Tag Archives: googl

Google Has Raked In $21 Billion In Android Profit, Oracle Says

Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google has earned $21 billion in profit from more than 3 billion activations of Android-based smartphones, Oracle ‘s ( ORCL ) lawyer said in opening arguments in the second trial pitting the database maker against the Internet search giant. Oracle claims Google violated its copyright on parts of the Java programming language when it created the Android mobile operating system, now used in mobile phones worldwide. Oracle is seeking $8.8 billion in damages. Oracle lawyer Peter Bicks said Google has raked in $42 billion in revenue from Android-based smartphones, according to a Bloomberg report . Google “took a short cut, and it was at Oracle’s expense,” Bicks reportedly told the jury in San Francisco federal court. Oracle claims Google infringed on copyrights covering 37 Java application programming interfaces, or APIs — the critical shortcuts that allow developers to write programs to work across software platforms. Even if Google loses, analysts have noted its strong balance sheet. Google reported $75.3 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities in its Q1 earnings release. Android’s chief competition is Apple’s iOS software, used in iPhones and other Apple mobile devices. Unlike Apple ( AAPL ), Google has made Android open source and widely available to mobile phone makers, such as Samsung. Google says it should be able to use Java without paying a fee under the fair-use provision of copyright law. Oracle acquired Java when it purchased Sun Microsystems in 2010.

Apple R&D Spending Rises But Still Trails Google, Facebook, Amazon

Spending on research and development is soaring at Apple ( AAPL ), Facebook ( FB ), Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google as they race against each other in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, cloud computing, electric cars, drones, the Internet of Things and many other technologies. Apple’s R&D spending rose 30% in Q1 to $2.51 billion. In a regulatory filing, Apple said R&D, including stock compensation for engineers and other technical employees, was 5% of sales, up from 3.3% in the year-earlier period. By that yardstick, however, Apple lags Google by far, as well as Facebook. Facebook’s R&D spending has climbed to 13.4% of sales, up from 10% in 2014 and only 7% in 2010. In Q1, Facebook’s R&D spending rose 26% to $1.34 billion, with the company pushing into Internet drones, virtual reality and augmented reality. While virtual reality immerses a user in an imagined or replicated world (like video games), augmented reality overlays digital imagery onto the real world. Amazon and Google, though, are still the biggest spenders, according to a Bloomberg report . In Q1, R&D totaled  16.6% of Google revenue , Bloomberg said, up from 13.8% two years earlier. While Google aims to make gains in artificial intelligence , it’s trailing in software bots , an area where both Microsoft and Facebook made recent announcements. Google’s R&D spending will rise 16% in 2016 to $14.3 billion, BMO Capital Markets estimates. Then there’s Amazon. In Q1, Amazon’s R&D spending was up 28% to $3.53 billion, Bloomberg reported. At that growth rate, Amazon’s R&D spending will likely top Google’s this year.

Rackspace Posts Q2 Revenue Miss, ‘Lacks Catalysts’ In Cloud Sector

Rackspace Hosting ( RAX ) stock fell after the cloud computing service provider late Monday reported Q1 revenue that missed estimates and forecast current-quarter sales below views. Shares in Rackspace had fallen 2.5% in early trading on the stock market today , but by early afternoon, the stock was up 2.6% to above 23. “The lack of near-term catalysts for growth, in a cloud sector marked by growth, will likely result in continued weakness in the shares despite an aggressive buyback program,” Michael Bowen, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, said in a report. Rackspace repurchased $68 million of its own stock in Q1. It plans to buy back at least $65 million in the current quarter. After that, it would have about $500 million remaining in a share repurchasing program. Rackspace has struggled in competing with the much larger Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing arm of Amazon.com ( AMZN ), as well as Microsoft ‘s ( MSFT ) Azure service and Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) Google in the IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) market. Amazon’s AWS is the biggest provider of IaaS, in which client companies rent computers and data storage via the Internet cloud. Rackspace has been shifting to providing service for public clouds aside from its own, including AWS and Microsoft’s Azure cloud. Rackspace said Q1 earnings rose 21% to 34 cents a share, with revenue up 8% to $518 million. Analysts had modeled for profit of 22 cents and revenue of $519 million. In the current quarter, Rackspace forecast revenue of $521.5 million at the midpoint of its guidance vs. consensus estimates of $523.9 million. Rackspace stock has plunged 58% from 12 months ago. Shares are down about 13% in 2016 so far. Rackspace has an IBD Composite Rating of 53 out of a possible 99.