IBM - International Business Machines Corporation
142.47 +0.25 (0.18%)
Pre-Market: 8:30AM EDT
| Previous Close | 142.20 |
| Open | 142.05 |
| Bid | 142.01 x 1200 |
| Ask | 142.44 x 800 |
| Day's Range | 140.51 - 142.30 |
| 52 Week Range | 105.94 - 154.36 |
| Volume | 1,933,490 |
| Avg. Volume | 3,747,523 |
| Market Cap | 125.989B |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | 1.56 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 14.68 |
| EPS (TTM) | 9.69 |
| Earnings Date | Oct 16, 2019 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | 6.48 (4.56%) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | 2019-08-08 |
| 1y Target Est | 153.05 |
- PR Newswire
GMEX Taps IBM Blockchain to Support Digital Assets
GMEX Fusion Digital Capital Markets Technology Suite to power live transactions for DAG Global across two leading cryptocurrency exchanges LONDON , Sept. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- GMEX Technologies Ltd ...
- PR Newswire
New IBM Inventory Visibility Helps Improve Omnichannel Profitability and Customer Experience for High-Turn Inventory Industries
Supply Chain Application Optimizes Order Management Process with Single, Real-Time View of Orders and Inventory Across Entire Fulfillment Network ANAHEIM, Calif. , Sept. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- CSCMP ...
- InvestorPlace
IBM Stock: It’s All About Red Hat
Enterprise software has been one of the most notable bright spots in the tech world. Just look at some of the recent IPOs which have soared in value from companies like Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ:ZM) and Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) But even mature firms, like Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE), have rejuvenated their businesses.Source: JHVEPhoto / Shutterstock.com And then there is IBM (NYSE:IBM). The company whiffed on the cloud. It also whiffed on mobile. And even in AI (artificial intelligence) - in which IBM has invested for a long time - the results have been mixed.The irony is that IBM should have been a huge beneficiary of these trends. It has a trusted brand, a global footprint (it has 60 datacenters across the world) and a massive customer base. But unfortunately, the company did not adapt quickly enough.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips * 7 CBD Stocks to Buy That Are Still Worth Your Investment Dollars The Good News for IBM StockDespite all its problems, IBM is still healthy from a financial standpoint, as it continues to generate substantial cash flows. The company also has incredibly talented employees.More importantly for IBM stock, the company has made critical moves to restructure its operations. Specifically, it has eliminated jobs and unloaded non-core assets, while also retooling its software to keep up with the competition.But I think the most consequential point is that the company has been willing to make big bets, as shown by its $34 billion mega-acquisition of Red Hat.True, there is a good deal of irony in this deal. When Linux and other open-source software platforms emerged in the 1990s, IBM's reaction was to fight back - and hard.But it was a losing battle. Open-source software has become a critical part of companies' arsenals. So with the Red Hat deal, IBM has become the leader of the space.There are clear benefits to open-source software. Specifically, adoption of it can be rapid because the technology is free and it's continuously being updated by developers.Red Hat has been able to leverage its technology to create an extensive platform that enables a hybrid cloud environment. Because of security, privacy and regulatory concerns, larger companies need to combine different, i.e. hybrid, options when it comes to the cloud. For example, they can utilize a mix of private and public clouds. Among the companies that provide public cloud infrastructure are Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL, NASDAQ:GOOG) and MSFT. As a result of this need for flexibility, the flexibility of the open-source model, for the most part, has proven to be spot-on.As part of IBM, Red Hat will benefit from the tech giant's tremendous distribution capabilities. What's more, the cloud opportunity is still massive. IBM believes that the typical enterprise has only transitioned 20% of its data to the cloud.Here's what the Senior Vice President and Chief Analyst of research firm IDC , Frank Gens, said about the acquisition of Red Hat: "As organizations seek to increase their pace of innovation to stay competitive, they are looking to open source and a distributed cloud environment to enable a new wave of digital innovation that wasn't possible before. Over the next five years, IDC expects enterprises to invest heavily in their journeys to the cloud, and innovation on it. A large and increasing portion of this investment will be on open hybrid and multicloud environments that enable them to move apps, data and workloads across different environments."In other words, the deal has the potential to generate growth for IBM and should help make Big Blue a major player in cloud computing. That should definitely be positive for IBM stock. The Bottom Line On International Business Machines StockI can understand why there is lots of skepticism regarding the bull case on IBM stock. Consider that, over the past five years, IBM stock price has fallen 2%.But I think the Red Hat deal will be a game changer that will get IBM stock back on track. In fact, investors are already more upbeat on the shares, as IBM stock price has jumped 25% this year.There will likely be bumps in the road for IBM stock, as acquisitions are never easy. But with the dividend yield at 4.56% - one of the highest in the tech world - and the forward price-earnings ratio standing at only 10.5, IBM does look interesting.Tom Taulli is the author of the book, Artificial Intelligence Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction. Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 7 CBD Stocks to Buy That Are Still Worth Your Investment Dollars * 5 Stocks to Buy With Great Charts * 5 Goldman Sachs Stocks to Buy with Over 20% Upside Potential The post IBM Stock: It's All About Red Hat appeared first on InvestorPlace.
- Benzinga
Can Blockchain Solve Some Of The Aches Of The Cannabis Industry?
Blockchain may be the solution for the many regulatory and oversight issues plaguing the cannabis industry — and the benefits have nothing to do with Bitcoin. A critical question every cannabis consumer will ask at some point is, “How do I know what I’m buying is exactly what it says it is?” In recent years, blockchain is fast becoming the answer — and it has nothing to do with cryptocurrency. Blockchain, a decentralized and transparent digital ledger, has found favor in the cannabis industry, most notably in tracking, tracing, and genome data.
- Zacks
IBM Collaborates With City of Los Angeles to Fight Cybercrime
IBM's AI platform IBM Watson, its emerging Blockchain technology and expanding security products is aiding it in proliferating the market.
- InvestorPlace
History Suggests Nokia Stock Will Stay Stuck
There's a simple bull case for Nokia (NYSE:NOK) stock at the moment. 5G rollouts worldwide should drive demand growth for Nokia products. The company itself is projecting sharp earnings growth in 2020. And NOK stock is cheap, at 11.7x the midpoint of 2020 EPS guidance.Source: RistoH / Shutterstock.com That said, there's also a simple bear case for Nokia stock: we've been here before. NOK stock seemingly has been a turnaround play for most of this decade - and had similarly impressive near-term catalysts along the way.None of those catalysts have reversed the trend. NOK stock is down 40% over the past five years, and has lost two-thirds of its value in the last decade. Maybe this time is different - but the history of the tech industry, too, suggests a difficult path to upside, even with a current valuation that looks rather cheap.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips NOK Stock Has Been Here BeforeAs I detailed earlier this year, Nokia has had chances to drive growth -- and reverse the narrative surrounding the stock. The $7 billion sale of the company's phone business to Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) turned out to be a brilliant deal. Microsoft wound up losing at least $8 billion, and finally exited at a sale price of just $350 million. Yet the huge cash infusion did little for NOK stock. * 7 Momentum Stocks to Buy On the Dip Indeed, Nokia used that cash to help bankroll its acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent, which was to make the company a networking giant. That thesis didn't pan out. The company then re-entered the phone business. That plan hasn't worked.The story now is 5G. An admittedly strong second quarter earnings report contained positive news about customer retention in the shift from 4G. Nokia expects the full benefit to start hitting its P&L in 2020. And the staggered pace of the global rollout suggests that demand should continue for years to come.That said, Nokia already has admitted that it will struggle to hit its 2019 EPS guidance. Wall Street, for what it's worth, is betting against 2020 projections as well. Consensus of $0.40 is below the company's range of €0.37-€0.42 ($0.41-$0.45). The story is attractive -- but it's been attractive before. For this entire decade, Nokia simply hasn't been able to fulfill its potential. Is Nokia Stock an Outlier in Tech?To be fair, it's not easy to execute a turnaround, particularly in tech. There are no shortage of companies who, like Nokia, have struggled to adapt.There have been some winners. Microsoft itself is the most obvious one. It was only six years ago that Microsoft stock had traded sideways for a decade. Earnings growth had been minimal for years. Microsoft is now the most valuable company in the world.But Microsoft is a software play. In hardware, products can become 'commoditized'. And competition from China, in particular, is much stiffer. Indeed, Huawei has taken significant market share, with its political worries another potential tailwind for NOK stock.And in hardware, turnarounds have been difficult. IBM (NYSE:IBM) touched a nine-year low late last year. Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) has returned 9% over the past two years while broad markets have risen sharply. Blackberry (NASDAQ:BB) has been a perpetual "next year" story as both a hardware play and, more recently, a software play. Post-split gains for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) have stalled out. Nokia rival Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) is down 37% over the past five years, a performance in line with that of Nokia stock.There's really only old-line large-cap hardware play that has driven consistent gains: Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO). And that company has scale and market dominance that Nokia simply doesn't have.To be sure, history alone doesn't suggest that NOK stock can't rally this time. There is an opportunity in 5G. The hit to Huawei's reputation at least weakens a key competitor. And Nokia stock is cheap enough if guidance is hit. * 7 CBD Stocks to Buy That Are Still Worth Your Investment Dollars But NOK also is a classic "this time is different" case. And as the old saw goes, those are the four most dangerous words in investing. That's been true in the past for Nokia and many similar tech plays. It could be true this time as well.As of this writing, Vince Martin has no positions in any securities mentioned. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 7 CBD Stocks to Buy That Are Still Worth Your Investment Dollars * 5 Stocks to Buy With Great Charts * 5 Goldman Sachs Stocks to Buy with Over 20% Upside Potential The post History Suggests Nokia Stock Will Stay Stuck appeared first on InvestorPlace.
CNW GroupIBM Opens Quantum Computation Center in New York; Brings World's Largest Fleet of Quantum Computing Systems Online, Unveils New 53-Qubit Quantum System for Broad Use
ARMONK, N.Y. , Sept. 18, 2019 /CNW/ -- Today, IBM (NYSE: IBM ) announced the opening of the IBM Quantum Computation Center in New York State . The new center expands the world's largest fleet of quantum computing systems for commercial and research activity that exist beyond the confines of experimental lab environments. The IBM Quantum Computation Center will support the growing needs of a community of over 150,000 registered users and nearly 80 commercial clients, academic institutions and research laboratories to advance quantum computing and explore practical applications.
- PR Newswire
IBM Works With City of Los Angeles to Combat Cybercrime
Launches New Services to Bring Enterprise Threat Intelligence to Cities and Municipalities; Launches Three Complimentary Cyber Preparedness Training Sessions for U.S. Cities Combating Ransomware CAMBRIDGE, ...
- InvestorPlace
Intensified Antitrust Scrutiny Could Weigh on AMZN Stock
Many became concerned about Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock as an attack on Saudi oil fields sent oil prices (and by extension, delivery costs) soaring. However, a Wall Street Journal report has likely overshadowed that concern due to more intense antitrust scrutiny.Source: Mike Mareen / Shutterstock.com Since Amazon stock that has traded in a range for almost a year and a half, AMZN traders could face a longer period of frustration. Struggles Continue for AmazonBad news greeted Amazon as it began Monday trading, and not just because of higher oil prices. AMZN stock fell by over 2% in Monday trading following the WSJ story alleging that Amazon changed search algorithms in such a way that would boost its products. The algorithms also bolstered products that brought higher profits to the company. This move also supposedly caused turmoil within the e-commerce giant as both lawyers and engineers pushed back against these changes.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips * 7 Momentum Stocks to Buy On the Dip If proven true, these actions could cause Amazon further pain as both U.S. and EU regulators have investigated the company for both operating a marketplace and selling products within that ecosystem. This action also contradicts years of statements from the company stating that its focus hinged on long-term profitability instead of steering customers to specific products for short-term gains.The previous quarterly report did not help matters. Amazon beat revenue estimates, however, they fell short on the bottom line and warned that Q3 would likely fail to meet expectations. This news sent AMZN stock back below the $2,000 per share level. It quickly fell close to the $1,800 per share level where it trades today.Worse, this continues the troubles for Amazon stock, which has become mired in a trading range. For almost 18 months, AMZN has traded at levels between around $1,300 per share and just over $2,000 per share. The current AMZN stock price of just over $1,800 per share places it toward the high end of the range. Can AMZN Stock Move Higher?The question for traders is, what can take AMZN stock beyond this range? Unfortunately for Amazon bulls, that path may have narrowed. To be sure, Amazon remains firmly positioned. Amazon Web Services (AWS) continues to produce the majority of company profits. It also maintains its lead over the likes of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL, NASDAQ:GOOG), and IBM (NYSE:IBM) in providing cloud services.Moreover, despite the profit warning for Q3, analysts expect earnings to grow by 17.1% for this year and 40.8% in fiscal 2020. This could support the current forward price-to-earnings (PE) ratio of just under 55 under normal circumstances. Expect Short, Medium-Term PainHowever, that PE could give traders pause with the antitrust concerns, at least on a short or medium-term basis. Due to the latest allegations, regulators will probably have a stronger case against Amazon. These accusations could lead to anything in between a slap on the wrist or an outright breakup.Moreover, traders have to assume that the company will remove the algorithms that boosted AMZN profits. I would also surmise that the earnings increases mentioned above will see downward revisions. Paying 55 times forward earnings may not pay off for investors under such circumstances. Final Thoughts on AMZN StockThough higher oil prices could hurt the company, intensified antitrust accusations will likely cause further pain for holders of AMZN stock. The allegations make penalties from regulators on both sides of the Atlantic more likely. Traders can also expect lower profits as antitrust pressure will force a change in the algorithms.Considering the scrutiny faced by Microsoft in the 1990s and early 2000s, I see a breakup as unlikely. Even if a split occurred, the breakups of Standard Oil and AT&T (NYSE:T) in the 20th century ultimately made the sum of the parts greater than the whole.However, shorter-term I see the WSJ story as a negative. From a stock perspective, it could lead investors to question whether they should pay almost 55 times forward earnings under these circumstances.Long-term, I expect AMZN stock will maintain its cloud and e-commerce leadership and post double-digit earnings growth. However, for now, investors should let the dust settle and try to buy later at a lower price.As of this writing, Will Healy did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned stocks. You can follow Will on Twitter at @HealyWriting. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 7 Momentum Stocks to Buy On the Dip * 7 Dow Titans Breaking Higher * 5 Growth Stocks to Sell as Rates Move Higher The post Intensified Antitrust Scrutiny Could Weigh on AMZN Stock appeared first on InvestorPlace.
- PR Newswire
Top five open source-powered solutions to mitigate the impact of natural disasters announced as finalists in Call for Code global coding challenge
NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Call for Code Founding Partner IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Creator David Clark Cause today announced the top five finalists for the 2019 edition of the Call for Code Global Challenge, an initiative that unites hundreds of thousands of developers to create applications powered by open source technology that can tackle some of the world's biggest challenges.
- Zacks
SAIC Wins $85M Deal to Offer IT Support Services to Anaheim
Science Applications' (SAIC) advanced delivery model will provide IT services to Anaheim's infrastructure, applications and workplace solutions, ensuring maximum cost-efficiencies.
- Simply Wall St.
Is International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) Trading At A 34% Discount?
In this article we are going to estimate the intrinsic value of International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM...
- Zacks
IBM (IBM) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know
IBM (IBM) closed at $142.48 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.83% move from the prior day.
- Bloomberg
IBM CEO Sees Amazon and Microsoft as Cloud Allies, Not Rivals
(Bloomberg) -- In IBM’s vision of cloud computing, Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. will be allies rather than rivals.Chief Executive Officer Ginni Rometty is betting on the hybrid cloud, which lets IBM offer services on corporate customers’ cloud-based servers as well as on third-party clouds operated by the likes of Amazon and Microsoft. International Business Machines Corp. has traditionally viewed these cloud giants as direct competitors, but it now aims to partner with them by supporting clients as they shift sensitive databases on to the cloud, regardless of which provider they use.Armonk, New York-based IBM has gone through many transformations in its 108-year history: shifting from punched card tabulating equipment to mainframe computers and now to the cloud.“This company has had to be reinvented many times,” Rometty said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s CEO Spotlight show. “It’s something many other companies have yet to face. It is one thing to put out new products, but it is something else when the competitive landscape attacks your core business models and you have to develop a new one.”After struggling to keep up in the cloud market for more than a decade, IBM has switched to a hybrid cloud strategy, cementing its future with last year’s $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat, the Raleigh, North Carolina-based open source software provider.In the interview with BTV, Rometty said Red Hat would continue to operate as a separate and distinct business unit within IBM. “They must remain committed and neutral. They have to be on all our competitor’s platforms,” she said. “You have competition and cooperation -- and in this case Red Hat is a platform that goes across all of them.”To contact the reporters on this story: Olivia Carville in New York at ocarville1@bloomberg.net;Caroline Hyde in London at chyde3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz, Robin AjelloFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- PR Newswire
Primerica Taps IBM to Modernize Applications in a Hybrid Cloud Environment
ARMONK, N.Y., Sept. 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Primerica, Inc., a leading insurance and financial services company, has turned to IBM to help accelerate innovation and modernize their internal and customer-facing application development in a hybrid cloud environment. Hybrid cloud environments in particular are suited to the needs of insurers, which are often sitting on decades of investment in their existing IT and face the need to balance scalability and agility with data security and regulatory requirements. With millions of lines of code in applications like Primerica's sales representative portal, intranet, and Primerica.com, Primerica reports that their monolithic application architectures previously limited development speed and time to market, as enhancements and innovations required full application rebuilds, which could take months to a year or more.
- Yahoo Finance
New IBM mainframe can process 1 trillion web transactions a day
IBM is out with its newest mainframe - z15. Yahoo Finance sat down with Tom Rosamilia, the Senior Vice President of IBM Systems and Chairman of IBM North America to hear how it'll change the industry.
- Bloomberg
Andrew Yang Brings Silicon Valley’s Upstart Spirit to 2020 Bid
(Bloomberg) -- It’s a classic Silicon Valley story: A shoestring operation disrupts the way business has traditionally been done, smashing experts’ expectations while drawing wary glances from sober-minded analysts.Except this time the product isn’t some new gadget or app, it’s a presidential candidate. Since he began his unorthodox campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination, New York entrepreneur Andrew Yang has broken with a lot of traditional advice about campaign proposals, fundraising and public relations. And so far, it’s kind of worked.Endorsements from big names like Elon Musk, along with many small individual donations from software engineers—among the biggest givers to his campaign—have catapulted him into the middle of the winnowing pack of remaining Democratic candidates. He’s managed to win over the tech industry’s support while making its negative impact on society his central focus, and he’ll be on the debate stage on Thursday night, trying to convince everyone he can fix it. An outsider with zero political experience, Yang has outlasted a senator, two governors and three members of the House in the crowded Democratic field. He’s currently beating two senators, former liberal heartthrob Beto O’Rourke and Tom Steyer, the billionaire burning through his own cash while floundering in the polls. And Yang’s fundraising and poll numbers were strong enough to qualify for nationally televised debates three times. But it’s the next phase that proves trickiest, in both tech and politics. Yang, who is currently at 2.5% in a Real Clear Politics aggregation of polls, needs to scale up quickly, building more name recognition and financial support before the primary season starts. In short, it’s time for Yang to go public. His plan to do so involves a campaign centered on one big idea: a $1,000 check sent monthly to every U.S. citizen over the age of 18, no strings attached. But he’s also touting more than 150 other proposals such as legalizing marijuana, creating a postal banking system, paying college athletes, eliminating the penny and making Puerto Rico a state. It’s those ideas that make more traditional pundits view Yang as a fringe candidate—Yang is undoubtedly the first presidential campaign to have taken a stance on circumcision, even if he later backtracked on it. But an embrace of oddball causes may also be part of the secret to Yang’s success so far.Connor Farrell, a progressive fundraising consultant for Left Rising in Washington, D.C., said that Yang’s campaign features the kind of niche ideas with passionate fan bases that drive online donations. Those voters can be reached much more efficiently through free viral videos and memes than can, say, potential supporters of former Vice President Joe Biden who prioritize electability. And they’re easier to convert into small-dollar donors who can be tapped again and again, Farrell said.“Candidates who advertise about a specific issue have an easier time targeting the people that are likely to give to them,” he said. “You’ll make more money spending less money.” Yang recently sat down with Bloomberg in a cramped conference room in San Francisco to talk about his ideas. Surrounded by stacks of his book The War on Normal People, the former tech entrepreneur quickly launched into his case that the tech sector bears responsibility for many of America’s problems.Retail jobs vaporizing and shopping malls closing? That’s Amazon. Suicide and mental health issues on the rise? That’s Facebook. Journalism on the decline? Google’s ad network carries a bunch of responsibility for that. And, he argues, there’s worse to come, as automation comes for clerical, call center, retail, food preparation and trucking jobs. “It’s not immigrants causing these problems,” Yang said, in counterpoint to President Donald Trump. “It’s technology.”And then he turns to his solution, which his campaign calls the Freedom Dividend but Yang informally describes as a “tech check.” To help pay for its estimated cost of about $255 billion per month, he wants to ditch corporate taxes on earnings and instead institute a value-added tax, or VAT, a tax on consumption. The VAT is used by a majority of developed counties, but is considered a non-starter in the U.S. for both parties: Republicans look at it as a tax hike, and Democrats believe it’s regressive because poor people’s consumption represents more of their income. Yang argues that if the tax were set at 10% (or about half the amount Europe charges) it would easily cover his $12,000 annual stipend for every American.While Yang believes the tech sector has created a lot of problems, he also thinks it’s uniquely positioned to solve some. Yang wants to allow voting by mobile phone using blockchain security. He favors net neutrality, letting consumers have a property right to their own data and increased investment in quantum computing and encryption technologies. He wants to bolster artificial intelligence to remain competitive with China and create a new agency to monitor the addictive nature of smartphones and social media.And, more importantly, he doesn’t rail against the companies’ creators themselves. It’s a neat trick: He vilifies the effects of innovation while absolving the innovators, saying that’s a job for government regulators. “This is a natural place where the government needs to come in and set parameters,” Yang told Bloomberg. “If you ask [tech companies] to self-regulate, they would literally be doing their shareholders a massive disservice if they were to scale back in any meaningful way.”To help garner support for such policies, Yang wants to create an agency to educate elected officials on artificial intelligence, data privacy, online ad networks and other technology topics they often don’t understand but are expected to craft laws to regulate. Such misunderstanding, he suggests, is what led candidate Elizabeth Warren to propose a break up of big tech earlier this year. “She’s recommending 20th century solutions to 21st century problems,” he said of Warren. “It’s not like breaking Google up into four mini-Googles would somehow improve the marketplace because no one wants to use the fourth best search engine. There’s a reason why we’re not using Bing.” Yang has early roots in the tech industry. He grew up in upstate New York, a self-described nerd who often spent more time with computers than people. His father, who worked at International Business Machines Corp. and generated 69 patents, encouraged his son’s early interest in technology. After Yang earned a law degree from Columbia University, he found he didn’t like being a lawyer and launched a startup allowing people to donate to celebrities’ favorite charities (it failed), then he drifted to a health care startup and eventually joined an online test prep company as an employee. By the time test titan Kaplan Test Prep bought it a few years later in 2009, Yang had risen to become its chief executive. He used part of his windfall to start a non-profit called Venture For America, matching recent college graduates with tech startups in sometimes-overlooked cities like St. Louis, Detroit and Pittsburgh.The people most likely to donate to Yang’s campaign have job titles like programmer, developer and software engineer. Many of them have jobs at Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp., but Yang also has a steady stream of contributions from workers with the same jobs at companies around the country, such as Capital One Financial Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp. and Walmart Inc.He's also gotten support from tech workers at small startups, ranging from companies developing artificial intelligence platforms to apps that teach "Unified Mindfulness," a meditation technique.Workers at tech firms contributed $321,664 to Yang through the end of June, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. That was less than the $1.3 million the sector gave to Pete Buttigieg, tops among Democratic presidential candidates, and about as much as Joe Biden, who is polling far higher but whose late entry into the race gave him less time to raise money.Like most of his rivals, Yang's big three locations for raising money are the New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco metro areas, but tech enclaves rank higher on his list than they do for other candidates. Seattle is fourth and the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area—the heart of Silicon Valley—is seventh.Richard Shank is one of those donors. A software developer in Beaverton, Ore., he was working on a project to automate school scheduling and listening to a Ray Kurzweil audiobook a few years ago when he had a realization that automation was going to cause a lot more disruption to the economy. After reading more on the issue, Shank, 50, settled on the universal basic income—sometimes called UBI, or in Yang’s case, the “tech check”—as a solution. He backed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in 2016 in part because he’d said favorable things about the idea, but when he heard Yang on Sam Harris’ podcast, Shank had finally found his candidate.“I was immediately sold,” he said. “UBI is probably the single most important issue in this race.” Shank listened to the audiobook of The War on Normal People and checked out every podcast interview with the Yang that he could find. He sets aside a portion of each paycheck to send to Yang’s campaign, and is about $1,000 toward his goal of hitting the Federal Election Commission maximum of $2,800.Neil Malhotra, a political economy professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, has studied political attitudes in Silicon Valley and the tech sector. One study of tech founders in Silicon Valley found that they favor low regulation to allow businesses to innovate but they also support redistributing wealth and are liberal on social issues. A separate study found similar attitudes among computer science majors at Stanford.“If you look at the Yang campaign, it’s very consistent with what we found,” Malhotra said. Yang may not like social media’s effects on society, but his campaign is certainly benefiting from them. Online, fans have blended his image with funny and sometimes outrageous messages that spread fast on Twitter and Reddit as well as more controversial sites like 4chan. Yang’s campaign staff say they try to keep tabs on the ever-multiplying memes, but have no control over what gets published, where or how fast it spreads. “As important as social media and everything is, the core driver is still email and fundraising,” said Digital Director Eric Ming, who leads the campaign’s efforts in social media, digital advertising, email and online engagement. He said he and his team don’t generally make memes, but see the power of the images in real time.When a meme strikes a chord, like the image of a boyfriend doing a double take on a new girl (Yang) while walking with his girlfriend (Trump), it spreads quickly, contributing to the candidate’s digital fame. One clip of Yang dancing the Cupid Shuffle in a women’s exercise class got 1.6 million views. A slow-motion video of Yang standing barefoot on his deck kicking off a water bottle cap without knocking over the bottle got 1.4 million. Another video shows supporters hoisting him above their heads, enabling him to crowdsurf his political rally like a rockstar.They may seem trivial, but like any media appearance, viral clips can drive voters to learn more about the candidate. These images play an outsized role in driving political decisions, according to Joel Penney, an associate professor at Montclair State University and author of The Citizen Marketer: Promoting Political Opinion in the Social Media Age.Penney described memes as amateur-produced political ads that played a “massive” role in helping Trump win the last election. Their power, he says, lies in their simplicity. It’s an easy way of consuming often complex information that’s easy to share, is topical and hits emotional triggers.“Memes get votes,” Penney said. “It’s not a one-to-one correlation, but it’s absolutely what’s shaping meaning and perceptions.” (Updates with donation information in the 24th paragraph. An earlier version of this story corrected a cost estimate for a universal basic income.)\--With assistance from Bill Allison.To contact the authors of this story: Lizette Chapman in San Francisco at lchapman19@bloomberg.netRyan Beckwith in Washington at rbeckwith3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Brad StoneFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- GuruFocus.com
4 Levels of Information
What information to look for when researching a company Continue reading...
- GuruFocus.com
Warren Buffett and Apple
A look at Berkshire's investment in the company Continue reading...
- Bloomberg
IBM CEO Ginni Rometty Says IBM Was Built on Diversity and Inclusion
Sep.17 -- Ginni Rometty, International Business Machines Corp. chair, president and chief executive officer, discusses the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. She speaks with Bloomberg's Caroline Hyde on "Bloomberg Markets: The Close."
- Bloomberg
Why IBM CEO Ginni Rometty Is Betting Big on the Hybrid Cloud
Sep.16 -- Ginni Rometty, International Business Machines Corp. chair, president and chief executive officer, discusses IBM's bet on the hybrid cloud, which lets the company offer services on corporate customers' cloud-based servers as well as on third-party clouds. She speaks with Bloomberg's Caroline Hyde on "Bloomberg Markets: The Close."
