24/7 Wall St. » SPSN

Can SanDisk Win As Spansion Goes Bankrupt? (SNDK, SPSN, AMD)

247wallst — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:48:03 +0000

Spansion Inc. (NASDAQ: SPSN) is toast. At least that is the case for shareholders. The maker and designer of flash memory chips has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Spansion was not the largest player in the sector, but you have to wonder if competitors like SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) and others could actually come out ahead while Spansion is suffering through bankruptcy.

Spansion is down by more than half now. When this was just a nickel stock on Friday, it is actually hard to care. But what is interesting is that Spansion generated around $600 million in revenue per quarter. While revenue were expected to contract (and losses expected to grow), there was an expectation of close to $2 billion in sales in 2009.

The consumer is in the tank, camera sales are in the drain, and consumer spending is looking more incremental than anything. Still, $2 billion or anything close is a large chunk of business for other producers to win. Bankrupt companies do keep operating in Chapter 11, unlike Chapter 7 where firms are just liquidated. But suppliers and customers hate dealing with bankrupt companies because payment is always at risk and past transactions can be broken up by a court ruling.

SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) is the largest of flash maker and it has been battered along with all chip and consumer electronics makers. It has more than $4 billion in cash, liquidity investments, and long-term investments. Get this: First Call has estimates at almost $2.5 billion in revenue this year and almost $2.7 billion next year. We do not want to spend too much time on debating whether those numbers are too high or too low because they are expected to lose money and the sector is in shambles. But it has a massive amount of business it could pick up from Spansion. And it has the financial wherewithal to withstand the current climate.

While flash memory makers and DRAM makers all compete against each other, there is never a pure 100% overlap in businesses and customers. But for the lion’s share there generally is.

Spansion was spun off from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD). While it has been a very difficult time for both companies, at least AMD is still around as a stock.

Jon C. Ogg
March 2, 2009

Posted in Semiconductor, Turnarounds Tagged: AMD, SNDK, SPSN

NASDAQ Offers Life To Hundreds of Stocks (NDAQ, CHTR, FNSR, LVLT, OPWV, PEIX, PWAV, PWAV, RFMD, SANM, SIRI, SPSN)

247wallst — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:26:38 +0000

The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) is making it easier for the army of relatively new penny stocks to maintain their listings on NASDAQ. The exchange filed with the SEC to extend its suspension of the rules requiring a minimum $1.00 bid price and its minimum market value of publicly held shares. This was initially set to expire in January, but the terms will now be extended until Monday, April 20, 2009. With as many stocks that have violated that $1.00 mark in recent weeks and months, this is hardly a surprise and it would even go against the exchange’s own interests to boot this many stocks off the exchange.

We ran a screen for NASDAQ stocks with active trading volume, share prices under $1.00, and those which have traded over $1.00 in the last 52-weeks. Some of the most usual suspects here are as follows:

Name       Symbol                      Price Mkt Cap Avg Vol    52-wk Range
Autobytel Inc. (ABTL)                   $0.40 18.09M 255,678       0.31 – 3.30
Beacon Power Corporation (BCON) $0.62 61.40M 973,758    0.50 – 2.18
BankUnited Financial (BKUNA)    $0.24 8.61M 612,080       0.24 – 8.00
Charter Communications (CHTR) $0.13 53.58M 5,062,670    0.11 – 1.68
Candela Corporation (CLZR)          $0.53 12.12M 195,383       0.31 – 5.93
Cosi, Inc. (COSI)                         $0.25 10.19M 197,683       0.25 – 3.24
Eddie Bauer Holdings (EBHI)       $0.51 15.72M 288,632       0.30 – 8.72
8×8 Inc (EGHT)                            $0.47 29.30M 157,789       0.40 – 1.30
Emmis Communications (EMMS) $0.41 14.91M 202,774       0.25 – 4.27
Finisar Corporation (FNSR)          $0.40 171.83M 3,241,740    0.29 – 1.96
Glu Mobile Inc. (GLUU)                $0.44 13.02M 92,946.2    0.22 – 5.77
Globalstar, Inc. (GSAT)                $0.22 26.35M 634,428       0.17 – 9.50
ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (IMOS) $0.19 15.95M 538,883       0.18 – 4.39
Jones Soda Co. (JSDA)                $0.38 10.02M 154,182       0.31 – 8.20
Jupitermedia Corporation (JUPM)    $0.44 15.83M 112,874       0.20 – 4.03
SourceForge, Inc. (LNUX)             $0.96 61.58M 345,160       0.32 – 2.59
Level 3 Communications (LVLT)    $0.70 1.13B 25,960,200    0.60 – 4.48
MRV Communications (MRVC)       $0.80 125.74M 522,931    0.21 – 2.57
Openwave Systems Inc (OPWV)    $0.64 52.99M 400,640       0.45 – 2.89
Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (PEIX)             $0.72 41.59M 591,114       0.50 – 9.88
Powerwave Technologies (PWAV) $0.48 64.25M 2,752,260    0.35 – 5.30
RF Micro Devices, Inc. (RFMD)       $0.94 247.34M 5,364,060 0.70 – 6.00
Sanmina-SCI Corporation (SANM) $0.52 279.31M 5,529,640 0.27 – 2.66
Sirius XM Radio Inc. (SIRI)             $0.14 491.88M 55,366,100 0.08 – 3.89
Spansion Inc. (SPSN)                   $0.22 35.81M 1,428,130    0.20 – 4.29
NextWave Wireless Inc (WAVE)    $0.10 9.90M    577,515    0.07 – 7.59
Xinhua Finance Media (XFML)          $0.61 43.60M 333,146       0.31 – 6.71

If you think about this, there is also a financial incentive. Ifhundreds of stocks magically get sent to the minor leagues of theOTC-BB or the Pink Sheets, then NASDAQ would lose a substantial amountof revenue. It would also lose a significant amount of daily exchangevolume.

Jon C. Ogg
December 19, 2008

Posted in Cult Stock, Exchange News, Small Cap Stocks, Trading Alert Tagged: CHTR, FNSR, LVLT, NDAQ, OPWV, PEIX, PWAV, RFMD, SANM, SIRI, SPSN

The 52-Week Low Club 9/25/2008 (PPC)(TDC)(ORCL)(APD)(SPSN)

247wallst — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:51:46 +0000

Pilgrim’s Pride (PPC) Company says it has liquidity issues. Sometimes that means Chapter 11. The stock drops to $3.26 from 52-week high of $35.98.

Teradata Corp (TDC) is facing competition from Oracle (ORCL). It drops to $19.50 from 52-week high of $30.08.

Air Products and Chemicals (APD) lowers forecasts and is downgraded by Citi. Shares fall to $70.17 from 52-week high of $106.06.

Spansion (SPSN) gets a broker downgrade. It sells down to $1.65 from 52-week high of $8.68.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted in HI/LOW Tagged: APD, ORCL, PPC, SPSN, TDC

The 52-Week Low Club

247wallst — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:27:54 +0000

W Holding (WHI) Listing issues. Recently came out of SEC investigation. Drops to $.75 from 52-week high of $6.70.

Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH) Weak earning outlook. Down to $36.65 from 52-week high of $82.19.

AMD (AMD) Just keeps sliding. Drops to $9.22 from 52-week high of $23.

Spansion (SPSN) No recent news. Down to $4.44 from 52-week high of $15.10.

Epicept (EPCT) Prices new stock offering. Falls to $1.25 from 52-week high of $4.89.

Douglas A. McIntyre