Posts for Ticker ‘TWC’

Sirius XM (SIRI) And CBS (CBS) Pose Greatest Financial Risk Among Media Firms

TVCBS (NYSE:CBS) and Sirius XM (NYSE:SIRI) pose the greatest investment risks among media companies based on a forensic measure of their transparency and the statistical reliability of their financial reporting and governance practices, according to new data from Audit Integrity. The probability for bankruptcy for Sirius is 8.5% and 4.6% for CBS. Both numbers are remarkably low, but still high for major US companies. Audit Integrity’s bankruptcy model achieved 90.9% accuracy in 2008 and 93.8% in 2009.

The safest companies for investors, based on the same measurement are Disney (NYSE:DIS) and  DirecTV (NYSE:DTV). The rest of the firms in the analysis are Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), Viacom (NYSE:VIA), Comcast (NYSE:CMCSA), Cablevision, (NYSE:CVC), GE (NYSE:GE), and Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC). Read More »

Posted on: November 12, 2009 – 9:23 pm in Accounting, Media, Old Media, , , , , , , , , ,

Clearwire Shows Earnings & Financing Hand (CLWR, S, CMCSA, TWC, DRWI)

Clearwire LogoInvestors are getting a look at why Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR) announced that it was getting new partner financing ahead of its quarterly earnings report.  The wireless broadband services provider did show a gain in revenue to $68.8 million, up 13% from the $60.8 million a year ago and up from $63.59 million just in the June quarter.  Thomson Reuters had revenue estimates at just over $66.6 million.  The net loss of -$0.43 EPS was in-line with estimates.  Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA), and Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC), its strategic partners, are set to expand selling efforts in 4G areas. Today’s news also has implications for DragonWave Inc. (NASDAQ: DRWI).
Read More »

Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 4:45 pm in Earnings, WiMAX, Wireless, , , , ,

Electronic Arts (ERTS): M&A And Layoffs Meet At A Crossroad

wiiElectronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) did something today that is almost never seen in the corporate world. It made a big acquisition and fired 1,500 of its workers, 17% of the total staff, on the same day. Read More »

Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 5:02 am in Mergers and Buy Outs, , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/9/2009) (RAI)(WFC)(NWS)(JAVA)(GE)(S)(CLWR)

magazinUpdated 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

Posted on: November 9, 2009 – 9:04 am in Rumors, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (10/28/2009) (UBS)(SNE)(BCS)(CBS)

newspaperUpdated throughout the day.

Update 12.05 PM EST:  UBS (NYSE:UBS) may spin off PaineWebber  (Breakingviews)

GMAC has asked the Treasury Department for several billion more dollars in loans. (NYTimes)

Barry Diller’s IACI (NASDAQ:IACI) might be willing to sell its search business.  (NYPost)

News Corp (NYSE:NWS) and CBS (NYSE:CBS) are trying to get cable companies including Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) to pay for carrying their broadcast channels.  (WSJ)

Statistics on ”global cooling” may be bogus.  (Ars Technica)

AMD’s (NYSE:AMD) former CEO Hector Ruiz may have leaked tips to one of the people accused of insider trading in the Galleon case.  (various)

The German hedge fund firm K1 is part of an international criminal investigation after allegedly stiffing banks including Barclays (NYSE:BCS), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM). and BNP Paribas with $400 million of losses.  (Bloomberg)

Covance (NYSE:CVD) shares are undervalued by 50%  (BusinessWeek)

Sony (NYSE:SNE) is expected to loss money for the fourth straight quarter.  (Forbes)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: October 28, 2009 – 9:13 am in Rumors, , , , , , , , , ,

Apple’s Tablet Computer: The DVD Killer

appleThe music industry never saw the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPod coming. The iPod was an expensive toy when it was introduced in 2001. There was no reason to think it would do well. Digital multimedia players were not part of mainstream consumer electronics. Read More »

Posted on: October 27, 2009 – 5:13 am in Hardware, Media, Old Media, PC Companies, , , , ,

What Is Time Warner Worth? The 2006 Icahn Break-Up Model Revisited

magazinLazard Freres delivered Carl Icahn a break-up analysis of Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) in late January 2005. Icahn had bought five million shares in the media company and he wanted the board to sell the company’s cable and publishing units. Either move, he reasoned, would decrease Time Warner’s heavy debt load. Read More »

Posted on: October 5, 2009 – 6:46 pm in Internet, Media, Mergers and Buy Outs, Old Media, ,

The 24/7 Wall St. Interview With Ivan Seidenberg, CEO Of Verizon

VZ24/7 Wall St. interviewed Ivan G. Seidenberg, the Chairman and CEO of Verizon (VZ), recently. The conversation covered Verizon’s major plans, the global telecom markets, and the effects of the recession. This is the one in a series of 24/7 Wall St. interview with large company CEOs to examine the future of business and industry as the world economy recovers.

The interview: Read More »

Posted on: September 21, 2009 – 5:10 am in Cable Companies, Interview, Telecom, Wireless, , , , , ,

24/7 Wall St. TV: eBay (EBAY) Shares Hurt By Skype

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24/7 WallSt TVeBay (EBAY) shares are trading down about 2% at $23.96 on news that a company owned by Skype’s founders has filed a filed a copyright suit against the VoIP company, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The firm the founders own is called Joltid and it has a patent on peer-to-peer technology that is used in Skype’s software.

eBay has agreed to sell about two-thirds of Skype to a group of investors for $1.9 billion in cash and $125 million in debt. Read More »

Posted on: September 17, 2009 – 2:34 pm in Internet, TV, , ,

eBay(EBAY) Shares Down On Skype Suit

beareBay (EBAY) shares are trading down about 2% at $23.96 on news that a company owned by Skype’s founders has filed a filed a copyright suit against the VoIP company, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The firm the founders own is called Joltid and it has a patent on peer-to-peer technology that is used in Skype’s software.

eBay has agreed to sell about two-thirds of Skype to a group of investors for $1.9 billion in cash and $125 million in debt. Read More »

Posted on: September 16, 2009 – 5:57 pm in Law, , , ,

YouTube Joins The Movie Rental Legions

youtubeGoogle’s (GOOG) YouTube may finally come up with a way to raise revenue. It streamed nine billion videos last month, but, by some estimates loses $300 million a year.

The quality of the video on YouTube is usually so low that advertisers don’t want to put their high-quality TV messages on the service. That leaves YouTube with limited options to make money. Read More »

Posted on: September 3, 2009 – 5:27 am in Entertainment, Internet, , , , , , , , ,

eBay (EBAY) Sells Skype

TVeBay (EBAY), which had planned offer shares in its VoIP business Skype though an IPO, has sold it to private equity interests instead. Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, Index Ventures, and Silver Lake Partners are part of the buyout group according to a report in The New York Times.  The purchase price is apparently about $2 billion.

Skype has been an albatross of eBay, which paid over $3 billion for the service. The auction company was never able to integrate its technology into eBay’s core e-commerce operations. Read More »

Posted on: September 1, 2009 – 5:27 am in Internet, Telecom, , , ,

24/7 Wall St. TV: Vonage Mirage

24/7 WallSt TVShares of Vonage (VG) decreased from their peak price of the day yesterday as investors raised concerns about the company’s rapid stock valuation increase. Vonage traded as high as $2.63 before closing at $2.17.  Nonetheless, that is still a stunning increase from the $.45 where it traded last Friday. Vonage’’s volume was more than 81 million, about seventy times its normal daily level. Read More »

Posted on: August 27, 2009 – 10:51 am in Cable Companies, Internet, TV, Telecom, , , ,

The Vonage (VG) Mirage

bearShares of Vonage (VG) decreased from their peak price of the day yesterday as investors raised concerns about the company’s rapid stock valuation increase. Vonage traded as high as $2.63 before closing at $2.17.  Nonetheless, that is still a stunning increase from the $.45 where it traded last Friday. Vonage’’s volume was more than 81 million, about seventy times its normal daily level. Read More »

Posted on: August 27, 2009 – 4:49 am in Cable Companies, Internet, Telecom, , , , ,

Media Digest 8/27/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   Derivatives traders dipped into $4 trillion in client collateral.

Reuters:   Home sales and durable orders improved.

Reuters:   The US softened its stance on private equity deals to buy banks.

Reuters:   The “pay car” will probably approve the AIG (AIG) CEO package. Read More »

Posted on: August 27, 2009 – 4:00 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AMED, BNI, CMCSA, CSX, DCP, FISV, GMR, HLS, STJ, TWC)

These are ten of the top pre-market analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiation calls we have seen from Wall Street early this Wednesday morning with close to two hours until the market opens:

Amedisys (AMED) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI) Started as Outperform at Baird.
Comcast (CMCSA) Started as Overweight at JPMOrgan.
CSX (CSX) Started as Outperform at Baird.
Dyncorp (DCP) Started as Buy at SunTrust.
Fiserv (FISV) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
General Maritime Corp. (GMR) Raised to Outperform at FBR.
HealthSouth Corp. (HLS) Started as Outperform at Baird.
St. Jude Medical (STJ) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Time Warner Cable (TWC) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: August 26, 2009 – 7:45 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

US May Take Fifteen Years To Catch South Korea Internet Speeds

youtubeAmerican internet speeds are slow, very slow by international standards. That may be one of the reasons that the $787 billion economic stimulus package has a large financial commitment to building broadband infrastructure.

The US ranks 28th among large countries in internet connection speeds according to new data from the Communications Workers of America. The organizations has a reason to track the information. Many of the union members’ jobs rely on cable and telecom firms continuing  to invest to build  larger broadband  systems, particularly the communications giants Comcast (CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (TWC), AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ). Read More »

Posted on: August 26, 2009 – 5:42 am in Cable Companies, Infrastructure, Internet, Technology, Telecom, , , ,

Media Digest 6/25/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   Political battles are likely to make this a tough year for the Fed.

Reuters:   The head of Toyota (TM) warned of two more tough years.

Reuters:   Lawmakers accused Fed of a cover-up in dealing with Bank of America (BAC)

Reuters:   California is set to issues IOUs to conserve cash.

Reuters:   The new TARP chief says economy is on the mend. Read More »

Posted on: June 25, 2009 – 2:55 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 6/24/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   The head of a Congressional watchdog committee is pushing for a consumer protection agency.

Reuters:   China defended its export policies against a WTO complaint.

Reuters:   Citigroup (C) intends to raise the base pay of key employees.

Reuters:   Apple’s (AAPL) Jobs has an excellent prognosis after recent surgery. Read More »

Posted on: June 24, 2009 – 2:53 am in Autos, Banking, Cable Companies, China, Commodities, Compensation, Consumer Electronics, Drug companies, Earnings, Internet, Labor & Unions, Mergers and Buy Outs, Press Digest, Private Equity, Regulation, Semiconductors, Wireless, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sprint (S) Still Near Top Of MSN “Worst Customer Service” List

sprintPalm (PALM) may not have had much of a choice in terms of which cellular company was going to market its new Pre. AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless (VZ)(VOD) were probably not interested. Palm’s marriage with Sprint (S) may hurt the handset firm’s chances at a turnaround.  Sprint’s customer service still gets remarkably poor ratings. Read More »

Posted on: June 10, 2009 – 7:43 am in Cable Companies, Research, Telecom, Wireless, , , , , , , , , , , , ,