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HP and EDS: No hardware for us

Tue, 13 May 2008 19:05:28 +0000

Filed under: Deals, Competitive strategy, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), International Business Machines (IBM), Electronic Data Systems (EDS)

By looking at other companies that sell services and Personal computers, it has occurred to Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) that the hardware business is getting more competitive and that margins are moving down, But hardware is still the largest revenue center at the massive tech company, and that might be the single greatest failing of the current management. It has not created large enough software and services businesses to match the hardware sales.

HP brings in less that 25% of its revenue from services. But that business is growing quickly. According to the company’s 10-Q, it had revenue of almost $4.4 billion in the first quarter. In the same period a year ago, that number was $3.9 billion.

The prevailing theory is that HP plans to purchase EDS (NYSE: EDS) for $12.6 billion for its revenue from consulting and outsourcing to superior compete against IBM (NYSE: IBM). That may be true, but the actual reason might be much more simple than that. With its stock up 50% over the last two years, HP needs a new business to keep its revenue growing and its shareholders happy. That’s not going to come from its ink and printer business. Buying EDS nearly guarantees another two years of rising revenue and earnings.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and the author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 letter.

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Google joins Bloglines with iPhone version of Reader

Tue, 13 May 2008 16:36:06 +0000

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Apple, Google, iPhone, Beta

Monday Google unveiled yet another beta site. Google Reader is now formatted for the iPhone. iPhone users fatigued of pinching and stretching and tapping text only links in the normal version of Reader or dealing with the plain Classic mobile version of Reader can head over to http://www.google.com/reader/i/ to check out the new beta site.

With the iPhone-enabled web-app, Google joins Ask.com in the web-based RSS reader marketplace. Ask.com’s Bloglines has had an iPhone version available to users since July 19, 2007. iBloglines was created with less than a 1000 lines of code on a lark by an internal developer who purchased an iPhone and wanted better access to the site.

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RIM and Microsoft announce Windows Live services for Blackberry handsets

Tue, 13 May 2008 16:32:02 +0000

Filed under: Utilities, Web services, Microsoft, Social Software, BlackBerry, web 2.0

RIM and Microsoft have announced a deal that’ll officially bring Windows Live Services — specifically Hotmail and Messenger — to Blackberry handsets. Has hell frozen over? We wouldn’t know. What we do know is the two companies have been rivals in the mobile industry up until now, but they both gain significantly from agreement.

Microsoft is no stranger to the idea of playing in a competitor’s sandbox (remember Office for Mac?). By making Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail more accessible on the Crackberry, the company further pushes its communications services towards mass standardization especially in the business world. RIM also benefits from the agreement in the same way Apple benefits from Office for Mac: an OS is only as good as the software on it.

Messenger on Blackberry should retain most of its functions. It looks like users will be able to do the usual: IM, set status, pull up buddy lists, save conversations, use emoticons, and even send and receive files. While it looks like users can join group chats, creating group chats seems to be absent from the feature list.

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Just How Effective is System Hardening?

Tue, 13 May 2008 16:05:39 +0000

SkiifGeek, pointing to our recent coverage of what the NSA went through to create SELINUX, wants to know just how effective system hardening is at preventing successful attack, and writes “When Jay Beale presented at DefCon 14, he quoted statistics (PDF link) that Bastille protected against every major threat targeting Red Hat 6, before the threats were known. With simple techniques available for the each day user which can begin them on the path towards system hardening, just how effective have you found system and network hardening to be? The NSA does have some excellent guides to help harden not only your OS but also your browser and network equipment.”

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Henry B. Tippie College of Business :: Department of Finance

admin — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:15:26 +0000

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Henry B. Tippie College of Business :: Department of Finance

Federal Housing Finance Board - Home

Business Finance Vendors | Financial Services | Business.com

University of North Carolina Wilmington - The Career Center …

Free Money Finance

Finance and Globalization - The Globalist

The American Finance Association Home Page

Finance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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China establishes Boeing/Airbus competitor

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:01:05 +0000

Filed under: International markets, Products and services, Industry, Competitive strategy, China, Boeing Co (BA), Headline news

Several leading business journals have reported that China has created its own regional jumbo jet company to compete with Boeing Co (NYSE: BA) and Airbus.

The Financial Times (subscription required) reports, “China has unveiled a state-owned aircraft manufacturer intended to eventually challenge Boeing and Airbus’s control of the global market in huge airliners.” The Times characterizes the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (CACC) as “a significant step in Beijing’s drive to create an advanced civil aviation manufacturing sector able to help meet the country’s rapidly growing demand for regional and larger jets.”

Reuters noted that, “many analysts have expressed skepticism about the commercial prospects of a large jet designed and manufactured entirely in China, given the country’s limited experience in massive aircraft.” Not sure what analysts know, I’m skeptical just as much of them.

According to Bloomberg, “China aims to build a 150-seat aircraft by 2020 to support the expansion of its domestic travel market and to compete with Boeing and Airbus overseas.” In terms of expansion, the country plans “to triple its fleet of passenger and cargo planes to 4,000 by 2020 as economic growth lifts travel demand in the world’s second-largest aviation market, according to the General Administration of Civil Aviation.”

It should be of no surprise to anyone that China would pursue the expansion of its aviation industry. While some might scoff at China’s current technological capability, it would be an error to underestimate the capability of a focused and well-financed competitor. In terms of the time frame for this fledgling industry that too isn’t truly relevant — it isn’t a race and whatever they develop, and whenever they develop it — it will be more than they’ve now. They’ve the market size and they’ll gain market share.

They’re also apt to gain from reverse engineering of Boeing and Airbus designs, saving R & D money all along the way. This story will be playing out over decades.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm.He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money.

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AnnTaylor shares climb on raised forecast… but it’s still retail

Tue, 13 May 2008 05:58:43 +0000

Filed under: Major movement, Forecasts, Good news, Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy

It’s been brewing ever so slowly, but AnnTaylor Stores Corp. (NYSE: ANN) has finally been able to show the results of its efforts. Shares of AnnTaylor soared about 13% this day after the women’s apparel chain raised its first-quarter earnings forecast.

The company stated that better-than-expected results at its LOFT stores as well as lower inventories and better expense management overall contributed to the results. Yes, surprising investors is always good, but it’s also always good to remain a tiny cautious with such news. The company itself warned about the rest of the year, leaving its full-year forecast unchanged.

Of course, the question is what’s ahead for AnnTaylor. One answer already came this day from the company when it stated it would shelve a new store concept targeting baby boomers. But following the success of LOFT, the retailer is aggressively launching an outlet version of the brand. Is it smart? It certainly seems that in the current economic climate increasing lower-priced offerings would grant AnnTaylor to keep cash-strapped customers while offering them budget clothes in a familiar brand.

Flexibility is key in retail and Ann Taylor, at least today, showed it may be able to adjust to the slowing economy and declining consumer spending. While it suffered some major setbacks the past two years, AnnTaylor’s cost-cutting and management shakeup have been able to bear fruit. This day, management also showed it can read the market and make decisions accordingly, like not pursuing the much-coveted Baby Boomer generation… at least for now. Now, it’s also the time for the company to overhaul its namesake stores which are desperately in need of an overhaul (sales were down 11.5% in AnnTaylor stores). Perhaps by the time the change is finished, the economy will bounce back and Ann Taylor would be there to pounce on the returning consumers.

Still, Ann Taylor is still a retail stock, and more than that, it’s an apparel one (net sales only grew 2% and same-store sales fell 4.3% in this “surprising” quarter). For now, I wouldn’t go near any apparel stocks.

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Citizen focus groups voice concern over Google-Yahoo alliance

Tue, 13 May 2008 05:56:11 +0000

Filed under: Deals, World wide web, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), Politics

The BBC reported on Saturday that demands are being made for careful government scrutiny of any potential alliances between World wide web giants Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG).

According to the BBC report, a coalition of activist groups including the Black Leadership Forum, the League of Rural Voters, the National Black Chamber of Commerce, and the American Agriculture Movement, is concerned that allowing any kind of unregulated working relationship between Yahoo and Google could put World wide web neutrality in serious jeopardy. Gary Flowers, representing the Black Leadership Forum, is quoted by BBC as stating, “We all suffer in such mega mergers.” He further said that the nature of such a partnership could “condense competition, increase prices and limit new business opportunity on the Internet.”

The BBC indicates that the Justice Department is already in the process of reviewing joint operation trials that the two companies have engaged in. However, the department seems to be down playing the citizen coalition’s demands, citing that the two companies have no working agreements to address. At a recently held Google shareholders meeting the matter was addressed by Chairman Eric Schmidt who said, “If there were a deal [with Yahoo], we would anticipate structuring the deal to address the antitrust concerns that have been widely discussed.”

I would tend to echo the valid concerns of Gary Flowers: too much control over Internet communications by any one particular entity or alliance would inevitably be bad for all of us. I think the matter needs to be taken to a broader base of examination than the justice department alone can provide.

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FTC to Scrutinize Contactless Payment Technology

Tue, 13 May 2008 04:02:01 +0000

coondoggie writes to tell us that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will be taking a look at contactless payment systems and the consumer protection issue surrounding them. “RFID technology provides obvious benefits, the FTC stated. For example, the ability of producers using RFID to track exactly where in the supply chain their products are and by which retailer they were ultimately sold to a consumer has the potential to make product recalls more effective. However, there also might be costs regarding consumers’ individual privacy rights associated with it.”

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Canada Considering A Three Strikes And You’re Off The Internet Policy?

Tue, 13 May 2008 01:20:58 +0000

Techdirt is reporting that Canada may be considering a “three strikes” policy which could see users internet access privileges revoked for file sharing violations. “Given how secretive the industry and the government have been about new copyright laws, perhaps this isn’t too surprising. We do know that the industry was pushing for greater ISP liability as part of copyright law changes a few months back, so it wouldn’t be surprising if ISPs were negotiating a “three strikes” type rule to avoid the liability issues. Of course, they probably want to keep it secret, as publicity (and resulting anger) about these types of laws in Europe has at least some politicians moving away from them. However, as the entertainment industry does keep succeeding in getting these types of laws to move forward, how long will it be before similar laws are proposed in the US, with “everyone else is doing it” as part of the reasoning?”

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