Posts for Ticker ‘ANSW’

Top Analyst Upgrades (AMR, ANSW, ABX, CSCO, CAL, CSC, EMC, GG, HOG)

These are this Wednesday’s early upgrades and positive research calls which we have seen out of Wall Street firms this morning:

AMR Corp. (AMR) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
Answers Corp. (ANSW) Raised to Buy at Canaccord.
Barrick Gold (ABX) Raised to Overweight at JP Morgan.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Continental Airlines (CAL) Raised to Equal Weight at Barclays.
Computer Sciences (CSC) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
EMC Corp. (EMC) Raised to Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
Goldcorp (GG) Raised to Overweight at JP Morgan.
Harley-Davidson (HOG) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.

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

JON C. OGG
October 14, 2009

Posted on: October 14, 2009 – 7:41 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , ,

Answers Raises Cash (ANSW)

Answers Corporation (NASDAQ:ANSW) has entered into agreements for a private placement to raise cash up to $13 million via the sale of convertible preferred stock and warrants to Redpoint Ventures.  Thomas Weisel Partners LLC acted as lead-placement agent and Canaccord Adams acted as co-placement agent for the offering.

The transaction was listed as yesterday and consisted of $6 million of series A convertible preferred stock, convertible into 1,333,333 shares of common stock at a conversion price of $4.50 per share, with 50% warrant coverage at an exercise price of $4.95. Redpoint was also issued a second tranche warrant, exercisable over the next 12 months, to purchase up to an additional $7 million of series B convertible preferred stock, convertible into 1,272,727 shares of common stock at a conversion price of $5.50 per share, with 50% warrant coverage at an exercise price of $6.05.

Answers Corp. closed yesterday at $3.92, and its 52-week trading range is $3.30 to $13.40.  prior to this offering, its market cap was a mere $30.8 million.

Answers is the creator of the answer engine offering Answers.com(TM) and WikiAnswers.com(TM).  Redpoint is a Menlo Park, CA, based venture capital firm that specializes in early stage and growth capital investments for the Internet and technology sectors.  Redpoint’s Allen Beasley will join the board of directors at Answers and the firm will get a second board seat if it exercises its second financing.

You can join our open email distribution list to hear about other mergers, IPO’s, secondary offerings, private financings, activist investors, and more.

Jon C. Ogg
June 17, 2008

Posted on: June 17, 2008 – 6:59 am in Internet, Secondary Offering,

Yahoo! (YHOO): Web 1.0 Gives Up The Ghost

Web 1.0 started long before the Nasdaq crash of 2000. In 1995 companies like Yahoo! (YHOO) started to show up. So did Lycos, Geocities, Altavista, and Swtichboard. Most of those companies are gone now, but they were the Googles (GOOG) and MySpaces of their day.

All that is left of that period, at least which still have any size and scale, are Yahoo!, Ebay (EBAY), and Amazon (AMZN). Amazon is such a diverse business now that it can hardly be considered Web 1.0. It sells set-top boxes, music downloads, and, perhaps most important, has a large business to license its infrastructure to Web 2.0 companies.

The earnings news out of Yahoo! made it plain that it can do nothing to save itself from the fate of being a company with only the most modest revenue growth and embarrassing margins.(Entire earnings transcript here from BloggingStocks) Some might see that as humiliating, but it is not much different from being in the steel business in the 1960s or the US car business in the 1990s. The market changes. One or two strategic decisions go the wrong way. Voila! The company is in the toilet.

The Yahoo! news is bad for scores of other companies from Looksmart (LOOK) to Answers.com (ANSW) to The New York Times (NYT) About.com to MSN and AOL. A large part of what makes the internet work, at least financially, has nothing to do with these companies.

Web 1.0 needs to schedule its wake now. Someone make sure to put coins on the body’s eyes.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: January 30, 2008 – 6:02 am in Internet, , , , , , ,

Top Pre-Market Stock News (January 7, 2008)

Below is a snapshot of some of the key impact news affecting stocks in pre-market trading this Monday, January 7, 2008:

  • AllianceBernstein (AB) noted as a hidden gem in Barron’s cover story.
  • Answers Corp. (ANSW) announced a collaboration with Nokia for Series 40 and S60 mobile devices.
  • Avocet (AVCT) lowered guidance
  • Biogen-Idec (BIIB) and Elan (ELN) say that the safety data continues to support a favorable benefit-risk profile for TYSABRI.
  • Celgene Corp. (CELG) trading up 5% after guidance is in-line for 2007 and issued new guidance for 2008.
  • CNET (CNET) had a Jana Partners-led investor group take a 21% stake and try to oust the board of directors.
  • Diana Shipping (DSX) trading up almost 2% on positive Barron’s article over weekend.
  • 8X8 Inc. (EGHT) introduced a free international mobile calling plan with its new Packet8 MobileTalk trial.
  • hhgregg (HGG) reaffirmed 2008 EPS guidance of $0.95 to $1.03 vs. $1.00 est.; s-s-s up 3%.
  • JA Solar (JASO) announced a 3 for 1 stock split.
  • Jefferies (JEF) issued earnings warning.
  • Krispy Kreme (KKD) announced it has elected a new CEO.
  • Microsoft (MSFT) said at "CES" it had 100 million licenses sold of Windows Vista; 17.7 million Xbox 360’s, 10 million Xbox live users; will have new content downloads.
  • Napster (NAPS) will sell music with less copyright protection as MP3 files.
  • Nice Systems (NICE) received multi-million dollar orders from 2 of the top-3 US banks for fraud alert.
  • Rogers Communications (RCI) raised annual dividend from $0.50 to $1.00 and put 2008 revenues $11.2 to $11.5 Billion versus $11.25 Billion estimates; announced share buyback.
  • Schnitzer Steel (SCHN) missed earnings and revenue targets; stock trading down 1% so far.
  • Sony (SNE) introduces new tri-recording video Camcorder at "CES".
  • TASER (TASR) unveils its new leopard print TASER C2 personal protection device at the 2008 International Consumer Electronic tradeshow in Las Vegas today.
  • Zumiez (ZUMZ) said December s-s-s was +3.9%, but guided lower; shares down over 1%.

Jon C. Ogg
January 7, 2007

Posted on: January 7, 2008 – 8:32 am in Pre-Market Activity, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Answers (ANSW) Disappoints

Wall St. expected Answers (ANSW) revenue to be up 21% to $2.25 million. The EPS loss was expected to be ($.13), worse than the ($.07) last year.

The results were a bit off. Revenues were $2,2 million in Q3 2007, an increase of 19% compared to the same period in 2006,

GAAP net loss in Q3 2007 was $1.950 million, an increase of $769 thousand compared to the same period in 2006. GAAP net loss per share in Q3 2007 was $0.25, compared to $0.15 in the same period in 2006.

The company expects revenue of about $3 million in Q4 and a GAAP loss of about $1 million.

Another big disappointment for Answers.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Get a Free Trial offer to our "Ten Stocks Under $10" newsletter and follow our investment opinions on stocks like Answers, Level 3, Sirius, Qwest, Ford, and thousands of others.

Posted on: November 6, 2007 – 4:12 pm in Earnings,