Tag Archives: intc

Google Worries Mount Over EU Antitrust Fine, Oracle Case Outcome

The European Commission may hit Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) Google with a $3.4 billion fine as early as June on grounds that the U.S. Internet giant favors its own shopping service in Internet searches. The European Union’s biggest antitrust fine to date was $1.45 billion, against chipmaker Intel ( INTC ) in 2009. The EU in 2013 also fined Microsoft ( MSFT ) $730 million for failing to respect an antitrust settlement with regulators. The most Google could be fined would be 10% of annual revenue under EU law, which would be roughly double the $3.4 billion fine. Google posted revenue near $75 billion in 2015 and reported $75.3 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities in its Q1 earnings release. The Sunday Telegraph first reported the antitrust fine. Google has not commented. The EU’s European Commission (EC) regulators in recent years have investigated other U.S. companies — including Amazon.com ( AMZN ), Facebook ( FB ) and Apple ( AAPL ) — over antitrust and privacy issues. If the EU fines Google, it would put U.S. regulators in the spotlight. The Federal Trade Commission in 2013 ended an investigation into whether Google abused its dominance in the Internet search market without bringing charges. The EU has opened up a separate probe involving Google’s Android smartphone software. Meanwhile, a copyright infringement case involving Oracle ( ORCL ) and Google is heading into its second week. 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. “If the EC does issue the ruling, Google is required to comply with the nondiscrimination ruling even while pursuing a possible court appeal, which could take three to five years,” said Paul Gallant, an analyst at Guggenheim Partners, in a research report. “This is not well understood by investors. “In addition, if Google refuses to comply — or if its revisions are deemed inadequate — it can be subject to an ongoing noncompliance fine  of up to 5% of its global annual revenues, pro-rated daily.” Alphabet stock was flat in early trading, near 724. Alphabet stock broke out of a cup-with-handle base at a 777.41 buy point on April 14, but it is now near the 7% to 8% decline where selling shares is recommended.

Cisco Pressured By Enterprise Trends Ahead Of Fiscal Q3 Earnings

Negative trends in the enterprise market — large companies and government agencies — are lowering expectations ahead of Cisco Systems ‘ ( CSCO ) fiscal Q3 earnings, due out Wednesday after the market close. Many large companies are outsourcing business computing workloads to cloud computing service providers such as Amazon Web Services, part of Amazon.com ( AMZN ), lessening their need for the routers, switches and other networking gear sold by Cisco and others. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimate Cisco earnings minus items will rise 2% to 55 cents, though they see revenue falling 1% to $11.97 billion. “We see three major issues into this earnings release, including weak IT data points, all signaling industrywide IT spending weakness, less visibility around service provider spending, and global macro exposure,” Kulbinder Garcha, a Credit Suisse analyst, said in a research report. “Year to date, we have seen weak IT spending indications from large bellwethers including IBM ( IBM ), EMC ( EMC ), Juniper ( JNPR ), Brocade ( BRCD ) and SAP ( SAP ),” added Garcha, who has an underperform rating on the stock. JPMorgan analyst Rod Hall, in a research report, cited negative enterprise market commentary from Intel ( INTC ), Oracle ( ORCL ) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise ( HPE ). Reports of slower tech spending was a factor in the stock market’s plunge early in the year. With many tech companies struggling to meet expectations recently, an in-line quarter for Cisco might be good enough to move shares higher, said Citigroup analyst Jim Suva. RW Baird’s Jayson Noland was another analyst citing slower spending of late. “Our partner survey results indicate a softer-than-expected April quarter, with improved prospects for growth for the remainder of calendar 2016,” Noland wrote in a research note. Cisco stock, up 1% near 27 in early trading in the stock market today , is about even in 2016. Cisco stock is up 20% since touching a two-year low in early February.

Adobe Systems Acquires Livefyre To Strengthen Marketing Cloud

Adobe Systems ( ADBE ) on Tuesday announced an agreement to acquire audience-engagement firm Livefyre to bolster its Adobe Marketing Cloud services. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Livefyre is a privately held company based in San Francisco. San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe plans to integrate Livefyre into its Adobe Experience Manager, allowing customers to collect, curate and publish user-generated content from major social networks into their own marketing channels. “With this acquisition, our customers will be able to unify the best social media content with branded experiences created in Adobe Creative Cloud and community-driven content in Adobe Behance and Adobe Stock,” Aseem Chandra, vice president of Adobe Experience Manager and Adobe Target, said in a statement . Bringing together branded and curated social content from Twitter ( TWTR ), Facebook ( FB ), Instagram and other social networks will provide an opportunity for marketers to further drive customer engagement and conversion, Adobe said in a press release. Livefyre customers include Time Warner ‘s ( TWX ) CNN, the Coca-Cola Co. ( KO ), Cox Media Group, Hallmark, Intel ( INTC ), Kimberly-Clark ( KMB ), Major League Baseball, News Corp. ( NWSA ), the PGA Tour, Univision and Warner Music Group. Adobe is a top-rated stock on IBD’s Leaderboard chart. The media software company is trading just below its all-time high of 98, reached on March 18. It would hit a buy point out of a flat base at 98.10. Adobe stock fell 1.3% to 93.66 on the stock market today  but rose more than 1% after hours. RELATED: Adobe Teams With Box To Improve Digital Document Workflow .