Tracked.com Topics

The NEW Tech Boom

By Taryn Cooper, at 5:48 pm on December 21st, 2009

Inevitably with the end of the decade near we’re going to hear about Top Ten lists ranging from television shows to albums and now with technology events, according to this post from Tech Republic.  No doubt, technology drove much of the economy over the past ten years, and it is far from bottoming out at this point.

At the end of the year 2000, we saw the tech bubble about to burst, and it’s almost literally come full-circle in this year.  Possibly the biggest the-more-things-change-the-more-they-stay-the-same story of 2009 was that AOL went public,  spinning-off from Time Warner officially earlier this month.

One of the most intriguing stories in tech-media is the advent of social networking sites.  I would love to see the statistics on it, but I am sure there is a high percentage of folks using MySpace, Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis, showing just  how much technology has evolved in the past 10 years.  In fact, an article came out today on Twitter, and how they are in-the-black since it’s 2006 inaugural year.  Remember how long it took tech-retail stalwart Amazon.com to return a profit in the early part of the decade?

Google has also done its part to change the face of technology as well, after going public in 2004.  They’ve been incredibly acquisitive, buying such “hot” technology properties as YouTube and AdMob.  Except for today, when Google almost announced a deal where they would acquire customer-ratings service Yelp.com, however the deal reportedly fell through at the last minute.

Ten years ago, no one had ever heard of “smart phones,” let alone owned one.  Mostly anyone who uses a cellular phone has some kind of  “smart phone” ability, mostly made by Research in Motion or Apple.  Motorola emerged as the Phoenix out of the ashes with its new Droid product this year, making the smart phone choices numerous.

At the end of 2000, websites were shutting down and the “old economy” was thumbing their collective noses at the idea of the “new economy.”  What we’ve seen however in the last ten years is that it’s not only resistant, it has evolved and looks like it is here to stay.  Most of us should be interested to see what is going to happen in the next ten years.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tracked.com Topics

Tracked.Com Topics: Did You Hear The One About Tiger Woods?

By Taryn Cooper, at 10:30 am on December 11th, 2009

I’m sure at this point, mostly everyone — whether you like it or not — has heard about Tiger Woods, his suspicious car accident and his alleged extra-marital affairs fall-out.  Unlike Time Warner’s Sports Illustrated, CNN and People brands, however, I’m not going to dwell on his personal life and sensationalize activities he participates in that do NOT pay his bills.

I’m going to talk about sponsorship.  Tiger Woods is the proverbial “Cash Cow” to many brands and corporations, with Nike, Accenture, Gillette, PepsiCo and the PGA Tour just to name a few.  Just how are these sensationalistic stories affecting his brand name?  According to one article, the last we saw Woods in any advertisement was “was a 30-second spot for Gillette on November 29, two days after the Florida car crash.”

Earlier this week, Gatorade (owned by PepsiCo) announced it was discontinuing it’s “Tiger Focus” drink.  Gatorade said that this decision was due to “low sales,” this was decided “months ago,” and had nothing to do with his recent media coverage.  Call me crazy but if this was determined months ago, why is this news coming out now, when everyone is wondering if  it is the time to back out of any Tiger Woods-endorsed products?  (Bear in mind PepsiCo also famously paid Madonna after breaking their contract and having her not hawk their product after she released a controversial video in the late-1980s, and a similar story with R&B artist Ludacris in the early-2000s).

Adweek did a study where they discussed adjectives to describe Tiger Woods and his public perceptions.  In a week, descriptors changed from “great, good and best” to “voicemail, mistress and affair,” nowhere mentioning a car accident where he was injured.

Even the PGA Tour website was in on the act this week.  A site redesign left Woods’ image nowhere to be seen.  According to an executive,  the website undergoes changes and is not static.  Tiger Woods, easily one of the most recognizable names in sports let alone golf, cannot be found on the site.  Again, merely a “coincidence,” according to the PR people who run the site.

Tiger Woods’ has a contract in place with Nike and Gillette, two of the many sponsors  publicly supporting him throughout his ordeal.   According to an article entitled “Goodwill Crashing,” estimates of his true value are “between $2.50 and $4 for every dollar spent on endorsements. This would mean in Tiger’s case that all 10 companies could expect a combined $420 million in annual revenues from their association with the golfing great. For most, including Nike, it’s a drop in the bucket.“  Even if dropped, Tiger Woods would not be hurting financially, but it is a mathematical certainty that what puts on food on the table for him is partially his pro golfing career…it’s also the endorsements, silly!

Prior to the suspicious car accident on his front lawn in early morning hours and now salacious affairs coming out of the woodwork, Tiger Woods was an immensely introspective public figure who valued his privacy more than anything, even naming his yacht after that abstract ideal.  What he seems to not have grasped is that the media LOVES guys like him: guys who have a sudden fall from grace in an effort to simply sell newspapers, get web clicks and who can outscoop who with the next story to shock-shock-shock.

Is Tiger Woods still valuable?  Heck yes — to the newspapers reporting on this!  Visit the Tiger Woods page on Tracked.com and see just how many articles have come up in the past month on Tiger, and let me give you a hint, most of them weren’t about sports.

It’s up to his sponsors who stick by him in the end.  History has told us that although the media tends to build people up to ultimately tear them down (Britney Spears, Madonna and Kobe Bryant come to mind as recent figures), Tiger Woods will be the phoenix to rise from the ashes of this debacle.  He’s not going anywhere as long as he has his talent.  In the meantime though, gossip columns are thriving on him.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tracked.com Topics

Tracked.com Topics: The Housing Market

By Taryn Cooper, at 2:16 pm on November 11th, 2009

Unless you’ve been living somewhere with zero television coverage, no newspapers or any access to Internet, we all have heard housing horror stories…Foreclosures, Variable Rates and Jingle Mail, oh my!

According to U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Building Permits and Housing Completions’ statistics were below their month-over-month and year-over-year estimates for the month of September.  However, Housing Starts showed promise.

The report states that “Privately-owned housing starts in September were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 590,000,” which was 0.5% above the August number.  This number was still below September 2008’s rate of 822,000.  “Single-family housing starts in September were at a rate of 501,000,” the report later says, 3.9% above August’s revised rate.

With this news on housing starts, is housing perhaps turning the proverbial corner?

If you’d like a biased opinion, simply ask the home builders!  Toll Brothers released its early 4Q report today, where revenues were down 30% in the quarter.  However, if you listen to their Chairman Robert I. Toll, you will hear nothing but glowing reviews for the new home market.  Well, perhaps “glowing” is too extravagant a word.  Although he does admit to there being “choppy waters” in the housing market, he believes some indicators in the new home market will continue to improve.  That said, new orders for Toll Brothers rose a whopping 42% in the fourth quarter, suggesting improvement in new home sales as well.

Toll Brothers was not the only builder reporting good news in their quarterly reports, as Beazer Homes reported positive gains on Monday for its fiscal fourth quarter.  While revenues fell 42% over the quarter, new orders increased 2.4%, an increase year-over-year of the same percentage.  Beazer Homes’s performance was mostly based on an early debt payment, which allowed to book an $89.3 million GAIN.

Economic statistics look encouraging and home builders are reporting such positive results in the market, and the CEO of real estate brokerage Realogy Corporation believes the housing market recovery is due in large part to the government’s program of tax-credit for first-time home buyers.  Richard Smith suggested that this is the beginning of the long-term correction of the housing market, which he says “has corrected by some 28 percent from peak to trough.”

Residential construction statistics for the month of October will be released on Wednesday, November 18.  With the tax-credit program having been extended for first-time home buyers, it will be curious to see how the statistics panned out for October.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Tracked.com Topics

Tracked.com Topics: The Flu Economy

By Taryn Cooper, at 2:57 pm on November 5th, 2009

According to Flu.gov, 5%-20% of the U.S. population get the flu each year on average.  Unless you’ve been living in a cave (which might be the only way you can save yourself from contracting it), the media has been reporting ad nauseam H1N1 (aka “Swine Flu”) and to a lesser extent, seasonal flu statistics, outbreaks and who should be getting vaccinated this year (pregnant women, elderly folks and children are at the forefront).

I am none of those three, but I had the flu last year.  No way I want that again.  Got my flu shot already (but not H1N1).

On one hand, we might hear statistics about how many days are lost in the workplace or school due to flu outbreaks.  We learn about lost man hours, productivity declines and most importantly, the “epidemics” that can close offices and lose money for companies, large and small.

Where has the flu been “good” for the economy, for lack of a better term?

Clorox, the maker of such disinfecting products as it’s namesake bleach, reported earnings on Monday of this week, where profit rose 23%.  COO Jeff Peiros reported that “The upside related to the H1N1 flu was well above our forecast, given the rapid spread of the virus.”

I received my flu vaccine from Walgreen’s this year since they dispense on a as-we-get-them basis (as opposed to having flu shot clinics like CVS or Duane Reade).  While I was getting inoculated, I received a plug for getting the H1N1 vaccine.  The pharmacist told me, “We don’t have an age limit, and it’s first-come, first-served.”  Tuesday this week reported Walgreen’s October sales, suggesting that the nearly 5% jump was due in part to vaccine traffic (Pharmacy sales rose 6% over the month as well).

Other consumer companies may not be faring that well, however.  Johnson & Johnson, the maker of fever-reducing aficionados product Tylenol and its sister sleep-aid Tylenol PM, and popular alcohol-based hand sanitizer Purell (), plans to eliminate about 8,000 jobs.  JNJ has a strong consumer business, as the job cut plans have more to do with its struggling device making business and competition in the generic pharmaceutical area.  Since Purell sales have doubled in anticipation for flu and cold seasons, I dare say their consumer business might help things.

What about the pharmaceutical companies cashing in on the H1N1 hype?  MedImmune, a division of AstraZeneca, is under contract with the U.S. government to produce the live nasal spray vaccine.  GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, CSL Limited, Baxter International and Novartis round out the other companies profiting off the H1N1 vaccine cash-cow (because “pig” would just be too ironic).

GSK CEO Andrew Witty suggested that an estimated paltry $1.7 billion in H1N1 vaccine sales were about right.  Sanofi-Aventis recently raised its forecasts on H1N1 growth, expecting about $500 million in sales of the vaccine.

Novartis and Baxter International warned on under-production of the H1N1 vaccine, estimated to be 30%-50% of seasonal flu vaccines.  While these companies did not raise forecasts of sales, something tells me they won’t be suffering from cash flu anytime soon.

‘Tis the season folks and if you haven’t gotten your flu shots yet, what are you waiting for.  Pharmaceutical companies needyour dollars!  Stock up on your disinfectants too, produced by Clorox and JNJ, buy them at Walgreen’s, CVS and Duane Reade.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tracked.com Topics

Tracked.com Topics: IPO, My!

By Taryn Cooper, at 1:46 pm on October 27th, 2009

I’m not sure if this week is more of the exception than the norm, but I felt like I was being transported back to the late-1990s with all the IPO filings that have been announced.

It’s not just the sheer volumes that I have seen, but the names that are being floated around in the IPO filings in the last week.  Recently,  Ancestry.com and Birds Eye Foods, to name a few, filed their S-1’s with the SEC.

The  big news on Monday of this week was that ten years after their “failed” merger, Time Warner’s shareholders approved the spin-out of its AOL unit.  AOL’s star-studded Board of Directors, including the likes of former FCC-chairman Michael Powell and Procter & Gamble veteran Jim Stengel, were announced Monday as well.  Check out this article about what AOL and Time Warner will split up in the “divorce.”

D0le Foods priced its IPO last week, and has not fared well, with BreakingViews suggesting that expectations should be tamed for buyout firms expecting a big return on previously LBO’d units.

Finally, the never-ending saga of will-they-or-won’t-they, Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy suggested the company could IPO its 20% in NBC Universal IF they in fact decided to sell the stake.

Be on stand-by for the rest of the week, as we’ll be tracking IPOs this week at Tracked.com.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Newer Entries »