What a fabulous defense. The Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) board has written Carl Icahn about his plan to run his own slate of directors in a proxy war. The portal's governing body reasons that because Icahn was not in any of its meetings and did not attend negotiations with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) that the billionaire can't understand why Yahoo! is worth more than $33 a share.
In a letter run inThe Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! writes that the company's board "remains the best and most qualified group to maximize value for all Yahoo! stockholders."
The reasoning by the board is flawed to the bone. Whether Icahn or any other shareholder attended meetings is beside the question. Yahoo!'s value in the market before the Microsoft bid was $19. Wall Street placed that value on the company because it had repeatedly put out disappointing results. The bad numbers cost former CEO Terry Semel his job. Yahoo! has less than 25% of the US search market, and that number is falling. To argue that the board understands why the company is worth $37 a share is both arrogant and has no basis in fact.
The other part of the Yahoo! reasoning is based on the idea that management's projections for the next three years create a value for the company well beyond its current share price. This does not take into account that no one believes that Yahoo! can hit the numbers. The Paulson hedge fund, one of the largest shareholders in the portal company, has already said it will back the Icahn bid. So have other owners of the company's stock.
Yahoo!'s board cannot simply dismiss arguments about the value of the company because it has talked in private and come up with higher numbers. "If wishes were horses, all the beggars would ride."
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke addressed the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Financial Markets Conference in Sea Island, Georgia this morning via satellite. He discussed in detail the recent provision of liquidity by the Fed.
He discussed the shift in Fed monetary policy from its primary reliance on open market operations to lending tools used to address the credit crisis more directly. He mentioned the increased use of the Term Auction Facility (TAF) by commercial banks" from $20 billion at the inception of the program to $75 billion in auctions this month" and indicated that the Fed is willing to increase the use of these auctions as necessary.
He also discussed the extension of Fed credit to primary dealers through the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF) and the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF). He mentioned that extending credit to primary dealers was an extraordinary move driven by the potential for a scenario "in which a cascade of failures and liquidations sharply depresses asset prices, with adverse financial and economic implications." He indicated that although improvements in the credit markets have occurred, there are still substantial problems that remain.
Day one of the two-day FDA Anesthetic/Life Support Drugs & Drug Safety/Risk Management Advisory Committees meeting: Purdue Pharma's NDA for Oxycontin.
Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC) to report Q1 earnings; conference call Tuesday at 10:00am.
Tuesday, May 6
Day two of the two-day FDA Anesthetic/Life Support Drugs & Drug Safety/Risk Mgmt Advisory Committees meeting: Cephalon's (NASDAQ:CEPH) sNDA for Fentora.
Molson Coors (NYSE:TAP) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 12:00pm.
PDUFA date for Genentech, Inc. (NYSE: DNA) and Roche Holding Ltd. (OTC: RHHBY)'s supplemental Biologics License Application for Herceptin for label expansion to include AC followed by docetaxel in treatment of adjuvant HER2+ breast cancer.
PDUFA date for Shire plc (NASDAQ: SHPGY) and New River Pharma's supplemental New Drug Application for Vyvanse (NRP-104) treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disordre, or ADHD, in adult patients 18-55 years old; the drug is already approved for pediatric ADHD ages 6-12.
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) to report Q earnings; conference call at 8:30am.
Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE: TSN) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 9:00am.
Tuesday, April 29
Two-day FOMC meeting beginning at 8:30am.
PDUFA date for Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK)'s New Drug Application for Cordaptive (MK-0524A) adjunctive therapy to diet for treating elevated LDL Cholesterol, low HDL Cholesterol and elevated triglycerides levels.
PDUFA date for Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCMP)'s supplemental New Drug Application for dose of 8mg treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Constipation; already approved for Chronic Idiopathic Constipation at 24ug dosage.
BP plc (NYSE: BP) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 10:15am.
United States Steel Company (NYSE: X) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 2:00pm.
PDUFA date for Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY)'s supplemental Biologics License Application for Orencia for the treatment of Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 5pm.
Tuesday, April 8
Chattem Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTT) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 9:00am.
FOMC to release minutes of the March 18th meeting at 2:00pm.
After Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) announced Tuesday it was touching up its lineup of MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops. Meanwhile, Apple's iTunes digital media store became the second-largest U.S. music retailer, behind Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT), leaving Best Buy Co (NYSE: BBY) and Target Corp (NYSE: TGT) behind. Following all that, many analysts had something to say on the future of the company and Barron's Savitz rounded their comments. Mostly, they reiterate their rating and price targets.
New studies show that widely-used drugs for anemic cancer patients can increase the risk of blood clots anddeath rates. The drugs are mainly made by Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ).
Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) has shut down most of its U.S. shops for three hours to retrain baristas on espresso basics Tuesday, and today it opened the stores with a new promise: "Your drink should be perfect, every time. If not, let us know and we'll make it right." Since Schultz took over the head post again, he's been trying to restore Starbucks to what it has been with the latest being a retraining of the staff and the upholding of the company's pledge. Time will tell if it will help.
Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) Q4 2007 Earnings Conference Call Wednesday February 6, 2008 at 10:30 AM ET
Corporate Participants
James E. Burtson, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations Jeffrey L. Bewkes, President and Chief Executive Officer John K. Martin, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Management Summary
Operator
Hello, and welcome to the Time Warner Fourth Quarter 2007 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. During the question and answer and session, please press star one on your touch-tone phone to ask a question. Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Now, I'll turn the call over to James Burtson, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.
James E. Burtson, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations
Thanks, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Time Warner's 2007 full year and fourth quarter earnings conference call. This morning, we issued two press releases, one detailing our results for the 2007 full year and fourth quarter, and the other providing our 2008 business outlook.
Before we begin, there are several items I need to cover. First we refer to non-GAAP measures, including such measures as operating income before depreciation and amortization or OIBDA and free cash flow. We use these measures when we analyze year-over-year comparisons. In order to enhance comparability, we eliminate certain items such as non-cash impairments, gains or losses from asset disposals, and amounts related to securities litigation and government investigations. We call this measure adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization or adjusted OIBDA. A schedule setting out reconciliations of these historical non-GAAP financial measures to operating income and cash provided by operations or the other most directly comparable GAAP financial measure as applicable are included in our earnings release or trending schedules. These reconciliation are available on the company's website at www.timewarner.com/investors. A reconciliation of our expected future financial performance is also included in the business outlook release that is available on our website.
Second, as a result of the sales of the Parenting Group, most of the Time4 Media magazine titles, The Progressive Farmer Magazine, Leisure Arts, the Atlanta Braves baseball franchise, Tegic Communications and Wildseed, the company has presented the operating results for these businesses as discontinued operations for all periods presented. The 2006 operating results of Time Warner Book Group and the Turner South network, as well as cable systems transferred to Comcast in the Adelphia/Comcast transaction are reflected as discontinued operations as well.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) co-founders Jerry Yang, also the company's chief executive, and David Filo, the less visible of the two, should take Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) $44.6 billion offer before the world's largest software company realizes how much it is overpaying for the company.
Better yet, Yang and Filo should "reject" Microsoft's initial offer because -- at least according to CNBC -- Microsoft may be willing to up its bid. That seems to be the market's expectation given that shares of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo haven't hit the $31 offer level.
The Yahoo twosome need to get while the getting is good. As The Wall Street Journal notes, "If the deal goes through as presently constituted, Mr. Filo's stake would be worth more than $2.4 billion - not counting his options and other shares..Mr. Yang's stake would be worth more than $1.64 billion - again, not counting options and so forth."
During the height of the Internet bubble, both were worth more than $6 billion, the paper said.
The forays of Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN into original content already spooks content companies, so I bet if the deal through it will lead to a rash of mergers between old and new media companies. A combined company would likely do more original fare to attract advertisers and users.
Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) 2007 Q4 Earnings Conference Call Thursday, January 31, 2008, 4:30 PM ET
Corporate Participants
Dr. Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer George Reyes, Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Larry Page, Co-Founder & President, Products Sergey Brin, Co-Founder & President, Technology Jonathan Rosenberg, Senior Vice President, Product Management Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President, Global Sales & Business Development
Management Summary
Operator
Good day and welcome everyone to the Google Inc. Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Krista Bessinger. Please go ahead, ma'am.
Company Representative
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to today's fourth quarter 2007 earnings conference call. With us are Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer; George Reyes, Chief Financial Officer; Larry Page, Founder and President of Products; Sergey Brin, Founder and President of Technology; Jonathan Rosenberg, Senior Vice President of Product Management, and Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Operations. Eric, George, Larry and Sergey will provide their thoughts on the quarter and then Jonathan and Omid will join us for Q&A.
Please note that this call is being webcast on our Investor Relations website. Our press release issued a few minutes few ago was also posted on the website along with the slides that accompanies today's prepared remarks. A replay of this call will also be available on our Investor Relations website in a few hours.
Now let me quickly cover the Safe Harbor statement. Some of the statements we make today may be considered forward-looking, including statements regarding our investments, seasonality, traffic acquisition cost, increase in the cost of sales, international growth, operating margins, growth in headcount and our expected level of capital expenditures. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could actual results to differ materially. Please note that these forward-looking statements reflect our opinions only as of the date of this presentation and we undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. Please refer to our SEC filings including our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30th, 2007 as well as our earnings press release posted a few minutes ago for a more detailed description of the risk factors that may affect our results. Copies can be obtained from the SEC or by visiting the Investor Relations section of our website.
Also please note that certain financial measures we use on this call such as EPS, net income, operating margin and operating income are expressed on a non-GAAP basis and have been adjusted to exclude charges relating to stock-based compensation. We've also adjusted our net cash provided by operating activities to remove capital expenditures, which we refer to as free cash flow. Our GAAP results and GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation can be found in our earnings press release on our website.
With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Eric
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Monday, May 19
What a fabulous defense. The 
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke 
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Comfort Zone Investing: One thriving area of real estate: Apartments
Just how high will U.S. gasoline prices rise?
Nordstrom and Kohl's post smaller-than-expected Q1 profit declines
