Tag Archives: aapl

Are Apple, Facebook, Google Shopping For Payments Acquisitions?

Silicon Valley tech giants Apple ( AAPL ), Facebook ( FB ) and Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) Google are likely to begin acquiring payments firms, with  PayPal ( PYPL ) among the possible targets, investment bank Wedbush said after polling what it termed a panel of experts. The shopping spree will be sparked by slowing industry growth and “capital markets back at higher valuations,” Wedbush analyst Gil Luria wrote in a research note Monday. The panel told Wedbush that Google would be the best fit to acquire PayPal. Luria, however, disagreed with the panel, writing that he believes MasterCard ( MA ) would gain more value from a PayPal acquisition. PayPal stock was up 4%, near 41, in late-afternoon trading on the stock market today . The IBD Leaderboard stock cleared a 40.03 buy point early Monday. The stock has an IBD Composite Rating of 94, where 99 is the highest. Wedbush panelists included a former senior vice president at PayPal, as well as executives with credit card companies including MasterCard. On Sunday, PayPal announced that it would be opening up its money-transfer service Xoom to Cuba. The announcement coincided with President Obama’s historic trip to the island nation. Square Not Likely To Be Acquired The report dismissed Square ( SQ ) as a potential acquisition target until it can attract more than just “small-ticket merchants,” Luria cited the panelists as saying. Luria speculated that Visa ( V ) would unload its approximately 1% stake in Square vs. acquiring more. Earlier this month, Square posted its first quarterly earnings reports since its November IPO. Results met Wall Street expectations, but slowing merchant growth led to a disappointing outlook . Square stock rose to a 2016 high on Monday, up 10% near 13, in late-afternoon trading. The gains came with no apparent news. In an email, Luria told IBD, “Square is very heavily shorted with a very small float — that has translated into significant volatility in the share price, including today.” The float will rise in less than two months: The IPO lockup period for insiders and major venture capital investors expires May 17. The panelists said that if Square’s lending business continues to grow at 200% to 300%, it will likely “end badly.” Square Capital provides cash advances to some of Square’s small-merchant customers. But Square Capital is essentially a subprime lender, Luria has told IBD.

Apple Unveils 4-Inch iPhone SE, New iPad Pro, Cuts Apple Watch Price

Apple ( AAPL ) unveiled a new 4-inch iPhone, a smaller iPad Pro and cut the Apple Watch base price at its spring product launch event Monday that contained few surprises and no “one more thing.” iPhone SE As expected, Apple announced a new 4-inch smartphone called the iPhone SE. Last year, Apple sold over 30 million 4-inch iPhones, so it remains an important market segment for the company. Many people simply prefer a compact smartphone, Apple said. The new handset will replace the iPhone 5S, which was released in September 2013. The new smartphone includes upgraded components including an A9 processor, 12-megapixel camera and NFC technology to enable Apple Pay. The iPhone SE will start at $399 for a 16-gigabyte model. A 64-GB model will cost $499. Apple will begin taking orders Thursday and the handset will ship March 31. It will be available in more than 100 countries by the end of May. Smaller iPad Pro Apple also launched a smaller iPad Pro tablet, as expected. The new 9.7-inch iPad Pro joins the 12.9-inch original, which was launched last fall. Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller said the company is making a smaller iPad Pro because it wants to serve the largest segment of the tablet market. Apple has sold over 200 million iPads with a 9.7-inch display to date, he said. Schiller also believes the new iPad Pro will appeal to Microsoft Windows PC users. The iPad Pro also supports new accessories including a smaller Smart Keyboard and the Apple Pencil. Other accessories include a USB camera adapter and SD card reader that plug into the Lightning port. “It is the ultimate PC replacement for all those old PCs in the world,” Schiller said. The iPad Pro starts at $599 for a 32-GB model. Pre-orders begin Thursday and it will go on sale March 31. Apple Watch Price Cut Apple also cut the entry price for the Apple Watch to $299 from $349. It also announced several new watch bands for the Apple Watch, including a new woven nylon band as well as new sport and metal bands. About a third of Apple Watch wearers regularly change their bands, CEO Tim Cook said. Wall Street analysts had said the new products were unlikely to move the needle for the company, predicting no big surprises. As the company’s “Let us loop you in” event started at 10 a.m. Pacific time (1 p.m. Eastern) in Cupertino, Calif., Apple stock was up slightly. The stock reversed lower for modest losses during the event and are currently trading down 0.2% to 105.70. Cook Defends Apple Vs. FBI Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the event by reinforcing the company’s argument that the federal government has overstepped its legal bounds by demanding Apple hack its iPhone security. Apple and the Justice Department are set to square off in a federal court on Tuesday in a criminal case where the FBI wants Apple to develop software to bypass its password security measures. “We need to protect your data and your privacy,” Cook said. “This is an issue that affects all of us and we will not shrink from this responsibility.” Cook also announced that the company had reached a major milestone: more than 1 billion Apple devices are now in use worldwide. Apple executives also announced advancements with its HealthKit and ResearchKit projects and launched CareKit, a framework to build apps that allow patients to take better care of themselves. CareKit will be available in April.    

Amazon, Google Cloud Services Price War Back On Amid Apple Loss?

A cloud computing price war pitting Google vs. Amazon Web Services could be back on amid Amazon’s customer defections, most notably  Apple ( AAPL ), says Oppenheimer. The investment bank cut its price target on Amazon.com ( AMZN ) stock and lowered its AWS revenue estimates. Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein forecasts that AWS will slash prices for cloud services by 10% after Alphabet ( GOOGL )-owned Google’s user conference Wednesday and Thursday. Some observers speculate that Google could cut prices for its infrastructure-as-a-service offering, in which customers rent computer servers and data storage systems via the Internet. Apple has reportedly shifted some of its iCloud business to Google from AWS. AWS is the  biggest IaaS provider, followed by Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Google. Helfstein says that AWS also faces market share gains by Microsoft’s Azure cloud service. “We believe AWS will reduce prices 10%, vs. 5%  previously, following this week’s Google Cloud Platform event,” wrote Helfstein in a research report. “While AWS is still far ahead of the competition in features and services, as reflected in zero price reductions in 2015, we cannot ignore recent press reports of potential client losses (Apple, Spotify and Dropbox).” The new boss of Google’s cloud business, Diane Greene, will make her debut at this week’s user conference. In November, Google acquired Greene’s startup, Bebop, for $380 million. Helfstein lowered his price target on Amazon stock to 660 from 700. He lowered 2016 and 2017 AWS revenue estimates by 4% and 11%, respectively. While AWS has been the biggest IaaS price-cutter of the last decade, Google has been aggressive since moving into the market. Google slashed prices in March 2014, October 2014 and June 2015. “With no price reductions in 2015, AWS clearly viewed itself in a very strong competitive position. However, this was out-of-sync with the historical trend of 20%-25% annual price reductions and the 45% reduction in 2014 (mostly in reaction to Google),” added the Oppenheimer analyst.