Article with staggering middleware growth rate of 40%,
note once again the Borland is MSFT roadkill story,
and once again the misinformation - it is not in the part I copied but AOL linked the story by saying "Once Borland Software now Inprise Corp."
Dweeby behavior by misinformed shcmucks continues. Anyone else think the name-change is not a good thing!!!
Article follows:
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Once Borland International, Now Enterprising with Inprise Corporation
AOL Investment Snapshot (tm): BORL
Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO, California (April 29) - Borland International Inc., one of the most storied software companies, said Wednesday it planned to change its name to Inprise Corp. to reflect a new corporate strategy and product focus.
Borland -- once the third-biggest personal computer software company in the world and a serious threat to Microsoft Corp. -- said it now would focus its business on so-called ''middleware'' software products, which act as translators between different types of hardware and business software.
Borland will introduce several products later this year that the company said would make it easier for corporate computer networks to share vital business information.
''The name Inprise is a way to identify ourselves with new markets, a new customer base and a new strategy,'' said Del Yocam, Borland's chief executive and chairman. ''This is a new company.''
The company's name will be changed to Inprise on June 5, pending shareholder approval. It also will get a new stock symbol, ''INPR,'' on the Nasdaq market.
Borland, based in Scotts Valley, Calif., is best known for its computer programming languages and tools. Its software products help professional programmers write other software.
In the early 1980s it grew rapidly and dominated the software development tools market, once Microsoft's main cash cow. It was such a threat that it prompted Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates to write an infamous memo directing his troops ''to kill Philippe,'' referring to Borland founder Philippe Kahn.
But Borland stumbled badly in the early 1990s by making several unwieldy acquisitions. Microsoft also countered Borland's gains by slashing prices of its own development tools, forcing Borland to follow. Until last year, Borland had been reporting plummeting sales and big losses for several years.
To find new sources of revenue, Borland has acquired smaller software companies that specialize in middleware, a $2 billion software market that is growing at about 40 percent a year, according to market researcher International Data Corp.
''Borland is a great tools company, but they had been stuck there'' because of competition with Microsoft, said Ted Schadler, senior analyst at market researcher Forrester Research Inc. ''The middleware market is growing so quickly that they have good prospects.''
Yocam said he planned to double his company's revenue in three years to about $500 million a year, with at least 50 percent of sales coming from its new product lines.
The company also said it established a services unit that will help big companies write software based on its new products.
Borland shares fell 31 cents to $10.688 on Nasdaq trading.
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Not that this is even remotely valid but a 40% growth rate gets you from say 180 million now to almost 700 million 4 years hence.
Then again, from the above, looks like the official goal for the 500 mil is 3 years and bingo 180 * (1.4)^(3) = 493 ~ 500 mil! Darn it Virginia in la-la land there are dreams that can come true (even if the statistics and growth rates can be bent a slight bit!!... :-])
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Investing Paradigm: Get me away from MSFT (for awhile), find me a nice niche, get me some great leadership (Jocam) and wham bam thank you ma'am in a few years we hope we will see a nice fat return on the stock. If you add a bit of Java to the mix, to me, this is the way I viewed BORL as an intriguing l/t investment possibility when I got in about 6 months ago. And s/t volatility be ignored, this is the way I continue to see it today. Even if they want to change their ticker to INPR.
Almost makes one want to move to CA and work there...
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Shane. |
