Posts for Ticker ‘EBAY’

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.

Read More »

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, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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, , , , ,

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.
Read More »

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, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Skype Dispute Nears End, The Blackmailing Of Ebay (EBAY)

nokAn intellectual property dispute between Skype’s founders and the VoIP company, now owned by Ebay (NASDAQ:EBAY),  threatened the auction company’s  plans to sell Skype to private equity interests. That dispute is about to be settled, clearing the way for Skype to become independent.

Ebay will make $2 billion for selling about two-thirds of Skype. Skype’s founders have claimed that the VoIP company’s technology violates certain patents that they hold. Read More »

Posted on: November 4, 2009 – 6:04 am in Mergers and Buy Outs,

Media Digest 11/3/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   The value of the yuan could cause a trade war between the US and China.

Reuters:   Executive pensions rose despite drops in stock prices.

Reuters:   Lloyds will make a large stock offering.

Reuters:   Stanley Works (NYSE:SWK) bought Black & Decker (NYSE:BDK) for $3.46 billion.

Reuters:   CIT’s (NYSE:CIT) exit from bankruptcy is not clear.

Reuters:   UBS (NYSE:UBS) posted a loss and wealth management clients continued to leave.

Reuters:   Ford (NYSE:F) posted a surprise profit.

Reuters:   Manufacturing and pending home sales both rose.

Reuters:   Volker said the economy could not rely on consumer spending.

Reuters:   The commercial real estate business is still in deep trouble.

WSJ:   Toyota (NYSE:TM) expects a monthly sales decline.

WSJ:   IllyCaffè SpA will work with local coffee shops to compete with Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX).

WSJ:   The head of the IMF says financial firms are going back to old practices.

WSJ:   Blu-ray makers are becoming more involved with web video.

WSJ:   Research-in-Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) is the focus of a number of bearish comments.

WSJ:   Schwab (NASDAQ:SCHW) is making a push into ETFs.

WSJ:   GM’s board will revisit the Opel sale.

WSJ:   Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Office faces inexpensive versions of similar software.

WSJ:   Sears (NASDAQ:SHLD) may need to get cash from its Canadian operation which presents challenges.

WSJ:   Problems are beginning to appear in the financials of Chinese banks.

WSJ:   Business bankruptcies rose 7% in October.

NYT:   The US will allow GM to use federal money to put into Delphi.

NYT:   The Supreme Court is looking at fees advisors charge mutual funds.

NYT:   The Senate is pushing insurance companies on the amount of premiums they actually spend on care.

NYT:   Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) may buy tax credits from Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM)

FT:   The Fed has asked banks to adopt it new pay rules early to cover 2009 compensation.

FT:   Ebay’s (NASDAQ:EBAY) PayPal has opened doors to outside developers.

Bloomberg:   The next head of Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) may be based in NYC.

Douglas A. McIntyre

 

Posted on: November 3, 2009 – 3:55 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 11/2/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   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 »

Posted on: November 2, 2009 – 4:54 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Short Interest Up In Financials, Mixed In Tech (FRE)(CIT)(EBAY)(INTC)

bearShort interest in a number of major financial firms rose for the period ending October 15.

Shares short in Citigroup (NYSE:C) rose 51% to 178.1 million. The short interest in CIT (NYSE:CIT) was up 21% to 85.6 million. Share sold short in Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) were up 14% to 71.5 million. Shares short in Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) were fairly flat. Read More »

Posted on: October 27, 2009 – 4:12 am in Short Interest, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Amazon (AMZN): Innovation’s Reward

nokThe founders of the large web properties of Web 1.0 are all gone now save one. Yahoo!’s (NASDAQ:YHOO) chief Yahoo!s have very little to do with the company, although one of them, Jerry Yang, made a brief and troubled attempt to run the company recently. The founders of eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) and AOL retired a long time ago. Many of the websites that were among the most visited in the US a decade ago have disappeared since Jeff Bezos created Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) in 1994. Lycos, Excite, Altavista, Infoseek, and Switchboard have either disappeared or are tiny players among the new elite group of Web 2.0 firms which includes Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG). Read More »

Posted on: October 23, 2009 – 4:37 am in Earnings, Editor's Picks, Entertainment, Internet, , , , ,

Amazon (AMZN) Q3 Sales Up 28%, Strong Holiday Forecast: Shares Rocket Higher

magazinShares of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) rose nearly 10% after hours to $101.70, well above the stock’s 52-week high.

Revenue increased 28% to $5.45 billion in the third quarter, compared with $4.26 billion in same quarter last year. Net income increased 68% to $199 million, or $0.45 per share, compared with net income of $118 million, or $0.27 per share. Read More »

Posted on: October 22, 2009 – 4:16 pm in Earnings, Retail, , ,

Media Digest 10/22/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   China’s GDP rose 8.9% and the government said it would stick with its liberal monetary policies.

Reuters:   Larry Summers said the US recovery is on track.

Reuters:   More Americans will delay retirement.

Reuters:   Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOOG) set up real-time search deals with micr- blogging company Twitter. Read More »

Posted on: October 22, 2009 – 3:48 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

eBay Guidance Poses Performance & Valuation Questions (EBAY)

eBay LogoeBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) posted non-GAAP earnings of $0.38 EPS on $2.24 billion in revenues.  Thomson Reuters had estimates for the online auction giant pegged at $0.37 EPS and $2.14 billion in revenues.  The guidance for the company came in at $0.38 to $0.40 non-GAAP EPS and $2.2 to $2.3 billion in revenues for the current Q4 period.  After the run-up we have seen, that is not going to please even the most bullish fans of the stock as Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.40 EPS and $2.26 billion in revenues.
Read More »

Posted on: October 21, 2009 – 4:25 pm in Earnings, Internet, Technology Companies,

The 100 Hardest Working Brands In The World

hersheyThere are a number of ways to rank brand values. One of the most important is the level at which a brand contributes to the market value of a public company.

24/7 Wall St. asked Corebrand, the brand research and consulting firm, to look at the top 100 brands based their contribution to market capitalizaton. Using this method, the hardest working brand was Hershey (NYSE:HSY), followed  by Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG)

Corebrand described the process briefly to 24/7 Wall. St.

24/7 Wall St.: Corebard often refers to the brands on this list as the”hardest working brands”. How did you come to that description?

Corebrand: There are a lot of people measuring and examining the “strongest brands” or the “most valuable brands”.  Our opinion is that examining one without the other is somewhat meaningless.  How “strong” a brand is nice to know but not very relevant unless you understand how that strength benefits business.  Similarly, “value” is little more than a measure of corporate size unless you understand the drivers of that value and how to influence it. By examining the strength of the brand and it’s contribution to total market value, we can help companies and their leadership manage that strength and value over time.

24/7 Wall St.: Is there any advantage or disadvantage to having a brand value be a very large percentage of market cap in the present and as an indication of a company’s future performance?

Corebrand: The brand will need to be in balance with the rest of the company’s assets.  A company should strive to have it’s brand strong enough to fend off competitors or changing market conditions but not so strong that it becomes overly dependent on the brand as a single driver of value.  If a company can achieve and maintain its appropriate maximum strength without becoming over-dependent, it will see greater returns in bull markets and retain greater value in bear markets.

The list: Read More »

Posted on: October 20, 2009 – 5:06 pm in Research, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (10/20/2009) (NWS)(NVDA)(BCS)

newspaperUpdated 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

Posted on: October 20, 2009 – 8:53 am in Rumors, , , , , , , , , , ,

Major Tech Earnings on Deck (AAPL, TXN, SNDK, STX, WDC, YHOO, EBAY, VMW, EMC, AMZN, BRCM, JNPR, SYNA, MSFT)

This week is going to make last week’s earnings flood look like elementary school.  We have the floodgates opening for technology, web, software, hardware, and IT, and 24/7 Wall Street has previewed 14 of the top technology stocks that are on deck to report earnings this coming week:  Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN), SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX), Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY), VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM), Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), Synaptics Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNA), and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT).

We have provided the first details for earnings, Thomson Reuters consensus data, added color of our own on the earnings trends, listed key issues to watch, and included the performance from the June 30 close and from the March 9 close that traders are using as the key pivotal turning day where the bear market died and a new bull market run began.
Read More »

Posted on: October 17, 2009 – 11:25 am in Calendar, Earnings, Internet, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (10/15/2009) (ERTS)(CLWR)(MSFT)(ARUN)(GS)(LAZ)

newspaperUpdated throughout the day.

Updated 2.15 PM:   Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) may buy social game business Playfish for $250 million. (Business Insider)

Updated 1:40 PM EST: CKX Inc. (NASDAQ: CKXE) refuting reports that it is selling stock (VSInvestor.com)

Updated  11.50 AM EST: Shares in J. Sainsbury, the UK supermarket chain, ran up on rumors that the Qatari sovereign wealth fund is interested in increasing its 26% stake in the firm.  (MarketWatch)

Updated 11.10 AM EST:  Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) may get a large investment from partner Sprint (NYSE:S) (Barron”s)

eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) division Skype may buy Gizmo5 for $50 million (TechCrunch)

The family of deceased Larard (NYSE:LAZ) CEO Wasserstein may sell New York Magazine. (NYPost)

Shares of Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) are down because earnings missed Wall St. “whisper” numbers  (ClusterStock)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) may build an FM tuner into iPods and iPhones so that users can buy music they listen to on the radio through iTunes.  (9 to 5 Mac)

Aruba Networks (NASDAQ:ARUN) may be for sale. Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU), Siemens (NYSE:SI), Juniper (NASDAQ:JNPR), and IBM (NYSE:IBM) are considered possible buyers. (Barron’s)

Acer may overtake Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) as the No. 2 PC maker in the world. (Digital Daily)

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) may launch an online bookstore which could provide competition to Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle. (Reuters)

Apple is planning to planning to take advantage of the launch of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 7 to sell Macs (BusinessWeek).

Apple’s Steve Jobs may be more popular than Jesus.  (Fortune)

GM may make a financial rescue of its Korean Daewoo Auto & Technology Center.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: October 15, 2009 – 9:10 am in Rumors, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest (10/15/2009) Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is having trouble justifying its huge bonuses.

Reuters:   Bruce Wasserstein, M&A giant and head of Lazard (NYSE:LAZ), died.

Reuters:   Congress will probe compensation at AIG (NYSE:AIG).

Reuters:   US foreclosures fell for a second month but stayed high. Read More »

Posted on: October 15, 2009 – 4:04 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (ADBE, BRCM, EBAY, GS, LLL, MS, MWW, MOS, RAX, WFC)

These are this Thursday morning’s top 10 Wall Street research calls we have seen in the land of upgrades, downgrades, and initiations:

Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE) Raised to Outperform at RW Baird.
Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) Cut to Neutral at RW Baird.
eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) Raised to Buy at Kaufman Bros.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
L-3 Communications (NYSE: LLL) Cut to Conviction Sell List from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Mosaic (NYSE: MOS) Started as Outperform at RBC.
Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Started as Sell at UBS.

This top ten includes only some of the top financial sector analyst calls we saw this morning, where many “SELL” ratings were handed out.  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 8, 2009

Posted on: October 8, 2009 – 7:53 am in Analyst Calls, Technology Companies, , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 10/8/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   GM says most of its cost cutting is done and its sales chief left.

Reuters:   Spot gold hit a record above $1,050.

Reuters:   The Senate healthcare bill weighs in at $829 billion.

Reuters:   Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) plans its first smartphone to be launched with AT&T (NYSE:T) using the Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android OS Read More »

Posted on: October 8, 2009 – 3:59 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 10/7/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   Wealth management firms are starting to target the not-so wealthy.

Reuters:   Gold’s record price drew a muted response.

Reuters:   Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) are heating up the smartphone software race. Read More »

Posted on: October 7, 2009 – 3:56 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What Does Allowing VoIP Cost AT&T (NYSE:T)

appleThere was a reason AT&T (NYSE:T) wanted to keep VoIP applications off of its 3G network, and that reason was almost certainly that the applications will cost the company money.

The big phone firm said Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) will be be allowed to  enable VoIP applications on the iPhone to run on AT&T’s wireless network. Previously, VoIP applications on iPhone were enabled for Wi-Fi connectivity.

The decision probably means that Vonage (NYSE:VG) and the Skype division of eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) will also attempt to get approval for their VoIP applications. Read More »

Posted on: October 6, 2009 – 6:24 pm in Internet, Telecom, Wireless, , , ,