Toyota, Japan’s biggest car maker by volume, plans to sell more than 1 million subcompacts in more than 100 countries and regions, such as China, Southeast Asia, India and Brazil, by 2015.

Toyota does not have many other places to go for expansion. The European markets are nearly dead. China’s market has slowed considerably. Toyota’s sales have picked up a great deal in America, but the market has become progressively more competitive as U.S. car companies has been revived and large firms, including Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes, have aggressively exploited the one region in which they have an ongoing chance for rising sales volume.

A New Web Browser

For some reason, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) wants to be in the crowded web browser arena. Its new product is called Axis. It is meant to compete with Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch products. But Apple already has its own Safari browser. And the industry is controlled by Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Internet Explorer, Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Chrome, and Firefox. It is a good guess that Yahoo! wants to use Axis to move further into mobile search, but it already has lost most of that market to Google. And there is no reason for the great majority of users to switch from their preferred browser when they move from computer to portable device.

Galaxy S3’s U.S. Launch

The wildly successful Samsung Galaxy S III will be available in the United States starting on June 1. But the first wave of handsets will not be sold by carriers. Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) will sell the new Galaxy without a wireless contract. Wireless companies underwrite the costs of smartphones because they get two-year subscriptions from customers. Amazon will sell the Galaxy S III for $800. The product will be “unlocked” so it can be used on a number of networks. There is some debate over whether its powerful processor is set to work on superfast 4G LTE networks, or if a less-powerful processor will be required to operate on those systems. The Samsung Galaxy is widely regarded as the primary competitor to the Apple iPhone 4S, so early sales in the U.S. will prove whether that perception is true.

MSNBC.com Buyout Talks

Comcast’s (NASDAQ: CMCSA) NBCUniversal operations is in talks with Microsoft to takeover the part of MSNBC.com that it does not already own. The rumor was reported in Adweek. Microsoft may not want to part with the stake. NBC could use it as a portal to increase traffic to its media sites. But Microsoft has its large MSN.com operation, which has a close relationship with MSNBC.com. As Microsoft works to drive traffic to its Bing search engine, MSNBC.com is strategically important.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Among firms that had IPOs recently, the short interest in Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) rose 35% to 56.6 million. Shares sold short in Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) rose 19% to 20.7 million. Both companies have been under attack because many investors believe that they cannot sustain sales in a market in which the number of competitors is multiplying quickly.

Among Web 1.0 firms, the short interest in Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) was up 23% to 25.6 million. Although the firm has been able to make progress with its Asian assets, its core portal business is in trouble, and it recently replaced another CEO. Shares short in eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) rose 19% to 16.6 million.

Among other tech stocks, the short interest in Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), which continues to struggle in the critical mobile industry, rose 25% to 87 million. Shares sold short in badly wounded Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) rose 18% to 53.4 million. The short interest in Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) rose 8% to 35.4 million shares.

Other companies with weak prospects hit by short sellers included Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK); shares sold short rose 27% to 85.2 million. There are questions about the CEO’s practice of investing individually in some of the firm’s drilling projects. Shares short in Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) rose 20% to 116.7 million. The third-largest wireless company continues to lose ground to AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless.

Short interest in major banks also rose as worries about Europe’s finances and new regulations pushed share prices down. Shares sold short in Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) rose 6% to 150.7 million. The short interest in Citigroup (NYSE: C) rose 16% to 35.5 million. Shares sold short in Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) moved higher by 11% to 36 million.

Douglas A. McIntyre

EU concerns push the euro to close to a two-year low. (Reuters)

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) will invest $40 billion into alternative energy in the next decade. (Reuters)

TV networks battle with Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) over a DVR that can skip ads. (Reuters)

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO Tim Cook gives up $75 million in dividends on his stock holdings. (Reuters)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) may buy more newspapers. (Reuters)

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) loan shares to short sellers who want to hedge Facebook’s stock. (WSJ)

U.S. bank lending falls in the first quarter, a possible sign of economic slowing. (WSJ)

Toyota (NYSE: TM) will push further into emerging markets. (WSJ)

Comcast’s (NASDAQ: CMCSA) NBCUniversal division may buyout Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) part ownership in MSNBC.com. (WSJ)

Japanese power companies invest in U.S. shale gas to help replace nuclear power. (WSJ)

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) releases an Internet browser call Axis, which will compete with Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) product. (WSJ)

Spain is concerned about a run on its banks. (NYT)

Large European institutional funds begin to sell euro assets. (FT)

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti says most leaders in the region back regionwide bonds. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

But, Apple already has its own Safari browser. And, the industry is controlled by Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Internet Explorer, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Chrome, and Firefox. It is a good guess that Yahoo! wants to use Axis to move further into mobile search, but it has already lost most of that market to Google.

As has been true on PCs, there is no reason for the great majority of users to switch from their preferred browser when they move from computer to portable device

Douglas A. McIntyre

GSV Capital Corporation (NASDAQ: GSVC) is down 3.4% at $12.70.   Firsthand Technology Value Fund, Inc. (NASDAQ: SVVC) is down 2.4% at $18.80 on over 17,000 shares.

SINA Corporation (NASDAQ: SINA) got a huge bump ion on its “Chinese version of Twitter” pop last week but after peaking above $59.00 mid-week the stock is indicated down less than 1% under its $53.11 close from Friday.  Keep in mind that this one may act differently as its 52-week range is $46.86 to $128.17.

LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD), Facebook’s only real competitor based in the U.S., is trading down 2% at $97.01 on 50,000 shares.

Renren Inc. (NYSE: RENN) is down 8.3% at $4.52 on over 300,000 shares.

Global X Social Media Index ETF (NASDAQ: SOCL) will follow these lower if all of these remain where they are.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is up 4% at $16.04 on 2 million shares and AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) has not traded due to its NYSE listing but is indicated higher along with Yahoo!  Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is up 0.4% at $602.40.

JON C. OGG

The announcement is a coup for Yahoo!’s interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, although the buyout must have been in the works long before he began his job earlier this month. What Yahoo! did not say as its reported on the agreement is what it will do with the money. That will be as crucial to Yahoo!’s share price, and perhaps its future, as anything the company has done in the past year — with the possible exception of changing CEOs twice.

Yahoo!’s market cap is just short of $19 billion, so the firm certainly could offer a dividend. That will not satisfy shareholders who have concerns about the viability of the portal company over the longer term. Yahoo! could buy back close to 20% of its shares and automatically raise its earnings per share. Shareholders may not be impressed with that move. Share buybacks rarely have been a way for shareholders to gain long-term value in troubled companies.

Beyond a these traditional uses of capital to enhance shareholder value are others that are more radical. One is a special dividend. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) did this in 2004. AOL (NYSE: AOL) plans to make a similar move with the just over $1 billion it got from the license and sales of some of its patents to Microsoft. Each was part of a plan to get cash on its balance sheet to shareholders immediately. The sum per share, however, in Yahoo!’s case would be relatively modest. Yahoo! has more than 1.2 billion shares outstanding.

If none of these is the route Yahoo! takes, the board and management are left with the option of making a quick M&A deal to enhance the company’s position as a content company. Yahoo!’s weakness in social media is obvious. But the $4 billion it has left after taxes may not be enough to buy a social media firm. Twitter, for example, has a valuation of at least $8 billion, based on the last time it raised money. If Yahoo! could raise additional cash to make an offer, a bidding war would ensue. Yahoo! does not have access to the capital necessary to win an auction. There are plenty of smaller social media companies, but not many that would make Yahoo! a force in the sector.

Yahoo! could also buy a large traditional media company and try to strengthen that company’s online presence. Yahoo! has the traffic to make such a plan work. Among the corporations it could afford is Gannett (NYSE: GCI), the largest newspaper company in the United States. It has a market cap of $3 billion. But, aside from Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B), who can afford to own newspapers as a hobby? Not a single analyst on Wall St. believes that papers have much of a long-term future.

Yahoo! is about to have a lot of money. Along with that will be a several options for what to do with it, none of which is terribly attractive.

Douglas A. McIntyre

The heads of Samsung and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will discuss a settlement to patent wars between the two companies over smartphone IP. (Reuters)

General Motors’ (NYSE: GM) Opel faces a harsh reaction from workers arising from plant closures. (Reuters)

Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ) will change its trading systems after trouble with the Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) IPO. (Reuters)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) says its has Chinese approval to buy Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI). (Reuters)

Dalian Wanda Group, based in China, will buy the AMC movie chain for $2.6 billion. (WSJ)

Greece’s conservative parties, which favor austerity, begin to show improvements in U.S. polls. (WSJ)

The European Union’s José Manuel Barroso says Greece should expect pressure over austerity to remain high despite indications otherwise from the G8 meeting. (WSJ)

Some accountants say that Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) costs misrepresent the firm’s financial position. (WSJ)

The G8 meeting and the opinions of EU leaders may press Merkel to allow Europe to aid some large banks in the region. (WSJ)

UK and US bank regulators prepare for any failure of several financial firms, which include Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) and Barclays (NYSE: BCS). (FT)

China begins to cancel or delay some commodities imports — another sign its economy has slowed. (FT)

UK Prime Minister David Cameron says the EU should prepare for the departure of Greece. (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

The most recent rumor is from Bloomberg.

Some speculate that the cash on the portal company’s balance sheet will make it a more attractive buy out target

However, the cash could be used in other ways. One would be to buy bad shares. The amount would allow Yahoo! To buy a third of its stock based on its current market cap. It could also offer a very large one time dividend as Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) did over a decade ago. Interesting enough a $1 billion plus sale and license of patents will allow Aol (NYSE: AOL) to do the same thing

Yahoo! Could also move onto to M&A trail. New interim CEO Ross Levinsohn is a known deal maker. But a number of analysts believe Yahoo! Should fix its own problems first

Douglas A McIntyre

No one need look any further than the April Comscore video audience rating data for April.

Comscore reports that 37 billion videos were watched online during the month. Over 17 billion of those were watched on Google sites, which is essentially a measurement of YouTube. Google sites has 158 million unique viewers of video over the course of the month, compared to the overall national total of 181 million. The next closest sites were Yahoo!’s (NYSE: YHOO) with 53 million unique visitors–a third of Google’s. Among the other portals, AOL (NYSE: AOL) had 38 million, and Microsoft sites (NASDAQ: MSFT) 43 million. Among traditional media companies Viacom (NYSE: VIA-B) with 41 million was the top of its category.

The data tells two things. First, YouTube barely contributes revenue to Google’s sales. Despite the fact that much of the content on YouTube is posted by amateurs, the site has build a large inventory of premium content and a video rental business. This still has shown very little in results. The second point which is closely related to the first, is that neither YouTube’s video ad revenue or rental revenue is significant. This is discouraging news for those companies which believe that either VOD or video ads will radically change their fortunes.

YouTube continues to be the marker for the size of the US online video market. It is  very likely to be the marker for revenue as well.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Gas and Oil Prices

Gas and oil prices continued to sell down on worry that the problems of Europe could spread across the world and tip many nations back into recession. Concerns about Europe also have put a cap on oil use there. Oil was off another eight cents and dropped to $92.27, near a multimonth low. The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline dropped again yesterday, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge. It fell to $3.713, down from $3.899 a month ago and $3.926 a year ago. The dip may cause an uptick in travel among Americans this summer. That would tend to simulate the economy as people spend money on vacations, even if they are modest ones.

Galaxy III Launch

Samsung’s launch of its new Galaxy III smartphone has begun to look like an Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone event. Nine million of the model have been preordered worldwide. The number is even more impressive since the smartphone will not be available in the United States for months. Samsung is considered the only viable competitor to Apple. And the Galaxy III will be released before the iPhone 5, which probably will not launch until fall. Samsung has developed an important edge over Apple that the American company cannot easily overcome. The Galaxy III runs on superfast 4G networks. These networks have become the core of most wireless subscriber marketing campaigns. With the Galaxy III, Samsung will extend its advantage.

Yahoo! Changes

The trend of never-ending executive changes at Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) continues. New interim CEO Ross Levinsohn fired some of the people predecessor Scott Thompson hired. The most notable of these worked with Thompson at the eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) PayPal division. This executive — Sam Shrauger — is gone. Levinsohn also promoted executives to take over Yahoo!’s large global media operations, which was Levinsohn’s job until recently. Levinsohn giving up his previous position is a sign that he plans to stay as CEO. Levinsohn also folded e-commerce operations, the core of Thompson’s turnaround plans, back into the company’s traditional structure.

Douglas A. McIntyre