Intel is all set to fire 300 employees in Folsom and Santa Clara.
Intel Corporation has confirmed that it wishes to minimize its workforce the previous week. The reason why the company has come up with this decision is that a downtrend has been in the PC market followed by a weaker revenue stream. According to the recent update, the company has decided to lay off more than 152 employees working at its Folsom Campus by 15th July, FY15. Along with that 165 employees will leave the company’s Santa Clara headquarters as well.In accordance with the recent news, the company has already provided a letter on June 11 to the State Employment Development Department where it has acknowledged the authorities that it will reduce the head count. The reason why they have already acknowledged is that the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act (WARN) had instructed big organizations that they are required to issue a warning before they actually implement the round of layoff.The news about the massive layoffs which Intel Corporation is about to undergo has been successful in gaining immense traction in the past couple of weeks. The company has decided that it will cut down on the number of employees from 18,600 in the Washington County to a number that remains undisclosed. The company also revealed a memo according to wish they stated that “Yes, we are implementing headcount reductions.”The chief executive officer of Intel, Mr. Brian Krzanich circulated an email at Intel explained that this plan will first hit Arizona and Oregon. The reason why Intel is undergoing a layoff is that it can accommodate all the expenditures to a minimum amount as it faces difficulty in keeping pace with the personal computer market. Moreover, the authorities have also decided that they will reduce almost $300 million the company earlier spent for research and administration purposes.Intel Corp. round of layoffs is primarily due to the “underwhelming” demand of personal computers. This has caused them to face a major setback resulting in a massive layoff. The company faced a loss of $4 billion the previous year in its mobile unit. Hence in a nutshell, Intel is undergoing massive structural changes that will affect them in the long run. Mr. Brian Krzanich has taken a good step to opt for a layoff that will help them to attain stability. However, it is extremely early to predict the future of these layoffs and its impacts will be visible in the times to come. Meanwhile, we can just wait and see what happens next.
The smartphone makers are again to be believed to be going down on the stock index and the analysts have turned overly bearish about it.
BlackBerry has been experiencing quite a troublesome time on the index lately and the analysts in the industry seem to be turned more than bearish towards the stock of the cell phone makers. Recently, analysts at Credit Suisse run coverage on the smartphone making company following the extremely disappointing quarterly report that was released by the Canadian firm in which the equity firm seemed to be at its most bearish. The firm has been deemed as quite weak, it is has been granted with an ‘underperform’ rating by Suisse analysts. The revenue estimations that were made by the industry analysts before the earnings report came out were also not met by the firm which has disappointed investors to the extreme.In the recent research report that has been presented by the analysts at Credit Suisse, it has emerged as a fact that the firm has performed below expectations in the earnings report for the first quarter of 2016. The software revenue that was received by the Canada-based firm came around at $138 million which were seen to increase by 156 percent keeping in mind the previous quarter the firm went through.Even though these figures look positive on the front, the report that was made by Credit Suisse analysts showed that the increase in the revenue in the software firm was not due to the high sales but it was because of the excessive support that was given to licensing revenues which the analysts believe is taking place due to the increasing mergers and take over plans that were gone through. This means that this sales increased in software is not long term and does not determine any strength of the mobile phone makers in the industry.The earnings report for the quarter also showed that BlackBerry business experienced an increase by around 20 percent on an overall basis but this also was not taken to be an exceptional factor by the analysts. The smartphone making company has also reported that it is looking towards growing its business more by the end of the present fiscal year., The total sales received by the company for the full year is expected to come around $500 million by the firm itself, which was stated in the earnings report that was presented two days back.As for the BlackBerry services that were at one point in the industry at their best, have now seemed to experience a dip that it seems difficult to avoid. The earnings report says that the firm has fallen by around 19 percent on the services department which is also being taken as a massive drop.
The media giant is yet again facing issue regarding privacy in the European region as it tries to introduce a new ad feature.
In a recent published news article, it was seen that Facebook Inc has yet again found itself in some unwanted trouble. It has so been informed by the Wall Street Journal reporters that the social media company has been making attempts to introduce a new advertising policy in the European region but die to the watch dogs that have previously been a little too tough on the media site for security reasons, are now having issues with the firm’s ideas again.The watch dogs have increased their surveillance on the social networking site as it has a shaky history of trying to temper with the personal information of the users, something that has become a point of attention for the authorities in the past.
Analysts are of the opinion that till now Facebook has tried to overcome the issues that the authorities in the European region seem to have, but if this continues, it can easily be said the revenue generated by the firm through the user base in the countries based in Europe is going to get affected quite adversely, something that the media company should be ready for. This is also being said as some analysts are of the belief that the ignorance received by the social media giant most of the time where privacy issues are concerned are not going to take it anywhere and at one point, it is going to regret it when revenues fall by a massive difference.
WSJ was seen getting into a discussion with a marketing firm that works in the digital field and it was reported that the firm eMarketer, emerged with the opinion that Facebook has shown little interest in solving the privacy concerns that the European regulators have always come up with which is something that should be taken into consideration by the firm before it is too late.
The digital firm believes that the social media website needs to keep a check on where there are loopholes in its system and solve them. In case it does not do that, the firm informed that no such signs of growth can be shown in which the media giant can grow itself in the region. This will not only make it unpopular in other countries of the world but will also result in it receiving much lesser revenue on an overall basis.
The fact that Facebook enjoys active usage of around 300 million users from countries in Europe is something to be reckoned with and can definitely not be ignored. By losing those valuable users the firm is going to suffer on the cash flow and for that it needs to work on its privacy policies.
The beverage making firm has decided to shift around 500 employees to the headquarters in Atlanta and focus more on real estate business now.
As per recent Coca-Cola news, it has emerged as a fact that the firm has made a plan of bringing back around 500 employees that it previously shifted to the suburbs of Atlanta. The firm has done this before as well and this time around, it is calling back more workers than before to Atlanta’s main plant where the first foundation of the beverage company was established around 130 back. The fizzy drink making firm is carrying plans within the management in order to bring about the much-needed changes that the investors have long been waiting for.Coca-Cola was seen to combine a number of its offices that were being worked in Atlanta into one big workplace which was then entrusted with the responsibility of handling information technology in the region. This new division was established in SunTrust Plaza Offices in Atlanta. According to recent news, the healthy milk drink makers are also considering shifting the whole lot of employees in the Cobb County to the SunTrust offices. Officials from the firm were seen to say that it is undergoing these changes of bringing about all the employees of the energy drink making company under one roof so that the efficiency of the workers increases and more and more productivity can be determined.Coca-Cola is currently looking towards attaining success in its real estate business for which the beverage come has been seen to take the help of Stream Reality in order to increase the market value of the building that is being offered for lease. On the other hand, the new headquarters of the company that is being built up in Atlanta are seen to be one a huge scale in Atlanta, covering about 322,000 square feet land.Apparently, there are companies like RaceTrac Petroleum that are looking for buildings that are of that size in the Cobb County region and also in other areas in Atlanta. It was informed to the press that Coca-Cola business along with Griffin Capital firm is looking at a different prospective that might result in knowing what the future of the 2500 Windy Ridge business is and what the tenants of the building will be experiencing in near future.The fizzy drink makers were further recorded to say that they are looking towards completing their plans regarding their real estate business soon but some of the process are still on the go will be taking the time to complete.
Microsoft only sold 100 units of Xbox One after E3.
Microsoft Corporation did relatively well in pulling off an exceptional show this year. The company’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was a major success and many perceive that it was successful in even overtaking Sony Corp. for the very first time since its launch in 2013.
The battle between Sony and Microsoft is nothing unheard of where both the companies are trying their best to reign over the industry. This year too, the E3 showcased this rivalry with ample zeal and enthusiasm.
Microsoft utilized this opportunity to showcase the trailers of its popular video games. these trailers were the expected editions of the famous franchises that were shown parallel to HoloLens- which is a headset, that is aimed to enrich the virtual reality experience.
At this point, Microsoft has several things to be worried about regarding its gaming consoles. The company has not done quite well in Japan, however many expected that the game might change for them after their E3 success. But this is not the case anymore since their gaming console sales in Japan are on their all-time low.
According to the data obtained, Microsoft had been successful in only selling 100 consoles in the Japanese market. This is a very disappointing state for the company since the Japanese population accounts to 120 million where only 100 units were sold despite the hype created by E3.
The staggering performance of Microsoft in the Japanese market is not big news since previously the head of Xbox division in Japan also resigned due to the same issue. Their unit sales performance shows that the company is not even trying to revive its position. The tech giant basically started off with selling around 23,562 units only within four days of its launch. In the third week, it sold 1,314 units only which is down to merely 100 now. Clearly the Japanese market has lost imminent interest in the Xbox One since mostly Asian gamers enjoy Sony’s PlayStation comparatively.
On the other hand, Sony has been doing fairly well in this market where 322,000 units of PlayStation 4 were sold in just a matter of 2 days. This is said to be 15 times more sales than what Microsoft Xbox observed during the same time span. Microsoft at this point needs to take several major steps that can help them to redeem themselves but at this point it seems like a relatively difficult task.
The iPhone makers are being questioned about their idea of acquiring Beats and analysts are now anticipating whether the firm will be able to put some quality into the famous headphones hardware devices.
Some analysts have emerged with an opinion in which they believe that the fact Apple took over Beats the previous year does not really make sense, keeping in mind the reputation of the headphones making company which was already quite shaky before it got taken over by the classic smartphone makers. The Beats headphones, which took over the headphone industry with its launch, were seen to attract quite a lot of attention of the users who were fans of music and music devices. These headphones brought about a huge uproar in the market which made all the fans want to get the gadget for their own. The gadget was priced highly at a starting price of $200.However, all the hype which was created for these overly priced headphones turned out to be for nothing as the quality of the gadget was not as expected which disappointed the market at large. The fact that the quality of the sound coming out of these headphones was not good enough turned off quite a lot of users which degraded the product quite a lot. On the other hand, analysts believe that the fact that the Beats headphones were made so popular was because of the hype created by marketing strategies, something that it has similar with Apple Inc.Even though Apple Inc uses extremely influential marketing tactics, it has never really offered a product or gadget to its users which are of substandard quality. So at the time when the iPhone 6 makers signed billion dollar deal to obtain Beats, analysts wondered if the software firm would be able to fix the issues the headphones are usually seen to have.Apple has made its mark in the industry by producing hardware which is always of high quality. Even though the software company uses some products on its gadgets that are of low price to save expenditure, it has never compromised on good quality and this is what the customers of the Apple products are so fond of. This was the reason that analysts were surprised about the fact it acquired Beats, which had many quality issues.Analysts now believe that the tech giant needs to see to the low-quality issues that Beats headphones have repeatedly emerged with and come up something that is capable of competing in the market. On the other hand, analysts also believe that in case Apple business does not have faith in Beats, it is possible in might come up with its own personalized headphones, designed with a special design it uses for the other products.
Microsoft's executive leadership resigns amid structural changes.
Microsoft Corporation’s chief executive officer Mr. Satya Nadella recently announced that the company y is all set to make changes in its internal structure where the chief executive officer of Nokia Corporation, Mr. Stephen Philip and he would opt for retirement in FY15. Despite there is a lack in terms of the company’s leadership team, the aim is to bolster growth and development. The departure of Mr. Nadella and Mr. Philip will allow new leadership to take charge of the company.The restructuring Microsoft has been undergoing has resulted in the departure of several leaders. This includes the team of Stephen Elop, which includes Krill Tatarinov who was a Business Solution executive, Eric Rudder- the founder of Servers and Tools at Microsoft Research Department. Along with the Chief Insight Officer Mr. Mark Penn who will depart to head a private equity firm. These executives have now submitted their resignations.Mr. Nadella is optimistic that the company will do well in the times to come and he has lined up capable employees who can take charge and deploy the strategy of the company along with enforcing the three core ambitions. Mr. Nadella believes that the change will result in better services and products to appeal its diversified consumer base.On par with the several changes being made, Mr. Nadella mentioned that Windows and Devices are likely to be held accountable for Xbox, Microsoft Surface, Microsoft Band, Surface Hub and Hololens division. Currently, Mr. Terry Myerson is heading the Windows 10 development. So now the departure of Mr. Elop will be pleasant change to the company’s ecosystem that will assist in opening new horizons for the company ensuring innovation.However, the Vice President of Enterprise and Cloud, Mr. Scott Guthrie will continue to lead the department. According to BidnessETC, “The Dynamics development team is expected to be another addition to the C and E division that should catalyze the ERP and CRM tasks, so it can also focus towards product innovations.”Likewise, the vice president for Applications and Services Group, Mr. Qu Lu will continue to serve the company. The division under the able leadership of Mr. Lu will work towards a productive ecosystem. The team of Mr. Lu will work towards expanding the productivity apps on the digital platform for both Business and Personal clientele.Hence, in a nutshell Microsoft products are likely to get better in the times to come with all the restructuring taking place in the company.
Chevron’s Vietnam division sells off its assets to PetroVietnam.
Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) is in the process of completing its largest seismic data analysis to decipher its feasibility before giving the green signal to conduct its oil hunt in Australia, a sign that it is taking a long-term stance on the country’s strong LNG potential boom that is likely to replace present fuels in the future.
The US oil and gas major, as well as a downstream refiner, will now analyze the data before determining whether drilling for oil in the Great Australian Bight might be a good idea at all, though BP has also conducted a similar seismic survey three years ago and is now considering the possibility of drilling over the same region that Chevron is planning to explore by October of next year.
The decision to go ahead with this plan comes as the company faces the headwinds from low oil prices that have led to most oil majors slowing down their projects, while completing existing ones that had been in the pipeline before. However, the corporation possesses a healthy balance sheet due to its vertical and horizontal operations that ranges from exploration and production to downstream refining.
Meanwhile, not too far away from Australia, in the region of South Asia, the San Ramon, CA-based oil and gas major has stated that its assets in Vietnam has been acquired by state oil and gas company, PetroVietnam, as the country seeks to boost its own gas output due to surging demand from its growing economy.
Under the terms of the deal signed between the two sides yesterday, PetroVietnam will acquire Chevron’s stake from three major offshore blocks and a gas pipeline project that links from the north to southern Vietnam.
The move will likely be beneficial to the company since it does not have to commit to investing in new infrastructure. It will also help in accelerating the development of the oil field to make it available more quickly. However, PetroVietnam has not disclosed the value of the acquisition, and the same was the case with Chevron, which did not respond to comments about the value of the sale.
Global developments, such as the low oil prices, have forced the company to look more at home, in order to reduce its exposure and risks from the development of oil fields. It is eyeing the possibility of sealing off at least a 40% stake in a joint venture with Venezuela.
Chevron Corporation’s stock price ended the day at $99.74, a decline of 0.30% since the previous day.
Mr. Brain McClendon to join Uber to head its mapping division.
Uber, the taxi hailing app service has taken several important steps this season to improve its service on the whole. According to recent news, the company now wishes to further mold its mapping technology for which it hired Mr. Brian McClendon a Google executive to take over this domain.Mr. McClendon is a former Google Inc. employee who joined the search engine giant when they bought Keyhole Inc. - a software development firm that provided technology to be used with Google Earth in FY04. Mr. McClendon was responsible to look after popular Google products that include Street View, Earth, Map but was later replaced by Mr. Jen Fitzpatrick as the Vice President of engineering in 2004. He offered his services to the company for 10 years so now that Uber has poached a significant person, it indicates that the company is taking its mapping tech seriously.The company has already confirmed that they have Mr. McClendon on board. Mr. Jeff Holden, the Chief Product Officer at Uber believes that the arrival of Mr. McClendon will boost the company’s mapping business and take over Uber’s mapping, car safety program and driverless cars. Mr. Holden expressed his concerns to Re/Code by saying, “We’re thrilled that Brian is joining the Uber team. He led the development of Google Earth and Google Maps, truly world-class products, from the early days, and he’s an extraordinarily talented engineer and entrepreneur.”Mr. McClendon will now head the Uber’s Pittsburgh Advanced Technologies Center. This site is an integral asset for research and development for the company that is currently manned by the recruited engineers from the Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering CenterMr. McClendon also mentioned to Re/Code: “There aren’t many places that offer the opportunity to make as big an impact as Google Maps, but I believe that Uber has an incredibly exciting future as it continues to fundamentally change how people live and improve quality of life.”This is not the first time that Uber has hired Google personnel but previously also the company had hired several former Google employees. This includes tom Fallows and Rachel Whetstone who are heading the communication and global expansion products.It is great initiative that Uber is now devising its own mapping technology and will stop relying on Apple and Google. Uber’s service is likely to overlap with that of the tech giants in the times to come. The company is trying to overcome the loopholes and make its taxi hailing app one of a kind.
Digitally Imported likely to give competition to Apple Music streaming service.
The music industry is geared up to embrace a massive change by the launch of Digitally Imported Inc. as the company now wishes to roll out its own music streaming service. This news was put forward by The Next Web at the same time when Apple wishes to launches its own music streaming services named Apple Music. This new service by Apple is likely to be a major breakthrough as it can give a tough time to giants like Pandora Media and Spotify.Digitally Imported is similar to an internet radio broadcaster that targets the electric music category. The company is in the field for 1999 as it is considered to be a pioneer in the field of radio stations, but now they are broadcasting a diversified range of electronic music through 84 curated platforms. The company now wishes to make a mark in the online streaming industry, which has immense potential to captivate the industry.According to sources the new serviced by Digitally Imported will provide a diversified library to a wide range of consumers who want electronic music. The premium subscription fee for this service is said to be $70 per annum and $7 a month. The company will provide its subscribers a catalog featuring the content of the company. It will also encompass popular show of FY15 along with more than 400,000 songs on various platform. Users can thus browse music through various broadcasting mediums.As reported more features are likely to make their way on this music streaming service. Apart from that features like on demand music access features will be added. Premium subscribers can also enjoy added option like buying of favorite tracks, customized playlist etc.The chief executive officer of Digitally Music, Mr. Ari Shohat stated, “With the addition of on-demand content to our offering, Digitally Imported is leading the electronic music industry in tackling its single greatest challenge: Creating a complete online listening experience under one roof. By reinventing the content licensing model, we are able to fully integrate our platform from the ground up, while enhancing the exceptional user experience that defines the Digitally Imported brand.”Thus Apple Music, is most likely to come up with something exceptional that will be a game changer for them. However, it will not be as easy as perceived to be since Apple Inc. has several competitors to deal with. Digitally Imported is a good concept and with the rampant popularity of online music streaming service this is likely to be a success.
Apple does not really spend huge amounts on research and development but creates demand of its product.
Apple Inc. is said to be a tech giant that has a fairly innovative trajectory in the tech world. The company has a wide variety of products and service that encompass various devices from smartwatches to smartphones. The question here arises so as to how the company succeeds to retain its position in this evolving market considering the fact that relatively high amount is spent on research and development per annum. Apple products are well known in the industry for their innovative functionality and designed, thus the device being priced heftily comes as no surprise.
Apple is a competitor to several companies in the smartphone world where Samsung Electronics Co. is one of those companies that is the core rival of Apple Inc. the company also has a top notch operating which is also said to be a big threat to Google Inc.’s open sourced Android OS. The company has now taken a new path where it has started to develop smartwatches in order to further dent the monopoly of Android bases wearable tech industry. The company is known to be relatively spendthrift when it comes to dealing with competition right, left and center.
The company has already spent millions of dollar in research and development. However, they fall relatively short when comparing the amount of money that us being spent by rivals. The company claims that they have already spent $7.1 billion in terms of research and development, this is extremely less than Samsung or Google that have spent $12.6 billion and $10.5 billion over the same time span .
So now it is extremely clear that Apple is not really spending as much as others perceive that it is investing. So now the question is how the company has succeeded in meeting the user expectations. The reason is fairly simple; the company has showed several ways which depict their ability to publicize products in an exceptional manner that users actually crave for their products. They do not really act in a way that fulfills the consumer demand, but they have the potential to create the demand of their products by positioning them in a way that makes users demand them.
So this actually means that those companies who spend a relatively high amount on research and development do not really mean that they have the potential to do well or innovate more. This means that new startups need to focus on the product more than R&D, but every company designs its own strategy in a manner that changes the game for them.
YouTube is coming up with a gaming app that will be a threat to Amazon Twitch
Google Inc. is extremely popular for its video streaming service YouTube. This platform is now on the verge of transforming itself to a gaming site as well where they have come up with a new app that is focused towards video gamers. The aim behind launching such a platform is that it can gather those consumers that are not comfortable with Amazon’s popular gaming service, Twitch.
YouTube has evaluated the potential market for gaming that is likely to expand exponentially by 75 percent in the fiscal year of 2015. These figures have been put forward by Bloomberg, which have acquired these digits from Ryan Wyatt who heads the gaming partnership for YouTube. During the latter half of FY14, YouTube started to work on its gaming application. This was relative the same time span when Twitch was acquired by the Ecommerce giant, Amazon.
Bloomberg also reported Mr. Ryan Wyatt comments on his company paving towards game development by saying, “You could argue YouTube is the best video game site out there, but, if we’re being honest, not everyone in the gaming community feels that way. We’ve never really built gamers the experience they deserve.”
Therefore it is said that YouTube’s new application will be successful in putting the live stream as a frontrunner. So now users will actually be able to broadcast their game plays with ease. the search engine giant has stated that the gaming app for YouTube will be rolled out in the coming few months. It will not just be a standalone application but they will also come up with a revised web based portal for the gaming platform of YouTube.
According to sources “It will bring together YouTube’s gaming videos, livestreams, as well as community features into one single space. Users will be provided with customization features that will allow them to add their preferred games to “favorites” and highlight those games during searches coupled with tagging them as my games.”
This now results as a potential threat for Amazon since they were the only front runners before YouTube. The complaint has a relative strong consumer base which will also involve gamers. So now if users are provided with an alternative then the business of Amazon will be at stake. YouTube however has a strong market position and has earlier also experimented with gaming that had a positive impact on their overall performance. Google would not have to invest much time, money and energy on this gaming platform since the market is already established.
Saudis planning oil production boost for additional Indian supply, while IEA report claims a rise in demands due to low prices.
United States Oil Fund (NYSEARCA:USO) has seen its stock price drop by less than 1% before Friday’s opening bell after the Saudis have reported increasing oil production to boost supply to Indian refiners. A further rise in the supply will exacerbate the already oversupplied market and will likely push down oil prices further.According to Reuters, if demand for refined products dipped due to the oversupply, then it will spill in the entire crude market, which would depress crude prices even further, due to the ongoing maintenance program by some refiners gearing up for the hot summer season, witnessing temperatures rise a bit above average.The US dollar also played a role by trading higher than the euro due to news emerging from the Eurozone that all is not entirely well between the EU and Greece from the ongoing debt talks, and the IMF has thrown cold water over the prospects of success from the talks.However, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has reported that there has been an uptick in global demand for energy, due to the low oil prices that has helped to boost fuel use, mostly from Americans, who are now starting to hit the roads with the summer season on the horizon and ahead of July 4 celebrations. With temperatures in the Middle East nearing the mid 40’s and 50’s, expect a lot of oils to start being gobbled up by the Gulf States alone.As stated by the agency, demand has grown by an additional 280,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.40 million bpd this month, bringing the total monthly demand as of now to almost 94 million bpd. It seems that OPEC’s decision to maintain current output levels has paid off though they did not bet that there will be a rise in demand as reported by the IEA.Further, the IEA has reported that supply from OPEC has risen to 31.33 million bpd in May, which is the highest since August 2012 (which is likely to remain that way for the coming few months at the end of summer), whereas non-OPEC production has risen to almost a million bpd, citing fear of maintenance shutdowns. It seems that cut down in capital spending is taking a time to be visible in the reduction in non-OPEC supply, as well as the slow rise in prices. The global production is still going strong. Benchmark crude is currently trading at $65.75 per barrel as of yesterday.
Bernstein is optimistic about Microsoft's ongoing Office transition.
The Build Conference held this year was a platform for Microsoft Corporation to lay out the expectations for is Office platform. Bernstein, the popular equity research organization mentioned in a recent note to investors and customers talked about the impacts of Microsoft’s predictions on their earnings report.In the Build Developers Conference, the company talked about three core aspects that talk about the growth of its Office platform. According to BidnessEtc, “Commercial Office installed base growth, timing of mix shift to Office 365, and increase in customer value as customers shift to Office 365. Bernstein noted that it is highly crucial to gain an insight into how the transition of customers to Office 365 affects Office gross profit since Office is Microsoft's largest business line.” This is said to be the biggest transition to cloud computing that is happening currently.Bernstein believes that the gross profit of Microsoft’s Commercial Office is likely to experience a 6 percent increase in CAGR in the coming three years due to three reasons. Firstly, the company has decided to couple several products that were initially sold on their own. Currently, we have two bundles that come complimentary with Microsoft Office Commercial offerings namely, Data Centre apps and Office Desktop apps. PowerPoint, MS Word and Excel are a part of the Office Desktop Centre applications. Through Office 365, the Desktop applications are allowed to move from licensed to subscription based software with a relatively minimal amount of cloud services.Apart from this, the Data Center packages comprise of apps like Skype for Business, Exchange and SharePoint. These were only retailed to enterprise based clients and are now being moved to cloud gradually. According to Bernstein, this will result in a rise irrespective of which platform it is offered that is license sale or Office 365.Bernstein has also weighed on MicrosoftCorporation, where the company is embracing an ongoing transformation in terms of gross margin profit. The firm has made a forecast where the coming three years can bring a 50 percent of the Office Desktop app and almost two third of these Data Center apps can be made available via Microsoft Office 365. This will help them make a significant rise in terms of its Office Suite performance.Hence, Microsoft has a stable future in the times to come provided it gives due attention to its cloud computing business which has immense potential to grow. This will not only provide the company stability but will also stabilize them in the long run.
Facebook will offer free Bluetooth beacons to retailers and small businesses.
According to a recent report by the social media behemoth, Entrepreneur Facebook Inc. has announced that it wishes to offer free “Bluetooth Beacons” to several small businesses. This will also be offered to retailers which are a part of Facebook’s Place Tip feature.The company introduced the Place Tip feature in the fiscal year of 2015 for all consumers to check in at various locations or by activating the location setup on their smartphones through the Facebook app. Place Tip has the ability to share all important information which includes the recommendation made by friends who have already visited the location. This feature is also used by retailers on Facebook.According to recent news, the social media behemoth is offering an attractive opportunity to small business operators and retailers to optimize their place tips completely. The company wishes to take this venture ahead and will expand its Bluetooth beacons once it is launched in New York, United States.The idea is to acquaint users with the service and encourages them to invest their time on it. This is a relatively smart initiative by the company which will help them in giving the traction it deserves. Many retailers and small business owners are not aware of this service, so if they are provided these beacons then they can easily be motivated to use this Facebook service.Facebook has an active mechanism through which it keeps a track of the location of users by using cell towers allowing with GPS- the Global Positioning System. However, when Bluetooth beacons will be used with Place Tips then the mechanism is likely to get more efficient. This will engage the Facebook app users more who use Apple Inc.’s iOS. However, users of Google Inc.’s Android operating system are also offered other location signals.Moreover in other news, Twitter Inc. has already made a good investment in terms of marketing beacons that is one. The company is one of the largest contributor to the Swirl fundraising. The Facebook stocks have closed at $80.67 which is 1,8 percent down and has also gained around 2 percent this annum.Hence, Facebook has come up with something engaging that will help them to encourage small businesses and retailer to use their Place Tip app. The company always comes up with something engaging that helps them stand out and promotes their product and service to a great extent. The popularity of this initiative can be governed from the fact that Twitter is also on the same track.
The merger of Dish and T-Mobile will be a threat to all network carriers.
T-Mobile US Inc. is all set to diversify its portfolio and is in talks with Dish Network Corp. – the satellite television provider for a possible merger reported Reuter in accordance with a source close to the company. According to the Reuter analyst, the collaboration between T-Mobile and Dish Networks is a potential threat to AT&T Inc., Sprint Corp. and Verizon (VZ) Communication Inc.
If Dish joins hand with T-Mobile it can have a positive impact since the services of Dish that include a dynamic video portfolio, sports, entertainment and other content. When it comes to wireless subscriber, the merger will make T-Mobile to become on par with Sprint. Apart from this, the add on of wireless subscriber to their database would benefit Dish since it will now be able to come on par with Hulu and Netflix Inc.
If this merger happens, Dish Network will have more advantages since the company does not have a wireless platform of its own. Likewise, T-Mobile will have a more diversified spectrum to cater to. Dish currently has a $50 billion airwave license which is essential for network to get operational.
On the other hand, Sprint is anticipating a delay in this merger since the T-Mobile is already preoccupied and wishes to divert its focus from competition since it now wants to gain more subscribers. The chief executive officer of Sprint, Mr. Marcelo Claure mentioned in a statement, “There has been so much speculation about what Charlie does at Dish. We’re going to wait and see.”
T-Mobile is about to make a relatively smart move and should not delay this project since a possible merger with Dish will actually allow them to improve their services and get a broader audience to cater to.
Another reason for T-Mobile to speed up the process is that the other wireless network carrier like Sprint and Verizon Communications are trying their best to make a mark in this domain and are coming up with top notch services. So if T-Mobile succeeds in pulling this deal off then they can actually ignite competition which will become a major issue for their rivals.
This acquisition is one of the talks of the town since Dish has great potential to become a video streaming giant so if T-Mobile uses this to expand then they will become better than all their competitors. This is a good opportunity for T-Mobile to capitalize on and it will be better for them to make this happen as soon as possible.
Apple Pay expected to make its debut in United Kingdom this summer.
Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay wishes to penetrate deeper in the market thus for the same reason the company is taking several initiatives that will help establish the payment services. According to a recent post by Telegraph, almost eight months have passed since the company has launched its mobile payment service and now it is all set to launch this service in United Kingdom this summer.
So far, the company has not really announced about the launch of Apple Pay in UK. However, according to sources close to the company, Apple will make this announcement during the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference taking place at Moscone West, San Francisco. The company will be required almost two months to officially offer its services within the region.
The mechanism of Apple Pay integrates Apple iPhone and Apple Watch through near-field communication technology (NFC) that is equipped on the company product that makes mobile payments possible. The company got a fairly satisfactory response from the launch of this service therefore since October; the company has been in contact with several retailers and bank with an aim to expand this service in other countries along with expanding the reach to various stores.
United Kingdom is a relatively strong market where the company can easily install this service as most places in the region already have the necessary infrastructure that accepts Apple Pay. A substantial number of chip card terminals that have the necessary technology that is already built in a manner that can make the contactless credit card transactions possible. On the other hand, United States is a relatively difficult market for the company’s service since they are currently using conventional debit and magnetic strip credit cards.
However, this is likely to change now as the authorities have given a deadline till October before which retailers and merchants will be forced to deploy such credit card terminals that are able to support the new chip card technology. So, most of the upcoming terminals will be equipped with the resources to function Apple Pay. Apart from this the company is also expected to come up with new reward programs that will encourage individuals to use this service.
According to 9to5Mac, this is not the first time where Apple has thought of a reward plan, but initially they wished to come up with such a program during the FY14 festive season but, however, the launch was postponed. United States market has evolved for Apple Pay where more than 300 banks support this service.
Novartis and Amgen's dispute over biosimilar drug continues.
Amgen Inc. and Novartis AG have been facing a legal faceoff where both the company came forward in an appeal court in Washington. Novartis has been trying to defend its stance and get the ban lifted from its Zarxio, the biosimilar drug so that they can resume the sales of it. The company has been accused of replicating Amgen’s Neupogen in the United States market.Both the companies are dealing with a lawsuit since October 2014 which is getting intense each day. Amgen is devoted to block the launch of Zarxio which it claims to be an imitation drug. According to sources, Novartis is likely to price its drug relatively cheaper than what Neupogen is retailing at.The Food and Drug Administration authority in the United States gave approval to Novartis for the biosimilar drug in July FY14. Amgen is skeptical about the launch of this drug as the company believes that the launch of Zarxio will actually eat a great chunk of the sales of Neupogen. The sales of this drug are extremely important to Amgen as it contributed almost $1.2 billion to the accumulative revenue of the firm.Amgen came into action in February FY15 and filed a lawsuit against Sandoz, the generic drug division of Novartis in order to put a ban on its launch. The petition was overruled by the Attorney so the company started to file one case after another so that they could delay the launch as much as possible. Despite Amgen tried its best to block Zarxio, FDA approved the drug again on March 6, which then become the first biosimilar drug in the history of United States.This approval was a massive blow for Amgen but this is not it. With the launch of Zarxio many other health care providers business was at stake as many drugs these firms are selling are now relatively obsolete or are useless in front of biosimilar drugs. As analysts predict, these biosimilar drugs are likely to be 20-50 percent cheaper than the prices of branded drugs.After several efforts, Amgens initiatives proved fruitful and a ban was put on Novartis’s Zarxio. Novartis again filed a lawsuit claiming that the accusation on them is extremely baseless as the living cells used in the manufacture of such drugs are different from others so it cannot really be an imitation. However, the courts have not passed a final verdict and the decision is still pending. However, the case is on fast track now so a result might be expected in the coming weeks.
McDonald's can redeem itself believes Deutsche Bank
According to a recent report published by Deutsche Bank, the company which does coverage on various firms recently targeted the fast-food giant, McDonald's Corporation. The bank is relatively optimistic about the future of this company and has thus given McDonald's stocks a “Buy” rating along with an average price target of $120. Moreover, they also believe that the company has a potential to experience a 24 percent upside considering the current trading price.
Karen Short, a renowned analyst stated that several investor’s believe that McDonald’s restaurant “arches are broken” but according to the company, the fast food behemoth “remains an iconic global and fixable brand.” Mr. Karen believes that the company has immense potential to redeem its position under the able leadership of the new chief executive officer Mr. Steve Easterbrook.
According to consensus, the company has been missing on earnings estimates since the past five consecutive quarters where their sales have been staggering at a steady pace. However, the strategy implemented by Mr. Easterbrook is extremely effective and can change the game for them once again. According to the analysts, the company is embracing a cultural change that allows them to question the “once off-limit strategies” with the power to get rid of the sacred goat ideology. This is a major breakthrough which will help the company to innovate and come up with new technologies that can result in efficiency.
Recently Mr, Steve Easterbrook came up with a video that dealt with the company’s upcoming plans in which he wishes to cut down on the long tiers of management and start focusing on ways that can drive customer satisfaction. He understands that the company has been dealing with several shortcomings and his agenda is to “We need to execute fewer things better,” as mentioned in the video.
Apart from this the company has plans to franchise almost 3500 outlets by F18. So once they are successful in doing so than 90% of the total outlets will be franchised. The Deutsche Bank analyst considers this a well thought out plan by Mr. Steve Easterbrook that will help the shareholders to a raise in capital return,
Despite Deutsche Bank is extremely positive about McDonald’s performance but even then the company needs to take several major steps to fight back. Mr. Easterbrook has taken several initiatives that have proved fruitful, but a lot more needs to be done so that they can attain stability once again.
IBM, AT&T and Mueller Water Products have come up with a great water product that will be useful globally to overcome water scarcity.
The entire world along with the Western United State economy is facing a massive drought. AT&T, Mueller Water products and International Business Machines Corp have joined hands in order to find a unique solution to the NIST’s Global City Teams Challenge. The purpose of this new technology is to moderate the scarcity of water through the Internet of Things in the metropolitan areas.Sokwoo Rhee, the associate director of NIST’s Cyber Physical System stated, “The success of the smart water project wouldn’t be possible without the remarkable vision and execution of three industry leaders. Water shortages are growing at an alarming rate and this technology helps conserve such an essential resource for communities across the globe.”The three firms have started to conduct trials for this innovative technology. The results are said to be announced at NIST. As evaluated by the company, the shortage of water has intensified due to the rusty and old pipelines along with the financial constraints that have created barriers in the installation of new equipment. Thus, the three companies have come to this conclusion that the best way to curb this scarcity is to monitor the water system. In order to overcome the wastage of water the outflows and leakages need to be monitored.The system developed by the companies can provide the regions with data regarding the drainage system, fire hydrants and underground pipes etc. which has not been made possible to date. Mike Troiano, the vice president of AT&T’s Industrial IoT Solutions claimed that the shortage of water is prevalent across the globe but this issue has become so severe now that it requires an urgent solution. “We’re giving communities more visibility into their water supply, and helping them better manage the future operation of their water systems.” he said. The new technology that has been designed by the three firms comprises of Echologics sensor that are paired up with Mueller Water Products that will work with wireless LTE technology of AT&T. So in case there are leakages in pipelines, with water pressure and temperature will be then compiled together for the IBM’s Water Management Center after which a detailed analysis will be observed regarding the efficiency and performance of the system.Hence these three companies are coming up with a product that will not only overcome the drought but will also help in evaluating the problems and issues dealing with water management. IBM, AT&T and Mueller Water Products thus have come up with a great product that will be useful globally.
