Panasonic gets the "ok" to take Sanyo.
The impact of this merger does not carry the same significance as the RiKon deal, but still worth a mention- it's a nine billion dollar deal.
The takeover also alludes a more financial and timing decision between cash rich Panasonic and the primary Sanyo stake-holders - financial houses, Goldman Sachs Group, Sanyo Electric, Daiwa Securities SMBC and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking.
"This shows that Goldman is in need of cash and wants to recoup its investment quickly," said Shigeo Kikuchi, an analyst at Takagi Securities in Tokyo, to Bloomberg News. "This is a symbolic event in this recession. Whoever has cash is strong."
Good article here, by Chad Berndtson, ChannelWeb.
With the assimilation of Sanyo, Panasonic bolsters it's consumer electronic presence - could this have an effect on Panasonic's copier and printer business? A "spin-off" perhaps?
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Fires, Landslides, Floods, Blizzards, Earthquakes and VAR's
So Cali is crazy nuts when it comes to "uncontrollable and unforeseeable acts of nature"
An article over at ChannelWeb reports on how one of our local VARs is responding to the latest fires here.
His house was on the news because his neighbor used a pump to pull water out of his pool and save houses around his.
That was just a few weeks ago - today, 26 inches of snow.
I needed to be at a "mandatory" bid meeting at 9:00 AM.
The mountains had the biggest snowfall since 1997 over the past two days.
I woke to a buried Land Rover and no electricity, at 5,000 feet above and 45 minutes away from the meeting.
Leaving a voice mail apparently shed an extra 90 minutes grace in my direction - I began to dig the Rover out.
Leaving a voice mail apparently shed an extra 90 minutes grace in my direction - I began to dig the Rover out. With a great deal of help from two of my colleagues, one racing in from Orange County and one "stalling" the sign-in, I ended up getting to the meeting although my co-worker signed in for us. (to be known from this day forward as "Speed")
Over 70 people at this bid-meeting - I am contemplating a detailed article on the "benefits" of working with county/government purchasing types - let's just say, you never get to work "with" them, only "for" them...
HP Q4 ConCall with Hurd
Conference call on the 17th, with Hurd and Kathryn Huberty...highlights.
Summary - Fourth Quarter Highlights
Revenue totaled $33.6 billion, up 19% year-over-year or up 16% in constant currency from $28.3 million in 2007.
- The firm generated 68% of its total revenue from outside the United States, revenue in EMEA was up 22%, the Americas increased 17%, and Asia-Pacific increased 14%.
- Gross margin was 22.9%, down 180 basis points from 24.7% one year ago, driven primarily by the addition of EDS, which reduced gross margins by 140 basis points and, to a lesser extent, by a more normalized impact from commodity pricing compared with a year ago.
-----
- Imaging and Printing reported revenue of $7.5 billion, down 1% year-on-year as supplies revenue growth of 9% was offset by declines in Commercial and Consumer hardware revenue of 10% and 21% respectively.
- Operating margin increased 100 basis points to 15.5% as strong Supplies growth and cost reductions were partially offset by discounting.
- The firm gained share while total printer units were down 8% and Consumer and Commercial printer hardware units declined 8% and 9%, respectively.
- Revenue in HP Software grew 13% to $855 million and BTO outgrew its primarily competitors, increasing 15% from the prior year.
- Other software, which includes Open Call, Business Intelligence, and Information Management, grew 1% as the strength in the information management business was offset by declines in Open call.
- Software posted operating profit of $195 million or 22.8% of revenue.
- HP Services, with the addition of EDS, doubled its revenue to $8.6 billion and reported solid operating profit of $920 million or 10.6% of revenue.
- For the period between the August 26 acquisition date and October 31, EDS delivered revenue of $3.9 billion as customers across all regions continue to respond favorably to the combined services business.
- Demand remains solid, with a healthy mix of new and existing customers and integration plans are on track as the firm eliminated over 2,300 positions in connection with the EDS integration.
- HP Financial Services had revenue of $691 million, up 5% year-over-year, and generated operating margin of 7.4%.
- The firm continue to apply the same rigorous process for assessing the creditworthiness of its customers and the quality of its receivables.
Fiscal 2009 Outlook:
- The firm expects revenue of approximately $32 to $32.5 billion in the first quarter and approximately $127.5 to $130 billion for the full year.
- It plans to cut over $1 billion on a constant currency basis from the cost structure in 2009.
Brian Alexander (Raymond James): In IPG, what''s happening to the installed base in Consumer and Commercial hardware in light of the unit declines?
Mark V. Hurd:The installed base is staying installed longer. That''s clearly what''s going on and you can see us gaining share. We believe our installed base is sort of - depending on what country and what segment and what price category - we believe we''re doing quite well.
Certainly, you''re seeing a trend towards wireless in the home, which in some cases has fewer units doing just as much printing as the home used to, so for us, that''s not necessarily a bad answer. We sort of like the answer, where we can sell less hardware to effectively print as much as the ecosystem has been printing.
We have to be cautious here because when we get too aggressive on price, in many cases we''re accelerating the movement of our own installed base. The reason we put the installed base out there is to print. So for us, lower unit growth is not necessarily bad unless it means we''re losing share.
Catherine A. Lesjak: As long as people continue to print on HP printers so that we have a healthy installed base, having them hold on to their printers longer and delay upgrading is actually positive for earnings for us.
They are buying the same amount of supplies and we are not having to make that kind of next investment in terms of placing a hardware unit that’s either at a negative margin or at a very low margin.
Summary - Fourth Quarter Highlights
Revenue totaled $33.6 billion, up 19% year-over-year or up 16% in constant currency from $28.3 million in 2007.
- The firm generated 68% of its total revenue from outside the United States, revenue in EMEA was up 22%, the Americas increased 17%, and Asia-Pacific increased 14%.
- Gross margin was 22.9%, down 180 basis points from 24.7% one year ago, driven primarily by the addition of EDS, which reduced gross margins by 140 basis points and, to a lesser extent, by a more normalized impact from commodity pricing compared with a year ago.
-----
- Imaging and Printing reported revenue of $7.5 billion, down 1% year-on-year as supplies revenue growth of 9% was offset by declines in Commercial and Consumer hardware revenue of 10% and 21% respectively.
- Operating margin increased 100 basis points to 15.5% as strong Supplies growth and cost reductions were partially offset by discounting.
- The firm gained share while total printer units were down 8% and Consumer and Commercial printer hardware units declined 8% and 9%, respectively.
- Revenue in HP Software grew 13% to $855 million and BTO outgrew its primarily competitors, increasing 15% from the prior year.
- Other software, which includes Open Call, Business Intelligence, and Information Management, grew 1% as the strength in the information management business was offset by declines in Open call.
- Software posted operating profit of $195 million or 22.8% of revenue.
- HP Services, with the addition of EDS, doubled its revenue to $8.6 billion and reported solid operating profit of $920 million or 10.6% of revenue.
- For the period between the August 26 acquisition date and October 31, EDS delivered revenue of $3.9 billion as customers across all regions continue to respond favorably to the combined services business.
- Demand remains solid, with a healthy mix of new and existing customers and integration plans are on track as the firm eliminated over 2,300 positions in connection with the EDS integration.
- HP Financial Services had revenue of $691 million, up 5% year-over-year, and generated operating margin of 7.4%.
- The firm continue to apply the same rigorous process for assessing the creditworthiness of its customers and the quality of its receivables.
Fiscal 2009 Outlook:
- The firm expects revenue of approximately $32 to $32.5 billion in the first quarter and approximately $127.5 to $130 billion for the full year.
- It plans to cut over $1 billion on a constant currency basis from the cost structure in 2009.
Brian Alexander (Raymond James): In IPG, what''s happening to the installed base in Consumer and Commercial hardware in light of the unit declines?
Mark V. Hurd:The installed base is staying installed longer. That''s clearly what''s going on and you can see us gaining share. We believe our installed base is sort of - depending on what country and what segment and what price category - we believe we''re doing quite well.
Certainly, you''re seeing a trend towards wireless in the home, which in some cases has fewer units doing just as much printing as the home used to, so for us, that''s not necessarily a bad answer. We sort of like the answer, where we can sell less hardware to effectively print as much as the ecosystem has been printing.
We have to be cautious here because when we get too aggressive on price, in many cases we''re accelerating the movement of our own installed base. The reason we put the installed base out there is to print. So for us, lower unit growth is not necessarily bad unless it means we''re losing share.
Catherine A. Lesjak: As long as people continue to print on HP printers so that we have a healthy installed base, having them hold on to their printers longer and delay upgrading is actually positive for earnings for us.
They are buying the same amount of supplies and we are not having to make that kind of next investment in terms of placing a hardware unit that’s either at a negative margin or at a very low margin.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The 10 Biggest HP Stories Of 2008
Wow - it's an HP love-fest-o-rama...
Over at ChannelWeb, a 10 slide presentation about the Top Ten HP stories of 2008 - nothing about printing, but lots of other stuff.
It was a good year for HP, a very good year if compared to the rest of the industry.
Check it.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Print Management - Insight from Everything Channel's 2008 Print & Imaging Summit last week in Bonita Springs, Fla.
Print Management Did Make a Splash in '08 - What about 2009?
See this article:
What Big-Spend End Users Want From Print & Imaging
By Chad Berndtson, ChannelWeb
1:53 PM EST Tue. Dec. 09, 2008
The article is more specific, but here are some highlights -
Budgets low, economy bad -
"It's really important to our organizations to reduce the overall print spend," said Colleen Grant, manager of field support services at Interior Health Authority, Kelowna, B.C. "It's really difficult to manage that in any effective manner, and in 2009 we'll be analyzing what we should print and what we are printing."
Print units are still being purchased, but:
"We're down to looking at every single contract: here's how much we're paying you and how much less we can pay," said Anna Garrett, senior manager at Deloitte Services, of Wilton, Conn. "Our print and image fleet is probably about 4,500 printers or MFPs and about 700 copiers. We're looking to put more things together and reduce the number of devices. We've also done a horrible job of tracking what we print. In terms of spending, our copiers are always leased and our printers are always bought."
Success story:
"We've had all these functions centralized since 2001: all print, all mail, all our IT functions are under one organization, and we've seen some real benefits from that," said Lawrence McNish, director of document processing resources at American Family Mutual Insurance, of Madison, Wis.
"We're headed for our second generation of MFPs and we partner quite heavily with our finance area and do a lot of tracking of end usage. We used to have 2,400 printers and 460 copiers and we have maybe 800 and about 225 now. We're seeing reductions because we're rightsizing -- it's not just for our budget."
"Our copier and printer fleet from Xerox (NYSE:XRX) are all up for renewal this year," said Cynthia Meyer, senior buyer, IT, at Alliant Energy, a public utility holding company also headquartered in Madison.
"We have less budget to spend like everyone else, but I don't like leases because of what happens at the end of a lease. I don't like the lack of flexibility. I'd like to put something in place that allows me to rent. Plus, even beyond putting ink on paper, you have plenty of issues with document management."
Still measuring:
"We're trying to get our arms around that, and trying to figure out our strategic direction," said Kieran O'Reilly, lead business systems analyst at UPS, Mahwah, N.J.
"We're not looking to spend a lot of money -- basically to keep the lights on," added Greg Matkovich, strategic sourcing manager at The Home Depot, Atlanta. "We don't even know what we have, to be honest. Corporate [offices are] the Wild West, and we're looking to do a lot more self-assessment."
Direct, Vendor, or VARs?
"On our printer side, we had HP (NYSE:HPQ) and Lexmark both, and they're bought through resellers," said Greg Cunningham, manager of service strategies and optimization at IBM (NYSE: IBM) Canada, of Victoria, B.C. "It's my observation, though, that HP and Lexmark support the reseller and not necessarily the client. I don't see [client support] happening."
A great deal of good information was shared at the summit - and it looks like Managed Print Services was discussed in detail, and is in place or top of mind for some of the "big" companies.
Click to email me.
See this article:
What Big-Spend End Users Want From Print & Imaging
By Chad Berndtson, ChannelWeb
1:53 PM EST Tue. Dec. 09, 2008
The article is more specific, but here are some highlights -
Budgets low, economy bad -
"It's really important to our organizations to reduce the overall print spend," said Colleen Grant, manager of field support services at Interior Health Authority, Kelowna, B.C. "It's really difficult to manage that in any effective manner, and in 2009 we'll be analyzing what we should print and what we are printing."
Print units are still being purchased, but:
"We're down to looking at every single contract: here's how much we're paying you and how much less we can pay," said Anna Garrett, senior manager at Deloitte Services, of Wilton, Conn. "Our print and image fleet is probably about 4,500 printers or MFPs and about 700 copiers. We're looking to put more things together and reduce the number of devices. We've also done a horrible job of tracking what we print. In terms of spending, our copiers are always leased and our printers are always bought."
Success story:
"We've had all these functions centralized since 2001: all print, all mail, all our IT functions are under one organization, and we've seen some real benefits from that," said Lawrence McNish, director of document processing resources at American Family Mutual Insurance, of Madison, Wis.
"We're headed for our second generation of MFPs and we partner quite heavily with our finance area and do a lot of tracking of end usage. We used to have 2,400 printers and 460 copiers and we have maybe 800 and about 225 now. We're seeing reductions because we're rightsizing -- it's not just for our budget."
"Our copier and printer fleet from Xerox (NYSE:XRX) are all up for renewal this year," said Cynthia Meyer, senior buyer, IT, at Alliant Energy, a public utility holding company also headquartered in Madison.
"We have less budget to spend like everyone else, but I don't like leases because of what happens at the end of a lease. I don't like the lack of flexibility. I'd like to put something in place that allows me to rent. Plus, even beyond putting ink on paper, you have plenty of issues with document management."
Still measuring:
"We're trying to get our arms around that, and trying to figure out our strategic direction," said Kieran O'Reilly, lead business systems analyst at UPS, Mahwah, N.J.
"We're not looking to spend a lot of money -- basically to keep the lights on," added Greg Matkovich, strategic sourcing manager at The Home Depot, Atlanta. "We don't even know what we have, to be honest. Corporate [offices are] the Wild West, and we're looking to do a lot more self-assessment."
Direct, Vendor, or VARs?
"On our printer side, we had HP (NYSE:HPQ) and Lexmark both, and they're bought through resellers," said Greg Cunningham, manager of service strategies and optimization at IBM (NYSE: IBM) Canada, of Victoria, B.C. "It's my observation, though, that HP and Lexmark support the reseller and not necessarily the client. I don't see [client support] happening."
A great deal of good information was shared at the summit - and it looks like Managed Print Services was discussed in detail, and is in place or top of mind for some of the "big" companies.
Click to email me.
HP Placed in Leaders Quadrant in “Magic Quadrant for MFPs and Printers” Report- ***UPDATE***
According to Mike Feldman Vice President and General Manager
Enterprise Sales and Services IPG-Americas
Over at the HP’s Enterprise Printing Blog, you can read that HP is proud to find the Edgeline in Leaders Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant.
*****Press Release *****
HP Placed in “Leaders” Quadrant for Multifunction Products and Printers in Magic Quadrant Report
PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 12, 2008
HP today announced industry analyst firm Gartner, Inc. has positioned it in the Leaders Quadrant of its “Magic Quadrant for MFPs and Printers” report.(1)
The Gartner Magic Quadrant positions vendors based on their “ability to execute” and their “completeness of vision.”
According to the analyst firm, vendors are assessed on weighted criteria, including products or services, sales execution and pricing, market responsiveness and track record, marketing execution, customer experience, offering strategy, business model, and geographic strategy.
“In my opinion, HP’s placement in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant in the leaders quadrant is a testament to our strong customer relationships and our ongoing commitment to deliver the most robust MFP solutions to customers all over the world,” said David Murphy, senior vice president, LaserJet and Enterprise Solutions, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “We will continue to set the industry standard by extending our MFP portfolio and complementing it with innovative software solutions that together deliver unequaled efficiency and performance for our customers.”
According to the report, “Leaders are the most capable in providing MFPs, printers and the associated printing solutions and services that support the proper functioning of these devices in the broadest category of customer sites. Leaders have broad channel capability to deliver the products to customers where they want to procure them. Leaders consistently hold strong market share positions in both printers and MFPs worldwide and are capable of delivering nearly identical service levels in more of the regions where Gartner customers are located. Leaders tend to have the deepest global capability and the inventiveness and resources, skills and vision to deliver superior levels of support to existing and future customers globally. Leaders have a proven track record of channeling R&D initiatives into products and solutions that customers need.”
HP’s complete portfolio of hardware, supplies, software and services offers both small to medium and enterprise customers a cost-effective, productivity-enhancing imaging and printing environment.
About HP
HP, the world’s largest technology company, simplifies the technology experience for consumers and businesses with a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.
(1) Gartner, “Magic Quadrant for MFPs and Printers,” by Don Dixon, Sharon McNee, Vishal Tripathi, SJ Chae, Sergio Santos, Dec. 9, 2008.
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2008 by Gartner Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors’ measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
© 2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
Enterprise Sales and Services IPG-Americas
Over at the HP’s Enterprise Printing Blog, you can read that HP is proud to find the Edgeline in Leaders Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant.
*****Press Release *****
HP Placed in “Leaders” Quadrant for Multifunction Products and Printers in Magic Quadrant Report
PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 12, 2008
HP today announced industry analyst firm Gartner, Inc. has positioned it in the Leaders Quadrant of its “Magic Quadrant for MFPs and Printers” report.(1)
The Gartner Magic Quadrant positions vendors based on their “ability to execute” and their “completeness of vision.”
According to the analyst firm, vendors are assessed on weighted criteria, including products or services, sales execution and pricing, market responsiveness and track record, marketing execution, customer experience, offering strategy, business model, and geographic strategy.
“In my opinion, HP’s placement in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant in the leaders quadrant is a testament to our strong customer relationships and our ongoing commitment to deliver the most robust MFP solutions to customers all over the world,” said David Murphy, senior vice president, LaserJet and Enterprise Solutions, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “We will continue to set the industry standard by extending our MFP portfolio and complementing it with innovative software solutions that together deliver unequaled efficiency and performance for our customers.”
According to the report, “Leaders are the most capable in providing MFPs, printers and the associated printing solutions and services that support the proper functioning of these devices in the broadest category of customer sites. Leaders have broad channel capability to deliver the products to customers where they want to procure them. Leaders consistently hold strong market share positions in both printers and MFPs worldwide and are capable of delivering nearly identical service levels in more of the regions where Gartner customers are located. Leaders tend to have the deepest global capability and the inventiveness and resources, skills and vision to deliver superior levels of support to existing and future customers globally. Leaders have a proven track record of channeling R&D initiatives into products and solutions that customers need.”
HP’s complete portfolio of hardware, supplies, software and services offers both small to medium and enterprise customers a cost-effective, productivity-enhancing imaging and printing environment.
About HP
HP, the world’s largest technology company, simplifies the technology experience for consumers and businesses with a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.
(1) Gartner, “Magic Quadrant for MFPs and Printers,” by Don Dixon, Sharon McNee, Vishal Tripathi, SJ Chae, Sergio Santos, Dec. 9, 2008.
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2008 by Gartner Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors’ measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
© 2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
Monday, December 15, 2008
The 10 most influential leaders in business technology in 2008
Last year he was "left off the list"...oh what a difference a year makes!
Jason Hiner, Editor in Chief over at TechRepublic, in his blog listed his Top 10 Leaders - it's an interesting read.
Number one with a "bullet" -
"1. Mark Hurd, Hewlett-Packard
Last year, I left Mark Hurd off the list and even remarked that Carly Fiorina deserved a lot of the credit for Hewlett-Packard’s resurgence because its roots are based in the HP-Compaq merger, which Fiorina had the guts to do. But, it becomes clearer every year that Hurd is making the right calls and motivating the various HP divisions to execute. HP is back on top in the PC market (having overtaken Dell), it is tied for the lead in servers with IBM, and it is even making strong moves in the networking market with its ProCurve gear. Plus, it bought EDS in 2008 to expand its footprint in IT services. All of the while, it has allowed its incumbent printer business to quietly take a back seat. That’s why HP is doing so well, even in the face of economic headwinds, and that’s why Hurd deserves the top spot on this list."
And I found this post over at MediaWireWeekly from February, 2007 - "...He barely makes appearances, not to make a statement, but because he is actually huddled with his management team working..."
Not bad, I doubt Hurd even cares which is cool too.
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