M&A Activity In Mobile

Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a mobile technology solutions provider, for $12.9 billion in the second quarter of last year was also significant. A recent $1.54 billion AirWatch acquisition indicates the influence and importance of mobile security. MDM solutions such as AirWatch do require a separate device installation which can impede user privacy.

Venture Beat / Google

The company has a market cap of $211.4 billion. Google’s acquisition of Nest indicates its long term investment in mobile and IoT. Google’s digital marketing focuses in video remarketing and dynamic retargeting technologies. Other key technologies include Google+, Google Analytics, mobile advertising, video ads on YouTube, and Google Adwords. Google has realized that they need to take responsibility for multiple revenue streams for content delivered through their platform, both the end-consumer paying and through advertising.

NetApp continuously innovates. New products include: NetApp E-Series platform, NetApp OnCommand™ management software. NetApp acquisitions include Engenio and Akorri Networks Inc. Partnerships include Internet Thailand (INET) and Avnet. In addition, NetApp collaborates with technology leaders such as Cisco to provide FlexPod™ Data Center ROI solutions that supports VMware, Citrix, Microsoft and SAP applications in the cloud.

EMC said that it expects revenues to once again grow at 8 percent, to $23.5 billion. EMC data center’s will have to scale, but scale could be a challenge. A winning architectural approach is still too nascent to tell as enterprises continue to build out their data centers. EMC’s Data Center Consolidation enables its customers to align data center infrastructure with business needs while improving asset utilization, lowering capital. The company has been gaining traction in its capabilities it built, growth and data center assets.

The growth of the Global Gamification market is driven by many factors such as the market’s ability to optimize in consumer engagement. Investors following gamification for enterprise companies should consider innovation areas, engagement and collaboration, organizational culture and growth expansion. With present economic conditions, investors are optimistic but seek out value in gamification.  

Software companies, hardware vendors are focused on ecosystems as they work to drive value to their consumer customers. Companies like Apple, Samsung, Google, Microsoft and others have increasingly connected hardware, software and services to content, distribution and other key parts of the ecosystem in order to better control the user experience. We will continue to see this move forward in 2013 as traditional hardware companies seek to compete for consumers.