May 2 - 2012 Bertone Nuccio The Nuccio is an "extreme", fully functional sports car, which develops the Bertone genetic code with an evolutionary flair: a 480 hp, 4.3-liter V8 mid-engine "berlinetta".
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Thursday, May 9, 2013
May 8 - 2014 Chevrolet Silverado High Country Silverado High Country is distinguished by a unique chrome grille with horizontal chrome bars, halogen projector headlamps and body-color front and rear bumpers. Inside, Silverado High Country features an exclusive saddle brown interior, with authentic materials throughout. Features include heated and cooled perforated premium leather front bucket seats with High Country logos on the headrests, Chevrolet MyLink connectivity with an 8-inch touch screen, Bose premium audio and front and rear park assist.
May 6 - 2013 Buick Riviera Concept This stylish coupe combines avant-garde aesthetics and advanced technology, including plug-in hybrid electric vehicle propulsion, in a single package.
May 2 - 2012 Bertone Nuccio The Nuccio is an "extreme", fully functional sports car, which develops the Bertone genetic code with an evolutionary flair: a 480 hp, 4.3-liter V8 mid-engine "berlinetta".
May 2 - 2012 Bertone Nuccio The Nuccio is an "extreme", fully functional sports car, which develops the Bertone genetic code with an evolutionary flair: a 480 hp, 4.3-liter V8 mid-engine "berlinetta".
A $0.99 HTC First shows that people may not like a phone built around Facebook
AT&T has a special deal going on for the HTC First, a smartphone dedicated to Facebook users. You can pick up the handset for $0.99 with a two-year contract or pay $350 for a contract-free experience. While that sounds great for consumers, I wonder what it really means for Facebook’s biggest effort to date in trying to get a foot in the door of the hardware market.
It’s not uncommon for handsets to see reduced prices over time. After all, new models appear, making older phones a little more obsolete. Carriers, which generally buy inventory in advance, then discount the older phones to spur higher sales and the service revenues that come along for the ride. But in terms of the HTC First, there is no successor model available.
I reached out to AT&T for some thoughts and while the carrier won’t comment on individual manufacturer handset sales, I was told that it’s a promotion, which as I noted above, isn’t uncommon. There is no indication if or when the reduced prices may end.
So this could be due to sales or not. I suspect it is, mainly because I’m ruling out the other options. For starters, the phone works on AT&T’s LTE network and falls back to speedy HSPA+ service, so there’s no reason to blame the network. As far as the phone: It’s a mid-range handset made by HTC that I’d consider fairly generic.
My colleague Om reviewed it — I haven’t had a chance to use the First yet — and as someone who vastly prefers iOS to Android, his impressions were better than I expected. He mostly liked the Facebook Home software, which I have used. I think it’s actually very well done and runs nicely on my Galaxy Note 2. But I think this alludes to the key problem: The market is clamoring for a Facebook phone just as much as it is for a phone built around Twitter or another social service. Meaning: It’s not.
It’s difficult enough for a high-end flagship phone to stand out from its peers, let alone a mid-range handset. Frankly, I can’t see how Facebook Home helps the HTC First differentiate itself enough; particularly when the software is already available for download on better phones and is expected to arrive on other handsets in the future. Sorry Facebook, I don’t think the market likes your attempt at a smartphone.
It’s not uncommon for handsets to see reduced prices over time. After all, new models appear, making older phones a little more obsolete. Carriers, which generally buy inventory in advance, then discount the older phones to spur higher sales and the service revenues that come along for the ride. But in terms of the HTC First, there is no successor model available.I reached out to AT&T for some thoughts and while the carrier won’t comment on individual manufacturer handset sales, I was told that it’s a promotion, which as I noted above, isn’t uncommon. There is no indication if or when the reduced prices may end.
So this could be due to sales or not. I suspect it is, mainly because I’m ruling out the other options. For starters, the phone works on AT&T’s LTE network and falls back to speedy HSPA+ service, so there’s no reason to blame the network. As far as the phone: It’s a mid-range handset made by HTC that I’d consider fairly generic.
My colleague Om reviewed it — I haven’t had a chance to use the First yet — and as someone who vastly prefers iOS to Android, his impressions were better than I expected. He mostly liked the Facebook Home software, which I have used. I think it’s actually very well done and runs nicely on my Galaxy Note 2. But I think this alludes to the key problem: The market is clamoring for a Facebook phone just as much as it is for a phone built around Twitter or another social service. Meaning: It’s not.
It’s difficult enough for a high-end flagship phone to stand out from its peers, let alone a mid-range handset. Frankly, I can’t see how Facebook Home helps the HTC First differentiate itself enough; particularly when the software is already available for download on better phones and is expected to arrive on other handsets in the future. Sorry Facebook, I don’t think the market likes your attempt at a smartphone.
Tesla shares soar almost 30% in after hours on profit news.
Tesla’s shares are soaring — even more than they already did this week — on news that the company has hit the milestone of delivering the first quarterly profit in the company’s history.
Tesla’s shares rose at one point almost 30 percent in after hour trading to over $70 per share. Earlier this week Tesla’s shares had hit an all-time high of over $60 per share.
When Tesla held its IPO and started trading back in the summer of 2010, it went public at $17 per share. It’s $70-per-share milestone in after hours trading is more than four times that initial IPO price.
Tesla and CEO Elon Musk have ambitions far higher than this current marketcap and stock price. Musk has a payout package that allocates shares when Tesla’s marketcap adds $4 billion up until it reaches $43.2 billion, along with accompanying operating milestones.
Tesla’s shares rose at one point almost 30 percent in after hour trading to over $70 per share. Earlier this week Tesla’s shares had hit an all-time high of over $60 per share.
When Tesla held its IPO and started trading back in the summer of 2010, it went public at $17 per share. It’s $70-per-share milestone in after hours trading is more than four times that initial IPO price.
Tesla and CEO Elon Musk have ambitions far higher than this current marketcap and stock price. Musk has a payout package that allocates shares when Tesla’s marketcap adds $4 billion up until it reaches $43.2 billion, along with accompanying operating milestones.
Get your cat on: BuzzFeed creates new section where readers can publish
Viral site BuzzFeed launched a new content vertical on Wednesday called “Community” that consists entirely of user-submitted content.
While BuzzFeed has relied on reader content for years, the new vertical will increase the visibility of such contributions. It will also increase the chances of a viral pay-off from the site’s high-tech publishing tools. The new “Community” section includes a formal submission process that permits users to submit one post per day until their (what else) “Cat Power” increases, which will allow more frequent submissions.
“Community has always been a huge part of our site — some of our best posts have come from community submissions — and now we want to reinvent community for the social web,” editorial director Scott Lamb said in an email statement.
BuzzFeed’s decision to expand the scope of user-generated offerings comes at a time when media outlets are increasingly looking to commenters as a source of talent and future hires. My colleague Mathew Ingram explained the phenomenon well earlier this week in “Want a job at Gawker Media? You can get a head start by being a regular commenter.”
The new section is consistent with BuzzFeed’s improbable quest to become more serious and more inane at the same time. In recent weeks, the site has been at forefront of major news stories like the Boston bombings while also churning out its regular fare like “14 cats who think they’re sushi.”
While BuzzFeed has relied on reader content for years, the new vertical will increase the visibility of such contributions. It will also increase the chances of a viral pay-off from the site’s high-tech publishing tools. The new “Community” section includes a formal submission process that permits users to submit one post per day until their (what else) “Cat Power” increases, which will allow more frequent submissions.
“Community has always been a huge part of our site — some of our best posts have come from community submissions — and now we want to reinvent community for the social web,” editorial director Scott Lamb said in an email statement.
BuzzFeed’s decision to expand the scope of user-generated offerings comes at a time when media outlets are increasingly looking to commenters as a source of talent and future hires. My colleague Mathew Ingram explained the phenomenon well earlier this week in “Want a job at Gawker Media? You can get a head start by being a regular commenter.”
The new section is consistent with BuzzFeed’s improbable quest to become more serious and more inane at the same time. In recent weeks, the site has been at forefront of major news stories like the Boston bombings while also churning out its regular fare like “14 cats who think they’re sushi.”
How analzying Wikipedia page views could help you make money
Summary:
Tweets and other public-facing data have limits, but researchers see new value in Wikipedia page views. That data could inform an investment strategy more closely tied to Dow Jones performance than a random strategy.
Plenty of companies have been looking at software for analyzing private large data sets and combining it with external streams such as tweets to make predictions that could boost revenue or cut expenses. Walmart, for instance, has come up with a way for company buyers to cross sales data with tweets on products and categories on Twitter and thereby determine which products to stock. Here’s another possible data source to consider checking: Wikipedia.
No, this doesn’t mean a company that wants to predict the future should take a guess based on what a person or company’s Wikipedia page says. However, researchers have found value in page views on certain English-language Wikipedia pages. The results were published Wednesday in the online journal Scientific Reports.
The researchers looked at page views and edits for Wikipedia entries on public companies that are part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, such as Cisco, Intel, and Pfizer, (pfe) as well as wikis on economic topics such as capitalism and debt. Changes in the average number of page views and edits per week informed decisions on whether to buy or sell the DJIA. In other words, a major increase in page views could have prompted a sale, followed by a buy to close out the deal, or vice-versa (decreases in page views, say, would cause a buy, followed by a sale).
The researchers compared this investment strategy with a random investing strategy. What they found is that returns based on views of the DJIA company Wikipedia pages “are significantly higher than the returns of the random strategies,” to the tune of a 141 percent return, according to a news release.
There was also a significant difference between returns from the random strategy and the returns on the strategy tied to page views of economic topics. The yield would be 297 percent higher than what was put in in that case.
To check that there wasn’t a hidden variable in the data on views of company and topic pages, the researchers compared the earnings on Dow Jones investments tied to page views of actors and filmmakers, which had just as many page views as the pages on the DJIA companies. Indeed, they found no statistical significance there. And that makes sense in theory — who checks out Matt Damon’s Wikipedia entry before making an investment? But checking a Wikipedia page on Cisco might be a more reasonable action before investing in Cisco.
Incidentally, some of the researchers behind this project have also investigated connections between the Dow Jones and the use of certain financial search terms on Google. Other researchers have previously found connections between Google search patterns on stocks and stock price changes over time.
While predictive analytics has become a hot area — with applications from social media conversations to crime, from the flu to retweets — data scientists often acknowledge that people need to be sure the data they want to use for analysis is solid and reliable. Edit data from Wikipedia isn’t inherently reliable in the sense that anyone can edit it — and it turns out to be not statistically significant. Page views could perhaps be manipulated by a computer pinging Wikipedia again and again, which could throw off an algorithm pulling page view data in real time.
And tweets can be all over the place — there’s no style guide or fact checking for Twitter. So getting a good read on sentiment based on tweets from, say, Stocktwits can be hit or miss. And Google’s Flu Trends feature, heralded as an early use of crowdsourced data, reportedly overestimated flu breakout late last year.
Clearly, there are caveats to these data sets. Still, it’s neat to see new models emerging on the uses of public data, and some people who want to make money off Wikipedia metadata might want experiment with it. Just don’t blame us if the experiments backfire.
No, this doesn’t mean a company that wants to predict the future should take a guess based on what a person or company’s Wikipedia page says. However, researchers have found value in page views on certain English-language Wikipedia pages. The results were published Wednesday in the online journal Scientific Reports.
The researchers looked at page views and edits for Wikipedia entries on public companies that are part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, such as Cisco, Intel, and Pfizer, (pfe) as well as wikis on economic topics such as capitalism and debt. Changes in the average number of page views and edits per week informed decisions on whether to buy or sell the DJIA. In other words, a major increase in page views could have prompted a sale, followed by a buy to close out the deal, or vice-versa (decreases in page views, say, would cause a buy, followed by a sale).
The researchers compared this investment strategy with a random investing strategy. What they found is that returns based on views of the DJIA company Wikipedia pages “are significantly higher than the returns of the random strategies,” to the tune of a 141 percent return, according to a news release.
How returns on strategies based on Wikipedia view and edit data for Wikipedia entries on companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, courtesy of Scientific Reports.
Returns on strategies based on view and edit data for Wikipedia entries on economic topics, via Scientific Reports
Incidentally, some of the researchers behind this project have also investigated connections between the Dow Jones and the use of certain financial search terms on Google. Other researchers have previously found connections between Google search patterns on stocks and stock price changes over time.
While predictive analytics has become a hot area — with applications from social media conversations to crime, from the flu to retweets — data scientists often acknowledge that people need to be sure the data they want to use for analysis is solid and reliable. Edit data from Wikipedia isn’t inherently reliable in the sense that anyone can edit it — and it turns out to be not statistically significant. Page views could perhaps be manipulated by a computer pinging Wikipedia again and again, which could throw off an algorithm pulling page view data in real time.
And tweets can be all over the place — there’s no style guide or fact checking for Twitter. So getting a good read on sentiment based on tweets from, say, Stocktwits can be hit or miss. And Google’s Flu Trends feature, heralded as an early use of crowdsourced data, reportedly overestimated flu breakout late last year.
Clearly, there are caveats to these data sets. Still, it’s neat to see new models emerging on the uses of public data, and some people who want to make money off Wikipedia metadata might want experiment with it. Just don’t blame us if the experiments backfire.
Stunning Google Earth photos show our planet changing
Google along with the US Geological Survey, NASA and TIME has shared a quarter-century of photos taken from space that show the surface of the earth and the changes that have happened over that period. From Google’s blogpost:
Check it out on Google’s Timelapse website.
We started working with the USGS in 2009 to make this historic archive of earth imagery available online. Using Google Earth Engine technology, we sifted through 2,068,467 images—a total of 909 terabytes of data—to find the highest-quality pixels (e.g., those without clouds), for every year since 1984 and for every spot on Earth. We then compiled these into enormous planetary images, 1.78 terapixels each, one for each year.The changes on our planet are stunning. A glacier has almost vanished, a new city has been created and Amazon rainforest has been decimated. Our capability as humans to destroy our planet and re-create it is astonishing. The whole project makes you realize that in order to understand something important and profound, you have to look at it over a period of time.
Check it out on Google’s Timelapse website.
Monday, May 6, 2013
How an old-school telco gear maker got the cloud religion. Can it convert the carriers?
Telcos feel like they are between a rock and hard place. When you consider the transition to all IP networks, the margin pressures associated with meeting the insatiable demand for mobile data and the threat that over-the-top services represent to their businesses; it’s clear that they are doing more than just trying to change the jet engine mid-flight, they are trying to replace the engine while others are looting the plane for parts. Meanwhile the skies are getting more crowded with more flyers demanding more routes.
Telcos must invest in their infrastructure, even as demand for their services rises. Yet they cannot ask revenue to continue rising at the pace of consumption, and in some cases, such as text messaging and voice calls their revenue is falling. So far their response has been to decry bandwidth hogs, implement new pricing plans that try to hold the line on the dollars coming in even if users choose to use over-the top-alternatives.
But some are realizing that that’s not enough. They are investing in technologies such as OpenFlow, or at least software defined networking, as they try to get a handle on their costs. And they are demanding their suppliers provide them with specialized software running on commodity hardware, as opposed to the pricey, proprietary boxes of previous generations’ of technology.
As Metaswitch looked at the market two years ago it saw an opportunity. The company, which provides other hardware to wireless carriers, saw the world was changing. So CTO Martin Taylor said the company decided to build an IMS core that ran on commodity hardware. And if that wasn’t revolutionary enough (remember, we’re talking about telcos here) on May 8 Metaswitch will open source the software.
Taylor points out that telcos used to have the largest scale systems, but that is changing. The globe-spanning networks delivering five nines that once inspired such awe, are now common as Google, Microsoft and others build out their own globe-spanning infrastructures. And telco’s know that to keep up they must adopt the same tricks the web scale companies have, like open source software and commodity hardware. Thus Metaswitch will open source its Clearwater software, and follow a Red Hat model of supporting the software and releasing regular updates. Taylor has the right idea, but telcos need to go even further.
Telcos are providing essential infrastructure in their mobile networks. Many of them also provide cloud computing services. In yesteryear it was enough to just provide the pipes, but if you’re going to provide compute and networking infrastructure today you need to adjust to the new reality for infrastructure providers.
And that reality is you need to own your systems. Infrastructure is going to be a commodity, even in mobile access (look at Free Mobile’s plans in France or even Republic Wireless here in the U.S. if you want to see the future). And people are going to want more and more of it, so the build out had better be cheap. So if telcos really want to be cloud providers, and the really want to compete in an all IP world, they need to stop demanding hand-holding from their vendors, hire smart people to own their infrastructure development, and get off their butts and start innovating.
For example, Amazon doesn’t hire a company to provide help on its operating systems or databases. When it chooses an open source technology it also chooses and hires smart people to make sure that technology is up and running and maintained. Google, Facebook, Netflix, they all operate the same way in the core areas of their business. Because when you cut out the middle man you cut costs. When you have smart people on staff, you can keep innovating at your pace and in the direction you want to go.
So if you’re going to be an infrastructure provider, that mindset and skill set is par for the course. And telcos do not seem to get this.
They can’t say they want to be like Amazon and play in that world if they want their vendors to do the work. They’ve got to find a way to embrace not just the technologies but the economic realities of competing in the commodity and cutthroat business that is the cloud and IP networks. Otherwise they will begin a long decline
Telcos must invest in their infrastructure, even as demand for their services rises. Yet they cannot ask revenue to continue rising at the pace of consumption, and in some cases, such as text messaging and voice calls their revenue is falling. So far their response has been to decry bandwidth hogs, implement new pricing plans that try to hold the line on the dollars coming in even if users choose to use over-the top-alternatives.
But some are realizing that that’s not enough. They are investing in technologies such as OpenFlow, or at least software defined networking, as they try to get a handle on their costs. And they are demanding their suppliers provide them with specialized software running on commodity hardware, as opposed to the pricey, proprietary boxes of previous generations’ of technology.Metaswitch’s big switch for telco gear.
For example, Metaswitch, a three-decade-old company based in San Francisco has created Project Clearwater, a software-based IMS core for telephone networks. An IMS (it stands for IP Multimedia Subsystem for those who care about these things) system is the glue that connects the old analog wireline systems to the newer digital systems. The thought behind IMS was that mobile operators would use them as a bridge into the IP world, but in reality they proved complex and expensive and telcos put off making those investments.As Metaswitch looked at the market two years ago it saw an opportunity. The company, which provides other hardware to wireless carriers, saw the world was changing. So CTO Martin Taylor said the company decided to build an IMS core that ran on commodity hardware. And if that wasn’t revolutionary enough (remember, we’re talking about telcos here) on May 8 Metaswitch will open source the software.
Taylor points out that telcos used to have the largest scale systems, but that is changing. The globe-spanning networks delivering five nines that once inspired such awe, are now common as Google, Microsoft and others build out their own globe-spanning infrastructures. And telco’s know that to keep up they must adopt the same tricks the web scale companies have, like open source software and commodity hardware. Thus Metaswitch will open source its Clearwater software, and follow a Red Hat model of supporting the software and releasing regular updates. Taylor has the right idea, but telcos need to go even further.
But the real solution isn’t open-source software
As forward-thinking as Metaswitch is with its open source business model and trying to deliver a software-based IMS core built for commodity hardware, its customers are making a mistake if they rely on Metaswitch to hold their hand. As the telco network looks more like cloud and webscale infrastructure — in that telco networks they are taking on more load without adding costs — telcos need to think like real cloud vendors and webscale companies, not like enterprise IT customers.Telcos are providing essential infrastructure in their mobile networks. Many of them also provide cloud computing services. In yesteryear it was enough to just provide the pipes, but if you’re going to provide compute and networking infrastructure today you need to adjust to the new reality for infrastructure providers.
The new infrastructure reality
And that reality is you need to own your systems. Infrastructure is going to be a commodity, even in mobile access (look at Free Mobile’s plans in France or even Republic Wireless here in the U.S. if you want to see the future). And people are going to want more and more of it, so the build out had better be cheap. So if telcos really want to be cloud providers, and the really want to compete in an all IP world, they need to stop demanding hand-holding from their vendors, hire smart people to own their infrastructure development, and get off their butts and start innovating.For example, Amazon doesn’t hire a company to provide help on its operating systems or databases. When it chooses an open source technology it also chooses and hires smart people to make sure that technology is up and running and maintained. Google, Facebook, Netflix, they all operate the same way in the core areas of their business. Because when you cut out the middle man you cut costs. When you have smart people on staff, you can keep innovating at your pace and in the direction you want to go.
So if you’re going to be an infrastructure provider, that mindset and skill set is par for the course. And telcos do not seem to get this.
They can’t say they want to be like Amazon and play in that world if they want their vendors to do the work. They’ve got to find a way to embrace not just the technologies but the economic realities of competing in the commodity and cutthroat business that is the cloud and IP networks. Otherwise they will begin a long decline
Samsung acquires second-screen startup MOVL
Samsung has acquired the Atlanta-based second-screen startup MOVL. The acquisition happened last month but hasn’t been reported until now. Terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, but it looks like a typical acqui-hire.
A MOVL spokesperson confirmed the acquisition when contacted by GigaOM, sending over the following statement:
However, MOVL didn’t just develop games. The company also built a second-screen development platform dubbed MOVL Connect that simplified the process of developing these kinds of multi-screen applications. MOVL’s games are based on and meant to demonstrate the capabilities of that platform, as CTO Alan Queen told me in 2011.
One of the main capabilities of that platform has been to allow users to join a game, or interact with an app running on their TV even if their phone doesn’t reside on the same Wi-Fi network — something that’s especially important for social apps, but that also lowers the bar for less technically inclined users. The platform is also capable of displaying synchronized ads on both screens.
It’s likely that MOVL will phase out the operation of its platform in the coming months. The company has a staff of nine, all of which have joined Samsung, with plans to relocate all Atlanta-based employees to the Bay Area. MOVL had raised a modest $1 million from Bert Ellis, Kris Pinto and Mark Cuban.
A MOVL spokesperson confirmed the acquisition when contacted by GigaOM, sending over the following statement:
“In April 2013, two years after inception, MOVL has officially joined forces with Samsung. We are now a part of Samsung Electronics, and we are excited to combine our multi-screen capabilities with Samsung’s scale and innovation in its device ecosystem.”MOVL has developed a number of second-screen games for connected TVs. Some of the better-known titles include PokerFun, which lets users play poker on the TV while displaying the cards they are holding on their smart phones, and WeDraw, a social drawing game for Samsung smart TVs and Google TV devices.
However, MOVL didn’t just develop games. The company also built a second-screen development platform dubbed MOVL Connect that simplified the process of developing these kinds of multi-screen applications. MOVL’s games are based on and meant to demonstrate the capabilities of that platform, as CTO Alan Queen told me in 2011.
One of the main capabilities of that platform has been to allow users to join a game, or interact with an app running on their TV even if their phone doesn’t reside on the same Wi-Fi network — something that’s especially important for social apps, but that also lowers the bar for less technically inclined users. The platform is also capable of displaying synchronized ads on both screens.
It’s likely that MOVL will phase out the operation of its platform in the coming months. The company has a staff of nine, all of which have joined Samsung, with plans to relocate all Atlanta-based employees to the Bay Area. MOVL had raised a modest $1 million from Bert Ellis, Kris Pinto and Mark Cuban.
Bright outlook: First Solar sells out of solar panels, inks new deal in China.
After dealing with a market that’s been flooded with low cost solar panels for over two years, solar panel makers are now starting to reverse that trend. First Solar is sold out of its solar panels into the third quarter of the year, company executives said Monday.
The announcement came after SunPower executives said last week that demand in the hot Japanese market exceeded what the company could deliver during the first quarter. Last month, market research firm IHS reported that the average wholesale prices for silicon panels delivered to Europe rose for the first time in several years.
The shift has come at a heavy cost to solar manufacturers like First Solar and SunPower, however. For over two years, solar panel makers have had to reduce production or even shutter factories while posting losses quarter after quarter. Dozens have filed for bankruptcy, including Germany’s Alfasolar, as reported by PV Magazine Monday. The bankruptcy of Suntech Power’s main subsidiary in March rattled the industry, particularly those who have bought the Chinese company’s solar panels.
First Solar, which makes solar panels and develops solar power plants, closed its big manufacturing plant in Germany last year and suspended plans to build new factories in Vietnam and Arizona. Those moves as well as First Solar’s efforts to reduce its spending on administration and, to a lesser extent, research development and sales, have allowed the company to survive the downturn. First Solar brought in new top executives over the past year and presented a convincing plan last month for improving its technology and sales in emerging markets for the next several years.
For the past three years, First Solar’s executives have discussed in earnest the need to grab market share in emerging markets such as India, China, the Middle East and Latin America. Germany was once its largest market, but the country, which has steadily reduced its government incentives for solar energy generation, accounted for just three percent of its sales in 2012, according to First Solar’s 2012 annual report.
In an earnings discussion with analysts on Monday, First Solar’s CEO Jim Hughes pointed out that the company has expanded its market reach since early 2012. Back then, it was talking mostly about sales in the United States, Canada, India, Europe and Australia. Its purchase of a Chilean solar power developer earlier this year created a new talking point about Latin America. The Chilean company was developing about 1.5 GW of projects when First Solar announced the acquisition. Overall, First Solar is working on about 1.8 GW of projects in Latin America, though those projects are under development and the company isn’t promising that all of them will succeed.
Hughes also announced that the company has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese city of Ordos in Inner Mongolia for the second phase of a 2GW plan that it first announced in 2009. The second phase will see First Solar supplying 300 MW-500 MW of solar panels, and construction could start in the second half of 2014. The first phase, a 30MW project, is set to start construction in the third quarter of this year, he added.
Meanwhile, the company is building some of the world’s largest solar power plants right here in California. One of them, the 230MW Antelope Valley Solar Ranch One in Los Angeles County, has run into “weather-related delays” during the first quarter of this year. That partly contributed to lower earnings from the previous quarter. Completion of the project is now set for the end of this year rather than the second quarter.
The company generated $755 million in sales for the first quarter of this year, down $320 million from the previous quarter but up $258 million from the year-ago period. It posted $59.1 million in net income, or $0.66 per share for the first quarter, $154.2 million in net income, or $1.74 per share for the fourth quarter of 2012. It reported $449.4 million, or $5.20 per share, in losses for the first quarter of 2012.
The announcement came after SunPower executives said last week that demand in the hot Japanese market exceeded what the company could deliver during the first quarter. Last month, market research firm IHS reported that the average wholesale prices for silicon panels delivered to Europe rose for the first time in several years.
The shift has come at a heavy cost to solar manufacturers like First Solar and SunPower, however. For over two years, solar panel makers have had to reduce production or even shutter factories while posting losses quarter after quarter. Dozens have filed for bankruptcy, including Germany’s Alfasolar, as reported by PV Magazine Monday. The bankruptcy of Suntech Power’s main subsidiary in March rattled the industry, particularly those who have bought the Chinese company’s solar panels.
First Solar, which makes solar panels and develops solar power plants, closed its big manufacturing plant in Germany last year and suspended plans to build new factories in Vietnam and Arizona. Those moves as well as First Solar’s efforts to reduce its spending on administration and, to a lesser extent, research development and sales, have allowed the company to survive the downturn. First Solar brought in new top executives over the past year and presented a convincing plan last month for improving its technology and sales in emerging markets for the next several years.
For the past three years, First Solar’s executives have discussed in earnest the need to grab market share in emerging markets such as India, China, the Middle East and Latin America. Germany was once its largest market, but the country, which has steadily reduced its government incentives for solar energy generation, accounted for just three percent of its sales in 2012, according to First Solar’s 2012 annual report.
In an earnings discussion with analysts on Monday, First Solar’s CEO Jim Hughes pointed out that the company has expanded its market reach since early 2012. Back then, it was talking mostly about sales in the United States, Canada, India, Europe and Australia. Its purchase of a Chilean solar power developer earlier this year created a new talking point about Latin America. The Chilean company was developing about 1.5 GW of projects when First Solar announced the acquisition. Overall, First Solar is working on about 1.8 GW of projects in Latin America, though those projects are under development and the company isn’t promising that all of them will succeed.
Hughes also announced that the company has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese city of Ordos in Inner Mongolia for the second phase of a 2GW plan that it first announced in 2009. The second phase will see First Solar supplying 300 MW-500 MW of solar panels, and construction could start in the second half of 2014. The first phase, a 30MW project, is set to start construction in the third quarter of this year, he added.
Meanwhile, the company is building some of the world’s largest solar power plants right here in California. One of them, the 230MW Antelope Valley Solar Ranch One in Los Angeles County, has run into “weather-related delays” during the first quarter of this year. That partly contributed to lower earnings from the previous quarter. Completion of the project is now set for the end of this year rather than the second quarter.
The company generated $755 million in sales for the first quarter of this year, down $320 million from the previous quarter but up $258 million from the year-ago period. It posted $59.1 million in net income, or $0.66 per share for the first quarter, $154.2 million in net income, or $1.74 per share for the fourth quarter of 2012. It reported $449.4 million, or $5.20 per share, in losses for the first quarter of 2012.
Google keeps fighting for the heart of the iPhone with new Gmail update
A tiny tweak to Google’s Gmail app for iOS takes it another step closer to building a layer of Google services on top of Apple’s iPhone. With the latest update, users can choose to set Gmail default links to open in YouTube, Chrome or Google Maps, as appropriate.
That’s instead of Apple’s default solution, which would be to link to YouTube on the web, Safari and Apple Maps, respectively.
It should come as welcome news to heavy users of Google services or those who simply want to be able to pick what apps to connect to on their phone. It’s also, as CNET noted, a sort of “end run” around Apple’s services. Even as Apple has decoupled its iPhone partnership with Google for everything except search — removing YouTube and Google Maps as default iOS apps in the second half of 2012 — the web company has still found a way to reach its users who have iPhones and iPads through Apple’s regulated App Store.
The Gmail update comes a week after the introduction of Google Now for iOS as part of the Google Search app. That service also takes advantage of Google services users’ activity across a variety of Google apps, including those used in iOS.
Google isn’t alone among Apple’s competitors who have aspirations of this kind: Amazon and Facebook have also been able to build a series of apps that can act as replacements for Apple’s core iOS services, from music and videos to making phone calls and texting.
Apple certainly benefits by being able to offer the most popular services and apps on its platform, but at some point it must be concerning for Apple that the most basic services of its flagship device are being bypassed by superior apps coming from its fiercest competitors.
That’s instead of Apple’s default solution, which would be to link to YouTube on the web, Safari and Apple Maps, respectively.
It should come as welcome news to heavy users of Google services or those who simply want to be able to pick what apps to connect to on their phone. It’s also, as CNET noted, a sort of “end run” around Apple’s services. Even as Apple has decoupled its iPhone partnership with Google for everything except search — removing YouTube and Google Maps as default iOS apps in the second half of 2012 — the web company has still found a way to reach its users who have iPhones and iPads through Apple’s regulated App Store.
The Gmail update comes a week after the introduction of Google Now for iOS as part of the Google Search app. That service also takes advantage of Google services users’ activity across a variety of Google apps, including those used in iOS.
Google isn’t alone among Apple’s competitors who have aspirations of this kind: Amazon and Facebook have also been able to build a series of apps that can act as replacements for Apple’s core iOS services, from music and videos to making phone calls and texting.
Apple certainly benefits by being able to offer the most popular services and apps on its platform, but at some point it must be concerning for Apple that the most basic services of its flagship device are being bypassed by superior apps coming from its fiercest competitors.
6 things iOS can learn from OS X
The focus of Apple’s last two releases of OS X has been on incorporating features of iOS while refining the user experience, which has worked well so far. However, certain aspects of iOS, such as the lack of good inter-app communication, are making the platform look dated. Apple could solve that issue and others by bringing features from OS X back to iOS, starting with Services.
Let’s switch to iOS. Apps are sandboxed, which means they can’t share files between each other, and the only way to share text is through copy and paste. Third-party apps can’t process actions from other apps without using URL schemes, which isn’t an ideal solution.
Implementing something as complex as OS X’s Services within iOS’s simplified UI isn’t easy. So far, Apple’s taken the approach of only including the most useful Services from OS X in its own apps. In iBooks, for example, I can select a word and define it, make a new email with it, or search the web for it: all the basic stuff you can do in OS X. It’s a sign that Apple’s at least thinking about the problem, and I’m hopeful that the coming iOS 7 update will address it more thoroughly.
Multiple user accounts were introduced with Mac OS 9, and they’ve evolved quite a bit since. Today, each user gets their own settings, files and associated iCloud account. If you click on the currently logged-in user’s name in the menu bar, a menu pops down with a list of other users. Choose one, and that user’s desktop rotates off the screen to be replaced by the other’s.
It’s true that you can sign in and out of iOS with different Apple IDs, but this only lets you download another user’s content from iTunes and not much else. You don’t get your iCloud data or settings, and any changes you make outside of iTunes stay with the other account. Obviously, this isn’t ideal for families that share an iPad or iPod touch. The latest version of Android, Jelly Bean, includes multiple account support for tablets, giving Android users one more feature to tout that iOS doesn’t have.
“Slideshow” wallpaper — background images that shift after a set period of time — was introduced to OS X with 10.3 Panther. iOS 4 introduced homescreen wallpapers on the iPhone, but you could only set one at a time; it remains so today. Considering that you can already run a slideshow on an iPad’s lockscreen, doing the same thing with homescreen wallpaper doesn’t seem like much to ask.
Released with OS X Lion, Mission Control consolidates Exposé, Spaces and Dashboard into one UI. I’ll be talking about the Exposé part here, since I don’t see any need for Dashboard or something like Spaces on iOS. Exposé is the feature that zooms and arranges your open windows so you can see them all at once. Click on one, and Exposé switches you to it.
In iOS, switching between apps is accomplished with the multitasking tray. Double-tap the Home button, and the tray pops up, showing your most recently used apps. Unlike Exposé, the multitasking tray only shows you the app’s icon and not the app itself. Apple actually experimented with a more Exposé-like interface in an early version of iOS 4, and Jailbreak tweaks, such as Multifl0w, bring a similar interface. Android and Windows Phone’s task switchers also use app previews and not just icons, and with the multitasking tray making its debut almost three years ago, it feels like it’s time for an overhaul.
There are problems with this, however. Apple would have to allow downloading apps from Safari, which also means building an interface to manage them. App piracy, already an issue on jailbroken devices, would likely increase under such a system as well unless Apple implemented DRM. Malware is another possible concern, though as with Gatekeeper on the Mac, having the default be to only allow apps from the iOS App Store would leave people protected. With all of these negatives, I doubt we’ll be glimpsing over the walled garden any time soon.
Versions, introduced with Lion, provides a Time Machine-like interface for looking through past revisions of a document. When you trigger it, the desktop slides away as the current app is placed next to its past versions, stacked together on the right. Browsing through past versions is accomplished by a timeline on the side. You can edit the current version right within the interface, as well as copy elements from past versions.
Versions hasn’t made its way to iOS yet, and that’s understandable given the size of iOS devices. How would you fit something like Versions’ interface on the smaller screen of an iPhone or iPad? On OS X, an app’s window can resize to fit comfortably within Versions, but they can’t on iOS. Versions would have to be rethought significantly for it to work on smaller screens, so I’m not optimistic that it’ll be in iOS 7.
Many of these features that work so well on OS X are admittedly a long shot for making it to iOS. However, with Craig Federighi placed in charge of both OS X and iOS software after the departure of Scott Forstall, there’s at least the possibility that OS X features may eventually find their way to the other side.
What other features from OS X would you like to see in iOS? Tell us in the comments.
Services
One of the biggest differences between OS X and iOS is the way they treat inter-app communication. OS X’s little-known Services feature provides a way for applications to transfer data, such as currently selected text, between each other. Let’s say I’m typing a document and I want to search the web for a phrase I’m using. I can select the phrase, use the “Search With Google” service, and a new Safari window pops up with the results. Third-party apps can use Services as well, and users can create their own with the Automator app. This flexibility and customizability is what makes Services powerful.Let’s switch to iOS. Apps are sandboxed, which means they can’t share files between each other, and the only way to share text is through copy and paste. Third-party apps can’t process actions from other apps without using URL schemes, which isn’t an ideal solution.
Implementing something as complex as OS X’s Services within iOS’s simplified UI isn’t easy. So far, Apple’s taken the approach of only including the most useful Services from OS X in its own apps. In iBooks, for example, I can select a word and define it, make a new email with it, or search the web for it: all the basic stuff you can do in OS X. It’s a sign that Apple’s at least thinking about the problem, and I’m hopeful that the coming iOS 7 update will address it more thoroughly.
Multiple user accounts
Multiple user accounts were introduced with Mac OS 9, and they’ve evolved quite a bit since. Today, each user gets their own settings, files and associated iCloud account. If you click on the currently logged-in user’s name in the menu bar, a menu pops down with a list of other users. Choose one, and that user’s desktop rotates off the screen to be replaced by the other’s.It’s true that you can sign in and out of iOS with different Apple IDs, but this only lets you download another user’s content from iTunes and not much else. You don’t get your iCloud data or settings, and any changes you make outside of iTunes stay with the other account. Obviously, this isn’t ideal for families that share an iPad or iPod touch. The latest version of Android, Jelly Bean, includes multiple account support for tablets, giving Android users one more feature to tout that iOS doesn’t have.
Slideshow wallpaper
“Slideshow” wallpaper — background images that shift after a set period of time — was introduced to OS X with 10.3 Panther. iOS 4 introduced homescreen wallpapers on the iPhone, but you could only set one at a time; it remains so today. Considering that you can already run a slideshow on an iPad’s lockscreen, doing the same thing with homescreen wallpaper doesn’t seem like much to ask.
Mission Control
Released with OS X Lion, Mission Control consolidates Exposé, Spaces and Dashboard into one UI. I’ll be talking about the Exposé part here, since I don’t see any need for Dashboard or something like Spaces on iOS. Exposé is the feature that zooms and arranges your open windows so you can see them all at once. Click on one, and Exposé switches you to it.
In iOS, switching between apps is accomplished with the multitasking tray. Double-tap the Home button, and the tray pops up, showing your most recently used apps. Unlike Exposé, the multitasking tray only shows you the app’s icon and not the app itself. Apple actually experimented with a more Exposé-like interface in an early version of iOS 4, and Jailbreak tweaks, such as Multifl0w, bring a similar interface. Android and Windows Phone’s task switchers also use app previews and not just icons, and with the multitasking tray making its debut almost three years ago, it feels like it’s time for an overhaul.
Gatekeeper
By default, Gatekeeper locks down your Mac so it will only run apps from the Mac App Store and developers registered with Apple. However, you can turn Gatekeeper off on OS X. On iOS, there isn’t a choice: you can only download apps from the App Store. Because of this, and Apple’s policy of reviewing every app before approving it, there’s been a few incidents over the years, starting with the blocking of Google Voice, which damaged the company’s reputation with some developers. By implementing a Gatekeeper-like system, it would be easier for Apple to defend criticism of its approval policies, as developers could still sell their apps on the web. iOS developers would also be able to get out updates even if Apple rejects them.There are problems with this, however. Apple would have to allow downloading apps from Safari, which also means building an interface to manage them. App piracy, already an issue on jailbroken devices, would likely increase under such a system as well unless Apple implemented DRM. Malware is another possible concern, though as with Gatekeeper on the Mac, having the default be to only allow apps from the iOS App Store would leave people protected. With all of these negatives, I doubt we’ll be glimpsing over the walled garden any time soon.
Versions
Versions, introduced with Lion, provides a Time Machine-like interface for looking through past revisions of a document. When you trigger it, the desktop slides away as the current app is placed next to its past versions, stacked together on the right. Browsing through past versions is accomplished by a timeline on the side. You can edit the current version right within the interface, as well as copy elements from past versions.
Versions hasn’t made its way to iOS yet, and that’s understandable given the size of iOS devices. How would you fit something like Versions’ interface on the smaller screen of an iPhone or iPad? On OS X, an app’s window can resize to fit comfortably within Versions, but they can’t on iOS. Versions would have to be rethought significantly for it to work on smaller screens, so I’m not optimistic that it’ll be in iOS 7.
Many of these features that work so well on OS X are admittedly a long shot for making it to iOS. However, with Craig Federighi placed in charge of both OS X and iOS software after the departure of Scott Forstall, there’s at least the possibility that OS X features may eventually find their way to the other side.
What other features from OS X would you like to see in iOS? Tell us in the comments.
Academic social network ResearchGate raises $20M, filing shows
The academic collaboration startup ResearchGate has picked up $20 million in equity-based funding, an SEC filing from last week shows. The news was first reported by the German startup blog Gruenderszene.
ResearchGate, based out of Berlin and Cambridge, Mass., is one of a handful of large academic social networks that is trying to help researchers around the world connect and collaborate. Another example is Mendeley, which got got bought by Elsevier (see disclosure) a month ago, to the consternation of many users.
ResearchGate has previously had A and B funding rounds, where we knew who was involved (Benchmark Capital and Accel Partners typically feature) but didn’t know the amount. This time, we know the amount but not who bought the equity.
Apart from connecting people, ResearchGate also lets researchers treat their profiles as personal webpages for the purposes of republishing papers they have written. This effectively provides a way around the copyright restrictions that frequently irk academics (after all, most of this research is publicly funded), allowing ResearchGate to act as an open access repository for published papers. Users can also share experiment-derived raw data with one another.
ResearchGate recently started trying to make money, offering the eyeballs of its 2.7 million users to recruiters and conference promoters. It’s a safe bet that the money raised in the last week or two will at least partly go towards boosting the company’s sales force.
UPDATE (8am PT): This article has been updated to remove the suggestion that ResearchGate acts as an open access repository for published papers while Mendeley does not. In fact, Mendeley does offer similar functionality.
Disclosure: Reed Elsevier, the parent company of science publisher Elsevier, is an investor in GigaOmniMedia, the company that publishes GigaOM.
ResearchGate, based out of Berlin and Cambridge, Mass., is one of a handful of large academic social networks that is trying to help researchers around the world connect and collaborate. Another example is Mendeley, which got got bought by Elsevier (see disclosure) a month ago, to the consternation of many users.
ResearchGate has previously had A and B funding rounds, where we knew who was involved (Benchmark Capital and Accel Partners typically feature) but didn’t know the amount. This time, we know the amount but not who bought the equity.
Apart from connecting people, ResearchGate also lets researchers treat their profiles as personal webpages for the purposes of republishing papers they have written. This effectively provides a way around the copyright restrictions that frequently irk academics (after all, most of this research is publicly funded), allowing ResearchGate to act as an open access repository for published papers. Users can also share experiment-derived raw data with one another.
ResearchGate recently started trying to make money, offering the eyeballs of its 2.7 million users to recruiters and conference promoters. It’s a safe bet that the money raised in the last week or two will at least partly go towards boosting the company’s sales force.
UPDATE (8am PT): This article has been updated to remove the suggestion that ResearchGate acts as an open access repository for published papers while Mendeley does not. In fact, Mendeley does offer similar functionality.
Disclosure: Reed Elsevier, the parent company of science publisher Elsevier, is an investor in GigaOmniMedia, the company that publishes GigaOM.
iPhone remains top US smartphone, while iOS gains a bit of ground on Android
Apple’s worldwide iPhone’s sales may be may have slowed during the last quarter from its formerly rapid pace, but in the U.S. the device still picked up market share against competition that remained mostly static, according to ComScore’s MobiLens survey published Friday.
ComScore found Apple’s share of the smartphone market, already tops in the U.S., grew from 36.3 percent to 39 percent between December and March. In second place was Samsung, which stayed about the same during the quarter, rising a smidge from 21 percent to 21.7 percent. Meanwhile, the rest of the top five smartphone makers didn’t fare as well:
There were 136.7 million people who owned smartphones in the U.S. — 58 percent of all mobile subscribers — and Apple and Samsung’s dominance of that market continues mostly unchallenged. Together they now own 91 percent of smartphone users as HTC, Google-owned Motorola, and LG lost share, ComScore’s survey says.
On the smartphone software front, Apple’s iOS remained No. 2 behind Android, but made modest gains. iOS picked up about 2.7 perent share to reach 39 percent of all smartphones, while Android dipped a bit from 53.4 percent to 52 percent.
In other words, the U.S. smartphone story didn’t change too much in the first quarter of 2013: Android is still used by more than half of all smartphones and the iPhone is still by far the most popular smartphone in the U.S. The momentum, which was nominally in Apple’s favor last quarter, may shift a bit when we look at this survey three months from now though. Several flagship Android phones will start selling in larger quantities during that time, including the Samsung Galaxy S and the HTC One.
ComScore found Apple’s share of the smartphone market, already tops in the U.S., grew from 36.3 percent to 39 percent between December and March. In second place was Samsung, which stayed about the same during the quarter, rising a smidge from 21 percent to 21.7 percent. Meanwhile, the rest of the top five smartphone makers didn’t fare as well:
There were 136.7 million people who owned smartphones in the U.S. — 58 percent of all mobile subscribers — and Apple and Samsung’s dominance of that market continues mostly unchallenged. Together they now own 91 percent of smartphone users as HTC, Google-owned Motorola, and LG lost share, ComScore’s survey says.
On the smartphone software front, Apple’s iOS remained No. 2 behind Android, but made modest gains. iOS picked up about 2.7 perent share to reach 39 percent of all smartphones, while Android dipped a bit from 53.4 percent to 52 percent.
In other words, the U.S. smartphone story didn’t change too much in the first quarter of 2013: Android is still used by more than half of all smartphones and the iPhone is still by far the most popular smartphone in the U.S. The momentum, which was nominally in Apple’s favor last quarter, may shift a bit when we look at this survey three months from now though. Several flagship Android phones will start selling in larger quantities during that time, including the Samsung Galaxy S and the HTC One.
First Dell, now BMC: Which legacy IT company will go private next?
Summary:
Who is willing to bet that Dell and BMC taking themselves private is the end of a trend? Right, me neither.
With BMC being taken private by a pair of private equity firms in a deal worth $6.9 billion or $46.25 per share in cash, one has to wonder what legacy IT vendor will be next to take this route.
Dell blazed the trail in February when it announced plans to take itself off the public market. That move, valued at $24.5 billion, was orchestrated by founder and CEO Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners. Critics said the price undervalued the company which remains a power in PCs and servers, and is navigating a shift into cloud computing. In the mobile space, Alltel was ahead of the trend, taking itself private in 2007, and was scooped up by Verizon two years later for $5.9 billion.
Citing unnamed sources, Reuters first reported Sunday that a BMC take-out by an investment group comprising Bain Capital and Golden Gate Partners was under discussion. BMC is not a household name for consumers but in business it’s a pretty big deal for enterprise IT and database admins.
BMC brands include Remedy service management software; BladeLogic automated configuration management; and Track-IT help desk and asset management. These are the kinds of non-glam tools that keep a data center running. Dell bought Quest Software, probably BMC’s most direct competitor, in deal that was completed in September 2012.
Dell blazed the trail in February when it announced plans to take itself off the public market. That move, valued at $24.5 billion, was orchestrated by founder and CEO Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners. Critics said the price undervalued the company which remains a power in PCs and servers, and is navigating a shift into cloud computing. In the mobile space, Alltel was ahead of the trend, taking itself private in 2007, and was scooped up by Verizon two years later for $5.9 billion.
Citing unnamed sources, Reuters first reported Sunday that a BMC take-out by an investment group comprising Bain Capital and Golden Gate Partners was under discussion. BMC is not a household name for consumers but in business it’s a pretty big deal for enterprise IT and database admins.
BMC brands include Remedy service management software; BladeLogic automated configuration management; and Track-IT help desk and asset management. These are the kinds of non-glam tools that keep a data center running. Dell bought Quest Software, probably BMC’s most direct competitor, in deal that was completed in September 2012.
Clearwire board: Sprint buyout is our best chance of survival
Summary:
In a letter to shareholders, Clearwire argued that the Sprint’s proposed takeover represents the best deal for Clearwire’s shareholders despite Dish’s offer to invest in the WiMAX provider.
Clearwire is making its case to its shareholders to approve Sprint’s $2.2 billion offer to gobble up the remaining half of the company Sprint doesn’t already own. In a letter to shareholders sent Monday, the Clearwire board said that the Sprint buyout represented the best strategic option for shareholders and painted a bleak picture of Clearwire’s future if it pursued other deals.
Dish Network in January submitted an unsolicited counterbid for Clearwire offering an 11 percent premium over Sprint’s $2.97-a-share offer, but Clearwire made no reference to Dish’s proposal. Clearwire said it investigated several other possibilities, including proceeding as an independent mobile broadband carrier, which is what the Dish deal would entail. But Clearwire management claimed that those alternatives were either infeasible are or wouldn’t dig Clearwire out of its current financial hole.
Clearwire tried to sell part of its treasure trove of airwaves back in 2010 and again in 2012, but it couldn’t close a deal despite consulting with 37 prospective buyers, the letter said. The letter said Clearwire also looked into additional debt and equity financing option and even investigated a financial restructuring through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but neither assured the company’s survival, nor offered much value to shareholders.
In order to survive independently Clearwire needs another major wholesale broadband access customer besides Sprint, the letter said, but the obvious candidates – the major mobile operators – aren’t interested. They prefer to own their spectrum and build their own network rather than lease Clearwire’s capacity. Given that situation, the Clearwire board concluded Sprint would remain Clearwire’s primary customer for the foreseeable future, so becoming fully owned and controlled by Sprint made the most sense.
Last week, a group of Clearwire shareholders went into revolt, telling the SEC they wanted either Sprint to make a better offer or force Clearwire to consider Dish’s offer. Meanwhile Dish is playing both sides of the transaction. Not only has it submitted its bid for Dish, it is challenging Sprint’s own buyout offer from SoftBank with a $25.5 billion counterbid.
Dish Network in January submitted an unsolicited counterbid for Clearwire offering an 11 percent premium over Sprint’s $2.97-a-share offer, but Clearwire made no reference to Dish’s proposal. Clearwire said it investigated several other possibilities, including proceeding as an independent mobile broadband carrier, which is what the Dish deal would entail. But Clearwire management claimed that those alternatives were either infeasible are or wouldn’t dig Clearwire out of its current financial hole.
Clearwire tried to sell part of its treasure trove of airwaves back in 2010 and again in 2012, but it couldn’t close a deal despite consulting with 37 prospective buyers, the letter said. The letter said Clearwire also looked into additional debt and equity financing option and even investigated a financial restructuring through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but neither assured the company’s survival, nor offered much value to shareholders.
In order to survive independently Clearwire needs another major wholesale broadband access customer besides Sprint, the letter said, but the obvious candidates – the major mobile operators – aren’t interested. They prefer to own their spectrum and build their own network rather than lease Clearwire’s capacity. Given that situation, the Clearwire board concluded Sprint would remain Clearwire’s primary customer for the foreseeable future, so becoming fully owned and controlled by Sprint made the most sense.
Last week, a group of Clearwire shareholders went into revolt, telling the SEC they wanted either Sprint to make a better offer or force Clearwire to consider Dish’s offer. Meanwhile Dish is playing both sides of the transaction. Not only has it submitted its bid for Dish, it is challenging Sprint’s own buyout offer from SoftBank with a $25.5 billion counterbid.
Samsung Galaxy Camera S.E.E.S Through Its Awesome Endorsers
Samsung Mobile can brag that this is the Smartest Smart Camera currently. The device is simply built to S.E.E.S – S for Shoot, E for Enjoy, E for Edit and S for Share). It really is a delight for every moment.
Also various Android Apps from the Google Play Store plus Samsung Mobile App Store are available for stunning photographic and social media capabilities.
This post is about the talents Samsung got as Endorsers for the Galaxy Camera – Gbubemi Fregene (@Chef_Fregz) Shola Aromokun (@PlastiQ) & Stacey Oparavero (@Staceyravvero)
Kim and Kanye's date night
Private jet owners in Nigeria barred from carrying friends, associates
A new policy called the National Civil Aviation Policy, 2013 has been introduced by the federal government banning private jet owners from carrying their friends and business associates on board their aircraft. They are only allowed to carry family members, while companies with private jets are only allowed to carry their employees or members of the Boards of Directors.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Chris Brown confirms Rihanna break up
Chris Brown confirmed the break up in an interview with Kyle and Jackie O explaining,
“The way I look at it is… I’m always going to love that person, but people have differences, and people have different wants and needs.”
“At the end of the day she’s a young girl. I can’t really be focused on wife-ing somebody that young… and I’m young too.”
“I just got to step forward and be a man and be the best Chris Brown I can be instead of worrying about whoever else is going to be in my side pocket.”
Yeah, whatever! Soon, they will be photographed kissing and all loved up! Young love
“The way I look at it is… I’m always going to love that person, but people have differences, and people have different wants and needs.”
“At the end of the day she’s a young girl. I can’t really be focused on wife-ing somebody that young… and I’m young too.”
“I just got to step forward and be a man and be the best Chris Brown I can be instead of worrying about whoever else is going to be in my side pocket.”Yeah, whatever! Soon, they will be photographed kissing and all loved up! Young love
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