Technology Stock Roundup: Video Initiatives Kick Off 2H16

The third quarter started off with a number of important announcements, as technology companies geared up for new growth avenues in video distribution, automated cars and more.

Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) for one is reportedly in talks with the NBA, Major League Soccer and the cable network Turner Broadcasting about acquiring digital streaming rights for sports-related content. This is a good start for the social network that hasn’t been so social in the past because digital streaming of sports events is still in its infancy and it’s exactly the kind of thing that brings highly-engaged viewers. Earlier, it paid $10 million to NFL to stream Thursday night games this fall.

Of course, there’s also the possibility that Twitter will never become a regular streamer like a TV channel and instead stream snippets, analysis and interviews to draw more users to the event. That is what it managed with the Wimbledon through arrangements with Wimbledon and ESPN, which acquired exclusive TV rights for the event in 2011.

Twitter also made a notable hire recently in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) designer Alessandro Sabatelli to lead its AR/VR efforts. Others like Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google have made more headway in this area but it’s definitely not too late to start.

Another new entrant into the space is Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) . While conversation about this struggling Internet company currently revolves around its sale, its blogging network Tumblr is also set to stream video sourced from other providers like YouTube, YouNow, Kanvas and Upclose. Yahoo is also in agreement with 15 other content providers to publish live videos on Tumblr. Other agreements in the pipeline could be with media brands like Mashable, Huffington Post, Refinery29 and MTV. Followers will receive push notifications when a live video is uploaded, which is expected to boost views for the provider and increase Tumblr usage.

The dedicated video streaming service Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) also had an exciting week wherein it announced an agreement with long-time rival Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA). Accordingly, Comcast will, later this year, integrate the Netflix streaming service through its X1 STB as part of its IP-enabled cable TV service. This is neat because by becoming part of the service, Netflix circumvents the Open Internet Order that propounds net neutrality but makes a specific exception in case of IP-enabled TV. But this is likely not the end of the story because while X1 is an IP-enabled TV service, Netflix is not. So competing services like Chromecast and Roku will likely object.

In driverless cars, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) announced a deal with BMW and Mobileye (NYSE:MBLY), according to which Mobileye’s sensors and software will be powered by Intel’s processors and BMW maps (or that’s the supposition since the companies are playing this rather close to the vest). Mobileye is a leading provider of sensor-based camera systems for driver assistance systems. Intel has said that it is focusing on three segments of the driverless car market including retail, industrial and driverless cars).

BMW acquired Here Maps from Nokia (HE:NOKIA) and has also said that it will have a driverless car model on the road by 2021. The idea is to create a car-agnostic automatic driving system that automakers can install on their vehicles. This sounds like the Android of cars and could be competition for Google, Apple, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and others.

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Corporate

Google Tracking Stock for Employees: Alphabet is creating a tracking stock system whereby employees of its “Other Bets” initiatives including Verily, Fiber, X Labs, Nest and so forth can be compensated on performance. So instead of Google Class C shares that they are getting now, they would get stock based on the project they are on that can be exchanged for cash or Google shares after 6 months.

At this stage, employees can opt out of this compensation system, which is to determine a sizeable part of their pay but in the future, it might become mandatory. It’s hard to see people opting for shares in these risky ventures unless there’s additional incentive of some sort. Google is probably considering these alternatives as competition increases in the core business, the need to diversify increases and research projects appear to drag on indefinitely.

Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) Hires Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Executive: AliCloud, Alibaba’s cloud computing unit, is looking to build some momentum. The company, which currently has 500K paying customers recently hired Zhou Jingren of Microsoft with experience in its Bing infrastructure and big data units. Jingren will head AliCloud research teams in Hangzhou, Beijing and Seattle to further Alibaba’s big data goals.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) CFO Change: Western Digital announced encouraging preliminary results for its fourth quarter. The company expects revenue of $3.46 billion and earnings of $0.72 per share, better than the estimated $3.35-3.45 billion in revenue and $0.65-0.70 a share in earnings. The company also said that current CFO Olivier Leonetti will be replaced by its chief strategy officer Mark Long starting Sep 1.

Legal/Regulatory

Facebook Sees IRS Investigation: The Justice department filed a lawsuit against Facebook, asking the social networking company to file papers with respect to property it transferred to its Irish subsidiary. The lawsuit is under the suspicion that the social networking company significantly understated the value of the assets it transferred, thereby cutting its tax bill. The documents that Facebook is now called upon to furnish will clarify whether the IRS is correct in its suspicions. Facebook of course said that it is in compliance with rules and regulations.

Brazil Seizes Facebook Funds: Brazil's Globo G1 news service says that the government of Brazil has issued orders to freeze a Facebook account in the country, which holds $6 million. Facebook got into the government’s bad books after it refused to turn over data in a WhatsApp chat to help the government in a drug trafficking investigation. Facebook said it wasn’t in possession of the data so couldn’t turn it over. Note that the company recently enabled end-to-end encryption of WhatsApp messages.

Google Wants Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Lawyer Punished: Google wants the court to fine Oracle and its lawyer for publicly declaring financial information related to its own business and involving third parties (such as its payment of a billion dollars to Apple to remain as the default search option, or Android generating $22 billion in profits). Google said that the statements were “self-serving” and Oracle in any case shouldn’t have disclosed sensitive and confidential information.

The trial was about Google infringing Java copyrights. The court held in the case that Google had copied but the action should be construed as “fair use.” therefore it didn’t owe Oracle any damages. Oracle, which is claiming a billion dollars in damages, said it would appeal the case.

New Technology/Products

Facebook to Test Offline Video Watching in India: The social networking company is considering enabling video downloads for offline viewing in areas with slower Internet connections. The company is rolling out the feature to select customers. Facebook intends to save the video in the app itself to prevent unauthorized sharing and it’s also offering content providers the choice to opt out of the feature.

Microsoft Updating Dynamics Business Software: Microsoft has announced Dynamics 365, which clubs together its marketing, operations, sales and service offerings with the new Duynamics also connecting with Office 365, Microsoft’s web-based email, spread sheet, word-processing and presentation apps. The integration is intended to help enterprises use these applications more cohesively across their businesses. Cortana and Microsoft business intelligence will facilitate the process.

Google AI to Prevent Blindness: Google’s DeepMind is collaborating with the UK government’s National Health Service (NHS). The company will read a million anonymous eye scans collected by the Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust over the years to determine a method of quickly identifying and diagnosing eye problems. This is expected to be of particular help to diabetes or age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients to prevent complete loss of vision.

Micron Launches New NAND Chip: Micron has announced an SLC NAND flash chip for next-gen IoT and automotive applications. NAND chips don’t require power to retain data, which makes them particularly valuable in the IoT age, where data is increasingly collected and transmitted by ordinary everyday things. Micron’s solution is intended for secure low-density storage in these things.

M&A and Collaborations

Microsoft’s Agricultural Deal: Brazilian agricultural tech startups will see some cash infusion from the Monsanto (NYSE:MON) and Microsoft combination. Persuant to an agreement between the two, Monsanto will become part of a $92 million fund managed by Microsoft to develop agricultural tools for use in the country.

Google Buys Moodstocks: Google has bought this Paris-based startup for an undisclosed amount to boost its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Moodstocks offers software services that enable immediate image recognition. It claims to have 2,200 developers across the world as its customers.

Some Numbers

Citi Lowers Apple Estimates, Blames Brexit: Citi analysts fear that Apple may not meet estimates for the fiscal third and fourth quarters because of Brexit-related macro-economic uncertainty. Their third-quarter revenue and earnings estimates are down from $42.2 billion to $41.2 billion and $1.40 to $1.35, respectively. The iPhone replacement frequency going down from 24 months in 2013 to 28 months recently was also cited as a reason.

Bernstein Downgrades AMD: The Intel rival has seen a huge rally in share prices this year that a Bernstein analyst feels we should be careful about. Despite beating estimates in the first quarter, the analyst feels the chances of another beat in the second quarter are small. Also, GPU sales estimates on the back of AI and VR are unrealistic according to the analyst. The analyst also has reservations about when the much-touted Zen chips will come to market and doesn’t expect them to ship until next year

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Opens Up on Dash Buttons: Silencing critics on the efficacy of its Dash buttons, Amazon added 50 more Dash buttons to take the total to 150. More importantly, it announced that it gets 2 orders a minute or 2,880 orders daily on these buttons, double the amount it received in March. Dash orders grew 70% in the second quarter.

Micron Reports, Will Cut Jobs: Micron’s results disappointed again as the company continued to miss top line expectations with the bottom line coming in slightly better than expected. With the PC market weakness continuing to pull down results, the turnaround plan remaining a work in progress and a disappointing outlook, there was nothing to stop the shares sliding. Management said that there would be a reduction in headcount of 7.5% or 2,400. The top question for investors is execution: will the company be able to deliver on its 20nm mobile DRAM and 3D NAND promises?