Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Deals, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), Pfizer (PFE), Viacom (VIA), Boeing Co (BA), TD AmeriTrade Holding (AMTD), Northrop Grumman (NOC)

Before the bell: Futures lower ahead of FedEx, Morgan results, oil supply

TD AMERITRADE Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: AMTD) said Tuesday its metrics — including client trades per day and total client assets — for May have improved, and that third quarter earnings are expected to be at or near the high end of the prior guidance range. Shares were up nearly 2% in after-hours trading.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) stated Wednesday it has acquired Navic Networks, specializing in emerging forms of TV advertising technology, to optimize the delivery and placement of TV advertising. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Meanwhile, China has begun an anti-monopoly investigation into Microsoft with possibility that lawsuits from local companies could follow.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Reliance ADA of India might provide high level executives at DreamWorks, including Steven Spielberg, with financing, enabling the media company to part ways with Viacom (NYSE: VIA)’s Paramount Photos.

According to FORTUNE, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)’s YouTube is experimenting with longer videos and full-length content that would be more appealing to advertisers. YouTube is often going after independent film directors and is poised to make a major announcement at the Los Angeles Film Festival this week.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) said Wednesday that it has agreed to settle patent litigation with India-based generic drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. where Ranbaxy will obtain a license effective Nov. 30, 2011, to sell generic versions of Pfizer’s cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor and high blood-pressure and cholesterol treatment Caduet in the U.S. PFE shares are up 2.7% in premarket trading.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Boeing (NYSE: BA) may have to forgo its plans to sell its aerial-refueling tankers to overseas buyers if it loses a protest against the U.S. Air Force’s decision to purchase its tankers from rival Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC).

And the exodus at Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) continues with Flickr co-founders, Fake and Butterfield, this time quitting.

Last, but not least, Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) from $185 to $210.

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Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), General Motors (GM), Aetna Inc (AET), Carnival Corp (CCL), CIGNA Corp (CI), Circuit City Stores (CC), Coventry Health Care (CVH)

Before the bell: Futures mixed after selloff

Coventry Health (NYSE: CVH) shares were down almost 17% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the managed-care provider lowered estimates for second-quarter and full-year earnings due to disappointing April and Might results. Wachovia downgraded CVH to Market Perform from Outperform. Other healthcare stocks felt the pressure and were down in after-hours or premarket trading: UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH) -7%, Aetna (NYSE: AET) -9.9%, WellPoint (NYSE: WLP) -6%, Humana (NYSE: HUM) -5% and Cigna (NYSE: CI) -5%.

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Filed under: Major movement, Rants and raves, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO)

Microsoft Inc. (NASDAQ: MSFT) was silly for offering Yahoo! ( NASDAQ: YHOO) way too much money to purchase the company and finally came to it’s senses.

Yahoo! was oh so silly for not accepting over $45 billion and now the stock is down 33%, ironically because the last offer from MSFT was $33 per share. I have no data on the subject, but I’ve to believe that this is probably one of the richest buyouts of all time to be rejected.

Then comes silly old Carl Icahn thinking he could force Jerry Yang’s hand and make him sell out to MSFT at a premium to his average share price reported at $25.00. He has made some shrewd moves over the past 20 years but this does not seem to be one of them this day. Instead of making millions on the upside, for now it looks like he will lose as much as he hoped to gain on the downside.
I could share with you many very silly comments by numerous analysts and pundits about this subject, but what for? They’re just guessing what is going to happen next — how silly.

Currently YHOO is trading around $22.00 per share, after they announced what I would call a sideline deal (losing sight of the large game) with Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) that amounts to a massive nothing. Deal “One of the Worst Strategic Maneuvers Seen in World wide web Industry” -Deutsche Bank

One more bit of silliness in todays business headlines, my colleague Joseph Lazzaro has posted Inflation Picture Worsens which is true, and the market has been soft lately, but somehow the reporting of this bad news has sent the DJIA, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 Index up. That does not usually happen, so much for predictions….like Sunday Funnies: Big Brown a sure thing at Belmont

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I don’t own shares of MSFT or YHOO.

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Filed under: Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Technology

A recent study by Evans Data Corporation shows that developers don’t like Vista any more than the rest of us. Six times as many are clinging to XP than switching to Vista. Only 8% of developers are working on programs to run on Vista, compared with 50% who are writing for Windows XP. That’s not good news for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), who hopes that its customers will grudgingly tolerate the withdrawal of XP on June 30.

Many are begging Microsoft to relent, especially InfoWorld. The developers do plan on doing more work for the troubled operating system next year, but still not as many as are hanging onto XP. Next year, 24% of developers anticipate to target Vista while 29% will still work with XP.

Evans data doesn’t say how much the Vista disaster has helped Linux and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), but it’s clear Vista has sent many fleeing. eWeek reported last week that Apple now has a 14% market share — almost four times what it had in 2005. Using data from NPD Group, eWeek points out that Apple sells two out of three computers in the $1,000 and above category. That’s largely because Macs are still way, way more pricey than PCs. If Apple ever got around to offering a computer at a price the masses were willing to pay, Microsoft might be in trouble. Microsoft might not hear the complaints about its operating system, but it comprehends that people want to pay less for personal.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG)

YouTube is a diverse place. But at the same time, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) needs to monetize things. And that means going Hollywood.

So this week, YouTube premi

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Options

Google (NYSE: GOOG) shut at $562.38 Wednesday.

GOOG is expected to report Q2 EPS in early July.

Smith Barney reiterated its Buy rating and $630 price target on GOOG today.

GOOG July option implied volatility is at 40 is below its 26-week average of 36 according to Track Data, suggesting more massive price fluctuations.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

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Filed under: Industry, Newspapers, Google (GOOG), Market matters, New York Times’A’ (NYT), Tribune Co. (TRB), Gannett Co (GCI), Stocks to Sell, Cramer on BloggingStocks

From TheStreet.com Network

• McClatchy to Cut 10% of Staff
• They Just Don’t Get McClatchy!

TheStreet.com’s Jim Cramer states big debt at the newspapers means they no longer work as businesses.

Maybe newspapers don’t work as businesses. The shocking 10% workforce reduction announced this week by McClatchy (Cramer’s Take) (NYSE: MNI), formerly the best-run chain out there, is a reminder that all of these companies have borrowed too much money and don’t generate the cash flow to make it work. McClatchy, with an 8% yield, is showing signs of collapsing under its own weight, something that has been exacerbated by Wall of Shame performer Gary Pruitt, a man who is still, amazingly, the CEO.

But all of this was absolutely predictable. I’ve never seen an industry attract so many buyers with so much debt and so little equity.

Take Tribune (Cramer’s Take). Sam Zell’s a smart guy. He let the newspaper employees do the heavy lifting when he purchased the Tribune company. That was so smart. He’ll be out very tiny if the deal fails. The workers will be out their retirement money. That was a smart deal — unless you work there — but I have spoken against that deal so many times I’m sick of speaking about it.

McClatchy could have weathered this downturn, instead of — it is a bit unthinkable, but I think it will happen — defaulting on its debt, if it hadn’t been determined to purchase a bunch of properties for much more than they are worth. The New York Times (Cramer’s Take) (NYSE: NYT) and Gannett (Cramer’s Take) (NYSE: GCI) spent a lot of money, but they didn’t have to buy back stock. Gannett’s 6% yield isn’t tempting in the least.

What got into all of these guys? First, they weren’t portals. Each lacked critical mass to become the destination sites on the Web. Second, it makes very little sense to advertise with them for many of the bread-and-butter advertisers: classifieds, movies, real estate. Those are all bought better on the Web, because the interactivity has an immediate payoff. Those ads for real estate you see are nearly all for older, wealthier people and are vanity projects by the brokers to keep their salespeople happy.

Finally, the younger people aren’t all that interested in news. That’s really the rub. News isn’t that important to them. Sure, they follow the election, but for the most part news isn’t of real value. They don’t care that much, and if they do they go to Google (Cramer’s Take) (NASDAQ: GOOG) News, which is actually superior than a newspaper because the newspaper companies were never able to gate their stuff.

So you’ve all of these old fuddy-duddy bankers and editors and publishers missing the whole point: New potential readers don’t read papers any more. They don’t even care much about the news.

When you layer on the cyclical aspect of things: swiftly declining auto ads and retail ads — much less competition there, so many fewer ads — you really get a tsunami of pain that will make it so it is possible that most newspapers will have to restructure to stay in business. Basically, offline journalism isn’t a business as it is currently configured. And all of these deals made no sense whatsoever.

My prediction: Within one year, most of the levered players will eliminate dividends, close papers and fire so many people that whatever might intrigue young people will be gone.

If they weren’t so indebted, this would all be less of a problem. Much less.

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RELATED LINKS:
McClatchy to Cut 10% of Staff
They Just Don’t Get McClatchy!
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Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com’s sites and serves as an adviser to the company’s CEO. At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in the stocks mentioned.

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Filed under: Forecasts, Deals, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO)

Overnight, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) signed several cell carrier deals in Asia that will put its mobile search onto a big number of new phones. According to the company, it now reaches 600 million handset customers worldwide.

Maybe mobile search will be a big market, but maybe it won’t. Reuters writes that “the mobile advertising market is expected to rise to $16.2 billion in 2011 up from $1.5 billion in 2006.”

Yahoo! might want to avoid counting its chickens too early. Despite the firm’s upbeat tone, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) are having success getting into the same market. In China, where there are well over 300 million handsets in use, Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU), the county’s largest search company, does not want to give up market share to US-based companies.

If Yahoo! gets 20% of the market in 2011, it would pick up $3 billion in additional revenue. Is that a nice chunk of change? Yes, but that is a long time for Yahoo! shareholders to wait.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Filed under: Deals, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO)

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is losing the online ad battle to Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) so why not get into the TV advertising business?

According to The Wall Street Journal, Redmond will buy “Navic Systems Inc., an eight-year-old company that helps advertisers place ads on TV programs.”

Whatever Microsoft paid is too much. Small M&A deals are not going to do anything to help the world’s largest software company, especially if they are in slow growing part of the advertising market like TV. Navic may be good at targeting messages to consumers using demographic data and user information from set-top boxes, but over time, Television will have a smaller and smaller piece of the total marketing pie.

Microsoft appears to have lost its battle to purchase Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), but the online ad business is still the only part of the industry that’s still growing in double digits. The company needs to put its acquisition money there and stop fooling around with old media.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Filed under: Earnings reports, Microsoft (MSFT), PepsiCo (PEP), Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (KKD), Alcoa Inc (AA), Ideal Purchase (BBY), Nortel Networks (NT), QUALCOMM Inc (QCOM), Texas Instruments (TXN), CMGI Inc (CMGI), Lehman Br Holdings (LEH)

Here are some highlights from this past week’s earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• ADC Telecommunications Inc. (NASDAQ: ADCT) beat Q2 estimates and raised its full-year guidance.
• Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) near-term earnings prospects led to an analyst downgrade.
• Banco de Chile (NYSE: BCH) earnings prospects after an acquisition led to an analyst’s upgrade.
• Benihana Inc. (NASDAQ: BNHN) posted lower Q4 profits but still beat earnings estimates.
• Bob Evans Farms Inc. (NASDAQ: BOBE) reported solid Q4 results due in part to cost management.
• Brown-Forman Corp. (NYSE: BF.B) easily beat Q4 estimates and offered full-year guidance.
• CMGI Inc. (NASDAQ: CMGI) lowered its guidance, sending shares tumbling 25%.
• Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Co. (NYSE: CCH) warned of weaker earnings due to economic conditions.
• Conn’s Inc. (NASDAQ: CONN) reported solid Q1 results and issued in-line guidance for the year.
• Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS) earnings prospects impress analysts despite recent guidance.
• Guess? Inc. (NYSE: GES) topped Q1 expectations due to strong international expansion.
• Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. (NYSE: KKD) swung to a Q1 profit despite falling revenues.
• Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LEH) posted a bigger-than-expected loss on further write-downs.

• National Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: NSM) beat estimates on cost efficiencies and improved product mix.
• Nortel Networks Corp. (NYSE: NT) reaffirmed its revenue guidance for the full year.
• Pall Corp. (NYSE: PLL) reported strong Q3 results that beat Wall Street expectations.
• Pep Boys (NYSE: PBY) reported that Q1 earnings jumped due to real estate transactions.
• PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) plans to reiterate its full-year earnings guidance despite market conditions.
• Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) earnings prospects for the second half of 2008 impress one adviser.
• Quality Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: QSII) Q4 profits grew 32%, in line with analysts’ expectations.
• Shuffle Master Inc. (NASDAQ: SHFL) topped Q2 expectations, sending shares higher.
• Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: SWHC) Q4 profits fell but still beat analysts’ estimates.
• Talbots Inc. (NYSE: TLB) reaffirmed its better-than-expected 2008 earnings guidance.
• Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) warned that weak demand for chips could hurt Q2 results.
• UBS (NYSE: UBS) warned “further write-downs might hit earnings” and some assets classes had deteriorated.

Also, Barron’s likes the prospects for ethanol producers such as VeraSun Energy Corp. (NYSE: VSE). Kiplinger’s includes Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) and Dick’s Sporting Goods among its Father’s Day stock picks. Could rancor over Vista injured Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) bottom line?

Upcoming results to watch for include Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE), La-Z-Boy (NYSE: LZB), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), CarMax (NYSE: KMX), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), FedEx (NYSE: FDX), JM Smucker (NYSE: SJM), and Winnebago (NYSE: WGO).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

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