24/7 Wall St. » BOBJ

Media Digest 10/8/2007 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Barron’s

247wallst — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 03:17:16 +0000

According to Reuters, Morgan Stanley (MS) plans to start a wealth management business in India.

Reuters writes that Alan Greenspan said that US economic growth is slowing.

Reuters writes that SAP (SAP) is buying Business Objects (BOBJ).

Reuters writes that Citigroup (C) may loan Norther Rock money to remain independent.

The Wall Street Journal writes that the FDA is warning that drugs from Bristol-Myers (BMY) and GE (GE) for use in heart ultrasounds can cause risks.

The Wall Street Journal writes that IBM (IBM) and Google (GOOG) will begin to fund college work on projects that allow computers in remote data centers to run parallel .

The New York Times writes that Toyota (TM) is creating video games as a form of marketing.

The FT writes that Bank of American (BAC) and JP Morgan (JPM) could have $3 billion in write-offs for the third quarter.

Douglas A. McIntyre

SAP (SAP) Buys Business Objects (BOBJ) For $6.8 Billion

247wallst — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 16:09:24 +0000

Enterprise software giant SAP (SAP) has agreed to buy Business Objects (BOBJ), a pioneer in business intelligence, for $6.8 billion or $59.35 a share. BOBJ closed at $50.27 on Friday.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Business Objects Goes On The Block

247wallst — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 16:46:28 +0000

Le Figaro has run a story saying that business intelligence software provider Business Objects (BOBJ) has put itself up for sale, retaining Goldman Sachs. The company would probably draw interest from Oracle (ORCL) or SAP (SAP). On Friday, the company’s shares were downgraded to "neutral" from "buy" by First Albany. The analyst may look a little silly when the shares open on Monday.

But, it may be a difficult time to sell the company. At times during the last two weeks, BOBJ share have been up as much as 40% on the year. Finding a buyer who would pay a premium over that may be a nice trick. The company currently has a market cap of $4 billion.

In the most recent quarter BOBJ revenue grew year-over-year to $363.2 million from $294.5 million. The company earned $21.6 million, or 22 cents per ordinary share and American Depositary Share, compared with $7.9 million in the same quarter a year ago. The company did say that the next quarter would be weak and lowered guidance.

With the stock near a five-year high and signaling some near-term weakness, BOBJ will be hard to shop.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Goldman Sachs Targets Select IT Names (DRIV, MVSN, BOBJ, COGN, INFA)

247wallst — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 07:58:54 +0000

Goldman Sachs has initiated several IT names this morning. While most of the names are neutral rated, these are the stocks it views favorably in each group with values as the current issue.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: Cognos (COGN) started as Neutral, $1.70 2007 EPS target. Informatica (INFA) started as Neutral, $0.52 2007 EPS target. Business Objects (BOBJ) coverage transfer, also started as Neutral. Goldman Sachs also notes that it would look for a pullback in the names for a more attractive entry point.

DIGITAL RIGHTS: Macrovision (MVSN) started as Neutral and $32 target, $0.76 2007 EPS target.

MIGRATION SOFTWARE: Digital River (DRIV) started as Buy, $1.59 2007 EPS target; issues $54 target; attractive valuation atfer recent pullback.

Jon C. Ogg
July 11, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.