economy

Gartner and UBS provide a mixed view on IT spending

Growth in information technology spending next year is expected to go from a modest uptick to a virtual blip, according to a report released Monday by Gartner Research. Meanwhile UBS Securities predicts a more dire outcome.

IT spending is expected to grow 2.3 percent next year, a figure that's down from earlier projections of 5.8 percent growth, according to Gartner. The lowered forecast comes as the markets have been whacked particularly hard over the past two weeks and the credit market has tightened.

"Developed economies, especially in the United States and Western Europe, will be the … Read more

So much for that idea: Tech stocks have fallen from 1999 to 2008

It's true that stocks generally ascend in the long run. But last week's stock market crash is a potent reminder of the corollary to that rule: the long run can be a long way off.

Our review of the share prices of large tech companies show that, for the most part, they've plummeted back to where they were nine or ten years ago. This means that, in general, anyone who bought shares of Microsoft or Intel during that time has lost money.

Once high-flying companies like Amazon.com, Dell, Yahoo, and Sun Microsystems have plummeted back to … Read more

A financial wreck can't keep good Web developers down

LONDON-- Britain's normally gray capital was unusually sunny this week. So were the attitudes of Web developers gathered here for a conference while, across the pond, Wall Street was in full panic mode.

A bright-eyed pack of several hundred aspiring Web visionaries descended upon London's Excel conference center for the semi-annual Future of Web Apps (FOWA) conference. Eager developers trawled the show floor's booths for stickers that they promptly stamped onto their (overwhelmingly Apple-manufactured) laptops. One pack of young men strolled around in straw sombreros. Another trio passed some time in between lectures by tossing around a … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 828: Things change, suck it!

Financial markets will collapse, venture capitalists will cause a run on start-ups that will lead to even more financial collapses, companies that try to disable their DRM servers will inevitably reverse that bad decision, and Web redesigns will happen and you can't opt out of them. Live with it. We're jerks today. It's Friday. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 828

An ignoble but much needed end to Web 2.0, marked by a party in Cyprus http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/10/an-ignoble-but-much-needed-end-to-web-20/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10063178-93.html

Sequoia Capital's 56 slide … Read more

Microsoft exec: Challenging times play to our strengths

With a tough economic climate figuring to put a crimp on IT spending, Microsoft is already working on honing a message that it can help businesses save money.

In an interview Friday, Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop said that companies are certainly re-evaluating their tech spending projects, but tried to make the case that Microsoft stands to fare better than most.

"Relative to Microsoft's general approach of making all technology, all software very affordable...that plays very well at these times," Elop said. "Who knows what lies ahead, but nonetheless, we've got some pretty … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: How will Web 2.0 weather current financial storm?

Angel investor Ron Conway is warning his start-ups to start saving up cash and reducing costs quickly. He's not the only one who says the current economic crisis is similar and perhaps worse than the dot-com bust of 2000-2001. CNET's Rafe Needleman, editor of Webware, stops by to talk about how or if Web 2.0 companies will be able to survive in the months ahead, and which kinds of companies are in the most danger.

Also in Thursday's podcast: IBM affirms a positive outlook for the year and predicts a good quarter ahead, and Digg founder … Read more

The tech downturn: How long and how bad?

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Ron Conway sent a sobering e-mail on Tuesday to the 130 start-up companies he's invested in: now is the time to hunker down.

"In 2000 and 2001, the companies that hunkered the fastest were the companies that survived," said Conway in an interview with CNET News. "Get costs under control; make sure you have plenty of runway."

While that admonition from Conway, a noted investor who over the years has put early money into tech giants like Google and up-and-comers like Digg, was timely, it's hard to imagine that any tech executive who's been paying attention to the news needs to be reminded that rough economic conditions are most definitely ahead.

How bad those conditions will be and how long they'll last is anyone's guess. The CNET Technology Index, which tracks 66 publicly traded tech companies, dropped for the third straight day Wednesday to hit its lowest level in more than three years. Even the healthiest of companies are seeing their stocks being sold en masse. Google, for example, finished trading Wednesday down 2.28 percent to $338.11 per share; that's a new 52-week low and less than half the asking price for a Google share in November 2007

Bad news persists in the overall economy as well, despite continued attempts at government intervention. The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 indexes all continued to slide Wednesday; the Dow has now dropped 35 percent from its high a year ago.

CNET contacted more than 20 tech executives, venture capitalists, and industry gurus Wednesday to ask "How long and how bad this will be for the tech industry, and what should companies do about it?" Not so surprisingly, there was no consensus. While nearly everyone interviewed is concerned about the economy, their reaction to it and their plans to deal with it are across the map. Experienced investors like Conway and venture capitalist Larry Augustin of Azure Capital Partners are cautious, while some executives (at least in their public comments) are downplaying the risks to their businesses.

No "Innovation Gap"? WEF ranks U.S. top in Global Competitiveness Report

The United States tops the overall ranking in the World Economic Forum's "Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009". Switzerland is in second position followed by Denmark, Sweden, and Singapore. European economies continue to prevail in the top 10 with Finland, Germany and the Netherlands following suit. The United Kingdom, while remaining very competitive, has dropped by three places and out of the top 10, mainly attributable to a weakening of its financial markets.

The rankings were calculated from both publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum together with … Read more

Tips for surviving the market meltdown

Guest post: Christopher Lochhead, the retired chief marketing officer at Scient and Mercury, offers a follow-up from his post in August on how companies can thrive in a prolonged economic downturn.

Reading The Wall Street Journal and watching CNBC lately can drive a person (namely me) to drink. Which is fun, but beyond answering the question, "Which scotch will I drink?" the seminal question is "How do we thrive in a downturn?"

Downturns are the best time to take market share. Most companies overreact. They get too conservative. They also forget that they are not the … Read more

CEA: Economy down, TV sales up

Sales in a couple of key gadget categories will rise despite the economic downturn, the Consumer Electronics Association predicted Tuesday--and no, CEA wasn't talking about calculators and sawed-off shotguns.

During an industry Webcast titled "Economy in crisis: How we got here, where do we go from here and what does it mean for consumer electronics and your business," the CEA said flat-panel TVs and gaming hardware should do well during the upcoming holiday season even as consumers rein in their dollars amid the current financial uncertainty.

Maybe a shiny new monitor could help take our worried minds … Read more