Description: Like plenty of music fans, Sam Broe jumped at the chance to join Spotify two summers ago, and he hasn’t looked back. Source: NYTimes.com Date: Jan 28, 2013 Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/business/media/streaming-shakes-up-music-industrys-model-for-royalties.html?ref=media&_r=0 Questions for Discussions: What does this article have to say about the royalties earned by artists? As small business people on the lower end… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Company Analysis
Why Apple is down, and Netflix is up
Description: How could this be? Expectations drive stocks and Apple disappointed Wall Street while Netflix delivered a surprise profit. Source: CNNMoney.com – video report Date: Jan 24, 2013 Link: http://money.cnn.com/video/investing/2013/01/24/investing-buzz-apple-netflix-nokia-stock.cnnmoney/ Questions for Discussions: Why did Apple’s stock price decline so dramatically on January 24 according to the report? Do you think the stock is oversold?… Read more »
Hasbro cutting jobs after weak holiday
Description: Shares of toymaker Hasbro fell on disappointing fourth quarter sales and layoff news. Rival Mattel was lower too. Source: CNNMoney.com – video report Date: Jan 25, 2013 Link: http://money.cnn.com/video/investing/2013/01/25/investing-buzz-hasbro-mattel-toys-jobs.cnnmoney/ Questions for Discussions: Why have sales declined for the firm? How should management respond to the trends in customer behavior that were highlighted in the… Read more »
Why We’ll Still Never See a 100% Reserve Economy
Description: “I’m going to start with a model of a perfectly safe 100 percent reserve economy,” said Robert Lucas, “…which looks better and better to me.” Lucas, a Nobel Prize-winning economist at the University of Chicago, was speaking two weeks ago at a panel in San Diego to mark the 100th anniversary of the Federal… Read more »
Lululemon: Downward facing stock
Description: Despite continued growth, investors are punishing Lululemon stock on worse-than-expected guidance. Source: CNNMoney.com – video report Date: Jan 15, 2013 Link: http://money.cnn.com/video/investing/2013/01/15/investing-buzz-lululemon.cnnmoney/ Questions for Discussions: Why has the stock price declined recently? Summarize the financial analysis presented in the report. Why would some investors believe there remains much more growth in the future for… Read more »
Harry Winston to Use Swatch Cash for Diamonds Purchases
Description: Harry Winston Diamond Corp. (HW)’s $1 billion sale of a luxury unit to Swatch Group AG (UHR) provides the cash to invest more in diamond mining, a business that last year was more than twice as profitable as jewelry. Source: Bloomberg.com Date: Jan 15, 2013 Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-15/harry-winston-to-use-swatch-cash-for-diamonds-purchases.html Questions for Discussions: Explain the logic of… Read more »
Dell buyout talks advance, Silver Lake lines up banks-sources
Description: Talks to take Dell Inc private are at an advanced stage with at least four major banks lined up to provide financing, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, propelling shares of the No. 3 computer maker 7 percent higher. Source: Reuters.com Date: Jan 16, 2013 Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/16/us-dell-deal-idUSBRE90E0XK20130116 Questions for Discussions: Explain… Read more »
The battle over Herbalife
Description: An inside look at Herbalife’s business model and the $1 billion bet hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has against it. Source: CNNMoney.com – video report Date: Jan 11, 2013 Link: http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2013/01/11/n-herbalife-bill-ackman-queens.cnnmoney/ Questions for Discussions: Compare the organizational structure of Herbalife to a pyramid selling organization. Do you believe Herbalife is a conventional distributor of… Read more »
What’s at the Center of the Debate Over Herbalife
Description: In the wake of the bombshell announcement that Daniel S. Loeb’s Third Point has taken an 8.9 percent stake in Herbalife after the company’s shares were shorted by William A. Ackman of Pershing Square, the question is: Which very rich hedge fund manager is right? Source: NYTimes.com Date: Jan 10, 2013 Link: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/whats-at-the-center-of-the-debate-over-herbalife/?ref=business Questions… Read more »
A Goldman Sachs Trading Team Sidesteps the Volcker Rule
Description: Sitting onstage in Washington’s Ronald Reagan Building? in July, Lloyd Blankfein said Goldman Sachs Group (GS) had stopped using its own money to make bets on the bank’s behalf. “We shut off that activity,” the chief executive officer told more than 400 people at a lunch organized by the Economic Club of Washington, slicing… Read more »
