IBM has now 100 years

Today, there is an interesting article on IBM in the Spanish newspaper El Pais. It talks about the recent strategy of IBM. The firm has now 100 years. In 2010, the consulting and technology services accounted for 56.4% of revenue, programs, 22.5% and machine business 18%. One has to remember that IBM dominated the PC business in the 1980's. Between 2000 and 2010, IBM bought 116 companies.

According to Mr. Zufiria, an executive manager of IBM, the best invention of IBM, which has 76,000 patents in its portfolio, is to sustain the culture of progress. In the last decade, the image of IBM dedicated to the machines has evolved into a company also dedicated to the services and enterprise software. IBM sold his home computer unit to Lenovo, among other movements, bought the consultant Price Waterhouse Coopers Consulting. "This change is a response to globalization and the challenge faced by companies in mature sectors, where part of the offer are already standardized services. This transformation reflects IBM's commitment to build a business based on value proposition. In there, you select investments designed to create a difference. " To Zufiria, customers are seeking solutions and facing transformational issues.

"With Price Waterhouse, it allow us to have knowledge of business processes and provide this global response. " The same principle applies to business management market. "The challenge is no longer in the data warehousing tools. It is situated in the analytical processes around that data, that allow a company to understand their situation and make decisions in real time. " In this area, IBM has invested U.S. $ 14 billion, to create a complete portfolio of predictive analytics solutions with the acquisition in five years of 24 specialized companies.

IBM is really a transnational firm profiting from regional expertise and selling those solutions globally. IBM has made a million dollar bet on free software, "open source". IBM spends 6% of its revenues on research and development. " Thus, explains Zufiria, the company is not seeking an offer that is redundant, or which already exists. "In 2007, opened 500 patents. It was not a selfless act, but IBM was trying to drive the standardization, for example, certain operating systems or software components, so as to accelerate the transition to other software layers on top IBM can provide the greatest value. "

Source: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/Pantallas/IBM/anos/reinventa/elpepurtv/20110613elpepirtv_1/Tes


Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis

For Marc Andreessen "Mr. Internet" : we are not in a second tech bubble

For Marc Andreessen "Mr. Internet" : we are not in a second tech bubble. Marc is the founder of Netscape who created Internet with images. He is now a Venture capitalist involved in Groupon, Twitter, Facebook, Zynga. He is making a tons of millions in profits from its internet investments. He suggests that right now, major tech stocks are undervalued on the stock markets: for instance Cisco Systems, Apple, Microsoft. He said that Apple's Price-Earnings (PE) ratio is just 10 if you delete cash. He suggests that fast growing valuations of private and public stocks are not general, but in fact isolated, mainly in social networks (Faceboook, Zynga, Linkedin).

For Marc, new tech companies are trying to become profitable companies and not just new promising new IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) like firms in 1999-2000. They tend to have stronger business models than in the last decade.

For the whole interview on the Wall Street Journal see

http://online.wsj.com/video/groupon-investor-marc-andreessen-no-tech-bubble/275ED9C5-2BCA-4BFD-9FBA-97BCEF0D48F7.html

Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis