Author: Rebecca

Technology news bursts with chatter over BlackBerry takeover

| September 24, 2013

Shareholders are breathing once more as the smartphone manufacturer inks a deal for its sale.

BlackBerry has finally struck a deal that is topping technology news headlines, as a consortium that is lead by its largest shareholder – Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. – made an offer that it could not refuse.

The deal couldn’t come at a better time, stopping the downward spiral of the company’s share price.

Trading of the BlackBerry stocks came to a dead halt when it accepted an offer to be bought out by the consortium, led by the Canadian company. This sale will purchase the withering smartphone manufacturer for $9 (US) per share, which was above the price at which the stocks were being sold when they stopped trading. That said, this technology news figure is also well below the price at which the stocks were being sold before they began their freefall on Friday.

This technology news arrived just after the company declared its devastating second quarter losses.

Technology News - Blackberry takeoverOn Friday, the company started a complete meltdown of its share prices when it released the highly unpleasant technology news in which it stated that it had lost $1 billion in sales during the second quarter.

The technology news headlines have been heavily focused on BlackBerry, lately, as it unexpectedly launched a new handset and made its BBM messenger service available to Android and iOS based device users. Even these moves couldn’t come close to rescuing the company as it continued its rapid downward slide. Analysts and industry experts were releasing dozens of predictions regarding the future of the company, from sale to rebuilding itself, and from bankruptcy to breaking itself up and selling off the pieces.

Finally, the light shone at the end of the tunnel as the more definitive technology news was announced to reveal that Blackberry would, indeed, be sold, for an estimated $4.7 billion, all in cash. The Fairfax shares will also be applied against the deal. This could mean that there is a promising private sector future ahead of the tech company, once more, though the precise details of that future have yet to be known.

Mobile commerce still taking off in Singapore

| September 19, 2013

Among those who took part in a survey, 31 percent said they used their smartphones and tablets to shop.

According to the results of a survey that was conducted among consumers in Singapore, there has been a considerable rise in the number that are using their smartphones for mobile commerce purposes over the last year.

The most recent step of the study was conducted from March through May to view the popularity of this channel.

The study that was conducted by the research firm, Nielsen, was held from March all the way through May. It determined that when compared to the same period in the previous year, the popularity of mobile commerce had risen to 31 percent after having been 24 percent at the same time in 2012. This placed the Singapore city state well ahead of other countries within that same region.

The mobile commerce in Singapore was followed by Hong Kong in its popularity level.

Mobile Commerce - SingaporeIn Hong Kong, the area where mobile commerce was second most popular, had 28 percent of the survey participants taking part in this form of shopping. In Malaysia, it was 27 percent of the survey participants, whereas, in Australia, there were 27 percent of the respondents who said that they shop over their smartphones.

The Nielsen research included the participation of more than 18,700 people who reside in nine different markets in the Asia Pacific region. In Singapore, there were approximately 1,300 people who had been asked whether or not their handset had been used for mobile commerce purposes within the previous month.

It should still be noted that while Singapore was the region that had the highest growth rate in terms of the use of mobile commerce, it was not in the lead for overall usage. In that category, the city state was considered to be in third place. It was well behind Japan, the first place holder, where nearly 90 percent of respondents had used their smartphones for shopping online. It was also behind South Korea, where an estimated two out of every three consumers was using their handsets for researching and buying products.