Tag Archives: Rick Munarriz

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

3 Reasons Microsoft's Smart Watch Will Fail

Leave a comment

By Rick Munarriz, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Is the world ready for a Microsoft smart watch? Sources tell The Wall Street Journal that the software giant is starting to stockpile supplies to enter the market. 

Wearable computing is clearly going to be a big market. Google‘s push for high-tech glasses is the real deal. This isn’t science fiction anymore. Samsung last month announced that it’s exploring a smart watch. Then we have Apple , which has long been rumored to be working on a smart watch.

Given Apple‘s anemic share price, the hunger for innovation could make an Apple smart watch hit the market sooner rather than later. The surprising success for Kickstarter-funded Pebble naturally has Google and Samsung thinking of ways to exploit their successful platforms through Bluetooth-enabled watches.

Microsoft is in for an uphill battle. In this video, Rick Munarriz explores the three reasons Microsoft’s smart watch is likely to be a dud if it ever does hit the market. 

Smart watches are just the latest scuffle in the battle between the tech giants. It’s incredible to think just how much of our digital and technological lives are almost entirely shaped and molded by just a handful of companies. Find out “Who Will Win the War Between the 5 Biggest Tech Stocks” in The Motley Fool’s latest free report, which details the knock-down, drag-out battle being waged among the five kings of tech. Click here to keep reading.

The article 3 Reasons Microsoft’s Smart Watch Will Fail originally appeared on Fool.com.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

(function(c,a){window.mixpanel=a;var b,d,h,e;b=c.createElement(“script”);
b.type=”text/javascript”;b.async=!0;b.src=(“https:”===c.location.protocol?”https:”:”http:”)+
‘//cdn.mxpnl.com/libs/mixpanel-2.2.min.js’;d=c.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0];
d.parentNode.insertBefore(b,d);a._i=[];a.init=function(b,c,f){function d(a,b){
var c=b.split(“.”);2==c.length&&(a=a[c[0]],b=c[1]);a[b]=function(){a.push([b].concat(
Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments,0)))}}var g=a;”undefined”!==typeof f?g=a[f]=[]:
f=”mixpanel”;g.people=g.people||[];h=[‘disable’,’track’,’track_pageview’,’track_links’,
‘track_forms’,’register’,’register_once’,’unregister’,’identify’,’alias’,’name_tag’,
‘set_config’,’people.set’,’people.increment’];for(e=0;e<h.length;e++)d(g,h[e]);
a._i.push([b,c,f])};a.__SV=1.2;})(document,window.mixpanel||[]);
mixpanel.init("9659875b92ba8fa639ba476aedbb73b9");

function addEvent(obj, evType, fn, useCapture){
if (obj.addEventListener){
obj.addEventListener(evType, fn, useCapture);
return true;
} else if (obj.attachEvent){
var r = obj.attachEvent("on"+evType, fn);
return r;
}
}

addEvent(window,

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/15/3-reasons-microsofts-smart-watch-will-fail/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

McDonald's to Roll Out New 'Dual-Point' Ordering System

Leave a comment

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz

Filed under: , , ,

Getty Images

McDonald’s (MCD) customers aren’t as happy as they used to be, but the world’s largest restaurant chain has a plan.

Facing a spike in customer complaints on employee friendliness, McDonald’s is rolling out a new dual-point ordering system that will hopefully make the dine-in experience less chaotic than it is at the moment.

Diners, franchisees, and investors better hope so.

Grimace is in the House

Shares of McDonald’s hit a new all-time high on Friday, but things aren’t as rosy as the stock chart suggests. In October 2012 the chain posted a year-over-year decline in monthly sales at the individual store level, the first time since 2003 it reported negative monthly comparable sales.

McDonald’s has been expanding its menu aggressively to offset diner boredom. Premium chicken sandwiches, restaurant-worthy salads, and premium coffee beverages give the fast food behemoth more than just burgers to woo diners.

However, all of the exotic additions could also be creating confusion and long waits for customers.

Having a McHeart-to-Heart

McDonald’s executives invited franchisees to a webcast last month where it detailed that one in five of the customer complaints that were coming in were about unfriendly employees. According to The Wall Street Journal, executives also pointed out that the number of complaints singling out rude or unprofessional employees is growing.

It could be a training issue, but it could also be the complexity of the menu and the longer wait times for the hungry to get their food.

McDonald’s is banking on a new system to get that right.

Your Number is Up

The new system at McDonald’s will dish out orders by placing numbers on receipts. A lot of chains do this already, but McDonald’s will have an overhead screen that flashes the order numbers that are ready. Instead of having customers hover around the register after they order, the new system frees them to sit or walk around the restaurant until their food is ready.

Perhaps more importantly, there will be a dedicated employee bringing the completed orders to the opposite end of the counter. The move will free the clutter around the registers, and the runner will be able to fulfill any requests for sugar packets or honey-mustard sauce containers instead of tripping up a cashier tending to a new order.

A more pleasant experience will naturally encourage more repeat visits. McDonald’s needs that to happen, regardless of what its sky-high share price suggests.

Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends McDonald’s. The Motley Fool owns shares of McDonald’s. Try any of our newsletter services free for 30 days.

%Gallery-179103%

<a target=_blank href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/on/mcdonalds-dual-point-ordering-system/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/on/mcdonalds-dual-point-ordering-system/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Google Is Smarter Than You May Think

Leave a comment

By Rick Munarriz, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

It’s official: Google‘s going to roll out its high-speed Internet and television service in Austin, Texas. After days of swirling rumors, the search giant confirmed Austin as its second expansion market on Tuesday.

Google Fiber is already giving residents of Kansas City (both Kansas and Missouri) Internet access at speeds that are 100 times faster than traditional broadband for just $70 a month. Gigabit Internet paired up with a high-def TV for just $120 is a steal — and that’s the point.

Google doesn’t want to compete against Comcast and smaller cable and satellite television providers. Big G just wants to keep them honest. In this video, Rick Munarriz details why Google is doing the right thing by taking on Comcast and other service providers, even if a model that’s high in initial capital outlays and low in subsequent profit margins is foreign to Google’s flagship other online pursuits. 

Google needs to keep the Internet fast and affordable, and Rick says it may as well lead by example.

The battle of titans isn’t just taking place when it comes to access. It’s incredible to think just how much of our digital and technological lives are almost entirely shaped and molded by just a handful of companies. Find out “Who Will Win the War Between the 5 Biggest Tech Stocks” in The Motley Fool’s latest free report, which details the knock-down, drag-out battle being waged among the five kings of tech. Click here to keep reading.

The article Google Is Smarter Than You May Think originally appeared on Fool.com.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Google. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

(function(c,a){window.mixpanel=a;var b,d,h,e;b=c.createElement(“script”);
b.type=”text/javascript”;b.async=!0;b.src=(“https:”===c.location.protocol?”https:”:”http:”)+
‘//cdn.mxpnl.com/libs/mixpanel-2.2.min.js’;d=c.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0];
d.parentNode.insertBefore(b,d);a._i=[];a.init=function(b,c,f){function d(a,b){
var c=b.split(“.”);2==c.length&&(a=a[c[0]],b=c[1]);a[b]=function(){a.push([b].concat(
Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments,0)))}}var g=a;”undefined”!==typeof f?g=a[f]=[]:
f=”mixpanel”;g.people=g.people||[];h=[‘disable’,’track’,’track_pageview’,’track_links’,
‘track_forms’,’register’,’register_once’,’unregister’,’identify’,’alias’,’name_tag’,
‘set_config’,’people.set’,’people.increment’];for(e=0;e<h.length;e++)d(g,h[e]);
a._i.push([b,c,f])};a.__SV=1.2;})(document,window.mixpanel||[]);
mixpanel.init("9659875b92ba8fa639ba476aedbb73b9");

function addEvent(obj, evType, fn, useCapture){
if (obj.addEventListener){
obj.addEventListener(evType, fn, useCapture);
return true;
} else if (obj.attachEvent){
var r = obj.attachEvent("on"+evType, fn);
…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

The Biggest, Cheapest, and Fastest-Growing Company in America

Leave a comment

By John Maxfield, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Say what you will about Apple , but no other company comes close to being the biggest, cheapest, and fastest-growing company on the S&P 500 . Check out this chart:

Apple: The Biggest, Cheapest, and Fastest Growing Company in America | Create infographics

So what does this mean for investors? In my opinion, it means that Apple is a bargain right now. Does it face challenges? Of course, but name one company that doesn’t. The most recent example is Samsung’s partnership with Best Buy — though you can click here to see why the pairing may ultimately work out in Apple’s favor.

At the same time, the technology giant is sitting on a veritable mountain of cash — $137 billion, to be precise. And it’s preparing to give even more back to shareholders. “Apple’s management team and Board of Directors have been in active discussions about returning additional cash to shareholders,” read a press release at the beginning of February.

Finally, there’s innovation. Sure, Apple hasn’t released a truly innovative product since Steve Jobs‘ passing. Yet it’s a mistake to assume the company is now incapable of wowing current and future customers. As my colleague Rick Munarriz wrote last month, “Who knows if Apple isn’t going to beat Google to wearable iSpecs, revolutionize the cable industry with a la carte programming, or put out a product that may not seem necessary at first (think iPad) but proves indispensable in short order?”

Investors don’t get rich by following the crowd. Had you done so, you would have bought Apple at $700, when hedge fund managers like David Einhorn were proclaiming it’d be the next $1 trillion company. Instead, you get rich by buying great companies at bargain-basement prices. And there are few that fit this description better than Apple.

There’s no doubt that Apple is at the center of technology’s largest revolution ever and that longtime shareholders have been handsomely rewarded, with more than 1,000% gains. However, there is a debate raging as to whether Apple remains a buy. The Motley Fool’s senior technology analyst and managing bureau chief, Eric Bleeker, is prepared to fill you in on both reasons to buy and reasons to sell Apple and what opportunities are left for the company (and your portfolio) going forward. To get instant access to his latest thinking on Apple, simply click here now.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; FoolAnalyticsData.push({ …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

BlackBerry Performs a Mercy Killing

Leave a comment

By Rick Munarriz, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

BlackBerry is doing the inevitable, informing its subscribers that it will be shutting down its BBM Music service in two months.

The late 2011 rollout of BBM Music was flawed from the start.

The price was right at $5 a month. The model itself is what was ridiculous. Subscribers would have access to just 50 songs — swapping out as many as half of them in any given month. The social gimmick was that then they would be able to access the 50 profile songs of anyone that they befriend on the platform. That was supposed to be the viral elixir, but we had seen how well social sharing went for Microsoft‘s Zune.

Those of us writing about BBM Music at the time of its launch in November 2011 were unimpressed.

It’s not the first time that a company took too long to realize that it failed in social music.

Microsoft overstayed its welcome with the Zune portable media player that was never able to make a dent in Apple‘s leading iPod platform. Apple itself wasn’t successful. Its own attempt at making music social — Ping — was mercifully scrapped from iTunes two years after its launch.

Smartphone companies need to let the social companies worry about social. Halfhearted attempts aren’t going to make their platforms any stickier.

The writing was on the wall for BBM Music when it wasn’t part of the BlackBerry 10 mobile operating system upgrade. However, it was doomed from the start. Who would pay $5 a month and have to jump through social hoops when Spotify has millions of songs streaming on demand for just twice as much? If money was a factor, Pandora is the popular choice of ad-based free streaming. There were 67.7 million active monthly users of Pandora’s service in February, and it’s one of the music apps that have been ported to BB10.

If there’s any surprise here, it’s that BlackBerry is eliminating its proprietary music service at a time when popular streaming apps including Spotify and Rdio haven’t decided if BB10 will grow enough to justify developing a BlackBerry app. There’s a void to fill, but it doesn’t look good when even BlackBerry is throwing in the towel.

Tech is a battlefield
It’s incredible to think just how much of our digital and technological lives are almost entirely shaped and molded by just a handful of companies. Find out “Who Will Win the War Between the 5 Biggest Tech Stocks?” in The Motley Fool’s latest free report, which details the knock-down, drag-out battle being waged by the five kings of tech. Click here to keep reading.

The article BlackBerry Performs a Mercy Killing originally appeared on Fool.com.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Is Glu Mobile Destined for Greatness?

Leave a comment

By Alex Planes, The Motley Fool

GLUU Total Return Price Chart

Filed under:

Investors love stocks that consistently beat the Street without getting ahead of their fundamentals and risking a meltdown. The best stocks offer sustainable market-beating gains, with robust and improving financial metrics that support strong price growth. Does Glu Mobile fit the bill? Let’s take a look at what its recent results tell us about its potential for future gains.

What we’re looking for
The graphs you’re about to see tell Glu’s story, and we’ll be grading the quality of that story in several ways:

  • Growth: Are profits, margins, and free cash flow all increasing?
  • Valuation: Is share price growing in line with earnings per share?
  • Opportunities: Is return on equity increasing while debt to equity declines?
  • Dividends: Are dividends consistently growing in a sustainable way?

What the numbers tell you
Now, let’s take a look at Glu’s key statistics:

GLUU Total Return Price data by YCharts.

Criteria

3-Year* Change 

Grade

Revenue growth > 30%

10.3%

Fail

Improving profit margin

7.1%

Pass

Free cash flow growth > Net income growth

(3,100%) vs. (12.5%)

Fail

Improving EPS

47.5%

Pass

Stock growth (+ 15%) < EPS growth

165.2% vs. 47.5%

Fail

Source: YCharts. *Period begins at end of Q4 2009.

GLUU Return on Equity data by YCharts.

Criteria

3-Year* Change

Grade

Improving return on equity

49.7%

Pass

Declining debt to equity

No debt

Pass

Source: YCharts. *Period begins at end of Q4 2009.

How we got here and where we’re going
Four out of seven passing grades isn’t a bad showing, but Glu comes with some obvious shortcomings, particularly on its bottom line. In three years, the mobile game developer has failed to reach profitability, and what’s worse, narrowly positive free cash flow has collapsed (relatively speaking), forcing a doubling of the share count over the three-year period. What will it take to push Glu over the top and into profitable territory?

If the company’s strategy is any indication, real-money gaming is the future. It’s hardly the first downtrodden game developer to jump on the Vegas bandwagon — Zynga has been moving in the same direction for months, and recently secured a license from Nevada for real-money gaming. The similarities between the two companies have prompted copycat movements in share prices and tactical responses from Glu’s management saying, as my colleague Rick Munarriz put it, “I’m not Zynga, dude!” That may be true, but both companies have rebounded from their 2012 lows largely on the hope of big bucks from real-money bets.

Beyond that anticipation, there hasn’t been much reason to get excited about Glu’s mobile offerings. Freemium games live and die on the hitmaking top-app charts on Android and iOS devices. Glu’s got dozens of offerings, but none of them show up on either Android’s or iOS’ top lists, whether it’s free, paid, or simply top-grossing, which would be the best place for a freemium game to show up.

The first-mover advantage (Glu has been developing mobile games for years before the …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Short Sale Stocks: The 5 Companies Bears Love to Hate

Leave a comment

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 05: Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform, is interviewed by SiriusXM Patriot host Andrew Wilkow at SiriusXM Studio on March 5, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images)

Filed under: , , , ,

Leigh Vogel, Getty Images

The market hit a series of fresh highs this month, but there’s no shortage of bears betting that share prices will soon fall. A whopping 13.3 billion shares were sold short on the New York Stock Exchange as of the end of last month. Nearly 7.5 billion more shares have been shorted on the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

In a nutshell, selling short means reversing the traditional buy and sell order of a stock transaction. Therefore a short profits from falling prices — but takes a hit when the market heads higher. (For a bit more background, here’s how it works: An investor borrows shares from a broker through an order to sell short. The investor must, at some later point, close out that position by placing a buy order to cover the short. This sort of transaction can be dangerous given the unlimited downside if a stock shoots higher. But it can be lucrative if a shorted stock falls.)

So which stocks are on the most-shorted list?

With 20.8 billion shares sold short between the country’s two leading exchanges, there are plenty of prolific companies with huge bearish positions. Here are five with the largest short positions as of the end of February.

Feb. 28 Dec. 31
Sirius XM Radio (SIRI) 414.0 million 355.4 million
Nokia (NOK) 338.0 million 291.7 million
Frontier Communications (FTR) 227.6 million 212.5 million
Intel (INTC) 216.0 million 215.5 million
Bank of America (BAC) 161.3 million 186.6 million

Source: Barron’s.

Why these companies? Let’s dig a little deeper:

%Gallery-183453%

Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz owns shares of Bank of America. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. The Motley Fool owns shares of Bank of America and Intel. Try any of our newsletter services free for 30 days.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

True Religion Doesn't Have to Sell Itself Cheap

Leave a comment

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

True Religion is having a crisis of faith this week.

Its founding CEO was shown the door earlier this week, and now there’s chatter that buyout talks for the maker of high-end casual wear have stalled. The stock is trading lower today on news that bidders are dropping out as True Religion‘s price has moved higher on the takeover speculation.

Shares of the apparel retailer popped in October after revealing that it was exploring strategic alternatives. It seemed to be a bad sign that the CEO would step down at this juncture, before a buyout was announced. Jeff Lubell was the company’s chairman, CEO, and creative director. If an acquisition was coming soon, one would think that the buyer would want Lubell around to make sure that the baton was being handed over as smoothly as possible.

However, some viewed Lubell as an obstacle, according to the New York Post. Founding CEOs can be stubborn that way. Sources are telling the paper that the three potential private equity firm buyers have dropped out of the bidding process.

True Religion‘s stock was at $21 before the retailer went public, and a buyout at $30 may have been realistic; but the fear here is that a buyer would have to pay more than that now that the stock has been floating in the mid-$20s.

Let’s buck fashion. Let’s play contrarian here. Let’s argue that True Religion doesn’t need a buyout.

It may have been shameless to be a company selling a pair of jeans for $300 during the darkest recessionary stretches, but the economy’s humming along now. Smaller rival Joe’s Jeans hit a two-year high last week. Analysts see True Religion growing revenue and earnings at healthy rates in the high single digits, and Joe’s Jeans is growing even faster.

Last month’s monster report by Michael Kors was an eye opener. The retailer of upscale handbags and accessories stunned the market with a 70% spike in revenue on an amazing 41% spike in comps.

Investors shouldn’t necessarily expect this kind of burst at True Religion, or even the faster growing Joe’s Jeans; but consumer appetite for luxury goods is moving in the right direction.

Let the bidders drop out of True Religion. If the economy continues to inch in the right direction, Mr. Market will be willing to pay more.

You may not dress like you’re rich, but it’s not too late to be rich
Are you part of the 99%? The Motley Fool’s new free report highlights three less-than-luxurious stocks the 1% may be overlooking. Just click here to read it now.

The article True Religion Doesn’t Have to Sell Itself Cheap originally appeared on Fool.com.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

If FedEx and Cintas Fail, We Fail

Leave a comment

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Yesterday was a bad day for FedEx and Cintas investors, but it may also mean that we’re all having a bad day.

Shares of FedEx and Cintas tumbled 7% and 4%, respectively, yesterday. The speedy package delivery giant and the leading supplier of workplace uniforms slipped after posting disappointing quarterly reports.

FedEx and Cintas both reported quarterly profits that were short of Wall Street expectations. You have to go back more than three years to find the last time that Cintas fell short on the bottom line. The economy was in pretty sad shape at the time. FedEx investors don’t need to jog their memories as hard. The overnight delivery specialist with the world’s largest air express fleet also missed three months ago.

FedEx saw its revenue climb 4%, but profitability plummeted 31%. Cintas saw revenue climb 6%, but operating profits and net income declined.

FedEx blames the bottom-line shortfall on its international customers switching to slower and cheaper options where the margins aren’t as beefy as its premium-priced next-day service. Cintas blames its margin crunch on higher costs — material cost amortization and increasing its route capacity — on a boost in new customers.

The news would appear to be mixed. FedEx customers are shaving costs. Cintas has to invest in its growth. However, both companies ultimately offered uninspiring near-term outlooks.

Did you really think that Cintas’ stock would fall if its only problem was a deluge of new leads?

Investors shouldn’t dismiss these two disappointing reports. FedEx and Cintas are bellwethers. They are smart ways to gauge the pulse of corporate America.

Cintas serves more than 900,000 businesses with more than just freshly pressed uniforms. FedEx offers a more global snapshot, but it’s still at the mercy of the economy. If FedEx and Cintas aren’t doing so well, it’s a pretty safe bet that the economic recovery isn’t humming along as well as we’ve been led to believe.

Read up on three globetrotters worth buying
Profiting from our increasingly global economy can be as easy as investing in your own backyard. The Motley Fool’s free report “3 American Companies Set to Dominate the World” shows you how. Click here to get your free copy before it’s gone.

The article If FedEx and Cintas Fail, We Fail originally appeared on Fool.com.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Cintas and FedEx. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

(function(c,a){window.mixpanel=a;var b,d,h,e;b=c.createElement(“script”);
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Can a Nike Exec Save This Apple Bandwagon Hopper?

Leave a comment

By Rick Munarriz, Munarriz, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Skullcandy has had its skull rocked as a public company, but a new CEO may help turn things around.

Shares of the maker of in-ear headphones opened 8% higher after announcing that Nike‘s Hoby Darling will be taking the helm at Skullcandy.

Darling was the GM of the Nike+ Digital Sport division of the footwear giant. Fueled by the success of last year’s NikeFuel fitness-monitoring bracelet and the growing popularity of NikeFuel, the division was growing in importance at Nike. Did Darling feel that the Skullcandy opportunity was too good to pass up? Did Darling feel that the digital sport market was about to get more competitive now that even the new Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone packs a pedometer and proprietary tracking applications?

Skullcandy will be a challenge.

The stock has been a colossal disappointment since going public at $20 two summers ago, and things got worse earlier this month when Skullcandy offered dreadful guidance after a mixed quarterly report. Skullcandy’s eyeing a loss on a 30% drop in revenue in the current quarter. Analysts were eyeing a profitable showing with double-digit top-line growth.

The prospects were brighter before Skullcandy went public. The success of Apple — first with the iPod and then with the iPhone — was a massive opportunity for Skullcandy. Apple’s stock earbuds were dull. Skullcandy’s alternatives were edgy and colorful.

The market for third-party accessory makers riding on Apple’s coattails have been snipped short lately. Skullcandy and Zagg have fallen into the single digits.

Unlike Skullcandy, Zagg’s still growing sales of its invisibleSHIELD protective covers and Bluetooth tablet keyboards. However, both companies failed to live up to Wall Street‘s profit targets during the holiday quarter.

It will be interesting to see if Darling parlays some of his work at Nike+ Digital Spot into making Skullcandy accessories more interactive. Skullcandy’s roots came in the field of extreme sports, and one can argue that folks buying earbuds are on the move.

However, it’s probably Darling’s earlier work with Nike’s affiliate brands and at youth-oriented retailer Volcom before that which ultimately got him the gig. There’s a fading brand to bring back to life, and Darling has his work cut out for him.

A thinking investor’s play on mobile
The mobile revolution is still in its infancy, but with so many different companies it can be daunting to know how to profit in the space. Fortunately, The Motley Fool has released a free report on mobile named “The Next Trillion-Dollar Revolution” that tells you how. The report describes why this seismic shift will dwarf any other technology revolution seen before it and also names the company at the forefront of the trend. You can access this report today by clicking here — it’s free.

The article Can a Nike Exec Save This Apple Bandwagon Hopper? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Netflix's New $600 Million Move: Facebook Integration

Leave a comment

By Adam Levine-Weinberg, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

On Wednesday morning, video-streaming leader Netflix announced the launch of a Facebook app for U.S. customers. Starting this week, U.S. Netflix users will be able to link their Netflix and Facebook accounts, so that their friends can see what they’ve been watching (and vice-versa). The move was made possible by a recent change to the Video Privacy Protection Act, which had previously made it illegal to share such information without written consent from the customer. This new feature was widely expected, insofar as Netflix had already offered Facebook integration in every one of its international markets.

The news sparked a nearly 6% rally in Netflix shares on Wednesday, adding approximately $600 million to Netflix’s market cap (based on an estimated diluted share count of 60 million). However, while Netflix’s expansion of “social” video is a nice feature that will please many customers (particularly the under-30 set), it’s hard to characterize it as a game-changer. Netflix’s valuation already reflects a very rosy view of future growth and profitability. Facebook integration could cause a modest uptick in Netflix’s user loyalty among younger customers, who tend to be heavier social-media users. Nevertheless, in the grand scheme of things, Netflix’s big move on Wednesday simply represented an overvalued stock that became still more overvalued.

How it will work
My Foolish colleague Rick Munarriz recently explained the workings of the new Netflix Social feature. By default, Netflix users who link to their Facebook accounts will be able to see what their friends have watched, and which movies and TV shows their friends like the most. This functionality should nicely complement Netflix’s existing technology for delivering video recommendations. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings frequently talks about Netflix’s ability to deliver personalized viewing recommendations as a significant competitive advantage, and Facebook integration is another step down this road.

What does it mean?
I see Netflix Social as a low-cost, low-risk move for Netflix that may persuade some users to stick around who might otherwise have canceled the service. Improving the user experience is a positive for Netflix, especially with Amazon.com making a big push to grow its Prime user base. Amazon is rapidly building its content library and has won some important exclusive contracts recently, such as the streaming rights for Downton Abbey.

On the other hand, Netflix’s user interface is already well ahead of Amazon’s, so it’s running up against the law of diminishing returns here. Amazon isn’t trying to compete by providing a better user interface; instead, it’s trying to attract subscribers through its lower price ($79 a year for Prime or $39 a year for students, versus $96 for Netflix), its exclusive content, and additional benefits (e.g., free expedited shipping and the Kindle Lending Library).

Netflix Social may provide some differentiation on the margin, but it doesn’t address Netflix’s core problem: its lack of a moat in the streaming business. With competition growing quickly, I think Netflix will struggle to improve its …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Samsung's Creepy Phone Tech Should Worry Apple Shareholders

Leave a comment

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz

Filed under: , , , ,

(Donald Bowers, Getty Images for Samsung)

Samsung has already overtaken Apple (AAPL) to become the world’s largest seller of smartphones, and now it’s hoping to pad its lead.

The South Korean tech giant will be introducing its latest Android-fueled handset — the Samsung Galaxy S4 — during Thursday night’s Samsung Unpacked event in New York City.

The rumored specs are pretty impressive.

  • The Galaxy S4 will apparently feature a high-resolution 5-inch screen.
  • A 13-megapixel camera — as opposed to the iPhone 5’s 8-megapixel camera — will shoot high-def video in 1080p. Another rumor suggests that the S4’s camera will be able to take 3-D pictures.
  • The new smartphone will come with a speedy 1.8GHz processor and two gigabytes of RAM, again surpassing Apple’s current iPhone 5.

These features alone and running on Google’s (GOOG) latest Android 4.2 Jelly Bean mobile operating system should be enough to woo smartphone buyers.

But perhaps the device’s greatest bar-raising contribution will be the ability to scroll down without lifting a finger.

Really.

Eye on the Prize

Samsung’s Galaxy phones are already watching your eyes. The Galaxy S3’s front-facing camera can detect if the device is being watched so it won’t dim the screen. It’s a way to preserve the battery life without interfering when it’s actually in use.

However, one of the more interesting rumors making the rounds this time is that Samsung will use an enhanced version of the eye-tracking software to provide touch-less scrolling.

Samsung already has patents for Eye Scroll and Eye Pause, and this could be the device that brings it all together. In theory, once Samsung’s camera detects that you’re looking at the bottom of the screen it can scroll up so you can keep reading without having to slide your finger along the side of the screen.

Is this too creepy? Is this a game changer that will find everyone else scrambling to catch up in ways that don’t violate Samsung’s patents? Is this going to give Apple — already hitting a fresh 52-week low last week — more to do as it readies its next iPhone?

Everyone’s watching Samsung this week to learn if Samsung itself is watching you.

Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Apple and Google. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and Google. Try any of our newsletter services free for 30 days.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

5 Surprising Stocks Hitting New Lows

Leave a comment

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz

Apple stocks falls

Filed under: , , ,

(Getty Images)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a new all-time high last week, but not every stock went along for the ride.

In fact, a whopping 221 stocks hit fresh 52-week lows on the NYSE and Nasdaq exchanges.
Let’s go over some of the surprising names on the list of underachievers.

Last Week’s Low 52-week High
Apple (AAPL) $419.00 $705.07
Skullcandy (SKUL) $5.06 $17.76
Millennial Media (MM) $7.99 $27.90
Select Comfort (SCSS) $16.62 $35.60
The Fresh Market(TFM) $36.51 $65.69

%Gallery-181382%

Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz owns shares of Millennial Media. The Motley Fool recommends Apple, Google, The Fresh Market, and Whole Foods Market. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Google, SKULLCANDY INC, and Whole Foods Market. Try any of our newsletter services free for 30 days. – gallery

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Clear Channel Attacks Pandora and Sirius XM

Leave a comment

By Rick Munarriz, Munarriz, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

No one expects the disrupted to be the disruptor, but that appears to be what terrestrial radio giant CC Media Holdings is doing today.

The parent company behind Clear Channel — the AM and FM behemoth with 850 radio stations attracting 243 million monthly listeners across the country — is beefing up its iHeartRadio app. The new “Add-Ins” feature lets listeners of iHeartRadio’s customized stations to have brief local news, weather, and traffic updates inserted into their streams.

In other words, you now have as many as three fewer reasons to listen to Clear Channel‘s traditional radio stations if you have smartphone in a newer model car that allows Bluetooth streaming.

It’s a bold move for Clear Channel to get ahead of the trend, even if it means sacrificing its own business.

Burning your own boats is naturally a risky strategy, but it has paid off handsomely before. Netflix was the country’s leading DVD rental service, but that didn’t stop the video service from taking the lead in the video-streaming revolution. It’s a strategy that played out nicely for Netflix. It now has more than 33 million streaming subscribers worldwide, and that’s roughly twice as many DVD-based accounts it had at its peak.

Clear Channel‘s move will raise the stakes for Pandora and Spotify, and it may even challenge Sirius XM Radio for dashboard attention.

After all, Sirius XM and its lesser terrestrial radio peers have always had the advantage of live content. Sirius XM benefits from its ability to pay up for premium programming, setting itself apart from the music-centric Pandora and Spotify. Traditional radio stations offer local perspectives that even Sirius XM can’t match outside of its traffic and weather updates for major metropolitan markets.

The beauty of Add-Ins is that it’s not just about the local perspective. Add-Ins can be customized. Someone that isn’t hitting the open road may not care about traffic. Someone staying in may not care about the weather. Not everyone cares about local news headlines.

Yes, iHeartRadio’s biggest threat will be to Clear Channel‘s own stations, but the move ultimately raises the bar for Pandora, as the rival free ad-supported service and other premium digital platforms will need to offer more to remain competitive.

Despite Sirius XM being one of the market‘s biggest winners since bottoming out three years ago, there is still some healthy upside to be had if things go right for it — and plenty of room for it to fall if things don’t. Read all about Sirius in our brand new premium report. To get started, just click here now.

The article Clear Channel Attacks Pandora and Sirius XM originally appeared on Fool.com.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz owns shares of Netflix. The Motley Fool recommends Netflix. The Motley Fool owns shares of Netflix. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Here's What Tiger Global, a Hedge Fund Pioneer, Has Been Buying

Leave a comment

By Selena Maranjian, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Every quarter, many money managers have to disclose what they’ve bought and sold, via “13F” filings. Their latest moves can shine a bright light on smart stock picks.

Today let’s look at Tiger Global Management, founded by Julian Robertson in 1980. Robertson, a hedge fund pioneer, reportedly racked up average annual gains of more than 30% in the 1980s and 1990s, and today his fund mainly manages his own money. His style is to go both long and short on stocks, explaining: “Our mandate is to find the 200 best companies in the world and invest in them, and find the 200 worst companies in the world and go short on them. If the 200 best don’t do better than the 200 worst, you should probably be in another business.”

The company’s reportable stock portfolio totaled $5.4 billion in value as of Dec. 31 and contained just a few dozen stocks. Indeed, the top 10 holdings make up about 62% of the overall portfolio’s value.

Interesting developments
So what does Tiger Global‘s latest quarterly 13F filing tell us? Here are a few interesting details.

The biggest new holdings are Starz and FleetCor Technologies. Other new holdings of interest include First Solar . The company has struggled, along with many peers, but bulls have high hopes for its projects in emerging markets such as India and note that it’s one of the lowest-cost installers and has a stronger balance sheet than its rivals. My colleague Travis Hoium thinks the company would do well to shift some attention from serving utilities to residential and commercial work, and that it might even change its financial structure.

Among holdings in which Tiger Global Management increased its stake were 3D Systems and Pitney Bowes . Three-dimensional-printing specialist 3D Systems recently disappointed investors with a strong quarter that just wasn’t as strong as many had hoped. Some worry about cutbacks in military or industrial spending, but there’s also a promising consumer market. Meanwhile, the recent price drop spells opportunity to some.

Long known for its postage-meter business, Pitney Bowes yields a whopping 11.5%. It has been challenged by the growth of electronic communications over mailed communications. On the plus side, though, Pitney Bowes is involved in other less-threatened  and higher-margin businesses as well, such as providing geocoding software to Facebook and others. The company recently posted estimate-topping quarterly results, and its single-digit P/E ratio is enticing, but it does carry some risks and considerable debt, and its hefty dividend may end up reduced.

Tiger Global Management reduced its stake in lots of companies, including Frontier Communications . Frontier offers a tantalizing 9.8% dividend yield, but it’s experiencing shrinking cash flow, steep interest expenses, and revenue drops in its data and Internet services. My colleague Rick Munarriz reminds us that steep yields bear close watching. Indeed, Frontier is paying out more than it’s making.

Finally, Tiger Global‘s biggest closed positions included …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

I Love Pandora, but This Company's Singing the Blues

Leave a comment

By Richard Saintvilus, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Although I’ve recently latched on to Sirius XM‘s , I’ve long been a closet admirer of rival Pandora — for the music, not the business model. I’m all for supporting the “little guy” or the struggling artists, but when it comes to Pandora’s business model I have my doubts. The company just heightened that fear.

Content can’t both be “king” and free
On Wednesday, in a blog post on its website, Pandora announced that it is installing a 40-hour monthly limit on anyone listening for free via a mobile device. Those who exceed that 40-hour limit will be presented with several options: to listen on a personal computer, pay a nominal fee of $0.99 for the remainder of the month, or sign up for the ad-free subscription service. According to the company, fewer than 4% of its active listeners will feel the effect.

That’s all well and good, but it’s hard to not see this as the “tip of the iceberg.” More importantly, it continues an issue beyond Pandora’s control — that is, it doesn’t own the content that’s at the center of its business. As such, it has to pay a license fee/royalty to use it. But here’s the problem: These costs keep rising and eating into the company’s bottom line. Recently, there have been myriad articles with writers taking up the fight with some righteous anger.

But is that really what Pandora needs? Let’s stop pretending it’s a situation where it’s “Pandora (good guy) vs. (bad guy) record label.” Who are we kidding? It’s business. Pandora knew the nature of this industry when it decided to pursue its model, and investors knew the risks, which Pandora fully disclosed prior to its IPO. Content can’t both be “king” and free. This is what such companies as Netflix , with its consistently rising content costs, fully understand.

Perception, reality, execution
Pandora’s perceived dependency on content costs is one thing. Management, however, has a responsibility to sell the strength of its model and seek to continually evolve. Pandora has failed to do this. What it was in 2000 is what it is today. Conversely, Netflix has evolved from a strictly mail-order model to the most dominant streaming platform on the market today. But it wasn’t easy. It had to make some tough decisions to help offset its leveraged balance sheet, for which it paid dearly in massive subscriber losses. Where was the outcry in support? But Netflix recovered.

Today, Netflix’s strong domestic and international growth offsets fears of rising costs. It is viewed as an infrastructure under construction. Likewise, Sirius XM battled these same issues. In fact, Sirius had it much worse during a period when the entire economy was in the toilet. However, Sirius kept the fight going. And it ultimately benefited Pandora and other companies such as Spotify when Sirius received a favorable ruling against SoundExchange, the organization that collects royalty payments for musicians.

As Fool contributor Rick Munarriz recently …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance