Blockbuster wants to buy Circuit City for $1.3 billion, but just about everyone has chalked up this proposal as ridiculous because Blockbuster doesn't have that kind of cash. Good thing the company has Carl Icahn in its corner. The billionaire investor -- and Blockbuster's largest shareholder -- said he'll buy Circuit City himself if Blockbuster can't cough up enough money for the $1.3 billion deal.

With an offer like that on the table, Circuit City has stopped giggling and is starting to seriously think about the deal. It's hired Goldman Sachs to help it explore options. Circuit City reminded everyone today that it hasn't made any decisions yet, but one thing is clear. this electronics chain is in play. And investors couldn't be happier; shares are up 9% today. Blockbuster shares are down slightly.   Read More...

I'm really not here to scare you, but, get ready, I AM going to scare you.

The news got lots of attention: Goldman Sachs analyst Arjun Murti predicted Tuesday that the price of crude oil could hit $150 to $200 a barrel in six to 24 months. (Here's one discussion of the report. Another is here.)

Crude oil in New York promptly jumped to as high as $122.73 a barrel in New York before closing at $121.84. And, as I write this, crude was trading slightly lower in electronic trading. But it also had the perverse effect of pushing the stock market higher. Indeed, the biggest winners in Tuesday's stock market were oil and gas production companies, natural gas companies. (But not refiners; crude oil is rising faster than refiners can push their prices up.) 

So, if crude jumps to $150 or $200, how does that translate into prices at the gas pump. Here's the scary part.   Read More...

It would have been great if CEO Bob Iger had opened Disney's quarterly conference call with "Recession, we don't see no stinkin recession." 

Unfortunately, earnings calls are dominated by Wall Street speak so we don't get anything nearly as bold or colorful. But the folks at Disney deserve to puff out their chests and do a little bragging, as the company turned in another magical quarter at a time when most media companies are hurting.   

Most surprising to analysts was the strength of Disney's Parks unit, which posted revenue of $2.73 billion and income of $339 million - well ahead of the consensus estimates of $2.62 billion and $306 million. Traditionally, there has been a relatively strong correlation between consumer confidence and theme park attendance.  Considering that the consumer confidence index has plunged by nearly 30 points over the past nine months to its lowest level in over a decade, investors were bracing for a material drop in park revenues   Read More...

After Countrywide's ugly $890 million first quarter loss, speculation has been rampant that Bank of America will try to pull a Houdini and wiggle out of its agreement to buy the mortgage lender. Speculation took to new heights this week when Friedman, Billings, Ramsey analyst Paul Miller strongly cautioned BofA against the deal, and suggested that the bank may try to renegotiate the price down to the $0 to $2 per share level.

The question at hand here really isn't whether Countrywide is going to suck for the foreseeable future -- despite what CEO Angelo Mozilo said late last year, that's pretty much a given. The issue is whether Countrywide will suck more than BofA's proposed buyout price suggests. Since BofA's original buyout offer was at about $4 billion, it's possible that it's already expecting at least another $9 billion hit to Countrywide's book value. That would assume a buyout at one time projected book value, which would be relatively cheap given Countrywide's trading history.

FBR's Miller thinks that it could be significantly worse than that, though, and suggested that loan losses at Countrywide could run in the $20 billion to $30 billion range. At those levels the acquisition certainly would make BofA feel like it had swallowed a brick.   Read More...

If soaring gasoline prices are blowing a hole in your commuting budget, perhaps you ought to consider going to work for an oil company. That seems to be the employment road to riches these days, as the industry reportedly faces the loss of half of its aging work force over the next decade.

According to a report by Cambridge Energy Research Associates, the energy industry will lose as many as 15% of its engineers in just two years to retirement, and has therefore launched an all-out assault on finding, training and retaining new young staffers. It sounds like the boom in demand for software developers in Silicon Valley in the '90s. Bonuses and perks are escalating as companies vie for talent. Report author Pritesh Patel said new workers will stream into the industry from around the world, but there will still be a “knowledge gap” that will hamper efforts to find and exploit new oil and gas reserves.

It sounds like this is a better direction for college graduates to head than the traditional havens of medicine and law. The Society of Petroleum Engineers has published a survey that shows the average base salary for petroleum engineers was $122,458 in 2007, up 5% from 2006. Bonuses, housing allowances, retirement plan contributions and the like reportedly push the average compensation to $167,712. All this at a time when doctors and IT pros are facing cutbacks.   Read More...

Pegging Yahoo!'s potential financial exposure from shareholder lawsuits after it turned down an offer of about $33 from Microsoft is hard. It starts with the difference between the offer and where the stock falls after the rejection. That price could be $22 or lower. Investors would have lost $12 billion, and perhaps more.

Yahoo! is lucky, if one can call it that. Proving damages beyond the actual financial set-back to shareholders will be hard. Investors were not "damaged" as much as they simply lost money.

• SPECIAL COVERAGE: Microsoft and Yahoo
  

The other factor to Yahoo!'s advantage is that some groups of stockholders may not sue it at all. That would include the company's founders. Along with some large shareholder who supported the company walking away, probably 20% of the stock is in hands of people who would take no action. But, large class actions suits, especially if they are making progress, could be joined by that majority of the stockholder base who held shares three months ago as well as when the offer was rejected.   Read More...

Google rules the search world in all but one important country. China not only has the largest population in the world, it has the largest number of people online totaling 221 million users. It passed the US last month for total number of internet citizens. At some point China could have 500 million people on the worldwide web, more than double the US.

Google's share of the search market in China is only 25%. Local search engine Baidu has 60%.

Baidu is a very small company when put along side Google. Revenue at the Chinese company many hit $200 million this year. Operating income might be $60 million. Google's revenue will be well over $20 billion this year. Operating income should be almost $10 billion. Still, Google can't make progress in China.   Read More...

It's no surprise that Oracle's Larry Ellison tops Forbes' list of the best-paid CEOs in technology. Ellison is #14 on the list of world billionaires and gets big money from his company every year. His salary last year was only $1 million, but he got $182 million more through exercising stock options, according to Forbes.

Oracle shareholders can't be too upset. The company's total return in the fiscal year was 36.3%, according to Forbes. A year ago Oracle shares were in the $19 range. They reached the $23 mark in January and are now trading at around $21.34.   Read More...

I love the idea of watching television shows on my cell phone. But would I pay for it? Eh. I'm not alone here -- only about 5% of consumers are willing to pay for mobile TV. Yet that isn't stopping AT&T from launching a paid service next week that broadcasts TV programs on cell phones. 

AT&T is shooting itself in the foot by setting the financial bar so high that few users will sign up. According to the WSJ, you have to buy one of two new phones (at $200 or $300) to get started. Then you have to pay $15 a month on top of what you already pay for voice and data plans. The traditional two-year commitment probably applies as well. Still, investors seem to be happy with the news, because AT&T shares were up 3% at last check to nearly $40.   Read More...

Garmin's days as a high-flying stock are over. Shares are down 11% today, hitting a two-year low after the company reported weak first-quarter profit and sales numbers. The quarter wasn't bad -- profit rose nearly 6% and sales were up 35% -- but analysts were simply expecting more. Garmin shares have dropped 66% in the last six months.

Garmin put on a happy face with the earnings, noting that "the global economic slowdown has impacted companies across the board." Executives also said that the first quarter is usually the slowest in terms of sales. But CFO Kevin Rauckman acknowledged that economic conditions are bringing some risk to future growth. Garmin has said it expects $4.5 billion in revenue this year, which one analyst said now "looks like quite a reach at this stage."   Read More...