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Google Keyboard 1.1 update adds long-press number row to tablets
If you own an Android tablet and have been wondering why in the Hades you haven't been able to type numbers on your stock keyboard by long-pressing the top row, it's time to take a quick peek to see if your fortunes have changed. Version 1.1 of the APK is now available on the Play Store, and it lists the numeric enhancement among the standard bug fixes, tuned layouts for some languages and "stability improvements" listed in the changelog. It's about time, Google, but better late than never.
Nasdaq stops all trading due to systems issue, plans to reopen in a limited capacity soon (update: back online)
Well, this is rather peculiar. The Nasdaq stock market -- the entire Nasdaq, which lists major tech firms such as Apple and Facebook -- has temporarily suspended all trading due to a technical issue. The exchange sent an alert to traders at 12:14PM ET today announcing that it was halting all trading "until further notice," according to a New York Times report. Reuters is reporting that Nasdaq will reopen trading soon, but with a 5-minute quote period. The market will not be canceling open orders, however, so firms that don't want their orders processed once everything's up and running should cancel their orders manually now. It's not entirely clear what caused the issue, or how and when it will be resolved, but you better believe it's causing some commotion on Wall Street, and could impact traders for days and months to come. Update (2:28PM ET): CNBC and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that Nasdaq will resume limited trading beginning at 2:45PM ET. Update (2:32PM ET): CNBC is now reporting that trading will resume with just two securities at 2:45PM ET. Full trading will begin at 3:10PM ET. Update (3:28PM ET): It appears that trading has resumed as of 3:25PM ET. Update (5:47PM ET): One final tweet here from CNBC. Nasdaq is claiming that today's issues were resolved within 30 minutes. The remaining 2.5 hours were used to coordinate the re-opening. Update (6:29PM ET): Nasdaq has issued an official statement following today's market close. In part, it reads: "NASDAQ OMX will work with other exchanges that are members of the SIP to investigate the issues of today, and we will support any necessary steps to enhance the platform."
AAPL shareholders to receive dividends today
Apple will pay its shareholders another quarterly dividend today. Shareholders of record as of August 12th will receive US$3.05 per share. With over 908 million outstanding shares, that means Apple will spend $2.7 billion today giving money back to its shareholders. However, as AppleInsider points out, Apple is actually spending $110 million less this quarter on dividends because the company spent $16 billion buying 36 million of its own shares last quarter. Apple repurchased some of its own shares because the company saw its share prices as cheap and doing so would allow it to pick them up while depressed and also receive some healthy tax write-offs. AAPL has been on a roll over the past few days with Carl Icahn purchasing $1.5 billion of AAPL on Tuesday and other hedge fund and regular investors getting back into the company on Wednesday.
A historical explanation of Apple's recent margin erosion
Apple's share prices have been dipping in recent months as analysts have predicted the company's pace of remarkable growth is starting to slow. At their all time high Apple margins were at 50%, but in the most recent quarter they had shrunk to 37.5%. So why exactly is Apple's margin shrinking? Asymco analyst Horace Dediu has posted an interesting examination of Apple's margins since 2005 to find the reason for their recent reduction. When his prediction that the company's margins would improve in quarter four of 2012 proved false, Dediu looked at the data to see what went wrong. His analysis takes into account the three major factors effecting margin changes for Apple: price changes, cost of components, and a mix of high and low margin products. Dediu discovered it largely comes down to the iPhone, Apple's top selling product. While sales and the asking retail price of the iPhone have remained consistent over the years, the cost of components increased by 29% in 2012 over the previous year. This had the effect of cutting the iPhone's gross margin from 58% to 48%. The iPhone 5 is more expensive to make, and therefore currently has a lower margin. iPad margins also decreased, though it Dediu notes that the asking retail price of the product also decreased in the time period. Ultimately he reasons that the increased cost of components is the main cause for the margin reductions. As the mobile markets expand in developing nations like India and China Apple will face more pressure to keep their products affordable. The popularity of recent trade in programs in India for the iPhone 4 shows there is market desire for the products. Perhaps the reduction in margin due to the cost of making the iPhone 5 will help make the much speculated about "budget iPhone" a reality. Head over to Asymco for Dediu's complete analysis, including comparisons with Apple's competition at Microsoft and Google.
Majesco receives another Nasdaq delisting notice
Majesco is once again out of compliance with the Nasdaq stock exchange for having a stock price under $1 for over 30 days. The company now has 180 days (about six months) to raise its common stock to at least $1 for ten consecutive business days.The publisher's shares took a dive in January when it announced it'd no longer provide quantitative guidance for the rest of the year. Pssst, defunct publisher THQ did the same thing.Majesco has survived similar delisting warnings in the past. At least two that we can remember.[Thanks, Michael]
Sony shares drop by 10 percent
In the wake of a $115 million loss in Sony's third quarter, its stock price has taken a significant hit, reports Bloomberg. Shares dropped from ¥1,530 ($16.51) to ¥1,365 ($14.78), a decrease of 10.78 percent. Bloomberg notes that this is the eighth consecutive quarter that Sony has posted a loss, and that the stock price decline is the largest the company has seen since November 2008. Investors had hoped the weak Yen would help bolster the company's earnings.The decline in stock price follows a string of troubles for Sony. Late last year, the company saw its credit rating dropped to junk status, despite its attempts to restructure in order to stem losses. It's worth noting that, while Sony did indeed post a loss for its third quarter, the loss was significantly reduced versus the same quarter in its fiscal 2011. Nevertheless, the games division saw significantly decreased sales, and the company cited the "slow penetration" of the PlayStation Vita as a "particularly important" issue. [JMik via Shutterstock]
Fund manager David Einhorn sues Apple, wants cash to go back to shareholders
David Einhorn is a fund manager at Greenlight Capital, and he's leading the charge with a lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the company hasn't done enough to make sure its shareholders receive the benefits of their success. Apple's been making plenty of money lately, of course, but Einhorn's problem isn't with the making, it's with what Apple is doing with that money. The company from Cupertino has built up a cash bank of nearly $100 billion, and investors have already made it clear they're not happy that Apple hasn't turned that money back into bonuses for shareholders. "We understand that many of our fellow shareholders share our frustration with Apple's capital allocation policies," says Einhorn. "Apple has $145 per share of cash on its balance sheet. As a shareholder, this is your money," he told fellow investors. And so Einhorn has filed suit in a New York court to try and modify a proposal Apple has pending, and change the company's stance on paying off its shareholders. We'll have to see how this plays out. Certainly Apple has a duty to its stockholders, and that is definitely a lot of money (more than any one company's ever seen before). But Apple's R&D costs are rising all the time. If Tim Cook has a good reason to have such a big cash pile, odds are it'll come out in this case.
Dell debates going private, Microsoft to pay billions to help make it happen?
The rumor mill's been running at full bore for about a week now, with unnamed sources explaining that Dell wants to become a private company, perhaps because of its recent lackluster financial performance. Today, the volume of those rumors has gotten louder. Both CNBC and the Wall Street Journal report that Microsoft's looking to help buy out the PC maker, paying a grand chunk -- between $1 and $3 billion -- of the price to buy out Dell's publicly-owned shares. According to Reuters' sources, Michael Dell and his cohort have formed a committee to evaluate any such deals or offers, but naturally, any other details about Microsoft's (or anyone else's) involvement are few and far between. We've reached out to both Microsoft and Dell for comment, and we'll update our post here as we learn more.
Al Gore buys lots of AAPL
Al Gore is not afraid of all the doom and gloom surrounding Apple. According to Forbes, the politician/environmentalist just spent US$440,000 to buy 59,000 shares of Apple stock. Of course, he exercised stock options that he received for serving on Apple's Board of Directors and bought the stocks at a very, very reasonable $7.475 per share. Based on Apple's closing stock price as of Thursday afternoon, that purchase is worth a cool $30 million.
DCM Dealer software platform mines social media for stock sentiment, Wall Street licks its chops
In this episode of "What could possibly go wrong?!", allow us to introduce you to DCM Dealer. Billed as an "online trading platform," this here project was whipped up by the same London-based investment outfit (DCM Capital) that went belly-up after losing some $40 million in assets in just one month during the summer of 2011. Granted, that was a pretty tough time in the market, and it did manage to squeeze out a 1.9 percent gain in the period it was open, but it's still worth keeping in mind. Now, the firm is hoping to catch a second wind with a tool that mines Twitter, Facebook, and the whole of social media in order to pick up clues about the public's view on a stock. Reportedly, it'll spit out real-time ratings from 0 (negative) to 100 (positive), giving investors yet another "leading indicator" on what to invest in flip for a quick buck. Founder Paul Hawtin confesses: "This is not some kind of holy grail of buy-sell signals that's guaranteed to make you money. This is an additional layer of market information...markets are driven by greed and fear, so if you can understand fear and quantify it in real-time, you could use that to protect yourself." We'll leave it to the 99 percent to comment on the idea below.
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.
Trader charged with wire fraud after trying to buy $1 billion worth of AAPL
A fraudulent US$1 billion purchase of Apple stock has resulted in the arrest of a Wall Street trader and the loss of US$5 million for his brokerage firm. According to the District Attorney's office in Connecticut, trader David Miller of Rochdale Securities hatched a plan to use the brokerage's money to buy 1.625 million shares of Apple stock on October 25. Miller was hoping to cash in big on a rise in Apple's stock after the company reported its Q4 2012 financials later that afternoon. Miller's plan went awry when the stock fell and the brokerage started losing money. Miller allegedly tried to cover his tracks by falsely claiming he wanted to buy 1,652 shares for a customer, and accidentally entered the wrong amount. The brokerage was left holding the bag on 1.6 million shares of Apple stock and lost $5 million when it traded out of this position. Leading up to this billion dollar trade, Miller allegedly defrauded another broker-dealer by claiming to represent a company that he had no affiliation with and one for which he was not authorized to trade. Miller surrendered to the FBI this week and faces up to 20 years in prison. [Via MarketWatch]
Eddy Cue sells $8.76M in AAPL stock
Bob Mansfield recently sold 35,000 shares of Apple stock and now it is Eddy Cue's turn to cash in some of his holdings. According to a filling with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Cue sold off 15,000 shares of Apple stock for approximately US$584 per share. He walked away with $8.76 million from the sale, says a report in CNET. These shares are just a small portion of the Apple stock that Cue owns. The senior vice president of Internet Software and Services and several other Apple executives were each given a bonus of 100,000 restricted stock units in November 2011. This bonus was meant to keep the executives with the company for the next several years. The first block of these restricted stocks will vest in September 2014. [Via CNET]
Bob Mansfield sells over $20 Million in AAPL stock
Apple Senior Vice President of Technologies Bob Mansfield sold 35,000 shares of Apple stock at a price of $582, netting him a cool $20 million. This financial transaction was detailed in a SEC filing spotted by MacRumors. Earlier this year, Mansfield sold another chunk of Apple stock for $12.5 million. Shortly after Mansfield sold his stock in February, the executive announced that he was retiring from his role as head of hardware and would serve the company in an advisory role. After a brief hiatus, Mansfield recently returned to lead a new Technologies group that was formed after the ouster of iOS chief Scott Forstall. This latest transaction does not mean Mansfield is ready to exit the company again. Executives regularly cash in stock they receive as compensation for their work at Apple. Mansfield also has incentive to stay at Apple as he is slated to receive another 150,000 shares that will be disbursed in two equal allotments with the first arriving in June 2013 and the second in March 2016. He also has 100,000 shares of restricted stock that'll vest in 2014. [Via MacRumors]
ABC's Nightline looks at AAPL
After a botched Maps launch and limited supplies of its flagship iPhone 5, Apple's stock has sunk to a five-month low, and the company has lost almost US$130B in market value since September. A piece on ABC's Nightline profiles this drop in Apple's stock and offers its take on why AAPL is not as hot as it used to be. It's a short clip that brings up Samsung, Microsoft and a lack of innovation from the folks in Cupertino. You can check out the video below and sound off in the comments about ABC's report and the state of Apple's stock. [Via MacRumors]
THQ stock plummets 50 percent
THQ's stock is (as of this writing) down 42 percent, trading at $1.74, following yesterday's dramatic second quarter earnings conference call.The conference call, which totaled 12 minutes, concluded with CEO Brian Farrell saying that the company had been "advised not to conduct a [question and answer] session" following prepared remarks because it is currently "exploring strategic alternatives" with a company that handles private equity deals.THQ took drastic measures a few months ago to save its stock, after shares fell below a dollar and the company was threatened with NASDAQ delisting. The solution was a 10-to-one reverse stock split, turning THQ's 70 million shares into 7 million. That action moved the decimal point on the company's $0.51/share stock into $5.16/share. THQ's market capitalization at the time stood at $35.4 million. Now, a couple months later, with today's drop it sits at $11.9 million.THQ has been working other angles to obtain cash to continue doing business, selling off its UFC license earlier this year to Electronic Arts for an "undisclosed cash payment." Selling off more assets is still on the table, but the company doesn't plan to disclose developments or progress until the board and its advisers at Centerview Partners LLC deem it appropriate.Update: THQ's stock closed the day at $1.50/share, down 50 percent.
Zynga's business valued at 'nothing'; CityVille 2 'coming soon'
With the walls closing in, Zynga announced CityVille 2 is in closed beta. The company couldn't share any info but to say it "delivers a truly social and visually rich city building experience." It will launch soon. Not that investors seem to currently care.As the LA Times notes, Zynga's combined cash, securities and real estate assets are currently worth about $2.46 a share, according to analysts. But, its stock is currently trading below that price (as of this writing: $2.43), which means the company's games business is essentially worth "nothing."These dark tidings come as brothers Paul and David Bettner, known for Words with Friends, leave Zynga. This is on top of so many high-profile departures we'd be bombarding you every other day with a post, but let's just close this off by saying some milestone moments were the departures of chief creative officer Mike Verdu, chief operating officer John Schappert and Draw Something studio OMGPOP's Wilson Kriegel.Forbes points out Zynga's stock is down 74 percent this year, making it one of the worst-performing stocks among U.S. companies with market caps over a billion dollars. And, to think, when Zynga went public last December everything looked like it was going to be sunshine and lollipops... oh, wait, no it didn't.
Microsoft announces updates for Windows 8 built-in apps, just in time for October 26th launch
All signs point toward the impending general availability of Windows 8, what with the upcoming OS launch event, the Surface RT finally hitting the FCC, and Paul Allen letting the world knows what he thinks of it. In light of this, the Redmond company has announced a final update push to the built-in apps you'll find in Windows 8. The Bing update will be first out the gate tomorrow -- it promises richer search results for local content -- with the rest rolling out through October 26th. Also of note is Music, which touts "expanded music services" as an update (Xbox Music, anyone?). If you're itching to know what built-in apps will be updated, you can get the full and extensive list after the break.
AAPL sets another record: $700 in after-hours trading
I've been preaching AAPL for as long as I've been long on the stock -- or about 10 years now. In that time Apple has gone from being just another PC manufacturer to being the most valuable company on the planet and the master of the mobile handset world. Only three years ago, the stock was sitting at a low around $200. But just this calendar year alone the stock has blasted through the $400, $500, and $600 barriers (it crossed $400 in 2011 before falling again). Today the stock has hit another milestone: $700 a share in after-hours trading. The $700 share price now gives AAPL an almost $656 billion evaluation. Crossing the $700 can be seen one of two ways: response to Apple selling 2 million iPhone 5's in just 24 hours or just the natural trajectory of the stock (I tend to view it the second way since the stock went up less than 1.5% on the iPhone 5 news today). While $700 a share sounds like a lot, most analysts put the stock at a $850-950 range and some see it hitting $1,100 a share in the next 12 months. That's mainly due to the still increasing smartphone market and the nascent tablet market -- not to mention AAPL is still only trading with a 16.45PE (Amazon, on the other hand, has a PE of 314). As I said back in 2009, the sky does indeed seem to be the limit. Disclaimer: This author owns shares in AAPL. Opinions in this post are those of the author only and should not be considered as investment advice.
iPhone 5 announcement pushes AAPL to another record high
Apple announced the iPhone 5 last week, and pre-orders of the device were very impressive. According to the Washington Post, Wall Street responded favorably to the news of the iPhone 5, and brisk trading pushed Apple's stock to another record high. Apple opened the day on Friday with a record high stock price of US$689.97, and it didn't stay there for very long. By mid-afternoon, Apple's stock had climbed above $690 and closed out the day at an impressive $691.28. It never crossed the $700 mark, but hovered very close to it, reaching $696.98 at its highest point. With iOS 6 arriving on Wednesday and the iPhone 5 slated to go on sale this Friday, how high do you think Apple's stock will climb this week?
