Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) opening its Nest platform to outside developers is good but not enough to buy the stock while Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) CEO Marissa Meyer slighting marketing professionals by sleeping is embarrassing, Michael Robinson said in a recent discussion with Stuart Varney on Fox Business Network.
The discussion comes after Google Inc’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Nest Labs revealed that it is opening its platform to outside developers. The move is largely seen as the Google business wanting its platform to become the de facto platform for devices in the booming internet of things industry.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) announced earlier this year that it will buy Nest Labs for $3.2 billion in cash. The company, through Nest Labs, plans to acquire Dropcam Inc. for $555 million.
According to Robinson, the new development with Nest Labs is a step in the right direction. However, he does not believe that it is enough of a reason to buy Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock at the moment. He explained:
“Nest right now is two things primarily. It has a smoke and carbon dioxide alarm and this very intelligent thermostat which, by the way, I have and use. The big battle here is for what I call the internet of everything, it’s also called the internet of things. That is going to be, throughout the global supply chain of the world, roughly $14 trillion in profits over the next 15 to 20 years. This is the big thing. Google is opening up Nest so you can have thousands of developers writing apps. The battle here is to come up with some sort of an operating system that can control multiple objects through one interface…I like Google overall. This particular move right now is a move in the right direction and I like the way they’re taking the fight out there [regarding] the internet of everything but I wouldn’t buy Google today just because of this move by Nest.”
Meanwhile, Robinson also discussed the recent news that Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer failed to meet with big-name media buyers and advertising executives because she slept.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, people familiar with the matter said that Mayer was hours late to a dinner party Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) organized in order to explain to executives from marketers such as Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ), brewer MillerCoors and Greek yogurt maker Chobani what the company can offer them. Furthermore, these sources told the publication that several people in the dinner including IPG Chief Executive Michael Roth left before Mayer arrived late.
Robinson said that this incident about the Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) boss is embarrassing. Furthermore, he said that this was a bad opportunity for Mayer to miss. He told Varney:
“That’s a really embarrassing [incident]. It’s one of those anxiety dreams you have where you think you’re actually going to be late for a job interview or you’re going to sleep through the final and it actually happened to her. The timing was really bad. She has done a good job with Yahoo. The stock is off substantially this year but over the last year or so, she has made a lot of the right moves with mobile, growth in search and so forth. [This has] undermined her credibility to a large extent. No one’s talking about the improvement in search, everyone’s talking about how she fell asleep and missed a key dinner meeting.”
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Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shareholders include the hedge fund Valiant Capital managed by Christopher R. Hansen which reported 94,024 shares in the internet giant by the end of the first quarter of the year. Another shareholder is John Osterweis’ Osterweis Capital Management which reported 89,917 shares in the company during the same period.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) investors includes Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management which had 853,677 shares in the company by the end of March. Another investor is Richard Driehaus’ Driehaus Capital which reported 844,063 shares in the company by the end of the first quarter of this year.
Disclosure: None
