Posts for Ticker ‘LAZ’

Today’s Best Market Rumors (10/16/2009) (AKAM)(KFT)(BRCD)(MSFT)

newspaperUpdated throughout the day.

Update 10:41 AM EST: Two traders calling Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) as a takeover stock, again… We are inclined to treat this as a failed Friday rumor that is trader-generated or chat-room-generated rather than credible as this rumor comes up on many Friday mornings now (and stock is down 1.9%). -Jon Ogg

China car maker SAIC and GM may team up to move into the India market (India Economic Times)

Updated 10.15 AM EST:  Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) won’t buy Akamai (NSADAQ:AKAM)  (GigaOm)

Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Mac OSX 10.6 runs faster than Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 7 in new tests.  (AppleInsider)

Pirated copies of Windows 7 are already widely available in Chine.  (Reuters)

An S&P analyst says Brocade (NASDAQ:BRCD) is not likely to be acquired (Barron’s)

Charles Ward may be the most likely candidateto become CEO of Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) (NYPost)

Pay czar Kenneth Feinberg, may try to cut Bank of America’s (NYSE:BAC) CEO Ken Lewis’s retirement package. (WSJ)

Unilever may bid for Carbury which already is a takeover target for Kraft (NYSE:KFT)  (FT Alphaville)

VW may raise $16 billion, probably to retire debt after its Porsche merger.  (Bloomberg)

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.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: October 16, 2009 – 9:18 am in Rumors, , , , , , , ,

Wasserstein And The CEO Health Disclosure Issue (NYSE:LAZ)

magazinBruce Wasserstein, the CEO of Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) and by far its most important employee, became ill over the weekend, with heart problems. He died on Wednesday. The company described his condition as serious but stable when it released news about his illness on Sunday.

Wasserstein was stricken while travelling in his private car according to WSJ.com. He driver called for help. There is no way to tell, at least for now, what the Lazard board knew about Wasserstein’s illness or whether it should have disclosed more about his health. Lazard’s stock did drop on Monday and many investors probably assumed he would recover. There was certainly nothing in the public disclosure that would show otherwise. Read More »

Posted on: October 16, 2009 – 5:51 am in Management Change, ,

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

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades, Initiations (ACOR, IP, OPEN, PBR, SPWRA, ASML, LAZ, PETD, TRW, WDC)

These are this morning’s top 10 pre-market analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations which we have seen early from Wall Street research firms:

Acorda (NASDAQ: ACOR) Raised to Buy at Merriman Curhan Ford; Raised to Outperform at Baird.
International Paper (NYSE: IP) Started as Outperform at RBC.
OpenTable (NASDAQ: OPEN) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
PetroBras, or Petrobras Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR) Started as Outperform at Bernstein.
Sunpower (NASDAQ: SPWRA) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
ASML (NASDAQ: ASML) Cut to Sell at Citi.
Lazard (NYSE: LAZ) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Petroleum Development (NASDAQ: PETD) Cut to Neutral at Sun Trust.
Travelers Cos (NYSE: TRV) Cut To Market Perform at KBW.
Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) Cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.

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 15, 2009

Posted on: October 15, 2009 – 8:27 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

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

M&A Legend Bruce Wasserstein Dies, Leaving Open Fate Of “The Deal” And “New York Magazine”

Bruce Wasserstein, one of the great M&A bankers in Wall St. history and CEO of Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) died at age 61.

His passing leaves open the eventual fate of his two premier media properties “The Deal” and “New York Magazine” Both are rumored to be operating in the red since the huge downturn in print and online advertising began  more than a year ago.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: October 14, 2009 – 6:24 pm in Media,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (10/12/2009) (LAZ)(F)(AAPL)

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Updated throughout the day.

Updated  1.39 PM EST: Charles G. Ward, III, a senior executive at Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) will be named interim CEO at the company pending the recovery of Bruce Wasserstein. (various)

Updated 12.32 PM EST: Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone sales in China are weak, but, as Barron’s points out, the iPhone has not gone on sale there yet.

Updated 12.30 PM EST: Ford (NYSE:F) up sharply on rumors that it will beat earnings (various)

Vivendi may be able to block the Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) deal to take control of NBCU from GE (NYSE:GE)  (NYSE:GE).

One of Morgan Stanley’s (NYSE:MS) co-presidents may leave after being passed over for the CEO job  (The Deal)

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) may pay out $22 billion in bonuses for its last fiscal year  (The Telegraph)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: October 12, 2009 – 8:28 am in Rumors, , , , , , ,

Media Digest 10/12/2009

newspaperReuters:   E-mails and the credit crisis will be key to the trial of Bear Stearns workers.

Reuters:  The approval process for Tengzhong to buy Hummer has started in China.

Reuters:   Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG) beat expectations.

Reuters:   Liz Claiborne’s (NYSE:LIZ) decision to sell its brands at J C Penny (NYSE:JCP) should help both companies. Read More »

Posted on: October 12, 2009 – 4:03 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AMAG, AAPL, BX, JBLU, LAZ, RSH, SF, TLB, TIF, XRX, YHOO)

Bull and Bear ImageThese are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street early this Thursday morning:

AMAG Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AMAG) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Raised to Outperform at JMP Securities.
The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) Raised to Conviction Buy at Goldman Sachs.
JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Lazard (NYSE: LAZ) Raised to Conviction Buy at Goldman Sachs.
RadioShack (NYSE: RSH) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Stifel Financial (NYSE: SF) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Talbots (NYSE: TLB) was upgraded to Buy at Citi and raised to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX) Raised to Buy at Brean Murray.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) Raised to Buy at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: September 10, 2009 – 8:49 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Upgrades (ARMH, ASML, BSX, CLX, GR, IFX, LAZ, SKS, SNIC, VICL)

These are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades and positive research calls we have seen from Wall Street early this Friday morning with more than two hours until the market opens:

ARM Holdings (ARMH) Started as Overweight at Barclays.
ASML Holding (ASML) Started as Overweight at Barclays.
Boston Scientific (BSX) Started as Outperform at Baird.
Clorox (CLX) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Goodrich (GR) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Infineon (IFX) Started as Overweight at Barclays.
Lazard (LAZ) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer; removed from Goldman Sachs Conviction Buy List.
Saks (SKS) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Sonic Solutions (SNIC) Raised to Outperform at William Blair.
Vical (VICL) Started as Overweight at Thomas Weisel.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: June 12, 2009 – 6:31 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Downgrades (AAP, AMZN, AZO, BDK, LAZ, MS, TXN)

These are some of the top pre-market analyst downgrades and negative research calls we have seen from Wall Street early this Thursday morning with about two hours until the market opens:

Advance Auto Parts (AAP) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Amazon.com (AMZN) Cut to Equal Weight at Barclays.
AutoZone (AZO) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Black & Decker (BDK) Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Lazard (LAZ) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Morgan Stanley (MS) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Texas Instruments (TXN) Started as Sell at Auriga.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: April 2, 2009 – 6:42 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , ,