Merck (MRK) Perks
Merck’s (MRK) sales for the last quarter were $6.1 billion, an increase of 6% from the second quarter of 2006. Net income for the second quarter of 2007 was $1,676.4 million, compared to $1,499.3…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Halliburton (HAL): Big Oil Gets Bigger
Wall Street thought Halliburton (HAL) would do well last quarter. The First Call estimates were for $0.56 EPS on nearly $3.5 Billion in revenues. As it turned out income from continuing operations in the…
Apple (AAPL): The iPhone Or The Earnings?
Reuters speculates that Wall St. may be more interested in the two days of iPhone sales that Apple (AAPL) will report for the last quarter than in the earnings themselves. That would be a…
Microsoft (MSFT): Life In The Internet Slow Lane
Google (GOOG) has been offering spreadsheet, word processing, and other desktop software with data stored on its servers for some time. The Microsoft (MSFT) model for its OS and Office software is that the…
Europe Markets 7/23/2007
Markets in Europe were mixed at 6.20 AM New York time. The FTSE rose .3% to 6,606. Barclays (BCS) rose 3.2% to 736.5. Prudential (PUK) rose 1.9% to 737.5. The DAXX fell .1% to…
NetFlix (NFLX) And Blockbuster (BBI) Battle To Death
NetFlix (NFLX) will drop its DVD rental fees to match those that Blockbuster (BBI) charges for DVDs sent to customers through the mail. According to The Associated Press "Netflix will charge $16.99 per month…
AT&T (T) Taps The Farmer’s Market
According to The Associated Press: "A decade-old telephone tax intended to help bring affordable service to rural areas has instead turned into something quite different: a bottomless and politically protected well of cash for…
Is ABN Amro (ABN) Too Expensive Yet
Like two poker players who have been up for 36 hours straight, RBS and Barclays (BCS) keep upping their bids for ABN Amro (ABN), Barclays will use money raised from China Development Bank and…
Yahoo!’s (YHOO) Privacy Ploy
Yahoo! (YHOO) plans to make customer search information anonymous after 13 months. Microsoft (MSFT) and IACI’s (IACI) Ask.com are pulling together with advocacy groups to set up systems to safeguard personal data that is…
Mattel’s (MAT) Barbie: The Death Of Imagination
The new Barbie from Mattel (MAT) has an MP3 player in it. The place where children store the Barbie connects to the internet to get games and songs. And, the new Barbie website is…
Will The Apple (AAPL) iPhone Allow Aliens To Read Your Mind?
In the old days, if you wanted aliens for outer space to have access to you thoughts all you had to do was put on a hat made of tin foil and two antenna.…
Media Digest 7/23/2007 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Barron’s
According to Reuters, Barclays (BCS) raised its bid for ABN Amro (ABN) to $93 billion. The Wall Street Journal writes that Yahoo! (YHOO), Microsoft (MSFT) and Ask.com are updating their privacy policy as pressure…
Asia Markets 7/23/2007
Markets in Asia were mixed. The Nikkei fell 1.1% to 17,963. Canon (CAJ) was down 1.3% to 7110. Honda (HMC) was down 2% to 4460. NTT (NTT) was down 2.6% to 529000. The Hang…
American Express Earnings, Perhaps Immune From Credit Concerns (AXP, MA, DFS)
Monday will be an interesting day for American Express (NYSE:AXP), or so it would seem. The solid banks, brokers, and credit issuers have all been revealing increases in defaults and in loan losses. American…
Halliburton, Bracing For Earnings (HAL, BHI, SLB, KBR)
Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) plans to release its second quarter earnings on Monday morning, and as of the end of the week the First Call estimates are $0.56 EPS on nearly $3.5 Billion in revenues. The…
Dow Jones New Buy-Out Offer Lacks Management Skill
Brad Greenspan, a former shareholder of the company that owned MySpace has presented details of his bid to buy a large piece of Dow Jones (DJ), setting himself up as an alternative to Rupert…
The Tribune’s (TRB) Default Risk: The Future Of Newspapers
Some newspaper companies simply have too much debt now. Journal Register (JRC) is an example. And, The Tribune Company (TRB) may be joining the list. Accoding to Bloomberg, trading in credit-default swaps put the…
Would Microsoft (MSFT) Or Oracle (ORCL) Buy SAP?
Barron’s makes the argument that SAP’s (SAP) shares are very cheap. The company is the world’s largest provider of business software. Last week the firm announced that quarterly profit rose 8% to $619 million.…
ABN Amro (ABN) Prefers Barclays (BCS)
According to Reuters, the head of ABN Amro (ABN) says that he prefers the bid by Barclays (BCS) over one from Royal Bank of Scotland. The RBS bid is higher and ABN’s CEO says…
Lawsuits Could Take Bear Stearns (BSC) Lower
Over the last two days, Bear Stearns (BCS) shares have gone from an intra-day high of $60.43 to a low of $58.50. Based on news from CNBC, the shares could go lower in the…