Comcast pushing telephony

When calling Comcast, they will say their only special is for the three package special of internet, cable, and telephone service for about $100 a month. When asking them about cable alone, they won't give a special rate for 3 to 6 months as before. Instead, they will ask for $64 a month for cable alone. Same with the internet service, it's much higher than it was before when added to a cable service. Comcast seems to be pushing its telephone service heavily in the urban markets; however, many young people in urban markets use primarily cell phones and see no need for a cable based landline.

Microsoft Drop

Microsoft dropped from 27 to 24 on Friday after a news announcement about a change in strategy. The company lost tens of billions in market capitalization dollars due to a statement about their future plans. Their financial situation is sound, although they have given away a significant amount of their liquid cash. If they had done this with the 32 billion given away in a special dividend, the reaction would not have been so severe. Investors would have thought that Microsoft could afford to take a gamble.
Currently, Microsoft's competition is pressuring it to take gambles in their future planning. Google recently released a beta version of their calendar program. It has amazing functionality with drag and drop features. Entering an appointment by typing out a statement is much simpler than entering an appointment in Microsoft's Outlook. Google is trying to combine their Gmail service and Calendar service into a competition for Microsoft's Outlook. Their Gmail service is nowhere near as organized as Outlook. Gmail's tagging system is a unique idea, but Outlook's folder option is easier to use with drag and drop. Blogger can be seen as a challenge for Microsoft's Word, but it's organizational ability has the same problem as Gmail. It's a list of documents in a linear organization. With more drag and drop abilities, Google's offerings can become more competitive with Microsoft. Too bad I won't be able to patent this idea now; Google has the technology to advance itself further.
Microsoft has already developed a PC based software architecture based on drag and drop organization. Now, it has to transfer this idea to the web.
Google and Microsoft have complementary ideas, either they join together or each company develops what it lacks.

Motorola Q/ Motorola RAZR 2 (Canary) update

Motorola Q Gets FCC Nod - Gizmodo

It'll be available with Verizon first.

Motorola's RAZR 2 / Canary

The new Razr will be narrower, have a 2 megapixel camera, and have a different outer finish. It'll be available in late 2006 or early 2007.

Motorola Motorola ROKR E2

Motorola Motorola ROKR E2
The new version of the ROKR will have up to 2gb removable SD Card, a 1.3 megapixel camera with flash, and bluetooth.

Home Depot

nittanylion05@gmail.com

A recent article in Business Week highlighted the CEO of Home Depot, Bob Nardelli, and his efforts to revamp operations at the giant. It’s competitor, Lowe’s, stock price has soared the last few years where Home Depot has largely missed out on the housing boom. One of the reasons for this is Home Depot’s small professional sales. Lowe’s garners a lot more of the professional contractor market whereas Home Depot is more of a consumer and homeowner store. The store also has an Innovation Center where they experiment with how new products will match in their stores. All of these initiatives are to increase earnings.

However there are several flaws in this approach. One is the waning real estate boom. Even if Home Depot gains a foothold in the professional market, that market is shrinking as home sales slow. As interest rates rise, Home Depot’s backbone, homeowner’s remodeling, will find it more difficult to get home equity loans. Big renovation projects will be delayed and this effect will more hten cancel out any gain in professional sales.

The final few reasons why I would avoid Home Depot is the CEO himself. He is going against the management crowd by centralizing and consolidaqting power in the home office. His former military background is criticized as heavy handed and is leading to many top executives leaving the company. Even many of the former military officers he likes to hire., admit if his sales goals aren’t met, the executives lose their job. This leads to a heavy focus on short term volume often at the detriment of long term investment in improving the stores and customer service. The company also is at the bottom of customer service surveys conducted, both internally and externally.

While some of the short term pushes by the CEO may lead to a temporarily boost in stock price, the increase would be unsustainable. Overall this is one stock I would avoid and consider shorting.

Motorola's answer for the Treo/Blackberry

Motorola Q On Verizon's Site - Gizmodo

MOT delivered disappointing earnings; however their upcoming products look great. This new Treo/Blackberry competitor looks great.

Yahoo CEO Compensation

How much did Yahoo's CEO make in the last five years? An astonishing amount according to this article from Reuters.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060415/bs_nm/yahoo_compensation_dc_1

"On joining Yahoo in 2001, he was granted options to buy 20 million shares, which fully vested in April 2005. From 2003 through the end of 2005, Semel sold Yahoo shares worth around $429 million."

How the S&P 500's bad bubble-stock picks cost investors billions. By Daniel�Gross

How the S&P 500's bad bubble-stock picks cost investors billions. By Daniel�Gross

Yahoo is shown as a bubble stock of 1999-2000 which was added to the S&P 500 in December 2000. During the next few months after the addition, the stock plummeted. This created losses for investors in index funds. Usually, investors in index funds expect to be investing in large, well-established companies instead of high-flying technology companies.
A similar case can be argued for Google's addition into the S&P 500 on March 31, 2006. It's been added near its peak. The only reason it's not being added at its peak is Google's slightly disappointing earnings last quarter. If the company follows Yahoo's pattern, the stock will be trading at a significantly lower price by the end of this year.
Charts are from Yahoo Finance and show the maximum range available for each stock.

"Real video iPod" delayed by display problems, studio talks - Engadget

"Real video iPod" delayed by display problems, studio talks - Engadget

Apple's latest ideas for a new video ipod looks amazing. Basically, the entire front of the player is for widescreen video, and it looks as if the buttons are software created that overly the image on the screen. Appears to be another leap forward for Apple's design team.

India Rising

This picture is spreading by e-mail. It might be funny, but it's true. India's GDP is growing well, and many former expatriates are moving back to help with the growth.

problem with skype

I though eBay's purchase of Skype was out of place for it's core business, but I still thought Skype was a revolutionary technology until now. After recently upgrading to a newer version of the software, I've noticed a significant decrease in the quality of the software. The calls are being dropped constantly every few seconds, and this has basically made me switch over to Google's Talk application...It's a lot more reliable right now than Skype. I don't know if eBay's acquisition of Skype somehow affected the quality of the software distributed in the latest version of Skype. It was an amazing service before that would have replaced my land line if everyone had Skype and a broadband connection. The call quality was clearer than cell phones and possibly land lines. Hopefully, Skype can fix the problems in its next version.

Off to the Races Again, Leaving Many Behind - New York Times

Off to the Races Again, Leaving Many Behind - New York Times

Is executive pay grossly out of proportion if they improve a company's earnings by several hundred million dollars or increase its market capitalization by several billion dollars?
It's out of pay when they don't do either.
I'll write an article later about wealth in America or any capitalistic country.

Big Gain for Rich Seen in Tax Cuts for Investments - New York Times

Big Gain for Rich Seen in Tax Cuts for Investments - New York Times

It's a good time to invest in high dividend yield stocks such as DHF and NCV. Dreyfus High Yield fund (DHF) is a closed end fund that pays dividends monthly; it's annual yield is about 10%.
Let's consider two people under the current tax laws of 15% tax on dividends and around 40% tax on income for high brackets.
Person A has five million dollars in savings and zero income. They invest all of their savings into DHF. Annualy, the stock will pay out 10% yield, giving them $500,000 annually. Under the current tax law, the tax on this $500,000 is $75,000. This leaves person A with $425,000 after taxes.
Person B has zero dollars in savings and a $500,000 in income. This person will pay 40% in income taxes and several other taxes. The tax on $500,000 would be $200,000. This person will receive $300,000 after taxes.
Person A does not work and receives $125,000 more money than Person B who works for money.