Wall Street Journal

Here Come Hollywood's Wannabe Summer Blockbusters

Jim Probasco — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:47:35 +0000

With The New York Times reporting Friday that “a record number of big-budget action-and special effect-laden blockbusters” are set to open between May and the end of August, Hollywood’s tactic this summer appears to be “shock and awe” versus a more measured approach.

It’s all about that financially lucrative “young males” demographic and their insatiable appetite for action and adventure, not to mention overpriced soft drinks and popcorn at multiplex cinemas all over the world.

Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh sees the whole thing as a disaster in the making. In a critique at the San Francisco International Film Festival a few weeks ago, Soderbergh complained about lack of imagination on the part of studio executives. As Soderbergh sees it, the fixation on big-budget franchise films is like “Detroit before the bailout.”

Doug Creutz, senior media and entertainment analyst for Cowen & Company said “We’ve never had a summer where more than nine [blockbusters] did well, and often it’s fewer. This summer you’ve got 17 blockbusters coming out between May and July, 19 if you add August.”

There are two possibilities. Either this will be the biggest summer box office in history – or ...

Yahoo Jumping on the Startup Acquisition Bandwagon

Jim Probasco — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:40:09 +0000

AOL Inc.(NYSE: AOL) has Huffington Post. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has YouTube. Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) has Instagram.

And now, Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is getting a startup of its own as well. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Yahoo’s board approved $1.1 billion to acquire Tumblr.

Acquisition of the popular blogging and social networking site is Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer’s biggest deal since taking over at Yahoo in 2012. It is seen as an image upgrade for an Internet company that has lost some luster in recent years.

Tumblr, founded in 2007, is popular with teens and has 175 employees, according to comScore Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR),The Wall Street Journal said. The site hosts 108 million blogs sporting 50.7 billion posts, and had 117 million unique users worldwide in March – heady numbers for the advertisers Yahoo hopes to attract.

Tumblr’s model, like Facebook’s, allows users to follow updates by ...

What is Aereo and Why are Network Executives Up in Arms About It?

Jim Probasco — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:14:18 +0000

Let’s start with the “what.” Aereo is a technology startup, backed by IAC/Interactive (NASDAQ: IACI) that streams over-the-air broadcast television signals to iOS devices, as well as browsers on Macs and PCs. It also works on the Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) TV device designed to bring Internet content to regular televisions.

Since Aereo is only available in New York City and Boston (the service will launch in Atlanta in June) and streams only local channels – hardly competitive with the hundreds of channels available on satellite and cable – the furor and controversy it has caused is a bit of a mystery.

A mystery that is, until one realizes that Aereo doesn’t pay broadcasters for their signals. Not a dime. There’s the “Why.”

From the perspective of networks, it’s a matter of lost profit. From the perspective of cable and satellite providers, it’s a matter of fairness. Cable and satellite providers pay networks a retransmission fee to carry their content. Aereo doesn’t.

From a pure content and entertainment perspective, Aereo isn’t a strong competitor against other streaming ...

Insider Monkey Says TechCrunch Got It Wrong - Microsoft Not Buying Nook

Jim Probasco — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:47:59 +0000

A highly placed source inside Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) told blog site Insider Monkey late Friday that last week’s rumor that Microsoft was about to make a $1 billion offer to buy NOOK Media LLC from Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) reported by TechCrunch was – alas – only a rumor.

Barnes & Noble stock plunged almost 10 percent on news that there was no news.

See: Microsoft Said to Offer Barnes & Noble $1 Billion for Nook

"I literally just walked out of the meeting today discussing all this Microsoft/NOOK hoopla going on," the source said, adding. "This deal was nothing more than a rumor. Microsoft will not come out and deny or confirm for legal reasons, but the company has no intention of acquiring the NOOK unit.”

The source went on to point out that NOOK is closely integrated with Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android OS and that it can’t ...

Upfront Network Television Advertising Rate Hikes Could Be Better

Jim Probasco — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:52:03 +0000

The good news is that U.S. television broadcast networks, namely The Walt Disney Co.'s (NYSE: DIS) ABC, CBS (NYSE: CBS), News Corp.’s (NASDAQ: NWSA) Fox, and Comcast’s (NASDAQ: CMCSA) NBC, can expect advertising rate hikes of about six percent this week during the start of the important “upfront” selling season. The bad news is those rate hikes could be better, much better.

Reuters reported that upfront ad rates increased 7.5 percent in 2012 and a whopping 11.1 percent in 2011. The reason for the “good but not great” anticipated rate hikes for this year? Competition.

The competition comes from streaming services like Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), zombie-themed shows such as AMC Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: AMCX) The Walking Dead, and reality shows like the one on Hearst and Disney-owned A&E network about a bunch of hairy-faced guys in West Monroe, Louisiana, who sit around making duck calls all day. Yeah, those guys.

Upfronts week is when networks preview their fall schedules. The idea is to persuade advertisers to buy their ad space for upcoming shows in advance. Since networks still reach huge audiences – especially ...

Comparing Windows 8 to New Coke is Just Plain Mean

Tim Parker — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:59:30 +0000

This was rough.

In fact, it was so rough that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) wrote a weekend blog post to respond to the comparison. When Windows 8 was compared to New Coke, everybody old enough to remember Coca-Cola’s (NYSE: KO) biggest misstep thought the same thing: “Now that’s just mean!”

For those of you who aren’t in your late 30s and didn’t get to have a can or two of New Coke, here’s a small history lesson. Coca-Cola was facing stiff competition from rival, Pepsi (NYSE: PEP) because it was a sweeter soda. Possibly more important, the cola category, in general, had become boring and needed something new to put it back in the forefront.

After Coca-Cola reformulated its flagship product, research revealed that a large percentage of customers preferred the taste.

Preliminary polling showed the new formula to be well accepted and in 1985, it was introduced as the replacement. The backlash was fierce. Something that had become an American staple was ...

ESPN Wants to Subsidize Smartphone Data Plans

Jim Probasco — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:13:38 +0000

Is this awesome or what? ESPN, aka, “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” wants to help pay for smartphone users’ monthly data plans.

The plan isn’t really a plan and no actual number crunching has taken place yet, but sentiment counts for something, right? The point, according to The Wall Street Journal, is that ESPN, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), realizes many sports fans drain their monthly data buckets viewing ESPN mobile content and they want to help.

ESPN also realizes that people who use up their data stop viewing. Ultimately this costs the network revenue once advertisers see mobile viewership has gone down because users have maxed out their data plans for the month.

The Wall Street Journal says ESPN has talked with at least one major carrier about a plan in which ESPN subsidies would mean ESPN content wouldn’t count against monthly data caps. Sadly, no deal is really in the works. According to WSJ, ...

Amazon Developing a 3D Smartphone?

Tim Parker — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:30:31 +0000

If you’re old enough, you remember the original Star Wars movie from 1977 where a hologram of Princess Leia says, “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.” Movie watchers, at the time, believed that technology like that would go from science fiction to mainstream technology.

If science fiction was a guide, the year would be no later than 2001. (You know, based on the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Any sci-fi fans in the house?)

What does sci-fi have to do with phones? The smartphone market is feeling a little dull. Putting a picture of a CPU on your website and calling it, a giant leap forward seems to be the norm these days and customers are getting a little tired of it. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) can put a fingerprint sensor in its next iPhone and while it might be interesting, it’s doubtful that people are going to fall in love with such ...

McDonald's Down on Slow April – Avian Flu, Stiff Competition, Poor Customer Service All Cited

Jim Probasco — Thu, 09 May 2013 12:42:18 +0000

McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) certainly has a mixed bag of problems to deal with.

The company said Wednesday that sales at restaurants open more than a year slipped again in April, according to The New York Times. The company laid blame, in part at least, on declines in Asia, where fears over a new strain of avian flu have hurt revenue.

Although sales figures included an increase of 0.7 percent in the United States, that wasn’t enough to overcome the combination of lower sales in China and a decline of 2.4 percent in Europe, McDonald’s biggest market by revenue.

Bird flu isn’t the only problem for McDonald's, according to Reuters. The company, along with Wendy's (NASDAQ: WEN) and other U.S. restaurants is battling for the attention of deal-seeking coupon-toting customers checking out limited time offers and other promotions before deciding where to spend their fast food dollars.

Fortunately, overall food costs remain stable, giving McDonald’s ...

Senate Passes Online Sales Tax – House in Doubt

Jim Probasco — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:45:40 +0000

The U.S. Senate Monday voted 69 to 27 to pass legislation allowing states to require online retailers to collect sales tax whether or not they have a physical presence in the state.

It probably doesn’t matter, at least not for now. The Senate is one thing; the House of Representatives is another. So far, the House is showing no enthusiasm for the bill according to The Wall Street Journal. House leaders have not scheduled any hearings or votes on the measure to date.

Many House lawmakers say they are concerned about the plight of brick-and-mortar retailers who feel they are at a disadvantage when pitted against out of state online retailers who have a six to seven percent pricing advantage based on the fact they don’t have to collect sales tax at the time of the transaction.

Matthew Shay, chief executive of the National Retail Federation, a trade group and leading advocate of the bill said, "The House and the Senate are different institutions, and that's going to dictate that we have different kinds of conversations."

Advocates and opponents are certainly having “different kinds of conversations.” Anti-tax groups, like ...

Did Barnes & Noble's Nook Just Become a Kindle Clone?

Jim Probasco — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:21:34 +0000

The splashy ad on the Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) website, says it all: “All New NOOK HD Tablets – now with over 700,000 Android apps & games.” The NOOK, it seems, has gone over to the dark side by providing access to the entire catalog of Android apps on Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Play online store.

It really had no choice. With a paltry 10,000 apps, the NOOK has long been a lesser tablet among giants, like Amazon.com Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) Play-connected Kindle and Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad, sporting more than 300,000 apps.

In addition to the apps upgrade, Barnes & Noble is adding services such as Gmail and Google Maps to its Nook HD tablets. The company hopes to improve the competitiveness of the devices according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The net gain for Barnes & Noble might make the Nook, which comes in both a seven and nine-inch tablet size, more competitive with Amazon’s Kindle lineup. The downside, however, ...

Are Banks Doomed Now That Google Has Invested in Peer-to-Peer Lending?

Jim Probasco — Fri, 03 May 2013 15:17:44 +0000

Should banks be nervous?

Not yet, but they should be paying attention to the fact that search giant, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), along with existing investor, Foundation Capital, just plunked down a $125 million investment in peer-to-peer lending platform, Lending Club.

Peer-to-peer lending, of which Lending Club is one of several players, partners borrowers with willing lenders in a business model designed to cut out banks and offer a better spread between loan and savings rates. And, while the business model is growing, it didn’t exactly start out as a financial wildfire

Lending Club launched in 2007, initially operating within Facebook (NASDAQ: FB). In 2008 the entire p2p lending industry, including Lending Club rivals, Prosper and Loanio, ran aground with the Securities and Exchange Commission and were forced to stop taking new loans.

The industry overcame its problems, however and since then, Lending Club has facilitated more than $1.65 billion in loans with the company expecting to issue $2 billion in loans in 2013 ...

How Bad is Microsoft Doing in the Tablet Market?

Tim Parker — Fri, 03 May 2013 12:29:59 +0000

If Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was making even a ripple in the pond that is the tablet market, it wouldn’t be so silent about the numbers but so far, we’ve heard very little from the company about the success of the Surface.

Maybe it’s because the latest IDC data show that in the first quarter, Microsoft shipped a total of 900,000 of its Surface tablets to gain all of a 1.8 percent market share. Further, tablets shipped with Windows OS came in at 3.3 percent—a 700 percent year of year increase. That’s good news.

But back to the Surface. You might not know it but there’s a lot of debate going on among the tabletologist (yes, a made up word) population. One side points to the hard data. The Surface is a tablet that has been on the market since October. The advertising campaign is pretty aggressive and if you’re a fan of the CBS drama, Elementary, you probably noticed the almost laughable product placement.

It’s not like consumers don’t know about it—they’re simply choosing not to buy ...

America's Hottest New Food Is Made from WHAT?

Jim Probasco — Wed, 01 May 2013 12:46:49 +0000

The boom is on and some U.S. farmers are falling all over themselves to plant this ancient legume that just happens to be a main ingredient in one of the country’s fastest growing food crazes.

The legume? The lowly chickpea. The food craze? Hummus, that creamy, low-fat, Middle Eastern inspired spread that is quickly replacing French onion dip on the tables of health-conscious Americans everywhere.

Now, according to The Wall Street Journal, the largest U.S. hummus maker is trying to get farmers in the heart of Virginia’s tobacco country to grow chickpeas as a secondary source of supplies in case of a crop failure in the Pacific Northwest, where most domestic chickpeas are grown today.

Sabra Dipping Co., jointly owned by PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) and Israel's Strauss Group Ltd., wants to develop a product source close to its hummus plant near Richmond, as well as be geographically near enough to help in the identification of new chickpea varieties for ...

A 'Buffet' of Buffett: Benzinga's Biggest Pet Peeve

Alex Biles — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 14:34:55 +0000

Everybody makes mistakes.

But can you imagine incorrectly spelling the name of one of the biggest and most respected business people in America, not once, but hundreds of times?

From Wikipedia:

Warren Edward Buffett (/ˈbʌfɨt/; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is widely considered the most successful investor of the 20th century.

From The Free Dictionary:

buffet n. (pronounced BUFF-AY) 1. A meal consisting of several dishes from which guests serve themselves.

See the difference?

What Benzinga has captured here is one of our biggest pet peeves and the perpetrators will surprise you. Some of the most respected newspapers, magazines and financial outlets on the Internet have continually misspelled the Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A)(NYSE: BRK-B) CEO's name, even those with teams of editors at their disposal.

Prepare yourselves and get ready to cringe!

Time Warner Cable is our first offender.

Really? The New York Times?

*Shakes Head*

This looks like a super reliable service, everybody!

'Buffet' fever is a worldwide epidemic.

Get rich by opening a buffet?

I never knew a table full of food could have opinions on Facebook stock.

Does anybody read U.S. News for any reason other than college rankings?

Amateur newspaper. Amateur mistake.

*Facepalm*

Uh oh. ...