24/7 Wall St.

As GM cuts production and Ford becomes a small company, Cramer thinks the US auto industry is fundamentally changing. He thinks Toyota Motor (TM-NYSE/ADR) is the investment in the US. Cramer said it is changing marketing efforts and there is a giant vacuum to fill in more sales with auto production cuts from US auto makers.Toyota is also putting a car into NASCAR, which is very important. He said it is becoming more of an American car company and GM & Ford are essentially surrendering by shrinking their companies.Ford and GM will have made 490,000 fewer cars this year and Toyota will be there to fill in the gap. TM makes 1.5 million cars here and sells 2.5 million cars here. Cramer thinks they’ll be the biggest in America soon. Cramer also said Toyota has created more jobs here than almost anyone.TM closed down 0.7% at $120.88 in regular trading, but traded up 0.4% to $121.30 in after-hours trading. Cramer has been positive on TM for many times, although this was his first recent entire-segment feature on the stock.Jon C. OggNovember 13, 2006

Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) is paying $18.82 cash per share to acquire Golf Galaxy (GGXY). This was just lumped in with DKS earnings release scheduled for today. The deal is valued in the $225 million range, and its market cap as of the close was $172.5 million.Golf Galaxy currently operates 61 stores in 24 states, ecommerce websites and catalog operations, and generated $250 million in sales during the last 12 months ended August 26, 2006.GGXY is trading up 17% at $18.32 in after-hours, and that is after trading down 1% to $15.65 in regular trading. With DKS valued at $2.5 Billion, this is a small and easy deal for the company to digest. DKS traded up 0.3% in regular trading to close at $48.92, but it traded up 3.2% to $50.51 in after-hours trading.Will they keep the name as Golf Galaxy? They probably know that Dick’s Galaxy and Dick’s Golf probably aren’t the two best names.Jon C. OggNovember 13, 2006

Earlier on the STOP TRADING segment on CNBC, Cramer showed 3 ideas for possible buyouts.He thought private equity would possibly consider Cumulus Media (CMLS).Cramer also noted fast food plays Jack in the Box (JBX) and Sonic (SONC) as potential buyout candidates.He also thought private equity would consider TJX Corp (TJX) and Limited (LTD) in retail.Cramer’s only cautious stock was Pepsi (PEP) because of the large exposure to chips and snacks, and said it lost its fizz.Jon C. OggNovember 13, 2006

24/7 Wall St. has just made the Stockpickr Top 100 Business and Financial Blogs list.Thanks to all of our contributors and to Stockpickr.Douglas A. McIntyre

Stocks: (BA)(LMT)(NOC)Investors in defense stocks are shaking in their boots. The concern is that the Democrats who know control both houses of Congress will cut weapons spending and bring back American troops from Iraq. The media has been quick to flag concerns that investors in companies like Lockheed Martin could get hurt.But, fear not. From September 2005 to September 2006, sales agreements with foreign military interests hit $21 billion. That is more than double what it was a year ago. Considering that Lockheed Martin’s total revenue last year was just above $37 billion, and it puts the number in some context. Pakistan place a $5 billion order recently for Lockheed F-16 jets. That’s just one product from one company.Canada and Australia recently ordered C-17 cargo planes from Boeing.There have been bans on selling arms to some overseas countries, but many of those have been lifed. Lockheed, Northrup Grumman, and Boeing will probably benefit from a rise in orders next year that could easily exceed the $21 billion figure for the twelve months ending in September.Lockheed’s stock traded down right after the election.Not to worry.Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Stocks: (T)(VZ)(DT)(BT)(BLS)Deutsche Telekom fired its CEO. The company’s stock has not performed well, but that is only part of the story.The German government owns 33% of DT’s shares, but recently private equity group Blackstone has taken a 4.5% stack. Private equity guys are the smartest people in the room, and they don’t like their reputations hurt by losing money.Deutsche Telekom owns T-Mobile, which has a foothold in the US but is behind Cingular, Verizon, and Sprint in wireless customers.DT also has a big fixed-line business which is falling off like it had been for US telecoms like AT&T. The company also has T-Online which offers VoIP and broadband service.Deutsche Telelom has a market cap of about $75 billion.DT is an international company. According to Morningstar it gets 45% of its revenue from outside its home market and most of that comes from the US.One of the reasons that DT’s CEO was fired is that he has not been quick enough to cut costs. That implies that there is a lot more to be cut. If so, there is a reasonable chance margins could be improved.DT has had a great deal of success cutting debt, as the WSJ has pointed out.There is probably a good chance that Blackstone would like to see some profit out of its investment, and the German government might even go along.There are not a lot of potential buyers. British Telecom? AT&T? Verizon?AT&T has a market cap of $130 billion. The company has already bought BellSouth. It has huge wireless operations in the US, Cingular. These could be combined with T-Mobile.How far-fetched? Ask Blackstone.Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

By William Trent, CFA of Stock Market BeatSometimes what seemed like a good idea yesterday seems like a bad one today. And sometimes people simply forget why they did something in the first place and make efforts to undo what has been done. For better or worse, some are suggesting that may soon happen in the form of a buyout of printer manufacturer Lexmark (LXK) by computer manufacturer Lenovo (LNVGY.PK)Analysts hint at Lenovo buying Lexmark – Finance – www.itnews.com.auPrinter sales in China are growing so strongly that local firms may attempt to buy control of a major foreign printer maker to ensure a stake in the domestic market and a slice of international sales.Sales of laser printers in China are expanding particularly fast, driven by business users, according to recent data from Lyra Research.Total laser revenue, including hardware, cartridges and media, is expected to surpass US$5 billion by 2010.Analysts suggest that a Chinese firm might attempt buy a foreign printer manufacturer to jump-start local printer manufacturing.US printer maker Lexmark is the most commonly named target for such an acquisition attempt.Giant Chinese PC vendor Lenovo is seen as the most likely buyer, perhaps as leader of a consortium, and almost certainly with government support.Lenovo made headlines by buying IBM’s PC division, a deal that was completed 18 months ago. By buying a printer maker, Lenovo could match Hewlett Packard (HPQ) across all product lines. Since printers are generally more profitable than PCs, many consider the printer business to be one of HP’s key competitive advantages.But the funny thing is, such a deal would simply bring Lexmark back to its roots (albeit under new management).According to Lexmark’s website:Since our inception in 1991 as a spin-off of IBM, Lexmark has become a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of printing and imaging solutions for offices and homes. Lexmark’s products include laser printers, inkjet printers, multifunction devices and associated supplies, services and solutions.So Lenovo may end up reuniting Lexmark with its former parent. Whether having a child move back in after 15 years of independence will make for a pleasant family reunion will remain to be seen. The author may hold a position in the securities discussed.The author’s current holdings are as follows: Long: Intuit (INTU) put options; Nasdaq 100 (QQQQ) put options; Bookham (BKHM; Ballard Power (BLDP); Syntax Brillian (BRLC); CMGI (CMGI); Genentech (DNA); Ion Media Networks (ION); Lion’s Gate (LGF); Three Five Systems (TFS); Adobe Systems (ADBE) call options; Ceradyne (CRDN); IShares Japan (EWJ); StreetTracks Gold (GLD); Starbucks (SBUX); U.S. Oil Fund (USO); Plantronics (PLT) call options; Short: Lion’s Gate (LGF) call options; Dell (DELL) put options; Ceradyne (CRDN) call options; Plantronics (PLT) put options.http://stockmarketbeat.com/blog1/

Citigroup’s (C) bid for China’s Guangdong Development Bank has taken an interesting turn: IBM (IBM) has reportedly joined the bidding process for a 5% stake in Citigroup’s venture to acquire the government-owned Chinese bank. Citigroup is seeking to get a combined 85% with its whole group of bidders for what has been noted as some $3 Billion. This would not have been possible in months and years before because of foreign ownership restrictions, but the loosening of financial institution ownership from foreigners was one of the compromises that China had to make to joing the World Trade Organization.So what you have to wonder is just why an IT behemoth would want to own 5% of a Chinese public sector bank. You could draw the anaology that they are trying to conglomerize into more industries, or you can look at what it would gain. If you consider the IT business that is up for grabs in the Chinese and Southeast Asian banking sector it sort of takes a form that can be identified.IBM and S1 (SONE) have a seperate announcement this morning. The two are partnering to offer a “Branch in a Box” solution for banks. This will allow new banks to keep from having a dedicated PC for each employee and they can pare back to virtual PC’s per employee. If this can be determined to be strategic rather than just coincidental, then you begin to see what IBM is thinking. If it takes a stake in an ailing public-to-private bank, then maybe they can get a foothold for more and more banking IT contracts and even get this “Branch in a Box” rolled out in China.This looks like it is more of a strategic play for the IT-side of the business rather than anything sinister like IBM changing from International Business Machine to International Banking Monster. So for now, this looks like IBM is just trying to make a small investment to secure more of a foothold into larger banking and financial institution IT contracts in China and Southeast Asia.Jon C. OggNovember 13, 2006

(CCU) Clear Channel indicated up as bids for company ar reportedly due today.(CHINA) CDC Corp announced sale of $168 million in convertible notes.(CSCO) Cisco Systems is acquiring private Greenfield Networks for its packet processing circuits that power next generation metropolitan area networks.(DT) Deutsche Telekom names new CEO.(DVAX) Dynavax announced positive study results in Ragweed treatment.(EBHI) Eddie Bauer gets $9.25 buyout from Eddie B Holdings.(ELNK) Earthlink filed to sell $225M in notes.(EMC) EMC filed to sell $3B in notes.(FVRL) Favrille announced positive lymphoma study results.(GE) GE signed a global alliance pact for nuclear power plants and services with Hitachi (HIT).(HYTM) Hythiam noted cautiously in barron’s.(ISIS) ISIS Pharma trading up over 20% after positive drug data on injectable cholesterol treatments for once/week treatment.(KBH) KBHomes CEO resigns after options backdating.(KNOT) Theknot.com $0.11 EPS vs $0.10e; R$18.5M vs $17.8M(e).(MA) MasterCard has a shot for a triple in 2 years according to Cramer on MAD MONEY.(MOT) Motorola signed pact to sell 12 million cell phones in China in 2007 with China Tel.(NAHC) Nat’l Atlantic Holdings $0.38 EPS vs $0.33e.(NRGN) Neurogen started Phase I trials for human obesity.(NVS) Novartis delays 3 month approvalfor Galvus for diabetes.(POOL) SCP Pool announced $100 million for share buybacks.(PPD) Pre-Paid Legal announced it repurchased 500K shares from insiders.(PRFT) Perficient filed to sell 1.3M shares for holders.(RIV) Riviera Holdings gets $21.00 buyout proposal.(SLXA) Solexa is being acquired by Illumina (ILMN) for $14 per share in stock for stock deal.(SNIC) Sonic Solutions gets DVD integration for future Wii units from Nintendo.(SUNN) Suntron settled litigation with Applied materials.(TARO) Taro Pharma received marketing approval in the UK for Etopan(TRB) Tribune may even get a bid from Hank Greenberg formerly of AIG according to NYTimes.(TRMP) Trump Entertainment has a good shot for investors and traders alike according to Cramer on MAD MONEY.(TSN) Tyson Foods -$0.15 EPS vs -$0.04e,although that number included charges.(WNR) Western Refining $1.30 EPS vs $0.75e; unsure if comparable.(WYNN) Wynn Resorts noted positively in Barron’s.(UAUA) United Airlines could be subject of an LBO according to Tribune.(ZGEN) Zymogenetics reports positive Phase Ib results at the rheumatology conference with Serono (SRA).

After Microsoft w=has adopting a business model that may cut music companies in on the sale of its Zune hardware along with the traditional cut of content fees, the big software company is pushing another feature to grab share from Apple.The Zune has the capacity to locate other Zunes and then share files with them wirelessly. The iPod cannot make this claim nor can any of its other rivals. The technology draws on features from Microsoft’s earlier development of the Xbox game platform.Many in the portable media player industry have written off the Zune as an expensive endeavor from Microsoft which is doomed to fail because of the iPod’s huge distribution base. Of course, a similar case could be made regarding Japanese cars entering the US market in the 1960s.Microsoft is changing the paradigm of what a portable music player can do and how its content partners can profit. This, at the very least, will put pressure on Apple to consider what it must do to keep its lead. As an analyst from Jupiter Media pointed out to BusinessWeek recently: “Close ties to the music industry could pay off for Microsoft in the short term with exclusive record industry deals. Companies such as Universal, for example, may grant Microsoft the rights to offer new releases earlier than rival services.”At this point, with Microsoft’s marketing muscle behind it, the Zune may be changing the landscape for multimedia devices just enough to become successful and bleed Apple in the process.Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.