Filed under: Bad news, Products and services, Industry, Law, Consumer experience, Marketing and advertising, ScandalsIt's hard to imagine a worse PR move than ditching the Better Business Bureau to avoid expulsion, but that is exactly what Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE:EK) is doing. The BBB had commenced expulsion proceedings against the company, accusing the Kodak of failing to provide data regarding the resolution of consumer complaints filed with the Bureau. According to the USA Today:During the last three years, Kodak customers have logged 183 complaints for problems ranging from repairs to digital cameras to difficulties communicating with customer service representatives, said David Polino, head of the regional Better Business Bureau.While characterizing that number as "small for a large, multinational company," Polino said Kodak's response has been a corporate headache. ...
March, 2007
When video gaming stands high on your list of leisure pursuits, you quite naturally want to keep abreast of the latest titles and trends. There's an outfit headquartered in Grapevine, Texas that makes it easy. It has stores through North America and Europe and operates a pair of web sites, too. GameStop Corporation (NYSE:GME) is the world's largest video game and entertainment software retailer, offering software, hardware and game accessories for the PC, as well as video game systems from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft. The firm also owns two e-commerce sites and Game Informer magazine, a leading video and computer game publication. GameStop operates a total of 4,778 retail stores.The company surprised investors earlier in the week, when it reported fourth quarter (Q4) earnings per share (EPS) of ...
Filed under: Rants and raves, Marketing and advertising, Indices, Market matters, Economic dataWhat does Vanity Fair have to do with the stock market? Plenty, according to a tongue-in-cheek item published in Brandweek.It turns out that when things go well for the glossy magazine, whose cover this month features "Sopranos" star James Gandolfini with a naked woman on his lap, investors should be worried."Consider: VF's March 2007 Hollywood edition ("Our Biggest Issue Ever!") clocked in at 500 pages," BrandWeek says. "During the week of Feb 26, 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average collapsed, from 12,647 to 12,114. (Remember that the magazine hits the streets the month before its pub date). "Brandweek senior editor Jim Edwards also found similar connections with record issues in 2001 and 2000. "The correlation is ...
Filed under: Best Buy (BBY), Circuit City Stores (CC)Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) has really crossed the line with its latest cost cutting move. By chopping 3,400 of its most highly paid retail staffers, the country's second biggest electronics retailer is making a losing bet that the drop in sales resulting from canning its best sales people will be more than offset by the lower pay that it gives to the less capable replacements.Comments I received on yesterday's post suggest that Circuit City made the wrong call. Here's an example: "I was one of the people laid off and I can guarantee that the service will decline by leaps and bounds. The seven of us that were laid off at the CC I worked at, ran the ...
Filed under: Earnings reports, Conventions and conferences, Annual meetings, Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Adobe Systems (ADBE), Best Buy (BBY), Circuit City Stores (CC), Kraft Foods'A' (KFT)Just because it is a four day week does not mean nothing of interest is happening. Here's a peak at some interesting goings-on:Monday April 2 Kraft Foods Inc (NYSE: KFT) CEO to ring the NYSE opening bell at 9:30amTuesday April 3 Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) and General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) to report monthly sales for March.Wednesday April 4 Big box electronics retailers Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE: BBY) and Circuit City Stores Inc (NYSE: CC) to report earnings. Best Buy's conference call is at 10am, Circuit City's is at 11:30am.Thursday ...
Filed under: Other issues, Consumer experience, Blogs, Rants and raves, Starbucks (SBUX), Exxon Mobil (XOM), OilOne of our editors said she will get to the story after she gets her coffee (Which one? That's a company secret), and it started me thinking that we spend a lot of time complaining about the price of both gasoline and coffee. We certainly have given the oil companies and coffee companies plenty of coverage at BloggingStocks. All of them have been doing quite well the past few years. Currently in the West L.A./Santa Monica area, a Venti Latte (large) at Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) and a gallon of super unleaded gasoline at Exxon-Mobile (NYSE: XOM) cost about the same, $3.50. But which do you spend more time and money on? I think ...
NEW YORK—Bermuda-based Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings Ltd. raised $175.5 million in its initial public offering, giving the company an initial market capitalization of about $1.1 billion. The reinsurer intends to use the new capital to increase its underwriting capacity. In the Thursday offering,...
Filed under: Other issues, Bad news, ManagementQuite a while ago, Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) CEO Patrick Byrne concluded that hedge fund managers were colluding with journalists and finance writers to manipulate stock prices of public companies. Byrne was vilified a bit for that stance, but now he's being vindicated a little with support from some surprising areas.Both Jim Cramer and even reports from Bloomberg News state that there is indeed market manipulation going on to this day in commonplace fashion. I still can't get over why anyone would base an investing strategy (outside of day trading) on Cramer's Mad Money unless they are mesmerized by his showmanship, but I digress. The guy is smart, but there are plenty of other portfolios with better returns. Do your own research.Anyway, Cramer's ...
Filed under: China, Middle East, Newsletters, CanadaKenneth Reid notes in its most recent earnings call, Schlumberger cited seismic services are the most rapidly growing segment in its business. To play this trend, the editor of The Spear Security Industry Analyst focuses on a company that specializes in the sector -- Input/Output (NYSE: IO).He explains, "Seismic surveys shoot sound waves into the earth or seabed and analyze the reflections to locate the oil and gas reserves below. The company was founded in 1968 but according to Reid, has been tranforming itself in recent years to become a provider of a full range of seismic imaging products and services. Its product lines now includes advanced seismic acquisition equipment, along with the software, data processing services and data libraries necessary for ...
Filed under: Dell (DELL), Wal-Mart (WMT), Home Depot (HD), International Business Machines (IBM), Avon Products (AVP), Eastman Kodak (EK)Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL) reported another blunder last night, saying it will miss the April 18th deadline to file its annual 10K with the SEC. It seems that whatever Dell, Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD) or Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE: WMT) do, these three powerhouse "growth" stocks simply cannot get out of their own way.This is very similar to what happened to International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM), Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: EK) and Avon Products Inc (NYSE: AVP) following the burst of the Nifty Fifty bubble in 1972. It took almost twenty years for IBM and Avon to earn decent returns for shareholders again, while Eastman Kodak has never ...
