Archive for December 17th, 2007
17
12
2007
 
Yahoo! Finance UK - FTSE, Stock Exchange, Mortgages, Loans & MorePosted by: admin in Latest News
Yahoo! Finance UK - FTSE, Stock Exchange, Mortgages, Loans & More
17
12
2007
Jupitermedia folds Flying Hands into its royalty-free music libraryPosted by: in Companies Competitive StrategyFiled under: Internet, Competitive strategy Hat-tip to PaidContent.org, a good site about the media business, which reported on Friday about Jupitermedia (NASDAQ: JUPM) purchasing Flying Hands Music, an on the web library of royalty-free music. Jupitermedia CEO Alan Meckler posted on his blog that this “was part of the company’s strategy to expand, what it believes, is the world’s largest collection of royalty-free music.” JUPM will be combining Flying Hands with its existing site, RoyaltyFreeMusic.com. It appears Jupiter has more massive plans to bulk up its music offering. As announced on Meckler’s blog, JUPM has plans to launch a new way for organizations to purchase royalty-free background music for websites and other purposes in late February. It’s a good thing Jupiter is looking for expansion. Its stock is down 50% for 2007 and its larger competitor, Getty Images (NYSE: GYI) is down over 30%. Both companies have been plagued by what Citibank analyst Matthew Troy called “investor concern about structural shifts in the stock imaging landscape, driven by rapid growth in alternative channels and forms of lower yielding image licensing” in a research piece in November. In other words, what was once a lucrative business is being eaten away by smaller sites with aggressive pricing and licensing requirements that just aren’t what Jupitermedia was accustomed to seeing. To address this issue, JUPM has changed its focus to expand into media with acquisitions like Flying Hands. What investors who have followed the story for some time are witnessing is that the Jupitermedia investment thesis has changed. Instead of Jupiter spinning off some of these web properties, Jupitermedia is now actually looking to acquire new businesses to amalgamate to their media business. Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Author holds no position in stocks mentioned. Filed under: Industry, Competitive strategy, Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), China, Technology
Now that Taiwan-based Acer has finished its acquisition of the Gateway brand for a little over $700 million (a bargain, all things considered), Gateway’s CEO, Ed Coleman, has announced he will be leaving the company. After a year of disastrous results, most industry watchers saw this one coming, I believe. Coleman states he’ll leave at the end of January, to be replaced by Acer’s president for Pan American sales, Rudi Schmidleithner, who will be in charge of the official integration of both companies. Can Acer take the Gateway brand and return it to prominence in the Computer market by the sheer force of market share alone? After all, HP is definitely not sitting still and Dell’s current moves into more consumer-friendly Computer products and its big push into retail (Wal-Mart, Staples and Best Purchase) will give the Gateway brand its harshest pressure in a long time. Acer can’t afford to mess this one up, as the timing isn’t on its side at all. But, if it can try to be a strong third in the consumer market (as Acer has tiny business-market finesse), the company has a chance to actually, you now, make a consistent profit and grow sales. The largest challenge it has is being eaten by the two massive dogs in the park. Filed under: Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Intel (INTC), India, China, International Business Machines (IBM)
According to The Wall Street Journal, “this year, IBM’s employment in India is prone to reach 73,000 people, up from 52,000 last year.” This is a cruel irony to the news. The US is still the world’s center for hardware and software creation. Most innovations in these field still originate here. The world’s largest chip-maker, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), is an American company. The world largest software company ,Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), was started in the US, as was the world’s premier internet company, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). Yet, when it comes to economic benefits, many of the tech giants are moving jobs to India and China to get cheaper labor. While this may help their earnings, it hurts high-end employment in the US. Created in America. Maintained and supported somewhere else. A bit of a tragedy. Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com. Filed under: Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Wal-Mart (WMT), Indices, Market matters
A lagging stock price and stagnant growth have forced the parent company of The Wall Street Journal into the hands of one of the most controversial media barons in history, and all that the S&P 500 has to show for it is a chain that operates stores in the mall selling titles like Halo 3 and Hello Kitty Roller Rescue to kids and children who never grew up. Ladies and gentlemen, GameStop (NYSE: GME), the world’s largest video game retailer, is joining the S&P 500. The New York Times reports on the company’s remarkable turnaround. A little more than 10 years ago, GameStop was in bankruptcy. What’s interesting is that GameStop has prospered as a niche store, in world where niche stores are getting beaten into the ground by huge boxes like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT). How did they do it? By hiring people who — gasp — are enthusiastic about the products they’re selling. Shares of GameStop should get a boost as index funds scramble to add the shares to their portfolios. But oftentimes, the addition the index can be the peak of a company’s fortunes and investors may want to consider taking profits — GameStop isn’t the underdog anymore. |
Powered by WordPress, Mandigo theme by tom.
Entries (RSS)
and Comments (RSS).
The PC industry has been in a whirlwind this year. 
The trend isn’t good if you are a tech worker at 
There’s definitely some symbolism here: Now that Dow Jones, the most respected name in financial news, has been sold to Rupert Murdoch, it’s being replaced in the S&P 500 by a store that sells video games.
