Written by Trefis Staff
Below is a summary of the activity on Trefis during the past week that Trefis thought the Econintersect readers would find interesting.
Trefis is a financial community structured around trends, forecasts and insights related to some of the most popular stocks in the US. It provides the unique feature of allowing the user to model future valuation based upon projected changes in components of each business. It also provides communication capabilities among members, including consensus of member analysis compared to Trefis staff analysis and blogging opportunities for members.
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Tech, Media, Telecom
Why Activision Blizzard Is Considering Mobile Gaming For World Of Warcraft on March 23rd
Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI), the developer of world’s biggest MMO World of Warcraft (WoW), has announced that it is looking…
Nvidia Launches Kepler GPUs That Challenge AMD on March 23rd
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) has launched two new graphics cards (GPUs), GeForce GTX 680 for desktops and GeForce GT 640M for notebooks, based…
Google Offers To Split Fees With Carriers To Boost Wallet Adoption on March 23rd
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) jumped into the mobile payments space last year with its Google Wallet offering. However, its NFC-enabled mobile wallet product has…
How Comcast Benefits From Joint Marketing With Verizon on March 23rd
Last year Verizon (NYSE:VZ) signed a spectrum deal with Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) and Bright House …
A Look At News Corp’s Upside If Fox Sports Became More Like ESPN on March 23rd
News Corp (NASDAQ:NWS) owes about 39% of its value to its cable networks with Fox Sports leading the way. We estimate that …
Google Analytics Gets More Social to Drive Ad Partnerships on March 23rd
While Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) doesn’t generate any significant revenue directly from Google Analytics, it uses it to provide better reporting features …
Apple Shows Yelp Some Siri-ous Love; Sends it More Traffic on March 23rd
Yelp (NYSE:YELP) is one of the largest online business search, review and recommendation services, which enables consumers to access ratings and read…
Adobe Expands Digital Marketing Suite with Adobe Social on March 23rd
Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) is focused primarily on digital media and digital marketing. It recently acquired a few companies such as Efficient Frontier and …
Weekly China Telco Roundup: China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom on March 23rd
The past week saw quite a few developments in the telecom sector, especially in China. China, which is the world’s largest …
Facebook Beefs Up Defenses With IBM Patents on March 23rd
Facebook has been in the news a lot in the last couple of months. It is preparing to go public, in what would be…
Weekly Telecom Notes: Sprint and AT&T on March 23rd
The U.S. telecom sector saw quite a few developments over the past week. After postponing for months, Sprint (NYSE:S) finally gave …
Weekly Internet Update: Google & Facebook on March 23rd
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Facebook are juggernauts in the global internet space – Google is a $200 billion company while Facebook is expected…
Weekly Tech Summary: Microsoft, Zynga & Yelp on March 23rd
This week was quite eventful for the tech sector, with a lot of significant developments related to major companies like Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) …
DirecTV Launches Streaming App Update For iPad on March 22nd
DirecTV (NASDAQ:DTV) recently launched an upgrade for its iPad streaming app that now allows its subscribers to watch on-demand movies from premium movie…
Qualcomm Rides China’s Smartphone Boom As It Reaches One Billion 3G Subscribers on March 22nd
China, the world’s largest mobile market by subscriber base, saw a 1.23 % increase in mobile subscribers February to close in on…
Facebook Becomes A Lucrative Patent Litigation Target on March 22nd
Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) may not be the only company looking to make a quick buck by targeting Facebook when it’s at its…
Microsoft Aims to Beat iPhone with Windows Phone in China on March 22nd
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) recently entered the Chinese smartphone market officially with Windows Phone . It is betting on Windows Phone Tango to drive sales…
With Paypal Here eBay Jumps Into the Mobile Card Payments Fray on March 22nd
Paypal, the leading global payment service owned by eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), has finally launched its own mobile payment solution, which enables small …
Symantec Acquires Nukona, Targets Enterprise Mobile Security Market on March 22nd
Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) has acquired Nukona, a mobile application management software company. Nukona primarily makes software which enables enterprises to allow employees to…
Netflix’s Canadian Success Shows Its Potential In Foreign Markets on March 22nd
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) is now being used by about 10% of the people in Canada, which translates roughly into 1.3 million households. Given…
AT&T Should Look To Partner Dish Rather Than Buy Spectrum on March 22nd
AT&T’s (NYSE:T) spectrum options seem to be getting more limited by the day. With the plans of acquiring …
China Telecom’s Results Show Faster 3G Adoption and Slimmer Margins on March 22nd
China Telecom (NYSE:CHA), the world’s largest CDMA mobile operator by subscriber base, announced its annual results for 2011 Tuesday. …
Microsoft To Offer Dynamics ERP As A Cloud-Based Service Through Azure on March 21st
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the largest enterprise software makers, but has been a relatively late entrant to the on-demand enterprise software …
Lumia And China Are Key To Nokia’s Future; $6.50 Fair Value on March 21st
Nokia (NYSE:NOK) is the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer with close to a quarter of the global mobile phone market. …
Groupon Launches A Free Scheduler App for Merchants on March 21st
Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN), which leads the global daily deals space, has been trying to expand rapidly since its IPO, and has acquired …
eBay Plans to Enter Chinese Domestic Payments Market with Paypal on March 21st
Paypal, the leading global payment service owned by eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), is looking to expand into China. It is trying to obtain …
Apple Sells 3 Million New iPads; Big Upside if Momentum Continues on March 21st
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) on Monday announced that it has sold around 3 million iPads in its debut weekend itself. The new iPad was …
Sprint’s Bankruptcy Concerns Overblown; Stock Worth $3.70 on March 21st
Sprint’s (NYSE:S) stock fell 4.5% Monday and extended losses beyond 5% Tuesday on concerns that the company may have to face…
The U.K. Pay-TV Probe And What It Means For Netflix on March 21st
As part of its investigation on the pay-TV market in the U.K., the Competition Commission is expanding its scope to include Netflix (NASDAQ:…
Amazon Acquires Kiva to Further Automate Warehousing, Reduce Expenses on March 21st
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has announced the acquisition of Kiva Systems for $775 million to improve the efficiency of its warehouses and order fulfillment centers…
Zynga Launches Scramble with Friends on Android on March 21st
Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is the world’s largest social gaming company with more than 240 monthly million active users. It competes primarily with …
ClearWire Feels the Love as Sprint Revokes Lightsquared Deal on March 21st
After postponing for months, Sprint (NYSE:S) finally gave up on its LTE deal with Lightsquared Friday. Sprint had extended its December 31st…
Zynga Could Beat Competition by Buying it, ‘Draw Something’ Maker a Target on March 21st
Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is the world’s largest social gaming company, with more than 240 monthly million active users. It competes primarily with…
How Margin Improvements Can Lift CBS’ Stock Further on March 21st
The success story for CBS’ (NYSE:CBS) stock is hinged on how the company has focused on developing and maintaining quality content …
Salesforce Launches Site.com to Simplify Online Content Management for Enterprise on March 21st
Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) announced a couple of new products at the Cloudforce 2012 event. It finally launched Salesforce Rypple, a new human capital…
Adobe Adds Cross-Visit Analytics to Digital Marketing Suite on March 21st
Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) recently restructured its business to focus primarily on digital media and digital marketing. It also acquired a few companies such …
Microsoft Can’t Afford Further Delays With Windows 8 Launch on March 21st
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) will complete the development and final testing of Windows 8 by summer, enabling device manufacturers to launch their Windows 8 …
Oracle Bets on the Cloud and Engineered Systems to Drive Growth on March 21st
Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) reported its revenues for Q3 FY12 on March 20, with revenues growing to $9 billion, up 3% year-over-year. More …
The Significance Of John Carter’s Failure For Disney on March 20th
We previously wrote that Disney (NYSE:DIS) should be careful with the launch of big budget movies as the potential for loss is high…
How Tegra Can Become Nvidia’s Most Valuable Segment on March 20th
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) has traditionally designed and developed discrete and integrated GPUs for notebooks, desktops and workstations. As the introduction of APUs from…
China Mobile Primed for $58 as China’s Smartphone Market Blossoms on March 20th
China will jump ahead of the U.S. this year to be the world’s largest smartphone market by volume, according to IDC’…
Adobe Bets on Growth from Creative Suite, Cloud and Digital Marketing on March 20th
Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) reported its Q1 FY12 earnings on March 19, with quarterly revenue of $1.045 billion, a marginal increase year-over-year. Adobe …
3M Invests In New Silicon-Based Anode Battery Material on March 20th
Diversified technology major 3M (NYSE:MMM) has taken a step further in its long-term vision of applying the battery technology to electric vehicles and…
Dell Worth $25, Acquires Network Security and Data Protection Market Firm on March 20th
Last week Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SonicWALL, Inc., a network security and data …
Diablo III Launching May 15th, Activision Blizzard Ready for Action on March 20th
After months of speculations and followed discussions, Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) has finally confirmed May 15th as Diablo III’s official release …
Salesforce’s Rypple Gets the Enterprise More Social on March 20th
Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) recently announced the launch of Salesforce Rypple, a new social performance management platform which it acquired through its acquisition of …
Perfect World Leans More on International Growth, Stock Heads to $23 on March 20th
Perfect World (NASDAQ:PWRD) recently announced its earnings for 2011 and showed impressive revenue growth, driven primarily by its international gaming operations. While…
Apple Finally Returns Cash to Shareholders, Pushes Shares Above $600 on March 19th
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced that it will finally use part of its huge cash hoard to reward its stockholders. Apple said that …
Competitors Look to Topple OpenTable With Low Fees on March 19th
Over the years, OpenTable (NASDAQ:OPEN) has transformed into the Goliath of the online restaurant reservation business. The company boasts of having nearly…
Nvidia’s Discrete Graphics Business Under Fire from Sandy Bridge and Llano on March 19th
The introduction of Sandy Bridge and Llano from Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and AMD (NYSE:AMD), respectively, has forced Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)…
Why EA is Exploring a Subscription Model for Battlefield 3 on March 19th
One of the hot questions in gaming circles these days is whether or not Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) is considering a subscription model for…
Microsoft Slashes Office 365 Pricing to Dominate the Cloud on March 19th
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the largest enterprise software makers and almost completely dominates the office productivity software market with the Office software…
Microsoft Tangos into Chinese Smartphone Market on March 19th
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) will officially enter the largest mobile phone market in the world, China, this month with a series of high-end smartphones…
Consumer
LVS Expands In Macau With Sands Cotai Central on March 23rd
Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) has strengthened its foothold in Macau with the launch of Sands Cotai Central, the newest addition to its …
Wal-Mart’s Africa and India Plans Boost International Outlook on March 23rd
International markets have been a major growth driver for the world’s largest retailer Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) especially since 2008 when the global…
CVS Shuts Beauty360 To Focus On Core Beauty Retail Business on March 23rd
CVS Caremark (NYSE:CVS) will pull down shutters on its prestige beauty retail stores Beauty360 and the corresponding e-commerce business to focus on the…
Walgreen Earnings Preview: What We’re Watching Tuesday on March 23rd
Walgreen (NYSE:WAG) will announce its 2Q results early next week. In the aftermath of its split with Express Scripts (NYSE:ESRX) …
Prestige Beauty Segment Growth Drives Estée Lauder on March 23rd
Despite macroeconomic pessimism, the U.S. prestige beauty market grew by double digits last year, in stark contrast to the mass beauty segment, according…
Zipcar’s College Campus Strategy Taps Its Target Market on March 23rd
Zipcar ‘s (NYSE:ZIP) American expansion in 2011 focused mainly on entering universities and college campuses. The company acknowledges the 18-34…
Oral Care Leads Colgate-Palmolive to $98 Fair Value on March 23rd
Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL), which leads the oral care market, seems focused on market share expansion, even if it means lower prices and …
RadioShack Is Getting Squeezed By Best Buy And Amazon on March 23rd
It looks like competition and shifting consumer trends are getting the better of consumer electronics retailer RadioShack (NYSE:RSH). It faces competition from …
Kraft Leans More on MiO, Tang as Beverages Sales Show Strength on March 21st
After successfully launching MiO in 2011 and signing an agreement with SodaStream in January 2012 that will see the company entering carbonated drinks market, …
Chipotle Hits the Gas in Europe Selling Food with Integrity on March 21st
Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) is one stock that just seems to love to rise. Its Year-to-Date (YTD) return for 2012 is …
Sara Lee’s Split Will Unlock Value, Profitability in Leading Brands on March 20th
Sara Lee (NYSE:SLE) will soon spin-off into two separate, pure-play International Beverage and North American Meat companies. Despite an envious portfolio of…
Rumored Disc-less XBox 720 Portends Doom for GameStop on March 20th
As the expected launch date for the next version of the Xbox gaming console – the Xbox 720 or the Xbox Next –…
LVS Updates: Faces $375 Million Lawsuit for Macau License on March 20th
Last week, Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) was sued for $375 million by Asian American Entertainment Corporation over the way it won the …
Zipcar Fueled Up for $22 on Profitability & Growth Metrics on March 19th
Zipcar (NYSE:ZIP) is a membership based, car sharing company that serves over 673K members with a fleet of over 9K vehicles in …
Walgreen Could Spur Consolidation with Rite Aid Deal on March 19th
U.S.’s third largest drug retailer Rite-Aid ‘s (NYSE:RAD) stock has gained more than 50% value in the last three…
GameStop Expands Trade Program for Apple Products on March 19th
Video gaming retailer GameStop (NYSE:GME) has announced the expansion of the trade program for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) products such as iPod, …
Dunkin’ Donuts New Sandwiches Beef Up Breakfast Offerings on March 19th
Dunkin’ Donuts, owned by Dunkin’ Brands Group (NASDAQ:DNKN), expanded its breakfast offerings by introducing a new breakfast sandwich called…
Industrials & Transportation
Caterpillar Will Ride Asian Demand To Another Record Year on March 23rd
Construction and mining equipment manufacturer Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) has finished a record year, posting the highest revenue and profits in its history for …
Caterpillar Growth Momentum Continues, But At A Slower Pace on March 23rd
Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) recently released its sales data for the three-month rolling period ending February 2012, compared to the same prior year period….
Lockheed Martin F-35 Costs Overruns Threaten Pentagon Contract on March 23rd
Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) has run into serious cost overruns in its quest to deliver the first 63 F-35 fighter jets under its…
Caterpillar Ramps Up Capacity On Strong Backlog on March 22nd
Construction and mining equipment manufacturer maker Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) is busy preparing for the next few years of record growth. The company has …
Baker Hughes Ramps Up Oil Fracking on Low Natural Gas Prices on March 21st
Low natural gas prices in the U.S. may have forced cuts in gas production from shale, but oilfield services firms like Baker Hughes (…
GE Capital Faces Downgrade as Moody’s Penalizes Financials on March 21st
Moody’s Investor Services has indicated that it may lower its rating on General Electric Capital Corp (GECC) compared to parent company General…
GE Healthcare’s India Center Driving R&D Efforts on March 20th
GE Healthcare, the medical equipment manufacturing arm of industrial giant General Electric (NYSE:GE), will launch about 20 new products, to be …
Boeing in India: Well Positioned for Growth Despite Air India Squabble on March 19th
Boeing (NYSE:BA) has huge growth potential in India, which it hopes to exploit in the coming years. However, it’s …
Halliburton Jockeys for Role in China’s Shale Exploration on March 19th
The Chinese government laid out an aggressive plan to develop the country’s massive shale gas reserves that calls for Chinese companies to work…
Johnson Controls Raises Lead Battery Prices to Maintain Margins on March 19th
Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI), the automotive battery manufacturer, has decided to raise the price of its lead acid batteries sold in U.S. …
Financial Services
Deutsche Bank No Longer a U.S. Bank; What Does This Mean? on March 22nd
Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) has reportedly tweaked the legal structure of its subsidiary in the U.S. from “financial holding company” …
Citigroup Sheds Stake in Pudong Bank For $369 Million Profit on March 22nd
In what is clearly the first step by Citigroup (NYSE:C) towards repairing the damage to its reputation after the Fed announced its failure…
BNY Mellon’s Legal Troubles Start To Pile Up on March 22nd
Legal issues just don’t seem to be ending for The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE:BK), as the world&…
State Street Loses Ohio State On Alleged Overcharges on March 22nd
State Street (NYSE:STT) has lost its business with the Ohio treasurer’s office after the latter formally ended business ties with the…
Goldman Underwriting Helping Fuel Recovery in Q2 on March 20th
Investment banks have suffered a great deal over the past two quarters. And while things are still far from the euphoric run they enjoyed …
Barclays Gains from U.K. Support for Small Businesses Amid Weak Economy on March 20th
Barclays (NYSE:BCS) has signed up with the British government to be a part of its new stimulus package planned for small businesses. …
Ratings Upgrades Give RBS Shares a Boost on March 19th
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group (NYSE:RBS) saw its shares skyrocket on Friday with the U.K. banking group’s …
Bank of America Shares Rally On Renewed Confidence on March 19th
Bank of America’s (NYSE:BAC) stock saw its biggest weekly rally in some time last week, as it jumped from around …
Energy
Global Solar Market Expands 40%, Europe Still A Major Engine of Growth on March 22nd
The global solar market jumped by 40% in 2011 despite subsidy cuts in several major markets. According to industry research firm Solarbuzz, installations jumped…
Chevron Warns of Challenges for Fracking Abroad on March 22nd
George Krikland, head of Chevron’s (NYSE:CVX) oil and gas production, has warned that multiple technical and logistical issues have to…
Trina Solar Slapped With Tariff on U.S. Exports, Could Hurt Sales on March 21st
The U.S. Commerce Department imposed tariffs ranging between 2.9-4.73% on Chinese solar panel imports after coming to the conclusion that the Chinese government …
Chevron May Reconsider Brazil Exploration After Frade Headache on March 21st
Brazilian prosecutors plan to allege this week that oil major Chevron (NYSE:CVX) should have refrained from drilling the well that caused the November…
LDK Revises Q4 Sales Forecast Lower; May Take Write-Downs on March 20th
Chinese solar equipment manufacturer LDK Solar (NYSE:LDK) announced that it will release its Q4 2011 results on April 12. The company has …
BP May Get Chance to Explore the Russian Arctic After All on March 20th
British energy major BP (NYSE:BP) may get a chance to explore the Russian Arctic region for oil and gas reserves after all. …
Brazil Spill Gets More Complicated for Chevron on March 19th
Chevron ‘s (NYSE:CVX) troubles in Brazil took a turn for the worse as a new sheen was discovered near the Frade …
Basic Materials
ArcelorMittal Extends Plant Closure, Eyes Bid For Brazil Port on March 22nd
ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT), the world’s largest steel company, has announced that it will extend the closure of its Schifflange furnace in…
DuPont Sharpens Its Focus on Malaysia With Solar, Palm Oil Initiatives on March 22nd
DuPont (NYSE:DD), the chemical major, has decided to expand in Malaysia and make it one of its focus geographies. The company …
Silver Wheaton Earnings: What We’re Watching on March 22nd
Silver Wheaton (NYSE:SLW), the world’s largest silver streaming company, will release its fourth quarter and annual earnings on Thursday, …
Vale Updates: Looks To Join China’s Mining Exchange, Carajas Rail Line Closed on March 22nd
Vale (NYSE:VALE) with other mining giants Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) and BHP Billiton could become members of the China Beijing International Mining…
Rio Tinto Updates: Aussie 30% Mining Tax Will Weigh on Iron Ore, Coal Units on March 21st
Australian miner Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) will have to shell out more taxes after the Australian government’s decision to impose a new…
U.S. Steel Looks at Natural Gas to Douse Soaring Costs on March 20th
U.S. Steel (NYSE:X) is looking at the cheap and abundant supply of domestic natural gas to reduce its soaring input costs. Like…
Labor Disruptions Force Freeport to Lower Q1 Outlook on March 19th
Last week, Freeport McMoran (NYSE:FCX) lowered its first quarter gold and copper sales volume outlook following labor-related disruptions in a mine in …