Samsung Wins Big, Yahoo Flails: Tech News for Jan 24 2017

Written by Mike Olsen

Samsung’s huge quarter, more Yahoo missteps and some scary news if you care about net neutrality. It’s in the tech news for Jan 24 2017 ..

aNewDomain — Yahoo, Samsung and Google dominate today’s tech news. Let’s dive in.

tech news for jan 24 2017Well, you already know that Yahoo can’t catch a break.

Normally, when a company beats earning expectations, they enjoy a good news cycle for at least a day. Not Yahoo.

Yahoo reported $1.47 billion revenue in the fourth quarter, a fifteen percent increase from the previous year, beating Wall Street’s estimate of 1.38 billion.

Yet despite the good financials, other issues loom. In a statement today, Yahoo pushed back the closing date of the Verizon acquisition.  “Given work required to meet closing conditions, the transaction is now expected to close in Q2 of 2017.”

The delay in closing the deal could agitate already jittery investors and further jeopardize the mega deal.

It sure doesn’t help that the SEC is reportedly investigating how Yahoo handled two giant data breaches.

Samsung: We’re Fine. Thanks for Asking

Samsung Mobile President DJ Koh

Samsung Mobile President DJ Koh

A day after Samsung released its findings into last year’s exploding Note 7 fiasco, Samsung announced a massive fourth quarter.

Profits jumped 50% from the same quarter a year ago, resulting in the best quarter in three years.

Samsung should be feeling pretty good today with its financial successes and a well-received press event detailing its battery investigation.

In fact, it’s good enough to stick with the Note name for the next iteration of its flagship phablet.

Read my analysis of Samsung’s investigation into exactly what caused the failing and/or combusing Note 7 batteries —  here.

And in other news …

As usual, a plethora of Google news today. Long ignored Google Voice gets and update and a promise of future updates. All Chromebooks released in 2017 and beyond will come with Android Apps.

Google rehires a certain AI expert; Android instant apps begin testing.

And finally, do you care about an open and equal internet? Yes? Thenthis should scare the hell out of you.

There’s only one thing to do, you know. Get involved.

For tech news throughout the day, follow me on Twitter.

For aNewDomain, I’m Mike Olsen.

Cover image of Morning Tech Report with Mike Olsen and all screenshots: Mike Olsen.