No new posts until May 1, 2008. Website should be back up and completely redesigned by then.
It started off as a rumor, but was confirmed a few days ago. Starbucks is to ditch T-Mobile and go with AT&T to offer wireless users 2 hours of free wireless internet access. Does this mean that Panera Bread is going to lose some of their caffeine addicted customers? Probably so.
The Wall Street Journal [subscription required] is reporting that OPEC may be cutting its output again in the spring. For those who are unaware, OPEC is responsible for 40% of the world’s oil production. It wouldn’t be surprising to see $100 oil in the spring.
Time has compiled a list of the top business deals of 2007:
- News Corp. Buys Dow Jones for $5 Billion
- Blackstone Buys Equity Office Properties Trust for $39 Billion
- Google Buys DoubleClick for $3.1 Billion
- RBS Consortium Wins Battle for ABN Amro for $101 Billion
- Rio Tinto Buys Alcan for $38.1 Billion
- Tata Steel Buys Corus for $11.3 Billion
- Nokia Buys Navteq for $8.1 Billion
- Citadel Buys 18% of E*Trade for $2.5 Billion
- Blackstone Buys Hilton Hotels for $26 Billion
- KKR Wangles Biggest LBO Ever of TXU for $45 Billion
The best deal on there probably has to be Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick for $3.1bn.
The worst, by far is Citadel buying 18% of E*Trade for $2.5bn. At the current share price of $4.04 that puts E*Trade’s market capitalization at $1.71bn, which means 18% is only worth $307.8 million as of right now. I’m surprised this even made it to this list.
Is the last quarter of the year and the first month of the new year a good time for investors to engage in some event-driven trading? The WSJ has a great article [subscription required] on how funds tend to drop their biggest losers by the end of October to enjoy the tax shield and acquire the year’s best performers before December 31st as a window dressing technique in order to impress investors.
According to the article, research shows that for the past six years if someone were to buy the years biggest losers at the end of October and were to sell them by the end of December, they would see gains that are larger than the S&P’s gains by 7% on average. Maybe I’ll conduct some research on my own during my free time to see how companies in the financial sector performed during this two month period, considering their huge decline in the past few months.
The Wall Street Journal [subscription required] is reporting that Dubai International Capital has purchased a substantial stake in Sony Corp. [NYSE:SNE]. The stake purchased is under 5% as no public paperwork has been filed with any regulatory bodies in Japan. As a result of the announcement, Sony shares rose 4.6% in Japan and 1.9% in the United States.
With strong financial performance and the momentum that their gaming division is showing, Dubai International Capital’s investment in Sony seems to be a quite reasonable and wise one.
The Wall Street Journal published an article [subscription required] today about how some of the Gulf nations are rethinking about pegging their currencies to the dollar. Inflation in Qatar, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia is estimated to be at 12%, 8%, and 3% respectively for 2007. Inflation in these nations seems to be the most problematic for immigrant workers from the East who make up a huge portion of the labor force in the Gulf. Maybe the Gulf countries will follow the path of Kuwait and use a basket of currencies to link their currencies to rather than pegging directly to the U.S. dollar?
News of Apple potentially releasing their iPhone in China sent shares up close to 11% today.
Related articles:
CNN Money - China Unicom Executive:Considering Sale Of Apple’s iPhone In China
MarketWatch - China Mobile in talks with Apple on iPhone launch in China
UPDATE: China’s Unicom just announced a few minutes ago that they have no immediate plans to sell the iPhone in China for the time being (Read more).
Just as a follow up to my previous post, AAPL, GOOG, MSFT, RIMM, and YHOO slumped even further today:
Interesting how this two day slump has killed their month long upward rally:
Many assumed the tech industry was immune to all the negative and worrisome news and happenings in the financial sector, but I guess there comes a time where it all has to catch up.
Lets see what happens on Monday…
