Leader: Good news, bad news

It has been a mixed day of news for the technology sector. Internet bellwether Yahoo! brought good tidings overnight with news that it had beat the Street, as they say, posting strong Q1 figures. Its revenue streams are dependent on the type of spending that dried up to a large degree during the last three years.

Also today - and slightly closer to home - we reported on a study from The Economist Intelligence Unit pointing to increased optimism among UK executives. Those at the top table generally see technology driving growth but they are still cautious.

That's understandable. It wasn't long ago people didn't want to be heard mentioning the R word - recovery. A survey of silicon.com readers at the start of this year showed only 21.4 per cent agreeing 'completely' with the statement 'The IT industry, going in to 2004, is well on the way to recovery' and 40.9 per cent agreeing 'only somewhat'.

But now people have grown up somewhat, seeing a wider upturn and placing faith in CRM and other ways of doing things better with existing customers.

But one of their fears relates to compliance. The Enron and WorldCom debacles have left their scars, it would seem. Not only do organisations feel the strain of making sure their systems are squeaky clean - in line with Sarbanes-Oxley for US listings, Basel II in banking and International Accounting Standards (IAS) for others - but there are constant reminders.

This morning we brought you the story of the three former Computer Associates executives up in court on none-too-pleasant accounting charges, while it was revealed Intel offices in Japan have also been raided by regulators investigating competitive behaviour.

Remember, it was only two weeks ago the European Commission ruled against Microsoft. We are not suggesting that these investigations are in the league of fraud cases but they do serve as a reminder that a tech is full of uncertainties - and we are expecting the economy to be driven increasingly by tech.