This Yahoo deal confirms a suspicion I have been holding for quite a while now. Microsoft is spreading itself too thin. Think hard about this, here are the competitors to Microsoft’s business:

Google: Online, search, email, cloud computing
IBM: Server software
HP: Server software
Oracle: Database and business software
SAP: Business software
Apple: Desktop and consumer operating system
Sony: Play stations and gaming
Nintendo: Play stations and gaming
Nokia: Mobile
RIM: Mobile
Amazon: Cloud computing

And the list goes on. Now do another comparison. Is Nokia a competitor to say Google? …

I am not going to say that you should not buy companies with strong balance sheets. What I am going to talk about is that strong balance sheets are just another indicator and by themselves are not something to go after.
The big boys of tech have reported earnings and let’s look at the results.

Amazon: Not so great a bit lack luster.
Apple: Great earnings.
EBay: Great earnings.
Google: Great earnings, but poor revenue.
IBM: Pretty good earnings.
Intel: Pretty good.
Microsoft: Fell off the cliff.

These earnings are telling me something that I have been talking about …

Yes I used the word crap, and I do mean it. What gets me about this high frequency trading article and issue is that I feel it is sour grapes. Here is what I heard from the woodwork. It seems that high frequency trading has been something new. But in fact it has been around for a while and last year there was the following job.

08 Aug 2008 18:25
Master Strategist | High Frequency | Quantitative Trading | London -
70000-150000
Are you a super smart statistician with a strategic …

In June I wrote a blog entry on how Microsoft has become a zombie corporation. Well earnings was released and as Pete Najarian said, “how is it that Wallstreet got it so wrong.”
Well Pete if your network CNBC was not so busy bashing bloggers as know nothings maybe you might be able to glean some information that might have been useful. As I said in my 2009 predictions “analysts will be a joke”, analysts missed AGAIN…
So let’s go back and focus on what happened. The real problem with Microsoft is …

I see that the healthcare debate has taken a completely ugly turn in America and that is unfortunate. So what I want to do is separate fact from fiction in the health care argument and then talk about what I think works and does not work. What I will do is talk about the healthcare systems that I actually witnessed firsthand.
Canada
The whipping child of many American’s on how it is bad socialized healthcare. First let me point out that there is no Canadian health care. It is a provincial matter. …

I was listening to CNBC and its special on the porno industry and how illegal downloads are making it hard for porn. I just thought of that and laughed because recently in Switzerland they talked about the state of the porno industry.
According to the article the problem with the porno industry is not theft, but the amateurs. Amateurs who want to show the world how they have sex are killing the “professionals”. And to make matters worse the professionals have to resort themselves to 6 minutes. It seems from the …

Karen Finerman could not understand why Intel is doing well, and not Dell. Let me explain what is going on.
I have a metric called the notebook popularity and it is based on the conferences I attend in the US and Europe. Whenever I am in a session room I always make a mental note on what computers the attendees have and how old they are. This metric includes corporations and individuals, and has been pretty robust throughout the years. I have been using this metric since 1996.
Through all of the …

Ok, so I blogged that credit was stuck on stupid and how our bank is stuck in that mode. I think I was a bit hasty. Today our bank talked to us and they told us that our mortgage was pre-approved, but that it was not a mortgage. Not a mortgage, huh? What is that?
Simply put because of our situation the bank has approved a libor + 2 credit line for 80% of the house’s value. That is sold value, not appraised value. We asked credit line? Why not a …

I read an article that said credit is stuck on stupid. This article talks about how willing buyers and sellers just can’t get deals done. It is hitting particularly close to home because we are just now buying a house in Quebec and let me tell you things are stuck on stupid.
Let’s say that we are buying a house with 33 acres. And let’s say that we came onto a deal and the sellers said, sure let’s do it. Well we went to the local bank (the ones my inlaws …

Oh boo hoo, now we have two people saying that high frequency trading is a problem for the market (1,2).
When JP Morgan discusses high frequency trading, people listen. When the head of JP Morgan’s algorithmic product desk Carl Carries says that high frequency trading is merely a form of parastic market making, people should run for the hills (not in the least due to JP Morgan’s proficiency in transforming theory to practice especially as it pertains to various daily trading patterns in the SPY).

Cry me a river will you! …