Market Currents

• Friday, December 18, 2009

• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: RIMM +11%. TTWO +11%. CELG +7%. DEER +7%. KMX +6%. ORCL +5%. CTIC +5%. DAN +5%. RYAAY +4%.
  Losers: PALM -10%. LDK -10%. AIB -7%. BCR -7%. CATY -4%. SID -4%. LYG -4%. Comment!

• Thursday, December 17, 2009

• 16:39 PM Palm (PALM): FQ2 EPS of -$0.37 misses by $0.05. Revenue of $302M vs. $266M. Shares -4.2% AH. (PR) Comment!
• 00:10 AM Notable post-market earnings: ACN, DRI, NKE, ORCL, PALM, RIMM, TTWO Comment!

• Thursday, November 19, 2009

• 15:50 PM More cold water on the rumors that have boosted Palm (PALM -4.1%) a few times this year: that Nokia (NOK -2.6%) would swoop in and buy it. (previously) Comment!
• 10:56 AM Palm's (PALM -4.2%) new Pixi - just four days on the market - is already being heavily discounted, with Amazon.com (AMZN) selling the smartphone for just $25, a 75% price cut. Staggering, but perhaps necessary, John Paczkowski says, "given early and widespread complaints about the device’s slow operating speed, some unfavorable reviews and the fact that the Pre" is now selling for under $80. Comment!

• Friday, November 13, 2009

• 15:33 PM A takeover of Palm (PALM) may not be any more likely than before, but renewed rumors of a possible acquisition by Nokia (among others) have the shares up today, +7.3%. (previously) Comment!

• Wednesday, November 11, 2009

• 12:41 PM Palm (PALM) up 7.8% as Merrill Lynch reiterates a Buy rating and $20 target after an encouraging meeting with Palm leadership. Despite strong competition, Palm's set to launch products with multiple new carriers next year (including Verizon (VZ)), when it should have a robust apps catalog, management says. Comment!

• Monday, November 2, 2009

• 17:43 PM Motorola's (MOT +5.4%) focus on the Android OS should win it market share and carrier support at the expense of Research In Motion (RIMM -5.1%) and Palm (PALM -6%), Citigroup says, lifting MOT to Buy and dropping its peers to Sell. Firm says Motorola's Droid, which goes on sale this week through Verizon (VZ), is "one of the more compelling offerings at a time when many investors have given up on the company's handsets." Comment!

• Thursday, September 24, 2009

• 17:11 PM Palm's (PALM -4.7%) high-stakes Pre smartphone faces a setback, as Verizon (VZ) decides not to support the phone in January as expected. The Pre has been exclusively offered on the Sprint (S) network; sources say less-than-blockbuster sales of under a million units are partly to blame. 3 Comments

• Wednesday, September 23, 2009

• 08:54 AM Palm (PALM) prices 20M shares at $16.25, 4M more shares than previously announced. (PR) 1 Comment

• Thursday, September 17, 2009

• 16:24 PM Palm (PALM): Will launch common stock offering of 16M shares, for working capital and general purposes. Elevation Partners says it will buy $35M shares at the offering price. Comment!
• 16:20 PM Palm (PALM): FQ1 EPS of -$0.10 beats by $0.14. Revenue of $361M (-2%), excluding deferred sales of Pre smartphone, vs. $298M. Sees Q2 revenue of $240M-270M vs. $344M, and full-year revenue of $1.6B-1.8B vs. $1.57B. Shares +5.3% AH. (PR) 1 Comment
• 00:10 AM Notable earnings after Thursday's close: PALM Comment!

• Wednesday, September 9, 2009

• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: ENCO +333%. VVUS +54%. HITK +17%. TLB +11%. TITN +10%. FIG +7%. ATPG +8%. SRZ +7%. ARNA +6%. HL +4%. ETFC +4%. ABB +4%. OREX +4%.
  Losers: PBY -8%. PALM -6%. MYL -5%. LAZ -4%. 1 Comment
• 07:41 AM Palm (PALM) cuts the price of its Pre by $50 and introduces Pixi, a cheaper, thinner phone to go on sale later this year. But the news may get overshadowed by Apple's (AAPL) iPod update today and Motorola's (MOT) new phone announcement tomorrow. Comment!

• Thursday, August 20, 2009

• 08:55 AM In light of the DoJ probe into collusion in hiring among tech companies, Bloomberg uncovers this email from former Palm (PALM) CEO Ed Colligan to Steve Jobs (AAPL): "Your proposal that we agree that neither company will hire the other's employees, regardless of the individual's desires, is not only wrong, it is likely illegal." 1 Comment