A Sneak Attack on Big Data Center Makers

A Sneak Attack on Big Data Center Makers

By Olga Kharif December 05, 2013

To add new medical software at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, a network of 23 health-care facilities in California, Chief Technology Officer Joseph Wolfgram used to go shopping for a long list of pricey new servers, storage equipment, and networking gear. “For every new application, it was another investment,” Wolfgram says. “That’s what’s wrong with the traditional data center.” In November he bought one all-purpose box from startup Nutanix, which uses software to shift between processing, storage, networking, and other tasks that can require as many as a dozen devices. The Nutanix package costs about $144,000, and Wolfgram says it saved Hoag 40 percent over the health-care network’s older hardware. Read more of this post

BBVA CEO: Banks need to take on Amazon and Google or die

December 2, 2013 5:00 pm

Banks need to take on Amazon and Google or die

By Francisco González

We should use our data to give customers exactly what they want, writes Francisco González

Some bankers and analysts think that Google, Facebook, Amazon or the like will not fully enter a highly regulated, low-margin business such as banking. I disagree. What is more, I think banks that are not prepared for such new competitors face certain death. Read more of this post

How IBM bypasses bureaucratic purgatory; An in-house crowdfunding platform lets employees evaluate each other’s ideas — and fund them with IBM’s money

How IBM bypasses bureaucratic purgatory

By Anne Fisher, contributor December 4, 2013: 2:45 PM ET

An in-house crowdfunding platform lets employees evaluate each other’s ideas — and fund them with IBM’s money.

FORTUNE — Late last year, Ryan Hutton had what he thought was a bright idea. The IBM project manager thought it would be great to build a cloud-based web application that would give any IBM (IBM) employee access to real-time data about how his or her apps were being used within the company. Read more of this post

How Thoma Bravo made $600 million in 3 months from Digital Insights; In August, Thoma Bravo bought Digital Insight for around $1 billion. Yesterday, it agreed to sell it for $1.65 billion.

How Thoma Bravo made $600 million in 3 months

By Dan Primack December 3, 2013: 11:27 AM ET

In August, Thoma Bravo bought Digital Insight for around $1 billion. Yesterday, it agreed to sell it for $1.65 billion.

FORTUNE — NCR Corp. yesterday announced agreed to acquire Digital Insight Corp., a Silicon Valley provider of online and mobile banking solutions, from private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $1.65 billion. Yes, the same Digital Insight that Thoma Bravo acquired a scant three months ago from Intuit for $1.065 billion (including more than $400 million in equity). Read more of this post

Mobile Banks Gaining Popularity With Young Consumers

December 6, 2013

Mobile Banks Gaining Popularity With Young Consumers

By ANN CARRNS

TURIYA GOETZE, a 23-year-old teaching assistant in Kansas City, Kan., found herself looking for a new bank this summer. Her student checking account at a large national bank had expired, and she was worried about paying lots of fees on a traditional account. Read more of this post

The one move that might put Uber in the fast lane; The on-demand, mobile app-based transportation service has enjoyed tremendous growth. Its new financing platform promises to press the pedal even closer to the metal

The one move that might put Uber in the fast lane

December 5, 2013: 9:02 AM ET

The on-demand, mobile app-based transportation service has enjoyed tremendous growth. Its new financing platform promises to press the pedal even closer to the metal.

By Chanelle Bessette, reporter

FORTUNE — Uber, the company behind the eponymous mobile application that promises to hail a personal driver with a tap of one’s finger, announced last week a new program intended to help would-be Uber drivers afford vehicles. It might just kick the startup company’s growth into high gear. Read more of this post

Twitter to be available on mobile phones without Internet

Twitter to be available on mobile phones without Internet

3:12pm EST

By Sruthi Ramakrishnan

(Reuters) – Twitter Inc is tying up with a Singapore-based startup to make its 140-character messaging service available to users in emerging markets who have entry-level mobile phones which cannot access the Internet. U2opia Mobile, which has a similar tie-up with Facebook Inc, will launch its Twitter service in the first quarter of next year, Chief Executive and Co-founder Sumesh Menon told Reuters. Read more of this post

Twitter’s CEO: “Failing to make bold choices. That’s how you fail. You start to only focus on incrementalism instead of making bold choices.”

How Twitter’s CEO closes deals

BY CARMEL DEAMICIS 
ON DECEMBER 5, 2013

Dick Costolo launched his first companies in Chicago, where just like every new founder he had to do the long hard slog of raising money. Almost two decades later came the roadshow to take Twitter public. Speaking at tonight’s PandoMonthly in San Francisco, Costolo told Sarah Lacy there’s not much of a difference between the two. Selling is selling, whether you’re trying to get twenty bucks out of some guy’s pocket or billions from mutual fund investors. Read more of this post

Why Amazon’s Going Up in the Air

Why Amazon’s Going Up in the Air

By Brad Stone December 05, 2013

During the late 1990s, when capital flowed freely to Internet startups and investors were pushing Amazon.com’s (AMZN) stock price into the stratosphere, Jeff Bezos was full of outlandish ideas for his company’s future. Colleagues called these reveries “fever dreams.” Read more of this post

To Expand Reach, Retailers Take Aim at Hispanic Shoppers

December 5, 2013

To Expand Reach, Retailers Take Aim at Hispanic Shoppers

By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS

A few words used repeatedly start to sound like a chorus when Macy’s talks about unveiling its new line of clothing and accessories with Thalía Sodi, a Mexican pop star: Curves. Prints. Color. And the one perhaps used most, which signals this venture’s true value, is “Latina.” “This is an amazing opportunity to deliver to the Latin consumer,” Ms. Sodi said, who described the brand as “specifically focused” on Hispanics. “The dresses will be stylish and sexy, but not too simple. Colorful prints, nice contouring to flatter the body.” Read more of this post