Posts related to ‘Rumors’

Unusual Friday Options Activity (AAPL, GOOG, BAC, LEAP, PCS, DRYS, YHOO)

We have seen some unusual options trading today.  As you would expect, some is around today’s 4:00 PM close  with today being options expiration date.  But some bets are way out into 2011 and we have some around merger rumors.  All have links with full details on the options trading analysis at VSInvestor:

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) are both seeing very active trading around expiration date today, and the closest strikes are acting as magnets.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) has seen a very bullish bet in options out to 2011.

There is some elevated Dec-2009 Call options activity in both Leap Wireless International Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) and MetroPCS Communications Inc. (NYSE: PCS) on today’s re-rumor of a potential deal coming back up.

DryShips, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) is very active in the stock after an increased convertible note offering, yet the options activity seen today seems muted.

Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) has a big bet out in January 2011 options expiration.

You can join our open email distribution list to hear more news on key analyst calls, top day trader alerts, mergers and acquisitions, Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG
NOVEMBER 20, 2009

Posted on: November 20, 2009 – 3:24 pm in Options, Rumors, Trading Alert, , , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/20/2009) (GS)(JAVA)

Updated throughout the day.

GE (NYSE:GE) and Vivendi are at odds over the NBCU valuation  (FT)

IBM (NYSE:IBM) is taking advantage of the delay in the Sun (NASDAQ:JAVA) deal to be bought by Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL)  (TheStreet)

The joint venture between Rio Tinto (NYSE:RTP) and BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) may lead to a merger. (various)

Ferrero may want to buy Cadbury’s gum and candy division.  (NYTimes)

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) investors want the firm to cut down the size of bonuses to be paid at the end of the year (various)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 20, 2009 – 9:01 am in Rumors, , , , , , ,

AMERITRADE Shelf Registration Spurs E*TRADE Speculation Further (AMTD, ETFC, SCHW)

TD AMERITRADE Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: AMTD) has just filed an automatic shelf registration statement with the SEC today, which many rumor mongers may jump on and point to the notion that this lends more credibility to some buyout rumors from yesterday that it may want to acquire E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC).  AMERITRADE did not offer any terms nor any size or timing, but the offering is solely for senior debt securities and for subsidiary guarantees.  As with most automatic shelf registrations, no underwriters were mentioned by name.
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Posted on: November 19, 2009 – 11:38 am in Banking, Brokerage Firms, Financial Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, Rumors, , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/19/2009) (BA)(AMTD)(MWW)(NWSA)(AAPL)

Updated throughout the day.

Update 12.50 PM EST:  Boeing (NYSE:BA) could lose a $7.5 billion order for fighter planes to Brazil if the US Senate does not confirm Obama’s nominee to be ambassador to the South American country  (Bloomberg)

Update 11.08 AM EST:  TDAmeritrade (NASDAQ:AMTD) may be buying E*Trade  (NASDAQ:ETFC)  (Omaha World Herald)

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) has lost a large number of its most talented people to hedge funds. (Bloomberg)

The Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) tablet PC launch date has been delayed until late 2010.  (Digitimes)

Monster.com (NASDAQ:MWW) may be taken over by News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) or Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)  (WSJ)

Blackstone’s (NYSE:BX) Pinnacle Brands may buy Birds Eye  (CNBC)

Sony (NYSE:SNE), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Nintendo are working on ways to keep market share as smart phones come after their market share.  (BusinessWeek)

Time Warner’s (NYSE:TWX) AOL is seeking to buy-out 2,500 employees as it is spun off by its parent. (various)

Citigroup (NYSE:C) may sell its auto lending group.  (NYPost)

You can join our open email distribution list to hear more news on key analyst calls, top day trader alerts, mergers and acquisitions, Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

For more information on Citi, Microsoft, Sony, and Google check the 24/7 Wall St 500.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 19, 2009 – 8:45 am in Rumors, , , , , , , , , , ,

Paulson Making Gold Rush Self-Fulfilling Prophecy (GLD, KGC, AU)

A broker noted something about this yesterday as a gold bug, and frankly it seemed far-fetched considering the size of the move we have already seen in recent weeks and months.  But the talk was about John Paulson, the great bank and financial short seller who cleaned up betting against housing and financials, opening a gold fund.  We noticed he held some miners, but after the chase up in gold bullion prices this seemed and still seems late to the party even if there is room to run.  Today’s report from the Wall Street Journal shows that this may be more of a reality than a hope.

Paulson already has large stakes in key gold exposure with SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD), Kinross Gold Corporation (NYSE: KGC), and Anglogold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE: AU).  The tally on these three positions alone at today’s closing bell was about $5.5 billion if the stakes have remained the same.  His stakes already listed are as follows:

Posted on: November 18, 2009 – 5:23 pm in ADR, Activist Investor, Commodities, Metals, Rumors

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/18/2009) (MCD)(BAC)(GOOG)

Updated throughout the day.

Updated 1.48 PM EST:  News Corp’s (NYSE:NWS) MySpace is in talks to buy free music streaming site imeem. (AP)

Update 1.42 PM EST:  Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) will launch its own Android phone  (TechCrunch)

Carl Icahn is aggressively buying shares in MGM  (HollyWood Daily)

Apollo Management may try to list on the NYSE. (FT)

Paulson & Co. believe that Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) will double by the end of 2011.

Oil prices at $80 could damage the economy.  (Fortune)

The low volume of the rally is raising concern about why investors are not convinced the market is going higher  (CNBC)

Subway may open 1,000 stores in Russia by 2015, a challenge to McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD)  (Reuters)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 18, 2009 – 8:17 am in Rumors, , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/17/2009) New Bid For Cadbury

Updated throughout the day.

Updated 4.06 PM EST:  “U.S. chocolate giant Hershey Co. has been in high-level talks with Italian chocolate maker Ferrero Spa to possibly craft a rival joint bid to Kraft Foods Inc.’s $16.7 billion offer for Cadbury PLC.”  (WSJ)

Toys ‘R’ Us could go public  (The Deal)

The new Motorola (NYSE:MOT) Droid handset may be taking significant market share from the Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) Pre.

AOL’s market value will be $3.2 billion when it is spun off from Time Warner (NYSE:TWX)  (The Business Insider)

Smartphones from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) are becoming a security threat  (BusinessWeek)

Several nations including Russia, the US, Israel, France, and China are preparing for cyberattacks.  (CNET)

Talks between Sal. Oppenheim and Australia’s Macquarie over the sale of the Luxemburg-based firm’s investment banking operations collapsed.  (Reuters)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 17, 2009 – 9:01 am in Rumors, , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/16/2009) (DVN)(NVDA)(C)(AAPL)

magazinUpdated throughout the day.

Updated 12.43 PM EST:  Apple may hire its own video game developers to create iPhone and iPod products  (Apple Insider)

Updated 11.57 AM EST:  Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) may sell its international operations to interests in China  (NYT)

Central banks will be net purchasers of gold for the first time in decades  (CNBC)

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) wants to expand it wealth management operation (Investment News and Business Insider)

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) has started to complain about Intel’s (NYSE:INTC) just as the world’s largest chip company settled antitrust issues with AMD (NYSE:AMD)

Intel plans to release powerful new notebook chips in January. (Digitimes)

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) will launch a Zune music and movies brand outside the US to try to challenge Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the mobile content business.  (FT)

JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) is trying to buy the 50% of management firm Cazenove Group that it does not already own for $1.7 billion.  (Bloomberg)

Citigroup (NYSE:C) has rejected Terra Firma Capital’s offer to restructure EMI Group. (WSJ).

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 16, 2009 – 8:46 am in Rumors, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/13/2009) (PALM)(INTC)(AMD)

magazinUpdated throughout the day.

Updated 10.30 AM EST: PALM (NASDAQ:PALM) shares are up on speculation that Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) or Nokia (NYSE:NOK) will buy the faltering handset firm (VSInvestor)

Former Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) CEO and New Jersey governor Jon Corzine said he has not talked to Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) about running the firm. (The Deal)

Some former bank CEOs are considering bidding for failed banks at FDIC auctions.  (WSJ)

Now that it has settled a legal dispute against AMD (NYSE:AMD), Intel’s (NASDAQ:INTC) biggest challenge is competition from ARM Holdings  (BusinessWeek)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 13, 2009 – 9:00 am in Rumors, , , , , , ,

Tech Giants Now Hold ~$265 Billion Cash To Spend (HPQ, COMS, INTC, AMD, MSFT, CSCO, AAPL, GOOG, ORCL, JAVA, QCOM, EMC, YHOO, DELL, AMZN, EBAY, ONT, BRCD, JDSU, STAR, VMW)

You have already seen the Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) buyout of 3Com Corporation (NASDAQ: COMS).  But this week before that deal was announced we covered how mergers in the technology sector have been very slow to develop over the scale in which we and others think is possible for the sector.  After the Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) settlement with Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), the tally of cash that is now estimated would be an implied $265 billion that is available for the tech giants in our 24/7 Wall St. Real-Time 500 to make acquisitions.

The giant cash balances are held by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), assuming nothing happens with Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA).  But players like QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), and eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) are either all sitting with large amounts of cash or will be very soon.

We have broken out these technology, IT, software, and Internet companies by the cash amount they hold or what they have in a soon-to-be cash balance.  Of course only a fraction of this cash will be used for mergers.  But there is also a ton of room here for dividends and of course the share buybacks.

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Posted on: November 12, 2009 – 11:31 am in Consumer Electronics, Cramer, Dividend, Editor's Picks, Internet, Large Cap Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, PC Companies, Private Equity, Rumors, Semiconductor, Software, Stock Buybacks, Technology Companies, Telecom, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Corzine as Bank of America CEO? (GS, BAC)

B of A LogoJon Corzine recently lost the gubernatorial race in New Jersey.  He is also a very wealthy Wall Streeter that is a former disciple of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS).  He is also a democrat that is very friendly with the Obama administration.   And now the strange rumor mill is getting stranger….

Charlie Gasparino on CNBC just threw out the idea that Corzine could potentially be in the running for the CEO role at Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) as the replacement for Ken Lewis….. after he touted his book again.  Gasparino noted that he asked Bank of America about this and the ‘rumor’ was not denied but was given a ‘no comment’ answer which Gasparino expanded upon.

In this new world under the ‘new normal’ it seems that anything is possible.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: November 12, 2009 – 10:28 am in Banking, Financial Stocks, Management Change, Politics, Rumors, Turnarounds, ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/12/2009) (VZ)(EBAY)(SBUX)

magazinUpdated throughout the day.

Ebay (NASDAQ:EBAY) PayPal profits will increase sharply in Q4. (TheStreet)

A former lead director at Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) is pushing for the firm to pick an insider as the new CEO  (TheDeal)

British Airways will merge with Iberia  (Bloomberg)

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) employees and customers are upset that the company has gone into the instant coffee business.  (BusinessWeek)

Verizon (NYSE:VZ) may be spending as much as $100 a phone to market the Motorola (NYSE:MOT) Droid  (Fortune)

Bain Capital has made a $1 billion bid for Japanese telemarketing company Bellsystems24. (NYTimes)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 12, 2009 – 8:59 am in Rumors, , , , ,

How Much is Benmosche Really Worth to AIG? (AIG, MET)

AIG LogoAmerican International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) is under pressure today after its new CEO Robert Benmosche, who has not even had a full three months yet on the job, has effectively threatened to walk out as CEO of AIG. The reasoning is over the intense restrictions of being under the government, particularly as it pertains to compensation limits.  What is interesting is that this may be a strong CEO throwing the gauntlet at the government.  But we also want to explore what Benmosche is actually worth in real dollar terms to AIG today.  Chances are it is far more than just this 4% we have seen the stock drop today.
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Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 1:00 pm in Compensation, Editor's Picks, Financial Stocks, Insider Activity, Management Change, Regulation, Rumors, Shareholder Issues, Turnarounds, ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/11/2009) (AMR)(INTC)(GE)

magazinUpdated throughout the day.

11:45 AM EST: Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) may seek to sell its Home & Networking division for about $4.5 billion according to WSJ. -Jon Ogg

American Air (NYSE:AMR) may team with private equity firm TPG to make an investment in Japan Air.  (Bloomberg)

AIG (NYSE:AIG) CEO Robert E. Benmosche may resign. (WSJ)

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) plans to release a new programming language called Go that can help computer coders improve efficiency  (CNET)

China may benchmark the yuan against currencies other than the dollar. (CNBC)

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) may hold a critical edge against the EU in the antitrust battle.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) is in talks to sell its security systems unit to United Technologies (NYSE:UTX) for over $1.5 billion. (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 8:41 am in Rumors, , , , , ,

Tech Titans Still Have $269 Billion Cash For Deals (MSFT, CSCO, AAPL, GOOG, INTC, HPQ, QCOM, EMC, VMW, YHOO, DELL, ORCL, JAVA, AMZN, EBAY)

The recovery is on and mergers are happening, yet the technology sector has been slow to make deals.  Despite some deals already having taken place from the technology giants and that $260 billion cash balance which was there in the middle of last quarter is even larger now.  The tally for cash by our count is now right around $269 billion.  We looked through the top market caps of technology companies in our 24/7 Wall St. Real-Time 500 and this list is expanded now that some issues have been resolved in all the companies.  The stocks in this group are Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA), Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), and eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY).

These few tech companies with the $269 billion cash that could be deployed for mergers, acquisitions, or the good old dividends are also listed before tallying up credit lines, factoring, debt sales, and other creative financing methods.  We have listed the suppositions and counting methods for each one to illustrate how much is available at each company.
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Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 1:07 pm in Consumer Electronics, Dividend, Editor's Picks, Internet, Large Cap Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, PC Companies, Private Equity, Rumors, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, Value Investing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (9/10/2009) (AMD)(AMR)(LCC)(CLWR)(MOT)

magazinUpdated throughout the day.

Update 2.52 PM EST:  The antitrust disagreement  between Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and AMD (NYSE:AMD) may be resolved by a private settlement  (MarketWatch)

Updated 12.23 PM EST:  Motorola (NYSE:MOT) may have sold 100,000 Droid the first weekend the handset was on the market  (Bloomberg)

Updated 11.33 AM EST: Huge hedge fund SAC says it has found no improper trades. Media sources has linked the firm to the Galleon insider trading investigation. (Bloomberg)

Updated 8.48 AM EST:  Hedge fund assets could hit $2 trillion worldwide by the end of 2010 (DealBook)

American Air (NYSE:AMR) and US Air (NYSE:LCC) may merge  (TheStreet)

The International Energy Agency may be downplaying the need for greater oil supplies to prevent a market panic.  (CNBC)

AT&T (NYSE:T) is publishing data to undermine Verizon’s (NYSE:VZ) claims about the better quality of its cellular network.

Time Warner’s (NYSE:TWX) AOL unit will lay-off 1,000 people next month. (AllThingsD)

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is not likely to close its media properties.  (Ad Age)

A number of public pensions face bankruptcy. (Forbes)

Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) may use its China business as a template for expansion in India.  (The Deal)

Even after a $1 billion cash infusion 4G WiMax company Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) may need more money from Sprint (NYSE:S) and other partners.  (BreakingViews)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 8:38 am in Rumors, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Is JDSU Up For Grabs? (JDSU)

JDSU LogoJDS Uniphase Corp. (NASDAQ: JDSU) is seeing a run in the stock and in the options trading today.  The company announced this morning that had “licensed patent rights for fundamental picosecond laser technology to Hamamatsu Corporation for the development of microelectronic products.” Yet there may be more to the story here as some consider it one possible takeout or merger target in the land of technology.  This notion of an acquisition may seem impossible if you have known the company since it was a $100 and far higher stock back in the tech bubble days.

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Posted on: November 9, 2009 – 2:53 pm in Mergers and Buy Outs, Rumors, Technology Companies, Telecom,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/9/2009) (RAI)(WFC)(NWS)(JAVA)(GE)(S)(CLWR)

magazinUpdated throughout the day.

Updated at 11.49 AM EST:  Reynolds Americam (NYSE:RAI) may buy Niconovum, a Swedish maker of nicotine gum and mouth sprays (Boomberg)

Updated at 10.12 AM EST: Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) may pay back its TARP funds. (BreakingViews)

Updated at 9.48 AM EST: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (NYSE:NWS) may sue the BBC for breach of copyright for “stealing” material from his newspapers. (FT)

It will take a bid of 800 pence to get Cadbury to agree to a Kraft (NYSE:KFT) takeover. The current hostile bid is for 713 pence.  (various)

GE (NYSE:GE) and Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) have agreed to value NBCU at $30 billion  (WSJ)

The EU may approved Oracle’s (NASDAQ:ORCL) buy-out of Sun (NASDAQ:JAVA) if it gives up some of its control of the MySQL database software  (BusinesssWeek)

The rally in GE’s (NYSE:GE) stock may not last very long.  (TheStreet)

China may raise fuel prices this week.  (CNBC)

Delta (NYSE:DAL) and American Air (NYSE:AMR) are increasing their pressure on the Japanese government to forge joint ventures with Japan Airlines.  (The Deal)

New collaborative software tools from Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) will put it into direct competition with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)  (CNET)

Sprint (NYSE:S), Intel (NYSE:INTC), and Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) may put another $1.5 billion into 4G provider Clearwire  (NASDAQ:CLWR)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 9, 2009 – 9:04 am in Rumors, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/6/2009) (RTP)(BHP)(BRK.A)

newspaperUpdated throughout the day.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) will re-launch some of its least successful hedge funds  (FT)

The stock market is at risk of not holding 10,000.  (TheStreet)

AIG (NYSE:AIG) will not hold a conference call to avoid uncomfortable questions about its balance sheet  (The Deal)

Sales of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 7 are outpacing those after the launch of Vista (Apple Insider)

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) are likely to fall sharply  (Barron’s)

BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) may make another bid to buy rival Rio Tinto (NYSE:RTP)  (FTAlphaville)

“Governments may take as long as a decade to cut debt issuance back to the levels before global markets seized up following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. last year.”  (Bloomberg)

Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) is likely to go through a period of sharp job cuts.  (Business Insider)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 6, 2009 – 9:17 am in Rumors, , , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/5/2009) (JAVA)(ORCL)(BAC)(DELL)

newspaperUpdated throughout the day.

The New York Yankee victory in the World Series could help stock prices  (various)

Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) could drop its deal to buy Sun (NASDAQ:JAVA) in the face of opposition to the deal from the EU. (Forbes)

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) may look outside the banking sector for a new CEO. (The Street.com)

Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) may have taken billions of dollars in marketing payments from Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)  (BusinessWeek)

Congress may force ISPs to block fraud sites  (CNET)

Seven more Wall St. brokers will be charged with insider trading today according to FBI and SEC sources  (WNBC)

You can join our open email distribution list to get updates on top analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s, secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and other guru activity, M&A and more.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 5, 2009 – 9:17 am in Rumors, , , , ,