Last week was a big one for high profile appointments in the tech world. First Oracle boss Larry Ellison took on his mate - ousted former HP boss Mark Hurd - as one of his lieutenants, then Nokia saw fit to tap Microsoft for its first ever non-Finnish CEO.
The Hurd appointment was not without its detractors. He is probably best known for streamlining while at HP. This ensured the company maintained margins and came through the global recession well, but doesn't seem to have done much to increase Hurd's popularity within HP, and probably contributed to his ousting.
Meanwhile Elop was an intriguing choice at Nokia, given that the former Microsoft man doesn't have much experience in making mobile phones. Those who were disappointed with his employment pointed to the need for a product guru and, judging by today's news, that might yet come to pass.
The investment community seems to have no such reservations about either appointment. Both Oracle's and Nokia's shares were the big risers last week - along with ARM, which announced its latest application processor design - implying the appointments were generally well received.
It's also worth noting that HP had a bad week and Microsoft was down, as were the two primary exponents of x86 chips - Intel and AMD - that are most threatened by ARM's continued ascendancy.
| Company | Listing | Share price 22/8/10 | Share price 31/8/10 | Share price 6/9/10 | Share price 13/9/10 | 7-day change | Market cap (bn) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD | AMD | 6.25 | 5.78 | 6.09 | 5.81 | -4.6% | 3.92 |
| Apple | AAPL | 249.64 | 242.50 | 258.77 | 263.41 | 1.8% | 240.64 |
| ARM | ARMH | 15.13 | 15.76 | 17.22 | 18.66 | 8.4% | 8.21 |
| Avnet | AVT | 24.17 | 23.18 | 25.47 | 24.91 | -2.2% | 3.78 |
| Cisco | CSCO | 22.23 | 20.32 | 21.04 | 20.62 | -2.0% | 117.76 |
| Dell | DELL | 12.07 | 12.02 | 12.59 | 12.06 | -4.2% | 23.45 |
| GOOG | 462.02 | 452.69 | 470.30 | 476.14 | 1.2% | 151.75 | |
| HP | HPQ | 39.85 | 38.56 | 40.34 | 38.28 | -5.1% | 89.36 |
| IBM | IBM | 127.50 | 123.40 | 127.58 | 127.99 | 0.3% | 161.43 |
| Ingram Micro | IM | 15.76 | 14.87 | 16.14 | 15.83 | -1.9% | 2.48 |
| Intel | INTC | 18.91 | 17.96 | 18.43 | 17.97 | -2.5% | 100.06 |
| Microsoft | MSFT | 24.23 | 23.64 | 24.29 | 23.85 | -1.8% | 206.39 |
| Nokia | NOK | 9.09 | 8.56 | 9.25 | 9.94 | 7.5% | 37.22 |
| Nvidia | NVDA | 9.97 | 9.64 | 9.90 | 10.07 | 1.7% | 5.78 |
| Oracle | ORCL | 23.02 | 22.02 | 22.92 | 25.05 | 9.3% | 125.91 |
| Qualcomm | QCOM | 38.91 | 38.29 | 40.38 | 40.42 | 0.1% | 64.88 |
| Tech Data | TECD | 37.97 | 36.38 | 39.46 | 38.21 | -3.2% | 1.78 |
| Dow | .DJI | 10213.62 | 10009.73 | 10447.93 | 10462.77 | 0.1% | N/A |
| FTSE 100 | .FTSE | 5195.28 | 5150.11 | 5428.15 | 5501.64 | 1.4% | N/A |
| NASDAQ | .IXIC | 2179.76 | 2119.97 | 2233.75 | 2242.48 | 0.4% | N/A |
