Daily Cuppa: Facebook slides, Apple cries and Acer dies
Friday's here at last, so let's give you a rundown of what happened overnight.
If you thought that Facebook's initial public offering (IPO) overvalued the company, you may have been right. The social network's stock price is continuing a downward slide from when it closed at US$38 per share on its first day on the market, and analysts believe that realistically, it's only worth US$19 per share.
Over at Yahoo, the company is finding itself in hot water over its recent password leak. One user is taking the company to court, as his information was stolen and used fraudulently on eBay.
Also in court, Apple is now seeking sanctions against Samsung. It didn't take the Cupertino-based company long to take offence to Samsung releasing evidence to the press that was previously denied consideration in court. Apple is seeking an "emergency motion for sanctions", and wants US$2.5 billion in damages.
Those who are sick of "patent trolls" may be interested in a US Bill that would discourage such behaviour. It's called the Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes Act, or the SHIELD Act, and it's aimed at protecting start-ups and smaller companies that often settle out of court because they simply can't afford the legal fees to pay technology giants. It would mean that if a "troll" is unsuccessful, it would be required to pay the legal costs of those that they targeted.
But it isn't legal action that might force some companies out of, say, the tablet market. Acer has avoided entering the legal arena, but, unlike Apple, Samsung and Asus, it's having a tough time. Its market share has dropped from 4.2 per cent to a mere 1.5 per cent, and it looks like it might just get worse, with Windows 8 tablets soon being thrown into the mix.
Some would have suggested that RIM would be the first to go, but the company seems to be trucking on, officially announcing that it will launch its new 32GB 4G/LTE BlackBerry PlayBook for certain markets. RIM has said that it will be available in the US, Europe, South Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean — a list that excludes the Asia-Pacific region — so it looks like Australia may once again miss out. And even though Europe is on the list, RIM still won't confirm whether the UK will even get it.
Meanwhile, in security, the US Senate has voted against a Cybersecurity Act that would have forced the Department of Homeland Security to assess computer systems running at critical infrastructure sites, and removed the right for Americans to sue their government if it violated the law, even intentionally.