[masterful]

Buffett is in technology? From what I read he doesn't like or understand technology.

Posted via CB10 on my BlackBerry Passport

[world traveler and former ceo]

Buffett is in technology? From what I read he doesn't like or understand technology.

Posted via CB10 on my BlackBerry Passport

How's IBM worked out for him? ....stock down considerably since his purchase...

Posted via CB10

[randall2580]

Buffett is in technology? From what I read he doesn't like or understand technology.

Posted via CB10 on my BlackBerry Passport

He's reportedly considering a bid for Yahoo as well. The times they are a changing.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Today is the 13F-filing deadline? Buffett took a 1 billion dollar stake in AAPL.. imagine what a 1 billion dollar stake would do for BBRY :-)

Posted via CB10

Buffett is more interested in what that "stake" will do for him...

Looking at the stocks... BBRY really is the more interesting of the two, lot of potential to see a 15% - 20% gain in the next year. But there is still risk - how much will hardware drag the value down as if fades? Will some IoT product ever be viable? Will the Good/BES combination stand up to the changes hitting the EMM market?

But Apple, the company's foundation is still pretty solid and it's product are still very much in demand. The market has reached a point where all flagship OEMs are having issues... not just Apple.

[bbjdog]

Some Priv love

http://blogs.blackberry.com/2016/05/...s-looking-for/

Posted via my BlackBerry Passport

[_dimi_]

http://cybersecurityventures.com/wha...afee-and-crew/

Posted via CB10

[dusdal]

So if this was due to android and not WhatsApp, as McAfee says in the article, I wonder if bbm is subject to the same vulnerability.

Posted via CB10

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

So if this was due to android and not WhatsApp, as McAfee says in the article, I wonder if bbm is subject to the same vulnerability.

Posted via CB10

As the can do with with SnapChat and claim "to have discovered a serious design flaw within the Android operating system that allowed his team to access virtually everything happening within all Android devices."

The real question... how would they get someone to download that tiny app on two targeted devices?

[cjcampbell]

As the can do with with SnapChat and claim "to have discovered a serious design flaw within the Android operating system that allowed his team to access virtually everything happening within all Android devices."

The real question... how would they get someone to download that tiny app on two targeted devices?

I assume that code could be inserted into a seemingly harmless app, or as with a lot of other vulnerabilities, would require a user to download from a less than reputable source.

I wonder if BlackBerry has made any changes to Android that would make this either harder or not possible. I'm guessing not, but would be interesting to know.

Posted via CB10

[morganplus8]

Buffett is in technology? From what I read he doesn't like or understand technology.

Posted via CB10 on my BlackBerry Passport

He clearly doesn't understand tech if he bought into Apple. Apple is cash poor in North America, cash rich overseas but they would take a $ 60 B hit to try and do something with that cash. Its clear they don't know what to do with cash, a $ 1B Uber investment in China is not what they need right now. The stock has dropped from $ 113 to $ 89 in just four weeks, they have allocated all of their NA funds to dividends and share buybacks, management can't innovate, its a mess so Buffett buys AAPL! Then there is Yahoo, trading for breakup value and no growth for years led by a clown who failed in every way possible. He knows how to get involved in tech in the worst way possible.

Still, we need market leaders to do well in order to add support to the general market so lets have a laugh at Buffett and rally on the back of his bad investments.

[kadakn01]

He clearly doesn't understand tech if he bought into Apple. Apple is cash poor in North America, cash rich overseas but they would take a $ 60 B hit to try and do something with that cash. Its clear they don't know what to do with cash, a $ 1B Uber investment in China is not what they need right now. The stock has dropped from $ 113 to $ 89 in just four weeks, they have allocated all of their NA funds to dividends and share buybacks, management can't innovate, its a mess so Buffett buys AAPL! Then there is Yahoo, trading for breakup value and no growth for years led by a clown who failed in every way possible. He knows how to get involved in tech in the worst way possible.

Still, we need market leaders to do well in order to add support to the general market so lets have a laugh at Buffett and rally on the back of his bad investments.

This purchase is most likely from one of the 2 chairmans that warren has running about 18B of the approx 130B, Ted Weschler or Todd Combs. Nonetheless a 1B is significant if they increase it in the future, although it is less than 1% of the total capital Berkshire has in its investment portfolio. On the flip side, Icahn, and many others sold the same quarter as Berkshire bought.

Posted on my Priv

[smart548]

Red days are reAding days ;-)

http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/05/bla...digital-india/

The good news is that BlackBerry seems to keep pushing its R&D department, the bad news..is in the link.

Posted via CB10

[Corbu]

OT: Apple
More info on kadakn01's assumption:
Berkshire Bought Apple Stock, But Warren Buffett Didn?t - MoneyBeat - WSJ

Warren Buffett didn't play a role in the decision to invest some of Berkshire Hathaway's cash in Apple

Berkshire Hathaway‘s new investment in Apple was selected by one of Warren Buffett‘s stockpicking lieutenants, not by the “Oracle of Omaha” himself.

Berkshire revealed an Apple stake worth nearly $1 billion early Monday, as part of Berkshire’s quarterly disclosure of its stock holdings. Mr. Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman and chief executive, confirmed in an email that he was not the one who added the shares to Berkshire’s massive equity portfolio.

Mr. Buffett is famously averse to investing in tech companies, and has specifically ruled out investing in Apple before. But in recent years, he has added two former hedge-fund managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, to Berkshire’s investing team. They’ve shown a willingness to wade into corners of the market that Mr. Buffett himself won’t touch, including the tech sector.

Both men came aboard at Berkshire in recent years as part of Mr. Buffett’s long-term plan for the conglomerate’s future. Mr. Combs and Mr. Weschler each manage portfolios of about $9 billion each, but they’ll take over all stockpicking duties when Mr. Buffett is no longer running the firm.

Mr. Buffett has said repeatedly that any smaller positions that are revealed in the quarterly filings are almost certainly those of these two investing lieutenants, and his email Monday confirmed that was again the case with Apple. He did not say which of the two men made the investment, but added that they make their picks without consulting him.

The larger stakes in Berkshire’s portfolio, including American Express, Coca-Cola, and Wells Fargo & Co., are Mr. Buffett’s picks. Each position is valued at several billion dollars apiece. The Apple stake, meanwhile, was worth just over $1 billion at the end of the first quarter, and the value of those shares has since fallen to about $888 million. That’s less than the size of a former Berkshire holding in DirecTV, which was a combined purchase by both Mr. Combs and Mr. Weschler.

AT&T acquired the pay-TV company last year, and Berkshire’s DirecTV shares became AT&T shares. Monday’s filing shows Berkshire sold the last of its AT&T shares in the first quarter.

Mr. Buffett’s reticence toward tech comes even though he is close friends with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Mr. Gates even sits on Berkshire’s board. But Mr. Buffett has instead built a stellar track record over decades with investments in insurers, financial companies and industrial businesses.

Perhaps fans of Apple and its stock should be glad that this is not Mr. Buffett’s stock pick. The last time Mr. Buffett made a big move into the tech sector, he took a huge stake in International Business Machines It’s been one of Berkshire’s worst performers.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

OT: Apple
More info on kadakn01's assumption:
Berkshire Bought Apple Stock, But Warren Buffett Didn?t - MoneyBeat - WSJ

$1 Billion to $888 Million... Don't think his lieutenants are going to change Mr. Buffett's mind about tech stocks any time soon.

[morganplus8]

This purchase is most likely from one of the 2 chairmans that warren has running about 18B of the approx 130B, Ted Weschler or Todd Combs. Nonetheless a 1B is significant if they increase it in the future, although it is less than 1% of the total capital Berkshire has in its investment portfolio. On the flip side, Icahn, and many others sold the same quarter as Berkshire bought.

Posted on my Priv

For the most part, we are a couple of generations younger than Warren, he was one for investing in infrastructure; in oligopolies within the materials, transportation, finance and manufacturing sectors. Sectors that would survive during economic downturns and thrive when the economy was strong, those investments after-all, "were the economy" as we knew it back then. Where he dropped the ball was in failing to see that science and new technology is the place to be, not without some risk, but clearly, healthcare, biotech and communications were areas of the future and he missed it all. Within technology, he could have still held oligopoly status in names like Netflix, Google, Amazon, Apple, Tesla, the list goes on, not to mention a long list of Pharma plays. So today, they enter a market that is maturing, one that has few players to choose from and one that is getting picked over.

Had he or his staff followed Icahn, they would have learned that a stock can go up for all the wrong reasons and you should dance close to the exit when deciding to buy that type of investment. Icahn bought a large block of AAPL at the equivalent of $ 70/shr and promptly announced that he owned a position. The general market took that to mean it was safe to enter the Apple waters and they drove him to a nice profit within days. He then tackled the board of Apple threatening to start a mutiny if they didn't borrow funds, buy back stock, raise the dividend and pump up the price of the stock. They listened to him and did everything he requested and they were rewarded for that behaviour by him selling out at a 50% profit!

Now along comes Berkshire.

What Berkshire owns now, is a company that is miss-managed, carries debt, short cash in North America, committed to buying back stock while it drops in price, paying more dividends, no new products, a sinking ASP, a huge drop in EPS for 2016, and to me at least, this is a very poor first outing for Berkshire in tech. Its not about the money involved, its about Berkshire and their ability to survive here. The next generation of Berkshire shareholders are going to look at the track record their parents endured by holding for so many years with Warren .... and sell off their family inheritance in that stake. There is a fundamental problem at Berkshire and it lands at the feet of Warren.

[bbjdog]

Blackberry closed at 6.70


SPHS

Sophiris Bio Reports First Quarter 2016 Financial Results and Key Business Highlights
2016-05-16 04:01:00 PM ET (PR Newswire)
* *
* *
Sophiris Bio Inc. (NASDAQ: SPHS) (the "Company" or "Sophiris"), a biopharmaceutical company developing topsalysin (PRX302) for the treatment of urological diseases, today announced financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2016.

Business Highlights:

-- On May 12, 2016, the Company announced the engagement Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. as its financial advisor to assist with the evaluation of various strategic alternatives.

-- On May 11, 2016, the Company announced the closing of a public offering of common shares and warrants in which the Company raised net proceeds of $4.6 million.

-- On May 7, 2016, the Company presented positive data from its Phase 3 clinical trial of topsalysin as a treatment for the symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia ("BPH") as a late breaking poster at the 111th American Urological Association Annual Meeting. A copy of the poster is available on the Company's website at www.sophirisbio.com.

-- On January 28, 2016, the Company announced that a review of the 6-month biopsy data from the first seven patients in the localized prostate cancer trial was completed.

"We are encouraged by the interim data from our Phase 2a topsalysin proof of concept trial for the treatment of localized prostate cancer announced earlier this year, and remain on track to complete this clinical trial by the end of this quarter," stated Randall Woods, president and CEO of Sophiris Bio. "We believe that the positive data from our Phase 3 BPH clinical trial and the encouraging initial data from our localized prostate cancer clinical trial further de-risk the development programs."

Mr. Woods added: "The funds raised in the financing strengthen our balance sheet as we review various strategic alternatives to advance the clinical development of topsalysin and create value for shareholders."

Phase 2a Proof of Concept Clinical Trial for Localized Prostate Cancer:

In May 2015 we initiated a single-center, open-label Phase 2a proof of concept clinical trial ("POC trial") of topsalysin for the treatment of localized low to intermediate risk prostate cancer. We believe that the highly targeted mechanism by which topsalysin selectively destroys prostate tissue in BPH makes topsalysin a potential targeted focal treatment for localized prostate cancer. A total of 18 patients with clinically significant, localized low to intermediate risk prostate cancer have been enrolled in this ongoing POC trial.

On January 28, 2016 we announced the biopsy data at six months on the first seven patients to complete the POC trial. A review of the biopsy data from the first seven patients showed that four patients experienced a response to treatment, including: one patient who experienced complete ablation of the tumor where there was no evidence of the treated tumor on a targeted biopsy at six months following treatment; and three patients who experienced either a reduction in the maximum cancer core length or a reduction in the Gleason pattern. Three patients had no response to treatment. No serious adverse events have been observed to date in this clinical trial and no new safety signals have been reported. We expect to have final data on all 18 patients by the end of the second quarter of 2016.

Financial Results:

At March 31, 2016, we had cash, cash equivalents and securities available-for-sale of $5.4 million and net working capital of $3.0 million. Taking into consideration the net proceeds of $4.6 million from our financing completed on May 11, 2016, we now expect that our cash, cash equivalents and securities available-for-sale will be sufficient to fund our operations for at least the next twelve months assuming that we do not initiate any additional clinical development of topsalysin beyond our on-going Phase 2a POC trial. We will need to obtain additional capital to fund a second Phase 3 clinical trial of topsalysin for the treatment of the symptoms of BPH and for any future clinical development of topsalysin for the treatment of localized prostate cancer and to fund our ongoing operations. We are actively evaluating strategic alternatives, including potential partnering arrangements, financings or a strategic transaction. We expect our research and development expense and general and administrative expenses to decrease as a result of the completion of our Phase 2a POC trial at the end of the second quarter of 2016 and as a result of the layoff of five of our ten employees during May 2016, resulting in an annualized reduction in compensation and benefit expenses of $0.9 million, net of severance. As of March 31, 2016, the outstanding principal balance of our term loan was $4.8 million on which we make principal and interest payments monthly.

The Company reported a net loss of $2.2 million ($0.13 per share) for the three months ended March 31, 2016 compared to a net loss of $4.3 million ($0.26 per share) for the three months ended March 31, 2015.

Research and development expenses

Research and development expenses were $0.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016 compared to $3.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2015. The decrease in research and development costs is attributable to decreases in the costs associated with the Company's completed Phase 3 PLUS-1 clinical trial of topsalysin, costs associated with the manufacturing activities for topsalysin and personnel related costs. These decreases are partially offset by an increase in costs associated with the Phase 2a POC trial for localized low to intermediate risk prostate cancer which enrolled its first patient in the second quarter of 2015.

General and administrative expenses

General and administrative expenses were $1.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016 compared to $1.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2015. The increase is primarily due to increases in legal, accounting and professional services costs.



Posted via my BlackBerry Passport

[spiller]

Blackberry is one dry stock to watch these days.

This one is anything but. Numbers look good to me. Laying off 5 of 10 tells me they are wrapping up their trials and looking for a partner/buyout before doing anything more.

Sophiris Bio Reports First Quarter 2016 Financial Results and Key Business Highlights - MarketWatch

[3_M4N]

http://cybersecurityventures.com/wha...afee-and-crew/

Posted via CB10

I would love it if it were BlackBerry's researchers that found these vulnerabilities. They manage to stay out of the news by not having stories about their devices being compromised, but it would be nice if they got into the news for finding vulnerabilities in other's devices and software.

Posted via CB10

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

I would love it if it were BlackBerry's researchers that found these vulnerabilities. They manage to stay out of the news by not having stories about their devices being compromised, but it would be nice if they got into the news for finding vulnerabilities in other's devices and software.

Posted via CB10

John McAfee Apparently Tried to Trick Reporters Into Thinking He Hacked WhatsApp

And be seen as a crackpot?

Too me a vulnerability is when someone on the outside can do something with my phone or data without me allowing them. If I install an app from some unknown source and give permission to "everything".... is the vulnerability in the phone or in me?

Or if I accept a free phone from some known hacker.....

[foxdog0007]

OT, Guys, what stock apps are you recommending for Priv? Was using "Stocks" on BB10; worked really well.

[masterful]

OT, Guys, what stock apps are you recommending for Priv? Was using "Stocks" on BB10; worked really well.

Try stocks.. I have tried a few and this somehow work better for me.

Posted via my BlackBerry PRIV

[foxdog0007]

Try stocks.. I have tried a few and this somehow work better for me.

Posted via my BlackBerry PRIV

Is it "Stocks: Real time Quotes Charts"? Couldn't find an app just called "Stocks".

[world traveler and former ceo]

Blackberry is one dry stock to watch these days.

This one is anything but. Numbers look good to me. Laying off 5 of 10 tells me they are wrapping up their trials and looking for a partner/buyout before doing anything more.

Sophiris Bio Reports First Quarter 2016 Financial Results and Key Business Highlights - MarketWatch

Is there a real risk they could go bankrupt?... running out of money... funding ($30mm?)is needed to proceed to/complete Phase 3, no?... they need partner / buyout... sorry, I am not expert on this but I am invested...experts feel free to comment. Thanks.

Posted via CB10

[morganplus8]

Is there a real risk they could go bankrupt?... running out of money... funding ($30mm?)is needed to proceed to/complete Phase 3, no?... they need partner / buyout... sorry, I am not expert on this but I am invested...experts feel free to comment. Thanks.

Posted via CB10

As you can read in their latest news release, they will have enough funds to carry them for one year. This means they won't be able to finance that short safety study as proposed a couple of months ago. Not sure how long you have been following this trade but it was aprox. 2 years ago that the CEO went against conventional wisdom and decided to complete a $ 30 MM study that was showing little value at that time. He made the right decision, as it turned out, the data was in fact compelling and the stock soared in the Fall of last year. The real issue is the update that is coming in any day now, the Phase IIA study needs to be good for the balance of the 18 patients enrolled in the study. Because this is a micro cap stock, perhaps one of the smallest out there today with a successful Phase III result, this data is so important. When you couple that with a weak re-fi of $ 4.6 MM recently, we really need to see positive results as they aren't in a position to correct dosages etc., to make the safety study better. What's missing in all of this is the fact that they have a very promising Phase III under their belt and the market isn't giving them any value for that milestone. The potential is there for a huge pay day, they just need to present solid data on the Phase IIA study and that is what is spooking the small investor. Large funds can't touch it due to its delisting status.

My personal position is this, I own it, I would be interested in buying more at this level but I'm holding back a bit. They have something special here but there is risk still in it with the Phase IIA data still being held back. I'm tempted to wait until that data hits before I go all in here. Surprisingly, no one is really watching this one right now, the stock is under pressure because retail investors can't support it and this CEO is a bit of a strange guy. I watch it every moment of the day and could buy up a huge block if I see signs that they are stable on their data.

As for BBRY, we are now a couple of pennies away from making a multi week closing high, it is firming up, bullish and ready to sneak up while the general market trends sideways here.

[slipstream89]

Thanks for the update M8!

I just feel something is up with SPHS atm, the funding they just got made lil sense unless they were paying off the oxford debt which I still believe is the main purpose...that plus layoffs would indicate a deal is wrapping up imo. Hope Woods pulls off what he did before and sell for $300M that would make this stressful year all worth it.

In addition since I don't mind being transparent still holding my ECA short but i've been adding to it. Sounds stupid cause if I went with the flow I would have made a good chunk already but I still don't believe this oil rally, so in deep red with this atm. Sold my AYA shares and waiting to buy HALO at $9 today if i can, charts are peaking up along with IBB above its 3EMA with somewhat oversold levels.

OT: Morgan I know its personal but it's been a long time so I hope your health is doing well my friend and pray your close to a full recovery! keep us updated if you can