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To: DownSouth who wrote (53643)	3/11/2003 2:25:32 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

Oracle Again No. 1 Database Software Shop Mon Mar 10, 6:37 PM ET PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Research firm International Data Corp. (IDC) on Monday said Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq:ORCL - news) maintained its top position among database vendors in 2002, but that Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) were closing the gap. Oracle retained its dominance of the relational and object-relational database management system software (RDBMS) market, "at least for the time being," IDC said in its report. Relational database management software sales account for the lion's share of total database software revenues. IDC said the RDBMS market was nearly flat from 2001. Oracle's share of the market slipped to 39.4 percent from 41.7 percent in 2001. IBM's market share grew to 33.6 percent from 31 percent last year, while Microsoft rounded out the top three with 11.1 percent share -- up from 9.7 percent the year earlier. "In general, vendors dependent on large systems deployments, such as Oracle and Sybase, suffered," IDC said. Sybase Inc.(NYSE:SY - news) came in at No. 4 with 3.6 percent market share in 2002, down from 3.8 percent in 2001. IDC said vendors that could find ways to grow revenue by selling lower-cost solutions to small- and medium-sized organizations, or to departments or project groups in larger companies, fared better. During the current corporate spending slump, Oracle has seen its moderately priced, stripped-down "standard edition" database move better than its expensive, high-end "enterprise edition" product. Competing database products from Microsoft and IBM have fewer functions and security features than Oracle's high-end product and compete more directly with Oracle's standard edition software. IBM sells a broad range of database software, including products for older mainframe systems. The company and some research firms say it is the No. 1 overall software vendor according to revenue. Looking to this year, IDC said it "has been getting a sense that there is some thawing of budgets for large enterprise databases in these first two months of 2003." The research firm -- which looks at financial reports, talks to database vendors, and uses "select" anecdotal information to come up with its rankings -- said it is too early to call an end to the corporate freeze on high-tech spending. It also warned that terrorist attacks or a conflict in Iraq (news - web sites) could further disrupt sales. Nevertheless, IDC said, "there is some reason for an optimistic view that enterprise RDBMS sales could be flat to even up slightly in 2003, which would be good news for the market generally and for Oracle and Sybase in particular." On March 18, Oracle is slated to post results from its fiscal quarter ended February. story.news.yahoo.com

To: DownSouth who wrote (53643)	3/18/2003 1:44:49 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 54805

IBM Storage Makes Gains Vs. HP, EMC By Brian Deagon Investor's Business Daily Tue Mar 18,10:18 AM ET IBM Corp. (NYSE:IBM - News) gained the most ground of any data storage vendor in the fourth quarter, enough to tie with Hewlett-Packard Co. for the lead in market share. So says a report this month from market tracker International Data Corp. It gave both companies 25% of the revenue from total fourth-quarter sales of data storage systems, which include everything from high-end networked storage gear to disk drives that back up server systems. IBM gained four percentage points in the fourth quarter vs. the third, while HP fell two percentage points. HP led slightly in total revenue, $1.37 billion to $1.34 billion, but HP sales rose just 6% vs. 34% for IBM. EMC Corp. ranks No. 3, with quarterly sales of $614 million. Big Blue executives loved the showing. They credited the gains to IBM's strategy of being a one-stop shop for all sorts of computer products and services. That same desire to be a one-stop shop prodded HP's $19 billion purchase last year of Compaq Computer, but the companies are still ironing out that merger, the computer industry's largest ever. IBM, on the other hand, set its strategy in motion a decade ago when it decided that offering services would be essential to its success. "Our storage product portfolio has never been better in our history," said Bob Samson, vice president of sales for the IBM Systems Group. "But the No. 1 reason for our success is our ability to integrate these components with solutions and services." In a separate report this month, Merrill Lynch & Co. writes that IBM executives say the company could double the size of its storage business through one-stop bundling, such as selling servers and storage in a package deal. IDC analyst Charlotte Rancourt agreed with Samson. "Their products are doing very well," she said. "And when IBM merged its storage business into its server division, they did so with the intent of emphasizing the capabilities of fully integrated solutions. That's very appealing to a lot of customers." IBM's market gains come at a tough time for the data storage industry. Full-year 2002 sales fell 15% vs. 2001, says IDC. On the other hand, IDC had expected a 21% decline. And fourth-quarter revenue rose 12% from the year-ago period. Meanwhile, IBM and HP have jockeyed for the lead. HP took the lead from IBM in the second quarter of 2002. Leadership in this sector has been IBM's quest since it lost the top spot to EMC in the late 1990s. "It's a gritty comeback for us that started four years ago," Samson said. The fourth quarter was the first time IBM's line of high-end storage systems, known as Shark, outsold EMC's line of similar products, called Symmetrix. Still, IBM is hardly out of the woods in the high end. Last month EMC unveiled the long-awaited update to its line of Symmetrix high-end storage products. And No. 4 player Hitachi Ltd. is expected to refresh its high-end line in early 2004. story.news.yahoo.com