moody's

Critics pile on HP as Moody's cuts rating

Moody's cut Hewlett-Packard's rating today, topping a day marked by a rash of critical articles about the Silicon Valley giant.

Moody's Investor Services cut HP's long-term credit rating to Baa1, three levels above junk, from A3, according to Bloomberg. The rating agency said that HP's "credit profile will remain weaker than previously expected over the intermediate term," among other reasons.

This comes in the wake of an $8.8 billion writedown related to alleged fraudulent accounting at Autonomy, the software company HP acquired last year.

And HP's core businesses aren't faring … Read more

Nokia sinks deeper into junk status with new S&P downgrade

The bad news just keeps coming for Nokia.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services today announced that it has downgraded Nokia's long-term corporate credit rating from BB+ to BB-. Although both ratings are considered "junk status," BB- is a lower rating, indicating that the company "faces major ongoing uncertainties to adverse business, financial, and economic conditions." S&P has affirmed an even worse B rating on Nokia's short-term credit.

"The rating actions reflect a downward revision of our estimates of revenues and profitability for Nokia's smartphone operations in 2012 and 2013,&… Read more

Nokia's debt downgraded to junk status

Just when you thought it couldn't get worse for Nokia, Moody's steps in with a downgrade of its debt rating.

Moody's lowered its rating to junk status, citing earnings pressure and cash burn that is larger than the firm previously expected. The move comes after Nokia said yesterday that it would cut 10,000 jobs and warned its second-quarter financial result would again disappoint investors.

The downgrade is just the latest blow for Nokia, which is quickly seeing its prospects dim. A lower rating means it will cost more to issue debt, and the company will have … Read more

Apple's plan for Lala cloudier than ever

SAN FRANCISCO--A speedy launch of an iTunes cloud music service hasn't materialized the way many at the large record companies expected.

After Apple acquired Lala.com last December, the thinking among some music insiders was that Lala's streaming-music technology could easily be plugged into iTunes--once Apple obtained the proper music licenses. Lala.com, a music service launched in 2006 and shut down by Apple last May, possessed technology that scanned hard drives for existing music libraries and then enabled users to play back the same songs from Lala's servers via Web-connected devices.

But eight months after the … Read more

Google changes tempo of music approach

LOS ANGELES--Here at the epicenter of the entertainment sector, two news reports about Google's digital music plans have the music sector buzzing.

Elizabeth Moody, a well-respected attorney who has negotiated numerous licensing on behalf of Web music services, has joined the search engine, TechCrunch reported on Friday. Another story that appeared Monday in the New York Post says Google is in New York trying to rush a licensing deal through with the Harry Fox Agency.

Harry Fox licenses mechanical and digital rights for thousands of publishers. Last month, CNET reported that Google could launch a music service this fall. … Read more

Why open clouds are more important than open phones

Ars Technica's Ryan Paul wants to know, "Can a [truly open smartphone] be done?" But the real question is, "Should we care?"

I ask because some within the open-source ranks can't see the forest (choice) for the trees (freedom). For them, Freedom (with a capital "F") has but one meaning (free and open-source licensing), and is the end itself, not the means to an end (user choice).

Hence, Bradley Kuhn of the Software Freedom Law Center expresses anxiety about the future of freedom in mobile...

We are in a very precarious time … Read more

The irony of free-software advocacy

A rich irony of the free-software movement is that it heavily depends upon proprietary hardware and proprietary software to make its voice heard.

As an example, while Mark Antony (really a nice person--we've had tea in London before and I genuinely like him) rails against my "Is open source losing its soul?" post, he does so using proprietary hardware and proprietary Twitter.

Apparently the irony is lost on Anthony. (And yes, he could find an open-source chip to use if he wanted to.)

Not that he's alone. Glyn Moody, one of the most persuasive of the … Read more

EC takes three steps back on software liability

The European Commission has a bold plan for improving software quality: make software developers liable for their code. The purported reason? Consumer peace of mind, according to the European Union commissioner of consumer affairs, Meglena Kuneva:

If we want consumers to shop around and exploit the potential of digital communications, then we need to give them confidence that their rights are guaranteed. That means putting in place and enforcing clear consumer rights that meet the high standards already existing in the main street. [The] internet has everything to offer consumers, but we need to build trust so that people can … Read more

Crunch gyms use satellite technology to re-create Groundhog Day.

Everyone has their own way of dealing with extraneous flesh and respiratory deterioration.

Some control their diet with the rigor of Reese Witherspoon and go for long walks, waving their arms around like angry spouses. (Which many of them appear to be.) Others staple their stomachs like a two-page letter from a lawyer. And there are those of us who go to gyms, where at least one can bike, read a book and laugh (inwardly, of course) at the progress of leotard design.

I choose to exercise at one of the amiable horse boxes in the stable of Crunch gyms.… Read more