Megabuyte - Technology sector intelligence

Not to feel left out after BT’s statement (Premium Plus readers see here), Cable & Wireless Worldwide has now given an update on its negotiations with the government over public sector budgets. Like BT, CWW is maintaining current guidance, though of course the damage was done by the July public sector-related profits warning (see here), when public sector budget pressures seemed to take CWW by surprise. Read our first thoughts on the deal in Newswire Plus.

Lagan recovery rewarded

It has just come to our notice that CRM software vendor to the government sector Lagan was acquired by Kana Software earlier this month. Belfast based Lagan has been a key player in the UK local government market for many years and, around five years ago embarked on an ambitious expansion plan in the US basked by VC firm DFJ Esprit. However, as is so often the case, it was more expensive and took longer for the US business to develop. Read our full piece on the deal in Newswire Plus.

SRT now looking at double last year’s revenues

Marine navigation specialist SRT has announced yet more orders for Class A AIS equipment that takes this year’s revenues, we estimate, past £8m, well over double last year’s £3.6m. This follows on from the company’s bullish Q1 update (Premium Plus readers see here), when it reported its maiden quarter for profit and cash flow generation. Read full details of the contract in Newswire Plus.

Megabuyte Quarterly Review - CEO SaaS Strategies

We look forward to seeing some 70 CEOs, other senior directors and investors at the Megabuyte Quarterly Review presentation later this morning, hosted by our friends at Taylor Wessing. As usual, the presentation will be in two parts. First, the Megabuyte senior analysts will give the usual round up of share prices, valuations and corporate activity across the Megabuyte universe over the last three months and attempt to extrapolate this activity into likely trends over the coming months.

Secondly, the specialist theme of this quarter’s event is CEO SaaS Strategies. In an extensive research project over the summer, we talked to many of the sector’s leading software company CEOs to try to understand how they are managing the transition to SaaS; where are the growth opportunities and what are the operational challenges that need to be overcome in order to be successful in this new paradigm? Megabuyte principal analyst Ian Spence will present findings of the review and overlay them on his existing views on the subject to present a précis of the options open to CEOs as they build their SaaS businesses.