Filed under: Business, Linux

The corporate monolith that everyone loves to hate, Wal-Mart, has announced that they will no longer stock computers that run the Linux operating system on their retail shelves.

While Wal-Mart made a bit of a splash in the tech world when the company announced it would be carrying Linux PCs last summer, it appears the rest of the world failed to notice and Wal-Mart is pulling the plug on its Linux experiment.

After all, it’s hard to envision a world where you would send somebody looking for a Personal computer with a Linux distribution to your friendly neighborhood big box store.

You’ve got to hand it to Wal-Mart; they gave Linux the old college try, which is more than most Personal computer retailers would do. To the marketing guru’s, a Personal computer under $200 has to look like a good sell (Wal-Mart carried the $199 “Green gPC,” made by Everex of Taiwan).

However, like PeeWee Herman passed up the gopher snakes again and again during the pet shop fire, people passed up the Linux box for safer, and more palatable, fare (i.e., Windows).

While Wal-Mart will no longer carry the gPC in stores, it will remain available on the web at walmart.com. So, in the foreseeable future, Linux will have to find somewhere other than Wal-Mart to find its large break.

[via Yahoo! News]

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Filed under: Business, Linux

The corporate monolith that everyone adores to hate, Wal-Mart, has announced that they will no longer stock computers that run the Linux operating system on their retail shelves.

While Wal-Mart made a bit of a splash in the tech world when the company announced it would be carrying Linux Computers last summer, it appears the rest of the world failed to notice and Wal-Mart is pulling the plug on its Linux experiment.

After all, it’s hard to envision a world where you would send somebody looking for a Personal computer with a Linux distribution to your friendly neighborhood big box store.

You’ve got to hand it to Wal-Mart; they gave Linux the old college try, which is more than most PC retailers would do. To the marketing guru’s, a PC under $200 has to look like a good sell (Wal-Mart carried the $199 “Green gPC,” made by Everex of Taiwan).

However, like PeeWee Herman passed up the gopher snakes again and again during the pet shop fire, people passed up the Linux box for safer, and more palatable, fare (i.e., Windows).

While Wal-Mart will no longer carry the gPC in stores, it will remain available on the web at walmart.com. So, in the foreseeable future, Linux will have to find somewhere other than Wal-Mart to find its large break.

[via Yahoo! News]

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Filed under: Business, Internet, Google

European regulators have approved Google’s plan to purchase on the web advertising giant DoubleClick. The acquisition, which has been in the works for the better part of a year will solidify Google’s dominance in the advertising field. Right now Google makes most of its money through its lucrative contextual advertising system. The DoubleClick acquisition will help Google move into display ads, an area where the company is currently not as strong.

Google competitors including Microsoft, Yahoo! had filed anti-trust complaints, claiming that the deal would give Google an unfair advantage in the on the web advertising marketplace. But EU regulators basically gave Google a pass and said the deal could go forward as is. Of course, if Microsoft manages to buy Yahoo!, (a company that has been playing hard to get), that might give Microsoft the tools to level the playing field. You know, assuming EU or US regulators don’t nix the deal.

Update: According to the Official Google Blog, Google today completed its acquisition of DoubleClick.

[via TechCrunch]

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Filed under: Deals, EMC Corp (EMC), Options, Technical Analysis

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) shares are rising today after the company announced yesterday evening it bought privately held software company Infra Corp. for an undisclosed amount. The company also made a $3.25 per share takeover offer for Iomega Corp. (NYSE: IOM) yesterday, but it was rejected. If you think that the company won’t fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on EMC.

After hitting a one-year low of $12.74 in March, the stock hit a one-year high of $25.47 in October, but has moved lower since then. EMC opened this morning at $15.00. So far today the stock has hit a low of $14.76 and a high of $15.04. As of 12:25, EMC is trading at $14.86, up $0.16 (1.0%). The chart for EMC looks neutral and steady while S&P gives EMC a very positive 5 STARS (out of 5) strong purchase rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would think about an April bull-put credit spread below the $14 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the buy and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn’t do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make an 8.1% return in just one and a half months as long as EMC is above $14 at April expiration. EMC would have to fall by more than 5% before we would begin to lose money.

EMC hasn’t been below $14 since last March but has been slipping steadily recently. This trade could be risky if the economy continues to slow, but EMC’s acquisition frenzy indicates that the company thinks it is still on solid footing.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer.

DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that might include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in EMC.

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Business, Personal Finance, Technology, Employment news for Austin …
Business, Personal Finance, Technology and Employment news for Austin and Central Texas, brought to you by the Austin American-Statesman.

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Filed under: Deals, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), News Corp’B’ (NWS)

Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) is running out of options to keep itself out of the hands of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). Rupert Murdoch stated that his company, News Corp (NYSE:NWS) would not pursue a deal with the portal. There had been speak about combining Murdoch’s large social network, MySpace, with Yahoo! to create a company with a tremendous internet user base.

“We’re not going to get into a fight with Microsoft, which has a lot more money than us,” Mr Murdoch stated, according to the FT. He was bowing to the inevitable, which is that Redmond’s $44 billion bid for Yahoo! isn’t going to be topped by another company.

Aside from slicing down Yahoo!’s options, the news points to the great sense of putting the internet company together with Microsoft’s online business. The two companies would have about 32% of the search business in the US. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has about 60%. Neither Yahoo! nor Microsoft can handle Google’s lead on its own.

The merger would also save money. Microsoft’s on the internet operations are in the red. As Yahoo!’s revenue has slowed, so has it margin growth. A combination would allow for the reduction of staff. Yahoo! needs a partner and it has run out of suitors.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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