analysts

Forrester acquires JupiterResearch for $23 million

Tech analyst heavyweight Forrester Research just got a little bigger.

The Cambridge, Mass., company said Thursday that it acquired smaller rival JupiterResearch and its parent company JUPR Holdings for $23 million. The JupiterResearch brand will begin to serve Forrester's "Marketing and Strategy" client group.

JupiterResearch, considerably smaller than Forrester, had 83 employees and made $14 million in 2007, while Forrester Research, which has more than 1,000 employees, made $212 million.

Forrester also announced its second quarter earnings Thursday. The company had a $8.6 million profit on $63.5 million in revenue for the quarter ending … Read more

Tech analysts embrace Twitter for instant gratification

In a new trend somewhere between direct customer contact and the public facing comments lies Twitter.

I'll start with the obvious joke that 140 characters, or roughly 2 sentences is typically the value that you get from analysts. However, my experience over the last year or so is that the analysts that I've worked with (both paid and unpaid) have been extremely helpful.

The Top 10 Analyst Twitter-ers via Technobabble: 1 Forrester - Jeremiah Owyang 2 Redmonk - James Governor 3 Message - Stowe Boyd 4 Hurwitz & Assoc. - Robin Bloor 5 Greenmonk - Tom Raftery 6 … Read more

Microsoft CFO: Yahoo a 'declining asset'

REDMOND, Wash.--Microsoft CFO Christopher Liddell said Thursday that Yahoo is a "declining asset" and that the chances of a full-on acquisition are now "negligible."

Liddell elaborated on CEO Steve Ballmer's earlier comments, saying the company went into its bid "totally genuine" but soured on a deal because it was taking too long. He called Yahoo a "declining asset."

"Time passed and value eroded," he said. "I think the chances of us buying Yahoo...are so small that they are essentially negligible."

A search deal, he said, … Read more

Microsoft demos robotic receptionist

REDMOND, Wash.--Microsoft's receptionist of the future is a robot.

Chief Research and Strategy officer Craig Mundie on Thursday demonstrated a software-based robot that uses a combination of visual and voice recognition as well as speech synthesis to handle basic tasks. Microsoft itself plans to use the software robot to handle shuttle requests in its own buildings, which typically have a pair of receptionists to handle visitors and shuttle requests.

In a video, two Microsoft employees approach the robot, who said (in a rather robotic voice) "Which building do you want to go to?"

After checking that … Read more

Not much Zune in Microsoft exec's speech

Microsoft's annual Financial Analyst Meeting, in which the company goes over its past fiscal year's results and highlights areas of focus for the coming year, is always a good opportunity for tea-leaf reading.

After CEO Steve Ballmer's introductory speech, in which he spent a lot of time talking about Microsoft's online business, efforts to compete against Google in search, and the aborted Yahoo tie-up, Entertainment and Devices President Robbie Bach was up. He talked about nearly everything in his business division. He started with the upcoming Xbox Live redesign. He talked about Xbox games. He spent … Read more

Live: Microsoft meets Wall Street

REDMOND, Wash.--Microsoft's annual culture clash takes place Thursday as the software maker tries to dazzle and delight with technology and long-term plans, while a crowd of financial analysts presses the company for profits they can take to the bank.

Although Microsoft has continued to return solid profit and earnings, the company has also been spending more than some analysts would like, particularly in its online services area. There were already grumblings over the company's plans on last week's earnings conference call and I'd expect that to be an area of discussion on Thursday, especially in … Read more

Forrester: Europe leads in open-source adoption

France may not have shown up for the Euro 2008 soccer finals, but it continues to demonstrate the most adoption of open-source software, according to a recent report from Forrester Research ("Open Source Adoption: Notes From The Field").

In France, 24 percent of the enterprises surveyed by Forrester are currently using open-source software, with another 15 percent either piloting it or planning to start a pilot within the next year. (I'll wager that the other 61 percent are using open source but simply don't know it).

The United States? It's at 17 percent adoption, with another 11 percent in near-term pilots. Canada is tied with the States, while Germany, along with France, leads.

As noted in the comments to an earlier post, these low numbers suggest that Forrester is talking to the wrong people within enterprises. I'm confident in suggesting that at least 90 percent of these same companies that Forrester surveyed are actively using open source--but the CIO simply doesn't know it.… Read more

Forrester survey discovers that virtually no one uses open source (?!?)

Forrester just released a new survey, one that begs the question: Who paid for this rubbish?

I generally like Forrester's work, but this survey flies in the face of every piece of research on open source that I've seen in the last five years...including research from Forrester. Also, as the research itself finds, often its survey respondents are using open source even when they don't know it: Nearly half of those surveyed by Forrester who are using open-source frameworks (e.g., Spring) still claim they are not using open source.

Forrester's newest research finds:

Seventy percent of decision-makers responded that they don't have interest or have no plans to adopt open-source software; Only 23 percent of respondents said expanding their use of open-source software was a priority; Security is the main concern around adopting open-source software. Eighty-eight percent of respondents said it was an important or very important concern.

Amazing how open source's greatest strengths are now being used against it. Security? I'm not suggesting that open source is perfect here, but it's one of the primary reasons that people are dumping proprietary software for open source. This is a classic Microsoft spin, and directly contradicts Forrester's own, earlier research that open source offers security advantages, not disadvantages.

Fortunately, if CIOs care to spend even a nanosecond checking Forrester's claims about tepid adoption of open source, there is a wide array of contradictory evidence, including from Forrester:

Earlier this year, Gartner's Mark Driver noted the following: "By 2012, 80 percent or more of all commercial software will include elements of open-source technology."… Read more

IT predictions and the sneaky rise of open source

Sometimes our beloved analysts get things dead-on...and sometimes their predictions as to where IT trends will take us are very, very off.

In an excellent article, ZDNet traces the non-demise of Windows and UNIX that analysts predicted, the continued dominance of Microsoft on the desktop (which was supposed to have been supplanted by open-source alternatives by now), and generally blisters our inability to predict the future with regard to open source. It's everywhere, yes, but without the expected dominance that was to come with ominpresence.

One thing it has brought us, however, and that is a significant shift in how all companies engage open source:

...[Apache, Firefox, and Samba] are token victories that mainly offer new options for home users and small businesses. No other open-source application has enjoyed anywhere near the massive commercial success of Linux through its creation of an entire services and support ecosystem.

Instead, they have served as game-changers - motivators to encourage for-profit vendors like IBM and Microsoft to up their game and offer extra value in their respective products.… Read more