Tag Archives: IPTV

Should Microsoft Shareholders Begin to Panic Over Falling PC Shipments?

By Matt Thalman, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Shares of Microsoft took investors on quite the ride this week, but even though they plummeted more than 4.42% in just one day, they still managed to end the week higher than were they began. Do investors have anything to worry about? Let’s take a look.

So what happened?
On Monday, Microsoft dropped by 0.38%, after the company announced that it was selling its IPTV business to Ericsson. The terms and price of the deal weren’t disclosed, but it was estimated to sell for somewhere between $100 million and $234 million. The IPTV unit creates software that gives wireless device manufacturers the ability to deliver television signals over the Internet.  

Tuesday came along, and shares were flying high, up 3.57%, with a few analysts crediting Microsoft’s attacks on Google for the rise. Microsoft and a number of other technology companies are claiming Google’s open-source operating system gives it an unfair advantage over the competition. The main problem is that Google gives its operating system away, and Microsoft, which charges for its operating systems, can’t compete. The EU is looking into Microsoft’s allegations against Google, but we’ll have to wait and see who wins this battle. 

Also on Tuesday, the company announced that it’s teaming up with Cisco to help customers reduce complexity while enhancing IT productivity and business agility. The partnership is currently just focused on data centers and how to improve and grow operations in that area of business.  

On Thursday, the IDC released its PC shipment figures for the first quarter of 2013, and they were terrible. Sales dropped 14% in the quarter, while analysts were expecting a decline of only 7.7%. Microsoft tumbled 4.42% on the news and sent the PC manufacturers even further down than that.  

So what now?
Year to date, Microsoft is the sixth worst-performing component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average during 2013, but based on my colleague John Maxfield‘s calculations, it’s only the 14th most shorted Dow component, which would indicate that although the stock hasn’t performed fantastically so far this year, most market participants don’t think the stock is going to crash, either. (To see John’s full list and how much of each Dow component is sold short, click here.)

Although the current trend clearly indicates that PC sales will probably continue to decline over time, it’s clear that as a whole, the market hasn’t lost faith in the company yet, and individual shareholders also shouldn’t sell at this time.

While the company is best known for its Windows operating system, that’s now become just a small piece of the modern-day Microsoft. The company has a number of different revenue streams today:

<td

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/14/wild-ride-for-microsoft-shareholders-this-past-w/

Sector

Revenue

Operating Income (Loss)

Windows

$5,253

$2,671

Server and Tools

$5,191

$2,129

Online Services

$893

($283)

Microsoft Business

$6,491

$4,367

Entertainment and Devices

Markets Manage to Post a Winning Session

By Matt Thalman, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Despite trading lower for most of the morning, the markets made an about-face around 2 p.m. ET, and the three major indexes all closed higher. The S&P 500 was the big winner of the day, after rising 9 points, or 0.63%, but the Nasdaq wasn’t far behind, as it increased 0.57% during the day. Lagging behind was the Dow Jones Industrial Average , which posted a gain of 48 points, or 0.33%, and now sits at 14,613.

The biggest Dow loser today was Johnson & Johnson , as shares were cut by 1.13%, the direct result of a JPMorgan Chase downgrade. The analyst did, however, raise the price target from $77 per share to $83, while currently shares trade at $81.11. So why the lower rating? Valuation. The stock is one of the top-performing Dow components in 2013, as shares have risen 15.71% year to date. 

Another health care-related stock falling today was UnitedHealth Group . After rising 8.5% this past week, and more than 5% the week before that, shares dropped 0.34% today. The decline is probably just a case of taking money off the table following the stock‘s performance over the past two weeks. The stock still probably has some room to move higher, and it now seems Obamacare will help rather than hurt the company. In addition, shares seem rather cheap, as the stock‘s current price-to-earnings ratio is only 11.72 and its future P/E is only 10.35.

Two technology stocks are also moved lower today, despite what would seem to be positive news for shareholders.

Hewlett-Packard fell 0.18% today, even though the company launched a new line of servers this morning. Some industry experts are calling this HP‘s biggest launch since 1989. The HP Moonshot 1500 System takes a very different approach to servers and has thus far received strong reviews.  

Shares of Microsoft lost 0.38% this afternoon, after the company announced that it was selling its IPTV unit to Ericsson. Microsoft’s IPTV business makes software that allows phone companies to deliver a television signal over the Internet. The terms of the sale and price weren’t disclosed, but Ove Anebygd, Ericsson’s vice president and head of TV, said it was more than $100 million, but less than $234 million. Microsoft’s shareholders are used to seeing the company make big purchases, not big sales, so this may have come as a surprise to many.

It’s been a frustrating path for Microsoft investors, who’ve watched the company fail to capitalize on the incredible growth in mobile over the past decade. However, with the release of its own tablet, along with the widely anticipated Windows 8 operating system, the company is looking to make a splash in this booming market. In this brand-new premium report on Microsoft, our analyst explains that while the opportunity is huge, the challenges are many. He’s also providing regular updates as key events occur, so make sure to claim a copy …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Microsoft sells IPTV platform to Ericsson

Microsoft has sold its Mediaroom IPTV platform to Ericsson in order to solely focus on the Xbox. For Ericsson, the deal will make it the largest provider of “IPTV and multi-screen solutions,” it said on Monday.

The two companies didn’t announce any financial details, but the deal is expected to be completed during the second half of the year.

With the sale of Mediaroom, Microsoft will be dedicating all remaining TV resources to the Xbox as well as connected smartphones, PCs and tablets, the company said in a blog post. The company is looking to partner with content creators, studios, labels, networks, content aggregators, operators and distributors. The fact now that it no longer has conflicts of interest with operators that use the Mediaroom platform will give it more freedom.

Ericsson will get a middleware platform that is used to distribute TV to 11 million households, delivered by the likes of AT&T, Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica. Mediaroom can distribute live, recorded, and on demand programming to TVs, PCs and mobile devices.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Ericsson Buying Microsoft's Mediaroom Business

By Chris Neiger, The Motley Fool

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Ericsson is acquiring Microsoft‘s Mediaroom TV business, which it says will make it “the leading provider of IPTV [Internet Protocol television] and multi-screen solutions with a market share of over 25%.”

The purchase announced today is expected to go through in the second half of 2013. Mediaroom provides the technology for TV services like AT&T‘s U-verse, Swisscom, Telefonica, and others around the world. Mediaroom-powered TV services total more than 22 million set top boxes, according to today’s announcement from Ericsson. 

“The importance of video distribution capabilities for the customers and their consumers will be increasing as more and more LTE networks are deployed and filled with smartphone users,” Ericsson said.

According to Ericsson, the global IPTV market is estimated to reach 76 million subscribers in 2013, growing to 105 million subscribers in 2015.

The Ericsson statement said that Mediaroom will be incorporated into the company’s Business Unit Support Solutions department. Mediaroom is in Mountain View, Calif., and employs more than 400 people worldwide. The press release did not include a purchase price.

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The article Ericsson Buying Microsoft’s Mediaroom Business originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Chris Neiger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Blonder Tongue Schedules Conference Call to Discuss Fourth Quarter Earnings and Year End 2012 Result

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Blonder Tongue Schedules Conference Call to Discuss Fourth Quarter Earnings and Year End 2012 Results

OLD BRIDGE, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Blonder Tongue Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE MKT:BDR) announced today that it will host a conference call in conjunction with the release of its financial results for the fourth quarter 2012. The call is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. EDT, on Tuesday, April 2, 2013. Individuals in the United States and Canada wishing to participate in the live call should dial 877-407-8033; reference Blonder Tongue Fourth Quarter 2012 Results Conference I.D. number 411725. Please carefully note the phone and conference I.D. numbers. For those unable to join the live call, a replay will be available through Wednesday, July 3, 2013, by dialing 877-660-6853 and using Conference I.D. number 411725.

Blonder Tongue Laboratories, Inc. together with R. L. Drake Holdings, LLC – its wholly owned subsidiary – offer customers more than 130 years of combined engineering and manufacturing excellence with solid histories of delivering reliable, quality products. As a leader in the field of Cable Television Communications, the Company provides system operators and integrators serving the cable, broadcast, satellite, IPTV, institutional and professional video markets with comprehensive solutions for the provision of content contribution, distribution and video delivery to homes and businesses. The Company designs, manufactures, sells and supports an equipment portfolio of standard and high definition digital video solutions, as well as core analog video and high speed data solutions for distribution over coax, fiber and IP networks. Additional information on the Company and its products can be found at www.blondertongue.com, and www.rldrake.com.

“Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The information set forth above includes “forward-looking” statements and accordingly, the cautionary statements contained in Blonder Tongue’s Annual Report and Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011 (See Item 1: Business, Item 1A: Risk Factors, Item 3: Legal Proceedings and Item 7: Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations), and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission are incorporated herein by reference. The words “believe”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “project”, “target”, “intend”, “plan”, “seek”, “estimate”, “endeavor”, “should”, “could”, “may” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to projections for our future financial performance, our anticipated growth trends in our business and other characterizations of future events or circumstances are forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect management’s analysis only as of the date hereof. Blonder …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Sunrise Telecom Adds OAM and MPLS-TP Capabilities to RxT Ethernet Service Activation Platform

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Sunrise Telecom Adds OAM and MPLS-TP Capabilities to RxT Ethernet Service Activation Platform

New Features Added to RxT 10GE Module Enable Service Providers to Successfully and Efficiently Deploy and Maintain Advanced Carrier Ethernet Services

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Sunrise Telecom® Incorporated (OTC: SRTI), a market-leading provider of test, monitoring and workflow management solutions for cable, telecom, wireless operators, and equipment manufacturers, today announced the addition of OAM (Operations, Administration and Management) and MPLS Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) capabilities to the company’s versatile RxT® Smart Productivity Test Platform. Integrated into the RxT 10GE module, the new features enable service providers to successfully and efficiently deploy and maintain advanced Carrier Ethernet services such as LTE, IPTV and mobile backhaul.

As Ethernet rapidly replaces legacy TDM services, enabling high-quality applications such as business services and wireless backhaul, service providers require a robust set of management tools to deploy and maintain their Ethernet service networks. Migration from legacy transport technologies to Ethernet demands the complete toolkit of fault detection and isolation tools now supported in the RxT-5000.

Ideal for technicians who provision and assure end-to-end connectivity fault management (CFM) of Ethernet circuits for business services, the OAM features of the RxT 10GE include connectivity check messages, Ethernet loopback, and link trace generation and analysis. For testing cell site Ethernet backhaul and Ethernet business services, the RxT 10GE supports CFM testing based on IEEE 802.1ag and ITU Y.1731 standards.

“Y.1731 is becoming the dominant OAM protocol as it incorporates key features of the other protocols into one heterogeneous toolkit,” explained Ken Fridley, product marketing manager at Sunrise Telecom. “The ability of the RxT platform to test proper configuration of maintenance entities using the Y.1731 OAM protocol is critical for service providers because it simplifies the deployment of Ethernet WAN services, enables accurate deployment of SLAs, provides end-to-end OAM test capabilities, supports a robust fault management toolkit and provides valuable performance management tools.”

The RxT 10GE also now features testing of MPLS-TP services, an emerging Layer 2 transport technology, to verify that MPLS-TP services are properly configured for end-to-end OAM. Customer and control plane data verification is seamlessly included in the RxT 10GE module which means MPLS-TP and SLA verification can be determined simultaneously, increasing the efficiency of both installation and network troubleshooting.

For more information on the Sunrise Telecom RxT Smart Productivity Test Platform and the RxT 10GE module, visit the product page at<a target=_blank …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

SeaChange International to Issue Fiscal 2013 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Financial Results on April

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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SeaChange International to Issue Fiscal 2013 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Financial Results on April 9

Conference Call on April 10 before Market Open

ACTON, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– SeaChange International (NAS: SEAC) , a leading global multi-screen video software innovator, will announce its fiscal 2013 fourth quarter and full year financial results on Tuesday, April 9, 2013 after the market close and will host a conference call to discuss the results on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at 8:30 a.m. ET, before the market open. The Company’s press release and prepared remarks will be posted on the investor relations section of its web site.

Conference call and webcast information:

  • Telephone: 877-407-8037 (U.S.) and 201-689-8037 (international)
  • Live webcast: www.schange.com/IR

For those unable to listen to the live conference call, a replay will be available through April 25, 2013, and may be accessed by dialing 877-660-6853 (U.S.) or 201-612-7415 (international). Callers will be prompted for replay conference ID number 409495. An archived version of the webcast will also be available on the investor relations section of the Company’s website at www.schange.com/IR.

About SeaChange International

Ranked among the top 250 software companies in the world, SeaChange International (NAS: SEAC) enables transformative multi-screen video services through an open, cloud-based, intelligent software platform trusted by cable, IPTV and mobile operators globally. Personalized and fully monetized video experiences anytime on any device, in the home and everywhere, are the product of the Company’s superior video platform, advertising and in-home offerings.

SeaChange’s hundreds of customers are many of the world’s most powerful media brands including all major cable operators in the Americas and Europe, and the largest telecom companies in the world. Headquartered in Acton, Massachusetts, SeaChange is TL 9000 certified and has product development, support and sales offices around the world. Visit www.schange.com.

Press
SeaChange
Jim Sheehan, 1-978-897-0100 x3064
jim.sheehan@schange.com
or
Investors
The Blueshirt Group
Monica Gould, 1-212-871-3927<br …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance