Last week held a few surprises, as Intel (INTC) raised its outlook, Mozilla moved to Yahoo (YHOO) search, European regulators made plans to split Google (GOOGL) and Nokia (NOK) announced a new Android tablet.

Intel Rises on Raised Outlook

Intel provided encouragement at its annual investor meeting last week, saying that its strong Data Center business was likely to grow even stronger (15% over the next few years) and that its multi-billion dollar losses in the Mobility business would be narrowed by $800 million in 2015.

Management also continued to express caution about the PC business. That might just be in order considering the fact that many analysts are a tad wary about its PC chip growth this year, which they think couldn’t be attributable entirely to share gains (so there is likely some inventory build in the channel).

That said, Intel remains confident of its ability to generate cash, promising to return an additional 6 cents a share in dividends next year. Intel expects to do this by optimizing the utilization of PC and Data Center assets to expand into “profitable, complementary” markets. Its manufacturing lead, proprietary architecture and shared IP are expected to facilitate the process. Further details are available here.

Google Bets on Chrome, Dumps Mozilla

Mozilla has ended its 10-year long association with Google. The company announced that in some markets like the U.S., Russia and China, it would instead make Yahoo, Yandex and Baidu, respectively its default search engines.

On the face of it, this is a big loss for Google, but could be otherwise as well. Google was completely capable of outbidding its competitors and yet it allowed rivals entry. So was the company thinking one, its association with Mozilla was yielding below expectations, or two, it was not as dependent on Mozilla as in the past or three, it was ready to test its long-term plans.

What’s likely is the decision was a combination of numbers two and three. One is ruled out because Google pays just $300 million for the billion odd searches Mozilla sends its way. Number two is a possibility because Mozilla has next to no presence in mobile, which is currently the primary growth segment. Google’s own Chrome is growing rapidly on both desktop and mobile and is already the dominant browser globally.

Google’s action shows that it is willing to bet that enough users will move to its Chrome browser of their own accord and prefer Google search over others, providing evidence of the quality of Google services. StatCounter research shows that Chrome has outdone all other browsers in the last few years and has continued to grow beating all odds.

Yahoo search, which is tied to Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bing will pick up some search market share on desktop and the company will launch an “enhanced search experience” for U.S. Forefox users next month. CEO Mayer also said that the alliance would help the two companies look for new ways to innovate in search, communications and digital content.”

Apple Joins with UnionPay

UnionPay, the Chinese alternative to Mastercard and Visa is a payment processing platform that is particularly dominant in China, but also growing worldwide. So its decision to join Apple (AAPL) Pay will be beneficial for both the parties concerned. For Apple, it will facilitate App Store sales in China because of a greatly simplified payment experience (buyers currently have to set up a prepaid banking account and obtain a related password for App Store transactions). For UnionPay, there is significant growth opportunity from App Store sales in China, which have been growing at a double-digit clip in the last few quarters.

Nokia Announces Android Tablet

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Other stories you might have missed-

Corporate

Alibaba Raising $8 Billion in Debt: Alibaba (BABA) refinanced the $8 billion it owed banks with 10 and 20-year notes at favorable interest rates. Standard & Poor’s rated the bonds 'A+' and Moody’s Investors Service rated them 'A1,' putting them on par with issues from Oracle and Intel. This is the highest amount raised in recent history signifying that confidence in this Chinese company’s prospects remains high. Share prices in fact appreciated further following the announcement.

Facebook Hiring: Facebook is looking for a dozen or so aeronautical engineers, technicians and other specialists for its drone business, all of whom will become a part of its Connectivity Lab and a part of its Internet.org initiative. The company is growing its user base very fast, but not fast enough according to CEO Zuckerberg. After all, it just has 1.35 billion users and the world population has crossed 7 billion.

Intel Combining PC and Mobile Chip Divisions

Google's Plans for China: While Google’s Android phones make up more than 90% of the market, the company’s search site and Play Store remain blocked by Chinese regulators. But that doesn’t mean Google can’t make money out of China, or so it thinks. Google has opened its Play Store for Chinese developers so they can use the platform to sell their apps to international customers. As Android devices proliferate, there will be the need for more apps that also keep in touch with trends. Chinese regulators could agree, since this is a question of Chinese IP sales.

Legal/Regulatory

The European Parliament Would Like to Break Google: The European Parliament is preparing a non-binding resolution that seeks to break up Google, or possibly to create pressure on the new Competition Commission chief Margrethe Vestager. While the search market leader has not been mentioned by name, the call is for separation of Internet search companies from “other commercial services”. This naturally looks like a direct attack on Google, which is Europe’s dominant search engine.

One would assume that such actions would be based on facts instead of claims of competitors and beliefs of regulators. And it would be very hard to glean these facts, since European regulators couldn’t force Google to reveal the technology driving its search algorithms. Second, even if they could, it seems strange that European regulators consider themselves authorized to split an American company.

The problem they are facing is related to suspicions that haven’t yet been proved right. And that’s simply because they don’t like Google’s size, are wary of its success and distrustful of American spying but they just can’t find any wrongdoing. So at the moment, any ideas about splitting Google seem to be wishful thinking.

Apple/Android Patent War Could End: A few years back a consortium called Rockstar led by Apple and also consisting of Microsoft, Ericsson and Sony purchased Nortel’s patents for $4.5 billion. The patents were promptly used to lodge cases against Android phone-makers Samsung, HTC and Huawei, ultimately forcing Google to directly enter the fight. The actions were distinctly trollish, but all appears to be well finally, since the companies are settling and Rockstar will reportedly be wound down.

Samsung Can't Freeze Microsoft Lawsuit: Back in August, Microsoft sued Samsung for not paying interest on delayed royalties related to Android. Samsung had agreed to pay royalties in 2011 and also agreed to make Windows phones and share sensitive business information. But Microsoft’s Nokia acquisition made it a direct Samsung competitor, disrupting this relationship. Samsung initially refused to pay but was later persuaded after the matter was dragged to court.

However, it still hasn’t paid the interest accrued due to the delay, for which Microsoft sued yet again. Samsung has now called on the Hong Kong office of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce and wanted to stay proceedings versus Microsoft until its request was considered by the arbitration court. The court denied Samsung’s request.

Zynga Insiders in for Trouble: A Delaware court has ruled that founder Mark Pincus and four other directors can be proceeded against for breach of fiduciary duty back in April 2012 when they sold some of their shares at a secondary offering when other early investors were bound by the official lock-in period. When the lock-in period expired a couple of months later, Zynga share prices were halved.

ActiVision Settles

New Technology/Products

Apple Beats Music Could Merge With iTunes

Facebook for Professionals Launching Soon: Not much is known about Facebook’s new service, but the announcement was enough to send LinkedIn shares down. Facebook’s popularity is driven by social considerations, but in a professional environment, there is a rather clear distinction between socializing and communicating with the latter being generally preferred to the former. Facebook’s initial strategy will be a free ads-free platform that the company is reportedly already testing with a few companies. The official launch date has not been announced.

Intel Launches MICA: Intel has launched an 18 karat gold plated bracelet for the socially active fashion conscious woman. The $495 device called My Intelligent Communication Accessory or MICA is designed to intimate the wearer of text messages, Yelp, Gmail, and Facebook and Google calendar events through vibrations. TomTom and Intel technology also provides GPS functionality. The device comes with a 2-year AT&T wireless subscription that Intel is paying for.

Google Testing Subscription-Based Search: Google is testing a service called Contributor that lets U.S. surfers pay monthly subscriptions of $1-3. Google’s initial partners include Mashable and Onion Inc.

Intel Launches Knights Hill

Cisco Video Conferencing Takes A Step Forward

M&A and Collaborations

Google’s Project Loon Could Be a Big Deal: Google is testing its Project Loon in a number of countries and its latest partner in these efforts is Telstra, Australia’s largest telecom company. Google has said that Telstra is providing wireless spectrum and terrestrial base stations in support of its efforts. Google can now launch a balloon in 5 minutes up to 20 a day and the balloons have extended lives of around 100 days.

The understanding is that Google will provide this cheap alternative to connect remote locations and the telco will part with some of the revenue thus generated. Telcos are clearly giving this serious thought: Vodafone, Telefonica and several others are already testing. But a certain amount of discomfort likely remains since Google remains extremely focused on its fiber initiative that is spreading out from the Kansas City area.

IBM Signs Mega Deal with Lufthansa: IBM has announced a 7-year agreement with Lufthansa that will generate a billion euros for the company. IBM will provide IT infrastructure services that will optimize Lufthansa’s IT infrastructure, helping it save an estimated 70 million euros a year. The deal is subject to approval by Lufthansa’s Supervisory Board.

Some Numbers

MS Analyst Gives Upbeat View of Apple Watch Units: MS analyst Katy Hubberty is of the opinion that Apple has always beaten new product sales expectations in the past and this time was going to be no different. The analyst expects 30 million Apple Watches to be sold in 2015, or a 10% penetration of the iPhone user base, significantly higher than the street estimates of 10-12 million units.

Facebook’s Video Views Jump: Facebook has said that the number of SMBs posting videos on its site has doubled over the past year. The number of videos posted in Sept touched 3 million (including ads) and the number of views averaged more than a billion a day from June through September. Facebook attributed the increase to the changes it made to its advertising system that allowed companies to measure the success of their ads.

Robots Stand Ready For Amazon Black Friday Deal Rush

ActiVision World Of Warcraft Subscribers Touch 10 million

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