Also: Why Silicon Valley is so darned narcissistic; Lenovo reveals record quarterly earnings.
Product questions and threats of higher tax hit Apple shares [THE NEW YORK TIMES]
Owners of Apple shares would have good reason to fear higher taxes on capital gains. Apple shares have appreciated mightily since 2005 when they were about $35 apiece; they began this year at $411 and peaked at more than $700 in late September. The drop on Wednesday only added to what has been a grim few weeks for Apple shares, which have fallen over 20 percent from that peak, to $558 on Wednesday.
The decline has followed a sequence of seemingly unrelated events, including a broader-than-normal overhaul of its product line that is expected to hurt profit margins in the near term and a rare shake-up in Apple’s senior ranks.
Samsung’s Galaxy S III overtakes the iPhone 4S as the world’s best-selling smartphone in Q3 2012 [THE NEXT WEB]
It’s worth noting that sales of the 4S were tempered by the launch of the iPhone 5 in Q3. Apple’s latest handset sold 6 million units and grabbed 3.6% global smartphone market share, Strategy Analytics says.
Samsung’s claim to the smartphone crown is unlikely to be maintained though. The iPhone 5 launched close to the end of the third quarter of the year and suffered limited availability at first.
The narcissism of minor Silicon Valley differences [TECHCRUNCH]
Yes, much like Los Angeles and New York, very few people who are here are from here and almost all of us who are here at one point aspired to be here. And, maybe because we’re not as pretty as New York or Hollywood, we’d like to think we’re smarter.
“I remember what she was like when she landed here and she was nobody,” somebody said about some girl on that Silicon Valley TV show that absolutely no one is writing or talking about, and definitely not hosting premiere parties for or gossiping about or tweeting constantly regarding orporing over the pitch decks for. Ugh. “Do you remember what you were like when you landed here and were absolutely nobody,” I responded. “We all at some point were that right?”
Google Ventures beefs up fund size to $300 million a year [REUTERS]
Access to that sizeable checkbook means Google Ventures will be able to invest in more later-stage financing rounds, which tend to be in the tens of millions of dollars or more per investor.
It puts the firm on the same footing as more established corporate venture funds such as Intel’s Intel Capital, which typically invests $300-$500 million a year.
Lenovo Q2 earnings reveal record high sales of $8.7 billion, highest-ever PC market share [ENGADGET]
For now however, Lenovo can claim the crown as world’s largest laptop PC maker, while desktop sales were also up five percent from last year. Its mobile internet division reported sales of $718 million, and is the second largest seller in China of smartphones and tablets. It’s also China’s number one PC vendor with sales outpacing the next four vendors combined and racked up double digit market share in the EMEA region for the first time.
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