Business, Financial & Legal - Page 109

When Lenovo acquired Motorola Mobility out from under Google's nose, we didn't know what would come of it. Well, increased sales is a huge part of that, with Lenovo's new FQ3 2014/5 results showing us just how well Motorola is doing.

Motorola has sold over 10 million smartphones in the last quarter alone, which is up 118% from the same quarter of last year. We don't know the breakdown in numbers for the Moto X and Moto G, but we have to expect that those two phones have been selling rather well for the company. Lenovo is now positioning itself to launch Motorola into the Chinese market, which should see those numbers continue to climb.

Lenovo also expects Motorola to make a lot of money moving into the next four to six quarters (12-18 months), where as of this quarter the Mobile Business Group, of which Motorola operates within, posted an $89 million loss.

The bitcoin cryptocurrency may be able to generate a large amount of buzz, but still has a major sales and marketing problem.

"Bitcoin has a sales job to getting people to trust it, which is ironic because it was set up to be a trustless system," said Paul Vigna, co-author of "The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money are Challenging the Global Economic Order, in a statement to CBS News. "It is sort of opaque and hard to understand and esoteric because it is so new."

Bitcoin won't go away any time soon, and there is around $50 million bitcoin-related transactions carried out per day. It's an extremely small figure compared to the entire financial market, but is an indicator that people remain interested.

It looks like Microsoft will be a minority investor in a new round of funding for Cyanogen, shelling up $70 million for the company that makes its money making custom versions of Google's mobile OS, Android.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that other companies and investors could jump in, throwing their hats into the ring for investment into Cyanogen, something that would take parts of Android's dominance away from Google. But with Microsoft sitting in the corner with its own mobile OS in Windows Phone, this is an interesting turn for the Redmond-based software giant.

With a market share of around 3%, Microsoft needs to claw some of that mobile OS market share away from Android and get people using its Windows Phone platform. Something we could see Microsoft do with an investment into Cyanogen is bake its Bing search engine into it, something that can't be done on an Android-based smartphone.

Google has posted both its Q4 and full year 2014 results, where we see the Mountain View-based giant raking in an impressive $66 billion for the year. This is up 19% from 2013, with its Q4 2014 seeing revenues reach $18.1 billion, up 15% year-over-year.

The company said that its Google-owned sites saw $12.43 billion in revenues for Q4 2014 which is up 18%, while its partner sites pulled $3.72 billion in revenue, up 6%. When it came to revenues secured outside of the United States, Google saw 56% of its total revenue made outside the US. The UK for example, made up 9% of its revenues. Google added an additional 2000 employees to its roster in Q4, too.

Comparing this to Apple, which made $74.6 billion for Q4 2014, more than Google's entire full year revenue, these results are great, but don't touch Apple in the slightest.

A little over fifteen years ago Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy. In a final convulsion, the company decided to bring back its exiled founder Steve Jobs who, as we all know, went on to revolutionise the company to the powerhouse it is today. Still, not many industry analysts called today's profit result for the company, which has just broken the record for the largest quarterly profit in history.

According to the release from the company, up until the quarter ending quarter ending December 27 2014, Apple earned $74.6 billion in gross revenue and recorded quarterly net profit of $18 billion, primarily off the back of strong strong sales of iPhone and Mac products leading into the Christmas period.

To put the revenue result in context, this is more than Microsoft and Google combined, with the latter making less than what Apple did in this quarter in all of 2014. Apple shares closed last night at just under $110 dollars.

TAFE SA have teamed up with a technology company from Adelaide, South Australia, to develop and revolutionize the way 'tradies' are trained down under.

ETRAIN interactive has developed a 3D training simulation software, matching the courses offered through your general education platforms - spanning popular trades such as construction, carpentry, plumbing and minerals drilling.

ETRAIN's founder and managing director, Mathew Balic, has explained that these simulations are ideal for visual learning for students of which struggle with open-book style projects and learning activities - allowing them to easily visualize the task at hand and simulate 'on-the-job training'. He went on the explain that "it's a multi-platform delivery looking to replace textbooks, particularly in trades areas where you get a lot of students with low level literacy and numeracy. Those kids don't engage with traditional book learning, but they do engage with this," furthering "the motivation is there because it's a fun thing to do."

The beleaguered Sony has announced a delay in reporting their third-quarter earnings. The delay comes as a result of the intense hacking attack suffered at the hands of the North Korean government, if you believe the FBI. The hack was purportedly undertaken as a means of punishing Sony Pictures for the forthcoming movie 'The Interview', which soundly blasts the benevolent Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kim Jung-un.

Sony has requested an approval to delay their earnings report, chalking the issue up to damaged network hardware and the loss of a large amount of data. The reference to network hardware likely means their networked storage, such as HDDs in a SAN or NAS, as the bug wiped the drives clean once the hackers were done stealing data.

Sony continues to experience severe disruption of its internal computer systems in the wake of the attack. They initially shut down the entire system, but parts are now functioning again. However, crucial segments, such as financial and accounting applications, are shuttered until the middle of February.

Xiaomi's estimated valuation could reach $100 billion due to increased interest from potential investors, according to billionaire investor Yuri Milner. The Chinese smartphone maker has seen a continued rise of its low-cost smartphones and tablets, while expanding in select markets outside of China.

"I was attracted by the size of the opportunity ahead of them," said Yuri Milner, a billionaire investor, in an interview with Bloomberg. "I don't think there's any company that has reached $1 billion in revenue as fast as Xiaomi. In every conceivable benchmark, it's almost unprecedented in terms of its speed of growth."

Xiaomi wants to become the first major global consumer brand from China, and while the company avoids the United States, will develop its business in China, Brazil, and other select nations.

In an effort to help take bitcoins mainstream, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss want to create a regulated bitcoin exchange, a "Nasdaq of bitcoin" that is insured by the FDIC. The current state of bitcoin is relatively unstable, and despite businesses accepting bitcoin payments, hackers have taken interest in finding ways to steal the popular cryptocurrency - not to mention the continued slide in bitcoin value.

The so-called Gemini exchange would be self-funded by the Winklevoss brothers, as they look to create an infrastructure designed to receive federal support. "Right now we have to build the infrastructure," said Tyler Winklevoss, in a statement published by the New York Times. "You have to walk before you run."

Between Mt. Gox "losing" bitcoins, and bitstamp being hacked with $5 million worth of bitcoins stolen, having a federally-insured offering could help win over potential consumers and investors.

Just how much did Apple's CEO make last year? Well, according to a newly released SEC filing, Tim Cook made $9.22 million last year. Breaking these figures down, we have a salary of $1.7 million, and non-equity incentive compensation of $6.7 million. This is close to double the $4.3 million in compensation he raked in across 2013.

Cook didn't make that much when it came to other staff, with Apple's latest hire, Angela Ahrendts, securing herself a very nice $73 million in cash and stock over 2014. This included a $400,000 salary, $500,000 bonus and $70 million in stock. Ahrendts joined Apple in May of 2014, after making $37 million at Burberry.

These wages can be watered down thanks to the huge $182.8 billion in sales that Apple generated over 2014, with $38.5 billion in net income for fiscal 2014. This is a new record for the company, and during its latest forecast, Apple expects to make between $63.5 billion and $66.5 billion for Q1 2015.

If it's tech-related, it seems Google wants a piece of the action - and the company is willing to spend money to help get the job done. The search giant racked up $16.83 million in federal political lobbying throughout 2014, according to the Consumer Watchdog group.

Google's lobbying figures put it ahead of Comcast, Verizon, IBM, Time Warner Cable, and other big spenders. More importantly, Google is investing more into political action over Microsoft ($8.33 million) and Facebook ($9.34 million), as the company expands into new business ventures.

Google recently invested $1 billion into SpaceX, while Google wants net neutrality laws revamped, to help fund autonomous vehicle research, and other ventures.

The Solar Impulse 2 is a solar-powered plane that is set to travel across the globe, using a healthy dose of vitamin D as its only power source. Last year the plans were revealed by the team behind this massive project, set to travel the whole distance without refueling.

The route of travel has now been revealed, set for kick-off in March 2015. Starting in Abu Dhabi, this aircraft will transgress the globe, stopping first in Asia, followed by America, southern Europe and Northern Africa. These pit-stops are described as refueling breaks for the staff and crew on board, not actually for the plane itself.

Coming in at 4850 lbs and with a 236 ft wingspan, this aircraft is a beauty to witness. Powered by 17,000 solar panels which charge a 2072 lb lithium battery, this plane will soar through the sky at an average cruising speed of 88 mph.

With 2400 jobs on the line globally, cuts are said to be happening across multiple positions including the eBay sister company, PayPal. Set to start this quarter, the cuts were revealed in its fourth quarter results which were published today.

These cuts make up for 7 percent of their total workforce, with this move being described by IT News "as a cost-cutting measure ahead of the planned spin-off of its PayPal payments division."

eBay are also allegedly offering up their enterprise unit for potential sale or public offering, claiming this division doesn't fit in with the payment (PayPal) or marketplace (eBay) units.

Netflix has posted its revenue for both the quarter just passed, and the full 12 months of 2014. The streaming giant thrashed expectations, which had them pegged at $0.45 per share, but Netflix posted $1.35 per share over revenues of $1.48 billion and profits of $83.4 million.

Compared to the same quarter a year ago, Netflix posted just $43 million in profit, or $0.79 per share. Over the entire 12 months, Netflix posted revenues of $5.5 billion. During Q4 alone, the company added 1.9 million subscribers in the US, and 2.43 million overseas for an additional 4.33 million new subscribers. Over the course of the year, Netflix added 39.11 million new subscribers in the US, and 18.28 million subscribers from across the world. Netflix now has a total of 57.39 million subscribers.

This has helped the company post its biggest quarter ever, and is a reason why investors love the company so much - continuous, and close to unstoppable growth.

Minh Nguyen, 38, co-founded the social networking platform Plaxo with his partner Sean Parker. Recently finding himself in jail, Nguyen has been charged with allegedly shooting his ex-wife's new husband, Corey Mattison, in their home.

Two children were in the Ashburn, Virginia residence on the night of January 15 when Nguyen allegedly visited and murdered Mattison. Shortly after Nguyen's arrival, his ex-wife Denise Mattison and another child returned home while an incident was unfolding, no other injuries have taken place. Neighbors of the deceased believe that this altercation came about due to months of conflict over child custody and visitation issues.

Mrs. Mattison took to Facebook in order to spread her story around the world, creating the In Memory of Corey Mattison, My Hero public page, in which she states that "I watched my husband lure a gunman out of the house ... he sacrificed his life to save me and to put an end to the emotional turmoil my children and I endured."

Leon Panetta previously served as the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and also the country's Secretary of Defense. According to a recent announcement, he's just made the move over to Oracle, joining their board of directors.

Set to be the 12th member on this board, he begun work as of yesterday - marking the beginning of his one-year term, before standing for re-election in November at Oracle's annual shareholder meeting.

Previously listed as the Secretary of Defense under the Barack Obama's leadership throughout 2011 to 2013, Panetta also saw a two-year employment through the CIA following his work as a presidential Professor at the Santa Clara University.

According to a class action lawsuit against Apple, the company has tried to hide the issues with their 2011 MacBook Pro, something that is coming out because of the lawsuit.

Apple Insider is reporting details of the case, which is unearthing some interesting details that were otherwise hidden by the company. Law firm Whitfield, Bryson & Mason LLP said in a note "Specifically, we allege that between early- and late-2011, Apple released a software update that dramatically reduced the graphical performance of the GPUs in order to prevent them from reaching temperatures that would cause the GPUs to effectively self destruct".

The lawsuit itself has been expanded, with the firm stating that it has expanded to cover California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Puerto Rico and Vermont. Various members of the class action lawsuit have offered up their hardware for testing, with experts performing various tests on their faulty MacBook Pros. The company is expected to file a motion to dismiss the case on January 29, but Whitfield, Bryson & Mason will be responding with their own filing on March 5.

We constantly hear of the mountains of money that mobile giants like Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm and more make, but what about the industry itself? According to a new report commissioned by Qualcomm from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), we are getting a handle on just how much money the industry is generating.

In 2014 alone, the mobile industry generated a gigantic $3.3 trillion, with six of the 25 most valuable companies in the world - Alibaba, Apple, China Mobile, Facebook, Google and Verizon - earn revenue directly from mobile technology. But it's not just the big tech giants that are enjoying these returns, as mobile technology has created 11 million jobs in six countries that BCG studied. These countries are Brazil, China, Germany, India, South Korea and the United States.

The report also found that investments into infrastructure and technology hit $1.8 trillion between 2009 and 2013, and those who are involved in the mobile industry will continue to spend heavily into research and development, especially in areas like the titanic shift between 4G and 5G that is coming in the next few years. It's expected that companies will spend around $4 billion in R&D over the next five years alone.

In their latest 8-k filing form, AMD have listed their top executives and some major changes have been noted. Three of the 'top dogs' have missed the grade, seeing John Bryne, GM of Computing and Graphics Business Group; Colette LaForce, Chief Marketing Officer; and Raj Naik, Chief Strategy Officer no longer on the list.

Some are calling this the "biggest corporate shakeup in the ailing company's history," with AMD now no longer having some of their biggest brainpower members listed, with Bryne being one of the most notable - seeing his promotion from Chief Sales Officer to the GM of Computing and Graphics Business Group position just a mere seven months prior.

With the changing of the guard, AMD have announced that "these changes, including the additions of Forrest Norrod and James Clifford to our management team last quarter, collectively are part of implementing an optimal organization design and leadership team to further sharpen our execution and position AMD for growth."

The Spotify music streaming service reached 60 million subscribers, with 15 million paid users, the company said in a blog post. A paid subscription costs $9.99 per month per account, and Spotify hopes more of its listeners transition into paying subscribers.

"We had an amazing 2014 at Spotify and owe it all to you, the music fans who listen, discover, share and celebrate music and artists with us every day of the year," Spotify said in a blog post. It would appear Spotify's pre-Christmas offering of three months of subscription service for just $0.99 per month instead of the $9.99 normal price tag.

More than half of Spotify listeners use their smartphones and tablets to access the service, Spotify recently noted.