Rough Patch Continues for Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners

Barry Rosenstein Trims Stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

– Shares Owned by JANA Partners (as of June 30): 513,681
– Value of JANA Partners’ Holding (as of June 30): $355.52 Million

The New York-based activist hedge fund owned 513,681 Class C shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) at the end of the second quarter, 120,275 shares less than at the end of the second quarter. The position was worth $355.52 million on June 30 and made up 6.1% of the hedge fund’s entire portfolio. Alphabet’s Google has recently released a new app, called Duo, which is set to challenge Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s FaceTime. Duo, available for iOS and Android, is a simple app for placing video calls between smartphones. The tech giant hopes to make Duo the main video calling app on Android smartphones and turn one-on-one face-to-face calls into a more frequent and natural form of communication. However, without text messaging and group chats, Duo may not be as useful as rival apps. Alphabet has seen its market cap jump by around 3% since the beginning of the year. Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital LLC reported owning nearly 884,000 Class C shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its latest 13F filing.

Rosenstein Reduces Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Position

– Shares Owned by JANA Partners (as of June 30): 6.90 Million
– Value of JANA Partners’ Holding (as of June 30): $352.99 Million

Barry Rosenstein’s asset management firm cut its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1.73 million shares during the April-June period to 6.90 million shares. The position was worth $352.99 million at the end of June, constituting 6.0% of the fund’s portfolio. Just recently, Microsoft agreed to acquire Beam, a Seattle-based interactive game streaming service that enables viewers to play along with streamers as they watch. Hence, the Xbox maker is making an aggressive move into the live game streaming market, posing a serious threat to services like Twitch and YouTube. In mid-June, Microsoft agreed to acquire professional social networking company LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE:LNKD) for $26.2 billion in cash or $196 per share. The multi-billion-dollar deal is anticipated to close by the end of the current calendar year without facing any regulatory hurdles. Microsoft shares are 3% in the green thus far in 2016. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management was the owner of 18.30 million shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) at the end of the second quarter.