Category Archives: Stocks

This category will be for stock news and announcements.

BIDU Rising

Baidu.com (NASDAQ: BIDU) stock has been rising quite a bit today. So far this morning, the stock has risen up to 93.24 or 5.18%. Baidu.com is the number one search engine in China. There has been some speculation recently that either Google or Yahoo is interested in purchasing the company to gain a stonger foothold in the Chinese market. I am wondering whether this speculation is what is fuelling the stock increase. It seems kind of a delayed reaction if the reason for the increase is the third quarter earnings report where they increased profit ten fold. Their third quarter earnings was announced October 31. This is one company that people should watch for in the future as a possible acquistion target to gain market share in China.

While I was in China, I saw first hand that the search market was practically split between people searching with Google and others searching with Baidu. Another thing I noticed was people seemed to use Baidu to search for MP3s. When people were asked why they searched with one or the other they didn’t have a solid answer other than it was the one they always used. Then when asked if they would ever switch to another search engine most seemed alright with the idea as long as the searches brought them useful results.  Overall though, there remained some patriotism about using a Chinese search engine.

Four Season Hotel Going Private

Four Seasons Hotel Inc. is going private after a huge deal with Bill Gates and Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal becoming the major shareholders. The Toronto based hotel was created in the red light district of Toronto in 1961 by Isadore Sharp. Over its 45 year history the company has evolved and grown to now include over 70 properties in 31 countries around the world. The deal by the pair to purchase the shares is worth $3.7-billion USD. Isadore Sharp will remain as CEO and hold on to 10% of the companies shares while Gates and the Prince will each split the remaining 90% in half. Mr. Sharp reiterated that the purchase will not affect the direction or vision of the hotel and business should proceed as usual.

Kinross Down – Bema Up after Acquisition News

Kinross Gold Corporation (KGC, K.TO) announced Monday that they will aquire Bema Gold Corportation (BGO) for an all-stock $3.1 billion deal.  Following this announcement Kinross stock was seen trading down 8.07% to 13.78 while Bema stock was up 11.11% to 6.00.  Upon completition of the deal 61% of Kinross will be held by exisiting shareholders while the remaining 39% will be held by Bema shareholders.  The deal was unanimously approved by both companies board of directors.  The deal is still subject to all regulatory approvals, and a vote by Bema shareholders in mid-January before it will become official.

Sirius Jumps Above $4

SIRIUS Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) stock has surged above the $4 mark in Monday morning trading up 7.45% to $4.04. This rise comes before Wednesday’s third quarter earning’s report. The rise is a quick reversal of previous alltime lows in the $3.60 – $3.70 region. In related news, XM Satellite Radio announced their third quarter earning’s report today. Their 3Q loss narrowed and their revenue increased 57%. The overall loss is $84 million or 32 cents per share. This is promising news for the satellite radio market, who have been in troubled times recently with lower than expected subscriptions. XM’s stock was up 16% so far today. Everyone should be expecting further movement after Wednesday’s announcement by SIRIUS.

Major Nelson on SIRIUS Satellite Radio

Major Nelson, writer on MajorNelson.com, was on SIRIUS Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) on October 31, 2006.  Major Nelson is well known to many Xbox fans as a creative source of all Xbox Live information.  He works for Microsoft as the Xbox Live Director of Programming and he is the voice of Microsoft to gamers.  He presents information in a blog style which creatively makes everything come as more personal to gamers.  He runs the blog on his own time so you will see his opinion on different things and it isn’t the official word from Microsoft.  Thus the information he gives is normally honest and insightful.

Fittingly, he was on a video game show, called “Level Up” on MAXIM channel 108.  The show is on every Tuesday at 2pm ET and it should provide new users to video games with information but more hardcore gamers could be rather bored by it all.   In the future they hope to have live call in questions which should add a lot of depth to the program.  As well, on each show they have special guests to keep everyone entertained.

Zune Canadian Release Still Unknown

With the upcoming Zune launch in the USA on November 14, 2006 with an MSRP of $249.99, I am left wondering when is the Canadian release?  Even though I doubt I will be buying one, I would really like to take a closer look at it.  In case you haven’t heard about it, the Zune is an MP3 player from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT).  It features a 30gb hard drive, a 3 inch screen, and supports all forms of media playback such as audio, video, images, and fm radio.  The device will be able to stream to the Xbox 360.  Another interesting feature is the ability to transfer songs to your friends so they can listen, although it appears as though they will be limited to three days before they expire.  The tranfering is done wirelessly as the device has builtin 802.11b/g wireless.  Pretty cool specs overall, and something I wouldn’t mind having.  So with no news on a Canadian release, we are all left in the dark.  My guess is they are waiting to get a Canadian Zune Marketplace setup so it could be right before Christmas like December 11th,  or probably not until late January, early February.  I’m making the guess of December 11th since that is a Monday and it would give them two business weeks of pre-Christmas sales.  They better announce something soon though, because people might make their purchase decisions for the all important Christmas rush.

Emirates Strikes Back

Emirates Airline cancelled its order and options for 20 Airbus A340 aircraft.  This cancellation comes after earlier announcements from Airbus about further delays for the A380 aircraft.  Emirates is Airbus’s largest customer with an order of 45 A380 aircraft for a total around $13.5 billion.  The A380 is a superjumbo jet, the worlds largest, with a double-decker 555-seat capacity.  Emirates doesn’t seem to be satisfied with the delays and can’t really do much.  I believe that this cancellation of the A340 was made easier following the delays of the A380.   As well, Emirates is supposidly sending an engineering team to Airbus’s manufacturing facilites in Toulouse, France to gather data on how long they estimate the planes will take to construct.  My feelings are that Airbus better put on a good show or another 45 airplane deal could very well be cancelled.  I wonder what kind of compensation Emirates would have to pay for cancelling such a large order?  … $100 million??  Either way, Emirates won’t be able to escape these delays easily.

Saskatchewan Provincial Sales Tax Cut

Andrew Thomson announced in the legislature that the sales tax for Saskatchewan will be cut from 7% to 5% effective tomorrow. This change is due to the current oil and gas boom that the government is currenly enjoying. This is their way of giving back to the people of the province. This cut moves the sales tax one percent below the old level that it was at before the NDP were re-elected in 2003. The move puts Saskatchewan with the lowest PST in the country besides Alberta which doesn’t have a provincial sales tax. This news comes a little late for myself, having bought a new car two weeks ago; which kind of sucks because that kind of tax break would actually mean a lot to me.

ICBC surges 15% in first day of Trading

Industrial and Commerical Bank of China (SHA:601398) stock increased 15% after its first day of trading. The stock raised $21 billion in its initial public offering last week and are the largest bank in China. They have 355,000 employees and $800 billion in assets. They are one strong bank that shouldn’t be going anywhere for a long time. There has been a lot of foreign interest in these Chinese banks due to the expoding growth in their economy. With annual GDP growth of over 10% for the last 7 years or so, you can tell that all forms of business are going to be doing well. While I was in China, I did my banking through the much smaller and more inconvenient China Merchant’s Bank. That was probably a poor choice in a bank since they weren’t as common thus making their ATMs for. I still have my debit card, and there is probably a chance my account might still be open (although with pennies as a balance).

Source – International Herald Tribune

WestJet Has Record Quarter

WestJet Airlines Ltd (TSE : WJA) has just recorded their best ever third quarter. They had a profit of $52.8 million up from $30.3 in the same period of 2005. They are attributing the increased profits to improved cost efficiency with things from more fuel efficient airplanes, self serve kiosks and web check-ins. The average age for their fleet is only 2.3 years. This alone will help reduce all sorts of costs because of the major expenses involved in the maintenance of airplanes.  With newer airplanes also comes better service.  All the new airplanes have lcd screens built into the seats for entertaining trips.
Everytime I hear about airlines in the news they are always in financial trouble, but then they release news like this. With news of huge profits, I become skeptical. Why if they are making so much money do they constantly increase the prices of fares? They also add on fuel surcharges when the costs go up but then seem to forget to remove them when the fuel goes back down. I suppose they are a business and their main goal is to make money, but sometimes they should cut the consumers a break… How about a seat sale!!

Source – Calgary Sun