AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR), ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT), Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC), Forest Oil Corp. (NYSE: FST), Fortune Brands, Inc. (NYSE: FO), Loral Space & Communications Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ: LORL), Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), and Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) are all either planning spin-offs or are considering them.  There is also a winner so far in 2010 in The Howard Hughes Corporation (NYSE: HHC) from General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP).  We have provided some basic information and color on each below.

1. AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR), the parent of American Airlines, has wanted to unload American Eagle for years. What has prevented a deal has been the bad economy and high fuel prices.  It was back in the summer that AMR disclosed that it had revived plans that could ultimately lead to a sale, divestiture, or even a spin-off.  If the airline sector remains in favor this tranasaction could finally occur in 2011.  AMR shares are trading around $7.75 and the 52-week trading range is $5.86 to $10.50.  AMR peaked above $35.00 in early 2007.  If this will assist in its attempt to regain a former glory, they will likely jettison the regional unit.

2. ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT), the international steel giant, has recently confirmed that the stainless steel business will be spun off to shareholders.  The plan is to distribute shares in the first quarter of 2011 at a ratio of one share of the stainless steel business for every twenty ArcelorMittal shares.  With shares around $37.00, its 52-week trading range is $26.28 to $49.41.

3. Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC) has already spun off Madison Square Garden, Inc. (NYSE: MSG) in February 2010.  Now the Dolan family is looking at the same possibility for Rainbow Media.  In November, the Dolans announced that the board of directors gave authorization to explore a possible spin-off of Rainbow Media.  If this occurs, Rainbow Media would become a separate public company with its holdings being national programming, IFC, and Rainbow Network. Cablevision shares are very close to $35.00 and its 52-week trading range is $21.53 to $35.16.

The Perseid meteor shower is what is left of Comet Swift-Tuttle that last visited the inner solar system in 1992.  Each year in August Earth passes through a debris field left along the orbit of the comet.  Most debris items are the size pebbles or sand grains, but they enter Earth’s atmosphere at about 37 miles per second or 133,000 MPH.  In short, nothing physical responds too well if it is hit by debris.  That includes satellites, the space station, space craft and so on.  If you don’t trust that this is a risk, all you have to do is look in the annual reports of any major satellite company.  Again, it is a low risk, but a risk nonetheless.

There are many companies that could be affected if debris from a meteor shower were to make contacts with any of the satellites.  The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA), DigitalGlobe, Inc. (NYSE: DGI), GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY), Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ: GILT), Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH), DIRECTV (NASDAQ: DTV), SIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI), Hughes Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: HUGH), ICO Global Communications Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ: ICOG), Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) and Globalstar Inc. (NASDAQ: GSAT) and ORBCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ: ORBC) are all likely monitoring their birds with a little more caution during this Perseid show.  There is also Orbital Sciences Corp. (NYSE: ORB) and Loral Space & Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LORL).

DISH Network notes, “Meteoroid events pose a potential threat to all in-orbit satellites. The probability that meteoroids will damage those satellites increases significantly when the Earth passes through the particulate stream left behind by comets. Occasionally, increased solar activity also poses a potential threat to all in-orbit satellites…. The loss, damage or destruction of any of our satellites as a result of an electrostatic storm, collision with space debris, malfunction or other event could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.”

On this front, DIRECTV notes in its annual report, “In-orbit risks include malfunctions, commonly referred to as anomalies, and collisions with meteoroids, other spacecraft or other space debris….. In the event of a complete satellite failure, our services provided via that satellite could be unavailable for several days or longer while backup in-orbit satellites are repositioned and services are moved. We are not insured for any resultant lost revenues.”

The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) claims to be the world’s leading manufacturer of geostationary satellites and it manufactures satellites for all walks of the satellite world.  It recently acquired Argon ST in the satellite arena.  Unless many satellites were simultaneously knocked out or damaged, Boeing is too large and too diversified to get any major benefit from the possibilities of satellite woes based on meteor showers.

Two other companies in the satellite manufacturing and servicing businesses that are direct pure-plays in the satellite industry are Orbital Sciences Corp. (NYSE: ORB) and Loral Space & Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LORL).  Both companies are small enough ($1.44 billion market cap at Loral and $777 million at Orbital) that any new business as a result of repositioning, relaunching, or reordering of new satellites would actually be a win for either or both of these two.

DigitalGlobe, Inc. (NYSE: DGI) and GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY) were two recent winners that hit all-time highs after the two received $7.3 billion in combined orders to supply satellite imagery to U.S. intelligence services.  Digital Globe has commercial high-resolution earth imagery products and services that are sourced from its own advanced satellite constellation.  GeoEye sells international information services to government and commercial markets.

Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) and DIRECTV (NASDAQ: DTV) compete head to head for in-home and in-office satellite ‘cable’ TV subscribers.  Each has hundreds of channels.  Dish had 14.1 million subscribers at the end of 2009 versus DIRECTV’s 18.5 million U.S. and 6.5 million in Latin America.  As of the end of 2009, DIRECTV had a network of 12 geosynchronous satellites and it appears that DISH had more when you include its leased satellites.

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ: GILT) is an Israel-based company which provides Internet Protocol (IP) based digital satellite communication and networking products and services worldwide.  The company was founded in 1987 and has shipped over 750,000 VSATs (Very Small Aperture Terminals) to more than 85 countries on six continents.

SIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) is satellite radio monopoly and it ended the latest quarter with some 19,527,448 subscribers.  It has multiple satellites between it and the XM network and any single satellite would likely only result in some interruption.  Still, any ‘event’ would not be a welcome wagon for Mel Karmazin and friends.

Hughes Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: HUGH) offers up broadband satellite network services and systems for broadband Internet services via commercial-grade antennas. The company also provides satellite, wire line, and wireless communication networks and services to all business sectors around the globe.  The company had about 326,000 subscribers on SPACEWAY 3 as of June 30, 2010 and it has shipped more than 2.2 million systems to customers in over 100 countries.  In short, satellite ‘interruption,’ damage, or destruction would not be welcome.

ICO Global Communications Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ: ICOG) was founded in 2000 to launch and operate a global constellation of communications satellites to support voice and data services to mobile, portable and fixed devices.  This is still a developing company where its DBSD North America unit is being restructured and the company will be a minority shareholder upon that completion.  The company recently completed a $30 million rights offering and the stock has never really taken off and its remaining ten partially completed MEO satellites were placed in storage when construction was suspended in 2004.  It has a case against Boeing which it won a $603 million claim, but that is on appeal and is expected to be concluded next year.

Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) and Globalstar Inc. (NASDAQ: GSAT) are two of the satellite phone service providers that provide satellite audio and data communications.  Globalstar has recently taken delivery of the first three second-generation satellites from manufacturer Thales Alenia Space and is expecting three more later this month for what it hopes will be an October launch.  With over 400,000 subscribers, Globalstar claims to be the world’s largest provider of mobile satellite voice and data services.

ORBCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ: ORBC) is a smaller player that operates satellite-based data communications for a two-way wireless data messaging system optimized for narrowband data communications via about 29 low-Earth orbit satellites.  It is into space-based Automatic Identification System services.  It announced this week that its total revenues for the June quarter were $7.8 million.  Despite a 15.8% revenue jump, its satellite network would have to face multiple strikes to really interrupt operations and the odds of that are so low that it is hard to fathom.

Most likely there will be no major fallout from this.  If there is, it will be costly.  To date, meteor showers and debris showers have brought mostly entertainment at night under clear skies.

JON C. OGG

The selling holders are affiliated with MHR Capital, which is tied to Dr. Mark H. Rachesky.  He became a member of Loral’s board of directors in 2005, and he serves as non-executive chairman of Loral’s Board of Directors.

Dr. Mark H. Rachesky, in his individual capacity, is also a selling stockholder under this registration statement of 15,000 shares of common stock and another 5,000 shares of common stock potentially issuable.

As far as how this compares, Loral’s stock is down 1.9% at $31.40 today, but the 52-week trading range is $6.02 to $34.83.  The public market capitalization is also listed as $936 million.

Jon C. Ogg
June 2, 2009

Believe it or not, some of these are up exponentially off of the lows.  One is up 30-fold from the end of March, and amazingly the best winners were not in tech or biotech.  We have provided a weekly synopsis and the reason for their from the lows.

American Dairy Inc. (NYSE: ADY) is one that many have not even heard of as a stock for the annals of winners.  Yet Friday’s 54% gain to $28.48 made it the biggest winner of the day of all listed stocks, and the shares finished up 62% for the week.  On a year-over-year basis, sales rose a sharp 191%, income from operations rose by 523%, and net income rose by 282%.  The company is a producer and distributor of premium infant formula, milk powder and soybean, rice and walnut products in China.  That is a new 52-week high, and up about 250% from its lows of the year.

Biocryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: BCRX) rose 31% to $3.19 on heavy volume of more than 2.6 million shares on news of an ASCO pre-presentation abstract showing positive Phase II results from its clinical trial for forodesine in the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.  Because of heavy selling on Monday after disappointing flu drug news, BioCryst was ‘only’ up 8% for the week from the $2.95 close the prior Friday and this essentially took the stock back to last week’s highs.  As a reminder, this was one of the speculative swine flu stocks, and its stock has come way off of the levels after the Swine Flu hit Mexico and then the U.S.

Diedrich Coffee Inc. (NASDAQ: DDRX) is coming back from the dead.  Shares were only up 2.7% to $12.91 Friday, but this was up 30% from the prior Friday.  You better be  sitting down when we tell you this.  Diedrich was a $0.42 stock at the end of March.  The company has completed its transition to a premier coffee roaster and wholesaler that recently sold its Gloria Jean’s franchise operations.  This is enough to make a man cry, but this stock is up over 30-fold since the end of March.

DigitalGlobe, Inc. (NYSE: DGI) completed its IPO this week.  The first early huge gains did not hold, but the IPO did close the week up in positive territory.  The IPO priced at $19.00, which is over 10% above the mid-point of the expected $16 to $18 expected price range.  At $20.50 after a 4% drop, and even after seeing some initial prints at $25.00, we are welcoming this one as one of the week’s key winners.  Digital imaging from satellites that powers defense agencies, oil and mining, and even Google, that is good enough considering how few IPO’s we have had in the last six months.

Maybe it takes a ‘triple-leverage inverse ETF’ to win when the banks and financials spend the week doing massive amounts of secondary offerings after huge recoveries from the March lows.  The Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (NYSE: FAZ) was the winner for that move, and it had the volume to prove it.  This gained less than 6% on Friday to close at $5.90 for the week, but that is up over 30% for the week from a prior Friday close of $4.49.

Loral Space & Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LORL) hit a new 52-week high on Friday after closing up only 3%, yet shares finished up over 22% for the week and shares are up some 150%  over the last two months.  The company’s earnings this week were no major standout, but as the company CEO said, “We are buoyed by the steady overall industry demand, despite the economic climate… The strong backlogs at both Telesat and SS/L will continue to support our progress toward creating long term shareholder value.”  Space, the Final Frontier.

Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) was almost a stealth stock.  On Friday, its shares rose by a sharp 9.6% to $19.86 after Jefferies reiterated a the stock with a Buy rating and lifted the target to $21.00.  There has been speculation that IBM or Oracle or another player may want to buy the Linux software suite seller.  After a $17.60 close the week before, Red Hat was up almost 13% for the week and is up almost 200% from its 52-week lows.

WuXi Pharma Tec (NYSE: WX) was a total screamer.  You might even be able to say that the Chinese dug, biotech, and medical outsourcing company is coming back from the grave based on its performance.  Earnings were good enough despite a drop, yet two analysts upgrades exacerbated the move.  Shares rose over 40% Friday to end at $7.98, making this one up roughly 33% for the week.

JON C. OGG
May 16, 2009

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) was down almost 2% at $38.20 late in the day.  Some funding deals in the billions just aren’t that well received.  This had managed to get just back above the low part of the range of $38.15 to $72.96.

Gaiam Inc. (NASDAQ: GAIA) was down 4% at $14.59 late in the day, which was slightly above the prior 52-week low; range of $14.49 to $30.73.  Not all green lifestyle media stocks are created equally; better get the spin-off soon.

Hansen Natural (NASDAQ: HANS) was down almost another 2% late in the day at $28.00, prior low was $28.20 and high was $68.40.

Loral Space (NASDAQ: LORL) was down over 9% at $19.90 late in the day, prior range was $20.04 to $51.56.  This isn’t regularly on the wall of shame, but the company posted a wider loss Monday.

Playboy (NYSE: PLA) better get the Heff’s doing something.  This one keeps getting worse and shares were at $5.58 late in the day; under the $5.84 to $12.00 range.  How much is that L.A. mansion worth?

Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL) was down 6% at $29.31 late in the day; prior range was $30.04 to $45.17.  So much for borrowing against the house to take a cruise.  At least the people can choose who they have dinner with now.

Secure Computing (NASDAQ: SCUR) was down 4% at $4.94 late in the day, not so secure it sounds like.  Prior range $5.05 to $10.54.

Jon C. Ogg
May 20, 2008