Filed under: Products and services, Launches, Sony Corp ADR (SNE)

Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) used to get me excited over a decade ago. The nameplate was at the top of the consumer electronics field and the Sony Playstation was one of the marquee brands of the wold. Today, Sony’s brand is boring, plain and overpriced to millions of consumers, and the company’s slumping sales of late signify this. Competitors Samsung and LG of Korea have mauled it a bit in the HDTV market, and upstart Vizio is killing it as well, undercutting prices in a huge way while maintaining great style and — according to many — similar quality. Why would anyone buy a Sony HDTV today?

An answer to that question may come this fall, when the venerable electronics giant unveils no less than 15 new flat-panel television sets in what could be seen as a desperate attempt to take shelf space from rivals in any way it can. A general rule of retail is: Whoever has the most shelf space, wins. It works for food, electronics and clothing merchandising in many cases.

Continue reading Sony (SNE) to use product blitz to try and regain HDTV share

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Filed under: International markets, Indices, Market matters, Money and Finance Today, Technical Analysis

Commentators note that U.S. investors have poured a lot of money into foreign stock markets in recent few years.

As it happens, the flow hasn’t been just one way.

In fact, based on cumulative 12-month totals derived from monthly Treasury Department data, foreigners appear to have invested a record amount in U.S. corporate stocks during the period ending in July, the latest month available.

When was the last record set? In January 2001, just as the dot-com bubble was bursting and the bottom was falling out of U.S. share prices.

Over the past decade, foreigner investors’ buying and selling behavior has proved to be a reasonably good long-term timing signal — in contrarian terms, that is.

In 2002, for instance, when the S&P 500 index began a major upside run, foreigners kept their investment to a minimum for nearly three years. They eventually rejoined the bullish party in late 2005.

A cynic might wonder: now that they have really started piling in, can much lower prices be far behind?

Michael Panzner is a 25-year veteran of the global stock, bond, and currency markets and the author of Financial Armageddon: Protecting Your Future from Four Impending Catastrophes and The New Laws of the Stock Market Jungle.

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Filed under: Earnings reports, Live coverage, Dell (DELL)

Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) released Q2 financial this afternoon after the market closed. As I indicated yesterday, this Q2 period was probably one of the more highly anticipated earnings releases from the computer maker in quite a while. Just a few weeks ago, the company concluded its own internal financial investigation into possible financial shenanigans and the results included over $150 million in quarterly restatements stemming back to 2002. The official SEC investigation is not through yet. If you want details on the Q2 results before the webcast with Dell executives begins, here you go.

Dell’s Q2 conference call will most likely shed some light on the fight the computer maker has had since January of this year to try and catch up to larger rival Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), which reported a touch under $25 billion in revenues for its latest quarter.

Has Dell seen increased shipments of PCs with its newer and colorful laptop systems? Is the Wal-Mart retail relationship going well for the company? These questions and many more are on tap here in a few minutes once the analysts dig in with questions.

Analyst expectations were for Dell to report an earnings figure of 30 cents per share on revenue of $14.63 billion. It will be interesting to see if any analyst questions come up about this week’s acquisition of smaller PC rival Gateway, Inc. (NYSE: GTW) by Taiwan’s Acer. Stay tuned by using the “Refresh” button on your web browser to see all the minute-by-minute updates below. All times are in CST.

Continue reading Liveblogging Dell’s Q2 results

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Filed under: Deals, Bad news

Genesco (NYSE: GCO) reported disappointing results for its second quarter, and now its agreement to be acquired by Finish Line (NASDAQ: FINL) may be in jeopardy.

Finish Line “issued a statement” regarding Genesco’s results. According to the press release, “The Company is disappointed with Genesco’s second quarter fiscal 2008 financial results … the Company is evaluating its options in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement. The Company does not intend to make further comments at this time.”

Sounds like it’s going try to find a way to back out of the deal. Shareholders for both companies have spoken up about how they feel about that. Genesco has wilted 13% on the news and Finish Line is up more than 12% — on news that it will consider its options with regard to a previously-announced merger.

It’s not yet known whether Finish Line will be able to back out of the deal, and at what cost. But given how positively the Street reacted to the possibility of Finish Line backing out, the management has to be dying to get out of this thing.

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Filed under: SEC filings, Bad news, Products and services, Stocks to Sell

When a relative — I’ll call her “M” to protect her privacy — told me a few months ago that she and another relative who I’ll call “D” were thinking of buying Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN), a biotech stock that at one time was a Wall Street favorite, I wasn’t happy. The stock was getting pounded because of concerns about whether the Seattle-based company would get FDA approvals for its Provenge prostate cancer treatment. It turns out my skepticism was right and “M” and “D” were wrong.

Dendreon is basically a one-trick pony, and a money-losing one. As of June 30, the company had an accumulated deficit of $445.5 million. Its shares have plunged more than 50% since May, when the FDA didn’t approve Provenge as had been expected.. The stock fell again in July after the company said the SEC was conducting an informal inquiry and that it was hit with a shareholder lawsuit.

Investors’ hopes were rekindled again earlier this month after Dendreon released what was seen as promising results for its Neuvenge treatment for breast cancer. Forbes magazine, though, cautions against reading too much into these results.

“While the Neuvenge results were positive, Dendreon investors will have to be patient,” the magazine said. “The drug’s human trial remains in the early stage, meaning that Neuvenge has a long way to go before it nears Food and Drug Administration approval. Investors remain concerned that Neuvenge could go the way of Provenge.”

Provenge remains Dendreon’s bread and butter — at least it would be if the company actually had products. The company made that point very clear in a recent filing with the SEC. “If we fail to obtain FDA approval for Provenge or fail to successfully commercialize Provenge, our business would be harmed and our stock price would likely decline,” the filing said.

How true.

Hopefully, M&D will eventually recoup some of their losses so they can focus on more important things like spoiling grandchildren.

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Filed under: Launches, Management, Consumer experience, Internet, Rants and raves, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Next big thing, News Corp’B’ (NWS), Entrepreneurs, small business

Social networking sites are all the rage and growing fast. A little over a year ago on July 19, 2006, Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp (NYSE: NWS) paid $580 million for MySpace.com. It has continued to grow and establish business partnerships, bringing comments that this was the biggest deal of the new millennium, and garnering staggering valuations that it is worth upward of $10 billion.

Early on, my teenage daughter was spending countless hours on the site (and probably yours, too) with her friends and it has grown to be a real community. But that success was bound to be copied, and now it appears that Facebook.com is stealing some of MySpace’s thunder.

According to reports, Facebook is growing faster than MySpace, and having started on college campuses, caters to a better educated and more affluent customer base. My daughter, now in college is making the switch. This does not mean that there is not room for both of them, but it does indicate the market is still wide open and that there is plenty of opportunity. It is rumored that Facebook has already turned down multi-billion dollar offers to be acquired and is gearing up for a grand IPO some day in the foreseeable future. Based on all the hype and the growth of the site I do not think I would be going out on a limb to suggest an IPO would be the hottest thing since Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), and they know it.

Continue reading Social networking sites are growing and growing up

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Filed under: Earnings reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Cisco Systems (CSCO), Merck and Co (MRK), Technical Analysis, Stocks to Buy

The development of e-commerce has provided the business community with new and exciting ways to reach the consumer, but there are associated dangers. There is an outfit in Sunnyvale, California that secures Web communications and accelerates business applications across the distributed enterprise.

Blue Coat Systems (NASDAQ: BCSI) helps organizations make the Web safe and productive for business. Blue Coat proxy appliances provide control of Web communications to protect against risks and inefficiencies from spyware, Web viruses, inappropriate Web surfing, instant messaging, video streaming and peer-to-peer file sharing. Blue Coat has installed more than 40,000 appliances worldwide. Customers include the National Institutes of Health, Merck (NYSE: MRK) and the US Air Force. Cisco Systems is a (NASDAQ: CSCO) is a major competitor.

Continue reading Blue Coat Systems (BCSI): Guarding your e-business

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Filed under: Market matters, Rich in America, Personal finance

It’s not a glamorous business, but it’s a necessary (and evidently a profitable) one. Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE: LH) earned an unlikely distinction as the top performer in 2000 among our basket of hundreds of stocks. The company provides mostly routine laboratory and testing services, analyzing close to 400,000 specimens each day.

1999 was a very good year for the market and for our faux portfolio, with Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) shares leaping almost 2600% to turn just over $6,500 into more than $175,000. With $175,327 at his disposal, our happy investor scooped up 19,016 shares of LH, trading at $9.22 at the beginning of the ‘aughts. Though the market proceeded to tumble, with the tech bubble showing signs of initial weakness as early as March, LabCorp. shares continued higher for the entire year. In fact, the stock peaked on December 28, 2000, before embarking upon a months-long pullback.

By the end of 2000, hanging chads made for a very interesting election outcome and LH shares had gained a total of 377%, closing the year at $44. Our hypothetical hindsight portfolio was now worth $836,704. After four years of absolutely brilliant (read: highly improbable) stock picking, we were closing in on the million-dollar mark.

Next: Step 5: NVIDIA (NVDA), 2001

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer’s Investment Research.

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Filed under: Products and services, Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM)

Can General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Ford (NYSE: F) make a good car? After years of claiming that they can’t make money with passenger cars, American automakers are finally taking the car market seriously. The fat years of making glorified pickup trucks tricked out with leather seats and premium sound systems — better known as SUVs — are now over, and Detroit finds itself in a bit of a pickle. The Americans may have ignored the basics of making well-designed cars, not gas-guzzling trucks, for so long that they may not be able to catch up with the leaders, Toyota (NYSE: TM) and Honda (NYSE: HMC).

The problem is that foreign automakers now have an enormous lead in design and manufacturing expertise when it comes to passenger cars. The Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord have long been the leading sedans in the U.S., and for good reason. They are roomy, comfortable, very well designed and made, and reasonably efficient. Their surprisingly powerful yet nearly silent engines last for hundreds of thousands of miles, which helps maintain resale values. And they are profitable: Toyota reportedly clears $1,000 per Camry, and with 400,000 Camry sedans sold last year in the U.S., that’s a good chunk of change that any car company would be happy with.

Nevertheless, the competition for sedan sales is heating up. As The Wall Street Journal reports, GM is pushing the Chevrolet Malibu as an American alternative to the Camry and the Accord. Ford, too, is entering the fray, changing the name of the Ford 500 to the Taurus in an effort to recapture the glory of that hallowed name. (I think this shows just how desperate Ford is, given that the Taurus’ glory days were in the 1980s and that the car sold so poorly in recent years that it was terminated.)

But it may be too late. As John Casesa, a former Wall Street auto analyst, says in the Journal piece, “The ship has sailed in the midsize sedan segment . . . Camry and Accord are now established titans in that part of the market.” Even worse, Detroit may not be able to rule the second tier under Toyota and Honda. Other foreign manufactures, including Nissan and Hyundai, are making very good cars these days. Starting at under $18,000, Hyundai’s Sonata sedan is a particularly strong alternative to the Camry and the Accord. So there isn’t much room for the Malibu and the Taurus. It looks like Detroit may pay the price for ignoring cars so long for many years to come.

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Filed under: Deals, Rumors, Competitive strategy, Marketing and advertising, Allstate Corp (ALL), Anheuser-Busch Cos (BUD), Yum Brands (YUM)

For a sport that just a few years ago was the darling of the blue-chippers, NASCAR has suddenly found love as hard to come by as a meth-addled octogenarian. After Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD) dropped its 25-year long title sponsorship of the race promoter’s second-tier series, Subway seemed a lock to take it on.

Now comes news that the restaurant’s ardor for the series has cooled, and NASCAR has been forced to revisit formerly spurned suitors such as KFC (NYSE: YUM), Allstate (NYSE: ALL) and Dunkin’ Donuts (D’OH!).

Along with the decline in interest has come a drop in price. The value of the sponsorship, once thought to run $30 million a year, has been halved. NASCAR is not the only loser in that drop; the original price included a mandatory ESPN ad buy of around $10 million, a requirement that has been relaxed.

According to Michael Smith in the Sporting News, Subway balked at the lack of exclusivity, a constant source of tension in the race industry where teams, tracks, OEMs and suppliers are also hustling sponsorships for every nut, bolt and beer cozy in the paddock.

NASCAR fans skew 60-40% male, slightly above the U.S. average in the 35-44 year of age category. They are overrepresented in the lower income categories, which would dampen the interest of luxury product companies. One interesting statistic is its popularity among America’s fastest growing minority — Hispanic fans have grown from 3.6% to 8.6% in only a few years. So how about the Taco Bell series? Or The Chipotle (NYSE: CMG) 500?

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