Archive for March 14th, 2008
Filed under: Consumer experience, Google (GOOG)
Recently, TiVO (NASDAQ: TIVO) announced a partnership with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) that is likely to massively expand both its own viewership and that of Google’s YouTube. Apparently, TiVo has plans to make it possible for YouTube subscribers to view their videos directly on their televisions. Viewers will access their YouTube accounts from their TiVo boxes and will be able to create and display customized playlists.
On the one hand, this seems like a masterstroke. After all, I can’t count the number of times that I’ve found myself with a group of friends clustered around a tiny little computer screen, watching a commercial from the sixties, a film trailer, or a segment of Saturday Night Live. Half the joy of finding these little gems is sharing them with friends and loved ones, and that’s a lot easier to do on a huge screen.
On the other hand, YouTube videos tend to be very small and have low-resolution, which makes them ideal for the internet. They can be quickly and easily uploaded, and the miniscule viewing area of the average computer screen makes their poor resolution a minor problem. However, transferring these tiny videos to a 32-inch television screen will render them practically unviewable. I have a crystal-clear vision of nostalgia-hounds and techno-geeks around the country squinting at televisions while asking themselves if they’re looking at images of an Elliot Spitzer press conference or footage of a giant boob. The answer, of course, is what’s the difference?
(I know, cheap shot!).
Developers are already preparing what is sure to be a veritable Aladin’s cave of extras and I imagine that they will address this problem in one way or another, but it’s hard to get beyond the fact that YouTube, for all its wondrousness, might be limited to one type of venue.
Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. YouTube has already cost him thousands of man-hours worth of work (and counting).
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Share This
 No Comments »
Filed under: Consumer experience, Google (GOOG)
Recently, TiVO (NASDAQ: TIVO) announced a partnership with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) that is likely to massively expand both its own viewership and that of Google’s YouTube. Apparently, TiVo has plans to make it possible for YouTube subscribers to view their videos directly on their televisions. Viewers will access their YouTube accounts from their TiVo boxes and will be able to create and display customized playlists.
On the one hand, this seems like a masterstroke. After all, I can’t count the number of times that I’ve found myself with a group of friends clustered around a tiny little computer screen, watching a commercial from the sixties, a film trailer, or a segment of Saturday Night Live. Half the joy of finding these little gems is sharing them with friends and loved ones, and that’s a lot easier to do on a huge screen.
On the other hand, YouTube videos tend to be very small and have low-resolution, which makes them ideal for the internet. They can be quickly and easily uploaded, and the miniscule viewing area of the average computer screen makes their poor resolution a minor problem. However, transferring these tiny videos to a 32-inch television screen will render them practically unviewable. I have a crystal-clear vision of nostalgia-hounds and techno-geeks around the country squinting at televisions while asking themselves if they’re looking at images of an Elliot Spitzer press conference or footage of a giant boob. The answer, of course, is what’s the difference?
(I know, cheap shot!).
Developers are already preparing what is sure to be a veritable Aladin’s cave of extras and I imagine that they will address this problem in one way or another, but it’s hard to get beyond the fact that YouTube, for all its wondrousness, might be limited to one type of venue.
Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. YouTube has already cost him thousands of man-hours worth of work (and counting).
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Share This
No Comments »
Filed under: Deals, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), News Corp’B’ (NWS)
 It looks like we have now entered the when, not if, stage of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) acquiring Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and we will soon be saying good-bye to the Yahoo we know for something else.
You will find this splattered across the web today: Microsoft presents its vision of a combined company to Yahoo executives in what appears to be the first meeting since Microsoft made its unsolicited offer for Yahoo, reports The Wall Street Journal [subscription required].
On January 31, 2008, a buyout offer of $44.6 billion was made by the software giant to combine forces with Yahoo!, against the supposedly next evil empire, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG).
Google has stolen Yahoo’s thunder, and try as it might, Yahoo has not been able to get it back. Its stock has stagnated. Even as GOOG shareholders have watched their stock plummet some 40% this year, Google is still the current web star when it comes to search and advertising revenue. Microsoft hopes to steal this mantle by combining MSN with Yahoo.
For two months, Yahoo leadership has been struggling to find a White Knight to rescue it from the clutches of MSFT’s CEO Steve Ballmer. But its alternatives have been dwindling as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (NYSE: NWS) turned away.
It looks like this meeting around the watering hole is just Yahoo saying to Microsft, “So what do you boys have in mind?,” which will probably progress into, “I believe we can hang around with you fellas for a while.”
From my perspective, any deal that ties MSN and Yahoo together will add some value to the web combination, but it is not certain that Yahoo under the wing of Microsoft will not lose some valuable freedom and much of its charm.
I would be much more in favor of Microsoft spinning off its internet assets into a separate company and combining that with Yahoo to create a new web powerhouse. That would pass regulators hurdles more easily and the unit would be free to add still more web properties — perhaps even a MySpace, or dare I say it, perhaps even AOL.
It is hard to know what the end result of Monday’s meeting in terms of deal structure, price, management and timing will bring in the end, but we can be sure Yahoo! and the web landscape continues to morph anew.
Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the design and research principal for an architecture & planning firm. He writes Chasing Value and Serious Money columns. Disclosure: I own shares of AOL parent company TWX.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Share This
No Comments »
Filed under: Smithfield Foods (SFD), Stocks to Buy
With the markets still in a choppy/consolidation mode (or perhaps worse), it’s best to consider including a few defensive stocks in your portfolio, and with the aforementioned in mind Smithfield Foods is worth an evaluation.
Smithfield Foods (NYSE: SFD) is the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer. The company’s products include fresh pork and processed meats sold under the Packerland, John Morrell, Lykes, Patrick Cudahy, and Smithfield Premium names.
Analysts expect Smithfield’s F2008 revenue to increase 15-25% after a modest increase in F2007.
Meanwhile, beef margins are expected to widen, offsetting likely narrower hog margins. An improved product mix, including an expansion of value-added products, also has gladdened analysts’ hearts.
Continue reading Smithfield Foods says not all troughs are negative
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Share This
No Comments »
Filed under: Smithfield Foods (SFD), Stocks to Buy
With the markets still in a choppy/consolidation mode (or perhaps worse), it’s best to consider including a few defensive stocks in your portfolio, and with the aforementioned in mind Smithfield Foods is worth an evaluation.
Smithfield Foods (NYSE: SFD) is the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer. The company’s products include fresh pork and processed meats sold under the Packerland, John Morrell, Lykes, Patrick Cudahy, and Smithfield Premium names.
Analysts expect Smithfield’s F2008 revenue to increase 15-25% after a modest increase in F2007.
Meanwhile, beef margins are expected to widen, offsetting likely narrower hog margins. An improved product mix, including an expansion of value-added products, also has gladdened analysts’ hearts.
Continue reading Smithfield Foods says not all troughs are negative
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Share This
No Comments »
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst initiations, salesforce.com inc (CRM), Intuitive Surgical Inc (ISRG)
.gif) MOST NOTEWORTHY: Durect, Red Robin Gourmet and ViroPharma were today’s noteworthy initiations:
- RBC Capital thinks Durect’s (NASDAQ: DRRX) overall portfolio is very attractive and started shares with an Outperform rating and $7 target.
- Red Robin Gourmet (NASDAQ: RRGB) was initiated at Jefferies with a Buy rating and $40 target. The firm believes the company has one of the few stable earnings stories in the sector, which should warrant a valuation premium in the current environment.
- JMP Securities believes ViroPharma’s (NASDAQ: VPHM) valuation reflects several negative scenarios and notes that earnings will likely remain positive and that the company has a strong balance sheet; shares were initiated with an Outperform rating and $12 target.
OTHER INITIATIONS:
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Share This
No Comments »
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst initiations, salesforce.com inc (CRM), Intuitive Surgical Inc (ISRG)
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Durect, Red Robin Gourmet and ViroPharma were today’s noteworthy initiations:
- RBC Capital thinks Durect’s (NASDAQ: DRRX) overall portfolio is very attractive and started shares with an Outperform rating and $7 target.
- Red Robin Gourmet (NASDAQ: RRGB) was initiated at Jefferies with a Buy rating and $40 target. The firm believes the company has one of the few stable earnings stories in the sector, which should warrant a valuation premium in the current environment.
- JMP Securities believes ViroPharma’s (NASDAQ: VPHM) valuation reflects several negative scenarios and notes that earnings will likely remain positive and that the company has a strong balance sheet; shares were initiated with an Outperform rating and $12 target.
OTHER INITIATIONS:
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Share This
No Comments »
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, Bad news, Products and services, Consumer experience
 Shares of women’s apparel retailer AnnTaylor Stores Corp. (NYSE: ANN) have been taking a hit today following this morning’s earnings release. Citing restructuring expenses and lower sales, AnnTaylor posted a loss of $6.7 million for its fourth-quarter.
For the quarter, the retailer said it swung to a loss of 11 cents per share, compared with a profit of 31 cents in the same period a year ago. Included in the company’s earnings figures were 30 cents charge related to its restructuring program. Excluding that, AnnTaylor’s earnings numbers would have come at 19 cents a share. Analyst, on average, expected the company to show quarterly earnings of 20 cents per share.
The women’s apparel retailer also reported a quarterly revenue decline of 2% to $600.8 million, compared with $610.5 million in the previous year, which included an extra week. The company missed analysts’ predictions for a higher revenue of $609 million, according to Thomson Financial.
Continue reading AnnTaylor (ANN) falls into the red on disappointing earnings results
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Share This
No Comments »
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, Bad news, Products and services, Consumer experience
Shares of women’s apparel retailer AnnTaylor Stores Corp. (NYSE: ANN) have been taking a hit today following this morning’s earnings release. Citing restructuring expenses and lower sales, AnnTaylor posted a loss of $6.7 million for its fourth-quarter.
For the quarter, the retailer said it swung to a loss of 11 cents per share, compared with a profit of 31 cents in the same period a year ago. Included in the company’s earnings figures were 30 cents charge related to its restructuring program. Excluding that, AnnTaylor’s earnings numbers would have come at 19 cents a share. Analyst, on average, expected the company to show quarterly earnings of 20 cents per share.
The women’s apparel retailer also reported a quarterly revenue decline of 2% to $600.8 million, compared with $610.5 million in the previous year, which included an extra week. The company missed analysts’ predictions for a higher revenue of $609 million, according to Thomson Financial.
Continue reading AnnTaylor (ANN) falls into the red on disappointing earnings results
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Share This
No Comments »
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades
MOST NOTEWORTHY: UCBH Holdings, National Atlantic Holdings and J Sainsbury were today’s noteworthy downgrades:
- Friedman Billings downgraded UCBH Holdings (NASDAQ: UCBH) to Market Perform from Outperform. The firm said the departure of auditor PWC could not have come at a worse time following the recent CFO replacement and the credit-quality-related adverse change to Q4 earnings in the 10-K.
- Citigroup cut National Atlantic Holdings (NASDAQ: NAHC) to Hold from Buy after the company announced plans to merger with a subsidiary of Palisades Safety and Insurance.
- Goldman removed J Sainsbury (OTC: JSAIY) from the Conviction Buy List on fears that stagflation could impact earnings.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Share This
No Comments »
|
