De focus gaat nu van fin's naar tech's; wat staat ons nog te wachten?
Reinier
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By Daisuke Wakabayashi and Robert MacMillan
LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Technology and information providers, already grappling with penny-pinching customers, were dealt another blow this week with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers (LEH.P: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and the takeover of Merrill Lynch (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).
Losing two venerable Wall Street firms and big spenders for cutting-edge technology is troubling for the tech industry's biggest players, which have been coping with companies scaling back budgets for software and hardware upgrades this year.
Research firm Financial Insights, owned by IDC, said information technology budgets for hardware, software and tech services shrank by 6 percent due to Lehman's collapse and Merrill's sale to Bank of America (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).
"The number of potential customers continues to shrink, while institutions themselves become more complex," Financial Insights wrote in a report.