The much-anticipated deal for Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) to take control of the NBC Universal division of GE (NYSE:GE) may die next week . Vivendi, which owns 20% of NBCU, believes that the entertainment and news company is worth much more than GE does.
According to the FT, “General Electric and Vivendi are at least $1bn apart in their valuation of the French group’s stake.”
It will be a challenge for GE to operate a business that it clearly wants to sell. Read More
Reuters: The Senate is near its first vote on healthcare.
Reuters: Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) is betting on corporate spending for its recovery.
Reuters: Time Warner’s (NYSE:TWX) AOL showed that the worst is not over for media job cuts.
Reuters: China cyber-spying against the US will probably grow. Read More
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A)(BRK-B) has shown its Q3-2009 holdings as of September 30, 2009. We had already seen how his securities holdings were up on the books in the holdings with earnings. There are also some portfolio changes that have taken place since the September 30 cut-off date. These have been broken down into 3 groups of ‘A to F’ and ‘G to O’ and ‘P to Z’ so it is more concise and clear. Here are Warren Buffett’s holdings and accompanying notes for the group ‘A ot F.’
Eaton Corp. (NYSE: ETN) was NOT LISTED ANY LONGER, so sold from holdings.
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JON C. OGG
Reuters: The Ohio Attorney General is suing a number of Wall St. firms.
Reuters: GM will start to repay part of its debt to the US.
Reuters: Citigroup (NYSE:C) will sell Bellsystem to Bain.
Reuters: Japan’s GDP numbers were leaked. Read More
CBS (NYSE:CBS) and Sirius XM (NYSE:SIRI) pose the greatest investment risks among media companies based on a forensic measure of their transparency and the statistical reliability of their financial reporting and governance practices, according to new data from Audit Integrity. The probability for bankruptcy for Sirius is 8.5% and 4.6% for CBS. Both numbers are remarkably low, but still high for major US companies. Audit Integrity’s bankruptcy model achieved 90.9% accuracy in 2008 and 93.8% in 2009.
The safest companies for investors, based on the same measurement are Disney (NYSE:DIS) and DirecTV (NYSE:DTV). The rest of the firms in the analysis are Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), Viacom (NYSE:VIA), Comcast (NYSE:CMCSA), Cablevision, (NYSE:CVC), GE (NYSE:GE), and Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC). Read More
Reuters: China is the key stop on Obama’s tour of Asia.
Reuters: South Korea’s businesses may start to feel more pressure from China competitors..
Reuters: Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) bought 3Com (NYSE:COM) for $3.1 billion.
Reuters: Lou Dobbs left CNN (NYSE:TWX) Read More
NBCU 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
Short sellers have bought into the notion that the financial industry is in full recovery.
Shares sold short in Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) fell 8% to 78.8 million shares. Shares short in CIT (NYSE:CIT) were off 4% to 78.1 million. The short interest in Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) dropped 12% to 67 million. The short interest in JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) dropped 4% to 37.7 million. Read More
Reuters: Two Bear Stearns hedge fund managers were acquited.
Reuters: Zucker, NBCU’s current CEO, will head the company when Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) buys a majority of the company from GE (NYSE:GE).
Reuters: Dodd’s super-bank regulator fights a uphil battle in Congress.
Reuters: Fed officials see an uneven recovery. Read More
Investors are getting a look at why Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR) announced that it was getting new partner financing ahead of its quarterly earnings report. The wireless broadband services provider did show a gain in revenue to $68.8 million, up 13% from the $60.8 million a year ago and up from $63.59 million just in the June quarter. Thomson Reuters had revenue estimates at just over $66.6 million. The net loss of -$0.43 EPS was in-line with estimates. Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA), and Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC), its strategic partners, are set to expand selling efforts in 4G areas. Today’s news also has implications for DragonWave Inc. (NASDAQ: DRWI).
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Updated 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
NBC Universal, the entertainment arm of GE (NYSE:GE) which is 20% owned by Vivendi, is worth $30 billion. That is the figure that GE and Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), the cable company that intends to take control of NBCU agree on. Vivendi may be willing to take $6 billion for its piece of NBCU and if so, the valuation is to some extent academic. The $30 billion will also decide how much money Comcast will put into the joint venture that will own NBCU.
The Wall Street Journal has made the point that Vivendi could walk away from selling its stake and ruin the entire transaction, but it is hard to see what the French company would gain from that. Read More
Reuters: Hurricane Ida is heading toward Gulf oil fields.
Reuters: Kraft (NYSE:KFT) will make its bid for Cadbury.
Reuters: GE (NYSE:GE) and Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) have agreed to an NBCU valuation.
Reuters: The IMF is considering an insurance levy on banks. Read More
These are this mornings top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen early this Thursday from Wall Street research calls:
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A) was put on CreditWach (negative) on Wednesday afternoon, which would take the AAA away to match where Moody’s already is.
Comcast (CMCSA) Cut to Hold at Collins Stewart.
Medtronic (MDT) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Molson Coors (TAP) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
NovaVax (NVAX) Started as Buy at Merriman Curhan.
SourceForge (LNUX) Cut to Neutral at Merriman.
THQ Inc. (THQI) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
YM BioSciences (YMI) Started as Buy at Merriman Curhan.
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JON C. OGG
We have four key earnings for technology and media investors and traders due on Wednesday, and one key cult stock. The two biggest for tech which can impact all components of their related sub-sectors are Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) and QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM). Then in media and communications will be Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX). Lastly, there is one of Wall Street biggest cult stocks with Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG) on deck. We have provided Thomson Reuters consensus estimates, and, where applicable, key performance measures and added color on each.
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Updated throughout the day.
Updated 1.05 PM EST: Las Vagas Sands (NYSE:LVS) will try to raise $2.5 billion though an IPO in Hong Kong (AP)
Updated 11.12 AM EST: Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) is considering a joint venture with Protalix Biotherapeutics (AMAX:PLX) and may buy the Israeli company. (Reuters)
Updated 9.50 AM EST: The Fed will keep rates as they are (CBNC)
A deal for Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) to take control of NBCU from GE (NYSE:GE) is imminent, as usual. (NYTimes)
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is considering buying Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) tax credits (WSJ)
Bank of NY Mellon’s (NYSE:BK) CEO turned down a chance to be considered for the Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) CEO job. (WSJ)
Roger Nightingale, economist at Pointon York, says the world faces a 1930s type depression if government stimulus packages are pulled too soon (CNBC)
A draft order to approve AT&T’s (NYSE:T) $2.8 billion acquisition of Centennial Communications Corp is circulating at the Federal Communications Commission. (The Deal)
Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) top advertising strategist is not leaving his job. (AppleInsider)
Sprint (NASDAQ:S) is starting to downplay the importance of the Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) Pre compared to other smartphones it is marketing. (Barron’s)
Shares of Old Dominion (NASDAQ:ODFL) could move from $27 to $40 in a year (BusinessWeek)
The market share of Apple’s Mac has not been hurt by the release of Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 7.
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Douglas A. McIntyre
These are this Monday’s top ten analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research firms:
Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ: INCY) Started as Outperform at Leerink Swann.
Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Cut to Hold at Kaufman Bros.
Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Research-in-Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
YUM! Brands (NYSE: YUM) Raised to Outperform at RBC Capital.
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.
JON C. OGG
Reuters: Investors in the banking sector were disturbed by the CIT (NYSE:CIT) bankruptcy.
Reuters: Summers will lead a high level meeting on the economy.
Reuters: US companies are holding more cash.
Reuters: The Fed is likely to keep interest rates flat due to economic uncertainty. Read More
Earnings season may be winding down, but next week still has some very important companies that are economic indicators in and of themselves or are key stocks that have broad customer and investor bases. Picking only ten companies leaves many key stocks out, but we have some here which will appeal to most investors and traders. Among next week’s top earnings are Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK), Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT), MasterCard Incorporated (NYSE: MA), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA), QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B).
We also have the biggest cult stocks of all with SIRIUS Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) and Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG) reporting next week. We have offered some color on each stock along with chart data where relevant, along with Thomson Reuters consensus estimates.
Read More
Updated throughout the day.
Updated 12.33 PM EST: The CIA will start spying on social media activity (CNET)
Updated 10.15 AM EST: Oil could hit $175 a barrel by 2016 making oil-realted stocks a bad investment. (Barron’s)
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Barclays (NYSE:BCS) are refusing to trade with faltering hedge fund Galleon (WSJ)
Former News Corp (NYSE:NWS) No. 2 Peter Cherin is advising Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) on its bid to buy NBCU from GE (NYSE:GE) (NYTimes)
Boeing (NYSE:BA) will post poorer-than-expected quarterly results (TheStreet.com)
Q4 GDP growth could jump to 5.5 % (Forbes)
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) can search Twitter tweets, even if they have security protection. (Mashable)
As Galleon sells holdings to fund redemptions some of the stocks it holds could come under price pressure. These include Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO), Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), and eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) (Barron’s)
Douglas A. McIntyre
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