Gus,
Actually, it has never been clear to me what "business intelligence" software does, which is why I keep putting the term in quotes. I know that Cognos is the supposedly the leader among independent public companies; Holistic is one of the leaders, and is allegedly growing at pretty high rates--I think I have heard 50-60%, but can't cite the source, as I don't remember. May have been SEG's last annual report, or may have been an interview with Steve Luzko (sp?), the new President of SEG, and the man who put Seagate Software together through his many acquisitions.
As several people have pointed out, the software business is still such a small part of SEG overall that it can't have that much of an impact on the stock price, if any. But if they come even close the $1 billion goal by the end of the decade that they have publicly said is their goal, either they will have to make a good sized acquisition or they will have grow at pretty hefty rates over the next 3 years. Since margins on software tend to be pretty high for successful companies, that could, if met, mean close to an extra $1 per share in earnings by then. Of course, there still aren't many billion dollar software companies out there. And that business can be as brutal as the drive business.
Sam |
