Cablevision Altice Deal Stalled By New York City

New York City concerned about the deal, whether it could go through successfully amidst the decline of the cable operator.

Cablevision Systems Corporation is in a middle of nowhere currently. Altice NV approached the cable company for a possible deal that seemed to be going quite well, but all turned around suddenly. Altice NV was paying a massive $10 billion to buy out the TV cable operator but the deal is running into an ‘unexpected turbulence’.

The European telecom giant announced the acquisition deal in September but this had no positive impact on the company or its shares. Instead, its shares have further declined in the market. This raised many concerns for the management, investors, and loyalists. However, there are various other apprehensions of the deal.

The shares have gone further down even below Altice’s all-cash offer of $34.90 per share. To be precise, the stock of Cablevision Corporation declined by 9% and is currently trading below the agreed takeover price. This has raised concerns among the shareholders and investors regarding this deal.

Analyst at MoffetNathanson LLC, Craig Moffett, stated, “The spread has widened in large part because people have become increasingly concerned that neither the city nor the state will find that the transaction is in the public interest, or alternatively, they’ll demand so much in terms of givebacks that ultimately the deal won’t be palatable to Altice.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that New York City regulators have several concerns not only regarding this deal but about its closure as well. Furthermore, it is believed that New York City has showed authority by saying that it can deny the deal anytime it wants but only ‘if’ it does not find the public interest in it. It is known that the company’s massive 3.1 million customer base is concentrated mostly in the NY market.

On the other hand, Maya Wiley, top legal counsel of Mayor Bill de Blasio, expressed her concerns as well. She stated that the city is anxious whether the European telecom operator has enough financial resources through which it can buy out Cablevision without “skimping” on customer service and infrastructure upgrades for better Internet speeds. She further added that the city is worried about the impact that this deal would have on job opportunities. On many previous occasions, Altice has opted for cost cutting strategies.

She stated, “Altice is talking about $900 million in synergies. Well, what’s getting cut? How’s that going to impact the economy of New York and quality of services? We certainly are not afraid to disapprove a transaction.”

Delta Airline And KLM Codeshare Flights Making Amsterdam Its New Hub

Delta and KLM codeshare flights expand their agreement to India Jet Airways providing more traveling options to customers.

Delta Airline and KLM Royal Dutch Airline are launching an agreement of codeshare flights with India Jet Airways very soon, bringing their customer with a wider range of options throughout the India, Europe and USA. The western hub of India will shift to Amsterdam from Brussels.

The flights are going to be non-stop from Amsterdam, Mumbai and New Delhi; however, the government approval on this development is still on pending for now. Delta Airlines and KLM are going to use the routes through the codeshare flights agreement while Jet Airways share flights with the USA carrier on routes of Europe. All organizations are going to be coordinated with the customer services for efficiency in these actions to proceed.

After the air traveling companies receive the government’s approval, routes of codeshare flight will open in March 27 next year. The senior vice president of the giant US air travelling company, Nat Pieper, said, “Delta is committed to offering customers greater choice and a high standard of service. By partnering with Jet Airways, India’s preferred premier full service, international network airline, we will be able to meet demand for flights to India and beyond. We have track record of building successful partnerships with international carriers that broaden our global network and we are delighted to be opening up the Indian subcontinent to the many thousands of Delta customers wanting to fly to this region.”

In other news regarding the air travel providers, it has been making a huge success in satisfying its customers. Almost 87.6% of Delta’s flights arrived on time at the airports, while, on the other end, the carrier along with United has charged three gulf carriers of receiving $39 billion from their government including Emirates and Qatar. The company strongly argues that gulf airlines make the competition in the business unfair, as their government does not have any income tax policies. Other carriers in the aviation industry suffer immensely when it comes to the payment of huge tax bills of all sorts.

Delta has managed to achieve many different routes, through agreement with different organization in the industry and is making huge efforts to expand and succeed even more than it is now. It is giving a tough competition to many others in the business, and according to reports, it will keep on doing so. This indicates its bright prospects.

Delta stock closed at $50.18, going green by 1.83% on December 14.

Procter & Gamble Moves North American Management Business To Omnicom

Procter & Gamble moves its media buying and planning business to Omnicom.

The famous advertising investor has awarded Omnicom Group with a huge number of its media buying and planning business in North America. This is the biggest high profile review of this year, with the announcement made on Monday.

Omnicom Media group, being responsible for the company products, will now handle most of the Procter & Gamble North American operations. No decisions have been made yet as to which of the agencies are going to be handling which sorts of products such as home care health care products, Fabric and many other of the organization’s services.

The global brand officer of P&G, Marc Pritchard said during an interview, “What we are trying to do is find the best partner to help us really innovate in media and reach and attract more users to our brands with better precision and also greater efficiency. Omnicom demonstrated superior and proven performance in the area of data analytics, planning and buying, innovation, talent and financial value.” 

Pritchard believes this move is going to increase efficiency in the business operations with the help of another firm. Where one firm is at an advantage, another is at a loss; Publicis Groupe used to have the pleasure to run the business operations and media account in the region before. SMG was the company’s preferable firm for its important operations for 15 year and Carat for 10 years, which is evidently no longer the case. However, Starcom Mediavest Group is still handling Duracell products in America and might be doing so in Canada.

Some of P&G brands are Tide detergent and Pampers diapers, the company is looking to reduce the amount of agencies and relationships it is connected to in order cut it expenditures on them, also this creates inefficiency and makes the business difficult. The organization was reported to invest $2.7 billion on advertising a year before while it spent $3.1 billion in 2013. Now it is seeking to cut the extra expenses, by also selling 100 of its brands and make 10 products its focus.

This move might be good for the company because reducing products will give it time to give extra attention to the 10 decided products. However, it still has plans to spend on global media, it has cut 40% of agencies it was working with internationally saving around $300 million.

The products and services provider is the first client of Omnicom, some of the business of the company is still going to be handled by Carat.

PG stock closed at $77.75, going red by -0.79% on December 8. 

Canadian Solar Subsidiary Secures Finances For 157 MW Texas Project

Canadian Solar subsidiary, Recurrent Energy, teams up with Southern Power and secures financing for its Texas solar project.

Canadian Solar’s famous subsidiary, Recurrent Energy, announced a partnership with Southern Power on November 30, which is going to grant a controlling power in the 157 megawatts solar project in Texas to the Atlanta-based company. Through this, the company has also secured the required finances for the project and has started the construction in West Texas.

Canadian Solar subsidiary is developing the solar photovoltaic project; however, the agreement between the two subsidiaries will give 51% of equity to Southern company in the project while the giant solar company will hold the rest 49% of the ownership, and the shares are going help in constructing the project as quickly as possible.

The Texas-project is expected to provide enough energy to support almost 30,000 houses in the area making it one of the biggest projects in the state. It is anticipated to be fully operational by the end of 2016. This generated solar energy is going to be delivered to Austin Energy through a 20 year long Power Purchase Agreement.

The solar power company’s chief executive and chairman, Shawn Qu, said, “ Cost-competitive, large-scale solar power has enormous potential in Taxes, the Roserock project and Recurrent Energy's solar project pipeline in the state are each important steps forward as Texas approaches the more than 13 GW of solar that have been forecasted across the state. This agreement is a testament to our broader team's ability to deliver bankable solar projects with strong fundamentals.”

The project is occupying land of almost 1300 acres in Pecos County, West Texas, bringing 500 jobs in the area. It is expected to use 700,000 CS6X-P photovoltaic solar modules of the giant company. Apache Corporation initially constructed the layout of the project while McCarthy Building Companies will be the provider of engineering and construction facilities for the 157MW solar project in Texas.

This is the second time Recurrent Energy has collaborated with Southern Power giving it 51% hold of the project. In other news, the organization’s subsidiary made reports of supplying 112 megawatts of its CS6P-265P photovoltaic solar modules to Sunrun next year.

Canadian Solar is making its aim to grow globally, through constructing solar projects rapidly and helping stop global warming and contribute save the environment. Securing finances for solar project has become easier due to growing awareness worldwide of the climate change. To protect the environment globally, firms and companies are switching to renewable sources of energy.

Canadian Solar stock is running at $23.35, going green by 1.39% currently on real-time (December 1).

Pacific Crest Increases Salesforce.com Estimates After Strong Q2 Results

Pacific Crest improves outlook for Salesforce.com, while reiterating an $80 price target, along with an Overweight rating.

Pacific Crest has restated an Overweight rating to the stock of Salesforce.com, Inc.  with target price of $80 yesterday, revealed in a sell side report. The firm upgraded its future outlook for the company following by its second quarter financial results for fiscal year 2016 after the bell rings on Thursday.

The company’s latest quarter results showed overall revenue growth of around 24% on year over year basis and approximately 28% in constant currency basis, despite being pretentious by an exclusively complex growth comparison for the fiscal year. Reliant on Salesforce over performed guidance and constant growth, the sell side research firm believes the stock to hit at least $80 mark.

The cloud computing Solutions Company reported positive billing outcomes for second quarter FY16, with sales surpassing the consensus forecast. The company reported a transparent period, despite foreign exchange volatility adversely impacting the currency.

Salesforce.com, Inc. beat its billing forecast by more than 25% and 19.3% on year over year and constant currency basis, respectively; it also surpassed analysts billing forecast of $1.58 billion. The sales revenue for the quarter came in at $1.63 billion, up 24% on year over year basis and 28% in constant currency, also more than the Street’s forecast of $1.60 billion.

The company reported earnings of 19 cents per share for the quarter ended on July 31, surpassing the consensus estimate of 17 cents per share, Sales force’s cash flow from operations stood at $304.4 million more than analysts’ expectation of around $249.9 million. However, the $3.03 billion of deferred revenue missed the analysts’ estimation of $3.05 million.

According to the analysts polled by Bloomberg, 40 of them rate the stock with Buy, four recommend a Hold, and 5 suggest gave it a Sell rating. The twelve month consensus stock price target stands at $80.87, showing an upside return potential of 21.1% compared to current closing price.

In news, Co-founder G Parker Harris III sold 5,583 shares for around $374,751 through 5 transactions on August 24 and 25. After these transactions, Mr. Harris has now left with the ownership of 23,305 shares, priced at 1,519,019.9 as of Tuesday. Burke F. Norton, Chief Legal Officer divested around 6,092 shares for $405,910 on August 24. Following the sale, he is now left with 57,342 shares. The company’s Chief Accounting Officer, Joe Allanson also sold 512 shares for $34,115 on the same day.

Salesforce.com, Inc. stock was up 0.02% to $65.18 at market close on Tuesday August 25.

Japan: The Next Battleground For Netflix, Inc. And Amazon Prime

Amazon.com and Netflix,Inc. will soon be meeting in the Asian market; although it remains to be observed if either of the services will prove to be successful in the Japanese market.

On Wednesday, Amazon.com announced that it will be launching its Prime Instant Video Services in Japan by next month. Netflix, Inc. had previously announced this news for itself in the beginning of August when it partnered up with wireless provider SoftBank, that their services will be launched in the country on September 2, 2015. The upside for Amazon users in Japan will be that this service will be free for Prime users as they already pay $32 (Yen 3900) per year for the Prime Subscription.

This will be a price advantage for Amazon Prime users. According to reports by CNET, these users will roughly be paying $3 a month for this instant video streaming service whereas Netflix, Inc. subscribers, once it is launched in the country, will have an option to choose from three plans which will be from approximately $6 to $12 per month.

This will be the fourth country that Amazon launches its service in; the others that the company has launched in are the United States, United Kingdom and Germany. According to StreamingMedia.com, the service will be available in certain Televisions, tablets, applications and video gaming consoles. Prime will be offering its services that would include dramas, popular Japanese and U.S shows; since the video streaming firm expanded itself in the United States by providing them with content specifically for the users in the U.S. it has planned to do so for the Japanese market as well.

The president of Amazon Japan Jasper Cheung said in a statement that the streaming media firm is investing considerably all around the world to provide its users with high definition and high quality local and international programming, and expect to do the same for the Japanese market by providing them with premium quality local content. Further he added that the firm knows what the customers want in Japan when it comes to entertainment as they have been offering DVDs and videos to the market for over 15 years and they plan on doing the same with Amazon Prime with no additional cost.

According to a report provided by the Wall Street Journal, Amazon has removed quite a few workers from its Silicon Valley Lab 26 Development Center, in the recent weeks. The report also stated that the firm is stopped working on its large screen tablets as the Fire Smartphone turned out to be a major flop last year despite of the fact that the company did heavy marketing, the phone completely failed to provide the “wow” to its customers as they were already happy with their Iphone and Google Android handsets.

Fake 'Sociopath' Recruitment Posters Pop-up Near Amazon HQ

The New York Time's post has led to bad press for Amazon,com due to which the company is being targeted by fake 'sociopath' recruitment posters.

The recent post by The New York Times, regarding the working environment at Amazon.com, has put the company in limelight for almost a week now. The article claimed the company of having a high pressure workload, tough environment that only welcomed career driven individuals with no personal commitments. Due to this recent negative press, fake Amazon Job Recruitment posters are popping up all around Seattle with the headline “Are you a sociopath? Amazon wants you!”

These posters have appeared near Amazon’s South Lake Union Headquarters on poles and on gym bulletin boards. First the NYT’s article and now these fake recruitment flyers can prove to be very harmful for the online shopping firm, as this will damage the company’s reputation in the eyes of emerging tech talents and engineers who could have otherwise considered joining Amazon. The tagline on the posters reads “Have a conscience? Don’t worry; our work environment will strip it from you in no time! Apply now!” which was followed by a hashtag: #AmazonJobs.

The article, due to which this hype regarding the company’s environment has been created, was published on Sunday after the website had interviewed over 100 ex and current employees at the retail giant. Statements of employees have been given in the article stating that they have seen workers crying in the bathroom and on their desk while at work because the firm has very tough working conditions and not everyone can cope with them. Jeff Bezos in response to NYT’s article sent a memo to his employees saying that the article does not describe the Amazon he knows or the caring employees he works with. Furthermore, he asked his employees to come forward in case they witness any such incidents in the company and email him or the HR department.

After coming across these fake recruitment posters, people started posting sarcastic comments on social media and mostly took it as a joke while others took it as a serious offence. One of Amazon’s tech workers wife posted that her husband is a tech worker at Amazon and he is not a sociopath, he is a good man with a good job. Although, GeekWire spoke with several former employees who confirmed that the article was factually accurate but not entirely true, as it does not paint a fair and complete picture of the company’s environment.

All in all, this has affected the company’s reputation, which will ultimately lead to a high turnover rate. In other to retain its employees, Amazon will have to make an effort to make its benefit policies more attractive for its workers.

Intel Likely To Lose Share Of Android Tablet Market

Intel will lost its share of the secular Android tablet market.

Intel Corporation is likely to embrace a massive drop in terms of Google Inc.’s Android tablet sales that are powered via Intel chips in accordance with a report by Digitimes. As reported the company’s sales figures for the fiscal year of 2015, are likely to go down by 10.8 million units this annum. Earlier, 14.23 million units of tablets were sold in FY14. A downturn is now being experienced by the android tablet fraternity in general but CPU makers are destined to face a decline in terms of scale.

Apart from that, the Android smartphones that are powered by Intel process are targeted to supersede sales of 10 million units this annum. This news by the company comes after a long period where Intel is trying its best to break into the smartphone market that is currently under the strong dominance of company’s like Qualcomm and Samsung.

The company has spent a substantial amount of time to promote and market their mobile devices. A set back of around $4.2 billion was observed by Intel in the fiscal year of 2014 that eventually resulted in efforts that were relatively more focused and streamlined. The company restructured its strategy where it stopped depending on its laptop and personal computer business and also had to go through a massive round of layoffs.

Most of the analysts keeping a close watch on the company are aware of the fact that the company is governing a great chunk of its revenues from the personal computer sector. So after losing on this market, the company might have to experience another shortcoming. Windows 10 by Microsoft Corporation will soon hit the market this month along with the increasing demand for personal computers in the form of 2-in-1 Personal Computers but this will not help the company in bolstering revenues. However it is expecting the white box maker and equipment manufacturers to keep investing in the developing mobile devices this year

The previous year, Chipzilla mobile chip owned by Intel achieved a ranking of %55.9 billion in terms of revenues. This is said to be a 6 percent increase in the year 2013. So now this gives the company a slight edge to them in terms of mobile CPU production.

Hence Intel has several areas where they actually need to grow. Android tablet sales were a source of revenue for the company but a 4 percent decline in sales is extremely alarming and can further dent the integrity of the company.

Tesla Gigafactory Establishment Grows Further

The auto making giant is making sure nothing comes in between the establishment of Gigafactory in Nevada while expanding at a very quick pace.

The most recent report regarding the most anticipated battery making plant being built in Nevada by Tesla Motors is that the auto making giant is expanding the business in such a quick pace that it is rather over whelming for the investors and shareholders to grasp. The news suggests that the hybrid car makers have taken up more than three-folds of the land to build the biggest lithium-ion battery making business that it has decided to initiate.

The Gigafactory construction is going towards the direction where the analysts have begun to think that it might just end up being the largest battery making plant in the world. Currently, the plant is covering land of around 2,000 acres while the electric car producer further plans to grow and expand more, in accordance with the developments being made in the region. In the report that has been released by the Wall Street Journal, it has been mentioned that the firm has taken over the land next to Reno.

Furthermore, it should be taken into notice that Tesla was seen to take over a 1,000 acres in the initial stages of production from where it began to grow. A place near Story County, the luxury car makers ended up buying the land that they thought they would need for the production of batteries. However, the auto giants did not stop there and the deal that was signed by them gave them the assurance that in case more land is needed for the purpose of expansion, they will be allowed to acquire it accordingly.

This is what the firm has been doing in the present, and that is buy more than around double the land that it has previously bought to make sure the activities of production face no delay. Other than the initial 1,000 acres, Tesla decided that it needs more land in April where it took over more land and continued to do so in May 2015 as well.

This activity was carried out right after the firm announced the earnings report for the first quarter which made the analysts realize just how much the expenses of the firm must be. The auto makers are also working on a new car which has been deemed as a sports vehicle named the Model X. This production is going side by side with the battery making plant which has raised many concerns from the analysts and investors who are worrying about how long will the firm continue with the expenses touching the sky.  

Twitter Intolerant While Hiring Black People

Twitter is biased while giving jobs to people.

Racism is very common in most parts of the world. Twitter, despite of being one of the most popular social media networks, is somewhat involved in racism. To be fair, racism should not be supported by such companies. According to The Guardian, only 49 people out of a massive US work force of nearly 3,000 is black. This tiny figure represents the black people of African Americans working for the company out of which 35 are men and 14 are women. The African American staff is accountable for only 1.7 percent of Twitter’s total work force.

This is not right by any means to label them as minorities. The president of the Rainbow/Push Coalition, Rev Jesse Jackson, has been in this field and campaigned ‘for tech companies to be more transparent about their lack of minority employees’. He further told The Guardian that tech giants that include Facebook, Twitter, and other Silicon Valley companies are biased over race and do not prefer black people. Furthermore, as the time passes on, black people are becoming more intolerant in such companies.

Hence, the progress of these companies is lacking in order to make their workplaces more diverse. According to The Guardian, “The stark lack of black employees comes despite the company’s repeated pledges to make its staff better reflect the diversity of its 302 million users – and as Twitter actively exploits its large number of minority users to bring in more advertising revenue.”

It is not only Twitter but the whole US discriminates between black and white and mostly when it comes to giving jobs. According to a plan announced last year, the company officials planned to build a platform they will be proud of. The vice president of Twitter’s diversity and inclusion, Janet Van Huysse, stated “We are committed to making inclusiveness a cornerstone of our culture.”

Moreover, Twitter has been quiet over the year and released brief information regarding employees’ ethnicity. As it is more revealed now, more than 93.8 percent of Twitter employees are either white or Asian whereas the remaining 180 people from the total work force belong to other minorities i.e. Hispanic, Latin, and American Indian etc. To be precise, the company has only 49 black employees, 68 Hispanics or Latino employees, 13 native Hawaiians, 3 American Indians, and 47 of two more races.

Rev Jesse Jackson adds “I am very disappointed. Black people are greater users of the product and capable of doing the jobs, but there has not been an adequate commitment to hire, train and maintain [black people].”

Broadcom Collaborates With Chinese Companies To Boost Presence

After Cisco, Broadcom joins the Chinese firm partnership bandwagon as a part of collaborative strategy.

It seems like Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM) does not want to be left behind in taking advantage of China’s rise from being a cheap industrial manufacturing base to a center of innovation and information technology. The semiconductor solutions provider has formed a strategic partnership with three local manufacturing organizations to strengthen its regional presence in the Asian country. The collaboration will involve further innovation of home entertainment and digital home category.

Qualcomm and Cisco have taken the lead, with the latter announcing its plan earlier this month to spend more than $10 billion over the next few years in the country. The road is not likely to be easy as China is tightening its noose around global IT enterprises for their alleged involvement in the cyberwar, spying, and espionage charges, following prior allegations. It now prefers local indigenous IT companies for procurement of IT services now. Likewise, Chinese IT companies struggled to get a foothold in the US market.

Due to Chinese officials’ preference for local IT companies, whom they can trust on, Broadcom has formed a joint venture with a Chinese IT infrastructure products maker, H3C Technologies Co. Limited, for further exploration on the IT infrastructure platform. In addition, Broadcom has also formed a partnership with StarTimes (Beijing-based pay TV operator) and Inspur Group (Shandong-based systems integrator).

With Inspur Group, Broadcom will collaborate on the provision of digital home system in the 4K Ultra HD set-top box offerings for China, whereas the partnership with StarTimes will be focused on the production of low cost set boxes through the provision of engineering resources and Ultra HD home gateways.

Like Cisco, Broadcom Corporation is eyeing on opportunities, such as healthy LTE revenue growth, data center, and the next generation video products in a bid to diversify to new markets, such as automobiles, Internet of Things, wearables set, and next generation mobile technology.

In terms of Internet of Things (IoT), the semiconductor company is already making good progress on that front, if not catching up with Qualcomm and other IT companies, and is currently refreshing its portfolio to come up with new and advanced, yet meaningful features of it.

The corporate giant already enjoys a significant position in market. This collaboration can further add to its market presence and boost company vitals (revenues, profits, turnover, etc.).

Broadcom stock price ended the day at $52.11, a decline of 1.50% from the previous day, despite the announcement of the joint venture.

BP Plc. To Face Up To $60 billion In Cost For 2010 Oil Spill

The article takes a look at the total cost of the oil spill that BP could end up paying for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP plc was involved in the biggest oil spill in Gulf of Mexico in 2010. In the result of the oil spill, eleven rig workers died because of the blowout, while significant amount of oil leaked into the deep ocean and caused huge environmental damage.

Carl Bieber, US federal judge, in 2014 deemed the company as “grossly negligent.” He ruled maximum fine to be forced on the oil company under the CWA. His ruling related to BP’s fine might now come any time and can be as much as 413.7 billion.

The London oil company has spent a massive amount on cleanup of the oil spill. The company has spent approximately $43.8 billion. According to analysts, the costs are most likely to cross $60.2 billion to $68.2 billion mark, which will hurt BP immensely, among falling oil prices.

According to Fuel Fix, Brendon Barnes, an analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence has also stated that 5 Gulf coast have also sued BP for the harms. Under the Act of Oil Pollution, these 5 states are looking for a total compensation of around $35 billion.

Mr. Barnes related to issue said, “It’s highly unlikely, that the states will be awarded an amount close to $35 billion.” He thinks that the states might witness $650 million to almost $1.5 billion in compensations at most, and it looks doubtful that the company will settle with them. He also said, “So far, the five Gulf states have agreed to hold off on filing Natural Resource Damage claims – the claims that are the most difficult to predict. Natural resource damage actually tries to monetize the value of trees, different aquatic organisms, so it’s very uncertain.”

On the other hand, BP is also witnessing pressure from residents and other businesses of the Gulf. As per Mr. Barnes, company’s economic business losses have reached up to almost $160,000 in the past few years. He assesses that the claims might add another $12.4 to $13.5 billion for BP while other claims might total up to $9.7 billion.

William Hares, Intelligence Energy Analyst at Bloomberg said, “Barring a worst-case scenario, BP will continue to exist, though the impact from the litigation will be felt by investors. Something has to give as it faces tens of billions of dollars in incremental penalties.”

Mr. Hares said, BP will be evaluating every situation before coming up with a decision, which will include its capital spending and dividends cutting decision. BP believes that the oil prices will stabilize soon so that it might witness satisfactory growth and enhance on its liquidity position.