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Posted
Apr 08 2008, 01:36 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
AMD investors are banging their heads against the wall again today after the chipmaker said first-quarter sales will disappoint Wall Street. Shares fell 5% today to $6.03. A year ago AMD traded in the $13 range; two years ago the stock was at $34.
AMD also said it will cut about 1,700 jobs, or 10% of its work force. It estimated first-quarter revenue to be $1.5 billion, not the $1.62 billion analysts were looking for.
The economy is certainly to blame, but could Dell be a culprit as well? Citigroup analyst Glen Yeung said in a note that Dell is reducing its exposure to AMD, which is contributing to AMD's current woes. Yeung said he didn't know if Dell had completely bailed from the AMD camp, however.
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Posted
Mar 30 2008, 05:26 PM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Starbucks has been a disappointment recently. Same-store sales in the U.S. slowed over the last couple of quarters. The company pushed down its guidance. Founder Howard Schultz kicked out his CEO and took over.
In late 2006, Starbucks traded over $40. It is well below that now -- under $18 on most days.
Right as the stock peaked, then-CEO Jim Donald made the audacious statement that the company would eventually have 40,000 stores. On the day he said that Starbucks had 12,440 stores. Looking back, it is almost certain the his prediction had no chance of becoming a reality. But, the $40 share price had gone to his head. He had become delirious with success.
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Posted
Mar 12 2008, 01:14 PM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Intel management and lawyers are in Europe talking with EU officials about whether the big chip company violated anti-trust laws in the region.
According to The Wall Street Journal "The E.U. filed preliminary charges against Intel in July, alleging the company offered rebates to customers only if they didn't use AMD products." Officials want to know whether Intel came by its 80% market share in the PC and server markets by playing fair or by using dirty tricks to keep customers away from AMD.
The case is much more important to AMD than it is to Intel. As E.U. dealings with Microsoft have shown, a large company can survive sanctions from the body, even penalties, and continue to do business successfully. AMD, on the other hand, is losing share. If it can get the locals to go along with its way of thinking, that Intel executives are thugs and mobsters, the smaller chip company might get a little wiggle room to sell more of its products.
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Posted
Feb 20 2008, 08:48 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Hewlett-Packard turned in one of the best performances of the earnings season. Net income rose 38%. Revenue rose 13% to $28.5 billion. The computer company raised guidance and its shares moved up 5%.
HP is probably the best tech bellwether in the U.S. It not only sells PCs and printers, it has a large software and server operation. It has tremendous businesses outside the U.S., especially in Asia.
Shipments from the company's PC operations were up 27% in the quarter. That has to be good news for chip companies AMD and Intel. Because HP is No.1 in global PC market share, it is also likely a boost for sales of Microsoft's Vista.
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Posted
Dec 19 2007, 03:52 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
This year has been a disaster for some tech companies. Oh sure, it's been a fabulous ride for Apple, Amazon and Google.
But this post is about the losingest losers out there. The train wrecks. The Lindsay Lohans of technology. Here are the companies, and their "oops" moments, that made 2007 memorable:
Yahoo
Share performance: Down 30% since the end of October.
Oops moment: Launching a public soul-searching in the form of a 100-day self-examination to craft a strategic plan.
What happened: The 100 days ended with no big announcements. Yahoo is too large and too laden by its own bureaucracy to be nimble. What's more, the company lost valuable search market share to Google this year.
Chance of recovery in 2008: Moderate. Yahoo is overhauling some core services, including e-mail and photo, but has been unable to monetize a user base that numbers some 475 million. Lots more work to do.
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Posted
Dec 17 2007, 04:00 PM
by
Charley Blaine
Rating:
With today's 61-point loss to 2,574.46, the Nasdaq Composite Index is back at a drop of 10% from a recent high.
Technically, that means the index is in a correction. What it really means is that the recovery off lows reached on Nov. 26 is basically done.
The Nasdaq has had two corrections this year alone. The first was from mid-July until the middle of the day on Aug. 16, when the market abruptly -- and violently -- turned higher.
The second started after the index hit a 6-year high of 2,859.12 on Oct. 31. It dropped to a low of 2,540.99 on Nov. 26, rebounded back to 2,652 and fell back again.
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Posted
Nov 26 2007, 10:32 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
The Wall Street Journal has an excellent article about Nicholas Negroponte, an MIT professor who is pioneering an ambitious project to produce a $100 laptop that poor countries can buy for their children. It's a noble effort that would educate children and families as well as connect them to the Internet.
The article details the many challenges Negroponte is facing in his goal to get the laptop to 150 million children. So far, only about 2,000 children have received the computers. Why? Tech giants are worried the laptop will cut into future business opportunities in the developing world, so they're coming up with competing machines.
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