Twitter's slow user growth is an ill canary

Squeeze the bird

Reuters

Pfizer tax arbitrage will hasten more deals

More pay less

Apple needs more iPhone, less iCahnApple needs more iPhone and less iCahn. Once again, financial developments overshadowed technological ones in the company's quarterly results. A stock split, a dividend hike and a bigger buyback provoked a pop in Apple's shares. Rather than Carl Icahn's favorite subjects, Chief Executive Tim Cook could use new products to discuss.The $150 billion cash pile at the end of the quarter demanded attention, of course. Even with an eight per cent lift in the shares after normal trading hours and stripping out the cash, Apple is valued at 13 times estimated 2014 earnings. The market broadly trades at a multiple of 16, with many companies in the S&P 500 Index carrying net debt.In that context, increasing the stock buyback plan from $60 billion to $90 billion makes sense. Raising the dividend by eight per cent and promising further annual hikes should help attract more investors seeking income. And a seven-for-one stock split, while economically irrelevant,

Fiddling on the edges

Top line shrinkage catches up with IBMIBM is running out of road - again. For two decades, Big Blue's profit increased faster than its revenue through buybacks, cost cuts, and M&A deals. But eight quarters of declining sales mean earnings and free cash flow are now ebbing away.Revenue fell again in the first quarter, this time by four per cent from a year earlier. Yet again, it was the company's hardware division that bore the brunt of the damage, with sales plunging 23 per cent to $2.4 billion. IBM's giant consulting operations also did less business. Even the supposed growth markets of the world failed to live up to their moniker, with IBM's revenue there shrinking 11 per cent as Russian, Chinese and Brazilian enterprises bought less American-made hardware.The problems are clearest in IBM's declining free cash flow. Last year, it generated about $15 billion but spent about $21 billion on buybacks, dividends and acquisitions. In the first quarter this year, the company produced on

Smaller blue

Jury's $9-bn pharma penalty is punitive overdose

Lop off zeros

Searching for value

Big tech valuations come in small packages

Big swinging valuations

Google co-founder's will may go Elon Musk's way

Electric and mortal coil

Both ways

Rootbound

Business Standard

Buffett's folksy ways evoke quainter trading days

Need for speed

No algorithm makes deal between Facebook and WhatsApp compute

Madness of individuals

Actavis makes pharma deals look genericActavis makes pharmaceutical deals look generic. Its $25 billion acquisition of Forest Laboratories follows a familiar formula in the sector. Uppity investor? Check. Low-tax jurisdiction? Check. Buyer's stock rises? Check. And over $8 billion of value created means financiers will keep busy with their own prescriptions for M&A success.This is the third big purchase of late for the active company. In 2012, Watson Pharmaceuticals bought Actavis for $6 billion and took its name. Last year, it absorbed Warner Chilcott for $5 billion and acquired a low-rate Irish tax home in the process. Investors appreciated the cost savings from those transactions, and are doing so again. Counting today's seven per cent pop, Actavis' market value has tripled in just over two years.The course of action is working. Actavis reckons there will be $1 billion of annual savings available from combining with Forest, and that most can be captured within the first year.

Brand X factor

Twitter a victim of its own measure for success

#petard

Microsoft founders recede into middle distance

Now get out of the way

Amazon, investors in race to get earnings joke

Double impact

Apple's cart needs refilling with fresher products

Apple turnover

Apple's stubbornness on full show before earnings

Selective hearing

Googleization of Yahoo hits pricey speed bump

Degoogled

Google raises temperature on "internet of things"

Turn heat on

Beware old tech seeking fountain of youth

Robert Cyran