Last week’s top stories included rumors about Apple AAPL taking Apple Pay to the mobile web; Amazon AMZN suing a former employee for taking up a similar job at Target and Alphabet’s GOOGL Google getting fined in France.
Apple Pay Goes to Mobile Web
Re/code reported that Apple was integrating Apple Pay into the Safari web browser for mobile devices. Apple is expected to complete the integration in time for the holiday season this year and could announce developments at its WWDC event later this year.
The integration will allow users to pay for anything from any site they access on mobile devices by using fingerprint identification. They also don’t need to download the seller’s app in order to pay using ApplePay. The seamless process is expected to reduce the number of abandoned carts.
However, it goes without saying that this will tremendously increase competition for current players, most notably PayPal, which has integrated its payment service with seller sites. Apple is in the process of doing the same, so it will only be a matter of time before Apple users shift to its own payment service. Especially since Apple users tend to be very loyal.
Of course Paypal is not restricted to mere transaction processing; the company offers more comprehensive services, enabling the management of payments between people, merchants and other businesses. So while Apple is growing into more of a headache for the company, the increased competition is unlikely to push it out of business.
Amazon Sues Former Employee
Amazon has sued long-time employee Valdez for taking up a job at rival Target that it claims will violate a non-compete agreement he signed with the company. Amazon usually signs these agreements with key employees to prevent them from leaking important information to rivals. The suit was filed in King County Superior Court in Seattle (Washington has been sympathetic to non-compete agreements in the past unlike other states like California where they have been routinely challenged and restricted).
The information that Amazon fears will be passed on to Target is with respect to its logistics and emerging markets expansion strategies because Valdez is taking up a similar role in Target as that company seeks to build position in ecommerce. Amazon claims that Valdez has already leaked certain things during his interview process although it doesn’t mention how it obtained this information.
The company is asking the court to enforce the non-compete agreement, which could prevent Valdez from taking this job for a period of 18 months. A Target spokesperson has maintained, “We have taken significant precautions to ensure that any proprietary information remains confidential and we believe this suit is without merit. However, as this is pending litigation we are not going to comment further at this time.”
Google Fined Over RTBF in France
The French privacy watchdog CNIL is not willing to accept Google’s compromise that data deleted upon a right-to-be-forgotten request would be scrubbed from search engine results within the country but not outside. CNIL says that a person’s right to privacy is not based on geographic limits. Google holds that the French authority can’t have the right to determine what information people in other parts of the world have access to. The CNIL has fined Google 100,000 Euros. Google has promised to appeal the decision.
|
Company |
Last Week |
Last 6 Months |
|
AAPL |
-0.24% |
-7.87% |
|
FB |
+1.43% |
+21.69% |
|
YHOO |
-0.88% |
+12.31% |
|
GOOGL |
-0.08% |
+13.50% |
|
MSFT |
+1.35% |
+23.26% |
|
INTC |
-2.45% |
+7.23% |
|
CSCO |
-1.31% |
+7.62% |
|
AMZN |
+5.58% |
+11.59% |
Other stories you might have missed-
Corporate
Intel Chairman and CEO Dies: Andrew Stephen Grove, reportedly Intel’s INTC first employee, CEO from 1987 to 1998 and chairman since 1997, died last week.
Google Takes High-Speed Internet to Cuba: President Obama says that Google is going to play a role in connecting people in Cuba. While no specifics are public yet, the connectivity Google is promising is reportedly 70x faster than existing speeds. The company has initially partnered with Cuban sculptor Kcho to create a studio (equipped with laptops, cell phones and VR headsets) that looks like it could also be a place to showcase Google products.
Amazon German Warehouse Workers Pay Row: Amazon is seeing fresh strikes in its second largest market, Germany. These are part of organized efforts by warehouse employees in line with collective bargaining laws in the country. Last week’s 2-day strike was in Koblenz, Western Germany.
Legal/Regulatory
Oracle Sues HP: Oracle ORCL is suing HP for its partnership with Tetrix Computer, which it says is misrepresenting to customers its ability to provide Solaris updates cheaper than Oracle. It also alleges that the duo are unlawfully accessing and providing the updates to joint customers. Oracle’s software patches are copyrighted and last year, the company won a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Tetrix for adopting this practice.
New Technology/Products
Apple Launches iPhone SE: The new Apple iPhone SE is a mid-range device ($399 for a 16GB phone and $499 for 64GB) with a smaller 4-inch screen but with all the other features that make the iPhone popular. Some of these features include the same 64 bit A9 chip and M9 motion co-processor that currently power iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S, a 12 megapixel camera capable of capturing 4K video, touch ID fingerprint scanner to make contactless payments through Apple Pay and four metallic finishes, including the trendy rose gold color. No wonder then that UBS analyst Steven Milunovich is so optimistic about the device and thinks that it will help Apple take a greater share of the higher-end smartphone market in India.
Microsoft Chatbot: Microsoft’s MSFT Bing has showcased some artificial intelligence with its just-released chatbot called Tay. She may be encountered on Twitter, GroupMe and Kik, to interact with users like a human being. The chatbot is built on an 18-24 year-old demographic and self learns through interactions. So she will only get better with time. Last May, the company launched its first chatbot in China called Xiaoice.
M&A and Collaborations
Square Pairs Up with Facebook: Square is bringing Facebook FB ad campaigns to its 2 million plus seller partners. The company believes that Facebook’s campaign data and its own sales data can provide important insights to sellers. The service is available through the premium version of its CRM software. While Facebook is the first advertising partner, Square intends to add “other social channels” going forward.
Google Cloud Wins Home Depot, Disney: Google Cloud has been adding some illustrious customers of late, especially since it signed on Dianne Greene to head the unit. Some of its latest wins are Home Depot and Walt Disney’s Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media. It also counts Apple, Spotify and Snapchat as customers. Google is building out its “cloud regions” to service these customers and announced last week two new regions in Oregon and Tokyo. The current goal is to get to more than 10 such regions by 2017-end. Amazon already have 12 and is planning to bring another 5 online, while Microsoft has 22.
Amazon, Comcast Pair Up: Amazon has launched the Amazon Cable Store to help people sign up for pay TV, phone and broadband. While it will likely add more partners later, its launch partner is Comcast. Amazon is selling Comcast services for a fee or other arrangement (we don’t know) and Comcast is gaining access to Amazon’s huge customer base and reputation in what looks like a win-win deal.
Some Numbers
MS Online Video Survey: According to media reports, Morgan Stanley has surveyed 2,500 cord-cutting Americans to determine what service they will switch to. The survey finds that 35% will go for Netflix, down from 40.7% found in a similar survey last year. Apple TV on the other hand seems to have grown more popular with the percentage of people opting for it going from 17% to 23%.
Since the numbers don’t add up, it appears that consumers have mentioned multiple options. In Google’s case, 20% of respondents said they could use YouTube Red and 29% said they could go for the ad-supported version of YouTube. 27% said they could use Amazon, 27% Hulu and 25% HBO Now.
Yahoo Ad Revenue to Plunge: eMarketer estimates that Yahoo’s global digital ad revenue share will drop to 1.5% in 2016 from 2.1% last year. The display business will drop 15.1% while the search business will drop 12.7%, according to the research firm. Google and Facebook will grow 9% and 31%, respectively.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Be the first to comment