OVTI is down sharply again off a strong quarter but big cut in forward guidance. I’ve never covered or even owned OVTI. They have a strong position in a growth segment of semiconductors (cameras) and have done well in many ways as a company. But the problem with OVTI is the same problem that exists for MU (at least for the last decade or so) – margins are low, capital needs are high and their customers view the product as a commodity. We wrote about the issues we had with memory back in 2007 (Struggling with Memory) and the challenges facing a cyclical industrial player like Micron in 2010 (When will Micron buy into some growth?) OVTI seems to face the same structural issues.
CNN is firing more skilled workers like editors and photographers and leaving more work to “user generated” methods. They already seemed to be absurdly unprofessional and now the story will be complete. Pretty soon www.cnn.com will just forward to YouTube.
Long suffering Affymetrix AFFX made a pretty big acquisition. $330M for eBioscience which is said to have $70M in sales at 70% GM with a 30% EBITDA margin. Is it transformational? AFFX has been in the single digits for 3 years and now trades at $4.73. Recently even the poster child, Ilumina (ILMN) hit an air pocket. Is the $100 genome a thread or an opportunity for these companies?
AAPL looses some patent battle to Samsung. Is it a trend?
AT&T is calling off the T-Mobile acquisition. Should be good news for VZ.
CRIS is an interesting small cap biotechnology company. They seem to be making headway. The “hedgehog” pathway shows some promise in cancer treatments. Genentech is a collaborator on it. $250M market cap at $3.22.