A $500,000 wearables award Intel will announce next month and Tuesday’s unveiling of the Basis Peak smartwatch show the chip leader’s focus on a big challenge: grabbing a major piece of the emerging Internet of Things (IoT)field. Intel (INTC) is slated to issue a $500,000 prize to the winner of its “Make It Wearable” challenge, from among 10 finalists chosen earlier, designers of products that use Intel chips. In the meantime, Intel hopes it has
Surging U.S. auto sales reveal a stronger-than-ever trend toward leasing, in part because some deals arguably now can, in a way, work out to “free.” “Leasing is at the highest level we’ve ever seen,” analyst Jeremy Acevedo of auto site Edmunds.com told IBD. Accounting for 26% of U.S. auto sales this year, leasing is up from 16% of sales a decade ago. (Leases count as sales to automakers and dealers.) Through September, U.S. car sales came in lower
SolarCity, the No. 1 residential solar installer, saw competition heat up with Wednesday’s stock market debut of a top rival. Vivint Solar (VSLR) priced at 16 late Tuesday — the low end of its anticipated range — and closed its first trading day a penny higher. It raised $330 million and has a market value near $1.7 billion, vs. SolarCity’s (SCTY) $5.25 billion. SolarCity, whose chairman is Tesla Motors (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, and Blackstone Group