Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) can be added to the long list of American companies that made a profit in the last quarter and then fired a significant part of their workforces. It is a disturbing trend that will make it harder for the US economy to recover.
Applied Materials said it expected its fiscal year sales to be 30% higher. It then let go nearly 1,500 people. Read More
Several studies show that Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing search engine picked up market share in October. Combined with Yahoo! the two companies could end up with clost to 30% of the industry in the United States. The firms believe that the deal will be final in the first quarter of next year. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) will still have two-thirds of the market, but perhaps second place is not so bad.
The value of first place is hard to argue. Google has a market capitalization of $180 billion and had operating income of $2 billion on revenue of slightly less than $6 billion last quarter. Yahoo! serves about 20% of the searchs made in the US but has a market cap of only $23 billion and made a very modest $70 million on $1.78 billion in revenue in the period ending September 30. Microsoft does not break out its search revenue or expense, but its online operations are small and lose money. Read More
It is usually questionable if Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and its new Bing.com search engine is stealing from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) or from Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) when it comes to gains in the share of internet search. Or maybe it was IAC/InteractiveCorp. (NASDAQ: IACI) and its Ask.com distant #4 search product. Hitwise is only one source which measures U.S. searches, but a reading of searches conducted in the four weeks ending Oct. 31, 2009 showed a gain for Bing. Hitwise showed that Bing is clearly taking more from Google and some from Yahoo!. Even Ask.com got a little lift this time. Hitwise gave the following data:
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
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
Updated throughout the day.
Update 2.52 PM EST: The antitrust disagreement between Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and AMD (NYSE:AMD) may be resolved by a private settlement (MarketWatch)
Updated 12.23 PM EST: Motorola (NYSE:MOT) may have sold 100,000 Droid the first weekend the handset was on the market (Bloomberg)
Updated 11.33 AM EST: Huge hedge fund SAC says it has found no improper trades. Media sources has linked the firm to the Galleon insider trading investigation. (Bloomberg)
Updated 8.48 AM EST: Hedge fund assets could hit $2 trillion worldwide by the end of 2010 (DealBook)
American Air (NYSE:AMR) and US Air (NYSE:LCC) may merge (TheStreet)
The International Energy Agency may be downplaying the need for greater oil supplies to prevent a market panic. (CNBC)
AT&T (NYSE:T) is publishing data to undermine Verizon’s (NYSE:VZ) claims about the better quality of its cellular network.
Time Warner’s (NYSE:TWX) AOL unit will lay-off 1,000 people next month. (AllThingsD)
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is not likely to close its media properties. (Ad Age)
A number of public pensions face bankruptcy. (Forbes)
Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) may use its China business as a template for expansion in India. (The Deal)
Even after a $1 billion cash infusion 4G WiMax company Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) may need more money from Sprint (NYSE:S) and other partners. (BreakingViews)
Douglas A. McIntyre
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
Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) is about to release its “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II: video game. Sales are expected to be half a billion dollars in the first week. That would make it the biggest entertainment product release of all time, topping even the most successful blockbuster movies.
According to the LA Times, “Activision is working with retailers to plan more than 10,000 midnight openings in the United States, including most of the 4,300 GameStop stores around the country.” Read More
Microsoft (NYSE:MSFT) Windows 7 sales in the first week after its introduction last month outdid Vista sales during the first week after its launch in January 2007 by 234%, according to industry research firm NPD. Microsoft has certainly encouraged the rumors that the operating system is doing well, but that no longer appears to be an empty boast. 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
Updated throughout the day.
Citigroup (NYSE:C) will re-launch some of its least successful hedge funds (FT)
The stock market is at risk of not holding 10,000. (TheStreet)
AIG (NYSE:AIG) will not hold a conference call to avoid uncomfortable questions about its balance sheet (The Deal)
Sales of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 7 are outpacing those after the launch of Vista (Apple Insider)
Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) are likely to fall sharply (Barron’s)
BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) may make another bid to buy rival Rio Tinto (NYSE:RTP) (FTAlphaville)
“Governments may take as long as a decade to cut debt issuance back to the levels before global markets seized up following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. last year.” (Bloomberg)
Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) is likely to go through a period of sharp job cuts. (Business Insider)
Douglas A. McIntyre
Reuters: The Wall St. insider trading probe lead to another 14 arrests.
Reuters: Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) lost $19 billion and asked Treasury for money.
Reuters: GM is readying its plans for Opel as some of its workers went on strike.
Reuters: The pay czar says the jury is still out on reforms. Read More
Reuters: Toyota (NYSE:TM) returned to a profit.
Reuters: The Fed will keep rates near zero for an extended period.
Reuters: Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) beat forecasts.
Reuters: Gold is near $1,100. Read More
Auriga is a boutique research firm that many have not heard of, but this morning the firm has reiterated its BUY rating on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and its $33.50 price target after yesterday’s $27.88 closing bell price. The reason for today’s call is that the firm obtained detailed Windows 7 pricing in as-sold models from Microsoft for six of the OEM companies from more than 100 PCs. And the first weeks of data may offer more insight than any official price target on overall market penetration rates. Particularly when you compare the data to other outside and independent research for overall Windows 7 penetration rates.
We noted just last week that Bill Gates was getting more entrenched in the waste disposal sector. It turns out that Mr. Gates is getting deeper into the auto-retailing sector as well. In an SEC filing after the closing bell, Gates added some 500,000 shares to his stake of AutoNation, Inc. (NYSE: AN). His Cascade Investment LLC investment vehicle bought 483,800 at a weighted average price of $17.608 and bought another 16,200 shares at a weighted average price of $18.217. Both transaction dates took place on October 29, 2009.
Read More
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.
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
In a statement that must send chills up the spines of other tech CEOs, Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Steve Ballmer said that the vicious recession may have reset IT spending to a level which will never recovery to where it was in the period just before the downturn.
“While we will see growth, we will not see recovery,” Ballmer said. Read More
If you thought that Bill Gates might have an ambition beyond just passive investing in the garbage and waste disposal sector, you might be correct. Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment, L.L.C. and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust own a collective share of about 15% of Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE: RSG). Republic is the #2 waste management player now that it acquired Allied Waste Industries behind the dominant Waste Management Inc. (NYSE: WM).
Today came the news that Gates’ confidant Michael Larson has joined Republic’s Board of Directors effective October 28, 2009, and Larson will also become a member of Republic’s Compensation Committee and its Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Larson is the Business Manager of Cascade Investment and is the Chief Investment Officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. In short, Bill Gates (or his investment funds) is not just going to be a mere large investor in the garbage sector. That is an entrenchment into a company, and there seems to be a reason for it.
Read More
It has become commonplace to see initial public offerings from earlier private equity holdings that were once public and taken private. Yet it is very odd to see a company get acquired in a go-private deal to ultimately be followed by a re-IPO and then ultimately see a go-private transaction come its way yet again. But that is what we are seeing as a possibility, again, in Corel Corporation (NASDAQ: CORL).
Read More
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) had its analyst day on Wednesday and the comments started coming out late yesterday. This was the first real show and tell session it has had with Wall Street in roughly three years. We wanted to highlight what we saw as the top takeaway issues from Yahoo!’s analyst day presentations. These are not in any particular order, and some may overlap with news that was out yesterday during the trading hours.
Read More
| Today’s top tickerspy Indexes | |
| Domestic Telecom ... | +2.6% |
| Stem Cell Stocks | +2.3% |
| Pain Management S... | +2.1% |
| Ethanol and Biofu... | +1.9% |
| Savings and Loan ... | +1.8% |
 | |
| |
RSS Updates
Email Updates
