By David Zeiler

Cloud-based computing is shaping up to be a major battleground in the U.S. high-tech sector for the rest of this year, as companies compete to deliver such services as music streaming to consumer-based mobile devices.

And it figures to be a true clash of titans, with such high-tech heavyweights as Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) serving among the major combatants.

And music is just the beginning.

Video streaming will follow quickly, joining such already-common "cloud" applications as file storage and sharing and online photo albums.

For instance, Amazon made an aggressive move right near the end of the first quarter, when it launched its Cloud Drive service. Users can store 5 gigabytes of music and files for free, with additional storage available for a fee - $20 a year

By Leena Rao

AT&T (T) has suddenly realized the power of mobile commerce, most recently partnering with with Placecast to deliver special offers and discounts to consumers via their mobile phones when they are near a participating store or brand. Today, the telecommunications company is announcing a new service, powered by mobile commerce software platform Digby, which helps retailers design, deploy and manage mobile commerce web sites and rich applications optimized for smartphones.

Digby Mobile Commerce from AT&T helps retailers create mobile websites that display rich product images and live catalogs, expands the ways they can buy from merchants and more. Digby also allows retailer to create native applications, and tap into both its mobile barcode service and the ShopAlerts service to

BIDU is on one gargantuan roll. Its stock has soared over 11 fold in less than two years, and its earnings are expected to grow 64% in 2011 (from $1.53 to $2.51) (forward P/E of 57) and 47% in 2012 (from $2.51 to $3.69). Obviously, its growth rate has to slow (it is slated to decrease 1700 basis points in 2012) due to the law of larger numbers, but has this fact been accurately discounted in the current share price?

Probably not, because if you calculate BIDU?s PEG (price earnings to growth) it computes to a lackluster 1.57, using its current trailing P/E of 92 and a very optimistic five year growth rate of 58.47%. Does this growth rate consider the possibilities of Google (GOOG) getting back into the Chinese search fight, an ?earth shaking? political event in China, or even something as basic as a misstep in execution?

A

Although I don?t have a position in Netflix (NFLX), I have been watching how the options have been trading in advance of the company?s next earnings announcement on April 25.

First, here?s a look at the implied volatility (IV) for options on NFLX just before previous earnings announcements based on data from ivolatility.com.

The pink lines show IV for the options closest to expiration with the other lines representing IV for longer-term options. The blue arrows correspond to the earnings announcement date.

As you can see, volatility for options with around 30 days to expiration began to carry a much higher relative premium than options with a longer shelf life as the announcement date grew closer and closer.

After earnings, IV generally fell ? especially for those shorter-term options. This is not an unusual pattern, but it can offer opportunities to use options to establish a position while limiting risk.

"There are no limits under this agreement as to what the company can do in travel search"

-- Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich.

On Friday, the U.S. Dept of Injustice ?allowed? Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) to proceed with their $700 million purchase of ITA Software for its travel reservation capability. This event marks a key turning point for companies competing in the online reservations niche.

With Google?s vast resources, the competitive forces it unleashes in the online reservation sector should ultimately help decrease the cost of online reservations -- not increase them -- as is often the concern among those fond of wielding the antitrust laws.

Why is it that the entrenched incumbents including Expedia, Kayak, and Microsoft are the first to complain that the Google/ITA hookup will result in less competition, when, in fact, a Google entrance into the niche adds competition for them? Could it be they simply don?t want

Yahoo (YHOO), once a leading internet search engine, has lost a lot of luster to competitor Google (GOOG). Another competitor, Microsoft (MSFT), considered buying YHOO for $44.6 billion (approximately $31 a share) back in 2008, but founder Jerry Yang fought off a hostile takeover bid. Since then, the stock has spiraled downward, currently selling for a market cap of $21.96 billion.

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"Someday we'll look back on this and it will all seem funny..."

-Bruce Springsteen, Rosalita

We're not only living through a paradigm shift vis-a-vis how we consume and share "content," we're observing strange days indeed at Netflix (NFLX). Walk through a brief overview of recent developments before we get to the latest news.

• Spending spree Netflix adds cushion to yet another content provider's bottom line, as it continues to execute its seemingly unsustainable business model.
• Google (GOOG) prepares to show off its firepower via YouTube by taking Netflix on headfirst. Hopefully, Google's (GOOG) earnings report this week will shed some light on its strategy.
• Netflix refuses to comment on the departure of its longtime VP of Investor Relations, the woman who might actually be the brainchild of the company's faux earnings calls.

Given Netflix's less-than-stellar history of communicating with investors, it comes as no surprise that we have yet to

Though Priceline (NASDAQ:PCLN) is one of the few names people think for online travel services along with competitors Expedia (NASDAQ;EXPE), Travelocity, and Orbitz (NASDAQ:OWW), air travel bookings make up less than 2% of our $479 Trefis price estimate of Priceline?s stock. The real gem here is hotel bookings which constitutes a dominant 91% of its value.

Priceline is the second largest online travel agency in the world after Expedia in terms of booking volumes. Through its online travel portals such as Priceline.com, booking.com, agoda.com, rentalcars.com, breezenet.com and lowestfares.com, Priceline provides consumers with travel services that include bookings for hotel stays, airline tickets, vacation packages, car rentals and cruises.

Priceline makes money by charging a percentage of the dollar value for bookings. Hence, the factors that drive this division are average airfares (value of bookings), Priceline?s commission (%) on air ticket bookings and the expected future air ticket bookings. Overall air

By Alexia Tsotsis