Good Results, Bad Trading at CETV

I am working a longer comment on CETV, probably to be posted on Monday, but given the crazy trading following yesterday’s earnings report and conference call I wanted to offer some brief insights. The quarter was good, better than consensus and matching the very highest estimates which included my own. Romania and Croatia were across […]

Dreamworks Thesis Falls Apart

My thesis on Dreamworks Animation fell apart when the company reported 2Q results after the close on Tuesday. While I understand the 10% decline in the stock, I think it is overdone and actually leaves value in the shares ahead of catalysts that are coming but not until October and November. The problem is there […]

Headwinds Increase For Rogers

I began to sell Northlake’s position in Rogers Communications last week ahead of its earnings report. I thought the report would be OK but given growing signs of slowing growth in wireless worldwide, I thought there might be some downside to RCI’s numbers. I also thought that it would take a really good report to […]

NII Comes Through and the Sentiment Turns

What a difference a day makes! After Tuesday brought nothing but bad news for wireless investors, NII Holdings (NIHD) reminded us that there can still be winners in the group. NIHD jumped almost 8% at the open and built on the gains to close 11% higher. The company reported great 2Q08 results with pretty much […]

Apple Guidance Is The Problem

Listed below is my live commentary which was posted on RealMoney.com from last night on Apple from before and during the conference call. Without reviewing analyst commentary from the morning after I’d add a couple of things. On September quarter guidance, the gross margin would be the lowest since December Q 2006. The operating margin […]

Apple Reports Tonight

I expect less positive surprise than usual for Apple when they report June quarter earnings tonight. But barring a major blowout or an unexpected miss, it is the guidance for the next quarter that will determine the immediate action in the stock price. Apple has a history of guiding below street estimates and then beating […]

Time Warner Finally Discarding AOL?

Time Warner shares have enjoyed an above average 9% rebound over the past two days since reports surfaced that the company appears to be more aggressively seeking a new ownership arrangement for AOL. While the NY Times threw water on the idea that a sale to Microsoft was likely, the mere fact that TWX management […]

Rupert Selling. Is CETV Buying?

Central European Media Enterprises shares continue to sink as investors fret about economic conditions in its markets, Romania and Ukraine in particular. Volume has picked up over the last few days after most of the decline since mid-June was on below average volume. Merrill Lynch likely contributed to yesterday’s downside and activity with a new […]

Catching Up With Comcast

Comcast COO Stephen Burke spoke recently at an industry conference and had some interesting insights. I would have missed it if not for my subscription to SNL Kagan. Burke spoke optimistically of the possibility of picking up millions of basic cable subscribers in 2009 due to the transition to digital TV. Kagan calculates that as […]

Ad Forecast Good News for CETV

Yesterday, I noted that Zenith Optimedia raised its global ad forecast for 2008 due to strength in developing markets. Central and Eastern Europe was one of the regions with particularly good growth for 2008, with a forecast of 17%. With growth in CEE markets holding steady despite some initial impacts from the global credit and […]