What happened between Apple’s January 5 disclosure of Steve Jobs’s “hormonal imbalance” and the company’s January 14 announcement that the CEO would be taking a six-month leave of absence? That’s the focus of an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission probe into Steve Jobs’s health, an investigation that seems to, well, be going nowhere.
Looks like Apple may have another hit on its hands with the 13-inch MacBook Pro. The company is reportedly having a hard time keeping the machine in stock as it heads into the back-to-school buying season. And for good reason: It’s a significant upgrade at a lower price. Starting at $1,199, it’s $100 less than the original aluminum MacBook it replaces.
NetApp has cleared all necessary U.S. regulatory hurdles to proceed with its acquisition of Data Domain, though it seems unlikely that the company will prevail now that rival EMC has trumped its bid for the storage vendor.
Earlier this week John Fitzgibbon, founder of IPOScoop.com, said that LogMeIn was an IPO “candidate that should blow the socks off people.” Looks like he was right.
What part of “No” does EMC not understand? On Monday the company once again said its bid for data storage equipment maker Data Domain is “superior” to a competing offer from NetApp. This, despite the fact that Data Domain earlier in the day issued a statement recommending that shareholders reject EMC’s $30-a-share cash bid.
Data Domain shareholders are celebrating today. After market close Monday, EMC made a $1.8 billion bid for the backup and disaster data recovery systems company, trumping the $1.5 billion NetApp offered for it in late May.
Apple has $29 billion in cash, no debt, a 36 percent gross margin, and it’s on the cusp of another iPhone ugrade cycle. Little wonder, then, that analysts are raising their target prices on the company’s stock. Among those doing so today: Morgan Stanley’s Kathryn Huberty, who says “Apple is emerging as the clear leader in the battle over the mobile Internet.”
“Sentiment on the stock has never been worse in our opinion….We are somewhat concerned that earnings, subscribers and unit guidance are all likely to be guided down–sequentially.” Broadpoint AmTech analyst Rob Sanderson said that of Research in Motion in a March 18 note to clients. Boy, was he ever wrong. After market close Thursday afternoon, RIM reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that easily bested analyst expectations.
Time was, there was a Silicon Graphics workstation on every desk in computationally-intense industries like chemistry and film production. No longer. This morning, SGI, which recently endured a brace of layoffs, filed for bankruptcy protection for a second time and sold itself to Rackable Systems, which makes server and storage products for midsize and large data centers, for $25 million in cash.
With no more than $220 million in cash on hand, Palm’s working capital position is…how can I put this delicately…abysmal. So news that the company is remarketing a bit of stock to keep itself afloat shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Palm’s long-suffering investors are today basking in the company’s “new-ness”–specifically, a stock that’s continuing the big rally it began last week after the announcement of the Palm Pre handset and Web OS. As I write this, Palm is trading at $6.10–up an astonishing 85 percent since its big announcement. And it seems destined to go higher still, given the enthusiastic reception analysts have given it.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
Best use of the Beeker “meee” ever.
While the technology behind the Telephone is new, the design is reassuringly old-fashioned, reminiscent of a phrenologist’s horn or ear-candle in form. We found the experience far more comfortable than the one we had with the Telegraph.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
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