Posts for Ticker ‘SKM’

Early Bird Analyst Upgrades (AUO, CLB, LAB, SKM, SOHU)

Money_stack_picThese are some of the early bird upgrades and positive research calls we have seen from Wall Street analysts this Wednesday morning with more than two hours to the open:

  • AU Optronics (NYSE: AUO) Raised to Overweight at HSBC.
  • Core Labs (NYSE: CLB) Raised to Outperform at JPMorgan.
  • LaBranche (NYSE: LAB) Raised to Buy from Sell at Goldman Sachs.
  • SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
  • Sohu.com (NASDAQ: SOHU) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.

Jon C. Ogg
January 14, 2009

Posted on: January 14, 2009 – 7:33 am in Analyst Calls, , , , ,

Sprint About To Be Acquired? (S, SKM)

Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) just saw a rather large surge in volume as per our report at Volume Spike (VSInvestor.com).  We saw a surge in trading and price based upon a CNBC report from David Faber that SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) is in talks to potentially acquire the ailing telecom.  This is one of the top brands we predicted could disappear as we know it at the beginning of the year.  In fact, we noted back that that SK Telecom had already approached the company.

Faber was very clear that there are no definite terms signed and that a deal is not imminent and potentially weeks away.  SK Telecom is actually smaller, so this might also involve private equity or other partners. 

Shares spiked 9% on the CNBC report, and are now up over 13% on more than 30.5 million shares having traded hands.  Its 52-week trading range is $5.48 to $22.64 and its average daily volume is about 34 million shares.

As a reminder, until something official or quasi official materializes, all such reports are to be considered rumors.

Jon C. Ogg
July 15, 2008

Posted on: July 15, 2008 – 1:53 pm in Mergers and Buy Outs, Rumors, Telecom, ,

Virgin Hopes Helio Can Slow Customer Defections (VM, ELNK, SKM, S)

If you have followed the launch of the "cool cellular" service called Helio over the last year or so, you might be among the few who remembered it even launched.  This was the joint venture between Earthlink Inc. (NASDAQ: ELNK) and SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM).  Richard Branson’s Virgin mobile USA Inc. (NYSE: VM) has decided it might be able to to turn this into shinola, and if it doesn’t work out it will have ended up being a tiny gamble.

Virgin is acquiring Helio for nearly $39 million.  But it is acquiring the company with 13 million shares of stock.  The interesting part here is that Virgin may actually get to lower its network costs in the carrier agreement with Sprint (NYSE: S).

Helio will give Virgin Mobile approximately 170,000 existing subscribers with an average revenue per of close to $80.00.  It will also give it a a handset inventory of some 85,000 units with a book value of $17 million.  With 20% of Virgin’s customers migrating to post-paid products, the company hopes this will add to the retention.

Virgin Group and SK Telecom will each invest $25 million of capital into the operations in the form of mandatory convertible preferred stock with an $8.50 per share conversion price. These will have a four-year maturity and a 6% annual dividend, and SK Telecom will own a combined equivalent of approximately 17% of Virgin Mobile USA and will take two seats on Virgin Mobile USA’s Board of Directors.

EarthLink shares are down over 3% today at $8.72 as this will likely result in a charge for the company.  Virgin Mobile USA shares are up less than 1% at $3.00 on the day.

Jon C. Ogg
June 27, 2008

Posted on: June 27, 2008 – 10:27 am in Wireless, , , ,