In a post-earnings conference call yesterday, Expedia remarked that the soft market they’d been seeing in the U.S. and U.K. ever since Lehman went bankrupt has now extended to “nearly all” geographies and products–including air, hotels and car rentals. Priceline and Orbitz share the same problem–Orbitz to the greatest extent, since its business is primarily focused on air. Travel well.
Eight months ago, Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang had a chance to sell his company to Microsoft for $43 billion. He refused. Now Yahoo’s market value stands at $18 billion. This raises a question: Why is Jerry Yang still running this company?
Today’s dispatches from the land of the sun reflect caution and opportunity as regards the solar energy technology business. Analyst Gordon L. Johnson with Hapoalim Securities writes in an initiation-of-coverage report on the solar stocks that the credit crunch could hurt solar panel demand because installation of panels is funded up to 70 percent by debt.
Something funny is going on today with Photon Dynamics (PHTN).
The company, which is an equipment supplier to the flat-panel display business, has an agreement in place to be acquired by Orbotech (ORBK) for $15.60 a share in cash. In fact, on Friday the company announced that its holders had approved the deal. So riddle me this: Why is the stock trading like something about the deal has gone very wrong?
Douglas Anmuth, Internet analyst at Lehman, this morning trimmed his price target and EPS estimates for Google (GOOG) to reflect the strengthening of the dollar against the Euro and other currencies. Anmuth trimmed his 2008 EPS estimate to $19.21 from $19.46; for 2009, he goes to $22.41, from $23.52. He cut his price target to $600 from $620. However, Anmuth maintains his Overweight rating on the shares.
As far as I can tell, the sun is operating normally.
But you might think otherwise judging from this week’s action in solar stocks. The sector, which suffered considerable losses yesterday, today went into freefall, with many names in the sector suffering losses of more than 10 percent. Exactly why investors decided to bail on the stocks today is unclear, but there are a number of factors that appear to be contributing to the current solar scare.
The freefall in memory chip prices continues unabated.
In a research note this morning, Lehman’s Korea-based chip analyst, C.W. Chung, said that DRAM contract prices in the first half of September are set to decline another 10 percent, following a 10 percent drop in the second half of August. And Chung sees a further fall in the second half of September.
Trading began yesterday on a when-issued basis on the four IAC/Interactive (IACI) spinoff companies, as well as the new post-reverse-split, post-spin shares of IAC. With relatively thin dealings, volatility in the shares is high.
As sales of Apple 3G iPhones continue to grow, there are also increasing reports of trouble with 3G reception on the devices.
UBS analyst Maynard Um today launched coverage of the PC sector, setting a Buy rating on Apple (AAPL) and Neutral ratings on Dell (DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ).
Um takes over coverage of the stocks from Ben Reitzes, who now covers the sector for Lehman.
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