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Posted
Dec 18 2007, 08:52 AM
by
Robert Walberg
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Remember when it was cool to own/buy a Dell computer? Not that long ago it was Dell, not Apple, that had the laid back young kid starring in commercials that resonated with consumers. "Dude, it's a Dell," was the stuff of genius. Dell's were cool, they were cheap and they were everywhere.
Yet in little less than five years Dell has gone from cool to ice cold. Its share of the PC market has eroded due to misguided retail practices, poor customer service and outdated design. The company has also lost its price advantage. Despite the cheap prices you see on the company's web site, or in the flyers that arrive in the mail, once you configure the computer to match even the most basic of needs, the price ends up being as high or higher as PCs from Toshiba, Hewlett Packard and Acer.
Quite simply there's nothing that sets the company apart anymore -- at least nothing positive. Its abysmal technical service group certainly set it apart, as waiting on the Dell help desk was an exercise bordering on cruelty. To its credit, Dell's management team has begun to address this issue by adding staff, but once you get a bad reputation it can be very hard to change consumer perceptions. Dell has a lot of making up to do and some blunt talk from its back-in-the-saddle CEO, Michael Dell, just might help remake its image. Let's face it, Apple was left for dead a few years back and look at what the return of Steve Jobs did for that company.
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Posted
Mar 11 2009, 04:54 PM
by
Charley Blaine
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Last we heard from those two lovebirds, CNBC's Jim Cramer and "The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart, each was accusing the other of being a terrible, horrible, awful human being. Or something like that.
Now they're going to face off Thursday on Stewart's program, airing on the Comedy Central network. Given the egos at work, it could be a lot of fun.
A veritable mud-wrestling match between two very smart, quick-tongued men.
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Posted
Nov 05 2008, 08:03 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
The Internet and limits go together like, well, kittens and the guillotine.
Limits on the amount of data subscribers can use each month may soon be a standard feature of Internet usage. In an effort to combat "bandwidth hogs" who use a lot of network capacity, Internet service providers (ISPs) around the country are exploring new restrictions.
AT&T plans to test them in Reno, Nevada; if successful, may extend the practice to other cities. In some cases, about 5% of an ISP's subscribers use about 50% of the network's capacity. Adding bandwidth would be expensive, and most users don't require it
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Posted
Jun 16 2009, 08:06 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Is it possible that Microsoft (MSFT), the company that geeks love to hate, has done something right with Bing?
Early chatter suggests that Bing could become a credible challenger to Google’s (GOOG) long-held position as king of Internet searches.
“(Google) co-founder Sergey Brin is so rattled by the launch of Microsoft’s rival search engine that he has assembled a team of top engineers to work on urgent upgrades to his Web service,” the New York Post reports.
Google won’t comment on the alleged panic swirling through its headquarters in Mountain View, California and simply notes that it always has a team of engineers working to improve its search engine.
If Microsoft has developed a credible challenger to Google, where does this leave Yahoo (YHOO)? Google now grabs about 60% of the lucrative search market compared with Yahoo’s 20% and Microsoft’s 8%.
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Posted
Jul 08 2009, 06:52 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 Yep, it had to happen. Twitter is fast becoming a hotbed for scammers and online villains.
The super-hot online communication tool that limits its users to short messages is the new home for people offering phony employment offers. If you see a message saying that you can earn hundreds of dollars a day just by tweeting from your computer, it's probably best to ignore it. The Better Business Bureau says it's seeing an increase in the number of companies turning Twitter "into a virtual ATM with little effort and no risk," the Los Angeles Times reports.
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Posted
Sep 01 2008, 09:28 PM
by
Andrew Horowitz
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
The browser war just heated up. Actually, it has now gone nuclear. It was one thing when open-source Mozilla had a "cute" idea for an Internet browser and was considered a fringe product, but it's now quite another since they have effectively stolen approximately 20% of the market share over the past five years or so.
Now Google, the market share leader for Internet search, is looking to chip away even more from Microsoft's foothold by introducing a browser of their own. Available in a beta version, Chrome is Google's open-source browser entry and hopes to gain traction with its legion of loyal followers that are devoted Google-ites. That could easily push it into third place, just behind Firefox but ahead of Netscape, Opera and Safari
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Posted
Dec 19 2008, 05:00 PM
by
Andrew Horowitz
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Whether you are looking at technology stocks like Apple or Microsoft,or looking at old favorites like General Electric or Consolidated Edison, there are good times to buy and bad times to sell. After the fundamental analysis is done and you are as confident as you can be that your research is solid, the timing of the buy is critical.
Technical analysis can be an intimidating subject and it is often made more confusing than it needs to be with the addition of some esoteric oscillators and indicators. The goal of every market participant is to make money and when properly understood, technical analysis is a tool which can help you better time investing and trading decisions. Brian Shannon's new book, Technical Analysis Using Multiple Timeframes focuses on trend recognition and teaches how to spot low risk/ high profit potential opportunities.
Here are 10 useful points from the book:
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Posted
Dec 08 2008, 08:17 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Use of cell phones may expand the reach of money transfers, pumping new profits into an old industry.
Vodafone Group and Western Union plan a partnership to serve the growing market for sending money across international borders by guest workers. A pilot program in the United Kingdom will allow residents of Reading to send money to Kenya, where Vodafone holds a 40% stake in wireless company Safaricom, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The sector is now small, but use of cell phones to transfer money has caught the attention of Citigroup and Visa. Obopay, a Silicon Valley startup, allows users to create an online account and transfer money via text message, Web browser
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Posted
Dec 23 2008, 07:47 AM
by
Anthony Mirhaydari
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
An interesting divergence is developing between large-cap and more nimble small-cap stocks. Historically, small caps recover well before traditional economic barometers like GDP growth, employment, and earnings estimates.
It looks like this is happening now: Over the past month, the Russell 2000 small cap index has risen 22% compared to 15% for the S&P 500 index.
Since the Great Depression small caps have rallied more than 50% on average after the broad market hits its mid-recession low, according to Citigroup analyst Lori Calvasina. During particularly nasty downturns, where inflation-adjusted GDP falls between 0% and -2%, small caps still rallied 44%.
You can see this in the chart below
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Posted
Jun 02 2009, 08:21 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
With General Motors (GMGMQ) Chapter 11 filing, this is a suitable time to discuss what happens to the options when an underlying company declares bankruptcy.
It's traditional for existing shareholders to lose 100% of their investment when a company becomes bankrupt - even when there are assets of value. Stockholders are at the end of the line, and those assets go to others. Think K-Mart: After its bankruptcy, it was suddenly "discovered" that their real estate was worth a great deal of money, and the "new" K-Mart stock soared. The original shareholders were left with nothing.
Call Options Are Kaput
Once bankruptcy is declared, the stock is worthless - and so are all call options. The stock is usually de-listed from the stock exchanges, but continues to trade in the over-the-counter (OTC) market. If you wonder why it trades, or why anyone would pay anything for the shares, those are good questions.
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