Thursday, October 26, 2006

Is Big Tech Back?

If you told people Google’s stock price had risen 25% in the past quarter nobody would be that shocked. But if you told them pretty well all the major tech stocks had had equally good quarters it may take some believing. However, when I just checked, the facts are that the following stocks rose by the following percentages:

Dell 10% (yes Dell, the one that is said to be struggling to find new growth and with that annoying battery problem)
Microsoft 15% (the one that has been criticized for delays of Vista and whose Chairman retired)
IBM 20% (I can’t actually think of a reason why ITS stock would suffer – truly)
Intel 24% (the one that is being challenged by AMD)
Oracle 25% (the one that has run out of companies to buy)
HP 25% (the one with the dysfunctional board)
Apple 32% (hasn’t everyone bought an iPod by now?)
Cisco 34% (the company that was the dot com darling but pundits said had had its day – clearly wrong)

Indeed the NASDAQ Computer index is up 18% in the last quarter. That means if you’d invested in pretty well any tech stock you should have done pretty well in the last three months. Now I know, the tech industry has been producing some good numbers (Cisco certainly has) but in truth they’ve been producing good growth for a while. I wonder what made the markets wake up?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tim - I still don't own an ipod!

Emma

Anonymous said...

Oh, DEAR, Tim!
"IBM 20% (I can’t actually think of a reason why there stock would suffer – truly)"

Tsk! :-)

Incidentally, as an (acknowledged) expert on PR and communications, perhaps you can shed some light on a PR company which has created its own web site.
It's all in Flash.
1) I'd quote from some of its pages for illustration, but Flash doesn't allow cut and paste. So I can't.
2) I'd point you to one or two of its pages, but Flash doesn't include hyperlinks. So I can't.
3) Flash is great for video. But there's no video on the site.
4) It has a link (again, I can't point you at it!) called "clients" which doesn't list the clients, or give contact details. Not even contact details for the executive who'd handle the accounts!
5) It includes phone contact information. Unfortunately, it's Flash, so I have to re-type the data for my address book... can't cut and paste. Oh, and it's tiny tiny print, so anybody over 40 will have to get their reading glasses out. Of course, nobody who matters is over 40, so that's OK.

Yes, it's the blasted Red outfit. Can't you teach them something about PR?

Tim Dyson, CEO of Next Fifteen said...

Emma - i think you are safe to take that step now.

Guy - I knew someone would ping me on the IBM comment but i really couldn't think of anything snippy. Truly!

Red is a consumer agency. Consumers don't like being contacted, so I guess they just want to be like their audience... I'll ping Lord C and see if he can get it fixed.

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