Under The Radar News - Thursday

AT&T likes Android. AT&T (T) says Google's (GOOG) upcoming handset OS, Android, is "something we are going to want in our portfolio." AT&T would be the largest U.S. carrier to say they will offer Android-based phones; T-Mobile (DT) and Sprint (S) have already said they plan to carry them. Yahoo (YHOO), AT&T's official mobile search and display ad partner, wouldn't say whether the unexpected endorsement would jeopardize their relationship.

Garmin dives on weak sales forecast. Garmin CFO Kevin Rauckman told Reuters in an interview Q1 revenue will fall 40-50% from last quarter (=$615 to 738M); analysts were expecting $731M. Shares are down 9.4% in early trading.

Chevron may face massive fine. Geologist Richard Cabrera told an Ecuador court Chevron (CVX) should pay up from $7B to $16B in compensation for environmental damage to the country. Chevron's lawyers said they will dispute the report, but didn't rule out an out-of-court settlement.

MySpace Music: Today? MySpace (NWS) has scheduled a news conference for 11 AM ET, assumed to be about the launch of MySpace Music. Sources says MySpace Music settled its copyright fight with Universal Music for $100M yesterday, which was supposedly the main sticking point preventing a MySpace Music launch. News Corp. will hold a majority stake; Universal, Sony BMG (SNE) and Warner Music (WMG) will take minority stakes in the venture according to their respective sizes.

Credit crisis evaporates liquidity. Global debt underwriting volume fell by more than $2T, and by $1.3T in the U.S., Oppenheimer said in a research note. "As more than 80% of corporate funding came from the capital markets during 2007, we can't help but believe that such a massive extraction of liquidity from the market will have a profound impact on the U.S. economy," it says. "As bank balance sheets show similar strain to brokers' own balance sheets, there is little room in the system to 'pick up the slack' vis-a-vis corporate lending."

Adobe Media Player: New kid on block? Adobe's (ADBE) will roll out a new Media Player based on Flash in early April. With its TiVo-like feature that allows users to "subscribe" to favorite shows, after which they automatically queue to the player, it could rival Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Media Player, Apple's (AAPL) iTunes and Quicktime, and Google's (GOOG) YouTube. Adobe says it's in talks with content providers to offer ad-free shows.

Live Nation close to $150M deal with Jay-Z. Rapper Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) is close to signing a 10-year, $150M deal with Live Nation (LYV), which would give it control on virtually every aspect of his career, from concerts to clothing to nightclubs. Live Nation has been quite the busybody: This week it signed U2 to a 12-year deal, and before that tied Madonna down to at $120M deal. Jay-Z's deal is thought to outdo both in its comprehensivenes.

Ben Stein: Buy REITs. Beaten-up REITs got a ringing endorsement Wednesday from economist and actor Ben Stein. "I'm buying all [the REIT units] I can get my little paws on. These are God's gift to retirees." Despite depressed values, REITs continue to generate healthy yields. Of CDOs and SIVs: "They are so oversold and there is so much money to be made from them."

Femto fetish. Verizon Wireless (VZ) CTO Tony Melone says the company is considering using femtocells in order to boost coverage across its CDMA networks. Sprint Nextel (S) has already started selling femtocells, which improve data download rates and voice quality. Good news for Airvana (AIRV) and Motorola (MOT). Ericsson (ERIC) CTO Arun Bhikshesvaran is less enthusiastic. "As a standalone device, they solve some problems but we have to ask how many devices do consumers really want in their home?"

Dell will exceed layoff targets. Michael Dell says the company (DELL) "will go past" a previous target of reducing headcount by 8,800 workers. "To be very clear, we are not satisfied with the current state of affairs. There are no fixed costs at Dell. Everything is being looked at."

iPhone shortage. Piper Jaffray's Apple (AAPL) analyst Gene Munster says a mysterious shortage of iPhones means there's an "80% chance that a new version of the iPhone is coming earlier than anticipated." Apple says it's working to replenish as quickly as it can.

Baidu penetrating WiMax. Chinese internet search engine Baidu.com (BIDU) is penetrating the WiMAX wireless search market. Many areas in China are working toward becoming "wireless zones."

Comments

[NextelAccessories]

The Sprint femtocell works great.