10-q
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AT&T plans to shut down entire 2G network by 2017
AT&T has only just begun the transition away from 2G services with its spectrum refarming in New York City, but it now has a target end date to mark on the calendar: January 1st, 2017. Courtesy of an SEC filing, we know that the carrier hopes that both its GSM voice and EDGE data networks will have gone to the great cell tower in the sky before we're popping the champagne corks about four and a half years from now. The Big Blue Ball expects the transition to be a smooth one, as only 12 percent of its regular subscribers are using 2G-only phones today; if it ever gets bumpy, the company promises to "proactively" steer the holdouts towards 3G and 4G. Don't get too misty-eyed. While the transition will mark the end to what's arguably one of the most definitive chapters in US cellular history, that far-flung date will likely come well after most of us have moved on -- much like the AMPS shutdown, it could be less of a bang and more of a whimper.
Adobe says iPhone / iPad adoption and 'alternative technologies' (cough, HTML5) could harm its business
Adobe might continue to crow about Flash and its importance on both the desktop and mobile devices, but there's no lying to investors, and the company is pretty blunt about the threat of the iPhone and iPad in the end-of-quarter Form 10-Q it just filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission: it flatly says that "to the extent new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies, our business could be harmed." Now, Adobe has to make doom-and-gloom statements in its SEC filings -- it also says that slowing PC sales or a failure to keep up with desktop OS development could harm its business -- but the timing is crazy here, since just yesterday Apple changed the iPhone OS 4 SDK agreement to block devs from using the upcoming Flash CS5 iPhone cross-compiler to build iPhone apps. What's more, Apple's also using HTML5 for its new iAd platform, which could potentially undo Flash's stranglehold on online advertising as well. Yeah, we'd say all that plus the recent push for HTML5 video across the web -- and from Microsoft -- could harm Adobe's business just a little. Better hope that final version of Flash Player 10.1 is everything we'd hoped and dreamed of, because Adobe's going to have to make a real stand here.
THQ stock option investigation over
Today seems to be a good day for video game publishers. First, Activision cleared up its stock option problems. Now THQ (THQI), the other video game company that had some 10-Q problems, is also out in the clear. Much to the relief of investors and THQ, the investigation into THQ's stock option plans was completed; happily for everyone, no fraud was found. The only inconsistency involved in an increase of $11 million in after-tax expenses. THQ is in the same situation as Activision. Both had stock option problems, both had that monkey pulled from their back and both are expected to have a good 2007. Their insistence on heavy Wii support is the reason. Let's hope we get some more good publisher news to add to these two.
Activision looking up
Activision (ATVI) hasn't been looking to bright these days from a shareholder point of view. While they're doing fine in terms of sales, their delayed 10-Q form due to stock option issues tends to worry investors. Now, Activision is starting to look up. In their recent 8-K filling, Activision placed on hold the concerns over the 10-Q. According to Activision, the stock option issue is in regards to the timing of the options, which may have fallen outside of SEC-allowed dates. The dates are mainly an issue with taxes and should be a minor issue at best (compared to other, bigger stock option issues like insider-trading that is). On top of the previously announced expectation that Activision will win big because of its strong support of the Wii, the easing of the tensions over stock options is a breath of fresh air to investors. Michael Pachter (the face of video game analysts) expects the company to do well in 2007. Seems that Activision is back on track.
