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Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry predicts Google's revenue will fall in the next two years and the company is about to hit its adolescent stage with board conflicts and layoffs. In a research note, Chowdhry lays out the case. The gist: The economy is putting pressure on Google ads...
Microsoft's Internet Explorer lost market share to Apple's Safari and Mozila's Firefox; the Consumer Electronics Show in January will be smaller than in 2008 or even 2007 and there are actually hotel discounts to be had; MySQL's creator calls the product's latest release from Sun highly buggy; Blockbuster tries catching up to Netflix; and someone ports the Linux kernel to the iPhone.
If Black Friday is supposed to be the stomping grounds -- unfortunately literal in some cases -- of the average consumer, then Cyber Monday should test the spending mettle of the more techno-savvy that head online. It actually doesn't, as the freewheeling spending online generally comes later in the year, but it's worthwhile continuing to see how things are shaping up, particularly as many of the sites are owned by traditional brick-and-mortar retail chains struggling with the economy.
Technology CEOs worth their paychecks are going to use this economic downturn to revamp business models and position for the so-called post recession era. It sounds rather obvious, but why don't all CEOs follow this playbook? We've heard the mantra repeatedly: Reload in a downturn. And a repo...
Yahoo considers a CEO without media or Internet experience as Carl Icahn increases his stake in the comapny and Microsoft says "no, thanks"; Dell's numbers only reached their poor state with cutting some new consumer electronic products and massive layoffs; orders for WiMAX equipment still rolling in to Taiwan manufacturers; and some VCs are feeling the cash crunch.
Reports on Black Friday sales have largely agreed on some basics. But the more you dig into the numbers, the more obvious it is that we're seeing some particularly ugly business conditions, because one figure out of context doesn't tell you everything you need to know.
Fred Wilson of Union Square ventures had an interesting post titled Trading Analog Dollars For Digital Pennies. He quoted Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal CEO, expressing concern "that we do not end up trading analog dollars for digital pennies." Wilson writes that the change is inevitable and based on marginal costs of content copies. I agree that it is inevitable, but think that the marginal costs are only one issue. Even more important is audience dilution.
Rambus gets a stock boost from patent case, but FTC asks Supreme Court to involve itself in an anti-competitive action against the company; EMG Technology is suing Apple for alleged patent infringement by its iPhone browser; the UK pulls Apple iPhone ad off the air; and Facebook spammer faces $873 million fine.
Nokia gives up on Japanese market; Gartner estimates that handset sales will actually decrease next year; gold could rise to $2000 an ounce if Citigroup is right; Google uses undocumented iPhone API calls; and Fujitsu Siemens offers laptops for life.
Just this week, I was applauding Twitter for rejecting an offer from Facebook. One reason I noted was that Twitter's SMS text feature makes alerts from twittering (tweeting?) news outlets such as ZDNet even more valuable. Now, that feature seems headed for the history books as wireless carriers im...
Societe Generale analyst Richard Nguyen hit SAP with a sell rating on Wednesday citing increased odds of a fourth quarter profit warning and signs that customers are pushing back on the software company's attempt to upsell them following a maintenance price increase. Nguyen's reportâ€"he down...
Here's a novel idea for delivering cheaper cell phone service: stop sending customers bills each month that waste so much money and paper and instead, shoot them a quick notice via -- what else? -- text message. Someone should have thought of that a long time ago, but Pocket Communications gets ...
There were a few pieces of news in the last few days about Microsoft, ranging from competing with Google for a Verizon deal and Steve Ballmer having to testify in the Vista Capable lawsuit to a new name for Windows Live Search. Although they seem like separate stories, they aren't because there is one underlying thread: Microsoft's disastrous plodding when it comes to practical branding.
Google cuts back workforce and holiday party; Microsoft and Google in bidding war for Verizon ad deal; Amazon won't ship its Kindle 2.0 until next year; iSuppli downgrades estimate on 2009 PC shipments; Best Buy actually to cut MacBook prices below list; and Apple may be working on a netbook.
IBM on Monday unveiled a series of cloud computing services including business consulting to determine return on investment, design and implementation and security architecture. Big Blue noted that its services will focus on public, private and hybrid cloud computing set-ups. While the move is...
