Daily Archives: September 4, 2007

Google Frightens Japanese Government

The Japanese government is nervous about Google (GOOG). Trade officials in the country worry that, with their hardware advantage lost to companies in Korea, Taiwan, and China, it will also end up with no edge in the fast-growing search software business.

That lead has already gone to GOOG on the PC. So, the Japanese government is pulling together several major consumer electronics companies to work on search software for handsets and other devices.

According to the FT: "Tokyo hopes to use Japan’s strength in developing devices, such as mobile phones and car navigation systems, to create proprietary search and information retrieval functions" "The Japanese project is comprised of 10 partnerships, each tasked with a specific next-generation search function."

Already in the mix are Sony (SNE), Toyota (TM), NEC (NIPNY) NTT Data, and Hitachi (HIT).

Catching Google through committee work by big companies and the Japanese government.

Unlikely.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 7:26 pm in Software, , , , ,

Boeing’s China Fantasy: A Twenty Year Forecast

Boeing (BA) says it. There will always be a market for airplanes in China. Not matter what happens. Even it military hard liners move in. Even if the overheated economy collapse under its own weight.

Reuters writes that Boeing, which won 112 firm orders in China in 2006, sees exponential growth in Chinese aviation for at least the next two decades The big aircraft company "expects China will need 2,900 commercial airplanes over the next 20 years, 64 percent of which would be single-aisle jets." It hopes to hold 60% of the market during that period, with most of the balance going to Airbus.

Of course, twenty years out, that could be off by a percentage point or two.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 7:05 pm in Aerospace,

Boston Scientific (BSX): The Stent Business Can’t Get More Confused

After reports last week that drug-coated stents posed little risk to heart patients, a new survey shows that  "patients given drug-coated stents after an acute heart attack are nearly five times more likely to die six months to two years later than those with bare metal forms of the arterial scaffolding." So says Reuters. Doctors at the European Society of Cardiology said the finding showed the need to be very selective about giving drug stents to the right patients.

The news agency also makes that point that a Swedish study presented on Sunday, involving 35,000 patients, found no overall increased risk for heart patients between drug and bare stents after four years of follow-up — a reversal of the same researchers’ earlier three-year findings that patients with coated stents were more at risk.

If this sounds confusing, it is because it is, even for doctors.

The two big  drug stent companies, Boston Scientific (BSX) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), who have been hammered by medical research attacking the safety of their products disputed the new study, but support the one that makes them look good.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 6:59 pm in Medical, ,

More Bad News For Linux: Redhat And Novell

It used to be that the corporate IT crowd could not get enough of Linux. It was inexpensive. It did not come from Microsoft. It was open-source and could be improved without permission from Redmond.

A new study shows that IT types are beginning to turn on Linux. According to Barron’s, UBS did a survey of chief information officers and in the process found out that "of the the 47% of CIOs in the survey who said they were not Linux users, just over 90% indicated that they would not deploy the open source operating system in 2007."

In other words, if they hated Linux before, they hate it even more now.

What happy news for Microsoft (MSFT). But, it makes for a bad day for enterprise Linux firms Redhat (RHAT) and Novell (NOVL). Redhat’s shares are down over 20% during the last three months. Maybe investors saw this coming.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 6:50 pm in Software, , ,

Palm Squashes Foleo… Will Its “One Focus” Affect The Microsoft Pact? (PALM, MSFT, RIMM, APPL)

Tonight I received an email from Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) regarding what was starting to look like the inevitable: that little web gadget, its Foleo, is not just delayed futher; it has been scrubbed.

This was an open source notebook with an ‘instant-on’ feature that was not really a full notebook.  But the company was hoping on a device that might replace your notebook if you are just going on a short vacation or quick business trip and didn’t need full access outside of basic web use and emails.  The answer is, wish in one hand and…. you know the rest.  Palm has been falling further behind as Research-in-Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) has been winning more PDA-phone market share and as the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone has garnered so much press.

Frankly, there is still a gadget market out there.  The problem is that the gadget market is seeming as though it is BECOMING your phone or PDA.  The demand just appears to not be there as much for devices that work through your PDA phone like this now dead Foleo device.  The company is going to focus exclusively on the next generation software platform for delivering its next generation platform and the first smartphones that will bring this platform to market. 

Interestingly enough, this may indirectly affect Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) down the road; but that depends on how you interpret what the company says and if you think this goes farther than it is leading on.  Palm’s release said it will continue to deliver products in partnership with Microsoft on the Windows Mobile platform, but from an internal platform development perspective, it will focus on only one.  So there is room for interpretation based on that, depending on if you believe the company (read the full release below).

There are some other strange things going on inside Palm, which we will be posting Wednesday.

Jon C. Ogg
September 4, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

BELOW IS THE FULL EMAIL ON PAGE 2…..

Read More »

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 6:42 pm in PC Companies, Software, Wireless, , , , , ,

Mattel: Another Recall, Another Blow To Shareholders

Mattel (MAT) will announce another toy recall, this one involving 775,000 products which have too much lead paint.

After heavy criticism from the Consumer Product Safety Commission for putting out information on defective products later than regulations allow, Mattel is making this announcement with the CPSC. Perhaps they can avoid being sued or fined by the government.

The closer that company gets to recalling every toy its ever sold, the further the stock moves down below $22, off its 52-week high of $29.17.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 6:40 pm in Shareholder Issues,

Yahoo! Buys BlueLithium To Strengthen Ad Presence, A Mistake

Yahoo! (YHOO) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire BlueLithium, one of the largest and fastest growing online global ad networks that offers an array of direct response products and capabilities for advertisers and publishers. Under the terms of the agreement, Yahoo! will acquire BlueLithium for approximately $300 million in cash. 

BlueLithium provides media buying expertise that is complementary to the Yahoo! Publisher Network, enabling Yahoo! to further extend the reach and frequency of the quality audience advertisers have come to expect.

BlueLithium describes its businesses this way. "Unlike behavioral-targeting-only networks, BlueLithium leverages all major targeting capabilities to produce optimal results. Depending on your specifications and the needs of the campaign, the BlueLithium optimization team will layer: We target each of our 145M unique users based on their demonstrated interests, then serve the right ad regardless of what site they are on across our network."

It would appear that YHOO is getting more deeply into the display advertising market through network targeting which does not appear to be helping revenue at the portal or rivals AOL and MSN. With so much of the online dollar moving off to search results and social networks, it is surprising that Yahoo! would double down on such a tough business.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 6:22 pm in Internet,

Cramer’s New Caffeine Pick (PEET, SBUX)

Tonight, Jim Cramer compared Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc. (NASDAQ:PEET) to Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) as an obituary pick on CNBC’s MAD MONEY.  It wasn’t praise or criticism, just reviewing a company after the founder had passed away.  Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc. (NASDAQ:PEET) founder Alfred Peet died last week at the age of 87, and Cramer said this caused him to review the company for an opportunity.

Cramer said that he actually thinks Peet’s is better off from an investor standpoint than Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) is today.  The reason is that it has so much growth ahead that it can take a measured growth rate over the past rapid growth of Starbucks, and the forward earnings multiple and growth rates are actually better at Peet’s if you compare the Starbucks overly aggressive growth initiatives it has.  Starbucks actually learned much from Peet’s in the past.  He thinks they also have ample supplies of Coffee beans and have many more markets where they are either not in at all or have not penetrated; NO ONE can say the same about Stabucks.  In fact, Cramer said that for Starbucks to manage their growth plans they may have to hire 90,000 people to make it happen.

We gave our own product reviews of Starbucks early on in calendar Q2.  Unfortunately we saw that they have a long way to go to improve the stores they have now if they are going to run these like a factory with the breadth that they have.  Starbucks is about 10% off of its recent year-lows and the worst MAY be behind compared to that big slide down from $40.00.  But it has a lot of proving to do, and it has a long road ahead of itself if it wants to grow according to its plans.

Peet’s shares closed up 1% at $25.55 today, but shares rose almost another 3% in after-hours.  Its 52-week trading range for its stock is $22.98 to $29.17.

Jon C. Ogg
September 4, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 5:50 pm in Cramer, Food, , ,

Cramer Interviews Mark Hurd, CEO of H-P (HPQ, MSFT, CSCO)

On tonight’s MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer said again that tech is where you want to be going into Q4, and if you don’t yet have tech that Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) is the one stock where can still invest in easily in the sector.  He liked the earnings numbers and the raised guidance, but Cramer already telegraphed for tonight all day as hosting a CEO Mark Hurd interview today.  This is not one of Cramer’s NEW HORSEMEN OF TECH, but it is definitely one he’s been behind for quite some time as he called Hurd a transformational CEO. It is up 20% for the year, and here is what one of his favorite CEO’s said (answers are summary, not verbatim):

As far as what happened after Hurd took over? ANSWER: no tricks, just focused on fundamentals and worked on cost structure. Innovation, service, fundamentals.

As far as Chambers of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) saying this is the most bullish environment?  ANSWER: Best days are ahead and not behind it.

Strength of earnings? ANSWER: 65% revenue is outside US, strong growth in consumer and mobility all help, plus discipline in spending.

Is Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) WINDOWS VISTA Finally Kicking in?  ANSWER: It is helpful, although they never expected a Vista moment.

On Component Costs helping ahead? ANSWER: They are largest customer so they get the best deal. It may continue to benefit.

Acquisitions? ANSWER: They buy leaders, data center automation is where they will lead.

As far as PC differentials from each other? ANSWER: DESIGN, SERVICE, SUPPORT, FEATURES, INNOVATION.

H-P now has $131 Billion market cap as of the close.  H-P shares closed up 1.6% at $50.14 on the day in regular trading, and shares rose another 0.5% after the interview.  By the way, today appears to be a year-high close.

Jon C. Ogg
September 4, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 5:22 pm in Cramer, , , , , , , ,

Cramer’s 2007 Picks Vs. The Markets To-Date (AAPL, NYX, CSCO, HAL, GS, MO, SVNT, RAD, LVLT)

Some people love Jim Cramer, and some people just love to bash him.  Some try to run percentage gains that he would be up or down at any given moment.  Some revere him, and some love to show where his picks underperform on a broad market.  So what we decided to do was see how the TOP 9 CRAMER PICKS FOR 2007 performed versus the overall stock market.

We took issue with the last Barron’s article that was noting an underperformance.  James Altucher of TheStreet.com also took issue with a measurement of Cramer picks as well.  What investors around the block and in all walks need to consider is that once again these issues aren’t really relevant.  Some people make many following Cramer and some people have made money shorting some of his picks.  The truth is that unless you had a black box trading program that traded and tracks every single pick of his and that followed an exact set of rules, then this is just for conversation.  It is really impossible to make calculations when you consider all of the caveats and that all entry points are rough guestimates or theoretical based on a snapshot.

So what we decided to do was run CRAMER’S TOP 9 PICKS FOR 2007 where Cramer made these picks for the entire year.  These are based upon a snapshot in time with all equal dates of DEC 29, 2007 even though he made the picks in the days right after the 2007 start.  We have also outlined what Cramer said about each one of these picks (hyperlink on names) at the start of the year so you can compare the world of early-January to today.  Here is how the Cramer picks did, but keep in mind this excludes dividends and other restructure payouts:

Cramer’s 2007 Picks Versus The Markets               

Speculative Picks:        DEC-31   SEP-04    Up/Down   Percent

  • Level 3     LVLT    $5.60        $5.31     ($0.29)     -5.17%
  • Rite Aid    RAD     $5.44        $5.11     ($0.33)     -6.06%
  • Savient    SVNT    $11.21     $13.35     $2.14     19.09%

Growth Picks:                  DEC-31   SEP-04   Up/Down  Percent               

  • NYSE        NYX     $96.88    $73.84    ($23.04)    -23.78%
  • Apple        AAPL   $84.84    $144.16   $59.32      69.89%
  • Cisco      CSCO   $27.33    $32.32     $4.99        18.25%

Value Picks:                               DEC-31   SEP-04    Up/Down    Percent            

  • Altria                      MO    $63.14     $69.67     $6.53      10.34%
  • Goldman Sachs GS    $198.34   $180.80  ($17.54)  -8.84%
  • Halliburton         HAL    $30.81     $34.99     $4.18      13.56%   

THE MARKETS:        DEC-31       SEP-04        GAIN   Percent

  • DJIA             12,463.15   13,448.86     985.71    7.90%
  • NASDAQ       2,415.29     2,630.24      214.95    8.89%
  • S&P500        1,418.30     1,489.42       71.12      5.01%

Out of the Cramer Picks for 2007, 5 of the 9 picks landed in positive territory as of the close.  The results are skewed a bit because of the huge performance of Apple (AAPL). But we decided to smooth that out too. On a simple basis and excluding dividends, it looks like the Cramer portfolio has an average of 9.68% return year to date (once again, this excludes dividends).  If you remove Apple’s huge gains, you get a 2.17% gain (outside of dividends) and if you use the ‘remove best and worst single choices’ which also kicks out the large drop in NYSE (NYX) shares then you get a gain of 5.88% (outside of dividends).

The truth is that numbers can be manipulated because they are based upon a snapshot in time and many models do not adequately account for restructuring, splits, spin-offs, and reorganizations.  This is at least a start now that we are 2/3 of the way through 2007. 

Jon C. Ogg
September 4, 2007

If these didn’t align properly it was because of a formatting issue, and we apologize for any misaligned numbers.

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 4:42 pm in Cramer, , , , , , , , ,

The 52-Week Low Club

Health Management Associates (HMA) Big borrowing for special dividend. Drops to $6.36 from 52-week high of $21.59.

Opentv (OPTV) CEO leaves. Down to $1.23 from 52-week high of $3.15.

Infospace (INSP) Has not recoved from tough quarter. Still slipping. Down to $13.72 from 52-week high of $27.76.

Ikanos (IKAN) Falling for several days after cutting outlook. Down to $5.83 from 52-week high of $13.70.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 3:41 pm in HI/LOW, , , ,

Who Is Connect-A-Jet? (CAJT)

There was an interesting new advertiser today that seems like one of the interesting story stocks.  Just keep in mind this is OTC/Pink Sheet listed.  Connect-a-Jet, or Connectajet.com, has begun a new ’stock and product’ dual advertising campaign.  Last week this new and unheard of company called Connect-A-Jet.com, Inc. (CAJT-PINKSHEETS) announced it was initiating a new advertising campaign starting this week.  The company is targeting customers and investors alike if you look where it is now advertising: CNBC, CEO Magazine, Forbes Magazine, Aviation Week, Dallas Morning News, Wall Street Journal, In Flight Magazine, as well as many additional Television venues are also under review.

If their business model works the company web site will direct those who want private jet charters to a centralized charter site made up of a myriad of jet and private plane charter operations.  According to its stated goal, it will unite all existing worldwide charter operators in the United States to operate under one efficient, real-time, online booking system. Customers across the globe will be able to book charter on every private aircraft in flight which meets their particular travel criteria. CAJT will also coordinate all ground transportation, in-flight catering, and will provide real-time flight tracking 24 hours for passengers convenience.

It announced today that it was pre-contracting charter operators around the globe onto its real-time booking system.  For whatever this is worth, the online charter platform just launched, according to its own press releases.  It is Austin, TX-based and also just announced that it was listing on the Pink Sheets back on August 23, 2007. 

If you review the data on pinksheets.com that is provided as a link from the company’s investor relations web site, this has 155,000,000 shares listed as the outstanding shares.  We have learned numerous times that these companies that are on the PINK SHEETS often stay there, although there is no way to know how this one will turn out and we aren’t making any projections or predictions on a new stock without many more pieces of data.  It also looks like this was previously a shell company formerly named Source Venture Capital, Inc., although once again you’ll have to do all fact checking on your own in OTC or PINK SHEET stocks.

I did do a brief search for a round trip charter flight from Houston to New York under ‘medium body jets’ although I did not complete the form for obvious reasons.  The ‘About Us’ section notes that a lower-scale flight planner is provided on an interim basis; and the company’s real-time booking system has been completed and is estimated to be launched in its entirety by the of December, 2007.

We usually don’t cover OTC and Pink Sheet stocks because of a lack of available data, although it is always interesting to see new companies regardless of our general opinion of OTC and Pink Sheet stocks.  Once again, on any OTC or Pink Sheet stocks you should check all data throughly on your own. 

Jon C. Ogg
September 4, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 2:50 pm in OTC, , , ,

Jim Cramer Ponders Which US Companies China Will Acquire

On today’s STOP TRADING segment on CNBC, Jim Cramer was discussing China’s desire to grow and acquire.  He noted that with so many companies being some of the largest in the world that some large acquisitions "could" be desired.  We want to emphasize that "can" is different than "will" before trusting this without any thought.

Pertochina (NYSE:PTR) is one of the largest companies with a $260+ Billion market cap and it might want a Gulf of Mexico oil play or another oil play.  Cramer noted that it could go after Halliburton (NYSE:HAL), Anadarko (NYSE:APC), or Apache (NYSE:APA).  Cramer also noted that China Mobile (NYSE:CHL) might want to own a Motorola (NYSE:MOT).

Cramer noted a couple of plays that will benefit from growth in China: Focus Media (NASDAQ:FMCN) is a way to play advertising for China’s Olympics, but Wynn (NASDAQ:WYNN) may be the best way to play the emerging China wealth emerging that will gamble in Macau.

Keep in mind, that China’s CNOOC (NYSE:COO) was blocked from acquiring Unocal by regulators in recent years.  So a deal of the sizes proposed here may be more for conversation’s sake rather than for speculating on a buyout.

Jon C. Ogg
September 4, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 1:57 pm in China, Cramer, Mergers and Buy Outs, , , , , , , , ,

How Large Will General Electric’s Oil & Gas Operations Become? (GE)

General Electric (NYSE:GE) is more than formidable and more than an enviable company.  It has one of the few remaining pure "AAA" bond ratings, and it still thinks of itself and acts like a growth company.  It shed its more volatile finance operation where insurance made earnings predictability more than challenging based upon weather, and it just recently closed the $11+ Billion sale of GE Plastics.  Despite the cash that can be used for its huge buyback plan, it is using cash for growth as well. 

If you look past airplane engines, commercial finance, consumer finance, appliances, power plants, media/content, lighting and much more, you will see the growth initiatives it has embarked upon. Less than two months ago at a private luncheon with a few new media counterparts and GE’s CFO Keith Sherin, it was actually surprising to hear over and over: "We are a growth company."  When you consider that it targets a 20% return on capital and a desire to reinvest into its operations this gets much easier to fathom, even if you keep that huge size in the back of your mind.  If you look at what is going on in the GE Oil & Gas unit, you will see that its energy initiatives are going far beyond just the Ecomagination for wind, water, and more.

GE’s oil & gas unit isn’t a start-up at all, but it looks like this is going to be getting more and more attention inside the conglomerate.  Just yesterday, GE announced a cash offer of 289 million British Pounds (more than $500 million in the U.S.) to acquire Sondex plc.  This oilfield technology operator will further expand GE’s capability and expertise in oil & gas production technologies.  Back in January it announced the acquisition of Vetco Gray for some $1.9 Billion, and that unit has more than 5,000 employees in more than 30 nations and in the vicinity of $1.6 Billion in revenues in 2006.  Vetco Gray is one of the world’s leading suppliers of drilling, completion and production equipment for on- and offshore oil and gas fields, including subsea applications. 

If you use perhaps the easiest tool for smart investing by "following the money," it is becoming more and more evident that GE is going to become a larger player in all forms of energy.  That may be of some concern to some oil and gas service and outfitters, but this is a huge industry with room for even larger players.  It should also go to show that the underlying margin strength in that sector probably aren’t going away any time soon. 

The company has many engines behind it, no pun intended.  Of course it is vulnerable to the economy like most companies, but it seems to be headed steadily in the right direction.  Its stock performance over the last 18 to 24 months has been a point of contention for both shareholders and for management, but the company has value and any recent calls for it to break itself up seem to have been quieted.  It takes quite a lot of cash inflows from investors to move a near-$400 Billion company, but the underlying developments and fundamentals out of the largest market cap conglomerate seem to be firing on all cylinders.

Jon C. Ogg
September 4, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 1:41 pm in Alternative Energy, Conglomerates, Mergers and Buy Outs, Oil & Gas, , ,

Toyota August Sales: No Silver Lining

Toyota (TM) US sales fell unexpectedly, down 2.8% to 233,471.

Passenger car sales fell but light-truck sales rose 2% to 97,964 from 96,034 a year earlier.

According to MarketWatch, Toyota blamed the dip on "reduced credit availability and lower consumer confidence."

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 1:03 pm in Autos,

GM’s Big August Sales Win

GM (GM) August sales in the US rose 5.3% to 388,168.

The company’s shares moved up well over 2% to $31.40

The company’s pick-up line did especially well.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 12:55 pm in Autos,

What To Expect Ahead of VMware’s VMWORLD Conference

Even if VMware (NYSE:VMW) sees its stock go sideways or even if it gets soft from here, it has a long way to go before many would be able to say this was not a successful IPO.  The valuations are now just too high for the sector to longer have a focus in I.T.  This is also true regardless of the VMware stock conundrum we noted recently. If you haven’t read up on and learned much about virtualization, as an investor you should read up on it as the next ‘next thing’ in software and IT. If you look at the competitors that some existing partners (and owners) are invested in, you’ll really understand.

One week from today, and possible over the coming weekend, we should start seeing many more companies announce "Partnering with VMware" or "Supplying VMware" or "Strikes key partners for virtualization" and the like.  Next week from September 11 to September 13 is the VMWORLD 2007 Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and the roster is a Who’s Who in Techland.  There is also a Technology Day symposium ahead of it. 

Keynote speakers here will be from such tech heavyweights as John Chambers of Cisco Systems (CSCO), Patrick Gelsinger of Intel Corp. (INTC), and Hector Ruiz of Advanced Micro (AMD).  Other sponsors are major tech giants like Dell (DELL), H-P (HPQ), NEC, IBM (IBM), and of course the parent EMC (EMC).

Network Appliances (NTAP) is also a sponsor, and it already issued its press release to signal its involvement.

Some of the gold sponsors that are not quite as prominent are BEA Systems (BEAS), Brocade (BRCD), EDS (EDS), Emulex (ELX), Sun Microsystems (JAVA).  Further down the list of sponsors and exhibitors are BMC Software (BMC), Avocent (AVCT), CA (CA), Citrix Systems (CTXS) (which also recently made a virtualization buyout of XenSource), Novell (NOVL), Patni Computer Systems Ltd. (PTI), QLogic (QLGC), Microsoft (MSFT), Symantec (SYMC), and more.

What is interesting is that this virtualization conference includes almost all of VMware’s key competitors.  So they are not blocking out competitors, at least not this year.  For whatever it is worth, there are many overlaps out there in what would be deemed partners and competitors.  It has XenSource, Microsoft, Symantec, and others. 

It also sold out of sponsor and exhibitor opportunities some time ago.  Here is a full list of exhibitors.  It is probably safe to assume that many more virtualization partnerships will be coming ahead of, out of, and after this key industry event.

Stock Tickers: VMW, EMC, CSCO, INTC, AMD, DELL, HPQ, NTAP, IBM, BEAS, BRCD, EDS, ELX, JAVA, SUNW, BMC, AVCT, PTI, CA, CTXS, NOVL, QLGC, MSFT, SYMC

Jon C. Ogg
September 4, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he produces the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 12:24 pm in Software, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ford’s Sales Worse Than Expected

Ford’s (F) US sales for August were worse than expected, dropping 14.4%. Ford said it sold 218,332 vehicles last month, down from 255,112 a year ago, with a 33.7% drop in car sales leading the retreat. Rental sales fell 44% as part of the company’s plans to curtail the less-profitable business.

The company raised its fourth-quarter production targets by 6% from a year ago to 640,000 cars and trucks.

Ford’s shares rose 1% on the news

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 12:04 pm in Autos,

Ford’s Sales Worse Than Expected

Ford’s (F) US sales for August were worse than expected, dropping 14.4%. Ford said it sold 218,332 vehicles last month, down from 255,112 a year ago, with a 33.7% drop in car sales leading the retreat. Rental sales fell 44% as part of the company’s plans to curtail the less-profitable business.

The company raised its fourth-quarter production targets by 6% from a year ago to 640,000 cars and trucks.

Ford’s shares rose 1% on the news

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 12:04 pm in Uncategorized,

Tales From The Bulletin Boards (BFNH, AMNT, OJSY, WYDY) (Sept. 4, 2007)

If you spend a few minutes going through the headlines of OTC-BB and Pink Sheet listed stocks, it becomes evident that investors in that space are on their own.  But sometimes there are a few releases that may be noteworthy.  We have been asked to cover more of these companies, but our aim is to only cover the OTC status stocks that actually trade some volume and at least have some liquidity.  As always, we urge caution and would remind that the OTC-BB and Pink Sheets are areas where investors are most frequently on their own.

Here are a few releases today that involve actual cash or transactions in OTC and Pink Sheet stocks:

BioForce Nanosciences Holdings, Inc. (BFNH-OTCBB) today announced the completion of a financing transaction worth up to $3.45 million. The fixed price transaction involved sales to an institutional investor of Series A 8% Convertible Preferred Stock at $0.50 per share and a series of warrants with exercise prices ranging from $0.50 to $1.25 per share. The placement was managed by TriPoint Global Equities, LLC.

Amish Naturals, Inc. (AMNT-OTCBB), maker of premium organic pastas, today announced that it has executed a securities purchase agreement and closed a private placement transaction with an institutional investor. The terms of the transaction include the issuance of a $6.0 million in a senior secured convertible note accompanied by common stock purchase warrants. This transaction was facilitated by Wharton Capital Partners, a New York City based investment banking firm.

OJsys, Inc. (OJSY-PinkSheets) announced today that it has taken the appropriate steps to become SEC reporting by retaining Mendoza Berger & Company, LLP, a PCAOB-registered accounting firm, to audit OJSY’s financial statements for the years ending December 31, 2005 and December 31, 2006.

Who’s Your Daddy, Inc. (WYDY-OTCBB) signed a letter of intent to acquire substantially all of the assets of King of Energy San Diego, Inc., a distributor based in San Diego that sells the Company’s King of Energy™ drinks to over 700 accounts in stores, bars and restaurants in San Diego County.  KOE was founded in early 2007 and has used its full-function warehouse facility to increase revenues to an annualized revenue rate of over $350,000. The assets of KOE will be acquired by sharing 50% of the profit from the operation with the owners of KOE until a total of $100,000 is received by them. The transaction is expected to close in September, following successful due diligence and documentation.

As a reminder, we do not cover most OTC-BB stocks.  Most of the companies that are on the Bulletin Board or Pink Sheets seem as though they rarely graduate into fully reporting companies with NASDAQ, AMEX, of NYSE compliance requirements. 

Jon C. Ogg
September 4, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 10:52 am in OTC, , , ,