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Although the problems that started last year have continued into this year, analysts see some relief as 2009 goes on. For his part, Bartels does not expect what he calls the "incredibly high degree of cash hoarding" on the part of technology buyers to continue throughout the year.
Technology companies, he says, have created a lot of valuable products in areas like cloud computing, data center automation and service-oriented architecture that will help buyers cut costs and transform their businesses. "There's going to be a lot of pent-up demand for these products as soon as the economy recovers," he says.
Technology companies' first-quarter results suggest any rebound is still at least a few months away. In recent weeks, IBM, Intel, EMC and Microsoft have all reported declines in their March-quarter revenue and Google said its revenue fell from the previous quarter, the first time that has happened since the company went public.
Only Apple, with its wildly popular iPods and iPhones, found a way to beat the recession; its March-quarter revenue rose a better-than-expected 8.7%.
Other companies will undoubtedly use acquisitions this year to add revenue. Earlier this month, for instance, Oracle reached an agreement to buy Sun Microsystems (No. 14) after IBM dropped its efforts to acquire the workstation maker and Java creator. And can Microsoft really be that far from taking another run at Yahoo (No. 17)? With Google (No. 10) still pressing on the accelerator, no one will be surprised if Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer drops his recent reservations and returns to Yahoo with a new offer.
The 2009 CIOZone 100: How They Ranked
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