The DoJ has intervened to request a stay in the FTC ruling against Qualcomm, citing national security. This ruling against Qualcomm never made sense, and certainly did not make sense based upon what the FTC presented in its case. I feel strongly that the ruling will be paused to allow a deeper look on the security implications prior to the case being heard for appeal — it will be interesting to keep an eye on what happens next.
Prime Fine Day? EU Competition Chief Has Amazon In Her Crosshairs
EU Competition Chief Margrethe Vesteger is poised to slap new fines on Amazon and possibly Qualcomm. Are these fines warranted, fair and useful?
Why The FTC’s Record Setting Facebook Fine Won’t Change Anything
FTC’s Facebook Fine has raised a lot of eyebrows, but is it enough? An analysis of the FTC ruling and the 5 Billion USD Facebook Fine from Daniel Newman.
Qualcomm and Ericsson Team Up With T-Mobile to Drive 5G Beyond The Big City
T-Mobile in partnereship with Qualcomm and Ericsson are looking to bring 5G beyond the big city and took a big step forward with this week’s test call.
Amazon Upskilling 2025 — Amazon Commits to Retraining Employees
Amazon Upskilling 2025 was announced today, a commitment by Amazon to invest $700 million in retraining employees in data science, machine learning, business analysis, etc. Not to take anything away from Amazon’s ‘moment’ $700 million over six years is not a lot of money in the big scheme of all things Amazon.
NetApp Shares Tumble, But So What — Let’s Look Big Picture
NetApp shares tumble on an analyst’s downgrade, but so what. Let’s remove drama from the analysis and look at the big picture. To me, the big picture for NetApp looks good—here’s why.
Broadcom Explores Symantec Purchase — A Good Thing, or Not So Much?
Broadcom explores Symantec purchase. Is it really smart diversification, or simply a way to impress shareholders? I’m not so sure. In fact, I’m bearish on this move, mostly for Symantec. However, don’t be surprised if it happens, as Tan is known to be a shrewd negotiator and one who will make the deals he needs to happen to get shareholders the value they are looking for.
Apple’s New MacBook Pro Announcement Leaked
Overall, I believe that it’s a smart decision by Apple to improve and offer more competitive products at the lower ends of their product line. Given the powerful laptops available from the likes of Dell, HP, Lenovo and Microsoft (among others), and the impending launches of a variety of 5G-enabled ACPCs that will include Qualcomm/ARM chips, I believe it is important that Apple doesn’t neglect some of their core laptop SKUs — including their 13-inch entry level pro models.
Samsung 2Q Earnings In — Profits Down More than 50 Percent
Samsung 2Q earnings are in. While profits are down more than 50%, I still believe that Samsung is well-positioned for a bounce back as memory numbers stabilize. I also think it is important to note that despite the street’s outspoken criticism of the company’s performance, they did still make a profit of over 6.5 trillion Korean won (5.3 Billion USD), slightly better than an industry estimate of 6 trillion won.
U.S. Semiconductor Industry Granted Permission to Sell to Huawei
The U.S. Semiconductor Industry, lobbying on behalf of Qualcomm, Intel, Broadcom, and others granted permission to sell to Huawei.