Netflix's nightmare on Wall Street (week in review)
Video rental service sheds subscribers and market cap, while HP opts to stay in the PC game. Also: Apple TV on the horizon?
Netflix subscribers are not happy with the video service, and they have let the company know it.
Subscribers deserted the company in droves last quarter after it raised prices on a popular subscription plan and spooked them with a now scuttled attempt to spin off DVD-by-mail operations. Overall, 800,000 customers fled the company in the quarter that ended September 30.
Wall Street treated Monday's news as a disaster. Netflix's share price plunged 35 percent on Tuesday to $77.37, knocking a cool $2 billion or so off its market cap. It has yet to recover. By comparison, Netflix's stock grazed $300 in July.
• 800K fewer subscribers humbles Netflix
• Why Wall Street is (still) wrong about Netflix
• Shares plummeting, Netflix a worthy acquisition, analyst says
More headlines
HP reverses course, decides to keep PCs after all
When Meg Whitman took over as CEO, she promised a quick decision on the fate of the PC division. She delivered.• Could HP bring WebOS back?
• For keeps: A brief look at HP's PC lines
Flex it, baby! Nokia's new interface is seriously twisted
The company is showing off a flexible-screen device controlled by how it's twisted and bowed, one it calls the Nokia kinetic interface.• Can Nokia's Lumia smartphones make it in the U.S.?
• Nokia is back in the smartphone game...sort of
• Nokia's big Windows Phone push (roundup)
Amazon earnings add to Wall Street angst
The online retailer's September quarter results and fourth-quarter outlook fail to live up to Wall Street expectations.• Amazon on Kindle Fire: Value in the long term
Was an integrated Apple TV Jobs' next big thing?
The former Apple CEO Steve Jobs reveals in his authorized biography that the company is working on an integrated connected-TV.• iTunes creator working on Apple TV, report says
New attack tool targets Web servers using secure connections
The program exploits a flaw in SSL renegotiation by overwhelming servers with multiple requests for secure connections.• Anonymous threatens Fox News Web site over Occupy coverage
• Hackers target Oakland police after Occupy protest
'Steve Jobs' biography: A wealth of detail
Walter Isaacson's biography of the Apple leader has been released. Here's a look at what's in the book.• 'Steve Jobs': An apt portrait of a jerk and a genius
• Isaacson: Jobs was 'eager to talk,' exercise 'no control' (Q&A)
• Steve Jobs bio a possible 2011 top seller for Amazon
IBM hands the reins to Virginia Rometty
Virginia Rometty will take over for Sam Palmisano effective Jan. 1. Now women run both HP and IBM.RIM hit with lawsuit over BlackBerry outage
Lawsuit filed in Canada seeks compensation in the form of refunds for customers affected by the days-long outage.• Leaked BlackBerry videos promise big changes
Twitter on TV: The next microblogging deals frontier?
Twitter envisions itself displacing the canonical water cooler for TV discussion; now it just needs to make some deals.• Twitter quietly testing expandable timeline
Google+ finally comes to business users on Apps
The Web giant adds Google Apps integration as well as a handful of new consumer-focused features to its social-networking site.Facebook to world: Clone your own data centers
Its Open Compute project aims to speed innovation and lower the environmental costs of cloud computing via an open-source foundation.• Facebook to build server farm near Arctic Circle
• Apple planning solar farm near data center
Also of note
• John McCarthy, creator of Lisp programming language, dies
• Want more secrets? We need cash, WikiLeaks says
• Google reveals it paid $151 million for Zagat