ThomsonReuters: Palantir Not Enough Math?
April 6, 2016
I read “TRRI Users Will Gain Access to FiscalNote’s Legislative Modeling Techniques.” The licensees of Palantir Metropolitan and the owner of Westlaw smart software for legal eagles is pushing into new territory. That’s probably good news for stakeholders who have watch ThomsonReuters bump into a bit of a revenue ceiling in the last few years.
According to the write up:
The main benefit of the agreement [with FiscalNote] will grant Thomson Reuters’ Regulatory Intelligence (TRRI) newly extended capabilities across its predictive legislative analytics. TRRI is a global solution that helps clients focus and leverage their regulatory risk. Per the agreement, FiscalNote will help provide TRRI users with likelihood factors and other insights relegated to specifics pieces of legislative passage.
Interesting. I assumed that Palantir’s platform would have the extensibility to handle this type of content processing and analysis. Wrong again.
I learned:
FiscalNote utilizes machine learning and natural language processing in its modeling techniques that help it engineer models to conduct a host of analyses on open government data. In essence, these models allow FiscalNote to automatically analyze how legislation is going to yield any material impact via a combination of factors such as legislators, committee assignments, actions taken, bill versions, and amendments.
Wait, wait, don’t tell me. Westlaw’s smart software which can do many wonderful advanced text processing tricks is not able to perform in the manner of FiscalNote.
My hunch is that the deal has less to do with technologies, extensible or not, and more to do with getting some customers and an opportunity to find a way to pump up those revenues. Another idea: Is ThomsonReuters emulating IBM’s tactic of buying duplicative technology as a revenue rocket booster?
Perhaps Palantir and Westlaw should team up so ThomsonReuters’ customers have additional choices? Think of the XML slicing and dicing strategy with the intelligence and legal technology working in harmony.
Stephen E Arnold, April 6, 2016
Yellowfin: Emulating i2 and Palantir?
March 22, 2016
I read “New BI Platform Focuses on Collaboration, Analytics.” What struck me about this explanation of a new version of YellowFin is that the company is adding the type of features long considered standard in law enforcement and intelligence. The idea is that visualizations and collaboration are components of a commercial business intelligence solution.
I noted this paragraph:
Other BI vendors have tried to push data preparation and analysis responsibilities onto business users “because it’s easier to adapt what they have to fulfill that goal.” But Yellowfin “isn’t a BI tool attempting to make the business user a techie. It is about presenting data to users in an attractive visual representation, backed-up with some of the most sophisticated collaboration tools embedded into a BI platform on the market.”
The reason for analyst involvement in the loading of data is a way to eliminate the issue of content ownership, indexing, and knowledge of what is in the system’s repository. I am not confident that any system which allows the user to whack away at whatever data have been processed by the system is ready for prime time. Sure, Google can win at Go, but the self driving auto ran into a bus.
The write up, which strikes me as New Age public relations, seems to want me to remember what’s new with YellowFin with this mnemonic example: Curated. Baffled? Here’s what curated means:
- Consistent: Governed, centralized and managed
- Usable: by any business to consume analytics
- Relevant: connected to all the data users need to do their jobs well
- Accurate: data quality is paramount
- Timely: Provide real time data and agile content development
- Engaging: Offer a social or collaborative component
- Deployed: widely across the organization.
Business intelligence is the new “enterprise search.” I am not sure the use of notions like curated and adding useful functions delivers the impact that some marketers promise. Remember that self driving car. Pesky humans.
Stephen E Arnold, March 23, 2016
Allegedly Secretive Palantir Technologies Getting Chatty?
March 22, 2016
Many of the articles I read about Palantir Technologies describe the company as secretive. I am not sure that is 100 percent accurate. The company has videos on YouTube for goodness sake.
I noted “How Palantir Uses Big Data to Find Missing Kids.” This article came hard on the heels of “Is Morgan Stanley Wrong about Big Palantir Valuation Markdown?”
The missing kids story emphasizes Palantir’s social “good” work. I noted this passage:
Lucky for Palantir, big data challenges are just as common in the nonprofit world as in the for-profit sector. Recently, the company, which started out partnering with the U.S. intelligence and defense communities in antiterrorism efforts, has turned its attention to one of the biggest current problems: The Syrian civil war and subsequent refugee crisis, via a collaboration with The Carter Center. “We’re a company that focuses on the world’s hardest problems,” says Karin Knox, head of Palantir’s philanthropy engineering team. “Right now we probably have a hand in all of them.”
Lucky.
Stephen E Arnold, March 22, 2016
Palantir Gets a Rah Rah from Bloomberg
March 5, 2016
I posted the unicorn flier in “Palantir: A Dying Unicorn or a Mad, Mad Sign?” I read “Palantir Staff Shouldn’t Believe the Unicorn Flyers.” I assume that the alleged fliers did exist in the Shire and were not figments of a Tolkienesque imagination. (I wonder of JRR’s classes were anchored in reality.)
The write up states:
For now, Palantir people can rest easy in the Shire, a.k.a. downtown Palo Alto, Calif. The company, which was named after the “seeing stones” from the Lord of the Rings, is not at risk of an evil wizard with preferred shares coming to vaporize workers’ share value.
The write up contains a hefty dose of jargon; for example:
During the fourth quarter of 2015, 42 percent of deals had such provisions, compared with 15 percent in the previous two quarters. Investors were also given the right to block an initial public offering that didn’t meet their valuation threshold in 33 percent of deals in the fourth quarter, compared with 20 percent in the second quarter, the study said. Palantir had neither provision.
Okay.
The only hitch in the git along is that Morgan Stanley has cut the value of its stake in Palantir.
Worth watching even if one is not an employee hoping that the value of this particular unicorn is going to morph into a Pegasus.
Stephen E Arnold, March 5, 2016
Palantir: A Dying Unicorn or a Mad, Mad Sign?
February 26, 2016
I learned that some wag posted a Mad Magazine-type cartoon with an MBA-ish message. I am not sure if this is a message from the heart of a disgruntled Hobbit or someone angling for a writer’s job on a late night talk show.
Here’s the image I saw:
The point seems to be that the value of Palantir is in doubt. With the roiling of the financial valuations for outfits with billion dollar plus valuations, employees who work for stakes in a zoon zoon outfit may be in a cold, cold night.
I have inserted this alleged real-deal poster in my forthcoming overview of Palantir. If you want to reserve a copy, write benkent2020 [at] yahoo dot com. The 50 page report from ArnoldIT is US$99. The report will be available for sale in April 2016.
The report covers Palantir’s differences from Autonomy’s and i2’s augmented intelligence systems, examples of the “helper” interfaces, and a gathering of open source information about the firm. We have examined Palantir’s publicly accessible technical materials and identified 18 interesting technical innovations. A subset of this larger Palantir analysis will be included in the forthcoming Dark Web Notebook. I will offer some general comments in my forthcoming interview for the Singularity One on One video podcast as well.
Exciting if you follow how search-centric systems are shaped to perform value-added services for government and commercial clients. Open source with lipstick is a business model I find quite interesting to think about.
Stephen E Arnold, February 26, 2016
Hobbit: Not Palantir Hobbits
February 19, 2016
I read “Hobbit—First Deliverables and Online Presence.” The news item reminded me that a European consortium “aims to develop a holistic benchmarking platform for big linked data and corresponding industry grade benchmarks.” The article pointed out an open benchmarking platform to evaluate the performance of state of the art systems on standardized hardware. To learn more about this European initiative navigate to this link. Will vendors participate so that meaningful performance data become available? That’s the hope.
Stephen E Arnold, February 19, 2016
HP, Now Xerox, and Maybe Palantir?
February 1, 2016
HP, after its fascinating board room machinations, its acquisition of Autonomy, and the subsequent legal frou-frou, is two companies. How are these outfits doing? Don’t ask.
Now, if McPaper is on the money Xerox will become two outfits. “Xerox Makes Official Its Split into Two Companies.” (If this link is dead, buzz Gannett, not me, gentle reader.)
According to the write up:
Xerox will separate into two companies, a $11 billion document technology company and a $7 billion business services company…
I am not sure that the hardware side will thrive. Services? Maybe.
But what struck me as I read about Xerox is this:
Palantir Technologies can split its commercial sector out and take it public. The government work can remain private.
Everyone with a stake in the outfit becomes Willy Wonka happy. Think of the money. Why even the smallest Hobbit will be able to buy a house near the Shire.
How likely is this move?
Well, after ingesting $2 billion or so over the last six years, the economic pressure on some of the stakeholders might trigger a chit chat or two.
Taking the commercial side of Palantir public might explain the number of rumors swirling that two thirds of Palantir’s revenues come from non government work.
Check out your seeing stone for the big picture or better yet, plug the data into IBM i2 Analyst Notebook and see what connections you can discern.
Stephen E Arnold, February 1, 2016
Palantir: Revenue Distribution
January 27, 2016
I came across a write up in a Chinese blog about Palantir. You can find the original text at this link. I have no idea if the information are accurate, but I had not seen this breakdown before:
The chart from “Touchweb” shows that in FY 2015 privately held Palantir derives 71 percent of its revenue from commercial clients.
The report then lists the lines of business which the company offers. Again this was information I had not previously seen:
Energy, disaster recovery, consumer goods, and card services
- Retail, pharmaceuticals, media, and insurance
- Audit, legal prosecution
- Cyber security, banking
- Healthcare research
- Local law enforcement, finance
- Counter terrorism, war fighting, special forces.
Because Palantir is privately held, there is not solid, audited data available to folks in Kentucky at this time.
Nevertheless, the important point is that the Palantir search and content processing platform has a hefty valuation, lots of venture financing, and what appears to be a diversified book of business.
Stephen E Arnold, January 27, 2016
Palantir: Worth $20 Billion?
December 12, 2015
I read “U.S. Data Company Palantir Raises $679.8 Million.” The key points in the write up from my point of view were that Palantir is valued at $20 billion, which may be a record for a company providing search and content analysis. The other point is that the company has raised more than $670 million. The company keeps a low profile and reminds me of the teenage Autonomy from the early 2000s. Value may become an issue at some point.
Stephen E Arnold, December 12, 2015
Palantir Profile: Search Plus Add Ons
November 25, 2015
Short honk: If you read French, you will learn quite a bit about Palantir, an interesting company with a $20 billion valuation. The write up is “Palantir et la France : naissance d’une nouvelle théorie abracadabrantesque ? An listicle in the heart of the article provides a good run down of the system’s search and content processing capabilities. Yep, search. The difference between Palantir and outfits like Attivio, Coveo, Smartlogic, et al is the positioning, the bundle of technology, and – oh, did I mention the $20 billion valuation? I do like the abracadabra reference. Magic?
Stephen E Arnold, November 25, 2015
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
