Columnist

Omniture Shares Tumble; Pacific Crest Cuts Target, Estimates [Voices] — By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily Omniture (OMTR) shares are down sharply today following cautious comments on the stock this morning by Pacific Crest analyst Chad Bartley. Bartley writes that “feedback from the channel is markedly more negative” than it was two to three months ago. He says the poor economy is resulting in month-over-month slowing in the online business analytics sector; he says Q4 activity is weaker than expected in what is normally a seasonally strong period. “In general, existing customers are not expected to increase their investments in 2009,” he writes. Bartley also says... [Tags: additions, barron, blogger, business analytics, cautious comments]

First Solar: Are Their Customers Piling Up Inventory? [Voices] — By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily ThinkEquity’s Jonathan Hoopes this morning made an aggressive call on First Solar (FSLR), asserting that a “high-level inventory analysis” of six of the company’s major customers lead him to conclude that there maybe be substantial numbers of First Solar panels sitting in customer warehouses. And he says that they aren’t likely to move out soon, “given weakening economies, lower natural gas prices, higher interest rates and tougher underwriting requirements.” Hoopes contends that global solar demand headwinds are unlikely to subside for at least the next few quarters. “Take-or-pay contracts are... [Tags: barron, blogger, columnist, conference call, delivery schedule]

City Room: Spitzer’s New Job: Online Columnist — The former governor will write a biweekly column for the online magazine Slate about financial matters.... [Tags: biweekly column, columnist, financial matters, magazine slate, new job]

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Eliot Spitzer returns ...as columnist — Media Mob has learned that former New York governor Eliot Spitzer will write a new column for Slate beginning tomorrow. The column will appear every other week and it'll be about government, regulation and finance. "He's going to be doing a regular thing," said Jacob Weisberg, the editor-in-chief of the Slate Group. "It'll be heavily about the financial crisis and fixing financial markets and the economy generally."... [Tags: columnist, economy, eliot spitzer, financial crisis, financial markets]

A Very Warm Welcome To My New Slate Colleague — Five years ago, after a previously-little-known Attorney General named Eliot Spitzer got me kicked out of the securities industry, during a period when I was sure that, among other things, no one would ever be caught dead professionally associating with me again, an editor named Jacob Weisberg at Slate reached out a helping hand. With a big smile, Jacob said he liked the idea of my launching my "comeback" (his word) by covering the Martha Stewart trial for the magazine. I've never stopped being grateful to Jacob and his Slate colleagues for that, and over the years, I've had the... [Tags: bastard, buffet line, christmas party, colleague, columnist]

SanDisk Rallies As Takeover Rumors Resurface [Voices] — By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily SanDisk (SNDK) shares are on the rise on rumors that Toshiba might be planning a bid for the company, according to Dow Jones Newswires. the two companies have a joint venture to manufacture NAND flash memories, and Toshiba has been often rumored to be a logical partner for the flash memory chip maker. In October, Samsung withdrew a $26-a-share bid for SanDisk; there was speculation before Samsung pulled its offer that Toshiba might serve as a white knight for SanDisk. Read the rest of this post... [Tags: barron, blogger, chip maker, columnist, dow jones]

Chipmakers Slashing Production as Demand Crumbles [Voices] — By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily Semiconductor companies are planning sharp production cuts for both Q4 2008 and Q1 2009, according to a report today by Craig Berger, chip analyst at Friedman Billings Ramsey. He says that PC chip firms are seeing “significant production weakness,” as are communications IC producers–and that semiconductor companies are adjusting their own output accordingly. Here’s a rundown on Berger’s outlook for production in the next few quarters from key chip companies; what he’s measuring here are wafer starts, or a little more roughly, units: Broadcom (BRCM): He sees production down 13... [Tags: barron, blogger, broadcom, chip companies, chip firms]

Columnist Dan Neil: Nationalize GM — The heads of Ford, Chrysler and GM head to Capitol Hill this week in hopes of securing $25 billion in bailout money. But the Los Angeles Times' Dan Neil is proposing another option for the biggest of the three. He says, the government should just buy GM.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us... [Tags: bailout, capitol hill, chrysler, columnist, e mail]

Widgets Are Made for Marketing, So Why Aren’t More Advertisers Using Them? [Voices] — By Bob Garfield, Columnist, Advertising Age Some guy lives in Albuquerque, which is great, because it is sunny and really convenient to Vista Encantada and Hoffmantown. But he has relatives in Denver, a limited budget, a lot of outstanding family obligations and a seven-hour, 450-mile gulf between them. Then, one hot and dry Thursday, he’s sitting at a computer, and it goes … “DING!” Read the rest of this post... [Tags: advertisers, advertising age, albuquerque, bob garfield, budget]

If you thought Randall Stross’ attack on Tesla yesterday was in poor taste, wait until you read what Michael Wolff has to say about MySpace. In a dinner interview with BusinessWeek columnist Jon Fine, Wolff says: …if you’re on MySpace now, you’re a [expletive] cretin. And you’re not only a [expletive] cretin, but you’re poor. Nobody who has beyond an 8th grade level of education is on MySpace. It is for backwards people. That’s just part of a much longer interview in which Wolff goes into detail on exactly why he thinks MySpace will go the way of AOL. He... [Tags: 30 million, 5 million, aggregate numbers, aol, businessweek]

Bringing a friend to terror — I haven’t written anything about the Mumbai terror because I didn’t know what I had to add and I couldn’t grasp the 60 hours of horror there. I did write about Twitter and witnesses taking over news and — though I wish we wouldn’t make 9/11 the touchstone for all terrorist crimes henceforcth — I could not help recalling my 9/11: Ever since I survived the 9/11 attacks, and later saw the coverage the world saw - smoke spied from rooftops miles away - I have made sure to always have a camera with me, as the view of the... [Tags: 9 11 attacks, african american woman, ally, bachi, columnist]

Tessera: ITC Finds No Infringement of Wireless Patents [Voices] — By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily Tessera Technologies (TSRA) shares have fallen nearly in half in late trading after the company announced that the Administrative Law Judge overseeing its patent infringement case before the International Trade Commission asserting violation of its wireless patents by a group of semiconductor companies had found no infringement. The company said that the Initial Determination of the judge upheld the validity of the patents, but found no infringement. Tessera had asserted infringement against the ATI Technologies unit of Advanced Micro Devices, Fresscale Semiconductor, Motorola, Qualcomm, Spansion and STMicroelectronics. Tessera said it... [Tags: administrative law judge, advanced micro devices, ati technologies, barron, blogger]

Removing Your Personal Brand From Your Company — Today, I spoke with Laura Vanderkam, who is a columnist for USA Today, an author and a long-time journalist.  She talks about how there are other career options for people these days and how you don’t have to work in a cubicle all your life.  If you’re a young professional who thinks they have to sit in a cube upon entering the workforce, then this post is required material for you.  Laura gives us hope for our futures by talking about her story, of how to became a freelance writer, after working for a company.  You can certainly achieve the... [Tags: avocation, business models, career alternatives, career options, career path]

Dell: Weisel Sees Bad Omens in Weekend Store Checks [Voices] — By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily Not a good day for Dell (DELL) shares, which are down even more sharply than the overall market. Thomas Weisel analyst Doug Reid this morning noted that he is “incrementally more cautious” on the company after a survey of 35 “PC experts” over the Black Friday weekend at Best Buy (BBY) stores. Reid writes that Dell remains “a weak competitor” in the retail channel and that “quality problems may be re-emerging.” Reid says that Dell’s mind share at U.S. retailers “remains weak.” He says sales people preferred Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) over... [Tags: bad omens, barron, best buy, black friday, blogger]

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The Narco Appeal Of Blogging — Slight navel-gazing on a U.S. holiday: a good longish story from Andrew Sullivan in the latest issue of The Atlantic magazine. One of the earliest columnist/bloggers, Sullivan documents his own learnings in his blogging life, and the visceral appeal of the format. And even though it is a different focus and sensibility than what we have done at our company, there are a lot of similarities that I can identify with. Some gems: -- "A blog is not so much daily writing as hourly writing. And with that level of timeliness, the provisionality of every word is even more pressing--and... [Tags: anchorage, andrew sullivan, blogger, columnist, dangerous territory]

Apple Black Friday Discounts Less Than Some Expected; Cheaper Prices on Macs, iPods From Some Resellers [Voices] — By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily Apple’s (AAPL) Black Friday discounts are less than some on the Street had expected, and smaller than those being offered by some retail chains. But the company seems to have adopted an unofficial price-matching policy, which makes the picture a little fuzzier than it appears at first glance. Some examples: 13-inch Macbooks, $101 off 20-inch iMac, $51 off 8 GB iPod Nano, $11 off 8 GB iPod Touch, $21 off iPod Classic, $21 off Read the rest of this post... [Tags: 8 gb ipod nano, aapl, apple, barron, black friday]

Amazon: No Kindles For You This Year [Voices] — By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily If you were planning to buy that special someone on your holiday shopping list an Amazon (AMZN) Kindle e-book reader, you better come up with something else. Amazon notes on its Web site that “due to heavy customer demand, Kindle is sold out.” Amazon advises ordering now though, “to reserve a place in line,” noting that orders will be filled on a first come, first served basis. The site says that the Kindle usually ships “in 11-13 weeks.” Silicon Alley Insider notes that the long wait suggests that those who... [Tags: amazon amzn, barron, blogger, columnist, customer demand]