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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 10 2008, 02:40 PM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
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.
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Posted
Apr 09 2008, 12:50 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Don't bet your personal appearance on Motorola's share price. Executive Patrick Canavan announced in 2000 that he wouldn't cut his hair until Motorola shares returned to their all-time high of $60. Well, ahem, let's just say that Canavan's hair now reaches halfway down his back when wet. (See a picture here). Canavan seems quite proud of his mane, although he has lowered his target share price to $28, then $25. Motorola shares closed today at $9.33.
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Posted
Apr 07 2008, 12:32 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Activist investor Carl Icahn, whom Fortune says makes more money for shareholders than anyone, has won a round in his ongoing battle with Motorola. Icahn took on Motorola last year, when he invited then-CEO Ed Zander into his office and said, "You have a great company. Why did you screw it up?" Zander is now gone, and Icahn, whose investment company which owns 6.4% of the company, is targeting the board. Today, Motorola allowed two of his handpicked nominees to its board (Icahn originally wanted four). Motorola shares rose 1.5% on the news to close at $9.82. This is good news. Icahn backs off, allowing Motorola some breathing room as it figures out its future. The new directors will likely push the company to spin off its cell phone division quickly. Motorola was looking at next year to split itself in two, a move Icahn said was long overdue. Perhaps Motorola can move on to more important things now, like making decent cell phones.
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Posted
Mar 26 2008, 10:16 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Motorola announced this morning that it would break itself into two companies. By sometime next year the handset division will be pulled away from the mobility and enterprise divisions.
The problems is that, even broken into pieces, Motorola isn't worth more than its current market cap. The handset business is simply sinking too fast. (Update: After languishing most of day, the stock rallied to end regular trading up 2.6%.)
In the fourth quarter, Motorola's handset division revenue fell 38% to $4.8 billion. The operation lost $388 million compared to an operating profit of $341 million in the same period a year earlier. The company sold 40.9 million handsets in Q4.
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Posted
Feb 20 2008, 08:38 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
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.
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Posted
Feb 12 2008, 06:53 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
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.)
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Posted
Feb 07 2008, 12:45 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Handset companies who do business in North America will be hit hard in a recession, Citi analyst Jim Suva said in a note this morning. Suva takes a close look at Brightpoint, Motorola, Palm and Research in Motion, and calls out the latter as the stock that could "see the greatest damage to share price." Suva writes that Research in Motion "faces double-barreled risk," according to Barron's, because of its strong presence in North America and its high P/E multiple (currently at 45.20). The stock could drop to $63 in a worst-case, global recession. RIMM shares closed today at $84.68. Embattled Palm is very exposed in North America, and Suva thinks a recession could push shares down to $3 or $4 a share. Palm closed today at $5.99.
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Posted
Jan 29 2008, 12:52 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Let's be clear about one thing: Motorola is not quitting handsets. Some irresponsible bloggers are suggesting otherwise today with headlines like "Moto Knocked out of Handset Business?" The blogosphere needs to take a deep breath before spreading false rumors. All this because an analyst tossed around the idea in a report before dismissing it. Richard Windsor of Nomura International said his research shows that Motorola might exit the handset business and "concentrate on becoming an enterprise and government company." But Windsor goes on to say he thinks Motorola will "remain in its current form and return to some semblance of profitability after a very difficult 2008." The headline of the Windsor's note, Barron's notes, is "Motorola - Handsets to Stay." Motorola shares are largely unaffected by the attention today.
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Posted
Nov 20 2007, 11:32 AM
by
Robert Walberg
Rating:
Like the song says, "some say love is a Razr that leaves your soul to bleed." Well, my soul has bled waiting for Motorola's stock to turn around. I can't wait any longer -- I'm not Job, after all.
Motorola has been screwing up for so long, it even gets it wrong when it gets it right. Last quarter the company delivered another lousy set of sales and earnings numbers, yet it guided fiscal fourth-quarter earnings to a range of 13 to 14 cents a share -- a few pennies above The Street's consensus. Normally, guiding estimates higher would be perceived as a good thing, and it was at first as the stock edged higher on the news. However, in offering up hope for the fourth quarter and the upcoming year, CEO Ed Zander might have won himself a new contract. And that's bad news.
You see one of the reasons I bought Motorola's stock down at its lows was in anticipation of a new management team. Typically when a struggling company finally ousts its old CEO in favor of someone new and full of promise, the underlying stock tends to rally. Until recently, Zander's ouster was all but certain. But in light of the company's modest progress off a terrible set of numbers, Zander might just hang around. Let's face it, he did take all the credit for the Razr so there might be a board member or two who thinks he's on the verge of another one-hit wonder.
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