Shipments of two new HTC smartphones have been seized for inspection by US
Customs because of the limited import ban Apple got from the International
Trade Commission in mid-December.
HTC was found to have infringed an Apple patent on "data tapping." That's
when you, say, tap on a phone number and the dingus dials it for you.
The Taiwan company wouldn't be in this predicament if it had followed through
on its initial decision to just rip the functionality out. Instead it
ultimately decided on a workaround and the customs people are checking to see
if it's abiding by the rules.
That means that the HTC One X that AT&T just started selling out of shipments
that beat the ban's April 19 enforcement date is now listed as "out of stock"
and the HTC Evo 4G LTE that Sprint was to start selling this Friday has been
put on hold. Sprint is taking pre-orders.
HTC says it hasn't... (more)
An HP source told Business Insider that HP is going to make "massive" job
cuts of 10%-15% of its workforce of 324,600 people.
Bloomberg then picked up the tambourine and said the number is more like 8%,
or 25,000 people.
Factoring in attrition, early retirement and shifting jobs offshore, Business
Insider reckons "HP's total workforce numbers won't reflect all of the cuts."
It thinks "we might also hear that HP is not going to rip the bandage off in
one fell swoop, but will do one modest layoff in 2012, shift more work to
offshore workers, and trim the workforce more over time."
... (more)
Facebook decision makers and their bankers were reportedly closeted together
shortly before the markets closed in New York Thursday trying to decide
whether to price Facebook's IPO at $38 or $39 a share, according to the Wall
Street Journal, which evidently had a glass - in the way of a source -
pressed to the conference room door.
Although nothing is definite yet, evidently the $39 price might break the
camel's back. They reportedly tried it on investors and got told no.
At $38 Facebook would be valued at a record $104 billion for an IPO and raise
$18.4 billion. It would take $4... (more)
Facebook Wednesday upped the number of shares that will be sold when it IPOs
Friday by almost 25% or 84 million shares to about 421.2 million shares of
Class A common stock.
The overallotment has also been increased from 50.6 million to 63.2 million.
If all 484.4 million shares move, it'd estimated $18.4 billion could change
hands, up from $14.7 billion.
The added shares will be coming from early investors.
The move, which gains Facebook nothing, will also cut CEO Mark Zuckerberg's
dominant voting power from 57.3% to around 55.8%.
Pricing remains, at least for the moment, at bet... (more)
Hmm, apparently Samsung has pushed one too many of Apple's buttons.
According to DigiTimes Apple has bought up half of Elpida Memory's total chip
production of mobile DRAM rather than give the iPad and iPhone order to
Samsung, its largest supplier, accused of ripping off its technology in
courts throughout the world.
Reuters said the report - citing unnamed industry sources - cost Samsung, the
world's biggest DRAM factory, $10 billion worth of market cap on Wednesday.
Hynix also took a hit.
Elpida certainly appreciates it ‘cause market conditions have driven it
into bankruptcy ... (more)
Chris Koenig
Mark Clifton
Steve Cumings
John Igoe
Scott Lee
Mike Benkovich
Scott Sellers
Anthony Franco
Daniel Morris
Wayne Walls
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