Twitter  has, by most estimates, 145 million members, which makes it one of the largest social networks in the world. All major media companies are on Twitter and some have more than one million Twitter users. It raises the question of whether there is wisdom in crowds.
24/7 Wall St. will look at the Twitter posts at Reuters Biz, WSJ, Financial Times, CNN Money, MarketWatch, CNBC, and 24/7 Wall St. each day to see which stocks are most frequently mentioned. It is clear that in this area of social media these tweets are a sign of which companies the Twitter universe is interested in. Together, these financial sites are followed by nearly 1,000,000 Twitter users, which makes them a sizeable sample of Wall St.’s interests. In some cases, we will publish the actual tweets from the sites

CNN Money: J&J recalls Mylanta for undisclosed alcoholhttp://bit.ly/gmWCUy

CNN Money: Initial unemployment claims tick back uphttp://bit.ly/gyo2tP

MarketWatch: Trichet: European Central Bank will continue special liquidity measures http://on.mktw.net/fZMjpc

CNBC: Weekly Claims Ramp Bounce Up After Taking Respite http://cnbc.com/id/40470189 $$ #Economy #EconomicData#Employment #Consumers #Economy

Zerohedge: Initial Claims Come At 436K On Expectations Of 424K, Previous Revised Higher Of Course To 410K http://is.gd/i5Pmx

Reuters Biz: Jobless claims rise but point to stronger labor markethttp://dlvr.it/9bLhX

Reuters Biz: Diller steps down as IAC CEO, Malone swaps stake for cashhttp://dlvr.it/9bJK9

Yahoo! Finance: Foreclosures made up 25 pct of US home sales in 3Qhttp://yhoo.it/fIi1WG

DailyFinance: Jobless Claims Rise 26,000 to 436,000 http://aol.it/eMtMdo

Douglas A. McIntyre

This sure sounds like the company is saying it will proceed with its original split-up plans rather than try to appease John Malone.  We have this one under review for our Special Situation subscriber letter.  Barry Diller, CEO:

• "There is good news and bad news this quarter — the mix of which is another reason why our previously announced plans to reorganize IAC into five independent public companies makes more and more sense….. We have begun the year on a satisfactory basis and believe the work we are doing now to prepare each of the entities for separate public life will greatly benefit shareholders in 2008 and beyond."

Diller outlined the bad news areas as lending, catalog, EPI discounts.  On the good side, Diller noted HSN turnaround, record Ticketmaster volume, increased queries rm distributed toolbars, Ask.com, Interval, and Match.

On a separate basis, IAC noted that it has repurchased 6 million shares of common stock at $24.25 per share after this last quarter on January 10, 2008.

The market is not seeming to care about the items in the numbers as shares are indicated down over 6% on thin volume at $22.97.  If that holds this will be a new 52-week low as the 52-week trading range is $23.30 to $40.99.

Jon C. Ogg
February 6, 2008

The estimates from First Call for the online and off-line media company are $0.55 EPS on $1.83 billion in revenues.  Estimates for next quarter are $0.36 EPS an $1.57 Billion in revenues and estimates for fiscal 2008 are $1.80 EPS on $6.82 billion in revenues.

Analysts have an average price target north of $33.00.  We are not really relying on options as a predicting tool because of the developments in the infighting that has come up and because of the pending break-up of the company. If we were looking at options as a tool today with static prices, we say options traders were expecting a price move of up to $1.00 to $1.25 in either direction.

This stock is up from its recent lows of $23.30 in January, but we’d take note that until this last bounce it has looked like one rolling low after another fake-out recovery.  The current prices are important as the 50-day moving average is $26.31; its 200-day moving average is $30.03.  Keep an eye on those as these numbers will likely change slightly by Wednesday.

Shares were just downgraded to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus on Monday morning over the current fate being questioned.  We actually have IAC/Interactive up for formal review right now for our own Special Situation letter, and once we have the revenue figures out of each unit we’ll be making a formal report for subscribers on this.

IAC/InterActiveCorp’s 52-week trading range is $23.30 to $40.99.

Jon C. Ogg
February 4, 2008

Local.com says it will benefit from additional advertiser revenue and content on its site by displaying Citysearch business profile data including over one million editorial and user reviews, as well as ratings, business coupons and photos.  Citysearch will get to increase its advertiser reach on Local.com and its distribution network of over 400 regional media sites, which serve over 10 million visitors each month.

We recently highlighted Local.com (NASDAQ:LOCM) in our "10 Stocks Under $10" as one that would turn on the press release machines, and that was before it moved more than 40% in a single day.  IAC/Interactive (NASDAQ:IACI) is also under review for our Special Situation Investing Newsletter.  Here is our HOLIDAY DISCOUNT PAGE.

As usually expected, financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.  Local.com (NASDAQ:LOCM) shares are up roughly 15% pre-market at $5.80. Its 52-week trading range is $3.05 to $13.74.

Jon C. Ogg
December 20, 2007