In the early history of the personal computer revolution, Dr. Edward Roberts is certainly a pivotal figure. In fact, he is considered the inventor of the PC.

Unfortunately, he died this week of pneumonia. He was 68.

Back in the mid 1970s, Roberts launched the MITS Altair computer. While it had limited capability, it still was a breakthrough.

Continue reading PC Pioneer, Ed Roberts, Dies

PC Pioneer, Ed Roberts, Dies originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 03 Apr 2010 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Back in the mid 1970s, Paul Allen cofounded Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Since then, he has bought many nice toys (such as luxury yachts and sports teams), as well as made investments in a variety of companies. Unfortunately, his investment record has been spotty (perhaps he should have focused on the toys instead?)

Now, it looks like Allen will take the biggest loss of his investment career; that is, in Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR). In all, he has committed $7 billion to the firm.

Continue reading Paul Allen's cable nightmare: Apollo gets its claws into Charter

Paul Allen's cable nightmare: Apollo gets its claws into Charter originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is part of our feature on Money Losers of 2008. See all 20.

There's no doubt about it -- times are tough. People are struggling to find work and to pay the bills as the value of their homes and savings dwindle. The poor get poorer, and the rich get richer.

Or do they? It's all relative, of course, but world's billionaires have been taking some big hits too. We take a look at Sheldon Adelson, Kirk Kerkorian, and Lakshmi Mittal in their own separate posts, but here are some other billionaires who have lost billions this year (courtesy of Forbes and Business Sheet).

• Brothers Anil and Mukesh Ambani of India's private conglomerate Reliance lost $32.5 billion and $28.2 billion, respectively.
• Warren Buffett, the Sage of Omaha, lost $16.5 billion. Shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A) are down about 32% since the beginning of the year.
• Microsoft (NYSE: MSFT) founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen lost $12.3 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively, while CEO Steve Balmer lost $6.5 billion. Shares of Microsoft are down 46% since the beginning of the year.
• Larry Page and Sergey Brin, cofounders of Google Inc. (NYSE: GOOG), lost $11.9 billion and $11.7 billion, respectively, and CEO Eric Schmidt lost $3.8 billion. The share price of Google has fallen 55% since the beginning of the year.
• Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), lost $8.2 billion. Shares of Oracle are down 21% since the beginning of the year.
• Media maven Sumner Redstone lost $7.2 billion. Shares of his private investment firm National Amusements fell 70% this year.

Continue reading Money losers of 2008: Billionaires who lost billions this year

Money losers of 2008: Billionaires who lost billions this year originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Steven Spielberg wants to reboot the DreamWorks brand, according to this article. He's not happy being at Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Paramount and not having full ownership of his films. What he wants to do now is see if he can summon $1 billion in financing to catalyze this new phase in his life.

Of course, the phrase "see if he can" is probably not the most accurate one to use when talking about Spielberg. When it comes to Hollywood, his word is scripture, and if he asks for financing, he'll have more takers than he can handle. After raising his billion bucks, Spielberg needs to decide which studio will be a perfect home for his new celluloid ambitions. Although the article states that there is a possibility he can land anywhere, to me, there's no ambiguity whatsoever.

Spielberg will end up at General Electric's (NYSE: GE) Universal (if I could be as sure about the price of oil as I am about Spielberg and Universal, I'd be a rich, rich man). He and his Amblin shingle have had a long relationship with Universal, and simply put, that's where he wants to be. It's funny to consider Disney (NYSE: DIS) and News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) as potential new homes for DreamWorks. Disney definitely wouldn't want him since the Mouse is being very conservative in terms of film making, and although News Corp. would love to overpay for him (I think News Corp. enjoys overpaying for things at times), I just don't see Spielberg going to Fox.

Continue reading Should Steven Spielberg go public?

Should Steven Spielberg go public? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Oprah has left the building: NBC Universal (GE) buys Oxygen Media

Oprah has left the building: NBC Universal (GE) buys Oxygen Media originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In a filing with the SEC, billionaire Paul Allen has mentioned that he may want to take cable firm Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR) private.

It is hard to see how he could manage that. The company has over $19 billion in debt and a market cap of over $1 billion. In the trailing four quarters, the company has only had about $550 million in operating income.

Allen will not be able to refinance the debt at better rates in such a tough credit environment. His management at Charter has spent the last two years restructuring the balance sheet to improve debt service. And, they have done a good job, so the payment picture for that pool is not going to get any better.

Selling the company would probably be hard. Even with some savings, no other large cable company will be able to offset the need to come up with $25 billion or more to buy a company with $1.5 billion in revenue.

Unless Allen wants to pay hundreds of millions of dollars each year to make sure that Charter does not default, the company isn't going private.

Paul Allen to take Charter (CHTR) private? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Paul Allen's activity in DreamWorks (DWA): Is it simply 'rebalancing'? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 07 Aug 2007 13:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.