Groupon was forced to restate fourth quarter earnings, sending its stock down 6% in after-hours trading on Friday. This surprised me as much as my US$2 investment in the Mega Millions jackpot not paying off. The reasons for Groupon’s restatement were higher refund reserves and weakness in internal controls. These are issues I’ve repeatedly
Taiwan is home to a constellation of companies most people have never have heard of, making electronic gadgets and components for others with household names. The runaway success of one of these names, Apple, has made one of those Taiwanese suppliers, Hon Hai Precision Industry, the assembler of every iPad and most iPhones, less unfamiliar
On his first-ever earnings conference call, newly christened Research in MotionCEO Thorsten Heins seemed to come to terms with the bad hand he’s been dealt and admitted that the company was in need of “substantial change”. Change is indeed in order. RIM reported poor quarterly results on Thursday, with lower-than-expected revenues. And, in a shock, former co-CEO
BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion (RIM) has reported its fourth quarter 2012 results and, as expected, the earnings came in below expectations, writes Sean Ludwig. The company reported revenues of US$4,2bn, way below expectations, and earnings per share ended up at 81c, right on the money with projections. RIM sold 11,1m
For someone who’s lived through one technology bubble, it’s hard not to see signs of another one every time the market starts edging upward. Besides, no one wants to be the rube who’s the last one to realise the party’s over and the cool kids have already left. That’s why so many people are quick to jump to the conclusion that we’re in a
Facebook‘s counsel asked courts to dismiss a case against founder Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, involving plaintiff Paul Ceglia, who claims…
Two decades ago, only spies and systems administrators had to worry about passwords. But today you have to enter one even to do humdrum things like turning on your computer, downloading an album or buying a book online. No wonder many people use a single, simple password for everything. Analysis of password databases, often stolen
The main problem with both wind and solar energy is not their cost (which is falling satisfactorily with every passing year) but their intermittency. Supplying power to the grid when the air is calm or the sun below the horizon means storing a surplus when the day is blustery and the sun is up. And, at the moment, this is expensive. Cheap and
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has lost its home-field advantage in Canada to Apple for the first time ever, another sign that the company is almost hopelessly broken when it comes to smartphone innovation. The long-time co-CEOs of RIM, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, resigned from the company in January after 20 years and were replaced
Twitter is showing a continued commitment to its popular desktop and Web property TweetDeck with the release of an updated version that brings the “New-New Twitter” experience to Windows, Mac, and Chrome desktops. The new 1.3 version brings with it a bevy of new features that will keep Twitter-holics glued to even more columns for even
