TechCrunch reports that Microsoft MSFT may spend $1 billion to buy Nook outright from Barnes & Noble NE. In the pre-market Barnes & Noble stock moved up as much as 30% and was still higher by nearly 20% on the day in the afternoon. Microsoft has an existing investment in Nook of about one-sixth of the
To the uninitiated investor, there seems nothing more insane than the contrasting behaviors of Apple and Amazon stocks. Tuesday after the close, Amazon AMZN reported weak earnings, and the stock promptly went up about 9% in the aftermarket. Not many days ago, Apple AAPL reported reasonably good earnings after the close, and
On Tuesday, Apple (AAPL) made a number of product announcements including one for the iPad Mini, the fourth-generation iPad, a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display and updated Mac Minis. To me it was striking from yesterday’s event that Tim Cook appears to be abandoning Steve Jobs’ strategies that made Apple so successful. Steve Jobs’
(GOOG) was scheduled to release earnings after the market close. Inadvertently, earnings were released at 12:39 PM by its agent RR Donnelley (RRD). Google stock fell about 9% before it was halted. Both revenues and earnings were below consensus. To make matters worse, whisper numbers were higher than consensus. In
Apple‘s iPad reigns supreme in the tablet world, but an iPad killer may now be on the horizon. Market share estimates vary but most estimates see Apple steadily holding about 70% of the market share. The onslaught of Nexus 7 from Google, even at the low $199 price point has not
It was not long ago that legions of travel agents labored all across America in offices ranging from those located in class A office buildings to downtrodden strip malls. They gawked at 14-inch green CRT screens at gobbledygook codes that only they could understand. When it came to travel, travel
Much has been discussed in the media about most of the aspects of the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare.” I have not seen much about the plight of more than 100,000 insurance agents and brokers. The floodgates are about to open for the mass firing
Google has a tradition of naming its operating systems after desserts. Jelly Bean is an incremental upgrade to Android Ice Cream Sandwich. The biggest improvement in Jelly Bean is in its search function and now presents information in a fashion similar to Apple Siri. Google has also introduced Nexus 7, a
There is not much doubt thatBest Buy (BBY) will go out of business eventually unless it changes the way it does business. Finally there is a big leap at Best Buy to arrest the company’s downward spiral. Best Buy founder and former chairman Richard Schulze has resigned. Schulze owns 20.1% of the company.
The iPad has been a big success for Apple (AAPL). Apple bulls dream of iPad gaining and maintaining a market share similar to iPod. As a matter of fact, this is one of the propositions underlying some of the very high targets by analysts on Apple stock. Until now, there