Blowing up the well-entrenched pay TV model won't be very easy for Senator John McCain with the politician not even on the Senate Commerce Committee anymore observes AllThingsD's Peter Kafka. But if a la carte pricing were to ever become a reality, one network that has a lot to lose is Disney's (DIS -0.1%) ESPN. The sports channel lands a whopping +$5 per subscriber from providers while only 25% of those paying the bills say they watch the network regularly. Another way Disney could ultimately be exposed is through its piece of A&E Networks which is able to bundle many add-ons around mega-hit The Walking Dead to ratchet up carriage fees. [View news story]
A&E = Storage Wars Disney-owned JV (with hearst)
AMC = The Walking Dead Publicly-listed (AMCX) and former Cablevision holding.
Southeastern Asset Management (now an 8.5% owner) intends to use "all options at our disposal" to oppose the Dell (DELL) buyout (13D). The $13.65/share offer price, Southeastern says, puts a value of less than $1/share on the PC, server, and software and peripherals businesses combined. Total corporate value is closer to $24/share. [View news story]
Clearwire (CLWR) has received an unsolicited $3.30/share buyout offer from Dish Network (DISH). That easily trumps Sprint's (S) $2.97/share offer. The proposal requires Clearwire sell Dish 24% of its spectrum for $2.2B and use the proceeds to pay down debt, as well as (with extra financing) agree to build a 4G network for Dish. Sprint has responded to the proposal by calling it "not viable ... in light of Clearwire's current legal and contractual obligations." Clearwire's board will "engage with Dish;" shares are halted. Sprint -2.5% AH. Dish -2%. [View news story]
Wonder if the FCC/DoJ gets involved. +1 carrier is a pretty easy sell for them.
AT&T announces the sale of more than 10M smartphones in Q4 vs. 9.4M a year ago. "This included best-ever quarterly sales of Android and Apple smartphones." This would suggest Q4 iPhone sales in the 7M-8M range, says BI's Jay Yarow. AAPL +1%, T -1.3% premarket. (PR) [View news story]
More phones = more equipment revenue = overall margin dilution. Last year they posted a monster quarter in phone hardware and operating margins fell down to ~15% from the 25-30% range.
Blowing up the well-entrenched pay TV model won't be very easy for Senator John McCain with the politician not even on the Senate Commerce Committee anymore observes AllThingsD's Peter Kafka. But if a la carte pricing were to ever become a reality, one network that has a lot to lose is Disney's (DIS -0.1%) ESPN. The sports channel lands a whopping +$5 per subscriber from providers while only 25% of those paying the bills say they watch the network regularly. Another way Disney could ultimately be exposed is through its piece of A&E Networks which is able to bundle many add-ons around mega-hit The Walking Dead to ratchet up carriage fees. [View news story]
Disney-owned JV (with hearst)
AMC = The Walking Dead
Publicly-listed (AMCX) and former Cablevision holding.
Southeastern Asset Management (now an 8.5% owner) intends to use "all options at our disposal" to oppose the Dell (DELL) buyout (13D). The $13.65/share offer price, Southeastern says, puts a value of less than $1/share on the PC, server, and software and peripherals businesses combined. Total corporate value is closer to $24/share. [View news story]
Clearwire (CLWR) has received an unsolicited $3.30/share buyout offer from Dish Network (DISH). That easily trumps Sprint's (S) $2.97/share offer. The proposal requires Clearwire sell Dish 24% of its spectrum for $2.2B and use the proceeds to pay down debt, as well as (with extra financing) agree to build a 4G network for Dish. Sprint has responded to the proposal by calling it "not viable ... in light of Clearwire's current legal and contractual obligations." Clearwire's board will "engage with Dish;" shares are halted. Sprint -2.5% AH. Dish -2%. [View news story]
AT&T announces the sale of more than 10M smartphones in Q4 vs. 9.4M a year ago. "This included best-ever quarterly sales of Android and Apple smartphones." This would suggest Q4 iPhone sales in the 7M-8M range, says BI's Jay Yarow. AAPL +1%, T -1.3% premarket. (PR) [View news story]