Lynn,
I have been posting blogs on Mr. Schwart's web blog for months asking him to explain their business plan. As far as I understand it they think that by giving away open source software to get the maintenance revenue is one way of generating revenue (i.e, with high margins a.k.a. Redhat). Together with giving away the sofware I am sure they would have expected increased hardware sales along with the associated service revenue (i.e, a.k.a. IBM). They plan has failed on both approaches.
I did not understand their business model and I guess most of the world doesn't either. They are losing market share and most importantly mindshare.
I have brought up the point that the world is moving towards integrated stacks for software (i.e., database, middleware, and applications) that are integrated together for ease of use and security. Also, the SAAS model will prove to be a contender to the traditional client server model overtime.
So, I had to ask myself, where does JAVA fit it in? They are a mishmash of hardware, chips, and software. Their software was never designed to work together but they get their rocks off by stating that it is open source. IMHO, Mr. Schwartz and his management team are fools of the worst kinds. Most normal human being do not want to mess around with open source software but want to purchase software that is easy to use, has an open architecture, can have extensions built into it a.k.a. Oracle and Netsuite so they can get on with the more important stuff like running their business. JAVA management has a 1990's mentality by thinking that making software and chip design open that people will gravitate towards it. Wrong!
I sold my sizeable position in JAVA this morning and am glad to get it off my books. They were a great company at one time when the internet took off but they could not evolve because they took the wrong stairway to the top. Now they are in the smelly basement of the IT world. The best thing they could do for their shareholder is to merge with EMC, DELL, HPQ or IBM.
Mr. Schwartz is an very intelligent man and can get up and speak with the best of them but he lacks common sense and vision to be running a large organization. The numbers speak for them self. By the way, the pony hair clown made $7 million last year to create this mess. Where can I get an assignment like that?
Alydar |
