[jake simmons3]

It's getting brutal out there.

Samsung drops price 10% on latest flagship phone just days before worldwide launch:

In smartphone mass-market, Samsung, Apple have margins on their minds



https://ca.news.yahoo.com/smartphone...4--sector.html

Same thing is happening with the phone market as it did with the PC market. Everyone is fighting each other to the bottom.

[Superfly_FR]

damm ... looks like I missed some action ... who died (=>PM) ?

[jmehta22]

OT: just some great qualities of a successful trader that i came across and thought to share on this board. Must read!

5 Qualities of All Great Traders | The Big Picture

[randall2580]

OT: just some great qualities of a successful trader that i came across and thought to share on this board. Must read!

5 Qualities of All Great Traders | The Big Picture

I would widen #1 a bit to "Have a plan". Know why you got into a trade, what you expect out of it as well as what it says there. You should know the exit points of a trade both above and below, before you make the trade.

[La Emperor]

One step at a time for Ford. At least we now know someone is getting taken out.

"The Dearborn automaker, which Wednesday released details of its 2015 Focus compact car that debuts later this year, has stripped the �Powered by Microsoft� branding from its SYNC voice-activated system....."

Ford phases out Microsoft SYNC badges | The Detroit News

[Corbu]

Prem Watsa, head of Canadian insurer Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. (FFH), said investors in technology companies including Twitter Inc. may soon be crying as the stock prices are unsustainable.

“There’s nothing underlying the value of these companies,” Watsa said today at the company’s annual meeting in Toronto, referring to a chart that included price-to-earnings ratios for Twitter, Netflix Inc. (NFLX:US) and Facebook Inc. (FB:US) “The last time this happened was in the dot-com era. This will end in tears.”

Investors have been pulling out of technology stocks for much of the year in favor of companies with stable dividends and earnings. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index fell the most in two years on April 4 before reversing direction by rising yesterday and today.

In his annual letter to shareholders last month, Watsa warned of a technology industry bubble similar to 1999. He pointed to San Francisco-based Twitter (TWTR:US), which rallied after its November initial public offering, as one of the firms whose market value was based on “extraordinary speculation,” given its revenue.

“If you thought that Twitter was grossly overvalued at $26 per share, it promptly doubled,” Watsa said in the letter. “This sort of speculation will end just like the previous tech boom in 1999 to 2000 -- very badly!”

Jim Prosser, a spokesman for Twitter, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

BlackBerry Bet

Shares of the social-media firm slid 34 percent this year through yesterday to $41.78 in New York. Fairfax gained 12 percent during that period, outpacing the 5.5 percent advance of the benchmark Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index.

Watsa, 63, a native of Hyderabad, India, founded Fairfax in 1985. He shaped his contrarian investment style after value investor Warren Buffett, adding out-of-favor securities to his portfolio. The firm gained from the 2008 financial crisis when Watsa bet on declines in the creditworthiness of U.S. banks and insurers.

Fairfax is the largest shareholder of BlackBerry Ltd., the Waterloo, Ontario-based company it failed to take private last year and instead financed with partners including Qatar Holding LLC and Manulife Financial Corp. It will probably take the struggling smartphone maker as long as two years to turn around, Royal Bank of Canada said in a note yesterday.

Watsa said today he still considers BlackBerry a good value investment and that the firm’s performance will improve over time.

Watsa Says Dot-com Rally to End in Tears, Affirms BlackBerry Bet - Businessweek

[Superfly_FR]

It's been a while. Let's add a snapshot for later reference.


oh, we're green ... kinda

[JonCBK]

In the US the GS5 is being advertised as buy one get one free. Now I assume that is both on contract. But still this advertising running prior to its launch. It is kind of incredible to me.

Posted via CB10

[bigbadben10]

As with most hardware it eventually becomes a commodity hence these offers. This can cause some distress to the likes of Samsung that have such lofty sales goals now in a semi saturated market. Software is where it's at. MDM

This also goes to prove that if Samsung is doing this to sell a brand new cutting edge product and they are having diffculty why on earth would BlackBerry attempt this.

The ecomony of scale that Samsung has far exceeds Foxconns capabilities so to those saying BlackBerry needs to compete head on with whatever core CPU, think again friends...never going to happen.

Rumour has it the GS6 will have military grade night vision along with a revised heart rate monitor.... as we know we all need this

Posted with my gorgeous Z30

[sidhuk]

As with most hardware it eventually becomes a commodity hence these offers. This can cause some distress to the likes of Samsung that have such lofty sales goals now in a semi saturated market. Software is where it's at. MDM

This also goes to prove that if Samsung is doing this to sell a brand new cutting edge product and they are having diffculty why on earth would BlackBerry attempt this.

The ecomony of scale that Samsung has far exceeds Foxconns capabilities so to those saying BlackBerry needs to compete head on with whatever core CPU, think again friends...never going to happen.

Rumour has it the GS6 will have military grade night vision along with a revised heart rate monitor.... as we know we all need this

Posted with my gorgeous Z30

I am happy with Z30 and i plan to stay with this for a long time. unless i break it or loose it.

[JonCBK]

I am happy with Z30 and i plan to stay with this for a long time. unless i break it or loose it.

Everyone says stuff like that. But if there is another BlackBerry flagship in a year, you will be giving it the eye.

I replace my phones every two years it seems. Too hard to try to eek out more than that. Q10 might last longer though depending on the completion out there though.

Posted via CB10

[Corbu]

Financier Prem Watsa says he's happy with the progress BlackBerry has made in turning around its business.

Watsa, chairman and CEO of investment firm Fairfax Financial (TSX:FFH), said the ailing smartphone maker's new leader, John Chen, has the right experience to make the company profitable again.

The firm headed a consortium of investors who injected US$1 billion into BlackBerry last fall, after a failed attempt by Watsa to raise enough money to take the smartphone company private.

"John, in five months, has done so many changes. We're very impressed," Watsa told investors at the Fairfax annual meeting in Toronto on Wednesday.

"He's hit the road running," he added.

Chen's performance, and turnaround of BlackBerry, has been a major focus for Fairfax, which has a 10.5 per cent equity stake in the Waterloo, Ont.-based company.

While Chen has been praised for leading the turnaround of enterprise software developer Sybase, Watsa said his stellar reputation extends beyond saving companies who are in dire straits.

He said Chen is a good leader, and pointed to several executives who left their jobs at Sybase to join Chen at BlackBerry as a sign of his skills.

Fairfax's investment in BlackBerry has raised some eyebrows because many analysts believe the smartphone company has lost most of its customer base and failed to launch new devices good enough to rebuild its reputation as a technology leader.

BlackBerry shares have suffered a major drop since its heyday, hovering around $10 over the past year, compared to its all-time high of $149.90 reached in June 2008. On the TSX, BlackBerry shares traded down four cents to $8.66 on Wednesday.

Watsa said he believes BlackBerry investors have overreacted.

"When stocks prices come down the market -- very short term -- predicts bankruptcy, and when it goes up predicts years of fantastic growth," he said.

"The truth is always in between."

Fairfax CEO to shareholders: John Chen right man for the job at BlackBerry | CTV News

[cgk]

Investors rather then people pumped up on hopium should be aware the bit that story seems to oddly forgets to mention is when asked "how do you think bbry will pay off?" His response was 'wish I knew'.

I guess they ran out of space.

[kadakn01]

Primecap ups stake to 10.43% from 6.51%
also short interest drops about 6M

3/31/2014 99,334,950 24,675,833 4.025597
3/14/2014 105,469,466 18,736,344 5.629138

[sidhuk]

Everyone says stuff like that. But if there is another BlackBerry flagship in a year, you will be giving it the eye.

I replace my phones every two years it seems. Too hard to try to eek out more than that. Q10 might last longer though depending on the completion out there though.

Posted via CB10

LoL, you might be right. when i left my Bold, i was replacing my phone every 6 months which were non blackberry phones and i was never satisfied. however, ever since i got z30, the run around has stopped. but i will look at the large screen keyboard blackberry with track-pad and belt. the problem is that i have gotten so much better at typing on z30 that it will be questionable move towards a keyboard blackberry. but no doubt that i do miss keyboard, typing without looking at the screen is priceless.

[cgk]

I only buy cheap phones, I guess spending all day researching them and thinking about them deadens the senses - even the current nexus 5 I have is well above my normal budget - I rather stick the money in investments or towards a decent watch or another pen.

sent from my bright red Nexus 5

[rim4ever]

Primecap ups stake to 10.43% from 6.51%
also short interest drops about 6M

3/31/2014 99,334,950 24,675,833 4.025597
3/14/2014 105,469,466 18,736,344 5.629138

Institutions are accumulating and smart shorts are covering all the while the weak hands are selling. Unbelievable.

[BThunderW]

Only 6% sold. That means the remaining 94% expect the price to fall further. I don't see how that's a good thing.

Institutions are accumulating and smart shorts are covering all the while the weak hands are selling. Unbelievable.

[bizzarothor]

Only 6% sold. That means the remaining 94% expect the price to fall further. I don't see how that's a good thing.

How about the 515 million still holding, thinking the price is going to go up, how is that a bad sign?

There always is another side to the story...

Sent using my ? Z30

[BThunderW]

The longs don't pay interest on the shares held...

How about the 515 million still holding, thinking the price is going to go up, how is that a bad sign?

There always is another side to the story...

Sent using my ? Z30

[bungaboy]

OT: Security Related.

BBC News - Heartbleed Bug: Public urged to reset all passwords

[Corbu]

BlackBerry CEO may be contemplating sale of handset unit - CNET

BlackBerry CEO John Chen said Wednesday that the company might stop making mobile phones if it continues to lose profits on its devices, according to Reuters.

"If I cannot make money on handsets, I will not be in the handset business," John Chen said told the news agency in an interview.

Chen said he will make a decision on whether to stay in the handset business shortly, according to Reuters, but he wouldn't give any more details.

Exiting mobile phone-making doesn't necessarily mean that BlackBerry would be throwing in the towel. Chen told Reuters that the company intends to keep working on its mobile operating system and its software.

BlackBerry is also looking to boost its investments with new acquisitions and partnerships, according to Reuters. These partnerships might be in fields like healthcare, finance, and legal services, which could benefit from BlackBerry's well-known network security offerings.

Facing tough competition from Apple, Samsung, and other smartphone makers, BlackBerry has been in the red for the past couple of years. Last August, the company announced it was for sale but then tempered that possibility when Chen took over in November.

[Corbu]

BlackBerry CEO Sets 2-Year Goal to Cut Device Reliance - Bloomberg

BlackBerry Ltd.’s John Chen is giving himself two years to overhaul the smartphone maker and offset declining handset demand with sales of software that connects computers with all manner of machines, from cars to heart monitors.

Chen, who took over as chief executive officer in November, is stepping up BlackBerry’s reliance on business customers instead of the smartphones that made the company famous. In the worst-case scenario in which he misses his goal of generating cash flow by this fiscal year, Chen said he’ll have six to eight quarters to replace declining hardware sales with higher-margin software revenue.

“I don’t have a plan to get rid of handsets, I have a plan to not be dependent on handsets,” Chen said today in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York. “All I need to do is replace the handset revenue, and this company will be very different.”

The shift is the key to Chen’s goal of returning the money-losing company to profit by the fiscal year that ends in March 2016. Chen is in a race against time with device sales continuing to slide -- 77 percent last quarter alone from a year earlier. His plan to create fresh revenue streams from its QNX software and BBM instant-messaging services has been welcomed by investors who’ve driven the stock up 23 percent since he took the helm after a failed sale process.

QNX Purchase

BlackBerry bought QNX in 2010 for $200 million from Harman International Industries Ltd. and set about building a new smartphone operating system, BlackBerry 10, on the software. It’s already widely used in cars and industrial settings like coal mines and hospitals. Now Chen wants to make it more prevalent anywhere machines need to communicate with other machines.

“This is where the industry is going,” Chen said. “It’s all about device interaction. This is why it’s so important to be agnostic.”

Chen said that by replacing single-digit phone margins with software margins that are routinely 70 percent to 90 percent, BlackBerry can be profitable with the same level of revenue. Chen has repeatedly stated that he expects the Waterloo, Ontario-based company to stop losing cash by the end of this fiscal year.

[Corbu]

The Reuters report, for reference:

BlackBerry CEO would consider handset unit sale, eyes investments | Reuters

(Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd would consider exiting its handset business if it remains unprofitable, its chief executive said on Wednesday, as the company looks to expand its corporate reach with investments, acquisitions and partnerships.

"If I cannot make money on handsets, I will not be in the handset business," John Chen said in an interview, adding that the time frame for such a decision was short. He would not be more specific.

Chen, who took the helm of the struggling smartphone company in November, said BlackBerry was also looking to invest in or team up with other companies in regulated industries such as healthcare, and financial and legal services, all of which require highly secure communications.

The chief executive said small acquisitions to strengthen BlackBerry's network security offerings were also possible.

[leafs123]

BlackBerry CEO may be contemplating sale of handset unit - CNET

Weird and misleading title. There is no mention from Chen that he's contemplating selling the handset unit.

Additionally, this type of inconsistent messaging has to be frustrating. They know whether they'll be able to make money or not on handsets. They're not going to wake up one morning and realize this.