US regulators have not yet shown all their cards, but they should pause before arguing that too big equals anticompetitive, or seeking to break up or substantially restructure the tech giants. Instead, they might want to look to Europe.
Read moreBig Tech Can Stay Ahead of Regulators by Breaking Itself Up
Rumblings about the role of Big Tech in American society have coalesced into a storm long coming, with revelations that the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are contemplating sweeping antitrust investigations of Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple.
Read moreIf China Really Wants to Retaliate, It Will Target Apple
Apple has a Huawei problem. Of the myriad issues raised by the evolving and intensifying US-China trade Cold War, the knock-on effects on Apple have been perhaps least appreciated. And not just Apple, of course, but a slew of American companies that have both shifted production to China over the past two decades and, more vitally, tapped into Chinese middle-class consumers as a source of growth and profits.
Read moreWhat the Stock Selloff Tells us About the Future of Tech
The past three months have not been kind to large public technology companies. Amid crescendos of criticism about monopolistic power, these companies saw their market value plummet. The rampant selling has leveled off, at least for the moment, so it’s an opportune time to ask: What comes next?
Apple is Ditching the Mass Market and Focusing on Rich People
At $1 Trillion, Amazon Should Fear Regulations More Than Rivals
Amazon briefly touched $1 trillion in market capitalization on Tuesday, barely a month after Apple topped $1 trillion. The companies share the letter A and 12 zeros, but the similarity largely ends there.
Read moreSo Apple is Worth $1 Trillion. Now Comes the Hard Part.
So it finally happened. Apple announced stellar quarterly earnings; investors liked them; the stock rose; and Apple became the first US company to surpass $1 trillion in market value. In our love for big numbers, that made it a big story.
Read moreWhat Apple Has to Fear from China
No company wants to report that its sales have declined. But when you’re Apple, which has consistently seen its revenues grow for more than twelve years, it’s not just bad news but a serious kink in a joyful narrative of boundless possibility. Earlier this week the company—the most valuable in the U.S.—told shareholders that revenues had declined by thirteen per cent.
Read moreWhat Trade-Deal Critics Are Missing
The 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal signed Monday is poised to become an election-year piñata as the Obama administration works to get it through Congress. Hillary Clinton, who supported the TPP when she was secretary of state, came out against it on Wednesday: “I don’t believe it’s going to meet the high bar I have set.” Sen. Bernie Sanders, her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, issued a caustic statement: “It is time for the rest of us to stop letting multinational corporations rig the system to pad their profits at our expense.”
Read moreReasons to Buy Apple
Discussing the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, and whether strong pre-orders is good news for the stock, with Alex Gauna, JMP Securities, and Zachary Karabell, Envestnet.
FROM CNBC | SEPTEMBER 14, 2015
It’s an old numbers game. What if they’re wrong?
When President Obama unveiled his $3.77 trillion budget, a key selling point relied on a somewhat arcane economic indicator: the ratio of federal debt to GDP (the goods and services the nation produces). How much debt can the nation manage?
Read moreApple: The Slaying of a Tech Hero
Apple's quarterly results this week drew a flood of reactions - almost all negative. Given how well the company did under almost any absolute measure, this is odd, though, for Wall Street, not necessarily surprising. But the arc of Apple's rise and temporary fall tells a more troubling story about our current inability to maintain positive momentum about any aspect of our culture. We slay our heroes with casual abandon. Then we wring our hands about the absence of positive catalysts in our world today.
Read moreLatest Record Results Show Apple a Bigger Global Power Than Most Nations
Yet again, Apple announced record sales and earnings. Yet again, its “Jobs report” stood in stark contrast to the monthly official jobs report. For the past four years, as the U.S. economy has stumbled, Apple has soared. As millions have lost jobs or stayed underemployed, Apple has sold more phones, iPads, and computers than most thought possible. While its success certainly has come at the expense of competitors such as Research in Motion (maker of the BlackBerry) and Nokia, it has generated tens of billions in revenue and sold tens of millions of devices by reaching new customers and not simply taking market share. And it has seen its most dramatic success during one of the worst economic slumps in the developed world.
Read moreHuge Corporations Win Global Economic Spoils as 99 Percent Get Squeezed
The 1 percent versus the 99 percent—the haves and the have-nots; the government or the people; China versus the United States. Our conversations today are framed by these splits, yet as compelling as these are, they are each secondary to the yawning gulf that has emerged between large, multinational companies and everything else.
Read moreBefore Condemning Foxconn, Americans Should Examine Their Own Labor History
Apple has made waves this week, but not for its products or its stock price. Instead, it has once again been the center of damning revelations about labor practices in Chinese factories that make the iPad and the iPhone. But while Apple certainly deserves the criticism, this story is not as simple as it seems. It’s not just about Apple and working conditions; the other story is U.S. anxiety about China, double standards, and an American tendency to forget our own history and how we have evolved.
Read moreMarkets’ Mood Swings Show Volatility, Don’t Signal Financial Armageddon
Once more into the breach we go. After a strong week where markets regained some footing, Monday once again saw a sharp selloff of nearly 2 percent. These wildly volatile days have been the norm since mid-summer, and as any market maven will attest, such volatility usually means that there is more to come.
Read moreThe Frighteningly Fast Fall of Blackberry (And Why Even Apple Should Care)
On Thursday, the maker of the once-ubiquitous Blackberry devices, Research in Motion, reported its quarterly results. They were not pretty.
Read more