SAP executives discuss co-CEO Snabe's departure, return to single CEO structure

SAP's pending return to a single CEO structure is the right move at the right time, according to co-founder and Chairman Hasso Plattner and co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe, who is planning to leave his post next May and join the company's Supervisory Board.

Snabe has served as co-CEO since February 2010 along with Bill McDermott, following the departure of sole CEO Leo Apotheker. SAP announced Snabe's planned transition to the board on Sunday.

"This co-CEO model worked so fabulously but only works in certain situations and [with] certain people," Plattner said during a conference call on Monday.

McDermott and Snabe are "special people who could work together without jealousy and without complexity," Plattner added. "Not having Jim is a clear indication to go ahead with what we have, which is a tremendous leader in Bill McDermott."

McDermott and Snabe have overseen a repositioning of SAP's business that included the acquisitions of Sybase, SuccessFactors and Ariba as well as the release of the HANA in-memory database platform. HANA now lies at the heart of SAP's product development efforts moving forward.

Snabe, whose appointment to the Supervisory Board will require approval from at least 25 percent of shareholders, called his time as co-CEO "the most exciting years of my career" but said now his priorities lie in spending more time with his family.

In addition, Snabe said from the beginning that he'd only like to remain in the co-CEO job for about four years, Plattner said. While saying that time frame was never an "exact science," Snabe did not contradict Plattner's statement.

As plans commence for Snabe's transition out of the co-CEO job, SAP is in a strong position and will be in good hands with McDermott as sole CEO, according to Snabe.

"Bill is probably the best CEO in the industry, period," he said. While most people view McDermott as being focused on sales, he has a "deep understanding" of products and technology as well, Snabe added.

While for now SAP seems intent on returning to a single CEO structure, some observers believe executive board member and HANA champion Vishal Sikka could one day take a co-CEO slot.

Sikka was recently placed in charge of all software development at SAP, a move that seemingly left Snabe, who has focused on products, with a reduced operational role.

Asked whether his decision to leave was based on having too few duties, Snabe called the notion "funny." Leadership is about "developing leaders all around you to take on bigger challenges," he said. Sikka has developed into a "full-blown innovator" in charge of 20,000 developers and through HANA has "been reinventing the database layer, which was a mature market," Snabe added. "We are in a very, very strong position with Vishal Sikka."

McDermott's pending ascension as well as Sikka's potential role moving forward also speak to cultural change at SAP. McDermott will be the first American to head the vendor since its founding, and Sikka and much of SAP's product development activities are based outside of its Walldorf headquarters.

"I am a truly global executive working for a truly global software company," McDermott said, adding that he will spend a "fair share of time in Germany" moving forward.

McDermott also struck down long-standing speculation that he is interested in a political career.

"I'm not exactly certain where this political rumor comes from but I've heard it enough times now to want to set it straight," he said. "The passion of my life is SAP. I have no plans nor have I had any plans to run for office."

McDermott will fulfill the term of his contract, which runs through June 2017, and would stay longer if asked by SAP's board, he said.

As sole CEO, McDermott will be charged with managing SAP's continued transition from on-premises software license sales to SaaS (software as a service). While SaaS still represents a small portion of SAP's overall revenue, the totals are growing as customers making new purchases decide to add cloud products rather than expand their on-premises license base.

Like all traditional software vendors, SAP has to manage the expectations of investors when it comes to SaaS, since the revenue is typically garnered through ongoing monthly subscriptions rather than the large up-front payments and annual maintenance fees derived from on-premises sales.

The Lone Gunmen Will Return in The X-Files Season 10

Gillian Anderson and Chris Carter. Photo: Rachel Edidin

 
SAN DIEGO — Ten years after The X-Files was last on the air, the classic science fiction conspiracy show has finally launched its tenth season–in comics form, with a series from IDW.

X-Files creator Chris Carter and star Gillian Anderson (Scully) joined IDW Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall as well as comics writer Joe Harris and series editor Joe Corroney on a panel at Comic-Con International moderated by series actor Dean Haglund (Langely of the Lone Gunmen) to discuss the future of the series.
Season 10 takes place in real time, returning to the characters a decade after the end of the show. So what have Mulder and Scully been up to for that long? “Sex,” postulated Anderson, to the disgust of Haglund.
“I’m ‘noromo,’” he explained, referring to a term coined by X-Files fans who believe Mulder and Scully’s relationship should have stayed platonic.

The comic, which is written by Harris with art by Michael Walsh, has been teasing the return of several fan-favorite characters who died in the show, and Haglund confirmed that the Lone Gunmen will indeed be back: “Well, you never actually saw their bodies…”

Another dead character whose return has been teased is series-mythos villain Cigarette-Smoking Man, who appears on the cover of the third issue. However, X-Files creator Chris Carter cautioned fans that the reveal might not be what it seems: “That’s one of my favorite things [comics writer] Joe [Harris] is doing–you can’t take anything at face value.”

As for Hill, he’s focusing on moving the story forward without relying too heavily on retcons or resurrections, and keeping with the show’s tradition of breaking up ongoing mythos stories with monster-of-the-week one-offs. Meanwhile, he’s juggling a lot of continuity. “I wish I had a research assistant,” Hill responded to a fan’s question about how he keeps his X-Files history straight. “I have a handful of DVDs and a Netflix Queue. And a stack of papers.”

Another fan asked if X-Files had any potential of making its way to licensed fanfiction platform Kindle Worlds. Carter suspected that the main deterrents for Fox would be time and expense, but Haglund had his own condition to add: “As long as there’s no [Lone] Gunmen slash!”

Anderson also reunited with co-star David Duchovny, aka Fox Mulder at a separate X-Files 20th anniversary panel earlier at Comic-Con, where they were joined by Carter. When the question of whether Mulder and Scully ever had a sexual relationship–something that was implied but never shown onscreen–came up on the panel, Anderson replied, “Well, something happened. Because we have a child.”

Game of Thrones Characters Return From the Dead at Comic-Con

Rose Leslie (Ygritte), Richard Madden (Robb Stark) and Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) participate in the “Game of Thrones” panel at 2013 Comic-Con International on Friday, July 19 in San Diego. Photo: Jordan Strauss/Invision/Ap


The biggest news out of the Game of Thrones Comic-Con panel? Khal Drogo came back from the dead! Well, not really, but actor Jason Momoa, who played the departed Dothraki warlord, made a surprise appearance, striding out from backstage after the cast was already seated to give Emilia Clarke – who plays his widow, mother of dragons Daenerys Targaryen – a kiss before disappearing as quickly as he came.
“My sun and stars!” exclaimed Clarke. And the crowd went wild.

There wasn’t much in the way of announcements at the panel, but there were plenty of wonderful moments with the cast and creators, including discussion of potential novel prequels, deleted scenes, and of course, the Red Wedding. Spoilers for the Game of Thrones television show follow.

The panel opened with a supercut of deaths from the throughout the series, with Boyz II Men’s “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye” playing in the background (see below). It was a rather emotional experience, and the crowd had the saddest reaction to the death of Ros, a character created specifically for the show who was unceremoniously killed off in Season 3, but cheered when it came time for the loathsome Viserys to receive his “golden crown.”

“I have many characters, so killing a few–there’s always more,” joked George R. R. Martin, the author of the original novels. “And I should say in my defense that [showrunners] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] have turned everything up to eleven and killed many characters who are still alive in the books. So I’ll only take some of the bloodthirsty blame here.”

The infamous Red Wedding scene, which claimed the lives of several beloved characters, including Catelyn and Robb Stark, was a primary topic of discussion.

“When we wrapped the Red Wedding [episode] I remember hugging Michelle [Fairley] and Richard [Madden],” said showrunner D.B. Weiss. “They’re playing fictional characters, but it was the last time we were going to work with them. We have a tough crew of [Irish men], and they were crying, the crew was crying on set. I’d never seen that at before.”

And the people in the crew weren’t the only ones. “I sat and cried all the way home, and rows of people were looking at me,” said Madden about his plane ride after shooting the episode.

Michelle Fairley described the way she approached the emotional devastation of the scene as “like a piece of music; you have to work your way through it.” She mentioned the subtle, ominous moment where the festive wedding takes a turn, as the musicians begin to play the vengeful Lannister song “The Rains of Castamere.” “There was a key change in the music and it was like somebody walked over your grave.”

Benioff also praised “the incredible self-policing” of fans who had read the novels, noting that with the exception of occasional “douches on message boards,” the fandom takes great care to protect the uninitiated from spoilers and the Red Wedding remained a surprise to most of the television audience. “That millions of people knew about the Red Wedding before it aired and so much of the audience was in the dark makes us so grateful.”

Peter Dinklage, who plays Tyrion, discussed the fraught and occasionally cruel scenes between Tywin Lannister and his son. “Every time we have one of those scenes Charles [Dance] gives me a nice little shoulder rub after each take to make sure we still love one another,” said Tyrion actor Peter Dinklage. “I find the scenes fascinating because [Tywin] is so frustrated with Tyrion, because his three children–Jaime, Cersei and myself–are three different parts of a whole, and they’re not in the right person. They each lack what the other has.”

They also screened a deleted scene from Season 3, where Pycelle approaches Tywin after the Lannister pater familias returns to Kings Landing, and asks to be restored to the Small Council after being stripped of his position by Tyrion. After reducing Pycelle to stuttering and mumbling, Tywin calls him out on his facade of incompetence: “Am I the only one to see through this performance?”

It’s something we’ve seen hinted at before, but never spelled out so explicitly, and when actor Julian Glover draws himself up and shifts into Pycelle’s true form, it’s like watching a completely different character appear. Pycelle explains that he maintains his bumbling exterior because in the political circles of King’s Landing there are “so many flowers, each wanting to grow the tallest, bloom the brightest. Then sooner or later they all get plucked. I don’t want to be the tallest or the brightest, I simply want to remain in the garden until I return to the dirt.”

At the very end of the panel, a fan asked if Martin would consider writing any Game of Thrones prequels, and the author wisely noted that he still has a great deal to write simply to complete the Song of Ice and Fire novel series, particularly given the infamous waits between books and how quickly the HBO show is catching up to the novels. “The locomotive is coming down the tracks behind me, and I haven’t yet laid down the tracks.”

Still, Martin said he’d consider writing more stories in Westeros at some point, though not about Robert’s Rebellion, since that period in time has already been covered so frequently in flashbacks.

“I might go back further and write something about Aegon [I] and his sisters, or Aegon [IV] the Unworthy–a true scumbag of a king with his nine mistresses.”

Gartner forecasts a return to IT investment as economy improves

Global IT spending is set to reach $3.7tn by 2014 as the economy improves, according to Gartner's Worldwide IT Spending Forecast.Spending on mobile devices is set to increase

by 6.5% in 2014 to $740bn, compared to $695bn in 2013.Speaking to Computer Weekly, Richard Gordon, research vice-president at Gartner, said: “We are seeing a lower growth in 2013 due to spending being deferred due to folks holding on to smartphones as new operating systems extend the life of handsets.”The data does not take into account whether devices are being bought by IT or by the consumer. Gordon added: “Enterprise IT spending on devices will decline but spending will be picked up by the consumer.”Depending on how companies account for purchases, Gordon did not expect IT budgets to change as a result. He said the IT budget was shifting.

"Businesses are outsourcing and using software as a service (SaaS), rather than investing in their own datacentres," he added.Enterprise software spending is on pace to grow 6.4% in 2013. Gartner's Worldwide IT Spending Forecast showed expanded spending on e-commerce, social and mobile as organisations boost customer relationship systems.According to Gartner, buyers in the customer relationship management (CRM) market are focusing on technologies that enable more targeted customer interactions in multichannel environments – including online channel and marketing campaign management – and technologies enabling customer loyalty management.“Across the board we expect organisations to make strategic investments in CRM. Companies want to invest in big data, social and multichannel marketing to improve CRM,” Gordon explained.The improving economic climate will boost services, according to Gordon.

“As the economy improves there will be an increase in consultancy spend with big programmes around social and mobile as companies make strategic investments in these areas.”Worldwide IT spending forecast (billions of US dollars)Source: Gartner (July 2013)He said Gartner was seeing a decline in the growth of client operating systems, reflecting the decline in the PC industry.The forecast also showed a gradual shift towards SaaS-type licensing over traditional software licensing.

Phone calls return to Gmail thanks to a Hangouts upgrade

Google is making good on its promise to bring back free voice calls in Gmail, after temporarily removing them a couple months ago.

Voice calls disappeared from Gmail in May, when the company replaced Google Chat with a new feature called Hangouts. While Hangouts still allowed users to make video calls and receive calls to their Google Voice numbers, the ability to make outbound calls to landlines and mobile phones was missing, at least for a little while.

Over the next few days, Google will roll out an updated version of Hangouts, restoring outbound voice calls and adding new features to the service.

 
Users can now create a group call by adding multiple phone numbers, and can have mixed calls with some recipients on voice and others on video. Google's also throwing in some silly effects, such as applause and laughter, through the Google Effects app.

Calls within the United States and Canada will remain free. (Last we heard, Google had extended free calls through 2013; we've reached out to Google to see if it'll stay that way indefinitely now.) Hangouts users in other countries can now call the United States and Canada for free as well. Calls to outside the United States and Canada are still subject to various per-minute rates.

So far, there's no word about whether SMS messaging will be brought back to Gmail, but chances are it'll show up eventually. Google has said that Hangouts is “designed to be the future of Google Voice,” so it seems likely we'll see more integrated Voice features, such as SMS and voicemails, over time. (Here's hoping we do, at least.) For now, you can still send text messages from your Google Voice number using the Google Voice Website.

Google says voice calls should be available over the next few days, appearing as a phone icon on the right side of the “New Hangout” box. Users will also be able to make calls through Google+ and the Hangouts Chrome extension, using the drop-down menu on the right side of the “New Hangout” box.

Why I'm betting on a return to normal markets

Cliff Asness

No black swans here.

That's the opinion of hedge fund manager Cliff Asness, who runs AQR Capital, which is one of the industry's biggest firms with $80 billion under management. The rapid move up in interest rates and the recent 800-point two-day drop in the Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) has more than a few investors worried we might be seeing the beginning stages of a new economic crisis.

Adding to the anxiety is the fact that all this seems to be triggered by Ben Bernanke's suggestion that the Fed may soon curtail its bond buying stimulus program, which some have been warning would spell doom.

MORE: Why the economy can't save the market from Bernanke

Asness's advice: Chill out. The investor says the effect of the Fed on the market has been exaggerated. He expects the recent combined rout of stocks and bonds to be over for now. "There is absolutely no reason for this to continue," says Asness. "There is no liquidity crisis or big unwind. This is not 2008."

Some have said that the market is suffering from excess leverage or the fact that Wall Street dealers, because of new rules, are no longer willing to support the bond market. Asness says he sees no evidence of that. He says some bond market are less liquid than usual, but he sees no signs of the type of market turmoil we saw brewing back in 2008. "Markets are functioning well," says Asness.

What has caught the market off guard, according to Asness, is that interest rates are rising at a time when inflation is flat, expectations for corporate cash flows haven't dramatically improved, and commodity prices are falling. That's not what normally happens. What's more, this is all coming at a time when China is slowing as well. "Sounds like a perfect storm," says Asness.

That's not sustainable. In Asness's opinion, either interest rates have to head back down, or growth has to pick up. Either way, investors should benefit. "The preponderance of evidence right now suggests a return to more a normal market environment," says Asness. "I would bet on that, and I am with my own money."

MORE: Goldman pushes hedge funds for your 401(k)

Asness would probably like to get back to a normal as quickly as possible. Although it's hard to know how AQR has performed recently overall -- hedge funds don't have to disclose their performance to anyone other than their investors, and Asness isn't saying -- a number of his publicly trading mutual funds have suffered in the recent market rout. The most notable is AQR's popular Risk Parity fund (AQRIX), which has $1.2 billion in assets and tumbled 10% in the past month. It's now down 5.7% in 2013.

Indeed, the recent market downturn has taken some of the allure off of risk parity funds in general, which Buzzfeed recent touted as the the Steve Carell of investment strategies, which I think was a compliment.

Most of us usually think of diversification as combining some risky assets and some less risky assets. The idea behind risk parity funds is that's silly. What you really need to do is take some risky assets and some non-risky assets, and then leverage up those non-risky assets so everything is just the same amount of risk, i.e. parity. That worked pretty well for a while, until recently, when it hasn't. The All Weather fund, which is the $70 billion risk parity fund of Bridgewater Associates, another large hedge fund firm, is also down 8% this year.

Asness says he is not as worried as some about the end of the Fed's quantitative easing. He says he is "shockingly agnostic" about whether the stimulus effort was good or bad for the economy. "Monetary policy is like a dog chasing a car," says Asness. "Central bankers are always behind, and then not quite sure what to do when they catch up. It's just paper chasing paper."

Follow me on Twitter @sajilpl

Start the countdown! Twinkies return to shelves July 15

Twinkies will return to store shelves on July 15.

The announcement was made by Daren Metropoulos, principal of Metropoulos & Co., one of the two companies that bought the rights to Twinkies and other snack brands from the bankrupt Hostess Brands earlier this year.

The new Twinkies box will look very similar to the old one, with the addition of the line "The sweetest comeback in the history of ever." The price will stay the same as last fall when Hostess shut down - $3.99 for a box of 10. Other products will also come back with the same pricing.

"America wanted Hostess back -- they wanted the original," said Metropoulos.

The new company will sell all of the Hostess and Dolly Madison branded snack products, including CupCakes, Donettes, Zingers, Ho Hos, Ding Dongs, fruit pies and mini muffins. Some products, such as Sno Balls, will take a little longer to return to shelves, but they should be available within the next few months.

Other Hostess brands, including Wonder Bread and Drake's snack cakes, have been sold to other firms. Details of their return have yet to be announced.

Related: The Devil Dog is in the details

Wonder Bread, Twinkies and other Hostess products have not been produced since November, when Hostess Brands Inc. filed with the bankruptcy court to liquidate its 82-year old business following a crippling strike by the Bakery Workers union.

But while that company is out of business, and most of its 18,500 employees have lost their jobs, a bankruptcy court has been overseeing an auction of its various brands as part of the liquidation process.

Related: Making Hostess cakes at home



The new snack company, Hostess Brands LLC, was purchased for $410 million by private equity groups Apollo Group (APOL) and Metropoulos & Co. It also bought five of the closed bakeries as part of their bid. It will produce the products out of four of the bakeries -- in Columbus, Ga., Emporia, Kansas, Indianapolis and the Chicago suburb of Schiller Park, Ill. It plans to have about 1,800 employees making the snacks within the next three months.

Metropoulos' other food holdings include Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. In the past it has owned Chef Boyardee canned pasta, Bumble Bee seafood, PAM cooking spray and Gulden's Mustard, all of which it eventually sold to ConAgra Foods Inc (CAG, Fortune 500).

The return of 'Whose line' is no joke

Q: A while back you mentioned that the CW channel would be putting on a version of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” Is there any news of when this will happen? I loved the old version with Wayne Brady, Colin Mochre and Ryan Stiles.

A: “Whose Line?” returns July 16.

Q: Will they ever do a remake of “The Wild, Wild West” TV series? Or have the plans been squashed?

A: The plans announced in 2010 definitely came to naught, but that doesn’t mean someone won’t try it again someday. In the meantime, there’s a fan-produced remake online at www.morewildwildwest.com/wp.

Q: The first couple of years on “NCIS,” Gibbs had a redhead picking him up in a Mercedes; then she disappeared. There was never an explanation about who she was. Can you tell me who she was supposed to be and what happened to her?

A: Evidently this was an unresolved plot likely due to politics. Evidently the redhead was the wife of series creator Donald Bellisario. When he left the series several years ago, the redhead plot left with him and hasn’t been picked up by subsequent producers.

Q: My wife and I really enjoyed the “Army Wives Alaska” show that was being aired on the OWN. It was on for four or five episodes, then just disappeared. Would it be possible for you to find out what happened?

A: The rest of the episodes aired in December. This is often what happens with low-rated cable shows: Networks yank them and then burn off all the episodes when no one is watching.

Q: What happened to “Zero Hour”?

A: “Zero Hour” was canceled after a few, low-rated episodes aired. ABC began burning off the remaining episodes on June 15.

 

Downey Jr to return in Iron Man role

21 June 2013 Last updated at 08:55 GMT Robert Downey Jr has proved to be box office gold in his role as Iron Man/Tony Stark Robert Downey Jr will reprise his role as Iron Man in two forthcoming Avengers sequels, it has been announced.

Downey Jr, who first played the comic book role in 2008, is currently the toast of the box office having starred in two of the top five earning films of all time in the past 12 months.

Iron Man 3 and Avengers Assemble have collectively earned over $2.7 billion (£1.7bn) worldwide to date.

The Avengers 2 will open in May 2015, with Joss Whedon returning as director.

Downey, 48, was one of the main stars of 2012's Avengers Assemble, which united superhero characters Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor and the Black Widow, as played by Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson respectively.

All four of the stars are expected to join Downey Jr in the forthcoming films.

A statement on the Marvel website said Avengers 2 will feature "favourites from the first Avengers film and new Marvel characters never before seen on the big screen."

Iron Man 3 - the third instalment in the franchise centred on billionaire crime-fighter Tony Stark - was released in the UK last month. It has become the highest-grossing film of the year, with $1.2 billion (£775m) in global ticket sales.

Downey Jr has had a long and colourful career, beginning with early Oscar-nominated success in Chaplin in 1992 and critical acclaim in TV hit Ally McBeal.

A stint in prison during years of drug abuse curtailed his career before a remarkable comeback in box office hits such as Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes and cult hit Tropic Thunder, which won him his second Oscar nomination in 2009.

 

Family Spokesman: James Gandolfini's Body to Return to U.S. on Monday

The family of James Gandolfini is planning on returning the actor's body to the U.S. on Monday.

"We are now looking at hopefully getting James Gandolfini's remains back to the States tomorrow," said Michael Kobold, Gandolfini family spokesman, in a statement released by HBO on Sunday. "The provisional plan is to depart Rome tomorrow afternoon and arrive in the U.S. in the evening."

PHOTOS: James Gandolfini's Life and Career in Pictures 

Kobold stated: "On behalf of the Gandolfini family, I would like to thank the Italian authorities for all the assistance they have rendered in expediting the formalities necessary to repatriate James Gandolfini's remains to the United States."

During a vacation to Italy, the 51-year-old actor died Wednesday night of a cardiac arrest, hospital officials confirmed. Gandolfini was said to have finished a tour of Rome with his family before returning to the hotel and suffering a heart attack.

Kobold also thanked Secretary of State John Kerry, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton for assistance.

"We would like to thank the United States government, especially Secretary Kerry and our friends at the State Department for helping us in this time of need," the family statement read. "Our expressed thanks to the people at the Italy desk at the State Department for working day and night on our behalf. We thank President Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for their kind support."

Gandolfini is survived by his wife, Deborah Lin, and two children.