Description: Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. had rallied 40 percent from its spinoff when Adnaan Ahmad started covering the stock with a “sell†rating. The mobile-phone maker has lost nearly all its gain since his Jan. 21 report. Source: Businessweek.com Date: 05/20/2011 Link: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-05-20/analysts-punished-as-fewer-than-1-of-sells-work-since-2009.html Questions for discussion: Summarized the essence of the report with respect to… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Industry Analysis
It Teetered, It Tottered, It Was Bound to Fall Down
Description: This article was adapted from “Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon,†by Gretchen Morgenson, a business reporter and columnist for The New York Times, and Joshua Rosner, a managing director at the independent research consultant Graham Fisher. The book is to be published on Tuesday by Times Books…. Read more »
OpenTable, broken stock? A lesson in the dangers of tech IPOs
Description: The company has done nearly everything right, but it’s dangerously overvalued, even for a tech company. Should Facebook, LinkedIn, and Groupon take heed? Source: Fortune.com Date: 05/13/2011 Link: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/05/13/opentable-broken-stock-a-lesson-in-the-dangers-of-tech-ipos/ Questions for discussion: Summarized the essence of the report with respect to the lessons that might be learned for other technology IPOs. Do you agree… Read more »
Health Insurers Making Record Profits as Many Postpone Care
Description: The nation’s major health insurers are barreling into a third year of record profits, enriched in recent months by a lingering recessionary mind-set among Americans who are postponing or forgoing medical care. Source: NYTimes.com Date: 05/13/2011 Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/business/14health.html?ref=business Questions for discussion: Summarize the financial relationships between health insurers, providers, and clients? What is the… Read more »
Oil price collapse pays off for one speculator
Description: For the last several weeks, oil trader Stephen Schork has been betting that prices would fall. Instead, they kept rising. And every day they ticked higher, he lost money. Source: CNNMoney.com Date: 05/06/2011 Link: http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/06/markets/oil_prices_speculators/index.htm Questions for discussion: How did Stephen Schork decide that the time was ripe for shorting oil? What contributed to… Read more »
Shouting into the unfunded abyss
Description: When the founder of an unheralded startup offered a cri de coeur about the inanities of the funding process, he heard hundreds of voices crying back. Source: Fortune.com Date: 05/06/2011 Link:Â http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/05/06/adam-neary-profitably-shouting-into-the-unfunded-abyss/ Questions for discussion: Summarized the essence of the report with respect to the difficulty of finding funding. Why do you think some… Read more »
The Class That Built Apps, and Fortunes
Description: ALL right, class, here’s your homework assignment: Devise an app. Get people to use it. Repeat. That was the task for some Stanford students in the fall of 2007, in what became known here as the “FacebookClass.†No one expected what happened next. The students ended up getting millions of users for free apps… Read more »
Can RIM win back investors after missteps?
Description:Â Â Research In Motion Ltd. lost much of its remaining support on Wall Street Friday after the company took down its estimates for the May quarter, leaving some to wonder whether the wireless-device maker can win back support from investors who have been burned by the stock this year. Source: Marketwatch.com Date: 04/29/2011 Link: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/can-rim-win-back-investors-after-missteps-2011-04-29… Read more »
Exxon Mobil profit nears $11 billion
Description: Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday that its first-quarter profit climbed 69% to almost $11 billon, beating Wall Street estimates, as $100-a-barrel crude prices boosted the oil company’s bottom line to levels not seen since 2008. Source: Marketwatch.com Date: 04/28/2011 Link: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/exxon-mobil-profit-nears-11-billion-2011-04-28 Questions for discussion: What do you think Exxon’s next quarter will look like?… Read more »
Parties Seeking to Blame Each Other’s Policies for Gas Prices
Description:Â Congress returns next week to a flaring brawl over oil industry profits and tax breaks, with both parties hoping to capitalize on growing public ire at high gasoline prices. Source: NYTimes.com Date: 04/29/2011 Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/30/business/30gas.html?ref=business Questions for discussion: Summarize the reasons for concern over rising gasoline prices? How do rising fuel costs affect businesses… Read more »
