Quick takes....

HP buying EDS is brilliant.  HP needs to up the game and get into high-end corporate board rooms, and at the same time extend its global high-end service capabilities.  Problem solved.  IBM has run around all alone as a systems player with those relationships.  Interesting to watch as they are very different cultures. 

IBM has been squishing HP and most every other IT vendor in the "green" play.  They figured out that chasing the IT guy isn't the right way - since IT appears well disconnected from the Sr. Management of those companies.  By aligning IT moves with actual corporate objectives, IBM has been taking advantage globally.  EDS gives HP the ability to have those conversations.

Yahoo telling Microsoft to pound sand was dumb.  They won't recover, and the only winner is Google.  I suspect you'll see the management and board tossed while the vultures wait for the inevitable collapse.  There is a chance the next regime will go back to Mr. Ballmer with their hats in their hands, in which case the deal will go down at least 20% below Microsoft's offer, further irritating stock holders, but no way does Ballmer not make them squirm - even though Microsoft needs Yahoo more than Yahoo needs Microsoft long term.  Google is taking all the money from the next generation.  Microsoft is taking money from me.

VMware buys Yahoo in 8 months, EMC goes private.  Stuff enterprise search capabilities into VMware and they have the legitimate chance to become the data center operating system. 

Having said that, VDI is the next virtualization war - and it will make the server virtualization market look tiny.  There are 100 times more desktop machines than servers in the corporate world - at 100 times the power, cooling, problems, etc.  Those are going away, and the corporate benefits are staggering when they do.  Think of the money some will make when we collapse 200,000,000 desktop drives down to 2,000,000 or less.  Short term boost for Seagate, long term problem.  Same for Intel. 

Bad scenes in Burma and China.  Pray for them.

Comments

[Pete Steege]

Steve, do you see a hosting play as part of the HP/EDS deal? Seems to me there's lots of synnergy with the UK datacenters they just bought.

-----Sure would seem a natural. EDS needs to be able to provide their own services and not just teach others how to fish, if it were. IBM does it so why not HP/EDS? A government "prime" like EDS could make a lot of hay potentially with "secure" hosted abilities.......