Michael Trager

Covering all the Angles on Wall Street.

Latest from Michael Trager

Cisco – More Bad News

More bad news today for Cisco (ticker CSCO) as the hits keep on coming. The company has released their financial results for their most recent third fiscal quarter and, while results met or exceeded analyst expectations, they were weak across the board. A 5% increase in revenues to $10.9 billion from the $10.4 billion of ...

Verizon, AT&T To Sell Cisco Tablet

There hasn’t been a lot of good news coming out from or about Cisco (ticker symbol CSCO) lately as the company struggles to restructure its operations and management. The company badly needs a hit product in some area, any area, as questions persist about its growth prospects. According to an item in today’s Wall Street ...

AndreessenHorowitz Shakes Up VC Business Model, Cashes In On Skype

The traditional venture capital business model of investing in start up companies fairly early, acquiring a large stake in the company for a relatively small investment and then guiding it to growth in preparation for an eventual sale of the company or IPO which will then provide the investors a hopefully sizable return on their ...

Microsoft Says Skype Worth $8.5 Billion

As reported in today’s Wall Street Journal (wsj.com), Microsoft (ticker MSFT) has announced an $8.5 billion all cash deal to acquire Skype. Skype will become a new business division within Microsoft, and Skype Chief Executive Tony Bates will assume the title of president of the Microsoft Skype Division, reporting directly to Microsoft Chief Executive Steve ...

Nvidia Bets On New Wireless Technology

In a bid to compete with such rivals as Intel (ticker INTC) and Qualcomm (ticker QCOM) in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers, Nvidia (ticker NVDA) has announced the acquisition of Icera Inc., a start-up in Bristol, England that has spent nine years pursuing an unusual programmable technology for what the industry calls ...

Google Joins Online Music Crowd

Google (ticker GOOG) is announcing today a new online music service which seems intended to compete with similar services provided by Amazon (ticker AMZN) and Apple (ticker AAPL), escalating the battle to create the next generation of Internet businesses for storing and listening to music. Google is likely to announce the service Tuesday at its ...

LinkedIn IPO Details Revealed

Shares of LinkedIn, a Mountain View, Calif., company, which operates a professional online network with more than 100 million members, are expected to begin public trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) May 19 under the ticker symbol LNKD. Today’s Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) reports details of the IPO. The company expects to offer ...

YouTube Founders Expand New Company

The founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, have started a new company named Avos which is already expanding rapidly via acquisitions. An Associate Press release today announces that Avos has acquired Tap11.com, a company that makes software to help businesses keep track of what’s being said about them on Facebook and Twitter. Two ...

Private Markets Seek SEC Guidance

There has been a good deal of discussion in recent weeks about the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pondering changes in regulations governing the trading in the private markets of shares of non-public companies such as Facebook, Groupon, Zynga, LinkedIn, and Twitter (LinkedIn is planning an IPO but is still a private company). Now comes ...

Week In Review – May 7, 2011

Most weeks experience some type of significant event in the markets, some more (or less) significant than others. This week was no different in that respect. While there were no announcements or pronouncements or press conferences by the Federal Reserve this past week as there were in the prior week, there is always something happening. ...