Traditional software companies are scrambling to deal with the Internet. Take Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: ADBE), which is ramping its on-demand offerings.

In fact, today the company announced that it has snapped up Virtual Ubiquity. The company operates Buzzword, which is a web-based word processor and collaboration platform. The financial details were not disclosed.

It certainly helped that Buzzword has adopted a variety of Adobe technologies, such as Flash and Flex. Interestingly enough, Adobe invested in the firm a year ago.

So is Adobe trying to take on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s Office? Actually, I don't think so. Hey, if anything, Adobe understands Microsoft very well - and also realizes that there is still a lot of opportunity in the graphics/design market. Instead, I think Adobe is trying to use new technologies to improve its core strengths.

I had a chance to talk to Frank Zamani, who is the CEO of Caspio (which operates an on-demand web application platform). According to him:

"As Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL)'s Larry Ellison says, in the future there will be only a handful of very large software companies. Adobe is certainly going to be one of them. According to Triple Tree, the SaaS (software as a service) market by 2009 will be 40% of the software market. The question is whether Adobe is going to leverage its fantastic brand name to expand into SaaS. This acquisition demonstrates that they are thinking in that direction. It will be interesting to watch if they will stick to document management or embark on a broader SaaS strategy."

Also, if you want to check out other acquisition deals, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Adobe gets buzzed-up for on-demand originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

You don't have to be a genius to build web applications -- that is, if you use a Caspio. The system has drag-and-drop simplicity but the results are truly cool.

In fact, Caspio has customers like General Electric (NYSE: GE), Office Depot (NYSE: ODP), and the American Red Cross.

Interesting enough, Caspio is getting lots of traction with the newspaper industry. Nearly 60 daily newspapers use the service, such as the San Jose Mercury News, Detroit News, Daily News of Los Angeles, and Denver Post.

"Newspapers are now able to serve their readers with hyper-local databases without the high costs of hiring programmers and consultants," said Frank Zamani, the founder and CEO of Caspio.

Take a look at The Arizona Republic. Using Caspio, the newspaper was able to build a search engine for the annual compensation levels of Arizona executives.

There's also a database that has the enforcement actions against licensed long-term facilities in Arizona.

"The belief is that newspapers are on the way out," said Zamani. "And that players like Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) will dominate. That may be the case on a national level. But the Web is also a big opportunity for newspapers to capitalize on their local capabilities. And, with tools like ours, it's a lot easier to deploy the applications."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Can Caspio's 'hyper local apps' save the newspaper biz? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 10 Jun 2007 08:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Technology for the rest of us: online databases

Technology for the rest of us: online databases originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 01 May 2007 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Many tech CEOs like to use a phrase from Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel Corporation (Public, NASDAQ:INTC): "Only the paranoid survive."

As for Antoine Leblond, who co-heads the Office division at Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), he is not paranoid about Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG). He believes that major businesses will not use the company's Web-based applications. Businesses want mission-critical solutions, and that's not what Google offers.

Nevertheless, some businesses such as Salesforce.com are starting to use Web-based applications. It is the fastest growing software company of its size and has big-time customers like Cisco.

Also, major companies like H&R Block are using Office alternatives such as Zimbra. Or look at Caspio, which has an on-demand database that has attracted clients like GE.

Why not? These applications are much cheaper -- and get the job done.

Something else: A chunk of Office's revenues come from the consumer market. No doubt, this is where Google is very strong. With its huge market cap, it has been buying best-of-breed companies.

So in light of the fact that about half of Microsoft's profits come from its Office suite, it might be wise for Microsoft to get paranoid about what's happening.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates InvestorOffering.com.

Microsoft disses Google's office software originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 22 Nov 2006 12:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.