After several months of unsuccessful attempts to convince Tim Cook and the board Apple to increase the program to repurchase shares, the billionaire investor and part-time corporate raider Carl Icahn still does not lose hope of achieving their goal. In a recent interview with U.S. television channel CNBC, he said about buying another Apple shares in the amount of $ 500 million, thereby increasing its total investment in the company to three billion dollars.

However, Icahn expressed his disappointment the current position of the Group Management, which is still not eager to spend additional tens of billions of dollars to buy securities of Apple. In his opinion, the actions the board of directors does a disservice to shareholders, so as soon as the investor is going to send another open letter in order to obtain a positive response to its request.

According to the financial report for the third quarter Apple last year, the accounts of the company has accumulated nearly $ 150 billion of available funds. In August 2013 Icahn expressed initiative to spend all that money on a program to repurchase shares based on the rapid growth of the securities – up to $ 700. For this purpose, a billionaire several times met with Tim Cook, but to no avail.

In December, Charles announced his intention to bring this issue to a public vote of Apple investors at the next meeting of shareholders, which will be held next month. Later, the board of directors openly asked holders of its securities to vote against the proposal Aikan. Whatever it was, in any case, the results of such voting are not mandatory and recommendatory nature.

In recent years, many Wall Street figures noticeably alarming so much attention to the investor shares Apple. The fact that Icahn has long earned a reputation as a corporate raider severe that bought large blocks of securities of corporations with a view to gain control over their management.

The size of the current program to repurchase shares of Apple stock is limited to 60 billion dollars, 10 billion of which the company has already spent at the beginning of 2012.

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Last week, the South Korean giant has introduced its report for the fourth quarter of last year, which, to put it mildly, did not live up the expectations of experts. Samsung revenues were not as high as predicted experts and analysts attribute this to the high pressure from its main rival – the manufacturer of iPhone, the news agency writes Bloomberg.

According to a press release from Samsung, net sales in the last quarter was 7.2 trillion won, or 6.7 billion in dollar terms, while analysts expected a profit of 8.2 trillion won. Operating income from the mobile division of the company amounted to 5.47 trillion won against 6.7 trillion in the third quarter of 2013. Then this figure was a record for Samsung.

Experts said the drop in revenues caused by the corporation directly Apple, which introduced two new smartphone last fall. The company was able to realize nine million iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c only for the first three days of sales. To achieve this level of sales with Galaxy S4 Samsung needed a quarter.

In late December, representatives of the Korean company reported that Samsung expects to sell 13 million smartphones Galaxy S4 in the fourth quarter. The real figure was much lower, and it is quite alarming bell for the top management of Samsung. For comparison, in the third quarter of 2013, sales totaled Galaxy S4 17 million units, and the smartphone itself was introduced in March last year.

Edition of Fortune recently published consensus forecast of analysts for iPhone sales in the last quarter – 55 million smartphones. Apple should report its findings as early as this Monday, so soon we will learn about its successes from the lips of Tim Cook.

So, despite the onset of the Christmas sales season, Samsung could not even close closer to Apple in the number of smartphones sold in high price segment. However, a similar situation was observed during the whole of last year.

Samsung expected to present its new smartphone Galaxy S5 in April this year. According to rumors, the gadget is equipped with a fingerprint reader, but it is possible that Koreans come up with some innovative technology that, however, once again did not find practical applications for users.

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Apple will report financial results for the fourth calendar quarter of last year, Monday, January 27, and long-standing tradition for a few days before the conference, leading analysts publish their own sales forecasts iOS-devices, as well as revenue and net profits of the corporation. Recently Fortune edition reported that according to preliminary data in the fourth quarter of 2013, Apple sold 55 million iPhone, and yesterday became known to the relevant data, and iPad.

According to the 45 experts, including 28 professional analysts and 17 authoritative “lovers” in the last quarter, sales of Apple’s tablet was approximately 25 million units, up 10% compared to the same period last year. Then the company was able to realize nearly 23 million iPad, and he became her quarter record.

Experts’ predictions range from 21 million sold iPad to 28 million, with the expectations of the “fans”, as in the case with the iPhone, much higher. The table below shows the Apple tablet sales in the third fiscal quarter of 2010 to the first quarter of fiscal 2014 (which coincides with Apple for the fourth calendar quarter of 2013). 

The main peak demand on the iPad last year fell for the Christmas season. In “Black Friday” sales of this line of tablets accounted for 18% of all sales of major U.S. retailer Target, and Walmart iPad mini network and all was the most popular item. In addition, according to numerous polls iPad is almost the most popular gift for Christmas and New Year.

It should be noted that the forecasts of analysts may differ from the actual indicators that Apple itself will provide a few days. Nevertheless, from their correspondence with each other strongly dependent behavior of course the company’s securities during the following weeks.

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The billionaire, the famous American investor and part shareholder Apple Carl Icahn has recently attracted a lot of attention to himself . It all started with the fact that at the end of this summer helped Icahn rate securities company to overcome the 500-dollar mark, stating underestimate Apple and purchase a large block of its shares. Then there was nothing unusual: such situations occur every time a positive news from some corporation. But as it turned out later, Carl made his purchase, not without a hidden intent.

In October, the shareholder personally sent a letter to Tim Cook, which was subsequently published on its website. The message Icahn made ​​a recommendation regarding the use of available funds and Apple announced that the company will need to spend as much as $ 150 billion to buy back its own shares. Carl argued its position high probability of growth securities up to $ 700-750, if the board approves Apple this venture.

Cook to lure to his side, the investor met him three times , but in fact their negotiations came to nothing lead. Therefore Icahn decided to enlist the support of holders of securities and Apple on Wednesday announced his intention to arrange a vote of shareholders at the increase in the program to repurchase shares. However, according to Bloomberg, it is a sum of less than $ 150 billion.

According to the newspaper, even in the case of a positive result of voting technology giant’s board of directors is not required to satisfy the wishes of the shareholders, as they are advisory in nature. Nevertheless, any pressure on the top management of Apple (in particular, of the Cook) always has a negative impact on the activities of the managers – they begin to “dance to the tune” of investors.

Than it threatens free tools Apple? After all, the corporation has accumulated in their accounts more than $ 150 billion and is constantly increasing its reserves. 100 billion of that money will have to pay dividends and repurchase shares in accordance with the established plan. In the case of program changes Apple is likely to remain without any available funds. And that, you see, is not very good.

How would neither Icahn tried to portray the good counselor, his true intentions may be quite different. Carl got a long reputation as a corporate raider and greenmailers who intentionally bought securities of large companies to put pressure on their leaders. Therefore billionaire likely have little interest cloudless future Apple. On the contrary, it can “merge” their large stake immediately after their course overcome those same 700 dollars.

Aykanu now owns nearly five million of securities in the amount of $ 2.6 billion.

It is hoped that all these “dispute” within Apple will have no impact on the quality of its products and plans to release new devices. However, at any point in history can take an unexpected turn.

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As expected , the other day an American billionaire and major shareholder Carl Icahn Apple for the third time, met with its CEO, Tim Cook. It is reported by CNBC television channel reported citing a statement of the investor.

The meeting discussed the issue of a possible increase in the program to repurchase securities of technology giant. According to Hayk, they turned to Cook “productive conversation”, and they both believe that Apple is seriously undervalued in the securities market. He also noted that Cook is not looking interested in spending $ 150 billion for these purposes – that this amount Karl voiced in a recent letter to CEO Apple.

In the past year, Apple has finally decided to spend $ 10 billion to buy back its own shares, and after a few months has increased the size of the program to $ 60 billion. In this case, more $ 100 billion company plans to spend on the payment of dividends to its shareholders. Icahn believes these actions are insufficient and asks to allocate all available funds to repurchase shares of Apple as soon as possible.

The investor makes every effort to be perceived as a “good Samaritan”: making bold predictions in regard to the course of the securities Apple (up to $ 1,250 each) and declares its intention not to sell shares of the corporation from Cupertino, since he believes in its future . Here are just a reputation Aikan overtakes him for at least a couple of quarters.

At one time, had the reputation of billionaire corporate raider, who first “concern” about the shareholders, and then bought back a large stake in a company, to then be able to put pressure on its leadership. In parallel with this, he shall trade was “greenmail” – forcing the company to buy its own shares at highly inflated price, and not honest means. Icahn invests in a dozen technology companies, but for one year two of them (Dell and BlackBerry ) announced his retirement from the stock exchange.

It is possible that in the case of the Apple Charles decided to act on its old scheme. Tim Cook is playing for time and does not want to answer investor sharp refusal, as this can result in serious consequences. Failure to meet their demands Icahn wants to enlist the support of other shareholders and go to campus Apple «with pitchforks and torches” .

Not so long ago, the billionaire increased his stake in Apple to 0.5%, equivalent to 4.73 million shares, or $ 2.5 billion at current exchange rate of the company.

Aikan another statement about “underestimating» Apple caused a small stir in the market – on Tuesday Securities Corporation rose four dollars, but then fell again.

Very interesting what the outcome of this whole story.

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The situation with the financial statements of Apple and Samsung is out of control. And all thanks to analysts Strategy Analytics, which did not bother to examine the evidence provided by both companies and mixed up all the figures, which eventually led to incorrect conclusions.

It all started with the fact that the Strategy Analytics reported a comparison of quarterly reports Samsung and Apple . Results of the comparison analysts agencies have become a regular mini-sensation: Samsung ahead of Apple’s sales and profitability of the mobile business. However, all is not as clear as it might seem at first glance.

Appleinsider.com provided an interesting analysis of the flight that made analysts Strategy Analytics in its report. It is necessary to begin with, that agency specialists outright confused operating profit of both companies and the profits from the sales of individual devices, which already have enough to talk about the fallacy of these agencies.

To be a bit more precise, it is worth paying attention to one interesting detail. In the report, Samsung , reporting sales data and profit smartphones include them in the general data on the subdivision of IT and Mobile communications. All in all this unit accounts for about 5.65 billion U.S. dollars in operating profit. With a little thought, it is not difficult to guess that the performance of this unit is not limited to smartphones. The concept of Mobile communications includes both smartphones and ordinary phones and tablets, and the players, laptops and other devices that Samsung produces and sells in countless numbers. The main mistake of professionals Strategy Analytics was to compare the data on the results of the quarterly activities of a business unit with iPhone. But once we started talking true, it is probably wise to combine quarterly sales iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, and only then compare them with the results of Samsung, namely the division IT and Mobile communications.

What follows is fundamentally incorrect definition of operating profit to Apple iPhone sales . According to data provided by Apple, for the quarter operating profit Apple made $ 9.2 billion, slightly more than 3.5 billion more performance units Samsung IT and Mobile communications, which produces similar products.

Analysts Strategy Analytics did not bother to properly examine the data on the operating and gross margins Apple, which eventually led to confusion and, what is more painful digits. Thinking about the final selling iPhone, worth bearing in mind that Samsung does not provide data on the volume of sales of their smartphones, tablets and other products. In addition, the company does not share data and operating margin on each individual product segments. As well as Apple, however the latest data provide information about in what volumes was realized that a product. However, despite this, analysts Strategy Analytics undertook to compare the operating profits made Apple and Samsung in the sales of the iPhone and mobile units, respectively.

The problem is that the agency’s analysts used are not the correct methods to compare the operating profits of Apple and Samsung, which ultimately resulted in an erroneous comparison of the performance of both companies. The result was that the whole world of information has mastered the report from Strategy Analytics is fundamentally correct information and simple user told that Samsung has surpassed Apple in all possible indicators, which, as you now know, is not the case.

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During the existence of App Store Apple has paid developers to nearly $ 11 billion. With the help of his shop Corporation has enriched not only the creators of the new applications, but also the largest game studios. As reported by VentureBeat, citing recent financial report on Electronic Arts, Apple is the largest retail partner.

In the App Store EA earns more than the sales of console games and versions for the PC. With the development of new business models, profit developer is growing almost exponentially. It is, of course, about freemium, which is very active EA uses in its products.

Sales of games on mobile devices allow Electronic Arts to earn more than $ 90 million. And if Apple is the largest seller of its applications, we can safely say that a large portion of this amount – its merit. By allowing developers to promote integrated shopping, technology giant has provided them an additional source of income for many years.

Among the most successful of their games on iOS EA releases The Simpsons: Tapped Out and sensational Real Racing 3. And the most profitable application for the studio was The Sims .

Apple has a good chance to take first place in the global gaming industry. Sooner think, but with the advent of new gadgets from Logitech corporation can turn the iPhone into a kind of console. Of course, the tremble current console “sharks” are unlikely to be, but with a certain probability of their profits may decline.

For us freemium-model does more harm than good. The vastness of the App Store are the games where the price tags on In-app purchase is incredibly high. If before you could pay five dollars for Real Racing 3 and play for fun, but now without a built-in shopping you is not enough. Some of the “pour” in such applications from a couple hundred to several thousand dollars. Not a year and a month.

It’s amazing how in a short time, Apple has turned on its head the entire game industry. A few years ago it was difficult to imagine that the mobile software developers will continue to bring more profit than the game for PC and consoles.

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Literally just that Tim Cook, Apple’s CFO Peter Oppenheimer and its treasurer Gary Uifler reported on the performance of corporation for the fiscal third quarter of this year. Remember all the forecasts of analysts – just the facts and figures are fresh. So there you go.

Financial performance:

• Revenue – 35.3 billion (for the same period in 2012 – $ 35 billion)
• Net income – $ 6.9 billion (in 2012 – $ 8.8 billion)
• Earnings per share – 7.47 USD (previous year – 9.32 USD)
• Free money – 146.6 billion dollars, 106 billion – in the offshore

But as varied revenue and net profit of Apple in the third quarter of 2011:

Sales:

• iPhone – 31,2 million units (in 2012 – 26 million)
• iPad – 14,6 million units (in 2012 – 17 million)
• Mac – 3,75 million computers (in 2012 – 4.02 million)
• iPod – 4,57 million units (in 2012 – 6.8 million)

With each sold iPhone and iPad Apple began to earn significantly less than in the previous year:

Sales Dynamics iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod for the last three years:

Apple Store:

• Revenues from the Apple Store – 4,1 billion (as last year)
• It was opened six new stores, they are now 408, and 156 – outside the U.S.
• This year, Apple plans to open another 27 stores (really Russian?)
• Every retail store visits 15,000 people a week

Services Apple:

• ICloud users has reached 320 million people
• Income from the iTunes Store has passed for $ 4 billion
• IMessage users sent 900 billion messages and received 8000000000000 push-notifications
• The number of applications in the App Store – 900000

Interesting facts and allegations:

• 57% of its revenue outside the U.S. Apple gets
• iPhone – number one smartphone in the U.S. with a market share of 39%
• The new Mac Pro will be available for purchase later this year
• Top management pleased with the growth of Apple iPhone sales in Russia
• Tim Cook called the results of Q3 «satisfactory»
• Apple is not afraid of over-saturation of the market, because it has a lot of room for growth
• Question about putting the system trade-in is not answered
• Dividends will be paid to shareholders on August 15 and will make 3.05 per share

IPad sales decline was quite expected, since this year, Apple has not yet provided us with a new generation of its tablet. Demand for Mac computers and iPod falls every year, and even the presentation of new laptops does not allow corporations to change that.

If Cupertino still managed to keep revenues at last year’s level, with net profit at Apple is not so good. It fell by nearly 20%, but the fourth quarter should improve the situation through the presentation of new products this fall and reduce costs. In addition, all statements about the sunset Apple sound funny after studying these charts:

It was not the best quarter for Apple, but it still remains the leader among other technology companies.

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Young children like spending thousands of dollars on a built-in shopping without their parents’ knowledge or consent, and continue to do so. According to Cult Of Mac with reference to the British newspaper The Daily Mail, one girl from the UK managed to spend more than six thousand dollars for shopping in the game My Horse. In this case, the child’s father ignored the function of SMS-information about bank operations and learned about the incident a few days later.

From whom do we get the money spent by mistake? With the developers? Of course, no. The girl’s parents contacted at Apple, and the company returned to them every cent within two weeks. Such generosity on the part of the technology giant is due to a loss in court when Apple failed to prove that iOS has all the tools to block built shopping.

It should be noted, Apple not always follow this rule. There are cases where a company has refused to refund the money aggrieved parents. It is difficult to believe that a 13-year-old boy mistakenly spent a large sum on In-app purchase.

It is not known how many more will go on auction unprecedented generosity in Cupertino , because so much trouble lately become more frequent . Most of them occur in the United Kingdom and the United States, in Russia such cases so far been recorded.

Who is to blame, really? Parents, do not usmotrevshie for their child, or Apple, which should be hung a huge banner with a warning about the built-purchases the App Store? Personally, I do not see any fault of the company now that it has made every effort on their part. However, to compensate for all the damage has yet to her.

In the end, ways to protect their child from an infinite number of built-shopping, all of which are located very Apple. If a parent does not want to climb on the settings, then remove to guess at the time of your credit card from the App Store is quite possible. Or do not regret one dollar a month to messages from the bank.

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