Category Archives: stocks

Google Home Takes On Amazon’s Echo; Can Apple’s Siri Be Home Hub?

Taking on Amazon.com ’s ( AMZN ) Echo, Alphabe t’s ( GOOGL ) Google previewed an artificial intelligence-powered, voice-activated home device at its Google I/O developer’s conference Wednesday. While Apple ( AAPL ) has Siri, its AI-based digital assistant for iPhones, it has yet to introduce a home hub device. Amazon, though, has sold an estimated 3 million Echo home hubs. “Credit to the team at Amazon for creating a lot of excitement in this space,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in his I/O keynote speech Wednesday. Google Home, designed for music streaming and other entertainment, features built-in search capabilities. The “virtual agent” answers simple questions and carries out basic tasks. Google did not discuss pricing. Google said it expects multiple devices to be used in homes. The Google Home product was code-named “Project Chirp.” Google Home apparently was not developed by Nest Labs, the smart-home-device startup that it bought in 2014. Google Home, however, is expected to communicate with Nest products and Android-based devices. Google also unveiled a new messenging app called “Allo” at the developer’s conference, which runs through Friday at the Mountain View, Calif., Shoreline Amphitheater, near Alphabet headquarters. In a recent letter to Google shareholders, Pichai touted plans for artificial intelligence. While Apple and Google have dominated in the world of mobile apps, there could be more competition down the road.  Facebook ( FB ) recently introduced “chatbots,” while  Microsoft ( MSFT ) launched its “Bot Framework” software tools for developers. Both rely on AI. Wednesday, Google did not unveil a virtual reality headset to compete with Facebook’s Oculus Rift, as some observers had speculated. But Google did introduce a VR headset and controller reference design, called Daydream, for third-party developers. Google said Android N,  the new version of its mobile operating system, will have a VR mode. And the company said Samsung, HTC and Xiaomi will sell Daydream-ready mobile phones. Google stock was down a fraction, near 718, in afternoon trading in the stock market today , and shares have traded below the key 50-day moving average since the company posted disappointing Q1 earnings in late April

With SanDisk Purchase Done, Western Digital Will Give New Guidance

Western Digital ( WDC ) will provide revenue and earnings guidance for the first time since completing its $16 billion acquisition of SanDisk. Western Digital announced the completion of its SanDisk acquisition on Thursday, creating a formidable competitor in both disk drives and flash-chip storage. The company says it will update its guidance on May 26, after the market close, for its fiscal fourth quarter ending July 1. The guidance will reflect the partial period of ownership of SanDisk in Q4. RBC Capital Markets analyst Amit Daryanani, in a research note, said he expects Western Digital to imply Q4 revenue guidance of $3.4 billion. That’s above the consensus estimate of $3.34 billion from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. The Wall Street consensus on earnings per share minus items is 86 cents. Daryanani expects 93 cents. He has an outperform rating on Western Digital stock and a price target of 56. Western Digital was trading near 39, up 5%, in afternoon trading in the stock market today . But shares are down more than 20% since the company’s posted fiscal Q3 earnings on April 28. Western Digital and SanDisk had combined revenue of about $20 billion in 2015. Western Digital is the largest provider of disk drives, ahead of Seagate Technology ( STX ). Seagate was trading near 20, up 4%, Wednesday afternoon. The stock is down 24% since the company reported its fiscal Q3 earnings on April 29. SanDisk is a leading provider of chips used for data storage in a wide variety of devices, including smartphones, tablets and PCs. The deal will help SanDisk, which has a strong retail business, move up the ladder to make bigger sales to businesses and other enterprise customers — the market where Western Digital is strongest. Western Digital gets the ability to offer chip-based storage in areas where its disk drive technology is losing ground.