Posts related to ‘Satellite’

SIRIUS Losing XM Founder (that everyone forgot) (SIRI)

SIRIUS LOGOSIRIUS XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) announced that Gary Parsons has resigned as Chairman of the Board of Directors. The satellite radio giant has appointed Eddy Hartenstein, an independent director, to serve as non-executive chairman.  An excerpt from Parsons’ farewell note was:

  • “… we have begun to generate positive cash flow and have substantially improved our financial condition. While challenges remain, I’m confident that under the direction of Mel Karmazin and with the assistance of Eddy Hartenstein, SIRIUS XM will continue to grow and flourish.”

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Posted on: November 12, 2009 – 5:01 pm in Management Change, Media, Satellite,

SIRIUS Cautious Praise At S&P (SIRI)

SIRIUS LOGOSIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) has been reaffirmed on its corporate debt rating at “B-” late in the day.  While this is still very deep in “junk bond” territory at S&P, the outlook has been revised to positive from stable.  This is after the earnings that we called mostly headed in the right direction last week, but it follows a relatively recent mid-August upgrade by S&P and it is fairly rare to see another call this fast on a controversial stock (and company) like Sirius.  Still, there are some mixed notions in the call as the rating is so far from investment grade status.
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Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 5:41 pm in Analyst Calls, Bonds, Media, Satellite,

52-Week High Club (ANF, DISH, RSH, REV)

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) surged over 7%  to a yearly high of $37.80 after the company was upgraded from “neutral” to “buy” by anlysts at Goldman Sachs.  

DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) was up over 8% at its peak at a yearly high of $20.80 after the company announced that it would pay a one-time dividend of $2 for all Class A and B shares.  

RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH) rose over 14% today to a yearly high of $20.57 after the electronics retailer announced that it plans to sell Apple iPhones in some of its stores that are located in major metropolitian areas.  This announcement has precipitated some analyst upgrades.

Revlon Inc. (NYSE: REV) surged over 37% today to a yearly high of $15.06.  The company announced that it intends to offer $330 million in senior notes that will be due in 2015 in order to pay off debt due in 2011.  The company was also upgraded to “outperform” by BMO Capital Markets.

Garrett W. McIntyre

Posted on: November 9, 2009 – 3:59 pm in Dividend, Media, Retail, Satellite, , , ,

SIRIUS XM Heading Mostly in Right Direction (SIRI)

SIRIUS LogoTrusting analyst estimates on penny stocks and cult stocks is a tricky business.  But SIRIUS XM Radio Inc.(NASDAQ: SIRI) is trading up on heavy volume after its earnings this morning.  The satellite radio monopoly had a 27% revenue gain to $618.7 million, which included some of the XM Radio gains from the merger.  Earnings were a net loss of $149.2 million or -$0.04 EPS, but this included a charge of $138 million.  If you back out the charges and items, SIRIUS managed a non-GAAP $106 million profit vs a non-GAAP loss of $37 million a year ago.  On an EPS basis, that would break-even. The estimates from Thomson Reuters were -$0.02 non-GAAP EPS and $608.7 million in revenue.
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Posted on: November 5, 2009 – 9:20 am in Earnings, Media, Satellite,

SIRIUS XM Reverse Split Now Almost Certain (SIRI)

sirius-logoSIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) almost had a very bad day on Friday.  Shareholders of the biggest penny stock of them all should probably be thankful that the stock only closed down 1.4% at $0.6798.  What is interesting is that the trading volume was ‘only 40 million shares’ compared to an average volume of over 60 million shares.  The stock had been down as much 4% on the NASDAQ warning letter over the $1.00 stock rule.  Now that the market has rebounded so much, we are getting a sense that that the old $1.00 rule 5450(a)(1) is going to start getting enforced again.  In the case of SIRIUS, our thought here is that this will make the pending reverse split almost a certain event.
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Posted on: September 19, 2009 – 1:40 pm in Cult Stock, Media, Satellite, Stock Splits,

Garmin & Raymarine, A Defensive & Strategic Opportunity (GRMN, AAPL, VZ, GOOG, T)

Garmin LogoGarmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) may still be the leader in its space in the U.S., but the company has become very ‘yesteryear’ for investors.  The company recently performed much ‘less-worse’ than expectations and shares soared after earnings, but then itreceived a key analyst downgrade from Goldman Sachs.  Now the company is ready to throw in an acquisition into the mix.  All the reports from the weekend and early this week have Garmin making a cash bid to acquire a troubled and much smaller Raymarine, a GPS navigation solution system maker for the recreational boating and light commercial marine markets.  Because of the growing competition in this GPS space, we wanted to see if this would be a deal brought by need or brought by convenience.

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Posted on: August 18, 2009 – 11:10 am in Mergers and Buy Outs, Rumors, Satellite, Wireless, , , , ,

Sirius XM Catches S&P Upgrade (SIRI)

SIRIUS LogoSirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) has caught a debt upgrade from Standard & Poor’s.  The cited reasons were that the liquidity position has improved after debt refinancings, and also that its EBITDA is improving.
Based on the new issue of $250 million of senior secured notes, S&P has raised its corporate credit rating on the company to ‘B-’ from ‘CCC+’ today.  It was given a recovery rating of ‘1′ and its outlook is stable.  Among other positive mentions were manageable near-term debt maturities, likely operating performance improvements, and cost savings.
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Posted on: August 13, 2009 – 12:48 pm in Analyst Calls, Bonds, Satellite,

24/7 Wall St. TV: Sony–No Hit Products Since The Stone Age

24/7 WallSt TVSony has been skewered for its lack of innovation for the last half decade. Its last big consumer electronics hit was the Walkman which went on sale in June 1979. Sony had another hit in 2000 when it launched the PlayStation 2 which has sold over 140 million units, but game consoles are not a mainstream electronics business, no matter how profitable they are. Video games don’t sell across the broad spectrum of consumers the way that PCs, TVs, and handsets do. Read More »

Posted on: July 31, 2009 – 4:37 am in Consumer Electronics, Earnings, Editor's Picks, Entertainment, Hardware, PC Companies, Satellite, Software, Video Games, Wireless, , , , , , , , , ,

IRIDIUM Closer To Going Public, Again (GHL, GHQ)

money-stack-imageIridium Holdings is one step closer to coming public.  The special purpose acquisition company sponsored by Greenhill & Co., Inc. (NYSE: GHL) has announced that the affiliate GHL Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: GHQ) has entered into agreements with certain holder of warrants that will hopefully be the last amended terms in the quest to bring the global satellite phone provider public.  Approximately 26.8 million warrants issued by GHL Acquisition, including 4 million warrants held by Greenhill, will be repurchased or restructured upon closing of its acquisition of Iridium Holdings LLC.
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Posted on: July 29, 2009 – 10:36 am in IPOs, Mergers and Buy Outs, Private Equity, Satellite, Telecom, Wireless, ,

Sirisus XM (SIRI) Sales Falter: 24/7 Wall St.-The Channel Checkers Survey

TV

Sirius XM Satellite Radio (SIRI)

Over the past week, 24/7 Wall St.–The Channel Checkers surveyed various stores to track sales trends for Sirius Radio equipment.  We asked the following questions: Read More »

Posted on: July 18, 2009 – 5:33 am in Consumer Electronics, Research, Satellite,

SIRIUS XM Needs More Directors (SIRI)

SIRIUS LOGOSIRIUS XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) has announced the receipt of an official notification from NASDAQ that it is outside of NASDAQ compliance rules.  This is not over its low price, this one is over the “independent director requirement.”  If you see what SIRIUS XM claims, you might ask just how many directors are needed even for the biggest cult stock in the media world.
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Posted on: July 16, 2009 – 3:39 pm in Management Change, Regulation, Satellite,

Karmazin Contract Extended, With Raise and Massive Options (SIRI)

SIRIUS LOGOSIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) has extended its contract with CEO Mel Karmazin.  Today, June 30, 2009, the company entered into an amendment to the amended employment agreement, dated November 18, 2004, with Karmazin.
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Posted on: July 1, 2009 – 12:29 pm in Compensation, Management Change, Media, Options, Satellite, Shareholder Issues,

Media Digest 6/26/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters: Bernanke denied putting pressure on Bank of America (BAC) over the deal to buy Merrill Lynch.

Reuters:   GM said a bankruptcy delay would destroy suppliers.

Reuters:   Nominees have started to emerge for the panel to examine the Wall St. meltdown.

Reuters:   UBS (UBS) said the $3.5 billion it is raising in not attached to individual needs.

Reuters:   Palm’s (PALM) Pre helped earnings. Read More »

Posted on: June 26, 2009 – 3:01 am in Airlines, Banking, Consumer Electronics, Earnings, Financial Stocks, Internet, Management Change, Media, Oil & Gas, Old Media, Press Digest, Retail, Satellite, Wireless, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Strong Demand Drives SIRIUS Cash Raising Efforts (SIRI)

SIRIUS LOGOSIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) has raised more cash through its XM Satellite Radio Inc. unit than it originally projected.  We were looking for a raise of some $350 million, but the newly priced offering was for a face value amount of $525,750,000.00.  The reason is “strong investor demand.”
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Posted on: June 25, 2009 – 11:09 am in Bonds, Media, Satellite, Secondary Offering,

SIRIUS XM Unit Raises More Cash (SIRI)

SIRIUS LogoSIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) has announced this morning that its XM Satellite Radio Inc. wholly owned indirect subsidiary is offering $350 million in principal amount of Senior Secured Notes.  What is interesting is the reception  Sirius XM shares are getting.
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Posted on: June 22, 2009 – 7:37 am in Bonds, Satellite, Secondary Offering,

How Much Does iPhone App Really Add To SIRIUS XM’s Business? (SIRI, AAPL)

SIRIUS LogoSIRIUS XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) subscribers are only hours away from the launch that will allow the satellite radio monopoly subscribers to access content via the iPhone from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).  Unfortunately, this won’t be one of those 99-cent apps via Apple.  The good news is that the incremental revenues will help SIRIUS XM.  The bad news is that the move won’t fix all of SIRIUS XM’s woes.
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Posted on: June 17, 2009 – 7:47 pm in Consumer Electronics, Entertainment, Media, Satellite, ,

Media Digest 6/4/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   GM and Chrysler said closing dealers was essential to their restructuring.

Reuters:   The Justice Department is probing big tech employee recruiting.

Reuters:   Medical bills underlay 60% of American bankruptcies. Read More »

Posted on: June 4, 2009 – 3:00 am in Airlines, Autos, Banking, Biotech, Commodities, Mergers and Buy Outs, Metals, Press Digest, Satellite, Technology, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tivo’s (TIVO) Best Day, Ever

Tivo (TIVO) got its start as the original digital video recording device company. Consumer electronics hobbyists bought Tivos by the hundreds of thousands to put on top of their TVs to record shows to be watched later.

Tivo’s business suffered when the DVR function was adopted by cable and satellite-TV set-top boxes, and the originator of the technology languished, as is so often the case. Read More »

Posted on: June 2, 2009 – 6:50 pm in Consumer Electronics, Satellite, ,

Loral Chairman Files To Sell Shares (LORL)

Money Stack ImageLoral Space & Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LORL) has just filed to sell close to $300 million worth of voting and non-voting shares of common stock in an SEC filing.  The break-down is voting common stock of 954,613 shares and non-voting common stock 9,505,673 shares.  The registration is on behalf of selling shareholders, so none of the proceeds will end up in Loral’s coffers.  The selling stockholders will pay any underwriting fees, discounts or commissions and applicable transfer taxes incurred for the sale of these shares.  In this case, the selling holder(s) are related entities of Loral’s non-executive chairman.
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Posted on: June 2, 2009 – 10:28 am in Insider Activity, Satellite, Secondary Offering,

SIRIUS XM Gets Closer To Reverse Stock Split (SIRI)

SIRIUS LOGOIn most years, shareholder meetings are not full of much change.  This year has been very different in that manner, and SIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) just sealed its share fate on the share count and on a split as it voted to increase the authorized share count and then making an adjustment that would allow for a  pending reverse stock split.
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Posted on: May 27, 2009 – 3:29 pm in Editor's Picks, Media, Satellite, Shareholder Issues, Stock Splits,