http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/blog192697.html http://www.daniweb.com/forums/dani-images/misc/dani/logo.gif http://www.daniweb.com http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2452.html I've been following the career arch of corporate raider Carl Icahn for years. The billionaire investor specializes in buying up huge chunks of stocks of volatile companies, then going after the company's board of directors to get the deals he wants. It's worked pretty well with Icahn's investments in companies like TWA, Motorola, an Time-Warner over the years. Icahn hasn't made as many corporate board members walk the plank as he'd like, but he's made a ton of money as maybe the world's most famous "activist shareholder". Now, it looks like Icahn has set his scope on Yahoo. After CEO Jerry... IT Water Cooler Wed, 14 May 2008 13:28:25 CDT Brian.oco http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2452.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2432.html A friend of mine who works for a medical software company has a problem, and one that he shares with much of America these days - it's costing him $75 per week for enough gasoline to commute to work. Of course, the rising price of gasoline just doesn't impact people who work at technology companies -- it impacts pretty much everyone. But, more and more, politicians, pundits, and everyday Americans are relying on technology to produce alternative energy sources that will reduce our reliance on oil, if not Middle East oil. In the meantime, politicians are debating whether a short-term... IT Water Cooler Fri, 09 May 2008 12:14:11 CDT Brian.oco http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2432.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2430.html Zacks.com is a good place to go for some worthwhile data and solid insight in the technology stock sector. I peruse it at least once a month or more and have dug up some real winners as a result. The firm says its "strong buy" stock selections have generated annual average returns of 31% since 1988. Even during the last market downturn in 2000-2002, Zacks strong buy selections returned 43.8%, even as the broader S&P 500 fell by 37%. Best of all? Their stock tips are free. This week, Zacks focuses on an interesting technology stock: Amphenol Corporation (NYSE: APH). Let's take a look and... IT Water Cooler Thu, 08 May 2008 19:38:00 CDT Brian.oco http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2430.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2414.html Is the Yahoo deal done yet? The stock market thinks so, slicing Yahoo’s financial value by 15% in the last two trading sessions. If the deal were still alive, then the stock would be moving the other way around. Yahoo’s chief Jerry Yang says the $37-per-share demand wasn’t etched in stone but he’s sporting a good dose of Wall Stree’s most lethal cologne – desperation - for anyone to take him too seriously today. Still, I think he wants Steve Ballmer to come back to the table and do the deal. But Ballmer and Microsoft seem to want to move on. Traders are still buzzing about how... IT Water Cooler Tue, 06 May 2008 15:48:22 CDT Brian.oco http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2414.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2408.html Okay, let the finger-pointing begin. Should Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer take the heat for the proposed Microsoft-Yahoo merger falling apart? After all, didn't he say that Microsoft wouldn't raise its $45.7 billion bid for Yahoo, then weeks later, say he'd raise the bid, from $31 per share to $33 per share? And shouldn't Ballmer have thought this deal through? Why Yahoo? After all, the search engine battle is over and Google is king. Why the need for Yahoo in the first place? Or what about Yahoo chief Jerry Yang - the guy who dug his heels in at $37 per share and seemingly chased away what... IT Water Cooler Mon, 05 May 2008 16:17:41 CDT Brian.oco http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2408.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2398.html It's funny how I don't personally know anyone getting filthy rich in the Chinese market - and I bet you don't know anyone, either. But you wouldn't know that by reading or watching the financial media (this scribe included). Our gushy love affair with China is getting pathetic - our missives on the country's economy, burgeoning middle class, and financial growth prospects read like 500-word valentines. I found another reason to write one today, and I'll do so, but I'll follow up with an important caveat and some advice on how to really get into the action in China, investment-wise. Here's... IT Water Cooler Fri, 02 May 2008 10:15:49 CDT Brian.oco http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2398.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2393.html They're hanging the black crepe today at The New York Times, the Associated Press, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and other mainstream media outlets. Why? Because the recession the media has been pining for months now has once again escaped their clutches. This after the U.S. Commerce Department reported this morning that the U.S. economy grew by a better-than-expected 0.6% for the first quarter of 2008 (most analysts hand anticipated a growth rate of 0.5%). Now I'm not going to tell you that a growth rate of 0.6% is any reason to celebrate, because it's not. The economy has slowed, and inflation,... IT Water Cooler Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:45:56 CDT Brian.oco http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2393.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2382.html Samsung Electronics had good news for the world equity markets, telling investors that it would post a 37% increasing earnings over the first quarter of 2008. The news wasn't so hot at consumer electronics competitor Toshiba Corp., which announced a 95% drop in profits. So why the disparity? Let's tackle Toshiba first. Analysts knew this one was coming, as Toshiba made it plain that its exit from the HD-DVD market would trigger a short-term earnings hit. That's exactly what happened - Toshiba beat feet out of the HD DVD market (which has given way to Blu-Ray DVD technologies in the video... IT Water Cooler Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:24:52 CDT Brian.oco http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2382.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2368.html Harris Associates is typically one of the better value strategists out there - especially when it comes to finding value in technology stocks. One reason is why is the stock-picking acumen of chief information officer David Herro. He was interviewed on Tech Ticker this morning and had some interesting things to say about the tech sector and the prospects - long-and short-term of some of the sectors biggest names like Intel and Dell. I was scribbling notes from the interview as fast as I could. So, as accurately as I can gauge, here is Herro's take on the tech sector.. "Opportunities in the... IT Water Cooler Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:45:35 CDT Brian.oco http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2368.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2361.html There's a lot of pressure on CEO's to keep costs down in a struggling economy. One way they can do that is by outsourcing their IT services to overseas firms, especially to India. Now, this isn't exactly breaking news, but the rate that company's are turning to lower cost outsourcing programs is rising fast. That keeps money out of the pockets of US technology services companies, and devalues their stock prices, to boot. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. A new report from the Gartner Group says that the current U.S. economic slowdown will lead buyers of IT services to consider... IT Water Cooler Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:26:47 CDT Brian.oco http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2361.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2356.html Tech stocks have been lagging along with the rest of the stock market so far in 2008, but its long-term prospects are much, much better. So says Imran Khan, a JP Morgan senior analysts who specializes in the telecom and Internet markets. Khan is one of my favorite analysts and his argument that technology has a long way to go if it ever hits critical mass - if ever - is a compelling one. His case is also a simple one - so simple most financial analysts miss it. Tech stocks will rise because capitalism - often brutally criticized in the mainstream press - has given the industry a big opening... IT Water Cooler Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:51:14 CDT Brian.oco http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2356.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2345.html Kind of a quiet day on Wall Street, with traders wondering if Bank of America's less-than-expected Q1 forecast was a bump on the road to a bull market or a legitimate roadblock. With the market off 35 points in Monday trading (as of 3 PM EST), after rising four percent last week on big earnings reports from Google and IBM, among others, I'd say that it's more of investors taking a breather today. This in anticipation of some big economic numbers coming up this week and a new Federal Reserve meeting where Bernanke & Co. weigh another cut in interest rates. One story I've been following is... IT Water Cooler Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:29:05 CDT Brian.oco http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2345.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2334.html This morning's Tech Ticker drew a bead on short-sellers who saw a wounded beast in Google and bet that the stock would go down this month - even though sellers weren't really sure what Google's 1st quarter financials would look like. Well, they know now. As I said yesterday, Google performed much higher than analysts on Wall Street had predicted, and saw its stock price rise as a result. That's poison to Wall Street's short-sellers, who bet on stocks going down - not up. A quick word on short-selling, a strategy I used many times during my years as a Wall Street trader. In simple form,... IT Water Cooler Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:03:33 CDT Brian.oco http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2334.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2330.html I’ve been tough on Google this year, and with good reason. Part of what I do is write about how technology impacts the financial fortunes of companies and Google has been losing market share to the lousy economy and to other web portal developers in recent months. Look at online advertising – some estimates that paid “clicks” – where Web 2.0 providers make their bread and butter – have been off by anywhere from 5% to 15% so far in 2008. And reports from users of Google AdWords – despite a big splash in 2006 and 2007 when paid search was getting a lot of good press – had users... IT Water Cooler Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:08:27 CDT Brian.oco http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2330.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2328.html It’s a big day for semiconductor stocks, with an upbeat forecast from chip giant Intel boosting stocks in other semiconductor companies and giving the overall market a nice bounce, as well. Through mid-morning trading, Intel is up $1, to $22 per share. Other chip companies are following suit . . . -- Texas Instruments Inc. up 38 cents to $29.10 -- Qualcomm Inc., up 74 cents to $41.93 -- Advanced Micro Devices Inc. up 16 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $5.94 Although Intel’s net income fell by 12% for the quarter, thanks to costs incurred in the company’s recent restructuring campaign, the... IT Water Cooler Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:48:38 CDT Brian.oco http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2328.html