Tech companies may be winners in Obama presidency

There are many signs that President-elect Barack Obama will move the technology world forward quickly in ways that could be beneficial to U.S. firms and the skilled IT workforce. On his Web site during the presidential campaign, Obama pledged to "ensure an open Internet, create a transparent and connected democracy, encourage a modern communications infrastructure, improve America's competitiveness, and employ science and technology to solve our nation's most pressing problems."

Scott Kessler, head of Standard & Poor's information technology equity research group, believes that Obama's plans could be a boon for technology companies in the U.S. like Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Google and AT&T. Kessler said the president-elect will make the research and development tax credit permanent; unleash wireless spectrum for a variety of purposes, including connectivity; put more government information online and provide better access to it. He said Obama also wants to help U.S. companies hire and retain foreign workers more easily; give tax breaks for research; promote electronic medical records; and invest in clean and renewable energy.

"U.S. firms large and small would benefit from the R&D tax credit and immigration reform related to employment,'' Kessler told BusinessWeek.com.

Todd Rosenbluth, head of S&P's telecommunications equity research group, said Obama's campaign priorities of providing broadband access to all Americans through wire-line and wireless connections "could spur long-term investments by telecom carriers such as AT&T  in metropolitan markets and Frontier Communications in rural markets."

For more on the outlook for tech companies in the Obama years:
 - check out this BusinessWeek.com article

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