Microsoft Corp

As of April 6, 2016, Microsoft was the largest software player by market capitalization on a global scale. It was followed by Oracle (ORCL).

Intel is expanding its product portfolio to offer a comprehensive solution to its cloud customers such as Microsoft (MSFT).

Office 365 usage continued its upward trajectory in 2015. The company was able to close the gap between itself and Salesforce.com.

Last month, Cisco completed the acquisition of European (VGK) video conferencing startup Acano for $700 million in cash.

Apple (AAPL) has repeatedly stated that it has a very satisfied and loyal customer base. In fiscal 1Q16, Apple experienced a high switch rate from Android (GOOG) to iPhone.

At -$276 million, Netflix had negative free cash flow for the fourth straight quarter in 2015 as the company continued investing in original programming.

In the third week of December, Amazon added 3 million new Amazon Prime members. Amazon Prime members receive video streaming services and free package delivery.

The majority of Apple’s revenues come from the iPhone, but the majority of the smartphone market is driven by Google’s Android. Google is valued at $527 billion.

DDR4 (double data rate 4) has been consistently gaining market share in overall DRAM (dynamic random access memory) production.

The smartphone growth cycle will reach its maturity stage at the end of this year. For the first time, it’s showing single-digit worldwide growth, according to IDC.

Intuit’s tax and accounting software and offerings dominate the very small business (or VSB) accounting market in the United States.

In fiscal 4Q15, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) revenue fell 4% YoY to $14.1 billion, above analysts’ expectation of $13.5 billion.

Amazon has outperformed the big technology giants in cloud computing, whereas Microsoft is tightening its grip on the cloud market by leveraging Azure.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II, a three-year-old game, witnessed engagement growth on a quarter-over-quarter basis to nearly 12 million monthly active users in 3Q15.

Time Warner announced its 3Q15 results on November 4, 2015. Warner Bros. was a major contributor to the revenue of Time Warner in 3Q15, accounting for 47%.

Competition in the technology sector Microsoft (MSFT) faces competition from a number of companies in the tech (technology) sector due to low barriers of entry and continuous evolution of the tech space. As seen in the above chart, Amazon (AMZN), IBM (IBM), and Google (GOOG) are Microsoft’s major competitors in the cloud business segment. Microsoft focuses on […]

The QQQ ETF has an expense ratio of 0.20%, and its average daily volume of shares traded is $4.7 billion. The price to-earnings ratio of QQQ is 18.53x.

Out of 41 analysts covering Microsoft (MSFT), 22 have a “buy” recommendation on it, six have a “sell” recommendation, and 13 recommend “hold.”

We live in the “Information Age,” where a huge amount of data is generated every second and storage systems are needed to store this data.

The Alliance for Open Media aims to develop video formats that have no royalty costs. The nature of the business makes royalty payments significant for companies like Apple and Google.

Intel’s Skylake will offer new wireless charging and data transfer for a wire-free computing environment. Thus, Intel’s Skylake should help the PC market.

Cloud is moving into a second wave of adoption. Organizations are leveraging cloud to fuel innovation, growth, and disruption.

Rackspace leads the hosted private cloud space with a 20% market share. This market is a “highly fragmented market.”

OTAs have done well in the past few years. They’ve ridden on the surge in the travel industry because more people are travelling for business and leisure.

Net shipments for Seagate Technology (STX) declined by 14% in 4Q15 to 43.1 million units in comparison to 51.15 million units in 3Q15 on a quarter-over-quarter basis.

Through the sale of H3C, HP became one of the first prominent US technology companies to give control to native Chinese owners.

For those investors who believe that a rising tide lifts all boats, as John F. Kennedy once said, understanding business cycle investing is a must.

Oracle’s strategy of transitioning to cloud seems to be yielding results. The revenue from overall software continues to dominate its top-line revenue.

In this space, companies whose franchises have yet to make a mark spend considerably on marketing to raise customer awareness.

The overall large-cap technology sector is suffering from currency issues. Microsoft expects a 4% hit to its revenue growth, and Apple expects a 5% hit.

In 3Q15, Electronic Arts (EA) managed to report good revenue growth due to its major sports titles—Madden NFL mobile and FIFA 15 Ultimate Team mobile.

In November 2013, Cisco responded to the SDN trend by introducing its application-centric infrastructure (or ACI).

Aggressive acquisitions and a focus on systems enabled Cadence to grow its revenues at a faster pace than its competition in the last five years.

Electronic Arts’ (EA) EA Studios encompasses studios and development teams that create games and related content, franchises, and services.

In the past, Microsoft (MSFT) has shown reluctance to support the open source software movement. However, it seems the company has changed its strategy.

We’ll look at Yahoo’s search market business. In the third quarter, Yahoo (YHOO) generated 41% of its revenue from the search advertising business.

Best Buy is building strong relationships with key suppliers to mitigate the impact of heightened competition from suppliers’ retail stores.

Bridgewater Associates is an American hedge fund. It was founded in 1975 by Ray Dalio. The firm manages ~$157 billion in global investments.

As part of its turnaround strategy, Best Buy is also revamping its stores and trying to encourage more robust store traffic.

The average selling price (or ASP) for BlackBerry (BBRY) smartphones continues to decline. Last quarter, the ASP declined from $201 in fiscal 2Q15 to $182.

High yield bonds (HYG), which are usually issued by mid- and small-cap companies, are considered riskier than investment grade corporate bonds.

In 2013, globally mobile internet user penetration was 73.4%. It will be more than 90% in 2017. Internet users had mobile internet usage on smartphones and tablets.

Oracle has been growing its CRM segment rapidly by making strategic acquisitions to expand its position in the CRM market.

Technology and content costs include expenses incurred on new product development, data centers, and licensing costs associated with music and videos.

Salesforce1 is a cloud-based platform that serves as a foundation for building connected apps that link to mobile devices, wearables, and big data.

Salesforce.com is focusing on expanding its presence and operations across Europe by opening data centers.

Salesforce.com (CRM) got ~94% of its fiscal 2014 and six months ending FY15 revenue from subscription and support fees. The fees are associated with cloud services. This implies that it has a huge investment in cloud-based application services. Salesforce.com offered solutions as a system for customer relationship management (or CRM) through cloud.

ValueAct Capital initiated a new position in 21st Century Fox (FOX). It’s a diversified global media and entertainment company. FOX accounts for 0.67% of the fund’s first quarter portfolio. 21st Century Fox is home to a global portfolio of cable and broadcasting networks and properties.

Microsoft Azure might not be a leader, but it is expanding very fast in terms of applications and geography. Its hybrid cloud approach offers some hope regarding its future in the cloud space.

“Big data” analysis requires large data set analysis and the creation of advanced analytic algorithms that are designed to identify insights, patterns, and trends that aren’t understood yet.