stock
Latest
Trading stopped on New York Stock Exchange due to 'technical issue' (update)
It has been quite a day for tech problems. Trading on the New York Stock Exchange was halted due to a "technical issue" at around 11:30 AM ET this morning. On its status page, the NYSE posted that all trading had been suspended and any open orders would be cancelled -- with a more detailed explanation to follow. A NYSE spokesperson told Forbes that the stoppage came after the exchange "experienced a technical issue" that it's "working to resolve as quickly as possible." An hour before trading stopped, the NYSE reported a problem had been fixed concerning order acknowledgements and connectivity issues. NYSE Arca and NYSE Amex/Arca Options appear to be untouched by the larger issue as they are continuing to operate normally.
Netflix announces a 7-for-1 stock split
We've come a long way from Qwikster. Netflix's stock price has more than doubled since last December, and with prices of shares nearing $700 today it announced plans (PDF) for a 7-for-1 stock split. The price closed today at $681, and the Board of Directors approved a plan to distribute six additional shares for each one held as of the close of business on July 2nd. In terms of how often we see something like that, this comes about a year after Apple announced its own 7-for-1 split. On a melancholy note, the split will come almost five years to the day after Blockbuster's attempt at a reverse stock split to avoid delisting fell through. Ouch.
Apple bought back $56 billion of its own stock in 2014
Apple is no stranger to stock buybacks so its no surprise that the trend continued in the 2014 fiscal year. And how much stock did Apple buy back this year? According to a new report for FactSet, Apple spent over $56 billion buying back stock this year. That's $36.8 billon more than IBM who took the second for most spent on buybacks with $19.2 billion. Stock buybacks have been good for Apple. So good that this year Apple also earned itself first and second place for the top two buybacks quarters since FaceSet started tracking the S&P 500 in 2005. First place goes for the $18.6 billion bought back in the first quarter, almost as much as IBM bought all year, while second place comes from the fourth quarter's $17 billion buyback. In March of this year the company spent more money buying back stock than Google generated in revenue. Apple's buyback program started in 2012, and has grown every year since. This past April CEO Tim Cook had dinner with activist investor Carl Icahn to discuss the "magnitude" of the company's buyback plans. If this year's numbers are any indication Icahn made a convincing case.
Nintendo: We'll 'likely' phase out some Amiibo after first run
Nintendo of America confirmed this week some Amiibo toys "likely will not return to market," following a retailer's claim that the publisher had officially discontinued the Marth, Wii Fit Trainer and Villager figures. In a statement provided to several sites including Wired, Kotaku and Destructoid, Nintendo said it'll aim to keep the "most popular" figures available, but that there's only so much shelf space to go around. "We will aim for certain Amiibo to always be available," reads the statement. "These will be for our most popular characters like Mario and Link. Due to shelf space constraints, other figures likely will not return to the market once they have sold through their initial shipment."
Roku wants to grow its media hub empire with a public stock filing
Roku frequently comes across as the little media player company that could: its streaming box business is growing in spite of much larger competition. As healthy as it is, though, this upstart now appears eager to join the big leagues. Tipsters for both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times claim that Roku is planning to file an initial public stock offering (IPO) that could net as much as $150 million, roughly doubling what it raised through private investments. The details of just how and when this would happen are still murky, but the company said earlier this month that it's near turning a profit. It may wait until it's in the black and can put its best foot forward. If the IPO does happen, though, you should expect Roku to grow quickly. It's already striking deals with TV makers and has the support of major broadcasters -- the extra cash could both put more big-name services on your existing Roku box and improve the range of devices you can buy at the store.
Judges ruling on secret telecoms cases found to own Verizon stock
It looks as if the judges who operate the gateway between the NSA and the cable companies may not be as impartial as their job description requires them to. An investigation by Vice has revealed that several judges who sit on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court are also Verizon shareholders. Big Red, of course, has previously tried to fight metadata collection, but isn't entitled to have a say, or participate in these secret hearings. Naturally, judges are bound by a conflict of interest law that requires them to step away from any case where their judgment could be materially affected, which may not apply in this situation. Still, it doesn't seem the wisest thing to do if you're trying to maintain an unimpeachable reputation for fairness, does it?
Forbes says AAPL is down 85%, isn't quite sure how stock splits work
You'd think that an outlet that specialized in financial news would have a pretty good handle on the workings of Wall Street. You'd think that but you'd be wrong, at least in the case of Forbes, which is noting via its inline stock tracking widget that AAPL is down a shocking 85% today by dropping over $551 per share as of this writing. OMG! Of course, there's nothing to fear here, as Apple's stock price is simply a result of the 7-for-1 stock split that went into effect today. The vast majority of financial outlets and their slick stock tools handle this change in the correct manner, which is to split the stock price retroactively so that the current value is reflected correctly. But not Forbes. Because Forbes.
Apple's stock at 52 week high following Beats announcement and impending WWDC
With Apple's purchase of Beats audio finally getting confirmed and anticipation about what will be announced at the company's WWDC event next week, Apple stock closed at a 52 week high on Thursday. Shares in Apple (AAPL) closed at $635.38, but the stock reached heights of $636.87 throughout the day. Although Apple is not expected to announce the upcoming iPhone 6 during next week's World Wide Developer's Conference, that doesn't lower the overall anticipation for new products. According to a recent report from UBS analysts Steven Milunovich and Peter Christiansen, a majority of iPhone users are currently using old phones or have an upgrade available. More than 50% of iPhone owners are still using a 4 or 4S, leaving a large chunk of the market as potentially ripe for picking up a next-generation iPhone when it becomes available. What impact do you think Monday's keynote will have on Apple's stock price? Let us know in the comments, and join us Monday for our WWDC keynote liveblog! Post updated to correct an editing error; TUAW does not expect the iPhone 6 to be announced at WWDC.
Vivendi to sell $850 million in Activision Blizzard stock
French multimedia company Vivendi has been steadily distancing itself from Activision Blizzard for awhile now, but a new sale brings Vivendi's stake in the House That Warcraft & Call of Duty Built down to just six percent. The $850 million deal is expected to close May 28, provided there are no holdups like last time. Last year, Activision Blizzard bought itself back from Vivendi, making itself an independent company owned in majority by the public. That deal was not without complications though, as an Activision Blizzard shareholder attempted to sue the company, putting the sale on hold. The Delaware Supreme Court overturned the ruling which had stalled the deal, and the purchase was completed October 11, 2013. [Image: Vivendi/Activision]
Apple tops JD Power smartphone satisfaction and other news for April 24, 2014
Former Apple engineer Francisco Tolmasky has shared some very interesting stories about the development of mobile Safari and other software features of the new iPhone. Including Steve Jobs' insistence that it be "like magic." Meanwhile, Apple's stock split and customer satisfaction wrap up today's news roundup. Surprise! Apple has topped another JD Power satisfaction rating. This time, its US smartphone owners who voted the Cutpertino company as their favorite. The survey examined performance, physical design, features, and ease of use. A former Apple engineer shares his story of creating mobile Safari. It's a very interesting look behind the curtain during the development of the first iPhone. For example, the software keyboard resulted from "a kind of hackathon run by Jobs," during which everyone on the software team was to work on keyboards only for one week. iMore has taken a look at Apple's recent stock split. Take a look if you've got questions.
Perfect World buys into Shanda Games for $100 million
Perfect World Entertainment announced today that it will enter into a share purchase agreement with rival Chinese MMO company Shanda Games Limited for 30 million shares valued at $100 million. The purchase is expected to finalize in 30 days. Shanda Games publishes over 20 MMOs for the Chinese market, including Aion, Luvinia Online, and Final Fantasy XIV. This proposed agreement, as well as agreements with other top companies, would put the total value of Shanda at around $1.9 billion.
Sony continues to trim the fat, dumps Square-Enix stock
The PlayStation 4 may be leading home console sales, but that doesn't mean Sony's bank account is in the black. The company has made a minor habit of garnishing its quarterly earnings reports with notable losses, and it's been selling off assets (including its own headquarters) to help balance its budget. Its latest liquidation is the company's 8.25 percent stake in Square-Enix, the outfit behind jRPG hits like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. The ¥4.8 billion ($46.9 million) Sony expects to pocket from the sale is only a dent in the $1.1 billion it estimates it lost last year, which leaves the sale of Sony's other headquarters and its VAIO PC business to help make up the difference. This might mark the end of Sony's financial support for Square-Enix, but gamers shouldn't be worried: The game developer has a long, loyal history with the PlayStation brand.
SEC investigation of Bitcoin-based stock sale could lead to broader regulation
In July of last year gambling site SatoshiDice.com was sold by its creator for 126,315 BTC (Bitcoins) which was roughly $11.5 million at the time. The deal, which was executed on the Romania-based Bitcoin exchange MPEx, has drawn the interest of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The agency sent MPEx operator Mircea Popescu a letter requesting paperwork related to the SatoshiDice sale, including any contracts signed with Erik Voorhees, the founder of the gambling site. The SEC isn't necessarily saying either MPEx or SatoshiDice broke the law, but it's in the process of deciding whether or not these sorts of stock sales executed as Bitcoin trades are legal in the US. If the federal government finds that American financial law has been violated, it could have serious consequences for the future of the virtual currency.
Apple would have made Forrest Gump a multi-billionaire
Everyone loves Forrest Gump, but thanks to Apple's role in the character's life being relegated to a simple letter in the mail, it's easy to forget that the non-fictional company made this fictional man very, very rich. Gump notes in the film that he "doesn't have to worry about money anymore," but just how much cash did Apple make him, and how much would it translate to today? Let's find out. A version of this calculation appeared a couple of years back, but used a seemingly random dollar figure as its starting point. This time around we'll use actual historical data to find out how much cash Gump and Lieutenant Dan Taylor might have had saved up for their initial investment. It all starts with shrimp. Keeping his promise to Bubba, Gump invests nearly all of his money into a shrimp boat, named Jenny, in either late 1973 or early 1974. Things are rough at the start, but once the vessel survives Hurricane Carmen in September of 1974, the shrimp are easy pickings. It's roughly a year later that Gump -- having returned home to take care of his sick mother -- receives a (historically inaccurate) letter from Apple, thanking him for his early investment in the company. Between September of 1974 and September of 1975, Gump and Taylor's modest vessel would have hauled in approximately 400 lbs of shrimp per 12 hours of effort -- though as Jenny was the only ship left after the hurricane, this figure could have actually been much, much higher. Giving the two-man crew the weekends off, we have 263 shrimping days, which comes to 105,200 lbs over the course of a year. Multiply that by an average per-pound price of $2.30, and we get an income of just over $240,000. If we allow enough money for reasonable living for two people (by 1970s prices), fuel, and maintenance costs, it's not unreasonable to think that Lieutenant Dan still had $140,000 of the pair's cash left over for investment by the time Apple was raising its first outside round of funding. According to John Wilson's book The New Venturers, this funding didn't take place until 1978, but since the movie's historical goof puts the Apple Computer Inc name and logo on a letter from 1975 (when it didn't actually exist until 1977), we can extrapolate that the Gump/Taylor investment would have likely been part of Apple's first round. Apple sought $500,000 from various investors for a 15% share of the company. $140,000 of that would have given Gump and Taylor a 5.25% share of the company. Yum! When Apple went public on December 12, 1980, there was a total of 54,215,332 shares in existence, 4,600,000 of which were offered to the public. This gives our shrimping buddies 2,604,804 shares of AAPL, and when the first day of trading closed at $29, the haul would have been worth $75,539,316. A trio of 2:1 stock splits have taken place since AAPL went public, and if Gump and Taylor refused to touch their holding, they would currently own 20,838,432 shares of the company's stock. Today, AAPL opened trading at $528.36, giving the two former brothers-in-arms a mind-boggling $11,010,193,931.52. That's $11 billion, with a "B." According to Forbes, this would make Gump/Taylor partnership the 106th richest in the world. All thanks to a hurricane and a fruit company. Note: There are, of course, a number of things that we can't predict with this calculation, like how much of the stock the duo would have sold/bought along the way, any potential dilution of shares prior to the IPO, etc. Still, in almost any case, the net result would still have been pretty much the same, i.e. a couple of extremely rich shrimpers.
Report: Yamauchi family to sell shares in Nintendo buyback
Nintendo will put into effect a 114.2 billion-yen ($1.1 billion) share buyback program tomorrow – the first instituted response to lackluster Wii U sales lowering the company's bottom line. Nintendo will seek to reacquire as many as 9.5 million shares (7.4 percent) of its outstanding stock at 12,025 yen ($119) each and, according to a report on Bloomberg, the Yamauchi family will be among those selling. Hiroshi Yamauchi, who served as president and CEO from 1949 until 2002, is credited with Nintendo's transition from playing card company into video game powerhouse. Yamauchi left his near 10 percent stake in Nintendo to his four children when he passed away last September. Nintendo has not said if Yamauchi's heirs plan to sell all of their stock or just a fraction. Whatever the intentions of this buyback initiative, it's clear that Nintendo has been thinking a lot about its future. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata outlined plans last week that included bringing DS games to Wii U and researching non-wearable health tech as means to turn back on the cash printer. [Image: Nintendo]
Funcom office raided, charged with suspicion of stock infringement
Several reports are coming in this morning of some legal trouble plaguing The Secret World and Age of Conan developer Funcom. According to several Norwegian news outlets, Norway's economic crime unit paid a visit to the Oslo studio to retrieve "packed boxes of seized documents" thought to be financial records involved in a suspected "infringement of the provisions of the Securities Trading Act." Funcom acknowledged to Norwegian reporters that it was charged with breaching disclosure requirements related to The Secret World when the company failed to report company financial information between August 2011 and July 2012. This has resulted in a temporary closure of Funcom's stock during the investigation. We've reached out to Funcom for more details. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in.]
Apple and the Gambler's Fallacy
For reasons that often defy explanation, the news swirling around Apple always tends to be framed in a negative light. Despite Apple's success and unparalleled ability to release hit product after hit product over a multi-year stretch, many in the tech industry would have you believe that Apple's demise is right around the corner. Horace Dediu this past August touched on this briefly while discussing Apple's share price. At this point of time, as at all other points of time in the past, no activity by Apple has been seen as sufficient for its survival. Apple has always been priced as a company that is in a perpetual state of free-fall. Indeed, if you pay any attention to the assortment of pundits, analysts and folks in the mainstream press who get paid to cover Apple, the company has seemingly been on the verge of collapse for years. Rather than seeing Apple's accomplishments as proof positive that it knows what it's doing, Apple's success is often touted as the very reason why it's doomed to flounder in the future. This notion is otherwise referred to as the gambler's fallacy. The gambler's fallacy is the mistaken belief that past events make the occurrence of a future event statistically less probable. The most common example of this flawed logic is in assuming that flipping two heads in a row on successive coin flips increases the odds that the next flip will yield tails. We've seen this play out with Apple many times over the past few years. To that end, here are 10 years' worth of analyst reports about Apple summarized in just a few sentences: Sure, the iPod was a game-changer, but Apple has nowhere to go now but down. Okay, the iPhone was revolutionary, but there's absolutely no way lightning can strike thrice. Wow, the iPad sure took the tech world by storm, but what are the odds that Apple can come out with yet another game-changing device? Apple's best days are clearly behind it. The narrative surrounding Apple is typically one of gloom and doom, with news reports often spun in such a way to fit some preconceived conclusion that Apple is destined to fail at any moment. To wit, here are a few examples detailing how tech pundits and bonehead analysts often try and spin stories about Apple. If Apple doesn't lower prices, its marketshare will take a hit If Apple lowers prices, its margins will take a hit If Apple's quarterly earnings beat on revenue, its profits that matter If Apple's quarterly earnings beat on profits, revenue is what matters If retailers like Walmart begin discounting iPhones, they must not be selling well If Android devices are heavily discounted, it's trouble for Apple ahead Now, the gambler's fallacy is truly meant to describe events that are inherently random, like the flip of a coin. That said, it's strange that this flawed logic is still applied to Apple when success in the tech world is slightly more ordered than random. In other words, if we take a look at an assortment of tech companies today, one can make reasonably educated guesses as to which are best positioned to drive innovation in the coming years. We can look at each of those companies' product portfolios, their leadership teams and a number of other factors to help paint a more vivid picture about which ones are more likely to thrive in the uber-competitive world of tech. In Apple's case, the company has billions of dollars in the bank, an impressive product line across the board and an impressive track record of introducing innovative new products and features that have historically set a new bar for others in the industry. None of this guarantees that Apple's innovation train will continue riding along unabated, but it's enough of a reason to take a "wait and see" approach instead of blindly proclaiming, without rhyme or reason, that Apple's future is doomed simply on account of its past success.
Red 5 Studios' parent company lines up $24 million Firefall investment
Anyone who has played Firefall wouldn't associate it with more standard free-to-play Chinese MMOs, but the game is certainly generating a lot of financial interest in China. The9, the Chinese gaming company that owns developer Red 5 Studios, is lining up for the game to get a major investment from Oriental Pearl Culture Development Ltd., a major entertainment development organization. That investment shakes out to around $24 million and would make Oriental Pearl one of the largest minority shareholders in the company. Overall, Firefall is apparently valued around $100 million based upon statements released by the companies. This latest investment is still in a non-binding stage and could be cancelled if Oriental Pearl changed its mind and decided against investing in the company. Preliminary reports suggest that the deal will go through, generating quite a windfall for the not yet technically launched game and demonstrating once again just how big the MMO scene is becoming worldwide.
Ubisoft shares drop 25 percent following delays
Yesterday, Ubisoft announced delays for both Watch Dogs and The Crew, two games so highly anticipated that news of these delays prompted Ubisoft stock to shed more than 25 percent of its value. As of now, Ubisoft stock is trading at $8.19 per share. That's a 26.15 percent dip from just yesterday when Ubisoft was valued as high as $11.10 per share. So far the stock has shown only minor signs of rebounding, though these have immediately been followed by further value loss. Though the delays of Watch Dogs and The Crew are the comically gargantuan straws that shattered the camel's back, they are not the sole reason for Ubisoft's sudden financial woes. Rayman Legends and Splinter Cell: Blacklist, two games that Ubisoft expected to sell like gangbusters, failed to perform at retail. "We have had games that were released for which we anticipate today lower sales than we anticipated when we gave our first targets," said Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez during the firm's most recent investors' conference call. "Already released games such as, of course, Splinter Cell, Rayman, and others."
Activision Blizzard now free from Vivendi
Back in July, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick led a charge to buy the company back from parent company Vivendi. After a few bumps in the road, the share buyback is complete and Activision Blizzard is now (mostly) free of Vivendi. $5.83 billion of stock is owned by Activision Blizzard, while Kotick and his partners hold on to $2.34 billion. Vivendi's not completely out of the loop yet, but its shares have been cut down to 12%. After five years under Vivendi's wing, Kotick says he is excited to "get back to focusing on making great games," according to a recent interview with Bloomberg.
