insight

Is Amazon losing money or earning a profit from the sale of each Kindle Fire tablet? Analysts seem to be at odds over that question.

In an investor note issued last Wednesday, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster calculated the manufacturing cost of each Kindle Fire at $250, leaving Amazon with a $50 loss on each $199 tablet that it sells. Munster said he based that estimate on the cost of the iPad.

But other analysts have chimed in with different opinions and estimates.

UBM TechInsights believes Amazon is actually making a profit on each Kindle Fire. Estimating manufacturing costs as low as $150, the research firm pegs Amazon's profit per tablet at $49.

In comparison, RIM spends around $170 to make its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, which reportedly gave Amazon some "design clues" for the Fire. The retailer was able to cut its costs by eliminating certain features found in the PlayBook, according to EE Times, which is published by UBM's parent company.… Read more

Hot on the heels of Google's acquisition of German bargain site DailyDeal this week, a new report from private company research firm CB Insights reveals that the multitude of daily-deal sites will continue to contract via mergers and acquisitions but the valuations of the sites will decline very quickly.

According to the report, since their peak hit just two quarters ago in Q1 2011, the Price per Subscriber and Price per Voucher Sold multiples paid in private company M&A transactions have declined 36 percent and 40 percent respectively in Q3 2011.

The decline appears to be being … Read more

Time Warner Cable will acquire cable operator Insight Communications, the larger cable company announced today.

According to Time Warner Cable, it will pay $3 billion in cash for Insight Communications, which currently offers television, Internet, and phone service to more than 750,000 customers across Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio.

Time Warner Cable has over 14 million customers using its service around the U.S.

Earlier this morning, The Wall Street Journal reported the companies were nearing an agreement, and would announce the deal at some point today. In addition, the Journal reported that Time Warner Cable outbid a host of … Read more

Private company research firm CB Insights today released a new report on the state of venture capital financing for the second quarter of 2011. With $7.6 billion invested in 768 deals in the second quarter, we are on track to see $29 billion to $30 billion invested through all of 2011.

California, Massachusetts, and New York combined to take nearly 75 percent of U.S. venture capital funding in the second quarter of this year, the highest concentration in five quarters. California remained on top with deals in the state up 27 percent and dollars up 19 percent. California'… Read more

Yahoo is beefing up its search trending tools to better take on Web giant Google.

The Web pioneer yesterday relaunched Yahoo Clues, a trending service that allows users to see what other people are searching for on the Web. Originally launched last November, the new page has been expanded beyond the previous single-page version to include information on searches executed not only in the U.S. but globally. Also, a new map shows where the searches are originating from on both a global and local scale.

The company has added a new feature called Top Trends that allows people to … Read more

VW says leave the driving to us, Scion upgrades its aftermarket cabin tech, and a Honda Insight goes too fast for the competition.

• VW shows autopilot tech

• 56.2 MPG could be the new Federal requirement

• Apple preparing to take the TBT lead back from Android?

• Scion finally upgrades its cabin tech with the launch of the 2012 tC RS 7.0 and the 2012 xB

• Honda Insight rally car banned for being too fast

CHICAGO--Cable operators say they are happy to compete with Netflix. But they think the high cost of sports and live programming will ultimately keep Netflix out of the game.

During a panel discussion here today at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association's Cable Show, Robert Marcus, COO of Time Warner Cable, and Michael Wilner, CEO of Insight Communications, a cable operator based in Kentucky, said that without live programming and sports Netflix and other over-the-top video providers will never be able to compete head to head with them. (The term "over the top" is used to refer … Read more

A significant number of people are comfortable shopping and paying for items through their mobile devices, according to a new report from mobile media firm JiWire.

JiWire's latest Mobile Audience Insights Report (PDF) found that 79 percent of 5,000 people surveyed are OK paying online via their cell phones or tablets.

Though most of those polled are still making relatively small purchases (less than $100), 50 percent said they're comfortable spending more than $100 using a cell phone, while almost 20 percent said they're OK buying things worth more than $500.

Beyond paying for items, more consumers are also researching products via their mobile devices. JiWire found that 71 percent of those polled had researched future purchases on their phone or tablet before buying the item. Among those, 31 percent later bought the item in a store, 40 percent bought it online through a PC, and 20 percent bought it directly from their mobile device.… Read more

Private company research firm CB Insights is set to release a new report today on the state of venture capital financing for the first quarter of 2011. The short version: things are looking good, if a bit frothy, with Q1 registering $7.5 billion of venture capital funding invested in 738 deals.

In relation to the last quarter of 2010, there were only three more deals in Q1 of 2011, and both quarters included roughly half of Groupon's $1 billion funding, which doesn't quite explain how Q1 saw roughly $1 billion more in financing for roughly the same … Read more