The electoral process came and went, but it's always Election Day on Wall Street.
You've got baggage!
Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) posted quarterly results that were marred by the inability of its America Online subsidiary to attract and retain users. While the AOL side did manage to shave its network expenses nicely, it also suffered a "net" decline of 646,000 subscribers stateside. It's painfully amusing to look back to when AOL first announced that it was acquiring Time Warner. Folks thought that the online service was selling short its new-economy ways by anchoring itself to the media giant. Now it seems as if the anchor is steering the ship, as Time Warner's impressive portfolio of content and media assets is what is keeping the stock going. While I believe that Time Warner selling off AOL would be a mistake -- and spinning it off would be half a mistake -- it definitely needs a way to tap into the Internet's potential through that very potent gateway.
On Thursday, I will be writing about how I think that AOL can be saved, and you are more than welcome to send over some suggestions. If the service's latest ad campaign is genuine and the company does, in fact, listen to its users, how can I not solicit your ideas? Time Warner's stock has been essentially trading in the teens for the past 30 months, so it's obvious that something needs to be done to kickstart the company's shares.
China is proving to be more fortune than cookie
Hooters may be a hard act to follow, but Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) will be taking advantage of China's easing of foreign regulations to expand aggressively in the world's most populous nation next year. But it's not as if Hooters beat the retailing ghost of Sam Walton into China. The discounter has nearly three dozen stores already up and running. However, that is a small fraction of the 5,000 stores in the Wal-Mart empire. Several states have more Wal-Marts than all of China. That's why the stakes are huge as long as China's economy continues to strengthen enough to afford its citizens the creature comforts of Wal-Mart's marked-down wares.
And the next dot-com item up for bid on the auction block...
When a company hires an investment banker to explore "strategic options," that's on par with that special person in your life suggesting that maybe you should both start seeing other people. In other words, it's over. That's what we have with DoubleClick (NASDAQ:DCLK) as the online advertising heavyweight looks to be waving the proverbial white flag of surrender.
The company was doing just fine until Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) crashed the party by giving sponsors a more attractive and cost-effective form of advertising through paid search. However, DoubleClick's rich history and technology could be valuable to the right buyer. But if you want one tangible piece of advice to take from all of this, just learn how to end a relationship the DoubleClick way. Honey, we need to talk. I think we should explore some strategic options.
Taser and its stunning ways
If you're the kind of Trekkie who likes to set your lasers on stun, then maybe Taser (NASDAQ:TASR) is the company for you. As one of the wildest stocks on a volatile path to become a daring five-bagger over the past year, it would seem ironic that this temperamental stock belongs to a company angling for safety and security.
This past week we ran a four-part interview with the taser gun specialist's co-founding president, who offered some insight as to why its product is working with police officers in some cities, as well as its prospects for the future. Whether you feel that the stock has sped past its fundamentals or that this is just the beginning, you may want to learn a little more about the company before making an investing decision.
See you next week!
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no interest in telling you whom he voted for -- though he will gladly point out that he did vote. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story.
