Good news about the economy along with upbeat statements from industry leaders and market researchers are helping to instill confidence in the tech sector after a rollercoaster ride on U.S. exchanges over the past few weeks.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took the stage in New York Thursday, playing the role of chief salesman in a day of worldwide launch events, executive speechmaking and sales promotions meant to persuade consumers and businesses to migrate to Windows 7.
With quarterly IT sales results pouring in, vendors including IBM, Google, Advanced Micro Devices and Intel appear more confident than ever that the global recession's depressing effects on the tech market are lifting.
Aiming to expand its mobile Internet offerings, Cisco Systems will acquire Starent Networks for US$2.9 billion, the companies announced Tuesday.
U.S. markets are taking a breather this week before a wave of earnings reports, with tech stocks lifting on positive macro-economic news.
Despite Google's phenomenal growth, the Internet search giant does not appear to be worried about taking on too many projects, judging from comments made at a media roundtable Wednesday with company cofounder Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt.
Macroeconomic concerns put pressure on stocks in all sectors this week, but acquisitions and financial news continued to stoke investor hopes for an imminent recovery from the recession for IT.
Optimism about IT helped boost stock exchanges to 2009 highs this week as tech-sector mergers and acquisitions and news about improving demand for hardware buoyed investor confidence.
EBay Tuesday announced it has signed an agreement to sell its Skype voice-over-IP service to a group of private investors in a deal that values the business at US$2.75 billion.
Fueling hopes that the hardware sector will bounce back from the recession in the second half of the year, Intel Friday said its expectations for third-quarter revenue are higher than its prior forecast due to stronger-than-expected demand for processors and chipsets.
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