Technology Stock Roundup: Google Splits, Intel Heads for the Clouds - Analyst Blog

Last week saw a pretty dramatic reaction to Google's GOOG stock split, with competitors Facebook FB and Yahoo YHOO shedding value.

 Competitors Reacting to Google Stock Split?

Google shares have become much more affordable since the company's stock split. Moreover, with the founders maintaining control and continuing to push for long-term value, the company looks as strong as ever. In fact, Google is one of the few companies that is not going to let size cramp its style. The company is projected to continue growing strong double-digits in the foreseeable future.

This could be the reason that Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft MSFT saw huge sell-offs following the split. While the Nasdaq declined 2.6% on Friday, Facebook was down 9.6%, Yahoo 6.4% and Microsoft 3.4% on high volumes.

It isn't as if these companies reported any materially negative news. But when you consider the fact that Google can now hang on to more of its cash, using Class C shares for employee compensation or to fund large acquisitions, the news seems negative in itself. Not to mention the fact that Google is also more affordable now.

Intel Inside Cloudera

Intel INTC announced last week that it had invested $740 million for an 18% stake in Cloudera. The cloud startup is known for its big data platform, which is built on Apache Hadoop code to facilitate reliable, scalable, distributed computing. Cloudera's open source platform has played a key role in the development activity surrounding Hadoop, which puts it at the forefront of big data analytics.

Intel's 18% stake and a seat at the Cloudera Board could generate returns if the company goes for an IPO. But Intel is primarily interested in using the position to get its chips to Cloudera customers, which would include banks, hospitals, utilities and retailers. This is a very big deal for Intel since it will be able to tap the 32% annual growth that the big data technology and services will generate, according to IDC.

Not only that, but the chips Intel will sell will be of the high-end, high-performance variety, meaning strong margins for the company. This could help the chip giant offset some of the weakness it's seeing in desktops and mobile.

Yahoo Makes a Video Push

Yahoo's video plans appear to be crystallizing. The company has reportedly made a $300 million bid for News Distribution Network, which is a video syndication service that sends news and sports leads to newspapers and other publishers. It is the fourth largest video site with more than 573 million video views per month and 51 million unique viewers.

Yahoo is also not averse to poaching top talent from Google, making the most of dissatisfaction in Google's compensation system. But Yahoo needs funds to do this, which is why its Alibaba stake is so important. The street estimates that Yahoo will earn $36 billion for the part that it must offload, part of which could then be employed to create a YouTube competitor.

It could also help finance the entertainment shows Yahoo is planning to produce. Reportedly, four series of 10 episodes each are in the works with the company willing to spend up to a million dollars per episode.  

GOOG = Class C shares (new, non-voting)

GOOGL = Class A shares (old, 1 vote per share)

Nasdaq -1.51%

Other stories you may have missed-

Apple Bolsters Siri as Microsoft Launches Cortana: Apple AAPL announced the acquisition of UK-based voice recognition software company Novauris Technologies, ostensibly to boost its Siri service. This tuck-in acqui-hire is typical of Apple and likely to help Siri compete more effectively with Google Now and Cortana.

Renesas to Sell Smartphone Unit: Floundering semiconductor maker Renesas Technology is streamlining operations and its 55% stake in the display chip making unit SD Driver is up for grabs. The company will focus on the automotive business instead. What makes this news particularly interesting is the fact that it could sell the stake to Apple, which would like to consolidate its supply chain. Renesas is an Apple supplier.

Gartner Offers Software Sales Data: In case anyone is wondering who the software leader was in 2013, it remained Microsoft, according to Gartner. Oracle ORCL and IBM were neck and neck (well behind Microsoft), but Oracle edged past IBM for the first time. SaaS provider Salesforce.com recorded the fastest growth, breaking into the top 10.

Forrester Survey Shows Google+ Gaining Traction: A survey of 60,000 adults shows that 22% visited Google+, similar to social network Twitter. Google is better off in terms of monthly active users (MAUs) and is making money right off the bat. That's because it directs search users to advertisers' Google+ pages, which leads to high engagement and more money for Google.

Amazon Launches Fire TV

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