iBankCoin
Home / Dr. Fly (page 13)

Dr. Fly

18 years in Wall Street, left after finding out it was all horseshit. Founder/ Master and Commander: iBankCoin, finance news and commentary from the future.

ALERT: @STOCKSAGE1 IS BACK IN PRISON!

The Florida justice system released him. However, the good folks over at iBankCoin have apprehended and detained him, for the greater good, for all of mankind.

Indeud.

Bail has been set for $10,000.

Comments »

Ravicher: Is VirnetX Really A “Fairytale”? $VHC

At the end of last week VirnetX (VHC) dropped roughly 20% after the publication of an article titled, VirnetX: Do You Believe In Fairytales? Part 1, in which an anonymous author discussed the company’s prospects for asserting its patents relating to securing real-time communications over the Internet against Apple (AAPL), Cisco (CSCO) and other tech firms. Without debating the legitimacy and reliability of anonymous sources, here I provide my comments on some of the substantive points made in the article, including the probative value of VirnetX’s past settlement with Microsoft and more recent settlements with Aastra and Mitel to future expectations, as well as the arguments that, regarding VirnetX’s current patent actions, “VirnetX may lose,” “VirnetX may win, but be awarded a comparatively small amount of damages,” and “VirnetX may win a substantial award, but it will be subject to appeal.”

INTRODUCTION

VHC currently has three lawsuits in Federal Court (all in Texas) and one action at the International Trade Commission asserting its patents. ITC cases are different from Federal Court cases in that the ITC can only offer a patent holder the remedy of forbidding the importation of infringing articles, not any monetary compensation for past infringement. Federal Courts, on the other hand, offer patent holders the ability to recover monetary damages for past infringement and receive an injunction against any future infringement.

Amongst its four current patent infringement actions, VirnetX is asserting seven different patents, as summarized in the table below. In the first current Federal Court case filed in August 2010, VirnetX is asserting six patents against Aastra, Apple, Cisco and NEC. In the second current Federal Court case filed in January 2011, VirnetX is asserting three of those same patents against Mitel Networks, Siemens Enterprise Communications, and Avaya. In the third current Federal Court case and the ITC action, both of which were initiated in November 2011, VirnetX is asserting one additional patent against just Apple.

Full Article

Comments »

COOL: YOU CAN MAKE A AR-15 MACHINE GUN WITH A SSYS 3-D PRINTER

Technology is a lovely thing, but sometimes it scares the bejeezus out of us. This working 3D-printed gun is one such case.

Gun enthusiast “HaveBlue” has documented in a blog post (via the AR15 forums) the process of what appears to be the first test firing of a firearm made with a 3D printer.

Full Article

Comments »

Krugman: Crash of the Bumblebee

Last week Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, declared that his institution “is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro” — and markets celebrated. In particular, interest rates on Spanish bonds fell sharply, and stock markets soared everywhere.

Full Article

Comments »

Reformed Broker: How to Fix TheStreet.com

Mebane Faber’s recent post, in which he asked rhetorically why it was that TheStreet.com wasn’t coining money, got me thinking. I was probably one of the first 1000 people ever to have read TheStreet, beginning in 1996. I worshiped Jim Cramer and read every post he and Herb and the gang put up. What made it pop and sparkle was that it was mainly written from the standpoint of someone who was actually in the investing business (Cramer, Harrison, Kass et al) or by a journalist with serious reporting chops and strong convictions (as in the case of Greenberg, Task etc).

I wrote an homage to the site, its early days and the amazing roster of talent that’s passed through it in the fall of 2010 and I meant every word of it.

But TheStreet has lost its way. It’s having an identity crisis, a financial crisis and an existential crisis all at once. They’re burning cash, flailing about for social media strategies and fighting to stay relevant now that the rules of the web have changed.

The suits are mostly clueless as to what to do, no matter what they say. The editorial side is aimless; a hodgepodge of uninformed, redundant one page articles chopped up into three pages for CPM purposes, paywalled insights from a handful of great financial writers and a host of filler and fodder that serves no discernible purpose whatsoever. And the ad placement is atrocious, it’s slapped across every open space as if to remind the reader that much of what he’s stumbling across on the site is there mainly for the pageviews anyway.

Full Article

Comments »

FLASH: $FB FTW!

Facebook beats by $0.01, beats on revs (26.85 -2.50)
Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.12 per share, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.11; revenues rose 32.3% year/year to $1.18 bln vs the $1.15 bln consensus. Revenue from advertising was $992 million, representing 84% of total revenue and a 28% increase from the same quarter last year. Payments and other fees revenue for the second quarter was $192 million.

Key Metrics: Monthly active users (MAUs) were 955 million as of June 30, 2012, an increase of 29% year-over-year. Daily active users (DAUs) were 552 million on average for June 2012, an increase of 32% year-over-year. Mobile MAUs were 543 million as of June 30, 2012, an increase of 67% year-over-year.

No guidance provided in press release, but may be provided on conference call, scheduled for 5:00 ET.

Comments »