Steve Singh, the chairman and CEO of Redmond, WA-based Concur Technologies, put the recent stock market swoon in perspective on CNBC yesterday for this “From the C-Suite” segment.
While obviously worrisome, Singh takes a somewhat longer view that technology spending—by businesses in particular—will remain strong because it drives productivity. Singh said Concur (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CNQR]]), which makes expense and travel management software for businesses, is seeing “a very solid demand environment” and expects to grow.
“Our workforce for fiscal ’11 will be up about 20 percent, year over year. We expect it to be roughly the same growth next year,” Singh said. Concur has popped up on our radar several times this year with acquisitions and investments, including its purchases of GlobalExpense and TripIt and investments in Yapta and Cleartrip.
Concur hasn’t skated through the latest market turmoil, of course. Its stock closed at $43.89 last Wednesday, and tumbled along with the market in three consecutive days of trading. It hit a low of $35.42 this morning before rebounding somewhat as the day went on. Check out the CNBC video for more of Singh’s comments.
Programming note: Those of you tired of politics for the moment may want to fast-forward through the bits featuring the show’s other guest, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, since her answers quickly start sounding like campaign talking points.
Fiorina, a former U.S. Senate candidate and adviser to John McCain’s presidential campaign, is currently the vice-chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, where she’ll be working to help boost the GOP’s chances in the upper chamber during next year’s elections.
