Beats gives Apple foretaste of car-making woes 3 Jun 2015 The iPhone maker is recalling 233,000 speakers made by the firm it bought last year. Apple has dealt with faulty goods before. But the scale of the recall and the reason, fire hazard, echo problems faced by the auto industry – a group CEO Tim Cook may want to join.
Playtech could find trading tougher than gaming 1 Jun 2015 Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi’s company has bid $700 mln for Plus500, the trading platform hit by a watchdog-mandated freeze on accounts. Playtech could flog online smarts to retail brokers - as it has in the gaming sector. But there may be fewer big players in need of advice.
Intel chips in for elusive post-M&A pricing power 1 Jun 2015 Its $17 bln swoop on Altera is the third big semiconductor deal of late. The six participants’ market caps have jumped by up to $35 bln. Cost cuts account for well under half that. The rest may reflect hopes that the acquirers can work magic on their top lines. That’s optimistic.
Avago offers textbook case for chip consolidation 28 May 2015 The serial acquirer is buying semiconductor rival Broadcom for more than $36 bln. Cost cuts should just about cover the 30 pct premium. Avago’s track record, the cash-and-stock mix and the logic of industry mergers all add up, too. Only an interloper could spoil the party.
HP’s China deal extracts harmony from awkwardness 22 May 2015 Selling 51 pct of its Chinese networking unit for $2.3 bln to a state-owned company looks like a partial retreat from an unfriendly market. But the U.S. tech giant now has a powerful ally with deep ties to Beijing. Rivals from Cisco to Microsoft should consider similar matches.
HP improves on logic of its split 21 May 2015 CEO Meg Whitman originally thought separating the company’s PC arm would incur $1 bln a year in extra costs. The figure is now down to about $425 mln. That should help the split narrow the $61 bln HP’s stubborn conglomerate discount, even if it won’t create a glowing new future.
Sale would add to gnarly Ancestry.com family tree 21 May 2015 The genealogy website went public in 2009, only to sell itself to a Permira-led private equity consortium three years later. Now it’s on the block again, according to Reuters. The company has been struggling to turn nostalgia into profit. A new owner may not fare any better.
Yahoo tax distraction accentuates bigger challenge 20 May 2015 Worries that the IRS may block the company’s mooted spinoff of a $34 bln stake in Alibaba sent Yahoo shares tumbling. The reaction suggests the U.S. internet grab-bag is still largely defined by the Chinese e-commerce giant, not what CEO Marissa Mayer is trying to build.
Computer Sciences’ split is good second choice 20 May 2015 The IT services firm’s shrinking market and already tight cost controls made it an improbable buyout candidate. Declaring a chunky special dividend and separating out its gem – the arm that does U.S. government business – is the next-best way to keep investors happy.
Squeezing suppliers risks U.S. carmakers’ future 19 May 2015 A new study claims Chrysler, Ford and GM could have made $1.8 bln more last year if they hadn’t been so mean to parts makers. History shows haranguing suppliers is mutually damaging. It’s especially short-sighted when they’ll be the source of tech innovations for connected cars.
SoftBank lives up to its name with Indian startup 19 May 2015 Housing.com CEO Rahul Yadav is a venture capital nightmare. The 26 year-old has slammed investors including the Japanese group as intellectually incapable and pledged to give away his shares. SoftBank may value a reputation for being founder-friendly, but being weak is worse.
Weibo investors should weigh life without Alibaba 19 May 2015 An alliance between the Chinese microblog and the country’s largest e-commerce group is set to expire in January. For the loss-making Weibo, the partnership hasn’t been as transformative as hoped. Instead, the microblog’s value relies ever more on factors beyond its control.
Tech unicorns galloping toward end of the rainbow 18 May 2015 Even an old financial wizard like Carl Icahn is buying into the private-market mythology with a $100 mln investment in Uber rival Lyft. Similar creatures have been finding it harder to find believers in public markets. The magic powering the valuation gap may be wearing off.
Review: The virtual bubble of bitcoin 15 May 2015 The digital currency fits well in the inglorious history of finance. Nathaniel Popper tells the story in “Digital Gold”. Bitcoin’s hot idea, limited supply and uncertain value helped spawn a price explosion. After the bust, the underlying technology may still have a future.
India online retail hierarchy looks far from fixed 14 May 2015 Investors are pouring money into the country searching for the next Alibaba or Amazon. Though India’s e-commerce opportunity is huge, low barriers to entry mean it is easy for anyone with deep pockets to spoil the party.
Alibaba entrée into U.S. is not so far fetched 14 May 2015 The Chinese e-commerce group denies plans to enter Amazon’s home turf. A growing list of U.S. investments, from retailer Zulily to Snapchat, sends a different message. Picking up expertise is useful, but as a stealthy approach to U.S. expansion, these deals may have a longer-term payoff.
Rob Cox: Parsing the short life of Dave Goldberg 12 May 2015 The untimely death of the CEO of startup SurveyMonkey sparked an unusual outpouring of emotion from Silicon Valley. His age and marital affiliation can only explain part of the response. The worrisome message is that nice guys really are too rare a breed in the tech ecosystem.
Verizon’s dumb pipes no smarter with $4.4 bln AOL 12 May 2015 Seeking refuge from a vicious wireless war, the telecom carrier is buying the owner of the Huffington Post and old internet dial-up customers. The video ad tech business may be the prize, but it faces threats from Google and others. This is just another silly deal involving AOL.
SoftBank’s next boss more symbol than succession 12 May 2015 Chairman Masayoshi Son has no plans to retire but has named ex-Google executive Nikesh Arora as his likely successor. Appointing a foreigner to the role may be mainly a way for SoftBank to gild its international credentials, but the gesture is still a valuable one.
Uber navigates its way into a Nokia moment 11 May 2015 The ride-hailing service is detouring from its DIY strategy to enter a competitive $3 bln auction for the Finnish company’s map technology. Nokia acted similarly when it bought it in 2007 for $8.1 bln. Even with a $50 bln valuation in the offing, Uber is emitting a whiff of fear.