Gartner: Half of software companies dead by 2008

There are 50 to 60% too many software companies in the world at the moment said one Ian Bertram, doomsayer-in-chief at the research company. By 2008, a wave of bankruptcies, mergers and takeovers will see a huge shake-up in the IT market - companies going down the toilet, CEOs begging for spare change, once-proud white-collar workers in your local Tesco, that sort of thing.

All this trauma will be induced by a massive outsourcing of IT functions (an increase of 30% in the next two years) and a shift to more modular software, Bertram claims. Companies