Of IPOs, Layoffs and Boring Keynotes

Spencer sat quietly in New Yorks Jacob Javits Center as PC Expo attendees all around him streamed out of Palm CEO Carl Yankowskis less-than-riveting keynote speech. The audience members who did stay were starting to glaze over until the CEO brought a guest on stage to discuss possible uses for Palm OS in the medical environment. As the speaker went on about automated lab results and such, he repeatedly referred to a so-called master patient index.

Unfortunately, it didnt seem he was enunciating the “t” at the end of “patient.” In fact, to Spencer and most of the audience, his “p” sounded an awful lot like a “b” and … well, you get the idea. El Gato can only assume someone has probably invented such an application, but for the moment, the Kitty was just pleased that for once he wasnt the only scatologically minded Mouser in attendance.

On the IPO front, Spencer recently received a tip that his favorite search engine, Google, was considering one in the near future. But a rep from the company told the Kitty there were no such plans. According to the spokesman, the rumor has apparently been making the rounds ever since a journalist misinterpreted some information for a story on Google that appeared in Englands Sunday Business Journal.

Spencer caught a big “no comment” from a Sapient spokeswoman when asked if rumors of more job cuts were true. The Furry One had heard that the business technology company would be making more cuts in the near future. Sapient announced a cut of 20 percent of its work force earlier this year. Those layoffs, which were estimated to be about 720 workers, cost the company a onetime restructuring fee of $47.3 million.

El Gato heard from a smooth operator that Compaq and Dell are developing technology to create a box that has the processing power and memory of a server combined with the speed of a router to help carriers better measure network activity and tangibly demonstrate quality of service.

It all fits in the big picture as the computer world moves closer to the telecom universe or, as the friend of the Furball put it, “Making the telecom networks work more like computers.”

Upstart telecom companies are building this kind of gear today, but the Tabby tattler claimed that the big computer guys are still struggling with how to build network processors as opposed to computer processors. But increased attention to QOS and SLAs is making the ability to monitor, measure and detail network performance an ever-tastier treat, according to the Katt crony.

SAS Institute, as part of its aggressive advertising campaign, is running full-page print ads that tout the business intelligence software companys relationship with Amazon.com. The ad is titled “The day Amazon.com went shopping” and shows an Amazon search box set to “Software” and “e-intelligence.”

The ad is meant to show that Amazon was looking for e-intelligence software and turned to SAS to help it gain insights into customer buying patterns and more efficient supplier relationships. But, apparently, no one at SAS actually went to Amazons site to see what would happen if you searched on “Software” and the subcategory “e-intelligence.” Because such a search only turns up two business intelligence software offerings from Cognos—SAS rival!