Dow Jones 1Q07 Provides Upside Surprise

Dow Jones (DJ) kciked off the 1Q07 reporting season for media compananies with better than expected performance thanks to strong ad pricing at the Wall Street Journal in March and tight cost controls. Adjusted EPS of 24 cents beat the consensus estimate of 19 cents as revenues of $507 matched estimates. Management reiterated guidance of […]

More Comcast Internet News

Just a few hours after Monday Morning Media Madness noted that Comcast (CMCSA/CMCSK) was building some potentially valuable and underanalyzed internet assets, the following crossed my email box from theflyonthewall.com: News Corporation, NBC Universal and Comcast Corporation announced a comprehensive distribution agreement in which Comcast’s Comcast.net and Fancast.com will serve as key distribution sites for […]

Monday Morning Media Madness

Here is your Monday Morning Media Madness for April 16, 2007: • A tough comparison against a $40 million opening for Scary Movie 4 pulled the box office down 5% this past weekend. The weak comparison does little to year-to-date comparisons which remain up 6%. With the a very strong release schedule for the summer […]

Follow-Up On Endeavor/American Apparel

Back on April 5th, following a press release from Endeavor Acquisition Corp (EDA), updating investors on its acquisition of American Apparel (AA), I noted the news was mixed but thought that the good news (17% same store sales growth) would outweigh the bad news (a reduction in 2007 estimated EBITDA growth and the likelihood of […]

Comcast CEO Gives Bullish Interview

Comcast shares are traded up sharply yesterday in a lousy tape following publication of a couple articles on Bloomberg reviewing an interview with CEO Brian Roberts. Roberts is reiterating comments he made several weeks ago at a Wall Street conference indicating that he is “more confident” now than he was in February when the company […]

Private Equity Comes To Canada – Good News For Rogers

Private equity speculation comes to Canada. More rumors about a takeout of BCE Inc (BCE), formerly Bell Canada, emerged yesterday with speculation about a buyout led by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan with the help of Providence Equity. BCE shares closed up more than 6% but remain well below a rumored bid from this group […]

Reservations for Zell’s Purchase of Tribune

Sam Zell’s ESOP driven takeover of Tribune (TRB) is being met with a lot skepticism by the mainstream business press and newspaper industry observers. The gist of the skepticism is that employees are being asked to take on a huge risk by using their retirement savings to finance a very highly leveraged buyout of a […]

Endeavor’s American Apparel Purchase To Proceed

Endeavor Acquisition Corporation (EDA) announced that the deal to purchase American Apparel (AA) will proceed. AA met the requirement that 2006 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) be at least $30 million. An additional requirement that 2007 budgeted EBITDA reach $50 million was waived. The press release says that AA did not have […]

April 2007 Model Signals

For the second consecutive month there were no changes to Northlake’s Market Cap and Style models. The signals are still flashing large cap and value. As a result, in the portion of the portfolios Northlake manages that are dedicated to the ETF rotation strategy, I continue to own the S&P 500 (SPY) and the Russell […]

Central European Media Enterprises Update

Central European Media Enterprises (CETV) shares had an outstanding first quarter, gaining 26.4%. Part of the gains recouped a $5 decline from mid-November through year end, a bullish period for the market when CETV would be expected to outperform. Gains this year are tied to several factors. First, fourth quarter results were quite favorable and […]