August 19, 2006
Dell Falls on Earnings, Nasdaq Up
Dell shares fell Friday after the PC maker posted a 51 per cent profit decline, but the Nasdaq edged up, gaining 5.2 per cent for the week.Posted by Jaani at 9:18 PM | Comments (0)
August 18, 2006
Microsoft Tender Too Slender
Microsoft fell far short of its goal to buy back up to $20 billion of its shares, but analysts attributed the results to investors' belief that the stock will climb higher.Posted by Jaani at 11:18 PM | Comments (0)
May 25, 2006
Seagate Nears Completion of Maxtor Acquisition
Seagate Technology, manufacturer of storage computer hardware, has almost completed its acquisition of Maxtor Corporation, a one-time competitor in consumer and enterprise hard disk drive market. Apparently, the merger — announced late last year — has now been approved by shareholders and will close within the week.
The deal is valued at around US$1.9 billion, as part of which Maxtor shareholders will receive 0.37 Seagate shares for each Maxtor share they owned. This does spell bad news for the employees, however.
Posted by Jaani at 9:11 PM | Comments (0)
Casinos Decry Online Gaming Prohibition
It seems the United States gaming industry is unhappy with an old statute that has the effect of preventing electronic gambling.
‘It represents an enormous opportunity’, said Alan Feldman, spokesman for US-based MGM Mirage, the world’s second-largest gaming operator. ‘And it is an opportunity that is being completely handed to foreign companies right now.’
Standing in the way of this potential windfall is a 1961 federal law that forbids interstate telephone betting that the US Justice Department has said also applies to the Internet, making it illegal for US companies to offer online gambling.
A similar ban exists in Australia by way of the Interactive Gaming Act 2001 (Cth). Although such prohibitions deny domestic entities access to a $15 billion global industry, they remain, in my opinion, justifiable. In addition to maintaining the integrity of the .com.au namespace, they ensure the effectiveness of existing offline gaming regulations. Such regulations would be impracticable to enforce in an electronic context, and may lead to the proliferation of socially undesirable behaviour.
How much longer the bans can be upheld in light of vocal industry criticism remains to be seen. For now, though, like Australia’s ban on domestic internet pornography, they remain in force.
Posted by Jaani at 7:37 PM | Comments (0)
May 13, 2006
Getting to the Core of Apple GC's Mysterious Departure
Almost a week after a news site revealed Apple Computer's nine-year GC, Nancy Heinen, had left the company, it remains unclear whether one of Silicon Valley's highest-ranking female attorneys was forced to leave or had resigned -- or even when her last day was. Although the company is notoriously tight-lipped about executive departures, the mystery with which Apple has shrouded the matter has raised some eyebrows. Heinen is one of three high-level executives to leave Apple since March.Posted by Jaani at 2:24 PM | Comments (0)
BlackBerry E-Mail Service to Be Offered in China
The announcement prompted questions about how the product would fit into the Chinese government's program of communications surveillance and censorship.Posted by Jaani at 1:42 PM | Comments (0)
Microsoft and Google Grapple for Supremacy
The Microsoft-Google rivalry is shaping up as a titanic corporate clash for the ages.Posted by Jaani at 1:41 PM | Comments (0)
May 7, 2006
Ballmer the betting man
Microsoft's chief executive officer, Steve Ballmer, defending company spending plans that have triggered a 12 percent stock price drop since last Thursday, wrote to employees in an e-mail: "Throughout our history, Microsoft has won by making big, bold bets."
"I believe that now is not the time to scale back the scope of our ambition or the scale of our investment," Ballmer wrote. "While our opportunities are greater than ever, we also face new competitors, faster-moving markets and new customer demands."
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran excerpts on of the e-mail on its Web site.
Core in his appeal that spending was on target, Ballmer said Google was the reason behind some of the spending, taking aim at Google's revolutionary AdSense. "Further development of [our response] adCenter is key -- our goal is to create the Web's largest advertising network, giving us an engine that will enable us to monetize our services and compete against Google."
Where's the big, bold bet? Google is betting on its talent pool, and backing it with generous time to innovate. Question is, when will Microsoft stop chasing Google and start innovating? (See PC World's Full Disclosure: Microsoft Innovation--An Oxymoron). Let's hope after it catches up...
Comments (3)Posted by Jaani at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)
Google sends mixed messages on China jackpot
But earnings upright after wobble
Google shrugged off the gloom that followed its previous earnings statement with a strong first quarter. The advertising monster reported a profit of $592m for Q1 2006. That's up from the $372m reported in January, which caused $18bn to be wiped off Google's value.…
Posted by Jaani at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)
Yahoo! earnings! slow!
New Year hangover
The rate of Yahoo!'s net income growth slowed in the first three months of 2006. Compared to Q1 2005, Yahoo! recorded 33 per cent higher revenues after traffic acquisition costs (TAC) are deducted, and operating income 26 per cent higher year-on year.…
Posted by Jaani at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)
Oracle buys Portal Software
Pays cash and everything...
Oracle is paying $220m in cash for Portal Software which makes billing and "revenue management" software.…
Posted by Jaani at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)
Nasdaq Climbs, Boosted by Videogames
The Nasdaq climbed Friday, as the Labor Department's lower-than-expected employment figures eased some inflation concerns. Activision and THQ rose after reporting earnings.Posted by Jaani at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)
Pixar Becomes Unit of Disney
Shareholders voted on Friday to approve the company's acquisition by the Walt Disney Company for $7.4 billion in stock.Posted by Jaani at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)
March 19, 2006
Canadian Military to Probe Sale of Gear on eBay
The Canadian military has launched an investigation after some of its military clothing and equipment turned up for sale on the Internet. Several pieces of the military’s specialized camouflage gear were, until recently, up for sale on eBay, igniting concerns about the security of Canadian troops.
A Canadian court has also fined a Quebec company for failing to pay the private copying levy on blank CDs. The judge ordered payment of the unpaid amount along with a penalty of just over $900 000.
Posted by Jaani at 5:21 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2005
eBay Madness, Part Deux: Auctioning a Security Flaw
'Sellers on eBay have hawked some strange items over the years -- everything from a sandwich bearing the likeness of the Virgin Mary, to human organs, to water from a cup Elvis reportedly drank from. Joining the list: On Wednesday evening someone tired to sell information about a newly discovered vulnerability in Microsoft's Excel application, according to a piece in The Sydney Morning Herald. By the time eBay removed the auction item on Thursday, the bid price had reached $60. According to the SMH article, the auction posting said that the flaw was discovered on December 6 and had been reported...'
More eBay funnies can be found here: including the much sought after Ghost in a jar.
Posted by Jaani at 2:39 PM | Comments (0)
eBay Removes Infringing Auctions
eBay's liability for auctions of pirated and other illicit material have long remained a point of contention among pundits. Now it seems the company is finally taking matters into its own hands, proactively working with Microsoft to prevent and detect pirated software being listed. Microsoft claims that already more than 21 000 auctions have been pulled between August and October 2005.
The sale of pirated software in classifieds is an old problem made more pressing by the relative anonymity of online auctions and the massive scope of the eBay marketplace. Its prevalence has made legitimate software auctions all but impossible, though some hapless purchasers continue to pay for the poorly-photocopied jackets and printed gold CDs that are the mainstay of backyard software piracy.
Although this is undeniably a serious problem, it's not the Digital Apocalypse many publishers have decried. They belittle eBay as a hangout for degenerates, a cesspool of scams consumer fraud (thanks to Google, you too can make eBay say bad things about itself). The reality is, of course, more complicated: yes, piracy and scams will always have a place on eBay, but relative to other online markets, eBay offers a comparatively high level of buyer protection and proactive policing of their listing rules. Software piracy notwithstanding, a free and diverse marketplace isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Posted by Jaani at 2:33 PM | Comments (0)
Adobe Completes Macromedia Acquisition
'Adobe has completed the acquisition of Macromedia Software and is marking territory on day one by hawking three bundles combining software from both companies.'
Posted by Jaani at 2:32 PM | Comments (0)
Google among Top Three US Brands
'Google has stormed an annual poll measuring public reputations and perceptions of the "most valuable" companies in US corporate culture.'
I suppose this goes some way towards explaining their USD$400 stock price.
Posted by Jaani at 2:31 PM | Comments (0)
Microsoft to Invest in Indian Software Development
'Microsoft will pump $1.7bn into India over the next four years, in the process creating 3&nsbp;000 new jobs. Most of the cash will, according to Bill Gates, go towards improving the software giant's research and development capabilities.'
Posted by Jaani at 2:31 PM | Comments (0)
Yahoo! Buys del.icio.us
'Yahoo[!]'s courtship with the blogging world got a little deeper yesterday when they agreed to buy "social bookmarking" site del.icio.us. What's on the menu?'
Posted by Jaani at 2:30 PM | Comments (0)
China the World's Largest IT Supplier
'After almost a decade of explosive growth in its electronics sector, China has pushed past the US in exports of information and communication technology.'
Posted by Jaani at 2:29 PM | Comments (0)
Memory Manufacturers Fight to Supply Flash MP3 Players
'Toshiba is battling Samsung Electronics for control of the market for the advanced memory chips at the heart of portable music devices like the Apple iPod Nano.'
Posted by Jaani at 2:29 PM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2005
Google tops $1.5bn in Q3
It's considerably richer than Yahoo!
The Google money making machine stormed through Q3 2005, grossing $1.578bn in revenues and clearing a profit of $381m. That's up from $1.384bn and $342m in Q2, and $1.256bn and $369m in Q1 respectively. Earning per share was $1.32 (diluted), up from $1.19 per share in Q2.…
Posted by Jaani at 9:50 PM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2005
Venture Capital Flows to Firms Targeting ID Theft
Venture-capital firms in this year's first six months pumped as much as $70 million into companies selling anti-ID theft software vs. about $101 million for all of 2004.Posted by Jaani at 6:45 PM | Comments (0)
Faced With Data Explosion, Law Firms Tap Temp Attorneys
To avoid being buried in piles of discovery documents, many law firms are relying more on temporary attorneys. Firms commonly bring in contract attorneys via agreements with staffing agencies -- but, increasingly, corporate clients are taking bids from agencies and guiding the selection of contract attorneys who will work with law firms. Whoever guides the hiring, the demand for temp attorneys is expected to grow: estimates are that the electronic discovery market will rise to $2.9 billion by 2007.
Posted by Jaani at 6:42 PM | Comments (0)
Feds OK Adobe-Macromedia Merger
The Department of Justice has approved Adobe's $3.4 billion acquisition of Macromedia despite earlier concerns about a lack of viable competition in the market. Microsoft is in the final stages of developing products to rival Adobe's Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat -- good news for antitrust enforcers but likely to cause concern at Adobe, which, thus far, has managed to avoid a direct showdown with Microsoft.
Posted by Jaani at 6:42 PM | Comments (0)
Google gets charitable
The search giant makes good on a US$1 billion pledge to set up a philanthropic arm of the company. Their business success is undisputed, but nonprofits are a whole new ballgame.Posted by Jaani at 6:35 PM | Comments (0)
Disney offers 'Desperate' iTunes downloads
Opening the door to a new revenue stream for television content, Walt Disney says it will begin offering next-day digital downloads of shows such as Desperate Housewives and Lost hits for $US1.99 ($A2.63) per episode.Posted by Jaani at 6:32 PM | Comments (0)
October 7, 2005
AOL buys Weblogs Inc
Weblogs Inc has been snapped up by AOL for a cool US$25 million, but AOL plans to sit back and collect ad revenue, not change the direction of the company.Posted by Jaani at 7:05 PM | Comments (0)
Tech Shares Fall Ahead of Earnings Season
Tech stocks fell Thursday, as investors braced for earnings season. Shares of Check Point and Sharper Image slumped, while Viisage skyrocketed.Posted by Jaani at 7:05 PM | Comments (0)
Fight Between Level 3, Cogent Hits Web Users
Some Internet users have been unable to access certain Web sites and email services due to a dispute between Level 3 and Cogent.Posted by Jaani at 7:01 PM | Comments (0)
October 6, 2005
In-House Attorneys Become IT Gatekeepers
When it comes to e-discovery, many in-house counsel still find themselves in over their heads, at a time when the stakes have risen dramatically, with plaintiffs winning huge awards by going after e-mails. As a result, many proactive corporate counsel are having to take on yet another role: that of a liaison between the information technology staff and the company's business units. For many, it's meant a steep learning curve in data storage.Posted by Jaani at 10:00 PM | Comments (0)
Large Firms Discover New Marketing Tool: Blogs
No longer seen as mere forums for law gossip or associate griping, blogs are becoming a marketing tool for large law firms eager to create a buzz about their practice areas. Although the blogs vary in degree of interactivity, they're all geared toward getting out specific legal information -- and the firm name. Large-firm blogging's growing popularity represents an evolution in the use of the technology, which up until recently seemed to be mainly the domain of individual lawyers and small practices.Posted by Jaani at 9:59 PM | Comments (0)
Digital music revenues soar
iTunes and co. takes $350m
The music industry made $440m out of digital music during the first half of 2005, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) trade group said today.…
Posted by Jaani at 9:51 PM | Comments (0)
UK online ad market spend sets new record
Spending on online advertising in the UK looks set to top £1bn in the UK for the first time, fuelled by increased use of broadband.…
Posted by Jaani at 9:51 PM | Comments (0)
Autodesk announces buyout of Alias
Autodesk, makers of AutoCAD and 3D Studio Max, has announced it will be purchasing Alias, makers of Maya, for US$182 million. Will this move eliminate competition in the 3D content creation arena?Posted by Jaani at 9:43 PM | Comments (0)
AT&T, MCI Near New Phase of Rivalry
The rivalry between AT&T and MCI may soon take new shape. Acquisition of the long-distance firms will put the nation's two biggest phone companies, SBC and Verizon, in heightened competition for the same business customers.Posted by Jaani at 9:43 PM | Comments (0)
Google, Sun take on Microsoft Office
Internet search king Google and US tech giant Sun Microsystems are teaming up to offer free spreadsheet and word-processing software online in a head-on challenge to rival Microsoft.Posted by Jaani at 9:26 PM | Comments (0)
What Michael Dell Believes
Commentary: Michael Dell talks with us about PC gaming, expanding service, HD-DVD and why he's confident that Intel will eventually beat AMD.Posted by Jaani at 9:25 PM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2005
Senate approves full Telstra sale
The Senate has passed the legislation authorising the full sale of Telstra after the key Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce voted with the Federal Government.Posted by Jaani at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)
