Shares of Apple (AAPL) are down $2.34, or 0.7%,a t $338.19 after Blooomberg’s Michael Wei in Beijing reported there has been an explosion at a plant in Chengdu owned by Foxconn, the Taiwanese firm that manufactures many of Apple’s products.

The story appears not to be posted to Bloomberg’s Web site yet; On the terminal, it is under Foxconn news, not Apple news.

The brief item on the Bloomberg terminal only says that seven people have been hospitalized.

Business Insider’s Joe Weisenthal writes that the Chengdu plant is a “major builder of Apple’s iPads,” and writes that the factory has been sealed off by police while the matter is investigated.

Update: Dow Jones’s James Areddy reports the explosion has killed “at least two people,” according to Chengdu authorities. 16 people are now reported to be injured, including three “seriously,” he writes, citing municipal government statements.

“Details of the explosion are sketchy but video posted to the Internet and broadcast by China Central Television shows black billowing smoke from the massive facility,” writes Areddy. Areddy’s report includes a reiteration of background on a series of suicides at Foxconn last year.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

Shares of Research in Motion (RIMM) took a hit yesterday, following negative reviews of the company’s new Playbook tablet. Reviewers were critical of the Playbook’s lack of native support for e-mail, calendars and address books.

Naturally, the company’s co-chief Executive Officer Jim Balsillie disagrees. In an interview with Bloomberg News, Balsillie defended RIMM’s approach, which allows Blackberry users to gain e-mail, calendar, and address book access by tethering their existing handsets to the Playbook.”A lot of people that want this want a secure and free extension of their BlackBerry.”

RIMM hasn’t offered a sales forecast for the new Playbook, but Balsillie told Bloomberg that “I like our chances for a lot of share. We’re very excited about where we are.”

Shares of RIMM are up 24 cents, or 0.5%, to $54.16 today.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

Shares of Lawson Software (LWSN) are higher by 34 cents, or 3%, at $12.09, following analyst reports late yesterday saying the company may be an M&A target of Oracle (ORCL) following a bid on March 11th by privately held enterprise software firm Infor and private equity firm Golden Gate Capital.

An article by Bloomberg’s Tara Lachapelle late yesterday notes that Oracle could be interested in Lawson’s medical records and supply chain management software.

I would note that Lawson’s management was scheduled previously to visit Barron’s this week and canceled yesterday afternoon.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

Daily deals giant Groupon might be in talks with several banks to file for an initial public offering later this year that would value the company at $25 billion, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

Groupon works with local businesses to offer steep discounts — sometimes anywhere from 50 percent to 90 percent. The company, for example, offered a year’s subscription to car-sharing service Zipcar along with $30 in driving credit for $30 — down from the typical cost of around $115.

The business model proved to work well. Groupon’s success has inspired a number of “me-too” companies that focus on daily deals. Savings.com, for example, launched at the Launch Conference in San Francisco last month and aggregates a large number of deals from multiple sites. But none are more compelling than LivingSocial, which raised $175 million from online retailer Amazon.com in December.

It was clear that Groupon had its eyes set on going public after it spurned a $6 billion buyout offer from Google. The company said it expanded from 1 to 35 countries and grew from 2 million to more than 50 million subscribers in the past year when it announced its most recent funding round.

The daily deal site recently raised nearly $1 billion in a funding round closed in January. The site is backed by venture capital titans like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Andreessen-Horowitz and Greylock Partners. The most recent funding round valued Groupon at roughly $4.75 billion. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have spoken with Groupon about taking the company public at a valuation of $15 billion, according to the Bloomberg report.

Is Groupon worth $25 billion?customer surveys

Tags: Andrew Mason, daily deals, deals, initial public offering, IPO

Companies: Groupon, Livingsocial, Savings.com

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Deutsche Telekom is apparently in talks with Sprint to sell its T-Mobile USA division, sources in the know tell Bloomberg.

The companies are supposedly far from finalizing a deal after on and off talks. The biggest roadblock, according to the sources, is Sprint and Deutsche Telekom’s inability to agree on T-Mobile’s valuation after it saw a major drop in profit and subscribers last quarter. If a deal is reached, Deutsche Telekom will land a major stake in the combined company.

Deutsche Telekom vaguely confirmed the fact that it’s looking to sell of T-Mobile in an email statement to Bloomberg, saying that it may sell off all or part of the company. The company didn’t mention who it was looking to sell its T-Mobile business to. A Sprint representative declined to comment to Bloomberg, and we’re still awaiting an answer to our inquiries.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for both Sprint and T-Mobile — the third- and fourth-largest carriers in the US, respectively — to compete with AT&T and Verizon. Those companies have much larger network footprints, and as of February they also both offer Apple’s iPhone. By joining forces, Sprint and T-Mobile may find it easier to fend off competition.

But while it sounds good on paper, in practice a union between the companies would likely result in disaster. Sprint and T-Mobile’s 3G networks are completely incompatible, and at the moment the companies are also pursuing completely different 4G strategies. T-Mobile is focusing on expanding its 3G network with HSPA+ technology, while Sprint is counting on its majority stake in Clearwire to deliver WiMAX 4G. Having the separate networks coexist under a single company sounds like a major headache, and it will be years before Sprint and T-Mobile subscribers can coexist on the same network.

Instead of a union between the companies, T-Mobile may also consider buying wireless spectrum from Clearwire, two sources say. That will allow T-Mobile to either expand its network to regions where it doesn’t have full coverage, or strengthen it in metropolitan areas where it has to compete with other carriers.

Tags: 3G, 4G, carriers, networks

Companies: deutsche telekom, sprint, T Mobile

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Deutsche Telekom is apparently in talks with Sprint to sell its T-Mobile USA division, sources in the know tell Bloomberg.

The companies are supposedly far from finalizing a deal after on and off talks. The biggest roadblock, according to the sources, is Sprint and Deutsche Telekom’s inability to agree on T-Mobile’s valuation after it saw a major drop in profit and subscribers last quarter. If a deal is reached, Deutsche Telekom will land a major stake in the combined company.

Deutsche Telekom vaguely confirmed the fact that it’s looking to sell off T-Mobile in an email statement to Bloomberg, saying that it may sell off all or part of the company. The company didn’t mention who it was looking to sell its T-Mobile business to. A Sprint representative declined to comment to Bloomberg, and we’re still awaiting an answer to our inquiries.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for both Sprint and T-Mobile — the third- and fourth-largest carriers in the US, respectively — to compete with AT&T and Verizon. Those companies have much larger network footprints, and as of February they also both offer Apple’s iPhone. By joining forces, Sprint and T-Mobile might find it easier to fend off competition.

But while it sounds good on paper, in practice a union between the companies would likely result in disaster. Sprint and T-Mobile’s 3G networks are completely incompatible, and at the moment the companies are also pursuing completely different 4G strategies. T-Mobile is focusing on expanding its 3G network with HSPA+ technology, while Sprint is counting on its majority stake in Clearwire to deliver WiMAX 4G. Having the separate networks coexist under a single company sounds like a major headache, and it would be years before Sprint and T-Mobile subscribers could coexist on the same network.

Instead of a union between the companies, T-Mobile may consider buying wireless spectrum from Clearwire, two sources say. That would allow T-Mobile to either expand its network to regions where it doesn’t have full coverage, or strengthen it in metropolitan areas where it has to compete with other carriers.

Tags: 3G, 4G, carriers, networks

Companies: deutsche telekom, sprint, T Mobile

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

“The core of the American financial system is in a much stronger position than it was before the crisis,” Geithner said today during a Bloomberg Breakfast with reporters in Washington. “We can say with much more confidence now that the U.S. banking system and the U.S. capital market are much more likely to be in a position to finance the capital needs that come with a recovery,” Geithner said. [Bloomberg]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Interesting piece today by Bloomberg’s Olga Kharif, who interviewed former Cisco System’s (CSCO) executive Mike Volpi (at one time seemingly in line to replace CEO John Chambers) about the rise of Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system.
Volpi, now a venture capitalist with Index Ventures, headquartered in Geneva, calls Android, “The next [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

“Longer-term, AIG shouldn’t exist,” Golub said in an interview airing today on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop with Betty Liu.” [Bloomberg]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

My former co-worker Ian King over at Bloomberg teams with Adam Satariano this morning for a preview of Microsoft’s (MSFT) rumored run at tablet computing at the Consumer Electronics Show that kicks off in Las Vegas next week.
King repeats the assertion he and Dina Bass made last week that Microsoft [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily