Technology
Another Sign of Recovery in the IT Market?
Showing early signs of a recovery in IT spending, F5 Networks, Inc announced today that its revenues in the three months ended December 31, 2009 totaled $191.2 million, up an impressive 15.5 percent from the year before. Net income totaled $29.3 million, up from $21.4 million the year before. The company said it added 100…
Research Group Points to Dominance of Mobile Devices on the Net
Gartner Group predicts that by 2013, mobile devices will overtake PCs as the primary means of connecting to the web. By that time, the group forecasts, there will be close to 2 billion devices capable of accessing the internet. See Brier Dudley’s great blog for more details about the report. The impact on world productivity…
Washington Technology Industry Association Announces Award Finalists
There are a lot of familiar names in the WTIA’s list of finalists for its annual industry achievement awards. Seven of the fifteen finalists were among the Top 25 Innovators listed in Seattle Business Magazine’s November issue. They include Apptio, Talyst, Dreambox, Gist, Amazon, Pathway and Pet Holdings. We’ve also done large features on many…
Turn left for Cinnabon…
Local startup Point Inside has launched an iPhone application that allows shoppers to pinpoint the nearest restroom, coffee stand or JC Penney in malls. Point Inside-led by CEO Kevin Foreman, a former RealNetworks executive-will allow shoppers to browse interactive maps for more than 250 malls in America, including 18 in Washington state.
Frazier tech fund dissolves
Frazier Technology Ventures, a venture capital firm launched 10 years ago, will close down after nearly 10 years in business. The firm was unable to raise a new fund and will cease making new investments in startup companies, although it will continue to manage existing investments. Len Jordan, one of the firm’s general partners and…
Microsoft cuts 800 more jobs
Microsoft cut an additional 800 jobs last fall, bringing the total number of positions eliminated in 2009 to 5,800. Microsoft employed 91,005 globally and 40,244 in the Puget Sound area at the end of September. The recent 800 layoffs include 200 in the Puget Sound region.
Ahead in the Cloud
The outlook for the expected recovery of the Puget Sound region’s technology sector looks mostly cloudy-and that’s just the way Seattle’s F5 Networks Inc. wants it. Cloud computing, the delivery of hosted services over the internet, is one of the hottest trends in the IT world. According to a March 2009 report from Gartner Inc.,…
Microsoft Gets Aggressive
In case you missed it, the Times (New York, not Seattle) reported this morning on rumors that Microsoft is talking with News Corp., Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, about an exclusive marketing deal that would make News Corp. content only searchable through Bing, Microsoft’s search engine. Such a deal, if it turns out to be true,…
Layoffs Continue
Got a tip earlier today about job cuts over at the biotechnology firm VLST Corp. A call later and we have the confirmation, such as it is, from CEO Martin Simonetti: “VLST Corporation is a small, privately held company. On an as-needed basis we evaluate our programs and resources to make sure they are in…
Earth Class Mail Recruits Military Customers
Earth Class Mail, the Seattle-based digital mailroom management company, is on a mission to digitize the worlds post offices. One of the key elements of this operation will be the militarynot its munitions, but its thousands of lonely soldiers who want to stay connected to their loved ones back home. About 30 percent of Earth…
Rated XX: For Women Only
It’s happening in record numbers. Busy professional women are shutting the doors of their offices or bedrooms to spend private time playing online games. And Cara Ely, creative director at Seattle’s I-play and originator of the company’s popular Dream Day Wedding series, knows why. “Women with jobs and families spend their whole day juggling things…
Nerd + Wine = Great Idea
Eric LeVine’s the guy who created the error message you read when Microsoft Word and other applications go kaput. The study in his Queen Anne home is festooned with various acknowledgments from Bill Gates and co. for his creativity and devotion to the company. Yet while LeVine was clearly wired for IT and figuring out…
Playing Power
Aside from health care and neighborhood dive bars across America, there aren’t many industries that have managed well during the current economic downturn. But one in particular continues to take the Puget Sound region by storm, offering new and innovative ideas to the field as it attracts more and more followers: video games. Seattle now…