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Posts Tagged ‘Oracle’

Cloud Startup Values Are Getting Insane

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, Investments, Market research, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Article from GigaOm.

“Forget the AngelGate controversy and shift your attention to the big-money world of cloud computing and infrastructure startups. While the clashing egos clang in the Silicon Valley echo chamber, massive amounts of money have started to flow into cloud companies at nosebleed valuations, and things are only just getting started.

Here are some of the recent deals and some exclusive details on forthcoming rounds and valuations of some of the better-known cloud and big data focused companies:

  • StorSimple, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based storage company making hybrid storage systems, recently raised $13 million in Series B funding. The company, which has yet to bring in a dollar in sales, is being valued at $50 million.
  • RightScale recently raised $25 million in Series C funding from Tenya Capital, DAG Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures and Presidio Ventures at a reported valuation of $100-$125 million. Another source suggests that RightScale’s valuation is even higher.
  • Eucalyptus, a company headed by ex-MySQL CEO Marten Mickos, is said to be valued in excess of $100 million, and raised $20 million in new funding from New Enterprise Associates, Benchmark Capital and BV Capital.

On the big data front:

  • Aster Data recently snagged $30 million in new funding from the likes of Sequoia Capital and a new undisclosed investor. Rumored valuation: somewhere between $85 and $120 million.
  • I’ve heard rumors that Cloudera, the Hadoop-based big data company and one of the all-stars of big data movement, is looking to raise a fresh round of funding and is being valued in excess of $100 million.

My sources tell me a handful of cloud companies are likely to raise a ton of money in the coming weeks. So now you must be wondering what’s going on. There are two forces at work:

From a macro standpoint, the investment industry’s thinking about cloud-based investments has evolved. At our Structure 2010 conference, folks like VMware CEO Paul Maritz talked about the 10-year shift in the IT infrastructure. Early cloud doubters such as Oracle’s Larry Ellison are coming around and rethinking the opportunities being offered by the cloud. The venture capital community is sensing an opportunity and pumping dollars into the sector. But when you zero in, you can see that late-stage investors are willingly investing in companies that already have backing from the cream of the crop venture capital firms, such as Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital and Index Ventures.”

Read the full article here.

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Zynga Moves 1 Petabyte Of Data Daily; Adds 1,000 Servers A Week

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, FaceBook, Gerbsman Partners, internet, Market research, Social Networks, Strategy, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on September 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Article from TechCrunch.

“We all know that social gaming giant Zynga is one of the fastest growing tech companies of all time and has turned games like FarmVille into a mainstream phenomenon. And via international expansion and deals with Facebook and Google, Zynga has continued its path to domination of the social gaming market. We have an idea of the company’s revenue and other gaming statistics, but there is some data involving the backend of the platform that has not been revealed. Today, Zynga’s CTO Cadir Lee is speaking at Oracle’s OpenWorld conference about the gaming giant’s infrastructure, business and challenges.

Lee offers the following statistics:

  • 10 percent of the world’s internet population (approximately 215 million monthly users) has played a Zynga game.
  • The company adds as many as 1,000 servers every week to accommodate growing traffic.
  • Zynga’s properties move a whopping 1 petabyte of data daily, and the company operates its own data centers; using a hybrid private/public cloud infrastructure.
  • Zynga’s technology supports 3 billion neighbor connections on games like Frontierville and Farmville.

The company itself has been steadily adding employees, through both acquisitions and new hires, and now counts more than 1,200 full time employees and includes 13 game studios.”

Read more here.

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Oracle surpasses profit, revenue forecasts

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on September 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Article from SF Gate.

Oracle Corp. reported profit and revenue that beat analysts’ estimates as sales of database software and Sun Microsystems server computers helped it capitalize on a recovery in information-technology spending.

First-quarter earnings excluding acquisition costs and other expenses were 42 cents per share, Redwood City‘s Oracle said Thursday in a statement. That topped the 37 cent average of projections compiled by Bloomberg.

The world’s second-largest software maker is taking advantage of improvements in corporate spending by offering a wide range of software products it’s assembled through acquisitions. Oracle also gained computer hardware with its $7.3 billion purchase of Sun in January. The hiring of Mark Hurd as co-president this month may help the company manage Sun and expand into new areas of hardware, analysts said.

“Oracle is probably the best indicator in the software space of the overall spending environment in IT right now,” said Yun Kim, an analyst at Gleacher & Co. in Greenwich, Conn., who recommends buying the shares and doesn’t own any himself. Most software projects at companies require database programs, which benefits Oracle, he said.

Oracle rose 4.1 percent to 26.40 in extended trading after closing at $25.36 at 4 p.m. on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has gained 3.4 percent this year.

The company reports sales that include deferred revenue from acquired companies and don’t conform to generally accepted accounting principles. On that basis, sales in the period ended Aug. 31 jumped 50 percent to $7.59 billion. Analysts on average predicted $7.32 billion.

Oracle is the largest seller of database software, second to SAP AG in business applications, and the No. 2 provider of application-connecting middleware after IBM Corp. Its goal for Sun, a money loser at the time of the acquisition, is to contribute $1.5 billion in operating income during its first year in the fold.

The company will unveil “two high-end systems that combine Sun hardware with Oracle software” at next week’s Oracle OpenWorld show in San Francisco, Hurd said in the statement.

Read more here.

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Intel to acquire McAfee in $7.68 billion deal

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Here is some big news from SF Gate.

“Intel Corp., signaling its ambitions to expand beyond computers and into the booming market for mobile and Internet-connected devices, announced a deal Thursday to buy security software maker McAfee Inc. for $7.68 billion, the chipmaker’s biggest acquisition ever.

The surprise deal represents Intel’s bold move to position its chips, primarily its lower-powered mobile processors, as an attractive choice for the billions of coming Internet-connected devices, what some have termed the Internet of Things.

By integrating McAfee’s anti-virus software, the world’s biggest chipmaker hopes to create a product that addresses the potential security vulnerabilities created by countless wireless devices, appliances, cars, printers and ATM machines.

Paul Otellini, Intel’s president and CEO, said in a conference call that the Santa Clara company is looking to provide added security, which he called a third pillar of computing, after energy efficiency and connectivity. In the process, Intel is transforming from just a PC company to a broader computing company, he said.

“Our view is that everywhere we sell a microprocessor, there is an opportunity to sell security software with it,” he said.

The acquisition values McAfee, a leading security software firm also based in Santa Clara, at $48 a share. That is a 60 percent premium over its Wednesday closing price.

The deal also continues a streak of cash-rich Silicon Valley titans buying neighbors, following Oracle’s purchase of Sun and Hewlett-Packard‘s acquisition of Palm.

Intel said it would run McAfee as a subsidiary with its executive structure in place. David DeWalt, McAfee’s CEO, said he was excited about the prospect of teaming with Intel to tackle larger security challenges ahead.

“By becoming part of Intel Corp., we believe we can continue to create new and innovative security solutions,” said DeWalt.

Analysts’ reactions

Analysts greeted the news with mixed reactions. Some saw the wisdom of securing Internet-connected devices, which could hit an estimated 50 billion units in the next decade.

“If you look at the PC world, we have a stable stack and set of technologies like the operating system, middleware and antivirus software,” said Crawford Del Prete, an analyst with research firm IDC. “But when you think of connected devices, the stack doesn’t exist in the same way, and security will be a big problem for the billions of devices out there.”

The move will also help Intel compete against processors based on designs from ARM Holdings, which are found in virtually all cell phones and many electronic devices. ARM chips are preferred because they offer better power efficiency, but Intel’s move may help differentiate its chips by highlighting their built-in security protection.

Doubts about synergy

Other analysts, however, have questioned the strategy of buying McAfee, saying it is an expensive purchase and one whose synergies may be hard to realize.

Brian Marshall, an analyst with investment bank Gleacher & Co., said its unclear how much help McAfee can provide, with its strengths in selling packaged software for PCs. He said the business model for selling security for smaller and embedded devices is not established and may be challenging to monetize.

Symantec Corp., McAfee’s biggest rival, said in a statement that Intel might be too focused on securing individual devices when it should create a broader solution that addresses the multiple devices consumers will use.”

Read more here.

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Do Companies Like Facebook Still Need To Go Public?

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, tagged , , , , , , , on March 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Here is an article from The Big Money.

“That’s not the frame of this insightful Wall Street Journal story, but it could be. Journal reporter Ben Worthen flags the widening gap between cash-rich tech companies—Cisco (CSCO), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), and Oracle (ORCL)—and everybody else. By keeping tens of billions of cash on their balance sheets, Worthen writes, “these companies can afford to take risks that smaller companies can’t at a time when the economy remains fragile.”

This notion is so far outside of conventional wisdom that it can’t even get in the same room. For decades we’ve been told that the nimble startup would run circles around the corporate dinosaur. But Worthen’s piece is a great reminder that a crucial way for companies to obtain and maintain their advantage in rapidly developing fields is through acquisition. And in order to make the right acquisitions, you need currency (cash is best, but stock is also a valid currency under the right conditions).

This issue is too often ignored in discussions of a Facebook IPO, which the company’s investors have publicly ruled out for 2010. There is a line of thinking that says that Facebook is already flush with cash, and since it is now cash-flow positive, it ought to be able to stay that way. Other tech startups, too, argue that open-source technology and cloud computing keep their costs substantially lower than those of their ‘90s counterparts and therefore they don’t need to go public.”

Read the complete article here.

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