By Shah Gilani, Chief Investment Strategist, Money Morning • @ShahGilani_TW - • Print | Email
With the emergence of handset-driven e-commerce technology, banks, mobile-phone sellers and telecom-service providers are working feverishly to cook up a profitable recipe for the fast-growing mobile-banking business.
But with so many players setting up shop – and so many potential new mobile-payment services on the menu – the safest profit play for investors may be the one that's able to deliver all these services to end-users.
And we've identified a clear early leader.
For insight on the early leader in this new market, please read on...
In an indication of how far cloud computing has come – and more importantly where it's headed – tech companies have committed some $5 billion to cloud-related mergers and acquisitions (M&A) since mid-April.
Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL) on Monday made the latest move – snatching up data storage company Compellent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: CML) for $960 million in cash. The acquisition will help Dell expand its offerings of data-center products – cloud computing.
Cloud-computing effectively lets companies outsource information technology (IT) services. The cost of storing data and software, or even billing and payment processes are pushed onto the cloud provider – a separate company that goes through the trouble of securing all of that information.
By Kerri Shannon, Associate Editor, Money Morning - • Print | Email
Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) is gunning for even greater Web dominance in 2011 by announcing an aggressive move in the online advertising industry, as well as a game-changing entrance into the rapidly growing e-book market.
Google is close to sealing a deal to buy online coupon company Groupon for $5.3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. This would be Google's biggest purchase to date. The two-year-old Groupon's popularity has skyrocketed since its November 2008 start, making it a target for Internet companies wanting a stronger hold on local advertising.
"This would basically get Google the feet on the street for what they would never build themselves," Jason Helfstein, an Oppenheimer & Company (NYSE: OPY) analyst, told The New York Times.
Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) – the web-based DVD rental company – is locked in a row with Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA) that could have significant implications for the management of the Internet as a whole.
At the heart of the conflict is Level 3 Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT), a little-known network operator that handles Netflix content. Comcast has increased the fees it charges Level 3 to carry streaming Netflix videos over its cable network. That decision goes against conventional principles of so-called "network neutrality," under which network operators exchange traffic for free when similar amounts of information flow in each direction. Such exchanges are known as "peering."
Net neutrality also prohibits network owners like Comcast from discriminating against Internet companies by blocking or slowing access too their content.
I've always been a hands-on kind of person. And that includes information-technology (IT) projects. While it has been a number of years since I was involved in a serious IT project – with most of that work having been done before I started and ran my hedge fund – I have worked on Website projects for a number of S&P 500 companies in the past.
I am comfortable around large IT projects, so I was a bit shocked when I realized how much VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) had changed the basic structure of the game while I was gone. That point was driven home when I volunteered to head a major IT project for a local city; it turned into a project-manager job that has involved making director-level decisions.
It didn't take long for me to realize that the city needed to deep-six its computer system and start over: Hardware from the late 1990s and early 2000s just won't cut it in a world that's on the doorstep of 2011. The key to this future is the virtualization of operating systems. This virtualized operating system also serves as a basic building block of the new "cloud-computing" technology that everyone seems to be talking about in the land of IT.
By Don Miller, Contributing Writer, Money Morning - • Print | Email
Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) will escalate the war for smartphone dominance in early 2011 by releasing a new version of its iPhone to run on the popular Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) network, the biggest U.S. carrier by subscribers.
However, the phone won't make it out in time for the Christmas season, as many had hoped.
Apple will be ramping up to mass produce the new touchscreen handset by the end of 2010 and release it in the first quarter of 2011, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. While the phone would be similar to the iPhone 4 sold by its current carrier, AT&T (NYSE: T), it would be based on an alternative wireless technology used by Verizon, the people said.
The Verizon iPhone will mark the end of AT&T's agreement with Apple that gave the telecommunications giant exclusive rights to market and sell the handset since 2007, when Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs introduced the original iPhone.
Verizon has been testing its networks and capacity to handle the heavy data load by iPhone users, seeking to avoid the kind of bad publicity that plagued AT&T after booming sales of data-hungry iPhones crippled its network.
By Don Miller, Contributing Writer, Money Morning - • Print | Email
After losing a bidding war for a highly-sought-after acquisition target, many companies would pull in their horns and take time to regroup before venturing back into the murky mergers and acquisitions (M&A) pool.
But personal-computer icon Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL), which lost out in a highly-publicized bidding war for 3Par Inc. (NYSE: PAR), is forging ahead with an aggressive multi-billion dollar acquisition plan.
Computer companies are increasingly relying on acquisitions to broaden their product offerings and make inroads on competitors' market share.
The last time I recommended Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), Bill Clinton was in the White House. But it's time to take another look at the "cash-flow-engine" that Bill Gates built – and to explain why Microsoft is a "Buy" in today's stock market.
Microsoft is one of the safest investments in the world, but the software giant's stock price has done essentially nothing for the last 10 years. But the company is still a monopoly, has no debt, and continues to generate a torrent of cash.
In fact, Microsoft now has one of the largest cash hordes in the history of capitalism – more than $44 billion, and growing.
So what's different? What's the catalyst that promises to break this giant out of its somnambular state, to make its shares a "Buy?"
By Don Miller, Contributing Writer, Money Morning - • Print | Email
Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) has unveiled a lineup of smartphones that use its revamped Windows Phone 7 mobile-operating system in its boldest move yet to return to prominence in the mobile business.
The new operating system, which it spent two years developing, is the software giant's latest assault on the crowded smartphone market, where it has struggled to gain a foothold.
Microsoft's earlier mobile software was based on the design and interface of Windows desktop operating system. Although those phones showed early promise, the system's growth slowed dramatically as the company was upstaged by competitors like Apple Inc.'s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone and Google Inc.'s (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android software.
It's not easy to find a safe investment these days. The rulebook has been thrown out and mercantilism reigns supreme between nation states. The world is experiencing significant and rapid changes in currency exchange rates, as policymakers around the world take a beggar thy neighbor approach toward economic security.
There are very few multi-national companies that are not being seriously impacted by these changes.
However, there is one company that should be a safe beacon in these stormy market conditions: Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC).
