Five Companies That Came To Win This Week

Apple's iPhone Sales Continue To Defy Rules Of Physics

Apple this week reported its fiscal second quarter results. Guess what happened? That's right, another ridiculously successful quarter, and another figurative face-palm for the haters.

Compared to last year's second quarter, Apple's profit this quarter rose 93 percent, but revenue, alas, only grew 59 percent. Gross margin came in at 47.4 percent, representing a 15 percent gain from the last quarter.

Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones during the quarter, an 88 percent jump from last year's second quarter. Not even iPad sales that came in on the low end of Wall Street's expectations could dampen this party, as Apple shares soared past $600 once again in the wake of the earnings report.

IBM Adds To Big Data Technology Trove With Vivisimo Buy

IBM added to its growing big data technology portfolio by acquiring Vivisimo, a Pittsburgh-based developer of data discovery and navigation applications. Its technology crunches large volumes of structured and unstructured data spread out across multiple repositories, without having to move and consolidate it. Vivisimo is especially strong at understanding customer behavior and detecting fraud in realtime, IBM said.

"Navigating big data to uncover the right information is a key challenge for all industries," said Arvind Krishna, general manager, Information Management, IBM Software Group, in a statement. "The winners in the era of big data will be those who unlock their information assets to drive innovation, make realtime decisions, and gain actionable insights to be more competitive."

Blue Jeans Network Gaining Steam In Video Channel

Blue Jeans offers a cloud-based meeting room service in which users can host, schedule and manage their own videoconferences via a Web interface. VARs love it because it bridges different video and audio protocols, allowing, for example, a Cisco TelePresence user to connect with Skype or Google Talk.

Blue Jeans launched a channel recruitment campaign shortly after its June 2011 emergence from stealth mode, and now those efforts are bearing fruit in the form of 15 new solution provider partners.

VMware Signals Big Data Interest With Cetas Software Buy

VMware Tuesday revealed its acquisition of Cetas Software, an 18-month-old Palo Alto, Calif.-based start-up that develops big data analytics technology. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Cetas specializes in online analytics applications, IT operations analytics and enterprise big data using Hadoop. VMware is just getting into the big data space but said it will continue to invest in the Cetas technology.

"The Cetas team has been driving the democratization of analytics and business intelligence by dramatically lowering the barriers to entry for all companies, from small businesses to large enterprises," said Richard McDougall, CTO of application infrastructure at VMware, in a blog post announcing the deal.

Amazon Profit Drops 35 Percent, But Wall Street Loves It

What kind of company can report a 35 percent year-over-year drop in profit and trigger a feeding frenzy of buying on Wall Street? Amazon, that's who.

The e-commerce giant's revenue jumped 34 percent in the first quarter to $13.2 billion, and this, as well as the profit number, exceeded analysts' expectations by a comfortable margin, sending shares up more than 15 percent to $225.80 in the wake of the report.

More From CRN:
Five Companies That Dropped The Ball This Week
Five Companies That Came To Win Last Week