stocks

Sometimes, people have the most wonderful ideas. And not merely people at Apple.

A software-engineering intern at Twilio (who also happens to be a computer science student at UC Berkeley) got it into his head to work out what would have happened had those who spent money on Apple products over the years invested the very same amount of money in Apple stock instead.

And what a fascinating analysis Kyle Conroy has presented on his blog.

If, for example, you happened to have $5,700 in 1997, you would have been able to buy a PowerBook G3 250 (Original/Kanga/… Read more

CUPERTINO, Calif.--Apple shareholders today rejected a proposal that would have required the company to disclose its succession plan for senior management.

The proposal was one of two by shareholders aimed at adding transparency and a new voting standard to what is considered one of the most secretive technology companies. In its proxy materials ahead of the meeting, Apple's board had urged shareholders to vote against both proposals.

As expected, Jobs was not present during the meeting. In his place was Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, who has filled in for Jobs since January when Jobs, a pancreatic cancer … Read more

In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Netflix just released a graph that looks at how the company's stock has treated shareholders over the past five years.

The No. 1 video rental service compared its total cumulative stockholder return for the past five years with those from the Nasdaq Composite Index, the S&P 500 Index, and the S&P North American Technology Internet Index.

Simply said, Netflix tore it up. The company's shares jumped beyond $247 this week, setting an all-time high for the stock. After stomping brick-and-mortar rivals Blockbuster and Movie Gallery into … Read more

Apple's shares are trading lower this morning as investors start to come to grips with the news of Steve Jobs taking his second medical leave of absence in two years.

An hour and a half into morning activity on the Nasdaq exchange, Apple shares were down approximately $13 to just over $335 per share, representing a nearly 4 percent slide.

Apple released word of Jobs' medical leave early yesterday on the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., meaning that the stock market was closed. That extra day to process the news likely softened the reaction on Wall Street … Read more

Everybody wants a piece of Facebook. The social network has over 600 million subscribers, but more importantly, it's a destination. Most users spend a lot of time on the site, making it an advertising powerhouse, a money machine that potentially could make Google--which is essentially a way station--seem weak in comparison.

Normally, when a tech company gets to this size, it goes public. That means folks like you and me get to buy shares in the company, and participate in its success or failure, by selling our shares to people who value it either at more or less than we do.

The initial public stock offering of a fast-rising tech company is a big deal. IPOs fueled the VC funding industry in the late '90s, and made a lot of people rich. If this were 1999 right now, Facebook would already be public, driven to the exits by investors who would want a return on their funds. Facebook would use the capital raised for expansion.

But it's 2011, and Facebook isn't going public. Instead, it's raising funds and acquiring investors by participating in private markets for its shares. Initially, employees were able to exchange their shares on SecondMarket. More recently, investment bank Goldman Sachs has begun to sell pieces of its own investment in Facebook to some of its clients.

What does this mean for the future Facebook? For investors? And for other tech companies? I'm joined today by the New York Times' Miguel Helft, who is covering Facebook for the paper.

Subscribe: iTunes (MP3)iTunes (320x180)iTunes (640x360)Podcast RSS (MP3)Podcast RSS (320x180)Podcast RSS (640x360)

Some of our discussion points:… Read more

ProStockMaster for Windows sounds like it might be an investment tool or perhaps something to do with drag racing, but in fact it's a free digital photo manager that offers something extra for professional photographers: the ability to directly upload images from your PC to one of several stock photo agencies. Even if you don't have an account to access, you can use it to edit your image collections and data, including IPTC and EXIF data. It can even help professional photographers keep track of their earnings.

When we installed and opened ProStockMaster, a pop-up gave us an … Read more

Well, that didn't last very long.

In case you still had lingering doubts about the investing class's appetite to buy a piece of Facebook, follow the money to find out the answer: the Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday that Goldman Sachs was so flooded with demand for its recent investment solicitation to investors seeking to buy into the social-networking site, that it has decided to stop taking new orders, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Earlier this week, word leaked that Goldman had ponied up $450 million--Digital Sky Technologies of Russia, a partner in the … Read more

The high degree of investor interest in shares of hot Silicon Valley companies that aren't yet publicly traded--like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Zynga--may be leading to scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a report late Monday on The New York Times' Dealbook blog.

Companies like SharesPost and SecondMarket offer exchanges for privately traded stock, and there's been no shortage of supply thanks to early employees and investors of companies like Facebook and Twitter who are looking to take some cash off the table. Much of the interest in the exchanges has been … Read more

Buckyballs aren't a traditional tech item, but they are magnetic, meaning there's science behind how they work. And because science and technology go hand in hand, voila: there's my justification for today's slightly unusual deal.

Today only, and while supplies last (which may not be very long), Sellout.woot has two sets of Buckyballs for $29.99, plus $5 for two-day shipping (which should get them in your hands just in time to stuff them into some stockings).

Update: Sorry, everyone, but the Buckyballs are sold out. Same goes for the monitor deal below. But the … Read more