NYSE:HPQ – US Market Buzz

Smartphone Tech, App Development Spur Investment Interest; Mobile Lads Corp (OTCBB:MOBO), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ)

admin — Wed, 16 Dec 2015 15:14:47 +0000

The worldwide smartphone market grew 13.0% year over year in 2015 Q2, with 341.5 million shipments, according to data from the International Data Corporation. Though there is still buzz surrounding products like the iPhone and Android devices, analysis shows that nearly 50% of the market in not only controlled by other brands BUT it is also on a growth trend moving forward in the very near term.

With this comes the advent of application development and social commerce, which takes into account the global scale that social media and ecommerce have created. The culmination of these industries has really taken much more attention in the market and is projected to impact the industry intensely within the years to come. Data from TrueShip shows that in 2014, social commerce revenue was over $20 billion. And the total revenue is on course to be over $30 billion by the end of 2015. Furthermore, with the growing population of millennials and a more, well informed tech user base, this number is anticipated to continue its growth. Keep in mind that 48% of millennials use smartphones and 21% use tablets to make online purchases. In the end, it all traces back to having that handheld device.

With so much projected growth in this relatively new and exciting market beginning to surface, companies are beginning to adapt and investors have begun to find opportunities to capitalize. Companies like Samsung, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), or even HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) have all helped drive demand for this space, however there are still many more opportunities that early adapters can take advantage of in order to capitalize on the progress of this new industry. Mobile Lads Corp (OTCBB:MOBO), for example, is well positioned to take advantage of this industry going into 2016. The company provides consumers with a variety of products and services covering hardware and software solutions. They also have recently entered into the e-commerce world by creating partnerships with new and innovative mobile applications.

These partnerships and expansions have allowed Mobile Lads Corp (OTCBB:MOBO) to create a single organized platform that delivers efficient access to unique and elite mobile hardware, applications and accessories including things like a mobile wallet, access to lines of credit and even protection plans & warrantees. Mobile Lads has partnered with China’s leading mobile phone brand LEAGOO, becoming the exclusive distributor for North America and additional key regions. With this, Mobile Lads is set to make LEAGOO “as popular on this side of the globe as it is in Asia.”

Further to this end, Mobile Lads announced on Tuesday the company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to provide additional applications to its customers. The “Know Your Client” application could soon be available through an exclusive JV with LegitChex. According to the release, this is an easy-to-use App that provides a safe environment for anyone wanting to authenticate the identity of any person, company or organization with whom they are dealing, either online or in-person. In response to this latest development, Mobile Lads CEO Michael Paul stated, “Mobile Lads is excited to be the exclusive Mobile partner of LegitChex and looks forward to utilizing the KYC protocols to accelerate the roll out of our Mobile product suite.”

Keep in mind that Mobile Lads currently has a market cap of less than $20million ($18.6 Million) with less than 300m shares outstanding. In comparison with its other, much larger, higher overhead competition, MOBO could be the diamond in the rough that tech investors are searching for. The stock currently trades under $0.10 and has seen 52-week highs of $0.29. As the company looks to continue its expansion and partnerships one thing is certain, Mobile Lads has entered a very fresh and rapidly growing industry going into the New Year with new ventures underway in addition to the pipeline of services already under management.

Is The Cloud Computing Industry Set To Explode In 2016? Fusion Telecommunications Int’l, Inc. (FSNN), Gawk Inc (GAWK)

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 21:25:14 +0000

In today’s world investors have many more options available than in the past. Among these options are companies focused on “the cloud”. Nasdaq stated that last year revenues for cloud services increased by 60%. On top of that, cloud computing is projected to see continued growth at a healthy rate over the next five years. If you are thinking of investing in a technology-based company, there are many upsides in doing so. By buying stock in a company who provides cloud-based services, you will have an opportunity to gain profits from the huge growth of this industry. According to a study initiated by Forrester, the cloud computing market is expected to grow from $58 billion in 2013 to more than $191 billion by 2020.

[quote]”Revenues for cloud services increased by 60%”[/quote]

NASDAQ

Which now brings us to two companies utilizing their opportunity in this rapidly growing industry. Fusion Telecommunications Int’l, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSNN), a leading provider of cloud services has recently announced it has acquired Fidelity Voice and Data. Fidelity provides cloud voice, could connectivity, security, data center and cloud storage services to almost 2,000 small, medium and large business customers throughout the United States.

The CEO of Fusion stated, “The acquisition of Fidelity brings Fusion closer to its goal of building significant scale in the fragmented but rapidly growing cloud services market. Fidelity will also contribute to Fusion’s organic growth, accelerating Fusion’s progress over the last year in expanding its business.” This past week Fusion shares were trading up almost 58% at $3.48, with an agreed analyst price target of $6.00 as well as a 52- week trading range between $1.83 to $5.43.

The potential for investors in the space continues to grow. Look at a company like Gawk Inc (OTCMKTS:GAWK) who has already had some comparison to Fusion Telecommunications Int’l, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSNN). GAWK offers a suite of cloud communications, cloud connectivity, cloud computing, and managed cloud-based applications solutions to small, medium, and large businesses and offers domestic and international voice services to communications carriers worldwide. The company already has a presence in 21 countries and 31 cities with 16 of those cities are located in the U.S. On Nov. 17^th the company announced they have acquired all assets of Connexum LLC.

This acquisition will increase Gawk Inc (OTCMKTS:GAWK) annual revenue to $6 million. GAWK reported its best quarter since it has begun traded, reporting that revenue increased by 952%. GAWK currently has a smaller market cap than Fusion at $1.8 million and has seen a 52 week trading range between $0.003-$0.125. The stock currently trades between 0.009 and 0.02. With such a market cap and the addition of new revenues, GAWK could certainly be on the radar of many, larger cloud companies. Look at 2015’s Cloud M&A already!

In January, Equinix Inc (NASDAQ:EQIX) acquired Nimbo, a professional services provider that helps enterprises develop and implement hybrid cloud IT architectures. Pete Hayes, Equnix’s chief sales officer, noted that the Nimbo acquisition would allow his company “to help customers leverage Equinix Inc (NASDAQ:EQIX) unique cloud-density and Cloud Exchange value propositions and assist with the design and deployment of hybrid cloud solutions.”

J2 Global Inc (NASDAQ:JCOM) company’s Excel Micro in February acquired Nuvotera (formerly Spam Soap), a California-based email security services company and cloud services aggregator for managed service providers (MSPs) and value-added resellers (VARs). Hemi Zucker, j2 Global’s CEO, said the addition of Nuvotera could help Excel Micro extend its email security services market reach.

[quote]In April, Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) announced plans to acquire Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) in an all-share transaction valued at approximately $16.6 billion. Together, both companies will join forces “to create the foundation of seamless connectivity for people and things wherever they are,” according to Nokia. “I firmly believe that this is the right deal, with the right logic, at the right time,” Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) CEO Rajeev Suri said in a prepared statement.[/quote]

HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) in February signed a definitive agreement to acquire Voltage Security, a Cupertino, California-based company that provides data-centric security solutions. Art Gilliland, HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) senior vice president and general manager of enterprise security products, said Voltage’s encryption and tokenization technology will complement HP Atalla, HP’s information security and encryption business.

[quote]In March, Proofpoint Inc (NASDAQ:PFPT) reached an agreement to acquire open source cyber threat intelligence provider Emerging Threats for approximately $40 million in cash and stock. Proofpoint Inc (NASDAQ:PFPT) CEO Gary Steele said he believes that Proofpoint and Emerging Threats together can deliver “the most timely, actionable end-to-end attack intelligence and protection available in the industry.”[/quote]

Singapore Telecommunications Limited (Singtel) in April announced it would acquire Chicago-based managed security service provider (MSSP) Trustwave for $810 million. Singtel supports more than 500 million mobile customers worldwide, and the Trustwave acquisition could help this Asian communications company capitalize on a rapidly expanding managed security services market as well.

[quote]EMC (EMC) last week agreed to pay $1.2 billion in cash to acquire cloud software and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) provider Virtustream. The cloud computing and big data giant said the Virtustream acquisition enables EMC to provide additional support for its cloud-based services.[/quote]

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) last month announced plans to acquire AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL) for $4.4 billion in cash. A Verizon spokesperson told The New York Times that the acquisition could help the company expand its video offerings and bolster its support for its Internet of Things (IOT) platform and television content distributed through the Internet.

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) this week announced it will add Altera Corporation (NASDAQ:ALTR) to its portfolio in an all-cash deal worth approximately $16.7 billion. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) CEO Brian Krzanich said his company plans to develop new customized, integrated products for the data center and IoT following the acquisition.

Is this the perfect place to target investments for cloud computing right now? Small and micro cap companies have now demonstrated that they can show real value to much larger blue chip organizations. The final question is this “Is your portfolio built to take on this kind of investment opportunity?”

Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) Halfway Through Its Restructuring Process

Jean Jadhon — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 07:17:50 +0000

Meg Whitman, Chief Executive of Hewlett-Packard Company(NYSE:HPQ), has said that the company is halfway through its restructuring process and is as part of that has still to reduce its workforce by 15,000 people.

Speaking at a technology conference hosted by Morgan Stanley, Whitman talked about the challenges that the company was facing and the restructuring being undertaken so that it meet the goals that it has set for itself.

In May last year, the computer maker had announced that it would lay off 27,000 employees out of its total staff strength of 350,000 and it would be doing this by the end of next year.

Whitman, who took over as the head of the company in late 2011, gave credit to her predecessor Mark Hurd some of the initiatives taken by him such as centralising global functions, including human resources, information technology, finance and legal.

This is somewhat of a change in her thinking since last year, when she was inclined to be more critical of the way that it had been run previously and commented that no enough resources had been committed to innovation for the past several years.

She added that innovation was not dead in the company and said that the company has increased spending on research and development and is close to releasing new products such as its Moonshot servers that use ARM and Atom chips.

HP, along with other computer makers, has seen revenues and profits declining as demand for computers are distinctly lower than before with consumers preferring to buy tablet PCs and smartphones.

Restructuring would be the mantra for Hewlett-Packard Company in 2013- HPQ & PANW

admin — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 14:30:40 +0000

Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ), the prime maker of printers and personal computers in the world, is undertaking assessment of the business units which are not delivering up to the expectations. It has plans to dispose of these units if they turn out to be non-performing for a time span of a year or more.

In a 10-K filing on December 27, with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) said, “We also continue to evaluate the potential disposition of assets and businesses that may no longer help us meet our objectives.” The reason for highlighting the above quote is that a year before, this verdict was not a part of the document and incorporating the same ensures the focus of the Company in elimination all the Non Value Add units.

The filing also said that Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) may “dispose of a business at a price or on terms that are less desirable than we had anticipated.” This further demonstrates that it urges to take actions and does not wishes to carry on any sector that is not meeting the targets for the specified domain.

Meg Whitman, the Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ), also stated that she has no intentions to further develop the division for Personal Computer. She has been working since September 2011 on Palo Alto Networks Inc (NYSE:PANW). It is Hewlett -Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) based in California. The attention has been brought up because Palo Alto Networks Inc (NYSE:PANW) has seen the sales graph declining, for five consequent quarters, there have been ruined transactions, agreements and deals for numerous years, blunder in planning, etc.

Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) demonstrated that it is not unaware that there will be possible drawbacks if they effected the disposal of units. It did mention, “When we decide to sell assets or a business, we may encounter difficulty in finding buyers or alternative exit strategies on acceptable terms in a timely manner, which could delay the achievement of our strategic objectives.”

It surely appears that the decision of evaluation and disposal, if required, is well thought over.

Shares of Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) were up by 4.17% to close at $14.25

Shares of Palo Alto Networks Inc (NYSE:PANW) were up by 1.69% to close at $53.52