Tom B

Total Rating:
+9 / -8

1739 Comments

    • Fri Nov 21st 14:10 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Can You See Apple Under $60?
      I'll buy more, most likely during the panic following "Black Friday".
      View article »
    • Thu Nov 20th 11:02 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Yahoo: Maybe a Takeunder?
      That sounds like a good idea.


      On Nov 19 05:12 PM Joe Bloggs wrote:

      > At this rate Yahoo can use its cash pile to buy back its own shares,
      > go
      private
      > and get out of the analysts glare. Maybe then they can
      concentrate
      > on the internet and their users without having to worry
      about
      > the money men raking through things they dont understand and
      trying
      > to put a value on it.
      View article »
    • Thu Nov 20th 11:01 AM | Rating: +1 0
      Commented on:
      Yang's Departure Reflects How Yahoo Was Broken
      Good to hear from an ex-insider. Yahoo is a decent company. Not a superb company, but they deserve better than to be bought by the likes of MSFT. As a customer, that would induce me to lose ALL confidence in Yahoo. Look what MSFT did to HoTMaiL--- they can't even manage something as simpe as that.

      Yahoo's biggest problems seem to have NOTHING to do with Yang. It appears they have a "herd of cats" as a BoD, some of them ornery, self-serving sell-and-cash-my-optio... cats. The economy sucks; Yahoo is FAR from being the only stock in the toilet. Yahoo is "innovating" too fast (rather than too slowly, IMHO) and getting sloppy. Every time I click on a news story these days, either of my two browsers crashes, and I got a VERY unsatisfactory answer about that from their support people. Too much Adobe flash, I suspect. On the plus side, My Yahoo Mail, "My Yahoo", Yahoo Notes, and, the crown jewels, Flickr, are excellent-- and I'd like to seem them STAY that way.
      View article »
    • Thu Nov 20th 10:14 AM | Rating: +1 0
      Commented on:
      Apple's Greatest Idea Yet
      Don't think in terms of text book fundamentals.

      Apple has about 8% of the domestic computer market, and about 3% internationally. MSFT Windows has MUCH bigger numbers, for historic reasons involving the evolution of Enterprise computing; and MSFT has these numbers in spite of: 1) Vastly inferior products (Windows isn't even as good as LINUX, never mind OS X) 2) Extremely high support costs 3) weak development tools. It is my expectation that Apple's computer marketshare will top 50% within 7 or 8 years, picking up momentum after Enterprise starts to capitulate. It will dawn on even the most Neanderthal IT types that Intel makes upgrading to Apple EASY; you can virtualize those nasty old Visual Basic billing and accounting programs at FULL speed on a Mac these days. Even if Enterprise moves more glacially than usual, there's ENORMOUS potential share increase ex-US as we see from the numbers above.

      This is all ON TOP of Apple's cash; it's software offerings (iApps; Filemaker: Logic: Final Cut Pro; iWorks); and the iPhone.

      I'm a nervous investor; I'll sell most of my AAPL around the time they hit 20-25% domestic computer market share. I think that's not even a "stretch goal"; it's eminently "do-able".


      On Nov 19 04:51 PM Y.I. wrote:

      > Quick question for the AAPL fans: At what price is this stock too
      > expensive?
      View article »
    • Wed Nov 19th 09:43 AM | Rating: +2 -3
      Commented on:
      Apple's Greatest Idea Yet
      AAPL is the ONLY stock in my portfolio I feel is a "sure thing". People don't see change when they are in the middle of it. Buggy whip makers thought buggy whips would always be important and that new-fangled automobiles wouldn't catch on; IT guys, raised on DOS, think Windows will always be important, even though it has dreadfully primitive development tools and hasn't even made the transition to UNIX (even the free-love hippies writing LINUX out code Microsoft!). One must appreciate that people who learn to write apps for the iPhone, as a side effect, would know how to write apps for the Mac! iPod = stealth marketing for the Apple Brand; iPhone = stealth marketing for the business executive; XCode for iPhone = stealth marketing for new developers.
      View article »
    • Wed Nov 19th 09:23 AM | Rating: +1 0
      Commented on:
      General Motors: Time to Pull the Plug
      Ye, the Chinese can't manage to produce baby formula that doesn't kill babies and they want to make cars? No doubt the gas tanks would explode! Stick to Toyota and Honda!


      On Nov 18 04:54 AM User 300370 wrote:

      > This is a lame article and shows no genuine thought on the CURRENT
      economic
      > situation impacting the US markets. It’s clear the author has
      not
      > understanding about what the world has become. The US will never
      have
      > another American car company. They will all be Indian owned
      (tata),
      > Chinese owned (Chery, SAIC, FAW) or Korean (Hyundai). Let GM
      die
      > and buy Chinese. And these new companies will not build using
      Americans
      > to build these cars and trucks. So, no more lame comments
      about
      > UNIONS. They will be using Chinese and Indians…far away from the
      good
      > US of A.
      View article »
    • Wed Nov 19th 09:07 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Deteriorating Bond Market
      Felix, I'm an individual investor. I hold TLT and TIP (and VILPX-munis). I plan on holding them a while. Holding ETF's and funds, do I need to be concerned about bond liquidity?
      View article »
    • Tue Nov 18th 11:16 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Is Global Diversification Dead?
      The dollar's LOW; it's been getting hammered the whole Bush presidency.


      On Nov 18 12:25 AM Paulo wrote:

      > A big consideration for U.S. investors is that the U.S. dollar is
      > very
      high
      > (perhaps artificially so). So, for long term investors with
      capital
      > and patience, global diversification might be timely.
      > I am not so sure that country funds are the best way to do this.
      Look
      > at Switzerland, for example (which I managed to sell at book value
      in
      > Canadian dollars).
      > Nor am I sure that attempting to pick individual stocks at the
      global
      > level is the best way to go in the present investing context.

      >
      > For those with investinal fortitude and are looking long term,
      rolling
      > the dice with global government inflation protected bonds,
      global
      > convertible bonds and preferreds, global real estate, and so on
      may,
      > given the current strength of the U.S. dollar and the Great
      Depression
      > prices, be one way to go for those not fighting off
      foreclosure
      > and their credit card companies and whatever.
      View article »
    • Tue Nov 18th 10:16 AM | Rating: +1 -1
      Commented on:
      General Motors: Time to Pull the Plug
      GM's troubles have little to do with the unions; GM pushed "land yacht" SUV's for decades, oblivious to the fact that oil production has been in decline for a comparable period. If their whiny lobbyists hadn't railed against the VERY Modest CAFE standards; if they had gotten off their tushes and made efficient cars-- they would be a viable business.
      View article »
    • Tue Nov 18th 09:55 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      CEO Search At Yahoo! Commences
      Meg Whitman? I was unaware Ebay was a well-run company.
      View article »
    • Tue Nov 18th 09:55 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Yang's Exit: Board Ready to Revive Yahoo / Microsoft Deal Talks?
      I hope they don't beat that dead horse of a deal. MSFT is even more poorly managed than Yahoo. The only reason MSFT still exists is because armies trans-fat french-fry fed IT directors who grew up on DOS and know nothing else have not had their coronaries yet. Enterprise, where the requirements regarding functionality are minimal (E-mail, Powerpoint, word procesing), and the USERS are treated with utter contempt, is the only market where MSFT is successful
      View article »
    • Tue Nov 18th 09:48 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Why Obama Should Not Choose Summers as Treasury Secretary
      I agree with your reasoning; Summer's comments on women will continue to dog him.

      "Unlike in China where our research shows that 80% of consumers are very optimistic that the Chinese Government will get it right to jumpstart the economy"

      I think what people in China doesn't understand is that China and the West will be competing for natural resources very soon. And China will lose, because the West has a head start. There are limits to growth, imposed by the planet, and 1.3 million mouths are a lot of people to feed. Could you imagine 1 billion cars in China? I sure can't. Having said that, they will surely come out of this current recession, but they need to understand they are a "dot -com", a bubble that can't keep going up, forever.
      View article »
    • Mon Nov 17th 10:43 AM | Rating: +1 -1
      Commented on:
      Will Obama's Economic Policies Drag the U.S. Down?
      If "W" hadn't 1) blown 10-12 billion/per month in Iraq WITHOUT GETTING THE OIL PROFITS 2) kept an eye on subprime before it exploded, we wouldn't be in a severe recession now. Maybe we'd have no recession, or even growth. We've got troubles until, 1) the overhang of foreclosures eases 2) people actually have JOBS again (you know, it's tough to grow the economy without actual CONSUMERS.

      Obama has several advantages over Bush 1) He's smart 2) He favors competant advisors. I don't know what he's planning, but if he can 1) slow/ease foreclosures 2) get money to the middle class 3) fix trade, things will start getting better.
      View article »
    • Mon Nov 17th 09:59 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Why I'm Worried About China
      If you are looking for innovation out of China, I hope you are OK with a 20 or more year time horizon. It will take that long to train the people who can bring that about.


      On Nov 17 09:38 AM finmah@yahoo wrote:

      > If one were to follow your logic - the collapse of China and global
      depression.
      > The conclusion is quite meager - buy stocks around China's
      economy.
      > But didn't you just say that the collapse would finish off
      nations
      > already weakened by recession. I would say you should recommend
      shorting
      > if a global depression is coming.
      >
      > China is very large and more basic ala America in the 40's. This
      will
      > be the test if they are another export based economy like Japan or
      something
      > else. I am betting on the latter if one goes by history. They
      aim
      > to be the crossroads of markets. Watch their chip and biotech
      industries
      > they are getting tired of basic industrials. It will not
      take
      > much if a few tech companies explode out worldwide with
      innovations.
      > (We will still be debating vouchers for school systems).
      That
      > will change peoples mind from hanging around the docks to gauge
      sentiment.
      View article »
    • Fri Nov 7th 14:29 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Abandoned by Google, Yahoo Searches for Answers
      Yahoo news stories are crashing my browsers every time these days. Yahoo needs to simplify things and junk gratuitous buggy javascript doo-dads.

      Having said that, I use Yahoo Mail. I really dig Flickr. Anyone know how their Ali Baba holdings are doing? Poorly, I suspect, the economy being what it is.
      View article »
Loading...
Symbols:
Authors:
Quick Links:
Contribute an Article Become a Seeking Alpha Contributor

Transcripts

More Transcripts»