Google (GOOG) is playing with fire if it intends to launch a branded online store to match Amazon (AMZN) Prime, John Dvorak writes. Because Google is good at searching for products to buy, it may think it should be good at actually selling them - but it may not realize that finding something in a store isn't the same as being in the retailing business - and that's Amazon's forte. [View news story]
John doesn't understand what Google is actually doing here. They're not doing the selling. They're doing the fulfillment on stores who agree to affiliate through it. Not the same thing.
They're trying to help stores like Macy's compete online with Amazon.
Apple: The Most Undervalued Large-Cap Stock In America [View article]
Uh. no. Articles that "praise the management's actions and the performance of the stock" don't help us make money going forward.
I'll praise them when I see them doing something the market doesn't yet recognize, and I do agree they're undervalued. But I don't pretend that my articles -- or any articles -- make the market.
"The SEC is the most grossly inept failed group I've ever worked with," laments Eliot Spitzer, claiming the agency repeatedly "saw evidence [of wrongdoing] and ignored it." Spitzer also claims the "structural misrepresentations" he considers responsible for the financial crisis remain in place. (yesterday) [View news story]
I really don't think the SEC was that much of a problem in the 20th century. The problems began in this century and have continued as the crooks have learned how profitable regulatory capture was.
The problem is it's framed as "regulation" that "strangles" business rather than "law enforcement" that "catches crooks"
WIN is a web host and ISP, mainly. They also do some rural phone services. They should be OK. I covered them over a decade ago, at Boardwatch, and had to re-acquaint myself with them.
They know enough about how the technology works to know how to serve rural areas with cheap WiFi rather than with expensive things like wires.
"The SEC is the most grossly inept failed group I've ever worked with," laments Eliot Spitzer, claiming the agency repeatedly "saw evidence [of wrongdoing] and ignored it." Spitzer also claims the "structural misrepresentations" he considers responsible for the financial crisis remain in place. (yesterday) [View news story]
Spitzer is fortunate his political career ended like it did. Could you imagine him running for President and getting OJ'ed like poor Herman Cain? (TV just covered his driving home in Atlanta from helicopters.)
Glad my wife let me know before we married that kind of public career was not in the cards. Herman probably wishes Gloria had put her foot down like that on him.
Microsoft's Steve Ballmer Has One More Chance For A Home Run [View article]
SB was personally convinced by BG to join Microsoft very soon after its founding. They're very close. I doubt SB will go unless BG pulls the trigger. Maybe soon, though...IBM CEOs retire at 60 and maybe they'll institute the rule at MSFT.
A graceful exit strategy is called for in any case.
Larry Page's Google Strategy Comes Together [View article]
Larry Page is making money for lots of people and paying good wages. I don't know anything about his politics or policy preferences, but businesspeople who share the wealth like he does have nothing to fear from Occupy or from the Tea Party.
Will Networking Define The Cloud, Or Law? [View article]
Cisco is heavily into the carrier market. It's a high-cost, high-priced market. They're increasingly losing share to rivals like Brocade and Juniper in the enterprise market.
Where the growth is. There's a reason CSCO stock isn't doing well.
I certainly understand. I guess it's because I'm a history major that I can imagine it. Because we've seen it happen to other industry players that thought they were too big to ever worry about it.
There's a simple way to offset the threat. Simply budget for your R&D and expansion, and hand the rest over to shareholders in some form. Buy back shares. Or do what Intel and Microsoft and the others have done -- gimme cash.
Employment data is due out this morning, with economists expecting that the growth in nonfarm payrolls accelerated to 125,000 in November from 80,000 in October, although that is unlikely to have been enough to bring down the jobless rate from 9%. [View news story]
This was an upward revision going back to September.
Employment data is due out this morning, with economists expecting that the growth in nonfarm payrolls accelerated to 125,000 in November from 80,000 in October, although that is unlikely to have been enough to bring down the jobless rate from 9%. [View news story]
Adjustments going backward tend to go along the lines of the general trend. That is, when the trend is bad, things were bad back then, too. If things are good, as in this report, things were better back then than they appeared.
This is true regardless of which party runs the Labor Department.
Sprint And Clearwire Are Facing The Same Hurdles [View article]
I used to think this was a case of venality, too. I was heavily influenced in this regard by the work of Bruce Kushnick, a well-known critic of the Bells, who does fine work.
But I have come to separate motives from action recently. I now think that T and VZ and S haven't necessarily done all these things because they're bad people. I think they're trying to preserve their businesses as best they can, and know that telecom assets depreciate faster than you can recover those costs. Thus the only route to safety is monopoly.
But in the end monopoly is unsustainable, unless we want to go back to cost-based regulation as we did in the 1970s. Or if we want to just let monopolies take what they want from us and pretend it's "capitalism."
Google (GOOG) is playing with fire if it intends to launch a branded online store to match Amazon (AMZN) Prime, John Dvorak writes. Because Google is good at searching for products to buy, it may think it should be good at actually selling them - but it may not realize that finding something in a store isn't the same as being in the retailing business - and that's Amazon's forte. [View news story]
They're trying to help stores like Macy's compete online with Amazon.
Apple: The Most Undervalued Large-Cap Stock In America [View article]
I'll praise them when I see them doing something the market doesn't yet recognize, and I do agree they're undervalued. But I don't pretend that my articles -- or any articles -- make the market.
"The SEC is the most grossly inept failed group I've ever worked with," laments Eliot Spitzer, claiming the agency repeatedly "saw evidence [of wrongdoing] and ignored it." Spitzer also claims the "structural misrepresentations" he considers responsible for the financial crisis remain in place. (yesterday) [View news story]
The problem is it's framed as "regulation" that "strangles" business rather than "law enforcement" that "catches crooks"
The Coming Bandwidth Glut [View article]
They know enough about how the technology works to know how to serve rural areas with cheap WiFi rather than with expensive things like wires.
"The SEC is the most grossly inept failed group I've ever worked with," laments Eliot Spitzer, claiming the agency repeatedly "saw evidence [of wrongdoing] and ignored it." Spitzer also claims the "structural misrepresentations" he considers responsible for the financial crisis remain in place. (yesterday) [View news story]
Glad my wife let me know before we married that kind of public career was not in the cards. Herman probably wishes Gloria had put her foot down like that on him.
Microsoft's Steve Ballmer Has One More Chance For A Home Run [View article]
A graceful exit strategy is called for in any case.
Larry Page's Google Strategy Comes Together [View article]
Apple: The Most Undervalued Large-Cap Stock In America [View article]
"The market is stupid" doesn't cut it with me. There are too many smart people.
Will Networking Define The Cloud, Or Law? [View article]
Where the growth is. There's a reason CSCO stock isn't doing well.
Who Do Apple Directors Work For? [View article]
There's a simple way to offset the threat. Simply budget for your R&D and expansion, and hand the rest over to shareholders in some form. Buy back shares. Or do what Intel and Microsoft and the others have done -- gimme cash.
Who Do Apple Directors Work For? [View article]
I know may readers here can't imagine such an environment, but change happens.
Who Do Apple Directors Work For? [View article]
This would be a threat only if the business became less valuable in relation to the cash.
Employment data is due out this morning, with economists expecting that the growth in nonfarm payrolls accelerated to 125,000 in November from 80,000 in October, although that is unlikely to have been enough to bring down the jobless rate from 9%. [View news story]
Employment data is due out this morning, with economists expecting that the growth in nonfarm payrolls accelerated to 125,000 in November from 80,000 in October, although that is unlikely to have been enough to bring down the jobless rate from 9%. [View news story]
This is true regardless of which party runs the Labor Department.
Sprint And Clearwire Are Facing The Same Hurdles [View article]
But I have come to separate motives from action recently. I now think that T and VZ and S haven't necessarily done all these things because they're bad people. I think they're trying to preserve their businesses as best they can, and know that telecom assets depreciate faster than you can recover those costs. Thus the only route to safety is monopoly.
But in the end monopoly is unsustainable, unless we want to go back to cost-based regulation as we did in the 1970s. Or if we want to just let monopolies take what they want from us and pretend it's "capitalism."