This isn’t necessarily a money-making opportunity for Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG). Building out infrastructure doesn’t come cheap, and offering ridiculous speeds at a low price isn’t going to help Google expand its profit margins.
However, Google Fiber helps keep the broadband industry honest. It makes sure that the cable TV providers that just happen to double as regional Internet companies don’t go crazy with price hikes and bandwidth caps that would price consumers out of the voracious Internet usage that Google needs to make a living.
4. LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) has a Pulse reading
LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) is beefing up its publishing platform.
The leading career-oriented social networking website operator will pay roughly $90 million for Pulse, a fast-growing news reader and mobile content distribution platform.
LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) crossed 200 million registrations earlier this year, and 155 million of those users are active in any given month. The challenge at LinkedIn is to keep people coming back to the site, even if they’re not necessarily looking for work or to fill a job vacancy.
Pulse will help. There are already 30 million registered users of the popular platform that raises the bar in terms of delivering relevant news and information. Some may argue that LinkedIn is overpaying for the young Pulse, but the potential of expanding the platform’s popularity across LinkedIn’s user base is substantial.
It’s a smart deal, because Pulse is worth far more to LinkedIn than it would be on its own.
5. More dashboards for satellite radio
Sirius XM Radio Inc (NASDAQ:SIRI) now has more skin in the used-car market.
The satellite radio monopoly struck a deal with Kia’s stateside subsidiary to offer three free months of Sirius XM service to buyers of pre-owned vehicles that have factory-installed receivers.
Sirius XM Radio Inc (NASDAQ:SIRI) has been striking deals like this for years, and it now has deals in place with 9,000 auto dealerships. It’s a win-win. The car dealer gets a piece of the action, and Sirius XM gets to activate a dormant receiver. Even if the buyer of the secondhand car passes on converting into a paying customer after the trial runs out, Sirius XM will have contact information to reach out for a sale in the future.
Sirius XM is already in good shape, kicking off the year with 23.9 million subscribers. Given the incremental nature of its model, it can never have too many listeners.
The article This Week’s 5 Smartest Stock Moves originally appeared on Fool.com.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Facebook, General Motors, Google, and LinkedIn. The Motley Fool owns shares of Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn.
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