2013年7月21日星期日

EBay Revenue Forecast Trails as Growth Abroad Slows

  EBay Inc. (EBAY) tumbled the most in almost two years after the company’s revenue forecast fell short of analysts’ estimates, as economic weakness in Europe and Asia restricts growth.
  The shares fell 6.7 percent to $53.52 at the close in New York, the biggest decline since August 2011. Third-quarter sales will be $3.85 billion to $3.95 billion, the company said in a statement yesterday. Analysts on average were projecting revenue of $3.97 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
  EBay Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe has been seeking growth abroad, adding staff in emerging markets, such as Russia and China. In 2012, 27 percent of marketplaces revenue and more than 50 percent of PayPal’s sales came from international operations. EBay is predicting 2013 revenue and profit to be at the lower end of full-year guidance, as e-commerce growth rates in Europe and Korea slow and currencies weaken against the U.S. dollar.
  “Last year, overall economic growth was down in Europe, retail sales were down, but e-commerce growth rates stayed constant,” Donahoe said in an interview. “This year, overall economic growth is little bit slower than last year, retail sales are a little bit slower and e-commerce growth rates have also come down a little bit.”
  Economic Headwinds
  Second-quarter revenue came in at $3.88 billion, just shy of analysts’ prediction for $3.89 billion. The company forecast 2013 revenue to be $16 billion to $16.5 billion and earnings, excluding some items, to range from $2.70 a share to $2.75 a share.
  Online commerce growth in Germany and the U.K. is slowing, Donahoe said, which is coupled with Korean e-commerce growth rates that declined by more than 50 percent compared with last year. Currencies in those areas, which are predicted to weaken against the U.S. dollar, have the potential to weigh on earnings in the second half of the year, the company said.
  The euro is projected to decline 3.6 percent against the dollar in the fourth quarter, while the pound is estimated to decrease 2.7 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The South Korean won is predicted to decline by 2 percent in the same period.
  Dollar Impact
  “When the dollar strengthens, it means you lost a little bit of your revenue to the strength of the dollar,” said William Smead, chief executive officer of Smead Capital, which holds 495,525 shares of EBay as part of more than $575 million under management. “That’s probably how things are going to be for two, three, four years -- certainly if the U.S. economy keeps coming back. We’re not bothered by it.”
  Second-quarter profit before some costs was 63 cents a share, matching the average analysts’ projection. Net income fell 8 percent to $640 million. The percentage EBay takes from transactions declined to 3.79 percent from 3.94 percent a year ago, tempering profit, as it offered international customers cash coupons to spur more activity on the site.
  Higher taxes may also weigh on net income this year, as weakness in markets overseas prompt more business in the U.S., where the company is subject to a higher rate, the company said.
  User Gains
  Revenue in EBay’s marketplaces business, which includes both auctions and fixed-price sales, climbed 10 percent to $2 billion in the latest quarter. The number of users increased by 14 percent to 120 million.
  At PayPal, revenue rose 20 percent to $1.6 billion in the second quarter. The unit gained 4.7 million registered users, bringing the total to 132 million. Net payment volume, or the total value of transactions processed, rose 24 percent to $43 billion.
  “New users drive future results and active user growth has been accelerating,” Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners LP in New York, wrote in a note to clients. “That’s the standout metric.”
  Inside the late 1990s, a single technologies enterprise became so unfathomably rich and powerful?aand so hellbent on dominating not only its personal market but a enormous and swiftly increasing new one?athat the U.S. government dragged the organization into court and threatened to break it up more than anti-trust violations.
  The case was settled, and also the company, Microsoft, agreed to play nicer. However it turned out that the globe had nothing to worry about. As frequently happens in the technology business, what has seriously destroyed Microsoft's choke hold around the global personal computing marketplace more than the previous 15 years hasn't been a legal threat but a industry shift.
  Just when it looked like Microsoft's vision of your Pc because the center with the tech globe would bring about the creation with the world's first trillion-dollar firm, the online world came along. And it washed over the Pc market like a tidal wave swallowing a pond.
  In terms of market worth, Microsoft's loss of energy has extended been visible: The stock is still trading at about half the level it hit in the peak on the tech boom 13 years ago. The effects on the actual Computer sector fundamentals have taken longer to create, however they are also now crystal clear. Microsoft's ?°Windows monopoly?± hasn't been a lot destroyed as rendered irrelevant. That for the reason that, due to the explosion of Internet-based cloud computing and smartphones, tablets, and also other mobile gadgets, the as soon as all-powerful platform with the desktop operating technique has now been decreased to small greater than a device driver. Provided that your gadget can connect towards the World wide web and run some apps, it does not matter what operating program you use.
  3 charts definitely bring residence the challenges that Microsoft and also other PC-powered giants like Intel, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard face in adapting to this new Internet-driven world. 1st, look at worldwide device shipments. For the two decades through 2005, the personal laptop or computer was the only game in town, selling about 200 million units a year. But then smartphones and tablets came along. And now they dwarf the Pc marketplace.
  This shift in individual computing device adoption, meanwhile, has radically diminished the power on the Windows operating program platform. As not too long ago as three years ago, Microsoft's Windows was nonetheless totally dominant?athe platform ran 70% of personal computing devices. Now, because of the rise of Google's Android and Apple's iOS, Windows' international share has been reduce in half, to about 30 percent. Additional remarkably, Android is now a larger platform than Windows.
  Lastly, and most not too long ago, this chart from analyst Horace Dediu of Asymco illustrates that the Computer company is no longer just getting dwarfed by the explosion of smartphone and tablet sales ... it has now actually begun to shrink. Now that individuals have a selection of devices, it turns out that a full-blown individual pc is typically not the most cost-effective, handy, or simplest approach to do what a user desires to do. As opposed to getting the center of the personal computing planet, in other words, the Pc is becoming a specialized office-productivity device.

  The news for Microsoft will not be all terrible. The business has been rather thriving at moving from a "unit-driven" sales model to a licensing model, in which organizations pay a charge per user per year as an alternative to getting a perpetual license with every new computer system. And Microsoft's Workplace franchise is still extraordinarily lucrative and dominant, in portion since Google, Apple, and also other far more buy office professional plus 2010 Internet-centric providers have created so small investment in their competitive goods.
  But only 15 years after the government went following Microsoft for anti-trust violations, the idea that the company ever had a "monopoly" on anything is tough to even comprehend. And the outlook for Windows, plus the conventional Computer small business normally, seems certain to obtain even worse going forward.

2013年7月13日星期六

Twinkies make early return at Wal-Mart stores

Twinkies are making an early comeback at Wal-Mart stores, and they won't be frozen beforehand.
The world's largest retailer says it is selling the snack cakes at about 1,600 stores starting Friday and that about 3,000 of its 4,000 U.S. stores should have them by Sunday morning, a day before Hostess had said the spongy yellow cakes would start hitting shelves nationwide.
By late next week, stores will also have Hostess Mini Muffins and fried Fruit Pies, said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Veronica Marshall. Coffee Cakes, Ho Hos, Orange CupCakes, Suzy Qs and Zingers will be available by August.
Sno-Balls will arrive in the fall.
"We've been working with them now for several months to have them available exclusive early," Marshall said.
The new owners of Hostess have said the company will be freezing Twinkies for about 10% of its retailers upon request, which lets stores stamp their own expiration dates on the cakes. Marshall said Wal-Mart isn't one of the retailers that will get frozen Twinkies.
Notably, Hostess has also said that Twinkies now have a shelf life of 45 days. That's nearly three weeks longer than the 26 days the previous company had stated for the cakes. Hostess says the changes were made under the previous owners and longer-lasting cakes hit shelves right before the company went out of business.
Hostess went bankrupt late last year after years of management turmoil and a standoff with its second-biggest union. The company sold off its various brands, with Twinkies and other Hostess cakes going to private equity firms Metroupoulos & Co. and Apollo Global Management, which are known for fixing up ailing brands them selling them off for a profit.
Marshall declined to say how Hostess cake sales were performing at Wal-Mart stores before the bankruptcy. The retailer also sells Little Debbie cakes, which are made by McKee Foods Corp, and Tastykake, which is made by Flowers Foods. Wal-Mart also sells store brand versions of the cakes.

The Mason Constructing may well have lost its original

  “The old windows were falling apart and were a hazard to the community,” said Hector Cruz, who has co-owned the three-story building on 5577 N. Figueroa St. in conjunction with his mother considering the fact that the previous 5 years.
  “They were incredibly costly to replace,” Cruz mentioned, adding that he got a $12,000 estimate for the repairs and replacement of eight in the original windows that he ended up changing. “And that’s not even giving us a cushion of what’s to come,” he stated.

  In installing significantly more affordable windows, Cruz stated he took a leaf in the historic windows that have been replaced with fixed-glass ones about a quarter-century ago in the former workplace of ex-Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg. Also situated in the Mason Building, which has 19,000 square feet of floor space, Goldberg’s one-time workplace now houses the Excellent Girl Dinette Vietnamese fusion food restaurant.
  But for all that, mentioned Cruz, he didn’t comprehend he had committed a blunder by getting rid of the old windows. Precisely per week just after he put within the eight new panes on June 26, an inspector in the Los Angeles Department of Building and Security served him a “stop work” order, Cruz stated, adding that by then each of the operate around the windows had currently been completed.
  The inspector told Cruz that because the Highland Park Masonic Creating is on the National Registry of Historic Locations, he is necessary to obtain permission in the Los Angeles Historical Preservation Overlay Zone ahead of performing any work that alterations the building’s architectural integrity.
  “The final issue I anticipated is for the neighborhood to send an inspector rather than coming and telling me what are the initial actions I need to have taken to replace the windows,” Cruz stated, adding: “I’ve had Autry Museum meetings, Neighborhood Council meetings in the building-I’ve supported everyone.”
  As outlined by Cruz, it was Highland Park historian and Highland Park Heritage Trust member Charlie Fisher who allegedly reported him for the Division of Building and Safety. A call by Patch to Highland Park Heritage Trust requesting an interview with Fisher went unreturned.
  Cruz stated it is not that he isn’t concerned about conservation challenges surrounding his building, which was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1984. “We make an effort to balance safety windows 7 home basic product key and responsibility with our budget,” he mentioned.
  His response to critics who accuse him of negligence is the fact that “if you are so concerned concerning the windows, why don’t you get a grant or funding to replace them?” Cruz said, adding that property owners which include him can “hardly make it by in these difficult [economic] times.”
  The huge question for Cruz, he mentioned, was “do you retain the windows since they appear nice or do you modify them for the reason that they’re falling apart and are a security hazard?”
  The concern with the unapproved windows was taken up this past Tuesday by the Highland Park-Garvanza Historical Preservation Overlay Zone at its bimonthly board meeting in Ramona Hall, Cruz stated, adding that he was notified in regards to the meeting but didn’t attend.
  The Mason Constructing may well have lost its original windows, but there’s still a window of chance to obtain them back.
  “We’ve saved all the little pieces of glass,” mentioned Cruz. “So if something critical would happen, I’d be most happy to replace them.”

2013年7月4日星期四

iOS Winning More Mobile Ad Share In 2013, AT&T Losing Its iPhone Edge, Velti Reports

  Apple’s iOS mobile operating system is winning even more ground in mobile advertising market share, according to mobile ad firm Velti. The firm saw Apple’s share grow from 59 percent overall to 64 percent between May 2012 and May 2013, with the iPhone 5 grabbing a lot of those new impressions. The iPhone 5′s share grew by 7.4 percentage points between May last year and May of 2013, and the iPad added 3.7 percentage points, too, though the iPod touch saw big losses.
  The iPhone grew 15 percent overall however, thanks to older models, resulting in a net gain for iOS in general. Apple is more than making up for sluggish sales of the iPod touch, and is also adding share thanks to the iPad mini. Samsung is also growing its own share, however, but it isn’t climbing at anywhere near the rate of its Apple competitor. There’s some volatility to come in the next few months, Velti predicts, as consumers hold off in anticipation of the new iPhone which will likely arrive in September. This has become basically an age-old tale at this point, and factors indicate it won’t affect Apple’s long-term dominance of mobile ads all that much.
  There’s also been a considerably shift in which carriers are serving the bulk of ads to iPhones. Once dominant AT&T is giving ground to Verizon, specifically, and that’s big news for the carrier landscape. Sprint has also shed share since May 2012, Velti says, and T-Mobile is still barely scratching the surface, though the report only covers until May, so that may change as more people take their business to the new UnCarrier.
  For those who’d rather not see much of the advertising that powers a lot of mobile apps these days, there’s also bad news: increasingly, advertisers are switching to larger display units and ditching the smaller ones, Velti finds. Full screen interstitial, as well as 300 x 250 and 728 x 90 ads are all showing positive growth, while 320 x 50 ads on the iPhone specifically have seen a decline in usage. Bigger is better for mobile display ads, or at least that’s the way advertisers are increasingly leaning.
  Winning the mobile ad race is a key victory for Apple, which continues to excel in metrics around mobile app engagement and monetization, both of which are extremely important to developers. It’s part of a cycle that helps make iPhone desirable to consumers, too, so Apple is likely pleased to see it extend its lead.

The Home windows Store within eight.1 gets a good-looking

  Microsoft has taken a lot of grief around Home windows eight. The company set out to develop software that will function similarly perfectly on traditional keyboard- and mouse-driven personal personal computers as well as on tablets which can be generally suited for touch. But quite a few people thought this radical new running program was confusing, if not borderline schizophrenic. Personal computers managing Home windows eight haven't exactly been greeted with open up arms.
  Final 7 days Microsoft introduced a preview version of Home windows 8.one, the primary meaningful update to Windows eight along with the firm's preliminary attempt to clean matters about. The computer software is out there now for anybody to try, but keep in your mind that a preview is simply that, a preview. Certainly, Microsoft cautions that there are hazards to downloading 8.one at this stage. It is usually untimely to do a formal evaluate of Home windows eight.one, so contemplate this column a preview too. What I'm able to say following a couple of days that has a Area Pro loaner tablet is the fact that Microsoft has extra several pleasing touches. No matter whether it will probably be adequate to lure the unwilling masses remains to become observed.
  Perhaps the most significant adjust you will recognize would be the return of the familiar Start off button, situated in "Desktop" mode in its customary area at the bottom left corner of your taskbar. Those who experienced lamented the lacking Start button shouldn't go gaga ?a clicking or tapping about the new Start out button returns you to definitely the default Home windows 8 Get started setting, referred to as the trendy UI. That's where by you are going to find the colorful rectangular and sq. tiles, some with stay info (weather, stocks, e-mail, etc.) that have come to define the fresher Windows interface on pcs and smartphones, and i am betting you can expect to spend a lot of time in that natural environment.
  Seems to me Microsoft will not want you to definitely find the previous possibility, having said that, because I had to request the organization wherever to seek out it. (Right-click about the taskbar in Desktop, select properties, then navigation tab, and select "Go towards the desktop rather of Begin when i signal in.")
  You may have many tips on how to customise the trendy interface. You'll be able to group icons for related apps and give that cluster of applications a name. You can press and maintain your finger towards a tile to resize it or unpin it within the Get started screen.
  Microsoft has also extra a Personalize selection underneath Settings for choosing backgrounds and finding shades ?a you can sample distinctive hues by dragging slider controls. You obtain to Settings by swiping in within the right, summoning what exactly are called "charms," controls for hunting, sharing and a lot more.
  By signing in using a Microsoft account, what ever configurations you determine on the computer can adhere to you across other Home windows products, which include telephones and Xbox consoles. The things you conserve on the Windows eight.one Computer ?a pics, paperwork along with other files ?a is usually saved on Microsoft's cloud-based SkyDrive.
  Inside Windows eight.one, it is possible to also display screen nearly 4 apps about the screen at anyone time and resize every single open up window. Having a 2nd keep track of, you can double the quantity of open up applications, but you can require a significant sufficient high-resolution monitor. On my check Surface area I could see only two open apps concurrently.
  Style within a query these types of as LA Dodger outfielder Yasiel Puig, and you'll see a handsome lookup end result, a structure with images and films of your rookie feeling and a connection to his Wikipedia entry. Swipe sideways to find out other posts about "Puigmania," which includes thumbnail views with the Web pages from which those content articles originate. Well finished.
  A no-less-attractive look for layout appeared after i typed Alicia Keys' name. Together with photographs, her start date plus a backlink to her Wikipedia bio, I was ready to engage in a number of her full-length major tracks right over the location, streamed for free by using Xbox Music. I could also engage in songs videos right then and there.
  Bing lookup works nicely for journey, much too ?a a general lookup on Las Vegas brought up really images, weather conditions, present-day buy windows 7 home premium points of interest and straightforward hyperlinks to generate lodge reservations.
  Look for is just not limited on the Net. You could quickly research across Term documents along with other files about the Laptop or data files saved on SkyDrive (Microsoft offers you seven free of charge gigabytes of SkyDrive storage).
  Two new Bing apps show up in 8.1. The foodie-oriented Bing Foods & Drink app is a repository for recipes. Bing Health & Fitness sports an exercise and diet tracker and includes a symptom checker for individuals items that might ail you.
  Home windows Store. The Home windows Store within eight.1 gets a good-looking makeover, way too. Microsoft surfaces applications it thinks you can be interested in, based mostly on previous purchases or ratings. The joint is approaching 100,000 apps since the launch of Windows 8. Among these Microsoft announced at its recent Construct conference are upcoming Windows apps from Facebook, Flipboard as well as the NFL.
  Windows 8.1 also now pre-loads a Reading List app for saving a story you want to read later that you appear across on the World-wide-web through Internet Explorer. It only is effective in the trendy UI for now (not Desktop) and, in my view, requires just one simply click way too lots of to preserve an article you want to read later.
  Closer to its common availability I'll do a additional comprehensive critique of Windows 8.one. For now I'll say that while it would not address every shortcoming of Home windows 8, it pushes Microsoft in the correct direction.