Tag Archives: request

Let Facebook Latin America Chief Go, Brazilian Judge Tells Police

A Brazilian judge ordered Facebook ( FB )’s vice president for Latin America, Diego Dzodan, out of jail on Wednesday, one day after Dzodan had been arrested in Sao Paulo for refusing to hand over WhatsApp messages related to an organized-crime and drug-trafficking investigation. Judge Ruy Pinheiro considered Dzodan’s arrest “unlawful coercion,” the court said in a statement, according to a report by Agence France-Presse . “It seems to me that the extreme measure of imprisonment was hurried,” Pinheiro said, according to AFP. The judge’s order comes a day after executives from tech giant Apple ( AAPL ) and officials from the FBI faced off before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee as part of a showdown over whether Apple must develop a way to unlock the iPhone owned by one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple has said that it won’t comply, seeking to safeguard product users’ privacy. Facebook, the owner of the popular WhatsApp mobile phone messaging tool, denies obstructing the police probe and criticized Brazil’s approach. “We are disappointed with the extreme and disproportionate measure of having a Facebook executive escorted to a police station in connection with a case involving WhatsApp, which operates separately from Facebook,” Facebook said in a statement. “Facebook has always been and will be available to address any questions Brazilian authorities may have.” WhatsApp has said that it had no technical means for cooperating , since it doesn’t store its users’ messages after they’ve been delivered, and has also been rolling out end-to-end encryption to keep others from being able to intercept or compromise those messages, according to a Wall Street Journal report. WhatsApp is popular in Brazil, where half of the country’s 204 million residents rely on the free text- and voice-messaging service. Many Brazilians depend on WhatsApp for their day-to-day communications, the WSJ said, since texting in Brazil is about 55 times more expensive than in the U.S., according to advisory firm Activate. In December, a different judge ordered the shutdown of WhatsApp throughout the entire country for 48 hours after the service failed to comply with a criminal investigation. The ruling affected millions of users before it was overturned the next day. Facebook stock was down a fraction in afternoon trading in the stock market today , near 109. Apple stock also was down a fraction, near 100, after rising 4% Tuesday.

Will Tesla Suffer Same Fate As Other Citron Shorts GPRO, AMBA, MBLY?

Loading the player… Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) took a hit after short seller Citron Research sent out a tweet Tuesday that it’s shorting the stock. And with other notable Citron shorts trading well off of their highs, including GoPro ( GPRO ), Ambarella ( AMBA ) and Mobileye ( MBLY ), the call could potentially be a bad sign for the electric-car maker. Citron said on Twitter ( TWTR ) that Tesla has “supply AND demand problems” and that the “news flow all around does not look good” for the stock. The short seller sees the stock hitting as low as 100 by the end of the year. It’s currently trading around 185. Tesla stock reversed lower Tuesday on the news, falling 2.9% after hitting resistance at its downward-sloping 50-day line for a second straight session. Tesla dipped 0.3% on the stock market today  in quick turnover. The stock is trading 35% below its July high, reached in a now-failed breakout attempt from a cup-with-handle base. The stock has trended lower since then as analysts have voiced concerns about the production of Tesla’s new models and their demand. Meanwhile, GoPro is trading 79% below its 52-week high. Shares were briefly able to hold above their 50-day and 200-day moving averages last summer, but the stock entered a steep decline soon after. GoPro shot up 11% Wednesday after announcing it’s buying two video editing mobile apps. GoPro chip supplier Ambarella has moved somewhat in tandem with the action camera maker. It’s trading 65% below its all-time high, which it reached last July after initial commentary from Citron hit the stock about a month earlier. Shares are currently trying to find support at their 50-day line as they fell 2.4% Wednesday. And Mobileye, a Tesla partner, is also trying to hold above its downward-sloping 50-day line, trading down a fraction after losing as much as 4% intraday. It’s trading about 48% below its August high. In December, Citron called Mobileye its 2016 short of the year.

Will Stratasys Q4 Earnings Justify Rebound in 3D Printer Stocks?

The health of the battered 3D printer industry will come into focus when Stratasys ( SSYS ) reports fourth-quarter earnings Thursday morning. Shares of Stratasys and 3D Systems ( DDD ) have been crushed since mid-2014, as both have posted disappointing quarterly earnings reports going back more than a year. But both stocks have rebounded in the past month or more. Stratasys stock is up 43% since hitting an all-time low of 14.88 on Jan. 26. 3D Systems stock has nearly doubled since hitting an all-time low of 6 on Jan. 20. ExOne ( XONE ) is up more than 60% from its low of 6.61 on Jan. 20. Voxeljet ( VJET ) is up nearly 35% from its all-time low of 3.50, also on Jan. 20. Stratasys stock was up 5%, above 21, in midday trading in the stock market today , while 3D Systems stock was up 3%, near 12. “There are no signs of a broad-based recovery yet, in our view, so demand commentary from Stratasys will be important,” wrote Weston Twigg, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, in a research note. Stratasys is expected to report Q4 revenue of $168.3 million, down 22% from Q4 2014, to mark its second quarter in a row of declining sales. The consensus on earnings per share minus items, according to a Thomson Reuters survey, calls for the company to swing to a 12-cent per-share loss from a 48-cent profit in the year-earlier quarter. Cowen analyst Robert Stone on Tuesday cut his price target on Stratasys stock to 19 from 25, as he lowered revenue expectations. “An industry rebound is not yet visible amid weak global capital spending trends,” Stone wrote in a research note. Meanwhile, 3D Systems last week delayed its Q4 earnings report for reasons “related to the completion of work related to the goodwill and intangible asset impairment charge.” It preannounced Q4 revenue expectations of approximately $183 million, down 2% and the second quarter in a row of falling sales but above the consensus estimate of $161 million. In December, 3D Systems announced it would discontinue its consumer 3D printer line. “While the better-than-expected revenue (of 3D Systems) is encouraging, we would caution not to read too much into Q4 in terms of any normalizing revenue run rate,” wrote Canaccord Genuity analyst Bobby Burleson in a research note.