Filed under: Rumors, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Media World

Hunker down with your iPod and set “Just a Lil Bit” to repeat mode … you may be hurting for new 50 Cent tracks if he leaves the business. Last month, the Eminem protégé (née Curtis Jackson III) made a flippant statement to reporters that he would leave show business if Kanye West’s latest release, Graduation, topped 50 Cent’s new album, Curtis, in its first week of sales. Both albums “dropped” on September 11.

The publicized sales battle was resolved today, and to Kanye went the spoils. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the man behind the 2005 smash single “Gold Digger” sold 957,000 copies in its first week of release, while 50 Cent’s new album sold just 691,000. 50’s last album, The Massacre, hit shelves in 2005 and sold 1.1 million copies in its first week. A publicized temper-tantrum after the Video Music Awards and a self-mocking appearance on Sunday’s Emmy’s broadcast may have helped give Kanye the edge.

Graduation was released on Roc-A-Fella Records, co-founded by Jay-Z, while Curtis was on the Aftermath label, which is owned by Dr. Dre. Both are ultimately distributed by Universal Music Group, a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal.

Continue reading In the rap battle for sales, Kanye trumps 50 Cent

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

Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) is calling it quits with its ImageStation online photo finishing service, and is in the process of shuttling customers to Shutterfly’s market-leading photo finishing service. Sony has said that ImageStation will cease operations in mid-November. No surprise, really, since nobody I’ve talked to even knows Sony’s offering ever existed.

This is another case of an electronics market leader trying to offer a complementary service to one of its product lines (like Sony digital cameras), and that effort failing miserably. In Sony’s case, it marketed ImageStation with its consumer digital cameras, when it should have partnered with Shutterfly in the first place. Market leaders are generally the best way to link your brand with a service that is synonymous with online photo printing, but in classic Sony close-minded fashion (think MiniDisc and Memory Stick), it wanted to keep customers within “Sony” services. Meh.

The company says that it is closing its ImageStation service to “focus on the company’s core businesses, products and services,” although that’s probably just a way of saying that the lack of customers did not justify the continued operation of the service. Shutterfly beat it, just like the way Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)’s iTunes music store bested Sony’s “Connect” online music store, which the company decided to close after three years of trying to compete with Apple and others like Napster and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) music.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), International Business Machines (IBM), Oracle Corp (ORCL)

On last night’s MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer came out and said he thinks Carl Icahn’s activist investor attempt to make BEA Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAS) get acquired may actually work. He said that Carl Icahn even went after stock options, which means he is avoiding some of his votes because he’s that confident. Cramer thinks that if this does get acquired it will fetch $15.50 to $18.50 (or a 17% to 40% upside), and he thinks the downside is less. Ultimately, Cramer noted that Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) or IBM (NYSE: IBM) would be natural buyers.

For whatever this is worth, anyone buying BEA Systems on hopes of a buyout even with Carl Icahn’s large stake needs to know that this company has been in the “Speculators Bin” for as long as I can remember it being around (literally). This is one that also is believed to have many “Anti-Takeover” provisions in place if management wants to fend off a buyout. That may or may not be the case, but the founder, chairman, CEO, and chief BEA-zer, Alfred Chuang, has said over and over how the company will remain independent. It doesn’t mean he can’t be dealt with at all, and doesn’t mean he can’t be won over, but he will have to want to go along with it or he’ll be telling Icahn and Cramer to go look elsewhere. I have had this as a BAIT SHOP Value Stock before (now called the Special Situation Investing Newsletter for subscribers), although I have removed it twice and never added it back this year because it seemed too difficult to acquire.

Cramer also said today was a game changer, and he said you can buy almost anything. Here are some of his major lists that he has given with stocks he refers to often:

• Cramer was positive on Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today.
• Here is his list of Top 9 Picks for 2007
• Here is his “New Four Horsemen of Tech”
• Here is his Mortgage Madness Portfolio, which way outperformed today.
• Here are his Top China Picks.

Jon C. Ogg produces the 24/7 Wall St., LLC Special Situation Investing Newsletter; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Small business

If you’re tired of poisoning your kids with lead-painted toys from China or killing your pets with melamine-laced Chinese pet food, you may be wondering what you can buy that’s made in America.

To its credit, China is trying to fix its reputation. Last week, according to CBS News, China’s product safety chief Li Changjiang offered assurances that toys made in China would be “safer, better and more appealing. Before Christmas, we will certainly provide children safer, better and more appealing toys. They will certainly like them.” To bolster that claim, on September 11th, China signed an agreement to prohibit the use of lead paint on toys exported to the United States.

As I posted in July, I expect that there could be a business opportunity to sell products to U.S. consumers that are made anywhere but China. Then I cited examples of an upscale New York grocery with no Chinese seafood and a New Jersey-based natural producer of premium dog food blended from meat and vegetables. However, I have not seen much in the way of new developments in the last few months.

So what are the choices for those who want to buy products made in the U.S.A.?

Continue reading Made in the U.S.A.: What products are still American-made?

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Filed under: Deals, Scandals

One of the more depraved sagas in our nation’s long and pathetic history of corporate governance has come to a close.

Topps (NYSE: TOPP), a maker of sports cards and candy, says that shareholders have approved a $9.75 per share offer from Madison Dearborn Partners and Tornante, a private equity firm controlled by Michael Eisner.

Upper Deck had offered $10.75 per share in a hostile offer, but finally withdrew the offer last month, saying the following:

…roadblocks have been created by Topps as part of a deliberate effort to discredit UD (both publicly and internally with the Topps employees upon whom UD would need to rely post-closing of this acquisition), defeat UD’s offer, and justify entrenched management’s continued shameless support of the less favorable Tornante/Madison Dearborn transaction. It is now abundantly clear that Topps will attempt to impede any and all reasonable efforts to consummate the UD merger, which thus cannot possibly be consummated under the current circumstances…

Although relatively small in size, the Topps buyout presented as much drama as any recent takeover battle. The company had been underperforming for years, had several angry activist hedge funds pushing for chance. When it accepted the offer from Tornante, it insisted that it was in the best interests of shareholders — in fact it was better than offer that was more than 10% better!

Then Topps forgot to disclose that, oh, by the way, the CEO would get to stay on as a consultant newly-private company, although many shareholders had been calling for their heads for years. After a judge chastised them, they disclosed the conflict of interest in an 8-K filing.

Someday, Topps will be a Harvard Business School case study on incompetent management and bad corporate governance.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), QUALCOMM Inc (QCOM), Texas Instruments (TXN), iPhone

That is the question for Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG), regarding their rumored phone, which DigiTimes says is “definitely” on its way.

On one hand, launching the phone with 3G would delay it until the first half of next year, meaning the phone would miss the key holiday shopping season and give the Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone that much more of a head start. On the other hand, the biggest complaint about Apple’s iPhone has been the subpar service on AT&T Inc (NYSE: T), which does not use 3G, so launching a consumer smartphone with 3G could be a huge selling point for Google.

In addition to Apple, the decision will also affect the technology companies that produce these parts. Originally, Google was rumored to be using EDGE technology for the phone, from Texas Instruments Inc (NYSE: TXN), but if Google decides to go right to 3G, then Qualcomm Inc (NASDAQ: QCOM) could be the big contract winner, according to DigiTimes sources.

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Filed under: Deals, Marketing and advertising

Kenneth Cole Productions (NYSE: KCP) recently announced that it has acquired the Le Tigre brand for $13 million, plus an earn-out that could escalate the value of the deal to as much as $25 million.

Kenneth Cole will gain all intellectual property related to the company. CEO Kenneth Cole said that “We are pleased to add such a strong and internationally respected brand to our portfolio. We believe there is significant upside for the Company, specifically through various licensing opportunities as well as through the introduction of men’s, women’s and children’s footwear.”

I agree with him, and the price certainly looks right. Le Tigre was founded in 1977, and was big for awhile, before going out of production in the 1990s. Re-launched in 2003, Le Tigre has made a quick impact. Its products are sold in stores like Nordstrom and Lord & Taylor and, given the brand’s status as a household name, there are likely to be numerous licensing opportunities.

I would say that a lot of lesser brands are receiving much higher valuations, and expect that, under the umbrella of a larger company like Kenneth Cole, Le Tigre will shine.

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Filed under: Competitive strategy

In honor of National Talk Like a Pirate Day, take a few minutes to enjoy Monty Python’s Crimson Permanent Assurance skit. Talk about unfriendly takeovers!
via videosift.com

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Filed under: Law, Business of sports

The National Football League fined New England Patriots head coach $500,000 for cheating and now, according to experts, he will be able to take is a nice tax deduction.

While I’m no tax expert, it seems wrong that he should be able to do that.

According to Myron Grauer of Capital University Law School, “Because, unfortunately, in this day and age, it probably is ‘ordinary’ for coaches and players in professional sports to cheat and, if caught, to be fined by the league, the fine levied on the Patriots’ coach can be viewed as an ordinary and necessary business expense.”

Wonderful. So now parents can explain to their 9-year old Patriots fans that cheating is just an ordinary and necessary part of conducting business.

Free Jeff Skilling!

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Filed under: Earnings reports, Bad news, Harley-Davidson (HOG)

Not surprisingly in light of the recent downturn in its sales, Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG) has announced it will be scaling back production later this year, including a week-long shutdown of plants in York, PA, Kansas City, MO and several in Wisconsin the week after Thanksgiving. (I doubt it is a coincidence that this is the first week of deer season in most of the Midwest. Therefore, don’t expect a huge outcry from the H-D crew over the extra time off.) The company also plans other, undefined, steps to rein in production.

Shareholders who have watched HOG stock price tumble from a 52-week high of $75.87 to under $50 may take a small consolation in the announcement that the Board of Directors has approved a dividend of $.30 per share for the third quarter of 2007. This is 20% more than that paid in the second quarter, and well above the $.21 paid in the same quarter 2006.

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