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In today's Motley Fool Take:
- Half a Billion for a Freebie
- Discussion Board of the Day: Pet Lovers
- Lowe's Optimistic Outlook
- Quote of Note
- Yahoo! Doesn't Get It
- More on Fool.com Today
Half a Billion for a Freebie
By
Media consolidation remains the rage, and the financial news world firms up a bit today as MarketWatch
Today's announcement wasn't any major surprise, as there was a narrow list of suitors for the firm, including Yahoo!
Was it worth the price? There's disagreement on that minor point. On one hand, this looks pretty expensive. The acquisition price of $518 million is 7.3 times the trailing 12 months' sales and 120 times net income.
On the other hand, it's only $90 per pair of eyeballs for September, and that's what Dow Jones is probably after: a larger Web presence. For all its fame and reputation, The Wall Street Journal's online division costs a lot more than what Internet users are used to paying for wired content -- nothing -- and as a result, it has a long way to go to hit a million subscribers.
In contrast, MarketWatch's financial reportage is all over, including here at the Fool. Using the ubiquitous free news coverage to feed the paying services and sell advertising looks like a win-win situation for the old media player. With online synergies and advertising on the upswing, Dow Jones may just realize a long-term payoff from this pricey-looking purchase.
For related Foolishness:
- Review the woo from Yahoo!
- How many of us should be packing our bags for India?
- See MarketWatch return from the grave.
Seth Jayson has no positions in any company mentioned. View his Fool profile here.
Discussion Board of the Day: Pet Lovers
Does Fido have fleas? Do you need advice on how to stop your otherwise-perfect cat from scratching the sofa? Or do you just want to proudly announce the arrival of your brand-new puppy, kitten, fish, bird, or snake? To talk about these topics and more, stop in to the Pet Lovers discussion board. Only on Fool.com.
Lowe's Optimistic Outlook
By
It is true that there are times when words can say it all.
Robert L. Tillman, Lowe's
Lowe's, the second-leading home improvement retailer behind Home Depot
The company's third-quarter earnings of $0.66 per share beat the analysts' consensus estimate of $0.65 per share and were 8% ahead of last year's $0.56 per share. Total sales for the quarter increased 16% and same-store sales (stores open at least two years) were up 5.2%. The growth in same-store sales was especially impressive given the company's 12.2% advance last year; Lowe's pronounced that this sales performance was "the best two-year performance in nearly a decade."
Lowe's strong third-quarter performance was paced by the sales growth combined with its effective cost controls, which produced more than a 200-basis-point increase in operating margin. Looking ahead, the company expects sales to increase 16% to 17% in the fourth quarter (4% to 5% growth for same-store sales). Lowe's also expects an 18% increase (6% to 7% same-store sales gain) for the full-year 2004. Earnings of $0.58 to $0.60 per share for the fourth quarter and $2.69 to $2.71 per share for 2004 are in line with current estimates.
The company expects to add 56 new stores in the fourth quarter (a 14% growth in square footage) and should end the year having opened a total of 140 new stores. Lowe's currently operates 1,031 stores in 45 states. Front-runner Home Depot operates 1,826 stores in 50 states, but it had a head start.
The Lowe's shares, which are trading at only 18 times next year's earnings estimate of $3.34 per share, appear to be relatively attractive vs. its projected 24% earnings growth rate. Throw in a 0.27% dividend yield and Lowe's can be a good fix for just about any investor.
Grab a nail and hammer and secure these other views:
Fool contributor Phil Wohl spent more than 12 years on Wall Street and owns shares of Lowe's.
Quote of Note
"Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings." -- Samuel Johnson
Yahoo! Doesn't Get It
By
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, or so they say. Yahoo!
Seth Jayson covered the Internet giants' "me-too" attitude recently, when Yahoo! said it plans a foray onto your desktop, right on Google's coattails. And it seems that Yahoo!'s increased storage space announcement is piggybacking on Google's announcement last week that it has added some additional special features to Gmail, like POP access.
Here's the trip down memory lane. Last April, Google announced Gmail with its unprecedented gigabyte of storage. This started the equivalent of a free email arms race, with Yahoo! and Microsoft's
Yahoo! responded by upping its free capacity to 100 megabytes last June. Even at that time, my response was that it was a "me-too move that doesn't quite deliver." Now that it has finally increased storage to 250 MB, it has the same amount as Microsoft's Hotmail. Yep, this could end up being too little, too late, for some users.
For anyone who might still be running Yahoo! mail (or Hotmail) and Gmail (ahem), the difference is probably clear. Yes, it is possible to burn through 100 MB of storage space. It'll take longer, but you can also use up 250 MB. Sure, it'll take much longer than when Yahoo! mail and Hotmail only provided a stingy 4 MB and 2 MB of storage, respectively. (That sounds sort of ridiculous after all the recent changes in the industry.)
It seems Yahoo! and Hotmail are still locked in the realm of supplementary email address for users' other "real" email addresses, or spam sponges. For those users who do use Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail and have no other email accounts, their data is still ultimately expendable -- they have to prioritize, sort, and delete to make space.
Google, in my humble opinion, does get it. Gmail's gigabyte of storage space -- which it has always touted as giving users the ability to forget about inbox cleaning -- makes it crucial, and alleviates information overload with easy searching and organization. In understanding that your email correspondence is important, searchable data, worthy of archiving, Google is positioning Gmail as the gold standard of Web-based email.
And, it seems, Yahoo! and Microsoft are letting it. And making their users pay for more. If you ask me, they just don't get it.
Alyce Lomax does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned.
More on Fool.com Today
In The Value Advantage, Nathan Parmelee invites you to come inside the value camp and cozy up to long-term results with a cushion of safety.... The government joins the plethora of lawsuit filers, but Merck will survive, Mathew Emmert says in Merck's Silver Lining.... In Start Your Streak Today, David Meier discusses four things you need to know to beat the market.... Many are wondering when the multiheaded insurance scandal is going to tag Berkshire Hathaway. Relax, folks, Bill Mann says in Berkshire Sells Insurance! Oh My!
In other news:
For a list of all our stories from today, see our Today's Headlines page.