Monday 30 November 2015

Verizon Communication Tell Its Customers To Put Their Phones Down

In the new advertisement that aired on Thanksgiving, the company wants you to put your phones down and live in the moment. Telecommunication companies all around the globe would their business to grow, would want higher sales, even higher profits and would want more and more customers to use their cell phones as well as consume as much internet as possible but one such telecom company had done the exact opposite, the company being Verizon Communication. It is quite an unconventional approach that company has opted for as the holiday season arrives. A new television commercial was aired on Thanksgiving in an attempt to promote the telecommunication company but did the exact opposite. Instead of trying to get more consumers to use their smartphones and increase their internet usage over the holidays, the company promoted that people should spend as much time with their families and loved ones as possible. The aim of the commercial was to remind the people that family and giving them time is more important than spending most of their time on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media website. The advertisement ended with a slogan that said ‘Better Matters.’ The telecom giant is urging its customers to put their phones down itself, even though it is merely a publicity stunt by Verizon but it speaks for the larger audience. The message that the company has tried to send through it advertisement is definitely meaningful and will help a lot of people realize the importance of family. According to Verizon news, the company’s aim was to help people get to their loved one and after they have arrived to meet their families they put their phones down and spend time with them. Melissa Garlick, the head of Verizon’s creative brand team, stated that Verizon will bring people to their friends and family but once they are there the company wants them to be fully available. She added the point of this is to make the audience realize that Verizon is America’s most reliable network that can get them to their families even at such a busy time of the year. This is not the first time the telecom company has opted for such a campaign and encouraged people to put their phones down. Back in 2009, the telecom company released a campaign ‘Don’t Text and Drive’ which was aimed at safety of driving and supported the laws based on that. Even though the telecom company has put forward a very simple message for their audience, today’s consumer is much for skeptical and it would probably take much for than a holiday ad to get their attention and furthermore to even change their beliefs, as per Allen Adamson who is a brand expert along with being the former chairman for North America of WPP’s Landor Associates.

Monday 23 November 2015

No Transparency To Be Expected From BlackBerry Ltd



The software giant has informed the market that it will not be providing them with transparency on its security business like the other companies in the industry.


BlackBerry Ltd has been under the critical eyes of analysts and investors in the tech industry for a long time now, and that too for all the right reasons. The giant has been experiencing some serious falls in the hardware business with the increasing competition coming in from rivals like Google, Apple and Microsoft and has failed to meet the expectations of its fans on a lot of levels. Only recently, the software giant has yet again been threatened with competition in the only market feels strong in and that is the software industry, in which the Canadian company has been contributing in many different ways. The security and cloud services that BlackBerry business provides to its users are considered to be of the best kind by analysts, and the security sector is believed to be the biggest strength of the company, considering how it has been experiencing serious failures in its smart phone business since the initiation and expansion of Android, the operating system coming from rival Google and the success that Apple’s iPhones have received in a very short period of time. However, the software giant was still being considered to have a strong presence in the industry; until now. BlackBerry software sector has clearly indicated that it has no plans whatsoever to provide the customers with transparency of any kind in the security business, which has affected the sentiments of the already bearish investors in the company. Companies like Google an Apple has been working towards the provision of a see-through image of the activities of the company where the user information and its distribution is concerned which has regained trust of the users in a lot of different ways. This step was deemed as an important one after the whole Snowden episode that took place and showed the ugly picture of how companies in the industry were selling off information of the users to the government without the prior permission, which upset a large number of users. According to a BlackBerry spokesperson, it was confirmed that the company is not looking towards making things transparent for its users and will not be following footsteps of its rivals to support the idea. News from comScore suggests that the mobile phone making company has actually lost a large space in the mobile market of the country in the past two to three years, from having a presence of 13.4% to 1.2% now, which shows the fall its smart phones have taken and how customers have switched to other cell phone companies due to unsatisfactory results from the giant’s products.

Wednesday 18 November 2015

BlackBerry Priv: The Reviews Are In

The software company seems to be hitting it off with the Priv, its new smart phone in the tech market.

BlackBerry Ltd has released its new smart phone in the market last week, and the most exciting factor about the gadget is that it is powered by Android operating system. This is the first time that this OS is being used by the giant to incorporate in its mobile phones, and this act has been deemed by the analysts as another effort, and probably the last one, to make a comeback in the hardware industry. The giant has been experiencing some extremely low sales and revenue generation for the past couple of quarters and this has turned out some highly negative comments about what the giant should further do with its idea of carrying forward the hardware business. Analysts have constantly suggested the giant to wrap up its non-lucrative hardware business as it continues to go into loss, but John Chen has some other ideas. The Priv, which is the new smart phone of the BlackBerry business, has been welcomed by the industry with mixed emotions. The fact that the giant has finally surrendered to the most used OS in the mobile phone market has only made its fans happy and the reviews which have come out of the phone have focused on multiple features of the device that are being appreciated on the whole. The mobile phone has some specs on the latest phone which is sure to bring about more customers to it than before. As promised by the CEO, the Priv has a huge 5.4 inch screen along with a back cover which has been given a classic look by the designers with a material that looks very much like glass. The cell phone has also been provided with the traditional QWERTY keyboard, for what the Canadian company has always been famous for. This keyboard, however, can be used by simply sliding it open on the device and has been deemed quite durable by analysts. As for the 18MP camera which has been provided on the Priv, analysts believe that the fact that the camera takes great pictures even when there isn’t abundance of light in the area is something good enough to bring a lot of audience to buy the new phone. Furthermore, the battery life of the device has also been recognized as that of a much durable one as it goes on for 3,410 mAh, which is much more than what the rivals in the industry have to offer. Other than that, the giant has also brought some improvements on the software side as well.

Thursday 12 November 2015

Verizon To Carry Out New Plans For Better Sales


The wireless company has finally decided to sell off all of its assets which are not giving the giant profit as much as expected and to now focus on wireless segment only.

Verizon Communications has brought about some massive changes in its wireless business and analysts have been wondering where this giant now might be headed. The most recent news about the wireless giant is about how it has announced of its plans to carry out a major selling of its assets which are worth $10 billion in a transaction that will soon be held by the giant. This is majorly being carried out for the purpose of making its focus come right back to where it was previously and to get rid of all the excessively expanded business activities which were not bringing as much profit to the company as planned to. One of the major names in the asset-selling program to be carried out will be of MCI, which is one of those businesses which were offering the simple internet and landline services to special clients along with some major companies. However, all of such smaller businesses have been facing some serious competition from other projects and programs launched by companies like Amazon and Alphabet Inc, which is why the wireless company has finally thought of selling these off in order to maximize its profit. The giant has indeed put up struggles to fight against the ever increasing competition but now it has decided against it, as all of these businesses will be sold off in the major sell-off plan that is to be carried out by the wireless business. Analysts at Bidness ETC have turned out to be very bullish towards the Verizon stock now that the giant has announced it will be implementing a new strategy to make things better within the company’s sales. The analysts are of the opinion that in order to stay strong in the wireless communication industry, such steps are mandatory for the giant. Verizon wireless has also decided to give all of its attention to the wireless segment of the company, which is believed to increase sales in all the right ways according to the analysts. In a press release, the giant was seen informing the industry of how much of a hassle it will be start selling off its assets as the biggest problem that will be faced in the initial stages is of departmentalization of all the assets which will take some time before the selloff finally takes place. The company is currently putting off the load it had previously taken and to put that as an investment in its wireless business to make it even better than it already is. The stock of the company closed at a share price of $45.78 on Friday, which showed a downside activity by around 0.91%.

Monday 2 November 2015

Verizon Communication Inc. Stock Update

The stock of the telecommunication company went up by 0.72% in the last trading session.

During the last trading session, Verizon Communication’s stock went up by 0.72% and was trading at a share price of $46.74. In the past seven days, the stock of the telecommunications company went up by 1.56%; additionally outperforming the S&P 500 estimates by 1.35%. In a month’s time, the company’s stock went up by 9.43% and outperformed the S&P 500’s estimate by an increase of 2.69%. On the trading session that took place on Friday, October 30, 2015, the shares of the telecommunication company rose by 1.03% due to which it entered as one of the gainers of the day. The trading commenced with a share price of $46.53 on Friday. On the higher end the share price was witnessed at $46.98 and on the lower end it was observed at $46.28; ultimately ending on $46.88. At the end of the session the shares were soaring at 14,753,237 shares. By the end of the trade, the shares were being traded at a price of $46.28. The one year high was witnessed at $51.73 and the one year low was observed at $38.06. The current market capital of the telecom company is at $190.75 billion. The earnings per share reported by the company were 2.51 and the price per earnings ratio is at 18.65. Insider trading was witnessed in the company. Verizon Communications disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission that there was insider buying and selling. The executive vice president of Verizon, Walden Marni unloaded 8,229 shares on August 7, 2015. The share price of the shares unloaded by the EVP is $46.26. The total transaction was worth $380,674 and was disclosed on a Form 4 Filing to the SEC. A number of analysts have commented on Verizon’s shares. Major brokerage firm Citigroup covers the shares of Verizon and has maintained a rating of Neutral on Verizon’s stock. The brokerage firm has decreased the price target to $49 per share from an initial share price of $51. This rating by Citigroup was issued on October 21, 2015. In other news, the company has also made an announcement that it will be laying off an undisclosed number of employees as well. The employees who will be laid off will be from the wireless division; employees from sales and stores will not be affected by this decision. By the end of the third quarter of the current fiscal year, Verizon had a total number of 177,900 employees. This lay off is happening because the company has decided to reduce the number of its regional offices. From 20 regional offices, its bringing it down to six; this change is taking because the company wants to reduce its costs. Verizon Stores landline contributes 27% to the company’s revenue. The company also invests in Verizon wireless and internet products; along with it the company also released a free mobile video service earlier in September.