Earnings

Best Buy is on the same track that two former train wrecks were on, CompUSA and Circuit City.

Today, Best Buy reported a fiscal fourth-quarter net loss of $1.7 billion and announced it is closing 50 stores.

The basic pattern that CompUSA (closed brick-and-mortar stores in 2007) and Circuit City (closed stores in 2008) followed was: first select stores were closed, then more were closed, then all stores were shuttered or sold off.

Is this Best Buy's fate? And why? Below I try to offer some reasons for Best Buy's troubles based on my own experience and … Read more

Nvidia is eying a market for inexpensive dual-core smartphones that underprice the iPhone 4S by a wide margin.

That phone segment, which the graphics chipmaker calls the "1,000 RMB phone" in China, will use Nvidia's dual-core Tegra 2 processor paired with a 3G modem, according to Chief Executive Officer Jen-Hsun Huang, who spoke during the earnings conference call this afternoon. RMB refers to the Chinese currency.

RMB 1,000 is about 75 percent less than the price of an iPhone 4S, which currently retails for RMB 4,988 in China.

"That's a pretty exciting … Read more

In the wake of a solid earnings report, ARM's CEO Warren East said Microsoft may have some potential advantages over Android in the tablet market.

ARM processors power the vast majority of tablets and smartphones sold globally.  And for the first time with Windows 8, a mainstream Windows operating system will run on both ARM and Intel chips.

Responding to an analyst's question about why consumers would buy Windows 8 tablets when Android tablet sales have been "disappointing," East cited Microsoft's brand recognition among consumers.

Microsoft's brand advantage: "Consumers are familiar with … Read more

Nvidia has lowered revenue expectations for the period ending January 29, citing the hard disk drive shortage in Thailand.

Revenue for the fourth quarter is expected to be lower than the company's previous outlook provided with its financial results for the third quarter ended October 30, 2011, the company said this afternoon.

Revenue is now expected to be $950 million, plus or minus 1 percent, compared with original expectations of $1.066 billion, plus or minus 2 percent, provided on November 10, 2011.

"The global disk-drive shortage caused by the flooding in Thailand had more impact on the … Read more

Intel has announced a number of changes to key management, including promoting Brian Krzanich to chief operating officer.

Krzanich will now report directly to CEO Paul Otellini. Krzanich had been vice president and general manager of Manufacturing and Supply Chain and responsible for all aspects of Intel's factories worldwide.

That's a nontrivial position at Intel. In fact, any manufacturing-related management position at Intel--the world's largest chip manufacturer and owner of multiple multibillion dollar chip plants--is deemed critical.

In years past, Krzanich had been responsible for the implementation of new manufacturing process technologies at the company. For instance, … Read more

Intel surprised Wall Street today by posting fourth-quarter revenue of $13.9 billion, and earnings per share of 64 cents, despite issuing a warning last month about a revenue shortfall.

Analysts had been expecting revenue of $13.7 billion and 61 cents per share.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini said that server and storage growth in the Data Center Group was strong, in an earnings conference call this afternoon.

The company said net income was up modestly to $3.4 billion from $3.2 billion in the same period last year.

For the current quarter, the company sees revenue of around $… Read more

The reported acquisition of Anobit should catapult Apple into the ranks of leading flash memory companies and mirrors what it has done with the A series of chips in its iPhone and iPad.

Apple is in the process of buying Anobit, an Israel-based flash memory firm, according to Israel's Calcalist business news site. The purchase price isn't small--in the range of $400 million to $500 million, according to reports.

So, what does a payout in that range bring to Apple? First of all, it's important to understand that Apple is not a flash memory neophyte, according to … Read more

On December 20, 1996--15 years ago today--Apple announced that it would acquire NeXT. Oh, and its CEO was part of the deal.

That CEO of course was Steve Jobs, as CNET reported.

"Jobs...will leave his post as Next's chief executive to become an 'adviser,' reporting directly to Apple chairman and CEO Gilbert Amelio," CNET said.

Daniel Kunstler, at that time an analyst with J.P. Morgan, may have had the most prescient understatement of the decade (at least). "I really don't see any downside to Steve Jobs returning to Apple," he said.

The $… Read more

Intel is doing a sweeping reorganization in its mobile device group in order to make the company more competitive in small devices like smartphones and tablets, where its chips are virtually absent.

The chip giant has created a new business unit, the mobile and communications group, Intel spokesman Robert Manetta told CNET. The move was earlier reported in Fortune.

The group is composed of four existing divisions: mobile communications, Netbook and tablet, mobile wireless, and ultra mobility.

Mike Bell and Hermann Eul--both current Intel employees--will lead the group. Eul is a former member of the Infineon technologies management board (Intel … Read more