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 […]

Box Office From The Studio Perspective

Last weekend, the #1 film came from NBC Universal (I wrote up NBCU and its impact on parent General Electric on Monday). Hellboy 2: The Golden Army had a strong opening, exceeding its predecessor. The film looks headed to a total domestic run of over $100 million. I did not realize this until reading it […]

More Ad Forecasts Downgraded

Media stocks kept tumbling this week dropping to new recent lows yesterday in many cases after underperforming Tuesday’s rally. Lehman’s across the board downgrade of the big conglomerates got the latest drubbing started. Lehman’s opinion was based a new, more negative view of the risk to content creators form the transition to digital distribution. I […]

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 […]

Changing Demographics and Wall Street

AdAge.com posted an article analyzing census data from the perspective of marketers. The data was interesting although I guess not all that surprising once it was laid out. I think that the implications go far behind marketing. Here are the key conclusions: (1) the US is aging with the average age for the head of […]

Media On A Holiday Weekend

The media biz never rests. Even on a holiday weekend. NBC Universal is buying The Weather Channel for $3.5 billion from privately held Landmark Communications. With NBCU buried in General Electric, the stock impact stretches to other media companies. First, Time Warner at one time was in the running. TWX has tons of cash coming […]

July 2008 Model Signals

There were no changes again this month to Northlake’s Market Cap and Style models. The signals continue to flash mid cap and growth. As a result, I am maintaining client and personal positions in the S&P 400 Mid Cap (MDY) and the Russell 1000 Growth (IWF) that are dedicated to this strategy. Both signals weakened […]

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 […]