Filed under: Rumors, Google (GOOG)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a leader when it comes to being a “green” kind of company. It shuttles employees from the Bay Area to its Mountain View headquarters in biodiesel vans, has what is considered the be the largest solar array in corporate America and uses alternative energy in its operations, unlike most of the business world.

But what about all the actual electricity the company consumes? It has huge data centers all over the world that power its search and web product network, and these campuses consume gobs of electricity off the global grid. So, does Google purchase electricity for these data centers from electric cooperatives that generate all that juice with standard coal-fired electricity generation plants? Hard to tell, because the company won’t say.

Sure, electric consumption is a competitive secret of sorts, even though RechargeIT.org — under Google’s philanthropic arm Google.org — is focused on hybrid and alternative transportation methodologies. So, why is Google so mum when it comes to the amount of electricity it consumes on a global basis?

Is the company afraid someone will reverse engineer those power figures and figure out just how many servers and data centers the company has? Is that competitive advantage to anyone? Perhaps, perhaps not. Google, though, probably does not want the world to know of the massive consumption of electricity that powers the company’s services while it breathes, eats and lives the word “green” on the other side of the table.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Wal-Mart (WMT), Starbucks (SBUX), Target Corp. (TGT), Bank of America (BAC), Costco Wholesale (COST), Wells Fargo (WFC), Crocs Inc (CROX), Opsware Inc (OPSW), aQuantive Inc (AQNT), 25 Stocks for Next 25 Years

Next week marks the beginning of 2008 and my two high school kids will also receive their first semester report cards, the moment of truth for them. It got me to think perhaps it was time to grade my own performance for 2007 on BloggingStocks. So here goes, the A’s to the F’s…

The A’s:

• My recommendation of Aquantive Corp at $24 and stating that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) needed to buy this company. It did at $66.50. Many readers and members of my investment web site made a near three bagger in less than six months.
• Recommendation of Color Kinetics at $19 back in May to only watch it get bought out at $34 by LG Phillips (NYSE: LPL) of the Netherlands.
• Recommendation of Kyphon at $37 and have Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) buy it at $71
• Recommendation of Opsware at $8 back in March and then again in May at $9 and have Hewlett-Packard Compaq (NYSE: HPQ) buy it out at $14.50
• Recommending Apple ( NASDAQ: AAPL) all year and re-iterating the buy since $80, now at $198 with a new price target at $300 for 2008
• Writing the exhaustive series of the Top 25 Stocks for the NEXT 25 Years back in May/June. Many of the stocks have been bought out and several are up more than 20%.

The B’s:

• Recommending Crocs (NASDAQ: CROX) at $40 ( $20 post split) back in March to only watch it go up to $150, split 2 for 1 to $75. But I didn’t get readers out at $75 and it fell back to $35, now at $39. Stock still a double for the year, but the momentum is gone for awhile.
• The five part series titled “the Good, the Bad and the Ugly: The Financial Stocks“. I explained from soup to nuts how we got into the credit crisis and hopefully, how we get out of it!!
• Recommending Costco (NASDAQ: COST) at $54 and now at $69. Probably the best American retailer and should be a core holding.

The C’s:

• Recommending Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) at $28 and then again recently at $22. This company is having its growth pains and should rebound more in the second half of 2008 as it faces easier comps.
• Recommending Target (NYSE: TGT) at $58. I was right till $68, but missed the top and the stock is back down to $51.
• Trashing Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) but not trashing it enough!!

The D’s: OUCH!!

• Recommending the financials way to early back in July/August. I thought the second quarter results would have tempered the financial issues and credit crisis. I was way, way early.
• Still recommending the better managed financials like Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC). I know these two will emerge as stronger, more dominant companies sometime in 2008, but we are not there yet.

The F’s: I don’t think I have any yet, but I will let the readers decide!!..Wait, there is one: my defense of Countrywide Financial this past summer..

My proudest articles:

I have written 430 articles for BloggingStocks since I began this wonderful journey back in February 2007. My proudest piece is the one I wrote about remembering 9/11. It was personal. My other proudest piece was my defense of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) after it allegedly missed the June quarter. The stock fell from $550 to $500 and has since risen $200 per share. Google is the most relevant company of our time and will likely become the most valuable company in the world over the next five years…but that’s another article yet to be written!!

My overall grade, at least in my mind, is a B to a B- … but you be the judge. Now for my kids report cards …

Georges Yared is the CIO of Yared Investment Research .

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Filed under: Industry, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Analyst initiations

It is hard to imagine that Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) share of the search market in the US could get much larger, but in each month it seems to make further gains.

Google piece of search queries increased to 57.7% in November compared with 55.5% in October, according to data from Nielsen Online cited by The Associated Press. . For the big search company to move up that way. Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) pieces of the pie had to move down. And, they did.

The flip side of Google’s monthly success story is the talk of Yahoo!’s failure. Its share of November searches dropped to under 18%. At the rate it is failing, the number could be less than 15% by the end of the year.

The story about the failure at Yahoo! is now as old as the hills, but what may happen to its stock price is another matter. Its shares are now below $24 which is near its 52-week low. Search is not all of Yahoo!’s business, but it does rely on the feature to bring in much of its traffic and revenue.

At a 15% share of the search market, what is Yahoo! worth? Certainly not $24. Perhaps below $20. That could be a 50% drop in two years.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Filed under: Before the bell, Forecasts, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), Time Warner (TWX), Wal-Mart (WMT), Starbucks (SBUX), Amazon.com (AMZN), IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI)

Before the bell: Futures higher following bank news, ahead of housing data

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) disclosed its “Best of 2007″ lists, which include the bestselling, most positively reviewed, most-wished-for and favorite gift products. While during Christmas the best selling computer was Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) Mac laptop, it was the Nokia Internet tablet PC that was overall best seller in 2007. The MacBook Pro notebook PC, however, was best reviewed and most frequently purchased as gift. The iPod, too, was most frequently purchased as gift and most wished for in the Electronics category. The Nintendo Wii was the best selling game, Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Office Home and Student 2007 was best selling software and Starbucks’s (NASDAQ: SBUX) assortment gift basket by Wine Country Gift Baskets was best selling in the Gourmet category.
And which book was the best selling? Need I even answer? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling of course.

A few days after comScore released its November U.S. internet search ranking, Nielsen Online released its own report Thursday. Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) online search engine increased its lead in the U.S. Internet search market in November over October, with 4.25 billion searches, representing 57.7% of U.S. online searches, up from 55.5% in October. The, by now eternal second, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) share was 17.9%, down from October’s 18.8%. Microsoft’s share also declined from 13.8% of the search market in October to 12% in November. Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) came in fourth place and IAC/InterActiveCorp’s (NASDAQ: IACI) came in fifth.

Wal-Mart Store Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has closed its online movie download store, abandoning a digital market it entered last February. No explanation was given, but perhaps the competition with Apple’s iTunes was too much.

The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine reported a study saying that lung-disease patients taking GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s (NYSE: GSK) asthma inhaler Seretide have better survival benefits than those taking a rival product.

Checkpoint Systems Inc. (NYSE: CKP) reaffirmed its 2007 guidance Thursday, issued an upbeat outlook for 2008 above Wall Street’s expectations and named Robert van der Merwe president and CEO.

According to SEC filings, Dubai World on Friday disclosed that it’s taken its stake in MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM) to 6.5% from 4.9%, buying 5 million shares at $84.50 each from the Lincy Foundation, Kerkorian’s philanthrophic vehicle.

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Filed under: Launches, Newspapers, Gannett Co (GCI), Housing

Just for fun, the newspaper industry that is facing excruciating pressure as news seekers and advertisers flock to the internet, now has another negative catalyst to deal with. The housing slowdown and sharp drop in sales is causing a significant drop in newspaper advertising for real estate, a significant chunk of many small papers’ overall revenue.

The Tribune Company saw a 40% year over year decline in its real estate ad sales for November. Gannett (NYSE: GCI) is also looking at a 27% drop.

This short-term revenue drop that’s a result of macroeconomic factors could extend into the long-term. When the housing market does rebound, will people go back to newspapers? Or will have the internet continue to make inroads, hastening the decline of newspapers into oblivion.

As bleak as the outlook for the industry looks, several highly-respected investors have made large bets on it. Sam Zell recently acquired Tribune, and Warren Buffett has been a long-term investor in the sector.

For contrarian investors, the industry may be worth a look.

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Filed under: Good news, Products and services, Toyota Motor Corp. (TM)

Although Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM) basically invented the popular notion of hybrid vehicles years ago by making the Prius compact passenger car the spokescar of the hybrid world, the automaker now has its sights set a little higher. Toyota wants to sell at least one million Hybrid cars every year shortly after 2010 gets here.

Although Toyota was not the first automaker with some form of hybrid vehicle on the road, it’s been the most aggressive marketer of such technology and resulting vehicles by far. Although the hybrid Prius has sold only 1.25 million units since first being introduced in 1997, Japan’s largest automaker thinks that mark can be hit annually within a few years. Are those plans too ambitious?

If fuel prices stay at the level they are at now, it’s not inconceivable to think Toyota can’t hit that mark. The automaker has publicly said that it wants a hybrid drivetrain in every vehicle it sells come 2020, so to get that kind of expertise ramping, it needs to move quite a few hybrid vehicles this year and increase that amount every year going forward.

The internal combustion engine still is not perfected, so transitioning millions of vehicles to a hybrid drivetrain in a little over a decade sounds like a risky plan to many. If Toyota can start selling a million of them per year long before that, though, it just may have a chance.

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Filed under: Launches, Newspapers, Gannett Co (GCI), Housing

Just for fun, the newspaper industry that is facing excruciating pressure as news seekers and advertisers flock to the internet, now has another negative catalyst to deal with. The housing slowdown and sharp drop in sales is causing a significant drop in newspaper advertising for real estate, a significant chunk of many small papers’ overall revenue.

The Tribune Company saw a 40% year over year decline in its real estate ad sales for November. Gannett (NYSE: GCI) is also looking at a 27% drop.

This short-term revenue drop that’s a result of macroeconomic factors could extend into the long-term. When the housing market does rebound, will people go back to newspapers? Or will have the internet continue to make inroads, hastening the decline of newspapers into oblivion.

As bleak as the outlook for the industry looks, several highly-respected investors have made large bets on it. Sam Zell recently acquired Tribune, and Warren Buffett has been a long-term investor in the sector.

For contrarian investors, the industry may be worth a look.

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Filed under: International markets, Indices, Market matters, Japan, Technical Analysis

So far during 2007, Japan’s broad-based Topix Index has lost 12.2%, while the benchmark Nikkei-225 Stock Average has given back 11.1%.

In U.S. dollar terms, the Topix is down 7.6%, the fifth worst performer out of 90 selected global indexes, according to Bloomberg data. The Nikkei is off 6.4%, placing it sixth from the bottom.

On that basis alone, it’s probably worth having a look at Japan as a contrarian play for 2008, especially given how well other foreign markets have fared in recent times.

Continue reading Technicals suggest next best overseas bet could be … Japan

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Filed under: Good news, Products and services, Toyota Motor Corp. (TM)

Although Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM) basically invented the popular notion of hybrid vehicles years ago by making the Prius compact passenger car the spokescar of the hybrid world, the automaker now has its sights set a little higher. Toyota wants to sell at least one million Hybrid cars every year shortly after 2010 gets here.

Although Toyota was not the first automaker with some form of hybrid vehicle on the road, it’s been the most aggressive marketer of such technology and resulting vehicles by far. Although the hybrid Prius has sold only 1.25 million units since first being introduced in 1997, Japan’s largest automaker thinks that mark can be hit annually within a few years. Are those plans too ambitious?

If fuel prices stay at the level they are at now, it’s not inconceivable to think Toyota can’t hit that mark. The automaker has publicly said that it wants a hybrid drivetrain in every vehicle it sells come 2020, so to get that kind of expertise ramping, it needs to move quite a few hybrid vehicles this year and increase that amount every year going forward.

The internal combustion engine still is not perfected, so transitioning millions of vehicles to a hybrid drivetrain in a little over a decade sounds like a risky plan to many. If Toyota can start selling a million of them per year long before that, though, it just may have a chance.

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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Marketing and advertising, CBS Corp ‘B’ (CBS)

With the writers still on strike, late night hosts are gearing up to putting on shows without help from any writers [subscription required]. For the past two months, while Hollywood writers have been on strike, late night television viewers have been served up re-runs of their favorite talk shows, but that is about to change.

It has definitely been a strange time for our late night shows to be on hiatus. With the now heating up presidential race offering up loads of good material, you know that the late night hosts have just been dying to get back into the action. But, don’t expect to be seeing the same sort of shows you are used to seeing when they return to the air next week. The shows should prove to be very different than business as usual.

The exception to this rule may be the two late night shows on CBS (NYSE: CBS). David Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants Inc., is currently in talks with the Writers Guild of America and hopes that its “Late Show with David Letterman” and “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” will be able to reach a deal to allow its writers to be able to contribute to its shows.

Continue reading Late night hosts are about to prove just how funny they really are

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