Lochhead

Is Consolidation Killing Innovation?


The shrinking of the tech sector threatens creativity and new thinking

By Christopher Lochhead, strategy advisor and former chief marketing officer, Mercury Interactive

Is Silicon Valley at risk of becoming Detroit 2.0 — a company town dominated by a handful of big, uninspired conglomerates?

Lochhead advocates a healthy mix of innovation and consolidation

Lochhead advocates a mix of innovation and consolidation

Consolidation is replacing innovation as the hot strategy. During his company's battle for PeopleSoft, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison declared that the software industry has entered  a "period of contraction and consolidation."  

Talk about a self-fulfilling prophesy: Oracle has gobbled up at least a dozen more companies since it closed the PeopleSoft deal in 2005, and a big purchase of Sun Microsystems is pending. And other companies widely are expected to follow Oracle's acquisitive ways.

More

CNNMoney.com Comment Policy: CNNMoney.com encourages you to add a comment to this discussion. You may not post any unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic or other material that would violate the law. Please note that CNNMoney.com may edit comments for clarity or to keep out questionable or off-topic material. All comments should be relevant to the post and remain respectful of other authors and commenters. By submitting your comment, you hereby give CNNMoney.com the right, but not the obligation, to post, air, edit, exhibit, telecast, cablecast, webcast, re-use, publish, reproduce, use, license, print, distribute or otherwise use your comment(s) and accompanying personal identifying information via all forms of media now known or hereafter devised, worldwide, in perpetuity. CNNMoney.com Privacy Statement.
On Brainstorm's radar
CompanyPrice% Change
Kelly Services Inc 11.31 10.23%
Terex Corp 20.95 9.06%
Alcoa Inc 15.79 8.30%
BlueLinx Holdings Inc 3.35 7.37%
Dec 21 3:53pm ET †
IndexLast% Change
Dow Jones10,414.140.83%
Nasdaq2,237.661.17%
S&P 5001,114.051.05%
10yr97 16/32Yield: 3.67%
Dec 21 5:16pm ET †
CompanyPrice% Change
LSI Corp 5.97 6.42%
SanDisk Corp 26.64 6.22%
Micron Technology Inc 9.29 5.75%
Advanced Micro Devices Inc 9.52 5.19%
Dec 21 3:58pm ET †
* : Time reflects local markets trading time.† - Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges.• Disclaimer
Powered by WordPress.com VIP.