MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Goldman downgraded shares of Sears Holding (NASDAQ: SHLD) to Sell from Neutral as they expect continued share loss and profit pressures in this macro environment.
  
• ABN Amro lowered its rating on Reuters Group (NASDAQ: RTRSY) to Sell from Hold as they believe the credit crisis will impact the company's banking profitability.
  
• Shire Plc (NASDAQ: SHPGY) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill. The firm sees limited upside to 2008 earnings.

• Teva Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ: TEVA) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at HSBC.
  
• Goldman downgraded Infosys Tech (NASDAQ: INFY) to Neutral from Buy.
  
• Bear downgraded Telecom Italia (NYSE: TI) to Underperform from Peer Perform.

Analyst downgrades: Sears, Reuters, Shire Plc originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 14 Jan 2008 11:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• In a step toward expanding its reach into China, UCBH Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: UCBH) has acquired a full stake in Shanghai-based Business Development Bank in a deal valued at $205M, the Wall Street Journal reported.

• After creating an agreement with the International Herald Tribune, Reuters Group Plc (NASDAQ: RTRSY) is reportedly in discussion for a similar agreement with The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), the UK Times reported.

• In an interview with Bloomberg, E.I du Pont de Nemours and Company's (NYSE: DD) CEO Charles Holiday said he believes the U.S. economy will be able to avoid a recession in 2008.
• According to "people familiar with the plan," Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) may sell its Japanese unit in an effort to help cut global costs due to a slump in sales and lower earnings forecast, Bloomberg reported.

Newspaper wrap-up: Reuters looks for revenue-sharing deal with NY Times originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 11 Dec 2007 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Next year Nestle USA will sell Jamba Inc's (NASDAQ: JMBA) Jamba Juice at stores in eight states in the western U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Last May Canadian information provider The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC) bought Reuters Group Plc (NASDAQ: RTRSY) for GBP8.7B. While the deal was beneficial to Reuters, the credit crunch could have a severe impact on its bottom line over the next few years, the Wall Street Journal's "Heard on the Street" said.

• The Detroit News reported that the United Auto Workers signed a new contract with Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F).

• Jeffrey Zucker, General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) NBC Universal media unit would be interested in DreamWorks SKG if it were to become available, Bloomberg reported.
• According to 21st Century Business Herald's website, Baosteel Group's Chairman, Xu Lejiang, said the company is considering making a bid for Rio Tinto Plc (NYSE: RTP).

Newspaper wrap-up: Nestle USA to sell Jamba Juice next year originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 04 Dec 2007 08:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading CNN plans to expand on the cheap

CNN plans to expand on the cheap originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Reuters (NASDAQ:RTRSY) has a blog section at the bottom of most business stories at Reuters.com. It is called Business Blog Posts, and it is powered by Blogburst. Blogburst is part of blog syndication service Pluck. And, Reuters is one of Pluck's owners.

Complicated? Yes.

The business blogs that Reuters runs are mostly small, one-person operations like Phil's Stock World and Captain Currency. Some, like The Kirk Report and Bill Cara, are well regarded. But, Reuters does them a disservice. It keeps the traffic for their content when it runs on Reuters.com. So, Reuters gets the ad revenue on those pages. The bloggers get their names on Reuters, and a link back to their sites, which is probably rarely used.

It is interesting to note that none of the big business blog sites like SeekingAlpha or Ticker Sense run in the Reuters program. They understand that the deal is good for Reuters and bad for the blogs. They aren't prepared to let Reuters compete with them for eyeballs using their own blog content.

It is a shame that Reuters has handled bloggers this way. Many other media outlets like WSJ.com and TheStreet.com comment on blogs but send traffic to the bloggers. Reuters has decided not to give the little guy a leg up.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St. which was approached about the Reuters program and turned the company down.

What does Reuters have against financial blogs? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Bernstein upgraded shares of Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO), Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSO), Sunoco Incorporated (NYSE: SUN) and Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE: VLO) to Market Perform from Underperform.
• MasTec Incorporated (NYSE: MTZ) was upgraded to Buy from Accumulate at Think Equity and to Buy from Hold at SMH Capital on valuation following yesterday's sell-off.
• JP Morgan upgraded shares of Cognos Incorporated (NASDAQ: COGN) to Overweight from Neutral citing solid end demand, expanded sales capacity, indications that C8 adoption should see an uptick, and the Applix Inc (NASDAQ: APLX) acquisition.
• Forest Laboratories Inc (NYSE: FRX) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies, as the firm believes Forest's victory in the Lexapro patent case eliminates a major overhang and returns the focus to the company's pipeline.
• Lehman upgraded shares of Reuters Group (NASDAQ: RTRSY) to Overweight from Equal Weight to reflect benefits from the company's merger with Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC).

• UBS upgraded shares of General Mills Inc (NYSE: GIS) to Buy from Neutral.
• Thornburg Mortgage (NYSE: TMA) was upgraded to Sector Perform from Underperform at RBC Capital Markets.
• CIBC World Markets upgraded EDO Corporation (NYSE: EDO) to Sector Outperformer from Sector Performer.
• Bernstein upgraded shares of Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) to Outperform from Market Perform and shares of Anglo American (NASDAQ: AAUK) to Market Perform from Underperform.

Analyst upgrades 9-6-07: Refiners, MTZ, COGN, FRX and RTRSY originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 06 Sep 2007 10:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In a sign of the increasing importance of high-end financial blogs, Reuters Group Plc (NASDAQ: RTRSY) is starting a new network of the sites. Or, it could be that the Reuters business development people have down time because of its upcoming purchase by Thomson Corp. (NYSE: TOC).

The offer that Reuters is making to a number of high-end blogs is that it will link to the participating sites from Reuters.com, offer free access to selected Reuters Headlines (RSS or Headline Wizard) and Reuters Video Player to publish Reuters News, and get 30% of an advertising program that the big financial services company will manage.

In return, each blog agrees to execute contracts with comScore and NetRatings to assign its traffic to Reuters.com. NetRatings ranks Reuters.com as the No.7 financial website with unique visitors of 6.1 million in May.

Reuters may be trying to match blog initiatives at media outlets including FT.com, WSJ.com, and AOL.com.

Either Reuters has a very high regard for financial blogs or it needs to pump up its audience ratings.

Disclosure: 24/7 Wall St. was approached by Reuters about this opportunity.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a principal at 24/7 Wall St.

Reuters starts financial blog network originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Global M&A: Scorching hot originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 15 May 2007 13:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Thomson Corp. (NYSE: TOC) locked up its deal to buy Reuters (NASDAQ: RTRSY) for $17.2 billion. The combination gives the new entity 34% of the global financial services information market. Bloomberg has 33%.

The Wall Street Journal said that the deal may face regulatory problems [subscription required]: "The agreement sets the stage for a long battle with regulators to win clearance for a combination that would unite the second- and third-largest providers of financial news and data, behind Bloomberg LP, of New York." Assuming that those can be overcome, one of the losers may be Dow Jones & Co., Inc. (NYSE: DJ). While it still has a tremendous presence in print with The Wall Street Journal, its Dow Jones Newswire terminals may have greater competition. So might the online WSJ.com, which already vies with Reuters online news service. Thomson has products that could improve a Reuters offerings.

Because Dow Jones is nowhere near as large as the new entity, it might find it difficult to match the resources of its competitors, including the number of journalists, sales forces, and completeness of content. Dow Jones had a financial terminal business in Telerate, but it sold that business a decade ago.

If Dow Jones does not take an offer from Rupert Murdoch, it is left with an operation that has relatively small margins that may get even smaller as the print business shrinks.

Little boat, big ocean.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

With Thomson purchase of Reuters sealed, Dow Jones looks very small originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 15 May 2007 10:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Thomson Corp. (NYSE: TOC) and Reuters Group Plc. (NASDAQ: RTRSY) joining forces to fight a common enemy: Bloomberg Plc. LP

The company founded by New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg -- and my former employer -- is the 1,000 pound gorilla in the business data market. It has gained marketshare at the expense of both Reuters and Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE: DJ) for years.

Bloomberg and Thomson were on friendly terms until fairly recently. Then, Thompson wouldn't answer questions from Bloomberg reporters about the company's earnings estimates. Eventually, Bloomberg decided to do its own polls of analysts.

The combined company may be able to erode Bloomberg's pricing power. When I first started with Bloomberg, it was a mark of status on Wall Street to have your own Bloomberg terminal. Most users that I see now share a Bloomberg to save money.

Nonetheless, Thomson and Reuters have a tough challenge. In addition to Bloomberg, there's the potential that a Rupert Murdoch-owned Dow Jones can pour money into digital publishing products that compete against offerings of the merged company. The Bloomberg threat isn't theoretical.

Though the Bloomberg terminals aren't cheap and aren't very user friendly for the untrained, it's tough to beat their functionality. Many companies have tried and failed to develop a "Bloomberg killer" over the years. Bloomberg terminals even have survived the Internet age.

But it's going to take more than just data for the combined Thomson-Reuters to thrive. More and more financial data is available on the Internet for free. Most individual investors don't need the proprietary data that these companies offer. To survive, they will need compelling content, which in the old days was called news.

Can Thomson-Reuters take on Bloomberg? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 15 May 2007 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• For April, CPI is expected to rise 0.5% after a 0.6% in March. Core CPI, which excludes the volatile food and energy prices is forecast to have risen 0.2% compared to a 0.1% increase the month before.
• At the same time, the NY Empire State manufacturing survey for May is due.
• Also today, the National Association of Home Builders will release its housing market index.

Before the bell 5-15-07: Futures lower after WMT, HD, before CPI originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 15 May 2007 07:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The British newspaper, The Independent, reports that Reuters is a heart beat from being sold to Thomson (NYSE: TOC). According to its report, the "Reuters Founders Share Company, the trust that acts as guardian to the editorial independence of Reuters Group Plc" is prepared to approve the deal. Reuters has been independent since it was founded in 1850.

Thomson's bid sent the Reuters (NYSE: RTRSY) ADRs from below $60 to over $77. While the premium is nowhere near the one that News Corp (NYSE: NWS) has offered for Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ), Thomson is family controlled, and the Reuters CEO would run the combined company.

A combined Thomson/Reuters would have a share of the financial news delivery business that would only be matched by privately-held Bloomberg.

The merger of the two financial news and information giants could put Dow Jones in a bit of a bind. Its revenue would be dwarfed by larger competitors, and a rejection of the News Corp. offer could end up looking short-sighted.

But Dow Jones's management has made mistakes before.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Reuters all but sold? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 13 May 2007 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Newspaper wrap-up 5-10-07: Murdoch began talks with DJ on March 29 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 10 May 2007 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Armor Holdings Inc (NYSE: AH) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan based on the news that the company will be sold to BAE Systems PLC (BAESY) for $88 a share in cash. The firm expects the deal to close with no higher offers. Bear Stearns cut Armor Holdings to Peer Perform from Outperform and Friedman Billings cut shares of the vehicle armorer to Market Perform from Outperform.

• Alcan Inc (NYSE: AL) was cut to Neutral from Buy at Bank of America and DA Davidson following the Alcoa (AA) bid.

• Baird cut Advance Auto Parts (NYSE: AAP) to Neutral from Outperform following CEO Michael Coppola's resignation. Kevin Dann downgraded Advance to Hold from Buy to reflect an increased level of uncertainty following Mr. Coppola's departure.

• Lehman Brothers downgraded Reuters Group (NASDAQ: RTRSY) to Equal Weight from Overweight pending further information on the Thompson Corp (TOC) bid; Credit Suisse cut shares to Neutral from Outperform and Deutsche Bank cut shares to Hold from Buy.

• Matrix downgraded UST Inc (NYSE: UST) to Sell from Hold.

• Needham cut Entegris, Inc (NASDAQ: ENTG) to Hold from Buy.

• UBS downgraded shares of Golden Star Resources (AMEX: GSS) to Reduce from Neutral.

• Wachovia cut Rowan Cos (NYSE: RDC) to Market Perform from Outperform.

Analyst downgrades 5-08-07: AH, AL, AAP, ROC and RTRSY originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 08 May 2007 10:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Before the bell 5-8-07: Ready for a breather? Futures lower ahead of Fed originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 08 May 2007 07:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Shares of Reuters are skyrocketing on reports of a $15 billion takeover bid from an unidentified suitor that can be blocked by a single golden share could block the bid.

I hate to say I told you so, but my post from May 2, suggested Reuters Group PLC (NASDAQ: RTRSY) as a possible takeover candidate in light of News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) bid for Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE: DJ).

And like DJ, Reuters has a quirky ownership structure under which no shareholder may own 15% or more of Reuters shares and a single golden share held by The Reuters Founder Share can block a hostile bid. The Reuters Founder Share Co is run by 15 trustees, charged with ensuring the "independence, impartiality, integrity and freedom from bias" of the global news organization.

So once again the interests of public shareholders of media companies are being thwarted by special insider interests. I think it's time to end this quaint relic of the 19th century.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned in this post.

Will the golden share block Reuters takeover? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 04 May 2007 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• Several stories are in the news this morning starting with reports on the New York Post that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) asked Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) to enter formal talks about buying the web portal company. The deal could easily be worth around $50 billion. Shares of Microsoft are down a little in pre-market trading, but shares of Yahoo! are near $33, rising nearly 17% in pre-market.
• Another report is that Reuters (NASDAQ: RTRSY) says that it has been approached with a takeover bid, but didn't name the bidder. This deal could easily surpass $15 billion. Reuters shares have shot up 24% in London.
• British music group EMI Group Plc also said it had received a number of takeover approaches, after a report in the Financial Times named One Equity private equity firm as one of the suitors. EMI shares are rising some 8% in London.

• Starbucks Corp. (NYSE: SBUX) reported first quarter earnings after the close yesterday. The coffee company's results were inline with estimates.
• Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) reported a narrower loss and KBR Inc. (NYSE: KBR) earnings rose 7.7%, but missed expectations.

Before the bell 5-4-07: Futures higher on mergers, ahead of jobs report originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 04 May 2007 08:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Reuters (NASDAQ: RTRSY) says that it has been approached with a takeover bid. Its shares are up 30% on the news in London.

With Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ) currently in play after a 67% premium bid from News Corp (NYSE: NWS), perhaps no one should be surprised. It appears that financial news content is getting new respect and a higher valuation than the market has given it over the last several years.

Unlike Dow Jones, where the total value of the transaction would be $5 billion, Reuters already has a market cap of over $12 billion, so a deal would probably be north of the $15 billion mark.

Reuters has one of the world's largest news services and and competes with Bloomberg in the trading terminal business. Last year, the company's revenues were over $5 billion.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Reuters now takeover target originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 04 May 2007 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dow Jones & Company's (NYSE: DJ) Wall Street Journal (a.k.a., The Towel) occupies a unique spot in the media firmament. As I pointed out earlier in the year, it changed its footprint and now looks to me like a Holiday Inn bath towel. Towel Talk offers a perspective on its news and views.

News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) bid for The Towel has plunged a fiery torch into the viper's nest of conflict and ambition at the paper. And this conflict has opened up the possibility of numerous bidders and targets in the beleaguered newspaper business.

I come to this story with some conflicts of my own. I have done consulting work for News Corp.'s Chairman and CEO and have worked with several reporters from The Towel. But what I find most interesting about this takeover is that it plunges right to the heart of the conflict within The Towel between the Bancroft family, which I imagine backs the Towel's arch conservative editorial page, and the reporting side, whose union representatives have opposed the deal.

Continue reading Towel Talk: Dow Jones' red state blues

Towel Talk: Dow Jones' red state blues originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 02 May 2007 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Cramer's take on News Corp. & Dow Jones originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 01 May 2007 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.