Investments in Mobile Weighed on First-Quarter Margins for Baidu; Shares Undervalued

Chinese search engine Baidu BIDU posted a 40% increase in first-quarter revenue that met our expectations, although margins came under pressure due to aggressive investments in mobile Internet. We believe these strategic investments behind product innovation, engineering talents, network infrastructure, and marketing campaigns are critical to fortifying Baidu’s competitiveness in the fastgrowing mobile Internet space over the longer term. We applaud management’s decision to accelerate … Continue reading Investments in Mobile Weighed on First-Quarter Margins for Baidu; Shares Undervalued

FB Nasdaq FB Facebook

Avon Takes Steps to Enhance its Corporate Governance; Shares Far From a Beauty

Avon Products AVP announced on Friday that independent chairman Fred Hassan would be stepping down immediately in light of ” his other professional commitments” (which presently include working as a managing director and partner at private-equity firm Warburg Pincus, as well as a director at Time Warner TWX and chairman of Bausch and Lomb) . Former Campbell Soup CPB CEO Doug Conant (a director since … Continue reading Avon Takes Steps to Enhance its Corporate Governance; Shares Far From a Beauty