Twitter Considered Being A Promising Gamble In 2015

From the last few weeks, Twitter Inc. has been thrown into a pool of serious criticism. However, based on the changing aspects of social networking; online news media and the company’s ability have retained shareholders interest on the way to micro blogging platform this year.

The current era of social network has been the reason for the expansion of services and platforms, which are now considered to be an important part to change the perception, start mass movement, and redefined the way people connect and interact with the rest of the world.

During the last decade, Twitter Inc. and Facebook has been at the front to witness the changes took place in the world through social media. In an attempt to cope up with the problems in the plugged up and fastest growing social network, Twitter has provided a platform to the world for  quick news distribution, micro blogging, getting to know people and business from all over the world, sharing content. Twitter also started innovative trends, to provide awareness to the users about politics, sports, and businesses.

However, things are not measure so easily by The Wall Street, especially when there are huge criticisms on a company for not putting efforts towards user growth, where billions are on stake.

There has been news for past several months about the company’s performance related to user growth, monetization, user base, financial performance, ad revenue and more importantly the future guidance. The biggest distress for the company and investors is steady logged-in user base growth.

During the fourth quarter of 2014, Twitter ad revenue per user grew by 65% against Facebook, whose ARPU increased by 35% only. The average ARPU has out-shined over the years and company believes that it will increase more in future.

Twitter is in competition with linked-in, Facebook and its Instagram and others. Majority of the investor complains about the steady growth of company’s user base, by mentioning examples of its competitors. However, the investors are not well aware of the fact twitters has entirely different business model than these companies. Facebook is considered as a biggest threat to twitter, but despite of all this we overlook the element that Facebook business model and platform is mainly for socializing not for broadcasting and micro blogging like twitter.

Twitter has been continuously putting efforts to grow its user base by making the sign-up process simpler, while also planning of reducing 500 million inactive users from the data base.

BP Plc. Trying Its Utmost To Get 2010 Oil Spill Penalty Reduced

BP Plc. was penalized by Carl Barber's United States federal judge on Oil spill of almost 3.19 million barrels in Mexico.  According to Reuters, the company has appealed against the judge decision few days back after Carl Barbier discard the company's request of reducing the high civil fine. According to the Federal Clean Water Act, BP is required to pay a maximum fine of $13.7 billion.
BP Plc. was accused of the largest oil spill that took place in 2010 in Gulf of Mexico. The oil spill killed eleven workers and caused considerable damage to the environment. US Federal judge Carl Barbier believed the company showed gross negligence and along with federal government decided to penalize the company of $4,300 per barrel. However, the company debated that a maximum penalty of $3000 should be enforced and it also denied the judge accusation of company showing gross negligence. Judge Barbier is yet to announce the final penalty amount imposed on BP.
As per the estimation by Federal government, the company spilled nearly $4.2 million barrels oil which makes it around $18 billion penalty amount. Judge Barbier contended that the estimation of federal government is not correct, as 3.19 million barrels of oil were spilled. However, BP claims that only 2.45 million barrels were spilled.
BP has been surrounded by different problems. With crude oil prices declined by 50% from last six months making exploration process more complicated for the company. BP stake in Russian Rosneft Oil Company has been negatively affected following by the sanctions imposed on Russia by West. BP has already announced its labor cut and capital spending to deal with the low price situation, if the penalty of $13.7 billion is enforced on the company than it is expected to face some serious liquidity issues.
One of the issues which the company has brought up at various occasions is related to the work and amount it has spent to deal with the effect of the Oil spill. BP has spent almost $42 billion to pay fines, cleaning cost and to pay the victims.
The investigation has completed its two phase and it seems like BP will do its best to make the penalty reduced in any way. Since the Oil spill takes place in 2010, company stocks have declined by more than 24%.
On market close on Tuesday February 24th, company stock was up by 0.90% and was trading at 41.59.

Bed Bath & Beyond Rating Update

Morningstar, an acclaimed investment research and management firm has given “BBB+” credit rating and a two star rating to Bed Bath & Beyond. The BBB+ rating means that the company has a reasonable default risk.

Several analysts have been covering stocks of Bed Bath & Beyond lately. On Monday in a research note, Oppenheimer analyst promoted shares of the company to an outperform rating from a market performance rating and increased their target price to $85 from previous $69 of the company.

Zacks analysts restated its “neutral” rating on the stock the stock of the company and raised a target price of $77 on Wednesday 21^st January. A Canadian bank and financial service company; Canaccord Genuity Group analysts restated a rating of Buy and set a new target price of $88 on stock of Bed Bath & Beyond last month. Lastly, Standard and Poor’s financial services LLP demoted the shares of the company to a Hold and set a target price of $80 on the stock in a research note last month.

Out of 21 equity research analyst, four have given it a sell rating; eleven have rated the stock as Hold and remaining six have issued a buy rating including one strong buy rating. The retail company's stock currently on an average has a rating of Hold and average price target of $72.62.

Bed Bath & Beyond announced its last quarter earnings last month on 8^th January. The company posted earnings of $1.23 per share for the quarter covering from October to December surpassing the analyst’s expectation of $1.19 per Share. The Company declared revenue of $2.94 billion which was up by 2.7% from the similar quarter previous year. For the fiscal year, analysts expect BBBY to post annual earnings per share of $5.05.

Total of 13 analysts has given Bed Bath & Beyond stock a short-term target price of $78.77. The stock price is likely to fluctuate from average short term price. The higher approximation of the company's price target is $90 and lower is $55.

Bed Bath and beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY)stock price is down by 0.40%, with stock price $76.58 at market close on Friday 23^rd February, with 30-days mean volume of 2.83 million shares. The United States domestic merchandise retail store company has a 52-week low of $54.96, and a 52-week high of $79.64 with market cap of $14.29 billion and price to earnings ratio of 15.56.

Cigna Corporation Decision To Acquire QualCare Alliance Networks

Cigna health is planning to buy Qualcare, a 25 years old managed care company which is owned by non-profit hospitals. Cigna Health officials say, it will bring more competition in the limited insurance market of New Jersey and will also bring more options for the consumers.

QualCare has almost 800,000 members from local governments, hospitals, unions, schools, large corporations and other small businesses. Qualcare will preserve its name, workers compensations and health insurances. CIGNA Corporation(NYSE:CI) will sell health insurance policies together with QualCare, and imitate its business model to different other states.

Chief executive officer and founder of QualCare, Annette Catino will preserve her title as QualCare is owned by Cigna. This will happen as soon as all the regulatory approvals are met.

Catino said, she believes QualCare will create more jobs in information and technology and customer cares that will offer employees compatible wages. Company’s Egg Harbor satellite office will provide jobs to casino workers, which are jobless because of the closings.

He further said, “Having another Fortune 100 company committing capital resource to NJ is an economic boon,”

President of United States commercial market and international health care operations of Cigna Health, Mr. Matt Manders said, “The Company’s target is to deliver inexpensive solutions to health care problems, in order to provide greater value, experience and health outcomes to its customers”. He further said, “This acquisition of QualCare by Cigna Health is the proof of its continuing commitment to be partner with health care professionals and hospital systems”.

Chairman, Board of Director of QualCare Alliance Networks and chief executive officer of Meridian Health, John K. Lloyd said, QualCare was built to contest with big insurance companies, with a motive of managing people’s health. He further said, “The decision to join Cigna Corp. will guarantee QualCare’s success in this environment and will help to improve the value it can provide to its local society”.

Catino said that by acquiring QualCare, Cigna will be able to increase its presence in the state, which is controlled by few other carriers.

Cigna Corporation stock is up by 2.02%, with share price of $118.54 at market closed on Friday February 20th, with 30-days average volume of 1.42 million shares. The global health insurance company has a 52-week low of $ 73.47 and a 52-week high of $118.61, with market cap of $31.33 billion and price to earnings ratio of 16.20.

Cigna Corporation is an international health service company headquartered in Connecticut and Bloomfield, United States.

Chairman Of Alibaba Group Jack Ma Assures Employees About Recent Lawsuits

United States shareholder welcomed the year with positive attitude. After the 2008 housing bust, the economy shuffles towards a full recovery mode. American stocks are considered to be the best source to generate wealth for shareholders. However, it’s not true in the case of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd for a time being.

Alibaba Group has been welcomed by a lot of troubles, with its shares plunging by nearly 15% this year. The e-commerce giant company’s miseries started as Chinese regulator State Administration for industry & Commerce (SAIC) issued a white paper accusing the company for carelessness towards it fake sales. Alibaba’s ordinary revenue growth has worsened the situation for the company.

However, another lawsuit was filed against Alibaba by Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP Law firm. The Law firm accused that the company obscured significant regulatory inspection and deceived public before its IPO last year.

In the start of this week, Alibaba Group faced another class case filed by Wolf Popper LLP. They claimed that Alibaba Group dishonored Security Exchange Act Sections 10(b) and 20(a), by deceiving investors about the company’s response to tackle the fake goods sales at its marketplace.

Executive Chairman, Jack Ma, however pursues to calm its employees on the subject of lawsuits flung at the firm. Jack Ma said in his annual letter to his employees before Chinese New Year, “As for the lawsuits company faced from some latest events, I ask Alibaba employees to be at comfort. The Group will attribute high importance to the matter, and we will sustain the principles of objectivity, transparency and honesty to tackle the problem.”

According to Reuters, a Chinese antitrust watchdog is planning to investigate the pricing strategies of China’s e-commerce companies like Alibaba and JD.Com Inc. This effort is the part to ensure a “fair” market and will help in increasing online retailer’s scrutiny.

Alibaba shares have declined by 4% following by a white paper issued by SAIC, which was later withdrawn. Alibaba spokesperson said, “We are continuously monitoring the lawsuits. The company has always been crystal clear in its daily business operations and corporate governance, and always tries its best to safeguard the interest of each shareholder. Alibaba will strongly guard itself and its business practices”.

Alibaba Group Holdings(NYSE:BABA)stock is down by 0.05%, with share price of $86.70 during per-market  trading  as of 08:42 AM on Wednesday February 18th, with 30-days average volume of 17.78 million shares. The Chinese multi-national company has a 52-week low of $82.81, and a 52-week high of $120.00, with market cap of $215.75 billion and price to earnings ratio of 48.18.

Chesapeake Energy Accuses Ex-CEO Of Leaking Company’s Secrets

Chesapeake Energy Corp has filed a lawsuit against the ex-CEO of the company for using company’s secret plans and strategies for his own personal project. The company claims that Aubrey McClendon asked his assistant to give him a copy of a country map that covered the land that was not yet leased, only a few days before he left the company.  He has also been accused of using other property information and valuable documents in a project that he was secretly working on.

McClendon has come up with a new oil and gas venture and according to Chesapeake; he used his ex-company’s important information to attract investors and customers to his own new firm and was working towards creating competition for his ex-company by exploiting the firm's weak points.

The lawsuit also mentions the accusation of the company that says that McClendon sent quite a lot of company emails through blind carbon copy to his own personal email account in order to steal important data that belonged to the company.

However, Aubrey McClendon has refused to accept any kind of accusation thrown his way. In a recent press release, he said that it was upsetting for him to face such a time when a company that he co-founded twenty five years back has now insulted him by accusing him of stealing information and calling him a traitor. He called the accusations to be wrong and showed regret on how the company is treating him after his departure.

McClendon also explained that the documents he took from the company were his right to own and obtain as he had the authority to do so as a co-founder and this was clear in the contracts that he had signed with the company. He was also saddened by the fact that the company that he built with much hard work had now decided to stoop so low and accuse its own senior member.

He also mentioned in the press release that according to the agreements with the company, he was allowed to have more access to the company’s private documents but that Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) had refused to let him use them.

McClendon also added to his reply to the company's allegations that the company has yet to pay him the interest for 1000 leases that he jointly owns with the company and that the company also owes him money that was paid to it by third parties for 63 more well projects.

JP Morgan Faced $1.5 Billion Paper Work Error On General Motors Loan

On Wednesday, JP Morgan Chase & Co. witnessed a painful alarm that it had to live with the error. This is in reference to a clerical error that would cost JP Morgan about $1.5 billion.

On Wednesday, a Manhattan federal penal court ruled that even though it wasn’t done intentionally by JP Morgan, in 2008 it visibly authorized its law firm to file papers, which unsecured its majority of loan to General Motors.

It was a critical difference because General Motors soon after getting loan filed bankruptcy. As per General Motors filed protection of Chapter 11, secured lenders will be fully repaid whereas unsecured lenders will not get anything. One of the JP Morgan spokesman said that it was revising the available options and decisions.

The problem includes the non-deliberate release of a lien on auto maker’s equipment and other assets. The automobile company was planning to repay a $300 million liability and had the document ready by Mayer Brown law firm. The firm unintentionally involved a lien securing the loan of $1.5 billion in the security interest list, which the company terminated after the payment of $300 million.

In the year 2009, General Motors after filing bankruptcy protection, the unsecured creditor’s official committee requested the judge to give decision that the administered loan of $1.5 billion by JPMorgan was unsecured due to some error. JP Morgan claimed that the loan still in effect as it was unintentionally dismissed.

In 2013, Robert Gerber, United States bankruptcy judge backed Morgan claim. He said, It was primarily tempting to let the lenders live with their mistakes. But he thinks Morgan had not specifically authorized the closure of loan.

Robert Gerber ruling was reversed by the three judges at US court of Appeals in Manhattan. They found that although Morgan had never planned to dismiss the loan security interest, but it has given its authorization effectively.

JP Morgan's managing director was held responsible by US appeal court for the $1.5 billion loan as the filings which ended the security interest was revised by him and the other law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, which was hired by JPMorgan Chase & Co.(NYSE:JPM) for all the paper work. And also General Motors and its law firm Mayer Brown LLP.

Mayer Brown spokesman refused to comment on the event mentioning the policy of not discussing matters in court case. GM’s law firm Simpson Thacher was not available to discuss the matter.

Facebook Releases Breakthrough Switch Platform

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has come up with a device that is reportedly one of the biggest advancements made in the tech industry, a hardware device called the Open Source Modular Switch Program. This device is built to make internet usage a lot cheaper and speedier than it already is.
According to technology experts, this device can bring improvements in the internet surfing by a huge difference and make massive developments in the performance of the cyberspace. This switch is created for the purpose of directing traffic flow throughout the internet. Also, this switch has also been deemed as being more reliable.

These switches are at points where fibers and wires, which are connected to computers, meet and create intersection points. These switches help information to flow freely and without distortions. Having said that, the usage of switches has been ignored due to the fact that switches have previously proved to be not very reliable or intelligent if compared to a human being.
Facebook has decided to bring a revolution in this case. The switches that were formerly deemed unintelligent are now being made into more smart beings by the social networking giant which will now handle all the traffic flow on the internet, something that was previously being done by computers. If things go according to plan for the Facebook, then this new switch introduced by the company will lessen the burden for computers and will be solely responsible to for guiding traffic flow and will therefore work more efficiently.
The social media giant has also launched racks and power supplies to work with these switches. Its new venture to make productive changes on the internet is clear as the switches that are already available in the market are not compatible to work for a user base of over a billion people of the social networking site.
Another reason why the company has decided to invent their own customized switch is because the companies which are already provided satisfying switches usually have a closed source which can be operated only by those companies which have spent time in building the switches up.
Facebook has introduced its own set of customized switches as they wish to gain more control over the traffic flow on the internet. Besides that, Google Inc. and Amazon.com have made private switches way before the social networking giant even thought of creating them.
The social networking website aims to make data center cheaper and obtain more control over the internet usage and improve their future designs.    

No Company Including Alibaba Is “Too Big To Fail “Jack Ma Told Regulators

Jack Ma, Chairman of Alibaba Holding Group, told government of China that the “company is not too big to fail” as he guaranteed the federal regulators that he was addressing corruption allegations on its online e-commerce website.

According to his Beijing speech transcript during CSR commission he said, as Alibaba grows in size it should focus to monitor the behavior of employee. He further said, “Alibaba absolutely isn’t the company that is too big to fail, big companies failed in China like Politburo members, standing members. No company can say it’s too big to fail … that’s rubbish.”

Since the State Administration for Industry & Commerce had issued a White Paper against Alibaba reproving its online mall business of taking bribes, and selling counterfeit, fake products and peddling knock-offs. Alibaba was founded 15 years ago in its chairman Ma’s apartment, faced many mistakes and errors in the country, which was run by communist party.

Jack Ma also said on his visit to CSRC that the China’s state run banks should not fear from the services being offered by Alibaba financial firm Zhejiang Ant Small and Micro Financial Service Group.

Alibaba want honest and trustworthy businessmen to become wealthy, Ma Said as exactly mentioned in the transcript. “Only if we do this, can our company complement the finance industry, and not compete with them”.

Jack Ma elaborated the company goals and objectives to the Chinese government regulators. He talked about Yu’E Bao, an online market fund of its affiliate. He also told regulators about credit scoring system of financial group companies and Zhejiang Ant Small.

Earlier this January, according to Shanghai Securities news, Alibaba Holdings was interested in making an investment in New China Life Insurance Company Ltd., which valued nearly $24 billion. The company is also looking to obtain a stake in Insurance Company by acquiring some shares from New China’s largest shareholder, Central Huijin Investment Ltd.

Alibaba Holdings is also looking for initial public offering (IPO) of its financial firm Zhejiang Ant Small, the owner of Alipay, that is valued at approximately $50 billion.

Alibaba Group Holding share price have fallen 16% in New York stock exchange this year.

Alibaba Holding Group Ltd (NYSE:BABA) stock is down by 1.44%, trading at $86 as of 4:30 pm EST on Thursday, with 30-days average volume of 17.53 million shares. The company has a market capitalization of $215.81 billion and price to earnings ratio of 47.66.

Bed Bath and Beyond Plans To Get More Exposure Through Sunset Park

Bed Bath and Beyond is contemplating ways to increase their market share as it is targeting to sign a lease to acquire more than 100,000 square feet at liberty view industrial plaza. The home-furnisher has penned down its plans to place Bed Bath and Beyond, Buy Buy Baby, Cost Plus World Market and Harmon Face Values on the second floor of the building.

Tim King, managing partner at CPEX Real Estate LLC quoted, “They are going to be bringing a whole new center of retail gravity to this part of the world”. This particular lease is a big achievement for the owner of the building. The firm was trying to target this vacant industrial place since past two and a half years, while spending over $100 million in the process.

Bed Bath and Beyond initially tried a simpler approach by opening only one retail store. However, they realized to create a whole new shopping experience by diversifying their approach. The main idea behind this branching out was to attract a variety of different customers from the entire neighborhood. It is anticipated that the property value will appreciate because of this massive project, attracting customers along with other shops and franchises.

Brooklyn has gained popularity in recent years, the exponential increase in the residential platforms have provided a powerful channel for these retailers. The further increase in these retailer corridors are predicted as shown by the CPEX retail report for the fiscal year 2014.

Industrial city which is located adjacent to liberty view industrial plaza has already managed to secure a variety of tenants. The main objective of Sunset Park is to create a growing industrial district by focusing on New York City’s capability to grasp partnership with huge companies. Salmar outbidded everyone to spearhead the redevelopment of liberty view industrial plaza, a humongous structure that surrounds the entire second and third avenue.

The agreement signed by the Salmar Properties LLC includes a clause that 15% of the building will be dedicated to retail while remainder is assigned to industrial. The Salmar Properties LLC partners, Mr Schein and Sal Rusi have forecasted a significant increase in the retailers. This is mainly because of the rising rents in the other areas. The city has announced investment of over $3.5 million to construct another 140,000 square feet of area at the complex for its whole new section of fashion manufacturing stores.    

Bed Bath and Beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY) stock closed at $77.50 on February 9.