Google (GOOG) has offered to put its brand on any of its maps, stock quotes and other in-house services that appear in its search results in order to resolve EU antitrust concerns that the company is unfairly squeezing out rivals, the FT reports. However, Google critics aren't impressed. "Google would still be able to put its competitors on page 35," says one. [View news story]
The roll out of IPTV is still evolving. http://bit.ly/OAw8Xz How it will shake out is anyone's guess. Consumer protection and FTC involvement is not what I would want to see at this stage. The consumer never had it so good. Government involvement will only screw it up for the consumer as well as the investment community. I believe that we need to let free market competition play out and resist any help from the government to pick winners and losers in the name of consumer protection.
I am very concerned that all the governments want to control and tax the Internet and censor its content political reasons. This behavior is beginning to pop up all over the world. It is not good for investors, consumers, or companies. It is definitely not good for individual liberty.
4 of the FTC's 5 commissioners reportedly believe an antitrust case should be brought against Google (GOOG) for using its search dominance to promote other services. The FTC is also examining complaints the company doesn't provide data that would allow advertisers to compare the effectiveness of ad campaigns on different search engines. Meanwhile, Microsoft (MSFT) has specifically added Google as a defendant in a German patent suit against Motorola Mobility. (more) [View news story]
What is wrong with giving priority to your customer base before competitors or nonmembers? It sounds like good business to me. Isn't that how the world works? Who cares if Google searches give you Google customers first. I usually do not look at the first three on the list anyway. If I cannot find what I am looking for I just use other search engines.
Information delivery should not be regulated. It would be nice if the information was always true. I only believe half of what I read anyway. Whenever governments and courts get involved they cause more negative unintended consequences then benefits. I rarely believe what they report especially in an election year.
It is true that Year over Year growth rate is the holy grail for tech companies. It is also true that the larger a company gets the harder it becomes to increase the rate of growth. It does not follow that we should cash out and invest elsewhere. Companies with good management and lots of cash can find ways to grow.
There are 6 billion people on earth and growing. They are not all yet online. How they get their information. How they shop. How they communicate. How they live is changing. The key to Google's success is to use their free cash flow to expand into the black hole of technology and be continuously relevant. Microsoft's management has no vision for the future. It has been and still is a tech follower. The jury for Google management is still out. Time will tell.
I am long Google and will continue to be until Google management becomes like Bill Gate and Steve Ballmer. They are more interested in spending their money and cashing in their stock options than advancing a vision for tech change. That is why Microsoft stock has not changed.
That is not what drove Steve Jobs. The vision for change and his place in tech history was more important to him than money. Money and growth followed. It was just a way we the investors keep score. YOY growth comes from vision.
Google (GOOG) has offered to put its brand on any of its maps, stock quotes and other in-house services that appear in its search results in order to resolve EU antitrust concerns that the company is unfairly squeezing out rivals, the FT reports. However, Google critics aren't impressed. "Google would still be able to put its competitors on page 35," says one. [View news story]
I don't see the problem. 900 pound gorillas have always had trouble with antitrust issues. IBM had it in the 60s. Microsoft had it in the 90s. Only question I have is how can Google putting a competitor on page 35 be antitrust when consumers have the ultimate choice of each Browser they put on their desktop. America ingenuity invented the Internet and the Browsers that give it life. Maybe the EU should make a useful contribution of their own and stop beating up on American innovation.
Google (GOOG) is close to acquiring face-recognition technology developer Viewdle for a price "toward the high end" of a $30M-$45M range, a source tells CNET. Viewdle would give Google a means of providing a face-recognition solution for its Android apps, Google+, Picasa, and wherever else it's useful. News of the deal comes a few months after Facebook bought Viewdle rival Face.com. [View news story]
Dick Tracy would be proud of the state and direction of current communications technology. Me not so. I long for simpler times. However, the investment opportunities are good and I will over look the madness and call it progress.
There are several measures of rank or success for these Fortune 25 companies. I would rather know which is the cheapest.
When I was younger and had to make small talk with my first CEO I didn't know exactly what to talk about. I asked this CEO who was the head of a very large Financial Institution what was the most important metric he used to determine success against other institutions in the sector. Without hesitation he said Return on Equity. I never forgot that.
Does anyone want to do the work to rank these 25 by ROI? This would be more useful for investors than Market Cap. Market Cap is not a measure of value.
Is Google Losing Its Edge? 3 Reasons Why Google Is Starting To Resemble Microsoft [View article]
I disagree with this article. Google is not even close to becoming a Microsoft. At least not yet. I owned Microsoft two or three times since it IPOed in 1984. The last time I owned it I held it for several years and it did nothing for bottom line. Like Cisco another loser I owned both companies are not run for their stockholders. Both companies issue stock options and grants the their management and employees who turn around and sell hundreds of thousands of shares monthly on the open market depressing the share price which keeps shares in a set trading range. They do this whenever it beginnings to rise when they report better than average quarters. Neither Cisco nor Microsoft have done much of anything since the Internet build out in the mid 90s.
Microsoft never did have any vision. Gates is no genius. He had lots of luck and help from IBM to develop and grow the DOS OS for IBM's PCs. It copied the Windows GUI from Apple in 1986 and stumbled through the early 90s until Windows 98. They began purchasing all their Office and networking products and features on the open market. They couldn't even develop working networking OS software themselves that could compete with Novel Netware. It had to hire their chief networking architect to rewrite it for them. Microsoft's biggest contribution to the tech sector was MARKETING. They knew how to market software to kill off competition and secure market share without attracting serious antitrust litigation. The was Gates vision and contribution.
Google on the other hand still shows growth. It has good free cash flow and is not afraid to use it to buy new ideas. It developed many of them their selves. Google's founders are still engaged and had time to mature before engaging in activities. The current crop of boy wonders writing Internet software have no clue about what it takes to run a company (eg. Facebook).
I will stay long Google as long as continue to execute for the stockholders. We all very will know when they become Microsoft and Cisco. They are not there yet.
Google (GOOG) is flying high right now, but fears are growing among the technorati that the embrace of mobile apps and "closed" social networking platforms will gradually diminish the value of the company's search empire. John Battelle recently summed up this view. "Google’s core model – built on the open, linked world of the web – is under threat from the advance of the iPhone and the app, the Facebook and the Path ... and countless other “unlinked” digital artifacts." (also) [View news story]
I am long GOOGLE not just because they have a great free cash flow and good earnings growth. I truly believe they have created the greatest solution for information storage, access and delivery that mankind has to date. I recognized this since their IPO. Of course we here are mostly about making money. Most of us are free market capitalists so we are about profits. At least that is how we are viewed by the left. However, fairness alone has never advanced the well being of mankind.
That said... The Internet, Search, and the new delivery mechanisms for information presentation and access is the current focus for us all. PCs, laptops, smart phones, tablets and anything new that is in the pipeline are just consumer delivery systems for information. It is changing at lightening speed and is a wild ride for those of us that love human progress. As I see it the tech sector consists of brilliant inventions that enable cool information and communication delivery ideas and the creation of hardware and software to deliver them. Steve Jobs' genius recognized this and enhanced the graphical interface that greatly advanced this. Jobs was not the only one in the past that should get credit. Starting with the integrated circuit in the 60s I can name hundreds of past events just as important.
Google is still in the wheel house of the tech sector. I am happy that they have made the leap into the hardware side of information delivery. As a stockholder and greedy capitalist I also approve of Google's understanding that a tech company structures must be able to change quickly if they are to continue to grow and stay relevant. Smart phones and Tablets and their current features will not significantly change Google's long term success. Their ability to change direction quickly will.
As the Arctic melts, the scramble is on for oil, gas and rare earth minerals as they become newly accessible along with increasingly navigable polar shipping shortcuts. So it's no surprise that China is becoming a far more aggressive player in the area, provoking alarm among Western powers. Rare earth names are slightly higher: MCP +1%, AVL +1.7%, REE +0.8%. [View news story]
This administration doesn't care about the Russians or Chinese. They are sitting on the side lines sucking their thumb and complaining about how bad an economy they inherited. In the meantime Brazil and Venezuela are eating our lunch with our help in the Gulf and the Russians and Chinese are busy feasting on the North pole. On the east coast and west coast the government has restricted drilling. If this is not enough no new licenses have been awarded on public lands in the interior and the EPA is bussiness shutting down the entire coal industries.
Folks it is really time for a change! Our country is being run by a bunch of morons and we put them there. I can see why Buffett and Soros and many billionaires are Democrats. They can control the morons in government when Democrats are in power and make billions of dollars with insider information. When the Republicans are in power they control the dumb ones and become democrat capitalists and make billions of dollars with insider information. It is a win / win situation for them. In the meantime 51% of the America the people and average investors that work and invest try to wade through the daily government regulations trying to find ways to make money, work and live.
There now... I said it... I feel better. Regarding this information... What can we do with it?
I am long AVL and other mining stocks. Long oil service and other sectors less sensitive to hyper-inflation and invested in companies with higher pricing power when idiots like these are in power.
Exit Mulally Sometime Soon? Say It Ain't So [View article]
Marek, I don't listen to Warren Buffet either. He invests under different rules and better opportunities than the average retail investor regardless of our experience. He is a wholesale investor and can command much better terms then those that read this site. I agree with you that management is an important consideration before opening a new position, however I am not so quick to terminate a position without a clear succession plan as you suggest. I would consider shorting the position or selling part of a position if it were a large percentage of my portfolio and my exposure was too great. I am more worried about the November election and the pending January tax legislation that can destroy the stock market rather than my Ford position.
The point I was trying to convey to your readers is that there is much more than who is CEO that can effect Ford's earnings and stock price. There are ways to make money or save a losing position without liquidating it on negative news let alone a roomer that someone that was passed over for CEO might finally be back in contention.
Keep writing and I will keep commenting. You like to write to make money and I like to take risk in the market to make money. You were a good read. No one knows for sure what will happen with Ford other than the market will be there long after you and I are gone.
Exit Mulally Sometime Soon? Say It Ain't So [View article]
If Warren Buffet wrote this article I might take it serouisly. Marek Fuchs... not so much. This is a complete over reaction without any new news on a Mulally succession plan. It is not even a good call as a trade. A better call for Fuchs would be to short Ford if he thinks that only Mulally can run Ford. The guy they named as COO was passed over at least once. It does not follow that anything will change until the Board turns over. Last time I looked the stockholders have some say on that. Let focus on E3 and its short term impact on Ford stock. The cheaper dollar against the Euro may help Ford exports. I am more worried about the impact on the broader market and the coming election. If Mullally is truly a genius then he will stay on until he is sure the value of his stock options are in safe hands.
I am long Ford and not yet ready to dump and run. Ford is the last of the American car companies and the government is not completely in their shorts yet like it is with GM. I still believe it is undervalued. Barring other geopolitical and economic news I will be holding my position through 2013.
Molycorp (MCP +4.8%) shares rip higher on a report that China is reducing rare earth mining licenses by 40%. The number of licenses had been 113, according to Securities Journal. The news is seen as positive for companies holding existing licenses as future competition may now be limited. Also on the move: REE +3.4%, AVL +2.6%. [View news story]
I am long AVL. I started a position in July 2012 after listening to a presentation by the current CEO. I like what I heard and liked him. Stock is up 32% since I started the position. Its got my attention. Sector is good, but more research is needed to see if they can become a player in the sector and how much upside it has.
Google Transformed: Does Bigger Mean Better? [View article]
I am also am long Google and like Cdpete1 have trimmed my position in the $600s but for different reasons. Google's business strategy was not bold enough for me. 13x PE is not what I have come to expect from a leading edge technology company. Growth was only around 19% the past several years. I traditionally do not like software companies because they tend to become mature or sometimes obsolete if not constantly changes. Much like Microsoft and Symantec over the years.
Google has a huge free cash flow. I want their management to take some risk with the cash and move the bar higher for the stockholders. I want a company that can act quickly to market conditions. I will sell my position if I sense that a company is setting their strategy around the welfare of their management and employees alone or set policy to suppress market competition as a defensive strategy without a regard for real growth through innovation for its stockholders.
On QE3: Buy Oil And Gas, Sell Obama Re-election Odds [View article]
Don't forget to add Pennsylvania to your list... As I understand it recently GOD has lost status in the Democrat party so who is it that you and Obama are praying to these days?
That say this article has merit should SHE choose a looser for enough 6 years of Democrat control. I will use these thoughts here to position my portfolio safely until someone steps on the Federal Reserve for turning to the dark side.
Long oil service and mining stocks but not yet oil or gold commodity securities or EFTs. In Jan. 2, 2009 Gold was $860 and gasoline sold for $1.79 / gal.
I hear someone else is running for president and I think I am here to endorse him. That is what SHE told me to do.
Google (GOOG) has offered to put its brand on any of its maps, stock quotes and other in-house services that appear in its search results in order to resolve EU antitrust concerns that the company is unfairly squeezing out rivals, the FT reports. However, Google critics aren't impressed. "Google would still be able to put its competitors on page 35," says one. [View news story]
How it will shake out is anyone's guess. Consumer protection and FTC involvement is not what I would want to see at this stage. The consumer never had it so good. Government involvement will only screw it up for the consumer as well as the investment community. I believe that we need to let free market competition play out and resist any help from the government to pick winners and losers in the name of consumer protection.
I am very concerned that all the governments want to control and tax the Internet and censor its content political reasons. This behavior is beginning to pop up all over the world. It is not good for investors, consumers, or companies. It is definitely not good for individual liberty.
4 of the FTC's 5 commissioners reportedly believe an antitrust case should be brought against Google (GOOG) for using its search dominance to promote other services. The FTC is also examining complaints the company doesn't provide data that would allow advertisers to compare the effectiveness of ad campaigns on different search engines. Meanwhile, Microsoft (MSFT) has specifically added Google as a defendant in a German patent suit against Motorola Mobility. (more) [View news story]
Information delivery should not be regulated. It would be nice if the information was always true. I only believe half of what I read anyway. Whenever governments and courts get involved they cause more negative unintended consequences then benefits. I rarely believe what they report especially in an election year.
4 Reasons It's Time to Sell Google [View article]
There are 6 billion people on earth and growing. They are not all yet online. How they get their information. How they shop. How they communicate. How they live is changing. The key to Google's success is to use their free cash flow to expand into the black hole of technology and be continuously relevant. Microsoft's management has no vision for the future. It has been and still is a tech follower. The jury for Google management is still out. Time will tell.
I am long Google and will continue to be until Google management becomes like Bill Gate and Steve Ballmer. They are more interested in spending their money and cashing in their stock options than advancing a vision for tech change. That is why Microsoft stock has not changed.
That is not what drove Steve Jobs. The vision for change and his place in tech history was more important to him than money. Money and growth followed. It was just a way we the investors keep score. YOY growth comes from vision.
Google (GOOG) has offered to put its brand on any of its maps, stock quotes and other in-house services that appear in its search results in order to resolve EU antitrust concerns that the company is unfairly squeezing out rivals, the FT reports. However, Google critics aren't impressed. "Google would still be able to put its competitors on page 35," says one. [View news story]
Google (GOOG) is close to acquiring face-recognition technology developer Viewdle for a price "toward the high end" of a $30M-$45M range, a source tells CNET. Viewdle would give Google a means of providing a face-recognition solution for its Android apps, Google+, Picasa, and wherever else it's useful. News of the deal comes a few months after Facebook bought Viewdle rival Face.com. [View news story]
Google Makes a Big Jump [View article]
When I was younger and had to make small talk with my first CEO I didn't know exactly what to talk about. I asked this CEO who was the head of a very large Financial Institution what was the most important metric he used to determine success against other institutions in the sector. Without hesitation he said Return on Equity. I never forgot that.
http://bit.ly/OSXIAh
Does anyone want to do the work to rank these 25 by ROI? This would be more useful for investors than Market Cap. Market Cap is not a measure of value.
Is Google Losing Its Edge? 3 Reasons Why Google Is Starting To Resemble Microsoft [View article]
Microsoft never did have any vision. Gates is no genius. He had lots of luck and help from IBM to develop and grow the DOS OS for IBM's PCs. It copied the Windows GUI from Apple in 1986 and stumbled through the early 90s until Windows 98. They began purchasing all their Office and networking products and features on the open market. They couldn't even develop working networking OS software themselves that could compete with Novel Netware. It had to hire their chief networking architect to rewrite it for them. Microsoft's biggest contribution to the tech sector was MARKETING. They knew how to market software to kill off competition and secure market share without attracting serious antitrust litigation. The was Gates vision and contribution.
Google on the other hand still shows growth. It has good free cash flow and is not afraid to use it to buy new ideas. It developed many of them their selves. Google's founders are still engaged and had time to mature before engaging in activities. The current crop of boy wonders writing Internet software have no clue about what it takes to run a company (eg. Facebook).
I will stay long Google as long as continue to execute for the stockholders. We all very will know when they become Microsoft and Cisco. They are not there yet.
Simple Is Cool At Google [View article]
Google (GOOG) is flying high right now, but fears are growing among the technorati that the embrace of mobile apps and "closed" social networking platforms will gradually diminish the value of the company's search empire. John Battelle recently summed up this view. "Google’s core model – built on the open, linked world of the web – is under threat from the advance of the iPhone and the app, the Facebook and the Path ... and countless other “unlinked” digital artifacts." (also) [View news story]
That said... The Internet, Search, and the new delivery mechanisms for information presentation and access is the current focus for us all. PCs, laptops, smart phones, tablets and anything new that is in the pipeline are just consumer delivery systems for information. It is changing at lightening speed and is a wild ride for those of us that love human progress. As I see it the tech sector consists of brilliant inventions that enable cool information and communication delivery ideas and the creation of hardware and software to deliver them. Steve Jobs' genius recognized this and enhanced the graphical interface that greatly advanced this. Jobs was not the only one in the past that should get credit. Starting with the integrated circuit in the 60s I can name hundreds of past events just as important.
Google is still in the wheel house of the tech sector. I am happy that they have made the leap into the hardware side of information delivery. As a stockholder and greedy capitalist I also approve of Google's understanding that a tech company structures must be able to change quickly if they are to continue to grow and stay relevant. Smart phones and Tablets and their current features will not significantly change Google's long term success. Their ability to change direction quickly will.
As the Arctic melts, the scramble is on for oil, gas and rare earth minerals as they become newly accessible along with increasingly navigable polar shipping shortcuts. So it's no surprise that China is becoming a far more aggressive player in the area, provoking alarm among Western powers. Rare earth names are slightly higher: MCP +1%, AVL +1.7%, REE +0.8%. [View news story]
Folks it is really time for a change! Our country is being run by a bunch of morons and we put them there. I can see why Buffett and Soros and many billionaires are Democrats. They can control the morons in government when Democrats are in power and make billions of dollars with insider information. When the Republicans are in power they control the dumb ones and become democrat capitalists and make billions of dollars with insider information. It is a win / win situation for them. In the meantime 51% of the America the people and average investors that work and invest try to wade through the daily government regulations trying to find ways to make money, work and live.
There now... I said it... I feel better. Regarding this information... What can we do with it?
I am long AVL and other mining stocks. Long oil service and other sectors less sensitive to hyper-inflation and invested in companies with higher pricing power when idiots like these are in power.
Exit Mulally Sometime Soon? Say It Ain't So [View article]
The point I was trying to convey to your readers is that there is much more than who is CEO that can effect Ford's earnings and stock price. There are ways to make money or save a losing position without liquidating it on negative news let alone a roomer that someone that was passed over for CEO might finally be back in contention.
Keep writing and I will keep commenting. You like to write to make money and I like to take risk in the market to make money. You were a good read. No one knows for sure what will happen with Ford other than the market will be there long after you and I are gone.
Exit Mulally Sometime Soon? Say It Ain't So [View article]
I am long Ford and not yet ready to dump and run. Ford is the last of the American car companies and the government is not completely in their shorts yet like it is with GM. I still believe it is undervalued. Barring other geopolitical and economic news I will be holding my position through 2013.
Molycorp (MCP +4.8%) shares rip higher on a report that China is reducing rare earth mining licenses by 40%. The number of licenses had been 113, according to Securities Journal. The news is seen as positive for companies holding existing licenses as future competition may now be limited. Also on the move: REE +3.4%, AVL +2.6%. [View news story]
Google Transformed: Does Bigger Mean Better? [View article]
Google has a huge free cash flow. I want their management to take some risk with the cash and move the bar higher for the stockholders. I want a company that can act quickly to market conditions. I will sell my position if I sense that a company is setting their strategy around the welfare of their management and employees alone or set policy to suppress market competition as a defensive strategy without a regard for real growth through innovation for its stockholders.
On QE3: Buy Oil And Gas, Sell Obama Re-election Odds [View article]
That say this article has merit should SHE choose a looser for enough 6 years of Democrat control. I will use these thoughts here to position my portfolio safely until someone steps on the Federal Reserve for turning to the dark side.
Long oil service and mining stocks but not yet oil or gold commodity securities or EFTs. In Jan. 2, 2009 Gold was $860 and gasoline sold for $1.79 / gal.
I hear someone else is running for president and I think I am here to endorse him. That is what SHE told me to do.