Filed under: Products and services, Google (GOOG), Marketing and advertising

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) had always known its key focus: do whatever is possible to leverage the operating system.

Well, something similar is happening to Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). The company realizes that when it needs results, it should focus on its advertising machine.

So it’s no surprise that the company is adding YouTube videos to the Google AdSense network. There will be both banner and text ads. What’s more, it should be an additional source of income for Google’s many Web publishers.

Actually, I tried out the system - and it is pretty easy to use (what Google service isn’t?) You can see an example at the top left of this post.

What’s more, I talked to Chase Norlin about it. He is the CEO and founder of Pixsy (a video search engine). According to him:

“Google acquired YouTube not necessarily for their huge destination site audience, but because they now have the ultimate media aggregation tool for consumer, semipro, and professional content providers. Once the licensing issues are sorted out, Google will have a solid weapon in the content distribution market via AdSense. The challenge, of course, will be to equal or exceed the existing monetization capabilities of the AdSense network.”

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Filed under: Press releases, Products and services, Launches, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy

Resort and Casino giant MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM) is expected to announce its latest big bet today… a $5 billion casino project in Atlantic City.

The new project gained approval on Monday by the company’s board of directors at a meeting held in Detroit, and construction is expected to get under way next year and complete by 2012.

The new development should be an impressive addition to the Atlantic City strip. The new casino, called the MGM Grand Atlantic City will definitely make a bold statement with its 3,000 rooms and suites in three different hotel towers. Big time gamers out there will be able to get their full of action from the casino’s 5,000 slot machines and 200 table games.

Continue reading MGM Mirage (MGM) bets big in Atlantic City

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Filed under: Launches, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Microsoft (MSFT), Sony Corp ADR (SNE)

Nintendo’s stock was up again last night in Tokyo. No wonder. It is still beating Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Sony (NYSE: SNE) with newer and better innovations in the game console business.

The latest gem from the Japanese gaming firm is the Wii Fit.

According to Reuters “the new game features a pressure-sensing mat called the “Wii Balance Board”, which looks like a set of bathroom scales and can sense when a person moves and leans, enabling players to “head” virtual soccer balls and experience ski jumping on a TV screen.” It can also be used for yoga and other exercises.

The poor people who make the Xbox 360 and PS3 must be scratching their heads. First, Nintendo beat them in units sales for next generation game sales. Now, the smaller company comes to market with a product that pushes the envelop of what a video game is and what it can do.

Perhaps the people at Microsoft and Sony are not interested in fitness.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

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Filed under: eBay (EBAY)

In Internet time, eBay’s (NASDAQ: EBAY) $4.3 billion deal for Skype seems like a distant memory (it was about two years ago). Back then, the fast-growing peer-to-peer communications company was the “it” company. It could do no wrong - and would be a killer deal for eBay. Hey, doesn’t eBay know how to cultivate loyal communities?

Maybe so. But, the fact remains that the deal turned out to be a stinker. eBay recently took a write off of $1.4 billion.

Interestingly enough, the cofounder of Skype, Niklas Zennstrom, admitted that the price tag was too high. Yet, at the same time, he thinks Skype will eventually pay off in a big way (he termed it “substantial income”).

In light of his prior statement - and that founders tend to hype things - I’m not sure I would take this to the bank, though.

But, does it really matter? After all, Zennstrom is using is payday to fund a variety of startups, such as Joost.

But if he knocks on your door to sell his one of his ventures, I would try to negotiate a little better than eBay.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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Filed under: Competitive strategy, Employees

Neat trick. Build automotive plants where there are few UAW members. Honda (NYSE: HMC) appears to have it down to a science. According to The Wall Street Journal the Japanese car company recently built a plant in Indiana, but was only willing to hire employees from counties that outside the ones where “most of the state’s thousands of unionized laid-off auto workers” were located.

It seems that foreign car companies are adroit at avoiding geographic areas where the UAW has members or people are likely to organize. It may be why so many of these plants are located in the South. Right-to-work rules tend to be lenient there. Companies like Honda are willing to take local tax breaks, but often don’t hire workers who may be inclined to join a union.

There is a reason that most foreign car factories are not staffed by UAW members, and the move to locate in regions where worker’s rights are modest may be a part of that.

As the UAW slowly dies due to downsizing at big US car companies, it would be a huge benefit if it could organize workers in foreign car plants. But, one of the reasons that Japanese car companies have a lower-costs-per-vehicle is that they do not have the legacy pension costs that Detroit does. These costs are the byproduct of decades of living with the UAW.

And, companies like Honda are not inviting the UAW in.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

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Filed under: Newspapers, Magazines, Aon Corp (AOC), Sears Holdings (SHLD)

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Negotiations continued last night on a new labor agreement between Chrysler and the UAW, but it is unclear if an agreement will be reached by today’s 11am deadline, reported the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).
• MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM) is today expected to announce plans to build a $5B resort in Atlantic City, NJ that will be completed in 2012, reported the Wall Street Journal.
• The CEO of Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding (OTC: RHHBY), Franz Humer, said he has no intention of increasing his company’s $75 per share bid for U.S. diagnostics company Ventana Medical Systems (NASDAQ: VMSI), and is “very confident” that the offer will succeed, reported the Financial Times (subscription required).

OTHER PAPERS:

• Crain’s Chicago Business reported that Aon Corporation (NYSE: AOC) has won back the insurance brokerage business of Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD).

WEBSITES:

• Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, confirmed that there’s little chance this year — due to a crowded legislative calendar — that there will be legislation to increase taxes on the private equity industry, reported TheDeal.com (subscription required).

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Dell (DELL), Time Warner (TWX), Amazon.com (AMZN), Intel (INTC), Motorola (MOT), Market matters, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Advanced Micro Dev (AMD), Comcast Cl’A’ (CMCSA), Research in Motion (RIMM), QUALCOMM Inc (QCOM), Texas Instruments (TXN), Deere and Co (DE), Stocks to Buy, Garmin Ltd (GRMN), Cramer on BloggingStocks

TheStreet.com’s Jim Cramer is amazed by some stocks that just won’t quit and looks at the practicalities of getting into these winners.

Starting to get startling disparities between the haves and the have-nots.

Can we have a day where Syngenta (NYSE: SYT) (Cramer’s Take) and Monsanto (NYSE: MON) (Cramer’s Take) don’t go up, let alone Deere (NYSE: DE) (Cramer’s Take) and Bunge (NYSE: BG) (Cramer’s Take)?

Can we have a breather in which Fluor (NYSE: FLR) (Cramer’s Take) and Shaw Group (NYSE: SGR) (Cramer’s Take) don’t run higher, or Foster Wheeler (NASDAQ: FWLT) (Cramer’s Take) and McDermott (NYSE: MDR) (Cramer’s Take)?

And can we have a two-day period when a Masco (NYSE: MAS) (Cramer’s Take) or a JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) (Cramer’s Take) can go higher?

Can we have more than a short-squeeze streak by a retailer?

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: What trends are in, what’s out, to year-end

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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, General Electric (GE), Starbucks (SBUX), China, Mattel, Inc (MAT)

Turnabout is fair play. Sometimes.

The Chinese government is making a long list of US goods and services that are no good. According to The Wall Street Journal the items include turbines from GE (NYSE: GE) and everything from pacemakers to cotton pickers to ultrasound scanners from other companies.

Of course, some things made in the US don’t work or are broken. But, the fact that senior China officials are making these lists now does seem a bit odd. Especially after Chinese-made toy cups from Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) and toys from Mattel (NYSE: MAT) have been recalled by the hundreds of thousands.

No one is fooled here. It is strange that the Beijing government believes that pointing the finger at the US will take the spotlight off its country’s failings. But Chinese trade officials have to to something to keep their jobs.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

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Filed under: Hilary On Stocks, Stocks to Buy

While the airports are still dominated by the big players, a company like Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: RJET) offers essential services that make this company a real winner for investors.

Republic is the fastest-growing regional airline in America, with its lines (Chautauqua, Republic, and Shuttle America) providing regional service to bring passengers to the bigger airlines’ hubs.

After a major downturn following 9/11, air travel is back up in a big way, and much of it is from the smaller regional airports that Republic serves. More and more people are looking to the skies for their business travel, and the growing number of telecommuters may also create increased demand for once-a-week flights from smaller cities to larger ones, rather than the traditional daily commute by car or public transportation.

Continue reading Republic Airways (RJET): Flying high — for now

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Filed under: Before the bell, Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), eBay (EBAY), XM Satellite Radio (XMSR), Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), Walt Disney (DIS), ConAgra Foods (CAG), Oracle Corp (ORCL)

More profit warnings:

• International Paper Co. (NYSE: IP) shares are down over 2.5% in premarket trading after yesterday it lowered its third-quarter land-sales earnings outlook due to lower-than-expected land sales during the quarter.
• PetSmart Inc. (NASDAQ: PETM) this morning trimmed its sales and profit forecast for the rest of the year due to weak consumer spending and warmer-than-usual weather. PetSmart now expects 17 cents to 20 cents per share for the third quarter, from a previous forecast of 21 cents to 23 cents earnings per share.

ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE: CAG) “voluntarily stopped production at the Missouri plant that makes its Banquet pot pies after health officials said the pies may be linked to 139 cases of salmonella in 30 states, including Wisconsin.”

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) yesterday announced it has agreed to acquire LogicalApps, a provider of automated Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) controls management solutions.

While many schools ban and confiscate Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPods, some found a good use for them, The New York Times Reports — to help bilingual kids with some difficulty understanding English. As for the iPhone, Piper Jaffray conducted a survey and found that 3% of teens already own an iPhone.

Walt-Disney (NYSE: DIS) company has kicked off the holiday shopping season with its 10 most wanted gifts list.

Hoping to capitalize on the social networking craze, eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) has launched its own version of a social networking service today, Neighborhoods, and is promising other customer-friendly features by year’s end.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has bought Jaiku, an activity stream and presence sharing service that works from the Web and mobile phones.

There was much news on Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR) yesterday and the shares surged after a Citigroup analyst Eileen Furukawa estimated the transaction’s likelihood of closing at greater than 60%. The merger, she said, could produce up to $7 billion in cost savings. She has upped XM’s price target to $19.50 from $15. The market, however, still gives the deal only a 24% chance of passing regulatory muster. SIRI shares closed up 3.77% and XMSR shares up 6.87%.

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