Reuters’s Bill Rigby today offers a summation of some selling of Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) stock by funds in Q4, with Lone Pine Capital and Maverick Capital both cutting their stakes in the shares. Rigby describes a “bevy” of top managers cutting their stakes in the duo, citing a Thomson Reuters survey of federal filings.

As for reasons why, Rigby cites one fund manager, Patrick Becker of Becker Capital, who worries Apple’s growth has “got to slow going forward,” because “Apple is a company that has to come up with hit after hit after hit, every 12 to 18 months, but once you do the iPhone on Verizon, what’s the next thing past this?”

Again, all of that Q4. What these managers are doing now is another question.

Apple shares today are down $8.13, or 2.3%, at $351.87, while Google shares are down $12.28, or 2%, at $588.34.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

During a brief phone chat this evening following fiscal Q2 results, Cisco Systems (CSCO) CEO John Chambers defended his company’s growth prospects and margin ability, while expanding upon what would seem to be the question of the hour, namely, the prospect that budget tightening in state and local governments is [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

Last night, a “60 Minutes” interview with Julian Assange, the man behind WikiLeaks, tackled the question of whether the anti-secrecy organization is turning its Klieg light to Wall Street. Assange was asked about the speculation that WikiLeaks has a cache of internal Bank of America documents. “I won’t make any comment in relation to that upcoming publication,” Assange said. There would be a “process of elimination” if we “denied some [banks] and admitted others,” he said. “I think it’s great to have all these banks squirming thinking maybe it’s them,” Assange said. [Deal Journal]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

If you’re running a startup, you probably have to wrestle with plenty of legal questions, but hiring a law firm may be beyond your budget. That’s why a startup called LawPivot offers entrepreneurs a place where they can get their questions answered confidentially and for free (at least for now).

Google Ventures, Google’s startup investment arm, seems to think that the site is filling a real need — it just led LawPivot’s $600,000 seed round. LawPivot is also moving into the Google Startup Lab in Mountain View, Calif.

To use the service, startups just write their question, identify relevant legal keywords, then choose which lawyers to send the question to. Today, LawPivot is also unveiling its new recommendation algorithm, which takes data about users and trends to recommend which lawyer might be best suited to answer each question.

Q&A seems to be a hot area for startups right now, especially with the growing popularity of Q&A startup Quora. LawPivot isn’t shy about riding on Quora’s coattails, calling itself “Quora for legal”, but the LawPivot model is actually pretty different. Where Quora’s Q&A pages are open to the public, all your correspondence on LawPivot is private and confidential.

It’s pretty clear why a startup might want to use the site, but why are lawyers giving free advice? Vice president of business development and co-founder Nitin Gupta said it’s because they’re finding that the traditional ways for lawyers to network, such as speaking at conferences, are becoming less effective. Lawyers use LawPivot as a way to connect with potential clients, he said.

And that’s also where the startup might make money in the future. Like I said, the site is free for now, but Gupta said it might eventually charge both startups and lawyers. The startups might pay per month or per question, while lawyers might either pay to get into the service or for premium features.

LawPivot’s angel investors include Allen Morgan (formerly managing director of Mayfield Fund), Deep Nishar (a former Google executive who’s now at LinkedIn, plus a founding partner at AngelPad), Richard Chen (another former Google executive who’s a founding partner at AngelPad), Chris Yeh (an executive at PBworks), David Tisch (the managing director of TechStars NYC), and others.

Tags: legal questions, Q&A sites

Companies: Google, Google Ventures, LawPivot

People: Allen Morgan, Chris Yeh, David Tisch, Deep Nishar, Nitin Gupta, Richard Chen

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Yar Reiner today ponders the question about Apple (AAPL), “Why does the market dislike Apple?”
By which he means, Why does the market give Apple a 14 times forward P/E, excluding cash per share? — basically the market multiple. The problem is Apple’s premium pricing on the [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

Late last week, a New Cannan resident, Janie Konidaris was charged with lying to the police about a helicopter landing near her house the previous Saturday morning. When first questioned about it, Konidaris told them she’d didn’t recall seeing a chopper that day, but when the fuzz came back, she told them that in fact there had been a helicopter, which had landed on her lawn to pick up her husband, Jason Konidaris, Global Head of Syndicate at SAC.

Obviously if we were talking about the greater population here, the problem would be that Mrs. JK lied to the police, which is frowned up. But we’re not talking about the great population here and so the question, why was the 5-0 hassling her about this at all? It’s an unspoken town code that SAC employees can park their vehicles wherever they’d like. Most people know this and yet, here we are. In an effort to give the cops the benefit of the doubt and to prevent this sort of thing from happening again, we’re going to assume that they didn’t realize who Janie is married to. Moving forward, all employees (and their spouses) should be given laminated cards that indicate it’s not a problem to land their chopper (or however they’re commuting that day) on a front lawn, SAC HQ, the roof of Beamers, Cliff Asness’s backyard inflatable bouncy castle,** or otherwise. “Restricted Area” bull shit need not apply.

Helicopter Landing Leads To Arrest [TDC]

**You know what I’m talking about.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

And he’s had it up to here with people who do. You’re on notice, Ben Bernanke.

So our monetary policy gurus are framing their debate in theological terms: What Would Friedman Do? How sad. For one thing, this isn’t how you’re supposed to do economics. Economics, at least the way I learned it, is about analytical frameworks and data, not authority figures. Actually, that’s one barrier one has to cross with some students – to get them past the point of believing that one must not criticize Great Men. (The next step is to get them to modulate: papers that begin “The stupid Tobin …” are not the way to go.)…So the right answer to the question, What Would Friedman Do? is Why Should AnyoneWe Care?

WWFD? WSWC? [NYT]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

This was my first reaction to today’s news that Intel (INTC) had agreed to pay $7.7 billion in cash to buy security software provider McAfee (MFE): “Really? Why?”
And that’s still the question at the heart of the matter. Clearly, the company has made a strategic decision to make security a [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

Go with me on this.

I’m asking because apparently Geoffrey Raymond, the preeminent artist of our time, is selling the above for $40,000. If you’re interested but need to see it up close before writing a check, Raymond is displaying it right now in front of the NYSE. In related news, who here pictured JC having that much chest hair? I personally never gave it much thought but now confronted with the question I’d have to say yeah, he’s probably pretty rug-like. (Perhaps not so much as a result of genetics but one misguided summer as a lifeguard on Jones Beach, not realizing the consequences of taking a razor to his chest.)

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

$$$ After Banner Year, Buffett Hands Gates Berkshire Stock [FBN]

$$$ Jamie Dimon’s summer reading list [BI]

$$$ Local Actress Catches Break Thanks To Russian Spy [DI]

$$$ Phil Angelides: Goldman Sachs’ Credibility in Question [CNBC]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker