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Most recent blog entries
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Engineering tech in Israel |
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Joel Orr
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By Joel Orr on
7/3/2007
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I'm in Israel right now, on my honeymoon. It's hard to find Israeli engineering technology. No, wait, I don't mean it that way; there is a lot of engineering software coming from this tiny country. There are names you'll recognize right away - Cimatron, Smarteam - and others with which you may not be familiar, such as Amdocs and Yedda.com, neither of which is particularly engineering-oriented, but both of which have products working in engineering firms worldwide.
No, what I mean is that these firms are so cool, so savvy, so web, that the fact of their being Israeli elicits no more than "so what?"
High tech is burgeoning in Israel. The country has cracked the marketing code. You may find out that many applications you use regularly are Israeli under the skin. Of course, many do not advertise that fact; anti-semitism is alive and well in the world today.
But if you are looking for a location for a development center, with easy access to talent ...
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Corroboration |
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Russ Henke
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By Russ Henke on
7/1/2007 3:59 AM
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It’s often surprising to find immediate corroboration of a theme for blog entries that appear in this space. Not two days after the previous June 24 & 25 blog items were published here about “The Rich Getting Richer", Merrill Lynch and the Cap Gemini Group released their annual World Wealth Report. In 2006, the world’s wealthiest saw their combined riches grow by over 11%! Fully 800,000 more people were added in 2006 to the rolls of folks who hold over $1 million in financial assets (not including their primary homes), up from 8.7 million such individuals in 2005. The combined wealth of these fortunate few totals over $37.2 trillion. That's “trillion” with a “t”, and adds up to a fourth of the entire world’s total wealth, about three times the US GNP. Of course, the US leads the pack of such rich people.
But hey, these rich folks are generous. In 2006, ...
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Post Script to June 24 Blog Entry |
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Russ Henke
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By Russ Henke on
6/25/2007 4:14 AM
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Some readers of yesterday's blog entry may be wondering if they might have missed the chance to ride the first day's price appreciation (over 13% in 8 hours) -- if only they had acted on Thursday June 22, the day before the Blackstone Group's IPO. Not to worry. It would have been difficult, since most Blackstone shares were already snapped up by money managers and big financial institutions.
But, hey, the stock is now publicly traded -- you can take your chances on future Blackstone appreciation -- call your broker! And remember, having watched what the Blackstone Group just did, other "alternative investment funds" may now choose to go public, such as KKR, The Carlyle Group, and more.
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Are the Rich getting Richer? |
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Russ Henke
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By Russ Henke on
6/24/2007 5:33 PM
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Among all the factors plaguing the vast majority of US citizens, very little space in these blog entries to date has been devoted to the unremitting and enervating trend over the last six-and-a-half years, of the rich-getting-richer, and the poor-getting-poorer in the United States.
With the US government (a) providing unwarranted tax cuts favoring the rich, (b) encouraging rising energy prices by condoning the lack of new oil refineries, (c) stoking international fear, anxiety and doubt, and (d) implementing countless other such policies, the resulting economic conditions have allowed the US wealthy to thrive while US workers’ wages have not even kept up with inflation, despite massive worker productivity gains during the period.
In the last few days, we have witnessed a quintessential example of the “rich-getting-richer” syndrome. Run by billionaires, the private-equity giant Blackstone Group popped up again in the news June 21, 2007 when Re ...
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Cadence in the News June 4 |
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Russ Henke
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By Russ Henke on
6/5/2007 11:01 AM
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In the June 3 blog entry in this space, Cadence was mentioned as one of the Big 3 EDA vendors. The New York Times reported on June 4, 2007 that Cadence is in talks with at least two buyout firms about a possible sale of the company. Cadence is said to have held talks with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the Blackstone Group. But they warned that a deal may not happen because of the “complicated risks in the company's business”. Other private equity firms apparently have looked at Cadence, but passed.
Like the private equity purchase of MCAD vendor UGS several years ago, (prior to its acquisition by Siemens this year), a deal for Cadence would be one of the biggest moves by private equity firms into technology, a sector they are said to avoid because of its volatility and capital needs. Though both Kohlberg Kravis and Blackstone have invested in technology firms before — most recently, Kohlberg bought the First Data Corporation and Blackstone purc ...
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MCAD & EDA in Q1 2007 |
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Russ Henke
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By Russ Henke on
6/3/2007 5:32 PM
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On May 27, 2007, I had planned to use this space to
report the financial results of the top three MCAD
vendors and the top three EDA vendors for Q1 2007.
However, comments on Memorial Day remembrances took
precedence.
For the record, in nominal Q1 2007, Autodesk broke
into the rarified atmosphere of eclipsing $500 million
in total revenue for Q1 (at $509,000,000). Dassault
Systemes posted $381,000,000 in revenue, and
Siemens UGS came in at $302,000,000.
An earnings' comparision will have to wait, as neither
Autodesk nor UGS reported earnings this quarter, each
for different reasons.
EDA vendor Cadence reported $385,000,000 in revenue in
Q1, followed by Synopsys at $293,000,000, and Mentor
Graphics at $190,000,000.
& ...
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