Microsoft expects to have a new CEO by the end of the year. Let's not waste time guessing who it might or ought to be. Let's make it clear what the new CEO should do on his/her first day at work.
Microsoft isn't a consumer PC company anymore. It gets more than 60% of its sales and 70% of its profits from selling software to small, medium, and large businesses. Microsoft isn't Apple. Microsoft is a business software company ��and a great one.
Context: Why some shareholders also want Bill Gates out.
It has 16 businesses that do $1 billion or more a year in sales. Some grow at double-digit rates. These and other Microsoft ventures gush tens of billions in cash flow every year. You've probably never even heard of some of these billion-dollar businesses: SQL Server, System Center, Sharepoint, Lync... These are business-software tools. Information technology professionals can't do their jobs without them.
Hot Semiconductor Companies To Invest In Right Now: Market Leader Inc(LEDR)
Market Leader, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides software-as-a-service-based business and marketing solutions for real estate professionals primarily in the United States and Canada. It offers real estate agents and brokerage companies with software-as-a-service based products, as well as online lead-generation, online prospect management, online real estate portal content and advertising, and customer coaching and training solutions. The company also offers consumers with free access to the information and tools they need throughout the home buying and selling process through its national consumer real estate sites. Its consumer Web sites include: JustListed.com, a service that notifies home buyers as soon as new homes hit the market; HouseValues.com, a service, which provides home sellers with market valuations of their current homes; and HomePages.com, a real estate portal that enables consumers to see the home listings in their area, view detailed neighbor hood and school data, compare recent home sales, find local real estate agents, and find the value of their own homes. In addition, the company offers Growth Leader, a Website and customer relationship management tool for real estate agents; RealtyGenerator, a lead-generation and lead management system for real estate brokerage offices; and ActiveRain.com that provides professional networking, referral, recruitment, content syndication, and online marketing services for professionals in real estate and related businesses. Market Leader, Inc. markets its products to individual agents and brokerage offices directly, as well as through marketing partnerships with real estate franchise networks. The company was formerly known as Housevalues, Inc. and changed its name to Market Leader, Inc. in November 2008. Market Leader, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Kirkland, Washington.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Michael Lewis]
For a bit of context, competitor Trulia (NYSE: TRLA ) is in negotiations to buy Market Leader (NASDAQ: LEDR ) for $355�million. Market Leader is a smaller (and growing) business that's similar to both Zillow and Trulia. Since Market Leader is still earnings negative, we can't compare it on a P/FCF basis, but we can look at other metrics. For one, Market Leader trades at a still-ridiculous-but-slightly less-so 57.2 times forward earnings. It trades at 6.4 times last year's sales. Zillow trades at 16.4 times last year's sales. Management expects sales to hit (on the high end) $182 million -- that implies a price of 10.55 times forward sales. If they double a year or two after, which would be unbelievably phenomenal, it would trade at 5.3 times sales.
10 Best Information Technology Stocks To Buy Right Now: Teradata Corporation(TDC)
Teradata Corporation provides analytic data solutions worldwide. The company offers various data warehousing solutions that comprise software, hardware, and related business consulting and support services. Its solutions integrate an organization?s departmental and enterprise-wide data about customers, financials, operations, and others into a single enterprise-wide data warehouse. The company also provides various software and hardware products, including Teradata Analytic Database Software, which delivers near real-time intelligence; Teradata Platform Family for the hardware component; Teradata Logical Data Models that are blueprints for designing an integrated data warehouse; Teradata Aster MapReduce Platform, a platform for analyzing new multi-structured data sources and data types; and Teradata Integrated Analytics to convert traditional data warehouse into an analytic services environment. In addition, it offers Teradata Analytic Applications and Tools comprising da ta mining, master data management, integrated marketing management, enterprise risk management, finance and performance management, demand and supply chain management, and profitability analytics to solve business problems. Further, the company provides consulting services, such as data warehousing business impact modeling, design, architecture, installation, implementation, and optimization consulting services, as well as enterprise analytics consulting, data management, and managed services; customer support services; and training services. It serves various companies in banking/financial services, media and entertainment, government, insurance and healthcare, manufacturing, retail, telecommunications, transportation, and travel industries. The company has strategic partnerships with Accenture, Capgemini, Cognizant, Computer Sciences Corporation, Deloitte, IBM Global Business Services, and Wipro Limited. Teradata Corporation was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Dayt on, Ohio.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Brian Pacampara]
Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, data warehousing specialist Teradata (NYSE: TDC ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.
10 Best Information Technology Stocks To Buy Right Now: Credit Acceptance Corporation(CACC)
Credit Acceptance Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides auto loans, and related products and services to consumers in the United States. Its loan programs include portfolio program, which advances money to dealer-partners in exchange for the right to service the underlying consumer loans; and purchase program that buys the consumer loans from the dealer-partners and keeps amounts collected from the consumers. The company markets its products through a network of approximately 55,000 independent and franchised automobile dealers. Credit Acceptance Corporation was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Southfield, Michigan.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Eric Volkman]
Credit Acceptance (NASDAQ: CACC ) will see big blocks of its shares change hands over the next few days. The company has specified the pricing of a previously announced underwritten public secondary stock common offering of $105.00 per share. Trusts associated with the firm's founder Donald Foss, in combination with Karol Foss and people and entities connected with Prescott General Partners, aim to sell a combined 1.5 million of their shares. Additionally, the underwriters will have a 30-day option to buy up to an extra 225,000 shares.
- [By Richard Moroney]
Credit Acceptance (CACC) provides financing for auto purchases through a national network of nearly 4,500 car dealers. Its programs help dealers sell cars by attracting credit-challenged consumers unable to get conventional loans.
10 Best Information Technology Stocks To Buy Right Now: NTELOS Holdings Corp.(NTLS)
NTELOS Holdings Corp., through its subsidiaries, provides wireless communications services to consumers and businesses primarily in Virginia and West Virginia, as well as parts of Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky. It primarily offers wireless digital personal communications services, such as wireless voice and data products and services, and roaming/travel services under the NTELOS Wireless brand name. The company also provides wholesale network services to Sprint Nextel in the western Virginia and West Virginia area for various Sprint CDMA wireless customers. As of March 6, 2012, its wireless retail business had approximately 415,000 postpay and prepaid subscribers. The company was founded in 1897 and is headquartered in Waynesboro, Virginia.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Lauren Pollock]
Ntelos Holdings Corp.(NTLS) said it had settled disputes with Sprint Corp.(S) related to the companies’ strategic network alliance. The settlement resolves a dispute over the reset of data rates that began in the fourth quarter of 2011, as well as unrelated billing disputes raised in the third quarter of 2012. Shares of Ntelos were up 9.7% at $17.50 in after-hours trading.
10 Best Information Technology Stocks To Buy Right Now: Kraton Performance Polymers Inc (KRA)
Kraton Performance Polymers, Inc. engages in the production of styrenic block copolymers (SBCs) and other engineered polymers worldwide. The company offers highly-engineered synthetic elastomers that enhance the performance of various end use products by imparting flexibility, resilience, strength, durability, and processability. It also provides isoprene rubber products for use in the production of medical products, adhesives, tackifiers, paints, coatings, and photo-resistors; and isoprene rubber latex, a substitute for natural rubber latex that are used in surgical gloves and condoms. In addition, the company is involved in the development and commercialization of polyvinyl chloride alternatives for wire, cable, and medical applications; polymers for use in slush molding; and membrane polymers for use in water filtration and breathable fabrics. Further, it offers core commercial grades of SBCs; unhydrogenated SBCs, which are primarily used in paving and roofing, adhesive s, and sealants and coatings, as well as footwear applications; hydrogenated SBCs, which are used in soft touch and flexible materials, personal hygiene products, and automotive components; and compounds, other polymers, resins, oils, or fillers that are used in various consumer and industrial applications. Kraton Performance Polymers, Inc. markets its products through various channels, including direct sales force, marketing representatives, and distributors under the Kraton, Cariflex, and Nexar brand names. The company was formerly known as Polymer Holdings LLC and changed its name to Kraton Performance Polymers, Inc. in December 2009. Kraton Performance Polymers, Inc. is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Bryan Murphy]
The whole thing may seem a little "out there" at first glance, but truth be told, what Metabolix, Inc. does isn't terribly unusual anymore. It's just a little less sexy than what traders and stock speculators usually want to see and hear with their picks. Kraton Performance Polymers Inc. (NYSE:KRA) and the now-bankrupt Cereplast Inc. (OTCMKTS:CERPQ) are/were in the same business, along with several others. [Don't let the Cereplast bankruptcy filing deter you - it wasn't a lack of opportunity that up-ended CERP.]
10 Best Information Technology Stocks To Buy Right Now: PostNL NV (PNL)
PostNL NV is a Netherlands-based Company active in delivery sector. The Company is engaged in the delivery of documents, small packages and standard parcels. The Company�� business is organized into three segments: Mail in the Netherlands, responsible for mail services in the Netherland, documents management, direct marketing and fulfillment services, and operating over 2,600 shop-in-shop post offices; Parcels, providing parcel services in the Netherlands and Belgium for both domestic and cross-border parcel distribution, and International, operating in the postal markets of the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, and focusing on domestic addressed mail services. The Company also provides marketing and communication services, fulfillment solutions and e-commerce related solutions. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Inyoung Hwang]
PostNL (PNL) sank 11 percent to 2.48 euros, the biggest decline since Jan. 14. The Amsterdam-based company said sales in the second-quarter were 1.03 billion euros ($1.37 billion), falling short of the 1.04 billion euros predicted by analysts on average. PostNL forecast addressed mail volume in 2013 will drop as much as 11 percent, greater than its previous forecast of no more than 10 percent.
10 Best Information Technology Stocks To Buy Right Now: Eaton Corporation(ETN)
Eaton Corporation operates as a power management company worldwide. It provides electrical components and systems for power quality, distribution, and control; hydraulics components, systems, and services for industrial and mobile equipment; aerospace fuel, hydraulics, and pneumatic systems for commercial and military use; and truck and automotive drivetrain, and powertrain systems for performance, fuel economy, and safety. The company also manufactures screw-in cartridge valves, custom-engineered hydraulic valves, and manifold systems; and electrical and electromechanical systems. In addition, it designs, manufactures, and distributes intake and exhaust valves for diesel and gasoline engines; supplies electrical components for commercial and residential building applications and industrial controls for industrial equipment applications; and manufactures human machine interfaces, programmable logic controllers, and input/output devices. Further, the company also operates a s a provider of customized enclosures, rack systems, and air-flow management systems to store, power, and secure mission-critical IT data center electronics; and manufacturer, distributor, and service provider of single-phase and three-phase uninterruptible power supply systems. Eaton Corporation was founded in 1916 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rex Moore]
IPC believes its technology can disrupt traditional products offered by ABB (NYSE: ABB ) and Eaton (NYSE: ETN ) . Our roving reporter Rex Moore caught up with IPC CEO Paul Bundschuh at the conference, and chatted about the billion-dollar opportunities in these markets.
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