One of the leading media investing firms in the US, Gabelli & Co. wants cable outfit Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) to stop its pursuit of GE’s (NYSE:GE) NBCU and turn its focus on better run media companies with stronger assets. That would include, in Gabelli’s opinion Viacom (NYSE:VIA), Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), Scripps Interactive (NYSE:SNI)
Gabelli & Co. analyst Chris Marangi said. “Viacom has everything Comcast wants and none of what it doesn’t want.” Read More
It is the weekend and that means a review of last week’s unusual suspects and a review for key stocks in the week ahead. Technically earnings season gets its first earnings report from a DJIA component in ACLOA Inc. (NYSE: AA) this week, as well as earnings from The Mosaic Company (NYSE: MOS) and from Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM). Other key stocks to watch will be Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC), CIT Group, Inc. (NYSE: CIT) on the ropes, the real or unreal takeover chances for Local.com Corp. (NASDAQ: LOCM), and the unusual trading in Radvision Ltd. (NASDAQ: RVSN) and Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC). We have provided more detailed information and analysis on each story below.
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Jabil Circuit (NYSE: JBL) hit a yearly high of $13.47 after beating both guidance and analyst estimates for its quarterly earnings.
Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE: KSS) hit a yearly high of $57.19 after the company announced the opening of 37 new stores.
Och-Ziff Capital Management (NYSE: OZM) hit a yearly high of $12.24 as the company continues to recover from a significant decline in assest under management.
Petrobras Energia Participaciones SA (NYSE: PZE) rallied over 180% to a yearly high of $17.97 after it announced that the company was completing reorganization moves.
TransDigm Group Incorporated (NYSE: TDG) hit a yearly high of $49.94 after announcing that it would offer $425 million of senior subordinated notes in order to fund a special dividend.
Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ: VMED) hit a yearly high of 13.97, capping off a monthly gain of 17%.
Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) hit a yearly high of $17.80, capping off a monthly gain of nearly 20%.
Garrett W. McIntyre
24/7 Wall St. interviewed Ivan G. Seidenberg, the Chairman and CEO of Verizon (VZ), recently. The conversation covered Verizon’s major plans, the global telecom markets, and the effects of the recession. This is the one in a series of 24/7 Wall St. interview with large company CEOs to examine the future of business and industry as the world economy recovers.
The interview: Read More
Shares of Vonage (VG) decreased from their peak price of the day yesterday as investors raised concerns about the company’s rapid stock valuation increase. Vonage traded as high as $2.63 before closing at $2.17. Nonetheless, that is still a stunning increase from the $.45 where it traded last Friday. Vonage’’s volume was more than 81 million, about seventy times its normal daily level. Read More
Shares of Vonage (VG) decreased from their peak price of the day yesterday as investors raised concerns about the company’s rapid stock valuation increase. Vonage traded as high as $2.63 before closing at $2.17. Nonetheless, that is still a stunning increase from the $.45 where it traded last Friday. Vonage’’s volume was more than 81 million, about seventy times its normal daily level. Read More
American internet speeds are slow, very slow by international standards. That may be one of the reasons that the $787 billion economic stimulus package has a large financial commitment to building broadband infrastructure.
The US ranks 28th among large countries in internet connection speeds according to new data from the Communications Workers of America. The organizations has a reason to track the information. Many of the union members’ jobs rely on cable and telecom firms continuing to invest to build larger broadband systems, particularly the communications giants Comcast (CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (TWC), AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ). Read More
Cellular providers including Sprint (S), AT&T (T), and Verizon Wireless (VZ)(VOD) have had the broadband wireless market all to themselves. WiFi offered some modest competition, but its service only works within a few hundred feet of a base station. The 3G broadband wireless systems created by the telephone companies cover entire cities and most major roadways.
Comcast (CMCSA), the nation’s largest cable company, means to break the hegemony of the phone companies. Read More
Reuters: The head of a Congressional watchdog committee is pushing for a consumer protection agency.
Reuters: China defended its export policies against a WTO complaint.
Reuters: Citigroup (C) intends to raise the base pay of key employees.
Reuters: Apple’s (AAPL) Jobs has an excellent prognosis after recent surgery. Read More
Palm (PALM) may not have had much of a choice in terms of which cellular company was going to market its new Pre. AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless (VZ)(VOD) were probably not interested. Palm’s marriage with Sprint (S) may hurt the handset firm’s chances at a turnaround. Sprint’s customer service still gets remarkably poor ratings. Read More
Cisco (CSCO) expected a staggering increase in IP traffic between now and 2013. A new report from the router company says that global IP traffic will quintuple in the five years ending in 2013.
The primary reason for the surge will be video traffic which Cisco defines as file-sharing, TV, internet video and video-one demand. Video will account for 91% of all consumer Internet traffic four years from now. Read More
Micro-blogging platform Twitter has 32 million users, which is an increase from about 2 million a year ago, according to research mentioned in The Wall Street Journal. Some Internet measurement services show that figure increasing 50% to 100% month-over-month. While it is not clear that Twitter will become as large as social networks, MySpace and Facebook or video-sharing site YouTube, the company could certainly have 50 million visitors by the end of the year. Read More
Reuters: Chrysler is already seeing positive effects from bankruptcy.
Reuters: The US is working with GM (GM) on a Chapter 11 filing as the June1 deadline looms.
Reuters: Pimco’s Gross says US is at risk of losing its AAA rating.
Reuters: The US closed BankUnited and sold it to private equity interests.
Reuters: AIG’s (AIG) Liddy stepped down as CEO.
Reuters: The trillion dollar bailout is beginning to shake market confidence in the US economy.
Reuters: New reports show the US has a bumpy road ahead as it moves toward recovery. Read More
According to Reuters, stress tests results will force ten banks to have to raise nearly $75 billion.
Reuters reports that Toyota (TM) lost $6.9 billion and warned of more losses ahead.
Reuters writes that the NY Fed chairman resigned over potential conflicts of interest from his holdings in Goldman Sachs (GS).
Reuters reports that Oracle (ORCL) will not divest Sun’s (JAVA) hardware business.
Reuters reports that the CEO of Google (GOOG) says he expects more government scrutiny of his company. Read More
According to Reuters, the days of the CEOs of Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) may be numbered.
Reuters reports that a deal has been reached to cut Chrysler’s debt but a bankruptcy is still possible.
Reuters reports that Citigroup has sought approval to pay some bonuses.
Reuters writes that Apple (AAPL) may be using the iPhone to play Verizon (VZ) off against AT&T (T) Read More
Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) received a subtle yet rather large compliment from a ratings agency this morning. Moody’s raised its rating on the company’s long-term senior unsecured debt further up into ‘investment grade’ territory. If you follow ratings agencies at all, you have probably noticed that the trends have been toward downgrading companies because of falling credit metrics. An upgrade in today’s environment is probably worth taking a look at. The ratings were taken from Baa2 to Baa1 and the ratings outlook is now ’stable.’ This review was initiated in early February and it covers roughly $32 billion worth of the company’s debt.
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Cable operator Comcast (CMCSA) claims it is now the No.3 phone company in the country. It follows two of the remaining parts of the old AT&T which was broken up in 1982. Verizon (VZ) and the new AT&T (T), which is made up of some parts of the old one, still hold the top two places. That may appear to be complicated because it is. Seven regional telephone firms were created from pieces of the original Ma Bell. Over the last quarter of a century most of the regionals have been put back together through mergers and acquisitions. It should make phone customers wonder why the company started by Alexander Graham Bell was taken apart at all. Read More
If you have been following the land of low-priced stocks that are active in trading volume for long, you will find many groups of traders who have been betting on the success or death of Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR). Today came the announcement that it has asked Lazard to initiate discussions with bondholders regarding alternatives to improve its balance sheet.
Everyone knows about the old $1.00 stock limit for a regular NASDAQ listing. This $1.00 listing requirment rule has been under a moratorium until after the first of the year so that NASDAQ would not have to boot off many of its key component or most active share volume stocks. But many companies are already signaling an intent to conduct a reverse stock split or to take other actions to maintain a stock listing. SIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) and Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) are both in the soup with NASDAQ requirements. They are also debt-ridden with severely negative values on a tangible asset basis. These and other issues at hand may make initial listing maintenance steps ultimately irrelevant.
People can’t afford to go out, so they are getting their entertainment at home. At least the is the message embedded in the Comcast (CMCSA) third quarter earnings. The firm even upped its forecasts for future quarters.
Revenue was up 10% to $8.5 billion. Operating income was up 20% to $1.67 billion.
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