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To: Uncle Frank who wrote (2696)	1/15/2010 4:49:22 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 2955

Clearwire CEO William Morrow tells The Financial Times that the company plans to launch a WiMax-enabled smartphone in the second half of the year. "Voice is still very important . . . we will be in the smartphone business and will launch devices this year," Morrow said. Clearwire's backers include Google -- developer of the Android mobile operating system -- and Sprint Nextel... ft.com

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (2696)	1/19/2010 4:35:20 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2955

IBM Profit Forecast Tops Analysts’ Estimates By Katie Hoffmann Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- International Business Machines Corp., the world’s largest computer-services provider, said full-year profit will exceed its earlier target, helped by the rebounding economy. Profit in 2010 will be at least $11 a share, the Armonk, New York-based company said today in a statement. IBM set a goal in May 2007 of posting earnings of $10 to $11 this year. Companies are resuming spending on technology, particularly hardware, which the recession hurt most, said Rob Cihra, an analyst at Caris & Co. in New York. That improvement, combined with IBM’s focus on the more profitable software and services divisions, has helped the company boost earnings, he said. “IBM’s a relatively slow-moving ship, but directionally things are getting better,” said Cihra, who rates the shares “above average” and doesn’t own them. “Even through what just turned out to be one of the worst tech years in memory, it’s remarkable how well IBM’s earnings held.” IBM was little changed in late trading after climbing $2.36 to $134.14 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares gained 56 percent last year. Analysts projected 2010 profit of $10.90 a share, based on the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. IBM follows Intel Corp. as the second technology bellwether in a week to release a forecast that topped estimates. Global information-technology spending will climb 8.1 percent this year, according to a report this month from Forrester Research Inc. Fourth-Quarter Results IBM’s fourth-quarter profit amounted to $4.81 billion, or $3.59 a share, compared with $4.43 billion, or $3.27, a year earlier. Analysts projected $3.47 a share. Sales advanced 0.8 percent to $27.2 billion. Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, forecast first-quarter sales of about $9.7 billion, topping analysts’ estimate, as consumers and businesses resume spending on laptops and other technology. Google Inc., the most popular search engine, will report earnings Jan. 21 and Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software-maker, is set to post results Jan. 28. IBM, once the largest computer company, has spent the past decade selling off what executives call “commoditized” hardware units, such as the personal-computer group, to invest in the more profitable businesses of software and services. The two divisions have helped expand the gross profit margin, or the percentage of profit after costs, to 48.3 percent in the fourth quarter from 47.9 percent a year earlier and from 38.8 percent at the end of 2002, the year Chief Executive Officer Sam Palmisano took hold of the company. Margins have expanded for nine straight quarters. IBM has further expanded margins by lowering costs, including shifting work overseas and standardizing software across different services. To contact the reporter on this story: Katie Hoffmann in New York at khoffmann4@bloomberg.net Last Updated: January 19, 2010 16:10 EST

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (2696)	1/20/2010 8:50:34 AM
From: stockman_scott	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2955

Apple’s Secret Cloud Strategy And Why Lala Is Critical techcrunch.com by Guest Author on January 19, 2010 This is a guest post from Michael Robertson, a 12-year veteran of the digital music business. He is the founder and former CEO of digital music pioneer MP3.com. He is currently the CEO of music locker company MP3tunes. Robertson is also an adviser to Google Voice. For years there’s been speculation that Apple would supplement their $1/song (now $1.29) iTunes business with a monthly subscription service, but their upcoming plans are quite different and once again are positioning them to lead the digital music industry into a new era. Leveraging their ubiquitous iTunes software Apple plans to upgrade their users almost over night to a cloud music service in an ambitious move to beat Amazon and others to a cloud music service. Record labels are wary to give Apple even greater dominance which is why Apple’s new strategy is designed to sidestep new licenses from the major labels. Apple’s recent acquisition of digital music startup Lala rekindled speculation of an iTunes subscription service. There’s no shortage of subscription offerings (Napster, Rhapsody, Spotify, Pandora, etc), but none have attracted the millions of subscribers necessary to make the high royalty structures work. Experts have pondered that Apple’s design expertise and hardware integration could make subscription work. And leveraging Lala’s digital library, licenses from the major labels, and a management team who cycled through several business models including the ten cent web song rental could make it a reality. It’s a logical assumption, but after talking to a wide variety of insider sources it’s clear there is no upcoming Apple subscription service and Apple has far different plans. Lala will play a critical role in Apple’s music future, but not for the reasons cited above. Lala’s licenses with major labels are non-transferable, so they’re not usable for any new iTunes service. The 10 cent song rental model never gained traction and does not cover mobile devices thus is of little value to Apple. What is of value is the personal music storage service which was an often overlooked component of Lala’s business. As Apple did with the original iPods, Lala realized that any music solution must include music already possessed by the user. The Lala setup process provides software to store a personal music library online and then play it from any web browser alongside web songs they vend. This technology plus the engineering and management team is the true value of Lala to Apple. An upcoming major revision of iTunes will copy each user’s catalog to the net making it available from any browser or net connected ipod/touch/tablet. The Lala upload technology will be bundled into a future iTunes upgrade which will automatically be installed for the 100+ million itunes users with a simple “An upgrade is available…” notification dialog box. After installation iTunes will push in the background their entire media library to their personal mobile iTunes area. Once loaded, users will be able to navigate and play their music, videos and playlists from their personal URL using a browser based iTunes experience. Apple will link the tens of millions of previously sold iPods, Touches, AppleTV and iTablets to mobile iTunes giving users seamless playback of their media from a wide range of Apple branded devices. Since media will be supplied from the user’s personal collection, Apple is freed from the hassles of device and region limitations. iTunes shoppers will be able to continue to buy music and movies as they can now with purchases still being downloaded, but once downloaded they will be automatically loaded to their mobile iTunes area for anywhere access. Again because users are in possession of the materials no new licenses are required from the record labels or publishers. Some are curious why Apple with thousands of engineers would need Lala talent and technology. For sure Apple could copy Lala technology, but time is of the essence and Lala lets Apple move faster in transitioning from their PC software business to a cloud service. They get a knowledgeable digital music engineering team, plus a code base to build upon which already does uploading and web playback. There’s precedence for this strategy. The iTunes software did not originate within in Apple but came via an acquisition. Finally, Apple gets the quick witted, brilliant, but occasionally loony Lala CEO Bill Nguyen who will play a future role in Apple. (Although one wonders how Jobs and lime light relishing Nguyen can co-exist.) It’s critically important that technology companies build and maintain a core strength. This cornerstone allows them to command a significant portion of the profit stream and is a beachhead to launch other initiatives. Think Amazon/e-commerce, Microsoft/OS, Google/search, Apple/media. Jobs is keenly aware of the digital transition from PC to cloud centric programs and services. It’s imperative Apple lead in this transition or risk ceding leadership in media to others such as Amazon, Real, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc. Lala will help Apple protect their media franchise from encroachment by accelerating their cloud efforts. iTunes users can expect mobile iTunes in 2010.

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (2696)	1/23/2010 8:15:33 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2955

Google’s Founders File to Sell 5 Million Shares Each (Update1) By Brian Womack Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have adopted five-year trading plans to sell about 5 million shares each, reducing their combined ownership of stock outstanding to 15 percent from 18 percent. With the reduction in shares, Brin and Page’s voting power in the company would drop to 48 percent from 59 percent, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Based on today’s closing stock price, each would get about $2.75 billion from selling the shares. “They are both as committed as ever to Google and are integrally involved in our day-to-day management and product strategy,” Google said in an e-mailed statement. “The majority of their net worth remains with Google.” Page and Brin, who met at Stanford University in 1995 before starting Google, participated in a similar plan announced in 2004 that let them sell 7.2 million shares each. The founders are tied for No. 11 on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans. Google had its initial public offering in 2004. Google, based in Mountain View, California, fell $32.97, or 5.7 percent, to $550.01 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares more than doubled last year. To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Womack in San Francisco at Bwomack1@bloomberg.net Last Updated: January 22, 2010 18:47 EST