After Dell, BMC To Go Private: Who’s Next?

It has only been a couple of months since it was announced that Dell might be taken off the market by Michael Dell and Silver Lake Management in a leveraged buyout. That matter remains to be resolved, even though an offer from Michael Dell’s consortium worth $24.4 billion is on the table. While it may be some time before the Dell deal is completed, one company that has been sold for sure is BMC. Like Dell, BMC is also a legacy IT vendor. It has been taken over by not one but two equity firms, paying $6.9 billion for the company.

Dell will almost certainly go private in the near future and BMC already has gone private. One can only wonder whether this is a trend that is emerging in the market. Soon, it could see other legacy IT vendors jumping on the bandwagon and being taken off the market. The thing with BMC though is that it isn’t as well known as Dell or any other leading vendor for that matter. Yet, people within the industry are surely paying attention to its purchase by Golden Gate Partners and Bain Capital.

Ironically, Dell offered direct competition to BMC over the past few months. Even though BMC’s focus was on different management software and suites for businesses, Dell became a competitor when it purchased Quest Software at the in September 2012. At the time, Quest Software was BMC’s biggest rival. BMC’s main services are used by companies to keep their data centers up and running, not glamorous by any means. This is why BMC is quite unknown to the average person.

The thing is that it may become a trend in the not too distant future. Already, leading PC vendors are under pressure from their stakeholders to show better performance. With the PC market on the decline, cloud management and other services to enterprises are becoming the preferred product offering for the companies. So, it is quite possible that Dell and BMC might not be the only legacy IT vendors being taken off the market and branching out into different arenas.

This was exemplified recently by IBM, when the company revealed its earnings for the first quarter of the year. During Q1 2013, IBM actually managed to improve its sales with regards to cloud computing and other tools for analytics it provides to enterprises. However, it lost ground with its main products with revenues not increasing from where they were in the same quarter last year. It goes to show how important other services, particularly cloud related have becoming important for IT vendors.

You should not be surprised if you see other companies joining Dell and BMC off the market. Of course, it is virtually impossible to fathom Microsoft or Oracle being bought by a private bidder. Yet, there are many companies like BMC which are not in the limelight but are worth billions. So, you might see more of them being bought out by private equities over the next couple of years.

[Image via arstechnica]

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Yahoo and Microsoft Extend Revenue per Search Agreement

Yahoo and Microsoft are set to continue their revenue per search agreement they have had for a decade now. As revealed by a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Microsoft has agreed to let Yahoo earn revenue through its search for at least one more year. The deadline for the agreement currently signed by the two tech giants is valid until the 1^st of April next year. Till then, both companies will work in tandem to maximize their revenues through search.

However, the news came with a pinch of salt for Microsoft. Even after agreeing to extend their deal, Microsoft learned that Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa Mayer plans to discontinue their association once the current agreement is completed. This is surprising as the agreement for revenue per search between the two companies was made long before Mayer took the reins at Yahoo. Obviously, there aren’t any clear signs from either party as to what is going to be the future of their agreement.

After all, the deal benefits both of them. Microsoft only lets Yahoo enjoy the revenue per search as it earns on their behalf as well. According to an august official at Yahoo, the current agreement between the two companies is worth at least $50 to $60 million for the company. Having seen revenue dip in other areas of its business, Yahoo would be keen to recover the money it has lost through whichever medium is the most profitable. Needless to say, search has been a hot commodity for some time now.

Yet, that figure also takes into account the fact that Yahoo search is powered by Bing. Originally, the agreement was far more lucrative and profitable for Yahoo back when it was powering its search engine on its own. In 2010 however, a new agreement was made between the companies which stipulated that Yahoo search would be powered by Bing. This meant that Bing provides the search results whenever a person searches for anything on Yahoo.

So, there has been a definite drop in revenue per search for Yahoo. Previously, the company was earning a significantly higher amount. This is the reason why Mayer, among other top officials of the company, wants to discontinue the agreement. Microsoft, on the other hand, has no reason to do away with the deal. It is benefiting by being in control of the no. 2 and no. 3 search engine in the world. Beating Google might be impossible by Microsoft at least has a significant share of the search market.

Talking about Google there are reports that the company is waiting to pounce on Yahoo if and when the deal with Microsoft ends. This would give Google unprecedented power over the search market. Already, there is seemingly no way to challenge Google’s dominance. Being in control of Yahoo as well as its own search engine would mean that Google will hold the cards as far as the search industry is concerned. This is something Microsoft would be wary of and one of the reasons why they want to continue the revenue per search agreement.

[Image via cnet]

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Do Violent Games Desensitize Players?

The controversy surrounding violent video games and their effects on players’ minds is not likely to end too soon. A new study indicates that exposure to violent video games is likely to desensitize teenage players and numb them to brutality. A clear cause and effect link has not been determined, however.

The research was led by Stockholm scientist Malena Ivarsson and focused on 30 teenage boys of 13 to 15 years, who were split in two groups. While one group had to play violent video games for at least three hours every day, the second group played them for an hour or less. The boys were then asked to play a violent game and a non-violent one for two hours, several evenings.

The study monitored the subjects’ reaction later in the night after playing. The violent game apparently triggered a sense of exhaustion that affected sleep quality in those who played it. The group that was exposed to the violent game for less than an hour experienced an increased feeling of sadness. After playing the violent game, both groups were found to have higher stress and anxiety levels.

The research however does not clearly prove any cause-and-effect relationship between violent game exposure and teenagers’ desensitization to brutality. The study indicates that teenagers with particular traits may be more attracted to violent video games than others.

Aggression linked to competition

A new study, meanwhile, suggests that the aggressive behavior in teenagers and young adults is not necessarily triggered by violent games, but by competition. In other words, any competitive games can have that effect.

The study conducted by psychology PhD candidate Paul Adachi was based on interviews with 1,771 high school students taken over a four-year time span. The researcher found a clear correlation between competitive games, including non-violent ones, and aggressive or hostile behavior, both verbal and physical. Non-competitive games on the other hand were less likely to be associated with aggressive behavior.

Interestingly, the study found that players cooperating in a game, even in a highly competitive one, scored the less on the violent behavior scale.

Tax on violent games?

As the controversy continues, a new idea emerged: that of imposing a tax on violent video games and other media. The idea came from a reverend attending a White House gun legislation strategy. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said there was no legal reason not to do this. He added however that a detailed study should be conducted to determine the exact effects violent video games have on the brain.

[Image via PCGamer]

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