Posts Tagged ‘dell’
Feds charge five tech consultants with illegal insider trading
Federal prosecutors charged five Silicon Valley workers with illegal insider trading today, alleging that they used information they obtained about technology companies such as Dell, Apple, Advanced Micro Devices and Flextronics to profit on their shares.
The charges stemmed from a three-year investigation; in the past few weeks, federal investigators have raided several hedge-fund and mutual-fund operators in connection with the probe. Those charged worked either as consultants or employees for Primary Global Research, a Mountain View, Calif.-based company that bills itself an “expert network,” an operation which connects investors with knowledgeable professionals paid a fee for their advice. The five charged stand accused of passing information about their employers or other tech companies to fund managers.
The probe was first reported by the last month.
What’s stunning about these allegations is that smart people would do this. There are plenty of legal ways to make money in Silicon Valley. But it also shows that the temptations are great for suppliers with inside information to signal to investors when they have concrete information on the next hot gadget — especially when big companies like Apple and Google are tight-lipped about such news.
Some of the leads for the case came from the investigation of the.
“The information trafficked by the four ‘consultants’ went way beyond permissible market research,” FBI official Janice Fedarcyk said Thursday to the Journal. “It was insider information.”
Primary Global is a go-between that hooks investors up with “actionable intelligence” about the companies. Those arrested were James Fleishman, a vice president and sales manager at Primary Global; and consultants Walter Shimoon, a senior director of business development at Flextronics in San Diego; Mark Anthony Longoria, a supply-chain manager with AMD; and Manosha Karunatilaka, an account manager at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Daniel DeVore, another consultant, was a former global supply manager at Dell; he pleaded guilty to charges on Dec. 10 and is cooperating.
In other words, the insider information was gleaned from the suppliers for big companies and it was used to generate profits via stock trading. The charges included wire fraud and conspiracy. The consultants allegedly received more than $400,000 for their information. The consultants spent a lot of time on the phone with investors; over 60 days in 2009, he participated in 40 phone calls with investors. Attorneys for some of the consultants weren’t available, the Journal said.
Shimoon of Flextronics reportedly disclosed highly confidential details about sales forecasts and product features for an upcoming iPhone. From August 2007 to November 2010, he was paid more than $22,000. Flextronics said he had been terminated. Longoria resigned from AMD in October. He reportedly disclosed AMD revenue information, average chip prices, product sales figures and gross margin information. He was paid $200,000, prosecutors said. AMD said it is cooperating with the U.S. Attorney’s office. An attorney for Longoria said he was cooperating as well.
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Dell loses mobile chief Ron Garriques as it repositions mobile group
Changes are afoot with Dell’s mobile communications group. The company announced yesterday that the division’s chief, Ron Garriques (pictured right with singer Bono), is leaving Dell as the company integrates the group into its “core operations”, .
Garriques joined Dell in 2007 and was tasked with managing its mobile consumer business. The company adopted Google’s Android mobile operating system and last year. In August, Dell rolled out its in the US. It also launched a 5-inch tablet, , this past summer, which struck a baffling balance between being a very large phone and a small tablet.
None of those devices found much success in the marketplace, but the company did show some promise when it announced , which ran Android and Windows Phone 7 respectively. The Lightning was eventually for Windows Phone 7’s launch.
Garriques arrived at Dell after serving as the head of Motorola’s mobile phone division. He’ll be leaving the company by the end of January but will continue to provide consulting services throughout 2011 (for which Dell will pay him a whopping two payments of $3.15 million).
The news doesn’t mean the end of Dell’s mobile plans. The company has yet to release its Thunder Android phone, and it’s planning larger tablets as well.
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Dell loses mobile chief Ron Garriques as it repositions mobile group
Changes are afoot with Dell’s mobile communications group. The company announced yesterday that the division’s chief, Ron Garriques (pictured right with singer Bono), is leaving Dell as the company integrates the group into its “core operations”, .
Garriques joined Dell in 2007 and was tasked with managing its mobile consumer business. The company adopted Google’s Android mobile operating system and last year. In August, Dell rolled out its in the US. It also launched a 5-inch tablet, , this past summer, which struck a baffling balance between being a very large phone and a small tablet.
None of those devices found much success in the marketplace, but the company did show some promise when it announced , which ran Android and Windows Phone 7 respectively. The Lightning was eventually for Windows Phone 7’s launch.
Garriques arrived at Dell after serving as the head of Motorola’s mobile phone division. He’ll be leaving the company by the end of January but will continue to provide consulting services throughout 2011 (for which Dell will pay him a whopping two payments of $3.15 million).
The news doesn’t mean the end of Dell’s mobile plans. The company has yet to release its Thunder Android phone, and it’s planning larger tablets as well.
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So long RIM: Dell to dump 25K BlackBerrys; Bank of America, Citigroup look to iPhone
In an inauspicious start to the day for Research in Motion, three major BlackBerry clients have announced that they’re moving to new devices.
Dell is planning to move its 25,000 employees away from BlackBerry, and towards its own devices, according to. Dell employees will initially be moved to the company’s and will eventually have the choice of moving to Dell’s .
“Clearly in this decision we are competing with RIM, because we’re kicking them out,” Dell chief financial officer Brian Gladden told the WSJ. He goes on to say that the switch, which will begin next week, will save Dell 25 percent in mobile costs — mostly because it won’t need to pay for BlackBerry servers any longer. Dell is also in discussions with T-Mobile to buy bulk voice minutes and mobile data that can be carried over monthly.
Dell is also planning services — like network setups and asset management — that could lure other businesses to dump BlackBerrys en masse as well. Now that Dell is offering some very desirable smartphones of its own, the move is a way for the company to help promote its own devices. Dell also isn’t afraid of selling competing mobile devices, since it will see higher margins through its service offerings, according to Gladden.
In other news, two of the largest banks in the U.S., Bank of America and Citigroup, are looking to dump BlackBerrys in favor of iPhones, . Sources tell the paper that both banks are testing software that will make the iPhone secure for company messages.
The banks are also testing Android devices, but it sounds like iPhone testing is further along at this point. The sources say the banks are looking to expand the variety of device choices for employees, instead of just dropping BlackBerrys cold-turkey like Dell.
The news follows a report from last month that showed . Apple also that it was seeing widespread adoption for the iPad and iPhone among enterprise users. Apple that it will work with Unisys to expand its enterprise offerings.
The reports are a one-two punch for RIM, but they certainly didn’t come out of the blue. RIM’s most recent flagship device, , was a decent upgrade for BlackBerry users, but it still wasn’t compelling enough to compete with the iPhone 4 and new Android devices. And while RIM is stagnating, Google, Apple, and even Microsoft, are targeting the now vulnerable mobile enterprise space.
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Dell Inspirion Mini 12 Prices
Dell Company announced the prices on new Dell Inspirion Mini 12 Netbook. There will be 3 variants. All of them will work under Windows Vista Home Basic, with Intel 500, Bluetooth 2.1 and 1.3 Mpx cam.
The lowest price will be 549$. This varian has 12.1 inches display, Intel Atom Z530 processor, 1Gb of memory, 40Gb harddrive.
The middle price netbook will be at 599$ of price and includes: 60Gb harddrive, Atom Z530 processor with
1.6 MHz frequency.
The most expensive Mini 12 netbook will cost 649$ with Atom Z530, WiFi b/g, 80Gb harddrive.
All those netbooks will be available on slae in December 2008.