Viacom's B shares (VIA.B) hit a new 52-week high of $43 on Friday during the intraday session (it eventually closed at $42.28). This is a stock I watch fairly regularly, and it's looking like it wants to make a run to even higher heights.

The equity has done well since hitting a 52-week low of $27.89 nearly a year ago. The twelve-month chart shows the stock's escape from a sideways-trading pattern. You can't help but call the media company attractive from a technical viewpoint.

I also find the business to be interesting from a valuation perspective. Even with the appreciation in price, the shares are arguably not too expensive.

Continue reading Viacom Hits New 52-Week High

Viacom Hits New 52-Week High originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Viacom Inc

Continue reading Will 'The Love Guru' and 'Get Smart' avoid box office disaster?

Will 'The Love Guru' and 'Get Smart' avoid box office disaster? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Steven Spielberg and his DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc (NYSE: DWA) partners are close to signing a deal with India's Reliance ADA Group for between $500M and $600M that would provide financing to the company as it prepares to leave Viacom Inc's (NYSE: VIA) Paramount Pictures this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. DreamWorks will seek to obtain an additional $500M in debt financing to make about six new films a year.
• The Wall Street Journal also reported that at an investor update yesterday, The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) CEO David West said the chocolate-bar maker would boost spending on marketing about 20% this year and next, and slightly increased the company's long-term annual sales targets. West offered little detail on how Hershey will address its reliance on the U.S. market for revenue.

• The Economic Times reported that India's Maneesh Pharmaceuticals, a mid-sized company, bought a 51% stake in U.S.-based Synovics Pharmaceuticals Inc (OTC: SYVC). The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
• The Economic Times also reported that General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) GE Money Financial Services, which was seeking a parter for its personal and home loan portfolios, may have called off the process after it was unable to get the right valuation.
• Bob Nardelli, the chairman and CEO of Chrysler LLC, sent a memo to employees warning them of worsening U.S. sales, the Detroit News reported. The e-mail did not indicate the auto maker would look to soon further cut production or lay off staff, a person familiar with the matter said.

Newspaper wrap-up: DreamWorks close to funding deal with India's Reliance ADA Group originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 18 Jun 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

What is harder to get than good Lakers play-off tickets? An invite to the pre-release cast and crew screening of the new Iron Man movie!!

Last night I had the privilege of being one of the first to see Iron Man, the first film produced by Marvel Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: MVL), not one of the major studios. Although it wears the Paramount Pictures label and Paramount will be distributing the film, this one is Marvel all the way.

My colleague Steven Mallas reported last month about Marvel's super earnings report and come this Monday when the weekend box office tallies are in, I expect Iron Man to be at the top of the charts. In other words, IRON MAN WILL BE HUGE!

Although the cost of production and promotion reportedly shot past $200 million, I can tell you that they got it all on the screen. So much so that I write with excitement for movie enthusiasts (me), baby-boomer fans of Marvel comics (me again) and my two sons who accompanied me last night (me, them), and I want to add an exclamation point to every sentence!

Continue reading Chasing Value: Marvel's Iron Man will be HUGE!

Chasing Value: Marvel's Iron Man will be HUGE! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

95 years later, The Titanic still commands attention and dollars originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 03 Jul 2007 13:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Viacom (NYSE: VIA) subsidiary Paramount Pictures, which recently distributed the hit Will Ferrell comedy Blades of Glory, followed the premiere with a private gathering for the cast and crew. The event cost the studio about $50,000, or roughly one-tenth of what an average premiere party might run.

A studio executive told The New York Times that "There has been a cultural shift in Hollywood where the size of a party doesn't show how much you believe in a movie anymore ... a party is not going to sell movie tickets."

With shareholders and corporate partners eager to trim costs, the nation's movie studios are reportedly scaling back the high-cost hubbub that accompanies a movie's big-screen release. Some production firms are forgoing the lavish after-premiere parties, while others are scrapping the red-carpet premiere concept entirely, preferring to host laidback industry screenings.

Marketing costs among the major studios crested in 2003 but have steadily been paring back. Last year, costs dropped 4.4% to $34.5 million. This move helped offset the 3.4% increase in the average price of a film, which hit $65.8 million, according to the Times.

That trend is expected to continue, so those of you in the red-carpet business might be seeing a decline in sales. Same is true for purveyors of top-shelf champagne and caviar.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Hollywood studios pinching pennies originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 21 May 2007 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading 'Spiderman 3', everything '3': Preview of potential summer blockbusters

'Spiderman 3', everything '3': Preview of potential summer blockbusters originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 30 Apr 2007 21:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst 2006. If you think that Tom Cruise makes too much money, cast your vote.

Long-considered one of the big guns in Hollywood, Golden Globe Award-winning actor and producer Tom Cruise is the only actor to have six consecutive $100 million plus blockbusters to his credit.

His acting career began when he was sidelined from the high-school wrestling team by an injury and he auditioned for and won a role in the school production of Guys and Dolls. He became a star after dancing in his underwear in the 1983 film Risky Business, for which he reportedly earned a measly $75,000. After 1986's Top Gun put Cruise in the six-figure salary range, he earned his first Razzie Award nomination for 1988's Cocktail. Critically acclaimed Rain Man, Days of Thunder, and A Few Good Men followed. In 1996 he starred in and produced Mission Impossible, the first in the blockbuster franchise, and earned an Academy Award nomination for his role in Jerry Maguire. Later blockbusters include Minority Report, The Last Samurai, and War of the Worlds (which reportedly earned him $70 million plus a percentage of the profits, as well as more Razzie nominations).

But in recent years his personal life has begun to attract more attention than his film roles, notably Cruise's very public advocacy of Scientology and anti-psychiatry statements, coupled with the tabloid speculation about his romantic relationships. In May 2005, during an interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Cruise unexpectedly leaped onto the couch to profess his love for Katie Holmes, an incident that was voted #1 of 2005's Most Surprising Television Moments on a countdown on E!. Economic damage due to Cruise's controversial public behavior and views was cited as one reason for the end of the 14-year relationship between Cruise's production company and Paramount Pictures.

Continue reading Best & Worst: Tom Cruise, consummate dealmaker and celebrity we love to hate

Best & Worst: Tom Cruise, consummate dealmaker and celebrity we love to hate originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 12 Dec 2006 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

AOL Video adds Paramount Pictures originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 25 Oct 2006 15:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Paramount Picture's recent decision to cut loose Tom Cruise may be just the opening salvo in an upcoming battle between Hollywood studios and high-priced, high maintenance celebs. While overall movie receipt totals for this summer were up, the increase was driven by higher ticket prices, not increased attendance. Moviegoers are increasingly likely to be videoviewers instead. More than 1 million viewers have downloaded the video clip of a young man mixing Diet Coke with a mint and spewing the resulting concoction out of his mouth. Even more odd, 400,000 viewers have downloaded a clip of rabbits munching on vegetation.

Memo to viewers: GET LIVES! Seeing this image on the wall, AOL's strategy to become a premier video viewing destination begins to make a great deal of sense.

Movie production costs continue to skyrocket, with no assurance that money spent on production will be recouped at the theatres. By contrast, the number of no or low-cost video and video clips grows exponentially every week. As well, hundreds of hours of TV programming and thousands of movie titles are added to an increasing number of video-on-demand channels. With its recent purchase of GameDaily, Userplane and Truevo, AOL Video is moving to capture audience eyeballs. AOL also concluded a deal to distribute movie titles from 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Group.

Currently, AOL's business model allows viewers to access some ad-supported TV programming on demand free of charge. AOL plans to charge $9.99-$19.99 per movie download. For this fee, howwver, viewers will NOT own the movie. Purchasers may not burn the movie onto a DVD, though the movie may be played repeatedly over a period of days on several different Windows-supported devices. It remains to be seen whether consumers wil pay this fee for short-term ownership only.

TWX: E-lebrities to Replace Celebrities originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 25 Aug 2006 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.