaps the best rundown of how the industry arrived at this point was authored recently by Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital:

From a high level, this downturn is different from the Internet bubble of 1999. First, the last downturn started in our backyard. We were the speculators; this time it is someone else. This means that the "crash on the beach" wont be nearly as severe. In the Internet crash, many times the … Read more

Tech start-ups compare notes with Joe the Plumber

Will Joe the Plumber's tax message resonate in Silicon Valley?

Joe Wurzelbacher, an Ohio plumber considering whether to buy a business, turned into an unlikely media star this week after he confronted Sen. Barack Obama over the Democratic presidential nominee's tax proposal.

Obama maintains that his plan would reduce personal income taxes on 95 percent of the wage earners in the United States. But after an Obama appearance at Holland, Ohio, Wurzelbacher told Obama that his tax plan would take money out of his pocket.

That was the beginning of Wurzelbacher's 15 minutes of fame. His name … Read more

Vint Cerf backs Obama for U.S. president

Vint Cerf has come out in support of Barack Obama for United States president.

In a YouTube video he recorded, Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist, said he was supporting Obama primarily because of the Democratic candidate's position on Net neutrality.

Cerf commands wide influence throughout the technology world due to the role he played in the development of the Internet. Cerf co-designed the TCP/IP protocol with Robert E. Kahn. While at MCI, he oversaw the development of the world's first commercial e-mail service to be connected to the Internet.

Here's a transcription of what he … Read more

At least IT isn't fooling itself again

You're likely as sick as I am hearing about our supposed inevitable rendezvous with Armageddon. But there is a major difference between how the technology industry handled the dot-com bubble burst and how it's managing through one of the more extraordinary periods in the history of capitalism.

First, the bad old days. You doubtless remember irrational exuberance. With the exception of Cisco's John Chambers and a handful of other executives who were among the earliest to warn that clouds were gathering, most of the digerati in late 1999/early 2000 remained blithely upbeat about the future--until, that … Read more

Intel can't figure this out, so who can?

If these were normal times, Intel's quarterly earnings report would barely generate more than passing interest. A penny above, a penny below--only Wall Street and day traders give a damn.

But these aren't normal times. Intel today said that its fourth quarter revenue may be anywhere between $10.1 billion and $10.9 billion. That's one helluva wide margin. You see, because of all the recent nastiness in the markets--they just don't know.

Intel explained that the stock market's slo-mo meltdown has created a "high degree of uncertainty" where Intel will finish up … Read more

If Intel's worried about suppliers, so should the rest of IT

It's reached the point where I don't trust any of the big research houses to get it right when it comes to IT spending.

Last month Forrester reduced its 2009 IT spending forecast while at the same time upping its projections for the remainder of this year. (I should add that Forrester issued its declaration just before the big financial meltdown got going in earnest.)

Meanwhile, tech CEOs gathering this week at the Gartner Symposium ITXpo conclave in Orlando are moping around as they regale each other with ever more depressing tales from the trenches. The Gartner graphic … Read more

Days of rage on the Internet

Must be the special circumstances regarding current events, but folks again are losing their minds in very public fashion--on the Internet.

Monday's New York Times ran a piece detailing how a fringe activist has helped spread the rumor that Barack Obama is a Muslim.

The press release was picked up by a conservative Web site, FreeRepublic.com, and spread steadily as others elaborated on its claims over the years in e-mail messages, Web sites, and books. It continues to drive other false rumors about Mr. Obama's background.

(And while I write these words, another e-mail arrived, asking in … Read more

Ellison's mantra: Spend, baby, spend

Stock crash or no, CEO Larry Ellison says that Oracle is sticking to his game plan and that means more acquisitions.

"My feeling is we are better positioned than our peers, the other software companies, to do well in tough times," Ellison said during a question-and-answer session at Oracle's annual shareholders meeting on Friday.

The company has made more than 50 acquisitions in the last 45 months. Despite the massive stock sell-off in the last few weeks, Ellison said Oracle will try to take advantage of the drop in equity prices to pick up acquisitions on the … Read more

Tech's next step: More M&A?

An analyst at Canaccord Adams named Peter Misek caused a minor stir on Thursday when he suggested to Reuters that Research in Motion's weak stock price may induce a buyout bid by Microsoft.

His argument is that Microsoft needs to stay competitive vis a vis Google and Apple in the smartphone arena. Conclusion: "RIM is a massive strategic fit" for Microsoft."

I'm not so sure that Microsoft would help itself by going the RIM route, but Misek's instincts are sound in one respect: the global turmoil might--and the operative word is might--spark a vigorous … Read more