Code/red: Samsung's JK Shin Keeps Job He Was Supposed to Lose

// HAPPENING TODAY

• Cyber Monday (to be followed by Consumer Regret Tuesday).
• Amazon’s annual number-free press release proclaiming that — just like last year and the year before it — sales of the Kindle portfolio over Thanksgiving weekend were the best ever.

You’re Losing Your Job … JK!

JK Shin, embattled co-CEO of Samsung Electronics, isn’t going anywhere, despite recent speculation that he would be pushed aside amid growing concerns about the company’s slowing smartphone business. The South Korean company said this morning that Shin, who oversees its underperforming mobile division, will remain in his current role. This despite continuing declines in Samsung’s share of the smartphone market and profoundly disappointing sales of the company’s flagship handset, the Galaxy S5. Evidently, S5 sales that were 40 percent lower than expected — and a global smartphone market share that slipped to 24.7 percent in the third quarter from 35 percent a year earlier — were easier to overlook than one would think.

AAPLSauce

Investors took Apple on an inexplicable trip to the woodshed Monday morning, causing its stock to suffer what appears to be its biggest intraday fall since January. Apple shares fell more than six percent in early trading before recovering a bit. The reason for the sudden sell-off? No one seems to know. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

Microsoft’s Fait Acompli

Microsoft has indeed acquired mobile email startup Acompli, just as it said it would in that unfinished blog post it accidentally published last week.

How Much for a Monthly Subscription to Thin Mints?

The Girl Scouts of the USA are about to make your annual Thin Mint binge a hell of a lot easier. After nearly a century of peddling Girl Scout Cookies in person, the organization is taking its fundraising effort online, allowing Scouts to accept orders via email and over the Web.

Massive Demand Expected for Apple Product No One Has Used

Apple hasn’t yet brought its Apple Watch wearable to market, nor has it disclosed pricing for the device beyond an entry-level $349, but it’s going to sell a ton of them regardless. This according to UBS, which sees significant consumer interest in the Apple Watch ahead of its 2015 debut. The research outfit surveyed 4,000 people across four countries, and found 10 percent of them “very likely” to buy a smartwatch. Extrapolating from that, UBS figures that Apple could sell 24 million Apple Watches in the device’s first nine months of availability.

And if Amazon’s Robot Army Ever Gets Ahold of Those Prime Air Delivery Drones — God Help Us All

Andrea Chang, Los Angeles Times: “This holiday season, Amazon’s little helper is an orange, 320-pound robot called Kiva. The robots — more than 15,000 of them companywide — are part of Amazon’s high-tech effort to get orders to customers faster.”

Off Topic

Bad Lip Reading: “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”.

Thanks for reading. Send tips, comments, Off Topics and shark cat illustrations to John@recode.net, @johnpaczkowski. Subscribe to the Code/red newsletter here.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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