This guy cost Apple $96 billion this week

by Christian Zibreg on May 18, 2012

Have you noticed the ‘broken record syndrome’ over at Business Insider? The publication’s been running an article series under their trademark sensationalist headlines that spell doom for Apple’s stock price.

Down Goes Apple, said the headline Tuesday. Down Goes Apple Again, another one screamed Wednesday. And There Goes Apple Again!, yesterday’s headline has it. And you gotta love their latest story titled Apple Is Now Straight-Up Tanking!

So, what’s going on here? Is AAPL on a downward spiral? And what’s up with the $2,000 per share Apple meme? Read More

 

FTC to fine Google millions of dollars over Safari breach

by Cody on May 5, 2012

Last month, the Federal Trade Commission was said to be investigating claims that Google was illegally bypassing privacy settings in Safari. The Mountain View company was caught using a loophole in the browser to allow it to track users’ online activities without their consent.

If confirmed, the FTC was expected to slap Google with a hefty fine. And it certainly looks like that will hold true, as Bloomberg is out with a new report claiming that the Trade Commission is about to slap the company with reparations worth millions of dollars… Read More

 

iOS boss cashes in shares, pockets $38.7 million

by Christian Zibreg on May 2, 2012

Scott Forstall, who heads the team behind the software that powers iOS devices, by far Apple’s most profitable division, has recently sold 64,151 shares worth roughly $38.7 million, a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange (SEC) commission has revealed.

Cook, identified as Apple’s CEO-in-waiting in Adam Lashinsky’s Inside Apple book, still holds nearly $2 million worth of shares plus retention bonuses worth over a quarter billion dollars provided he stays with Apple and the company does emerge as the world’s first trillion dollar corporation… Read More

 

Cheaper iPad 2 could help Apple make major headway into education market

by Cody on Apr 26, 2012

Nobody was surprised when Apple announced that it was going to continue selling its one-year old iPad 2 at a discount alongside its new tablet last month. After all, the Cupertino company pulled the same thing with the iPhone 4 and 4S.

Considering that Apple has sold more than 70 million iPhones over the past two quarters, it’s safe to say that keeping the older iPhone around is paying off in spades. And it looks like keeping the iPad 2 around will yield similar results… Read More

 

Interesting stats from Apple’s earnings call

by Cody on Apr 24, 2012

We just finished listening to Apple’s quarterly earnings call for Q2 of this year, and we managed to pick up some interesting statistics.

As we reported earlier, Apple had another record-breaking financial quarter over the last three months. But it also hit several other high points… Read More

 

They poured $250,000 into Instagram, took $78M, but could’ve made way more

by Christian Zibreg on Apr 23, 2012

Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz had poured a cool quarter million dollars into Instagram back when it was just a small startup called Burbn.

Though it never took off, its photo-sharing component was doing quite well, giving birth to the widely popular Instagram photo-sharing service.

Even though Horowitz never invested in Instagram again, they’re poised to walk away with a cool $78 million once the $1 billion deal with Facebook closes.

That’s a nice 312 times premium on a $250,000 investment, but they could have made potentially hundreds of millions of dollars if they chose to back Burbn in series-B funding.

Instead, the investors gave cofounding CEO Kevin Systrom back information rights and pro rata rights to the series B, never investing in Instagram again… Read More

 

Apple to webcast second-quarter earnings call on April 24

by Christian Zibreg on Apr 20, 2012

Apple will webcast its calendar 2012 second-quarter earnings next Tuesday, April 24 at 2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern. The call will include Apple’s performance metrics and sales figures from a three-month period which ended March 31.

According to analysts, Apple is expected to report iPhone sales anywhere between 26 and 44 million units, with the best analysts’ consensus of 35 million units. Some folks are worried about a 24 percent drop in iPhone activations by Verizon and rumors that carriers might drop iPhone subsidy that hurt their bottom line.

I opined these concerns are overblown and should be taken with a grain of salt as crazypants analysts and Apple doomsayers regularly come out of the woodwork ahead of the company’s quarterly reports. Read More

 

Wall Street thinks Apple sold between 26-44 million iPhones last quarter

by Christian Zibreg on Apr 16, 2012

With Apple’s earning release for the past quarter that ended two weeks ago now just eight days away, analysts are running their spreadsheets like crazy, falling over themselves to guesstimate just how many iPhones the company sold.

And as the iPhone lineup accounts for more than half of Apple’s revenue, no wonder it’s become Apple’s most important business metric. AAPL passing the $600 milestone also owes much to the success of the iPhone, as does the company’s projected $1 trillion valuation.

It’s almost as if Apple’s future and fortunes depend solely on the iPhone. With that in mind, seasoned watchers should ask themselves whether Apple can retain its crown of the world’s top smartphone maker in the March quarter.

And, is the six-month old iPhone 4S still attractive enough to keep people interested until the fabled iPhone 5 (or whatever it ends up being called) arrives later this year? As always, only time will tell. But one thing is certain: Wall Street has high hopes in Apple’s ability to keep the iPhone freight train chugging along… Read More

 

Apple could receive $7.4 million in tax breaks to build new Texas campus

by Cody on Apr 6, 2012

AppleInsider passes on a report from an Austin news outlet that Apple could receive tax rebates worth $7.4 million over the next 10 years if it goes ahead with plans to build a new campus in Northwest Austin.

Combine this with the nearly $30 million in tax breaks and incentives it is already set to receive, and Apple has a lot of reasons to want to start building its new offices as soon as possible…

Read More

 

Apple reportedly reaches settlement over search for iPhone 4S prototype

by Cody on Apr 5, 2012

In the months leading up to the iPhone 4S launch, Apple lost a prototype of the handset. It seemed like it was going to be the iPhone 4/Gizmodo debacle all over again, but no pictures or other evidence ever surfaced.

Apple took some heat over the way it handled its search for the device, allegedly raiding the home of Sergio Calderon with a team of police officers. In fact, Sergio threatened to file a lawsuit against the company unless a settlement was reached.

Well here we are, more than 6 months later, and no lawsuit has been filed… Read More

 
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