Larry Ellison is still in the game. Oracle fired back at SAP this morning, announcing the $1.9-billion acquisition of Taleo at $46 a share. Now all the big guys have their HCM plays.
But there are some real initiatives now that could drive adoption, For example, proposed new European Union data protection regulation will support the adoption of cloud computing, says European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes.
True but you have to watch those market forecasts, famously overambitious. I remember the optical forecasts back in the 2000 bubble and they ended up overestimating by several hundred billion.
Just read that the global market for cloud services, or on-demand computing resources such as data storage and software applications via the Web, may grow to $241 billion by 2020 from $40.7 billion in 2011. Clearly this is a sector with potential.
In general, I love the idea of Larry Ellison being in a tizzy. But methinks Salesforce too steep a price to pay for IBM right now.
Market cap is $17B and I would think CRM would demand some kind of premium so you would have to imagine the price tag would be $20B+. I don't see IBM coughing up that kind of cash. Of course I could be wrong -- they have plenty of cash!
Re: who are the leaders in SaaS
Value Hiker
2/6/2012 5:55:45 PM
Thanks for the information, except for the Concur, it seems most SaaS companies are located in San Francisco Bay. Does it have anything to do with Oracle?
@Value Hiker: Salesforce.com (CRM) is the big SaaS pure play, with est. FY13 (Jan.) rev of $2.9 billion and a market cap of $16.7 billion. NetSuite (N) and Concur (CNQR) each have market caps of just over $3 billion.
Ariba (ARBA) is another interesting cloud name. The company provides solutions for B2B commerce/supply-chain intelligence. Market cap is $2.8 billion. Ariba shares were bid up in December following the SuccessFactors buyout announcement, but then fell back after IBM said it would acquire Emptoris, an Ariba competitor.
who are the leaders in SaaS
Value Hiker
2/6/2012 3:57:04 PM
Rob, Who are the leaders in Saas segment excluding big guys like IBM, Oracle? I am interesting in finding small or mid cap players in this markets with strongest position, thanks;
My point was if IBM ever bought Salesforce, it would be disruptive to Oracle, which would be a good thing. Competition makes everyone step up their game.
there is a small chance that [Salesforce.com] could become a buyout target itself. A purchase by IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) for example, would ... send Oracle CEO Larry Ellison into a tizzy.
When IBM makes it's M&A decisions, I doubt that sending "Ellison into a tizzy" is much of a factor. I'd view it as a side benefit myself.
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