Facebook and WhatsApp-what's up with that

Facebook is acquiring mobile messaging service WhatsApp for 19 billion dollars.It is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for it.It works with Android,iPhone,BlackBerry,Windows Phone and Nokia.It may also be downloaded to your PC via DownloadApper.com.There is a nominal subscription charge of one dollar a year.The Mountain View,California company was founded in 2009 by CEO Jan Koum and Brian Acton.*
CNBC's tech analyst John Fortt commented on the move,saying we're in this interesting land grab period for mobile and social.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent 10% of his company for this.That's a lot.It has no revenue raising opportunity.Its users are mostly in the emerging markets and are not willing to pay much more.It's gigantic.A couple of bucks a year in some of these countries is a lot of money.
I don't say it's a bad move.It's a move to increase scale,to take out a potential competitor.Facebook and WhatsApp have it cut out for them to scale it and make it succeed financially.There are lots of different ways to look at the strategic value of something like this,and we won't know for a couple of years how good it was.Facebook investors never got to go to WhatsApp and look into it,Fortt pointed out.*
His colleague,CNBC Contributor Jon Steinberg,added that the rules have changed,and you have to take bold moves.WhatsApp is way bigger than Twitter.With this move,Facebook is now diversified.
Everyone in the Valley has been talking about this company for months.Everybody wanted to buy this company.Shareholders should bear in mind that Zuckerberg made a good move that was an expensive move,but they should be glad they have a CEO willing to take bold action in a rapidly changing field.*
Facebook might not make much money off the move initially,but that doesn't mean they had a choice if they want to stay in the big leagues of mobile and social media.*
Facebook(FB)

Microsoft's Troubled Road

The declining PC business matters,according to Dan Niles,co-Chief Investment Officer at asset manager AlphaOne Capital Partners.Enterprise is still tied to the PC business.Microsoft missed estimates in all five revenue segments.The problem is,you're gonna have more tablets sold than PCs in Q4. Microsoft is a great cash flow business.It's a software company,but it's on the wrong side of the market.It has a good quarter mixed in here and there.Until they figure out how to have a strong smart phone and tablet,they're on the wrong side of a business transition. Google is in a good spot with Android.Eventually,this mobile transition will run its course.For Microsoft,you need stabilisation in the PC market.In 2-3 years from now,you might reconsider the stock. Mr.Niles,Senior Portfolio Manager of the AlphaOne Satori Fund,has a negative position in both Microsoft and Google. Microsoft is currently undergoing a restructuring,in an attempt to better navigate the shifting business landscape. Microsoft(MSFT),Google(GOOG)

Hewlett-Packard:Head in the Cloud

Our cloud strategy is,the cloud that the enterprise can rely on,said Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman.I had said eBay was my last CEO job.I have met over 500 customers in the past 18 months or so,and every one wants HP to win,and that's why I took the job:because it matters.
When you put the right HP people in the room,no one does it better.It's about time to market,the innovation you're going to bring.It's a very competitive world.You're gonna win some,you're gonna lose some.
We will reduce headcount by about 24,000 over three years.We're about halfway through.The way tech is bought,consumed and payed for is changing fast.It's cloud,it's mobility-the new style of IT.The enterprise has to get from where they are to where they want to be.IT has to drive revenue.
We have to outwit,outsmart and and outcompete our competitors,and that's what we aim to do.We did increase R and D,but we also narrowed the scope of it.It is so much fun to watch our R and D engineers.That sroke of genius we're known for is still very much alive today,Ms.Whitman indicated.
HP stock closed at 25.16 on Monday,up 1.69%.
Hewlett-Packard(HPQ)

Inside the Deal:Should Yahoo Buy Tumblr

Yahoo is purchasing blog site Tumblr for 1.1 billion dollars.Should it be spending so much on a site that has made so little money?Tumblr is a platform that has revenue of only 13 million dollars.Is Yahoo crazy or something?
CNBC's Jim Cramer says Yahoo is buying relevance.Tumblr has the demographic 18-34,which Yahoo lacks now.Yahoo could use anything that shows it has a pulse.It's TV of the future.Budweiser,McDonalds and Procter and Gamble will advertise on Tumblr.
This is about mobile.They're getting an immediate plug-in into mobile,as 50% of Tumblr connections are on mobile.It gives Yahoo a massive footprint.It's a very smart move.
This is a new generation of leaders at Yahoo.You can't look at the past;this makes a lot of sense,according to Chris Cunningham,CEO of Appsavvy.We're talking about Yahoo.I predict a richer,more appropriate,user-centric vision.
Tumblr is not a tradtitional tech company,but a user compant that has a huge adult audience.Tumblr is cool,it's edgy.It makes sense.They're gonna work on the inappropriate content.Tumblr is a phenomenal company.Their road map,their vision stays on tap.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said we have a global audience of more than a billion people with the addition of Tumblr.They get 24 billion user minutes a month.As we promised,we are not gonna screw this up.
Yahoo is increasing its New York presence,leasing four floors of the former New York Times headquarters building.
Yahoo,Inc(YHOO)

Should You Invest in Yahoo

Yahoo beat Wall Street expectations for both profit and overall sales in Q4,with a roughly 4% gain in sales.Display ads alone brought in 520 million dollars in revenue,which was down 10% on the year;but search revenue was 427 million,up from 376 million a year ago.
Eric Jackson of Ironfire Capital said Yahoo is gonna be the AOL of 2013.I think Yahoo has really been trucking along nicely.This year,there is a possible sale of Yahoo's stake in China's Alibaba.com,plus the monetisation of Yahoo Japan.
Marissa Mayer,Yahoo's fifth CEO in four years,is clearly focused on mobile,but it will take years.They're gonna focus on small acquisitions-companies with 50 employees or less whom they can partner with.Yahoo can actually partner with anyone-even Apple or Google.
Ms.Mayer,37,who had been one of Google's founding employees, is a genuine star of the business world.She's injected some dynamism into a company Wall Street had all but given up on.
Yahoo shares are at a three year high.Stifel Nicolaus raised the stock from a hold to a buy Monday.Yahoo closed flat at 19.34 in Monday after hours trading.
Yahoo Inc(YHOO)

Will Hewlett-Packard Have a Happy New Year

Hewlett-Packard's Elite Pad is focused on the enterprise,said Todd Bradley,Executive Vice President of HP's Printing and Personal Systems Group.It is built on a Microsoft platform with manageability and security in mind,starting at the enterprise and letting it come down to the consumer.
Clearly the global market is changing.Our ability to innovate in hardware,software and design will help us stand out and sell to both consumers and enterprise.
The activity at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was pretty robust.There was a lot of focus on touch and Windows 8.
HP will roll out new high speed ink products later this year.There will be eprint,which goes from a mobile device anywhere in the world to the printer you choose.
Christmas was good for HP.The transition to both online and in-store shopping is taking place all over the world and is converging.
In after hours trading Monday,HP shares were at 17.00,up 0.84%.
Hewlett-Packard(HPQ),Microsoft(MSFT)