BeachRider

Sun Q1: Earnings Beat, Sales Lag

Geez, JAVA just might have to do more cost-cutting on its own if the ORCL activity is delayed or stopped. I don't know if the CxOs have enough clout in their own company to do that. We could be looking at a major BOD intervention.

This dance that the EC has started with ORCL is getting edgier by the day. Makes you wonder if the EC would have done this with a European acquirer...

Thursday Options Recap

This ORCL/JAVA work just sends some chills through the JAVA stockholders. What if JAVA burns through a substantial amount of its cash-on-hand to keep the company viable while the EC 'fiddles'.

Ellison could simply go-away and watch MySQL lose a ton more money (and staff). It only costs him $165MM (or so) to do that. He has clearly lost much more than that in lost-value due to the delay in the acquisition.

Don't even get me started on what this has done to SPARC...

Fever Pitch: Happy Droid Day, Enjoy the Moment

This is an interesting place (SA) to watch the launch from. SA has a large contingent of Jobs-ophiles. There will be some crossfire, just because of 'a new gun in town'.

I don't know if Droid will compete well with iPhone or not. iPhone is like the NY Yankees of Personal Communications. Sooo many folks love iPhone and can love nothing else. Others hate it 'just because...'

iPhone has cast large footprints, too. Droid may beat iPhone in some areas, but is certain to come up short in others.

An oddsmaker would give the VZW 3G Network some advantage over the ATT 3G Network. For some reason, ATT is suing VZW because the '3G maps' (which show a big advantage to VZW) are prejudicial. I guess that substantial parts of iPhone function don't depend on 3G, so the map-disparity is an unfair simplification of the need for 3G. Hmmmm

EU Showdown over Oracle-Sun: Objections Seem Imminent

Since the EU regulators are effectively causing JAVA to 'twist in the wind', I submit that JAVA will be released from the Oracle acquisition. This should please the EU regulators.

I don't know what happens next for JAVA, though. Those 3K of new layoffs is only the tip of the iceberg unless another white-knight comes along.

I also don't-get how this EU action protects any current users of MySQL. It will continue to lose-staff and lose effectiveness under this EU magistration.

GM-Magna Fallout: What Business As Usual Is in Russia

If GM is 'legally' getting out of the RUS/CDN deal, then the only issue for US residents is whether this affects the payback of the Automotive TARP. After that, GM is on its own.

If this speeds the repayment terms of the TARP, then I am for it. If it does not, then Obama needs to shake up GM again...

Larry Ellison Pleads While Sun Bleeds

EC doesn't understand that MySQL doesn't have a lot of asset-value in the real world (I am still amazed that JAVA spent $1Bn on it). If they are trying to preserve an independent MySQL capability, they will certainly kill it, instead. Oracle wouldn't really miss it, either.

EC is directly causing MySQL to lose staff and become less relevant. What I don't understand is why Larry Ellison isn't worried about erosion of value in the rest of JAVA...

The GM (er, Motors Liquidation) Stock Anomaly

Everyone knows that MTLQQ is a zombie stock. If there is novelty in getting certificates of MTLQQ, then let the market set the price for zombie certificates. There are no more 'GM' certificates being done, however.

I never understood what part of 'Pink Sheets' don't people understand. Sometimes these online trading services make it attractive to take-a-shot at penny-stocks. People should just understand that this is like roulette (really it is worse), the longer you play, the certainty encroaches that you will lose all your money.

Go out and get a 100,000 Yen note or something if you want to own something that diluted. At least the Yen won't lose value like MTLQQ will...

Topped Out?

I agree that there is a strong connection between the health of real-estate and the health of many banks. I also agree that the GDP info is key in establishing whether we could possibly double-dip.

As to the current lack in free-market behavior, that is taking longer than I wanted, too. That is probably for the good, though. Too many free-marketers 'foresee' a quick and inevitable plunge into dismal economic times. Until they find a way to 'sell' a correction to the affected governments, they shouldn't be surprised if those governments choose to hold-onto free market controls for a while longer (remember the 70s?).

Whatever we do, the 'free market' will be adjusted to detect future reoccurrences of too-big-to-fail situations.

IT Needs to Innovate or Consumerize

Certainly there are end-user and datacenter-centric components to increasing the flexibility of Network IT. The author tries to draw both together in this discussion, but he also shows that they are driven by totally-separate forces.

IT constrains the user because users otherwise cause problems for one-another. In my shop, some users were putting in their own Best-Buy wireless routers in an attempt to remedy an immediate need. The Routers slow down to the slowest current-user device so high-speed connections were sporatic. The user would also not-be-able to move from one Router to another unless infrastucture was robust enough to deal with that.

OTOH, overly conservative IT practices constrain legitimate user-visible improvements. If Gigabit switches (or 10Gb uplinks to core switches) are needed for a small fragment of users, IT needs to find a way to present those capabilities, at acceptable cost. Too many times, users perceive that their needs are diluted to meet the needs of a non-associated groups in their proximity.

Verizon's Droid Is the Real Deal

Android is a Linux/Java application platform. The ones that VZW sells will probably be CDMA/3G until some-time in late 2010. The big question will be "can VZW's network sustain high usage of 3G". AT&T's network hasn't handled it very well. VZW has been annoyingly 'closed' to open-standards-handsets, so Android will also challenge them in that way.
VZW has been offering CDMA/GSM phones for four years. If worldwide communications is important AND you perceive VZW to have a better network, you can get the phones for that.
Bashing AAPL for its iPhone is also silly. iPhone is a revolutionary phone that has been largely unchallenged for two years. People who perceive a need for that kind of communications will pay the $30-50/mo for additional network services for iPhone.
I agree with those who say 'let the battle begin'. That IS the fun stuff of Capitalism!

Now We're Really Due for a Pullback

Mr. Donald,
The terms that I used were not arbitrary. Once the USA GDP stopped dropping, the 'recession' was over. Nor did anyone say that not-recession equals 'recovered'. You use of pejoratives is not clarifying your position (trap door, etc.). The Fed has certainly increased 'M1', but it has not resulted in inflation (yet). If they can ratchet up the interest rates and continue to collect (with interest) the TARP (which has certainly been going on), then the dollar will go up.
As to the banks, it is all about real-estate valuation. Precipitous drops will certainly put more-and-more banks at risk. Slow climbs will get the financial righted.
I think that many people cannot believe that a capitalistic system can survive the Multi-Trillion-dollar run-on-the-banks that happened 10-16 months ago. They are 'certain' that abject failure of their system was assured. Perhaps those assumptions need to be examined to ensure that the problems are being addressed and NOT presume that the problems cannot be addressed.

Now We're Really Due for a Pullback

I agree with others, be wary of situations where people have predicted 10 of the last 2 price-pullbacks. Unless the USA goes back into recession, there will continue to be some 'winners' (and losers). Right now, the weak dollar puts USA exporters into a good pricing situation. Financials will continue to recover, so long as real-estate recovers (a separate thing from stocks). I wouldn't look for over-inflationary stock-pullbacks until unemployment gets significantly better.

September Auto Sales Weaken as Clunker Effect Ends

Wow, Chapter 13. Didn't they just come out of Chapter 11? Are people really expecting re-entry into Bankruptcy?

FWIW, Edmunds is projecting that GM's market share will climb from 19.1% to 22.4% in October. They are getting a larger share of a smaller pie.

And unemployment in Detroit still hovers around 35%

GM: What Its Progress Report Doesn't Say

I am not comfortable with this author flipping-off the potential for the taxpayers to get their money back. A lot of people said that about the Bank TARP and they have silently been proven wrong (there were some losses, but the gains prevailed). We need to keep GM's feet to the fire to see that we get the Automotive TARP back. GM doesn't have to hit 100-for-100 for that to happen (and they won't).
The TARP wasn't intended as a giveaway, just a bridge-loan the resulted in taxpayer ownership. The credit markets had seized and the unnecessary labor-loss that would have spiraled the US economy downward was avoided.
Even with the TARP, there has been substantial labor-loss (unemployment in Detroit is about 35%). Killing off Pontiac and Saturn (and liquidating Hummer and Opel) have saved monstrous operating cost at GM. We need to be diligent. We need to ignore those folks that advise that the money is already lost.

Ford: Popular Fiesta Hatchback Coming to the U.S.

The Fiesta has been a Ford nameplate since the late 70s. Ford has, at times, tried the models in the US, but they were 'too small'. You have to believe that, if Smartfortwo, Scion xB and Cube and other cars are now catching American interest, Ford should try it here again. It has always been one of Ford's biggest sellers, worldwide. Like Focus, it has its afficianados; there are some quite-sporty versions in some countries.