Davidson1.0's World

Really Tech Crunch?

The liberal, Apple loving, internet geek is very flustered today.  They don’t want to see their precious Apple that makes products they are in “love,”  with “skirting” tax laws the way Mitt Romney was “hiding” his tax returns.  Tech Crunch just put up a post with Rand Paul’s critique of this which hunt.  They seem to be quite confused as to what is “fair/just/etc.”

They point out and seem to agree with his statement:

Noting that thousands (if not millions) of U.S. citizens hold Apple stock directly or through pensions, Paul argued, “When we want to punish Mr. Apple. who are we punishing, we’re punishing ourselves.” Indeed, Apple would be hosing the everyday shareholders if it didn’t maximize its profit through some very convoluted offshore tax strategies.

Then come back with:

However, Paul’s transparent theatrics fell short on his solutions, which included a passing mention to a “repatriation holiday.” Back in 2004, the U.S. government gave a juicy tax repatriation holiday to incentivize bringing foreign holdings back to the homeland. Yet, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, that money didn’t go into research and development. Indeed, many of the companies cut jobs, instead funneling their new domestic coffers into providing dividends to its shareholders.

If they agree that punishing Apple just hurts the “everyday” shareholders, how is a dividend going to the same shareholders seen as wrong?  Isn’t it the same as the tax holiday, unlimited unemployment benefits, or any other temporary stimulus that has been rolled out over the last 5 years?

This country needs to get out of the demonizing wealth game.

Is Yahoo Doomed?

Despite it’s recent stock performance, the release of some great new mobile apps (I LOVE Yahoo weather), and of course today’s gigantic Tumblr announcement is Yahoo still doomed?    Sarah Lacy still thinks so.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Tumblr can save Yahoo. I still think the company continues its slide into irrelevance — although maybe a bit slower now. But Yahoo won’t kill Tumblr. It won’t innovate on it much, but it’ll find a way to turn it into a larger business, and it’ll be a good custodian of what users love until something better comes along.

I wanted to buy some Yahoo right when Marissa was named CEO.  I considered doing it only because of the near universal praise she received from peers and journalists on the web.   I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger because I still couldn’t answer the simple question of, “Do I want to own a company with the main assets of an aging web portal, a ton of old people still using Yahoo mail, and a few decent assets like Yahoo Finance and Fantasy Football?”  After today, does that equation change?  Long-term I still have to agree with Sarah.

BlackBerry To Launch BBM On Android And iOS This Summer

Do you know anyone with a Blackberry anymore?  I honestly don’t know of a single friend that would want to take advantage.  The only people I know with Blackberries carry 2 phones.  I guess maybe if I was considering switching back due to BB10 this could seem remotely interesting.

“We’re using Amazon more efficiently than the retail arm of Amazon is,” says Adrian Cockcroft, Netflix’s cloud architect. “We’re pretty sure about that.”

“Few relationships in the technology industry are as complex as Netflix and Amazon’s. Netflix’s status as Amazon’s biggest customer has earned it favorable pricing and direct lines of communication to Amazon’s top engineers. When Netflix wants a new software feature, Amazon is quick to deliver it, and other customers eventually benefit from that work. “There’s no question in my mind that our platform is stronger from a performance and functional standpoint because of the collaboration we have with Netflix,” says Andy Jassy, who heads Amazon’s cloud business.”

I’m not sure if this is terrifying to either company.  It would terrify me as a shareholder (glad I’m not right now).