First off, most people want (and need) the mobility of reading books, magazines, and papers away from their computer..so this stuff won't go online. We read books, magazines and papers everywhere...planes, trains, parks, beaches, bed, bathroom, classrooms, offices, couch, etc. We want it in our hot little hand...the lighter and smaller (within reason) the better.

Sybase, Inc. (SY) provides enterprise and mobile software solutions for information management, development, and integration worldwide. Its Infrastructure Platform Group segment offers Adaptive Server Enterprise, a relational data management platform for mission-critical transactions.

My weekly stock pick this week is a long position candidate. Tuckcell Telecom (TKC).

Openwave (OPWV) this morning warned that first quarter revenue would be $58 million, below the Street consensus of $63.9 million. The company blamed the shortfall on “a reduction in maintenance and support revenue.” Openwave expects to report a non-GAAP loss for the quarter of 4 cents a share; the Street had been looking for a loss of 3 cents.

Ofcom sold 11 LPGSM licences for quite low prices, to an eclectic range of companies, from BT (BT) and C&W though to Swedish operator Spring and some very random ones like Philippines Long Distance Telecom.

In an FMC world, if you don't have a SIM in everything that you connect to the network (phones, PC, TV etc), does it still make sense to have a SIM in anything?A discussion I had recently with a company called Blueslice (which primarily makes advanced variants of HLRs for mobile networks) has sparked off a revision of my thoughts.

Ericsson (ERIC) takes every opportunity to talk it up, insisting that it will drive IMS business cases, be usable over everything from DSL to HSPA to LTE, will help operators defend against 3rd-party VoIP, and may even itself be a developer platform. But if you haven't heard of it before, I wouldn't be at all surprised. Almost nobody has. I ask plenty of people who should have heard of it - operator applications people, interoperability bodies like the MSF who work on IMS interconnection, a variety of SBC vendors, VoIP specialists, handset platform providers. Almost universally, I get blank stares when I ask "what do you think of MMTel?".

Westwind Partners analyst Kris Thompson considers the sell-off an early Christmas present for investors and reiterated his C$6 price target.

Vimpel-Communications (VIP), Russia's second-largest wireless carrier, has agreed to acquire Golden Telecom (GLDN), a Russian broadband and fixed-line operator, for around $4.24B, or $105/share. The deal represents a 5% premium over Golden's Thursday Nasdaq close. The two companies disclosed they were in talks on Dec. 3. VimpelCom said it will commence a tender offer on or before Jan. 18, to acquire 100% of Golden's outstanding shares. The boards of both companies unanimously approved the transaction.

Novatel (NVTL) and Sierra Wireless (SWIR) produce wireless datacards, usb modems, and embedded wireless modules in PCs to connect to carrier networks. They have enjoyed favorable pricing and strong margins as their stocks have run up over the last year. The bear case had always been that larger competitors would enter the market and price them out.

Here at Israel Opportunity Investor we continue to be positive about the technology and the two major Israeli players, Alvarion and Ceragon Networks (CRNT).

New CEO Dan Hesse said his first priority will be to tackle the customer-service problems and customer defections that have plagued the company in the past year saying, "I read the magazines and Consumer Reports like everyone else." Good!

Research In Motion's (RIMM) Blackberry has long been the corporate phone of choice, but a report in Canada's Globe and Mail says the company has launched an important move to grab market share in the consumer cell phone segment in the U.S. Consumer-geared versions of the Blackberry, such as the Pearl, already contribute about 30% of RIMM's revenue. Now the company is looking to strengthen its foothold by releasing a touch screen phone that resemble's Apple's hugely-successful iPhone, as well as a new version of the Pearl that will offer a QWERTY-like keyboard, according to a research note by GMP Securities analyst Ray Sharma. Also, the company opened its first retail outlet last week in a suburb of Detroit. Sharma sees February as an early release date for the new phones, although he says it is not yet definite the phones will go into production. Increased costs will come with the new source of revenue, including manufacturing, tech support, and sales force education. "It's much more expensive," Info-Tech Research Group analyst Michelle Warren said. "But it opens up the market for them and they are in a position where they can expand their offerings." RIMM will release earnings late Thursday. Shares of Research In Motion gained 1.4% to $102.13.

GSCO reiterates their Buy rating on STAR shares as they believe investors are overreacting to the potential longer-term competitive threat from Huawei. Firm continues to believe that Starent's competitive position remains strong given its ability to perform complicated services such as deep packet inspection with high throughput capability.

Among the publicly traded or otherwise noteworthy bidders:

Expectations for Cergaon were tempered in the 3rd quarter when Sprint (NYSE: S) called a time-out for its large WiMAX network rollout plans in the U.S. Many investors had bet that Ceragon would be the beneficiary of such business. In the wake of news about recession and the future for WiMAX, investors who had bid up Cergaon 300% or so this year are clearly selling. We’ve had a large pullback, but the stock is still up 80% for 2007.

Applied Signal Technology, Inc. (APSG)

F4Q07 Earnings Call

December 18, 2007 5:00 pm ET