Shares of Autodesk (ADSK) are up 15 cents at $44.54 after the company this afternoon reported fiscal Q1 revenue and earnings ahead of estimates, forecast the current quarter’s EPS a bit on the light side, but also projected full-year revenue slightly above estimates.

Q1 revenue rose 11%, year over year, to $528 million, yielding EPS of 40 cents. Analysts had been expecting $523 million and 37 cents.

The company’s sales in the Americas rose 13%, year over year, while Asia-Pac was up 15%, and 11% excluding currency effects. Europe, the Middle East and Africa revenue was up 8%, but would have been a 10% increase excluding currency effects.

For the current quarter, the company sees revenue of $530 million to $545 million. which is better than the $528 million the Street has been looking for. EPS is expected in a range of 37 cents to 41 cents, below the average 40-cent estimate.

For the full year, Autodesk sees revenue of $2.19 billion, better than the consensus $2.17 billion.

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Folks, it wouldn’t be Tuesday without a massive report on the outlook for tablet computing.

And so, this morning, Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek offers a 115-page note in which he goes through the findings of a survey of 1,400 consumers in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and Asia.

Misek cut his 2011 unit shipment outlook for tablets to 70 million units from 100 million units because he now has a somewhat less enthusiastic view of tablets based on Google’s (GOOG) “Android” operating system, given that the “Honeycomb” version of Android “needed polishing” and given that he believes Android tablets are priced too high to compete with Apple’s (AAPL) iPad and will have to cut prices. Misek thinks there’s little chance PC makers (Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Dell (DELL), among them, I would imagine) will have competitive tablets this year, “due to their dependence on Taiwan ODMs for notebooks.” (Though I would note HP’s CEO Leo Apotheker this morning touted the company’s upcoming “TouchPad” tablet.)

Misek thinks tablets will, indeed, cannibalize PCs, as the survey his firm conducted shows that “production” tasks, such as writing, editing, creating spreadsheets, and editing photos, are done as much on a tablet as on a PC, meaning the tablets are not just for content “consumption,” in his view.

Misek thinks Apple will remain the dominant supplier by a wide margin this year, commanding 64% of tablet shipments, which will make up 20% of Apple’s revenue this calendar year. Research in Motion (RIMM) will have just 1% share this year, and Motorola Mobility (MMI) will have just 2%. Apple next year may hold 41% of shipments, RIM, 1%, and MMI 3%, he thinks.

Misek does not project tablet cannibalization figures, besides saying cannibalization is already evident in Q1′s PC numbers (Again, see HP’s report this morning and some of the commentary from Citigroup.) He argues that developers are already shifting resources to tablet and smartphone software development, which is easier, he opines.

He expects PCs will become servers of a sort, but that they will also adopt various technologies of tablets, and he projects Apple using chips based on ARM Holdings (ARMH) designs in its MacBooks as soon as 2013, a bit of speculation that has been rampant of late.

Two big developments that go hand in hand with tablets, in Misek’s view, are the rise of “super data centers” that will “bring cloud-based services and media to the masses,” and also a surge in wireless and wireline broadband traffic well ahead of current estimates as mobile video becomes “a significant drive of bandwidth usage.”

Perhaps the most suprising element of the consumer survey, Misek notes that China has by far the strongest interest in purchasing tablets, with consumers surveyed in that country suggesting an 80% interest in purchasing tablets, versus just over 40% in North America, 50% in Europe, just under 50% in the Middle East, and about 65% in Asia-Pacific.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

$$$ The death of bin Laden could create even more instability to the Middle East and northern African nations now undergoing turmoil, potentially driving up oil prices and creating more economic strife for the U.S. and other developed countries. “I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but I’m not sure [it is] great,” Ruben Vardanian, chief executive of the Moscow-based asset management company Troika Dialog Group, told a moderator at the Milken Conference. [MarketWatch]

$$$ Debt-Limit Deniers Don’t Buy ’Chicken Little’ Warnings [Bloomberg]

$$$ Buffett [with a 25 pound box of See's peanut brittle] Believes Reputation After Sokol Is Still Intact [Reuters]

$$$ Steve Cohen may pick up $55 million in pocket change on two paintings [Bloomberg]

$$$ Study: Paul Krugman Is America’s Most Correct Columnist [Daily Intel]

$$$ Ex-Lawyer For Kenneth Star Admits Role In Fraud [WSJ]

$$$ Rejecting Wall Street, Business School Graduates Turn To Entrepreneurship [Dealbook]

$$$ Ross Says It `Was Time to Harvest‘ ICG Investment‎ [Bloomberg via WaPo]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Today was the day Research in Motion’s (RIMM) PlayBook tablet computer went on sale, though it was a bit of an under-the-radar affair, to judge from the product placement at some retail outlets I visited in New York.

The good news: some stores seem to be moving units, judging from feedback I got.

I visited a couple of Best Buy stores and a couple of Staples stores in midtown Manhattan, hardly a representative sampling, I know. But what I observed was interesting. Product placement was disappointing in all four cases.

At Best Buy, there was no display, and no signs that I saw. The PlayBook was held by an employee behind the counter, and one had to request to see it. Fortunately, the PlayBook in both stores I went to was running on WiFi and so one was able to test out the Web browsing, etc. Needless to say, with signs and displays and end-caps for everything electronic under the sun, this hush-hush approach was not the best use of Best Buy floor space for RIM. Hopefully, things will get better.

At one of the stores, I was told that the PlayBook was sold out, unless I had pre-ordered. Asked how many units had been sold, the clerk told me, “We had a lot of them.”

Staples had a bit of the opposite problem: their store windows are dressed up with big signs screaming “tablets are here.”  Which is not the best way to get the PlayBook above the fray. In one store I visited, the PlayBook had no network connection, which not only meant it was not much fun to play with, but it also conveyed the impression that some apps were slow or generally unresponsive. I have a feeling that was a result of the device searching for the network connection, not a result of the sluggishness of the device itself.

In other Staples store in midtown, the PlayBook was in the middle of an OS update, downloading code. Thus, there was no using the machine. Perhaps in the middle of the afternoon is not the best time for Staples staff to be updating the machine.

All in all, much to be improved with the PlayBook’s in-store experience. I should point out that it’s not clear what immediate impact this kind of soft debut will have. The Wall Street Journal’s Satish Sarangaranjan and Melissa Korn this afternoon write that RIM said online pre-orders have been “firm.”

Still, the PlayBook has some nices aspects to it, such as a smoothly functioning user interface. It deserved a better coming-out-party, I think.

RIM shares ended the day down $1.61, or 3%, at $53.22.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

Today’s funding announcements include solutions for learning management, private car sales and marketing:

Instructure brings in $8M for online education system: The developer of Canvas, a cloud-based learning management system, has raised a second round of funding from OpenView Venture Partners, EPIC Ventures, TomorrowVentures and Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, peHUB reports. Co-founded in 2008 at Brigham Young University, the company’s system is used by more than 30 educational institutions today, primarily as an alternative to the popular system Blackboard.

CarLotz raises $525K for car sales: The Richmond, Virginia-based company has raised equity funding in its first round, according to a filing with the SEC. Co-founded by three alumni of Harvard Business School, the company was started this year and plans to improve the process of used car sales by owner.

MarketShare raises $32M for marketing analytics: The Los Angeles-based company has raised funding from Elevation Partners to help businesses determine the most effective media mix for marketing investments. The company plans to use the funding in part to fuel strategic acquisitions and expansion into Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Television ad company INVIDI completes $49M round: The developer of addressable advertising solutions has completed its fourth round of funding with participation from DIRECTV. The New York-based company raised the first $23M of its fourth round from Google and several other investors last May. The company’s Avatar software, which allows TV advertisers to deliver targeted messages to households during commercials, will be inside DIRECTV DVR digital set-top boxes starting in 2011.

Companies: CarLotz, directv, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Elevation Partners, Epic Ventures, Google, Instructure, Invidi, MarketShare, OpenView Venture Partners, TomorrowVentures

People: Tim Draper

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

RBC Capital’s Mark Sue, who earlier today cut his price target on Motorola Mobility (MMI) has some cautious words as well for Nokia (NOK). He cut his price target on Nokia shares from $14 to $12, though he maintains an Outperform rating on the stock.

On the plus side, Nokia may beat his own estimate for 106 million units sold in Q1, he writes. However, supply constraints mean the company may fall short of his estimate for 109 million units in Q2, instead delivering 102 million units.

“Things may get better, but it will also take the supply chain quite some time to recover,” from Japan’s disaster, writes Sue. He cut his Q2 EPS estimate to €0.06 per share form €0.11 per share.

Nevertheless, worries about the death of Nokia’s phones based on its Symbian operating system, in advance of the company’s move to Microsoft’s (MSFT) software, are overblown, he believes.

“Despite all of the concerns that consumers will leave the Symbian OS in droves, it just isn’t happening,” writes Sue.

“The vast majority of consumers generally don’t seem overly focused on the device’s operating system, which explains the near-term healthy unit dynamics,” adds Sue.

So far, customers are remaining loyal to the Nokia brand although the situation remains very fluid. In terms of geographic regions, Nokia is seeing healthy demand in most geographies and, surprisingly, we’re not picking up weakness in the Middle East region despite the political turmoil. On a segment basis, however, things are looking a little light for the industry when it comes to feature phones vs. smart phones.

He thinks there’s “a lot of distribution potential” for Nokia, backed by Microsoft’s plan to spend big on brand development, he believes.

Nokia shares today are down 3 cents, or 0.4%, at $8.48.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

According to the PIMCO CEO: “Bill [Gross] and I–we do not consider ourselves elite. In fact, we’d like to be taxed more. I said this even before the Middle East started: It is not in the interest of any society for income inequality to keep on going up. It is in everybody’s interest to avoid the extremes.”

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Intel said today it has bought most of the assets of Cairo-based SySDSoft as part of an effort to move into 4G LTE communications.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The move is a shift for Intel, which has long supported WiMax as a strategic effort in high-speed, long-range wireless internet. But 4G LTE has caught hold, and carriers such as Verizon Wireless are deploying it in the U.S. The deal also shows that multinational companies are ready to place bets on Egyptian talent in the wake of the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

Intel will hire roughly 100 of SySDSoft’s engineers in Egypt. Privately held SySDSoft makes software for embedded wireless systems. Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital, the chip maker’s venture arm, said the acquisition is the first of its kind that Intel’s undertaken in the Middle East. Intel has huge operations in Israel, but not so much in the predominantly Arab countries.

SySDSoft designs software for use in wireless mobile platforms related to technologies such as WiMax, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Wireless USB, CDMA-DO and LTE. SySDSoft will be part of Intel Mobile Communications. Intel still has a lot of WiMax efforts under way.

Tags: 4G LTE, WiMax

Companies: Intel, SySDSoft

People: Arvind Sodhani

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Take your money and light half of it on fire and you’ll get a pretty good idea.

Tepper is seemingly most concerned about developments in the Middle East. He is said to be especially concerned about Saudi Arabia. Sources say if the oil fields in Saudi Arabia are burning, Tepper would react to that by selling and going heavily into cash. In general, he is said to believe if the Middle East blows up, you can lose half your money.

Now, keep in mind that Tepper does well investing counter-intuitively. For example, he is said to currently like airlines stocks even though oil prices are surging. Indeed, last week many airlines announced yet another round of price increases due to the increase in jet fuel prices. He is said to like USAir, UAL and AMR, which he is said to believe can rise as much as 2½ times from current prices if the Middle East does not blow up.

He also believes that if inflation starts to increase, it will result in a flatter stock market. Another bet would be to short Treasuries, provided, again, the Middle East does not blow up.

David Tepper Gets Off To A Good Start [Institutional Investor via BI]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Talking of the wave of governments being challenged in North Africa and the Middle East, Mr Soros said: “What has caused the revolutions is a revulsion against a corruption that is fed by the misuse of natural resources like for instance in Libya. “Transparency and even more importantly accountability in the use of natural resources is what you need for people living in those countries to get the benefit of those national resources. “Libya produced enormous wealth which Gaddafi took as his own and now the people rebelled against it.” Asked whether there should be more transparency with what happened to oil incomes, Mr Soros said: “Very much so.” And he said the US and Europe needed to more actively support the revolutions in Libya and elsewhere so that the new regimes will co-operate with the West. [BBC]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker