Twitter's IPO, Blackberry's Struggles and An Upcoming Game System Battle

For once Apple was not front and center in headlines this week. Twitter took that title and ran with it. Here’s a rundown of the week’s excitement:

After much talk, Twitter finally had their IPO (initial public offering, for those wondering what IPO means). They debuted on the NYSE at $26 a share, and that increased almost immediately. They jumped up to a high of $50 on their first day of trading, finishing the day at $44.90. Investors seem to be very divided when it comes to Twitter. Many feel that Twitter has become a service that is integrated in our daily lives, similar to Facebook, and that it has only scratched the surface of potential advertising revenues. Clearly these are the people that bought Twitter shares immediately. Others warn of another tech bubble, clearly in disbelief that Twitter’s share price is almost 50 times its revenue (Steve Rattner). The IPO allowed them to raise a potential $2.1 billion. To put that in perspective, Twitter’s third quarter revenues were $168.6 million, posting a $64.6 million loss. Basically investors just gave $2 billion to a company that is losing more and more money, even though it’s revenues are increasing. It will be interesting to see how long Twitter remains in everyone’s good graces now that they are in the public eye. 

Blackberry on the other hand, has had a rough week. On Monday, they announced that they were firing their CEO, and that they were not going to be selling themselves. They took themselves off the market, despite interest from several different groups. This quickly dropped their share price down to $6.50, a far cry from their high in the $200 range back in 2007. Fairfax Financial decided that instead of purchasing the company, they would inject $1 billion into the company. There are lots of rumours that Blackberry will focus solely on software and stop making phones. One good piece of news for Blackberry is that 20 million users signed up for bbm in the first week of it being available on Android and iOS devices.

Microsoft has been in the middle of some interesting rumours this week, with potential new CEO Stephen Elop being quoted as saying that he would be okay with getting rid of Microsoft’s Xbox and Bing divisions. There have been calls from various investors over the past couple of weeks for Microsoft to do just that, but I really don’t see it happening. Microsoft has invested large amounts of time and money developing the Xbox one, and it looks to recoup most of that with its upcoming release. And as much as I hate Bing, Microsoft has worked very hard to integrate it into all of their divisions. It’s a big part of Windows 8.1, and they are continually trying to grow its user base. I think it’s very unlikely that Microsoft loses either of these divisions.

On the topic of the Xbox, I’m personally very excited to see the Xbox One vs. PS4 battle play out over the upcoming Christmas season. The PS4 is being released on November 15^th, and is the lower priced of the two, coming in at $399. The Xbox One is being released on November 22^nd and is priced at $499. Keep in mind, the Xbox One comes with the Kinect sensor, which accounts for the $100 price difference. It’s certainly an interesting move by Microsoft to bundle the game system and the motion sensor. Many believe that the $100 price difference will be a deal breaker for those choosing a new system. Both systems have various new and improved features, such as new controllers, a large assortment of applications (such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon’s video service, etc.), and a large assortment of games unique to each system. Which system are you leaning towards? 

And it wouldn’t be a tech update without a mention of Apple. Apple has yet to announce a release date for the iPad mini 2, as they are having trouble getting enough stock to meet the expected demand at launch. Sources say that Sharp is having trouble making the screens. The expected launch date is November 22^nd, a week before black Friday. As well, apparently an iPad Air on display in Australia burst into flames and continued to emit smoke until the fire department arrived. Apple hasn’t commented but they did send someone to collect the unit so that they can look into it further. Perhaps I should be giving the iPad Air at my store a wide berth. As much as I hate to admit, it is a beautiful device, very light and slim.

And that’s your rundown for the week, hopefully it helps you get all caught up on what’s going on in the world of tech. Have a good weekend!