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• Motorola: new chairman on board for 52-week low

  Posted Apr 10 2008, 02:40 PM by Douglas McIntyre
  Filed under: Nokia, Motorola, AT&T
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  David Dorman, the former captain and chief of AT&T, has come to Motorola as Chairman. He was greeted with the handset, etc. company's stock hitting a 52-week low at $8.97 (less than half the 52-week high of $19.68). Dorman's first job will be to keep sharp objects away from big MOT shareholder Carl Icahn.

  The market is already well aware of the problems at Motorola's handset business. Its global market share has dropped from 22% just over two years ago to about 13% now. Nokia and Samsung have better share and Sony Ericsson is gaining.

  Last year, Motorola's handset division lost over $1 billion on revenue of $19 billion. Unit sales may drop below 30 million for Q1, much lower than sales were running last year. The loss may balloon, making the operation worth very, very little.   Read More...

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• How Verizon became the next Comcast

  Posted Feb 20 2008, 08:38 AM by Douglas McIntyre
  Filed under: Comcast, Motorola, Verizon, AT&T
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  Verizon has been the ruler of the walk, but that has changed. Yesterday, the shares hit a 52-week low at $35.19.

  The large run-up in Verizon's stock last year was based on two things. The first was that its new fiber-to-the-home TV and broadband service was picking up customers from cable companies like Comcast. That sent Comcast shares to multi-year lows. Comcast's latest earnings showed that the impact of Verizon's initiative was less than expected. More recently the phone company said that it could not get HD set-top boxes to many of its new fiber customers. Motorola had fallen behind in making them. All of a sudden, the $23 billion that Verizon put into the fiber project did not look quite so good.

  Then the market was hit with news of a cellular price war between Verizon Wireless and AT&T. T-Mobile got in on the action just or fun. Cellular revenue is what has driven Verizon's revenue and operating income over the last several years as it has lost landline business to VoIP.   Read More...

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• 8 famous companies that may vanish this year

  Posted Feb 12 2008, 06:53 AM by Douglas McIntyre
  Filed under: Microsoft, Yahoo, Motorola, Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, Qwest, Sears, Nortel
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  Firestone. American Motors. Texaco. Pan Am. Worldcom. These large American companies were once at the top of their industries. Pan Am was the leading global airline for decades. All are gone: Some were sold off, others went bankrupt. Who could have predicted it?

  There are several iconic U.S. companies that may well not exist at the end of 2008. Some may not even make it halfway through the year. Not all will go out of business. Some may simply be auctioned off in pieces. Others may be bought. These companies will not exist in their current forms as they are known to their shareholders and consumers now.

  When a company ceases to exist as an independent entity, it is not necessarily bad for shareholders. Some may be worth more in parts. Often a bust-up or merger is what brings owners the most money. Here are the big ones that probably won't make it.  (A more detailed assessment is available at 24/7 Wall St.)   Read More...

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