Internet

Google raises temperature on "internet of things"

13 Jan 2014

The search giant’s decision to pay $3.2 bln for Nest, a maker of smart thermostats, signals a shift in Silicon Valley’s arc of disruption. Sending data to people on the go looks rather ho-hum next to a future where consumers communicate with and control their products remotely.

Edward Hadas: An early obituary for bitcoin

8 Jan 2014

Bitcoin mania is not over yet. But the pseudo-currency’s recent volatility is probably the start of its collapse. A retrospective would teach a lot about speculative fever, financial ignorance and the ease with which entrepreneurial time and energy can be wasted.

Rise of e-payments leaves old guard in charge

6 Jan 2014

Square, Stripe and other startups are changing how Americans move money. They compete with many incumbents, but largely avoid fighting Visa and MasterCard. Using these networks is easier than replicating them. As cash use declines, the payment giants should be the biggest winners.

Double logic of $1 bln cyber deal reveals hotspot

3 Jan 2014

FireEye’s stock jumped 33 pct after buying Mandiant, a takeover that marries computer protection with attack response capabilities. Snowden’s revelations and data theft like Target’s should fan investor enthusiasm in 2014. So too will the continued appeal of smart acquisitions.

Selfish behavior will propel sharing economy

2 Jan 2014

New matchmaking business models are thriving in large part by forging into gray areas of tax and regulation. The likes of Uber, Airbnb and Lending Club face growing scrutiny from authorities. Just as Amazon did, though, self-interest should inspire some canny maneuvers.

Time for Larry and Sergey to invest in journalism?

30 Dec 2013

Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos is buying the Washington Post and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar is funding a new reporting venture. But take a look at the numbers, and few have made their money at the expense of the fourth estate quite as obviously as the Google guys.

China’s bureaucrats play online war games

23 Dec 2013

Who controls the internet? The authorities can’t decide. The Ministry of Culture is an unlikely favourite, after it clamped down on unsavoury online games. It’s a tussle between the online entrepreneurship China says it wants, and the old-school bureaucracy it actually has.

Target’s 40 mln hackees only tip of iceberg

20 Dec 2013

In this case the U.S. retailer’s in-store card readers may have been hacked. Fake ATMs are a clunkier hardware danger. But consumers who go online, especially on mobile devices, are running greater risks. By one broad definition, 1 mln of them suffer cybercrime every single day.

Bitcoin mania heads into the end game

18 Dec 2013

The electronic pseudo-currency had a good run. Ideologues, speculators and scammers enjoyed it while it lasted. Now Chinese authorities are determined on a strict clamp down, maybe an outright ban. Common sense prevails. Bitcoin’s price is down 50 pct. It will fall much more.

China anti-bitcoin ruling will shake believers

5 Dec 2013

Beijing won’t allow currency competition. The central bank has barred financial institutions from trading the pseudo-money, while reining in anonymous users. Bitcoin can still be traded, but the authorities are wary. The virtual asset has just lost a lot of its speculative appeal.

Edward Hadas: Bitcoin is a step back not forward

27 Nov 2013

The web currency delights right-wing, anti-government economists. But private-sector money is a fantasy. Currencies need political authority; money matters are naturally the state’s responsibility. Bitcoin’s appeal has a lot to do with governments being bad monetary managers.

Bitcoin attention may flip its investor base

20 Nov 2013

U.S. congressional hearings confer a certain sort of legitimacy on the shadowy but high-flying virtual currency. Ardent inflationista and libertarian bitcoin backers won’t much like the arrival of rules and regulations. They could, however, inadvertently attract the masses.

Cisco spies bigger problems for techland

14 Nov 2013

The networking company blames fallout from the Snowden affair as one reason why its revenue is sliding – along with increased competition and emerging-markets weakness. Some damage is self-inflicted, but there’s enough concern for rivals to be looking over their shoulders, too.

JPMorgan’s tweet defeat reveals multiple failures

14 Nov 2013

A hasty retreat from a Twitter Q&A with banker Jimmy Lee after a barrage of snarky abuse suggests the bank doesn’t quite get the pros and cons of the human newswire it just took public. Worse, JPMorgan doesn’t seem to realize just how badly reviled Wall Street banks are.

Snapchat bid triples Facebook’s desperation

13 Nov 2013

Mark Zuckerberg’s social network shelled out $1 bln for no-revenue Instagram last year. Now it’s dangling $3 bln to a mobile application that sends self-destructing digital images. Facebook’s escalating need to buy off marauders at its moat suggests its defenses are scalable.

Post-Twitter hype will find many happy homes

7 Nov 2013

True to form, bankers, venture capitalists and investors are chasing the next big thing. After years of eagerly anticipating Facebook, and then Twitter, there’s no one Silicon Valley blockbuster up next. Pinterest, Square, Airbnb, MongoDB and others will fill the enthusiasm gap.

Twitter’s public debut is yin to Facebook’s yang

7 Nov 2013

Facebook’s 2012 IPO was blowout excess. Twitter has carefully managed expectations. Both are a curious mix of cynicism and belief – redistributed among bankers, backers, executives and prospective investors. When it comes to hot IPOs, everyone is reacting to recent history.

China’s Singles’ Day shows market power of one

7 Nov 2013

Online shoppers may snap up over $4 billion of goods when prices halve on Nov. 11. But the best deal goes to Alibaba. Singles’ Day will further entrench the dominance of its platforms Tmall and Taobao. Faced with such market clout, sellers have little choice but to join in.

China web giants take on backers at their own game

5 Nov 2013

Tencent’s potential funding for U.S. app Snapchat shows China making strides into Silicon Valley. Chinese tech firms’ cash and contacts make them an attractive alternative to regular venture capital. And unlike a VC, Tencent faces little pressure to show investors its returns.

Twitter’s new $1.75 bln IPO value: Hype or spot on?

4 Nov 2013

The newswire of humankind boosted the price range of its debut by a third. That sets Twitter’s worth, at up to $14 bln, above its most recent internal value. Breakingviews’ latest calculator offers a way for prospective investors to decide whether that’s too much, or just right.