Showing posts with label Qualcomm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Qualcomm. Show all posts

2019-05-11

Tech Review | How Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Each Hit $1 Trillion Valuation

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Tech Review (TR 2019-05-11)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) How Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Each Hit $1 Trillion Valuation, 2) 5G Hype, 3) Investing: The Week & Investor Notes, 4) ICYMI Tech News: Google, Amazon, YouTube, Verizon, Qualcomm, Intel, Apple, ASML, Pixel 3a.
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1) How Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Each Hit $1 Trillion Valuation

Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon are the first three publicly traded U.S. companies to hit $1 trillion in market value (market capitalization). WSJ’s Dan Gallagher explains how each company reached the milestone. Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) video above published May 6, 2019.

2) 5G Hype: 5G discussions are complex, convoluted, no one really knows what's happening:
source: statista.com
5G still has a long way to go and can't scale. The 5G network relies on mmWaves, whereas 4G LTE uses MHz.  T-Mobile's CTO Neville Ray: "Millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum has great potential in terms of speed and capacity, but it doesn’t travel far from the cell site and doesn’t penetrate materials at all. It will never materially scale beyond small pockets of 5G hotspots in dense urban environments."  

See also:

3) Investing
graphic: "INVESTING"  ©2017 DomainMondo.com
The Week: NASDAQ Composite -3.0% | S&P 500 Index -2.2% | DJIA -2.1%.

$UBER at market close on Friday (10 May 2019) was down -7.6% on its first day of trading after raising $8.1B in its IPO, which valued the company at about $82.4B.
Investor Notes: 

Gundlach warns Bear Market just getting started, "better than 50% chance"--China-US Trade Talks Collapse. China reportedly backtracked on almost all aspects of U.S. trade deal.

Warren Buffett calls the U.S. stock market “ridiculously cheap” (if interest rates stay at these low levels)--"Fed Model" indicates U.S. stocks are "cheap" relative to U.S. Treasury bonds--here’s the math: The spread between the S&P 500’s earnings yield -- a proxy for how much equities “pay” shareholders -- and the 10-year Treasury yield currently sits at 2.9 percentage points. (The wider it is, the cheaper are stocks.) While that difference began to expand significantly in December of last year and has come in a bit since, strip out the last five months and the relative payout of stocks over bonds is the highest since 2016. Also note Buffett's most recent annual letter (pdf):
“the annual change in Berkshire’s book value – which makes its farewell appearance on page 2 – is a metric that has lost the relevance it once had.
Europe: the Unbreakable, Unsustainable Eurozone--when the downturn happens, as it eventually will, the unsustainable will hit the unbreakable--ft.com. The EU sits between a rock and a hard place--politically unsustainable--fnlondon.com. Maybe Europe Can’t Recover From the Financial Crisis--The European Union’s flaws, cultural fragmentation and falling birth rates look like a formula for decline and there are number of signs that this pessimistic scenario will come to pass--Noah Smith in bloomberg.comHow Russia contaminated $2.7 billion of oil exports to Europe--contaminated oil found in Belarus, Poland, Germany, Ukraine and the Baltic port of Ust Luga, Druzhba network.

Someone Tell Theresa May and Parliament--“The Brexit horse has bolted”--UK banks told Reuters they would not reverse changes already made in preparation for Brexit, even if it was scrapped in a second referendum, nor would they financially support any future “Remain” or “Leave” campaigns. The banks have already transferred some client assets to new European Union legal entities, and moved about 2,000 jobs from London to offices in Dublin, Paris, Frankfurt and Madrid, thereby reducing costs of doing business in expensive London, and 'enhancing' the appeal of British banks to EU clients outside the UK. Instead, the bankers indicated they would continue to focus on future-proofing their businesses, updating technology, and expanding into new markets.

China VC: Sequoia Capital China, a widely viewed bellwether for Chinese tech investment, reportedly will lay off as much as 20 percent of its investment staff due to the slowdown in China's  tech sector.

Investors Beware the False Narratives:
"We make up stories in our minds and then against all evidence, defend them tooth and nail. Understanding why we do this is the key to discovering truth and making wiser decisions"--fs.blog

4) ICYMI Tech News:
graphic: "ICYMI Tech News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Google: transparency, choice and control in digital advertising--new protections and controls in Chrome--blog.google.

Amazon's new Blink XT2 smart camera cheaper than the original. AlsoWhy Amazon (video) is gobbling up failed malls in the U.S.

YouTube says it will make all of its original content free this fall, a strategy that its CBO says is in opposition to what other media companies are doing--Variety.com.

Verizon Looks to Unload Tumblr Blogging Site--another Marissa Mayer failed 'bright idea.' --
$VZ trying to steady a media business that has struggled to meet revenue targets.--wsj.com.

Qualcomm's Modems Are Faster And Better--seekingalpha.com. See also Intel's failure in 5G smartphone modems was just another point in a string of failures that will cost the company around $3 billion in revenues starting in 2020 ... "Avoid the stock as 2020 revenue estimates of $72 billion need to be cut"--seekingalpha.com.

Apple: EU to launch formal antitrust investigation into Apple in the next few weeks after Spotify accused the iPhone maker of “tilting the playing field to disadvantage competitors”--ft.com. See also
How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster--in interviews, current and former employees say brand building became more important than serving shoppers--bloomberg.com.

Dutch company ASML Granted Final Judgment by US Court Against XTAL for theft of trade secrets - $845 Million Awarded Will Be Uncollectible, But ASML Will Own XTAL IP--asml.com.

Less to lose? Germany's poorer East embraces tech revolution--reuters.com.

EU's Tusk warns of risks in rise of U.S. tech giants Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon: the European Union has been a leader in controlling how social media handle users' personal data, with rules known as GDPR introduced in May, 2018, giving regulators the power to impose fines of up to 4% of global revenues for violations.

Newspapers dying--for every reporter now, there are six PR workers, the US Census reports, and the number of PR flacks will continue rising, says Labor Department--bloomberg.com.

Personal tech: Google Pixel 3a: The $399 'Game Changing' Smartphone. Google also announced that this year and forward, all new Chromebook devices will be Linux ready--zdnet.com.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


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2019-05-08

Google Pixel 3a | The $399 Smartphone That Changes The Game (video)

Meet Pixel 3a -- The New Smartphone from Google that 'Changes the Game'
Pixel 3a Colors: Black, White, & Purple-ish  https://store.google.com/category/phones 
Pixel 3a: the helpful (and more affordable) phone by Google: "These days, you expect a lot from a smartphone. You want a premium camera that can take vivid, share-worthy photos wherever you go. You need a tool that connects you to the world with all your favorite apps and also helps out during the day. And you want a phone that has a battery that’s reliable for long stretches, while it stays secure and up to date with the latest software. You also don’t want it to break the bank. The new Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL are all of those things and more, for half the price of premium phones.Pixel 3a is designed to fit nicely in your hand, and includes an OLED display for crisp images and bright colors. It comes in three colors—Just Black, Clearly White, Purple-ish—and two sizes, with prices in the U.S. starting at $399 for the 5.6-inch display and $479 for the 6-inch model." Read more here.
Google Pixel 3a: This Changes Everything

MrMobile [Michael Fisher] video above published May 7, 2019: "The new Google Pixel 3a was announced today at Google I/O 2019, and I think it’s a turning point for smartphones in the U.S. See, while my fellow phone geeks know what a Pixel is and why it’s important … the majority of regular folks don’t. Because it doesn’t matter how great it is to have guaranteed software updates, or a camera that kicks out the most striking photos – if the phone is only sold on one carrier, at the same price as iPhones and Galaxy smartphones with much more eye-catching design, people aren’t going to buy the thing. When I was building this video, the seven-month-old Pixel 3 was on sale for 200 dollars off … but even so, it started at $599. With the Pixel 3a, Google is changing the game. The camera is nearly identical to that of the Pixel 3, right down to the sensor. The software is the same too, including the squeeze-shortcut for Google Assistant and the guaranteed three years of updates. The phone comes in two sizes just like before. But instead of being available only on Verizon or Google Fi, the Pixel 3a will hit the shelves of almost every US carrier ...  and it will start at $399. That’s just over half the price of the cheapest Samsung Galaxy S10, over a hundred dollars cheaper than the OnePlus 6T. If it delivers on its promises, the Pixel 3a will become the new go-to for Android users on a budget. Check out the Pixel 3a hands-on from Google I/O 2019!"

Editor's note: the full specs here indicate all models have NFC but only Models G020C & G020G have LTE Band 71 (may be important for T-Mobile users). UPDATE: Google Pixel team says the unlocked North American Pixel 3a has band 71-- specs here for all global variations (models) of the Pixel 3a (and 3a XL).

Google Pixel 3A review: a $399 phone with a great camera

The Verge video above published May 7, 2019: "Google’s Pixel 3A or Pixel 3A XL is the best phone under $500, and it’s actually competitive with more expensive phones in one very important way. The Pixel 3A has a great camera. While it has many of the same compromises you usually make when you buy a cheap phone, the photos it takes are nearly indistinguishable from what comes out of a Pixel 3."

Meet the Google Pixel 3a - The one you should get!

Pocketnow video above published May 7, 2019: "This is the Google Pixel 3a, what the company calls as its way to bring the Pixel experience to everyone, and while I thought I'd be underwhelmed by yet another midranger, it turns out that this phone is far more important than I thought it would be. Reporting from Google I/O I'm Jaime Rivera with Pocketnow, let's go hands-on."

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


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2019-05-01

Qualcomm $QCOM Q2 FY19 Earnings LIVE Webcast May 1, 4:45pm EDT

Qualcomm Q2 FY19 Earnings Conference Call & LIVE Webcast May 1, 2019, 4:45 pm EDT

UPDATE: FY 2019 2nd Quarter Earnings Release and Executive Presentation excerpt below:
Qualcomm reports second quarter fiscal 2019 earnings
• We delivered a better than expected quarter with earnings per share above the
high end of our estimates, reflecting stronger QTL results and solid execution in
QCT.
• We are also pleased to have reached multi-year agreements with Apple and look
forward to continuing to support them as a customer.
• We are executing well on our strategic priorities as 5G commercial launches
begin around the world.
• Our 5G technology and product leadership, as well as our expansion into new
industries and product categories, creates a strong foundation for long-term
revenue and earnings growth.
3G/4G/5G Device Estimates and supplemental results (pdf)

Qualcomm Investor Relations: qualcomm.com/info/investor-relations

NASDAQ: QCOM:
$QCOM
See also: 


feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


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2019-04-27

Tech Review | How Uber Is Preparing For Its $UBER IPO (video)

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Tech Review (TR 2019-04-27)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) How Uber Is Preparing For Its $UBER IPO, 2) Undersea Cables Carry 99% Of Transoceanic Data3) Investing: The Week & Investor Notes,  4)ICYMI Tech News: Apple, Qualcomm, Amazon, Huawei, AT&T, Why Go Long $IBM, London Unicorn Fintech Startups, and more.

1) How Uber Is Preparing For Its $UBER IPO

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says Uber is on track to go public later this year, a move that could make it the biggest IPO of 2019.  WSJ.com’s Jason Bellini breaks down five ways Uber is preparing itself for its market debut. WSJ.com video above published 2 Apr 2019.

Uber Form S-1--"We have applied to list our common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “UBER”--
 Uber S-1

UPDATE: see also S-1A: AMENDMENT NO. 1 TO FORM S-1 REGISTRATION STATEMENT filed 26 Apr 2019.

2) Undersea Cables Carry 99% Of Transoceanic Data
Despite their high cost and other challenges, modern undersea cables transmit data much faster and cheaper than satellites.The Cable That First United The World:

The dawn of instant global communication can be traced back to entrepreneur Cyrus West Field and his long-shot experiment to link the United States and Europe by telegraph in the 1850s. Bloomberg.com video above published Apr 16, 2019.

3) Investing
graphic: "INVESTING"  ©2017 DomainMondo.com
The Week: NASDAQ Composite +1.9% | S&P 500 Index +1.2% | DJIA <0.1%
S&P, NASDAQ set all-time closing highs after first-quarter GDP jump--MarketWatch.com
Investor Notes: 
Map of shipping routes shows the relative density of commercial shipping in the world's oceans (modified from original source: B.S. Halpern (T. Hengl; D. Groll) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link),

US economy grows by +3.2% in the first quarter, topping expectations--cnbc.com.

US: Love Affair With Cars Nearly Finished--moneymaven.io.

Germany, Europe’s largest economy, cut its forecast for 2019 growth in half, to just 0.5%, the slowest annual growth rate since 2013, when the euro zone was still trying to pull itself out of a sovereign debt crisis. Last year, German GDP rose by 1.4%.--qz.com

Threat of Contagion to Eurozone
from Spanish Banks’ Huge Bet on Emerging Markets to flee the consequences of euro debt crisis.--wolfstreet.com.

Italy's economy is one of the biggest downside risks to the global financial system and could spell disaster for Europe--businessinsider.com.

Gundlach: Modern Monetary Theory ‘Complete Nonsense--etftrends.com

Avoiding Stupidity is Easier than Seeking Brilliance--fs.blog.

The media exaggerates negative news. This distortion has consequences--theguardian.com"Far from being better informed, heavy newswatchers can become miscalibrated. They worry more about crime, even when rates are falling, and sometimes they part company with reality altogether."

Earnings season: Twitter, Facebook, Verisign, Amazon, and Microsoft (below):
Microsoft Earnings Release FY19 Q3 -- Microsoft Cloud Strength Drives Third Quarter Results -- Microsoft Corp. announced 24 Apr 2019, the following results for the quarter ended March 31, 2019, as compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year: Revenue was $30.6 billion and increased 14%; Operating income was $10.3 billion and increased 25%; Net income was $8.8 billion and increased 19%; Diluted earnings per share was $1.14 and increased 20% ... “Demand for our cloud offerings drove commercial cloud revenue to $9.6 billion this quarter, up 41% year-over-year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft. 

4) ICYMI Tech News:
graphic: "ICYMI Tech News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Qualcomm: Why The Success Story Just Begins--seekingalpha.com.

Apple said Qualcomm’s tech was 'no good' in legal pleadings, but in private communications Apple said Qualcomm's tech was ‘the best.’--washingtonpost.com: “It potentially reveals that Apple was engaging in a bad faith argument both in front of antitrust enforcers as well as the legal courts about the actual value and nature of Qualcomm’s patented innovation”--Adam Mossoff, a law professor at George Mason University and director of the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property.

Apple spends more than $30 million on Amazon’s cloud every month, making it one of the biggest AWS customers--cnbc.com.

Huawei funded by Chinese state security according to a report published last week in The Times | thetimes.co.uk: the CIA accused Huawei of receiving funding from China’s National Security Commission, the People’s Liberation Army and a third branch of the Chinese state intelligence network.

AT&T: SeekingAlpha.com: "... tackling debt by selling off assets ... The yield is still over 6.3% ... the stock has had no growth in a decade, [but] that could change with WarnerMedia" [Editor's note: or perhaps not. AT&T Inc’s Q1 2019 revenue fell short of Wall Street estimates, losing subscribers in nearly all its businesses except wireless where it used aggressive price promotions. AT&T lost a net 544,000 premium TV subscribers, a category that includes DirecTV satellite and U-verse television customers. Analysts had expected a loss of 385,000 customers across DirecTV and U-verse, according to FactSet.com.]

Why go long IBM? Red Hat deal closes in H2 2019, plus strategic imperatives like cloud, security, AI, and blockchain.

London unicorn fintech startups vs. San Francisco--cityam.com.

U.S. activist investor Elliott Management invests 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) in German business software company SAP.

Japan’s Softbank Group Corp to invest $1 billion in Wirecard via a convertible bond deal that may provide it a 5.6 percent stake in the German digital payments company.

Former Mozilla exec: Google sabotaged Firefox for years--zdnet.com.

The Streaming Wars: The Market Guide--seekingalpha.com.

Personal tech: feel trapped in Apple's ecosystem? Apple isn't the only one with an expansive ecosystem of products, services, and software--zdnet.com.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


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2019-04-20

Tech Review | How Amazon $AMZN Could Disrupt Health Care (video)

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Tech Review (TR 2019-04-20)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) How Amazon $AMZN Could Disrupt Health Care, 2) Why Food-Delivery Apps Could Leave Restaurants Footing the Bill, 3) Investing: The Week & Investor Notes, 4) ICYMI Tech News: Qualcomm, Apple, Intel, Pinterest, Zoom, Uber, Amazon, Microsoft.

1) How Amazon $AMZN Could Disrupt Health Care

"Amazon has been described has the “everything store, ” but it’s missing one major category - prescription medicines. That might soon change, in the wake of Amazon’s roughly $1 billion acquisition of PillPack, an internet pharmacy. Health experts told CNBC that it’s only a mater of time before Amazon starts selling prescription drugs on its online marketplace, and that it’s assembling a team to do just that. For Amazon, pharmacy represents a multibillion market opportunity, but it’s also highly complicated and will involve battling with some entrenched competition that has a vested interest in keeping drug prices high. But Amazon, with its scale, leverage, and supply chain expertise, could be the company to do it, the experts said. People buying medical supplies on Amazon, such as glucometers and cold medicine, can now use their flexible savings accounts or health savings accounts to get discounts. These programs, often referred to as an HSA or FSA, allow people with health insurance to set aside a portion of their salary before taxes to cover medical expenses that would have been paid for out-of-pocket, such as prescription medicines and medical supplies.

"In recent years, Amazon has started adding more health and wellness products, including medical devices and over-the-counter medicines. Amazon’s rival Walmart, which currently offers pharmacy services, also has a storefront for HSA and FSA products. To sell prescription medicines, Amazon will need to work with middlemen, known as pharmacy benefits managers, in order to take a customer’s insurance. Some health experts suggest that the move into adding HSA and FSA cards is a smart method for Amazon to learn more about people’s spending on health. “It’s a back end way for Amazon to learn about consumer purchasing behavior of health care products and services, as it moves more deeply into the space,” said Michael Yang, a health-tech investor with Omers Ventures.

"Some in the pharmacy world have speculated that Amazon will get into the space by initially focusing this segment of consumers that typically pays cash for their prescription medicine. That’s about 6 percent of the U.S. population, which is a chunk of the $450 billion pharmacy market."--CNBC.com video above published Apr 10, 2019.

2) Why Food-Delivery Apps Could Leave Restaurants Footing the Bill

America's love for take-out is spurring a boom in food delivery startups. But what's convenient for customers may not be good for restaurants reports the Wall Street Journal (wsj.com). Video above published Apr 5, 2019.

3) Investing
graphic: "INVESTING"  ©2017 DomainMondo.com
The Week: NASDAQ Composite +0.2% | S&P 500 Index -0.1% | DJIA +0.6%
Investor Notes: U.S. stock markets were closed on Friday, April 19, in observance of Good Friday. Good Friday is the only day U.S. markets are closed for the day that isn't also a federal (U.S.) holiday. The New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ will resume normal trading hours on Monday.

Cash Out, or Go All In: When Stocks Are Up 16% and It's Only April--bloomberg.com: “The first quarter’s rally would have been good enough to shut the whole year down and call it a day,” said Scott Colyer, chief investment officer at Advisors Asset Management. Even so, he says, “I’m paid to be a worrier. I look hard for signs that the markets are about to roll over every day. I don’t see them.”

S&P outperformance continues--bloomberg.com: U.S. investors are throwing in the towel on international stocks, diversification push fading.

Foreign investors sharply increased their holdings of US Treasury securities over December, January, and February, adding $185 billion, while ... American institutions and individuals are buying them at a ravenous clip--Who Bought the Huge $1.26 Trillion of New US Government Debt over the Past 12 Months?--WolfStreet.com.

Eurozone industrial production contracts for fourth straight month: Germany suffered 2% decline in February, Eurozone factories stuck in longest slump since debt crisis--telegraph.co.uk.

‘Flash Boys’ Trading Bots Are Running Wild on Crypto Exchanges-- Cornell Tech detects front running at decentralized exchanges. Researchers suggest impact could be in billions of dollars--bloomberg.com.

Brexit: “They’re all liars mate,” said my London cabbie. “May was a Remainer. How were we going to get a good deal when our negotiators don’t want to leave?” he asked. I shrugged. “They’ll stall until they can say it’s not what people want no more -- happened in every country that ever wanted a referendum or held one,” he said. “The EU paid to move a Land Rover factory from the Midlands to Slovakia where they earn 5 pound for every 25 we make – so our boys are out of work and the company makes more profit. How’s that right?,” he asked. “For every two pound we put into the EU, we get one back.” So I asked if Britain held another referendum, which way it’d go? “We’re split in two mate, we’re absolutely shattered.” --zerohedge.com.

Goldman Economists Say Trump Re-Election More Likely Than Not-- incumbency and state of economy help Trump’s chances--bloomberg.com. According to Nobel Prize winner, Robert Schiller, an election victory for President Donald Trump would not only boost the stock market but postpone the impending and imminent recession--zerohedge.com.

Global Migration of Millionaires | visualcapitalist.com: world’s wealthiest are the most mobile.
Biggest gainers: Australia +12,000; U.S. +10,000*; Canada +4000
*New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco all had inflows of over +1000
Biggest Losers: China -15,000; Russia -7000; India -5000; Turkey -4000.

4) ICYMI Tech News:
graphic: "ICYMI Tech News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Qualcomm hands Apple a stunning defeat--seekingalpha.com: Qualcomm has the only working 5G modem, and will be first to market this year, plus Qualcomm's rich 5G patent portfolio.

Intel to Exit 5G Smartphone Modem Business, Focus 5G Efforts on Network Infrastructure and Other Data-Centric Opportunities--newsroom.intel.com.

Apple: App Store Q1 downloads reportedly drop 5% YoY, first decline since 2015 --9to5mac.com.

Pinterest Inc IPO:
NYSE: PINS Thursday, April 18, 2019
Zoom Video Communications Inc IPO: 
NASDAQ: ZM Thursday, April 18, 2019
.Uber Discloses 3-Yr $10-Billion Loss from Operations, Stalling Rideshare Revenue & 50 Pages of “Risk Factors” that Are Not for the Squeamish--wolfstreet.com.

Amazon: retailers and Amazon.com-- major brands increasingly distribute clothing and accessories directly through Amazon.com, attracted by more than 100 million Amazon Prime members and Amazon logistics.

Microsoft A Better Buy Than Amazon? Microsoft's valuation is reasonable given its historical performance, growth potential, brand, and recession resilience.--seekingalpha.com.

Cable TV Cord-Cutting Is Quickly Picking Up Pace, while SVOD (subscription or streaming video on demand, e.g., Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc.) has reached 69% penetration of the US market.

College is Broken: Reflections and Predictions--hackernoon.com.

Personal Tech: Quitting social media liberated me--cbc.ca: 'I put down my phone and picked up my life.'

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


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2019-04-13

Tech Review | Why The Tech Giants Have Many CEOs Running Scared

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Tech Review (TR 2019-04-13)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) Why The Tech Giants Have Many CEOs Running Scared, 2)  SpaceX ARABSAT-6A Falcon Heavy Launch and Triple Landing Highlights, 3) Investing: The Week & Investor Notes, 4) ICYMI Tech News: Amazon, Huawei, Qualcomm, SAP, Grab, Lyft & Uber IPOs, Boeing, Disney.

1) Why The Tech Giants Have Many CEOs Running Scared

Why are chief executive officers so worried about tech giants investing in their sectors? James Fontanella-Khan, the FT’s US corporate finance and deals expert, explains how legacy companies are trying to fight the disruptors and stay relevant by making risky acquisitions. Financial Times (ft.com) video above published Apr 5, 2019. Learn more at https://bigdeal.ft.com/.

2) SpaceX ARABSAT-6A Falcon Heavy Launch and Triple Landing Highlights

Highlights from the 11 April 2019 launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA.

3) Investing
graphic: "INVESTING"  ©2017 DomainMondo.com
The Week: NASDAQ Composite +0.6% | S&P 500 Index +0.5% | DJIA -0.1%

Investor Notes: 
• Survey: which US sector will outperform for the remainder of the year? "Tech" #1
•  US: Initial Jobless Claims Plunge To Lowest In 50 Years--zerohedge.com. Inflation? Less than 2%. Fed Funds Rate? Less than 3%.  Hedge funds have 'once again missed much of the recent move in stocks'--zerohedge.com.

•  EU:  IMF sharply downgrades its outlook for euro-area economies--bloomberg.comSocGen Slashing 1,600 Trading Jobs After 19% Loss--750 jobs in France will go as part of cuts--bloomberg.com. The French bank's share price has declined 40 percent in the last 12 months, compared with a 17 percent drop in the Euro STOXX Banks Index. Europe, The Big Short--seekingalpha.com.

• Brexit: the UK economy has been drifting away from Europe for years: one of five reasons why--"... the EU is stagnating ..."--telegraph.co.uk. Nonetheless, UK's political class apparently can't let go.

• China:

• Real Estate? A Simon Property Group Mall Generates Largest Loss Ever for Retail CMBS  How the Brick & Mortar Meltdown works for Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities after America’s largest mall landlord defaults on a mortgage and walks away from the mall--wolfstreet.com. See also US housing market deteriorates, shift to a buyer's market accelerates, U.S. markets will have the highest percentage of homes that sell at discount versus the list price in many years----2Q19 National Knock Deals Report.

• Asset prices in the modern era: In Barron’s this past weekend, J.P Morgan chief U.S. equity strategist Dubravko Lakos-Bujas:  
 We are all used to using the word “cycle”; we’re all used to looking at historical charts and graphs and equations and relationships. The reality is that maybe the word “cycle” is no longer even relevant, given that we have so much unconventional central-bank involvement.

4) ICYMI Tech News:
graphic: "ICYMI Tech News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Amazon Day Two: 1) Amazon Shares Are Headed Higher From Here; 2)Project Kuiper” plans to launch over 3,000 satellites offering broadband internet. See also Inside Eero's $97 million fire sale to Amazon--mashable.com, and Amazon buys warehouse robotics startup Canvas Technology.

Huawei: "How did a private Chinese firm come to dominate the world’s most important emerging technology?--One theme is clear: Throughout its history, Huawei appears to have benefited from state support not available to the company’s Western rivals ... European investigators have found evidence that Huawei may have received a massive $30 billion line of credit from the China Development Bank, among other well-timed financing ..."--foreignpolicy.com. [Editor's note: all Chinese companies are SOEs to one degree or another.]

Qualcomm aims to take on Nvidia, Intel with new AI chips.

SAP cloud business head quits after 27 years in latest top departures--under a restructuring announced in January about 4400 positions will be eliminated. SAP rival Oracle has also announced some layoffs with some of its top talent going to Google.

Grab (domain: grab.com) seeks another $2 billion funding. The Southeast Asian startup, based in Singapore, is backed by Japan's SoftBank.

Lyft's stock slide casts long shadow on Uber's IPO:
$LYFT

Boeing 737Maxanother chapter in the book titled Normalization of Deviance?

Disney announced Thursday its new family-friendly streaming service will cost $7 monthly or $70 annually.

Personal Tech: 
  • Investigation shows how easy and affordable obtaining cellphone customers' real-time location data can be, as T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T peddle it to middlemen.
  • The Robocall Crisis Will Never Be Totally Fixed--"Always hang up immediately if you answer a call that you don't recognize"--wired.com.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


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2019-01-12

Tech Review | Apple's China Problem Goes Deeper Than iPhones

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Tech Review (TR 2019-01-12) Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news:  Features • 1) Apple's China Problem Goes Deeper Than iPhones, 2) Silicon Carbide’s Meteoric Rise, 3) Investing: The Week, Notes: Eurozone, Brexit, Recession? 4) ICYMI Tech News: Amazon, Qualcomm, Facebook, Apple, Google, Ripe for Disruption.

1) Apple's China Problem Goes Deeper Than iPhones

Tepid iPhone sales aren't all that ail Apple (apple.com) in China. Competition from local smartphone rivals, trade-dispute fallout and a court battle could make 2019 a tough year for Apple in its most important market outside the U.S. Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) video above published Jan 7, 2019.  See also Why Apple Revised Its Outlook - It's Not All China (video).

NASDAQ: AAPL
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2) Silicon Carbide’s Meteoric Rise

For the first time, silicon carbide – a material older than the solar system – is helping power electric vehicles and ease the use of solar technology. While the compound was first discovered in meteorites dating back over 4.6 billion years, it’s now possible to synthesize it and use it to make power semiconductors. “Silicon carbide’s advantages can be summed up in one word – efficiency,” explains Alexander Duval of Goldman Sachs Research.

Although cheaper silicon-based devices are more widespread, silicon carbide can withstand higher temperatures and preserve more energy than silicon, benefiting power sources like batteries. Duval believes that silicon carbide could ultimately slash the cost of manufacturing EVs and installing solar inverters – savings that will outweigh its higher initial cost in the long run. GoldmanSachs.com video above first published Jan 7, 2019.

3) Investing
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The WeekNASDAQ Composite +3.5% | S&P 500 Index +2.5% | DJIA +2.4% 
"The stock market just got off to its best start in 13 years"--marketwatch.com
Long View
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Investing Notes: 

Next ECB chief will be in an ‘incredibly difficult position' says Economist

Daniel Lacalle, chief economist at Tressis Gestion (tressis.com), discusses the European Central Bank (ECB) and the future of European monetary policy. CNBC International TV video above published Jan 10, 2019.
  • Eurozone: not safe yet--the euro still needs fixing--economist.com
  • Recession? 
"John Maynard Keynes talked about feedback. When people lose their job, they stop spending. That feeds back into the labor market again because when they stop spending, more jobs are lost. It gets feedback and can amplify itself into a big depression, as Keynes explained. There’s a lot of talk in the air about a recession being overdue, or a recession coming. To some extent, this talk itself can be a self‑fulfilling prophecy"--Robert J. Shiller on Bubbles, Reflexivity, and Narrative Economics.

4) ICYMI Tech News:
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  • Qualcomm says Huawei gets only 22 percent of its modems from Qualcomm, and Samsung gets only 38 percent of the chips it uses from Qualcomm.
  • Facebook $FB: Over a 5-month period, Facebook $FB lost more than 40% of its market capitalization--SeekingAlpha.com. See also: Inside Facebook's 'cult-like' workplace, where dissent is discouraged and employees pretend to be happy all the time--cnbc.com.
  • Ripe for Disruption? $3.5 Trillion A Year: Is America's Health Care System The World's Largest Money-Making Scam?--zerohedge.com.
  • China approves second group of video games but none of Tencent Holdings Ltd.
  • Personal tech: Acer's first AMD Chromebook comes with a 15.6-inch display, AMD A4 or A6 CPUs, integrated Radeon graphics, and up to 8GB of RAM, starting at $280.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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