Posts related to ‘Internet’

Cheap Broadband For Everyone In America

By Douglas A. McIntyre

“A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.” –Herbert Hoover, 1928.

Federal regulators plan to propose a way to get inexpensive broadband to every person in the U.S. According to several media sources, The Federal Communications Commission will offer a program for the federal government to take an activist role in expanding broadband, and may add a tax to phone bills to help fund it. Two months ago, the Berkman Center at Harvard laid out a plan for universal U.S. broadband. It said that building the necessary infrastructure of the program could cost as much as $350 billion.

Read more…

Posted on: November 18, 2009 – 6:13 am in Internet

FBI: Cyber Terrorists Could Prepare Massive US Attack

Websites in the US were attacked by hackers earlier this year. The assaults slowed down some sites and closed other online services completely. It was assumed at the time that the attacks originated in North Korea and one or more countries that were part of the old Soviet Union.

McAfee (NYSE:MFE), the security software company, recently issued a report saying that the US, Russia, China, Israel, and France have built their own capacity to make cyber attacks on other nations.

Now the concern is that the next threat will come from al Qaeda. Read More »

Posted on: November 18, 2009 – 5:40 am in Internet,

Amazon (AMZN) And MasterCard (MA) Turn To Social Networks For Holidays

nokThe use of social networks to sell products and services gets more complex by the day. The latest scheme to tap into the swarms of people who congregate at Facebook is a program from MasterCard (NYSE:MA) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).

The promotion for the credit card and e-commerce companies will allow consumers to go to a new website. The site will allow people who want to buy gifts for their social network “friends” to find their personal characteristics like age and sex and pick presents accordingly. Read More »

Posted on: November 16, 2009 – 5:54 am in Internet, Retail, ,

Tech Giants Now Hold ~$265 Billion Cash To Spend (HPQ, COMS, INTC, AMD, MSFT, CSCO, AAPL, GOOG, ORCL, JAVA, QCOM, EMC, YHOO, DELL, AMZN, EBAY, ONT, BRCD, JDSU, STAR, VMW)

You have already seen the Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) buyout of 3Com Corporation (NASDAQ: COMS).  But this week before that deal was announced we covered how mergers in the technology sector have been very slow to develop over the scale in which we and others think is possible for the sector.  After the Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) settlement with Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), the tally of cash that is now estimated would be an implied $265 billion that is available for the tech giants in our 24/7 Wall St. Real-Time 500 to make acquisitions.

The giant cash balances are held by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), assuming nothing happens with Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA).  But players like QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), and eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) are either all sitting with large amounts of cash or will be very soon.

We have broken out these technology, IT, software, and Internet companies by the cash amount they hold or what they have in a soon-to-be cash balance.  Of course only a fraction of this cash will be used for mergers.  But there is also a ton of room here for dividends and of course the share buybacks.

Read More »

Posted on: November 12, 2009 – 11:31 am in Consumer Electronics, Cramer, Dividend, Editor's Picks, Internet, Large Cap Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, PC Companies, Private Equity, Rumors, Semiconductor, Software, Stock Buybacks, Technology Companies, Telecom, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Maybe The Search Engine Business Isn’t So Great (YHOO)(GOOG)(MSFT)

TVSeveral studies show that Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing search engine picked up market share in October. Combined with Yahoo! the two companies could end up with clost to 30% of the industry in the United States. The firms believe that the deal will be final in the first quarter of next year. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) will still have two-thirds of the market, but perhaps second place is not so bad.

The value of first place is hard to argue. Google has a market capitalization of $180 billion and had operating income of $2 billion on revenue of slightly less than $6 billion last quarter. Yahoo! serves about 20% of the searchs made in the US but has a market cap of only $23 billion and made a very modest $70 million on $1.78 billion in revenue in the period ending September 30. Microsoft does not break out its search revenue or expense, but its online operations are small and lose money. Read More »

Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 7:58 pm in Internet, , ,

Bing Captures More Search Share (MSFT, GOOG, YHOO, IACI)

It is usually questionable if Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and its new Bing.com search engine is stealing from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) or from Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) when it comes to gains in the share of internet search.  Or maybe it was IAC/InteractiveCorp. (NASDAQ: IACI) and its Ask.com distant #4 search product.  Hitwise is only one source which measures U.S. searches, but a reading of searches conducted in the four weeks ending Oct. 31, 2009 showed a gain for Bing. Hitwise showed that Bing is clearly taking more from Google and some from Yahoo!.  Even Ask.com got a little lift this time.  Hitwise gave the following data:
Read More »

Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 1:23 pm in Internet, Research, , , ,

Tech Titans Still Have $269 Billion Cash For Deals (MSFT, CSCO, AAPL, GOOG, INTC, HPQ, QCOM, EMC, VMW, YHOO, DELL, ORCL, JAVA, AMZN, EBAY)

The recovery is on and mergers are happening, yet the technology sector has been slow to make deals.  Despite some deals already having taken place from the technology giants and that $260 billion cash balance which was there in the middle of last quarter is even larger now.  The tally for cash by our count is now right around $269 billion.  We looked through the top market caps of technology companies in our 24/7 Wall St. Real-Time 500 and this list is expanded now that some issues have been resolved in all the companies.  The stocks in this group are Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA), Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), and eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY).

These few tech companies with the $269 billion cash that could be deployed for mergers, acquisitions, or the good old dividends are also listed before tallying up credit lines, factoring, debt sales, and other creative financing methods.  We have listed the suppositions and counting methods for each one to illustrate how much is available at each company.
Read More »

Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 1:07 pm in Consumer Electronics, Dividend, Editor's Picks, Internet, Large Cap Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, PC Companies, Private Equity, Rumors, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, Value Investing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A Split With Google (GOOG) Would Hurt News Corp (NWS) And WSJ Badly

bearRupert Murdoch, head of News Corp (NYSE:NWS), has made it clear that he is done with the BBC and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) stealing his content and using it to make money. He may sue both companies under the “fair use” laws to keep them from using material from his huge media empire.

Murdoch should be careful what he wishes for. According to a study from Experian Hitwise, “on a weekly basis Google and Google news are the top traffic providers for WSJ.com account for over 25% of WSJ.com’s traffic.” And, “over 44% of WSJ.com visitors coming from Google are “new” users who haven’t visited the domain in the last 30 days.”

Murdoch may have his way and badly damage his WSJ.com business in the process.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 4:54 am in Internet, Law, ,

The Twenty-Five Most Valuable Blogs In America

uncle sam

It has been nearly a year since 24/7 Wall St. did its latest edition of the Twenty Five Most Valuable Blogs. Valuations have moved up significantly since then. Advertising CPMs have improved markedly since the beginning of this year. A number of the largest blogs on our list have larger audiences than they did a year ago.

All of the blogs analyzed here are private companies. Blogs owned by larger firms are not measured.  Blogs used primarily as fronts for other businesses have also been excluded. Some of the blogs on the list have raised VC money and those sums can be used as guidelines if they are disclosed. The only worthwhile value is what an acquirer will pay, so any estimate needs to take into account the value the blog may have to an outside buyer. Several blogs from earlier versions of this list were sold, among them Ars Technica and PaidContent. Some of the largest blogs based on audience measurements do not have significant revenue and are also excluded.  For instance, “The Daily Beast”, a large news commentary site controlled by IACI, takes almost no advertising. In theory, it has little if any economic value at all. Read More »

Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 3:15 am in Internet, Media, Uncategorized

AdMob Acquisition: Deeper into Mobile Ads for Google (GOOG)

GOOG ImageGoogle Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is up with the broad market today by almost 2%, and shares are completely unphased at all on news that the company is spending $750 million in shares to acquire AdMob.  While Google has made many deals, this is aimed to go deeper into the technology for mobile display advertising and will give advertisers more choice in mobile advertising.
Read More »

Posted on: November 9, 2009 – 12:59 pm in Internet, Media,

The Worst Idea For A Bad Economy

bearA new website called BillionaireXchange just launched.  It is an online destination for people who wish they were rich to buy and sell goods and services on the internet from people who used to be rich.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 9, 2009 – 11:55 am in Internet

Use Of The Internet Does Not Isolate People

TVIt is only natural to think that the rising number of people who are on cellphones and the internet for hours a day would be less likely to interact with the people around them. Focusing on web surfing would seem to pull people away from their immediate surrounding.

The case for the internet as a method of social isolation had a hole poked in it by the esteemed Pew research organization. In a new survey, it found that “Some have worried that internet use limits people’s participation in their local communities, but we find that most internet activities have little or a positive relationship to local activity.” That may be counterintuitive, but it makes an odd sort of sense. Read More »

Posted on: November 5, 2009 – 4:53 am in Internet

Ancestry.com on IPO Deck (ACOM)

Ancestrycom LogoThis week we are expecting to see the market absorb the pending initial public offering from Ancestry.com Inc.  The company has a very unique niche and business model in that it operates a subscription-based online research system for family history.  Investors need to be aware that Ancestry.com Inc. is offering 4,074,074 shares and the selling stockholders are offering 3,333,333 shares in the IPO in an expected price range of $12.50 to $14.50 per share.  Ancestry.com will take the stock ticker “ACOM” on NASDAQ, which is the same ticker that was used for the former Agency.com when it was public.
Read More »

Posted on: November 2, 2009 – 1:16 pm in Entertainment, IPOs, Internet,

Expedia Expands in China After Earnings (EXPE)

Expedia LogoExpedia Inc. (NYSE: EXPE) is looking solid on all fronts. Online travel is winning despite tight purses on direct travel as buyers look for better deals.  Last night the online travel company beat earnings as its profits rose by 23%.  Earnings were $117 million or $0.40 EPS net, but non-GAAP earnings were $0.48 EPS.  Also noted was a 2% rise in revenue to $852.4 million.  Thomson Reuters had estimates pegged at $0.43 EPS and $828.9 million in revenues.  Then this morning came an acquisition in China.
Read More »

Posted on: October 30, 2009 – 8:21 am in China, Entertainment, Internet, Mergers and Buy Outs,

Key Takeaways From Yahoo! Analyst Day (YHOO)

Yahoo LogoYahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) had its analyst day on Wednesday and the comments started coming out late yesterday.  This was the first real show and tell session it has had with Wall Street in roughly three years.  We wanted to highlight what we saw as the top takeaway issues from Yahoo!’s analyst day presentations.  These are not in any particular order, and some may overlap with news that was out yesterday during the trading hours.
Read More »

Posted on: October 29, 2009 – 9:59 am in Internet, Turnarounds, ,

Yahoo! and Microsoft Extend Negotiation Period (YHOO, MSFT)

Yahoo LogoYahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) issued an SEC filing noting that it and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) have extended the negotiating time on the previously announced search pact.  Without getting to participate in the drawing room for the negotiations it is impossible to know if there were real snags other than the usual gossip that comes and goes or if it is simply nothing more than just needing more time to complete the documents.  Here is a broken down excerpt from the Yahoo! SEC Filing:

Read More »

Posted on: October 28, 2009 – 5:57 pm in Internet, Law, Mergers and Buy Outs, SEC, Software, Technology Companies, ,

Is Google’s Navigation Launch A Category Killer? (GOOG, TRMB, GRMN)

GOOG ImageGoogle Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and its ‘new’ navigation via Google Maps Navigation is putting the hurt on the GPS competitors.  Trimble Navigation (NASDAQ: TRMB) posted income of $15.6 million, a 60% drop, in its quarterly profits yesterday and revenue was down 18% to $269.7 million.  Unfortunately, the guidance was under expectations.  And shares are only down 0.2% at $21.25 after recovering from morning lows.  Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) is getting clipped far worse as the ‘launch’ from Google seems to be a direct assault on its model, and Garmin’s earnings are just a week away.  Today’s only real shock may be in the timing of the launch.
Read More »

Posted on: October 28, 2009 – 2:46 pm in Consumer Electronics, Internet, Technology Companies, Wireless, , ,

Level 3 Earnings To Outline Direction (LVLT)

LVLT LogoLevel 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) is set to release its third quarter 2009 earnings results on Wednesday morning before the open and plans to hold a conference call at 10:30 AM EST.  Thomson Reuters has consensus estimates at -$0.10 EPS and $926.25 million in revenues.  If Level 3 gives guidance, the estimates for Q4 are -$0.10 EPS and $922.88 million in revenues.  Because this is such a cult stock, the actual metrics behind the scenes are likely to dominate over just the corporate earnings reports.
Read More »

Posted on: October 27, 2009 – 2:34 pm in Earnings, Internet, Telecom,

IAC Starts to Recapture Some Ground (IACI, OPEN)

IAC LogoIAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI) seems to be recapturing some of its mojo.  The online content and online destination and search company noted that asset sales did help profits at a time when advertising revenues were slow.  The company earned $21.7 million or $0.16 EPS (made $0.34 EPS on an adjusted basis) and revenue fell by 9% to $337 million.  We had Thomson Reuters estimates at $0.13 EPS and $334.9 million in revenues.
Read More »

Posted on: October 27, 2009 – 8:12 am in Earnings, Internet, Media, ,

Newspapers Cut To Black

newspaperNot too many years ago, one senior newspaper executive said that there was nothing wrong with cutting costs but that, eventually, a company could cut so much that it would disappear up its own arse. The Audit Bureau of Circulations yesterday reported that the average American newspaper lost 10% of its circulation in the six months ending September 30, based on the 379 papers that filed data with the firm. All of the country’s largest newspapers do so. Some of the most well-known newspapers in the industry reduced their circulations much more than 10%. USA Today, the Gannett (NYSE:GCI) flagship, had a drop of over 17% to 1,900,116. The Boston Globe, which is owned by The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT), had a fall of more than 18% to 264,105. Read More »

Posted on: October 27, 2009 – 5:41 am in Internet, Old Media, ,