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Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) to Launch Learning Courses on Udacity

By
Andy Parker
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Alphabet Inc’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Google has decided to launch massive open online courses (MOOCs) on Udacity. Lately, there has been a rapid increase among college age adults who utilize this form of online education in the tech industry, and this is expected to spur new innovations in the field.

By expanding its arm into the learning arena, Alphabet is trying to contribute to the development of young minds with the promise of new advances in the IT industry.

Udacity is already serving as a host to different free online courses. It’s tie-up with the Silicon Valley company will provide a three-month learning program for those who can spare six hours per week.

Deep Learning Gaining Popularity

Vincent Vanhoucke, principal research scientist on Google’s Research Blog, has written that deep learning is one of the hottest subjects in machine learning. Deep learning involves using many different data sources such as pictures to train artificial neural networks. Alphabet is already using deep learning in almost all of its applications such as Inbox by Gmail, Google Voice Search, Google Translate, and Google Photos.

The growing popularity of deep learning is the reason Google released TensorFlow, a deep learning platform that serves as an open-source project and makes deep learning capabilities available to everyone.

Within a span of a few weeks, 4,000 participants have enrolled for the deep learning program on GitHub and more than 16,000 have visited it.

More help from Udacity

People familiar with deep learning or machine learning could find this approach ideal and may be able to keep up with the learning sessions of this type of artificial intelligence. However, for those who are not exposed to these concepts, the new technology might be difficult to understand. This is where Udacity will be of great help as the learning platform is a part of the company’s machine learning engineer Nanodegree program.

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Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Echo Alexa Can Now Tell You Movie TImes And NFL Scores

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Amazon.com, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Echo Alexa has received a new firmware upgrade, which enables users to ask about movies and football games. This latest update gives users the chance to get information concerning which movies are playing at a nearby theater and the time they will be playing. Users can also get more specific by naming a given movie genre or even about a particular film. Users have a chance of following live scores in the NFL alongside the possibility of Alexa predicting the score of a certain game.

The upgrade has also factored in the concept of asking Alexa questions directly. Alexa can also elaborate about a given movie and provide a summary, or even predict who will win the Super Bowl.

Alexa has gained considerable functionality and knowledge since its launch. With this latest upgrade, it seems that Amazon is taking this part of its business seriously. Earlier this month, an update enabled Alexa to narrate Kindle books. The service was a hit for people who prefer listening to books that are as of yet unavailable in audio form.

The main problem with Amazon’s Echo remains its size. That problem may be solved according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. According to WSJ, a smaller battery-powered version of Echo may be launched in the coming weeks. This new version is codenamed Fox and will introduce new improvements to Echo.

The movie times and NFL scores features began rolling out last week, meaning users can already download them.

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Advanced Micro (NASDAQ:AMD) Extends Patent License Agreement With Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS)

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Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) has agreed to extend its patent licence with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) for an additional five years. Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will continue working together, with AMD continuing to be licensed for its circuit board products and integrated circuits. Additional terms of the agreement are confidential.

Luc Seraphin, senior Vice President and the general manager of Memory and Interface Division at Rambus, reported that both sides were pleased to have come to the agreement for the five year extension. The extension marked the two sides’ third consecutive extension and demonstrated the continued value Rambus IP provides to the industry.

Rambus engages in the development of enhanced, custom memory, industry-compliant chipset and serial link technologies and services, which are aimed at addressing performance, power and capacity challenges for the connected device, mobile and Big Data cloud computing market. Rambus is also involved in driving innovation in computational sensor technologies and silicon-to-cloud security making digital products be better and safer.

Rambus also announced that it had acquired Smart Card Software Ltd. The acquisition was made for £64.7M in cash. With this purchase, Bell ID’s advanced mobile platform and Ecebs’ smart ticketing will be incorporated into the Rambus Cryptography Research Division.

Dr. Martin Scott, Senior Vice President and general manager at Rambus Cryptography Research, stated that secure mobile payments and smart ticketing provides them with excellent growth opportunities. These services would also be used to leverage a foundational security technology, which would be used to offer value-added security solutions to clients. He also welcomed the teams from Bell ID and Ecebs to their research division.

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Sony (NYSE:SNE) Agrees To Acquire Altair Semiconductor For $212 Million

By
Carol Harper
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Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE)

Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) announced that it struck a deal with Altair Semiconductor and other big shareholders to buy the firm for $212 million. The Japanese firm expects to complete the acquisition of the Israeli LTE modem chip innovator early next month. The company indicated that the deal would not have any material impact on its consolidated financial numbers for the fiscal year ending in March.

Expansion Of Existing Business

Sony has also made its objective clear, which is to expand the current business of Altair Semiconductor. The Japanese firm however does not want to prevent the Israeli firm from focusing on R&D in new sensing technologies as well. The combined company stands to gain from developing a fresh line of cellular-connected, sensing component devices.

That would be possible by integrating Sony’s sensing technologies like the Global Navigation Satellite System or GNSS, and image sensors with Altair’s modem chip technology. The objective is to take advantage of the wearable internet devices market that is witnessing continued expansion. Sony also indicated that it would focus on delivering component devices featuring sensing and communication capabilities.

Sony’s acquisition could end up helping Altair more than Sony in the end as Altair’s product would gain wider acceptance and its R&D would also get a big boost.

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Stocks Drop Over 6% in China as US and Europe Follow Oil

By
Carol Harper
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Stocks buying right now

US stocks may be struggling due to oil concerns, but Chinese stocks are being pummelled due to internal macroeconomic issues. The Shanghai SSE index dropped another 6.4% today, and it did not seem to be triggered by anything having to do with oil.

Europe also volatile

US indexes were in the red overnight but recovered strongly today, and it was the same with European stocks as well, which opened lower but finished the day strong. The United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 index, as well as the Euro Stoxx 50 index fell about 1.8% in morning trade but the FTSE ended up 0.6% higher by the end of trading. The moves both in the US and Europe seemed to mimic oil, as prices slipped briefly back below $30 early in the day but recovered strongly to $31.70.

Asian markets however are moving down regardless. China’s Shanghai Index was lower for most of the day but plunged in late trading to shed over 6.4%, a 13-month low. Its peers in Japan and Hong Kong also followed suit by witnessing 2.4% and 2.5% drop respectively. Asian investors were mostly following the overnight pattern of the sell-off in America from yesterday.

China admits economy not yet mature

Last week, Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao admitted at the World Economic Forum that the market in China was yet to mature. He stressed the importance of government regulation in curbing an excessively volatile market. Volatility, however, has refused to die down in Chinese stocks despite, and perhaps even because of repeated assurances from the government about curbing it.

2015 saw the weakest pace of economic growth in two and half decades for China. This was not particularly surprising since economists have been talking about a slowdown as the nation is becoming more burdened with growing corporate debt. There were also doubts whether policymakers would be able to take concrete measures to bring the economy out of its funk.

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) Settles Lehman Brothers Estate Dispute

By
Carol Harper
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JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) has preferred to settle most of the pending disputes in respect of the defunct Lehman Brothers Holdings. The bank was the biggest creditor and was destroyed after the failure of the century-year-old financial institution’s collapse in 2008. In October, most of the claims were discarded by a judge. Financial Times quoted file documents of the court indicating that it was ready to pay $1.42 billion to settle the claims.

Clearing-Related Claims

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)’s latest settlement was in respect of clearing-connected claims of $6.3 billion apart from $2.3 billion claims related to derivatives. The court filings indicate that the settlement resolved two of the three big litigation’s that were pending against the bank. In March 2012, Lehman emerged from bankruptcy, and the financial institution would pay $1.49 billion more. That would take the total disbursements to creditors to $106.5 billion.

Lehman estate’s attorneys demanded compensation from the bank as it was the clearing bank. Also, prior to the collapse, the JPMorgan was charged with seeking billions of collateral in respect of those claims. Lehman representatives indicated that the settlement could not be termed as global resolutions of every issue between the two parties. However, it resolved a significant amount of the disagreements.

Fair and equitable

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)’s agreement with the representatives of Lehman, as well as, its creditors were termed as fair and equitable. Until recently, there was a general belief that most of the charges related to the financial crisis were taken into consideration by all the major banks. Therefore, no one was expecting a major settlement. In any case, the settlement would remove any ambiguity of the pending cases potential losses.

So far JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) has not responded to the reports of the settlement. The reports suggested that the settlement would not likely to have any material impact on its future earnings.

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American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) Announces Much-Awaited Restructuring Plan

By
Carol Harper
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American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG)

American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) revealed the much-awaited restructuring proposal in response to the billionaire and activist investor, Carl Icahn’s, plan to split the company into three. The plan involves the return of capital to its shareholders, and divestitures while GOE reductions and commercial P&C underwriting remain the focus areas for operating enhancements. The insurer also pushes for a modular operating model and legacy portfolio in its organizational changes. The company faced increasing pressure after MetLife Inc (NYSE:MET) announced its plan to split its retail operations in the United States.

Not For Break-Up

American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) made it clear that it is not breaking up the company. The insurer said that a near-term break-up would deviate itself from increasing the shareholder value. The company cited that less capital would become available for distribution due to the absence of gains from diversification. If break-up was initiated, the insurance firm fears loss of value from DTA while SIFI designation does not necessarily mean increased compliance costs.

The company said that it would divest 19.9% in United Guarantee through IPO in the current year. That is a first step towards making it as a separate firm, and, at the same time, protects the deferred tax assets value. The insurer indicated its willingness consider the separation of even bigger modular business divisions in the Commercial and Consumer divisions. However, that would be subject to credit risk profile, as well as, the operating results.

Return Of Capital

American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) has also pledged to return a minimum of $25 billion to its shareholders by way of dividend and share buyback program. The insurance firm also pledged to slash its general operating expenses or GOE by $1.6 billion while improving its commercial P&C accident loss ratio by six points. The company has not disclosed any time frame to achieve the proposals.

American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) also disclosed its intention to divest AIG Advisor Group for undisclosed terms of agreement. Lightyear Capital LLC-affiliated investment funds and PSP Investments were the buyer, and the transaction would close in the June quarter. Its CEO, Peter Hancock, said that the company would continue to undertake the business review and initiate actions to make it a more efficient and less complex firm.

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Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) Terms Arista Networks Inc (ANET)’s Anti-Trust Suit as Distracting

By
Carol Harper
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Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) has not taken the anti-trust suit filing of Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET) lightly and charged them with bogus claims that were either coincidence or accidental. In fact, it was a planned one. The network switch maker blamed its rival of using distracting tactics as the International Trade Commission is expected to pronounce a key ruling this week.

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Repetition Of Claims

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) also charged that Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET) has repeated the same claims that it included in the earlier filings. Therefore, it is a smokescreen to sidetrack the issues as the ruling on five of its patents were keenly awaited. The company preferred to take the issue to ITC due to its defined, as well as, accelerated timeframe. The judge would give a ruling as to who infringed the five patents.

The networking switch maker said that if the ITC finds Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET) guilty of infringing any of the patents, then it would face the threat of banning most of its products entering the American market. It was because of this fear that the company was trying to divert the attention. That is because there is also another antitrust claim that will come up for trial in November.

Failed Deadline

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) claimed Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET) missed a deadline for modifying their claims in the CLI case in which they previously sought to add additional claims. Therefore, the networking equipment maker believes that the diversion they recently created was nothing new for Arista and that its focus was always to protect its innovation and prevent its rivals from using its copyrighted technology.

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)’s Mark Chandler said in a blog that its approach was always consistent. The company encourages competitive, as well as, vibrant industry. He said that the company always looked for fair competition. However, it would not remain silent if anyone misappropriated its technology. He also said that Arista stands apart from the rest of rivals in the industry for the simple reason of copying its CLI sets.

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U.S. Stock Futures Turn Positive As Oil Trades Flat

By
Andy Parker
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After experiencing a steep sell-off yesterday, the U.S. stock markets are less likely to shrug off oil oversupplies concerns today. However, stabilization in the oil prices has led to the reversal in the U.S. stock futures during the pre-opening session, which was pointing to weak opening after both the Asian and European registered a decline for the day.

Massive sell-off yesterday

A day earlier, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped by over 200 points, or 1.3% while both Nasdaq and S&P 500 slipped by more than 1.5%. The energy stocks faced most of the heat with the stock prices of major companies declining, a massive oil supply from Iraq along side Iran’s pledge to increase production has kept the world markets anxious.

Ahead of the market opening, Dow Futures crawled into positive zone, adding 25 points, or 0.15%. The S&P futures is also marginally higher by 6 points, or 0.29% while Nasdaq 100 futures is up by 9 points or 0.2%.

Few important events lined up for the day

Apart from this, a number of U.S. based companies are set to publish their quarterly earnings before the opening bell. Few of which, includes Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT), 3M Co (NYSE:MMM), Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG), Sprint Corp (NYSE:S) and Coach Inc (NYSE:COH).

Those scheduled to release earnings after the market close are AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE:COF). A number of analysts are eagerly awaiting Apple’s results as they anticipate the company to report profits more than $18.2 billion and revenue of $76.4 billion for its previous quarter.

Additionally, some economic data will be published today. The Case-Shiller home price index will be released early morning, which will help market participants gauge the direction of the U.S. housing market. Also, the U.S. Conference Board will report Consumer Confidence Index for the month of January.

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Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) Sees No Prospects of Seeing Profits in Japan and Indonesia

By
Carol Harper
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Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)

It is a hard decision taken by Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) and would not be a surprise for some analysts, as well as, investors. The company indicated that it would wind up its factory in Japan and Indonesia before the end of the current year. The second largest American automaker has obviously thought that there was no point in running the operations in the absence of the prospects of seeing sales improving to deliver profitability in the region.

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Pursued All Possible Option

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)’s Asia Pacific spokesperson, Karen Hampton, told Bloomberg that the step was taken after careful consideration of every possible option before it. However, the automaker assured its customers that there would not be any disturbance in offering ongoing support for service or warranties or spare parts to its customers.

Hampton disclosed that it was quite clear that there was no possibility of finding any path to sustained profitability. She said that the company was also at a loss to find any acceptable return for its investments either in Indonesia or Japan in the near-term. However, the company indicated its commitment to serve the international markets. At the same time, Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) is restructuring some of its business aggressively as it was not able to find any meaningful path to achieve either sales growth or profitability.

Domestic Firm Dominates

The move appeared to have come after Toyota Motor Corp (ADR) (NYSE:TM)’s continued dominance in its home turf. The Japanese firm has also been enjoying its dominance in Indonesia where its affiliate, Daihatsu Motor Co. is ruling the rust. The American firm might have felt that it would be better to invest back at home rather than keep losing its money overseas.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) was not the only one to exit Indonesia. Last year, General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) also took a similar decision to wind up its factory in Southeast Asia’s biggest car market. As the economy was slowing down, the automakers do not see any turnaround in the next couple of years.

Ford has been operating in Japan since 1974. The company has 52 dealerships with 292 people employed. During previous year the company sold close to 5,000 vehicles in Japan with market share of 1.5 percent for newly imported cars.

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