Five new BlackBerry models released by RIM

 In its biggest ever global launch of smart phones, Research In Motion (RIM) on Wednesday unveiled five new BlackBerry models running on its new BlackBerry 7 Operating System (OS).

The new smart phones include two new BlackBerry Bold models and three new BlackBerry Torch models.

The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 will be the thinnest smart phones ever and introduce an all-new, all-touch design featuring the largest display on a BlackBerry smartphone to date.

"This is the largest global launch of BlackBerry smart phones in our history," RIM president and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said at the RIM headquarters at Waterloo near Toronto.

With its aging handsets contributing to massive decline in its market share in North America, RIM said it was rolling out the new devices in conjunction with 225 wireless carriers globally.

The announcement by the top Canadian technology company comes at a time when the it faces declining market share, shrinking revenue and profit warnings.

The company has sunk from top to the third spot in the US smart phone market in a matter of months under onslaught from Apple's iPhone and Google Android devices.

Its stock has sunk more than 60 percent this year, currently trading at about $24 - the lowest in six years.

S&P downgrades Nokia

Standard and Poor's on Tuesday became the latest ratings agency to downgrade mobile phone giant Nokia's rating, blaming the Finnish company's dismal sales and difficult strategic transition.

S&P cut Nokia's long-term corporate credit rating to BBB from BBB+.

"The rating actions reflect the continued erosion of Nokia's smartphone market shares," S&P credit analyst Matthias Raab said in a statement, adding that a revised assessment of the company's operating margins also pushed the rating down.

Raab said S&P might lower Nokia's rating even further this year if there is no improvement in the mobile phone unit's operating margins in the next six to nine months.

In March, S&P's rating for Nokia stood at A but like other ratings agencies, it reevaluated Nokia's fortunes following a radical strategic shift announced at the beginning of the year.

In February, chief executive Stephen Elop said the company would abandon its Symbian platform, once touted as the future of smartphones, and instead adopt the Microsoft Windows Phone platform in a risky partnership.

With the first Microsoft-Nokia phones not expected to ship until 2012, Nokia's shares have plummeted.

Raab said he expected the lower ratings to remain at least until "Nokia has completed the adoption of Microsoft's Windows Phone as its new primary software platform for smartphones."

S&P's action comes almost two weeks after Nokia reported a dismal 368-million-euro ($520.5-million) net loss for the second quarter, with sales down 7.3 percent.

Nokia refused to give any third-quarter guidance but analysts expect the slide to continue.

"We expect the revenues of Nokia's Devices and Services segment to decline by about 20 percent in 2011 but to recover by 2013 to the level reported in fiscal 2010," S&P said.

Since February's shake-up, ratings agency Fitch has downgraded Nokia's short and long-term ratings with a negative outlook and Moody's docked its rating by two notches, also with a negative outlook.

George Soros : the end of an era

George Soros, the billionaire best known for breaking the Bank of England, is returning money to outside investors in his $25.5-billion firm, ending a career ashedge fund manager that spanned more than four decades.

Soros, who turns 81 next month, will hand back the money, less than $1 billion, by the end of the year, according to two people briefed on the matter. His firm will focus on managing assets solely for Soros and his family, according to a letter to investors. Keith Anderson, 51, chief investment officer since February 2008, is leaving, said the letter, signed by Soros's sons Jonathan and Robert, who are co-deputy chairmen.

"We wish to express our gratitude to those who chose to invest their capital withSoros Fund Management LLC over the last nearly 40 years," they said in the letter. "We trust that you have felt well rewarded for your decision over time."

The move completes Soros's transformation from a speculator, who in 1992 made $1 billion betting that the Bank of England would be forced to devalue the pound, to philanthropist statesman, a role he first imagined for himself as a Hungarian emigre studying at the London School of Economics after World War II, according to Soros's writings. In the last 30 years, he's given away more than $8 billion to promote democracy, foster free speech, improve education and fight poverty around the world, he said in a recent essay.

Soros's sons said they took the decision because new financial regulations would have made it necessary for the firm to register with theSecurities and Exchange Commission by March 2012 if it continued to manage money for outsiders. Because the firm has overseen mostly family assets since 2000, when outside money accounted for about $4 billion, they decided it made more sense to run it as a family office, according to the letter.

The rule calls for hedge funds with more than $150 million in assets to report information about their investors and employees, the assets they manage, potential conflicts of interest and their activities outside of fund advising. Registered funds will also be subject to periodic inspections by the SEC.

"We have relied until now on other exemptions from registration which allowed outside shareholders whose interests aligned with those of the family investors to remain invested in Quantum," the executives said in the letter, referring to its flagship Quantum Endowment Fund. "As those other exemptions are no longer available under the new regulations, Soros Fund Management will now complete the transition to a family office that it began eleven years ago."

Groupon valuation : a bubble ?

Analysts are questioning the $20bn-plus valuation being attached to Groupon, the loss making discount site that has announced its plans to go public.

Groupon confirmed on Thursday its plans to go public, raising an estimated $750m on the US stock markets at a price that could value it at potentially over $20bn (£12.23bn). The company will become the latest social media firm to go public, feeding an investor frenzy for new technology companies.

But after looking over the financial details released this week, some analysts are sceptical about the long-term prospects for the shares. "It's just not a rational valuation," said Sucharita Mulpuru, analyst at Forrester Research. "It's not based on logic, it's based on whatever the highest bidder will pay for the company."

David Menlow, founder and president of IPOfn Online, said: "At some point there is going to be a clear separation between fact and fiction. At the moment, investors can't get past the fiction." Menlow added that investors were making decisions based on "emotion" but that reality would eventually set in.

Groupon, a three-year-old Chicago-based start-up, released some figures with its filing announcement. In 2009, Groupon's first full year of business, the firm brought in $30.47m in revenues. In 2010 revenues reached $713.4m, according to its IPO filing.

The company sells coupons offering discounts to local businesses, taking a cut in any money the business makes. It has 83m subscribers across 43 countries, according to its filing, and has 7,000 employees – half of which are in sales. But for all its huge revenues, Groupon is loss-making and candidly admits it intends to continue losing more money. The company recorded a loss of $413.4m last year, and lost another $113.9m in the first quarter of 2011.

Last December, Google offered $6bn for Groupon, a figure many analysts described as absurd at the time. Now it looks set to be valued at more than three times that figure.

Mulpuru said Groupon has "spent $1bn to make $700m. How do they expect to make $2bn? None of their competition has gone away."

Alan Patrick, co-founder of analyst Broadsight, said Groupon's value was based on a belief that it could dominate the market for online discounts. "Neither of these capabilities are proven, both are risky, the long-term market is a low margin one – but right now is bubble time."

Groupon founder, Andrew Mason, made clear the risks the company faces in a letter to "potential shareholders". Mason warned that Groupon's path will have "twists and turns, moments of brilliance and other moments of sheer stupidity". The company may make financial sacrifices in pursuit of "ambitious bets on our future". Mason wrote: "Life is too short to be a boring company."

Binary option : New form of Financial Trading

Binary Options is a simple form of trading, compared to other market investments. It is known as ‘binary’, as there are two outcomes, a trader should know before investing. There is either a predetermined amount or nothing. It is important to note that, when you initially invest a predetermined amount, you do not actually buy the stock, currency pair, entire index or commodity, which is the underlying asset. While investing, the trader has to decide which option he would like to trade.  There are two options, either ‘call’ or ‘put’. If the underlying asset expires above the strike price, it is a call option, which means that the underlying asset of your investment will go up between the time of expiry, which could be an hour, a day or a week later. For put option, the expiry will be in the money, if the underlying asset expires below the strike price, whereby the trader will be paid, but if it is out of money, the trader will receive nothing, in most cases.
There has not been much research on trading with binary options, as one need to only know the trend of index, commodity, currency pair and stock is in the desired period. To achieve profit with this option is not easy; hence one has to make a complete research before investing and trading with binary option. With proper market research, one can receive short term returns much greater, compared to other investments, or with wrong prediction, you might lose your entire investment, within an hour. There is no guarantee for profit, hence market research of underlying asset on which you plan to invest, is very essential.
Binary options come with advantages and disadvantages and are an alternative for hedging or speculating. The positive side is that a trader knows the risk and reward, expiry date, innumerable strike prices, no commissions, access to multiple assets globally and customizable investment.  Traders need to keep a close watch on their traders’ rules regarding risks and payouts, how expiry prices are calculated and what could happen if the option expiry is directly on the strike price. It is imperative that all traders make a research of their broker’s reputation, before trading.
Trading strategies of binary options are the ones in which a trader can stop or reduce assets that has high profitability of ending out of the money. Any binary option strategies can be helpful to the investors, as long as they know when to purchase the type of option that would maximize their profits from the traded assets. These options are further enhanced, as they have only one strike price. If an investor bought a call option that closed above the strike price, he will receive maximum payout. But, if the market price is below the strike price, the investor will lose everything, which is a fact for the binary put options. An extreme quick turn around of this option could be within an hourly or daily expiration time. Within last few months, investment in binary options has become very popular, due to high volatility in all types of investment.