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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Status update: Facebook to go public, raise $5B (AP) : Technet

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Status update: Facebook to go public, raise $5B (AP) : Technet

Status update: Facebook to go public, raise $5B (AP)

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 08:14 PM PST

By BARBARA ORTUTAY and MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writers Barbara Ortutay And Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writers – 1 hr 25 mins ago

NEW YORK – Facebook made a much-anticipated status update Wednesday: The Internet social network is going public in a stock offering that could value it at as much as $100 billion, eight years after its computer-hacking CEO Mark Zuckerberg started the service at Harvard University.

That means anyone with some cash will be able to own part of a Silicon Valley icon that quickly transformed from dorm-room startup to cultural touchstone.

If its initial public offering of stock makes enough friends on Wall Street, Facebook will probably make its stock market debut in three or four months as one of the world's most valuable companies. Facebook, which is based in Menlo Park, Calif., hopes to list its stock under the ticker symbol, "FB," on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq Stock Market.

In its regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook Inc. indicated it hopes to raise $5 billion by selling a small percentage of its shares to the public in its IPO. That would be the most for an Internet IPO, easily surpassing the $1.9 billion raised by Google Inc. in 2004. The final amount will likely change as Facebook's bankers gauge the investor demand.

Joining corporate America's elite would give Facebook financial clout as it tries to make its service even more pervasive and expand its global audience of 845 million users. It also could help Facebook fend off an intensifying challenge from Google, which is looking to solidify its status as the Internet's most powerful company with a rival social network called Plus.

The intrigue surrounding Facebook's IPO has increased in recent months and not just because the company has become a common conduit for everyone from doting grandmas to sassy teenagers to share information about their lives.

Zuckerberg, 27, has emerged as the latest in a lineage of Silicon Valley prodigies who are alternately hailed for pushing the world in new directions and reviled for overstepping their bounds. In Zuckerberg's case, a lawsuit alleging that he stole the idea for Facebook from some Harvard classmates became the grist for a book and a movie that was nominated for an Academy Award last year.

Following the model of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Zuckerberg set up two classes of stock that will ensure he retains control as the sometimes conflicting demands of Wall Street exert new pressures on the company. He will have the final say on how nearly 57 percent of Facebook's stock votes, according to the filing.

Even before the IPO was filed, Zuckerberg was shaping up as his generation's Bill Gates — a geek who parlayed his love of computers into fame and fortune. Forbes magazine estimated Zuckerberg's wealth at $17.5 billion in its most recent survey of the richest people in the U.S. A more precise measurement of Zuckerberg's fortune will be available once the IPO is priced and provides a concrete benchmark for determining the value of his nearly 534 million Facebook shares

The IPO will also mint hundreds of Facebook employee as millionaires because they have accumulated stock at lower prices than what the shares are liked to be valued at on the open market. Facebook employed 3,200 people at the end of last year.

Depending on how long regulators take to review Facebook's IPO documents, the company could be making its stock market debut around the time that Zuckerberg celebrates his 28th birthday in May.

When most companies go public, they let Wall Street investment banks handle everything. That means the stock being sold is reserved for big institutional investors, shutting out the average investor. Despite speculation that Facebook would try something different, it appears the IPO will be a traditional one.

The IPO filing casts a spotlight on some of Facebook's inner workings for the first time. Among other things, the documents reveal the amount of Facebook's revenue, its major shareholders, its growth opportunities and its concerns about its biggest competitive threats.

The documents show, as expected, that Facebook is thriving. The company earned $668 million on revenue of $3.7 billion last year, according to the filing. Both figures nearly doubled from 2010.

"The company is a lot more profitable than we thought," said Kathleen Smith, principal of IPO investment advisory firm Renaissance Capital.

Although she considered Facebook's numbers "very impressive," she said Facebook needs to talk more about where it sees its growth coming from.

"What new areas of business is it expecting to pursue beyond display ads?"

What's not in the documents, yet, is Facebook's market value. That figure could hit $100 billion, based on Facebook's private valuations and the expectation that it will continue to grow at a rapid pace. Facebook also did not say what percentage of its shares it plans to sell.

Facebook heads a class of Internet startups that have been going public during the past year to some disappointing results. Among them: Daily deals company Groupon Inc., Internet radio service Pandora Media Inc. and Zynga Inc., which has built a profitable business by creating games people can play on Facebook.

Facebook stands apart, though. As it rapidly expands, people from Silicon Valley to Brazil to India use it to keep up with news from friends and long-lost acquaintances, play mindless games tending virtual cities and farms and share big news or minute details about their days. Politicians, celebrities and businesses use Facebook to connect with fans and the general public.

It's becoming more difficult to tell whether going to Facebook is a pastime or an addiction. In the U.S., Facebook visitors spend an average of seven hours per month on the website, more than double the average of three hours per month in 2008, according to the research firm comScore Inc.

More than half of Facebook users log on to the site on any given day. Using software developed by outside parties — call it the Facebook economy — they share television shows they are watching, songs they are playing and photos of what they are wearing or eating. Facebook says 250 million photos alone are posted on its site each day.

To make money, Facebook sells the promise of highly targeted advertisements based on the information its users share, including interests, hobbies, private thoughts and relationships. Though most of its revenue comes from ads, Facebook also takes a cut from the money that apps make through its site. For every dollar that "FarmVille" maker Zynga gets for the virtual cows and crops it sells, for example, Facebook gets 30 cents.

Last year, Facebook got about $3.2 billion in advertising revenue, which accounted for 85 percent of its total. The rest came from what it calls "payments and other fees," namely the app payments. Zynga alone accounted for 12 percent of Facebook's revenue in 2011.

Research firm eMarketer had expected higher ad revenue — $3.8 billion — and higher overall revenue of $4.27 billion. Analyst Debra Aho Williamson offered one reason that Facebook's revenue is lower than she expected: Its focus on the user experience. The company, she said, has been "very deliberate" about how it displays ads. There are no splashy banners plastered across users' homepages, no intrusive video ads popping up left and right.

"Advertisers possibly want more," she said. "They want more proof that advertising works."

For all of Facebook's success, the company has had its troubles. It has gone through a series of privacy missteps over the years as it has pushed users to disclose more and more information about themselves. Most recently, the company settled with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over allegations that it exposed details about people's private lives without getting legally required consent. And the legal fights over Facebook's origins have been embarrassing and sometimes distracting, though Zuckerberg has consistently denied allegations that have depicted him as ruthless.

Zuckerberg has made it clear he isn't especially keen on leading a public company. He has said many times that he prefers to focus on developing Facebook's products and growing the site's user base, rather than trying to hit quarterly earnings targets in an effort to keep investors happy.

In a letter included in Wednesday's filing, Zuckerberg paints a rosy, idealistic picture of Facebook.

"Facebook aspires to build the services that give people the power to share and help them once again transform many of our core institutions and industries," he wrote.

Zuckerberg also pledged to stay true to Facebook's scrappy roots even on the road to becoming a multinational corporation.

"The word `hacker' has an unfairly negative connotation from being portrayed in the media as people who break into computers," he wrote. "In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done."

Lately, Zuckerberg has matured into the role, said Scott Kessler, a Standard & Poor's equity analyst who follows Internet stocks.

"Clearly he is a very smart and shrewd person," he said.

Zuckerberg has surrounded himself with other savvy executives, who are often more experienced. They include Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, who helped build Google's advertising business before Facebook lured her in 2008. Facebook's finance chief is David Ebersman, a former executive at biotech firm Genentech.

Amid the buoyant optimism about Facebook's prospects as a public company, some analysts see troubling parallels to the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, which turned into a devastating bust in the early 2000s. The biggest fear is that some investors will become so enamored with Facebook's brand and brawn that they will try to buy the Facebook shares the day the company goes public with little financial analysis or recognition of the risks.

"It's a one-day circus," said John Fitzgibbon, founder of IPOscoop.com.

The IPOs of Zynga and LinkedIn showed that success isn't guaranteed even for profitable companies with huge followings. Zynga's stock is currently trading just slightly above its IPO price. LinkedIn closed at $72.37 Wednesday, far below the $122.70 record that it hit on its first trading day.

Morgan Stanley is the lead banker for the IPO. The other banks involved are JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays and Allen & Co.

___

Liedtke reported from San Francisco.

Facebook's new stock ticker: Why not LIKE or POKE? (AP)

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 09:29 PM PST

By CHRISTINA REXRODE, AP Business Writer Christina Rexrode, Ap Business Writer – 10 mins ago

NEW YORK – FB? That's the best they could do?

The company that changed how politicians raise money, dissidents start revolutions and parents keep tabs on their kids announced its stock ticker symbol Wednesday.

And it used about as much creativity as liking someone else's status.

This was Facebook's place on the ticker, the electronic river of American commerce. This was a chance to make a statement, assert an identity — a choice as fundamental as picking blue for the ribbon at the top of the screen.

But FB?

It was a ticker symbol more fit for a bank or an insurance company. Not the social network that lets people find old flames, get themselves fired and announce their marriages and divorces.

Even BOOK would have been a little more creative. (FACE was already taken by a cosmetics company.)

A clever ticker can be like a vanity license plate, helping investors remember a company. Snagging a coveted one-letter ticker — think "C" for Citigroup, formerly for Chrysler — is a status symbol in certain realms.

Very occasionally, companies get creative. Mattress company Sealy is ZZ. Shoe seller Steven Madden is SHOO. Southwest Airlines is LUV, a nod to Love Field airport in its hometown of Dallas. Veterinary hospital chain VCA Antech Inc. is WOOF, a nod to — well, you get it.

Companies can't pick just anything for their ticker symbol. They have to have to ask the Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange or another exchange for permission to use it. (The NYSE tells companies to submit their top three choices.) And like elsewhere in business, there's room for bruised egos.

A few years ago, regulators decided that ticker-awarding wasn't always fair and created rules to keep stock exchanges from playing favorites. Regulators also blocked companies from piling up requests for ticker symbols just to keep rivals from taking them.

The new rules reworked the number of letters allowed in a ticker. The NYSE had offered only one-, two- and three-letter symbols, Nasdaq fours and fives. The new regulations make it wide open — one to five letters should eventually be allowed on any exchange.

The idea was to keep the length of the ticker symbol from dictating which exchange a company filed with. In its regulatory filing Wednesday, Facebook said it planned to trade on either the Nasdaq or the NYSE.

Here are our suggestions for what could have been:

_TMI: Too much information. For the company that made it OK to share details about your broken relationships and drunk-dialing miscues, and deliver passive-aggressive rants about your siblings, all over the Internet.

_TFS: Thanks for sharing! (Again!) Because we were really hoping for an hour-by-hour update of what that lab partner from high school biology is doing every weekend.

_LIKE: You want your friends to Like your posts. Facebook wants you to Like its stock. We note that FRND would also be an acceptable substitute.

_MEEE: Because if Facebook isn't the modern world's biggest exercise in self-glorification, then we don't know what is.

_X: As in, "It's really time to stop stalking your ex and concentrate on your current relationship." But since "X" is taken by U.S. Steel Corp., we offer STLK as a placeholder.

_THE: Because remember, it was thefacebook.com before it was renamed facebook.com. That's when it became, in the words of Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker in "The Social Network," cleaner.

_ZUCK: For Mark Zuckerberg, the face of Facebook and the man all of Wall Street wants to friend.

_LOL: For what he's going to do all the way to the bank.

_POKE: In honor of what is perhaps Facebook's creepiest feature.

_WOT: Waste of time. Applies to friends who constantly post about going to the gym or the grocery store. Never, ever, ever interesting.

_FBML: For "future blackmail." As in, those keg-stand pictures are funny now, but could keep you from becoming president in 30 years.

___

Christina Rexrode covers the retail industry for The Associated Press.

Microsoft slams Google user data policy in new ads (AP)

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 05:11 PM PST

– Wed Feb 1, 8:11 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – Microsoft Corp. slammed search rival Google Inc. with full-page newspaper ads Wednesday, saying that recent changes at Google that allow it to internally merge the data it collects on user activity across services such as YouTube and Gmail are meant to allow advertisers to better target customers.

Google has touted the overhaul it announced last week as a simplification of detailed but obtuse policies and a way to provide a better user experience.

Microsoft offered up its own Web-based alternatives, saying for instance that users of its free email service, Hotmail, don't have to worry about the content of their emails being used to help target ads.

The attack ads appeared in newspapers including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

"Every data point Google collects and connects to you increases how valuable you are to an advertiser," Microsoft says in the ad.

In response, Google published a blog post in which it refuted what it called "myths" about its new privacy policy, saying, "Our privacy controls have not changed. Period."

The company does not dispute that it serves up ads based on words in private emails written by users of Gmail, but says such scanning is automated and is similar to how many email providers filter out spam. It has operated that way since Gmail's introduction in 2004.

Both companies offer several controls to prevent advertisers from tracking users' online activity.

Online expert Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of the website Search Engine Land, said that Google's privacy policy simplification has turned into a public relations "nightmare," but only because it again focused attention on the kind of data that Google has collected for years.

He said Microsoft is in no position to point fingers, since it also collects a lot of user data from its search engine, Bing, and will adjust search results based on information it finds in users' Facebook accounts if they are logged in.

"I think they're largely about the same," Sullivan said. "It would not be hard to go through and pick any major Internet company, talk about the kind of data they collect and start getting people paranoid."

The 9 most surprising facts about the Facebook IPO (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 04:35 PM PST

Fold-up ‘house’ fits in your pocket, sets up instantly (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 04:26 PM PST

NASA Launches Facebook Game to Test Space Program Knowledge (Mashable)

Posted: 31 Jan 2012 03:45 PM PST

Sam Laird Sam Laird – Tue Jan 31, 6:45 pm ET

How much do you know about the NASA space program, Earthling?

[More from Mashable: Facebook Post Seals Guinness World Record]

NASA has launched a multi-player Facebook game to test just that. Space Race Blastoff poses a series of surprisingly tough questions -- for example, who launched the first liquid-fueled rocket? -- that cover a range of space-related topics including history, technology and science. There's even a pop culture category.

Users play the game by choosing an avatar then answering a series of 10 multiple-choice questions. They can compete with other players or just play solo. Players can also earn additional points if they are able to correctly answer bonus questions following the initial 10-question round.

[More from Mashable: Facebook Timeline and Users: Not Quite a Love Affair [POLL RESULTS]]

NASA released the game through Facebook to leverage the social network's massive audience and make the game something players could enjoy with friends.

"Space Race Blastoff opens NASA's history and research to a wide new audience of people accustomed to using social media," David Weaver, NASA's associate administrator for communications, said in a press release. "Space experts and novices will learn new things about how exploration continues to impact our world."

Space Race Blastoff is NASA's first multi-player online game, but the agency has a history of adeptly using social media to connect with the public. In September, NASA announced plans to invite 150 of its Twitter followers to a "tweetup" event at a live spacecraft launch. A number of astronauts have active Twitter accounts as well; Ron Garan, or Astro_Ron, even has more than 88,000 followers.

Will you play Space Race Blastoff? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

All-time top 10 IPOs for Internet companies (AP)

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 09:08 PM PST

By The Associated Press The Associated Press – 32 mins ago

Facebook is hoping to raise $5 billion in an initial public offering of stock. It would be the largest IPO ever for an Internet company. Here are the top 10 so far, according to Renaissance Capital, an IPO investment adviser:

Google Inc., IPO on Aug. 18, 2004, $1.67 billion raised.

Yandex N.V., IPO on May 23, 2011, $1.3 billion raised.

Infonet Services Corp. (now part of BT Group PLC), IPO on Dec. 15, 1999, $1.08 billion raised.

Shanda Games Ltd., IPO on Sept. 24, 2009, $1.04 billion raised.

Zynga Inc., IPO on Dec. 15, 2011, $1 billion raised.

Giant Interactive Group Inc., IPO on Oct. 31, 2007, $887 million raised.

Renren Inc., IPO on May 3, 2011, $743 million raised.

Groupon Inc., IPO on Nov. 3, 2011, $700 million raised.

Orbitz Worldwide Inc., IPO on July 19, 2007, $510 million raised.

barnesandnoble.com (now part of Barnes & Noble Inc.), IPO on May 24, 1999, $450 million raised.

Note: Public trading typically begins the day after the IPO. Amounts reflect what's raised both by companies and their early investors and do not include extra shares known as overallotment, which are set aside to meet heavy demand.

Source: Renaissance Capital

Summary Box: Facebook to go public, raise $5B (AP)

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 09:06 PM PST

By The Associated Press The Associated Press – 34 mins ago

GOING PUBLIC: Facebook files paperwork for its much-anticipated initial public offering of stock. It hopes to raise $5 billion, the most ever for an Internet IPO.

WHAT THAT MEANS: Facebook will have financial clout as it tries to make its service even more pervasive and expand its audience. It also could help Facebook fend off an intensifying challenge from Google, which is looking to solidify its status as the Internet's most powerful company with a rival social network called Plus.

TRADING: Facebook hopes to list its stock under the ticker symbol, "FB," on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq Stock Market. The IPO will likely come in three or four months.

Angelic "Steve Jobs" loves Android in Taiwain TV ad (Reuters)

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 07:36 PM PST

By Jonathan Standing Jonathan Standing – 2 hrs 3 mins ago

TAIPEI (Reuters) – He may have derided Android devices in real life but in the afterlife Apple Inc founder Steve Jobs is glad he can use one -- or at least that's the story a Jobs look-alike tells in a recent TV commercial for a Taiwanese electronics company's new product.

In the ad, Taiwanese comedian and impersonator Ah-Ken, dressed in Jobs' trademark black turtle neck sweater and blue jeans and sporting white angel's wings and a halo, extols the virtues of Action Electronics Co.'s combined tablet PC and multi-language dictionary, which runs on Google Inc's Android.

"Introducing the new generation of the pad," says the "Jobs" character, whipping the Action Pad out of his back jeans pocket, wings flapping as he shows off the dictionary functions on a giant screen behind a darkened stage furnished with a sofa and small table.

"Thank God I finally get to play other tablets," the character adds in the 20-second commercial's final scene, a broad grin on his face as he taps away on the device on the sofa. The ad is subtitled in English throughout, a nod to the device's dictionary function.

Jobs, who died in October 2011, famously referred to Android as "shit," according to his biography, and was quoted in the book as saying he was going to "destroy" Android and was prepared to go to "thermonuclear war" over the product.

"Steve Jobs always promoted things that were good for people, Apple products, so his image can also promote other things that are good," said Chelsea Chen, a spokeswoman for Action Electronics, a maker of electronic gadgets including portable DVD players and Internet devices.

The commercial does not use Jobs' name or refer to him or Apple in any way, but has drawn some sharp reactions on YouTube,

with some branding it distasteful and disgusting and one even calling for a boycott of the company. The video is at: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeXXwQrQiPE&feature=youtu.be)

Chen didn't see any adverse reaction from Apple.

"It's just an impersonator, not Jobs," she said.

"We have no choice but to use Android, we can't use iOS," she added, referring to Apple's mobile device operating system.

It's not the first time Jobs' image has been used in Taiwan to promote products, a measure of his fame in the wired, tech-exporting island whose companies make most of Apple's products. Last year a drinks company had a Jobs look-alike promoting a green tea drink.

Jobs has also been featured by Taiwanese satirical news video maker Next Media Animation, which once portrayed him knocking the helmet off "Darth Vader" Bill Gates of Microsoft with a light saber and then wearing it himself and ruling the tech universe from an office in a Death Star.

(This version corrects year of Jobs' death in fifth paragraph)

(Editing by Elaine Lies and Ed Davies)

Televisa says Mexico rejects Iusacell purchase (AP)

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 05:58 PM PST

– Wed Feb 1, 8:58 pm ET

MEXICO CITY – The world's largest Spanish-language media company said Wednesday that its planned move into Mexico's mobile-phone market has been rejected by the country's anti-monopoly regulator.

Televisa said Mexico's Federal Competition Commission, or COFECO, voted 5-3 against its purchase of a $1.6 billion, 50 percent share of mobile-phone operator Iusacell.

Televisa, Iusacell and outside experts have said the move could generate more competition in Mexico's mobile-phone market. Seventy percent of the cellular phone business in Mexico is controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim's Telcel.

A Federal Competition Commission spokesman said the agency had not finished notifying the parties involved in the proposed deal and would have no immediate comment. Televisa said it would appeal.

"This decision taken by COFECO damages the potential for competition in a key sector for Mexico's development," Televisa said. "The costs of fixed and mobile telephony and data services in Mexico are among the highest in the developed world."

The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Monday that Mexicans overpaid for telecommunications services by more than $13 billion a year from 2005 to 2009. It said a lack of competition cost Mexico $25 billion a year in the same period.

The OECD said Iusacell has 4.4 percent of the mobile-phone market and Televisa's entry could generate more competition in the sector. Iusacell is a property of the Salinas Group, which operates TV Azteca, the second biggest television operation in Mexico after Televisa.

Slim, who is one of the world's richest people, denied on Tuesday that he has a monopoly on telecommunications in Mexico, telling reporters that his phone companies have either kept prices the same or reduced them.

He denied any of his businesses are monopolies.

"What does monopoly mean? One," he said, adding that "if we have less than 100 percent of the market it means that there are other competitors."

Asked about Televisa's potential entry into Mexico's mobile-phone market, he said that he didn't fear competition.

"We aren't afraid of competing with anyone," he said. "What we want is that they invest, that they don't take advantage of our investments."

Slim's companies have pulled their advertising from Televisa and TV Azteca, saying they overcharge, and he has accused the two TV operations of monopolistic practices. He has been trying to get the government's permission to enter Mexico's pay-television market, a request that has been opposed by Televisa.

Zuckerberg describes 'The Hacker Way' at Facebook (AP)

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 09:22 PM PST

By The Associated Press The Associated Press – 17 mins ago

In Facebook's regulatory filing for an initial public offering of stock, CEO Mark Zuckerberg included a letter to potential investors about the company's thinking. He described it as a social mission to make the world more open and connected. He also discussed Facebook's approach to culture and management in Wednesday's letter:

"As part of building a strong company, we work hard at making Facebook the best place for great people to have a big impact on the world and learn from other great people. We have cultivated a unique culture and management approach that we call the Hacker Way.

"The word `hacker' has an unfairly negative connotation from being portrayed in the media as people who break into computers. In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done. Like most things, it can be used for good or bad, but the vast majority of hackers I've met tend to be idealistic people who want to have a positive impact on the world.

"The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it's impossible or are content with the status quo.

"Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to get everything right all at once. To support this, we have built a testing framework that at any given time can try out thousands of versions of Facebook. We have the words `Done is better than perfect' painted on our walls to remind ourselves to always keep shipping.

"Hacking is also an inherently hands-on and active discipline. Instead of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype something and see what works. There's a hacker mantra that you'll hear a lot around Facebook offices: `Code wins arguments.'

"Hacker culture is also extremely open and meritocratic. Hackers believe that the best idea and implementation should always win — not the person who is best at lobbying for an idea or the person who manages the most people.

"To encourage this approach, every few months we have a hackathon, where everyone builds prototypes for new ideas they have. At the end, the whole team gets together and looks at everything that has been built. Many of our most successful products came out of hackathons, including Timeline, chat, video, our mobile development framework and some of our most important infrastructure like the HipHop compiler.

"To make sure all our engineers share this approach, we require all new engineers — even managers whose primary job will not be to write code — to go through a program called Bootcamp where they learn our codebase, our tools and our approach. There are a lot of folks in the industry who manage engineers and don't want to code themselves, but the type of hands-on people we're looking for are willing and able to go through Bootcamp."

Just Show Me: How to use the notification system in Android 4.0 (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 02:55 PM PST

Find your next pad with the Apartments.com Android app (Appolicious)

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 03:15 PM PST

Mexico watchdog: no official word on Televisa deal (Reuters)

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 02:00 PM PST

– Wed Feb 1, 5:00 pm ET

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico's competition watchdog said on Wednesday it was still in the process of notifying the companies of its decision on broadcaster Televisa's proposed purchase of half of cell phone company Iusacell.

Watchdog Cofeco reached its decision on the deal last week, but has not announced the result as it said it had to inform the parties first.

"The process has been complex but is going well and will continue tomorrow," Cofeco said, adding that no public announcement would be made until the notification process was complete.

(Reporting by Krista Hughes)

Qualcomm handily beats Street, shares rise (Reuters)

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 05:44 PM PST

By Sinead Carew Sinead Carew – Wed Feb 1, 8:44 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Qualcomm Inc's quarterly profit easily beat Wall Street forecasts and the wireless chip leader raised its full-year financial targets due to growing demand for smartphones such as Apple Inc's popular iPhone.

Shares in the biggest supplier of cellphone chips rose 5 percent after the company also said it has been winning business from rivals and is benefiting from growing demand for smartphones in emerging markets such as China.

Qualcomm, widely known as the main wireless chip supplier for the latest iPhone, was helped by the launch of the blockbuster device late last year, analysts said.

"It's a very strong result. The move to smartphones in the emerging markets in the success of the iPhone is driving its earnings higher," Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Walkley said.

He said Qualcomm also generates hefty technology royalties from Apple, which does not disclose its chip suppliers.

Qualcomm appears to be taking business from rivals such as STMicroelectronics and Intel Corp, whose Infineon chip business has been a big supplier for the iPhone, Walkley said.

The company raised its revenue target for full-year 2012 to a range of $18.7 billion to $19.7 billion from its previous target of $18 billion to $19 billion.

Qualcomm also said it expects full-year earnings per share, excluding unusual items, of $3.55 to $3.75, up from its previous forecast for $3.42 to $3.62.

For its first fiscal quarter Qualcomm's earnings, excluding unusual items, of 97 cents per share were well ahead of Wall Street expectations for 90 cents according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

DISMISSES MARGIN CONCERNS

But even as they applauded the strong results and outlook, analysts on Qualcomm's conference questioned the company's ability to maintain profitability in its chip business since it faces pressure to cut chip prices as much of its growth is coming from phones that use less expensive chips.

Qualcomm Chief Financial Officer William Keitel said the company typically reduces chip prices for its customers every first quarter, noting that this would happen again this period.

But he said high sales volumes in countries like China will continue to offset lower prices and profit margins in these markets, ensuring revenue and earnings growth for at least the next five years for Qualcomm.

"That concern's been there three years now but each year investors have been pleasantly surprised," Keitel told Reuters. There's so much volume opportunity in the emerging markets what we're seeing is that the volume upside is more than compensating for the revenue and margin pressure."

While Qualcomm is seeing some pullback in smartphone demand in Europe, because of economic concerns there, the company said it is seeing strong growth in markets such the United States, Japan and South Korea.

In particular the company expects strong growth in these markets from smartphones using Long Term Evolution, an emerging high-speed wireless technology. Qualcomm expects LTE to represent a third of Qualcomm chip shipments by year-end, according to Keitel.

"They're in the right place at the right time on three major trends," Snyder said, referring to Qualcomm's strong position in China, in the market for LTE chips, and with Apple.

REGULATORY CORRUPTION PROBE

On the conference call Chief Executive Paul Jacobs also disclosed that U.S. and California regulators are investigating whether Qualcomm complies with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. But investors appeared to shrug off the announcement after Jacobs said he is confident the company is in compliance.

The preliminary investigation, which Qualcomm learned about January 27, was included in the company's quarterly report in a section discussing a whistleblower case brought against Qualcomm in 2010. Keitel would not discuss the case further.

San Diego, California-based Qualcomm reported a profit of$1.395 billion, or 81 cents per share, for its fiscal first quarter ended December 25, compared with a profit of $1.17 billion, or 71 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue rose to $4.68 billion from $3.35 billion, and compared with Wall Street expectations of $4.58 billion according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

In November, Qualcomm had forecast first-quarter revenue of $4.35 billion to $4.75 billion and first-quarter net earnings per share of 70 cents to 76 cents.

Qualcomm shares rose 5 percent to $62.58 in late trade after closing at $59.56 in the regular Nasdaq session.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Phil Berlowitz and David Gregorio)

AVG Technologies prices at $16/share: source (Reuters)

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 04:32 PM PST

– Wed Feb 1, 7:32 pm ET

(Reuters) – Anti-virus software maker AVG Technologies NV priced its initial public offering at $16 per share, at the low end of the expected range, according to a market source.

AVG, which is known for its free suite of anti-virus products, monetizes its large user base through targeted advertisements and by driving traffic to online search companies such as Google Inc and Yahoo Inc

The company, which competes with Symantec and McAfee, was expecting to price its IPO of 8 million shares between $16 and $18 a share.

In its latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company had said it will sell 4 million shares, while some stockholders will offer the rest.

At the $16 offering price, AVG, backed by Intel Capital, Grisoft Holdings and private equity firm TA Associates, would raise $128 million, valuing the Netherlands-based company at $870.1 million.

Shares of the company are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "AVG".

Morgan Stanley & Co, J.P. Morgan Securities and Goldman Sachs & Co were the book-running managers for the AVG offering.

(Reporting by Himank Sharma in Bangalore; Editing by Gary Hill)

IBM planning major job cuts in Germany: union (Reuters)

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 01:13 PM PST

– Wed Feb 1, 4:13 pm ET

(Reuters) – International Business Machines is sounding out plans to cut thousands of jobs in Germany and other countries to reduce costs and raise earnings, a German union official said.

"We have been aware of IBM's plans to cut jobs for some time," Christine Muhr, a labor representative on IBM Germany's supervisory board, told Reuters on Wednesday.

Scope and time frame were still unclear, she said, adding that IBM was planning to reduce the number of full-time employees and hire more temporary staff through projects advertised on the Internet.

German business daily Handelsblatt reported in its Wednesday edition that IBM was planning to cut up to 8,000 jobs in Germany.

It cited an IBM executive as saying that "in the end it could be that only 12,000 of currently 20,000 jobs will be left in the subsidiary."

Representatives at IBM headquarters in Armonk, New York, were not immediately available for comment.

A spokeswoman for IBM Germnay would only comment on the Handelsblatt report, saying the company did not comment on speculation.

The paper cited IBM Germany as saying that IBM did not discuss company staffing plans in public due to the competitive nature of its business.

According to German services union Verdi, no layoffs have been announced, but Muhr said that IBM was already testing using temporary staff on projects in other countries.

Internally the restructuring has been dubbed "Generation Open" and staff that work for IBM on projects but are not full time are called "liquid players," according to an internal document seen by Reuters.

With the move, IBM aims to accelerate the speed at which it completes projects by 30 percent and reduce costs by a third, according to the document.

IBM offers a wide range of services, from analyzing data and helping cities manage traffic flow to mining social media data so retailers can tell which products will sell best.

IBM wants to deliver earnings of $20 per share by 2015.

This year it aims to reach at least $14.85 despite ongoing macro-economic concerns in Europe and expected currency headwinds. Its earnings in 2011 were $13.44 per share.

(Reporting By Hendrick Sackmann in Stuttgart; Additional reporting by Nicola Leske in New York; Editing by Gary Hill and Steve Orlofsky)
at 9:50 PM

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