Monthly Archives: December 2006

Problems With The BusinessWeek Top Tech Growth List: Qualcomm (QCOM)

Once a year, BuinessWeek publishes it Tech’s Hot Growth Company list with 50 corporations making the cut. Most belong, but a few of the companies aren’t candidates for a list like this.

The list itself is probably generated by computer using stat ranges supplied by the editors.

Qualcomm made the cut although its total return was a negative eighteen percent. It stock was also hammered. On a 52-week high/low of $53.10/$32.75, it recently traded at $36.59. Doesn’t look much like "growth".

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: December 31, 2006 – 3:55 pm in Wireless

Problems With The BusinessWek Tech Growth List: Motorola (MOT)

BusinessWeek puts together a list of the Top Tech Growth Companies each year. Fifty firms make the list. Most of the companies belong, but a few seem decidely out of place.

The project appears to be generated by computer before reviewed by humans.

They might have teken Motorola off the list. The company had a negative seven percent total return for the year and profits dropped 2%. The stock belonged on the list last year, but not for 2006.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: December 31, 2006 – 3:46 pm in Telecom

Problems With The BusinessWeek Tech Hottest Growth Companies: Sandisk (SNDK)

With the help of McGraw-Hill unit Comstat, BusinessWeek picks 50 companies for its Tech’s Hottest Growth list. A computer probably does the initial screening. But, whoever reviews it ought to pull some of the firms off.

Sandisk is a prime example. Total annual return is a negative 13%. The stock trades at about $44 down from a 52-week high of $79.80. Where’s the growth there?

Opps.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: December 31, 2006 – 10:11 am in Semiconductor

Problems With The BusinessWeek Tech Growth List: Sprint/Nextel (S)

BusinessWeek has an annal Tech’s Hottest Growth Companies list. Fifty corporations make the cut. The initial list is probably generated by computer and then reviewed by humans, but how some firms make the list is a great mystery.

Take Sprint/Nextel. A negative 14% return to investors over the last year. A profit drop of 27%. At $19.50, the stock trades near the lower end of its 52-week price range.

Opps.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: December 31, 2006 – 10:05 am in Wireless

Problems With The BusinessWeek Tech List: Yahoo! (YHOO)

BusinessWeek runs an annual Tech’s Hot Growth Companies. The list of 50 companies is probably generated by computer and then reviewed by the editor’s, but how some of the candidates make the list, especially with flagging returns, is a great mystery.

Yahoo! is on the list, and does not belong by almost any standard. The company’s total return for the year was off 33%. Profits fell 26%. On a 52-week high/low of $43.66/$22.65, the stock now trades at $27.

Opps

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: December 31, 2006 – 9:52 am in Internet

Barron’s Digest January 1, 2007 Issue

Home Deport and Lowe’s  (HD)(LOW) may be ready for their shares to move up. Both companies still have a great deal of cash. WIth below market P/Es any good news in the housing market could help lift both firm’s shares.

Safeway’s stock is up 48% over the last year on improvements in many of its stores. (SWY) Its P/E is not higher than rival Kroger’s (KR) and Supervalu (SVU) The rivals are not replicating the Safeway formula, and that could hurt the stock.

Great Plains Energy  (GXP) is getting big rate increases from customers while meeting a growing electricty demand in the MidWest. With its large dividend, some investors see the stock going up as much as 13% over the next year.

Large corporations that give goods to charity can build stronger relationships with customers. The 15 largest companies in terms of value of donations in 2005 were:  Pfizer (PFE), Merck (MRK), Bristol-Myers (BMY), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Microsoft (MSFT), Time Warner (TWX), Wal-Mart (WMT), Altria (MO), GE (GE), IBM (IBM), Target (TGT), Safeway (SWY), Exxon (XOM), Bank of American (BAC), and Citigroup (C).

The new AT&T (merger of AT&T and BellSouth) (T)(BLS) may be much larger that Verizon (V), but its will rely on a conmination of optical fiber and cooper to deliver voice, video and internet. Verizon will use only new fiber. Cable companies do not see the older AT&T plaform as much of a threat. AT&T has relied to DirecTV and Echostar to help (DISH)(DTV) deliver TV but those companies may become competitors over time.AT&T’s core voice products are being attacked by successful VoIP products from companies like Comcast (CMCSA), and the cable unit of Time Warner (TWX). Future gains in A&T stock may be very tough to come by.

The markets believed that the new Microsoft Vista OS (MSFT) would drive demand for DRAM chips because it uses more memory that its predecessor. But, most of the upswing in purchase of these chips is now in the past. And, that could hurt some stocks in the sector: Micron (MU), Quimonda (QI), Samsung, and Hynix.

Barron’s picked the stocks from the S&P 500 that have had dividend gains each year over the last 25 and have high investment grades ratings: Abbot Labs, Altria, Archer-Daniels, Automatic Data, Bank of America, BB&T, Becton, Dickinson, CenturyTel, Chubb, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, Lowe’s, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Regions Financial, Target, VF, Walgreen, Wal-Mart, Wrigley, and W. W. Grainger.

Insider buying and selling varied by industry in 2006. Software companies had a lot of sellers including Microsoft (MSFT), Oracle (ORCL), and Google (GOOG). Selling was also substantial in telecom including management from Qwest (Q), Time Warner Cable (TWTC), and Verizon (VZ). In the finance sector many insiders were buyers includig management at  First Horizon (FHN), Jefferies (JEF), and Alesco (AFN).  Reit purchase by management were also notable lead by Extra Storage Space ((EXR) and U Store It  (YSI).

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: December 31, 2006 – 8:42 am in Press Digest

Wal-Mart Gets Coal For Xmas (WMT)

Wal-Mart had slightly better than expected same-store sales in December, up 1.6%. It did not matter much. The performance was dismal.

Research firm Retail Metrics said that overall retail sales rose 4.6% if Wal-Mart’s figures are taken out. It is some measure of how badly things are going at the world’s largest retail chain.

It would be tempting to read something into the figures being better than expected, but the margin is small. It would appear that it is not likely that there will be any significant move up in the numbers in the first part of 2007.

The only headline here is that Wal-Mart’s problems are not getting better.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: December 30, 2006 – 6:51 pm in Retail

The Feds Case Against Jobs (AAPL)

Now that Apple’s board has cleared Steve Jobs of wrong-doing in the Apple back-dating probe, the feds may want a swing at the pinata.

Why? Well, for one, as Professor David Yermack pointed out to The Wall Street Journal, Apple’s board admitted that there had been a problem with Mr. Jobs:  "They have pretty much admitted that he was directly involved in a fraud."

The second, and more compelling issue is that Mr. Jobs got restricted shares for his backdated options. Although the options were turned back to the company and not exercised, he did have a gain. Or as Bill Alpert at Barron’s writes: "Because Steve Jobs got his restricted shares in exchange for the backdated options (and some other options), I have trouble swallowing the Apple claim that Jobs got no benefit from the falsely valued options grant."

The board at Apple has good reason to do what it can to preserve the status of Jobs as CEO of Apple. Not so at the SEC and Justice Department.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasacmcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: December 30, 2006 – 2:02 pm in Hardware

YouTube Bites Google (GOOG)

There’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip. YouTube’s antipiracy software is not ready. As time passes the purchase of the video-sharting site begins to look more and more like Ebay purchase of Skype. They are expensive toys with lots of users and little revenue.

There has been concern for some time that content owners might go after Google’s large bank account because YouTube is used a platform for distribution of expensive content from studios and TV networks. The content companies do not get a dime.

With antipiracy software in place, Google had hoped to sign licensing deals that would bring it revenue for distribution which would be shared, in turn, with the content owners.

So far, no such luck. As the Financial Times writes: "Failure to build adequate systems to protect copyright owners could also add to the risk of legal action against the site."

If the priracy matter persists into the new year, Google will have to get itself a legion of attorney’s to go along with investor questions of why it paid $1.6 billion for YouTube.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: December 30, 2006 – 11:40 am in Internet

Chrysler Goes Low Quality (DCX)

Chrysler cut a deal with Chinese car maker Chery to build small, gas efficient vehicles. Chrysler will market the cars worldwide. The deal is likely to torque off the UAW no end, and could make Chysler’s labor negotiations for the US market more difficult.

The Chrysler deal is strange. Chery had earlier plans to sell cars in the US that were recently cancelled on concerns that its product was not up to the standards that most US consumers have for new cars.

Chrysler needs a deal to save its bacon in North America. The Daimler unit has been losing money and is trying to cut its cost per vehicle by $1,000.

But, trying to sell cars that may be viewed as inferior and making a decision that the UAW will view as a threat raises more problems that it solves.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: December 30, 2006 – 10:20 am in Autos

AT&T’s New Year’s Gift To Yahoo! (GOOG)(TWX)(BLS)(T)(YHOO)(MSFT)

Tis the season. While AT&T got its massive merger with BellSouth cleared by the FCC, it had to promise "net neutrality" for a time. In other words, it cannot charge websites that are bandwidth hogs because of their large numbers of users and the nature of their content more than some plain vanilla website in Akron.

The net neutrality provision is good for two years. What happens then is anyone guess.

But, what might have happened. AT&T may well have tried to get tens of millions of dollars from big websites with rich content. High on the list would me Microsoft’s MSN, Time Warner’s AOL, Yahoo! and Google. News Corp’s MySpace would also have potentially faced tolls for its use of AT&T internet pipes as a conduit to consumers.

With its operating profit running about $200 million a quarter, the decision by AT&T to pass on charging big websites for traffic could actually save Yahoo! some real cake. With current Wall St. estimates of $.13 for the next quarter and the same for Q1 07, could the waiver of charging fees be worth a penny a quarter? Maybe.

If so, Yahoo! got a gift. And, if it helps the market’s perceptions of its future cost base, that might be worth a little on the old stock price.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: December 30, 2006 – 10:18 am in Telecom

Media Digest 12/30/2006 (T)(BLS)(AAPL)(DCX)(GOOG)

Accordng to Reuters, AT&T closed it $86 billion to merge with BellSouth, overcoming early FCC resistance.

Reuters writes that Apple restated earnings due to options backdating but stood by CEO Steve Jobs.

Retuers reports that workers at Goodyear have approved a three-year labor pact.

The Wall Street Journal writes that DaimlerChrysler has signed a deal with Chinese auto company Chery to make small cars for the large German-based auto concern.

The New York Times reports that Chines web portal Sohu.com was ordered to pay $140,000 for distribution of movies from US studios.

The FT reports that YouTube’s failure to complete its anti-piracy software has hurt Google’s chances to cut deals with key content providers.

Barron’s reports that the new AT&T/BellSouth faces increased competition from cable, flat revenue and increased expenses which will put pressure on its stock price.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: December 30, 2006 – 9:08 am in Press Digest

Interactive Submissions for 2007

We are encouraging our readers to contribute predictions and ideas for 2007.  Do you want to get a shot at making your own 2007 forecats,predictions, and a even get a shot at making your own suggestions orsharing ideas?  The shot is yours if you want it.  If Time is going tomake YOU the man of the year, then we’ll double down on that and giveyou a direct chance to make an impact right here.  Do you have projections, predictions, ideas, or suggestions that youwould like to share?  If so please send in a different email titled "MY 2007 " to jonogg@247wallst.com.  Once again we do not share any email address lists with outside parties.  Make your predictions, make a rant, pick a trend, or pick a stock….whatever you’d like:

DJIA, S&P 500, NASDAQ 12/31/2007?  S&P Earnings growth in 2007? Gold & Oil Prices in 2007? What sectors win in 2007?  Major Market shifts or calls?  Which overseas or international stock market will be the best for 2007?  Will private equity quiet down?  Takeover targets for 2007?  Which High-Flyers will keep soaring, and which will crash & burn?  Which market pundit do you like the best and who would you like to see covered more?  Which of our TOP 10 CEO’s THAT NEED TO GO would you like to see leave their post first?
What is your single best idea for 2007?  FED POLICY in 2007…when do they cut? or will they have to raise?
Google $600 or $300?  Windows Vista a game changer or a Gates/Ballmer belly flop?  Best Small Cap for 2007?

This is your shot to fire away……No holds barred……No string attached……

PART II
We are bolstering up our email database as we have been for the lastfour weeks.  If you would like to subscribe to our email lists for FREEBAIT SHOP UPDATES and for other SPECIAL SITUATIONS that we do not poston the site, please send in an email to us.  Send that email to jonogg@247wallst.comand title it SUBSCRIBE.  Just include a name and whatever data youwant.  We do not share our subscriber and free email list with anyoutside parties.  We’ll be running this a few times between now and the end of theyear for comments, suggestions, predictions, and ideas.  We are herefor our readers and we are giving you a chance to influence somedirection or aspects if you want to voice anything.  And no, we aren’tclosing down for the holidays like many other sites and blogs.

Happy Holidays from 24/7 Wall St.

Jon C. Ogg & Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: December 30, 2006 – 8:05 am in Bait Shop, ETF, Earnings, Economy, Housing, IPOs, Management Change, Mergers and Buy Outs, Old Media, Regulation, Research

These Stocks Could Rise Simply on New a CEO Announcement

This is a list of 10 large cap public companies where Wall Street would likely reward each stock if the CEO would either step down or if he was forced out.  Please read carefully, because many of these CEO’s don’t need to leave immediately nor entirely to please the investor community.  Not a single one represents any attack, but Wall Street would rather see the CEO’s change.

This list has been run over the last two weeks, so new comments have been added here.  Please read the notes, because not all of these are calls for an outright sacking nor are all of these meant as radical changes.  There are links back to the original stories, but please understand all of the stock prices are currently different.

Amazon.com’s (AMZN) Jeff Bezos.He doesn’t need to go away entirely! He just needs to do a partialtitle change. But will anyone inside the company tell the emperor he iswearing no space suit?  The company has scored high marks for the holiday season, but a splitting of the office of President & CEO would greatly benefit the company with some fresh blood.

Citigroup’s (C) Chuck Prince. The prince calls for Draconian measures, and maybe the prince didn’t mean just THIS Prince.  Cramer thinks he is gone this time next year, and the shares have been running up based on the hopes that the street will force change.

Dell’s (DELL) Kevin Rollins. Rollinsmay survive since the stock has managed to recover.  The business is not as bad nor as dire as the initial stock performance was before a recovery, but Wall Street has made up its mind.  Most of my own computers are Dell and that won’t change.  But for Rollins to be saved, the stock will have to at least show stability and the SEC issue needs to be resolved soon.    

Eastman Kodak’s (EK) Antonio Perez. Maybe he’s nice, but for heaven’s sake get the restructuring over with and get some mojo. Bring in a REAL digital media leader.   I received emails on this confirming they are taking way too long to restructure and that they aren’t moving fast enough; although Mr. Perez is said to be nice.  Being nice doesn’t cut it and he really needs to at least bring in a new person that can offer a strategy in a changed world. 

Gap Inc.’s (GPS) Paul Pressler. Every generation may have one, but his generation gap has helped the Gap to alienate customers and send them to competitors.   For a stock to be up so much on a takeover "HOPE" you have to worry.  Most stores are leased so there is little real estate play here.  Cash flow remains positive, and "valuation" is about the only thing that makes Gap attractive. 

Home Depot’s (HD) Bob Nardelli.Does anyone on Wall Street respect him? Just because he was one of therunners-up to run G.E. doesn’t mean he shouldn’t change his name toRichard.  I received what were claims of "ex-employee" emails claiming Nardelli & Co. managed to kill off the entrepreneurial spirit of the employees here and replace the culture with that of an hourly worker mentality.  I didn’t note that previously and if so, "Bob you gotta go if you broke what was working great."  The company has also signalled it was leveraging up just to make it harder to control the company.  Miraculously Cramer said this morning in an article that Mr. Nardelli may not be able to screw it up and it could run $10 from here if housing improves.

Qualcomm’s (QCOM) Paul Jacobs. He isn’t being sent home yet, but his dad’s shoes are proving very hard to fill.  This is not an outright call that Jacobs the Younger needs to go.  He asked to be judged on the bottom line when he took control, and Wall Street does that buy share prices.  I received some hate mail over even hinting at this even though my title strictly qualified this as a "may" need to go, yet the following evening after posting this the company offered some guidance that was far less than exciting.  Time is ticking.

Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) & XM Satellite Radio (XMSR).  It is a dead heat in the race, and if two companies need to merge, it’s these two. There can be only one.  The funny thing is that actually both can survive if you read into the plan here.

Wal-Mart’s (WMT) Lee Scott. Thecompany is struggling under its own weight, and it needs some good PR.Getting rid of the Darth Vader of Corporate America and bringing insomeone fun and likeable would be the best start.  Most of the emails I received and the other comments posted elsewhere on this about Lee Scott were not really from the investor viewpoint, but there was almost nobody out there ready to say he is a great leader.  The WSJ even said the company problems are likely to persist, so if the company wants to do well they should clean house and bring in people who can clean their image.

Yahoo!’s (YHOO) Terry Semel. Yes, when you see him leave or forced out, Yahoo! holders should be happy.  Panama is out and it is hanging in on new search data, but Wall Street would love to see Mr. Semel leave.

Alot of these may be controversial, and there are plenty of othercompanies which might benefit from a new CEO. None of these attacks arepersonal and these are merely based on observation and analysis. Thelist could probably be 100 CEO’s long.

by Jon C. Ogg

Mr. Ogg holds NO positions in securities of any of the companies mentioned and he has not been compensated to represent any of these companies in any particular manner.

Posted on: December 30, 2006 – 7:30 am in Management Change

AMD Asks For Intel’s Surrender (AMD)(INTC)

AMD is making a very big deal out of a federal court asking Intel to produce documents covering its communications with foreign PC makers.

AMD is making antitrust claims against Intel and Japanese authorities are looking into the matter as well.

It is nice, special really, that AMD and its attorneys will get to look at evidence from overseas, but since it is unclear that Intel has done anything wrong in either the US or overseas, the victory dance seems a bit premature.

AMD has had good success signing up new customers like Dell, and has made significant in-roads with server companies. AMD’s share in the server market has gone from 15.9% in Q3 04 to 23.3% in Q3 O6.

With increases like that for AMD, Intel must be bribing the customers.

Dougals A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: December 29, 2006 – 12:03 pm in Semiconductor

Reader Predictions For 2007

Do you want to get a shot at making your own 2007 forecats,predictions, and a even get a shot at making your own suggestions orsharing ideas?  The shot is yours if you want it.  Do you haveprojections, predictions, ideas, or suggestions that youwould like to share?  If so please send in a different email titled "MY 2007 " to jonogg@247wallst.com.Once again we do not share any email address lists with outsideparties. 

Make your predictions, make a rant, pick a trend, or pick astock….whatever you’d like:  DJIA, S&P 500, NASDAQ 12/31/2007?  S&P Earnings growth in2007? Gold & Oil Prices in 2007? What sectors win in 2007?  MajorMarket shifts or calls?  Which overseas or international stock marketwill be the best for 2007?  Will private equity quiet down?  Takeovertargets for 2007?  Which High-Flyers will keep soaring, and which willcrash & burn?  Which market pundit do you like the best and whowould you like to see covered more?  Which of our TOP 10 CEO’s THATNEED TO GO would you like to see leave their post first? What is your single best idea for 2007?  FED POLICY in 2007…when do they cut? or will they have to raise?  Google $600 or $300?  Windows Vista a game changer or a Gates/Ballmer belly flop?  Best Small Cap for 2007?

PART II

We are bolstering up our email database as we have been for the lastfour weeks.  If you would like to subscribe to our email lists for FREEBAIT SHOP UPDATES and for other SPECIAL SITUATIONS that we do not poston the site, please send in an email to us.  Send that email to jonogg@247wallst.comand title it SUBSCRIBE.  Just include a name and whatever data youwant.  We do not share our subscriber and free email list with anyoutside parties.  We’ll be running this a few times between now and the end of theyear for comments, suggestions, predictions, and ideas.  We are herefor our readers and we are giving you a chance to influence somedirection or aspects if you want to voice anything.  And no, we aren’tclosing down for the holidays like many other sites and blogs.

Happy Holidays from 24/7 Wall St.

Jon C. Ogg & Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: December 29, 2006 – 10:35 am in Uncategorized

Google Needs To Split Its Stock

Is Google a good or bad investment after it closed at $462.56? 

Motley Fool said on December 27, 2006 that it may be the worst stock for 2007.

Calling anything bearish on Google can create a near riot in the investment community.  You can take a look at the November search rankings from Nielsen/NetRatings in this link and see if you think the glory growth has already happened or if any leveling off was merely a blip.

My partner recently ran something asking if Google’s growth has run out of runway. 

Everyone knows that Jim Cramer loves it, although he even said it’s asleep until after the new year.

Most of the analysts that follow the stock are positive and an average price target is close to $550, depending on which analysts you count in a consensus. 

One thing is for sure right now in my opinion: If GOOG announced a stock split and went to a normal share pricing with say a 5-1 stock split or even a 10 for 1 stock split, this would be a different discussion.  There is merely too much focus on a HIGH STOCK PRICE.  I don’t have any dogs in the fight either way, but much of the real discussion and criticism out there seems to be based on this $500 mark.  Most of the smaller investors out there think the stock is too expensive to buy.

So, get the Google management to use 2007 as "The Year Google Split Its Stock." This won’t change the company fundamentally at all, but it might actually help even sophisticated investors look at the company easier.  With GOOG shares down $5.47 at $462.56 on Thursday’s close the stock has a market cap of more than $141 Billion.  Its trailing P/E is 58.7, and with the street looking for roughly $13.75 in 2007 earnings it has a forward P/E of 33.6.  For the sort of earnings and revenue growth the company has posted it just doesn’t look or feel expensive.  But Internet stock investors don’t want value.  They want growth, and they don’t really want to pay $462.00…nor $362.00…nor $562.00…

Dear Google Management: Split your stock so the investment community won’t be so hung up on the share price. Most people get it, but there are too many who are just hung up on the stock price. Period.

Feel free to make a prediction and send it in: Will GOOG the stock be at $600 or $300 at the end of 2007?

Jon C. Ogg
December 29, 2006

Posted on: December 29, 2006 – 9:45 am in Internet

The Market Opens, Jobs Is Set Free

The big news before the open of the market is that Apple’s board has complete confidence in Steve Jobs. The fact that he seemed to know about some miss-timed options grants notwithstanding. He will not be taken away in handcuffs with a raincoat over he head.Apple’s stock should run like a scalded dog at the open. It is up 4% in the pre-market.

Additionally, AT&T is making concessions to the FCC to try to get its BellSouth acquisitions approved. Standalone DSL and some pledge to not charge companies like Google for significant use of AT&T pipes seem to be the big peace offerings.

Exxon is going to court to try to get a decision to recind its leases in the North Slope’s Point Thomson oil and gas field overturned.

Marsh & McClennan is selling its Putnam mutual fund company to a firm in Canada.

Oil seems to be fairly steady, so driving over the holidays should be affordable.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: December 29, 2006 – 9:07 am in Market Open

WiMax Nation: Sprint Turns To Nokia

Stocks:  (S)(NOK)(MOT)(INTC)

Sprint is gunning its WiMax engines as it gets ready to spread the service across the US. Nokia is about to be selected for infrastructure equipment along with current suppliers Samsung and Motorola. The Sprint project is slated to be able to reach 100 million potential customers by 2008.

Sprint has lost a lot of its fan base. The stock was at almost $27 in April. It now trades around $19. It integration with NexTel was considered a train wreck. But, WiMax, a system not being used by Sprint’s major competitors. And, the economics could be compelling.

The Wall Street Journal believes that major suppliers like Motorola are putting capital into the Sprint WiMax roll-out. Sprint says it is spending $3 billion, but it is not entirely clear how much of that is blended with supplier investment.

Intel, Motorola, Samsung, and now Nokia are supporting WiMax build outs.

If there bet is right, Sprint’s stock is headed North.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: December 29, 2006 – 8:58 am in Wireless

Is GM’s Run Done? (GM)(DCX)

Maybe GM ran out of gas as 2006 closed. The stock was up over 50% for the year, but has sold off recently. It could be a breather, or it could be the end.

While Toyota is burying GM in the US, there is at least some evidence that the company’s share in its home market is stable. But, with its current piece of the pie at just under 25%, it can’t bleed any more. The $9 billion that has been taken out of North American operations won’t save the company if it can’t sell cars.

GM’s smartest moves may be outside North America. The company is doing extraordinarily well in China. That will not save the company short term, but could be a tremendous financial benefit in a few years.The world’s largest auto maker has now passed VW as the No.1 car maker on the mainland, as they call it in Taiwan.

GM’s stock still trades at well under 10% of sales. DaimlerChrysler trades at .32 times sales.

If GM does reasonably well, the stock’s run is not over.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: December 29, 2006 – 8:41 am in Autos