Blackberry to buy rival Good Technology for $425 million

For many American’s, BlackBerry is only thought of being a one-time smartphone pioneer that was quickly replaced by Apple’s iPhone in the early to mid 2000’s. Since the craze to own a BlackBerry is but an ancient memory, BlackBerry has not been considered a strong competitor in the smartphone market for almost a decade. But, that may be about to change because on Friday, BlackBerry announced plans to buy rival Good Technology for $425 million. With news of the acquisition becoming public, BlackBerry has also stated that within the next two years, a new, BlackBerry-Good Technology unified product would be released in hopes of boosting their ability to manage “internet things”. By doing this, Blackberry hopes to win new customers by shifting their priority focus to device management software for enterprise customers and taking ahold of the smartphone market once again.

In short, after the acquisition is complete, BlackBerry is expected to earn around $160 million in revenue by late November for this year alone. But, with this new acquisition, will BlackBerry become a strong competitor in the smartphone market, or will they become obsolete while Apple and Android thrive?


Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/blackberry-acquire-good-technology-425-121303077.html

Fed's Intrest Rate Situation

For a number of months now, there has been much talk of the Fed raising interest rates. While they have yet to do so, the intention is still there. This article explains the general situation but offers a stance against a rate hike.

The Fed is tasked with maintaining stable prices. After seven years of recovery, they fear inflation and risky investments that could be made with amazingly low rates. However, the personal consumption expenditures measure of inflation has been less than half of the 2% target that the Fed established. Wages are often a big driver of inflation but they have remained relatively stagnate while the labor market continues to move towards (but not reach) the natural rate. A rate hike would also further strengthen the dollar and hurt the trade balance even more. Lastly, the risks in a rate hike are asymmetrical. A hike too late would allow inflation to rise to say three or four percent, which is barely a problem when compared to historical rates. Conversely, a hike too early could stifle the recovery and tie the Fed's hands with a zero lower bound issue.

What do you think? Should rates remain low for a while longer or should the Fed just go ahead and raise them?


Link Here

Indonesia proposes broader use of renminbi in ASEAN

http://english.astroawani.com/business-news/indonesia-proposes-broader-use-renminbi-asean-70941

Since recently lots of new mention that the US Federal Reserve will increase the interest which definitely will make US dollar stronger. This situation may cause the shortage of US dollar in the global money market which forces lots of countries think about using other money especially the countries in ASEAN. I think if they use renminbi as the trade and investment money, in the global market, it will weaken the position of US dollars. In tourism, this change may lower the costs for Chinese visitors so that more Chinese will visit those countries. 

Military Parade in China Gives Xi Jinping a Platform to Show Grip on Power

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/world/asia/china-military-parade-xi-jinping.html?ref=world&_r=0

In Beijing, 12,000 troops staged a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two on Thursday, Sep.3.
“War is the sword of Damocles that still hangs over mankind,” Mr. Xi said in a speech at the start of a vast military parade. Mr. Xi indicated that he wanted to show other countries — many of them wary of China’s growing military strength — that they had nothing to fear from the procession of tanks and missiles that rumbled down Chang’an Avenue while fighter jets roared overhead.
Turmoil in the Chinese stock market and worries about an economic slowdown in recent months have dented Mr. Xi’s reputation. But Mr. Xi conveyed confidence on Thursday. Wearing a traditional suit of the kind favored by Mao, he addressed the troops and greeted the crowd while standing in a Red Flag limousine. Later, he watched the procession from a viewing stand overlooking the square with his two predecessors as president, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin.
In March, the Chinese government announced that the defense budget for 2015 would be 10 percent higher than the previous year. But with economic growth slowing, dismissing hundreds of thousands of soldiers could add pressure on the government.

The Latest Apple Rumor

The start of September means that the year long wait for a new Apple product or software update is coming to an end. Fortune magazine came out with an article on Tuesday speculating that the latest Apple production will follow the popular trend of online streaming platforms, original content. Netflix memberships has substantially since they started producing their own TV shows. Apple could be hoping to increase their sales after the memberships of their new music streaming platform Apple Music seeming flopped. My summer internship at a marketing/ad tech company specializing in interactive ads for connected devices (such as Roku, Amazon Fire, and smart tv's), has shown me the rapid growth of this industry. People are far beyond having multiple TVs, we moved on to having multiple devices and connections going into the tv. These devices that allows us to stream TV shows and movies are changing our TV viewing habits, with a good number of the population going so far as to cut their connection to their tv network providers. If Apple starts to produce their own content only available by their network it could continue the trends of the "chord cutters" and possibly start to damage the tv networks. Directv did just got bought by AT&T! Tip of the iceberg? Is it going down??

http://fortune.com/2015/09/02/this-startups-fast-charging-battery-software-could-land-on-cell-phones-next-year/