Dark Knight, the Batman movie starring Heath Ledger, did boffo box office: $158.3 million, according to Defamer. But this blockbuster will not just benefit Warner Brothers and DC Comics, which share parent Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) with BloggingStocks. There are at least six companies that will benefit from Dark Knight's success. According to Seeking Alpha, these companies include:
Time Warner -- through its Warner Brothers and DC Comics subsidiaries are profiting most directly.
Comcast Corporation (NYSE: CMCSA) partnered with Warner Bros. to offer "behind-the-scenes footage, trailers, and mini movies on demand"
Verizon Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) collaborated in creating the Nokia6205 The Dark Knight Edition. Seeking Alpha reports that "This batphone targets superfans, with bat wallpaper, voice tones, screensavers, and the film's trailer pre-loaded."
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) is making a fairly concerted effort to get Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) out of its equity position in Verizon Wireless. The question is, why would Vodafone get out? Verizon Wireless makes a lot of money.
According to the FT, the head of Verizon, Ivan Seidenberg said, "Would I like to have 100 per cent of the earnings given we're doing 100 per cent of the work? Yeah, I would."
Verizon Wireless does not pay dividends to Vodafone, so it does not get much of a cash benefit from its piece of the pie, but the FT points out that the British company's stake is worth about $60 billion.
Reflecting on the debate, it would probably be in the best interests of Vodafone shareholders to sell out to Verizon. Their benefits of ownership are limited. Vodafone could use the cash for expansion in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
Perhaps the greatest reason for Vodafone to make a graceful exit is the US market itself. Growth of wireless subscribers is slowing as the market reaches a point of saturation. Competition is tough, especially with AT&T (NYSE: T) having about the same number of subscribers as Verizon Wireless. A price war could take down margins at both companies.
Vodafone's stake may never be worth more than it is now.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
During the challenging market conditions over the past year, the telecom sector has felt its fair share of the pain. BusinessWeek brings Standard & Poor's Todd Rosenbluth who suggests that some of these telecommunication stocks could now be good investments for traders as they have a safe dividend.
Despite worries tied to the slowing U.S. economy and increased competition, "we think that some of the concerns are overdone and believe selective stocks are attractively valued," Rosenbluth stated. Rosenbluth also noted that telecom stocks have started showing signs of recovery for the past few weeks, helped by the launch of new handsets and merger and acquisition agreements.
Some of investors' favorite companies are AT&T Co. (NYSE: T) and Citizens Communications Co. (NYSE: CZN). Rosenbluth believes that the launch of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s new iPhone, 3G iPhone, will stir increased demand for smartphones, helping such companies, while putting pricing pressure on some of their competitors.
For every person who had to wait forever for Time Warner Cable, Inc. (NYSE: TWC) to pick up the phone, for every customer who had to slog through an automated voice menu, then stew waiting to talk to a person, for every family that went days without TV or internet, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo struck a blow Friday. On behalf of the city of Los Angeles, Delgadillo sued the top cable provider for southern California, saying its service was so bad it constituted fraud and deceptive advertising.
The city wants $2,500 for each instance, double if the victim was old or disabled. Part of the problem in Los Angeles stemmed from the company's complicated task of absorbing Comcast and Adelphia customers, not everyday business. Consumers had filed their own civil suit a while back.
Time Warner Cable stock dropped $1.23, or about 4%, Friday on somewhat heavy trading. The damages could add up to potentially millions of dollars. Or it could be one of those lame settlements that give customers useless coupons.
The direct impact of the civil suit isn't as much of a big deal -- yet -- as the broader implications. What if other cities or customers sue? How is this suit going to influence the opinion of someone who's deciding between Time Warner and Dish Network or DirecTV? Between Roadrunner and wireless broadband? For a long time, cable providers could offer lousy service because there was basically no competition. Now, they have to behave better or lose customers. Now that could be real money.
Now that Verizon Wireless has agreed to purchase privately held Alltel from its private equity owners (giving them a small profit and an out), what else is on tap for the soon-to-be largest wireless carrier in the U.S.? Verizon Wireless is chomping at the bit to overtake AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) as the largest wireless carrier in the U.S., and its acquisition of Alltel will give it an 8 million+ wireless subscriber advantage over Ma Bell.
Although Alltel's buyout by Verizon was expected last year, it's now going to finally happen. Both companies use the same technical wireless standard, so this will be an easy merger. There will be no issues like when Sprint merged with Nextel in 2005 and the two incompatible networks caused an epic failure of those two companies to merge into one. Speaking of Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), where does it play into the Verizon-Alltel landscape? Does its WiMAX plans now become derailed with the Verizon announcement, adding more insult to injury about the state of the company?
If anything, look for Verizon to take a strong look at buying Sprint Nextel shortly after its deal with Alltel closes. There would be way more regulatory scrutiny than the Alltel deal (overlapping markets, etc.), but a one-two knockout punch like this would make Verizon Wireless the pre-eminent wireless carrier in the U.S. for a long time. AT&T would have no choice but to plead with Deutsche Telekom to buy T-Mobile USA, the nation's fourth-largest wireless carrier, and one who also shares the same type of technical network as AT&T. Perhaps 2009 will see some of the neatest consolidation in the wireless world yet.
Shares were higher today after the weekly jobless claims were reported as 357,000, down 18,000 from last week. While new claims are down, the four week average of those filing for benefits was up to 3.086 million, the highest level since March 2004. The good news is that the markets largely ignored that S&P downgrade of bond insurers today. The stock market even ignored a $5.00 rise per barrel in oil today. Here are the unofficial closing levels today:
Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) was an example of just how strong today was by being up almost 3% at $28.90 late in the day. If you read trough the co-founder and former CEO's indictment charges you might think shareholders would have gone the other way.
Traditionally, strategic buyers have an edge over financial buyers (that is, private equity funds). Essentially, they have the advantage of revenue and cost synergies. However, when debt became dirt cheap over the years, financial buyers had a big advantage and were able to out bid strategic bidders.
Of course, with the credit crunch, this is over. And, yes, strategic buyers are coming to the table – and even talking to the portfolio companies of private equity funds.
Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Vodafone Group Plc (NYSE: VOD) and Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ), is in talks to acquire Alltel Corp. in a deal valued at about $27B, the Wall Street Journal reported. If successful, the combined companies would create the largest cellphone company, and would be better positioned to compete against AT&T Inc (NYSE: T).
Gregory B. Penner, the son-in-law of Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE: WMT) chairman S. Robson Walton, is expected to join the company's board of directors, a move seen as the beginning of a leadership change at the company, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Financial Times reported that Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek refused to provide funds to Bear Stearns shortly before Bear's sale to JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM). Temasek reportedly refused the request for practical and political reasons.
Russia's Interior Ministry questioned the head of BP Plc's (NYSE: BP) Russian oil venture as part of a criminal investigation into possible large-scale tax evasion, the Financial Times reported.
Shares of Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) are rising on a Wall Street Journal (subscription required) report that Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) is poised to make a bid for the wireless telecommunication company. If the report is accurate, Sprint's long suffering shareholders should do as the Steve Miller Band song suggests "take the money and run" because the deal may not happen.
For Sprint, though, this may be its only hope. Sprint shares have slumped almost 40% this year as the Overland Park Kansas-based company tried in vain to gain marketshare against larger rivals including Verizon and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T). The commercials starring the company's affable CEO Daniel Hesse haven't helped much either. Remember when Hesse was named CEO last December, board member Irvine O. Hockaday Jr. remarked that Hesse "has the board's full support to take decisive actions necessary to improve our performance."
But as Bloomberg News points out, analysts argue that integrating the Deutsche Telekom and Sprint Nextel networks wouldn't be easy. Moreover, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security may not look kindly on a foreign company taking over a U.S. telecom provider for national security reasons, the news service notes.
Even so, the arguments for the merger are so compelling that it might be worth the risk.
When the Federal Communications Commission releases the results from its $19 billion auction of new wireless spectrum, all eyes will looking for one name: Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG).
The search giant is eager to expand into the mobile world. Odds are that the company won't outbid Verizon Wireless or AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) for the "C" block of new spectrum that attracted a $4.74 billion bid. BusinessWeek has reported that Google probably withdrew from the bidding. But as The New York Timesnotes, Google scored a pretty significant victory already.
"While Google was not expected to post a winning bid, it has already achieved an important victory by influencing the auction rules," the paper said. "The commission forced the major telephone companies to open their wireless networks to a broader array of telephone equipment and Internet applications."
In other words, people can download whatever application they want to their mobile phones, which is exactly what Google wants to happen. Fortune recently noted that open standards are a central feature of Google's Android mobile platform. Speculation abounds about Google's interest in the mobile area, though the much anticipated Gphone has yet to materialize.
Tom Taulli wrote Tuesday about Verizon (NYSE: VZ)'s unlimited wireless calling plan, and competitors AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) and T-Mobile (part of Germany's Deutsche Telekom) followed suit with unlimited wireless calling plans for U.S. customers. This is a first in the wireless industry for the major carriers, but it's a welcome one for many consumers. Both AT&T and T-Mobile will offer unlimited calling starting by the end of this week -- T-Mobile starting today and AT&T starting tomorrow.
Where is Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), you may ask? The carrier also announced unlimited calling plans two weeks ago, but just in a few select markets -- and starting at $119.99 per month. Although the unlimited calling plans vary from carrier to carrier, generally, there is a $99.99 per month price of admission with all of them. T-Mobile offers the best value, with all call minutes and unlimited text messages included. Why did all the carriers -- except Sprint -- unveil unlimited calling within just a few days of each other?
Something has to keep growth churning along in the wireless industry. With 85% of Americans now owning a cellphone, wireless is heading for commodity status (it may already be there), where price wars will begin erupting and "me too" marketing campaigns following shortly thereafter. The PC industry knows all about this. But price wars only help the consumer -- not the wireless carrier. Yes, many of us heavy wireless users may soon have lower bills, but the carriers may have lower bottom lines as well. What wireless company stocks do you have in your portfolio? Will this cause more customers to abandon landline telephones and switch to unlimited-minutes wireless only, pumping in growth into the wireless sector for the time being? Food for thought.
The FCC released a bidder list this week for its upcoming radio bandwidth auctions to be held in late January. These FCC radio auctions have attracted a wide assortment of companies that previously have had little to no presence in the wireless business. Among those companies are Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) -- whose wireless ambitions are still clouded in secrecy -- and Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM).
Qualcomm is an interesting participant, since it already owns a decent chunk of radio waves in the 700 MHz area, where it operates the little-known MediaFLO wireless television service, and it secured the radio frequency currently used by analog television channel 55 as well. Does Qualcomm want wireless carriers to build phones that will "listen" to its upcoming wireless television channels? Most likely, although the company's effort is still in its infancy.
Charlie Ergen's EchoStar (NASDAQ: DISH) may want to get into the FCC auction as well, after pulling out of another FCC auction in 2006 when the bids became inflated beyond what it wanted to pay. Does EchoStar want to compete with established telephone companies like AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) to bring telecom services directly to customers? That's the going theory since wireless is quite a bit cheaper than installing fiber optic lines all over the country.
All in all, the FCC released a list of 266 companies that had applied to bid on next month's radio auctions on radio frequencies that will be vacated when analog television signals end in 2009.
A week ago, the wireless division of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) -- Verizon Wireless -- surprised the entire U.S. wireless industry by stating its intention to open its network to any compatible device running any phone-based application any customer wanted. In a country where wireless operators have been extremely close-minded about just about everything, this announcement sets the stage for things to come. The wireless industry is facing major changes.
Verizon trumped itself this week, announcing that Verizon Wireless would partner with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) in its "open handset alliance." When Google announced its Android mobile operating system platform about a month ago, the web's largest search provider had lined up an impressive array of partners right from the start. Its goal: to remove all the "walled garden" roadblocks from mostly American wireless companies to allow any customer to use any phone on any network by guaranteeing cross-carrier compatibility. Now, technically, the two actual radio standards in use among wireless companies in the U.S. will need addressing, but that comes later.
Until then, Verizon is enjoying a plethora of good press in embracing Google's "open" access model. Perhaps Verizon recognizes that the wireless landscape is set to change soon and it wants to get in its good graces through a potential large competitor, Google. After all, Google announced its intention to bid on upcoming radio airwaves next month (with unknown ambitions at this time), so established telecom companies may see their world turned upside down in the next five years. After a controlled amount of competition and a tight control on the customer, these changes will be most welcome by customers -- and hopefully wireless providers.
Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), will begin to build its 4G network in the U.S. The faster wireless operation is meant to compete with technologies like WiMAX, which Sprint (NYSE: S) may deploy.
The new platform will be built using pieces supplied by Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and others. Technology from Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM), which has been the core of much of the 2G build-out, will be missing. The FT writes that "Qualcomm and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) were dealt a blow on Thursday when Verizon Wireless, the second-largest U.S. mobile phone operator, said it would start trials in 2008 of a rival fourth-generation network standard." Intel has been a champion of WiMAX.
The sun is setting on Qualcomm. It has been in intellectual property disputes with Nokia and chip rival Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM), and has lost the early rounds in most of these. If the company is passed by for the next generation of cellular technology, it could end up a smaller, marginal company.
Qualcomm has not been a growth stock for over a year. And it may never be one again.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), reported Q3 earnings that dropped by 33% compared to the year-ago quarter, mainly based on tax-related charges. The telecom stalwart did see earnings reach $1.27 billion ($0.44 per share) in the July-to-September quarter, however. That figure compares to $1.92 billion ($0.66 per share) from 2006's Q3 period. Outside of Q3 charges, earnings would have been $0.63 per share, one-upping the consensus estimates of $0.62 per share.
Q3 revenue for the telecom carrier crept up almost 6% from the year-ago quarter, finishing at $23.8 billion, and as usual, Verizon's cellphone business saved the day (an all-too-common occurrence). Wireless operations are becoming the consistent engines of both Verizon and larger competitor AT&T (NYSE: T), as the two companies control the two largest cellular carriers in the U.S. for all the right profit reasons.
Verizon's wireless operations added 1.6 million new customers in the quarter, giving the company a total of 63.7 million customers. Verizon is catching up to AT&T's 65.7 million customers, although AT&T is not sitting still, and continues to add over a million new subscribers every quarter as well -- propelled nicely by being the only carrier to offer Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iPhone.
Outside of the cellphone arena, Verizon's FiOS business, which is the program to replace aging copper telephone lines with fiber optic lines directly to homes and businesses, did very well in the quarter. The company added 229,000 FiOS customers in the quarter, up quite a bit from the 203,000 it added in the Q2 period. It also began providing television service over those new fiber lines to 202,000 new customers in the quarter.
During the challenging market conditions over the past year, the telecom sector has felt its fair share of the pain. 
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