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Posted
Apr 22 2008, 04:43 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Once a year, the firm Millard Brown puts out its BrandZ 100 Most Valuable Brands. The data used for the list come from consumer research and financial data on the companies. The research house gives its methodology here.
For those who think Google is the top brand, give yourself a pat on the back. It has a brand valuation of $86 billion, up 30%. For those research mavens in the crowd, the figure makes absolutely no sense. Google has a market cap of $168 billion. Most of that would go away -- no matter how good the technology is -- if it changed it name to Dawdle.
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Posted
Apr 14 2008, 06:07 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Filed under: Microsoft, Cisco, Yahoo, E*Trade, Intel, Sirius, XM Satellite Radio, JetBlue, Dell, Take Two Interactive, Electronic Arts, Level 3
Rating:
Most companies on Nasdaq did fairly well with the shorts in the two-week period which ended on March 31. The two tremendous exceptions were Level 3, where short interest moved up 20.3 million shares to 243.9 million, and Sirius, where shares sold short jumped 40.4 million to 137.8 million.
In a tough stock market and credit environment, it is not hard to see why investors would place bets against both companies. Each stock trades near its 52-week low. Level 3 recently pushed out its president. Although it is in an attractive business, bandwidth infrastructure, it is a patch-work of M&A work with a large amount of debt and almost no cash-flow. In other words, a liquidation candidate in a deep recession.
Sirius is also hurt by a high debt-load -- over $1.2 billion -- and negative operating income. If the company's merger with XM Satellite does not go through, it may not be able to survive as a standalone company either.
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Posted
Jan 28 2008, 12:27 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Cisco Systems, whose shares have fallen 27% since October, is "reinventing" itself, according to a big writeup yesterday in the San Jose Mercury News. The network equipment company's trying to make the case that it's now cool and totally into Web 2.0 and social networking. Dude, they use wikis!
Funny, though. As I read the article I kept thinking how bloated and overmanaged everything sounds. This "new" Cisco seems mired in bureaucracy. Consider these points from the story:
- In the past, Cisco has only taken on one major project a year. This year it's aiming for 20.
- Cisco strategymaking used to be done by four internal councils with 50 members. Now, 25 councils and boards of up to 1,000 people will do it.
- Cisco produces 900 video broadcasts a month for employees and outsiders. Who watches all of that?
- The pace of product rollouts is staggering -- 150 in the past six months.
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Posted
Nov 20 2007, 08:36 AM
by
Kim Peterson
For now, at least, Hewlett-Packard is immune from the financial turmoil that's hit other sectors. The company posted some impressive earnings yesterday at a time when other tech giants are being hit by the mortgage crisis. Strong notebook sales contributed to the good news.
Part of the reason is that HP is somewhat isolated from the financial services sector, unlike Cisco Systems, which counts banks among its top 20 customers. But HP wants that kind of business. CEO Mark Hurd said yesterday that the company wants more exposure to financial services. "We see that as a big opportunity for us," he said.
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Posted
Nov 09 2007, 08:12 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Looks like the tech selloff didn't end yesterday. A quick check:
Google: Down 3.2%
Apple: Down 2.9%
Cisco Systems: Down 4.3%
Oracle: Down 3.6%
Yahoo: Down 3.5%
This could be another ugly day.
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Posted
Oct 11 2007, 12:44 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Tech stocks are no longer the darling of Wall Street today, taking a tumble after going up-up-up all week.
It's about time. VMware's valuation has been ridiculously high for a while now. The stock quadrupled in two months and broke $100 this week, but today is down some 4%. Apple has been hitting a series of all-time highs, and got a nice price target increase from Goldman Sachs (to $190) before becoming the top drag today on the Nasdaq and S&P 500. Its shares closed at about $162.
Google shares have had a crazy day, hitting an all-time high today of $641.41 after getting a few price target increases from analysts like RBC Capital Markets' Jordan Rohan, who raised his target to $690 from $650. Shares had plunged to $621 by the end of the trading day.
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Posted
Sep 25 2007, 08:33 AM
by
Kim Peterson
EchoStar, the satellite company that runs the DISH Network, is buying Sling Media for $380 million. Former Sling VP Jeremy Toeman says the deal is a win-win for both sides, and I agree.
 I really didn't get Sling until execs actually demoed the company's signature product, the Slingbox (pictured), for me. The device connects to your TV and then can send the video to a computer over the Internet. The value here is for the traveler. If you're in a Singapore hotel room and you really, really want to catch the premiere of "The Office" on TV, the Slingbox is so worth it. If you're in a U.S. city that isn't showing your hometown baseball team in action, there you go.
Sling Media has been a darling of the tech and venture communities for years, raising about $60 million in financing. But I've wondered how far the company could go with a $130 product. Bigger competitors, like Cisco, are closing in as well.
So from Sling's side, this was a good move and the company got a nice sum of money. In an interview with paidContent, Sling CEO Blake Krikorian said he was about to raise another round before this acquisition. He's hoping to remain operator agnostic, despite the new ownership
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