Analysts: Industry Impacts of Western Digital Acquisition of Hitachi Storage

March 8, 2011

On Monday March 7 Western Digital (WD) announced that the company had reached an agreement to purchase Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST) for $4.3 billion in cash and common stock. The deal has already been approved by both companies’ boards and is expected to close in the third quarter assuming regulatory approval.

HGST’s parent Hitachi will retain a 10% stake in the combined company and HGST’s current CEO, Steve Milligan, will be president of the new business reporting to WD president and CEO John Coyne. The merger will impact the HDD industry including component and equipment suppliers and change the landscape for enterprise SSDs.

Biggest in HDDs

From a unit shipment perspective WD and HGST are the largest and third largest manufacturers of hard disk drives (HDDs). Today Seagate remains the revenue leader, thanks to the company’s dominance of the enterprise SSD market. The pending merger will push WD’s revenues ahead of Seagate’s.

WD is already the unit shipment leader, having surpassed Seagate’s unit shipments over a year ago. Combined unit shipments for WD and HGST account for nearly 48% of the world HDD market.

Hitachi GST was formed by the merger of IBM and Hitachi’s HDD units in 2003. After many years of losses HGST turned profitable for most of the last two years. Although the division is profitable, Hitachi was rumored to have been looking to divest itself of its HDD unit for several years. In 2010 and even in 2009 rumors reported that Hitachi was shopping for a buyer for the division with WD mentioned as one of the suitors. WD was also rumored to have been interested in Fujitsu’s HDD business before that company was acquired by Toshiba.

Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments | analysis, hardware, news | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

PR Laggards: Apple, Facebook, Google, HP, Intel, Oracle, Salesforce.com, VMware…

December 3, 2010

Part of PRSA's Media Predicts 2011 journalists panel (left to right): moderator Jon Fortt (CNBC), Ben Parr (Mashable), Bianca Bosker (The Huffington Post), Daniel Lyons (Newsweek), Chris O'Brien (The Mercury News) and

These companies were conspicuous by their absence at Silicon Valley’s biggest tech PR event of the year, PRSA’s Media Predicts 2011.

Attending however, were event sponsors Cisco, Microsoft, SAP and Yahoo, as well as local companies eBay/PayPal, Nvidia, Sandisk, Nvidia, SonicWall or Symantec, to name a few. And even French company Viadeo (a LinkedIn competitor) was there!

On the PR front, most of the agencies were in attendance (AccessPR being the more vocal!), except most notably Outcast, the PR agency of Facebook and Salesforce.com, both of which also shunned the top media event.

Surprisingly, or not you might say, I couldn’t spot any reporters/bloggers at the event, aside from the media colleagues on stage: Eric Savitz (Forbes, formerly at Barron’s), Ben Parr (Mashable), Chris O’Brien (The Mercury News), Daniel Lyons (Newsweek), Rachael King (Bloomberg Businessweek), Quentin Hardy (Forbes), Bianca Bosker (The Huffington Post) and moderator Jon Fortt (CNBC).

Not sure how to make of that (and you?), as there were still quite a few seats empty at the otherwise packed gala event. More on the media predictions on a latter post.

18 Comments | analysis, news | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Is The Google-Verizon Deal Against Net Neutrality?

August 5, 2010

The debate over the struggle to keep the Net open continues as Google eyes Web traffic deal with Verizon.

Today the New York Times came in strongly against the search engine provider accusing both Google and Verizon are on the verge of signing an agreement for speedier content deliver.

The agreement would let Verizon accelerate content delivery to consumers provided that online publishers pay for it.

By publishers, we are talking of services like YouTube, who would get priority over others when it comes to content delivery over the Verizon Network. A network, by the way, that is amongst one of the top Internet service providers in the United States. The payment will be made by the owner of the content, Google in this case.

The flip side? Wave goodbye to net neutrality.

Here are some reasons why I think this could prove harmful for the rest of us:

  1. Consumers will get charged extra for faster content delivery;
  2. Preference to one content over another on the basis of one being free and the other being paid for;
  3. It would mean an end to the FCC control over Internet Service Providers (ISPs), which I know some wouldn’t mind that much!

In addition, quite a few Verizon phones run on Google’s Android mobile operating system, which further gives credence to speculations that Google might try to seek preferred treatment from Verizon.

In response, Verizon stated this on its blog:

The NYT article regarding conversations between Google and Verizon is mistaken.  It fundamentally misunderstands our purpose. As we said in our earlier FCC filing, our goal is an Internet policy framework that ensures openness and accountability, and incorporates specific FCC authority, while maintaining investment and innovation. To suggest this is a business arrangement between our companies is entirely incorrect.

While Google response on the Guardian was:

The New York Times is quite simply wrong. We have not had any conversations with Verizon about paying for carriage of Google traffic. We remain as committed as we always have been to an open internet.

The deal in my opinion is about winning extra bandwidth to promote better utilization of speed and improved content delivery. Improved speed and higher bandwidth would bolt users with higher service rate and ensure the Internet is monopolized.

Is Google finally evil?

Leave a Comment » | analysis | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Will The Internet Explorer Regain Its Past Position In Browser Market?

August 2, 2010

Have you ever seen the expression on the face of a kid who has been failing continually and then gets a better percentage, out of the blues? Well Microsoft’s Internet Explorer might paint a similar picture as the browser gained a minute percentage in July.

The fall of IE isn’t a new story and had been happening ever since the advent of Mozilla’s Firefox, specifically. Back in September 2009, IE stood in the browser share market with 65.71% and coming down to 60.32% in June this year with Firefox standing at 23.82%. However it changed in July when the browser’s market share climbed marginally to reach 60.74% while that of Firefox took a dip from 23.81% in June to 22.91%. What the stats mention is obvious that the Internet Explorer has gained in on the shares of Firefox and even Google Chrome which has also taken a plunge from 7.24% to 7.16%. Despite all the recent plunge, the IE continues to be the market leader for various reasons.

I am pretty skeptical about IE, the main reason being that the leading browser was only able to climb to such heights owing to the fact that it started when it was the only web browser. I recall Netscape Navigator, which was one of the worst browsers ever. IE was good until Microsoft axed its own feet by keeping the IE 6 on the web for almost half a decade, there was nothing new coming to it while others in the field kept introducing feature rich browsers. That era of IE6 was exactly that turned off many IE fans and had it not been for big names on the Web like YouTube, etc pulling off support for the IE6. There was of course IE7 which was better at crashing more often, giving an even worse experience to surfers.

I don’t recall when was the last time I actually used the Internet Explorer and why would I if the likes of Firefox, Chrome or even Opera provide me with a rich experience? IE had that trust of users, but it has continually lost it, something which will be hard for it to regain. The other major reason for its massive success and dominance is the fact that it came loaded on all PCs, which had a largest share in the computer market, so its success is rightly credited to the success of Microsoft Windows in my opinion. The current rise shouldn’t be taken a sign of IE’s regeneration, it just a hiccup, one which we will keep witnessing until IE is number two or worst still the number 3 browser.

Stats via Net Applications

1 Comment | analysis | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Zynga: On The Verge Of Being The Next Big Thing

July 26, 2010

There has to be mention of anything that is successful, especially in the Silicon Valley which is why I will be doing a dissection of Zynga, the social gaming giant that has seen an exponential growth. Yes, it is, in my opinion far more successful than Twitter. At least in terms of successfully generating revenue.

I wouldn’t have thought of Mark Pincus’ brainchild see such phenomenal growth when he launched the startup a couple of years back. Especially with absolutely pointless and no brainer games in the form of FarmVille, Mafia Wars and an entire chain of virtual playgrounds. The 44 year old CEO has transformed a virtual existence into a name which is valued at over $4.5 billion and has the attention of everyone back in the Valley as well as abroad. It has piggybacked on Facebook, but as it grows there have been reports of the social game developer to actually become more independent and perhaps even bid farewell to Facebook. I am not sure if this is going to happen, because I don’t see a point in people specifically playing Zynga games outside the premises of Facebook.

But lets keep that out for now and highlight a few numbers that show its growth:

  • Zynga has over 100 million users, the number which it has crossed in less than 2 years
  • Estimated revenue worth $500 million for 2010
  • Has almost 1,000 employees, the numbers which have tripled in a year [375 last year]
  • FrontierVille, the latest game in the Zynga armory amassed 20 million users in just a month of its release [in June]

Those are just snippets to summarize the overall growth of Zynga. What’s interesting here is the fact that Zynga is selling successfully whatever it is creating. People buy anything, from four chickens costing $5.60 to a tractor that you can purchase for $3.50. All these methods of purchases have evolved, starting from credit cards and PayPal accounts to the latest Facebook Credits. Whatever way you look at it, Zynga is speedily moving towards being the next biggest thing.

1 Comment | analysis | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Is Google Set To Fail In China?

July 24, 2010

Google might be firing at all cylinders when it comes to gargantuan search shares. But in China, the search giant has some problems, losing out to the dominant local engine, Baidu. The figures state that Google’s search share fell from its previous 71.1 percent to 69.7 percent [source], a huge plunge given that the duration for that drop was only three months.

All that affect has primarily come due to its failure to get a grip in China, a massive Internet market, which if summed up, hasn’t been successfully tapped by anyone from the West. Google, is no exception. In my opinion, the search market, or any other as a matter of fact is on the verge or has reached saturation and 71.1 percent was the maximum Google would have reached. However the much newer and rapidly expanding Asian markets are still untapped and the Silicon Valley is finding it nearly impossible to penetrate these. At least China for sure, of course the country has a huge firewall all around it which ensures that the only thing that gets through is what the ruling body thinks should otherwise there is a huge Block ready to keep you out.

Baidu currently holds 4.6 percent in the global search market, which is just shy of Microsoft with 4.8 percent and Yahoo with 5.6 percent.

Of course Google is still the most popular search destination for anyone online,but its recent tactics to deal with the strict censorship in China have to a large extent backfired. That included the termination of Google.cn earlier this year as well as threatening to pull out of China. If I were Google, I wouldn’t do that for the huge market it is. Lets say if only half of the 1.3 billion people in China have access online in the next couple of years and all they have is Baidu, I bet Google’s dominant position would be challenged big time.

Well it will at least be zeroed out in China for all times to come.

Leave a Comment » | analysis | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Analysis: AMD/Intel $1.25B Settlement Is Cheap!

November 12, 2009

For analyst Jack Gold, the AMD/Intel legal settlement announced today is a win-win for both companies. It will give badly needed cash to AMD, while it  will help Intel remain a dominant player in all aspects of the computer chip marketplace in both current and future devices.

Viewed in this way, the $1.25B payment to AMD from Intel looks cheap!

More on Gold’s commentary:

Today, Intel and AMD announced that they are dropping all existing litigation between them – AMD’s persistent attacks on what it claims are Intel’s predatory sales practices and Intel’s counter claims of AMD’s unlawful appropriation of Intel IP transferred to GlobalFoundries when AMD divested its fabs to this joint venture. The legal wrangling has been an obsession for AMD and a diversion for Intel for several years now, and neither can afford to engage in such maneuvers anymore. The settlement is a win-win for both, although it may not have much affect on Intel’s continuing governmental anti-trust investigations around the world, and the win-win may be a little different than most analysis has indicated.

Intel’s payment to AMD of $1.25B may be seen by some as an admission of guilt that it indeed was behaving badly as AMD claimed. However, I see this another way, rather that Intel is offering AMD a badly needed cash infusion – a lifeline to make sure it stays afloat. Strategically, Intel can not afford to let AMD go out of business. It needs the competition – both to make sure it stays “paranoid” enough to design and manufacture industry leading chips (look what happened to Intel last time AMD was not competitive), and also to avoid the reality of complete monopolization of the PC market and all the additional scrutiny it would entail (yes, even more than Intel is already receiving). AMD gets much needed cash with which it can complete its transition to a fabless semiconductor company and to complete designs of its next generation processor and graphics chips to make it more competitive. So this is a Win-Win for both companies.

Leave a Comment » | analysis | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Dell CTO: Management Of Virtual Resources Is Hottest Topic For Businesses

August 4, 2009
At a virtualisation roundtable today, enterprise customers expressed skepticism on the benefits of desktop virtualisation

At a media roundtable on virtualisation, enterprise customers expressed skepticism on the benefits of desktop virtualisation

Desktop virtualisation is not catching up to the hype yet as enterprise customers are just not seeing as much benefits to it than server virtualisation or even cloud computing.

For Dell’s Enterprise division CTO Paul Prince that I met today at a roundtable on virtualisation, along with VMware CTO Steve Herrod and some enterprise customers, the management of virtualisation is the hot topic du jour for enterprise IT users.

Follows a video excerpt of my conversation with Prince on:

  • His role as CTO for Dell’s enterprise division, which includes also overseeing CPU technologies for the entire company. Not surprising as Prince was an executive at Intel prior to joining Dell;
  • The need to manage virtual resources including storage, networking, high-availability…;
  • Dell Consulting’s role in advising IT customers. “Our competitors are all about helping customers think their problem is so big they need the help to solve it, in our case we tend to focus more on helping our customers to understand that made no be as complicated as they thought. Help them to get over the hump and start doing it;”
  • Desktop virtualisation and why enterprises are not seeing yet the benefit in deploying it. “It’s clearly a learning curve for customers to get to understand the benefit of desktop virtualisation and start deploying it;”
  • The need to plan carefully before deploying virtual machines to avoid VM sprawl;
  • How enterprises can save 50% to 2 to 3 times by deploying virtualisation;
  • The issue of software licensing and how choosing a more expensive but more flexible version (like Windows Data Center edition) can help enterprises save money in their deployment of virtualisation;
  • And finally on Dell’s own IT department, a VMware “shop.”

16 Comments | analysis, hardware, Interviews, software | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

[360° View] Nehalem EX: Intel’s First Worthy Competitor To AMD Opteron’s Dominance Of High-End Server Market

May 26, 2009
Intel Nehalem EX servers will not ship until earlier next year. For early adopters, itll be a forklift upgrade.

Intel Nehalem EX servers will not ship until earlier next year. For early adopters, it'll be a forklift upgrade.

Earlier today, Intel gave a preview of its upcoming high-end server chip dubbed “Nehalem EX” to a small group of journalists and analysts in San Francisco.

The 8-cores Nehalem-EX chip will be in production later this year and for sale in systems in early next year.

In launching the Nehalem EX, Intel will finally have a worthy competitor to AMD’s Opteron chip for the high-end server market (4 processors/sockets or more); Intel is currently shipping an appalling 6-cores server chip (Xeon 7400) that is no match, even for Opteron’s quad-core Shanghai processor.

“With Nehalem EX, Intel has aggressively attack the constraint on performance of the previous chips, including the amount of memory bandwith, memory capacity, cache, QPI links… This is going to be a really powerful chip when it comes out. There’s no doubt in my mind that AMD’s dominance of the 4P and above space will be seriously challenged by the Nehalem EX,” explains Insight64 analyst Nathan Brookwood.

But until early next year, AMD has the upper-hand on the high-end server market and knows it.

“The equivalent to their Nehalem EX and Dunnington processors are our Opteron 8000 series processors in 2009 and in 2010, it will be our 6000 series (Magny-Cours) processors.

The thing you need to remember is that we offer processors for 4-socket servers and higher that have direct connect architecture today. Intel customers are still forced to leverage their Dunnington processors for 4-socket and higher that uses a front-side bus to access memory which tends to be more inefficient in multi-socket servers.

When we launch our six-core Istanbul processors next month, they will be available in 2P, 4P and 8P configurations. If you want Direct Connect Architecture with an Intel solution in 4P and higher, you are forced to wait until their Nehalem EX part is available [next year!],” said Phil Hughes, an AMD spokesman.

Intel’s Nehalem EX is a “forklift” upgrade

With Nehalem EX, Intel is partially moving away from using buffered memory – which consumes more power and costs more than standard memory – by adopting DDR3 memory and integrating the “buffers” on the motherboard; still making it a more complex solution, which could potentially affect memory performance.

“The devil will be in the details and how Intel is implementing this,” added Brookwood who thinks Intel will have a hard time to convince customers to do a “forklift” upgrade to Nehalem EX from their current Xeon systems.

Here’s a video excerpt of our conversation with Boyd Davis, the general manager of Intel’s server platforms group marketing who conducted this morning briefing, and where he talks about Intel’s VT Flex Migration feaure which lets customers run virtual machines on Xeon servers (Core2 and Nehalem), despite their architecture differences.

IBM on the power of Intel’s Nehalem EX

And for Alex Yost, IBM’s vice president for System x (IBM’s x86 servers) and BladeCenter, Nehalem EX servers will be the most powerful X86 servers, bar none.

Finally, here’s Yost’s presentation at the Nehalem EX briefing:

1 Comment | analysis, chips, computers, hardware, Interviews, news | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

e-Paper Display Market To Reach $2.1 Billion In 2015

May 8, 2009
E-books like Amazons Kindle will represent the bulk of the demand for e-paper technology

E-books like Amazon's Kindle will represent the bulk of the demand for e-paper display technology

Inspite the economic downturn, the e-paper display market is thriving, growingon average 46.9% annually; to reach $2.1 billion in 2015 from only $260 million in 2010 and then on to $7 billion in 2020.

LG Display will be the first to market with a flexible e-paper display

LG Display will be the first to market with a flexible e-paper display

That’s according to market research firm DisplayBank which also sees e-books – like Amazon’s Kindle – as being the main driver for this hyper growth.

On the flexible e-paper front, LG Display is expected to be the first to market with 11.5-inch flexible display products during the first half of this year.

The Hearst Corporation – publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle, Esquire or Cosmopolitan – said it will use that technology for an e-book it has under-development.

Leave a Comment » | analysis, hardware, news | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

« Previous Entries
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 31 other followers