Posts for Ticker ‘JAVA’

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/20/2009) (GS)(JAVA)

Updated throughout the day.

GE (NYSE:GE) and Vivendi are at odds over the NBCU valuation  (FT)

IBM (NYSE:IBM) is taking advantage of the delay in the Sun (NASDAQ:JAVA) deal to be bought by Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL)  (TheStreet)

The joint venture between Rio Tinto (NYSE:RTP) and BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) may lead to a merger. (various)

Ferrero may want to buy Cadbury’s gum and candy division.  (NYTimes)

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) investors want the firm to cut down the size of bonuses to be paid at the end of the year (various)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 20, 2009 – 9:01 am in Rumors, , , , , , ,

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

Media Digest 11/11/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NY Times, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   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 »

Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 4:09 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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

Top Day Trader Alerts (ATVI, ERTS, PCLN, JASO, EPR, BKD, JAVA, ORCL, STAN)

These are this morning’s top day trader and active trader alert stocks with more details and analysis via a link to VSInvestor.com for each stock:

Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) is up 2% over the new “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II”… Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) is down 3% after being up on sloppy earnings last night.

Priceline.com Incorporated (NASDAQ: PCLN) is hitting multi-year highs after beating its earnings targets and raising guidance.

JA Solar Holdings Co. Ltd. (NASDAQ: JASO) is a winner and up 6% after earnings.

Entertainment Properties Trust (NYSE: EPR) is getting hit on a secondary offering.

Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (NYSE: BKD) is getting hit on a larger secondary offering as Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE: FIG) is selling all of the shares in the deal.

Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) and its $9.50 per share buyout by Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) may be further in jeopardy on an EU protest, but it is holding up better than you might think.

Standard Parking Corp. (NASDAQ: STAN) is down over 3% on a 6.59 million share secondary offering of common stock.

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

Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 9:17 am in Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert, , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 11/10/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   Markets hit their 2009 highs.

Reuters:   Dodd is set to unveil his financial reform bill which calls for merging many bank regulators.

Reuters:   Kraft’s (NYSE:KFT) bid for Cadbury turned hostile.

Reuters:   A survey of economists predicted strong GDP growth in 2010. Read More »

Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 3:57 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The EU Blocks Oracle (ORCL) Deal For Sun (JAVA)

uncle samLarry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) is going to have to make some more threats if he wants the EU to approve his company’s deal to buy Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:JAVA) for $9.50 a share. The Europeans have voiced some concerns that the combined company will have too much market share in the MySQL server software industry.

The EU’s concerns became more concrete today. Read More »

Posted on: November 9, 2009 – 6:40 pm in Mergers and Buy Outs, Regulation, Software, ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/9/2009) (RAI)(WFC)(NWS)(JAVA)(GE)(S)(CLWR)

magazinUpdated 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

Posted on: November 9, 2009 – 9:04 am in Rumors, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/5/2009) (JAVA)(ORCL)(BAC)(DELL)

newspaperUpdated throughout the day.

The New York Yankee victory in the World Series could help stock prices  (various)

Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) could drop its deal to buy Sun (NASDAQ:JAVA) in the face of opposition to the deal from the EU. (Forbes)

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) may look outside the banking sector for a new CEO. (The Street.com)

Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) may have taken billions of dollars in marketing payments from Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)  (BusinessWeek)

Congress may force ISPs to block fraud sites  (CNET)

Seven more Wall St. brokers will be charged with insider trading today according to FBI and SEC sources  (WNBC)

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.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 5, 2009 – 9:17 am in Rumors, , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/4/2009) (JAVA)(ORCL)(TWX)

icahnUpdated throughout the day.

Updated 10.30 AM EST:  Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) believes that EU authorities may try to block its buy-out of Sun (NASDAQ:JAVA)  (FT)

Updated 10:26 AM EST: Apollo Management is buying debt swap instruments to increase is control of Harrah’s. (NYPost)

The CEOs of Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) met pay czar Feinberg before he announced pay cut plans  (Bloomberg)

Time Warner’s (NYSE:TWX) Time, Inc publishing division will lay off 500 people  (various).

Senator Chris Dodd will propose merging all four bank regulatory agencies (various).

Cisco’s (NASDAQ:CSCO) earnings outlook is likely to be poor  (TheStreet)

Warren Buffett may join Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) in bidding for Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) tax credits.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 4, 2009 – 9:12 am in Rumors, , , , , , ,

Top Day Trader Alerts (GRMN, VG, ABK, ACAS, STEC, JAVA)

These are this morning’s top day trader alert and active trader alert stocks.  We have links through to VSInvestor.com on each stock with much more detailed data and analysis on the news, price, and volume:

Garmin Ltd. (GRMN) is up over 3%, but far less than you’d think after earnings were well above estimates.

Vonage Holdings Corporation (NYSE: VG) is down close to 10% despite positive earnings because revenues declined.

Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: ABK) is soaring by 25% on a huge earnings per share number, after items of course.

American Capital, Ltd. (NASDAQ: ACAS) is up 18% and this is already well off highs after earnings and a potential debt restructure.

STEC, Inc. (NASDAQ: STEC) is one of the morning’s ugliest with a 30% drop on a idsappointment in its earnings and on at least two analyst downgrades.

Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) is down 2.4% on the E.U. hurdle noted last night, but this had been down as much as 8% or 9% after the news broke. (No Link)

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

Posted on: November 4, 2009 – 8:59 am in Pre-Market Activity, , , , , ,

Media Digest 11/4/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   Opel must now arrange for GM’s unexpected ownership

Reuters:   The Fed will probably keep its “easy money” program.

Reuters:   Toyota (NYSE:TM) will pull out of Formula 1 racing.

Reuters:   The IEA will cut its long-term oil demand outlook. Read More »

Posted on: November 4, 2009 – 5:34 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

More E.U. Roadblocks in Sun-Oracle Deal (ORCL, JAVA)

Burning Money PicThere are reports from the Financial Times that were also just noted on CNBC that are almost baffling.  It seems that the European Commission may issue a formal objection to the Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) buyout of Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA).  The reasoning is that Oracle has apparently refused to offer any concessions to European regulators.

While a formal set of objections would not constitute a formal merger blockage, that is the first real step to a formal block.  This is also not set in stone yet and does not mean that either Oracle nor the E.U. will offer concessions.
Read More »

Posted on: November 3, 2009 – 4:44 pm in Law, Mergers and Buy Outs, Regulation, Software, Technology Companies, ,

Today’s Unusual Options Activity (ABX, CAT, EXPE, JAVA, CS)

These are today’s unusual options trading patterns seen late in the afternoon.  We have provided links over to VSInvestor.com for more details on each situation:

  • There have been two large options transactions in Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE: ABX).
  • Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) is seeing some longer-term bullish recovery bets that may have been profit taking on a prior trade.
  • Someone is making a big pre-earnings options trade in Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE).
  • Traders are placing bets both for and against a Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) buyout by Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) now that there are 3,000 more layoffs after the company keeps losing more and more money while the kids running the European Commission figure out that a money-losing company should not require a deep review of this sort for anti-competition.
  • OptionsHawk.com notified us of nine-times options volume in Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS).

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
OCTOBER 21, 2009

Posted on: October 21, 2009 – 3:06 pm in Options, Trading Alert, , , , ,

Larry Ellison Doesn’t Play Chicken

houseLarry’s Ellison, the founder and CEO of Oracle (NASDAQ:OFCL) does not make idle threats. He does not have to. In most games against his competition he holds the majority of the cards. He has taken over a number of businesses in his sector of the tech world. Those that resisted were taken over anyway. The management of PeopleSoft learned that lesson the hard way. Read More »

Posted on: October 21, 2009 – 5:05 am in Mergers and Buy Outs, Regulation, , , , , ,

Media Digest (10/21/2009) Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   China is having trouble managing supply and demand.

Reuters:   Geithner said the core programs of the TARP are ending.

Reuters:   Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) tripled it profits.

Reuters:   Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:JAVA) will cut 3,000 jobs due to delays in the Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) buyout of the company. Read More »

Posted on: October 21, 2009 – 4:08 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 10/1/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   Ken Lewis will step down as CEO of Bank of America (BAC)

Reuters:   Cisco (CSCO) bought Tandbeg  for $3 billion.

Reuters:   The IMF raised forecasts for US GDP but warned on its growing debt.

Reuters:   Turnaround experts say the collapse of CIT (CIT) would be a mess. Read More »

Posted on: October 1, 2009 – 4:08 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tech Titans Holding $260 Billion In Cash (DELL, PER, ORCL, JAVA, MSFT, AAPL, IBM, GOOG, CSCO, INTC, HPQ, QCOM, EMC, YHOO)

The economy is obviously getting better, so long as you are not one of the unemployed or about to lose your job.  Now with more than a 50% rally from the March lows and a Dow Jones Industrial Average challenging the 10,000 level, suddenly everyone wants to put on their investment banker hats again and look for buyers and buyout candidates after deals are announced.  This week’s Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) deal for Perot Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: PER) was a $3.9 billion acquisition versus $12.7 billion in cash and equivalents held at the end of the quarter.  The Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) deal for Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) is valued at $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of Sun’s cash and debt.  We went back through our list from September 2, 2009 where we noted that outside of the financials  in the 20 largest US companies had a cash hoard of $335 billion that could be used for mergers and acquisitions, and that is not accounting for lines of credit, stock or debt that could be sold, and other means of financing a deal.  While nowhere near all of the cash will ever be used, many companies could pay big dividends before any tax changes.

So we wanted to look through the technology sector and after we looked through the top 100 markets caps in our 24/7 Wall St. Real-Time 500 we added a few new additions in the tech sector that still had over $5 billion in cash.  Out if the $335 billion from those in the top twenty, we broke out Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL).  Even after a huge rally, $335 billion and then some could go a very long way for strategic and bolt-on acquisitions as a positioning strategy for the next decade.  Now, going further down the list of the top 100 companies with $5 billion or more in cash from tech companies alone adds in Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO). When we tally up all the cash, there is over $260 billion available from these few tech companies that could be deployed for mergers, acquisitions, or the good old dividends.  Again, that is before tallying up credit lines, factoring, debt sales, and other financing methods.
Read More »

Posted on: September 25, 2009 – 6:41 am in Consumer Electronics, Dividend, Editor's Picks, Internet, Large Cap Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, PC Companies, Private Equity, Rumors, Semiconductor, Software, Technology Companies, Value Investing, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The EU Meddling In US Tech Industry Grows

TVThe EU regulators who combat monopolistic practices have never been kind to Microsoft (MSFT). They have hounded the world’s largest software company for years, accusing it of bundling its browser into its operating system and other actions that make it hard for the company’s competitors to get fair access to the market. Everything the regulators say may be true.

More recently, EU officials accused Intel (INTC) of treating its smaller competitor AMD (AMD) badly by cutting special deals with PC companies to keep its dominance in the chip market. Regulators in Europe have gone so far as to release e-mails that they used to determine that Intel had violated anticompetitive regulations. Read More »

Posted on: September 22, 2009 – 5:17 am in Hardware, Regulation, Software, Technology Companies, , , , ,

Media Digest 9/22/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   Obama pushed his economic message before the G20 summit

Reuters:   A Senate panel took up healthcare legislation.

Reuters:   Bank of America (BAC) missed a deadline for supplying information from Congress and now faces another threat from the SEC. Read More »

Posted on: September 22, 2009 – 4:01 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , ,