First, there's no news like Nokia (NYSE: NOK) news. The latest ripple came on Wednesday when Nokia shares jumped almost 17% on rumors that Chinese computer maker Lenovo might want to buy the struggling Finnish phone maker.
Ha-ha, no way, said a senior Lenovo executive. "This must be a joke," said Gianfranco Lanci, head of Lenovo's Europe, Middle East, and Africa operations. LOL.
Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?
Sticking with Nokia news here, folks.
This is either the best time to be buying shares in Nokia, or the worst time. Nokia's stock price is down almost 68% since last October, but that hasn't stopped the company's management team from stocking up. CEO Stephen Elop, according to Finnish television station MTV3, bought 275,000 more shares to bring his holdings up to 425,000. And recently seated chairman of the board Risto Siilasmaa recently acquired 330,000 shares. He now holds 730,000 shares.
Raise your head a bit higher
Cell tower company Crown Castle International (NYSE: CCI) doesn't have to hang its head so low now that Standard & Poor's has raised Crown's outlook to positive from stable. S&P liked the company's strong operating numbers, but that wasn't enough to also raise Crown's credit rating. That is still at B-plus, four rungs down into the junk category.
An Olympian quarter for Comcast
Despite the probability of losing a spot of money on its NBC units Olympics coverage, Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) can still have a broad smile. That's because it reported a 32% increase in its second-quarter profits. That profit came on the back of its broadband growth, which added 156,000 subscribers net. But that had to make up for its loss of 176,000 video subscribers.
AT&T Buyback
Whether or not a company buying back its shares to help improve share price actually works or not, that's what AT&T (NYSE: T) has decided to do. Flush with its second-quarter success, the carrier's board authorized the purchase of up to 300 million of its own shares, at a cost as high as $11.1 billion.
But will that leave the company with enough cash for its necessary capital expenditures? Right now its $2.15 billion on hand isn't that much more than Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR) with its $1.2 billion in cash and equivalents. Isn't that cutting it a little too close to the bone?
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