Weekly Tech Business Recap: Yelp Bounces Back, New Touchscreen Kindle to Challenge Apple

NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ:NXPI) shares tumble on Tuesday, perhaps on word that the next iPhone (NASDAQ:AAPL) probably will not feature a near field communication chip, according to a tech analysis of the front assembly pictures that drove chatter in this direction, by AnandTech. NXP was the pioneer in the NFC chip market. Meanwhile, Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM) has also come up with NFC chips, and plans to join the tech with its Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combination chips.

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Yelp (NYSE:YELP) shares took a fall Tuesday, ahead of Wednesday’s lockup expiration, as they have now given back most of Friday’s gains, and are down by some 29 percent from their Aug. 10th close. On Wednesday 52.7 million shares will become eligible for sale; only 7.15 million shares were sold in Yelp’s initial public offering. Large stakes in Yelp are held by venture capital investors, as do Chief Executive Jeremy Stoppelman and Chairman Max Levchin.

The all-consuming saga of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung (SSNLF.PK) reached the next phase, as Judge Lucy Koh has scheduled the deadline on Apple’s request for a permanent ban on domestic sales of eight Samsung devices for Dec. 6th. The time until then gives Samsung a bit over three months in which to rid its stocks of the devices. However, Judge Koh might possibly hear Samsung’s request to remove a preliminary ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet on Sep. 20th, since the jury partially sided with the company in its patent struggle with Apple.

Sony Corporation’s (NYSE:SNE) tablet efforts continue, as on Wednesday the former consumer electronics top player introduced the Tablet S, which is a $400 Android device that sports an Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) Tegra 3 processor along with a Microsoft Surface-similar keyboard. Also on Wednesday, a flagship Android phone called the Xperia T was launched, which features a 4.6 inch display, 13MP camera, and a Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) Snapdragon processor.

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) are said to have offered Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (NYSE:TSM) in excess of $1 billion apiece to secure chip output capacity, but the latter turned them down, specifically to maintain flexibility. For its part, Qualcomm should supply a baseband chip for the next iPhone which employs Taiwan’s 28nm process, but has found dealing with the latter’s 28nm supply constraints problematic, and thus has been searching for alternate sources. Meanwhile, Apple is likely planning to transfer the production of its application processors from Samsung (SSNLF.PK) to Taiwan Semiconductor.

Shares of Yelp (NYSE:YELP) have gained more than 20 percent in late afternoon trading on its lockup expiration day, as the short sellers who profited during the company’s recent selloff rush to cover. Almost 7.5 million shares have already been traded on Tuesday, or more than 7.5 times Yelp’s average daily volume. It appears that the venture capitalists and insiders who hold almost 85 percent of outstanding shares might not be eager to sell right away.

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The expansion of Cisco Systems, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:CSCO) partnership with VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW) is a good thing, opines Brian Modoff at Deutsche Bank, as he believes that the link-up shows that VMware’s networking virtualization solutions won’t completely void the value-add delivered by Cisco’s switches and routers. In addition, Modoff sees VMware’s new cloud management solutions and related partnering with F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) as setting up a barrier to entry for the latter’s application delivery controllers.

An international drive by Amazon Web Services (NASDAQ:AMZN) might be in the making, says the New York Times, citing new job listings. Along with 600 vacancies for domestic positions, Amazon currently has 175 overseas openings, mostly in Singapore and in Japan. Additionally, there are 27 listings linked to Amazon’s Silk browser, which comes pre-installed on the Kindle Fire, and raises its performance by depending on AWS servers for processing.

Investors might do well to worry over the demand for telecom equipment, and the shares of several top names including (but not limited to) Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU), Tellabs, Inc. (NASDAQ:TLAB), and Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR), all of which were down mid-afternoon on Thursday, possibly abetted by poor guidance provided with Ciena’s fiscal third quarter results. In addition, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) are attempting to raise their near-term margins by maintaining lower capital expenditures, carriers on the Continent are dealing with macroeconomic and debt crises, and carriers in China are also cracking down on spending; any one, or all of above might give investors pause.

IFA 2012 is generating a large number of Windows 8/RT (NASDAQ:MSFT) tablets. Products deserving attention include Dell’s (NASDAQ:DELL) XPS 10 tablet and XPS 12 convertible, the new tablet and ultrabook models for Hewlett-Packard Company’s (NYSE:HPQ) eponymous ENVY line, and Toshiba’s U925t ultrabook, which boasts a slide-out display along with Corning Inc. (NYSE:GLW) Gorilla Glass.

An image of what might be the next Kindle Fire (NASDAQ:AMZN) is posted by The Verge. Observers say that it’s very likely that the product will be announced on September 6th. The design is said to be “still just a plain, simple, black box”, but some say that Amazon went with a proprietary design this time. The original Fire utilized a Texas Instruments reference design.

Peter Heiland has been appointed the new chief executive of KIT Digital, Inc. (NASDAQ:KITD), to replace the recently named Barak Bar-Cohen, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing (8-K). The new executive owns about 8 percent of the company, through JEC Capital Partners.

Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) is linking up with Harman International Ind. Inc. (NYSE:HAR), which supplies audio and “infotainment” systems, in the development of wireless audio products for the former’s Lumia smartphones. Bluetooth will be utilized to establish connectivity, and, in Windows 8 phones, near field communication. One of the devices, the JBL PlayUp speaker, should be ready to ship before the end of 2012, and will be priced at €149.

AT&T, Inc. (NYSE:T) will move in at Chicago’s renowned Magnificent Mile, launching a 10,000 square-foot flagship store on September 1st. This new Michigan Avenue location will offer customers insight into the future, which will feature the company’s first retail demonstrations of the new AT&T Digital Life home security and automation services along with a connected car that shows how wireless tech can assist driving. Equipped with more than 100 digital screens throughout the store, every aspect of the location is designed to educate customers regarding future wireless technologies and services.

Shares of Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) are in positive territory in mid-afternoon, but still below $20, subsequent to positive comments and a CNBC appearance by Gene Munster at Piper. Munster is plainly an Apple booster, but contends that Facebook shares are trading at the largest discount to future potential growth of any other large-cap tech name. Further, he is encouraged by the success of Facebook’s mobile Sponsored Stories ads, and also believes that its pending intro of a “Want” button is a good thing.

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Sharp (SHCAF.PK) has not so far initiated the mass production of screens for Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) next iPhone, according to the Wall Street Journal. The former had expected to begin deliveries by this time and it is not known when it will be able to start. In the meantime, the iPhone’s two other screen suppliers, LG Display and Japan Display, have begun their shipments but the difficulties at Sharp makes it uncertain as to whether Apple will be able to meet demand.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) will employ the mapping services of Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) in its new Kindle Fire, which should be unveiled on Thursday next, says Reuters. It is not good news to Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), whose Android operating system is used in the device; Apple ceased the use of Google Maps in favor of its own feature and content from Tom Tom for iOS 6.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has awarded a contract to Workday to provide it with the search engine with its online HR tools, according to Bloomberg, which added that Workday’s products would supplant portions of Google’s own in-house software. The former filed an S-1 on Thursday, ahead of an initial public offering.

Shares of Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) hit new lows Friday near $18, as BAML drops its price target to $23 from $35, pointing to future lockup impacts; the next big expiration date is November 14th. But far more damning (right now) for Facebook is a quote by Jim Cramer: “Many are tired of it. When you drop off kids to school, you learn they like Twitter a heck of a lot more than Facebook.”

Samsung (SSNLF.PK) wins a battle in its war with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), as a court in Japan has decided that its devices do not infringe an Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) patent that covers the synchronization of music and video content with servers, and also rejected Apple’s request for injunctions on 8 Samsung Android phones. In response, Samsung shares rallied by 1.5 percent in Seoul, and have now gotten back the majority of the losses seen Monday due to Apple’s historic California victory.

Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) has recruited the online gambling executive Maytal Ginzburg to become its top operating officer in charge of new markets. Ginzburg has been senior vice president of regulated markets for the real-money gaming portal 888.com, and his hire comes as Zynga promises to introduce real-money games in international markets in the first half of next year, and also accelerates its endeavors to get online gambling legalized in the United States. Good luck with that.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) will introduce a new touchscreen Kindle e-reader which offers a backlit “Paperwhite” e-ink display, according to The Verge. The new product is expected to be announced on September 6th, and reacts to the latest Nook Simple Touch by Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE:BKS), whose GlowLight display technology facilitates reading in darker environments.

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Brought down by yet another tech infringement case, shares of Limelight Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:LLNW) collapse following the suit filed by its larger competitor Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) being remanded to a lower court to await further judgment. There is a precedent to this that might give hope: In 2008, a jury found Limelight guilty of infringing 3 Akamai patents and awarded the latter $45.5 million. However, that verdict was thrown out by a district court judge, with the judge’s ruling being upheld by a federal appeals court.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has chosen 40 Xbox games that will be available in Windows 8. Among the group are 29 Microsoft Studios titles, along with such popular mobile titles as Angry Birds Space and Fruit Ninja. Microsoft wants to allow a common interface and developer tools across its platforms, and intends to offer Kinect support for Windows 8 hardware. The company has unveiled a Metro-like UI for the Xbox 360.

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