Rackspace Acquires ObjectRocket

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Rackspace reported QE December 2012 financial results on February 12

Rackspace Acquires ObjectRocket to Help Customers Scale MongoDB in the Cloud

Acquisition to Provide Open Cloud Customers with NoSQL Database as a Service Offering That’s Significantly Faster Than Leading Competitors

SAN ANTONIO -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Feb. 27, 2013 -- Today, Rackspace® Hosting (NYSE: RAX), the open cloud company, announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ObjectRocket, a MongoDB database as a service (DBaaS) provider. With ObjectRocket’s open source-based MongoDB solution, Rackspace will broaden its OpenStack-based open cloud platform to offer customers a NoSQL DBaaS. The ObjectRocket offering also immediately expands Rackspace’s capability to help customers shoulder big data in the cloud for today’s most demanding applications. The acquisition will close today.

According to a report from The 451 Group, “NoSQL software revenue is expected to grow at a CAGR of 82 percent to reach $215 million by 2015.” With the acquisition of ObjectRocket, Rackspace will establish a strong presence within the high growth, NoSQL database market. The ObjectRocket offering will be available in early March for Rackspace customers in its Chicago facility and will soon be deeply integrated across Rackspace's Open Cloud portfolio. ObjectRocket also leverages AWS Direct Connect to provide low latency and free bandwidth to AWS customers and will continue to be sold as a standalone service.

“Databases are the core of any application and expertise in the most popular database technologies will be critical to us delivering Fanatical Support® in the open cloud,” said Pat Matthews, senior vice president of corporate development at Rackspace. “As we look to expand our open cloud database offering into the MongoDB world, we are really excited to work with the entrepreneurs and engineers at ObjectRocket.”

Read more at Rackspace.

About Rackspace Hosting

Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX) is the open cloud company, delivering open technologies and powering more than 205,000 customers worldwide. Rackspace provides its renowned Fanatical Support® across a broad portfolio of IT products, including Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Hosting and Dedicated Hosting. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company, is featured on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For and is included on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Rackspace was positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2011 Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting.” Rackspace is headquartered in San Antonio with offices and data centers around the world. For more information, visit www.rackspace.com.

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Cisco Acquisition of Intucell Completed

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Cisco reported QE January 2013 financial results on February 13

Cisco Completes Acquisition of Intucell

SAN JOSE, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/25/13 -- Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced it has completed its acquisition of privately held Intucell, based in Ra'anana, Israel. Intucell provides advanced self-optimizing network (SON) software, which enables mobile carriers to plan, configure, manage, optimize and heal cellular networks automatically, according to real-time changing network demands. The acquisition of Intucell enhances Cisco's commitment to global service providers by adding a critical network intelligence layer to manage and optimize spectrum, coverage and capacity, and ultimately the quality of the mobile experience.

With the evolution of LTE 4G networks, mobile operators are increasingly looking for a more cost effective and efficient way to keep up with demand for bandwidth and reduce complexity. Intucell enhances Cisco's ability to deliver next-generation solutions with a SON software platform that supports multi-application, multi-vendor and multi-technology capabilities and enables service providers to manage operational costs and make better use of infrastructure investments.

Intucell employees will be integrated into Cisco's Service Provider Mobility Group. Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco paid approximately $475 million in cash and retention-based incentives to acquire the entire business and operations of Intucell.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

Press Release: VMware Named to MIT Technology Review’s 2013 50 Disruptive Companies List Recognizing World’s Most Innovative Companies

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VMware on MIT List of World's Most Innovative Companies

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VMware reported QE December 2012 financial results on January 28

VMware Named to MIT Technology Review's 2013 50 Disruptive Companies List Recognizing World's Most Innovative Companies

PALO ALTO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/25/13 -- VMware (NYSE: VMW) has been identified in the field of Computing as one of 2013's 50 Disruptive Companies, MIT Technology Review's annual list of the world's most innovative technology companies. The honorees are nominated by MIT Technology Review's editors, who look for companies that have demonstrated original and valuable technology over the last year, are bringing that technology to market at significant scale, and are clearly influencing their competitors.

"We take great pride in VMware being recognized as an innovator by MIT Technology Review," said Martin Casado, Chief Architect, Networking, VMware. "Our vision is to enable 100 percent automation of the network in the data center, which requires a fully software based approach. By decoupling the network from the underlying physical hardware, network virtualization transforms the operational and economic models of networking. Early adopters of this innovation are dramatically improving the pace of how they operate and serve their customers while significantly lowering costs."

Managing networks and network services to support cloud architectures is complex, time consuming and limits the achievement of full application mobility across clouds. VMware is at the forefront of network virtualization, which enables the dynamic creation of virtual network infrastructure and services that are completely decoupled and independent from the physical network hardware. Many industry leaders, including AT&T, DreamHost, eBay, Fidelity Investments, NTT and Rackspace are using VMware's Nicira Network Virtualization Platform (NVP) to accelerate service delivery from weeks to minutes and reduce complexity and cost dramatically. VMware acquired Nicira in July 2012.

Jason Pontin, publisher and editor in chief of MIT Technology Review, states, "The pace at which technology changes is astounding. This issue celebrates organizations at the forefront, displaying 'disruptive innovation' that will prove to surpass the competition, transform an industry, and change our lives."

VMware and the other honorees will be featured in the March/April edition of MIT Technology Review, available on newsstands worldwide March 5, and online at technologyreview.com today.

About VMware

VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2012 revenues of $4.61 billion, VMware has more than 480,000 customers and 55,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

Press Release: VMware Named to MIT Technology Review’s 2013 50 Disruptive Companies List Recognizing World’s Most Innovative Companies

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Salesforce Earnings Preview: Another GAAP Loss Expected

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Salesforce reports QE January 2013 financial results on February 28

Salesforce Earnings Preview: 7th Consecutive GAAP Loss Expected

The enterprise cloud computing leader Salesforce (CRM) reports quarter-ending January 2013 earnings on Thursday, Feb. 28, after market close. CEO and cloud visionary Marc Benioff is expected to report non-GAAP earnings per share on higher revenues. The non-GAAP EPS is projected to increase from the prior quarter but decrease from the prior year. Read more and see the charts at Seeking Alpha.

About Salesforce

Founded in 1999, salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing leader. Using salesforce.com’s social and mobile cloud technologies, companies can connect with customers, partners and employees in entirely new ways. Based on salesforce.com's real-time, multitenant architecture, the company's platform and apps give customers the tools to create a social front office and revolutionize the way they sell, service, market, collaborate, work and innovate.

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Salesforce GAAP vs. Non-GAAP Results: A Tale of Two Companies

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Salesforce reports QE January 2013 financial results on February 28

Why The Salesforce GAAP Vs. Non-GAAP Divergence?

The enterprise cloud computing company Salesforce (CRM) reports quarter ending January 2013 earnings on Thursday, February 28, after market close. I'll preview the details in a later post. Cloud visionary CEO Marc Benioff is once again expected to report a GAAP loss and Non-GAAP earnings. Read more and see the charts at Seeking Alpha.

About Salesforce

Founded in 1999, salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing leader. Using salesforce.com’s social and mobile cloud technologies, companies can connect with customers, partners and employees in entirely new ways. Based on salesforce.com's real-time, multitenant architecture, the company's platform and apps give customers the tools to create a social front office and revolutionize the way they sell, service, market, collaborate, work and innovate.

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Amazon Launches Cloud Player for Autos

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Amazon reported QE December 2012 financial results on January 29

Amazon Cloud Player – Now in Your Car

Enjoy your entire music library on the go – no CDs, no wires, no local storage needed

Access to Amazon Cloud Player in Ford SYNC AppLink-equipped vehicles is the latest in a series of customer benefits exclusive to the Amazon ecosystem of digital content and is available on the 2013 Ford Fiesta, Mustang, Focus, E-Series, C-MAX Hybrid, Expedition, Fusion, F-150 and Super Duty models

SEATTLE -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Feb. 13, 2013 -- (NASDAQ: AMZN) - Now it’s getting even easier to enjoy music in your car - starting today, Amazon Cloud Player is available in Ford SYNC Applink-equipped vehicles. Ford owners can now wirelessly connect the Amazon MP3 app on their Android smartphone to the SYNC connectivity system to access and enjoy their entire Cloud Player music library in their car using simple voice commands or the audio controls. Ford Applink-equipped vehicles include the 2013 Ford Fiesta, Mustang, Focus, E-Series, C-MAX Hybrid, Expedition, Fusion, F-150 and Super Duty models. For more information, customers can visit Amazon.com/cloudplayerinford.

Customers will love the integration of Amazon Cloud Player and SYNC Applink because they will be able to:
* Access their music playlists with the convenience of using voice recognition or dashboard controls
* Play music stored in Cloud Player or play back music stored on their mobile phone
* Enjoy eligible music in high-quality 256kbps audio
* Get rid of CDs, wires, and other ways they used to connect and listen to their music in the car
* Free up local storage space on their phones by storing and accessing music in the cloud

“We want customers to be able enjoy their entire music library wherever they want, from whatever device they choose. And we know that cars and music go hand-in-hand. That’s why we’re excited to bring Cloud Player to the car,” said Steve Boom, Vice President of Digital Music for Amazon.

There are already millions of customers using Amazon Cloud Player to download, manage and stream their music in the cloud and on Kindle Fire, Android devices, iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac, PC, Sonos, Roku and Samsung TVs. Now with the availability in Ford SYNC Applink-equipped cars, Amazon Cloud Player continues to offer the broadest selection of playback solutions of any major cloud music service.

Read more at Amazon Cloud Player – Now in Your Car

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Rackspace Lowers Open Cloud Pricing

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Rackspace reported QE December 2012 financial results on February 12

Rackspace Lowers Pricing on its Open Cloud

Open Cloud Leader Introduces Tiered Pricing and Reduces Bandwidth Charges by 33%

SAN ANTONIO -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Feb. 22, 2013-- Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX), the open cloud company, today announced that it is lowering the price for cloud bandwidth and content delivery network (CDN) services by 33 percent. The company also announced that it is implementing tiered pricing for its open cloud product portfolio, starting with Cloud Files, its object storage service. The new pricing changes will take place over the next several weeks, beginning on February 22nd with tiered pricing for Cloud Files.

Rackspace’s customers deploying bandwidth-intensive workloads serving large amounts of content (which include video streaming, mobile and applications that require fast content delivery to end users) will benefit from the lower price of bandwidth, including CDN bandwidth. The price will change from $0.18 to $0.12 per GB.

In addition to the price reduction for bandwidth and CDN bandwidth, Rackspace is introducing a tiered pricing structure. The first product to feature tiered pricing is Cloud Files object storage. The volume discounts range from $0.10 per GB per month for the first 1TB, decreasing to $0.075 per GB per month and even lower for storage amounts over 1024 TB. Rackspace will roll out tiered pricing for additional products throughout 2013. For more details on the bandwidth price reduction and the tiered pricing structure, please visit: http://www.rackspace.com/blog/lower-open-cloud-pricing/.

“The Rackspace Open Cloud is built upon a simple pricing model with no hidden costs or extra charges,” said John Engates, Chief Technology Officer at Rackspace. “This simple and straightforward pricing approach is a key part of how we help customers take advantage of the real value of the Rackspace Open Cloud, particularly for the next generation of bandwidth and content-centric web applications, which must deliver quality user experiences on a mobile and global basis.”

Rackspace aims to make budgeting easier for mid-market and enterprise customers through simple pricing, avoiding charging customers for “extras” that are difficult to predict or estimate. For example, Rackspace does not charge for I/O requests on its Cloud Block Storage product or for API requests on its Cloud Files object storage product.

Rackspace aims to make budgeting easier for mid-market and enterprise customers through simple pricing, avoiding charging customers for “extras” that are difficult to predict or estimate. For example, Rackspace does not charge for I/O requests on its Cloud Block Storage product or for API requests on its Cloud Files object storage product.

About Rackspace Hosting

Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX) is the open cloud company, delivering open technologies and powering more than 205,000 customers worldwide. Rackspace provides its renowned Fanatical Support® across a broad portfolio of IT products, including Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Hosting and Dedicated Hosting. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company, is featured on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For and is included on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Rackspace was positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2011 Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting.” Rackspace is headquartered in San Antonio with offices and data centers around the world. For more information, visit www.rackspace.com.

Rackspace Lowers Pricing on its Open Cloud

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HP Earnings Rebound, Beat Estimates

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HP reported QE January 2013 financial results on February 21

HP Earnings Begin Long Journey Back

The self-styled "world's largest technology company" HP (HPQ) financial results brought a sigh of relief and hope with GAAP earnings per share ($0.63) and continued Non-GAAP earnings per share ($0.82) for the quarter ending January 2013. The Non-GAAP EPS beat both the management outlook ($0.68 to $0.71) and the analysts' estimate ($0.71). This was after 2 disastrous quarters of GAAP net losses totaling a demoralizing $15.7 billion. Read more and see the charts at Seeking Alpha.

About HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world's largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.

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Amazon, Apple, Disney, Google Have Best Corporate Reputations

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Amazon.com Lands in Prime Spot Atop Reputation Rankings in 14th Annual Harris Poll RQ Study

NEW YORK, Feb. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- While the overall perception of corporate America remains relatively grim, there were mixed signals to be found in the results of the 2013 Harris Poll RQ Study which engages over 14,000 members of the general public to measure the reputations of the sixty most visible companies in the country.

(Business Insider) Amazon has the best reputation of any company in the U.S., according to this year's Harris Interactive survey of 14,000 people. It just narrowly edged out Apple to take the top spot, making a big jump from its ranking last year.

Robert Fronk, EVP of Harris' Reputation Management service says in a release, "Our results show that Amazon has managed to build an intimate relationship with the public without being perceived as intrusive." (This sounds like a shot at other companies like Facebook.)

We'd also add that Amazon is a company that seems to be on your side. It makes cheap tablets, offers free shipping, and its Prime service a really great value. Apple, which is great for consumers, is still seen as a company with high prices trying to make loads of money. Amazon is seen as a better friend of the consumer on the value side.

Amazon.com Lands in Prime Spot Atop Reputation Rankings

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HP Earnings Preview: Desperately Seeking An Upside

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HP reports QE January 2013 financial results on February 21

HP Earnings Preview: Is The Bottom In?

The self-styled "world's largest technology company" HP (HPQ) reports quarter ending January 2013 earnings on Thursday, February 21, after market close. Embattled CEO Meg Whitman is expected to actually report not only a Non-GAAP profit, but some GAAP net income as well. This is after 2 disastrous quarters of GAAP net losses totalling a stock busting $15.7 billion! There is literally nowhere to go but up as HP continues to redefine itself and reorganizes the reorganizations. Read more and see the charts at Seeking Alpha.

About HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world's largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.

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Rackspace Expands Open Cloud Computing in UK

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Rackspace reported QE December 2012 financial results on February 12

Progressive Approach to Open Cloud Computing Drives Rackspace UK Expansion

Major UK datacenter growth extends Rackspace open cloud computing platform

LONDON -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Feb. 19, 2013 -- Rackspace® Hosting (NYSE: RAX) is cementing its position as the open cloud company by working with Digital Realty Trust to bring a bigger UK datacentre facility online to serve an expanding European customer base.

“We have hired an additional 300 UK ‘Rackers’ in 2012 and increased our total server count by more than 10,000 over that same past year period,” said Taylor Rhodes, Managing Director, International at Rackspace. “Our customers are aligning their IT functions to take advantage of the open cloud and I am resolutely pleased to be able to move forward with an expanded datacentre. The age of the open cloud has arrived and our market success and subsequent expansion is testimony to that fact.”

This energy-efficient datacentre expansion facilitates Rackspace Hosting’s leadership position as an open cloud company, delivering open technologies worldwide. January 2013 saw an agreement signed to build up to 10-megawatts of UK datacenter space with a strategic construction plan designed to bring a total of five “data halls” online in stages.

The UK expansion of Rackspace’s open cloud footprint is based upon leasing “wholesale” datacentre space, as opposed to taking on the task of constructing its own facility premises. Rackspace has followed a similar approach to drive the wider development of its premises in Virginia, Chicago and Dallas in the USA as well as in Sydney, Australia.

Rackspace provides its renowned Fanatical Support® across a broad portfolio of open standards based IT products, including Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Hosting and Dedicated Hosting. The company’s open cloud ethos and methodology centres around customer choice, flexibility and freedom from vendor lock in.

About Rackspace Hosting

Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX) is the open cloud company, delivering open technologies and powering more than 200,000 customers worldwide. Rackspace provides its renowned Fanatical Support® across a portfolio of IT products, including Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Hosting and Dedicated Hosting. The company offers choice, flexibility and freedom from vendor lock-in. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and was featured on Fortune's list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. Rackspace was positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2011 Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting.” Rackspace is headquartered in San Antonio with offices and data centers around the world. For more information, visit www.rackspace.com.

Progressive Approach to Open Cloud Computing Drives Rackspace UK Expansion

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Cisco Earnings Beat

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Cisco reported QE January 2013 financial results on February 13

Cisco Earnings Beat: This Is How We Roll

Networking leader Cisco (CSCO) reported a record quarter for total revenues ($12.1 billion), operating income ($2.8 billion), net income ($3.1 billion), GAAP earnings per share ($0.59), Non-GAAP earnings per share ($0.51), and cash flow from operations per share ($0.63) for the quarter ending January 2013. CEO John Chambers has led Cisco back from the dismal 2011 financial lows. This was considered a very small beat of $38 million on revenues and a beat of $0.03 on Non-GAAP earnings per share. After reviewing the quarterly report, I consider the results an outlier - encouraging with several qualifications. Read more and see the charts at Seeking Alpha.

About Cisco Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

$CSCO $XLK $QQQ

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Rackspace Earnings Disappoint

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Rackspace reported QE December 2012 financial results on February 12

Rackspace Earnings Disappoint On Record Results

Open cloud provider and innovator Rackspace (RAX) reported a record quarter for total revenues ($352.9 million), operating income ($49.6 million), net income ($29.9 million), GAAP earnings per share ($0.21), and cash flow from operations per share ($0.85) for the quarter ending December 2012. Though the best financial results ever reported by CEO Lanham Napier, this was considered a miss of $2.5 million on revenues ($355.4 million expected) and a miss of $0.01 on GAAP earnings per share ($0.22 expected). After reviewing the quarterly report, I consider this a mild disappointment at most. Read more and see the charts at Seeking Alpha.

About Rackspace Hosting

Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX) is the open cloud company, delivering open technologies and powering more than 200,000 customers worldwide. Rackspace provides its renowned Fanatical Support® across a portfolio of IT products, including Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Hosting and Dedicated Hosting. The company offers choice, flexibility and freedom from vendor lock-in. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and was featured on Fortune's list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. Rackspace was positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2011 Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting.” Rackspace is headquartered in San Antonio with offices and data centers around the world. For more information, visit www.rackspace.com.

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Cisco Earnings Preview: Slow Growth Continues

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Cisco reports QE January 2013 financial results on February 13

Cisco Earnings Preview: Lumbering Along

Networking leader Cisco (CSCO) reports quarter ending January 2013 earnings on Wednesday, February 13, after market close. CEO John Chambers is expected to deliver investors another slow-growth quarter for both revenues and earnings per share. Cisco is a tech giant with $90+ billion in total assets, $10+ billion in quarterly revenues, and 70,000+ employees. The Board gives back to shareholders via dividends and a stock repurchase program. Read more and see the charts at Seeking Alpha.

About Cisco Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

$CSCO $XLK $QQQ

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VMware Acquires Virsto

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VMware reported QE December 2012 financial results on January 28

VMware to Acquire Virsto

PALO ALTO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/11/13 -- VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Virsto® Software, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of software that optimizes storage performance and utilization in virtual environments.

"VMware is committed to continuing to deliver software innovations that bring significant efficiencies to our customers while simplifying infrastructure and IT," said John Gilmartin, vice president of storage and availability, VMware. "We believe that the acquisition of Virsto will accelerate our development of storage technologies, allowing our customers to greatly improve the efficiency and performance of storage in virtual infrastructure."

Organizations are looking for solutions to address the increasing complexity and cost of storage within virtual and cloud environments, particularly for virtual desktop infrastructures (VDI), large software development and test centers and to support business-critical applications. Virsto provides breakthrough storage optimization technologies that improve storage performance and utilization in these environments. When implemented within a VDI, Virsto can reduce the cost of storage per desktop by as much as 70 percent.

As part of its strategy to deliver the software-defined datacenter, VMware continues to invest and innovate to extend the benefits of virtualization to every domain in the datacenter -- compute, network, storage and the associated security and availability services. VMware has been at the forefront of innovations to storage in virtual environments, and the acquisition of Virsto will expand VMware's storage portfolio, which includes the storage virtualization and management capabilities of VMware vSphere® and the VMware vSphere Storage Appliance™. In addition, EMC Corporation plans to license the Virsto technology, extending the cooperative efforts between the two companies in storage architectures.

"VMware and Virsto share a highly aligned vision to remove complexity and increase efficiencies through virtualization," said Mark Davis, CEO, Virsto. "We are excited to combine forces with VMware to provide customers a more cost-effective, efficient, and agile storage architecture."

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The acquisition is scheduled to close in the first quarter of 2013 subject to customary closing conditions.

About Virsto Virsto Software Corporation changes the economics of storage in virtualized environments by improving utilization, increasing performance, and accelerating VM storage provisioning. Virsto reduces the cost and complexity of storage for VDI, test and development, business-critical application virtualization, cloud computing and other virtualization initiatives. Founded in 2007, Virsto is backed by leading Silicon Valley venture firms. For more information, visit www.virsto.com.

About VMware VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2012 revenues of $4.61 billion, VMware has more than 480,000 customers and 55,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

Press Release: VMware to Acquire Virsto

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Rackspace Earnings Preview: Higher EPS Expected

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Rackspace reports QE December 2012 financial results on Tuesday, February 12, after market close

Rackspace Preview: Higher Earnings Expected

Open cloud provider Rackspace (RAX) reports quarter ending December 2012 earnings on Tuesday, February 12, after market close. CEO Lanham Napier is expected to deliver investors another record quarter of revenues and earnings per share. However, the year over year growth rates for both are slowing. Read more and see charts at Seeking Alpha.

Addendum: I estimate Rackspace GAAP earnings per share with my own model, which is very conservative and for “ballpark” purposes only. For the quarter ending December 2012, I estimate EPS at $0.20. Rackspace consistently beats my projections which I consider a worst case scenario. I also estimate, and want to see, at least a net margin of 8% this next earnings announcement to maintain the profitability investors expect. Read more and see charts at Seeking Alpha

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VMware Earnings Slump

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VMware reported QE December 2012 financial results on January 28

VMware Earnings: Down But Not Out

Analyst and investor expectations were more than what VMware (VMW) could actually achieve. The exceptional post-recession growth has slowed. However, VMware has excellent fundamentals and on the post-earnings price drop it becomes a more reasonably priced stock and an attractive long position. Read more and see charts at Seeking Alpha.

About VMware VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2012 revenues of $4.61 billion, VMware has more than 480,000 customers and 55,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

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Qualcomm Earnings Shine!

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Qualcomm reported QE December 2012 financial results on January 30

Qualcomm Earnings: Life Is Good

Life is good for Qualcomm (QCOM) CEO Paul Jacobs. Quarter ending December 2012 was all about all-time record highs: total revenues ($6.02 billion), operating income ($2.09 billion), net income ($1.91 billion), non-GAAP earnings per share ($1.26), and cash flow per share from operations ($1.13). GAAP earnings per share of $1.09 were the second best ever, eclipsed only by the March 2012 quarter of $1.28, which included a $0.44 gain from sale of discontinued operations. So, from an operations standpoint, even the earnings per share were a record. Read more and see charts at Seeking Alpha.

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Amazon Earnings Limp Along

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Amazon reported QE December 2012 financial results on January 29

Amazon Earnings: Cooler Heads Will Prevail

Now that some of the initial volatility of Amazon (AMZN) resulting from the quarter ending December 31, 2012, earnings announcement has subsided, a review of the ongoing lackluster performance is in order. For quite some time, fundamentals have not mattered - only the hope of tomorrow has. Amazon is about high volume sales that ultimately do not reach the bottom line and earnings per share. Accordingly, the shareholders do not benefit from this massive amount of transactions, and dollars, churning at Amazon from the effort of 88,400 employees. This may be the eighth wonder of the world. Read more and see charts at Seeking Alpha.

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Microsoft Earnings Review: Windows Saves the Quarter!

Microsoft reported QE December 2012 financial results on January 24

Microsoft earnings peak with the calendar fourth quarter holidays and just missed matching the prior year. Earnings per share peaks for the past 4 years reveal Microsoft is treading water.
QE December 2012 $0.76
QE December 2011 $0.78
QE December 2010 $0.77
QE December 2009 $0.74

The ongoing existential question continues if Microsoft is ultimately relevant as the technology leading edge races mercilessly forward and therefore if the company life cycle has peaked. For now, CEO Ballmer has stayed in this brutal game with such worthy adversaries as Apple and Google but it is an uphill battle. It's hard out here for a Tech Giant!



Revenues and earnings per share growth rates have been a struggle for Microsoft. Future growth is possible, but robustness is doubtful.



The great news is total revenues reached an all-time high of $21.46 billion. Microsoft is still relevant, at least for now.



The sobering news is gross margin (73.47%) reached a 4-quarter low and second lowest in years. Competition and a changing technology landscape has lowered gross margins, which reached 80+% in the old Microsoft / Intel / Dell desktop days. Operating margin (36.22%) and net margin (29.72%) are respectable. The 18-quarter averages for gross, operating, and net margins are 77.87%, 37.86%, 27.72%, respectively.



Windows revenues saves the quarter in a big way! The annual holiday peak in Entertainment and Devices also assisted in boosting total revenues to a record high. However, the Entertainment and Devices revenues did not exceed the prior year peak.



Total assets are now a record $128+ billion. Apple, HP, and IBM are the other exclusive members of the Big Tech $100 Billion Assets Club, though Apple will surpass $200 billion total assets next quarter. Liquid assets (cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities) have increased to an amazing $68+ billion. Add noncurrent equity and other investments and total asset reserves reach nearly $79+ billion!

“Our big, bold ambition to reimagine Windows as well as launch Surface and Windows Phone 8 has sparked growing enthusiasm with our customers and unprecedented opportunity and creativity with our partners and developers,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “With new Windows devices, including Surface Pro, and the new Office on the horizon, we’ll continue to drive excitement for the Windows ecosystem and deliver our software through devices and services people love and businesses need.”

"We saw strong growth in our enterprise business driven by multi-year commitments to the Microsoft platform, which positions us well for long-term growth,” said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft. “Multi-year licensing revenue grew double-digits across Windows, Server & Tools, and the Microsoft Business Division.”

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