Black Box Corp. (BBOX) July 9, 2009 : $29.60
52-week range: $16.24 (Mar. 9, 2009) - $39.53 (Sep. 19, 2008)
Dividend = $0.06 quarterly = 0.80% current yield

Black Box* is a network infrastructure services provider. Black Box offers one-source network infrastructure services for communication systems. The Company’s service offerings include design, installation, integration, monitoring and maintenance of voice, data and integrated communication systems. The Company’s primary service offering is voice solutions. The Company also offers premise cabling and other data-related services and products. The Company provides around the clock technical support for all of its solutions, which encompass all voice and data product manufacturers, as well as 118,000 network infrastructure products (Hotline products) that it sells through its catalog and Internet Website (such catalog and Internet Website business, together with technical support for such business, being referred to as Hotline Services) and its Voice Services and Data Services (collectively referred to as On-Site services) offices.

*Company Profile from MSN MoneyCentral

F4Q09 Earnings Call

July 9, 2009 8:30 am ET

Everything I said 2 posts earlier about HDFC Bank (HDB) applies to Riverbed Technology (RVBD).

We have a latent gap much earlier in the chart; if the market implodes, buying anything long will be stupid; I am trying to thread the needle for an oversold bounce. Rinse. Wash. Repeat.

Shares in EZchip (Nasdaq: EZCH) plummeted 14% on Thursday to $13.81 on turnover of nearly 1 million shares, after Jeffries and Company analyst Adam Benjamin began coverage of the company with a "Hold" recommendation and a target price of $18.

EZchip founder and CEO Eli Fruchter didn't dream that it would be through the first formal investment house research report that he would learn, apparently for the first time, that his biggest customer, Juniper Networks (Nasdaq: JNPR), is set to abandon EZchip and independently develop a processor, instead of moving to the next generation of EZchip processors.

The restructuring of Nortel (NRTLQ.PK) seemed so easy: Spend a few months trying to figure out if a new Nortel could happen before ultimately deciding to toss in all of its strategic chips by deciding to sell everything.

But just when the destruction of Nortel was nearly a fait accompli, MatlinPatterson could throw a wrench in the works by putting together a deal to acquire Nortel.

By Michael Kanellos

Secretive fuel cell startup Bloom Energy is working with Cisco Systems (CSCO) to integrate energy data from its devices into Cisco's platform to manage energy use in buildings, a source has told Greentech Media.

With the spotlight on Nokia Siemens’ (NOK, SI) proposed $650-million bid for Nortel’s (NRTLQ.PK) CDMA wireless business and LTE R&D unit, it’s interesting to note it was four years ago that Nokia and Nortel nearly entered into a wireless joint venture.

If the deal had been consummated, Nortel would have not only made a lot more money but it would have given Nortel the strategic focus and financial ammunition. Instead, the Nokia-Nortel JV was cast aside from then-CEO Bill Owens and the board.

Nokia Siemens Networks’ (NOK, SI) efforts to win public support for its $650-million bid for Nortel’s (NRTLQ.PK) CDMA wireless business and LTE R&D unit went on the offensive last week when NSN CFO Luca Maestri told a press conference in Toronto that the company not only plans to keep all 800 wireless jobs in Canada but add more as its makes Canada a global “next-generation wireless development” centre.

“I made it very clear we want to make it the centre of excellence for LTE technology for us,” Mr. Maestri told the National Post. “We really want to keep Ottawa as a centre of excellence — it is going to be a global centre.”

Nortel (NRTLQ.PK) may be trying to sell its LTE R&D unit to Nokia Siemens (NOK, SI) but there’s a lot of chatter about what’s not part of the deal: some LTE patents.

The talk was triggered by a recent estimate from JP Morgan Chase analyst Ehud Gelblum could be worth as much as $2.9-billion in terms of royalty payments.

Q4 2009 Earnings Call

July 2, 2009 11:00 am ET

Is there hope for Nortel (NRTLQ.PK) to continue as a standalone company without going through a fire sale of all its best assets?

The Ottawa Citizen reports that MatlinPatterson Global Advisors, a $9-billion private equity investor, may be interested in bidding for Nortel.

It looks John McHugh, VP, enterprise data solutions with Nortel’s (NRTLQ.PK) enterprise business, looks to be getting his ducks lined for a new employer amid rumors the business could soon be sold to Avaya (AV) for $500-million.

In an interesting interview with Network World’s Tim Greene, McHugh suggests that Nortel should bring back the Bay Networks brand, which disappeared soon after Nortel purchased Bay for $9.1-billion at the peak of the telecom boom.

By Jeff St. John

Today I am adding another small Israeli company that is trading at a discount, in my opinion, and has the potential to rise significantly if it maintains its growth, especially in profit, as it did in its first quarter results - IncrediMail Ltd. (Nasdaq:MAIL).

The company's business model is unique, in that it is built primarily on revenue from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), which means it has a lot of potential, along with not a little risk. Whenever a small company depends on one gorilla it is exposed to the mistakes of the gorilla.

Cisco CEO John Chambers kicked off Cisco Live, the annual training event for IT professionals, at San Francisco’s Moscone Center Tuesday morning with a quick peek back in time, the early days of the company and the Internet. It’s been 10 years since Cisco Live - called Networkers back then - kicked off. And Cisco (CSCO), Chambers said, is still committed to the core technology of routers and switches.

But technology has changed since then and Cisco’s vision and strategy have also changed, adapting to grow with the technology itself, specifically the use of virtual collaboration through video for customers around the globe.

In a 13G filed with the SEC, George Soros' hedge fund Soros Fund Management has disclosed a 5.72% ownership stake in Extreme Networks (EXTR). The filing was made due to activity on June 16th, 2009 and they now own 5,079,766 shares. They have significantly increased their position since when we looked at Soros' entire portfolio. In their last 13F filing which details positions as of March 31st, 2009, Soros Fund Management owned 766,666 shares of EXTR. Since then, they have added an additional 4,313,100 shares and have obviously significantly boosted their stake.

Soros is good to track because of his excellent macro sense and formidable track record as an investor. His thoughts on the current financial landscape are detailed in his latest book, The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means. If you want to get a better sense as to how Soros formulates his investment theses, we highly recommend reading his first book, The Alchemy of Finance. This book is a staple in our recommended reading list and after you read it, you'll understand why

The Financial Post ran an extensive cover story about Nortel’s (NRTLQ.PK) decline yesterday, which recapped how Canada’s flagship high-tech company has fallen so dramatically over the past few years. There’s little that’s eye-opening but some quotes from Nortel director John Manley are, frankly stunning.

“It is a huge loss for Canada and for our Canadian research and development,” Manley said, adding that he is “personally and deeply saddened by what’s happened. And I am heartsick about the impact on individuals. One of the things that always impressed me about Nortel is the loyalty that employees, and former employees, had toward the company. It is a tragedy.”

Through the '90s, Cisco Systems (CSCO) was known as one of the “4 Horsemen of IT” and was even the largest company by market cap ($500 B) at the peak of the tech bubble in early 2000. The web is the driver of all information worldwide over the past two decades, thus all recent tech trends revolve around the internet: mobilization, cloud computing, virtualization, social networking and much more. Consequently, Cisco is the dominant provider of the networking gear that runs the internet. More specifically, Cisco’s bread and butter has been the ethernet switches and overall router markets with approximately 70% and 50% of the market share, respectively. To sustain revenue growth, companies like CSCO must adapt to tech trends and enter new markets outside of its core business.

Breaking Ties