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J.P. Morgan reduces Zynga ownership to less than one percent
Multinational banking conglom-o J.P. Morgan has reduced the amount of Zynga stock in its possession from 6.7 million shares to 2.6 million, All Things D reports. This represents a shift in its ownership of the developer/publisher from 6.7 percent to less than half of one percent, with the whole of its Zynga stock currently worth $6.73 million, based on Friday's closing value of $2.59 per share.When J.P. Morgan actually sold 4.1 million of its shares is unclear, as the last official announcement regarding the scope of its investment in Zynga was released in January of last year. By extension, the price that J.P. Morgan received per share is also unknown.In just the last few months, Zynga has shut down 11 games and closed studios in Japan and Boston, among other various events that haven't boded especially well for the value of its stock. J.P. Morgan's reduced ownership isn't a particularly strong vote of confidence either, though trading was up last week due to Zynga's hawkish acquisition of online gambling patents.
Sprint Nextel takes control of Clearwire after increasing stake to 50.8 percent
A securities filing has just revealed that Sprint Nextel has acquired 50.8 percent of Clearwire Corp giving it control of the firm. The deal comes after buying out Eagle River Holdings' stake in the telco. This comes just days after Sprint was subject to a sale of its own, to Japanese operator Softbank. The news is the latest twist in the up and down relationship between the two firms, and hints at a more assertive LTE strategy -- given that it now has more say over Clearwire's spectrum. Although it remains unclear how this will affect deals with other operators. If you really want to get in to the nitty-gritty, head on down to the Securities and Exchange Commission doc in the source link below. [Thanks, James K]
Report: Activision stock may rise 50 percent with Pandaria, CoD Online
Activision Blizzard may see its share price increase as much as 50 percent as it prepares to launch the Mists of Pandaria expansion for World of Warcraft and Call of Duty Online in China, financial newsweekly Barron's reports. Activision Blizzard is currently trading at $11.25, after reporting Q2 earnings above expectations but below the previous year, bringing in $1.08 billion.Investors expect shares could reach a high of $17 due to Mists of Pandaria's launch in September and Activision's partnership with Chinese Internet provider Tencent Holdings to launch the free-to-play game Call of Duty Online, potentially in "mid-2013," Barron's says. The Chinese gaming market generated $7 billion and included 160 million gamers in 2011, and is expected to grow by 20 percent this year to cash in more than $9 million in 2014.Activision Blizzard's shares have fallen 10 percent this year, while the broad market has gained 11 percent. Parent company Vivendi was looking to sell its 61 percent stake in Activision Blizzard earlier this year, but it appears those efforts have shifted focus.
Facebook's new Recommendations Bar pops up, just wants to be liked
Facebook's Recommendations Box sits passively on many websites, allowing us to engage or ignore as we see fit. But too much of the latter option has led to something slightly different: the new Recommendations Bar -- a pop-up variant which, when integrated by your favorite page, plugs site-specific links based on your friends' thumbs and shares. The Bar is similar to the in-house recommendation pop-ups we're all familiar with, but adds a like button for posting the current page to your timeline. It shouts much louder than the Box, so it's no surprise that in early tests the new plug-in produced a three-fold increase in click-throughs. In this case, privacy wasn't an afterthought -- Bar integration, like the Box, is at the site's discretion and sharing pages is very much on your terms. Just try not to accidently hit that like button during your daily scan of Bieber's homepage.
Nexon invests $687M in NCsoft, becomes largest shareholder
MMO competitors and countrymen-in-arms Nexon and NCsoft are closer than ever today, as Nexon has acquired a minority interest in its fellow company. The move makes Nexon NCsoft's largest shareholder. Nexon announced that it had invested in NCsoft by snapping up 3,218,091 shares in a private transaction. The deal cost Nexon 804,522,750,000 South Korean Won, or $687 million US. This puts Nexon's share ownership of NCsoft at 14.7%. It will certainly be interesting to see how this investment affects the future of both Nexon and NCsoft. Nexon said that it "forms the basis of a long-term partnership" between the two companies. Nexon has been making aggressive moves of late, particularly with acquiring Taiwanese publisher Gamania last month.
Sony formally quits Sharp LCD joint venture, takes back every yen it invested
After Sony cut off its supply of capital to the ill-fated Sakai production plant that it jointly owns with Sharp, it became clear that the final goodbye may be little more than a formality. And here it is, in the form of a cold, resolute press release stating that Sony is selling its seven percent stake back to Sharp and taking back the 10 billion yen ($126 million) it originally invested. The only reason given is the "rapidly changing market for LCD panels and LCD televisions," which is a polite reference to the fact that profits from big TVs are well below what these companies predicted back in the heady days of 2008 and early 2009, when the impact of the global economic crisis loomed without yet being fully apparent. Fortunately for Sony, which is in the delicate stages of reform, the solid pre-nuptial agreement it had in place with Sharp should protect the company from having to revise its financial forecasts for the coming year -- not that those were particularly great in the first place.
Sony shares drop to 31-year low in Japan, 19-year low in US
Shares of Sony stock have dipped to their lowest number in 31 years in Japan and to a 19-year low in the US, following a dismal earnings report for the previous fiscal year. Sony shares dropped 7 percent in Japan, to 1,135 Yen ($14), and 2 percent in the US, closing at $15.37.Sony CEO Kaz Hirai plans to lose 10,000 employees in a company-wide reorganization effort. Sony reported a net revenue loss of 9.6 percent for fiscal year 2012, dropping from $89 billion to $79.1 billion year-over-year.
Apple VP of iOS Scott Forstall cashes in $38.7 million of Apple shares
Tim Cook's salary came up in the news last month when he was awarded a million shares of Apple stock, and cashed out a few, in addition to his many other forms of compensation. And here's another Apple manager who's taking advantage of Apple's soaring stock price when he can. Vice President of iOS Scott Forstall reportedly cashed out over 64,000 Apple shares last week, earning US$38.7 million from the sale. Forstall picked up those shares in 2008. He got 120,000 shares back then as part of a bonus, and as those just vested (minus about half for taxes), he went ahead and cashed them out. But this doesn't leave Forstall without an investment in the company. He's still got 250,000 shares set to vest at different times in the next few years, in addition to 2,988 shares currently held, and that's in addition to an annual salary of $700,000. What did Forstall do to earn all this money? Oh, just run the iOS division, which picked up $29 billion for Apple in just the last quarter. Just that.
AAPL flirts with $600 today
Apple's stock soared on Wednesday and now it is poised to cross the US$600 mark. As noted by CNN Money, the stock hit $600 once and has fallen back down to $598 at the writing of this post. As The Wall Street Journal points out it took Apple 34 trading days to jump from $400 to $500 and a mere 23 days from $500 to $600. With strong iPad sales expected tomorrow, it's highly likely the price will go over $600 and stay there sometime today. This threshold will push Apple's market value even higher. It's currently sitting at the $556 billion mark which, according to a report in Wall Street Pit, is just below the 2011 GDP for Saudi Arabia. [Via CNN Money]
RIM stock falls eight percent following CEO transition
We rarely meddle with stock news around these parts, but this was a pretty significant piece of meat to chew on. After Research in Motion introduced Thorsten Heins as the new CEO last night and again in a conference call this morning, the company's stock price tumbled a whopping 8.47 percent. When it comes to what kind of difference the transition will make for the struggling company, we haven't had a high amount of confidence; while we hope for the best and want to see RIM turn things around, the falling stock appears to indicate that we're not alone in expressing concerns about this morning's events. Here's some food for thought: when rumors that Samsung was interested in purchasing RIM flooded the internet, the latter company's stocks spiked by nearly ten percent.
LA Noire boosts Take-Two stock
Now here's a pretty open-and-shut case. What do you think could have caused Take-Two's share price to rise almost 18 percent yesterday? The company had the release of a little game called LA Noire to thank for that. On Monday, Take-Two shares were hovering around $15 a pop, but shot up yesterday as LA Noire launched and closed at $17.10 -- the highest valuation since the proposed takeover by EA. As of the market's close today, shares were still trading in that range, hitting as high as $17.28 this afternoon.
Amar Bose donates majority of Bose Corporation shares to MIT, says thanks for the education
If you haven't heard of Dr. Amar Bose directly, you've surely heard of his eponymous audio equipment company. Late last week, the 81-year old founder and chairman of Bose Corporation announced that he's donating the majority of shares in the privately held company to his alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A member of that college's graduating class of 1951 and its electrical engineering faculty all the way until 2001, Bose felt compelled to give something back and he's opted for the most grandiose of gestures. MIT won't be able to sell its shares in Bose Corp. nor have any say in the way it is run, but it'll receive dividends as and when they're paid out, which will then be reinvested in its research and education programs. In making this perpetual endowment public, Amar Bose took the time to credit Professors Y. W. Lee, Norbert Wiener and Jerome Wiesner as his mentors -- in the image above, you can see him pictured with Lee (left) and Wiener (right) back in 1955. Chalkboards, that's where it all began.
Two years after Fred Wilson dumped AAPL...
We all make predictions that don't turn out as planned. For example, this morning I said I'd have a few beers, enjoy a barbeque in the sun with friends and perhaps go to the cinema tonight. Turns out I have two daughters under the age of 3, so there went my day. But at least I'm not kicking myself like Fred Wilson must be. Wilson is the venture capitalist managing partner of Union Square Ventures who, two years ago, famously announced that he was selling all his shares in Apple because he didn't believe the company was "being straight with investors" over Steve Jobs's health. "My average price on my entire position in Apple is US$96, so I'll take a small loss on this and a small gain on the stock I bought during the meltdown last fall." He sold at $91.36 -- and at close yesterday, Apple shares were at $338.08, up $246.72 or 270 percent. He sold Google at the same time but announced a short time later he was buying back into the search giant. See the chart above for how that one worked out for him. Maybe he only had one share in Apple (although $246.72 would go nearly halfway towards a new iPad 2). Maybe he's happy with that 50 percent-plus gain in Google's value. Or maybe he's still kicking himself now. Me, I think we'll have that barbeque tomorrow. [Via Daring Fireball]
Labor union opposed to Steve Jobs' reelection to Disney board
Steve Jobs' position as a director of Disney is being questioned as the company's annual shareholder's meeting takes place in Salt Lake City today. The AFL-CIO federation of labor unions has already voted against his reelection, citing his absences for health reasons and full-time responsibilities as Chief Executive of Apple. They own 3.8 million shares in Disney, compared to the 138 million Steve Jobs received when Disney took over Pixar. He's the company's largest shareholder, in fact. Advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services says he's attended "less than 75%" of meetings in three of the past four years and that this "raises questions about his ability to fulfill his responsibilities as a director of the company." Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004 and received a liver transplant in 2009, and he has been on medical leave from Apple since January this year. Disney admitted in a regulatory filing that month that his health problems had hampered his ability to attend board meetings. That said, Jobs' influence on Disney does seem to have been valuable to the company. His experience with the highly successful Apple retail stores has been welcomed by Disney, and many cite his influence as being one of the reasons behind Disney's early forays into the world of digital distribution. And, frankly, it's hard to imagine many companies that wouldn't welcome Steve Jobs as one of their directors. Don't expect to see other shareholders voting against him. [Via AppleInsider]
Credit Suisse initiates AAPL coverage on up and down day
AAPL shares got slapped silly before market open this morning after a JMP Securities analyst initiated a rare downgrade on AAPL stock yesterday. The downgrade was due to assumed problems with Apple's ability to manage the supply chain for its iOS devices in the wake of the disaster in Japan. But not soon after the AAPL sell-off, many other analysts came to Apple's defense, including Barclays Capital's Ben Reitzes. Reitzes stated that the perceived effects of the troubles in Japan were overblown in relation to how Apple's supply chain would be affected. In a research note, Reitzes stated, "While still a fluid situation, we believe the comments made by QCOM [Qualcomm] may alleviate at least some concerns for Apple given uncertainty around the iPhone supply chain for both current and future products (QCOM chips are used in Verizon iPhone 4s and iPad 2s, and we believe QCOM will be a major supplier for the iPhone 5)." "The comments made by QCOM" is referring to a statement by the company in which it said it foresees no significant effects on its ability to deliver products because of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. That statement, along with that fact that this morning Credit Suisse initiated coverage on shares of Apple with an outperform rating and a massive $500 price target, led APPL to regain some of its earlier losses and close at $334.64 a share. Disclaimer: The author holds a position in AAPL. TUAW does not provide investment advice; consult an expert before buying or selling equities.
Gartner and IDC dispute Android's dominance over Symbian in Q4 2010
According to Gartner's latest mobile sales numbers, the rise of Android hasn't been quite as meteoric as you might think -- even with 888.8 percent growth in 2010. Last month, Canalys quoted Android as the top earner for smartphone platforms in Q4 of last year, beating out Symbian for the top spot, but Gartner says it ain't so. In fact, IDC already quietly chimed in on the topic a few days ago saying that Symbian was still the smartphone OS "market leader." Gartner's numbers do show Android overtaking Nokia's Symbian devices in unit sales, but it points out that the OS' use across a variety of brands in Q4 actually "kept Symbian slightly ahead of Android." Symbian ultimately outsold Android by more than 44 million units last year, but considering the little green robot's astronomical growth in 2010, we'd say even super star is an understatement. Check out the PR after the jump to see how the rest of the competition stacks up.
EVE Online player steals $45,000 worth of ISK in massive investment scam
It seems like every few months we hear about another major theft or scam in EVE Online. In most MMOs, acts of theft could earn the perpetrator a permanent game ban. In EVE Online, however, it's an accepted part of the game that people are strongly encouraged to protect themselves from. Even the game's developers have acknowledged that corporate infiltration, scamming and theft are just another part of the harsh criminal underworld of New Eden. With its latest official game trailer, CCP Games told an impressive tale of corporate theft and revenge, showcasing some of the emergent gameplay that typifies EVE. Last week, the latest big scam to come out of the criminal underworld of New Eden came to completion. The popular investment scheme Titans4U turned bad, with the creator "Bad Bobby" stealing all of the company's assets. The theft was the ultimate conclusion of a plan that was set in motion years ago. Bobby began his investment career by running several smaller schemes to build up a positive public image. Over the years, he ran increasingly larger and more popular schemes and always returned on investments. Just over a year ago, his reputation-building efforts paid off as his good name secured the successful launch of the massive Titans4U investment fund. Skip past the cut for the full story of how this apparently secure investment scheme turned into one of EVE's biggest scams to date.
Report: OnLive valued at over a billion dollars
We knew the technology powering the compression and streaming capabilities of OnLive was actually the work of dark and ancient sorcery, but we never would have guessed how profitable said sorcery actually is. According to a report fromVenture Beat, a regulatory filing issued in May seems to indicate that the company's 342 million shares can be valued at around $1.1 billion. If this sounds like the kind of moneypie you'd like to enjoy a slice of, the filing values some 8 million new shares created in May at $7.50 a piece. You could totally get down on one of those, then sit back, and just watch the finances roll in. We're pretty sure that's how shares work. You get them, and then the company shares its money with you.
iTunes share of the US music market swells to 26.7%
Apple's iTunes music service has strengthened its lead in the US music market, growing to a whopping 26.7% of all music sold in the States, up from 21% a few years ago and 12% in 2007. That's pretty phenomenal growth, buoyed almost certainly by the rising share of digital music versus brick and mortar stores. Digital purchases make up 35.5% of music bought here, also up from 31% the last time Billboard released stats. So where are all of these music purchases coming from? Best Buy and Walmart, apparently -- both retail outlets saw their shares drop by a few percentage points recently. And of course these are all percentages. I'd bet that lower music sales overall combined with growing sales on iTunes is helping to grow Apple's share quite a bit. At any rate, while hardware sales are getting the press, let's not forget that iTunes is still a big earner for Apple. [via Macsimum News]
Palm shares take 25 percent plunge after downer earnings announcement
Remember that wild January day a bit over a year ago, when Palm debuted webOS and shares went wild? Well, after months of setbacks in the sales arena, and a rough $22 million Q3 loss announced yesterday, Palm's stocks took over a 25 percent dive today, dipping below $5 for the first time since the Pre was announced. At the time of this writing things seem to be leveling off a bit, but it's the most damage the shares have seen since October of 2009. Morgan Joseph analyst Ilya Grozovsky has downgraded the stock to "sell" and set a target price at $0. Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek has set a similar target, saying that he sees a "complete lack of earnings visibility." So, candlelit vigil time? Imminent buyout? Riots in the streets? Hardly. Palm's own Jon Rubinstein said in the earnings announcement that the company is "looking forward to upcoming launches with new carrier partners" which should (hopefully) brighten spirits a bit, and we haven't heard a single credible buyout rumor, despite plenty of wild conjecture. There are also still a pair of analyst hold outs (just two, to be exact) that have buy ratings on the stock, reports Thomson Reuters. As for rioting? Well, that's up to you. No matter what, Palm has some serious soul searching to do.
