Some things going on in your world of tech this morning:
IT consulting and outsourcing firm Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH) is down $10.54, or 15%, at $59.12 after the company this morning reported Q1 revenue in line with consensus and beat on the bottom line, projected this quarter’s profit slightly ahead, but slashed its year revenue outlook.
CEO Francisco D’Souza remarked that “due to a slower than anticipated acceleration in demand as we entered the second quarter, we are adopting a more conservative stance for the remainder of the year and revising our guidance to at least 20% revenue growth for 2012.”
Cognizant now sees 2012 revenue of $7.34 billion, below the average $7.55 billion estimate of analysts, and down from a prior $7.53 billion forecast offered back in early Feburary. Profit per share is expected to be around $3.36, below the average $3.46 estimate and below the prior $3.43 per share projected in February.
DigiTimes‘s Monica Chen and Joseph Tsai this morning write that Apple (AAPL) may offer a version of its “MacBook Air” laptop priced at $799 by the third quarter of this year, $200 cheaper than the cheapest model at present, in order to head off the next wave of so-called ultrabook laptops being developed by various OEMs. The authors cite un-named electronics supply chain sources as saying “the strategy will damage ultrabooks allowing Apple to continue to press its advantage.”
The Wall Street Journal this morning features a piece by�Anton Toianovski about the efforts of telcos to rein in the enormous subsidies spent on smartphones, especially Apple’s iPhone. Writes Troianovski, Spain is in the front lines:
There, leading wireless carrier Telef�nica stopped subsidizing phones for new customers in March. The No. 2 carrier, Vodafone, quickly followed suit. The No. 3 carrier, France T�l�com SA’s FTE -0.21% Orange Group, refused to go along. As a result, new customers at Vodafone and Telef�nica can no longer get an iPhone for a discounted rate with a two-year contract. Instead, they have to pay nearly $800 to buy the phone outright or sign up for an installment plan that, at Telef�nica, adds 18 monthly payments of about $45 to their bills.
And speaking of subsidies, Troianovski’s colleague Greg Bensinger writes this morning that Sprint-Nextel’s CEO Dan Hesse agreed to a nearly return some of his 2011 compensation tied to Sprint’s agreement to buy $15.5 billion worth of iPhone units in 2012. “I do not want, nor does our compensation committee want, to penalize Sprint employees for the company’s investment with Apple,” Hesse wrote in a letter filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission and dated Friday. The company’s board of directors today filed a brief item applauding Hesse for the move and for protecting the company from anything that would harm morale.
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