*from www.bloomberg.com, May 15, 2013 (To view original article click here.)
Take Away #1: Google Inc. (GOOG) introduced a subscription music-streaming service.
Key Facts and Figures:
- The music service is just one of several updates to be unveiled at a developer meeting this week as the search provider seeks to attract more users and advertisers.
Take Away #2: Predictions that the company would discuss the music service – as well as other new products, such as revamped mapping software – at the Google I/O conference today helped lift the shares past $900 to a record.
Key Facts and Figures:
- The stock is also getting a boost from an increased price target to $996 from $932 by Morgan Stanley analysts.
- Google is showing off upgrades to products such as the Android mobile operating system, Glass computing spectacles and Chrome browser.
- The YouTube online-video service could grow into a business with $20 billion in sales by 2020, according to Morgan Stanley.
- “As in prior years, we expect news coming out of Google I/O should move the stock, but this year’s impact may be more muted,” Brian Pitz, analyst at Jefferies & Co., wrote.
- Shares of Google rose 2.4% to $909.34 at 12:57 p.m. in New York, the highest since the company’s IPO in August 2004.
- The stock has advanced 25% this year through yesterday, compared with a 16% gain in the S&P 500 Index.
- Google rose 2.7% during three days at the 2012 I/O conference and the impact this year “should be positive,” said Pitz.
- Pitz has a buy rating and a $1,000 target price for the stock.
Take Away #3: By offering music, Google is seeking to give consumers more reasons to use the Android operating system, already the most widely used software in smartphones.
Key Facts and Figures:
- Google’s “All Access” music service will cost $9.99 a month, making millions of songs available on Web browsers as well as mobile devices, the company said.
- Universal Music Group Inc., Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group Corp. have reached agreements to license songs, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
- The company is also challenging online-music providers like Spotify, which lists more than 6 million paying subscribers and more than 24 million active users in 28 countries.
- Apple Inc. (AAPL) is also planning a music service that would challenge Spotify in streaming and Pandora Media Inc. (P) in Web-based radio.
Take Away #4: In video, YouTube reaches about 80% of viewers of online video, and Google’s measuring tools can help advertisers target precise audiences, according to Morgan Stanley.
Key Facts and Figures:
- That’s expected to generate $4 billion in revenue this year and increase five-fold by 2020, Scott Devitt, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a research note.
- “We believe that Google has been aggressively courting video-advertising dollars,” wrote Devitt, who has an overweight, or the equivalent of a buy, on Google stock.
*To view original article from www.bloomberg.com click here.