Browse by Tags
-
Posted
Oct 14 2009, 08:12 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
We know that MySpace has lost momentum to Facebook, but has it lost all its value as well? That's where the onetime social media darling may be headed, writes Henry Blodget on Silicon Alley Insider. One of Blodget's sources says that MySpace pulled in around $500 million to $600 million in revenue last year, and didn't make a profit. Blodget factors in those details, plus MySpace's declining market share, and figures the company might be worth 1X to 2X revenue. If so, its valuation could be in the range of $500 million to $1.2 billion, he writes.
Read More...
-
Posted
Oct 08 2009, 03:46 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon (AMZN), is being praised as the man who has invented the next big and important electronic device.
That category includes the Sony (SNE) PlayStation 2, the Apple (AAPL) iPod, and the Nintendo Wii. The iPod has sold 200 million units worldwide. That, in the nomenclature of the electronics industry, makes it a once-in-a-generation success, a truly mass market product.
Bezos lowered the price on the Kindle to $249 from $299, and Amazon will release a version this month that can work over wireless networks in 100 countries. There is some compelling research that says people will not pay more than $200, or even $100, for an e-reader. That has not prevented Sony and Barnes & Noble (BKS) from entering the e-reader industry. Rumors are that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (NWS) will come out with a product of its own.
Read More...
-
Posted
Sep 22 2009, 04:02 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
DVD sales are flagging and rentals are up -- news likely to be unwelcome at the major movie studios. The Digital Entertainment Group announced that in the first half of this year, DVD sales fell almost 14% to $5.4 billion. DVD rental revenue rose 8% to $3.4 billion.
While kiosk operator RedBox and DVD mailer NetFlix (NFLX) are a large part of the rise in rentals, it is Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) that really crush studio DVD sales.
Revenue for online stores was up 21% for the period to $968 million. At that rate of growth and the drop in DVD sales, Apple and Amazon have become essential to studio revenue and a real danger to premium DVD profits.
Read More...
-
Posted
Sep 02 2009, 11:46 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This article is written by Minyanville's Mike Schuster
In a move so ominous it should have been preceded by a visit from the Silver Surfer, Disney (DIS) has agreed to buy Marvel Entertainment (MVL) for a cool $4 billion. As part of the deal, Marvel's massive 5,000-character menagerie will be under Disney control. While Marvel's film licensing deals with Fox (NWS) and Sony (SNE) will remain for now, the future may not be so bright. Disney Chief Robert Iger assured fans that it acquired Marvel simply to bring their creative force on board and not to revamp its library. However, the company's press release -- as well as Disney's history with its partners -- tell a different story. Bing: Robert Iger
In the statement, Iger stated, "This transaction combines Marvel's strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney's creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories."
In other words, tighter management is likely to come into play.
Read More...
-
Posted
Jul 02 2009, 12:41 PM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
View the complete slideshow here!
The month will likely pass with very little mention. Folks will remain uninformed of its importance. The chance for honorary celebrations and time off from work will have elapsed.
 So just for your and your family's edification: July is National Bikini Month.
Conveniently timed to coincide with warm weather, family picnics and your child's summer vacation, National Bikini Month commands that the country expresses reverence to the wondrous innovation of dividing feminine swimwear into 2 pieces. An evocative example of liberation, women are no longer a slave to 1890s beach conventions. They are free to remove the swim cap and striped wading jumpsuit and enjoy a tan that doesn't stop at the wrists.
Yes, the bikini is truly a giant leap for mankind.
Read More...
-
Posted
Jun 15 2009, 05:18 PM
by
Catherine Holahan
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 The music has officially stopped playing at
Virgin Megastores. The last of the iconic record shops closed today, June 14. The
New York
Times, present for the last day of business at the chain's landmark store
in Union Square, described the
closing as "particularly dispiriting."
That's putting it mildly. Sure, it's not as
though the demise of Virgin Megastores is surprising. Record stores have long
struggled for relevance in a digital age defined by à la carte downloads and
illegal file-sharing sites. Even the music discovery part of the record store experience
-- long touted by store owners as what would keep people coming into their
shops -- has largely been usurped by ad-supported music blogs and MySpace
pages.
But Virgin Megastores' closing is more than another
example of consumers pushing aside an old distribution model for a newer,
more-immediate one. It is a symbol of the inability of the music industry as a
whole to successfully adapt its business for digital consumers. As such,
Virgin's closing is downright depressing.
Read More...
-
Posted
Apr 01 2009, 03:59 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
The business of having online sites with content created by amateurs to be viewed by other amateurs never had a reasonable chance of making money. The fact that Facebook once had a $15 billion valuation, and that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (NWS) bought MySpace, and that Google (GOOG) bought YouTube only proves the “greater fool” theory.
YouTube was started in 2005 and MySpace in 2003. Normally, having a social network where people go to share profiles of themselves, write blogs and submit videos would not seem like much of a business. But MySpace has well over 100 million users. People viewed over 5 billion videos at YouTube last month.
Investors assumed that any medium with such a large number of users had to become a huge business. Millions and millions of users must be worth something. They can’t be worth nothing. That couldn’t be possible.
Read More...
-
Posted
Feb 24 2009, 03:10 AM
by
Bernhard Warner and Matthew Yeomans
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner site The Big Money.
More than a decade's worth of gains have now been wiped out. The Dow on Monday sunk to a low last plumbed in the Clinton-Gore years in what BusinessWeek calls "the stock market's frightful slide." The blue-chip index is down to April 1997 levels, and the S&P 500 has lost half of its value since the start of 2008.
For long-term investors, it all makes for grim accounting. "If you bought into the overall stock market -- represented by the S&P 500 -- at any point in the last 11 years, your shares are now worth less than you paid for them," BusinessWeek writes. The Wall Street Journal points out that the latest downturn is particularly unsettling, as it's not just the banks pulling down the markets. Technology and commodity stocks like U.S. Steel (X) have also fallen.
The Washington Post writes that there's little the White House can do to restore confidence in the markets, as yesterday's fall occurred even "as new details of the government's plan to shore up ailing banks" emerged. And the outlook? "Basically, it's a disaster," David Dietze, chief investment strategist at Point View Financial Services, told the Washington Post. "There's much more pain ahead."
Read More...
-
Posted
Feb 23 2009, 12:16 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Peter Chernin, the president of News Corp. (NWSA), is leaving the company, according to the Los Angeles Times. So far, the company hasn't officially confirmed the report or named a successor. The resignation comes at a bad time. The company recently wrote down $8.4 billion, including $3 billion in its newspaper unit, according to The New York Times. Its stock price has fallen by two-thirds in the last year. Chernin's departure has been rumored for a while now. His contract expires on June 30, and he'll move on to a fat retirement package and perhaps a new career. The LA Times reports that Chernin is entitled to a "lucrative movie and TV production deal" at News Corp.'s Fox unit.
Read More...
-
Posted
Feb 06 2009, 02:50 AM
by
Bernhard Warner and Matthew Yeomans
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner site The Big Money.
Can a bipartisan group of senators get the Obama stimulus plan under control before it balloons above $920 billion? That was the aim of fierce negotiations behind closed doors Thursday, as a vote looms as early as today. CNNMoney.com is calling it a "big push for [a] smaller stimulus."
There is consensus that a stimulus plan is needed, just one that's not so big. According to The New York Times, lawmakers were making progress on cuts to the stimulus package. By Thursday evening, the group had drafted a list of nearly $90 billion in cuts, including $40 billion in state aid, $14 billion for education programs, $4.1 billion to make federal buildings energy efficient and $1.5 billion for broadband Internet service in rural areas, the newspaper writes, adding that more talks are scheduled for this morning.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration's rescue plan for the financial industry to be unveiled Monday is still a work in progress, The Wall Street Journal reports. The sticking point is, yet again, how to handle toxic bank assets.
One idea under consideration is extending a Fed-funded lending program to entice investors to buy assets such as mortgage-backed securities from stricken banks, the newspaper reports, adding the same Fed program has done something similar with less corrosive assets like credit card, student loan and small-business debt.
Read More...
More Posts Next page »
|
