hbball

Apples to Apples: Will History Repeat Itself as Android Gains on the iPhone?

Was this article written from a Windows 7 Launch Party?

Verizon Launches Direct Ad Attack Against the iPhone

Strike one for the nerdy product name "Droid".

Strike two for a keyboard. Once you've used a touchscreen, you don't want the keyboard back, so the only keyboard users are older, avid Blackberry owners, and they're already adverse to change. Younger non-smart phone owners couldn't care less about a keyboard as they're not used to one.

Strike three for thinking Google is in anyway an aspirational brand like Apple or Blackberry. People use Google for free everyday and associate Google with something they value at the price of "free".

Top Ten Best Global Brands

The Business Week article really expects us to click through a 100+ slide show to see the list. Yeah right!

The Myth of Abercrombie & Fitch

If anything, your article proves that Same Store Sales aren't always a valuable metric, especially when ANF earnings increased every year mentioned, until the meltdown.

Porsche Dilemma: Firesale or Bankruptcy?

Yes, they have debt, some which might be demanded to be paid back soon, but nobody's talking about their liquid assets (namely shares of 50% of VW) as a potential last-resort source to pay back the debt.


On Jun 29 07:25 PM Old Trader wrote:

> hbball,
>
> Evidently Porsche borrowed billions in their efforts to gain control
> of VW.....and now the piper must be paid.

Porsche Dilemma: Firesale or Bankruptcy?

On Jun 29 05:42 PM Rollerball wrote:

> Some people just don't know sarcasm when it's staring them in the
> face. Was POAHF.PK on anyone's "conviction" buy list?

Yeah, you're right, I was being like totally sarcastic when I said that this article that wasn't based on facts had no facts. I guess you didn't get it.

Porsche Dilemma: Firesale or Bankruptcy?

This is a very sensationalist headline without anything to back it up.

There's no fact cited as to when VW can legally demand the money pursuant to the loan.

As for bankruptcy, it seems ridiculous to suggest that Porsche SE, which owns over 50% of VW, along with options to purchase at least another 20% of VW would somehow go bankrupt if required to immediately pay 700 million Euros to VW. Why wouldn't Porsche just sell some of its VW stock (market cap = $80 Billion Euros what to avert bankruptcy)? Any article suggesting bankruptcy ought to address these points.

Why Apple Belongs in Every Portfolio

"In case you haven't already guessed by the title about Apple, this article is about Apple!"

NYSE Euronext: Strong Moat, Solid Dividend in These Uncertain Times

What are your thoughts on the impact of dark pools on the future of NYX? Did NYX ever oppose the creation of dark pools?

Abercrombie Q4: EPS Smoke and Mirrors

Thanks for the reply and clarification of the charts, PG. Reason I was asking about timing of the article is if it was released after the markets and after-hours trading are closed, then nobody can really act on the analysis anyway, so why not wait for the real numbers.

AJB7: your comments are also similar to comments that have been made for years. Parents hating the store is a good thing. Teenagers and college kids don't want to shop where there parents shop.

Abercrombie Q4: EPS Smoke and Mirrors

Cash is only down $8 million or so and the marketable securities you keep mentioning are listed at plus $110 million or so.

As for your comments on "continuing weakness in same store sales", your own chart shows that SSS have declined by less each month from November to January.

Your capex prediction is off by, what, $240 million?

These numbers are only based on my quick scan on their earnings release and your article, but I'm not writing actual articles for an investor web site. Why don't you write these reports after earnings are released instead of immediately before?

Questioning the Relevance of Abercrombie

The Motley Fool has been make these kind of Abercrombie will become uncool arguments for years. I remember reading an article from another source during the last recession that clothes from Walmart were the new cool among teens. Abercrombie increased earnings per share during the last recession, despite consistently declining same store sales. But the bigger picture is that Abercrombie is just starting an international expansion. I've been in six of their stores in Canada, and also their London, England flagship store. The stores are typically crowded, and during the holiday season had longer lines than American Eagle or Aeropostale. I see people of all ages wearing Abercrombie all over Toronto, including in the trendy Yorkville district. Management has said on the conference calls that their Canadian stores do 3 times the sales as their American counterparts. This is because the brand doesn't share the image history with U.S. customers outside the U.S.

The End of Broadcast TV Nears

While I agree that the networks should try to fill their slots with creative, intelligent, original programming, the headline about the end of broadcast TV indicates the author does not know what he's talking about. Neilsen just reported that more Americans are watching TV than ever. Using NBC as the apparent main gauge for the downfall of TV, when they consistently have the fewest top rated shows is ridiculous. While cable TV may be taking a greater share of the television-viewing pie, all of the four networks' parent companies own cable TV networks. This doesn't sound like the end of broadcast TV to me.