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Posted on 07.31.06 by Nikhil @ 11:43 am
There is some talk that Sprint Nextel could soon make an announcement that it will deploy mobile WiMAX in the 2.5GHz band. This would be big news since Sprint is the largest holder of 2.5GHz spectrum, and the company has never really explained what it intended to do with it. The company has been testing other technologies such as TD-CDMA and Flash – OFDM. You may recall that just recently, Intel and Motorola made a significant investment (about $900 million in total) to McCaw’s Clearwire, which is a mobile WiMAX play. If this news is actually true, it would be a big step forward for WiMax. You can read more about this at Signal Research. Filed under: Stock Watch and Infrastructure and News Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.27.06 by Nikhil @ 7:58 pm
Verizon Wireless along with its vendor partners Cisco, Lucent, Motorola, Qualcomm and Nortel, have been talking about creating a new architectural approach for next generation wireless networks. The guidelines behind this new approach is called Advances to IMS (A-IMS.) Find out more about this in telephonyonline.com. Filed under: Stock Watch and Infrastructure and News Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.26.06 by Nikhil @ 12:32 pm
Motorola says its going to sell its thinnest phone ever, the Motofone, in emerging markets, where the bulk of growth is expected. Motorola said the new phone is even smaller than its RAZR line at just 9 millimeters. This ultra-thin phone comes at a critical time for Motorola as emerging markets become the battleground for market share with Nokia. Ron Garriques, head of Motorola’s handset division told investors on Tuesday that Motorola “must go out there and disrupt the high growth markets”. The company said it would also improve its distribution in the emerging sectors. Find out more about the ultra-thin phone in telecoms.com. Filed under: Stock Watch and Infrastructure and News Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.25.06 by Nikhil @ 6:00 pm
Apparently, UBS Securities has been saying that Nortel has separated its GSM and UMTS access businesses, a sign that the company is spinning off its UMTS business. It would be an interesting move since it’s a critical business for the company and many analysts have wondered what Motorola and Nortel will do to compete in an infrastructure market that has seen some massive mergers this year. You can read more about at Nortel in Network World. Filed under: Stock Watch and News Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.24.06 by Nikhil @ 4:22 pm
The possibility had been discussed for years, but finally, on Monday morning, chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices announced that it plans to acquire ATI Technologies, the Markham, Ontario, manufacturer of graphics chips, for $5.4 billion. That’s a 24% premium over ATI’s Friday closing price of $16.56. The deal was approved yesterday by the boards of directors of both companies. Under the terms, shareholders of ATI will receive cash and stock worth $20.47 for each share. Click Here to read the rest of my column in Forbes.com Filed under: Stock Watch and News and Mergers/Acquisitions Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.19.06 by Nikhil @ 5:42 pm
Nokia’s global developer program, known as Forum Nokia, recently held a summit on the French Riviera in Nice. At the summit, the company’s mostly Finnish executives met with European wireless operators such as Vodafone, Telecom Italia and Orange, along with 50 or so wireless application developers such as Shozu, Dataviz and Seven. I was there as well to get an insider’s look at how Nokia works with these companies to gain a competitive advantage over rivals such as Motorola, Research in Motion and Palm. Nokia’s message to attendees was loud and clear. It wants to dominate the market for smartphones (or rich media devices as Nokia now calls them). Nokia expects this will be a hot growth area and it intends to widen its lead against fast growing competitors. smartphones, in case you aren’t familiar with them, are really mini computers about the size of cell phones. They let you make phone calls, send emails, browse the Web, take pictures and video, play music and even use applications such as Microsoft Office. When you are done, they slip into your pocket. Click Here to read the rest of my column in Forbes.com. Filed under: Stock Watch and Cutting Edge Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.06.06 by Nikhil @ 5:44 pm
There has been lots of talk about the Clearwire IPO recently. I’ve been skeptical. After all, the market is sketchy right now, the company is not profitable and it only has 20,000 subscribers. The big draw, of course, is that Craig McCaw runs the company. The news just out is that instead of going public, Clearwire will get a $900 million investment led by Intel Capital. Intel Capital will invest $600 million and the rest will come from others, including Motorola. Clearwire is the second largest 2.5 GHz spectrum holder in the U.S. With its $900 million, the company, undoubtedly, will deploy the high speed WiMax system. Read the press release from Clearwire. Good news for WiMax. Filed under: Infrastructure and Cutting Edge and News and Mergers/Acquisitions Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.06.06 by Nikhil @ 4:53 pm
Shares of UTStarcom have been rising lately, a nice change for this stock. Over the past week, shares rebounded from $6 to $8. Part of the reason: the company received notice from Nasdaq that it has fulfilled requirements for continued listing on the stock exchange. That lifts a heavy burden. The notice came after the company filed financial results for the first quarter of 2006 and the year ended Dec. 31, 2005. Back in March, you may recall, UTStarcom said that it faced delisting for failing to file financial results on time. The company had delayed filing pending of an investigation by its audit committee and reviews of its internal controls. Filed under: Stock Watch and News Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.06.06 by Nikhil @ 4:52 pm
Shares of Openwave Systems (OPWV) fell more than 33% today after the company preannounced its fiscal fourth quarter results which will be formally announced on July 28th. The company said that it booked revenue of $90 million to $92 million, falling way below the $120 million that was expected. Openwave’s reasoning for this was that deals are getting more complex and as a result, the wireless carriers are taking longer to make purchases, which has slowed its ability to convert backlog orders to revenue. Openwave did announce that it had made a systems deal, which had been promised. But the deal was smaller than Wall Street had hoped for at $13 million. Because of the fall in revenue, lower gross margins (about 65% instead of an expected 70%), the smaller systems deal, it looks like earnings per share for the quarter will come in around breakeven, down from an expected $0.23 per share. The stock is likely to remain under pressure for a while, partly due to an options investigation that has been taking place at Openwave and many other companies. This may force Openwave to delay its 10K report. But Openwave is still a strong company that has a backlog of orders amounting to $260 million. I believe shares of Openwave have good upside potential. The company has a lot of cash ($3.50/share) and $122 million in bookings giving it a book to bill ratio of 1.3 Its Forward PE right now is about 7.5 and its price earnings to growth (PEG) is 0.63. Openwave also said that for fiscal year 2007, it expects to generate $450 million in sales and EPS of $0.60. Given its very low valuation right now and the liklihood that revenue and earnings will recover, shares of Openwave are currently a great value play for investors willing to wait at least 6 months. Filed under: Stock Watch and News Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.04.06 by Nikhil @ 3:15 pm
Motorola recently released its stylish Q smartphone intended to eat into BlackBerry’s market. Now Samsung has joined the battle as well. The company just launched a sleek QWERTY smartphone, the SGH-i320. It could be the best of many different worlds. The SGH-i320 looks like a BlackBerry, but it supports Windows Mobile 5.0’s push email extensions. It also comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera as well as other applications such as Bluetooth. Read more about this phone, which will be launched in Europe first (sorry!) in The Register. In addition, Sharp Corp. just unveiled its BlackBerry killer called the W-ZERO3, a new Windows Mobile-based smart phone. The company is billing the phone as the “Japanese BlackBerry.” This, just before Research in Motion gets to Japan with its own BlackBerry, scheduled for this Fall. Read about the Sharp phone in VAR Business. Filed under: Stock Watch and Components and Cutting Edge Comments: None |
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