Bond Offering Equips Google to Deal with Silicon Valley Heat…and Perhaps A Bottom for the Stock

California governor Jerry Brown surprised the state by announcing $6.6B in additional tax revenues that were not expected in the last tax year. In the context of Silicon Valley’s frenetic scramble for new hires, perhaps these revenues would be much less surprising. The job market is hot for engineers, start-ups are getting funded (and acquired), … Read more

What Happened to Ener1? The Disappointment and the Promise

(This is an excerpt from an article I published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.) Ener1 (HEV) lost 36% last week after reporting earnings that disappointed with the news of a massive $73.3M write-down of the company’s investment in Norwegian electric vehicle company THINK. HEV management insisted this action should not … Read more

Visa Follows Blaze Mobile and Enables Mobile Transactions

Last week, CNBC interviewed Visa (V) CEO and Chairman Joseph Saunders. The title “Building the Digital Wallet” caught my attention because I am invested in Blaze Mobile, a start-up whose main product, Blaze Mobile Wallet, enables mobile payments, banking, and ticketing. Visa invested in mobile payment start-up Square in April, 2011, and the company’s plan … Read more

Cabot Corporation Restarts Tantanlum Mining In Canada

Just when the current stampede out of commodities seemed to shout out that demand is quickly disappearing from the face of the earth, Cabot Corp. (CBT) announces that growing demand has pushed it to restart mining for tantalum in Canada: “Rising global demand for tantalum has caused Cabot Corp. to announce its intention to resume … Read more

Without Buyback Support, RIM Approaches Two-Year Lows

(This is an excerpt from an article I published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.) In my last piece on Research In Motion (RIMM), I described the details from the company’s conference call warning on this quarter’s earnings…RIMM barely paused to take in the scenery at the October lows. The stock … Read more