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Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

3 Companies Dominating March Madness

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By Travis Hoium, The Motley Fool

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If you’re like me, your bracket is already busted just one weekend into the tournament. The good news is that it’s not too late to think about how investors can profit from the tournament. Here are three companies that have gotten March Madness right.

CBS
CBS has finally gotten March Madness right. Every game is available for most cable subscribers since the company partnered with Time Warner in 2011 to provide coverage, and millions of people now know where they can find TruTV. Best of all, apps for Android and iOS are making it easy to watch multiple games at the same time.

CBS was criticized for years for flipping back and forth between games, not leaving the control to the viewer. Now, we can watch any game at home or on the go. I’m finding it difficult to find flaws in either television or app offerings, which may be a first for CBS.

Buffalo Wild Wings
Wings, beer, and March Madness should be Buffalo Wild Wings’ new slogan. The company signed a deal with CBS and Turner Sports to be the “official hangout” of March Madness, which has led to all of those commercials we’ve seen this year.

I’m not sure what an “official hangout” is, but Buffalo Wild Wings has long been the unofficial hangout of sporting evens. March Madness just highlights everything the company does right, from the atmosphere, to food, to all of those TVs.

Budweiser
Having a Bud Light during March Madness is standard operating procedure for many people. The company also seems to monopolize advertising space this time of year. No matter where you go, you can’t get away from Anheuser-Busch .

A core part of Anheuser-Busch’s strategy is out-advertising rivals, and there are a few events where the company puts big bucks behind ad spending. March Madness is at the top of that list, along with the Super Bowl, two events dominated by Bud.

Foolish bottom line
These are three companies getting March Madness right, and it’s a lucrative time to be dominating college basketball. I think CBS has finally figured out how to do sports with the combination of streaming and television coverage. That may be the greatest takeaway from this year’s March Madness.

Another top stock

The Motley Fool’s chief investment officer has selected his No. 1 stock for this year. Find out which stock it is in the brand-new free report, “The Motley Fool’s Top Stock for 2013.” Just click here to access the report and find out the name of this under-the-radar company.

The article 3 Companies Dominating March Madness originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Travis Hoium has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Buffalo Wild Wings. The Motley Fool owns shares of Buffalo Wild Wings. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Liberty Interactive Corporation to Present at Morgan Stanley Retail & Restaurant Conference & Field

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Liberty Interactive Corporation to Present at Morgan Stanley Retail & Restaurant Conference & Field Trip

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Liberty Interactive Corporation (Nasdaq: LINTA, LINTB, LVNTA, LVNTB) announced that Mike George, President and CEO of QVC, Inc., will be presenting at the Morgan Stanley Retail & Restaurant Conference & Field Trip, on Friday, April 5th at 8:40 a.m., Eastern Time at the Loews Portofino Bay Hotel, FL. During his presentation, Mr. George may make observations regarding the company’s financial performance and outlook.

The presentation will be broadcast live via the Internet. All interested persons should visit the Liberty Interactive Corporation website at http://www.libertyinteractive.com/events to register for the webcast. An archive of the webcast will also be available on this website for 30 days.

About Liberty Interactive Corporation

Liberty Interactive Corporation operates and owns interests in a broad range of digital commerce businesses. Those interests are currently attributed to two tracking stock groups: Liberty Interactive Group and Liberty Ventures Group. The Liberty Interactive Group (Nasdaq: LINTA, LINTB) is primarily focused on digital commerce and consists of Liberty Interactive Corporation’s subsidiaries Backcountry.com, Bodybuilding.com, Celebrate Interactive (including Evite and Liberty Advertising), CommerceHub, MotoSport, Provide Commerce, QVC and Right Start, and Liberty Interactive Corporation’s interests in HSN and Lockerz. The Liberty Ventures Group (Nasdaq: LVNTA, LVNTB) consists of Liberty Interactive Corporation’s interests in TripAdvisor, Expedia, Interval Leisure Group, Time Warner, Time Warner Cable, Tree.com (Lending Tree), AOL and various green energy investments.

Liberty Interactive Corporation
Courtnee Ulrich, 720-875-5420

KEYWORDS:   United States  North America  Colorado  Florida

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The article Liberty Interactive Corporation to Present at Morgan Stanley Retail & Restaurant Conference & Field Trip originally appeared on Fool.com.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Netflix: Next Stop $225?

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By Rick Aristotle Munarriz, The Motley Fool

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Netflix‘s amazing run — as its shares have more than tripled since bottoming out this past summer — may not be over yet.

The stock moved 5% higher yesterday after Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves boosted his price target on the leading video service.

Hargreaves is jacking up his goal to $225 from a now obsolete target of $160.

He’s not merely keeping up with the buoyant share price. Hargreaves is also juicing up his expectations for the service’s growing magnetism.

The bullish analyst now sees Netflix serving as many as 46 million domestic streaming subscribers by 2021, higher than his earlier forecast of 43 million and well above the 27 million domestic streaming accounts that were on Netflix’s rolls when this year began.

There will naturally be heady upside outside of Netflix’s home turf. By 2015, Hargreaves sees 17 million international accounts, and that’s up sharply from today’s 6 million subscribers.

HBO is more of an opportunity than a threat
Hargreaves was on CNBC yesterday to discuss his refreshed optimism.

He was asked about Time Warner‘s HBO in light of recent comments by the premium movie channel indicating that it may make HBO Go a stand-alone option through broadband service providers.

“We think that that would be tremendously positive for Netflix, and at the end of the day that’s certainly underlining our view here, is that we think there’s a paradigm shift,” he responded. “Netflix is essentially the best in the world, we think, at executing that model.”

As a result of Netflix’s value proposition — face it, $7.99 a month for unlimited access to a growing digital library is pretty cheap — Hargreaves doesn’t have a problem seeing roughly half of the broadband-enabled homes in this country on the platform.

HBO itself will probably have a hard time competing at its substantially higher price, but it’s certainly feasible to see consumers moving away from cable and satellite in eight years and cherry-picking their channels and services.

A lot can change in three months
A target price of $225 would’ve seemed outrageous several months ago.

Coinstar‘s Redbox was teaming up with the country’s largest wireless carrier to introduce Redbox Instant. Amazon.com was busy making its own luck by slashing prices on Kindle tablets ahead of the holiday rush, as Amazon Prime subscribers can tap the leading e-tailer’s digital vault that way.

It’s hard to bet against Netflix these days, and it’s not just Hargreaves who’s growing more and more upbeat over time.

Just three months ago, the average consensus estimate from the more than two dozen major analysts modeling Netflix was a profit of $0.43 a share this year and $1.41 a share in 2014. Now those bottom-line forecasts are perched at $1.41 a share in 2013 and $2.99 a share come next year.

Hargreaves is naturally reiterating his earlier outperform rating, feeling that healthy overseas growth and natural margin expansion given the scalable model will breathe new life …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Dow Sets Another Record on Strong Economic Data

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By Jeremy Bowman, The Motley Fool

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With Cyprus now safely in the rearview window, stocks returned to their usual winning ways today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 112 points, or 0.8%, boosted by some strong economic reports to set yet another all-time closing high. The S&P 500 also finished within two points of a record close, ending at 1,563.

Among the reports pushing stocks higher were a better-than-expected increase in durable orders and exceptionally strong growth in housing prices. Overall, orders for long-lasting products increased 5.7% in February, better than projections of 3.8%, and up from a drop of 3.8% in January. The increase was led by a jump in commercial aircraft purchases, but factoring out the more volatile transportation sector, however, orders fell 0.5%. The Case-Shiller 20-City Index, meanwhile, showed its biggest increase in housing prices in six years as prices jumped 8.1% from a year ago, and home values went up in all 20 metropolitan areas that the index tracks.

The consistently strong economic data seems to have convinced investors that the bull market will continue for the long haul, though there were a couple of reports today that came in below expectations. Consumer confidence dropped all the way to 59.7 from 68.0 in February, as fears of sequestration seem to have worn on average Americans. New-home sales for February were also lower than expected at 411,000 versus 426,000.

On the Dow today, Intel led all comers, gaining 2.9% after word broke that the chipmaker was in talks with Time Warner and Viacom for the rights to TV shows and movies that would allow it to start its own online pay-TV service. Intel would produce its own set-top box, which could be out by the end of the year, shaking up the video wars as the tech heavyweight would be putting its capital up against the likes of Comcast, DirecTV, and Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX). The service would be delivered through users’ broadband connections and would offer subscribers more of an a la carte service rather than a full complement of channels that cable and satellite providers offer, allowing subscribers to choose what channels they like.

Boeing shares were also up 2.1%, benefiting from the strong improvement in durable-goods orders as well as the first successful flight of a Dreamliner jet after the new models were grounded because of battery fires. Boeing said it hopes the Dreamliner fleet will be back in the skies within weeks, but after hours the possibility arose that the FAA could impose a temporary limit on the jet’s range, potentially making ocean crossings impossible, the original intent of the long-haul plane.

Outside the Dow, Netflix jumped 5.4% after Pacific Crest Securities upped its price target on the home-video entertainer to $225 from $160. Analyst Andy Hargreaves pointed out that Netflix’s trove of subscriber data gives it a competitive advantage in generating original content and purchasing outside content, since it has more access to user preferences than its competitors. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

2 Stories for Netflix, but Only 1 Ending — Rags or Riches?

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By Adam Levine-Weinberg, The Motley Fool

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The gap between the projections of Netflix analysts and the company’s management continues to grow wider. As the Netflix stock price has skyrocketed in the past few months, analysts have raised their price targets to match. However, a closer look at their reports shows that they are not nearly as bullish about Netflix’s business prospects as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings or other insiders.

This combination of low analyst expectations, high management expectations, and high analyst price targets could prove volatile. If Netflix performs up to management expectations in the next year or two, the stock could see another round of upgrades and raised price targets, as the company’s fundamentals would be outperforming the analyst models. However, if analysts are right about Netflix’s growth trajectory — a scenario I believe to be more realistic — the stock could drop precipitously in spite of their high price targets.

New week, new upgrade
On Tuesday, Netflix shares rose by as much as 6% after Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves raised his price target from $160, to $225. Hargreaves cited “increased margin and subscriber assumptions” for the move. However, his domestic subscriber growth assumptions are actually quite modest. Hargreaves now expects Netflix to grow from 27 million subscribers at the end of 2012, to 36 million domestic subscribers by 2015, with a plateau around 46 million domestic subscribers by 2021.

Hargreaves’ analysis is very similar to a bullish call made by RBC analyst Mark Mahaney earlier this month. Mahaney expects the domestic subscriber base to reach 39 million by 2015, and derived a $210 price target from that analysis. These subscriber estimates dovetail well with my analysis of the market opportunity for Netflix. Premium video leader Time Warner boasts approximately 41 million U.S. subscribers between its HBO and Cinemax services. HBO can attract many subscribers, despite its high price, because it has very high-quality original programming. Netflix is trying to move in that direction with new series like House of Cards. With improving content quality and a low price tag, it seems reasonable to project that Netflix will reach a similar level of market penetration as Time Warner within a few years.

Watch the gap!
However, this is not what Netflix’s management is projecting. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has stated that the company’s addressable market in the U.S. is 60 million-90 million households. . While I do not think that Netflix management seriously expects to reach the upper end of that range (which would be equivalent to roughly 100% of broadband households), Hastings talks about the 60 million figure as a target for the end of this decade.

To reach 60 million subscribers by 2020, Netflix would have to average more than 4 million net new domestic subscribers per year over the next eight years. By contrast, Tuesday’s bullish call by Pacific Crest assumes just 3 million subscriber additions per year through 2015, and an end-of-decade target of just 46 million domestic subscribers. Clearly, there …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

This Is No Netflix Killer

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By Rick Aristotle Munarriz, The Motley Fool

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When will the market learn?

Spotify is working on a streaming video service, sources tell Business Insider. The popular music-streaming website will also reportedly be considering original content in a move that will challenge Netflix and Time Warner‘s HBO.

Now, Netflix and HBO are singled out in the headline of the story, but Spotify would have an uphill battle if it actually went that route.

Bigger and more seasoned companies have tried to take on Netflix. Why should Spotify succeed?

Video killed the radio star
If the Swedish dot-com darling wanted to take on VEVO or Google‘s YouTube with a platform for music videos, that would make some sense. Spotify’s 24 million active users clearly love music, and serving up eye candy along with the tunes makes sense strategically. It’s a logical evolutionary step for a global online sensation.

The rub there is that VEVO and YouTube are free, and it’s not as if the ads are all that intrusive. It’s a fair trade, and Spotify has no business taking on YouTube and its billion unique monthly visitors.

YouTube isn’t broken. It doesn’t need disrupting.

It also helps YouTube — and its partnership with VEVO — that its parent company is the top dog in selling online advertising. Spotify is going to struggle there, as most of the ads on Spotify these days are from musical artists on the site who want to drum up listeners. Spotify lacks the brand advertising chops — much less the video advertising chops — to make a free site work.

It would probably turn to Google at first to monetize a free video website, and it would be dead in the water if it actually decides to charge customers for something that is readily available for free on YouTube.

Besides, does Spotify really want to remind users that they can create a YouTube play list of music videos and play it on their mobile devices for free as an audio alternative to Spotify itself?

You’ll pay for this
Spotify would naturally prefer to roll out a premium video website. Getting consumers so enamored with a service that they’re willing to pay for it is what sets Spotify apart from Pandora . Pandora may have a much larger base of 67.7 million active users, but only a handful of those earbud-donning music buffs are willing to pay for an ad-free experience.

However, even in the premium space, just 6 million — or 25% of Spotify’s users — are willing to pay.

It’s an entirely different world with Netflix and its 33.2 million streaming customers worldwide. Outside of Spotify’s home turf of Scandinavia, HBO isn’t even available unless you’re paying up for a costly cable plan first.

How does one raise the bar to justify a premium? How does one up the ante to justify a new service over what’s working elsewhere?

Proprietary content, depth of content, and access across devices are the keys to success at Netflix. Is Spotify ready …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Boeing Keeps the Dow Flying High

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By Dan Carroll, The Motley Fool

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The market‘s recent rally to record highs has rewarded investors with plenty of green, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is all green again today. As of 2:15 p.m. EDT, the blue-chip index has picked up 94 points, or 0.65%, as it closes in on record levels once again. Most members of the Dow are rising, with numerous stocks recording gains of more than 1%. Let’s get caught up on the big movers of the day.

The 787 flies again
Boeing is taking to the skies, with shares up 2% to rank the aerospace stock among today’s Dow leaders. The company’s 787 Dreamliner, grounded since it experienced battery faults early in the year, completed a successful two-hour test flight involving a new battery system. The FAA will still need to approve the new battery before Boeing can implement it in commercial jets, and the company is still engaged in further test flights after this one, but the success is an optimistic sign for down-on-their-luck shareholders waiting for Boeing’s newest aircraft to lift off again.

Tech stocks are also on the rise today. Intel shares have also pulled in 2% gains so far today, while IBM has recorded more modest gains of 0.6%. Intel shareholders have reacted favorably to reports that the company is considering launching an online pay-TV business and talking with network companies such as Time Warner and NBC Universal to broadcast shows and content. It’s a step outside of Intel’s comfort zone, but it’s an indicator that the company is willing to do what it takes to diversify away from the declining PC market its semiconductors dominate.

On the other side of the Dow, however, Bank of America hasn’t been so fortunate, with shares falling 0.9% to lead blue-chip laggards lower. Banks have been watching the recent Cyprus bailout situation with a close eye for any potential blowback into the eurozone, but the island nation’s relatively small economy means the bailout achieved this week won’t affect B of A and its peers significantly.

However, it will affect other parties involved: Bank of America Merrill Lynch cut its rating on Russia to “marketweight” today, citing the country as a “net loser” in the Cypriot bailout, which will impose an aggressive levy on uninsured bank deposits holding more than 100,000 euros. With many wealthy Russians using Cyprus‘ bloated financial system as a haven for bank accounts, the Eurasian nation will no doubt feel a blow from the eurozone’s final bailout agreement.

Are blue skies in the forecast for Boeing?
Boeing is a major player in a multitrillion-dollar market in which the opportunities and responsibilities are massive. However, emerging competitors and the company’s execution problems have investors wondering whether Boeing will live up to its shareholder responsibilities. In our premium research report on the company, two of The Motley Fool’s best industrial-sector minds have collaborated to provide investors with the must-know info on Boeing. They’ll be updating …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Is the Cable Industry Ready for Verizon's Bold New Idea?

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By Anders Bylund, The Motley Fool

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Verizon wants to shake up the TV industry in a big way.

Cable distribution deals are pretty simple today. The cable company (or fiber company, in the case of Verizon’s FiOS broadcast service) sits down with content providers, hammers out a deal to display certain channels or entire portfolios, and then pays a fixed monthly sum per subscriber. But Verizon thinks the current system is terribly inefficient.

“We are paying for a customer who never goes to the channel,” said chief programming negotiator Terry Denson in a Wall Street Journal interview this week. Some channels see very little use, but their costs must be spread out across every customer anyhow.

Verizon wants to measure how big this baseball hero really is to its subscribers.

Because Verizon’s Internet-based TV service requires an official set-top box (you can’t just hook your TV up to the fiber and call it a day), the company can see usage patterns in minute detail. So why not use this rich data to determine a fair price for the stuff FiOS customers actually watch?

“If you are willing to give a channel five minutes of your time, the cash register would ring in favor of the programmer,” Denson said. Customers would have access to a much wider selection of channels than they do today, but content owners would be paid based on what we actually watch.

This idea pits giant against giant. Verizon is one of the most pure content-distributors in the cable-like market, as it doesn’t produce any shows itself. Comcast and Time Warner have interests on both sides of the equation, which explains why they’re not terribly interested in shaking up a system that might unfairly reward niche programming. Walt Disney is an example of Verizon’s extreme opposite: The Mouse loves to sell its ESPN, the Disney Channel, and the ABC network as part of broad bundles, even if cable subscribers wouldn’t watch them.

Verizon hasn’t discussed this new plan with any of the big content-makers so far, starting small with unnamed “mid-tier and smaller” creators. If and when the idea moves on to the big stage, Verizon could end up turning the entire cable industry on its head. The epic conflict will move markets, as both Disney and Verizon are part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average . Another anonymous cable executive told the WSJ that it would take “a giant seismic shift” in the industry to get that far.

Is Disney worth top dollar?
It’s easy to forget that Walt Disney is more than just the House of Mouse. True, Disney amusement parks around the world hosted more than 121 million guests in 2011. But from its vast catalog of characters to its monster collection of media networks, much of Disney’s allure for investors lies in its diversity, and The Motley Fool’s new premium research report lays out the case for investing …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

What You Were Selling Last Week: Vodafone Group

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By Jon Wallis, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — One of Warren Buffett‘s famous investing sayings is “be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful” — or, in other words, sell when others are buying and buy when they’re selling.

But we might expect Foolish investors to know that, and looking at what Fools have been selling recently might well provide us with some ideas for investments that are past their prime

So, in this series of articles, we’re going to look at what customers of The Motley Fool ShareDealing Service have been selling in the past week or so, and what might have made them decide to do so.

Six-month high
Less than a month ago, Vodafone was at the No. 1 spot in the “Top Ten Buys” list* — so what’s happened to put it at the top of the “Sells” list?

Well, for one thing, its share price hit a six-month high last week, reaching almost 188 pence during March 11, a level not seen since August last year. After the company’s somewhat roller-coaster progress since then — it dipped as low as 154 pence at the end of 2012 — people may have felt inclined to take some profits.

They may also have started having some concerns about Vodafone’s future. The surge in Vodafone’s price last week came on the back of strong rumors that U.S. telecom leader Verizon Communications was considering the future of its relationship with the UK..-based telecom giant. Perhaps Verizon will buy Vodafone out of its 45% share of Verizon Wireless — currently estimated to be worth around $115 billion (77 billion pounds) — or else there might be a merger which, if it happened, would be the biggest in corporate history. (In reality, Verizon would effectively buy Vodafone, but it’d be called a “merger” to keep everyone happy.)

While selling its stake in Verizon Wireless would give Vodafone a considerable lump sum to play with, it would also mean the loss of a generous cash-cow — Verizon Wireless generated a dividend of over $3.8 billion (2.5 billion pounds) for Vodafone at the end of 2012, and $4.5 billion (3 billion pounds) the year before.

And any potential merger would not be without considerable attendant risks. Large corporate mergers and acquisitions have a habit of being deeply disappointing, if not deadly — think AOL/Time Warner, HP/Compaq or (and also in the telecoms industry) Sprint/Nextel — with more failing to achieve their financial goals than succeeding. Any short-term gain in Vodafone’s value generated by the excitement of impending nuptials could easily be more than wiped out in the long-term by a failed marriage.

So perhaps some people decided to take some profit now from Vodafone’s improved share price, on the back of the initial rumors, and then wait and see what happens.

A high-quality income share
Many people will have bought Vodafone for its dividend, currently 5.2%. Here at the Fool, our analysts have been focused on finding The Motley Fool’s Top …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Is Print Dead, or Will These Spinoffs Be Great Investments?

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By Michael Lewis, Lewis, The Motley Fool

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Typically, spinoffs are great opportunities for investors to snag up underfollowed, and sometimes undervalued, companies while the rest of the market turns a blind eye. For two upcoming publishing spinoffs, though, it’s going to be a hard sell even for special-situations lovers. The publishing business is in upheaval, and these two companies are a large part of what is being upheaved — and it’s probably why their parents are using this bull market as an excuse to unload these revenue drains.

Of course, since analysts and investors have been quick to squawk about these seemingly terrible investments, I’m compelled to take another look. There are few elements to stocks more attractive than being universally disliked by the Street and its minions. Let’s see if these two upcoming publishing spinoffs are as bad as they say.

Introducing the losers
Companies spin off their components in efforts to unlock hidden value in the parent, the subsidiary, or sometimes both. When a thriving business is burdened under a slower-moving conglomerate, sometimes the only way is for it to take on a life of its own as another public entity. In this case, though, it’s really the parents that are thriving and need to be allowed to fly free.

News Corp. is a parental case in point. It’s a diversified media company with properties ranging from Fox News to The Wall Street Journal. It’s been a strong company that’s weathered disruptive technology and industry change well, phone hacking aside. The stock has responded accordingly, rising more than 50% in the past 12 months. The company is currently a top favorite among hedge fund managers, as its upcoming schism will yield one company that operates the difficult publishing business, and one that operates the media and entertainment operations — including the highly valuable regional sports networks.

The other company to announce excommunication of its publishing side is Time Warner . This is third major spinoff for Time Warner, which already separated its cable company, Time Warner Cable , and its Internet property, AOL . Though volatile at times, Time Warner Cable performed well in 2012, rising a bit more than 50% throughout the year, only to retract a bit in the early months of 2013. After a decade-long rough patch following the tech bust of the early 2000s, AOL seemed to have finally turned the corner midway through 2011 and has since been on a nearly vertical trend.

For both companies, though, these latest spinoffs haven’t been met with enthusiasm. Just this week, Yahoo!‘s Jeff Macke ripped into both prospective companies, citing Time Inc.’s troubled titles such as People magazine. The magazine industry, with the exception of those that have taken to the Web successfully, is getting crushed. A weekly newsrag, regardless of its content, cannot compete with the instant gratification of the Huffington Post or Gawker.

News Corp.’s spinoff may be more attractive than Time Warner‘s, as the aforementioned Wall Street Journal remains the end-all publication …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Splitting Up Can Be Beneficial To Your Net Worth

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By Robert Lenzner, Forbes Staff Corporate spinoffs are all the rage these days, not the least reason being the concept that the market may value the two parts of the spin off as far greater than the original combined operations. One immense success is that over the 7 years since Viacom spun out its holdings in CBS shares, both companies have substantially outperformed the market averages– proving that the split up was a win-win for all Viacom shareholders. CBS has done even better than Viacom– up 77.1%, aided lately by a split up of its own– a spin off of the entertainment complex’s outdoor advertising operation into a REIT that will be another income producer for CBS shareholders by passing through its income. Viacom itself has gained 50.6% in value helped in part by regular reductions in the number of shares outstanding from open market repurchases. By comparison, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has gained only 24.2%- half Viacom’s performance, a third of what CBS shares have done. The spinoff by Time Warner(TWX) of Time Warner Cable (TWC) has been no slouch either. Since January, 2010 it looks to me as if TWC has doubled in price, while TWX surprisingly has gained 67% TWC, almost wholly owned by large institutional investors sells at $91.58, earning $6.90 a share or selling at 13 times earnings per share and yielding almost 3%. Who would have guessed how the strategy would pay off. Now, Time-Warner is planning to give its own shares another beneficial jolt upward by spinning off Time’s entire magazine empire into a separate public company. This venture into a declining print media business may not turn out so well for TWX shareholders; so I’d imagine you’ll see a great deal of selling pounding the magazine company. And it was just 2 decades ago that brutal battle was fought over these operations. Rest in peace Steve Ross. I’d venture a guess that the stellar performance of News Corp. shares these past several months to over $30 a share, a better than 50% return since the scandal-ridden days of hacking cell phones in the UK knocked the shares well below $20. News Corp. now is planning to spin off its newspaper publishing operations in a separate company, while concentrating itself on the Fox television and movie business— while building out a sports channel competitor to ESPN. Don’t count Murdock out. He’s got a lot of life left in him. Spinoffs and would-be spinoffs are going on across American business, in part because some companies have determined that running a huge food company like Kraft might benefit its shareholders by placing some of its far-flung assets in a separate company. I believe you may see many more operations spun-off from global multinationals that investors could find more promising than the huge conglomerate where they were hidden from sight– and perhaps not managed aggressively enough. There is even an index for spin-off stocks– the Beacon Spin-Off Index, and ETFs like the Guggenheim Spin-Off ETF(CSD), which ha an exceptional …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

This Media Stock Is Going to Keep Crushing Apple

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By Tim Beyers and Alison Southwick, The Motley Fool

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Think old tech stocks can’t be new tech stocks? If you do, then you’re wrong. Just look at Time Warner , which has not only crushed the S&P 500 over the past year but is also up more than 70 points on Apple over the same period.

Expect Warner to keep winning. Why? Christopher Nolan. According to the website Latino Review, which has an admirable record when it comes to breaking news about comic book movies, Nolan is close to taking a job that would given him complete oversight of Warner subsidiary DC Comics’ big-screen projects, which, in turn, could lead Christian Bale to return as Batman in a future film. At least one site has debunked the rumor.

If Warner investors remain hopeful, it’s for good reason. Walt Disney has hired franchise builders Joss Whedon and JJ Abrams to handle two of its most important properties and with spectacular results so far. Nolan is in that same class of filmmaker.

Will a deal get done? What remains for the DC cinematic universe? The Motley Fool’s Alison Southwick asks Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova for his perspective in the video below. Please watch, and then leave a comment to let us know what you think.

Apple may be lagging right now, but the story is far from over, says Eric Bleeker, The Motley Fool’s senior technology analyst and managing bureau chief. Click here now to get access to his latest research and Eric will tell you not only whether the stock remains a buy now but also what opportunities remain. You’ll also get access a range of special reports on different aspects of Apple’s business — so be sure to get started right away.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; FoolAnalyticsData.push({ eventType: “TickerReportPitch”, contentByline: “Tim Beyers and Alison Southwick“, contentId: “cms.23264”, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

"Oz: The Great and Powerful" Tops $150 Million Worldwide in Debut Weekend

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By Dan Carroll, The Motley Fool

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Disney‘s Oz: The Great and Powerful scored the top spot in weekend box office sales by a mile, easily outpacing its nearest competitors with domestic revenue of more than $80 million, according to data compiled by Rentrak. Oz pulled in around $150 million worldwide in its debut weekend in theaters, according to data released by media measurement company Rentrak.

Disney’s take on the Wizard of Oz scored a box office hit after a strong promotional campaign and a budget that Box Office Mojo puts at more than $200 million. The film, a prequel to the original classic that tells the story of the titular wizard in the land of Oz, delivered a punch for the movie industry after a lackluster start to the year. Box office sales have fallen 12.5% year-over-year so far in 2013, a Hollywood.com analyst told CBS News.

Jack the Giant Slayer, the folk story retelling from Time Warner subsidiary Warner Brothers, managed to squeeze out $10 million in domestic sales to take the distant runner-up spot in its second weekend in theaters. (The previous weekend, when Jack ranked No. 1, it tallied $27 million at the box office.) Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, another folk story reimagining from Viacom subsidiary Paramount Pictures, ranked third internationally with weekend revenue of $11.4 million in the most recent weekend.

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The article “Oz: The Great and Powerful” Tops $150 Million Worldwide in Debut Weekend originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Dan Carroll has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Walt Disney. The Motley Fool owns shares of Walt Disney. 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.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Everything Under the Sun

How Apple, Smartphones, and Tablets Are Killing Sony

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By Eric Bleeker, CFA, The Motley Fool

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There has never been a technology that took over our lives like smartphones. After IBM released its first PC in 1981, it took nearly 20 years before 100 million PCs were sold a year. We’re now closing in on six years since the first iPhone’s launch, and more than 200 million smartphones were shipped last quarter alone. Hot on the heels behind smartphones are tablets, which look poised to overtake PC sales themselves within the next three years. 

 

If the PC was like vines slowly overgrowing the technology space, then the smartphone and tablet have been wildfire, moving fast and destroying everything in their path.

While the media has focused on how mobile products — both smartphones and tablets — threaten PC-dependent companies such as Microsoft and Dell, those companies are just a small part of a storyline in which all consumer electronics-spending is being shaken up. The truth is, the damage mobile spending is doing to Microsoft is nothing compared with how the trend is ravaging Sony . 

Even worse, the reality is that we’re now ending a first phase of the mobile transition, and the next phase could be even more damaging to the company and its peers. 

Let’s take a look at Sony, and why the future is about to get a lot more dangerous. 

Sony: It’s really just a bank
It’s nearly impossible to avoid Sony. With its TVs, video-game systems, movie studio, and record label, the company is a dominant media force. Yet if you think Sony is primarily a consumer electronics and media company, you’re wrong. 

Shockingly, almost all of Sony’s profits come not from home electronics, but instead from its financial services segment. Yes, Sony has become really just a life insurance company. Just look at how things shake out at the company.

Segment Operating Profit (Millions of U.S. Dollars) Sales (Millions of U.S. Dollars)
Financial Services (Life Insurance, Banking) $1,595 $10,590
Music (Sony Music) $448 $5,373
Movie (Sony/Columbia Pictures) $414 $7,981
Game (PlayStation) $356 $9,768
Imaging (Cameras) $226 $9,238
Mobile Products (Cell Phones) $88 $7,556
Devices (Components and Chemicals) ($269) $12,456
Home Entertainment and Sound (TVs, AV Equipment)  ($2,466) $15,570

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Figures are from the trailing 12 months of operations.

Sony is an absolute force in most these segments. In music, it’s the second largest record label, while its movie studio’s films raked in $1.8 billion in the U.S. last year, enough to beat Time Warner and Disney to make Sony the highest-grossing studio. Finally, its PlayStation line-up sold more than six times the next closest video game console early last decade during the reign of the PlayStation 2. While Sony has seen less success with the PlayStation 3, it’s still a dominant player in video games. 

Yet the one thing most consumers had no idea Sony was involved in — life insurance and banking — is literally more profitable than its video games, cameras, music label, and movie studio, combined. 

Apple: 628 times more mobile profits than Sony
While Sony’s banking arm churns out most of the company’s profits, most of its sales and infrastructure lay in other units. Two of the most deeply ailing are its mobile-products and home-entertainment division. 

Mobile products is slightly profitable before taxes. However, its …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

How Much Is Netflix Paying to Produce Original Shows?

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By Anders Bylund, The Motley Fool

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Netflix is notoriously tight-lipped when it comes to the costs of producing fresh content for its own exclusive use. But third parties are spilling the beans.

A self-described “super agent” at a major Hollywood talent agency just provided detailed estimates on what Netflix pays per episode of this year’s new in-house shows. And the company isn’t skimping on budgets: The “cheapest” show on deck would be prison dramedy Orange Is the New Black, which costs about $3.8 million per episode.

The numbers, please
Here’s the cost per show, according to Creative Artists Agency agent Peter Micelli, by way of a report in Variety :

Show

Genre

Cost Per Episode

Cost Per Season

House of Cards

Political drama

“Way above” $4.5 million

More than $60 million

Hemlock Grove

Werewolf horror

About $4 million

$52 million

Orange Is the New Black

Prison drama/comedy

Just under $4 million

$49 million

These are not hard numbers straight from the source, but Micelli’s estimates presumably based on discussions with Netflix and other stakeholders. CAA is one of the “big four” talent agencies, and even though Netflix seems to have chosen actors from other agencies in most cases, you can safely assume that CAA sat at every show’s negotiating table.

Agents certainly have a clue what the going rate for acting services is, and you can’t consider a 13-episode role without knowing something about the production values surrounding the cast as well. Moreover, CAA knows plenty about the television industry, managing big names such as David Letterman and Ryan Seacrest when it isn’t busy launching the Oprah Winfrey Network or hit shows such as House and American Idol. That’s why I think Micelli should have a better view of Netflix’s production budgets than most of us mere mortals.

Whoa, doggie! Will production costs eat Netflix alive?

Isn’t that a bit high, though?
These figures are a bit higher than the rumors you’ve seen elsewhere. House of Cards was supposed to be the big-ticket title at roughly $100 million for two seasons, but Micelli’s figure is at least 20% higher. And all three of the shows he discussed broadly match the oft-guessed figures for House of Cards. If this agent is anywhere near the real figures, Netflix is spending way more on these shows that analysts and pundits have been assuming so far.

Micelli reminded his audience — about 500 entertainment lawyers at a symposium hosted by UCLA — that the costs are much higher than your regular, run-of-the-mill hour of serialized TV drama. HBO flagship Game of Thrones reportedly plays in the same budget ZIP code. That show is a huge selling point when Time Warner peddles its premium HBO service and has collected eight Emmy Awards in just two seasons. Quality production pays off. Sometimes you get what you paid for.

Micelli also noted that a significant chunk of these costs would account for global …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Disney's Newest Franchise Feels Familiar, but With a Twist

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By Anders Bylund, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Walt Disney is always looking for another top-shelf franchise idea. The House of Mouse may just have found one in a story you probably associate with a totally different studio.

The Wizard of Oz is about as classic as a movie can get. If you’re into spinning Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album instead of the film’s regular soundtrack, you’ll know to start the CD at the MGM lion’s third roar.

Sure, Disney’s movie-themed theme park in Florida used to be called “MGM Studios,” but the Mouse no longer owns the rights to the venerable studio’s name. More to the point, rival studio Time Warner owns The Wizard of Oz nowadays and will re-release the movie in 3-D this year. The 3-D conversion will first hit theaters and then the DVD and Blu-ray market to commemorate the 1939 film’s upcoming 75th anniversary and Warner Bros.’ 90th.

But Disney takes the next logical step. L. Frank Baum‘s classic Oz books have finally entered the public domain, which leaves the door open for anybody to base new material on his world and cast of characters. Disney was built on doing exactly that, if you recall foundational masterpieces such as Snow White and Cinderella, and is not shy about trying it again.

Enter Oz the Great and Powerful, which opened Thursday night with some success. And it’s already spawning sequels.

The Wicked Witch of the West looks extra wicked these days. Also slightly greener.

Mickey ears on Dorothy?
The Disney flick collected about $2 billion in Thursday night tickets and midnight screenings. Put that figure next to early takes for other Disney features, and you arrive at a domestic opening weekend between $70 million and $100 million — firmly in blockbuster territory. I would expect the movie to gross about $300 million at home and another $350 million around the world for a total box-office haul of at least $750 million.

Disney executives can smell the gold already. The studio ordered up a sequel even before the first tentpole had been raised, according to Variety.

So it looks as if Disney’s take on Oz is here to stay. Early ticket counts already proved that this movie will be nothing like last year’s megaflop John Carter. You won’t see much of that Carter character around Disney’s cruise ships, theme parks, and lunchboxes. The reimagined Wizard is a different story.

It’s also a different visual spin on some very familiar material. Disney can use L. Frank Baum‘s text all day long, but the original Wizard of Oz movie is still firmly under Warner’s copyright umbrella. So the Wicked Witch of the West shows up again, but she’s a slightly different color and lacks that familiar mole on her chin. Dorothy’s ruby slippers are Warner’s property (they’re silver in the books), and you won’t see the Yellow Brick Road swirling away between the Munchkins — Warner’s design, not …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Time Inc.-Meredith Deal Tanks As Time Warner Has Second Thoughts

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By Jeff Bercovici, Forbes Staff

When word first emerged that Time Warner intended to hand over most of its magazines to a new joint venture to be controlled by Meredith Corp. while retaining Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated under its own roof, many wondered: Why would it want to keep those? …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Articles of Interest

Time Inc. Being Spun Off By Time Warner Into Separate Company

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By The Huffington Post News Editors

After failing to reach an agreement on selling off its magazines, Time Warner decided on Wednesday to spin them off into a separate company — effective removing the “Time” from “Time Warner.”

In a press release, Time Warner said that its board had approved plans for “the complete legal and structural separation of Time Inc. from Time Warner,” and that Time Inc. would henceforth be “an independent, publicly traded company.” Time Warner said its goal was to complete the deal by the end of 2013. CEO Laura Lang is also leaving, though she will stay on until her replacement is found.

CEO Jeff Bewkes said that the spinoff would allow Time Warner to “focus entirely on our television networks and film and TV production businesses.”

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Time Warner to Divest Time Inc.

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By Eric Volkman, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Time Warner plans to separate print publishing unit Time from its operations. The subsidiary will function as a separate, publicly traded entity.

When that occurs, the unit’s CEO, Laura Lang, will step down. In the interim, she will remain in her position to assist with the transition.  

The divestment comes after talks on a sale of the subsidiary to media company Meredith ended without a deal. Time Warner said that the divestment will be structured as tax-free to its shareholders. It hopes to effect the transition by the end of this year.

The article Time Warner to Divest Time Inc. originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Eric Volkman has no position in any stocks mentioned, and neither does The Motley Fool. 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.

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