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FISHRGAME
_____________
Feature
Stories -
072005-07
/ Week tviNews
Convergence
TOP STORIES CONVERGING INTO THE - Week of
February
14
•
• Google Climbs on Release of Shares
• •
Google Inc. shares rose 3% on Monday as the
biggest and final restriction on insider stock
sales expired, allowing holders of 176.8 million
shares to begin selling for the first
time.
• • Google Inc. shares rose 3% on
Monday as the biggest and final restriction on
insider stock sales expired, allowing holders of
176.8 million shares to begin selling for the first
time.
• • The newly tradable stock
represents 62% of the Mountain View, Calif.-based
company's 285.9 million outstanding shares. Google,
the most popular Internet search engine, rose $5.59
to $192.99 on Nasdaq.
• • Google shares fell after
previous so-called lockups expired, then resumed
their climb to a record $216.80 on Feb. 2. Chief
Executive Eric Schmidt, co-founders Sergey Brin and
Larry Page and other executives agreed to stagger
their sales, keeping as many as half the shares
released Monday off the
market.
• • The stock rise "shows there's
a strong appetite from investors waiting to buy
those shares," said Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst at
Janco Partners Inc. in Greenwood Village, Colo. He
rates Google as "market perform," and says he
expects the shares to trade at about $200 each over
the next year.
• • Google shares fell 6.7% on
Nov. 16, when 39.1 million shares became available.
The stock also declined after a December lockup
expired.
• • An increased supply of Google
shares may entice more institutional investors to
buy, said Steve Weinstein of Portland, Ore.-based
Pacific Crest Securities.
• • "I don't think there is enough
float out there for institutional investors to
really own the stock," said Weinstein, who rates
the shares "sector perform." "Getting more stock
out there will probably lead to a more stable
shareholder base."
• • Booming sales of
advertisements that appear alongside Google's
search results have drawn investors including Legg
Mason Inc. to boost their stakes. Legg Mason had
4.48 million shares as of Nov. 30, up from its
September total of 4.29 million shares, according
to Bloomberg data.
• • Fidelity Investments, the
world's largest mutual fund company, bought 3.69
million shares of Google from September to
December, bringing its total to 8.91
million.
• • Google said Feb. 1 that
fourth-quarter profit jumped sevenfold to $204.1
million, or 71 cents a share, from $27.3 million,
or 10 cents, a year earlier. Sales doubled,
surpassing $1 billion for the first
time.
• • Schmidt said last week that
the company planned to invest 70% of its
development budget in Web search and advertising
technology.
• • Services including Gmail and
new products for wireless technology will account
for the rest of Google's development
spending
•
• Google
Profit Soars on Strong Ad
Sales
• •
Google Inc. said profit rose nearly
eightfold as it wrung more money out of advertisers
in the fourth quarter.
• • Mountain View, Calif.-based
Google reported fourth-quarter profit of $204
million, or 71 cents a share, up from $27 million,
or 10 cents, a year earlier. Sales doubled to $1
billion.
• • The company said it had
attracted more people to its stable of websites and
was getting better at making sure they saw tempting
ads. Google's text-based ads generate revenue only
when users click on them.
• • Excluding
the money Google shared with website operators that
ran targeted ads, the company's sales were $654
million. That was $61 million more than the
consensus expectation of 19 analysts polled by
Thomson First Call and $28 million more than the
top forecast. MORE
STORY
•
• HP's Board Ousts CEO Carly Fiorina
• •
Hewlett-Packard Co.'s board has ousted Carly
Fiorina, the high-gloss chief executive who
ultimately was unable to meet Wall Street's
expectations for the technology
behemoth.
• • Grumbling about Fiorina began
building soon after she masterminded the 2002
acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. But her
termination at a board meeting surprised many
investors. Fiorina, 50, had been CEO since July
1999.
• • HP's board said it was
dissatisfied with Fiorina's "execution,"
particularly in an era when the lines between the
high-tech, consumer electronics and entertainment
industries are blurring.
• • In a statement, Fiorina said
that although she regretted that she and the board
"have differences about how to execute HP's
strategy, I respect their
decision."
• • Her severance package is worth
an estimated $21 million, most of it in
cash.
• • HP named Chief Financial
Officer Robert P. Wayman interim
CEO.
•
• Broadcasters' Bid for Access Rejected by
FCC
• •
Federal regulators shot down TV
broadcasters' request to require cable systems to
carry their programming on multiple
channels.
• • Currently, cable operators
provide a single channel for each broadcast station
in its area. For instance, Adelphia Communications
Corp.'s cable system in Southern California
features the programming of more than 20 local
stations.
• • The stations were pushing to
expand their reach to at least six different
channels apiece on a cable system, as television
moves to digital technology and space is freed for
new programming services.
• • But in a 4-1 vote, the Federal
Communications Commission rejected the industry's
plea for broader access, concluding that Congress
never mandated it. The FCC brushed aside the
broadcasters' argument that they needed the
advertising revenue from multiple channels to
ensure their economic survival in the digital
age.
• • The cable industry hailed the
FCC's decision on the so-called must-carry
rules.
•
• L.A. Home Prices Climb at Slower Pace
• •
For the first time in 19 months, the
year-over-year rate of housing appreciation in Los
Angeles County has dropped below 20%, according to
DataQuick Information
Systems.
• • The median price in the county
in January rose 17% to $414,000, said the La Jolla
real estate research
firm.
• • It was the slimmest increase
since June 2003, putting the county's median price
where it stood seven months ago, after hitting an
all-time high in December at $418,000. The median
is the point at which half of new and resold homes
and condos sold for more, half for
less.
• • The number of homes sold last
month fell 5% to 7,633 from a year
earlier.
• • Because January historically
is among the least active months for buying and
selling homes, the statistics may not signal any
lasting trend.
•
• Amgen to Stop Providing Trial Parkinson's
Drug
• •
Amgen Inc., the world's biggest
biotechnology company, said it would not supply its
experimental GDNF drug to 48 Parkinson's disease
patients after halting a study because of safety
concerns.
• • Amgen stopped clinical trials
in September, saying that there was no proven
benefit for people who took the drug and that
laboratory studies suggested patients were at risk
of side effects including brain damage. Researchers
will seek to publish the study results, Thousand
Oaks, Calif.-based Amgen
said.
• • Patients and advocacy groups
including the Parkinson's Disease Foundation had
asked Amgen to provide the medicine to study
participants who wanted to continue treatment.
Amgen said it would make GDNF available for further
study by qualified academic researchers to gain a
better understanding of the side
effects.
•
• California ISO Names New Chief Executive
• •
The California Independent System Operator,
the quasi-governmental corporation that keeps
electricity humming through 25,000 miles of
transmission lines, announced the hiring of veteran
engineer Yakout Mansour as its president and chief
executive.
• • The appointment ended a
nine-month search to replace Terry Winter. Winter
left the agency under a cloud in June after critics
accused him of helping to foster the 2000-01 energy
crisis by asking federal regulators to raise the
price cap on electricity sold to
utilities.
• • Mansour, 57, faces challenges
in adapting the Folsom-based California ISO to
market conditions far different from anticipated
when the agency was created as part of the failed
electricity deregulation of
1996.
• • Mansour served as senior vice
president in charge of system operations for
British Columbia Transmission Corp., a
government-owned grid in
Canada.
•
• State Regulators Sue Estate-Planning
Firm
• •
Regulators sued a Woodland Hills-based
"living trust mill" that they claim tricked
thousands of older Californians into buying
unnecessary investment
products.
• • In a civil lawsuit filed in
Los Angeles County Superior Court, Atty. Gen. Bill
Lockyer and Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi
accused Family First Advanced Estate Planning Inc.
and affiliated companies of violating state law in
the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth
of living trusts and deferred annuities since 1997.
The suit seeks more than $110 million in fines and
restitution.
• •
• • Family First used
telemarketing, direct mail and seminars at senior
centers to find clients, offering free in-home
estate planning consultations as a guise to gain
confidential financial information that was later
used to pitch the customers annuities, the lawsuit
claimed.
• • The annuities generated
commissions as high as 12% for the sellers, the
attorney general's office
said.
• • An attorney for Family First
vowed to fight the
allegations.
•
• Pixar Chief Takes Another Jab at Eisner
• •
During a conference call with analysts,
Steve Jobs took aim at Walt Disney Co. Chief
Executive Michael Eisner, referring to him as a
"loose cannon."
• • Jobs, CEO of Pixar Animation
Studios and Apple Computer Inc., was asked about a
dig Eisner took at Pixar the week before at an
investor conference in Florida. Eisner described as
"pretty pathetic" the computerized characters
created by Pixar, compared with the ones Disney is
working on for its forthcoming film "Rapunzel
Unbraided."
• • Jobs said sarcastically, "Our
films don't stack up to 'Atlantis,' 'Emperor's New
Groove' or 'Treasure Planet.'
"
• • All three were hand-drawn
Disney disappointments.
• • Jobs then made the loose-canon
reference, saying he figured that it explained why
Eisner would say such a
thing.
• • A Disney executive didn't
return a call seeking a
comment.
• • Pixar also reported
fourth-quarter results. Earnings fell 34% to $55.2
million, or 91 cents a share. Revenue also dropped
34%, to $108.9 million. Profit still beat analysts'
forecasts.
•
• Smaller L.A. Hotels Make Peace With
Union
• •
The Hotel Bel-Air, the Luxe Hotel Rodeo
Drive, the Sportsmen's Lodge and the Radisson
Wilshire Plaza have accepted the Unite Here union's
demand for a 2006 contract expiration
date.
• • Several hotel managers
described the pacts as good deals, with minimal
wage increases and an agreement by the union to
subsidize rising healthcare costs for two
years.
• • Those easy settlements
contrast with the fight between Unite Here Local 11
and the Los Angeles Hotel Employer's Council
highlights.
• • The union is trying to match
their power by lining up contracts across the
country to expire in 2006. That would open the door
to coordinated job
actions.
• • A hotel council spokesman said
the four hotels that settled were less likely to be
targeted in a big labor
confrontation.
•
• Microsoft Plans to Buy Security Software
Firm
• •
Microsoft Corp. said it intended to buy a
company that makes antivirus and other security
software - - much of it aimed at safeguarding
against vulnerabilities in Microsoft
products.
• • The acquisition of Sybari
Software Inc. would be the software giant's third
such purchase in two years. That fueled concern
that Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft was planning
its own line of security
programs.
• • Sybari, of East Northport,
N.Y., makes software to protect company computer
systems from viruses, spam and other threats. It
was on the verge of going
public.
• • Microsoft didn't disclose the
price for Sybari, which valued itself at $163
million to $182 million when it filed for its
initial public stock offering.
///
///
• •
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS
CONVERGENCE
///
Center
Page / Feature
NEWS CONVERGENCE
Feature
TIMELINE: Top Stories To
Start The Week With:
•
Powell
to Resign as FCC
Chairman /
0505e
• Verizon
Relies OnWireless For
Profits /
0505d
• Is
Google Going Into theWeb Browser Business, ala
Explorer? /
0505b
• Mark
Soval of VRA TelePlay Pictures says the Yahoo Move
to Hollywood is a
must. /
0505c
Copyright
Protection / The U.S. is a party to
international treaties that prohibit copyright
renewal requirements.
• • YES90 / "Let a
Thousand Googles Bloom," LATimes Commentary, Jan 12
2005: Lawrence Lessig may be right that requiring
periodic copyright renewal would make it easier to
determine what works are protected, but he ignores
one major reason we eliminated copyright renewals
in the first
place.
• • The U.S. is a
party to international treaties that prohibit
copyright renewal requirements. We agreed to these
treaties and eliminated our copyright renewal
requirement after suffering many years of uncertain
protection of American works in foreign
countries.
• • At a time when
the export of intellectual property is a
significant portion of our economy, the U.S. needs
to exercise caution before abrogating treaties that
protect the works of its authors.
///
ByLines:
Editors Note
LARRY
PAGE
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