Sean Finnerty, Fran Geatens, Ron Kim | Merck
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Merck’s cloudification strategy sets example for others in critical industries

Organizations in sensitive industries, such as healthcare, have to ensure that their cloud transformations bring dividends in two areas: the financial side and saving lives.Pharmaceutical company Merck & Co Inc. has seen its move to the cloud happen gradually at scale to ensure it fulfills both of the aforementioned areas.“When we talk about moving things to the cloud, it’s much more than just moving servers or things like that,” said Ron Kim (pictured, right), chief technology officer and senior vide president at Merck. “It’s really contributing towards our business that saves and improves lives. So for our work, the stakes are high, but we think the opportunity’s great

Cloud-native application security firm Apiiro raises $100M round

Israeli application security startup Apiiro LLC today announced an impressive Series B round of $100 million, led by General Catalyst with participation by Greylock and Kleiner Perkins.The company, which was founded by former employees of Microsoft Corp. and has offices in New York and Tel Aviv, raised $35 million in funding in 2020 from Kleiner Perkins and Greylock. Today’s round shows significant trust at a time when investors are increasingly keeping a tight hold on their purse strings.Apiiro offers software to address security issues before developers release code to the cloud. That should ensure that vulnerable code is discovered before hackers have a chance to exploit it

Investors hammer Atlassian on earnings miss and weak outlook

Investors hammered Atlassian Corp. stock in after-hours trading after the Australian software company missed earnings forecasts and gave a lower outlook than had been expected by analysts.For its fiscal quarter ended Sept. 30, Atlassian reported net income of $92.5 million, or 36 cents per diluted share, down from $94.4 million, or 37 cents in the same quarter of last year. Revenue rose 31%, to $807.4 million. Analysts had been expecting earnings per share of 38 cents on revenue of $806.4 million.Atlassian added 6,550 new customers in the quarter, its 10th quarter of customer growth, bringing its total number of customers to 249,173

Datadog beats Wall Street’s expectations as its revenue grows by more than 60%

Application monitoring software firm Datadog Inc. delivered strong third-quarter financial results today, beating expectations on earnings and revenue, and offered solid guidance for the coming quarter too, but its stock barely moved.The company reported a net loss of $26 million for the quarter, with earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation coming to 23 cents per share. Revenue for the period rose by an impressive 61% from a year earlier to $436.5 million. The numbers came in comfortably ahead of Wall Street’s forecasts. Analysts were modeling earnings of just 15 cents per share on revenue of $412.2 million

Despite smashing earnings forecasts, Cloudflare sees shares plunge on growth concerns

Shares in content delivery network company Cloudflare Inc. plunged in late trading even though it beat all expected metrics in its latest earnings report as investors were reportedly spooked by figures suggesting moderating growth.For its third quarter that ended Sept. 30, Cloudflare reported a profit before costs such as stock compensation of $19.1 million, or six cents per share, up from $1.4 million or breakeven in the same quarter of 2021. Revenue in the quarter jumped 47%, to $253.9 million. Analysts had expected breakeven earnings per share on revenue of $250.63 million.Adjusted gross profit was $198.4 million or 78.1% gross margin, up from $136.6 million or 79

Twilio’s stock crumbles on poor revenue guidance

Shares of the cloud communications firm Twilio Inc. nosedived in extended trading today after it issued a soft earnings and revenue outlook for the coming quarter.The company did OK in the quarter just gone, reporting a third-quarter loss before certain costs such as stock compensation of 27 cents per share, ahead of Wall Street’s forecast of a 36-cent loss. Revenue for the period came to $983 million, beating the consensus estimate of $972.2 million. Overall, Twilio reported a net loss of $482.2 million, much bigger than the $224.1 million loss it delivered in the same period last year

Block shares surge on strong earnings beat

Shares in Block Inc. surged in late trading after the payments company delivered a strong earnings beat in its latest quarterly report.For its fiscal third quarter, Block reported net income before costs such as stock compensation of 42 cents a share, up from 25 cents a share in the same quarter of last year. Revenue rose 18% from a year ago, to $4.52 billion. Analysts had been expecting earnings per share of 23 cents on revenue of $4.49 billion.Gross profit in the quarter rose 38%, to $157 billion, marking the fifth straight quarter of increasing profit

Dropbox delivers on earnings and revenue targets with slow and steady growth

Dropbox Inc. delivered strong third-quarter financial results today, beating Wall Street’s forecasts on earnings and revenue and offering guidance above expectations.The file-sharing company reported earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation of 43 cents per share, with revenue coming to $591 million in the period, up 7.4% from a year earlier. Altogether, the company netted a profit of $83.2 million.The results were good, since Wall Street analysts were modeling lower earnings of just 37 cents per share on sales of $585.5 million. Dropbox’s share price stayed flat in after-hours trading

Higher-than-expected user numbers elevate Coinbase shares

Shares in Coinbase Global Inc. rose slightly in late trading after the cryptocurrency exchange reported better-than-expected user numbers amid misses on its latest quarterly earnings and revenue.For its fiscal third quarter that ended Sept. 30, Coinbase reported a loss before costs such as stock compensation of $2.43 a share on revenue of $590 million. Analysts had expected an adjusted loss of $2.40 a share on revenue of $654 million.Monthly transacting users in the quarter came in at 8.5 million, down from 9 million in the previous quarter but up from 7.3 million in the third quarter of last year. Analysts had been expecting 7.84 million

Growing tech landscape shines spotlight on need for enhanced data culture

The data revolution is not just about technology innovation, but also cultural and community transformation.Since a data citizen is anyone who uses data to do their job, enterprises have to cultivate a conducive data culture so that employees can hone their skills and competencies in this space, according to Stijn “Stan” Christiaens (pictured), co-founder and chief data citizen at Collibra NV, who believes that in today’s organizations, most employees will be data citizens

Cisco Partner Summit 2022 kicks off the Age of the Partner

Cisco Systems Inc. held its annual Partner Summit this week in Las Vegas, bringing together thousands of global partners to exchange ideas and learn about the networking giant’s most recent innovations. Cisco has one of the largest and most diverse partner ecosystems in the information technology industry, with about 90% of the company’s revenue flowing through its partners from more than 150 countries.The event returned to an in-person format for the first time since 2019, which is crucial for this event. Some events are fine done virtually but partner relationships for all vendors, including Cisco, requires a high level of engagement and that can’t be simulated virtually