Sources vary from all over the web, and mainstream media articles often have different figures when they are close together in time.  Official sales data is not updated all the time.  Still, the $30 billion franchise value is heading up now because of the 3D launch of ”Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” as the (probable) first but not last of the Star Wars remakes coming in 3D.

The relaunch of the movie franchise in 3D is likely to boost the franchise’s value much more when you count ticket sales, and then tally up merchandise sales, new media sales, product sales and more.  Box Office Mojo noted that The Phantom Menace in 3D is going to appear in 2,655 theaters.  Throw in the intellectual property values and future sales, and the value will head far north of $30 billion. 

It was just in 2007 that Forbes noted, “Star Wars’ initial release was followed by another five blockbuster films and a mini-industry of tapes and DVDs, toys, video games and books. Taken together over its 30 years of cultural dominance, the Star Wars franchise has earned more than $22 billion.”   Another figure in late 2011 put the total Star Wars franchise value at a whopping $27 billion from Statistic Brain (using Forbes and Lucasfilm data).  We also have gathered more recent data than those prior calculations.

Star Wars creator George Lucas is now a multi-billionaire.  The Forbes wealthiest 400 list puts Lucas at a net worth of $3.2 billion in its September 2011 report and that is lower than the $3.6 billion in a prior report.

Read Also: The Most Valuable Film Franchises of All-Time

Another 2007 figure used by Forbes was a monstrous $9 billion in toys with another $1.6 billion at the time having been generated by Star Wars video games.  More toys have sold since then, and more video game sales have been seen.

Brand new data from Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) shows over 2 million MMORPG have sold of ‘Star Wars: The Old Republic’ through the end of January with some 1.7 million online users.  Taking just half of the users with a two-month average life of subscriber dollars comes to $180 million in total revenues between sales and subscriptions in just the first quarter of 2012.  Then there will be the tail revenue stream from loyalists and those in the next upgrade coming soon, generating millions of dollars more each month. If the success remains, a business mind would easily predict another MMORPG sale in the future.

Lucas Licensing of Lucasfilms has noted over $20 billion in consumer sales worldwide.  This includes Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) and Kenner toys, merchandise sold, over 100 million books sold (with over 80 New York Times best sellers), museum exhibitions, apparel, consumer electronics, housewares, and the endless lines of other products.  The $20 billion figure has been used for quite some time as well by Lucasfilm on its site.  Imagine the sales that will soon be counted if you just looked at the major retail store websites: Toys R Us had 603 items; WalMart had 539 items; and Target had 800 items.

The Total Value of Star Wars Today…

• $4.27 Billion in worldwide box office sales (See full chart below), not adjusted for ticket price hikes in today’s dollars
• $20 billion in Licensing sales (toys, books, apparel, consumer products, and on)
• $3 billion in video games (over 100 million units sold)
• $2.5 billion, and climbing, in DVD sales
• $800 million (or more) and climbing in movie rentals (going from DVD back to VHS and even Betamax)

THE GRAND TOTAL… $30.57 BILLION, and growing…

Forget about the $30.5 billion in total sales so far.  That assumes that all sales suddenly stop in the next few weeks. We will not count the $3.2 billion in net worth of George Lucas because that is a personal net worth even if there is overlap in some of the areas we would cover.

The November trade gap from the prior month was originally reported as $47.75 billion., but that was revised lower to $47.06 billion. 

The full preliminary figure for the trade deficit in 2011 is up 11.6% from 2010 at a level of $558.02 billion.  That is the highest level since 2008.  The deficit with China also hit a new record with an 8% gain to $295.46 billion.

JON C. OGG

As far as earnings, SIRIUS XM made over $71 million for the quarter, or $0.01 EPS.  Sales were up 6.5% at $over $783 million.  Estimates from Thomson Reuters were $0.01 EPS and $785.49 million in revenues.  Revenues were projected to be about $3.3 billion against estimates of almost $3.4 billion.

In short, it was mostly in-line.  SIRIUS XM shares have recovered so much from the lows that it has to beat estimates to keep everyone happy.

The law of large numbers catches up to every company in time.  SIRIUS XM added 542,996 subscribers in the quarter and about 1.7 million in whole year of 2011.  For 2012, that projection is to add 1.3 million, which some price increases may increase churn modestly.

The notion that Sirius XM was started with new coverage at Underweight by Barclays earlier this week is only one more item showing concern.

The positive case: If we are really going to get an explosive auto market later on in 2012, SIRIUS XM stands to win.  Analysts still have a price target consensus of about $2.36 on this stock.  Seeking Alpha has a story titled “Buyback And Takeover Chatter For Sirius; CBS Looks Solid” and that might lure more bulls to tout the stock without even reading the article.

The reality is SIRIUS XM is worth over $8 billion today even after the drop, about 4-times Pandora’s $2.2 billion value.  Pandora is also only expected to report almost $420 million in sales for the year ended January 2013.

With almost 4 billion shares, it is too bad that a reverse stock split would only attract short sellers.  Imagine if SIRIUS XM was able to report earnings of $0.10 ot $0.15 per quarter rather than just a penny each quarter.  It would be a psychological boost.  The short sellers would attack it and the company knows that.  There were already 305 million shares in the short interest as of mid-January and that was the highest short interest reading since last May.

SIRIUS XM is trading down almost 2% at $2.15 against a 52-week range of $1.27 to $2.44.  We have already seen 63 million shares trade hands against an average of 55 million shares a day.  If SIRIUS XM is going to trade down on valuation, perhaps Pandora needs some caution as well unless it can score a massive swing higher in paying subscribers.  Pandora shares are trading down almost 3% at $13.51 versus a post-IPO range of $9.15 to $26.00 and versus a $16.00 IPO price.

As a reminder, investors do have stock options that can be used to hedge this one if they want to stick with it for the long haul.

JON C. OGG

As part of its ongoing strategic review process “and commitment to drive sustainable profitability through its most valuable business lines” the company notes these changes:

• Phase out its dedicated capture devices business in the first half of 2012, comprising digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames. Kodak will instead expand its current brand licensing program, and seek licensees in these categories.
• Kodak’s Consumer Business will include online and retail-based photo printing, as well as desktop inkjet printing. 
• Kodak says that it will “continue to honor all related product warranties, and provide technical support and service for its cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames.”  Good luck.
• Kodak expects annual operating savings of more than $100 million, and it will incur a separation benefits charge of about $30 million as it exits these.
• The Commercial Businesses segment includes the Digital and Functional Printing, Enterprise Services and Solutions, and Graphics, Entertainment and Commercial Films units. Kodak’s digital businesses now comprise approximately three-fourths of total revenues.         

The company claims to still have a strong position in the personal imaging market. Unfortunately, this long slow death march doesn’t seem over.  Those OTC shares are still worth $0.44 today and we have no personal expectation of any left over value unless it can monetize those patents beyond the wildest expectations.

JON C. OGG

• The first non-footwear Crocs-branded products included a line of adult and children’s socks from Sock and Accessories Brands, which launched in the holiday 2011 season.  These will also be available in Europe.
• Crocs has also signed up with Accessory Exchange for it to produce Crocs-branded accessories for men, women and children. These will include hats, bags, backpacks, socks and gloves for Crocs retail stores and the Crocs.com website.
• In April 2012, the Crocs brand will extend to children’s apparel through an agreement with the A Group in 46 countries. Crocs-branded sunglasses and sunglass accessories also will launch in May 2012 in a deal with Eye King, LLC to produce sunglasses for adults and youth for retail and wholesale distribution in the U.S. and Canada.
• Crocs Professional Footwear Division is in a partnership with ICER Brands to “build on the loyal following of medical professionals with the introduction of Crocs-branded scrubs. This new medical gear is available now through specialty stores and online.” 
• Paramount, a sports licensee, recently kicked off Collegiate and MLB licensed footwear for the brand.

OK. so let’s get this straight.  Medical scrubs, baseball shoes, eyeglasses, hats backpacks, and gloves… All with the Crocs label on them.

This just sounds bad on the surface.  As far as investors are concerned, if it grows the brand and captures new sales that were previously uncharted then it is a win.

200 million pairs of shoes sold is probably a better judge than us calling Crox one of the ugliest brands that there is.  After all, opinions greatly differ and the sales results probably speak louder than critical words.

JON C. OGG

The soft drink, beverage and snack maker’s net income for the fourth quarter of 2011 was up 4% to $1.42 billion.  This came to $0.89 EPS, but the pre-item report of non-GAAP came in it $1.15 EPS.  Thomson Reuters was expecting a consensus of $1.13 EPS.  The company’s sales were up by more than 10% to $20.16 billion and that was also slightly above the consensus estimate of $19.89 billion in sales.

Where the story gets interesting the layoffs: 8,700, or about 3% of the company’s work force.  The job cuts are part of a cost-cutting strategy aimed to save $1.5 billion over the next three-years.  It also comes on top of what is said to be a higher push in marketing and advertising.

Cost pressure and a move toward healthier drinks have been a challenge.  Pepsi closed at $66.74 and the 52-week range is $58.50 to $71.89.  Shares are indicated down about 1% ahead of the opening bell.   Investors are currently leaning more toward Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO).

JON C. OGG

An unfavorable impact from foreign exchange was $3.5 million in sales.  Gross billings (the first revenue counting) is the gross amounts collected from customers for Groupons sold and excludes taxes and net of estimated refunds… That rose by 201% to $1.25 billion in the fourth quarter.

The company “helped 250,000 local merchants across 47 countries grow their businesses while saving Groupon customers billions of dollars.”

Operating income was $15.0 million in the fourth quarter 2011, compared with a loss from operations of $336.1 million in the fourth quarter 2010.  This was the first positive quarter on operating income.  Fourth quarter 2011 operating results included losses of over $40 million principally from less mature markets within the international segment.

Operating cash flow increased 226% to $169.1 million for the quarter; Free cash flow rose 258% to $155.1 million for the quarter. Groupon also finished with $1.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents and no long-term debt.

Here is first quarter guidance: Revenue $510 million to $550 million; income from operations of $15 million to $35 million (includes approximately $35 million for stock-based compensation and acquisition-related expense).  Next quarter’s revenue target from Thomson Reuters is $500.89 million.

The headline loss is killing the stock initially.  After a near two-percent gain to $24.66, Groupon is down 12% at $21.70 in the after-hours session.

JON C. OGG

For all of 2011 there was a 5% total case volume growth for the beverage giant, with Europe up 1% and China up 10%.  North America’s organic case volume was up only 1% in the period.  For the Year…  Full-year EPS of $3.69 and $3.84 EPS on an adjusted basis.  The 10% growth is said to be “both ahead of our long-term growth target.”

Coke is also launching a new Productivity and Reinvestment program that aims for annualized savings of $550 to $650 million by the end of 2015 as part of its 2020 Vision.

Shares closed at $68.03 on Monday and the 52-week range is $61.29 to $71.77; shares are up 1.3% at $68.90 so far in the pre-market with almost two hours until the market opens for trading.

JON C. OGG

The company has already increased its annual dividend rate to $1.14 per share and its 2011 earnings are $2.74 EPS.  It also repurchased 14.3 million shares totaling $733 million at an average price of $51.00 per share.

Worldwide system sales grew 11% before currency translation in the quarter, but this was a gain of about 33% in China.  The international growth was 10% versus 6% growth in the united States.  Same-store sales grew 21% in China, 3% in all international and only 1% in the U.S.  Worldwide restaurant margin declined 1.1 percentage points to 14.3%.

The company did note that results for Yum! Restaurants International and the U.S. reflect the benefit of an additional week, but noted that this 53rd week did not impact China Division results.

Yum! Brands closed down 1% at $63.19 but the after-hours reaction is up 2.3% at $64.70.  Keep in mind that $64.75 is its 52-week high AND its all-time high.

JON C. OGG

• Feb 01 traded 125,300 shares and closed at $14.59
• Jan 31 traded 58,300 shares and closed at $14.25
• Jan 30 traded 33,400 shares and closed at $14.28
• Jan 27 traded 16,200 shares and closed at $14.20
• Jan 26 traded 400 shares and closed at $13.50
• Jan 25 traded 1,300 shares and closed at $13.59

We said it before and we will say it again… This ETF owns no shares of Facebook as of yet.  It will have to after the Facebook IPO but it does not now.  Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (NYSE: IPG) owns shares but barely rose today.  Affiliates of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) own shares, and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) owns shares.  The social media company only has a halo-effect around the theme of social media.

Facebook is and was one of our Top 17 IPOs For 2012, but so was Twitter, Living Social and Yelp.

LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD) closed up 6.4% at $76.98 solely on being a rival and Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) rose 16% to $12.39 due to its being north of 10% of Facebook’s revenues.

What is so funny is that even FriendFinder Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FFN), the adult-themed social networking site and one of the worst IPOs of modern time, rose solely because of the social media halo.  That gain was 16% to $1.33 against a 52-week range (actually under a year) of $0.51 to $10.01.

The one business development company which does own Facebook shares is GSV Capital Corporation (NASDAQ: GSVC).  Its shares have risen since the impending filing was telegraphed last Friday and the stock rose by over 7% to $18.51 today.

This is called the Halo-effect if there ever was one.

Facebook’s full IPO details are here.

JON C. OGG