Author Archives: Scalper1

Apple Building Siri-Based Rival To Amazon Echo

Apple ( AAPL ) reportedly is making a voice-response personal-assistant device to take on Amazon ( AMZN ) Echo and similar room appliances. The device will leverage Apple’s Siri application from its mobile devices, The Information reported Tuesday . The device will have a microphone and speaker that people can use to turn on music, get news headlines and make other spoken requests, the news website said. Apple is expected to release a software development kit to open up the device to third-party developers. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company will unveil the project at its Worldwide Developers Conference, which runs June 13-17 in San Francisco. Siri today offers limited third-party support, including services such as Yelp ( YELP ), Rotten Tomatoes and Shazam. Amazon largely created the market for always-listening digital assistants with Echo, introduced in late 2014. The e-commerce giant released an SDK last year for Alexa, the voice assistant that powers its Echo speakers. Last week, Alphabet ( GOOGL )-owned Google unveiled a conversational assistant that builds on its Google Now service and will support third-party services. It will sell a voice-activated speaker called Google Home later this year. Other digital assistant services include Microsoft ’s ( MSFT ) Cortana and Facebook ’s ( FB ) M. RELATED: Google echoes Amazon’s Echo, opens new virtual-reality door Amazon.com Has Likely Sold 3 Million Echo Speakers To Date

Alibaba Faces SEC Accounting Probe Of Singles Day, More

Alibaba ( BABA ) disclosed Wednesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission has been probing whether its accounting into its Singles Day e-commerce event and various consolidation practices violate U.S. securities laws. Shares of the e-commerce giant fell 3.9% to 77.96 in morning trade on the stock market today , undercutting the 50-day moving average where Alibaba has found support in recent days. IBD’s Take: How healthy is Alibaba’s stock, and how does it compare vs. key rivals such as Amazon? Find out at IBD Stock Checkup Alibaba reported the SEC probe in an SEC filing. Here is the key passage. “Earlier this year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, informed us that it was initiating an investigation into whether there have been any violations of the federal securities laws. The SEC has requested that we voluntarily provide it with documents and information relating to, among other things: our consolidation policies and practices (including our accounting for Cainiao Network as an equity method investee), our policies and practices applicable to related party transactions in general, and our reporting of operating data from Singles Day. We are voluntarily disclosing this SEC request for information and cooperating with the SEC and, through our legal counsel, have been providing the SEC with requested documents and information. The SEC advised us that the initiation of a request for information should not be construed as an indication by the SEC or its staff that any violation of the federal securities laws has occurred. This matter is ongoing, and, as with any regulatory proceeding, we cannot predict when it will be concluded.” Singles Day — Nov. 11 — has become the world’s largest e-commerce event, far above Cyber Monday or the new Amazon ( AMZN ) Prime Day last year. Alibaba had $13.7 billion in sales in last year’s event, with JD.com ( JD ) and other Chinese retailers also taking part. Separately, Alibaba, Baidu ( BIDU ), Tencent ( TCEHY ) and other Chinese Internet companies should should see continued strong growth in online-to-offline spending, Moody’s says. Moody’s sees Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, sometimes referred to as “BAT,” should deliver 15%-30% revenue growth over the next  12-18 months, partly due to O2O efforts that have increased customer engagement and monetization. Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent have spent billions of dollars on O2O-related initiatives in recent years. “For all three companies, we expect that their investments will remain high, as they establish or acquire end-to-end logistics capabilities,” Moody’s said.

Sarepta Gets Second Wind, As FDA Delays Drug Decision — Again

Biotech Sarepta Therapeutics ( SRPT ) soared in early trading Wednesday after the Food and Drug Administration delayed making a decision on whether to approve its muscular dystrophy drug, giving new hope for a product that Wall Street had generally given low odds. The FDA’s self-imposed deadline had been Thursday, which itself was pushed back three months from the original decision date. Sarepta’s statement didn’t mention a new deadline, just saying that the reviewers “will not be able to complete their work” by the current deadline. Sarepta’s drug eteplirsen, for a subgroup of patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), had always had a tough case to make based on a clinical trial with only 12 subjects and no internal control group. The odds of success looked even lower when the majority of an FDA advisory committee last month voted not to recommend approval. However, families of patients with DMD, who generally don’t live past the age of 30, have been lobbying hard for some treatment to come on the market, since currently none are available. Analyst Simos Simeonidis of RBC Capital Markets suspects that this is the reason for the delay, but he still gives the drug only a 30% chance of approval. “Despite the fact that today’s news slightly increases the chances of an approval, we have a hard time imagining the agency setting the precedent of approving a drug with such a limited dataset,” Simeonidis wrote in a research note. “On the other hand, we cannot overlook the tremendous pressure being put on the FDA, and it is very difficult to gauge what may happen behind the scenes at the agency at the last minute.” Sarepta stock shot up 20% soon after the opening bell on the stock market today , near 22.