Tuesday, November 13, 2007

MSTR Comes Out Swinging

One of my best (not a high bar) stocks has been Microstrategy, up about 50%. Recently two of their big competitors (BOBJ and Cognos) have been bought (I think by IBM & SAP). Will MSTR be next? I don't know. But they are trying to lure customers from their competitors, by playing up their independence (MicroStrategy Now the Leading Independent Provider of Open Systems Business Intelligence Software). They didn't mince words, here's their opening statement:

"Business intelligence consumers require financially strong, independent BI software providers. The acquisition of independent BI vendors by conglomerate software vendors will have the effect of creating "closed stacks" of proprietary software that work best only when used together. In contrast, independent vendors work with one another to create an "open systems stack" of software that has several important advantages for BI consumers."

We'll see what happens. I like them being aggressive.

Not much else to add, the bloodbath continued yesterday... though my portfolio dropped on par with the averages. Commodities got pummeled. Today looks better, retail looks to finally be getting a bit of a bounce. Companies like AEO & ARO have been slashed down. Oh well, at least I didn't own e-trade.

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