Author Archives: Scalper1

Apple Begins Retail Refresh With San Francisco Store

Apple ( AAPL ) on Saturday will open a new store at San Francisco’s Union Square, offering many new features and services that it will be rolling out to other Apple retail stores worldwide. Apple is evolving its store design and trying to make its shops into community hubs that entertain and educate visitors, Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of retail and online stores, said in a statement . The Union Square location features 42-foot-tall sliding glass doors at the entrance and a 6K video wall inside. The Genius Bar has been replaced by a Genius Grove, where customers can get support from Apple tech experts under a canopy of local trees in the center of the store. The Union Square store also boasts an art-filled outdoor plaza with seating, free Wi-Fi, a 50-foot “green wall” and regular acoustic music performances. Apple expects to add similar public spaces at other flagship stores. The store is powered by 100% renewable energy, including electricity produced by photovoltaic panels integrated into the building’s roof. At a press preview Thursday, Ahrendts said she wants to see Apple stores integrated with the community and become like town squares, the Verge reported . “This is more than just a store,” Ahrendts said. “We want people to say, ‘Hey, meet me at Apple.’ ” Apple shares were up 1.1% to 95.22 at Friday’s close on the stock market today . RELATED: Apple Has Largest Cash Stockpile, Twice That Of Microsoft’s Hedge Funds Dump Apple, Buy Facebook In Q1 .

8×8 Guidance Tops Views; Stock Up On ‘Next Phase Of Growth’

8×8 ( EGHT ) stock jumped Friday after the provider of business communications services on Thursday reported higher-than-expected fiscal Q4 revenue and forecast current-year sales above consensus estimates. 8×8 stock leapt 7.3% to 12.60 in the stock market today , touching a nearly four-month high. With Friday’s gain, the San Jose, Calif.-based company’s stock is in the black for 2016 to date. Shares broke out of a cup-with-handle at a 12.05 buy point on Wednesday. The provider of VoIP services (voice over Internet protocol) has an IBD Composite Rating of 93 out of a possible 99, putting it among the top 7% of all companies on key metrics such as stock performance. 8×8 reported adjusted earnings of 3 cents per share in fiscal Q4 ended March 31, down from 5 cents per share in the year-earlier period but in-line with Wall Street views. Revenue rose 32% to $57.3 million, where analysts had modeled revenue of $54.4 million. In the current fiscal year, 8×8 said it expects revenue of $251 million at the midpoint of its guidance range, vs. consensus estimates of $245 million. For fiscal 2016, the company said sales rose 29% to $209.3 million. “8×8 has now entered the next phase of growth, graduating from being a pure over-the-top small-business VoIP provider in the United States to a global enterprise communications service provider with a broad end-to-end suite of cloud service offerings,” Dmitry Netis, an analyst at William Blair, said in a research report.

Yahoo Could Fetch Less Than Expected; Stock Falls

Yahoo ( YHOO ) stock fell Friday on speculation the Web portal’s buyout offers might be less than half of what most observers had been expecting, amid a second round of bidding. Yahoo stock fell 1.4% to 36.50 in the stock market today . That gives it a market valuation of roughly $35 billion, but almost all of its value is comprised of big stakes in China e-commerce giant Alibaba ( BABA ) and in Tokyo-listed Yahoo Japan. Verizon Communications ( VZ ), which bought AOL last year, has been viewed as the front-runner to buy Yahoo, although private equity firms have also been kicking the tires. There’s been speculation that Microsoft ( MSFT ), which has a search partnership with Yahoo, could team with a private-equity firm, or that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway ( BRKB ) might back a bid by Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert. Some early estimates put possible bids in the $5 billion to $8 billion range for the core Yahoo business, which excludes Alibaba and Yahoo Japan. As many as 10 bidders have taken part in presentations led by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, according to reports. The Wall Street Journal, however, reported late Thursday that some PE firms might offer as little as $2 billion to $3 billion, or not bid at all. And Verizon, too, might offer a lower bid, says the report, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. Yahoo has set a deadline in the first week of June for the next round of bids. Verizon, which bought AOL in 2015 for $4.4 billion, aims to morph into a digital media company that garners more advertising revenue, as wireless data competition mounts.