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Storyboard: Only good once
Truce Sokolov is a character I like to hold up as an example of how characters can take on lives of their own. She was created as more of a throwaway than anything, a Draenei Shaman whose main character trait was being kind of shy. Flash-forward a year, and she was my main character on the Alliance side of the fence, fleshed out into a strong and capable woman hamstrung by her lack of faith in herself and a resentment of her militaristic environment. She defined a large chunk of my roleplaying in World of Warcraft. So I've tried to port her over to other games. And it has never worked. To date, I've created about a dozen different Truces in different games, and absolutely every one of them has tripped at the starting gate. Or imploded on the launch pad. So as I sift through the wreckage of yet another incarnation of the character, it seems apropos to discuss characters that only work in a single incarnation no matter how hard you try.
Rumor: EA putting itself up for sale
Electronic Arts, long known for assimilating numerous studios under its label, may be putting itself up for sale in return. The New York Post reports that EA is looking into such a deal with various interested firms, such as KKR and Providence Equity Partners. One of the Post's sources said that EA would be willing to sell to such a firm at $20 a share, even though the company's share value is currently just north of $13. Its stock fell from $25.20 nine months ago, although industry analyst Michael Pachter predicts that EA's stock should double within a year. EA isn't the only company looking to shore up its future, as the videogame market is slumping worldwide since last year. One bright spot is its digital sales, which are up over 2011's numbers and resulted in a $324 million revenue in the first quarter of 2012. EA refused to comment on the rumor, as did KKR and Providence Equity.
Zynga passing out stock to keep employees
The hits keep coming for Zynga, and we aren't talking about blockbuster game launches. The latest is from a Bloomberg source, who says Zynga gave out equity grants to all full-time employees in late July to prevent an exodus, following the tides of fortune turning.Bloomberg reports although the company routinely gives options and cash bonuses to employees, this was the first time equity awards were given to all staff.This all went down on July 25 and company news has been nuts since, with an insider trading lawsuit, then another lawsuit from Electronic Arts, and the departure of the company's chief operating officer. Looks like Zynga's gonna need to find some more of that $3 stock to pass around like chiclets.
Forbes: Activision's dependence on declining WoW subs 'potential for a catastrophic situation'
With the recent news of World of Warcraft's struggling subscription numbers fresh on our minds, Forbes investigated WoW's primary shareholder and predicted trouble on the horizon for investors. "After looking into Activision Blizzard, Inc., we discovered an amazing looking company that is unfortunately almost completely sustained by the revenue it reaps from one game, World of Warcraft," the authors notes. "When considering that the same company has a 60% majority shareholder (Vivendi) looking to sell its shares in the company you get the potential for a catastrophic situation." Because Vivendi is having difficulty unloading Activision, Forbes says that any sharp decline in World of Warcraft's revenue will drag down Vivendi's stock severely. The authors also note that the company will suffer from the launch of Guild Wars 2: "The bottom line here is that gamers like to start on level playing fields. Gamers love to save money. Gamers are always in a frantic rush to play superior games. These three factors are the main reasons why Guild Wars 2 will win over market share from WoW." [Thanks to Mike for the tip!]
Could AAPL split in a move toward Dow? Bernstein analyst thinks it will
A week after Apple posted its third-quarter earnings for 2012, Bernstein Research analyst A.M. "Toni" Sacconaghi speculates that the time is right for Apple to split its stock if it wants a future spot as an indexed member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Dow is woefully underpopulated with technology companies, Sacconaghi argues, and IBM and Microsoft were added during a time when the PC market was far less mature than the smartphone market is now. But if Apple was to join the DJIA, the price of the stock would have to come down from the current $607 that it's trading at as of this morning. The Dow is a price-based index with few stocks selling more than $100 a share. Granted, this is speculation worthy of Chris Rawson's rumor roundups. Despite some headlines indicating that it's practically a done deal, Sacconaghi's scenario is just that -- a "what if" situation. As Barron's Tiernan Ray rightfully points out, Apple has not indicated that it has any current intention of splitting its shares -- although the company has done so three times before, most recently in 2005. The New York Times's DealBook blog is also considering Apple's fiscal future, pointing out a few possible big-game acquisition targets for the company's ample cash hoard. Writer Andrew Ross Sorkin saves the serious caveats for the end of the post (much of Apple's cash is overseas and cannot be repatriated without a tax hit, for example) after he speculates on some truly blue-sky options for Apple's shopping list. Twitter and Path? Nuance? Sprint? Research In Motion?!? Despite the reports of past talks between Apple and Twitter, none of these seem particularly likely. If we're throwing darts at the stock listings, though, perhaps Apple will fork over $68 billion and take over Comcast, which would gain it 51% of NBC Universal along with millions of paying cable customers. [via Reuters] #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Twitter quietly adds clickable stock symbols
It might not pack the same thrill as the rumors of in-feed video, but Twitter has added clickable stock symbols on tweets. This now throws up search results for both the stock and the company, using a new 'cash' tag, like $FB, to differentiate from typical links and tags. As noted by TNW, it's bad news for the founder of StockTwits, a service that offered similar functionality to gather tweet-based financial nuggets. The new feature is live across Twitter's web client -- though it hasn't hit TweetDeck just yet -- and should make discovering exactly how many millions companies have made (or lost) all a bit faster.
NASDAQ tells THQ they cool for now
THQ received notification from stock exchange NASDAQ that the company is back in compliance, having maintained a closing stock price of over $1 for 10 consecutive business days.The publisher accomplished the feat through a 10-to-one reverse stock split, consolidating THQ's 70 million shares to 7 million and inflating the price by moving the decimal point one space to the right. THQ's market capitalization now stands at $35.4 million, and its stock is trading at $5.16/share this morning.THQ has done the executive shuffle the past few months to get things back on track, adding new president Jason Rubin and announcing yesterday the addition of Relic founder Ron Moravek as "Executive Vice President, Production." THQ's next game is Darksiders 2, due on August 14.
ZTE Grand X coming to UK for £190 pay-as-you-go: 4.3-inch qHD, microSD, stock Android 4.0
If this is the "advanced gaming smartphone" that ZTE teased a few days ago, then we can't help but feel a little miffed. It'd be fairer to describe the Grand X as the most advanced phone in ZTE's growing budget line-up, and if you look at it from that perspective then it's rather more impressive. For £190 PAYG with Virgin Mobile in the UK, you're getting a 4.3-inch qHD LCD touchscreen, dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 processor (no Nexus 7 guts here unfortunately), microSD expandable storage (plus 4GB built-in and 512MB RAM), 5-megapixel rear camera and VGA front-facer, sub-10mm thickness and -- ta-da! -- stock Ice Cream Sandwich, albeit accompanied by legacy Gingerbread navigation buttons. We'd have liked to see the proper, up-to-date Android 4.0 button layout, but in any case the absence of ZTE's Kanzi skin or indeed any other customization is a welcome change, because Google juice tastes fine served neat. Now, we already did an early hands-on with this phone in June (not to mention its previous incarnation, the Mimosa X) and noted its fluid operation, solid build quality and capable display, and all of those things remain true in the retail-ready handset we've seen in the UK. The budget scene has certainly come a long way since last year, but do we expect the Grand X to have an easy ride on the market? Probably not -- at least not when a phone like the Orange San Diego are offering a more modern processor, more RAM and better pixel density for just £10 more. That said, if a pure and uncluttered version of the OS is a priority, and if you can get this phone on a great deal when it arrives at Phones4U and Virgin Media stores at the beginning of August, then the Grand X is certainly worth a look.%Gallery-160639%%Gallery-158837%
Rumor: Vivendi plans to sell Activision Blizzard
Bloomberg reports that Vivendi is looking to sell its 61 percent holding in Activision Blizzard, according to "a person with knowledge of the situation." If they are unable to find a purchaser for the entire $8.1 billion stake, they will attempt to sell part of it on the open market. Again, this is just a rumor, but the CEO of the French Company just quit this week during a board meeting, reportedly due to a disagreement about selling off the huge telecommunication and media company's assets. The Wall Street Journal reports that "people familiar with the matter" claim that the board is considering splitting up Vivendi outright. Until the rumor is confirmed and the success of the sale or spinoff is resolved, we will not know the fate of Blizzard or World of Warcraft. Those who say the sale of Blizzard to the merger of Blizzard and Activision brought down the quality of the game may laud the situation, while others will add this to the many reasons they claim that WoW is doomed. But speculation is just that, and we'll keep an eye out for actual facts as they happen.
Nexon pays $685 million for 14.7 percent of NCsoft
Nexon is now a minority shareholder in MMO publisher NCsoft, having purchased 3.218 million shares of the company from NCsoft chairman/cofounder Taek Jin Kim to the tune of ₩804.5 billion ($685.43 millon) – 14.7 percent of total stock. This makes Nexon the largest shareholder in NCsoft, according to VentureBeat.The purchase is part of a two-year agreement between the two South Korean game companies, though the specifics of said agreement remain shrouded in mystery. This announcement comes somewhat cooly on the heels of reports that claimed Nexon had designs to take over EA; reports that ended up being far less interesting than originally thought. Update: Nexon has informed us that the deal was a "one-time purchase" and that they "have not made any announcements about any future plans."
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.
Goldman Sachs lists Apple at the top for hedge funds holdings
Apple stock is attractive to a wide variety of investors, including those who put their money in hedge funds. According to a Market Folly report, Goldman Sachs released its Q1 2012 Hedge Fund Trend Monitor report and placed Apple's stock at the top of its list. Apple appears on 106 funds that list the stock among its top 10 holdings. Other tech companies on the list from Goldman Sachs include Google in second place and Microsoft at number four.
Target pulls Kindle from virtual shelves, physical ones may follow
Since 2010, Target has happily hawked Amazon's e-reading wares. The retailer even carved out a branded corner of its online shop just for the Kindle. Now though, that store within a store is empty and conspicuously missing from Target's virtual shelves is Amazon's entire Kindle line. Sure, a few accessories remain, but the readers themselves are gone. What's more, according to an internal memo obtained by The Verge, the products will be cease to be restocked at the company's brick and mortar locations starting May 13th. The communique states that, after evaluation, Target "has made the decision to no longer carry Amazon hardware." The reasoning behind the banishment isn't clear, but the potential causes are practically endless. Amazon's vast online repository of goods, including some grocery items, makes it a direct competitor of the big box outlet. Target continues to carry the Nook and Kobo e-readers, but those company's don't challenge the retailer. It's also possible that, with mini Apple Stores opening up on its premises, Cupertino put some pressure on Target to clear out its competitors. It could also be as simple as collapsed contract negotiations, with Target failing to get as big a cut of sales as it wanted or, and this is a bit of a stretch, the Minneapolis company could be preparing to launch its own e-reading hardware. Neither Amazon nor Target has responded to our requests for comment at this time. Update: Target has affirmed the move to Reuters, with the following statement: "Target is phasing out Amazon- and Kindle-branded products in the spring of 2012."
Apple Q2 2012 earnings: $39.2 billion in revenue, net profit of $11.6 billion
Tim Cook: Apple focusing more on iPad for enterprise Tim Cook hates litigation, not quite ready to call a patent truce 365 million iOS devices 'in play,' iPad taking off in education and government markets How do you follow up a stunning Q1 where you set record quarterly earnings and issue a sizable dividend to investors? Well, if you're Apple, you just keep on keepin' on, shattering even the wildest expectations with "a record March quarter." Leading up to today's earnings, the outfit's stock was down around two percent, mostly on reports that iPhone activations were something other than mind-blowing. That said, shares have already started to creep back into positive territory in after-hours trading. Wall Street was hoping for around $36.88 billion in revenue (despite lower guidance from Apple itself), with upwards of 30 million iPhones sold and 12 million iPads sold -- galling numbers, no matter how you slice it. The actuals? Well, we're seeing $12.30 earnings per share, compared to an estimated $10.04 earnings per share. It all adds up to $39.2 billion in revenue and $11.6 billion in pure, unadulterated profit with 35.1 million iPhone units sold alongside 11.8 million iPads. (Of note, the new iPad was only on sale for around a fortnight in this quarter, making that figure even more impressive.) The former represents an 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter, while the latter shows a 151 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Though Mac sales weren't equally astonishing, the four million units sold in the past three months indicates a seven percent uptick compared to Q2 2011. The iPod department, which has been sinking in recent years as iPads and iPhones become the primary music players of consumers, still saw 7.7 million units sold, representing a 15 percent decline from the same quarter last year. Just to put things in perspective, Apple nearly doubled its profits in Q2 2012 compared to Q2 2011, and practically quadrupled it compared to Q2 2010.Just to put things in perspective, Apple nearly doubled its profits in Q2 2012 compared to Q2 2011, and practically quadrupled it compared to Q2 2010. As for CEO Tim Cook's reaction? Aside from grinning from ear-to-ear looking at his growing stash of loot, he stated: "We're thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter. The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you're going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver." Keep on telling us that, Tim, and we'll keep waiting. The conference call kicks off at 5PM ET, and we'll be liveblogging it just after the break!
Apple will webcast Q212 earnings release conference call on April 24
What is arguably the most anticipated earnings call on Wall Street every quarter will take place next Tuesday, April 24th at 2pm PT/5pm ET. That's when Apple will release its earnings report for the second quarter, which ended March 31st. There's lots of speculation about whether Apple will hit consensus estimates for their Mac products -- notably iMacs and MacBook Pros, which have not seen major updates in almost a year. However it's generally assumed that the launch of the new iPad in this quarter will help Apple offset any missed Mac numbers. In the run up to the earnings call this week, Apple's stock has swung wildly, having its largest ever point drop on Monday, followed by its largest ever point gain on Tuesday, before falling over 3% again on Wednesday. AAPL shares are up 45% YTD. TUAW will have complete coverage of next Tuesday's financial results.
AAPL declines again, S&P and Nasdaq see an impact
When it comes to stocks, Apple is an influencer and any changes in its stock price will affect US stock indexes. That's what happened on Monday when the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged and the NASDAQ and S&P fell because of Apple, says a report in Forbes. The NASDAQ and S&P both include Apple, and the company's five day decline is dragging the two indexes down. Apple's stock is now sitting at US$580.13, a 4.2 percent decline from its previous high of $610.28.
Mobile Miscellany: week of April 9th, 2012
Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you're like us and really want to know what's going on, then you've come to the right place. This past week, we've seen clues to suggest the Galaxy Nexus will arrive at Sprint in a matter of days, and leaked materials suggest Rogers will have the HTC One X in stock by April 20th. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of April 9th, 2012.
Apple Cash Call: TUAW Liveblog
Welcome to our liveblog of the Apple financial call discussing the company's cash position. As announced in the 8:30 am press release, Apple plans to issue a dividend and initiate a stock buyback program.
Apple plans to initiate dividend and share repurchase program
A statement by Apple this morning has confirmed the company will start paying dividends to investors and buy back US $10 billion in shares starting this year. Subject to declaration by the Board of Directors, the Company plans to initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012. Additionally, the Company's Board of Directors has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program commencing in the Company's fiscal 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012. Additional details will be available during Apple's conference call which begins Monday at 6:00 a.m. PDT. You can listen to the call on Apple's website, or follow along with our liveblog kicking off shortly.
Apple announces dividend and share repurchase program for 2012, expects to spend $45 billion over three years
Surprise, surprise -- Apple just let the cat out of its own bag. In right around a half-hour, the company will officially unwrap plans to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program commencing later this year. 'Course, analysts have been clamoring for such an announcement for quite some time, and with a stock price near $600 and some $100 billion in the bank, the outfit can clearly afford it. More specifically, Apple plans to "initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012." Granted, that's all subject to the Board of Directors giving the ole a-okay, but we highly doubt the company would issue such knowledge without a practical guarantee that everyone is on board. Additionally, the Company's Board of Directors has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program commencing in the Apple's fiscal 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012; we're told that said program will be executed over three years, with the main goal being to "neutralize the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs."As for CEO Tim Cook's thoughts on the matter? "We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure. You'll see more of all of these in the future. Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. So we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program."Naturally, this all shows that Apple is supremely confident in its future, but it doesn't shed any light into potential acquisitions from a technology standpoint. Strangely enough, it was just a few days ago that Mr. Cook ended his new iPad keynote with a promise that 2012 would be chock full of unbelievable things from his company, but it sounds like the only folks celebrating this particular announcement are those with a hand in the stockpile. We don't expect to glean much more than what's given in the presser just past the break, but we'll be liveblogging the actual conference call starting at 9AM ET.
