It's a smart strategic move for XM because they need to answer the Howard Stern question. It's not a dirt-cheap deal. But it does help XM attract a female audience. |
It's rare to pay a walk-away fee unless there is a preemptive bid or an extreme circumstance. They are talking in billions of dollars. That's going to make a corporate manager think twice before walking away from the deal. |
Now Wall Street has turned more cautious. They're demanding more evidence of a trend towards profitability and those companies that have a lot more questionable business models will be shunned by Wall Street, |
Open access is the biggest issue. The other one, we think, is interoperability for instant messenger and ICQ. The ability for other ISPs to have instant messaging with, and that is technologically resolvable at some point in the not too distant future and AOL has pledged that they will move towards making that happen. If these two completely different services can link together and interoperate without any security problems, junk mails bombarding the chat sessions, then it would be very easy to invite other ISP customers into what would be a global and complete instant messaging system for all Internet users, |
Open access is the biggest issue. The other one, we think, is interoperability for instant messenger and ICQ. The ability for other ISPs to have instant messaging with, and that is technologically resolvable at some point in the not too distant future and AOL has pledged that they will move towards making that happen. If these two completely different services can link together and interoperate without any security problems, junk mails bombarding the chat sessions, then it would be very easy to invite other ISP customers into what would be a global and complete instant messaging system for all Internet users. |
Right now neither stock reflects merger synergies. In fact, Time Warner, although it's getting taken over by AOL, reflects no takeover premium. We think as the deal comes together and they uncover some new business opportunities and synergies, they will drive valuation. I think AOL trades like a media company and in a way it really doesn't trade like an Internet company anymore. So either it's an undervalued media company relative to its growth prospects or it's a very cheap Internet company. |
The cable division came in with 13 percent cash-flow growth, which is basically the strongest we're going to see out of the whole cable industry this quarter, ... They're showing some real power. |
The Internet stocks have been under pressure since mid-March. The Internet, as a group, is down more than 50 percent. Some of these stocks have really been decimated, and despite some nice potential activity today, we actually think Internet stocks will remain under pressure for the next month or more, |
The pressure is on the entertainment companies more than anyone else, ... They either need to integrate their Internet capabilities much more rapidly or get left in the dirt. |
The radio portion of CBS is a sticking point for investors, and will remain an issue going forward. |
They had a very solid report and gave guidance that looks extremely powerful. Any weakness in Sirius is more related to concerns at their rival XM as opposed to anything at Sirius itself. As long as the leader in the industry's stock is falling it's going to pull its colleague down with it. |
This doesn't represent new news but represents information that's getting more publicity and highlighted more fully than it has in the past. Because the stock has been vulnerable whenever news like this comes out, it reacts negatively. |
This is the one ad-driven media play that stands out significantly. Lamar is seeing rising occupancy rates and deserves a premium multiple, |
This is the one ad-driven media play that stands out significantly. Lamar is seeing rising occupancy rates and deserves a premium multiple. |
This puts competitive pressure on the likes of Disney, NBC and Fox Television. These other players will have to step up, reevaluate, see what kind of assets they are missing in their specific platform and address it as quickly as possible. |