Live Nation (NYSE: LYV), the big, famous concert promoter that counts Madonna as a member of its roster, reported dismal Q4 results on Monday after the bell. A huge write-down in goodwill related to a bad decline in market capitalization led to a loss per share of $4.33. That was many times more than the year-ago loss of 25 cents per share in the similar period. According to this source, Live Nation lost 89 cents per share on an adjusted basis. Wall Street was thinking that maybe the promoter would lose 22 cents per share. Quite the disparity there, eh?

Looking through the press release, I see that there's a lot going on in terms of acquisitions and adjustments. Overall, I came away less than thrilled with the business. I wasn't taken by the statement of cash flows, and I have to wonder how difficult it will be to close on the Ticketmaster (NASDAQ: TKTM) merger. There's talk of antitrust issues.

Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD) is scheduled to report earnings for the third quarter on Tuesday, December 2. The expectation is for a loss of $0.49 per share. I think it's therefore safe to say that the retailer won't be turning a profit.

Sears has been one awful retail story as of late. Actually, just about every retailer has been awful as of late. It's no surprise, of course, considering the economy. But Sears has been experiencing challenges even beyond what can be explained by the economy. The company has been missing estimates, same-store sales haven't been great, and if you take the time to talk to people about Sears, or if you follow the comments of pundits, you'll sometimes note a tone of repulsion when it comes to the big chain.

I haven't been a fan of the shopping experience at Sears either, and it's been a very, very long time since I've stepped into a Kmart. In fact, there isn't a Kmart close to me. Eddie Lampert's enormous task of helping to turn this ship around is not one I envy. Of course, many retailers make the mistake of only focusing on merchandising in the stores and figuring out what should be in the weekly circulars. Don't get me wrong, that's important stuff. But Sears needs to engage a branding campaign to make people feel good about its stores, to feel confident about the shopping environment. When you look at TV ads by Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Target (NYSE: TGT), you can't help but marvel at the branding acumen of those retailers. Sears needs to get creative, too.

So the big news on Thursday was CBS' (NYSE: CBS) hefty $1.8 billion purchase of CNET (NASDAQ: CNET). Douglas McIntyre already explained why this was such a "weird deal" in an excellent article that you can read here. I'd like to expand on that thinking a bit by asking if it should have been Viacom (NYSE: VIA), as opposed to CBS, in the buying seat.

Remember "old Viacom"? Old Viacom was composed of CBS and "new Viacom", the latter being the Viacom of today. I know, confusing, but that's how things are when a big media conglomerate splits in two. Anyway, there was a general mandate given to both companies, one that basically stated the logic of CBS being an entity that focuses on cash flows and dividend increases while new Viacom would focus on acquisitions to promote capital appreciation of the company's stock. Sure enough, the yield on CBS tells the tale perfectly.

So, I have to ask, what gives? I mean, a check of CBS' latest 10K shows that the broadcaster generated $2.2 billion in operational cash flow in 2007. I think paying $1.8 billion for anything, let alone a questionable asset vis a vis CBS' core media competencies, might be too much given CBS' mission to return a lot of value to shareholders over the long-term in the form of dividends.

So Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO) is about to have one heck of a week. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm willing to bet everyone reading this knows that today is launch day for Grand Theft Auto IV on the Sony (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation 3 and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox 360 consoles. And I'm sure there were many hardcore fans at Best Buy (NASDAQ: BBY) and GameStop (NYSE: GME) today, ready with cold-hard-cash in their hands to snag the software; in fact, this article talks about how some stores were open at midnight to satisfy the pent-up demand (remember, this title was delayed). And Douglas McIntyre discussed the game earlier today as being a potential barometer in terms of consumer confidence.

With all this incredible buzz, with the projection that GTA IV might move close to 10 million discs this year, should you be interested in taking on some Take-Two stock for your investment portfolio? The answer for me is no, Take-Two is not a buy here. Remember that we still have the whole arbitrage game going on with it since Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) wants to buy the publisher; also recall that Take-Two is gunning for a higher offer and purposely delayed further negotiations until after the release of GTA IV. I sold my position when the whole buyout offer was made a while ago, and I'm still glad that I did -- for me, the trade was over at that point, and I was happy to simply own my Activision (NASDAQ: ATVI) shares.

Buy Altria Group (NYSE: MO), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and look for plays on higher oil prices -- such as Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) and Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB), advises Doug McIntyre, a BloggingStocks contributor and editor of financial news site 24/7 Wall St.

He also thinks Ford Motor (NYSE: F) and General Motors (NYSE: GM) should be good investments since he expects union concessions to lift the stocks.

McIntyre suggests avoiding the financial and housing sectors since he thinks foreclosure rates will only climb from here, wreaking more havoc in the credit markets. And he shuns old media such as New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT). Surprisingly, he thinks Barry Diller's IAC Interactive Corp. (NASDAQ: IACI), which owns HSN, the home shopping channel, is really old media in disguise.

I interviewed Doug late last week at AOL's studios in what will be the first of many BloggingStocks video interviews to come. Let us know which of your favorite stock gurus you'd like us to talk to next and what questions you would like us to ask.

My BloggingStocks colleague Douglas McIntyre posted about the activation problems for the iPhone. There are also reports spreading across websites, blogs, and cable television.

The good news -- at least for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and AT&T (NYSE: T) -- is that it looks like there is overwhelming demand. Yet, with all the hype, shouldn't they have been prepared for a mega surge?

A friend of mine, who is a gadget early adopter, bought an iPhone more than 20 hours ago and still can't get an activation.

According to my friend: "I'm still waiting even though my old phone has shut down. I'm an AT&T customer and
the number is porting. An AT&T rep I spoke to said there were some significant delays due to some systems being down since last night."

Well, as for Monday, it should be interesting to hear the spin from Apple and AT&T.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.