A Fool Looks Back
By
Rick Aristotle Munarriz
September 13, 2008
|
Hitting Sirius lows
Shares of Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) hit fresh five-year lows this week. The company's outlook came in a little light, with Sirius looking to generate $2.7 billion in revenue next year with 21.5 million subscribers. Analysts were looking for as much as $3 billion from the company.
Between the top-line softness and three big refinancing milestones that the company will bump into next year, the stock took a pummeling. I guess investors weren't won over by the healthier revelations on the bottom line. With cash operating expenses projected to clock in at $2.4 billion, 2009 should be the first year of many with positive and improving adjusted EBITDA.
Then again, Sirius XM has become a bit of a lottery ticket these days, and not just because a single share will run you about a buck. This is the kind of company that could be one of next year's biggest winners -- or one of its biggest losers.
Remember when terrestrial radio felt that a combined Sirius and XM would be too strong a competitor? Tell that to today's suffering shareholders.
Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped the week.
- There was certainly plenty of hype leading to Tuesday's "Let's Rock" event at Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). The end result? A bit of a yawner. A refreshed line of iPods and hearing Steve Jobs jokingly confirm that reports of his death were greatly exaggerated are nice, but this is Apple. We're used to coming in with high expectations, yet still getting blown away by a concluding "one more thing." Either we've become spoiled, or it's the end of iHype as we know it -- and that's no exaggeration.
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Yahoo!'s (Nasdaq: YHOO) request to improve its financial model by outsourcing paid-search ads through Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) may be denied. Advertiser groups and famous attorneys are the latest to hop on the anti-Google bandwagon. Poor Yahoo! -- even when it panhandles, it still gets its hands smacked.
- Not every retailer is a lemon. Some are lululemon, as in lululemon athletica (Nasdaq: LULU). The yoga apparel retailer's quarterly profits more than doubled, as same-store sales on a constant-dollar basis rose a healthy 13%. I can just see Kmart breaking out the spandex and the leotards. Tsk, tsk. It just doesn't get it.
Until next week, I remain,
Rick Munarriz
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