Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) is dead. That has been written before, but now the company needs an official funeral mass. According toThe New York Times, "Palm's chief executive, will announce the debut of a new smartphone primarily for business customers - the Treo Pro." The company also has several other handsets in development.
Palm is now up against smartphone products from much larger companies like Samsung and Nokia (NYSE: NOK). Not to mention the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone.
In the last year, Palm had an operating loss of $105 million on a shrinking revenue base that fell to $1.32 billion. The company has $398 million in current and long-term debt.
Palm is not going to make it as an operating company, but it might be a good licensing entity. That would involve cutting almost all of the company's staff and licensing its brand and product designs to another company, perhaps Samsung or LG. The Palm name still carries some modest weight in the U.S.
Palm's revenue might drop to $100 million, but its costs would be negligible. It would, at least, make a profit, which is something that is out of the question with the company in its current form.
Motorola (NYSE: MOT) provides technologies, products, and services for mobile and home communications. The company's Mobile Devices division offers wireless handsets, with integrated software and accessories. The Home and Networks Mobility segment makes set-top boxes, digital video recorders, cable modems, and network equipment used in video broadcasting, computer telephony, and high-definition television. The Enterprise Mobility unit provides radio, voice and data communication products for a range of enterprise markets. Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) are major competitors.
The firm pleased investors late last month, when it reported Q2 EPS of two cents and revenues of $8.08 billion. Analysts had been expecting a loss of three cents and $7.69 billion. The company had positive operating cash flow of $204 million and ended the quarter with a net cash position of $3.6 billion and a total cash position of $7.8 billion. Management also guided Q3 EPS to 0-2 cents (one cent consensus) and FY08 EPS to 6-8 cents (one cent consensus).
10 Tech Giants to Buy Now Shares of companies such as IBM, Nokia and Microsoft have taken a hit along with the rest of the market, but they don't deserve to be this cheap. Other tech stocks to consider include Apple, Cisco, Google, HP, Intel, Oracle and Qualcomm. Ten Tech Giants to Buy Now - Kiplinger.com
New Life for Grocery Store Standbys Innovation is Pinnacle's lifeblood. The N.J.-based company -- which so far owns or licenses more than a dozen food brands -- specializes in acquiring venerable, but stagnant, brand names in need of TLC. It then works to breathe new life into them with updated formulations, new products, improved packaging, added convenience and smart marketing. Among the brands in Pinnacle's cub bard are Duncan Hines, Lender's Bagels, Log Cabin, Hungry Man, Mrs. Butterworth, Aunt Jemima, Swanson and more. Pinnacle gives new life to old standbys - USATODAY.com
RadiSys Corporation (NASDAQ: RSYS) makes system products for embedded computer applications used in the manufacturing automation, medical, transportation, telecommunications, gaming and test equipment markets. Products include embedded boards, board-level modules and chip-level components. The company also offers system integration and repair services. Clients include Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT) and IBM (NYSE: IBM).
The firm pleased investors last week, when it reported Q2 EPS of 14 cents and revenues of $97.6 million. Analysts had been expecting six cents and $87.8 million. The CEO attributed success to strong demand for the company's wireless and IP media server products. Management also guided Q3 EPS to 16-22 cents (nine cent consensus) and Q3 revenues to $98-$103 million ($91.2M consensus).
Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) is recently up $8.29 to $53.12. QCOM raised its 2008 revenue & EPS outlook. QCOM and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) said they agreed to end their legal disagreements. QCOM call option volume of 99,545 contracts compares to put volume of 48,346 contracts. QCOM August option implied volatility of 39 is near its 26-week average according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.
Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com
No matter how good Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM)'s earnings have been over the last two years, its stock has been capped to some extent by its long legal battle with its largest customer, Nokia (NYSE: NOK). The dispute is over now, news which is probably better for Qualcomm than Nokia. The legal threat hanging over the cell phone chip maker firm is gone.
According toThe Wall Street Journal, "Under the settlement, Nokia will withdraw that complaint as well as other litigation. Besides getting licenses to Qualcomm patents, Nokia said it will assign ownership of a number of its patents to Qualcomm. The pact not only covers patents used in current cellphone networks but also emerging technologies that could succeed them -- including WiMax and LTE, which stands for long-term evolution."
The news sent Qualcomm's stock up over 18%.
Nokia had disputed the fees Qualcomm charged for its chips and the license fees for its technology. Qualcomm can now get substantial payments from its former nemesis. If Qualcomm had lost its battle, its long-term income could have been cut sharply. Nokia is getting access to patents, but it will still be making payments to the chip company.
The trouble has kept Qualcomm's shares from trading above the $52 level that they hit in mid-2006. Investors can expect that the ceiling on the stock will now be gone.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
Stock futures were mixed Thursday morning, indicating a similar start to U.S. stocks. While the S&P 500 showed weakness ahead of housing data to be released at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the Nasdaq composite was slightly positive after Amazon.com reported strong earnings Wednesday. Investors also braced for Ford's earnings, which indeed posted double the estimated loss. The earnings wave continues. Meanwhile, oil prices edged a little higher, but remained around $124 a barrel.
Starting with Ford (NYSE: F) then, the world's third largest automaker posted (after items) a loss of $1.38 billion, or 62 cents. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expected Ford to report a loss of 28 cents a share. The headlines scream of a loss of $8.7 billion though, which includes $8 billion in pretax writedowns of North American plants and assets of Ford Motor Credit Co. Ford also said it will convert three truck factories to produce small cars as rising gasoline prices sap U.S. truck sales. Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) couldn't manage to offset higher costs of energy and raw materials with the recent price increases it announced, and posted a 27% decrease in profit for the period. Net income was $762 million, or 81 cents a share. Revenue is up 23% to $16.38 billion. Earnings were below analyst expectation according to Thomson Financial of 85 cents per share, but better than the sales estimates of $14.9 billion. DOW shares are dropping some 9.5% in premarket trading as the company said it expects the economy to weaken.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) posted strong earnings Wednesday after the close, proving its growth days aren't over in this weakened economy hurt by high gas prices. Not only did it beat estimates -- with a 41% climb in revenue to $4.06 billion compared to $3.96 expected, and EPS of 37 cents compared to expectations of 26 cents -- but it also raised its full-year revenue projections. AMZN shares are climbing about 6.5% in premarket trading.
Sweden's Ericsson LM TEL Co. (NASDAQ: ERIC) said this morning that it saw a 70% nosedive in profits for its second quarter due to R&D costs as well as activity related to recent acquisitions. Ericsson also commented that its primary business -- mobile equipment and infrastructure -- will likely experience a "flattish" market in 2008.
That didn't sit well with investors, who sank the stock over 5% in Stockholm where the company's shares are traded. The company's ADS price as of this afternoon was hovering right over $11.06 per share, even though the company did see a smallish sales gain of 2% year-over-year. The problem is that its profit was down to $320 million for the quarter compared to over $1 billion during the year-ago quarter.
One of the more interesting twists came from Ericsson's joint partnership in Sony Ericsson, the mobile phone handset company that had a great comeback in the 2005 to 2007 time frame but has seen sales drop sharply in 2008. In fact, Sony Ericsson saw a 97% drop in its recent Q2 earnings due to the company's inability to ship lower-end handsets to the hot mobile phone markets. As a result, Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK), was in all the right places to take the market share Sony Ericsson missed by being absent in that space.
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) shares are falling today after international wireless carrier Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) warned that FY2008 sales will likely fall below the company's forecast between 39.8 billion pounds ($79.7 billion) and 40.7 billion pounds. VOD blamed widespread economic weakness for the lagging sales, and if the wireless provider isn't doing well, then it could be a bad sign for NOK too. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on NOK.
After hitting a one-year high of $42.22 in November, the stock hit a one-year low of $23.58 earlier this month. This morning, NOK opened at $26.36. So far today the stock has hit a low of $26.26 and a high of $26.72. As of 1:10, NOK is trading at $26.41, down $0.91 (-3.3%). The chart for NOK looks neutral and improving, while S&P gives the stock a 4 STARS (out of 5) buy rating.
For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an October bear-call credit spread above the $31 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 14.3% return in three months as long as NOK is below $31 at October expiration. Nokia would have to rise by more than 17% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.
Dark Knight, the Batman movie starring Heath Ledger, did boffo box office: $158.3 million, according to Defamer. But this blockbuster will not just benefit Warner Brothers and DC Comics, which share parent Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) with BloggingStocks. There are at least six companies that will benefit from Dark Knight's success. According to Seeking Alpha, these companies include:
Time Warner -- through its Warner Brothers and DC Comics subsidiaries are profiting most directly.
Comcast Corporation (NYSE: CMCSA) partnered with Warner Bros. to offer "behind-the-scenes footage, trailers, and mini movies on demand"
Verizon Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) collaborated in creating the Nokia6205 The Dark Knight Edition. Seeking Alpha reports that "This batphone targets superfans, with bat wallpaper, voice tones, screensavers, and the film's trailer pre-loaded."
This post is part of a series on celebrity spokespeople who ended up doing serious harm to the brands they were hired to promote, or vice versa. See how we rank the 20 top spokesperson fiascos.
Before Michael Vick, quarterbacks were (mostly) tall, slow white men who passed the football, handed it off or got creamed by pass rushers. Vick changed the game by combining the strength, speed and agility of a running back with the arm and savvy of a quarterback. With it, he turned the traditional also-ran Atlanta Falcons into a contender. How could any company in the sporting goods field not sign such a sure-fire hall-of-famer as a spokesperson?
And sign him they did. Nike (NYSE:NKE) created a "Michael Vick Experience" ad campaign. He appeared on the cover of the 2004 version of Electronic Arts' (NASDAQ:ERTS) Madden football. The sponsor money rolled in, and when the Falcons signed Vick to a 10-year, $130 million contract, he had reached the pinnacle of sports success.
Then came the expose. News reports tying Vick to a dog fighting ring, then naming him as the pivotal figure in a horrendous gang who raised killer dogs in a kennel on Vick's property and buried the losers nearby. By the time Vick was taken into custody, his brand was so fouled that companies couldn't back away from him fast enough. The only sales of equipment with his name on it was to dog owners who used them as chew toys.
In a fiasco, everyone involved suffers. I just wish the everybody here hadn't included innocent dogs.
The bulls have scored another coup and laid the bears out on the streets just like it was Pamplona. Yep, there's no "Running of the Bears" after all. Oil rolled over for a third day and a more than $4.00 drop took oil futures back under $130.00. Financial stocks again lead the way on earnings and on a government mandated short squeeze. This may just be the start, or it could just be sharp short covering in stocks. One thing is for sure, there's plenty of good news and bad news to argue about.
Below are the unofficial closing bell levels for major index levels:
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) was one of the losers today after the company posted $0.43 EPS (non-GAAP) and $2.2 Billion in revenues, but mixed guidance ahead took shares of the online auction giant down by over 14% by the end of today in the final minutes to a 52-week low of $24.12.
After hitting a one-year high of $38.99 last July, the stock hit a one-year low of $26.48 on Tuesday. TXN opened this morning at $28.72. So far today the stock has hit a low of $28.03 and a high of $29.18. As of 1:05, TXN is trading at $28.65, up 0.59 (1.6%). The chart for TXN looks bearish and steady, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an August bull-put credit spread below the $25 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make an 8.7% return in just one month as long as TXN is above $25 at August expiration. TI would have to fall by more than 12% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.
TXN hasn't been below $26 at all in the past year and has shown support around $27 recently. This trade could be risky if the company's earnings (due out on 7/21) disappoint, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by the support the stock might find just below $27, where it bottomed over the past month.
DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in TXN nor NOK.
15 Dividend Star Stocks In a dicey stock market one smart strategy is to find high-yielding stocks with attractive capital appreciation prospects. Standard & Poor's Chief Investment Strategist Sam Stovall spotlights 15 winners. Dividends: 15 Yield STARS - BusinessWeek
Qualcomm
Stock futures were mixed Thursday morning, indicating a similar start to U.S. stocks. While the S&P 500 showed weakness ahead of housing data to be released at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the Nasdaq composite was slightly positive after Amazon.com reported strong earnings Wednesday. Investors also braced for Ford's earnings, which indeed posted double the estimated loss. The 
Sweden's 
This post is part of a series on celebrity spokespeople who ended up doing serious harm to the brands they were hired to promote, or vice versa. See how we rank the 
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