Creating fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) about your competitors in the minds of their customers is a tactic common in the enterprise software industry, especially when you see a significant event like an acquisition that will upset the fine balance of players in a mature and consolidating market. It’s all part of the friendly business […]
Category: Investor Relations
Delisting in the US because of Sarbanes-Oxley
The costs of compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are leading some international companies to delist in the US, with others not bothering to apply for stock market listing. A report yesterday in Business Week Online said that the tough corporate-reporting regulations passed in the US in 2002 after the wave of financial scandals have many […]
Microsoft ramps up the FUD
Following the announcement of Oracle’s acquisition of PeopleSoft on 13 December, I wrote about the outbreak of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) that began with comments by an SAP executive. Now comes news about moves by Microsoft seeking to lure PeopleSoft customers away. Microsoft-Watch reports that Microsoft didn’t waste any time in trying to win […]
Euronext moves on London Stock Exchange
Wall Street Journal (paid sub req): Euronext NV has made a preliminary approach to the London Stock Exchange PLC about a possible bid for the London exchange, the companies said Monday. “The approach is at an early stage and therefore does not require a response at this point,” the London Stock Exchange said. In Amsterdam, […]
The web to play a bigger role in public offerings
The Wall Street Journal reports that communication among investors, Wall Street stock underwriters and issuers are in for major modernization, if plans by the US Securities and Exchange Commission are approved this year. The Journal reports today on proposals by the SEC for enabling greater use of the internet to faciliate the dissemination of information […]
Corporate governance fuels boom for enterprise software vendors
Business Week reports on the success of enterprise software vendors and their ‘corporate governance programs’ to fix internal accounting problems, which have become hot sellers in a booming new market: […] It’s a growth business in a mature industry: Market researcher Gartner expects spending on corporate-governance software to hit $6.9 billion in ’06, more than […]
Growing European resentment at Sarbanes-Oxley
A rising tide of resentment is building at the increasing pressure European companies are feeling to comply with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, with some European companies threatening to de-list from US stock exchanges. Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) is legislation passed in the US in 2002 in response to a number of major corporate and accounting […]
Using blogs for informal relationship-building with shareholders
There’s a an extremely good report on IR Web Report, published yesterday, on why corporate boards should blog to improve their communication with shareholders. Every corporate communicator, investor relations practitioner, and CFO should read this (as well as the companion article with ten excuses not to blog). Written from the boardroom perspective, IR Web’s key […]
Search engine to acquire Bloglines
Search engine Ask Jeeves is rumoured to be buying Bloglines, the online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing RSS feeds and blogs. Two things make this news interesting from a communication viewpoint: The formal public announcement apparently isn’t due to be made until Tuesday, but was scooped by Mary Hodder in a post on […]
A snapshot of Google
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal reports on Google’s meeting with financial analysts on Wednesday, the first such meeting since the company’s initial public offering last August. Earlier this month, Google reported fourth-quarter earnings that roughly doubled from a year earlier. The Journal’s report (and related reporting, noted below) is helpful in getting to know some aspects […]
Six Apart may be acquisition target
A speculative story in InternetNews.com discusses the future of Six Apart, asking whether it’s a prime target for Yahoo to add to its portfolio of offerings. The article quotes David Hornik, a Six Apart board member and a partner in August Capital, saying, “Six Apart is not in conversations about being acquired by anyone.” Last […]
Testing time for Sarbanes-Oxley
Judgment day is fast approaching for US companies grappling with the most complex and expensive provisions in the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting and corporate governance legislation. The Financial Times reports that up to 5,000 large and medium-sized public companies must give detailed summaries about the state of their internal controls in forthcoming annual reports. The reports must […]
Start up with unrealistic expectations
Insights into the world of start-ups from Michael Moritz, a partner at Sequioa Capital, one of the most successful venture capital firms in the world. The Financial Times interviewed Moritz and reports his views on some of the biggest successes (and not-so-successes) of the internet era, as well as the pursuit of the next big […]
Phone companies feeling the pinch from VoIP
BBC News: Dutch phone company KPN has announced plans to cut 8,000 jobs over the next five years after it reported a sharp drop in annual profits. The firm made a pre-tax profit of 1.84bn euros (£1.26bn) in 2004, down from 2.25bn euros in 2003. […] The company’s chief executive Ad Scheepbouwer said the redundancies […]
Nike breaks new ground in communication transparency
Communicating on corporate responsibility doesn’t get more transparent than this. The Financial Times reports: Today Nike breaks a three-year silence on social reporting as it publishes its 2004 corporate responsibility report. This is Nike’s first report since a 2002 California supreme court ruling that the company could be sued by Mark Kasky, a labour rights […]
GM blog stays on track
Yesterday, General Motors announced its financial results for the first quarter this year, reporting a net loss of $839 million compared to a net profit of $1.2 billion for the same period last year. It’s interesting to see the focus in media reporting about yesterday’s announcement – “GM posts worst results in 13 years”, “GM […]
Why every company should blog
I’ve just been reading the drafts of the four interviews that Shel Israel posted in the past few days on The Red Couch, the blog that’s the focal point for developing the book on blogs that Shel and Robert Scoble are writing. Those interviews are with Jonathan Schwartz, COO of Sun Microsystems; Bob Lutz, Vice […]
More shake up in the enterprise market
Hundreds of developers at Microsoft and SAP will work together on a new product designed to link together their business software in the most significant leap forward in their 15-year partnership, according to a report by eWeek. The new product, code-named "Mendocino," will link SAP process functionality such as time management, budget monitoring, organizational management, […]
Interview: Mark Elbertse and Hans Mestrum, Tulip Computers – May 11, 2005
In this latest in our series of For Immediate Release podcast interviews – complimentary to our regular "Hobson & Holtz Report" bi-weekly shows – Shel and Neville enjoyed a 24-minute conversation with Mark Elbertse, Chief Executive Officer, and Hans Mestrum, Trendwatcher, of Tulip Computers NV headquartered in Amersfoort, The Netherlands. Our conversation centered on Hans […]
IBM creating an army of evangelists
Silicon Valley Watcher: Early next week IBM will introduce the largest ever corporate blogging initiative in a bid to encourage any of its 130,000 staff to become online evangelists for the company. Tom Foremski’s report today in Silicon Valley Watcher makes for very interesting reading. He says IBM’s plan comes hot on the heels of […]