New power, new speed. Quad-core from Intel.
Leaders of the pack seeking monster performance, look no further. With four execution cores, the Intel® Core™2 Quad processor blows through processor-intensive tasks in demanding multitasking environments and makes the most of highly threaded applications. Whether you're creating multimedia, annihilating your gaming enemies, or running compute-intensive applications at one time, new quad-core processing will change the way you do everything. Pioneer the new world of quad-core and unleash the power of multithreading.
Features and benefits
The high end just got higher. Introducing the latest additions to the Core 2 Quad family built using Intel's 45nm technology and hafnium-infused circuitry. These new processors deliver amazing performance and power efficiency. Whether it's encoding, rendering, editing, or streaming, make the most of your professional-grade multimedia applications with a PC powered by the Intel® Core™2 Quad processor. With four processing cores and up to 12MB of shared L2 cache¹ and up to 1333 MHz Front Side Bus, more intensive entertainment and more multitasking can bring a multimedia powerhouse to your house.
Intel® Wide Dynamic Execution, enabling delivery of more instructions per clock cycle to improve execution time and energy efficiency
Intel® Intelligent Power Capability, designed to deliver more energy-efficient performance
Intel® Smart Memory Access, improving system performance by optimizing the use of the available data bandwidth
Intel® Advanced Smart Cache, providing a higher-performance, more efficient cache subsystem. Optimized for multi-core and dual-core processors
Intel® Advanced Digital Media Boost, accelerating a broad range of applications, including video, speech and image, photo processing, encryption, financial, engineering and scientific applications. Now improved even further on 45nm versions with Intel® HD Boost utilizing new SSE4 instructions for even better multimedia performance
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Sun Microsystems
New products and releases: Focusing on Linux Desktop development
LinuxWorld, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) previewed a number of next-generation products and roadmaps for Linux support of the Sun Java(tm) Enterprise System, Java Studio development tools and new AMD Opteron(tm) processor-based x86 systems. With these previews, plus the launch of a new Linux community on java.net, Sun continues to deliver on its strategy to bring new innovations to the Linux OS, to be a leading contributor in the Linux community and to provide added value on top of Linux through new infrastructure and desktop software systems.
Sun also said it is seeing strong demand for the now shipping Sun Java Desktop System, StarOffice(tm) 7 on Linux, OpenOffice.org and Sun Fire(tm) V60x, V65x and blade servers, demonstrating its significant traction in the Linux and open source marketplaces. In recent weeks, Sun announced a series of new customers and partners worldwide in government and finance who are embracing its desktop alternatives, including China Software Standards Corporation (CSSC), United India Insurance Company, TadPole Computing and the United Health Service (UK).
In addition, Japanese reseller SOURCENEXT last week announced it will offer StarOffice (known as StarSuite in Japan) at more than 15,000 retail outlets throughout Japan, including home electronics, convenience and book stores. Recent wins of the Java Desktop System worldwide, as well as the tremendous success of StarOffice and OpenOffice.org with more than 40 million downloads to date, make Sun one of the leading vendors of alternative, open source desktop solutions. More and more customers are turning to Sun for the hardware, software and services to create network computing solutions that save costs, increase security and reliability and reduce inefficiency.
The innovations previewed at LinuxWorld are focused on three key areas:
1. Next-generation desktop technologies including the next version of the Sun Java Desktop System, future management features for the Java Desktop System that allow full control over the desktop experience, Linux on ultra-thin Sun Ray(tm) client systems and a radical new three-dimensional (3-D), Java technology-based PC interface (code named "Project Looking Glass"). Java Desktop System and the new 3-D interface will be demonstrated by Sun during the Computer Associates keynote on Thursday, January 22, at 11:30 am EST;
2. Enterprise Software and Hardware: Sun will demonstrate the Sun Java(tm) Enterprise System at its LinuxWorld booth (#321 in the Jacob Javits Center), January 21-23. The Java Enterprise System -- Sun's integrated infrastructure software solution for simplifying datacenter deployment, operation and management - began shipping in December 2003 and will be available supporting the Linux OS later this year on Intel Xeon systems and AMD Opteron processor-based x86 servers as part of the Sun and AMD alliance announced in November 2003. The hardware offerings are designed to give customers greater choice, value and performance, and are ideally suited for enterprise and HPTC projects in cluster and grid computing. Sun will present the "Sun and AMD Alliance" in booth #321 at the Jacob Javitz Center, January 21 at 10:00 am EST and January 23 at 1:30 pm EST;
3. Linux development tools: Sun will preview a future developer desktop solution that combines Sun's new Java Studio Creator (code-named "Project Rave"), a revolutionarily easy-to-use drag-and-drop Java Application Builder, with the Java Desktop System and NetBeans(tm), Sun's open source Java IDE. In addition, Sun will outline plans to support its complete line of development tools on Linux by the end of 2004 -- from the free open source NetBeans software to enterprise-class Java Studio software.
"Sun continues to drive leadership in the linux community with the world's most popular desktop offering, the Java Desktop System," said Jonathan Schwartz, executive vice president of software, Sun Microsystems. "While the competition continues to hire evangelists and call that a linux strategy, we're demonstrating commitment by buildingand shipping indemnified products, safe for corporate deployment, that save millions of dollars each and every day."
LinuxWorld, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) previewed a number of next-generation products and roadmaps for Linux support of the Sun Java(tm) Enterprise System, Java Studio development tools and new AMD Opteron(tm) processor-based x86 systems. With these previews, plus the launch of a new Linux community on java.net, Sun continues to deliver on its strategy to bring new innovations to the Linux OS, to be a leading contributor in the Linux community and to provide added value on top of Linux through new infrastructure and desktop software systems.
Sun also said it is seeing strong demand for the now shipping Sun Java Desktop System, StarOffice(tm) 7 on Linux, OpenOffice.org and Sun Fire(tm) V60x, V65x and blade servers, demonstrating its significant traction in the Linux and open source marketplaces. In recent weeks, Sun announced a series of new customers and partners worldwide in government and finance who are embracing its desktop alternatives, including China Software Standards Corporation (CSSC), United India Insurance Company, TadPole Computing and the United Health Service (UK).
In addition, Japanese reseller SOURCENEXT last week announced it will offer StarOffice (known as StarSuite in Japan) at more than 15,000 retail outlets throughout Japan, including home electronics, convenience and book stores. Recent wins of the Java Desktop System worldwide, as well as the tremendous success of StarOffice and OpenOffice.org with more than 40 million downloads to date, make Sun one of the leading vendors of alternative, open source desktop solutions. More and more customers are turning to Sun for the hardware, software and services to create network computing solutions that save costs, increase security and reliability and reduce inefficiency.
The innovations previewed at LinuxWorld are focused on three key areas:
1. Next-generation desktop technologies including the next version of the Sun Java Desktop System, future management features for the Java Desktop System that allow full control over the desktop experience, Linux on ultra-thin Sun Ray(tm) client systems and a radical new three-dimensional (3-D), Java technology-based PC interface (code named "Project Looking Glass"). Java Desktop System and the new 3-D interface will be demonstrated by Sun during the Computer Associates keynote on Thursday, January 22, at 11:30 am EST;
2. Enterprise Software and Hardware: Sun will demonstrate the Sun Java(tm) Enterprise System at its LinuxWorld booth (#321 in the Jacob Javits Center), January 21-23. The Java Enterprise System -- Sun's integrated infrastructure software solution for simplifying datacenter deployment, operation and management - began shipping in December 2003 and will be available supporting the Linux OS later this year on Intel Xeon systems and AMD Opteron processor-based x86 servers as part of the Sun and AMD alliance announced in November 2003. The hardware offerings are designed to give customers greater choice, value and performance, and are ideally suited for enterprise and HPTC projects in cluster and grid computing. Sun will present the "Sun and AMD Alliance" in booth #321 at the Jacob Javitz Center, January 21 at 10:00 am EST and January 23 at 1:30 pm EST;
3. Linux development tools: Sun will preview a future developer desktop solution that combines Sun's new Java Studio Creator (code-named "Project Rave"), a revolutionarily easy-to-use drag-and-drop Java Application Builder, with the Java Desktop System and NetBeans(tm), Sun's open source Java IDE. In addition, Sun will outline plans to support its complete line of development tools on Linux by the end of 2004 -- from the free open source NetBeans software to enterprise-class Java Studio software.
"Sun continues to drive leadership in the linux community with the world's most popular desktop offering, the Java Desktop System," said Jonathan Schwartz, executive vice president of software, Sun Microsystems. "While the competition continues to hire evangelists and call that a linux strategy, we're demonstrating commitment by buildingand shipping indemnified products, safe for corporate deployment, that save millions of dollars each and every day."
Windows Embedded
Windows XP Embedded, or XPe, is the componentized version of Microsoft Windows XP Professional and the successor to Windows NT 4.0 Embedded. XPe is based on the same binaries as XP Professional, but XPe is marketed towards developers for OEMs, ISVs and IHVs that want the full Win32 API support of Windows but without the overhead of Professional. It runs existing Windows applications and device drivers off-the-shelf on devices with at least 32MB Compact Flash, 32MB RAM and a P-200 microprocessor. XPe was released on November 28, 2001. As of February 2007, the newest release is Windows XP Embedded SP2 Feature Pack 2007.
XPe is not related to Windows CE. They target different devices and they each have their pros and cons which make them attractive to different OEMs for different types of devices. For instance, XPe will never get down to the small footprint that CE works in. However, CE does not have the Win32 APIs XPe has (although CE has an API that is similar to the Win32 API), nor can it run the tens of thousands of drivers and applications that already exist.
XPe is not related to Windows CE. They target different devices and they each have their pros and cons which make them attractive to different OEMs for different types of devices. For instance, XPe will never get down to the small footprint that CE works in. However, CE does not have the Win32 APIs XPe has (although CE has an API that is similar to the Win32 API), nor can it run the tens of thousands of drivers and applications that already exist.
IBM BladeCenter
Highlights
* Pre-configured and optimized JS21 blade server with fast memory and lots of storage
* Combines deployment flexibility of IBM BladeCenter® with ease of management
* Takes advantage of virtualization technologies to help increase utilization and decrease costs
For success in today’s demanding marketplace, small businesses require leadership price/performance to manage their bottom line. But competing against larger companies also requires an investment in technology and innovation that has to be justifiable from day one. For high performance computing (HPC) applications such as life and earth sciences research, computer-aided engineering or business intelligence grids as well as a variety of commercial applications such as Web serving, server consolidation and retail environments, it takes more than just the claim of innovation to deliver real value.
The IBM BladeCenter JS21 Express blade server, a feature-rich, pre-configured blade, is the answer to meet the stringent requirements of small businesses for advanced technology at a very attractive price. The JS21 Express delivers many leading-edge technologies—support for the IBM AIX® and Linux® operating systems, IBM Advanced POWER™ Virtualization (APV) and AltiVec™ SIMD acceleration functionality—in a single, highly reliable, high-performance, yet cost-efficient blade server.
* Pre-configured and optimized JS21 blade server with fast memory and lots of storage
* Combines deployment flexibility of IBM BladeCenter® with ease of management
* Takes advantage of virtualization technologies to help increase utilization and decrease costs
For success in today’s demanding marketplace, small businesses require leadership price/performance to manage their bottom line. But competing against larger companies also requires an investment in technology and innovation that has to be justifiable from day one. For high performance computing (HPC) applications such as life and earth sciences research, computer-aided engineering or business intelligence grids as well as a variety of commercial applications such as Web serving, server consolidation and retail environments, it takes more than just the claim of innovation to deliver real value.
The IBM BladeCenter JS21 Express blade server, a feature-rich, pre-configured blade, is the answer to meet the stringent requirements of small businesses for advanced technology at a very attractive price. The JS21 Express delivers many leading-edge technologies—support for the IBM AIX® and Linux® operating systems, IBM Advanced POWER™ Virtualization (APV) and AltiVec™ SIMD acceleration functionality—in a single, highly reliable, high-performance, yet cost-efficient blade server.
Microsoft Unveils VoIP Solution as Part of Desktop Communications
REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 11, 2006 — Microsoft Corp. today opened a private beta of its new enterprise voice communications server, Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007, to 2,500 IT professionals. Office Communications Server 2007 allows companies to integrate voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology into existing telephony infrastructure, eliminating the need for expensive network overhauls and also extending the useful life of existing investments. The new voice server will also allow workers to instantly launch a phone call from 2007 Microsoft Office applications, such as Office Word 2007, Office Outlook® 2007 or Office Communicator, by simply clicking on a colleague’s name to determine his or her availability and initiate a person-to-person or multiparty call.
With native support for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communicator, part of the 2007 Microsoft Office system, interoperate with products from industry partners including Nortel Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., LG-Nortel Co. Ltd., Mitel Networks Corp., NEC Philips Unified Solutions, Polycom Inc. and Siemens Communications Inc. Through these relationships, customers worldwide will be able to support VoIP using their existing desktop phones, data networks and time division multiplexing (TDM) or Internet protocol (IP) private branch exchanges (PBXs). Customers will also able to leverage the softphone capabilities of Office Communicator to make and receive phone calls from their PCs, eliminating the need to purchase expensive IP-compatible phones.
“The convergence of telecom and data networks is happening rapidly. Software will integrate these two worlds, enabling IT managers to deliver new communications possibilities that include VoIP,” said Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of the Unified Communications Group at Microsoft. “With this open architecture and broad interoperability, Office Communications Server 2007 will give IT managers the flexibility to determine when and how and in what way they move their communications infrastructure forward.”
Microsoft is bringing the pace of software innovation to communications to deliver a people-centric experience. According to a recent Gartner Inc. report, “The ultimate driver of VoIP is not merely cost savings, but is in business process integration. Enterprises should evaluate their long-term strategy toward developing IP telephony applications beyond basic telephony, including business application integration.”1
In conjunction with opening the private beta, Microsoft is hosting a Technology Adoption Program (TAP) Summit this week. Approximately 250 representatives from nearly 100 enterprises will participate in the weeklong event. Attendees represent enterprise IT departments that serve more than 7 million information workers worldwide. The event will kick off with a keynote address by Microsoft Corporate Vice President Gurdeep Singh Pall and includes a showcase of partner solutions, including a demonstration of Innovative Communications Alliance (ICA) scenarios incorporating Microsoft unified communications software and the Nortel Communications Server 1000 IP-PBX.
Office Communications Server 2007, the successor to Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005, is part of Microsoft’s unified communications portfolio. Companies using Office Communications Server 2007 can deploy enterprisewide presence; enable security-enhanced enterprise instant messaging; host on-premise audio, video and Web conferences; and deploy VoIP capabilities. Some of the capabilities available in the private beta of Office Communications Server 2007 are placing and receiving voice calls; advanced call routing; streamlined integration with the new unified messaging capabilities in Exchange Server 2007; multiparty conferencing; call holding, forwarding and transferring; and compliance capabilities, all while working in concert with existing telephony infrastructure.
Office Communications Server 2007 can be deployed with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, a cornerstone of Microsoft’s unified communications portfolio. Exchange Server 2007 complements the voice capabilities of Office Communications Server 2007 with a built-in auto-attendant for answering and routing inbound voice calls as well as unified messaging that unifies voice mail and e-mail in a single inbox. Exchange Server is available for evaluation at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/eval.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
With native support for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communicator, part of the 2007 Microsoft Office system, interoperate with products from industry partners including Nortel Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., LG-Nortel Co. Ltd., Mitel Networks Corp., NEC Philips Unified Solutions, Polycom Inc. and Siemens Communications Inc. Through these relationships, customers worldwide will be able to support VoIP using their existing desktop phones, data networks and time division multiplexing (TDM) or Internet protocol (IP) private branch exchanges (PBXs). Customers will also able to leverage the softphone capabilities of Office Communicator to make and receive phone calls from their PCs, eliminating the need to purchase expensive IP-compatible phones.
“The convergence of telecom and data networks is happening rapidly. Software will integrate these two worlds, enabling IT managers to deliver new communications possibilities that include VoIP,” said Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of the Unified Communications Group at Microsoft. “With this open architecture and broad interoperability, Office Communications Server 2007 will give IT managers the flexibility to determine when and how and in what way they move their communications infrastructure forward.”
Microsoft is bringing the pace of software innovation to communications to deliver a people-centric experience. According to a recent Gartner Inc. report, “The ultimate driver of VoIP is not merely cost savings, but is in business process integration. Enterprises should evaluate their long-term strategy toward developing IP telephony applications beyond basic telephony, including business application integration.”1
In conjunction with opening the private beta, Microsoft is hosting a Technology Adoption Program (TAP) Summit this week. Approximately 250 representatives from nearly 100 enterprises will participate in the weeklong event. Attendees represent enterprise IT departments that serve more than 7 million information workers worldwide. The event will kick off with a keynote address by Microsoft Corporate Vice President Gurdeep Singh Pall and includes a showcase of partner solutions, including a demonstration of Innovative Communications Alliance (ICA) scenarios incorporating Microsoft unified communications software and the Nortel Communications Server 1000 IP-PBX.
Office Communications Server 2007, the successor to Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005, is part of Microsoft’s unified communications portfolio. Companies using Office Communications Server 2007 can deploy enterprisewide presence; enable security-enhanced enterprise instant messaging; host on-premise audio, video and Web conferences; and deploy VoIP capabilities. Some of the capabilities available in the private beta of Office Communications Server 2007 are placing and receiving voice calls; advanced call routing; streamlined integration with the new unified messaging capabilities in Exchange Server 2007; multiparty conferencing; call holding, forwarding and transferring; and compliance capabilities, all while working in concert with existing telephony infrastructure.
Office Communications Server 2007 can be deployed with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, a cornerstone of Microsoft’s unified communications portfolio. Exchange Server 2007 complements the voice capabilities of Office Communications Server 2007 with a built-in auto-attendant for answering and routing inbound voice calls as well as unified messaging that unifies voice mail and e-mail in a single inbox. Exchange Server is available for evaluation at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/eval.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Oracle Fusion Middleware
Oracle Fusion Middleware is a portfolio of standards-based software products, produced by Oracle, that spans multiple services, including J2EE and developer tools, integration services, business intelligence, collaboration, and content management. Many of the products included under the Oracle Fusion Middleware banner are not themselves middleware products, Fusion Middleware essentially being a rebranding of many of Oracle's products outside of their core database and applications software offerings. According to Oracle, 30,000 organizations are current Fusion Middleware customers.
Oracle Fusion Middleware is designed to support development, deployment, and management of Service-Oriented Architecture. It includes what Oracle calls "Hot-Pluggable" architecture, which allows users to leverage existing investments in applications and systems from other software vendors such as IBM, Microsoft, and SAP AG. Oracle will also leverage what is called configurable network computing, (CNC) techology that it got from its combined PeopleSoft and JDEdwards acquisition in 2005.
Oracle Fusion Middleware Components
* Enterprise Application Server
o Oracle Application Server
* Integration & Process Management
o BPEL Process Manager
o Business Activity Monitoring
o Business Rules
o Enterprise Connectivity (Adapters)
o Enterprise Messaging Service
o Enterprise Service Bus
o Integration B2B
o Service Registry
o Web Services Manager
* Development Tools
o Application Development Framework
o JDeveloper
o SOA Suite
o TopLink
o Forms Services
o Developer Suite
* Business Intelligence
o Business Intelligence 10g
o Business Activity Monitoring
o Discoverer
o Data Hubs
o BI Publisher
o Reports Services
* Systems Management
o Enterprise Manager 10g
o Web Services Manager
* User Interaction
o Collaboration Suite
o Portal
o Oracle Webcenter
o Real-Time Collaboration
o Unified Messaging
o Workspaces
* Identity management
o Identity Management
o Enterprise Single sign-on
o Identity Manager
o Access Manager
* Grid Infrastructure
o Services Registry
o Application Server Security
Oracle Fusion Middleware is designed to support development, deployment, and management of Service-Oriented Architecture. It includes what Oracle calls "Hot-Pluggable" architecture, which allows users to leverage existing investments in applications and systems from other software vendors such as IBM, Microsoft, and SAP AG. Oracle will also leverage what is called configurable network computing, (CNC) techology that it got from its combined PeopleSoft and JDEdwards acquisition in 2005.
Oracle Fusion Middleware Components
* Enterprise Application Server
o Oracle Application Server
* Integration & Process Management
o BPEL Process Manager
o Business Activity Monitoring
o Business Rules
o Enterprise Connectivity (Adapters)
o Enterprise Messaging Service
o Enterprise Service Bus
o Integration B2B
o Service Registry
o Web Services Manager
* Development Tools
o Application Development Framework
o JDeveloper
o SOA Suite
o TopLink
o Forms Services
o Developer Suite
* Business Intelligence
o Business Intelligence 10g
o Business Activity Monitoring
o Discoverer
o Data Hubs
o BI Publisher
o Reports Services
* Systems Management
o Enterprise Manager 10g
o Web Services Manager
* User Interaction
o Collaboration Suite
o Portal
o Oracle Webcenter
o Real-Time Collaboration
o Unified Messaging
o Workspaces
* Identity management
o Identity Management
o Enterprise Single sign-on
o Identity Manager
o Access Manager
* Grid Infrastructure
o Services Registry
o Application Server Security
IT Portfolio management
IT portfolio management is the application of systematic management to large classes of items managed by enterprise Information Technology (IT) capabilities. Examples of IT portfolios would be planned initiatives, projects, and ongoing IT services (such as application support). The promise of IT portfolio management is the quantification of previously mysterious IT efforts, enabling measurement and objective evaluation of investment scenarios.
Debates exist on the best way to measure value of IT investment. As pointed out by Jeffery and Leliveld (2004) [1], companies have spent billions of dollars into IT investment and yet the headlines of mis-spent money are not uncommon. Nicholas Carr (2003) has caused significant controversy in IT industry and academia by positioning IT as an expense similar to utilities such as electricity.
IT portfolio management started with a project-centric bias, but is evolving to include steady-state portfolio entries such as application maintenance and support, which consume the bulk of IT spending. The challenge for including application maintenance and support in portfolios is that IT budgets tend not to track these efforts at a sufficient level of granularity for effective financial tracking.[2]
The concept is analogous to financial portfolio management, but there are significant differences. IT investments are not liquid, like stocks and bonds (although investment portfolios may also include illiquid assets), and are measured using both financial and non-financial yardsticks (for example, a balanced scorecard approach); a purely financial view is not sufficient.
Financial portfolio assets typically have consistent measurement information (enabling accurate and objective comparisons), and this is at the base of the concept’s usefulness in application to IT. However, achieving such universality of measurement is going to take considerable effort in the IT industry.
Blue Chip and Par Value
A blue chip stock is the stock of a well-established company having stable earnings and no extensive liabilities. The term derives from casinos, where blue chips stand for counters of the highest value. Most blue chip stocks pay regular dividends, even when business is faring worse than usual.
Par value is a nominal value of a security which is determined by an issuer company at a minimum price. Par value of an equity (a stock) is a somewhat archaic concept. The par value of a stock was the share price upon initial offering; the issuing company promised not to issue further shares below par value, so investors could be confident that no one else was receiving a more favorable issue price. This was far more important in unregulated equity markets than in the regulated markets that exist today.
Most common stocks issued today do not have par values; those that do (usually only in jurisdictions where par values are required by law) have extremely low par values (often the smallest unit of currency commonly used), for example a penny par value on a stock issued at USD$25/share. Most states do not allow a company to issue stock below par value.
No-par stocks have no par value printed on its certificates. Instead of par value, some U.S. states allow no-par stocks to have a stated value, set by the board of directors of the corporation, which serves the same purpose as par value in setting the minimum legal capital that the corporation must have after paying any dividends or buying back its stock.
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ (acronym of National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange. It is the largest electronic screen-based equity securities trading market in the United States. With approximately 3,200 companies, it lists more companies and on average trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market.[1]
It was founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), who divested themselves of it in a series of sales in 2000 and 2001. It is owned and operated by The NASDAQ Stock Market, the stock of which was listed on its own stock exchange in 2002, and is monitored by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
With the impending purchase of the Nordic-based operated exchange OMX, following its agreement with Borse Dubai, NASDAQ is poised to capture 47% of the controlling stake in the aforementioned exchange, thereby inching ever closer to taking over the company and creating a trans-atlantic powerhouse.
Debates exist on the best way to measure value of IT investment. As pointed out by Jeffery and Leliveld (2004) [1], companies have spent billions of dollars into IT investment and yet the headlines of mis-spent money are not uncommon. Nicholas Carr (2003) has caused significant controversy in IT industry and academia by positioning IT as an expense similar to utilities such as electricity.
IT portfolio management started with a project-centric bias, but is evolving to include steady-state portfolio entries such as application maintenance and support, which consume the bulk of IT spending. The challenge for including application maintenance and support in portfolios is that IT budgets tend not to track these efforts at a sufficient level of granularity for effective financial tracking.[2]
The concept is analogous to financial portfolio management, but there are significant differences. IT investments are not liquid, like stocks and bonds (although investment portfolios may also include illiquid assets), and are measured using both financial and non-financial yardsticks (for example, a balanced scorecard approach); a purely financial view is not sufficient.
Financial portfolio assets typically have consistent measurement information (enabling accurate and objective comparisons), and this is at the base of the concept’s usefulness in application to IT. However, achieving such universality of measurement is going to take considerable effort in the IT industry.
Blue Chip and Par Value
A blue chip stock is the stock of a well-established company having stable earnings and no extensive liabilities. The term derives from casinos, where blue chips stand for counters of the highest value. Most blue chip stocks pay regular dividends, even when business is faring worse than usual.
Par value is a nominal value of a security which is determined by an issuer company at a minimum price. Par value of an equity (a stock) is a somewhat archaic concept. The par value of a stock was the share price upon initial offering; the issuing company promised not to issue further shares below par value, so investors could be confident that no one else was receiving a more favorable issue price. This was far more important in unregulated equity markets than in the regulated markets that exist today.
Most common stocks issued today do not have par values; those that do (usually only in jurisdictions where par values are required by law) have extremely low par values (often the smallest unit of currency commonly used), for example a penny par value on a stock issued at USD$25/share. Most states do not allow a company to issue stock below par value.
No-par stocks have no par value printed on its certificates. Instead of par value, some U.S. states allow no-par stocks to have a stated value, set by the board of directors of the corporation, which serves the same purpose as par value in setting the minimum legal capital that the corporation must have after paying any dividends or buying back its stock.
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ (acronym of National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange. It is the largest electronic screen-based equity securities trading market in the United States. With approximately 3,200 companies, it lists more companies and on average trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market.[1]
It was founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), who divested themselves of it in a series of sales in 2000 and 2001. It is owned and operated by The NASDAQ Stock Market, the stock of which was listed on its own stock exchange in 2002, and is monitored by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
With the impending purchase of the Nordic-based operated exchange OMX, following its agreement with Borse Dubai, NASDAQ is poised to capture 47% of the controlling stake in the aforementioned exchange, thereby inching ever closer to taking over the company and creating a trans-atlantic powerhouse.
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