RIM’s International Footprint Widening

Research in Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM) last week reported strong third quarter results that beat all estimates. On the other hand, research firms and analysts have been reporting on dismal performance of its BlackBerry phones compared to that of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android phones. Let’s dig deeper. >>>

Governments Meddling In Microfinance

Earlier last week, the Andhra Pradesh state government passed a bill restricting the interest rates and debt collection methods followed by the microfinance industry. To control collection measures, the bill restricts recovery agents to collecting debts only at the district government office. The bill also restricts the frequency of debt collection to once a month instead of weekly. Further, to control interest rates, the bill stipulates that the amount of interest on a loan cannot exceed the loan principle. The state’s politicians are encouraging borrowers to default on their loan repayments in a bid to discourage profit motives of the micro-financiers. According to reports, on the insistence of politicians, creditors in the state have stopped repayments on loans, and less than 10% of borrowers made payments in the past few weeks. India’s microfinance sector is estimated to have a total loan portfolio of Rs 31,500 crores (~$6.90 billion), of which Andhra Pradesh accounts for over Rs 9,000 crores (~$1.96 billion). The recent legislation is expected to hurt the microfinance sector in the country. >>>

Leapfrog Continues To Execute

According to market researcher The NPD Group, traditional toy sales in the U.S. remained relatively flat during the first half of 2010 with total sales of $7.771 billion compared with $7.748 billion a year ago. In Europe’s five largest toy markets, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K., revenue increased 5% over the year led by 8% growth in the U.K. Meanwhile, electronic toy maker Leapfrog (NASDAQ:LF) has been having a good run.

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Alcatel Finally Back to Growth

EDA Players At Annual Highs

Gartner forecasts worldwide semiconductor revenue for 2010 to increase 31.5% over the year to $300 billion. In 2011, growth is expected to slow significantly to 4.6% to $314 billion. During the year, the memory segment is expected to post the strongest growth, with revenues increasing 49.8%. According to the report, smartphones, mobile PCs, and media tablets will help fuel semiconductor growth. Semiconductor revenue from media tablets will increase from $2.4bn in 2010 to $17.8 billion in 2014, and revenues from the mobile phones will grow 23% over the year in 2010 to $48.7 billion and another 13.6% in 2011 to $55.4 billion. IDC also projected single-digit growth for the industry in 2011 with semiconductor revenues projected to grow 9% over the year to $302 billion in 2011. According to IDC, tablets, e-readers, and other such consumer electronics will help drive consumer semiconductor revenues increase 10% over the year in 2011. Amid such positive numbers, the leading EDA players have shown encouraging results.

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Tablet Effect On Storage Industry

Apple’s iPad and a slew of tablets from other vendors like Dell, HP, and even RIM are set to take market from PCs. While Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK), the leading flash memory chipmaker, is set to benefit from this trend, the leader in hard drive and storage solutions, Seagate (NASDAQ:STX), is facing a setback and was considering a buyout as a strategic option. >>>

SaaS Growth Story Back On Track

Over the past two weeks, we have looked at the CRM and talent management sectors in the SaaS market. The talent management sector is consolidating at a fast pace and even SaaS CRM is seeing acquisitions in social networking. In August, Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS), a leader in virtualization, acquired VMLogix, a provider of virtualization management for private and public clouds, while NetSuite (NYSE:N) and Concur (NASDAQ:CNQR) have not had any M&A activity in the recent past. >>>

Shifts In The Online Jobs Market

The Monster Employment Index has been on the rise and the November Index reported the tenth consecutive month of growth, reporting 13% growth over the year. Compared with October, the index slipped two points to 134 attributed to seasonal trends. More recently, though, for the week ended November 27, the U.S. jobless claims rose by 26,000 to a seasonally adjusted 436,000, and analysts claim that the number is making a slow recovery. The four-week moving average of claims stood at 431,000, the lowest since August 2008.

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