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Posted
Jun 24 2008, 06:41 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Nokia is buying Symbian, a company that makes operating systems for mobile phones. Nokia already uses Symbian software in its smartphones, so the move isn't a huge surprise. But in an unexpected twist, Nokia is going to make Symbian open and royalty-free for software developers. In doing so the company is clearly going after Google for the future of mobile phone systems. Nokia was already paying Symbian some $250 million a year to use Symbian's software in phones, analysts say. So buying Symbian outright for $410 million is smart business. Nokia shares were up slightly in morning trading to $24.48, and Google shares are down just slightly to $543.36.
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Posted
Jun 23 2008, 12:15 PM
by
Kim Peterson
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Four tech companies land on Seeking Alpha's "Six screaming stock buys with hidden gems" report: Amazon, Apple, Google and eBay. I agree that each company has its "hidden gem," but not sure that every gem makes its owner a screaming buy. YouTube is a gem within Google, but it doesn't collect much revenue and Google hasn't figured out how to monetize it. Amazon has never disclosed Kindle sales figures, so we don't know how the device is affecting the company's finances.
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Posted
Jun 23 2008, 09:47 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Google's trying to herd cats with the development of its Android mobile phone platform, and it's no surprise that the project is running into delays. The mobile industry is notoriously slow, and hammering out phone and software agreements with carriers is a laborious process. The Wall Street Journal says that cell phone companies are "struggling" to meet Google's timelines and may end up blowing the deadline altogether. It doesn't help that Apple's iPhone is king of the industry getting the industry's attention right now, which presents two problems for Google. Software makers are putting the iPhone at the top of priority lists. And second, the iPhone has raised the bar, increasing pressure on Google to create a worthy rival. Google shares are up just slightly to $546.66 at 10:30 a.m. PST.
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Posted
Jun 09 2008, 01:02 PM
by
Kim Peterson
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Why were Apple shares down Monday, with all the big iPhone news? Chalk it up to the typical storm of hype that surrounds Apple announcement. Expectations ratchet up so high that CEO Steve Jobs would have to juggle 10 iPhones on one foot to impress investors.
Apple stock was weak all day, but recovered in the final hour of trading. It closed down 2.2% on heavy volume to $181.61. Here's how Apple's news affected other stocks:
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Posted
Jun 05 2008, 11:15 AM
by
Kim Peterson
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Google is leasing 42 acres at NASA's Ames Research Center, and plans to build employee housing there along with child care facilities, gyms, restaurants and basketball courts. And what a deal: Google will pay NASA just $3.7 million in annual rent for the property. The company makes that much in revenue in two hours. Construction won't start until at least 2013, and eventually, the campus could hold 5,000 workers. The move gives Google some breathing room as it continues its breakneck rate of growth. I'm curious about what Google housing might look like. The company has set the gold standard for employee cafeterias, serving better food (for free) than you can find in most restaurants. Will Google homes be as sophisticated?
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Posted
Apr 22 2008, 04:43 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
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Once a year, the firm Millard Brown puts out its BrandZ 100 Most Valuable Brands. The data used for the list come from consumer research and financial data on the companies. The research house gives its methodology here.
For those who think Google is the top brand, give yourself a pat on the back. It has a brand valuation of $86 billion, up 30%. For those research mavens in the crowd, the figure makes absolutely no sense. Google has a market cap of $168 billion. Most of that would go away -- no matter how good the technology is -- if it changed it name to Dawdle.
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Posted
Apr 18 2008, 01:43 PM
by
Kim Peterson
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Apple once again topped BusinessWeek's annual list of the 50 most innovative companies. And it's hard to argue with that call, what with the iPhone and the MacBook Air debuting in the last year. But I think Google is on pace to beat Apple when it comes to innovation, with its emphasis on creativity and pet products and its entry into markets like renewable energy and telecommunications. Let's see Apple top that this next year. Google is #2 on the list. Here's the rest of the top 10:
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Posted
Apr 16 2008, 04:57 PM
by
Charley Blaine
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I'm not making this up. Apple's market capitalization is bigger than Citigroup's. The actual numbers at today's close were $135 billion for Apple and $123 billion for Citigroup.
This fact, which came courtesy of Barry Ritholtz's blog The Big Picture, struck me as, well, preposterous. Check these most basic of comparisons:
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Posted
Feb 29 2008, 03:22 PM
by
Charley Blaine
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How bad have the first two months of 2008 been? Bad. January and February were the worst-ever opening two months for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and the Nasdaq Composite Index. The Dow Jones Industrial Average wasn't much better.
The advice investors should take away from the numbers: Be patient for a bottom. Be very patient. The odds that the market will recover completely by year-end aren't great, if only because it will take a long time to solve all the problems facing the banking system and the credit markets.
(For some perspective, check Barry Ritholtz's blog The Big Picture. Barry also likes to toss in fun cartoons and thoughts about everything from digital cameras to rock music. Also, check Floyd Norris' blog at the New York Times site.)
The Dow finished the first two months of the year down 7.5%. Since 1928, that's the blue-chip index's 6th-worst opening two months. The worst was 1933, when the index fell 14.3%. The next worst was 2000, when the Dow fell a combined 11.9%.
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Posted
Dec 05 2007, 03:45 PM
by
Charley Blaine
Rating:
It looks to me like the hot money has started to flee crude oil. And the winners from that retreat look like Apple and Google.
Crude peaked on Nov. 21 at an intraday high of $99.29 a barrel -- a day that saw the Dow Jones industrials fall 211 points. It dropped to $86.95 in electronic trading Wednesday night. (Check out this chart of crude oil.) And this despite OPEC's decision to hold its production quotas at current levels at a meeting in Abu Dhabi.
Tech stocks started to move almost as soon as crude peaked and have been among the strongest market sectors in the last few weeks.
Since Nov. 21, the U.S. Oil Fund, the exchange-traded fund that invests in crude oil, has fallen nearly 12%, while Apple is up 10%. Google is up nearly 6%. The Morgan Stanley High-Technology 35 Index is up nealry 5%.
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