Anchor Tenant Health?

The financial services market has long been the base of the infrastructure business. With its technology spending (often as high as 9% of revenue range), its ability to fund new technology investments and the degree to which technology provided valuable competitive advantage, the financial services industry has often been the starting point for new infrastructure products from the very largest of technology companies to the earliest of startups. When we're being briefed on new products it's quite common to hear that the financial services companies are among the early beta companies. Some value propositions -- like compliance --depend heavily on financial services customers to justify the investment. So you have to wonder (and worry) about the impact the financial turmoil on Wall Street will have on infrastructure companies. It's a question that we often ask and so far only a few companies have admitted that they're seeing a slowdown in spending and/or delays in rollouts of new projects. But you have to wonder at what point does the financial services restructuring impact infrastructure companies many of whom have their largest vertical market at risk. Several years ago during the recession that occurred after the Internet bubble burst, it was the financial services companies that helped infrastructure companies get back on track when they started investing in new technologies. That probably won't be the case this time around. The "sixty-four dollar questions" are...What (and when) will change with financial services technology spending, which high-tech companies will be impacted and by how much?