Facebook is set to file paperwork for an IPO offering as early as next week, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. That's been a widely anticipated filing, and sources have said for some time that the social networking giant was targeting the IPO for sometime between April and June.
The Facebook IPO could raise as much as $10 billion and value the social network between $75 billion to $100 billion, although $75 billion would be below earlier expectations. The Journal's sources added that Facebook is close to picking Morgan Stanley to lead the deal.
Facebook halted trading in secondary markets for three days earlier this week, which is the strongest signal thus far that an IPO is near. Another signal, however, is Facebook's recent rash of product announcements. Once Facebook file its S-1 paperwork, it will be required to enter a “quiet period,” without public statements or interviews --- including product announcements.
While a Facebook IPO alone is big news, perhaps bigger news is that the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and NASDAQ are fighting for the right to list the stock. NASDAQ is a very tech-heavy stock exchange, so one would think it would have the edge. However, the NYSE of latest has been more aggressive in courting tech companies.
In either case, Facebook is reportedly looking to use FB or some variant as its symbol.
Facebook is set to file paperwork for an IPO offering as early as next week, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. That's been a widely anticipated filing, and sources have said for some time that the social networking giant was targeting the IPO for sometime between April and June.
The Facebook IPO could raise as much as $10 billion and value the social network between $75 billion to $100 billion, although $75 billion would be below earlier expectations. The Journal's sources added that Facebook is close to picking Morgan Stanley to lead the deal.
Facebook halted trading in secondary markets for three days earlier this week, which is the strongest signal thus far that an IPO is near. Another signal, however, is Facebook's recent rash of product announcements. Once Facebook file its S-1 paperwork, it will be required to enter a “quiet period,” without public statements or interviews --- including product announcements.
While a Facebook IPO alone is big news, perhaps bigger news is that the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and NASDAQ are fighting for the right to list the stock. NASDAQ is a very tech-heavy stock exchange, so one would think it would have the edge. However, the NYSE of latest has been more aggressive in courting tech companies.
In either case, Facebook is reportedly looking to use FB or some variant as its symbol.
Apple CEO Tim Cook had already said, in his email to employees announcing the death of Apple's Steve Jobs, that Apple would be having an internal celebration of Jobs' life. The company has decided on a date for the company's "wake," October 19th.
An email from CEO Tim Cook to Apple employees has been leaked, and indicates the date of the Jobs memorial event. The correspondence, which was posted by French site Mac Generation this afternoon and later confirmed by Reuters, said:
Team,
Like many of you, I have experienced the saddest days of my lifetime and shed many tears during the past week. But I've found some comfort in the extraordinary number of tributes and condolences from people all over the world who were touched by Steve and his genius. And I've found comfort in both telling and listening to stories about Steve.
Although many of our hearts are still heavy, we are planning a celebration of his life for Apple employees to take time to remember the incredible things Steve achieved in his life and the many ways he made our world a better place. The celebration will be held on Wednesday, October 19, at 10am in the outdoor amphitheater on the Infinite Loop campus. We'll have more details on AppleWeb closer to the date, including arrangements for employees outside of Cupertino.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Tim
Ironically, that is the same date that Agate Publishing has chosen for the new publication date of its book, "I, Steve: Steve Jobs in His Own Words." The book is a collection of more than 200 quotes by Steve Jobs drawn from public statements, speeches, and yes, interviews, over the course of his career.
It was originally scheduled for a March 2012 release. In late August, when Steve Jobs resigned as Apple's CEO, Agate moved up the publication date to November 15. With Jobs' death, they moved it up still earlier.
Kim Wylie, VP of sales for Publishers Group West, Agate’s distributor said, "Interest in this book has gone through the roof. We're working closely with Agate and our booksellers to meet the demand."
Folks have been wondering if we would see a Sprint iPhone now that a CDMA iPhone is available, and it seems the bad news coming from Verizon may mean some positive news for Sprint. Citadel Securities analyst Shing Yin wrote on Wednesday that Verizon's announcement that, as of Thursday, it will no longer offer unlimited data plans will give Apple a reason to offer the hot smartphone to the nation's third-largest wireless carrier.
Yin believes that Apple will make the move to Sprint because Sprint will be the only one of the big 4 wireless carrier with an unlimited data plan offering, something Apple, he believes, finds extremely desirable (although T-Mobile advertises unlimited data, once users reach 5GB of data use, T-Mobile begins throttling their data transfer rates).
Yin believes that neither Verizon nor AT&T has any contractual hold over Apple with regards to preventing the company from offering the device to other carriers. Additionally, public statements from both Verizon and Apple have indicated the same: no exclusivity for the CDMA version to Verizon, although so far no other CDMA carriers in the world carry the device.
Yin added that with its attractive plan pricing, a Sprint iPhone "could offer an attractive proposition for more price-conscious users (a demographic that we think is increasingly important to Apple following the rise of Android), and could be a relatively stronger seller than the Verizon iPhone.
“We believe Sprint could capture more than its fair share of iPhone sales, especially if it gets the new model at the same time as AT&T and Verizon.”
Sprint finished Wednesday at $5.51, and Yin has an “Edge Positive” rating on Sprint shares, with a $6.50 target price. He expects Sprint will see post-paid subscriber numbers at worst flat year-over-year, which would still be an improvement from the annual Sprint declines of the last seven years.
Yin didn't write about T-Mobile, but if Sprint gets an iPhone, why not T-Mobile? Even better than Sprint, T-Mobile uses GSM technology, just as AT&T does. The big difference between the two networks is that T-Mobile's 3G (and 4G) network uses different frequencies than AT&T's. That said, it would be pretty easy for Apple to get the iPhone on T-Mobile's network.
An iPhone on all of the big four networks can't do anything but increase iPhone sales. So, what do you say, Apple?
Facebook wins. A star Canadian athlete has been identified as one of the Vancouver rioters after images and video of him attempting to light a police car on fire hit the Internet.
Nathan Kotylak, 17, and an Olympic hopeful in the sport of water polo, was identified on social networking sites. The video and photos exposed on the Web show him inserting a rag into a police car's fuel filler pipe, and lighting it. He also put a lit paper into the police car itself, via an open window. Two other men put out the blazes before the car ignited, but that would not excuse the action. Instead, any charge would likely carry the word "attempted" rather than arson.
Since Kotlyak is under-age, no public statements by police or Water Polo Canada have mentioned his name. Water Polo Canada. however, announced it has suspended a high-level polo player over allegations he was involved in the riot.
According to Kotlyak's father, he will do the right thing and turn himself in to authorities. Kotylak had received a partial scholarship to attend the University of Calgary to study kinesiology, and hoped one day to compete in the Olympics.
Canadians were quick to respond with the Facebook group "Nathan Kotylak go to Jail, Do not Pass Go." Most posts were quite negative, but a few were supportive, calling Kotylak a child. Others pointed out that 17 or even less is an adult in many parts of the world.
In addition, many posted that since his U of C scholarship comes from taxpayer money, it should be withdrawn. Others said that he should not represent Canada in the Olympics.
Finally, one post indicated that it has already been decided that Kotlyak would not be charged (unconfirmed), which brought forth still more anger, as some pointed out that any regular citizen would be in jail for this act, and that it is just another example of the "elite" and "athletes" getting special treatment.
This is just the first high-profile example of the Facebook groups and web pages bringing down a Vancouver rioter. There will likely be others.
How draconian is the App Store approval process? That's been discussed over and over again. How draconian is the iPhone developer agreement, however? Copies of the agreement have been hard to come by for non-developers (for good reason; more on that later), but the EFF managed to get one, and it's eye-opening.
The EFF used a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to get a copy of the agreement, after spying a NASA app in the App Store. The copy they obtained is, they noted, out of date, but it is likely it has not been significantly modified since the Rev. 3-17-09 version.
For one thing, in order to code and distribute apps for the iPhone which, unless the iPhone is jailbroken, can only come from the App Store after Apple's approval, developers give up a number of rights. One of those is to even discuss the developer agreement.
10.4 Press Releases and Other Publicity
You may not issue any press releases or make any other public statements regarding this Agreement, its terms and conditions, or the relationship of the parties without Apple's express prior written approval, which may be withheld at Apple's discretion.
And that is probably why we never hear anything about the agreement.
Section 3.2 is the so-called "non-jailbreaking" section. It's rather long, but the jailbreaking portion says:
(e) You will not, through use of the Apple Software, services or otherwise, create any Application or other program that would disable, hack or otherwise interfere with the Security Solution, or any security, digital signing, digital rights management, verification or authentication mechanisms implemented in or by the iPhone operating system software, iPod touch operating system software, this Apple Software, any services or other Apple software or technology, or enable others to do so;
More EFF-discovered Apple limitations on developers:
Section 7.2: Applications developed with the use of Apple’s SDK can only be distributed through the App Store (sorry Cydia and RockMyPhone). Additionally, Apple can reject an app for any reason, even if it meets all of the formal requirements of Apple.
Section 8: Apple can "revoke the digital certificate of any of Your Applications at any time." Yup, you were approved, and then rejected. It has already been made clear that Apple has a "kill switch" by which it can remotely disable apps, as well.
Section 14: Apple will never be liable to any developer for more than $50 in damages.
Section 2.6: No reverse engineering (including, the EFF points out, the kinds of reverse engineering for interoperability that courts have recognized as "fair use" under copyright law).
The conclusion of the EFF, which echoes the opinions of some who believe the best smartphone in the market is a jailbroken iPhone:
Overall, the Agreement is a very one-sided contract, favoring Apple at every turn. [...]
If Apple's mobile devices are the future of computing, you can expect that future to be one with more limits on innovation and competition (or "generativity," in the words of Prof. Jonathan Zittrain) than the PC era that came before. It's frustrating to see Apple, the original pioneer in generative computing, putting shackles on the market it (for now) leads. If Apple wants to be a real leader, it should be fostering innovation and competition, rather than acting as a jealous and arbitrary feudal lord. Developers should demand better terms and customers who love their iPhones should back them.
It's pretty obvious why developers put up with this type of agreement: it's the only way to access the full set of iPhone users (as opposed to just jailbroken ones). As the iPhone is the smartphone right now, Apple has leverage. The EFF's copy of the iPhone developer agreement is here (.PDF).
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