Business 2006: Who won, who lost
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Before 2006, if someone in the business world mentioned "backdated options," you'd be forgiven for thinking they were making a joke about Steve Jobs' necktie collection.
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The Story: With three of the largest competitors in the field taken over by software giants, you?d think that the best days of the business intelligence market were over. You?d be wrong.[ Slideshow: 2007's top underreported tech stories ]                                                    Far from heralding the death of BI, the loss of Business Objects, Cognos and Hyperion to SAP, IBM and Oracle may well signal ?a golden age for business intelligence,? says AMR Research analyst John Hagerty.Sure, that?s a brave statement. But the BI market has never been as narrow as many people assumed. There are significant players left, including SAS, SPSS, MicroStrategy, Actuate, and dozens of smaller, often specialized, vendors. ?Go beyond the core tools of reporting and analysis and you?ll see lots of data-mining and statistical tool vendors, as well as industry-specific developers,? says IDC analyst Dan Vesset.The acquisitions of the big guys now creates space for those other companies to flourish, says Rob Tholemeier, a former industry analyst turned private investor. The same thing happened to the database market, he notes: ?There are more database companies around now than when Informix was purchased.? BI, Tholemeier says, is likely to follow the same course. ?Innovation will come from the outside [companies] as the big guys expand their scale and scope,? concurs AMR?s Hagerty. Pricing, of course, is a major concern as markets consolidate. But because the supply of BI software is still ample, given the large number of independents, buyers still have significant leverage, says Vesset ? though that could change further out, he adds. Moreover, it will take the platform vendors some time to integrate their acquisitions, both in terms of code and business process. And while that process plays out, prices aren?t likely to spike.The Bottom Line: As investor Tholmeier puts it, ?Clearing out the old-timers leaves a huge vacuum for the dozens of innovative players ready to strut their stuff. The business intelligence industry is dead. Long live BI.? That change presents both a challenge for IT to understand the new BI, and the opportunity to drive BI?s benefits to a greater portion of the company.Complete list of 2007 underreported stories: 1.? Java is becoming the new Cobol 2.? Sun Microsystems is back in the game 3.? Hackers take aim at Mac OS X 4.? There are some threats you can worry less about 5.? Companies may have found a way around H-1B visa limits 6.? Open source?s new commercial strategy 7.? End-to-end Ethernet finally arrives 8.? Blade servers arrive for the masses 9.? BI is dead; long live BI 10. Balance of power shifts to software buyers
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Europe pushes strong fourth quarter IBM increased profits and turnover in the fourth quarter of 2007. Big Blue made revenues of $28.9bn in the three months ended 31 December 2007 - up ten per cent.â¦
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Economists had forecast a drop to 94.8. The November business assessment index fell to 93.8 from 94.7 in October, while the business expectation index fell to 94.3 from 95.9 last month, Ifo said.
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The human beings behind the business headlines can sometimes become lost.
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Coach: Jeff Jagodzinski (first year). 2006 finish: 10-3, 5-3 (tied for second).
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Competitors play to win. But what if your opponent is also the occupant of the big office?
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A look at one of the companies participating in Southwestern Showcase 2006.
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As the year comes to a close, business owners across the country are faced with a similar choice: to give or not give, and if so, to whom?
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A look back at the stock market performance of our 2006 Mid-Cap List.
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Each vendor spins the year-end results to its advantage, but Sony had to scramble hardest.
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Disappointments abound across business lines. Apparently, it is time for a change.
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The midterm congressional campaign year of 2006, which saw the Democrats gain 30 seats in the House and six in the Senate and take control of both chambers, was one of those big &ldquo;swing&rdquo; years that usually come along only every decade or so. Invariably, the party that is on the wrong end of one of these political shifts will gear up for a comeback in the very next round of elections.
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Here&#8217;s a nice overview piece &#8212; together with the requisite &#8220;who will win?&#8221; dramatic elements &#8212; from BusinessWeek, covering mobile search:  The emergence of Internet-connected mobile phones, or what&#8217;s known as the Mobile Web, is turning the wireless search business into a horse race&#8212;one that&#8217;s too close to call. Unlike its dominant role in search [...]
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Business & money: Stuart Jeffries and  Stephen Moss look at who stands to gain from an economic slump
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The Bucs went on to win seven, Buffalo and Pittsburgh six, Houston five and the Giants four. The five losers made the playoffs. The Patriots, you might recall, had a pretty decent year.
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Here's how last year's stocks fared.