Booming tech sector boosting M&A
businessweek.com
November 29, 2005
<<...Economist Ed Yardeni, chief investment strategist at Oak Associates, thinks the tech sector is ready to regain leadership of the stock market. And he believes robust growth and strong stock prices will produce an M&A boom in the sector, as players scramble for advantage in a converging market for telecom, tech, and the Internet...
...Yardeni believes the tech boom will differ from the boom of the late '90s. It will be global this time around, and demand from China and India will help U.S. producers. But the global economy will be more competitive than ever, controlling prices and helping keep a lid on interest rates. He expects that to be good for stocks. And who knows, it might even temper weaknesses in the housing market. He thinks that competition in a tech-driven global economy helped keep the economy going during the rise on energy prices. Now that energy prices seem to be moderating, the risk of higher inflation and higher interest rates is falling, too.
As a new M&A boom takes off, the question is who will benefit. For now, it appears that the consolidators and potential winners are likely to be portals such as Google and Yahoo, which are challenging the dominant players of tech and media, from Microsoft to Time Warner...>> |
