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• Apple’s iPad – winners and losers

  January 29, 2010 @ 7:07 pm | by John Collins

  Now that the dust has settled a little on Steve Jobs’ launch of Apple’s “magical and revolutionary” new device, the iPad, it’s interesting to see how the market has treated the stocks of various companies who will be impacted by its introduction. I’ve looked at their prices on Wednesday morning versus what they are at the time of writing (lunch time Friday in New York trading).

  • Apple: $204.78 down to $195.62. Seems all the hype about Apple’s slate was priced in by the market and we know there was no way it could ever meet expectations.
  • Google: $538.77 down to $534.71. The one time allies are now quickly becoming all-out foes. By the time the iPad shifts it may well feature Microsoft’s Bing search rather than Google’s.
  • Microsoft: $29.36 down to $28.53. Apple’s perennial rival who once wiped the floor with its Californian rival has tried and failed to make tablets popular. Apple’s success isn’t assured but if it happens its bad news for MSFT.
  • Gemalto: $28.35 up to $28.86. A surprise beneficiary. The French maker of smart cards and sims for mobiles has possibly got a lift as it is the main maker of the micro sims that will fit 3G iPads.
  • Amazon.com:  $120.85 up to $129.00. Amazon couldn’t really lose. Even if the iPad wipes the floor with the Kindle, Amazon’s e-book reader was always a loss leader to seed the e-book market. Amazon will benefit from the shot in the arm that the iPad will give the e-book market.
  • Barnes & Noble: $19.19 down to $17.48. It might have the Nook and sell books online but its network 0f retail outlets could become a liability if books turn digital like music.
  • Sony: $2,948 up to $3,010. Steve Jobs had a pop at Sony in his keynote but it didn’t dent the shares. Possibly because the Japanese giant is not dependent on any single category of products.
  • Nokia: $12.70 up to $13.89. Jobs may have pointed out Apple is a larger mobile device company (by revenue) than the Finnish handset giant, but a return to a profitable quarter in the meantime has driven up the price of its ADRs in New York.

  This is of course is a totally unscientific exercise and is not intended as investment advice. It is interesting though.

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• Business Podcast: Episode 2

  January 27, 2010 @ 10:18 pm | by John Collins

  This week’s episode features the World Economic Forum in Davos, Greece’s bond raising, changes at Aer Lingus and the resumption of crystal production in Waterford. Click below to listen or subscribe for free in iTunes.

   Standard Podcast [23:45m]: Download
  

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• One on One: Matt Murphy of Maxim Integrated Products

  January 26, 2010 @ 7:33 pm | by John Collins

  As part of our new business podcasts we’ll be publishing occasional extended interviews with select business people. This week we feature Matt Murphy, vice president of worldwide sales, with Maxim Integrated Products, the Silicon Valley firm which plans to create 100 jobs at its new international business centre in Dublin.Murphy discusses Maxim’s business, its plans for Dublin and the state of the global technology market.

   Standard Podcast [14:42m]: Download
  

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• Brace yourself for a week of Apple hype

  January 25, 2010 @ 10:54 am | by John Collins

  Apple hosts its press event in San Francisco on Wednesday at 6pm Irish time to show off its “latest creation“.  Of course it’s being reported as fact now that this will be a new class of device – a touchscreen slate computer, a large iPhone if you will with a 10-11″ screen, which will primarily be a gaming and entertainment device. (more…)

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• Introducing our Business podcast

  January 22, 2010 @ 5:29 pm | by John Collins

  We’re moving into the world of audio with the introduction of our new weekly Business Podcast which will be published every Thursday. Presented by me, John Collins, it’s your chance to hear from some of the people behind the week’s business stories and get the views of our team of business reporters on the big issues.In this week’s episode Irish Times Public Affairs Correspondent, Colm Keena, discusses the High Court inspectors report into DCC’s disposal of its stake in fruit importer Fyffes, which was published earlier this week. Pat Burke, a partner in accounting firm Grant Thornton, on new research from his firm which suggests that private sector firms have been cutting wages more heavily than previously thought. Matt Murphy, a senior executive with Maxim Integrated Products, the Silicon Valley chip manufacturer which recently announced plans to create 100 jobs in Dublin, talks about why his firm was attracted to Ireland and what it will be doing here.We’d love to hear any thoughts, feedback or suggestions you might have in the comments.

   The Irish Times Business Podcast - 21/01/2010 [26:02m]: Download
  

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• The line between investment and disaster capitalism in Haiti

  @ 2:04 pm | by Laura Slattery

  It’s a tricky question, the answer to which may only become apparent decades down the line, but is the response of the US government, its recruited army of investors and private sector interests to the Haiti earthquake appropriately supportive or worryingly exploitative or indeed both? It seems immediately clear that money, vast sums of it, is badly needed to pay for aid supplies and establish a basic infrastructure in the country and that the US business interests would have to be entirely stonefacedly, coldheartedly amoral not to respond in the affirmative when Bill Clinton and George W Bush came calling. And yet I do generally find it difficult to believe in corporate altruism for altruism’s sake. Is Haiti any different?

  I’m not talking about charity donations here, as by definition they should not involve any motivation other than a desire to help, and perhaps a need to ease a sudden dose of Western guilt. There is also probably a case for distinguishing between companies such as Digicel, who were already in Haiti before the earthquake, and the US-based private capital houses now rapidly signing up to “invest” in Haiti because the ex-Presidents have assured them that it’s a good opportunity for a “greenfield” investment.

  Many of the investors and financial institutions piling in behind Clinton and Bush are rather more disconnected from the fate of its citizens than Digicel (which has lost some of its staff and made a donation of $5 million for immediate relief work). Who are these investors and what are their ultimate aims? They’re the kind of questions that the commentator Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and a prominent opponent of what she terms “disaster capitalism”, believes people should be asking now and in the aftermath of any major crisis. Otherwise the kind of community impoverishing “land grabs” that took place in Thailand after the 2004 tsunami or something similar to the pro-corporate redrawing of New Orleans post-Katrina could take place amid the chaos in Haiti.

  Klein’s website highlights this quote from the right-wing Heritage Federation, issued just the day after the earthquake, then withdrawn: “In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the US response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti earthquake offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the public image of the United States in the region.”

  Critics of such “disaster capitalism” tactics want any intervention by the Obama administration, the IMF, the World Bank and anyone else trying to reconstruct Haiti to be mindful of the country’s economic sovereignty and, most importantly, not to trap it with debt. On this front, public pressure has yielded some positive results, with the IMF assuring that its financial assistance to Haiti will be interest-free and free of conditionality. Indeed, the IMF is now calling for a Marshall Plan for the shattered country, urging debt relief and promising to delete the loan it’s just issued. This, according to Klein, is unprecedented.

  Last night, O’Brien was namechecked by Clinton at a UN press conference as being the man leading the private sector effort to provide assistance to Haiti. “Anybody thinking about setting up manufacturing facilities or any business in Haiti, I will give a very strong recommendation they go ahead and do it,” said O’Brien.

  Unpalatable as it may seem, many of the companies that answer O’Brien’s call will view Haiti’s trauma as a commercial advantage rather than a tragic state of affairs, as its 10 million population is too busy fighting for basic survival to consider the pros and cons of an economic remodelling. The arrival of such companies will be framed as a force for good in terms of job creation, spurring “economic revival”. But history has taught us that it’s often a little more complex than that.

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• A glass and a half full of it

  January 20, 2010 @ 2:44 pm | by Laura Slattery

  Bournville was christened “Mournville” yesterday as the board of Cadbury capitulated to a hostile takeover from Kraft – the US food conglomerate disparagingly dubbed a “plastic cheese company” by Felicity Loudon, great-great-grandaughter of the original Mr Cadbury, John.

  “I just don’t understand it,” Loudon despaired on the radio yesterday, before making a half-hearted appeal for Britain’s political parties to intervene. Loudon knows that little such help will be forthcoming, as Guardian journalist Fiona Walsh discusses in her London Briefing in today’s Irish Times. So what if Gordon Brown says he is  “determined that levels of UK investment in Cadbury are maintained and jobs secured”. Cadbury’s British workers, having seen what Kraft did to Terry’s (of chocolate orange fame) in its home town of York (clue: it’s no longer there), expect job losses and are understandably livid about what’s happened.

  The deal, which unites the much-loved Cadbury brand, responsible for milking many an Irish cow, and Green & Black’s (which sold out to Cadbury a few years back) with such duty-free heavy hitters as Toblerone and Milka, has prompted much cod-alarm about what might happen to the goods themselves. Could low-sellers but resonant classics such as the Curly Wurly be axed by Kraft’s accountants, none of whom would have ever had the joy of receiving a Cadbury’s Selection Box at Christmas? Would Cadbury’s Dairy Milk now taste the same way it does in America ? (Not good.) Was this the fate of the Cadbury’s Creme Egg?

  That’s all a distraction, however, from the real tragedy of the Kraft-Cadbury takeover: that it’s another victory for the global, expansionary market logic that gives big paydays to a small executive cohort while in the long-term stripping value away from both companies and depriving workers of their jobs.

  The headlines in the British press may be negative today, and the BBC’s Robert Peston was on top form last night, juxtaposing the payouts for Kraft executives with a rather ecstatic shot from a Flake ad. But over the last couple of months, the financial press there has rather dispiritingly treated Cadbury’s succumbing as an inevitablity. From the very moment that Kraft’s chief executive Irene Rosenfeld first said she fancied it, “resistance was futile”, the “clock was ticking for Cadbury”, how could it expect to “remain independent” (as if Cadbury was some minnow). Meanwhile, it seemed, despite Cadbury’s protestations, all they were doing was haggling over the price.

  In the end, it was Cadbury’s institutional shareholders that had the final say on whether Kraft would get the goods. Such is the nature of the stock market. Critics of the Cadbury deal, such as economist and Birmingham Post blogger David Bailey, point out that without rules in place to prevent such corporate takeovers, we will continue to see a further concentration in wealth in the global economy, while manufacturing bases such as Bournville and its many equivalents see their prosperity melt away.

  twitter.com/LauraSlattery

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• Sorry still the hardest word for bankers

  January 12, 2010 @ 4:57 pm | by John Collins

  Despite having to face the wrath of shareholders at its EGM in UCD today, the Governors (i.e. board) of Bank of Ireland are expected to get their way and get approval for its participation in Nama. Shareholders are also expected to approve changes to the rules for passing special resolutions – even if this has the effect of ceding more power to the executives at a time when shareholder trust in banks is at a record low. The full results of both ballots will be available later today.UPDATE: Bank of Ireland has just announced all resolutions have been passed. (more…)

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• CES: Why talk about the tech when you have a celeb?

  January 8, 2010 @ 1:30 am | by John Collins

  It’s the oldest trick in the book. Get a big name to endorse your product or turn up at your event and you’ll distract any tricky questions about the actual technology.

  It’s a strategy that has worked brilliantly for Polaroid at CES this morning in Las Vegas. Just after the show opened, the once dominant maker of instant developing film and the cameras that go with it, had a personal appearance from iconic pop star Lady Gaga on its stand, and not surprisingly it was mobbed. The singer of hits like Papparazi and Poker Face has been appointed “creative director” for a new line of products which will hit shops later this year. No one seems too sure what the products will be but the company that was rescued out of bankruptcy by a couple of VC firms last year has certainly scored a marketing hit with its tie up with Lady GaGa, because it had everyone talking at CES.

  Bigger companies also use this tactic. Sony’s chief executive Howard Stringer welcomed Taylor Swift on stage during the company’s press conference, while Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer included video footage from Saturday Night Live comedian Seth Meyers (pictured above) in his keynote, which turned out to be the highlight of his appearance.

  In fact so popular is the sprinkling of star dust on your new product that the CES organisers released a press release detailing the celebs who are appearing.

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• CES: And we’re off…

  January 7, 2010 @ 10:13 pm | by John Collins

  So after all the pre-show press briefings yesterday and a frankly underwhelming opening keynote from Microsoft head honcho Steve Ballmer last night, the mega tech fest that is the Consumer Electronics Show opened in Las Vegas in the last few hours.

  I’ve been busy filing stories for the paper which will have extensive coverage in the morning, but here’s some of my thoughts and observations on what I’ve seen so far:

  Sony intends to givethe Playstation 3 3D capabilities through a free firmware upgrade. No doubt intended to provide another reason for people to invest in a 3D television no date has been announced.

  While lots of people are talking about tablets in advance of Apple’s announcement at the end of the month, the only actual products on display are the touchscreen laptops that the PC industry has been unsuccessfully flogging since 2001. The one notable exception; Lenovo’s IdeaPad U1 which is a notebook with a detachable screen which can operate as an independent tablet running a version of Linux.

  The world really doesn’t need any more dedicated e-book reader devices. While the Amazon Kindle and one or two others may prosper smaller players are going to have the market disappear on them when the new generation of tablets/slates appears with the ability to do e-books and so much more.

  The industry continues to talk green but reality seems to be catching up – slowly. Greenpeace’s annual report on the consumer electronics sector slammed manufacturers for not moving fast enough to remove hazardous chemicals. But Apple, Sony Ericsson, and Nokia were recognised for making major strdes

  Google’s Nexus One, only introduced on Tuesday is already the must-have smartphone to be seen with. It looks great, as it’s slimmer and lighter than the iPhone, but I have yet to play with one.

  The Irish are doing their bit to fly the flag. Although the strength of our indigenous tech sector has been in selling to big business or telcos some firms are starting to make major inroads in this space. Belfast-based APTX is showing off kit from the likes of Microsoft, Creative, Bang & Olufsen and others who are using its technology to deliver high fidelity audio over Bluetooth. Amulet Devices is here with version 2 of its voice controlled remote control for Microsoft media centres which apparently has got good feedback from Redmond. And even though Muzu.TV didn’t make the trip it announced yesterday that Samsung will be embedding its music video service in their internet connected TVs.

  More later but there’s 2 million square feet of exhibition space that needs to be looked at.

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• CES: US and European dominance on the wane

  January 6, 2010 @ 8:53 am | by John Collins

  The days of Europe and the US dominating the market for consumer electronics are over according to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). At a briefing on the “digital world” in advance of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which is organised by the CEA, Steve Koening, director of research said LCD TVs and smart phones will drive the industry in the next three years.

  While CES is famous for introducing the latest and greatest products that consumers will lust after in the following year, Koenig’s presentation focused on where the revenues are coming from that allow those new products to be developed. Although the global recesssion dominated his talk the good news is that CEA and its German research partner GfK expect global sales of home technology to come in at $681 billion this year – flat on 2009.

  “Even as established economies return to growth or stop shrinking, will the emerging economies be enough to drag things up?” asked Koenig. “We think not”.

  That’s because western Europe and the US account for such a large proportion of overall sales but all that’s set to change. China, Japan and the rest of Asia will account for 36 per cent of the world market by the end of this year, having enjoyed a combined 6 per cent growth in the past three years. In contrast the US market was down 12 per cent in 2009 and will fall another 3 per cent this year, while western Europe, which managed modest 2 per cent growth last year, is set for a 9 per cent decline in 2010.

  ““We are right in the middle of a sea change with the emerging Asian economies,”  said Koenig. “They will overtake the western countries eventually as consumers spend more and as technology infiltrates homes, particularly in China.”

  The CEA also briefed the press last night on some of the trends that are likely to be big at this years CES, which despite its own shrinking continues to be the largest technology trade event in the world. Four key trends were identified:

  1.Beyond high definition. With the first HD TV set sold in the US in 1998, the industry is moving on. Expect 3D television (with sets and services to launch this year) and internet conneted Tvs to dominate.

  2.The emergence of a fourth screen (after cinema, TV and the PC) which will probably be 5-15” in size, but will it be an e-book, tablet or netbook-style that will dominate?

  3.A new generation of tablets – keyboard-less touchscreen computers – will debut at the show as manufacturers aren’t waiting for Apple’s a anticipated iTablet announcement at the end of the month.

  4. Personalisation and customisation – it’s no longer just about bringing the web to a new range of devices. The success of apps on the iPhone (3 billion downloaded and counting) shows the mobile experience is about pulling highly relevant content from the Web. Also how are consumers going to manage and discover all the various rich content available on the web but also stored on multiple devices they own?

  Lots of fascinating information provided by the CEA and it’s got me looking forward to the opening of the show proper tomorrow.

  John Collins is in Las Vegas this week to attend the Consumer Electronics Show, the largest event in the technology industry. The Irish Times will carry extensive coverage of CES in our Business This Week supplement on Friday.

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• Technology industry isn’t leaving Las Vegas

  January 4, 2010 @ 9:35 pm | by John Collins

  In the technology world this week all roads lead to Las Vegas, for the Consumer Electronics Show, which is now the biggest event of its kind in the world. As I write I’m in JFK airport in New York en route to the show which kicks off tomorrow with a range of pre-show events but officially opens on Thursday morning.

  It’s the second time The Irish Times has had extensive coverage of CES – I also attended last year – and the mood in 2010 looks to be much more upbeat than last year. While close to 110,000 people are expected to attend the show – broadly flat on last year – the consumer electronics industry has been buoyed by a 5.9 per cent increase in sales in the US in the key eight weeks before Christmas. This time last year the sector was still reeling from a 27 per cent slump in Christmas sales and in the run up to CES many companies cancelled their appearance. The Consumer Electronics Association, which organises CES, says 2,500 exhibitors will display an estimated 20,000 products this week. Even more positively 330 new companies will be in attendance with many firms who had been sitting on the fence signing up in the last month.

  All the big names are in attendance – Sony, Intel, HP, LG, Cisco, Panasonic and Toshiba – while Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer will deliver the customary opening keynote on Wednesday evening. Although European journalists such as yours truely do not get pre-briefed in the manner of our US colleagues I’ll pin my colours to the mast with some predictions.

  • There won’t be a single product with the “wow” factor like the Palm Pre which was unveiled last year. Some of the most exciting products will come from the 330 new companies rather than the established big names.
  • Green inititiatives will be flavour of the month. CES is striving to be carbon neutral (not sure how that equates with people from all over the world flying to Las Vegas) and this year has a sizeable Sustainable Planet area for environmentally friendly technologies.
  • There will be lots of hype around 3D and high definition OLED televsions – just like last year – but the products will actually appear this year.
  • Tablets, ebook readers and other emerging classses of mobile devices will be hot, powered in part by Intel’s new line of energy efficient Atom processors.
  • Steve Ballmer will tease us with more details of Project Natal – the new way of interacting with the X-box using your hands, eyes and head rather than a controller or joystick.

  Of course while CES is a huge deal for the technology sector two of the current biggest players are thumbing their noses at the event. Tomorrow Google, which has a minimal presence at CES, hosts a press event at its Silicon Valley headquarters where it will unveil its own smartphone the Nexus One which may or may not turn out to be a serious competitor for Apple’s iPhone. Speaking of Apple, which no longer does trade shows, at the end of the month it is expected to announce the most speculated about product since the release of the iPhone – it’s web tablet that even sober commentators are saying will be a total game changer.

  In addition to coverage of CES in the newspaper later in the week I’ll also be posting regularly to Current Account and will also be giving instant news updates through our Twitter account which you can follow at www.twitter.com/irishtimesbiz

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