Technology Roundup – Intel’s stock of PC processors led to Q4 market share gains over AMD; Box acquiring DocuSign competitor SignRequest for $55 million

Published on: February 4, 2021
Author: Amy Liu

Intel’s stock of PC processors led to Q4 market share gains over AMD

AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) lost PC market share in Q4 2020 for the first time since 2017, according to Mercury Research’s CPU market share data.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) gained market share in notebook PCs for the first time since the firm started tracking the segment in early 2018.

Overall x86 CPUs (desktop units) increased 20% in the quarter. But AMD’s desktop unit share dropped from 20.1% in Q3 to 19.3% in Q4. The company’s mobile market share fell from 20.2% to 19%. But in servers, a critical market for Intel, AMD picked up some market, moving from 6.6% to 7.1%.

Backdrop: The Q4 PC environment had record high shipments due to the continuing work and learn from home shifts and the holiday season.

AMD’s market share losses are likely tied to supply constraints due to supply chain issues rather than demand problems. AMD expects the tightness to continue through H1 until foundry partner TSMC can bring additional foundry capacity online.

Intel’s products were widely available in Q4 and selling at a discount.  And Intel signaled an increase for its lower-end processors, like those for Chromebooks, in the holiday quarter.

Box acquiring DocuSign competitor SignRequest for $55 million

Box (NYSE:BOX) has entered a definitive agreement to acquire cloud-based electronic signature company SignRequest for $55M. The deal is expected to close in Box’s fiscal Q1, which ends on April 30.

After the deal closes, SignRequest will become a wholly owned subsidiary and its tech will be integrated to launch a Box Sign product this summer.

“The past year has fundamentally shifted the way we work, pushing businesses to move critical processes to the cloud. Streamlining digital transactions is integral to digitizing business and the e-signature category is ripe for disruption. We’re thrilled to welcome SignRequest to our team,” says Box CEO Aaron Levine.

Box shares are up 1.3% to $18.49. E-signature company DocuSign (NASDAQ:DOCU) is up 0.8%.

Last month, D.A. Davidson hit the sidelines on Box, citing low purchase intention in the firm’s CIO survey.

Amazon CEO transition overshadows holiday strength – sell-siders boost price targets

Susquehanna maintains a Positive rating on Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and raises the price target from $4,000 to $5,200 (54% upside), citing the “huge holiday season driven by e-commerce.”

Analyst Shyam Patil says Amazon’s business trends “remain strong and should continue to do so in 2021,” noting that paid user growth was up 47% Y/Y in Q4, which shows the accelerating e-commerce shift.

The Q1 outlook was “nicely above expectations for revenue and profitability.”

Patil: “Ultimately, we see AMZN as a long-term secular grower whose leadership in its three key markets – eCommerce, cloud, and advertising – should emerge even stronger coming out of the pandemic.” .

More action: JPMorgan (Overweight) ups Amazon’s PT from $4,155 to $4,400, saying the “excellent” Q4 results were overshadowed by the CEO transition. The firm is nervous about Andy Jassy’s lack of retail experience and wonders what the move might mean for a potential Amazon Web Services spinoff, but ultimately thinks the transition won’t change much at the company.

Amazon shares are up 2.5% pre-market to $3,459.96.

In the Q4 earnings release, Jeff Bezos announced he would step down with AWS head Andy Jassy tapped to take the reins.

Technology