| BroadVision (BVSN) 29 5/16 -2 5/16: BroadVision investors have seen their investment shed 54% and underperform the Nasdaq by about 20% year-to-date. We have written before about the sources of pressure that have kept the shares in negative territory (see Sep. 26 Story Stock). Two possible catalysts brought to our attention by a CSFB note this morning could help BVSN repair its Street image. First, the long-awaited J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) product is supposedly going to be unveiled Wednesday. As we have touched on in the past, their lack of a Java strategy has been interpreted as hindering sales and providing an advantage to competitors. Certainly the strong sales growth as well as the relatively strong stock performance of competitor, Art Technology Group (ARTG) could be viewed as supporting evidence. While BVSN may be unveiling the J2EE solution this week, it won't ship until 1Q01. However, by making the migration from C++ visible, BVSN will be attempting to placate existing customers and reduce migration to competitive offerings. Secondly, according to the CSFB note, BVSN is set to announce support for BEA Systems' (BEAS) WebLogic technology. While the nuts and bolts of the integration could take some time, this should be viewed as a positive. BVSN has been criticized for not recognizing an industry trend away from bundled offerings, toward separate application server software and content management software. This trend is exactly where companies like ARTG and Interwoven (IWOV) have carved their niche. Remember when BVSN lost a deal to American Airlines, who chose to go with separate vendors -- ARTG's Dynamo software and IWOV's content management software? Both the J2EE migration and the BEAS support should be viewed as positives, but neither should be viewed as the kick-start BVSN needs to get back to their previous highs. The CRM space has been battered, and for good reason. The market is much more competitive, the product capabilities are harder to differentiate from vendor-to-vendor, and the valuations of last year were ridiculously high. BVSN is only making announcements here (according to CSFB), there is no new product yet, and the devil is in the details. Additionally, there is increasing uncertainty in the tech sector on the whole and the outlook for tech stocks, especially software, is uncertain at best. However, disclaimers aside, BroadVision is at least heading in the right direction. - Matt Gould, Briefing.com |
