Posts for Ticker ‘YHOO’

Unusual Friday Options Activity (AAPL, GOOG, BAC, LEAP, PCS, DRYS, YHOO)

We have seen some unusual options trading today.  As you would expect, some is around today’s 4:00 PM close  with today being options expiration date.  But some bets are way out into 2011 and we have some around merger rumors.  All have links with full details on the options trading analysis at VSInvestor:

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) are both seeing very active trading around expiration date today, and the closest strikes are acting as magnets.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) has seen a very bullish bet in options out to 2011.

There is some elevated Dec-2009 Call options activity in both Leap Wireless International Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) and MetroPCS Communications Inc. (NYSE: PCS) on today’s re-rumor of a potential deal coming back up.

DryShips, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) is very active in the stock after an increased convertible note offering, yet the options activity seen today seems muted.

Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) has a big bet out in January 2011 options expiration.

You can join our open email distribution list to hear more news on key analyst calls, top day trader alerts, mergers and acquisitions, Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG
NOVEMBER 20, 2009

Posted on: November 20, 2009 – 3:24 pm in Options, Rumors, Trading Alert, , , , , , ,

Microsoft (MSFT) Claims Windows 7 Is Major Success

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer told attendees at the company’s annual shareholder meeting that Windows 7 sales were astonishingly high. According to a Wall Street Journal account of the gathering, “Microsoft Corp. has sold twice as many copies of Windows 7 in its first few weeks than any previous version of the operating system,” Ballmer said.

The news means that one of Microsoft’s five major operating units may do well and next year. That leaves four to go. Read More »

Posted on: November 20, 2009 – 5:40 am in Software, , , , , , ,

Soros Fund Holdings

Yesterday Soros Fund Management Filed a 13-F outlining the fund’s long portfolio as of September 30th, 2009.  The total value of the holdings reported in the filing is $6,198,089.  Twenty holdings represented roughly 50% of the value.  Soros Fund Management is a hedge fund management company that invests primarily based on macroeconomic analysis.  It should be noted that the fund’s equity portfolio likely contains significant short positions, which are not reported in 13-F filings.  Some of the positions in the filing may be in place as hedges or part of a multi-part trade, rather than a directional bet.  With that in mind, a glance at this firm’s major holdings provides clues to its macroeconomic outlook.  

Total stakes in Petroleo Brasileo Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR) represent 9.23% of the value of the positions reported in the filing, with just over 13 million shares held.  This is down from by 2.3 million from the fund’s last filing. Read More »

Posted on: November 17, 2009 – 10:52 am in Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tech Giants Now Hold ~$265 Billion Cash To Spend (HPQ, COMS, INTC, AMD, MSFT, CSCO, AAPL, GOOG, ORCL, JAVA, QCOM, EMC, YHOO, DELL, AMZN, EBAY, ONT, BRCD, JDSU, STAR, VMW)

You have already seen the Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) buyout of 3Com Corporation (NASDAQ: COMS).  But this week before that deal was announced we covered how mergers in the technology sector have been very slow to develop over the scale in which we and others think is possible for the sector.  After the Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) settlement with Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), the tally of cash that is now estimated would be an implied $265 billion that is available for the tech giants in our 24/7 Wall St. Real-Time 500 to make acquisitions.

The giant cash balances are held by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), assuming nothing happens with Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA).  But players like 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) are either all sitting with large amounts of cash or will be very soon.

We have broken out these technology, IT, software, and Internet companies by the cash amount they hold or what they have in a soon-to-be cash balance.  Of course only a fraction of this cash will be used for mergers.  But there is also a ton of room here for dividends and of course the share buybacks.

Read More »

Posted on: November 12, 2009 – 11:31 am in Consumer Electronics, Cramer, Dividend, Editor's Picks, Internet, Large Cap Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, PC Companies, Private Equity, Rumors, Semiconductor, Software, Stock Buybacks, Technology Companies, Telecom, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Maybe The Search Engine Business Isn’t So Great (YHOO)(GOOG)(MSFT)

TVSeveral 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 »

Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 7:58 pm in Internet, , ,

Bing Captures More Search Share (MSFT, GOOG, YHOO, IACI)

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 »

Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 1:23 pm in Internet, Research, , , ,

Tech Titans Still Have $269 Billion Cash For Deals (MSFT, CSCO, AAPL, GOOG, INTC, HPQ, QCOM, EMC, VMW, YHOO, DELL, ORCL, JAVA, AMZN, EBAY)

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 »

Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 1:07 pm in Consumer Electronics, Dividend, Editor's Picks, Internet, Large Cap Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, PC Companies, Private Equity, Rumors, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, Value Investing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 11/4/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   Opel must now arrange for GM’s unexpected ownership

Reuters:   The Fed will probably keep its “easy money” program.

Reuters:   Toyota (NYSE:TM) will pull out of Formula 1 racing.

Reuters:   The IEA will cut its long-term oil demand outlook. Read More »

Posted on: November 4, 2009 – 5:34 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Analyst Sees Windows 7 Pricing Data & Penetration Rates (MSFT, DELL, HPQ, YHOO)

Windows 7 LogoAuriga 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.

Read More »

Posted on: November 3, 2009 – 9:52 am in Analyst Calls, PC Companies, Software, , , ,

Key Takeaways From Yahoo! Analyst Day (YHOO)

Yahoo LogoYahoo! 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 »

Posted on: October 29, 2009 – 9:59 am in Internet, Turnarounds, ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (10/29/2009) (SNI)(NWS)(YHOO)

newspaperUpdated throughout the day.

Updated 10.45 AM EST   There is not as much cash on the sidelines as most investors expect.  (Reuters)

Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) has frozen hiring on the team evaluating integration with the Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing search platform  (BusinessInsider)

GMAC’s request for more bailout money may hurt the chances of its CEO, Al de Molina, getting the top job at Bank of America (NYSE:BAC)

Galleon may have paid millions of dollars to Wall St. firms for market information.  (FT)

Former NBC CEO Bob Wright thinks an IPO of the unit as a means to get it out of GE (NYSE:GE) are very small. (PaidContent)

The dollar will rally in coming months.  (Forbes)

News Corp (NYSE:NWS) and Scripps Networks Interactive (NYSE:SNI) have made $800 million offers for 65% of the Travel Channel.  (The Deal)

Holiday shopping may drop more than expected this year.  (CNBC)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: October 29, 2009 – 9:15 am in Rumors, , , , , ,

Yahoo! and Microsoft Extend Negotiation Period (YHOO, MSFT)

Yahoo LogoYahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) issued an SEC filing noting that it and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) have extended the negotiating time on the previously announced search pact.  Without getting to participate in the drawing room for the negotiations it is impossible to know if there were real snags other than the usual gossip that comes and goes or if it is simply nothing more than just needing more time to complete the documents.  Here is a broken down excerpt from the Yahoo! SEC Filing:

Read More »

Posted on: October 28, 2009 – 5:57 pm in Internet, Law, Mergers and Buy Outs, SEC, Software, Technology Companies, ,

Short Interest Up In Financials, Mixed In Tech (FRE)(CIT)(EBAY)(INTC)

bearShort interest in a number of major financial firms rose for the period ending October 15.

Shares short in Citigroup (NYSE:C) rose 51% to 178.1 million. The short interest in CIT (NYSE:CIT) was up 21% to 85.6 million. Share sold short in Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) were up 14% to 71.5 million. Shares short in Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) were fairly flat. Read More »

Posted on: October 27, 2009 – 4:12 am in Short Interest, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Carl Icahn Leaves Yahoo! (YHOO) Board Without Getting What He Wanted

houseCarl Icahn, who joined the Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) board on August 6.2008 after a long proxy fight with the company, is leaving. The portal company had rejected Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) search and restructuring proposal the month before Icahn’s addition to the portal company’s board. The Microsoft negotiation was the end of a long series of events which began when the world’s largest software company made a bid to buy Yahoo! for $44.6 billion.

Icahn never really got his way as a board member. There was not follow-on offer from Microsoft to buy Yahoo! and the company’s shares traded below $13 for a number of months after the conversations between the two firms broke off. Read More »

Posted on: October 23, 2009 – 6:02 pm in Activist Investor, Internet, ,

Amazon (AMZN): Innovation’s Reward

nokThe founders of the large web properties of Web 1.0 are all gone now save one. Yahoo!’s (NASDAQ:YHOO) chief Yahoo!s have very little to do with the company, although one of them, Jerry Yang, made a brief and troubled attempt to run the company recently. The founders of eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) and AOL retired a long time ago. Many of the websites that were among the most visited in the US a decade ago have disappeared since Jeff Bezos created Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) in 1994. Lycos, Excite, Altavista, Infoseek, and Switchboard have either disappeared or are tiny players among the new elite group of Web 2.0 firms which includes Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG). Read More »

Posted on: October 23, 2009 – 4:37 am in Earnings, Editor's Picks, Entertainment, Internet, , , , ,

Top Day Trader Alerts (YHOO, ISRG, PLCM, SNDK, FNM, FRE)

These are this morning’s top pre-market day trader alert stocks for Wednesday.  We have more detailed analysis and data on each stock linked through to VSInvestor.com:

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is trading up at 52-week highs after earnings.

Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) is a huge point loser, but down 5% after earnings.

Polycom Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM) is the biggest loser by percentages this morning after earnings.

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) is still up, but off its after-hours highs, after blowing out earnings.

Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) are trying to make it three in a row after that ZERO VALUE call from KBW on Monday.

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.

JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 21, 2009

Posted on: October 21, 2009 – 9:04 am in After-Hours Activity, Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert, , , , , ,

Larry Ellison Doesn’t Play Chicken

houseLarry’s Ellison, the founder and CEO of Oracle (NASDAQ:OFCL) does not make idle threats. He does not have to. In most games against his competition he holds the majority of the cards. He has taken over a number of businesses in his sector of the tech world. Those that resisted were taken over anyway. The management of PeopleSoft learned that lesson the hard way. Read More »

Posted on: October 21, 2009 – 5:05 am in Mergers and Buy Outs, Regulation, , , , , ,

Yahoo! (YHOO) And The Miracle Of Cost Cutting

bearWall St. was impressed by but not euphoric about Yahoo!’s (NASDAQ:YHOO) third quarter earnings. The company’s net revenue was $1.131 billion, down from $1.325 billion in the period last year. Net income for the quarter that ended in September was $187 million, $.13 cents a share, up from $54.3 million, or $.04 a share, a year ago. Read More »

Posted on: October 21, 2009 – 4:58 am in Internet, Media, , ,

Media Digest (10/21/2009) Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   China is having trouble managing supply and demand.

Reuters:   Geithner said the core programs of the TARP are ending.

Reuters:   Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) tripled it profits.

Reuters:   Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:JAVA) will cut 3,000 jobs due to delays in the Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) buyout of the company. Read More »

Posted on: October 21, 2009 – 4:08 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The 100 Hardest Working Brands In The World

hersheyThere are a number of ways to rank brand values. One of the most important is the level at which a brand contributes to the market value of a public company.

24/7 Wall St. asked Corebrand, the brand research and consulting firm, to look at the top 100 brands based their contribution to market capitalizaton. Using this method, the hardest working brand was Hershey (NYSE:HSY), followed  by Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG)

Corebrand described the process briefly to 24/7 Wall. St.

24/7 Wall St.: Corebard often refers to the brands on this list as the”hardest working brands”. How did you come to that description?

Corebrand: There are a lot of people measuring and examining the “strongest brands” or the “most valuable brands”.  Our opinion is that examining one without the other is somewhat meaningless.  How “strong” a brand is nice to know but not very relevant unless you understand how that strength benefits business.  Similarly, “value” is little more than a measure of corporate size unless you understand the drivers of that value and how to influence it. By examining the strength of the brand and it’s contribution to total market value, we can help companies and their leadership manage that strength and value over time.

24/7 Wall St.: Is there any advantage or disadvantage to having a brand value be a very large percentage of market cap in the present and as an indication of a company’s future performance?

Corebrand: The brand will need to be in balance with the rest of the company’s assets.  A company should strive to have it’s brand strong enough to fend off competitors or changing market conditions but not so strong that it becomes overly dependent on the brand as a single driver of value.  If a company can achieve and maintain its appropriate maximum strength without becoming over-dependent, it will see greater returns in bull markets and retain greater value in bear markets.

The list: Read More »

Posted on: October 20, 2009 – 5:06 pm in Research, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,