$118.49. That’s the price at which Amazon shares closed Friday, a day after the company reported a 69 percent jump in third-quarter profit and a 28 percent gain in revenue. It was a new 52-week high and the stock’s best since December 1999, when it hit $106.68. Which is saying something. Because as you might recall, in 1999, Nasdaq was soaring on the back of the dot-com bubble to levels never before seen.
Ugly news for Sirius: With a share price that has closed below $1 for 30 consecutive business days, the company has fallen out of compliance with Nasdaq listing rules. In a notice issued earlier this week, Nasdaq gave the company until March 15, 2010, to comply.
Sirius XM’s deal with Liberty Media appears to be moving ahead as planned. This morning the company said that it has received the necessary Nasdaq approval to issue Liberty 12.5 million shares of Sirius preferred stock without shareholder approval.
Sirius XM is ready to seek bankruptcy protection. The company has warned investors that it’s prepared to file Chapter 11. It has hired bankruptcy and restructuring advisers. And it has filled out the necessary paperwork. But it may never file it. “People familiar with the situation” tell The Wall Street Journal that Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin and satellite mogul Charlie Ergen are moving closer to an accord that would save the struggling satellite radio outfit from having to file Chapter 11.
As entertaining as news of a Sirius XM-EchoStar-Liberty Media three-way might be, research houses don’t appear to be giving it much credence. Already a few have issued notes dubious of the idea of Liberty accepting the white knight role in this debacle.
The Sirius XM fiasco is fast becoming high drama. Hoping to avoid bankruptcy and fend off an unsolicited takeover attempt from satellite mogul Charlie Ergen’s EchoStar, which has been acquiring its debt, Sirius has approached Liberty Media about a possible transaction.
Sirius XM Radio caught a lucky break recently when NASDAQ added another three months to a suspension of its delisting rules. With a share price below the $1 minimum price requirement to remain listed on the exchange, the struggling satellite radio broadcaster’s delisting seemed imminent. No longer.
Who said the M&A market is dead? Sun Microsystems said this morning that it has acquired Q-layer, a company that automates cloud computing deployments. Meanwhile, Sun shares have been trading higher for a few days now, inexplicably up about 20 percent vs. Nasdaq, which isn’t doing nearly as well.
Concerns that the econalypse will last longer than expected inspired a nasty market selloff Wednesday, one that kicked tech’s ass all the way back to April 2003. The Nasdaq gave up nearly 97 points, falling 6.5 percent to 1,386, its lowest close in five years. And it dragged a host of tech issues down into the mud along with it.
What a lousy day to report earnings. The Dow fell 231.77 points, or 2.5 percent, to finish at 9,033.66, and Nasdaq dropped 73.35 points, or 4.1 percent, to finish at 1,696.68, in a market that beat most tech issues into bloody submission. Not the sort of jovial earnings report atmosphere you hope for when you’re a company whose share price has lost half its value since the beginning of the year. But lo and behold! When Apple reported quarterly results today, they were good … very good.
The government’s $700 bailout of Wall Street, signed into law Friday after weeks of contentious debate, clearly isn’t the panacea for which tech investors, and investors in general, had hoped. Technology stocks stumbled at the opening bell Monday and then fell flat on their faces as investors succumbed once again to the market malaise.
Wall Street’s 777-point selloff on Monday–one of its worst days since 1929–hit many tech stocks harder even than the overall market on Monday. Said Ross Sandler, senior Internet analyst at RBC Capital Markets, “Tech took it on the chin disproportionately.” Indeed, it did. And a couple of other places as well, from the looks of things. A quick overview of the carnage.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
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