A Big iPad, BK's Most Taxing Issue & Other Stories You Need to Know

BIGGER IS BETTER? — Apple is reportedly planning to unveil a large iPad to shake up its second-most-important product line (after the iPhone), sales of which, in recent quarters, have declined. Among the outlets spreading this word is Bloomberg, to whom "people with knowledge of the matter" tell Tim Culpan, Adam Satariano and Ian King that Apple has been working with suppliers for about a year on a new 12.9" model. Taken with previous reports that Apple was coming out with two larger iPhones, this would represent a shift in tactics for the company, which seldom leads from behind: Samsung (among others) have had success with both larger smartphones and tablets for years. But beyond evolving consumer tastes, Bloomberg notes that larger tablets — with split screens, also rumored — would be welcome in the enterprise. And, purely out of coincidence:

In July, Apple unveiled a partnership with International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), and Cook said part of the pact’s rationale was to sell to corporations so they could “be a catalyst for future iPad growth.”

The idea is to re-imagine hardware as ways of working evolve. Hybrids — with detachable, multi-touch screens, like Microsoft's Surface and Dell's XPS 12 — are attacking this from one direction. But what if a keyboard were barely necessary for most tasks? Between more robust voice input like Siri, Cortana and Google Now, and comfortably large touch screens with pop-up virtual keyboards, it may be that simple — like bigger — is also better. And maybe that's why Apple CEO Tim Cook told Walt Mossberg at <re/code> he thinks that "what's going on" in tablet sales is "a speed bump, and we've seen that in every category."

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THE BREAKFAST CLUB — There may be some serious tax benefits to Burger King's decision to domicile in Canada with its acquisition of Tim Hortons, as Bloomberg View's Matt Levine brilliantly and amusingly details. But in this second news cycle — third, if you count the leaks the day before the formal announcement — a different, more traditional story is emerging: Burger King's youthful CEO, Daniel Schwartz just wants to take over the world. As Neil Munshi in the Financial Times (subscription required) notes, this puts him more in the company of high-tech whiz kids than stodgy food industry CEOs:

His youth makes him an outlier among leaders of major US companies, sharing more in common with his tech industry counterparts, such as 30 year-old Mark Zuckerberg, than with the chief executives of rival fast-food chains.

Besides that fun atmospheric, this is beginning to look like a deal that wasn't driven (or deterred, either) by tax consequences. Tim Hortons took out McDonalds in Canada more than a decade ago. In most places where they compete McDonald's beats Burger King at breakfast. This is a big opportunity to buy major cred in a niche BK can stand to grow. Per the FT:

"Our phones are already ringing off the hook to take this great brand [Tim Hortons] around the world,” Mr Schwartz said on a media call.

So, even though BK and TH will continue to be independently operated as separate brands, BK's holding company, BG Global, gets to reap, expand and — read that Matt Levine piece slowly and carefully — do it all with some intriguing tax advantages. It may just be a win-win proposition, not a dastardly, unpatriotic scheme to become a tax exile.

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THE FRIENDLY SKIES — Here's a man-bites-dog story: RyanAir is eliminating a fee. Specifically, the no-frills airline is dropping bag check-in fees for some fares, Conor Humphries writes for Reuters. The idea is to woo more business travelers, who "who have tended to shun the airline," he writes. "The customer experience had a few rough edges that needed to be knocked off and we've done that," Chief Marketing Officer Kenny Jacobs told Reuters.

Ryanair says there are limits to its transformation and it has no plans to extend free luggage to other fares or to introduce free food or lounge access to business passengers. "Customers aren't that interested in bad coffee, soggy sandwiches and a curtain across the aircraft," Jacobs said.

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NOW, YOU SEE IT — Famed VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has agreed to invest in Snapchat at a $10 billion valuation, according to various reports. Not bad for a company with no revenue, but hardly unprecedented in tech, especially in the red-hot mobile messaging space. Who can forget Facebook's $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp? As Evelyn M. Rusli and Douglas MacMillan write in the Wall Street Journal, Snapchat "is in the process of raising a large investment round that would make it one of the world's most valuable private tech startups despite virtually no revenue." Earlier this year, Russian investment firm DST Global invested in Snapchat a $7 billion valuation, two of the WSJ sources said. OK, so messaging is all that. But why is Snapchat worth a nuclear submarine to savvy investors? As Mark Hull wrote when WhatsApp changed hands:

Mobile messaging is table stakes for any consumer internet company. Desktop IM clients won't cut it. Email is a dying vehicle. To grab hold of your best chances for growth and engagement, companies will need to have a global mobile messaging strategy that brings members back everyday. Otherwise social sites may become simply a place to make introductions -- after which you'll use messaging apps and new communication forms to build and maintain that relationship for the duration.

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Photo: creative commons licensed (BY-SA) flickr photo by mikelo and picjumbo