Posts related to ‘Entertainment’

Black Friday Gimmicks & Desperation, A Win For Consumers (WMT, BBY, COST, TGT, KSS, GPS, M, JWN, MA, AMZN)

We are right at a week away from the highly awaited Black Friday for 2009’s holiday and Christmas season.  As you likely know, this is THE day that retailers look forward to all year and critically depend upon as an anchor to how each retailer’s full year earnings results turn out.  You may already be tired of Christmas ads and the holidays haven’t even arrived yet.  With over 10% unemployment, a recession-end that doesn’t feel like a recession-end, a very tight discretionary spending budget, and a general lack of consumer confidence, it is no surprise at all that the focus for the Holiday Season in 2009 is one of deals and thrift.

These are not in any particular order, but the promotions have been reviewed at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY), Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST), Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT), Kohl’s Corp. (NYSE: KSS), Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS), Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE: M), and Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN).  There is also already promotion between MasterCard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).  Admittedly, this is just a sampling of major outlets.

What is amazing is just how much of the deal-making is already out before the holiday season starts as retailers key off of each other.  It is almost impossible to avoid thinking how such a promotional Christmas and Holiday Season in 2009 is going to add pressure to margins at almost all the first-line retailers.
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Posted on: November 19, 2009 – 12:54 pm in Apparel, Calendar, Editor's Picks, Entertainment, Luxury, Product Review, Retail, , , , , , , , , ,

Despite Many Drops, Disney Delivers (DIS)

DIS LogoThe Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) is out with earnings and the report is a solid one compared to what we have seen elsewhere, yet it too saw mostly erosion in its business segments. For the quarter, the Mouse House posted $0.47 EPS compared to $0.40 in the prior-year quarter, but that figure had gains from the Lifetime/A&E transaction and restructuring and impairment charges, which together resulted in a net benefit of $0.01.  If you back out all items, the company is showing a 5% earnings gain to $0.46 EPS.  Revenues were down 4% year over year to $9.867 billion.  Thomson Reuters had estimates at $0.41 EPS and $9.27 billion in revenues.  The units are where the story sounds worse than the raw figures.
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Posted on: November 12, 2009 – 4:35 pm in Earnings, Entertainment, Media,

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″ Blows Records Away (ATVI, GME, MSFT)

Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) may actually hit that $500 million first week target after all.  The company has announced this morning that since the 12:00 launch on Tuesday that its much-hyped “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″ has become the biggest launch in history across all forms of entertainment.  Forget Star Wars, forget Halo 3.  The company has put the internal estimated sell-through sales at a figure of $310 million in North America and the United Kingdom alone in just the first 24 hours. The company also estimates that it sold approximately 4.7 million copies in just North America and the United Kingdom.
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Posted on: November 12, 2009 – 8:28 am in Entertainment, Media, Video Games, , ,

NBCU CEO Will Stay On As Will Problems

carNBCU CEO Jeff Zucker was well-educated at Harvard. He is well liked by his managers at GE (NYSE:GE). He is well-regarded within the entertainment history. And, NBCU has done almost nothing to distinguish itself within its industry while he has been at its head.

Sources have told Reuters that Zucker will keep his job when Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) buys a majority interest in NBCU from GE. That means that the “tone at the top” will change very little and makes it a further mystery of why Comcast wants NBCU at all. Read More »

Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 5:01 am in Entertainment, ,

Chinese Hotel IPO: 7 Days Group Holdings Limited (SVN, HMIN)

china map7 Days Group Holdings Limited is national economy hotel chain based in China, and it has just filed to come public via an Inital Public Offering.  No terms were disclosed other than it will sell up to $100 million in common stock via ADRs.  It plans to list its stock under the “SVN” ticker on the New York Stock Exchange with J.P. Morgan and Citigroup as the lead underwriters.

To many investors, this will sound  like the story of Home Inns & Hotels Management Inc. (NASDAQ: HMIN).
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Posted on: November 2, 2009 – 4:38 pm in ADR, China, Entertainment, IPOs, ,

Ancestry.com on IPO Deck (ACOM)

Ancestrycom LogoThis week we are expecting to see the market absorb the pending initial public offering from Ancestry.com Inc.  The company has a very unique niche and business model in that it operates a subscription-based online research system for family history.  Investors need to be aware that Ancestry.com Inc. is offering 4,074,074 shares and the selling stockholders are offering 3,333,333 shares in the IPO in an expected price range of $12.50 to $14.50 per share.  Ancestry.com will take the stock ticker “ACOM” on NASDAQ, which is the same ticker that was used for the former Agency.com when it was public.
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Posted on: November 2, 2009 – 1:16 pm in Entertainment, IPOs, Internet,

Can Hyatt IPO Beat Current IPO Doldrums? (H, HOT, MAR)

Hyatt LogoLate Friday night, after a really poor market day, Hyatt Hotels issued an amended S-1 for its planned initial public offering.  Because of last week’s market volatility, we are getting mixed signals about both the ultimate pricing and about which night the hotel operator will price its deal.  The deal is still set for 38 million shares in a price range expected as $23.00 and $26.00.  The company will also trade under the ticker “H” on the NYSE.

Hyatt is controlled by the Pritzker family.  It has a huge underwriting syndicate with Goldman Sachs as lead manager.  Co-managers are listed as Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, UBS, HASBC, Piper Jaffray, Wells Fargo, and Scotia Capital.  Other companies also listed on the prospectus are Robert W. Baird, Loop Capital Markets, M.R. Beal, Ramirez & Co., Siebert Capital Markets, and The Williams Capital Group.  The underwriting group has an overallotment option to purchase up to an additional 5.7 million shares of common stock.

The mid-point of this IPO will generate roughly a $4.11 billion market cap, and the net tangible book value as of September 30, 2009 was approximately $4.5 billion (roughly $26.98 per share).  This is less than 80% of the value of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: HOT) $5.4 billion market cap and less than half of Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE: MAR) $9 billion market cap.
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Posted on: November 2, 2009 – 12:45 pm in Entertainment, IPOs, Private Equity, REIT, , ,

Expedia Expands in China After Earnings (EXPE)

Expedia LogoExpedia Inc. (NYSE: EXPE) is looking solid on all fronts. Online travel is winning despite tight purses on direct travel as buyers look for better deals.  Last night the online travel company beat earnings as its profits rose by 23%.  Earnings were $117 million or $0.40 EPS net, but non-GAAP earnings were $0.48 EPS.  Also noted was a 2% rise in revenue to $852.4 million.  Thomson Reuters had estimates pegged at $0.43 EPS and $828.9 million in revenues.  Then this morning came an acquisition in China.
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Posted on: October 30, 2009 – 8:21 am in China, Entertainment, Internet, Mergers and Buy Outs,

Les Vegas Sands Wins on Cost Cuts (LVS, WYNN)

Money ImageWynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) may have set a high bar for Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) and its earnings report today, but cost cuts helped the company to beat its estimates. Las Vegas Sands  reported GAAP net income of $62.4 million, but the non-GAAP operating income was $0.03 EPS and revenue was $1.14 billion.  Thomson Reuters had estimates pegged at -$0.01 EPS and $1.17 billion in revenues.  That is another instance of cost savings helping the bottom-line more than the top-line seeing improvements.

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Posted on: October 29, 2009 – 4:13 pm in Casinos, Earnings, Entertainment, ,

Apollo’s Woes (APOL)

Burning Money PicApollo Group Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL) is the clear leader of the private-sector public education companies.  Yet, that leadership position is coming with some severe pain after its earnings.  Apollo reported that its profit fell by some 60% on one-time litigation and write-off charges.  Earnings were $91.5 million, or $0.59 EPS, but outside of items its non-GAAP earnings was listed as being $1.06 EPS. Revenue rose by almost 30% to $1.08 billion.  The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters were $1.04 EPS (non-GAAP) and $1.03 billion in revenues.  The bomb is here: the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an informal inquiry over the company’s revenue recognition policy.

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Posted on: October 27, 2009 – 4:44 pm in Accounting, Earnings, Entertainment, SEC,

Netflix Battleground Status Continues (NFLX, BBI, CSTR)

Netflix LogoNetflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is a true battleground stock.  It has a loyal customer base, a cult-like stock following, and trades with a very high short interest.  Shares are screaming today and have effectively hit not just 52-week highs… all-time highs. The earnings report showed a 48% profit rise and it raised its annual subscriber and financial metrics.  The company’s profit rose by almost 50% to $30.1 million, or $0.52 EPS.  But on a non-GAAP basis those earnings were $0.55 EPS.  Revenues rose by about 24% from a year ago to $423.1 million. Thomson Reuters consensus data was $0.49 EPS and $419.9 million in revenues.
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Posted on: October 23, 2009 – 11:53 am in Earnings, Entertainment, HI/LOW, Media, , ,

Amazon (AMZN): Innovation’s Reward

nokThe founders of the large web properties of Web 1.0 are all gone now save one. Yahoo!’s (NASDAQ:YHOO) chief Yahoo!s have very little to do with the company, although one of them, Jerry Yang, made a brief and troubled attempt to run the company recently. The founders of eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) and AOL retired a long time ago. Many of the websites that were among the most visited in the US a decade ago have disappeared since Jeff Bezos created Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) in 1994. Lycos, Excite, Altavista, Infoseek, and Switchboard have either disappeared or are tiny players among the new elite group of Web 2.0 firms which includes Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG). Read More »

Posted on: October 23, 2009 – 4:37 am in Earnings, Editor's Picks, Entertainment, Internet, , , , ,

The Back-Door Play on Advertising in China (IDI, FMCN, VISN, AMCN, LAMR, CCO)

china mapIdeation Acquisition Corp. (AMEX: IDI) gave us a volume spike alert over at VSInvestor.com, and it is very unusual to see a special purpose acquisition company suddenly have exponential trading volume. The company has a pending merger vote and it gave an investor presentation just last week at the ROTH China Conference.  Today’s interest is after Ladenburg Thalmann picked up new analyst coverage with a “BUY” rating ahead of a pending merger vote with SearchMedia, an outdoor billboard and in-elevator advertiser in China.

Investors are starting to treat this SPAC as a pre-merger entrance into the Chinese advertising market.  This in a sense gives small-cap investors a chance to buy into what they will hope can become the next Focus Media Holding Ltd. (NASDAQ: FMCN), the larger pure-play Chinese advertising stock with a $1.88 billion market cap… Or even the other player called VisionChina Media Inc. (NASDAQ: VISN) with a $716 million value today after a 3% gain, or the AirMedia Group Inc. (NASDAQ: AMCN) with a $554 million market cap after an 8% gain today.  It will be a stretch to compare this smaller player to Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CCO) or to Lamar Advertising Co. (NASDAQ: LAMR), but those are the clear leaders in America for U.S. investors.
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Posted on: October 19, 2009 – 1:23 pm in Activist Investor, Business Services, China, Entertainment, Media, Private Equity, , , , , ,

IPO Market Showing Concern (MG, TLCR, BSBR, EM, CLNY, RA, FIG, ARI, VITC, ECHO, CPC, GAME, SNDA, CYOU, SOHU, CPIX, OMER, BX)

bull-and-bear-image2It was just in August that practically every single initial public offering was trading above its IPO price.  The market had rallied significantly, and still rallied after that to just this week have a 10,000 handle on the DJIA.  Investors started warming to more risk-based capital, and investment bankers were finally able to get deals done.  Even waves and waves of secondary offerings were able to be absorbed merely by brokers being able to tell clients they could buy stock at an implied discount to the average price over the few days before.  But suddenly, the IPO market has turned out some real dogs with fleas.

Mistra Group (NYSE: MG) priced its offering at $12.50 on October 7.  While it traded as low as $12.17, it has escaped the hangman’s file of ‘busted deals’ as it is now a $13.51 stock.  The one thing that may have helped was that it priced under an initial range of $14 to $16 per share.  Talecris Biotherapeutics Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: TLCR) also went into the busted category temporarily after hitting a low of $18.01 after a $19.00 pricing.  Fortunately, it is up at $19.97 so is also now out of the hangman’s eyes.  Still, an 8% gain and a 5% gain in this market might leave some investors feeling lonely.  Banco Santander Brasil S.A. (NYSE: BSBR) was a very large IPO of over 500 million shares at an implied $13.40, and this one got out of the “busted IPO” dungeon on Thursday and closed at $13.51 on Friday.  Before Thursday it had spent its 6 prior trading sessions as a busted IPO.

Emdeon Inc. (NYSE: EM) had traded above $18.00 briefly after its IPO priced at $15.50 in August. But now the healthcare revenue and payment cycle management solutions provider, which is supposed to be a healthcare winner ahead, closed down at $15.35 on Friday  and had been slightly lower during the week.  This was effectively a re-IPO as Emdeon had been public before after General Atlantic Partners acquired it and it also received an investment from Hellman & Friedman. It also has ties to James Clark, the Netscape founder and was part of Healtheon.

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Posted on: October 17, 2009 – 8:45 am in ADR, Biotech, Business Services, China, Editor's Picks, Entertainment, IPOs, Mergers and Buy Outs, Private Equity, REIT, Secondary Offering, Trading Alert, Value Investing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Expedia Scores S&P Rating Upgrade (EXPE)

Expedia LogoThe travel sector may still be complaining about softness and  a spotty recovery, but things are getting better financially at Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE).  It turns out that Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services gave the debt rating an upgrade, and now the company is classified as an investment grade company.  The reasons for the upgrade were cited as a conservative fiscal policy, a solid operating performance, and strong financial results.
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Posted on: October 14, 2009 – 3:43 pm in Analyst Calls, Entertainment, Internet, Luxury

IBM Is The Key to DJIA 10,000 (JPM, INTC, IBM, DIA)

Bull and Bear ImageThe Dow Jones Industrial Average is literally within 20 points of the psychological DJIA 10,000 mark.  We have not seen Dow-10K since October, 2008, but that month we saw 11,000 and saw under 8,000 all in the same month.  JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), up over 3%, and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC), up over 2%, both DJIA components, are the two culprits that have us up to within 20 points now that the market is up over 100 points in early afternoon trading.  At 1:00 we had only 7 of the DJIA components in negative territory, and these are all down only by a few cents each.

But the biggest DJIA component is International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), and it reports earnings tomorrow after the close.  As the DJIA is a price-weighted index, IBM is now the largest DJIA component with its $127+ price tag.  Its weighting in the index is over 9% as a result.  After Intel, it seems that you would expect a solid report.  Its services order backlog reported at the end of last quarter was a whopping $132 billion.  And many feel the bar is set low here for most large companies now this quarter.

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Posted on: October 14, 2009 – 1:17 pm in Entertainment, Index, Technology Companies, , , ,

Conde Nast Woes, An Opportunity For The Knot? (KNOT)

Money Stack PicBurning Money PicThe Knot, Inc. (NASDAQ: KNOT) may just have become an indirect beneficiary of the old print media world dying one publication at a time.  The Wall Street Journal and CNBC have reported that Conde Nast is closing four magazines, two of which are Elegant Bride and Modern Bride.  While this highlights problems in the wedding sector, it actually opens up more possibilities for The Knot’s key bridal and wedding website called TheKnot.com and for the twice-per-year THE KNOT Magazine which sells for $9.95.  This highlights that weddings are not recession-proof.
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Posted on: October 5, 2009 – 11:49 am in Entertainment, Internet, Luxury, Media,

Brazil Olympic Stock Plays Feeling Lofty (EWZ, BRF, BZF, BBD, BRP, BTM, BAK, PDA, EBR, ABV, ELP, SID, CPL, ERJ, GFA, GGB, GOL, ITUB, NETC, PBR, TAM, TNE, TSP, VALE, VIV, VCP)

Rio Olympic ImageInvesting into emerging markets where the Olympics are headed is supposed to be a safe bet, in theory.  Despite a flat close for stocks in the U.S. on Friday, Brazilian shares rose almost across the board Friday after last week’s decision to send the 2016 Summer Olympics to Rio de Janeiro.  It was huge for the iShares MSCI Brazil (NYSE: EWZ) gaining 1.9% to $67.30 ($26.64 to $68.50 is the 52-week range) and the Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap ETF (NYSE: BRF) rose 1.5% to $39.76 (its 52-week range is $23.68 to $40.42).  The WisdomTree Dreyfus Brazilian Real (NYSE: BZF) currency ETF rose 0.54% to $25.89.

Outside of the ETF investing, this story becomes one where stocks may still have great growth prospects.  But if you are a value investor or one who does not like to chase stocks when they are close to yearly or all-time highs, then there is a problem.  So many of these stocks are hitting highs or are so close that you have to wonder just how much upside is there.  Using 52-week highs and all-time highs is of course not the only metric for valuations, but you might be surprised as you read through a summary of the major Brazilian stock performances on Friday alone.  Throw in the Brazilian Real currency versus the US Dollar component as these are all ADRs and it adds in yet another element.

Banco Bradesco S.A. (NYSE: BBD) is the huge Brazilian bank and its shares rose 1.8% at $19.94, with a 52-week trading range of $7.40 to $20.20 and an all-time high north of $24.00.

Brasil Telecom Participacoes S.A (NYSE: BRP) is a telecom player in Brazil and its shares rose 2.9% to $52.33, with a 52-week trading range of $22.00 to $53.49 with highs in 2007 and 2008 hitting north of $80.00.

Brasil Telecom S.A. (NYSE: BTM) is a telecommunications services provider whose shares rose 3.3% to $26.28 and its 52-week trading range is $9.49 to $26.55 and it was in the mid-$30’s in early 2008.

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Posted on: October 5, 2009 – 7:01 am in ADR, Commodities, ETF, Economy, Emerging Markets, Entertainment, Financial Stocks, HI/LOW, Infrastructure, Large Cap Stocks, Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Shanda IPO Taking Shape (SNDA, GAME, CYOU, SOHU)

The spin-off IPO for Shanda Games Limited (NASDAQ: GAME) is coming next week and the company has set the expected price band for its 63+ million American Depositary Shares in range of $10.50 and $12.50 per share.  The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ: SNDA) and will in many ways continue after the IPO to effectively be under the parent.
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Posted on: September 16, 2009 – 4:05 pm in ADR, China, Entertainment, IPOs, Video Games, , , ,

How Much Higher Can Omniture Bid Fetch? (OMTR, ADBE, MSFT, GOOG, TWX)

Money Stack ImageOmniture Inc. (NASDAQ: OMTR) seems like another niche ad-tech play that has gone on over the recent years, but it could possibly be much more.  Adobe Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) gave a $21.50 per share cash tender buyout price valued at some $1.8 billion.   What is interesting is that there is already a thought over whether the company deserves to get a higher price.  The company’s online marketing suite and other operations make it an interesting acquisition for anyone wanting to get further into advertising intelligence for business optimization that allows for smarter and smarter marketing.
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Posted on: September 16, 2009 – 3:03 pm in Business Services, Entertainment, Internet, Media, Mergers and Buy Outs, Software, , , , ,