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Sam Liu

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  • Apple, Android, And The Future Of The Smartphone [View article]
    "China is a communist government and philosophically is not after profit. "

    Did you see the profits of Lenovo this quarter:

    that is million. not billion and it is desputed #1. The Jp corps were doing that after market share > profits in the 1970-1990s.

    5:18 AM Lenovo (LNVGY.PK): FQ4 net profit of $127M beats by $20M. FQ4 revenue of $7.83B (+4% Y/Y) misses by $140M. Full year net profit of $635.15M beats by $16.91M. Full year Revenue of $33.87B (+15% Y/Y). [Tech, Earnings] Comment!
    May 23 01:54 PM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Tim Cook's Improbable Victory In Washington [View article]
    GM Cn is a JV with SAIC, etc.
    May 23 01:03 PM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Tim Cook's Improbable Victory In Washington [View article]
    Value-Added Tax
    May 23 01:32 AM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Tim Cook's Improbable Victory In Washington [View article]
    http://bit.ly/14A8WxF


    Today people have a much more intimate relationship with software and hardware, carrying smartphones at all times, taking tablet computers into bed, uploading private photos to the web and turning to a remote server when they want to get in touch with a relative or close friend. Tech companies have seized on this sea change, positioning themselves as enablers of freedom, self expression, and cultural change. Their leaders are not the subjects of Oscar-winning movies and best-selling books. Is it any wonder politicians are now more likely to call them on questionable behavior?

    Apple may, today, be the most prominent tech company called to the carpet, but others have had, and will again have, their turn. Google, for one, has been criticized for its own aggressive tax avoidance strategies, while Facebook and Twitter have taken federal heat for their privacy practices.

    Tech companies are not, for the most part, polluting the air, ruining the land, and poisoning the food supply like the industrial villains of decades past. But they have held themselves up as instrumental to human progress. Having sold this vision of advancement and having captured the imagination of the public, tech companies must comport themselves accordingly. Technical compliance with the law isn’t enough; companies like Apple will have to strain – and be seen straining – to do the right thing.


    WIRED: After Apple’s Tax Grilling, It’s Time for Tech to Shape Up
    May 23 12:05 AM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Tim Cook's Improbable Victory In Washington [View article]
    http://bit.ly/10ocy20

    The vanishing subsidiaries don't stem from asset sales or corporate restructuring. Companies across industries say they are taking advantage of Securities and Exchange Commission rules that demand disclosure only when subsidiary operations are "significant."

    One result of the change is that the companies limit information about offshore operations, in particular units operating in countries regarded as tax havens.

    Corporations set up overseas subsidiaries for many reasons, including operational and tax purposes. U.S. law generally allows companies to not record or pay taxes on profits earned by overseas units if the money isn't brought back onshore.

    For many investors, even small disclosures matter. Information about a company's subsidiaries provides a gauge of whether its operations have grown or shrunk, how complex the company may be and how it may be generating or shifting income around the globe. The lists of subsidiaries are the most easily accessible and reliable source for such information and are often used as a starting point for researchers studying how a company has structured itself to minimize its tax burden.

    "Companies are required to identify their subsidiaries so investors can make informed judgments about a company's operations and financial condition," said SEC spokesman John Nester, adding that companies may omit certain subsidiaries based on their lack of significance.

    The timing of the trend is "curious," said Edmund Outslay, an accounting professor at Michigan State University who studies the tax practices of large corporations. "It seems too coincidental that the political scrutiny and the significant decrease in disclosures are happening at the same time," he said.


    The shrinking subsidiary lists come as lawmakers, government officials and academics have stepped up scrutiny of the use of offshore havens to shield corporate profits from higher taxes. The Government Accountability Office's 2008 report found that 83 of the largest 100 U.S. companies had subsidiaries in known offshore tax havens.

    Google "wants to know everything about you and what you're doing, but doesn't want you to know anything about them," said Chris Taggart, the CEO of OpenCorporates.com, a private company that operates a public database of more than 50 million companies and is using SEC filings to investigate the structures of major corporations.

    For decades, SEC rules have allowed companies to omit subsidiaries that, when viewed as a single subsidiary, wouldn't meet the definition of "significant." A subsidiary isn't considered "significant" unless it exceeds a 10% threshold under any one of three tests based on assets, investment or income.


    wsj: From Google to FedEx: The Incredible Vanishing Subsidiary
    May 22 11:57 PM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Apple Unlikely To Move To Intel Chips For iPhone, iPad [View article]
    " Go to Best Buy and see the % of people asking "

    It helps that Intel has a company rep there to help facilitate my purchases there. Too bad when the blue shirters were knowledgeable, I only bought DVDs there.
    May 22 09:13 PM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Tim Cook's Improbable Victory In Washington [View article]
    Apple also has a shell company in NV to minimize CA taxes.
    May 22 08:47 PM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Tim Cook's Improbable Victory In Washington [View article]
    "I bet their iPhones wouldn't make it to Barbados. "

    You are certainly right because all the pirates in the Pacific Ocean would not permit it (IPhones finally assembled in Cn).

    Re: Apple working with NYC police over IPhone theft.
    May 22 01:21 PM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Japanese Equities Too Strong To Ignore [View article]
    A better, more accurate measure would be of the exchange rates and stock markets' performances from end of WWII to now.
    May 22 01:06 PM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Tim Cook's Improbable Victory In Washington [View article]
    But it is sort of disingenuous for the one Irish director, to only occasionally attend Apple director meetings when they are in Ireland.

    http://bit.ly/12uzrlQ
    Uncovering Apple’s Tax Havens
    Apple in the hot seat. Lawmakers say the company dodged billions in taxes on overseas profits. We’ll look at the world of offshore tax escapes.
    May 22 12:55 PM | 2 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Tim Cook's Improbable Victory In Washington [View article]
    In 1996, there were a few articles in a major USA magazine about Google doing this Double Irish arrangement.

    http://bit.ly/16P8BLY
    The double Irish arrangement is a tax avoidance strategy that multinational corporations use to lower their corporate tax liability. The strategy uses payments
    May 22 12:52 PM | 1 Like Like |Link to Comment
  • Tim Cook's Improbable Victory In Washington [View article]
    "Felix once again points to the more blatantly unethical practice most International corporations employ "

    Same with the politicians and most tax payers ... pay not in the spirit of the law!?
    May 22 11:55 AM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Tim Cook's Improbable Victory In Washington [View article]
    "why should Apple pay taxes so some lousy Frenchman"

    For whatever Value-added is done there.


    Unfortunately, these government sorts are more corrupt than reasonable.

    http://n.pr/10TIYSb
    Apple, Tech Giants And An Industrial-Age Tax Code
    May 21, 2013 1:00 PM
    Listen to the Story
    Talk of the Nation
    May 22 11:46 AM | 2 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Tim Cook's Improbable Victory In Washington [View article]
    "It's not AAPL doing wrong, it's the US Tax System, stupid! "

    USA government corruption!
    May 22 11:25 AM | 1 Like Like |Link to Comment
  • Chinese Housing Dwarfs The Past Booms In The U.S. And Japan [View article]
    What is the nature of this housing bubble. It certainly (construction bubble) is not the same as in the USA every few years.
    May 22 11:23 AM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
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