Call it the “new normal”. “Microsoft plans to announce a major new round of layoffs as early as Wednesday, as the company seeks to further cut costs in a shifting technology landscape,” The New York Times reported today. At the end of March, Microsoft had more than 118,000 employees globally,… Read More
As we continue to screen M&A deals in the tech space, our attention today was caught by Cisco Systems. Here’s our quick take. Growth Problem Cisco has a growth problem, so it’s looking at targeted deals to bulk up in the right places at a time when rivals are keen… Read More
So, today we were informed that Sophos has priced its stock on the London Stock Exchange. “Following the announcement by Sophos Group plc on 3 June 2015 of its intention to proceed with an initial public offering, the company today announces the successful pricing of the offer at 225p per share. Based… Read More
Update one-of-many-to-come as we monitor M&A activity in the TMT sector: since 12 May, when Verizon announced it would acquire AOL for $4.4bn — roughly 2.2% of its market cap at the time — there had been no real news to report until yesterday. Done Deal The deal has now completed,… Read More
“The visions of Verizon and AOL are shared.” Those were the words of Tim Armstrong, AOL’s chief executive and chairman, following the sale of his firm to Verizon on Tuesday. A former Google employee, Mr Armstrong has done an outstanding job at AOL, but he may be too optimistic about Verizon’s prospects. Just Random Thoughts?… Read More