Apple More Deeply Joins Line Of Shutterfly Threats... More To Come

Shutterfly, Inc. (NASDAQ: SFLY) gets a bash whenever there is news that another player is going to come more into the cloud photo services.  Reports that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is expanding its iCloud services to include more photo sharing features are hurting Shutterfly shares.  The move is only a logical extension when you consider how much sharing takes place.  Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is of course a threat, and the news that hit Shutterfly most recently was Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of Instagram.  Shutterfly investors better not forget about Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) for this effort as well, and then there is the SkyDrive which allows remote photos and data storage services for MSN customers of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT).

The long and short of the matter is that Shutterfly is far better off having paid out literally a few million dollars to acquire the online photo posting service of Eastman Kodak out of bankruptcy court.  This photo sharing business is a competitive one and you have not heard the last of the announcements out there on this front.  The hardest part to consider is just how many of these services are going to make money in the long haul.

Shutterfly shares are down almost 6% at $25.05 against a 52-week range of $21.34 to $64.45.

JON C. OGG