Alphabet Earnings Marred by Taxman, While Revenue Jumps

Alphabet Inc. reported better-than-expected revenue thanks to a fast-growing cloud-computing business and booming YouTube video advertising, but the taxman spoiled the party. Fourth-quarter revenue, after payments for online traffic from distribution partners, was $21.2 billion, up 23 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a statement Thursday.

LAM Research: Cramer’s Top Takeaways

Did you miss last night’s “Mad Money” on CNBC ? If so, here are some of Jim Cramer’s top takeaways. In his second “Executive Decision” segment, Cramer also checked in with Martin Anstice, president and CEO of LAM Research , the semiconductor equipment maker which just posed a five-cents-a-share earnings beat on a 15% increase in revenues — news that spawned seven analyst upgrades but also saw shares decline by 2.2%.

Why a Toy Maker and a Coffee Company are Pushing Virtual Assistants

By now we have all seen demonstrations of the practicality of the virtual personal assistant . The biggest tech companies have made daily requests like directions, internet searches, and local restaurants commonplace, but companies like Microsoft aren’t the only ones playing in the virtual assistant space — plenty of other smaller players are incorporating the tech into their existing offerings to keep with the times and avoid being left behind.

Intel Corporation Doesn’t Raise Its Dividend

The lack of a dividend increase could give us some insight into Intel’s thinking around its cash generation and use during 2017. At $1.04 per share, at a share count of approximately 4.74 billion, Intel is paying out roughly $5 billion in dividends per year.

Alphabet Scales Back Another ‘Moonshot’ With Verily Sale

The Google parent’s $800M sale to Temasek is the latest move to reel in some of its ambitious ‘Other Bets’ investments. In another move that suggests Alphabet Inc. is having second thoughts about big so-called “moonshot” investments, its life sciences subsidiary, Verily, said it will sell a minority stake to Singaporean firm Temasek Holdings Pte.

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Earnings season is well under way, and some big tech names are up next. In the coming days, investors will watch Alphabet report results for their most recently ended quarters.

Facebook takes aim at fake news with new a trendinga formula

Facebook is updating its “trending” feature that highlights hot topics on its social networking site, part of its effort to root out the kind of fake news stories that critics contend helped Donald Trump become president. With the changes announced Wednesday, Facebook’s trending list will consist of topics being covered by several publishers.

Apple Watch May Have Some Nifty New Features Up Its Sleeve

Apple was awarded a patent on Tuesday to create a metal band that would allow users to replace links with sensors, speakers or even a thermometer. While soft iPhone sales continue to concern investors, Apple is hard at work on potential future updates for the Apple Watch, including “modular functional band links,” as well as updated software that will allow Siri to perform tasks within apps.

Trade Microsoft’s Volatile Action Near All-Time High

Microsoft had a tough first half of 2016, but regained momentum following Brexit, then stabilized after a negative reaction to the Trump election win. Microsoft had a tough first half of 2016, giving up first-quarter gains even as stocks bottomed on Feb. 8. A negative reaction to earnings released on April 21 was the culprit.

Facebook CEO Zuckerberg reconsiders process to get land

The billionaire chief executive officer of Facebook on Tuesday said he is reconsidering the process by which he is trying to gain title to about a dozen small parcels of land on his sprawling estate in Hawaii. The move to get the land through a unique Hawaii law angered locals and prompted a state lawmaker to propose a bill that would force Mark Zuckerberg into mediation before buying real estate on Kauai.

Cisco Swoops In With $3.7 Billion Bid For AppDynamics Just Before IPO

Cisco Systems Inc. announced an agreement Tuesday to acquire AppDynamics Inc. for $3.7 billion, just before the tech startup was set for an initial public offering that would have valued the company at potentially half that total. AppDynamics increased its price range in a filing Tuesday morning, which was expected to be one of the last steps before the software firm sold its first batch of public shares.

Should NVIDIA Corporation Be Scared of Samsung’s Automotive Potential?

The company has been focusing on emerging trends such as autonomous cars by partnering with the likes of Tesla Motors to deploy its self-driving technology, powered by deep learning and artificial intelligence. Due to its progress in the automotive sector, revenue from this business increased more than 60% year-over-year during the most recently reported quarter.

What Happened in the Stock Market Today

Stocks ended lower on Monday, as weakness in the energy sector outweighed gains in tech shares. The Dow Jones Industrial Average indexes each shed less than 0.5% at the start of a week that will see hundreds of companies post their fourth-quarter earnings results.

NVIDIA Corporation Volta Architecture Rumor Emerges

A while back, Fudzilla reported that Volta, like Pascal, will be manufactured in TSMC’s 16-nanometer technology. This rumor made sense, considering Volta is probably going to be launched too early to be manufactured on TSMC’s 7-nanometer technology, and it’s unlikely that NVIDIA would use TSMC’s 10-nanometer technology for high-performance graphics processors, as the 10-nanometer technology is widely viewed as a “stop-gap” technology aimed squarely at mobile processors.

“Valley Of The Gods” Recounts The Wild Ride Of Peter Thiel’s Fellows

In a Q&A, author Alexandra Wolfe follows the lucky 20 who dropped out of college and were given $100,000 to become tech entrepreneurs. Back in 2011, the legendary PayPal founder and Silicon Valley investor launched an initiative he’d been thinking about for years-encouraging brilliant young students with a genius idea to skip college and start a company and maybe become the next Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk.

Will Apple Raise Its Dividend in 2017?

Recently, though, Apple has embraced dividends, and now, some income-hungry investors look to the iPhone maker for its quarterly payouts as well as its potential for stock-price increases. With tax reform proposals that could unlock some of Apple’s overseas cash stash, Apple might be in a better position than ever to consider a dividend boost this year.

Apple’s $1 Billion Lawsuit Against Qualcomm Has to be Music to Intel’s Ears

But the fact Qualcomm is also the world’s largest mobile chip supplier, and still counts Apple as one of its largest customers, throws a unique wrinkle into this battle — one that, depending on how the dispute unfolds, could work greatly to Intel’s Just three days after the U.S. FTC filed an antitrust suit against Qualcomm that alleged the company had a 5-year modem exclusivity deal with Apple that featured patent royalty rebates, Apple has announced it’s suing Qualcomm for allegedly withholding close to $1 billion in rebates as retaliation for cooperating with South Korean regulators in their own Qualcomm probe. Last month, South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission fined Qualcomm $853 million for several alleged practices.

Snap Said to Tout Devoted Users to Justify $20 Billion Value

Snap Inc. is hoping to convince public market investors it’s worth upwards of $20 billion by stressing how important its app is to users’ daily lives. That’s what Snap’s management highlighted this month to analysts from banks underwriting its initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter.

Friday’s ETF Movers: SOXX, XBI

In trading on Friday, the iShares PHLX Semiconductor ETF is outperforming other ETFs, up about 1.5% on the day. Components of that ETF showing particular strength include shares of Skyworks Solutions , up about 12.9% and shares of Cirrus Logic , up about 5.4% on the day.