Power To The IP Players

Semiconductor IP players like ARM Holdings (NASDAQ:ARMH) and InterDigital (NASDAQ:IDCC) have benefitted immensely from the booming sales of smartphones. ARM dominates the mobile computing space and has sets its sights on Intel’s (NASDAQ:INTC) domain of traditional computing. InterDigital, which has about 1,300 patents in cellular technology, recently announced that it is considering strategic alternatives, including a sale. Apple and Google are said to be among the interested companies. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

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IBM Penetrating Markets Beyond BRIC, Including Africa

There doesn’t seem to be much stopping IBM’s performance. Since the beginning of the year, the company has been setting year-high records for their stock price. Their recent quarterly results continued to beat the market expectations and were driven by their strategy of focusing on higher-margin businesses including software and services. There couldn’t have been a better way for the company to celebrate its 100th anniversary this year.

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Netflix Navigates Changing Dynamics

Netflix’s rapid growth finally seems to have slowed. In the latest quarterly results declared earlier this week, the company announced disappointing growth in the number of subscribers. Subscribers in the U.S. to Netflix’s DVD and streaming services grew by a relatively smaller number of 1.96 million to 24.6 million users, compared with the 3.6 million users added a quarter ago. Growth is projected to slow further in the current quarter. Netflix expects to end the current quarter with a domestic subscriber base of 24.6 million to 25.4 million.

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Stronger Mobile Strategy Scoring For eBay

According to comScore, e-commerce spending excluding travel grew 12% over the year in the first quarter to $38 billion. Growth continued this quarter, e-commerce spending for May coming in at $12.3 billion, recording growth of 12% over the year. E-commerce player eBay’s quarterly results reflect the industry’s sentiment.

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Enough, Yahoo!

Unlike the results documented in recent quarterly reports by tech giants such as Google and Apple, which shattered market expectations, Yahoo’s results continued to disappoint. Not only has their stock taken a beating, but the falling market standing and the Alipay mess begs the question, When will CEO Carol Bartz figure out a clear strategy? Although some shareholders have been questioning her position, the company’s board is still sticking by her.

According to eMarketer, the online ad market is expected to be worth $31 billion, and Yahoo’s share is projected to fall to 11% by the end of 2011 compared with the 16% share it commanded in 2009. Compare that to Google, whose market share was projected to reach 41% from 35% in 2009, and Facebook, which is projected to own 7% of the market compared with 2.4% in 2009. These are troubling statistics for Yahoo.

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Apple Firing On All Cylinders

Apple shipped its first iOS device, the iPhone, in the summer of 2007 and has not stopped since. Within a quarter, they sold over one million units. By July 2010, the company had reported sales of iOS devices to have crossed 100 million units sold, and this January, they reported sales of 160 million units. Last month, cumulative iOS device sales crossed 200 million units. To date, Apple has shipped 222 million iOS devices. Apple’s device popularity can be gauged from COO Tim Cook’s comment in the iPad2 “…we sold every iPad 2 in the quarter that we could make and so there certainly was not a shortage of demand.”

Apple is gaining market share across the globe within different market segments. Within the U.S., they are the third-largest PC seller. According to IDC Research, global PC shipments grew 2.6% over the year in the second quarter, compared to the 12% growth in the first quarter. Apple surpassed Acer to own 10.7% of the domestic PC market driven by strong sales of the iPad. A year ago, Apple commanded a 9% market share. In Europe, they recently overtook Nokia, again, this time in mobile ad impression share. InMobi research estimates that during the previous quarter, more than 2 billion ad impressions were served on Apple devices in Europe, commanding 19.5% of the Continent’s mobile ad share. The share of Nokia devices fell to 18.7% of ads in the region. >>>

Skype Video Chat Coming To TV Sets Via Comcast

According to a recently published Neilsen report, global advertising spending among traditional media rose 8.8% over the year in the first quarter of this year to $118 billion. Growth was driven by TV ad spending and emerging markets. During the first quarter, TV ad spending increased 12% over the year and now contributes a 65.3% market share in both developed and many emerging economies among traditional advertising media. Rising ad spending has helped pushed up the revenue of major cable and television service provides within the U.S.

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SecondMarket’s Rapid Growth Sign Of Greater Interest In Alternative Investments

The market is eagerly awaiting big names in the Internet world, such as Facebook and Zynga, to name two, to make their appearance on the stock market. While it waits, “accredited” investors can trade in certain assets related to such companies under Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations. The SEC defines accredited individuals as those who have a net worth of at least $1 million or $200,000 in annual income and have access to market information. Alternative trading brokers offer a marketplace for these individuals as well as corporations to trade in otherwise illiquid securities. In 2010, private-share transactions were estimated to have grown from $2.4 billion in 2009 to $4.6 billion. Researchers estimate that number to rise to $7 billion this year, and most of it is expected to be headed SecondMarket’s way.

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Google Continues To Move Aggressively Into Social Media

Google’s new management seems to be delivering on its promises. The recently reported quarter saw revenue grow fastest since Q2 of 2008. The company maintained its lead in online search with a 65.5% of U.S. queries in June. Yahoo was a distant second with a 15.9% share. Apart from the U.S., Google’s reach in Europe is also growing. Google now controls 92% of the search engine market in the United Kingdom, reporting 1.5% growth over the last month. Yahoo commanded a mere 2.98% market share in the region. On the Continent, Google consistently reported over 90% market share. In France, they reported a 91% share, in Spain and Germany 93%, in Switzerland 94%, in Portugal 95%, and in the Netherlands, Poland, and Romania 96%. It is only in Russia and the Czech Republic where Google owns less than half of the search market. And it is not just the online search market: Google is performing strongly across all its initiatives. >>>

Akamai Expanding In Central Europe

Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM), the content delivery network (CDN) market leader with annual revenue of $1.02 billion, recently announced its plans to expand in Central and Easter Europe (CEE). Akamai is also reported to be looking at licensing its CDN technology. Let’s take a closer look. >>>