Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Applied Materials: The Next Tech Layoffs?
In a development that only Scrooge and the Grinch would find amusing, the tech industry has entered into a fevered period of pre-holiday job cuts.
In a development that only Scrooge and the Grinch would find amusing, the tech industry has entered into a fevered period of pre-holiday job cuts.
A U.S. District Judge dismissed a lawsuit against Facebook by Power.com Thursday, the latest move in a back-and-forth legal battle between the two social-media services.
Deutsche Telekom, parent of U.S. mobile operator T-Mobile, is holding talks about gaining access to spectrum controlled by Clearwire and MetroPCS as a way to build out 4G wireless service, according to Bloomberg, which cites “two people familiar with the matter.”
The best days for the Palm Pre may already have past. That was the implication of the Sell call on the stock this morning from Morgan Joseph – and the same theme can be found in a similarly bearish note this morning from Collins Stewart analyst Ashok Kumar.
Sales of the Palm Pre smartphone may be creeping up to 30,000 a week this week versus a prior trend of 25,000, writes Pali Capital analyst Walter Piecyk in a blog post this morning.
Prepaid wireless carriers have gotten a lot of attention in recent months because of the ailing economy, which has helped them as consumers seek out cheaper cellphone plans.
The explosion of low-cost, prepaid wireless plans are raking in the customers during this recession, and Boost Mobile, a division of Sprint that boasts an estimated 4 million users, is no different.
Given the buzz surrounding Verizon’s smart-phone efforts lately, it’s useful to review all the recent reporting and size up what looks most likely.
Just how much of a threat is Sprint’s new $50 prepaid Boost Unlimited plan for all-you-can-eat voice and data service? That question is particularly important to the companies Sprint has clearly targeted with the new offering: Leap Wireless and Metro PCS.
And it is a matter of no small debate.
After a grueling eight-city coast-to-coast test of the 3G networks run by AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, we’ve come up with some clear-cut test results. Think you know who has the best network? Think again.
Clearwire shares are down sharply this morning after negative comments from analysts at J.P. Morgan and Stanford Group. Though its stock saw a lift yesterday following the completion of its deal to acquire Sprint’s Xohm wireless broadband business, the concern is that the company needs substantially more capital and that the intensely competitive landscape will overshadow its technological advantages.
Sprint? More like “Splint.” The company’s revenue, posted this morning, fell 12 percent from last year–wireless revenue was down 13 percent. Sprint did not give a specific financial forecast.
In wireless, it appears, the old adage applies: The rich get richer. The poor? Not so much. AT&T and Verizon Wireless are reporting impressive numbers while everyone else (Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, Metro PCS and Leap Wireless) is not. The gap between the tiers in the market are “stark,” according to Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett.
A plan to combine Sprint’s Xohm network with Clearwire’s WiMax network was approved today by the FCC. The Justice Department will allow the deal to proceed, though it will continue to monitor the situation. A sigh of relief was heard from within both legacy companies and from investors in the newly combined company–which include Google, Intel, and a group of cable companies.
If you thought that the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping was limited to AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, think again.
While these household names of the telecom industry almost certainly helped the government to illegally snoop on their customers, statements by a number of legal experts suggest that collaboration with the NSA may run far deeper into the wireless phone industry.
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