Tag Archive
Zillow Wants a Home on Wall Street
Zillow, a real estate listing service that’s nearing profitability, is also dreaming of going public, though it’s pragmatic enough not to set its sights on doing so for another year. Zillow COO Spencer Rascoff today told Bloomberg that the company was courting Wall Street investors. The question is, why is he talking about it now? If you... »
NII Holdings: Strong Growth, Low Valuation
Chuck Carnevale submits: NII Holdings, Inc, (NIHD) formerly known as Nextel International, has been on a tear. The stock rose over 100% in 2009, which was four times better than the general market as represented by the S&P 500. (See Figures 1 & 2 below) So far this performance has continued in 2010, as NII Holdings... »
The Wish List: 7 Things We Hope Will Come True in 2010
With 2009 coming to an end, it is not surprising that everyone is making predictions about what 2010 has in store. So instead, four of us — Liz, Stacey, Sebastian and I — have put together a wish list of seven things we hope come true in 2010. Facebook Goes Public – What Silicon Valley... »
Twitter May Be Profitable — No, Seriously!
Team Twitter: Biz Stone, Ev Williams & Jack Dorsey. Photo by Om Malik We, like so many others, have joked about Twitter’s non-existent business model and its frothy billion-dollar valuation. Apparently we might have to stop that – at least for now. The San Francisco-based micromessaging company is said to be profitable, according to a report... »
How Facebook Squeezes More From Its Machines
Back in June, during an onstage conversation with me at our Structure 09 conference, Facebook VP of Technical Operations Jonathan Heiliger lamented how chip makers such as Intel and AMD don’t quite understand the needs of web behemoths like his company, instead touting benchmarks and metrics that are far removed from reality. Industry-standard benchmarks, such... »
How Hot Is Spotify?
Martin Lorentzon and Daniel Ek, co-founders of Spotify. (Photo courtesy of Spotify) You know how Apple makes its presence felt at CES by not being there? Well, you can say the same for Spotify, a London- and Stockholm-based digital music service that was co-founded by Martin Lorentzon and Stardoll founder, Daniel Ek. At Le Web... »
Got Old VoIP Equipment? Check out this VoIP Buyback Program
Got some old VoIP phones lying around and want to upgrade to some newfandangled executive phone sporting a color LCD and video playback? Or how bout an upgrade to an HD IP phone? Well, VoIP Supply has your back with their buyback program. tomorrow they are launching their Reclaim VoIP equipment buyback program.... »
Predictions: The Fabulous 5 for 2010
As the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, we are on the cusp of another massive change in technology, one that will involve a new, more dynamic two-way experience with the web. However, instead of making specific predictions as to which technologies will win (or lose) in 2010, I am... »
A Neat Package That “Grows” On You
The headline is courtesy by Jim Courtney, author of a great initiative that is helping him and his company to spread the word about a product that, otherwise, wouldn’t get the same attention. I’m talking about the Yamaha SoundGadget Microphone speaker (PSG-01S). Pal Jim sent me and other bloggers / tech geeks this wonderful gadget for evaluation... »
eBay Completes Skype Sale at $2.75 Billion Valuation
TechCrunch submits: By Robin Wauters eBay (EBAY) has just announced that it has completed the sale of Skype, valuing the company at $2.75 billion. The investor consortium who is the buying party and will control an approximately 70 percent stake is a group led by Silver Lake Partners and includes Joltid (i.e. the company founded... »
Skype, Founders Settlement in the Works
The ongoing legal scuffle between Skype, a division of eBay, and its founders, Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, may soon see a resolution, according to someone familiar with the situation. The parties are in discussions to resolve the various issues. The talks are described to be at a sensitive stage and can break down... »
GE’s Vscan Portable Ultrasound = No more OB Visits?
GE’s Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt unveiled the new Vscan an ultra-small ultrasound. According to GE, “For critical care clinicians, Vscan can offer an immediate look beyond patient vital signs with the potential to identify critical issues, like fluid around the heart, which could be a sign of congestive heart failure. And... »
Don’t install KB974571 or You will Break Microsoft OCS 2007!
If you’re running Office Communications Server or LCS whatever you do, don’t install KB974571 or you will cause the LCS or OCS server to state you are running the evaluation version and then say it has expired. Poof! – There goes your corporate unified communications (UC) followed by a parade of your coworkers carrying... »
19 Chinese Stocks That Are Relatively Cheap
Hao Jin submits: China’s rapid economic growth will be the global story of the foreseeable future. Like the Japanese in 1980s, the Chinese are shopping for Hummers, IBM PCs, natural resources and real estate. In addition to growth, many investors look at emerging markets such as China as potential protection against a falling dollar. No... »
10 Cheap Value Net Net Stocks Still Available
Jae Jun submits: To my surprise there are still a handful of Graham net net stocks that haven’t risen above their liquidation value. In my calculations, I haven’t included any restricted cash as it is usually designated for other purposes and can no longer be used for the business. This isn’t always the case and... »
Google: ‘Wave’ of the Future?
Chuck Carnevale submits: Historical Valuation Since going public just over five years ago, Google (GOOG) has grown to over a $120 billion dollar market cap powerhouse. Today Google trades at what is historically a very low valuation. In Figure 1 below we plot Google’s earnings per share growth since its public debut (i.e. green line with... »
Banks slapped with $845K in fines over Vonage IPO
Three investment banks have been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for their poor communications to clients about circumstances surrounding the Vonage IPO in 2006. Citigroup, UBS AG, and Deutsche Bank AG will have to pay a total of $845,000 in fines and restitution assessed by The Financial Regulatory Authority (FINRA), according to a... »
China Mobile: Dialing for Dividends
David Van Knapp submits: Summary: For several years, China Mobile (CHL) has been a very good and reliable dividend growth stock. However, in 2009 it held its dividend essentially flat, breaking an annual string of increases stretching back several years. While the company has strong financials, a good valuation, and its dividend appears safe, at... »
Technology Stocks: The Ten Best and Worst
Value Expectations submits: In our May Market Review we released a series of graphs representing the valuation attractiveness of each sector relative to its historical norms and to the entire AFG universe. Below is a graph representing the AFG Technology sector which is attractively priced when you compare against its historical trading ranges (red... »
Investing in Foreign Telecom Until Market Shows Clear Direction
Joe Kunkle submits: The recent rally in the markets has been criticized by most as a typical bear market rally, while even the longer term bulls feel that a pullback is necessary for the health of the markets. Valuations have begun to become overly bullish considering the collapse in fiscal year 2009 earnings estimates for the... »
What’s Skype really worth?
Skype’s valuation has been a hot topic since eBay CEO John Donahoe announced in mid-April that the ubiquitous VoIP, IM and video chat company would be spun off in an IPO in 2010. Skype cofounders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis reportedly raised around $1 billion in private equity they hoped eBay would match with... »
Skype co-founders seek $266M for venture fund
Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, cofounders of Skype, Kazaa and Joost, reportedly are seeking limited partners to help raise $266 million by year’s end for Atomico Ventures, their new fund that seeds disruptive, consumer-facing technology start-ups in Europe. The amount of money they are attempting to raise has sparked discussions that the fund could... »
eBay CEO: $2B Valuation for Skype Is “Low”
One thing is for sure: eBay, a disaster of an Internet company, really wants to rectify its megabillion-dollar mistake and get rid of Skype — even if it means taking a small haircut. But eBay CEO John Donahoe thinks the company is worth much more than $2 billion figure being thrown around by analysts,... »
Three Noteworthy Technology ETFs
Santosh Sankar submits: The market is showing signs of relief as the major indices have experienced some great up days despite a lack of positive news regarding our economy. As an investor, you may be wondering what your options are to return to the equity market with as much prudence as possible. The... »
For Twitter, the Only Way Is Up
Earlier this evening, along with a select few journalists, I got a chance to interact with French Minister for Digital Development, Mrs. Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, who is in town to learn about latest developments in Silicon Valley and learn about the unique ecosystem that helps nurture technology startups in the Bay Area. She is quite... »
FCC launches development of national US broadband plan
Seeks Public Input on Plan to Ensure Every American has Access to Broadband Capability The Federal Communications Commission today begins the process of developing a national broadband plan that will seek to ensure that every American has access to broadband capability. In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – known as the... »
A Glance at XO Holdings, Aehr Test Systems, Asta Funding
Jae Jun submits: A reader and I briefly discussed an idea over Twitter, one which looked promising by the numbers, but reading the 10-K brought up many questions. It ended up in the pass pile even though the valuation shows that it is trading at 61% to its liquidation price. That company is XO... »
Five Criteria Why You Should Follow Someone on Twitter
Image by MattJhsn via Flickr Becoming a power Twitter user also means you need to choose the people you follow very carefully. Louis Gray states that you don’t actually choose people, but rather ideas and topics that you share with others or you are particularly interested in. I agree, but it’s just the starting point. Then... »
Ten Worthy Technology Stocks
Ockham Research submits: The technology sector has performed better than the broad market recently, which is not saying all that much, but we put together a list of tech stocks that are worth taking a closer look. While some suggest that Tech will lead the market out of the bear market, we are... »
Why Sprint Needs the Palm Pre to Succeed
Ockham Research submits: Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) reported fiscal fourth quarter and 2008 full year results this morning and the company managed to lose only a penny versus consensus estimates of a three cent loss. As is common, these results exclude one-time charges related their merger with Nextel back in 2005. It... »