Dick Smith Up As Woolworths Struggle Woolworths Limited has reported a 6 per cent increase in sales to $27.2 billion for the 27 weeks to 3 January 2010. The company has also reported strong sales in its Dick Smith-led Consumer Electronics arm.
Foxtel Earnings Rise 21 Per Cent Foxtel has announced a 21 per cent uplift in earnings for the six months to 31 December 2009, supported by continued strong subscriber uptake of the FOXTEL iQ, High Definition and Multiroom services.
Microsoft Close To Fujitsu Cloud Deal Australia is expected to be one of the target markets for a new cloud computing alliance to be set up by Microsoft and Fujitsu.
HTC Notches Up Record Phone Sales HTC has revealed sales figures for the first half of 2010 showing record sales for the most recent three months.
Samsung Hits Record Profits Samsung has reported a net income of 9.64 trillion won (AU$9.34 billion) for 2009, with the company attributing this increase to strong flat screen TV and mobile phone sales, as well as higher prices for memory chips.
Small Business Woes Are Taken Home According to a small business ‘stress survey’ commissioned by Microsoft Australia more than a third (38 percent) of Australian small business (SMB) owners and managers report their business is currently struggling or worse, when compared to this time last year. Of those, nine in 10 say the health of their business is having a negative impact on their personal lives.
Fairfax Profits Tank 23% Australian media group Fairfax Media Ltd has reported a first half loss of $365 million, a 23% decline on the same period last year.
Sony Slips Into The Red As Profits Slide Sony has slipped into the red reporting losses for the last 3 months of operation. However they are expecting bigger than expected profits this year because of booming sales of Bravia LCD TV's and camcorders. A big problem for the Company is still video gaming with the PS2 and PS3 dragging the overall performance of the Company down.
Google Shocks By Releasing Offline Docs Google says the company will roll out offline functionality to its online office applications over the next few weeks.
CE Sales Could Be Hit By Rate Rise & Election Retail sales are booming with consumer electronics among the most popular of purchases alongside food. This say the experts is almost certain to lead to an interest rate raise which coupled with a Federal Election on November 24th could lead to a slow down in CE sales running into the peak buying period.
Toshiba Stumbles But Still Hits Big Profits Plunging TV prices and the battle over HD DVD Vs Blu-ray have hurt Toshiba who has reported a 28 percent drop in its second quarter profit. Also contributing is one-time expenses for property value calculations that offset solid sales in computers and chips.
Apple Boss Steve Jobs Still In Strife With Regulators Apple boss Steve Jobs is still in strife with regulators over the backdating of stock options. In recent moves he has been subpoenaed to give evidence in a move that could see him face charges.
Topfield Ditches Distributor After 7 Years Topfield Co Ltd, a Korean manufacturer of set-top boxes and personal video recorders (PVR) such as the Masterpiece, has ditched its local distributor of seven years, Digital Products Group which formerly traded under the name Topfield Australia, in favour of ACA Pacific Pty Ltd which specialises in distributing storage, imaging and security products.
Centrex Enters Administration Retailers have received notice that Centrex Australia – a Sydney, Pymble-based manufacturer of LCD televisions, set-top boxes, microwave ovens, refrigerators and air conditioners – has been assigned an administrator.
Network Appliance Results Disappointing Revenues slumped 14 percent for Network Appliance in the first fiscal quarter 2008 relative to the April quarter, despite increasing 11 percent to $621.3 million from the same time last year.
Qantas To Divide And Conquer Qantas has signalled it will shake up its business structure in the coming year to unlock greater value from its lucrative frequent flyer, freight, fleet and holiday divisions. It announced this while reporting record net profits of $720 million for the year to 30 June 2007.
Multiplex Profits Climb 150pc Perth-based construction company Multiplex has reported net profits of $539.4 million for the year, up 149 percent on 2006 due to positive contributions across most divisions. In today’s statement to the market, Multiplex management indicated its outlook for 2008 and beyond was positive and anticipated underlying earnings to continue climbing.
Cellnet Share Sales Spike Sales of Cellnet shares have accelerated significantly in recent days, closely following its reported $1.6 million loss and the departure of Sony, Apple and Kyocera as vendor partners.
Servos To Cut Cancer Risk The State Government will force Sydney Service station owners to install vapour capturing technology to reduce emissions of carcinogenic vapours from bowsers, following a NSW parliamentary air pollution inquiry.
Qantas To Spin Off Frequent Flyer In a bid to further boost shareholder returns, Qantas will list its frequent flyer arm on the Australian Securities Exchange in a joint venture with Air Canada. How this will impact the service delivered to its 5 million plus customers is not yet clear.
Not Just Flashy Gadgets A punchy ‘how to sell’ business model and intimate understanding of your customer base are now just as important to retailers of CE goods as the products themselves, according to an IBM Institute for Business Value study.
PBL And Nine Set To Be Sued For Millions By IceTV PBL and the Nine Network are set to be sued for millions in damages following a Federal Court decision today that saw the Nine Network lose its case against Sydney-based IceTV.
Foxtel Monopoly Now Paying Off Foxtel has announced record high growth for the year ended 30 June 2007, up 40 percent on last financial year largely due to subscriber growth and retention. It posted a record $76 million profit up from last year’s maiden $4 million gain.
CE Surge Pushes RBA Rate Rise Official interest rates have jumped 25 basis points to 6.5 percent, their highest point in 10 years. The surging domestic CE market has been held up as one indicator prompting the rate rise.
Oh What A Feeling Toyota Toyota Motor Corporation has posted record earnings for the quarter ending 30 June 2007, on the back of stronger than expected vehicle sales outside Japan.
Growers And Traders Get Last Warning The ACCC has issued a third and final warning to horticultural growers and traders who are backdating contracts to circumvent the recently introduced Horticulture Code of Conduct
Virgin Blue To Fly Trans-Pacific Route Virgin Blue has announced details of its new long haul carrier and flagship aircraft, moving a step closer to offering an alternative service on the trans-pacific route. The announcement comes after it yesterday received approval from Australia's International Air Services Commission to operate return non-stop services to the US from late 2008, and immediately follows Qantas' unveiling of further details about its Airbus A380 fleet and new 'premium economy' class.
SMB To Benefit From Industrial Peace The productivity gains of commercial building projects relative to residential projects have sky-rocketed since the Coalition Government formed the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) in 2005 to crack down on militant unionism, according to a report commissioned by the body.
Bleeding JVC Finally Finds A Rescuer JVC, which has been bleeding losses for a long time, and Kenwood are finally getting hitched in an effort to save the troubled company The two companies have formally agreed to join their car electronics and audio equipment businesses, while considering a complete business merger in the future, according to reports out of Japan.
Qantas Upgrades Logo, Fleet And Services Along with a new, revamped flying kangaroo logo, Qantas today made sweeping changes across its fleet of domestic and international aircraft and announced the interior arrangements for the Airbus A380 due in August 2008.
Test Yahoo Ignores Deadline, So It's Microsoft's Move
By Richard Koman
April 28, 2008 9:57AM
Digg It! Bookmark to del.icio.us The next move is up to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer as Yahoo failed to respond to Microsoft's $44.6 billion takeover bid. Analysts view Ballmer's comments so far as just posturing, and since Microsoft needs Yahoo, Microsoft could launch an expensive proxy fight, or it could do what Ballmer said Microsoft won't -- raise its offer for Yahoo.
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Yahoo Ignores Microsoft Deadline
Yahoo ignored Microsoft 's deadline to respond to its $44.6 billion takeover offer by Saturday, leaving the next move in this chess game to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Microsoft has a number of options, but none of them are particularly appealing and investors are impatient with the lack of progress.
Typical was a comment reported by Bloomberg last week: "They need to quit fooling around and get the deal done," said Ken Smith, director of technology investment at Munder Capital Management.
Last week, speaking to business executives in Madrid, Ballmer dropped numerous hints that most analysts viewed as posturing. At one point he said that if a deal with Yahoo failed to materialize, "we go forward alone" by trying to compete directly with Google in online advertising.
Just Bluster?
But he also emphasized that Microsoft is not interested in sweetening the pot. In the same speech he called Microsoft's offer "quite generous" and hinted that a hostile takeover was in the works. "By this point if they don't agree, we would have to take our arguments directly to the shareholders," Ballmer said. "We will see what they do, and we will move appropriately at that point."
Financial analysts viewed much of this talk as posturing. The consensus among analysts is that Microsoft needs Yahoo to quickly build a business that can compete with Google. "Microsoft does need Yahoo," Sachin Shah, a merger-arbitrage analyst for ICAP Securities, told Bloomberg Television. "If they didn't, they would have walked away a long time ago."
If Microsoft is truly committed to acquiring Yahoo, it basically has three strategies: raise the price, launch a hostile takeover bid, or take a breather and hope Yahoo continues to flounder over the summer.
Proxy Fight Likely
Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies, expects Microsoft to go hostile. "Microsoft needs Yahoo, so I think their next step will be to take the fight to the shareholders," Bajarin said. "Given the economic conditions, they could wait for Yahoo to stumble over the summer, which could make the current bid seem like a good offer. But Microsoft needs to start moving forward with or without Yahoo, so my guess is that they launch a proxy fight."
In a proxy fight, a hostile bidder presents its slate of candidates for election to the board. Shareholders make a choice on which direction management should take by re-electing the current board or the suitor's board. Another option is to make a "tender offer" directly to shareholders.
The problem with these options is that they are expensive and the outcome is uncertain. So Microsoft would certainly prefer a friendly merger.
