According to Ars Technica, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has applied for trademark extension relating to gaming. While the folks at Engadget don't want to read too much into it, they can't help but wonder whether "the iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV will soon have even more friends among the company's ever-expanding non-PC ecosystem." Apple shares are up around 1.3% this morning after Citigroup added it to its "Top Picks" list.Hasbro Inc. (NYSE: HAS)'s profit rose 24% to 84 cents per shareas it avoided the lead-paint related recalls that plagued many of its competitors. Wall Street expected the company to report 81 cents per share in the period. Sales climbed 16% to $1.3 billion.
The 2008 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is underway and Garmin (NASDAQ: GRMN) the only working mock-up of its Nuviphone. In addition, eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY)'s Skype was showing its first Skype phone, which is a GSM model that contains new software allowing to make Skype calls over regular cell phone networks.
Bloomberg reports that Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) may eliminate as many as 9,000 more U.S. factory jobs through its latest buyout offers, a person with direct knowledge of the situation said. This is in addition to the 33,600 union workers who left through buyouts and early retirements in 2006 and 2007.
Vodafone Group (NYSE: VOD) said Monday that it has signed a collaboration deal with Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) to develop Vodafone consumer services for the BlackBerry platform.
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has been downgraded from Outperform to Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets according to Briefing.com.
Closing Bell: Economic Catapult for Thanksgiving & Black Friday (WMT, TGT, GRMN, GOOG, MSFT)
Deere up on Q4 earnings performance
Reid Hoffman: LinkedIn will go public (at some point)
