Cisco Plans To Invest $1 Billion In UK Technology Sector

Cisco will invest in United Kingdom, China, and France in the coming years.

Cisco Systems is all set to invest a massive $1 billion in the technology sector of the United Kingdom. The company wants to invest and do wonders in the booming Internet of Things market. The company announced on Thursday regarding its plans to invest in the country’s sector over the next 3 to 5 years that will actually help in boosting the information technology sector of the United Kingdom. This is the first and new investment after four long years where the networking giant vowed to spend $500 million for the same cause in UK.

According to Fortune, “Cisco will use part of its new investment to scout for potential acquisitions in the UK and has experience in purchasing UK-based companies. In 2013 it bought out Ubiquisys, a maker of a type of cellular technology known as a small cell, for $310 million.” Furthermore, the company also invested $5 billion in 2012 in a British company named NDS Group. NDS Group specialized in software for cable television.

The company sees the technology sector of UK as of high potential and hence wants to invest in it without any further ado. It is believed that the startups based in the United Kingdom, which will be working on technology and Internet of Things, will prove to be beneficial for Cisco in the coming times as it vows to spend $150 million in them to fasten growth.

Sources suggests, “The company was vague on what types of Internet-of-things companies or specific technologies it wants to target in the region, but it did mention that ‘smart city development’ is an area it wants to invest in.”

This will also enhance and push the business of Cisco as more and more municipalities will be buying the products of Cisco branded Internet of Things in software and hardware, which faces fierce competition from Oracle, IBM, and HP in the market.

The $1 billion investment plans come immediately after it announced plans to expand its investment in China. The China investment plans were of $10 million and it took Cisco only one month to go for new plans and invest in United Kingdom’s technology sector.

However, these two are not the only countries that the company will be investing in, in the coming times. The company said earlier this week that it also has plans to give $100 million to the France based startups. Cisco is all set to penetrate in the Internet of Things market, which seems to be the future.

JP Morgan All Set to Report Second Quarter Earnings Today

The article discusses the earnings whispers for JP Morgan, as the firm prepares to release its second-quarter results before the opening bell today.

JP Morgan Chase & Co. is scheduled to report its second quarter earnings for fiscal year 2015 today. Both the top line and bottom line estimates look positive for the bank, as it most likely to surpass the consensus forecasts for both these figures in this quarter.                                 

According to Earningswhispers.com says JP Morgan is most likely to post earnings of $1.50 per share for the quarter, surpassing the Street estimates by almost 0.05%. On the other hand, Estimize.com estimates average revenue of approximately $24.67 billion for the period, expecting the company to report more than the Street estimate of $241 million. The Street believes the bank to report a year over year decline of 8.98% in earnings and 3.63% year over year decline in sales for the second quarter.               

JP Morgan Chase & Co. reported earnings of $1.60 per share for first quarter of fiscal year 2015, beating the analysts’ expectation by nearly $309 million. During the last eight quarters, the bank was able to beat the Streets estimates seven times, and has surpassed the top line forecasts 5 times.

Majority of analysts are bullish on the stock of JP Morgan. Out of 40 analysts having coverage on JP Morgan stock, 29 gave it a Buy, while the remaining assigned a Hold. The analysts gave an average twelve month stock price target of $71.91, demonstrating an upside potential of 5.61% over the latest closing price.

According to some analysts, the company is expected to report earnings of $1.45 per share, a decline of 7.4% year over year. Earnings per share in the previous quarter were reported at $1.58. On the other hand, revenue is most likely to arrive t $24.42 billion, a decrease of almost 100 basis points. In the previous quarter, it was recorded at $24.06 billion. In the meantime, operating income is forecasted to be $9.02 billion.

JP Morgan’s consumer and community banking segment is most likely to generate robust results this period, however the investment banking segment is most likely to see revenue decline.

With an optimistic sentiment in the stock market, JP Morgan Chase & Co. stock was up 1.42% to $69.06 at market close on Tuesday July 14. As per Bloomberg terminal, 40 analysts covered the bank stock, out of which 29 suggested a Buy. The investment bank has 52 week low and high of $67.76 and $69.10, respectively. The company has $248.90 billion of market capitalization.

Analysts Look At Apple Music In A Positive Manner

The software giant has decided to launch a new music service and analysts are looking at it in a positive manner.

Apple has launched a new updated Apple Music service which has attracted quite a lot of attention of the analysts in the industry. This new video streaming service has been launched on Tuesday and analysts believe this is not going to work too much for the tech giant in the initial stages, if that is what the investors are expecting. The iPhone making firm has been working on this project for some time now and before the release, the analysts showed many bearish signs as to why they thoughts this service is not going to be very profitable for the company. However, a recent analysis has shown that this service might not turn out to be so bad after all and it is very much expected that in near future, the stock value of the company increases with the help of the popularity and usage of this streaming service.

Apple is clearly not the first company to be stepping into the video streaming business. Two main giants in the industry are none other than Pandora and Spotify who have been maintaining high position in the video viewing industry for quite some time now. These companies are no exactly similar as Pandora is famous for providing free radio services through the process of streaming to the users and the main source of income for the firm is through adverts while on the other hand, Spotify works through providing video streaming services but by following subscription plans.

Pandora currently has a user base of around 79.2 users as per the reports that emerged after the first financial quarter of the current year. It was seen through the reports that the firm managed to secure around 10 percent of the total radio listeners in the United States which was noted down as a huge achievement. As for Spotify, the same cannot be said it has around 75 million users and around 20 million of those users are paying $9.99 every month as subscription fees.

Analysts who have been comparing all the three companies for a better inside look on the kind of competition being stirred up are of the opinion that Apple Music going to turn out to be a dangerous threat Spotify as the software company has decided to offer its monthly subscription plan for a price tag of $9.99 too, just like its rival in the industry. The MAC producers will also be offering a huge number of 30 million tracks to the users which might take away much of the users from Spotify.

                                                                                                                  

Cisco Reports Jump in South African Internet Traffic

South Africa is expected to see a massive jump in Internet traffic as more people switch to smartphones and other smart devices.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) has reported a jump in Internet traffic from South Africa, as the public there switches to smartphone devices. This was stated by a report from Cisco Visual Networking Index 2015, which predicts that the number of smartphone users will jump from the current 15 million to around less than 30 million by 2019. Whereas, Internet traffic from that side is expected to grow at an annual rate of 44%.

The IP based networking products maker predicts that by 2019, around 43 billion minutes of video content will be downloaded. It is an indication that businesses and consumers alike are taking advantage of growing access of social media to connect to one another. Meanwhile, mobile video traffic growth is expected at around 73%, as many South Africans also stream video content from their smartphones.

The facts provided by Cisco reinforce the views of many researchers who have highlighted how smartphones are going to play a very critical role for the development of South Africa, especially when the infrastructure, despite well-developed, is showing signs of creaking due to pressure from population. Public is becoming more aggressive of being close to those managing the business, in order to demand better goods and services.

According to a study commissioned by the by Orange Horizons on the provision of Wi-Fi in Mitchell’s Plain and Khayelitsha near Cape Town, it was revealed that nearly 9% of the respondents used Internet on their smartphone. These respondents were granted 3GB data free during the day, but around half of them stated that the speed and access were not enough and wanted more.

In fact, according to the same Cisco research, smartphones will cement their position by 2019 as the most primary tool to have access to the Internet, at around 30% for all networked devices, a rise from 2% last year. Demand for video is likely to serve as a driving force for new internet video services that is expected to eat up less than 80% of IP traffic.

Finally, Cisco also predicts that by 2019, the average broadband speed will rise from the current 3.5 Mbit/s to around 10 Mbit/s, which will likely result in the growth of smart TVs and machine-to-machine communications. Overall, it is a very bullish outlook for the South African IT industry. The next age is regarded as the age of smart devices.

Cisco stock price ended the day at $28.28, a decline of 0.42% from the previous day.

Netflix All Set To Make Its Way In India

Netflix is said to be entering the Indian streaming industry by the end of 2016.

Netflix Inc. is rapidly expanding throughout the world. The company is the online streaming giant that has disrupted the television industry in an attempt to cut the cords of viewers. The streaming service offers its services in more than 50 countries and now it has nearly 62 million plus paid subscribers on its platform. Recently, it has focused mostly on expansions and less on generating profits and revenues. However, after adding many regions in its pipeline and actually expanded in some of the countries. The latest additions were Australia, Cuba, and New Zealand along with China to be the next.

Netflix’s expansion in China is said to be the most hyped and talked about in the streaming industry. Now reports are coming that Netflix is planning to make its way in India. The Indian population loves watching movies and streaming online video content. Furthermore, the trend of streaming in the region is growing substantially in recent times. Even then there is a lack of online movies and TV shows’ streaming services in the region. But, sources suggest that ‘a consistent impediment in the recent past, in addition to licensing hassles, has been the long debate around net neutrality in India.’

According to a reported published in the Times of India, it stated “US-based Netflix, has firmed up plans to enter India by 2016, according to people familiar with the matter. This has sent domestic DTH players into a tizzy with some of the major ones chalking out strategies to diversify beyond television. On the cards are iconic shows including Buniyaad, Nukkad and Malgudi Days on various mobile devices across iOS and Android.”

The streaming service has vowed to be in each and every country of the world by the end of 2016 along with totally decimating the traditional television trend and make a new market of internet TV only. Netflix also seeks to pass a huge number of users by the end of 2019 in order to sustain its market position and status.

Whenever Netflix eyes to enter a certain market, it imposes great threat on the traditional pay TV cable business operators as well the local established businesses in the same sector. The report that was published also quoted a spokesperson of Netflix “We have said we plan to be nearly global by the end of 2016. We have nothing else to share at this point.”

Local Direct Broadcast Satellite owners (DTH) such as Tata Sky has already started to make a plan and work on it in order to bring Netflix to the masses once it is all set to launch

Cablevision Systems See Dead Future For Big Bundle Of Cable Channels

Cablevision Systems CEO sees fewer customers taking the “big bundle” of cable channels and a shift to a mix of online and over-the-air broadcast programming.

James Nolan, CEO of Cablevision Systems (NYSE:CVC), anticipates a bleak future for the big bundle of cable service channels, expecting customers to switch over to a mix of online and over the air broadcast programs. In an investor group meeting organized by the Guggenheim Partners, he said that a reduction in the number of customers in taking big bundle is inevitable.

Such an impact is likely to affect programmers, which Mr. Dolan estimates from his own personal estimate is around 20-25 percent loss in the following five years, especially with the industry moving away from the current structure to new dimensions, such as digital antennae. His views hold many teeth in it. A Wall Street analysis of the Nielsen data show that the top 40 TV channels in the US, such as CNN and ESPN, lost more than 3 million subscribers for the past four years, because of ‘cord cutting’.

Demographics are also playing its part, with the customer base of the baby boomers shrinking while the current generation is hooked up into the Internet and streaming for movies and videos online. This is the reason why Mr. Dolan warned that the cable operators would stop selling video services one day and focus more on broadband service.

In response, Cablevision Systems has been introducing “cord-cutter packages”, which uses a digital antenna in order to pick up to 70 broadcast channels, including popular channels, such as CBS, ABC, and Fox.

Cord cutter and digital antenna programs are not yet deemed practical for the time being, due to a lack of content. However, due to HBO and ShowTime, it is now possible to mix the broadcast with over the top cable offerings. The price tag for the digital antenna is around less than $40, in addition to data and phone service, what Dolan calls it as a cheap triple play.

While there are a handful of competitors out there in the market, the CEO of cablevision is confident that their offer is one of the cheapest, because of lower prices, while acknowledging that their service is not yet a top class. Now the focus shifts to the customers having the chance to move from one bad cable company to a good one.

The organization is known for its affordable offerings to people who think that cable is too costly, as stated by the CEO.

Cablevision Systems stock price ended the day at $24.51, a gain of 0.60% from the previous day.

Herbalife And Taipei Medical University Partner Up For Diet Clinical Study

Study to show whether combination of meal replacement, fish oil, and a calorie-restricted diet led to effective weight management.

Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) entered into an agreement with Taipei Medical University to conduct a clinical study as well as trials to study the combination of fish oil, meal replacement and calorie restricted diet leading to a better management of weight and improvement in the metabolic syndrome.

This is the first of a kind medical research study and part of the nutrition food company’s corporate social responsibility in collaborating with a medical university in Asia that is renowned in researching on traditional medicinal products with a slight modern twist to address the growing health challenges of the world.

The results released showed that during the 12-week period that was conducted, participants lost 6.5 cm in terms of waist circumference, around 4.5 kg in weight and 2.5% in body fat percentage. Other factors, such as the triglyceride level, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, fasting blood glucose level, were all brought into control by the method.

A total of less than 190 students were selected for the study in Taiwan, and were segregated into four different parts, namely  “calorie restricted diet”; “calorie restricted diet with meal replacement”; “calorie restricted diet with fish oil”; and “calorie restricted diet with meal replacement and fish oil” groups.

David Heber, chairman of Herbalife Nutrition Institute and Advisory Board, stated that metabolic syndrome is affecting at least 20-20 percent of the middle aged adults in many countries around the world and has resulted in increased waist circumference, fast rising blood sugar and blood pressure. This condition is becoming increasingly common among Asian adults, and that is the reason why here is a spike in cases of diabetes and heart disease.

The Taipei Medical University was all praise for the collaboration from Herbalife’s part, which had provided vital data and the scope of the study structure and sharing of expertise that has helped to shape the study to reflect on the local needs while ensuring correct information is being supplied, so that prevention measure can be enacted to ensure healthier living for young adults around the world, instead of looking it from the perspective of profits and what healthy snacks from the part of Herbalife can be supplied to those adults for a better standard of living.

The Journal will be published in the “Journal of Functional Foods”, a well-known journal in the food science research field, as well as on the “European Journal of Clinical Nutrition”, an internationally renowned nutrition journal. Herbalife’s stock price ended the day at $53.91, a loss of 0.30% from the previous day.