Anil Sharma - Seeking Alpha 'Anil Sharma' Tag RSS Syndication from SeekingAlpha.com SeekingAlpha.com http://seekingalpha.com/author/anil-sharma Why Weren't Markets More Excited by the Microsoft - Yahoo Deal? http://seekingalpha.com/article/152869-why-weren-t-markets-more-excited-by-the-microsoft-yahoo-deal?source=feed 152869 Finally the much awaited search engine deal between Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) came through this week. It all started about two years ago when Microsoft gave an offer to acquire Yahoo at ~$47B valuation. With current market cap of Yahoo at ~$21B, that was certainly a good deal for Yahoo shareholders. There were lots of rumors around Microsoft buying Yahoo’s search part only last year as well, but nothing came out of those rumors. Now, Microsoft and Yahoo will actually partner on search engine technology and Yahoo will use Bing as the search engine behind its content and adware. Essentially, Yahoo will come out of search engine development. This may look like a loss for Yahoo on surface but for a company that is rebuilding and re-identifying itself; this may prove to be the medicine that Yahoo needed. There are two main aspects to this deal: strategic focus for Yahoo going forward and financial worth for yahoo search. Let’s look at them.

Strategically, nobody has a doubt that Yahoo did the right thing by going out of search engine space where its chances of winning were slim to none against Google (GOOG) and Microsoft. At this point in US search market, with Google at ~75% market share and Microsoft with another ~8% market share along with a desire to win more, that doesn't leave enough opportunity for any big third vendor. Also, since Yahoo will still keep its sales force, it can re-enter later if required or go with another search engine vendor after 10 years, provided it is still around then. Not only that, but Yahoo will also get to focus more on its core strengths and the market it is leader in, i.e. content provider. Yahoo email, finance and news are the types of areas where it is the best in the world and where it needs to focus more and generate more utility for its customers.

]]> Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:28:47 -0400 Anil Sharma Finally the much awaited search engine deal between Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) came through this week. It all started about two years ago when Microsoft gave an offer to acquire Yahoo at ~$47B valuation. With current market cap of Yahoo at ~$21B, that was certainly a good deal for Yahoo shareholders. There were lots of rumors around Microsoft buying Yahoo’s search part only last year as well, but nothing came out of those rumors. Now, Microsoft and Yahoo will actually partner on search engine technology and Yahoo will use Bing as the search engine behind its content and adware. Essentially, Yahoo will come out of search engine development. This may look like a loss for Yahoo on surface but for a company that is rebuilding and re-identifying itself; this may prove to be the medicine that Yahoo needed. There are two main aspects to this deal: strategic focus for Yahoo going forward and financial worth for yahoo search. Let’s look at them.

Strategically, nobody has a doubt that Yahoo did the right thing by going out of search engine space where its chances of winning were slim to none against Google (GOOG) and Microsoft. At this point in US search market, with Google at ~75% market share and Microsoft with another ~8% market share along with a desire to win more, that doesn't leave enough opportunity for any big third vendor. Also, since Yahoo will still keep its sales force, it can re-enter later if required or go with another search engine vendor after 10 years, provided it is still around then. Not only that, but Yahoo will also get to focus more on its core strengths and the market it is leader in, i.e. content provider. Yahoo email, finance and news are the types of areas where it is the best in the world and where it needs to focus more and generate more utility for its customers.


Complete Story »]]> GOOG MSFT YHOO Anil Sharma Optimizing the WAN Optimization Space http://seekingalpha.com/article/149152-optimizing-the-wan-optimization-space?source=feed 149152 When IT applications from a company’s headquarters are rolled out to the branch offices to provide seamless work environment across the whole enterprise, data transfer needs on wide area network links between branch offices and headquarters increase manifold. These applications from headquarters that are now available to branch office employees could also include voice and video services delivered through WAN. On top of that, the move towards cloud computing is adding more and more strain on WAN bandwidth which needs to be properly allocated and utilized based on business and end-user needs.

The next step after you roll out full fledged intelligent branches is essentially a better allocation of WAN bandwidth, application traffic reduction, data center virtualization across enterprise, and branch office IT consolidation. Seamless application delivery to all enterprise users while being completely oblivious of their locations, technological moves towards cloud-computing architecture, WAN bandwidth reduction requirements and proper allocation of bandwidth among business needs created the market for WAN optimization products.

]]> Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:06:03 -0400 Anil Sharma When IT applications from a company’s headquarters are rolled out to the branch offices to provide seamless work environment across the whole enterprise, data transfer needs on wide area network links between branch offices and headquarters increase manifold. These applications from headquarters that are now available to branch office employees could also include voice and video services delivered through WAN. On top of that, the move towards cloud computing is adding more and more strain on WAN bandwidth which needs to be properly allocated and utilized based on business and end-user needs.

The next step after you roll out full fledged intelligent branches is essentially a better allocation of WAN bandwidth, application traffic reduction, data center virtualization across enterprise, and branch office IT consolidation. Seamless application delivery to all enterprise users while being completely oblivious of their locations, technological moves towards cloud-computing architecture, WAN bandwidth reduction requirements and proper allocation of bandwidth among business needs created the market for WAN optimization products.


Complete Story »]]> BCSI CSCO CTXS FFIV JNPR RVBD Anil Sharma Thoughts on Dell's Recent Acquisition Rumors http://seekingalpha.com/article/147815-thoughts-on-dell-s-recent-acquisition-rumors?source=feed 147815 After Michael Dell’s remark about a significant acquisition and a series of capital market activities, there has been a lot of speculation about Dell’s (DELL) acquisition targets. In April 2009, Dell sold $500 million worth of 5-year notes and in May it hired David Johnson, M&A head from IBM. Dell again sold $1 billion worth of debt around mid June. “Rumor” lists even tried to identify the target segment as data storage, services or software.

In any case, it looks like this may be the right time for Dell to diversify away from the PC business as assets are still cheap and Dell does need to switch direction to grow further. Here are some of the targets mentioned in Dell’s “shopping lists” published by UBS, Avian Securities and Bernstein Research analysts: Acer, CommVault (CVLT), Perot Systems (PER), Salesforce.com (CRM), Sun (JAVA), Data Domain (DDUP), 3PAR (PAR), Compellent (CML), Palm (PALM), Citrix (CTXS), CSC, 3Com (COMS) etc.

]]> Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:54:13 -0400 Anil Sharma After Michael Dell’s remark about a significant acquisition and a series of capital market activities, there has been a lot of speculation about Dell’s (DELL) acquisition targets. In April 2009, Dell sold $500 million worth of 5-year notes and in May it hired David Johnson, M&A head from IBM. Dell again sold $1 billion worth of debt around mid June. “Rumor” lists even tried to identify the target segment as data storage, services or software.

In any case, it looks like this may be the right time for Dell to diversify away from the PC business as assets are still cheap and Dell does need to switch direction to grow further. Here are some of the targets mentioned in Dell’s “shopping lists” published by UBS, Avian Securities and Bernstein Research analysts: Acer, CommVault (CVLT), Perot Systems (PER), Salesforce.com (CRM), Sun (JAVA), Data Domain (DDUP), 3PAR (PAR), Compellent (CML), Palm (PALM), Citrix (CTXS), CSC, 3Com (COMS) etc.


Complete Story »]]> CML COMS CRM CSC CTXS CVLT DDUP DELL EXTR PALM PAR PER Anil Sharma PALM: Ready to Break Out? http://seekingalpha.com/article/146591-palm-ready-to-break-out?source=feed 146591 Every once in a while, a stock breaks the barriers and totally changes its category. It moves from small cap to mid-cap to large cap and so on. In that process it increases its market cap by many folds perhaps even 20 times. Research in Motion (RIMM) did that from June 06 to Oct 07 and First Solar (FSLR) did the same from Jan 07 to Jan 08. For such a sustained stock run to happen, it has to be based on a fundamental change in company itself or in the company’s perception.

Recently, Palm (PALM) is showing a similar trend. It has grown almost 10 fold over the last 6 months with its current market cap at ~2.2 billion. The question remains “Is this for real?” and “can it continue?” Can Palm break out from its current levels again and reach a market cap of $10 billion? Palm has come out with its new smartphone (Palm Pre) which is considered a very competitive offering against “iPhone from Apple (AAPL)” and “Blackberry from RIMM”. So far, reviews on Pre have been great. Reviewers are bullish on Palm’s new WebOS, true multitasking capabilities and of course cordless electromagnetic charging capability for Pre. Here is a link to a CNET smartphone comparison.

]]> Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:51:31 -0400 Anil Sharma Every once in a while, a stock breaks the barriers and totally changes its category. It moves from small cap to mid-cap to large cap and so on. In that process it increases its market cap by many folds perhaps even 20 times. Research in Motion (RIMM) did that from June 06 to Oct 07 and First Solar (FSLR) did the same from Jan 07 to Jan 08. For such a sustained stock run to happen, it has to be based on a fundamental change in company itself or in the company’s perception.

Recently, Palm (PALM) is showing a similar trend. It has grown almost 10 fold over the last 6 months with its current market cap at ~2.2 billion. The question remains “Is this for real?” and “can it continue?” Can Palm break out from its current levels again and reach a market cap of $10 billion? Palm has come out with its new smartphone (Palm Pre) which is considered a very competitive offering against “iPhone from Apple (AAPL)” and “Blackberry from RIMM”. So far, reviews on Pre have been great. Reviewers are bullish on Palm’s new WebOS, true multitasking capabilities and of course cordless electromagnetic charging capability for Pre. Here is a link to a CNET smartphone comparison.


Complete Story »]]> AAPL DELL GOOG GRMN PALM Anil Sharma