International Business Machines Corp., the world's largest computer services company, will use Google Inc.'s technology within its own search programs to help clients better find and manage information.
The agreement is part of IBM's new strategy, "Information as a Service," to provide software, hardware and services to make it easier to find and use data across various formats and locations, Chris Andrews, a spokesman, said in an interview today.
In linking with Google, IBM is tapping a technology used by more than 400 million users a month to search the Internet and desktop files. IBM, based in Armonk, New York, is betting it can use the technology to boost sales by helping customers manage their documents.
"IBM are trying to take their whole product set and create a holistic solution to managing information," said Barry Murphy, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "They could drive this into a multibillion- dollar-potential market." Chief Executive Sam Palmisano has revived profit at IBM by selling the money-losing personal computer unit and is now focusing on more-profitable services and software. The company has spent US$1 billion on research and development on its new strategy and has bought 14 companies, including Westborough, Massachusetts-based Ascential Software Corp. for US$1.1 billion in May, to add technology including data-integration software.
IBM faces challenges in persuading companies to buy an over-arching data-management system, when they may want products and services to fix specific problems, according to Murphy.
"This is a lot for any organization to get their arms around," said Murphy. "The biggest challenge is, are organizations going to respond to this big a solution?"
IBM will have to change its corporate culture to encourage its sales force to sell a general data-management solution rather than individual products, Murphy said.
The Google desktop search is available at no charge to current users of IBM's Omnifind search as a download on IBM's Web site. There was "no exchange of money" with Mountain View, California-based Google, and the deal is purely a technology partnership, Andrews said.
Shares of IBM slipped US$0.89 to US$81.42 at 4pm in New York Stock Exchange Composite trading. The stock has slumped 17 percent so far this year.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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