Chinese Chipmaker Plans Overseas Buying Spree to Get Mobile Tech

Goodix, a supplier of mobile chips to Amazon.com Inc. and major Chinese smartphone makers, plans to begin shopping abroad for semiconductor and software developers to gain an edge in an increasingly competitive market. The company wants to become the world’s biggest supplier of fingerprint sensors, Chief Executive Officer David Zhang said in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Alexa Could Be Amazon’s “Fourth Pillar”

All three have been instrumental to Amazon’s success over the past decade-plus and Bezos wrote, “I assure you that we also remain hard at work on finding a fourth [pillar].” It’s been two years since Amazon unveiled the Echo, which can serve as a hub for other smart-home devices like thermostats and lightbulbs, and its functionality has been extended through third-party “skills,” which function like voice-controlled apps.

7 Signs Amazon’s Best Days Are Ahead of It

The company has come to dominate the retail industry and is rapidly disrupting many other areas of the global economy. Yet with its stock up several hundred times in value since its 1997 IPO, you’d be excused for thinking Amazon’s days of turbocharged growth are long gone.

Ad Industry Petitions FCC To Jettison Its Privacy Rules

Advertising trade groups are seizing the political moment in a bid to dismantle the Federal Communications Commission’s recently passed broadband consumer privacy laws . With the commission on the cusp of a Republican majority – Chairman Tom Wheeler has said he’ll step down on inauguration day – the writing could be on the wall for the FCC’s controversial regulations.

PayPal Is Powering Growth by Focusing on the Small Things

In the last two quarterly earnings reports, after highlighting results for revenue and earnings per share, PayPal began discussing two financial metrics that drive everything management does to grow the value of the business for shareholders: PayPal’s strategy is clear and management is completely focused on driving growth in these two metrics. When we multiply the growth in customer accounts with the growth in transactions per account, we get a result that is almost equal to the growth in total transactions processed.

AT&T Intros Tool To Stop Spam Calls

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Investors Are Betting Big Against Fitbit Inc. — Are They Right?

But investors seem to think that the stock could continue falling — over 30% of its outstanding shares were still being shorted as of Dec. 27. Let’s take a closer look at Fitbit’s headwinds and tailwinds to see if those bearish bets are justified. The bears believe that since fitness trackers are cheap to manufacture, Fitbit’s core market will be commoditized and its brand will lose its premium appeal.

ThreeSixty to Acquire Sharper Image From Iconix

Private equity-backed consumer products company ThreeSixty Group will pay $100 million for the quirky gift retailer in its second sale outside of Chapter 11. ThreeSixty Group on Friday said it had agreed to purchase the Sharper Image brand from Iconix Brand Group in the hopes that it can revamp the struggling gadget maker. The Irvine, Calif., consumer products company will pay $100 million in cash for the rights to the brand and related intellectual property assets of the specialty gifts retailer.

How Coca-Cola Can Increase Its Value in 2017

Its drive to refranchise nearly all of its North American bottling operations by the end of 2017 appears to be on track.This initiative will leave Coca-Cola as an asset-light business focused on concentrates and the marketing of its 500-plus global brands. And in May of next year, Chief Operating Officer James Quincey will succeed Muhtar Kent as CEO, with Kent continuing as Chairman of the company’s board of directors.

These Stocks Could Double in 2017

Stocks that have been beaten down by pessimistic investors always have the potential to soar if things start to go right. They also have the potential to tumble further, punishing investors for betting on a turnaround that never surfaces.

Smart marketing helps Maryland Smoothie King franchisee achieve success

When Tonya Bingham opened her Smoothie King franchise in the Bowie Town Center two years ago, the corporate parent told her it would be a slog just to sell $360,000 worth of the juice drinks the first year. “We did well,” said the A 46-year-old mother of two, who opened the store as a way to control her schedule after working 80-hour weeks as a meeting planner.

AT&T Intros Tool To Stop Spam Calls

Robocalls have become a “scourge” on U.S. consumers, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said this past summer upon calling on the tech industry to help find solutions. One proposed fix, just launched by AT&T, is to provide wireless customers with automatic blocking of fraudulent calls and warnings of suspected spam calls.

Guide to returning holiday gifts

The holidays are a time for celebration and gifts, but not all presents hit the mark and returning them doesn’t feel very festive. If you find yourself unhappy with a gift, you wouldn’t be the only one.

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This week has proven to be a disappointment for bullish investors who were hoping to see the Dow Jones Industrials reach a historic 20,000 milestone. Friday brought slight gains to the overall stock market, but they weren’t enough to push the Dow into uncharted territory, and advances for most major market benchmarks were limited to less than a quarter of one percent.

Try This Exercise In Radical Empathy To Minimize Conflict

This exercise, which has helped Trump and Clinton supporters see eye to eye, can help you deal with any conflict in your life. In addition to the everyday disagreements we have with our friends, family, and coworkers, the brutal election over the last year appears to have ripped the country in two, with liberals and conservatives unable to see eye to eye.

Citi Revives Popular Leveraged Oil ETNs Credit Suisse Killed

Citigroup Inc. rolled out a couple of risky triple-leveraged exchange-traded notes tied to oil on Friday after Credit Suisse Group AG delisted two eerily similar ETNs. The notes had gained attention earlier in the year as oil prices plummeted and investors, particularly millennials, starting pouring cash into them.