Seeking Alpha by Adding Beta

Last week two very important earnings from technology companies were published - ORCL and RIMM. Both beat earnings handily. But while Oracle stock went up by 8%, RIMM has resumed its downward slide. Despite having excellent products in fastest growing category of smart-phones, RIMM is at a point where it needs to seriously consider merger with bigger company fight against Apple and Google Android onslaught. Who would be best fit ? There are 2-3 companies which could fit the bill but here is one investment thesis which would address issues faced by both Microsoft and RIMM. Here are the reasons why Microsoft should buy RIMM: Both these companies are focused on enterprise market  Both have common enemies - Apple and Google and both are struggling to compete against these two  Both companies have complementary products with Microsoft dominating desktop/laptop market and RIMM dominating enterprise mobile market Microsoft Windows Mobile is not a success when compared with iOS (from

Election fever is rising with elections only about 6 weeks away. It's time to check out its potential impact on markets. Tea party backed nominee winning in couple of primaries - especially Christine O'Donnell in Delaware woke up GOP. This would only make GOP to become more conservative and give a slight hope  to democrats to revive their slumping election fortunes in Nov. Here are my predictions how elections results would turn out: Republicans taking control of house by a slim single-digit minority Democrats losing fee senate seats but keeping control of senate Obama remains president (no elections till 2012) This means that we will have a divided government in Washington similar to 1994. Is it good or bad when it comes to stock markets ? I think divided government (aka Gridlock) would be good for stock markets for following reasons: No one side would dominate and uni-laterally push their agenda.  All three branches would have to work together when it comes to budget

As predicted in last week's blog, 3PAR saga ended with HP winning the bid at $33. However in the race to win 3PAR at any cost, it ended up paying at least half a billion more. Only time would tell if HP was winner or loser in this race. Potash saga would continue for few more weeks - just read news that Chinese state companies (Sinochem etc) may be preparing a counter-bid for Potash. It would be interesting given price tag would be over $40 Billion So who is next "hunted" in the hunt which has started in last few weeks. Here are some of my predictions - these companies could get "hunted" and get acquired in next 2 years (CP: Current Price, PTP: Potential takeover price) Blue Coat - BCSI (CP: $21.50 ; PTP: over $30) Compellent - CML (CP: $18.50 ; PTP: over $25) Brocade - BRCD (CP: $5.60 ; PTP: Over $8) Symantec - SYMC (CP: $14 ; PTP: Over $19) Sprint Nextel - S (CP: $4 ; PTP: Over $6) Regions Financial - RF (CP: $7 PTP: Over $10) Synovus Financial - SN