via guestofaguest.com: Now that summer has officially arrived you’re going to have plenty of days of fun in the sun. But you can’t forget to guard your skin from harmful rays no matter how much you want that golden glow, so here’s a mini guide to protecting yourself against the sun in style this summer. MORE>>
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Citigroup analyst Walter Pritchard this morning initiated coverage with a Buy rating on shares of SourceFire (FIRE), the maker of computer network intrusion prevention software and hardware, writing that the explosion of mobile devices is increasing the need for “countermeasures” in cyber-security.
The competition, Cisco Systems (CSCO), Juniper Networks (JNPR), and McAfee, which Intel (INTC) just bought, is distracted, he writes: “Leader Cisco continues to have challenges and Juniper appears incrementally more network-focused. McAfee was an aggressive competitor in end-point and network security, but we already see early signs of execution woes. We expect these trends will benefit smaller, more focused players such as FIRE.”
SourceFire has upside as a take-out target, he writes, and he set a $32 price target. Pritchard started coverage of competitors Websense (WBSN) and Fortinet (FTNT) with a Hold rating, and price targets of $25 and $52, respectively.
Websense is having trouble executing lately, which means there may be little upside to Street numbers, he thinks. And Fortinet’s stock is rich, and expectations for the company are already high.
This morning, SourceFire shares are up $1.34, or 5%, at $26.42, Websense is up 23 cents, or 1%, at $24.49, and Fortinet is up 49 cents, or 1%, at $48.35.
Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily
And you thought LinkedIn (LNKD) was fantastically overpriced?
The Financial Times’s April Dembosky yesterday wrote that Facebook investor and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel thinks LinkedIn’s underwriters, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and JP Morgan drastically underpriced the company’s IPO two weeks ago, which seems plainly evident given the stock price today is at $85.80, 91% above the $45 IPO price the banks set.
That means LinkedIn left a lot of money on the table for the rich clients of the banks to scoop up in the after-market.
Thiel predicts Facebook, and others, when and if they go public, will drive a much harder bargain to prevent the Street from such terrible under-valuation of their shares.
Granted, there’s a complaint here — no one likes to leave money on the table — but who’s to say the shares are worth what they trade for today — about 20 times this year’s likely revenue?
Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily
Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar, 74, chairman of El-Mex Salines Co [and] the former chairman of the Egyptian American Bank and the Federation of Egyptian Banks, was arrested yesterday after a 44 year-old female maid alleged he attacked her May 29, according to a police department spokesman. Officers were called to the hotel, located in midtown Manhattan, after she informed security of an alleged incident when she went to Omar’s room after he requested tissues. Police charged Omar with sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment, forcible touch and harassment. He allegedly asked the maid for her telephone number and she gave a false one before leaving the room, police said. [Bloomberg]
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
Auriga Securities analyst Sandeep Shyamsukha this morning initiated coverage of Nvidia (NVDA) with a Buy rating, up from the Hold rating that had been maintained on the stock by Shyamsukha’s predecessor, Daniel Berenbaum, who left the firm this month.
Shyamsukha sees potential for “strong growth” in sales of Nvidia’s “Tegra” chip for mobile devices, and that such sales may offset weakness in the graphics chipset business for PCs. Tegra sales of just $550 million expected this year may reach $3 billion by 2016, Shyamsukha writes.
The PC graphics business will be “flattish” as tablet computers eat into PC sales, and as competing integrated graphics products “encroach on Nvidia’s lower end solutions.” And the competition in mobile devices is abundant, but Nvidia’s got “a strong brand, early lead and graphics edge,” Shyamsukha writes.
A key factor in the tablet and smartphone market is that the CPU and graphics portion of such devices will “evolve at a much faster pace than baseband” chips, which is where some competitors, such as Qualcomm (QCOM), have the edge.
Shyamsukha models Nvidia making $4.15 billion in revenue this year and $1.08 in EPS, which is slightly higher than the Street at $4.1 billion and $1.04.
Shyamsukha assigns a $24 price target to Nvidia, versus the $19 target Berenbaum had held.
Nvidia shares today are up 15 cents, or 0.8%, at $19.65.
Correction: A prior version of this post incorrectly listed a $34 price target by Shyamsukha for NVDA, when in fact he maintains a $24 price target. My apologies for any confusion caused by the error.
Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily
Shares of Nokia (NOK) are down 90 cents, or 11%, at $7.30 $1, or 12.2%, at $7.20 $1.28, or almost 16%, at $6.91 this morning after the company this morning warned the current quarter is tracking much worse than it had expected, andsaid it could no longer off a full-year forecast, citing “multiple factors” that are “negatively impacting” its business.
The “burning platform” to which CEO Stephen Elop famously referred several months ago, is in effect sinking, at least for the moment.
Nokia sees adverse “competitive dynamics and markets trends across multiple price categories, particularly in China and Europe,” the company said. Then, too, it is selling more devices at lower prices and at lower gross profit margin. The company said it is also being subjected to “pricing tactics by Nokia and certain competitors.”
Subjected to its own pricing tactics? Hoisted on its own petard, I guess.
Nokia said it expects Q2 “devices & services” revenue will be “substantially below” the prior range of €6.1 billion to €6.6 billion. Operating margin will also miss the 6% to 9% Nokia had offered. In fact, the operating margin “could be around break-even.”
Nokia removed a target for Q3 devices and services sales to be even with Q2, and to rise in Q4, saying those targets were “no longer valid.”
Nokia said it would accelerate its attempt to trim €1 billion in annual operating expenses, and said that its development of its first phone using Microsoft’s (MSFT) operating system is going well, and that the device should ship in Q4 of this year. That may be somewhat earlier than some had expected.
Update: MKM Partners analyst Tero Kuittinen this morning send a missive to re-emphasize what he’d said a little over a week ago, which is that Nokia is seeing less and less support from some carriers, and that this is leading to “rock-bottom pricing.”
“N8 sales are eroding rapidly and that some of the steeply discounted deals offered by leading carriers imply that this flagship model, launched last October, is now being phased out.”
Basically, it’s the Android invasion:
European rollouts of the Samsung Galaxy S2, Sony Ericsson Arc and HTC Desire HD seem to be proceeding notably strongly over the past two weeks. In our view, even second-tier Android launches like Sony Ericsson Play and Samsung Galaxy Fit are having better launch traction than carriers had anticipated. The Samsung Galaxy S2 seems to be matching iPhone sales at Orange and Vodafone.
Update 2: Jennifer Fritszche with Wells Fargo reports from the conference call with management this morning. She finds it interesting that the real problem Nokia is up against is Android, not Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone.
“Impact seen in both feature and smartphones – but given the fact it called out specific regions of Europe and China, NOK’s CFO indicated that more of smartphone contribution from these 2 regions,” writes Fritszche.
“CEO Stephen Elop indicated that Android players, particularly in CDMA, have been disruptive and are taking market share. While NOK did not mention any specific manufacturers, we note [Motorola Mobility (MMI)] has historically been quite strong in CDMA and has been building its presence in China.”
Update 3: Analysts are starting to adjust numbers — see the note today from Gleacher & Co. Some are warning that things will have to get worse, and that estimates are bound to go lower, before Windows-based devices help improve the outlook.
Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily
Piper Jaffray semiconductor analyst Gus Richard returns this morning with a contention he’s made over the last several weeks, namely that Intel (INTC) is scouting for foundry business to fill its fabs.
Over the last few months we have been hearing comments from industry contacts that Intel is talking to OEMs about a foundry relationship. We have heard Intel is looking for ASIC designers and other support staff for this effort. More recently, we understand Intel has approached Motorola. Currently, we believe Motorola has been working with Toshiba as an ASIC/foundry vendor for cell phone components. We believe the direct-to-OEM foundry model makes sense. Likely target customers would include EMC (EMC), Cisco [Systems (CSCO)], Juniper [Networks (JNPR)], Sony (SNE), Motorola [Mobility (MMI)], Apple (AAPL), Nokia (NOK), and other large customers of leading edge logic. Intel has clearly articulated they are interested in working with companies that want to use x86 architecture. The company is not interested in enabling its fabless competitors or ARM [Holdings (ARMH)].
Interestingly, there’s something of a standoff forming: Intel doesn’t have a history designing ultra-low-power chips, which is what’s needed for mobile. Its design methodology for system-on-a-chip (SOC) is “archaic,” Richard observes.
But Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM), and other foundries, don’t have the expertise of Intel in getting to the next level in process technology. Richard asks, “will Intel learn how to design its way out of a PC or will the foundries overcome the process complexity?”
Intel shares this morning are up 29 cent, or 1.3%, at $22.50.
Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily
2nd banker in hotel sex bust (NYP)
Mahmoud Abdel-Salam Omar — the 74-year-old former chairman of Egypt’s Bank of Alexandria — allegedly groped and “gyrated” against the maid in Room 1027 at The Pierre hotel on Fifth Avenue, a law-enforcement source told The Post. He was wearing a bathrobe at the time, but it was not clear what, if anything, he had on under it.
Greek Aid Package To Be Decided By June (Bloomberg)
Inspectors from the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank are set to wrap up a review of Greece’s progress in meeting the terms of last year’s 110 billion-euro ($158 billion) bailout in coming days. The EU will then formulate its plan for further aid to Greece, which remains shut out of financial markets a year after the rescue package.
“We are waiting for their final judgment,” Juncker, who is also Luxembourg’s prime minister, said yesterday in Paris after meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. “Their position will partly determine our position, so it’s too early. We will try to solve the Greek problem by the end of June.”
Japan recovery takes hold, but debt downgrade looms (Reuters)
Japan’s economy offered more signs of recovery from the deadly March earthquake on Tuesday, but Moody’s ratings agency warned both growth and government action may fall short of what is necessary to bring Tokyo’s ballooning debt back under control.
Goldman Sachs names ex-Sen. Gregg to advisory post (Businessweek)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Friday that it has hired former U.S. Senator Judd Gregg as an international adviser.
Libya’s Goldman Dalliance Ends in Losses, Acrimony (WSJ)
In early 2008, Libya’s sovereign-wealth fund controlled by Col. Moammar Gadhafi gave $1.3 billion to Goldman Sachs Group to sink into a currency bet and other complicated trades. The investments lost 98% of their value, internal Goldman documents show…In an effort to make up for the losses, Goldman offered Libya the chance to become one of its biggest shareholders, according to documents and people familiar with the matter.
Lagarde has G8 backing (Reuters)
G8 leaders all back French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde’s bid to run the IMF, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Sunday, as she attacked a call to investigate her role in a 2008 legal case that may harm her chances.
Wall Street ‘mispriced’ LinkedIn’s IPO (FT)
Peter Thiel, an early Facebook investor and co-founder of PayPal, said banks did not understand the full potential of the latest internet companies and warned that the next Silicon Valley darlings would negotiate hard when their turn comes to go public. “Whenever a stock price goes up as much as it does with LinkedIn, you assume the IPO was mispriced and the bankers screwed up,” said Mr Thiel, an investor in LinkedIn since its launch. “There continues to be a certain antipathy by Wall Street banks toward Silicon Valley companies where they don’t quite believe it’s real.”
At I.M.F., a Strict Ethics Code Doesn’t Apply to Top Officials (NYT)
At the International Monetary Fund, there is one set of ethics guidelines for the rank-and-file staff and another for the 24 elite executive directors who oversee the powerful organization. Over the last four years, the fund has tightened internal systems for catching ethical misconduct among its 2,400 staff members, establishing a telephone hot line for complaints like harassment; publishing details of complaints in an annual report; and empowering an ethics adviser to pursue allegations, which last year led to at least one dismissal. But the fund’s board members remain largely above these controls. The ethics adviser, for example, is not able to investigate any of them.
Strauss-Kahn assembles crisis team to fight back (Reuters)
Faced with a legal and media onslaught, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is pulling together a crack team of investigators, former spies and media advisers to fight back against charges he sexually assaulted a hotel chambermaid.
‘Bad-tipper’ Strauss-Kahn has food, patio furniture delivered; turns away balloons (NYP)
“They never tip,” said a sweaty Danny Cotto after dropping off a box from Espresso Coffee at around 6 p.m. at the luxe TriBeCa town house…He took in a six-bag grocery order that included healthy fare like boneless, skinless chicken breast, Lean Cuisine meals and Crystal Light.
DSK using man-power to clean up (NYP)
Dominique Strauss-Kahn has hired an all-male cleaning staff to do his dirty work at his TriBeCa townhouse, where he’s awaiting trial for allegedly forcing himself on a hotel maid.
Concerns mount over rising buy-out debt levels (FT)
Joseph Schull, European head of US private equity group Warburg Pincus, warned that his industry should not repeat mistakes made during its heyday in 2006 and 2007, when some companies were bought with excessive loan packages…Howard Marks, chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, a US private equity group investing in distressed assets, wrote in a note to clients last week: “In most regards the capital markets – and investors’ tolerance of risk – are retracing their steps back in the direction of the bubble-ish pre-crisis years.”
A FrontPoint Founder Tries Again With a New Firm (DealBook)
After Mr. Duff helped to orchestrate the sale of FrontPoint to Morgan Stanley in 2006, he struck out on his own, starting Duff Capital Advisors…With the markets in disarray, clients never materialized and Duff Capital shut down in May 2009…Now, Mr. Duff, a former top executive at Morgan Stanley, is trying again. His new firm, Massif Partners — which like FrontPoint has a name that refers to his passion for mountain climbing — is building off the blueprint of Duff Capital and focusing on pensions.
Russia’s Central Bank Signals Interest-Rate Pause After Surprise Increase (Bloomberg)
Bank Rossii, the central bank, yesterday raised its overnight deposit rate to 3.5 percent from 3.25 percent, surprising 11 of 20 economists in a Bloomberg survey. It left the refinancing and overnight repurchase rates unchanged after a quarter-point increase in April, saying in a statement that borrowing costs may be at the level necessary to tackle inflation and promote growth “for the nearest months.”
For Insurers, Bad—but Not Bad Enough (WSJ)
The deadly outbreak of tornadoes across the U.S. since late April is expected to cost the insurance industry more than $5 billion, according to disaster-modeling firm Eqecat. That puts weather-related losses in the U.S. so far this year in the range of $13 billion to $15 billion, three to four times a typical year. Add in catastrophes like the earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan, and disaster-related losses for the industry are estimated to be upward of $50 billion this year…”I think things are now bad enough to be good enough,” says Meyer Shields, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. Bad enough, that is, that the industry will be forced to start raising premiums later this year or early next. That would immediately benefit major insurance brokers such as Aon Corp. and Marsh & McLennan Cos. Indeed, their shares are up more than 10% this year, roughly double the broader market.
Analyst: Chipotle expands test of chorizo (NRN)
Chipotle Mexican Grill has expanded a test of a new chorizo sausage that, if rolled out, would be the chain’s first new meat option in years, a securities analyst said Friday.
Hackers Disrupt PBS Web Site and Post a Fake Report About a Rap Artist (NYT)
The PBS Web site briefly carried a fake article claiming that the famed rapper Tupac Shakur was alive and living in New Zealand after a group of hackers took over the organization’s computer systems on Saturday night.
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
Social bed and breakfast startup Airbnb is in the process of closing a $100 million round of funding led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz that would raise the company’s valuation to more than $1 billion, according to TechCrunch.
This is a significant investment for Airbnb, which has previously raised $7.8 million, and comes days after actor-turned-investor Ashton Kutcher invested a significant amount of money in the company.
Kutcher, who was an early investor in Foursquare and the deal to purchase Skype back from previous owner Ebay, is increasingly being looked at in the investment world as someone to watch when it comes to predicting the next hot startup company.
Airbnb offers a service in which travelers looking for a unique experience (similar in scope to a bed and breakfast) can rent a living space from locals for a fee. The service has seen incredible growth of 800 percent in the last year and had over 1.6 million local homes booked since it launched in 2008.
An investment this large may seem drastic, but Airbnb looks to be fulfilling a need in the marketplace. And while business trips and conference attendees will likely stick to booking hotel rooms, Airbnb could make a real splash with recreational travelers .
Tags: funding
Companies: Airbnb, Andreessen Horowitz
Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals
It’s no secret that New Zealand’s always harbored a little bit of a “baby brother” complex. First, to their trans-Tasman (I looked it up) neighbors, Australia, who apparently have a reputation for taking credit for Kiwi singers and desserts, amongst other things. But now that they’ve shot a ridiculously successful trilogy of films about some magic Hobbits who are deeply in love with each other, it seems that they’re ready to fire a few shots in our direction as well. And they’re getting started by aping our most famous landmark. Read the full story