Amy Wohl

Sector Overview: SaaS

We're expecting 2009 to be The Year of the Acquisition as more successful XaaS companies buy interesting but less successful SaaS companies and portfolio holders (like IBM, Oracle, and SAP) decide to be in the SaaS business. As you noted the question is who is likely to be acquired and by whom. Only a few on your list are likely to be bought -- they're mainly too pricey and have portfolio plans of their own. A tier or two below them are dozens, even hundred, of firms that will not survive this year without being acquired. We are going to see a lot of activity,

Google Is Preparing to Unleash the Cannibals on Microsoft

Everything has its time and the cloud's time has come. It will not be the answer for everything, but it is likely to be the answer for many things. Five Hundred Million Microsoft Office users won't be lightly brushed aside, but the tools of choice for users on new devices and in newly emerging markets are more likely to be in the cloud and more likely to be from we-based ISVs who have no traditional software to protect. Much will change -- and on the other side we will find the advantages to be gained and regret what we left behind.