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FISHRGAME
_____________
Feature
Stories -
042005-04
/ Week
Convergence
Ending January, 23 2004
///WEEK
IN REVIEW
• • TOP STORIES -- Jan.
16-21
•
• Markets End Lower for Third Straight
Week
• •
The Dow Jones industrial average and other
key stock market indexes faltered after an early
rally Friday, continuing with their third straight
weekly losses to kick off the year.
• • Economic factors are dragging
down the market, analysts said. Higher energy
prices and expectations of higher interest rates
along with weaker corporate profit growth are
making investors nervous about equities, they said.
• • And after the market's big
run-up late last year, investors are unloading to
lock in profits.
• • For the week, the Dow dropped
1.6% to 10,392.99. The broader Standard &
Poor's 500 fell 1.4% to 1167.87.
• • The Nasdaq composite index
fell 2.6%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq hit a
10-week low of 2,034.27, having given up almost 3%
in the last two sessions.
• • FCC
Chief Powell Plans to Step Down in March
• •
Federal Communications Commission Chairman
Michael K. Powell, a champion of digital technology
whose four-year tenure has been marked by
controversies over indecency on the airwaves and
the easing of media ownership restrictions, said he
would step down in March.
• • Powell, 41, sent a letter
Friday morning to President Bush, who appointed the
former Army officer and antitrust lawyer to the job
in 2001.
• • In a statement, Powell said
that he had "completed a bold and aggressive
agenda" but added that his resignation came "with a
mixture of pride and
regret."
• • Powell's departure was first
revealed on the Wall Street Journal's editorial
pages Friday.
• • Republican FCC Commissioner
Kevin J. Martin is considered the leading candidate
for Powell's job.
• •
Foreign Investors Unfazed by Weak Dollar
• •
The sinking U.S. dollar, instead of scaring
foreign investors away from U.S. assets, may have
instead whetted their
appetite.
• • Foreigners pumped a net $81
billion into U.S. stocks and bonds in November, up
from $48.3 billion in October and the most since
June, the Treasury Department said in a
report.
• • Foreigners' net purchases of
U.S. stocks totaled $14.5 billion in November, the
report said.
• • Net purchases of Treasury
bonds by foreign investors rose to $32 billion for
the month from $20.8 billion in October. Corporate
bonds and government issues also were snapped
up.
• • Even as foreigners bought more
U.S. securities in November, many Americans were
headed overseas: U.S. investors' net purchases of
foreign stocks and bonds totaled $18.7 billion for
the month, the most since mid-2000, Treasury data
show.
•
• L.A. Location Shoots Rise Sharply in
2004
• •
More movies, television shows, music videos
and commercials were shot in public spaces across
Los Angeles County in 2004 than ever
before.
• • The Entertainment Industry
Development Corp. issued permits for 52,707
location production days, up 19% from 2003.
• • Production days for TV shows
alone jumped 27%, nearly half of that for "reality"
programming.
• • The EIDC issues permits for
Los Angeles and much of the county, though not some
cities, including Burbank and Long
Beach.
• • In 2004, production days for
feature films, including "Million Dollar Baby" and
"Collateral," were up 19%, reversing an eight-year
decline. Feature film permits totaled 8,707 days.
• • The biggest increase was for
TV shows. Television production rose to 18,257
days, driven by reality shows and scripted dramas.
• •
Charter CEO Quits With Year to Go on Contract
• •
In the latest upheaval at the nation's
third-largest cable TV provider, Charter
Communications Inc. replaced its chief
executive.
• • Carl Vogel resigned three
years into his four-year contract, which would have
expired at the end of
December.
• • Succeeding the veteran pay-TV
executive is Robert May, 55, a Charter director who
has relatively little experience in the industry
but is credited with reviving HealthSouth Corp. May
will serve as interim CEO until a successor for
Vogel can be found.
• • Under Vogel, the company
missed financial targets and lost subscribers to
satellite TV rivals in 10 of the last 11
quarters.
• • May said he hoped to more
aggressively roll out services, including telephone
and video on demand, that other cable operators
have used to curtail migration of subscribers to
satellite.
•
• Venture Investments Climb in Nation,
State
• •
Reversing three years of declines, venture
capital investments in new and growing companies
rose 8% nationwide and 7% in Southern California
last year, according to a
report.
• • The increases, experts said,
suggest a generally healthier economy. "This bodes
well for entrepreneurs," said Don Williams, a
venture capital advisory group leader with
consulting firm Ernst & Young, which prepared
the report with research firm VentureOne.
• • Also boosting the numbers were
a flurry of corporate acquisitions and a rebound in
the market for initial public offerings.
• • The report said U.S. venture
capital investment climbed to $20.4 billion in
2004, compared with $18.9 billion in 2003. The
number of deals fell 1% to
2,067.
• • In Southern California,
companies raised $2 billion in 2004, up from $1.9
billion in 2003. The number of financings slipped
to 174 from 198 in 2003, when the average deal size
was smaller.
• •
Actors, Studios Agree
on Three-Year
Contract
• •
Actors and Hollywood's major entertainment
companies reached agreement on a three-year
contract, averting a production slowdown that could
have started as early as this month.
• • Under
the $200-million pact, actors' pay is increased
across the board, but they do not gain a bigger
share of DVD revenue.
• • Although the contract does not
expire until June 30, actors and producers feared
that uncertainty over a possible strike might cause
studios to start shelving coming projects.
• • The Screen Actors Guild and
the American Federation of Television & Radio
Artists gained a 9% raise over three years for
140,000 performers. Members must ratify the
deal.
• • Studios represented by the
Alliance of Motion Picture & Television
Producers had conveyed to negotiators that they
would absorb a strike rather than budge on the DVD
issue.
•
• Marvel Is Ordered to Pay Comics Icon Stan
Lee
• •
Marvel Enterprises Inc. was told it owes
comic book icon Stan Lee 10% of profit it has
received since November 1998 for films based on
Spider-Man and other superheroes Lee
created.
• • Lee could be entitled to tens
of millions of dollars, considering the success of
the films "Spider-Man" and "Spider-Man 2," said his
attorney, Howard Graff.
• • Marvel will appeal the ruling
and "continue to contest vigorously the claims on
which the court did not rule," general counsel John
Turitzin said.
• • One of those claims involves
whether Lee is entitled to money made from
merchandising deals with Sony Corp. for
"Spider-Man" and with Universal Studios for "Hulk,"
Marvel said.
• • Lee sued Marvel in November
2002, maintaining that he was being shortchanged.
U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet in New York ruled
in Lee's favor.
• • *
•
• EBay Profit Jumps 44% but Outlook
Lowered
• •
Online auctioneer EBay Inc. said
fourth-quarter profit and revenue rose 44%, causing
merchandise sellers rankled by a rise in listings
fees to claim EBay was growing at their
expense.
• • San Jose-based EBay earned
$205.4 million, or 30 cents a share, up from $142.5
million, or 21 cents, a year earlier. Excluding
one-time items, earnings were 33 cents a share, a
penny short of analysts' estimates, according to
Thomson First Call.
• • The company lowered its
guidance for earnings per share to $1.37 to $1.41,
from an earlier forecast of
$1.42.
•
• Revenue rose
to $935.8 million from $648.4 million.
• •
EBay shares tumbled on Wednesday. On Friday,
shares were up $2.72 to $86.05.
• • The company also announced a
2-for-1 stock split, payable Feb. 16, for shares
owned as of Jan. 31.
• • *
•
• Online Ad Boom
Helps Boost Yahoo
Earnings
• •
Yahoo Inc. said the boom in online
advertising and overseas expansion helped
fourth-quarter profit surge to $373 million, or 25
cents a share, from $75 million, or 5 cents, a year
earlier.
• • During the quarter, Yahoo sold
a chunk of its stake in search-engine rival Google
Inc. for an average $186 a share. That alone
doubled quarterly profit.
• • The Sunnyvale, Calif., Web
giant faces heavy competition from Google and other
Internet companies, but analysts and Yahoo
executives said advertisers were shifting their
marketing dollars from traditional media outlets so
rapidly that there was plenty to go
around.
• • Yahoo attracted 165 million
users in the quarter, up
24%.
• • Revenue rose 62% to $1.1
billion. The greatest growth was in overseas sales,
which soared 156% in the fourth quarter to $302
million. Yahoo's domestic business grew 42%.
///
NEWS
CONVERGENCE
January
10, 2005 / ///
Center
Page / Feature
NEWS CONVERGENCE
Feature
TIMELINE: Top Stories To
Start The Week With:
Unocal
Eyed for Takeover By
China
•
• Suitors
reportedly are circling the firm, whose assets
offer access to oil and natural gas
reserves
• • Perennial
bridesmaid Unocal Corp. has been a rumored takeover
target for years, yet it has remained independent
as other major oil companies
consolidated.
• • Now
there's fresh speculation that one or more suitors
are circling the El Segundo-based company and that,
this time, it might actually get
hitched.
• • A
confluence of changes in the oil industry and at
Unocal -- including a rebound in its prospects,
especially in Asia and the Gulf of Mexico -- make
the company especially attractive, analysts
said.
• • "There's
more meat on this bone than at any time before,"
said Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer &
Co. in New
York.
• • With
global energy demand soaring and supplies ever
harder to find, Unocal offers immediate access to
oil and natural gas reserves, especially in Asia,
Alaska and the Gulf of
Mexico.
• • Unocal's
moderate size also makes it relatively easy to
swallow for the world's major oil companies, which
are flush with cash and enjoying high stock prices
because petroleum and its products are so
expensive. Unocal's 2004 revenue, which hasn't yet
been reported, probably was about $7.5 billion to
$8
billion.
• • In
turn, Unocal -- which has fought off three hostile
bids in its 115-year history, the most recent in
1985 -- might be more receptive to a buyout,
analysts
said.
• • Unocal's
stock performance has long lagged behind that of
its peers. But it has traded near a 10-year peak
lately because of rising oil prices and probably
would fetch a premium in a
takeover.
• • "If
you're a Unocal shareholder or a director, it might
be the best time [to sell] that you can
get," said a source familiar with Unocal's
operations. Unocal executives declined to
comment.
• • Unocal
shares Friday rose 19 cents to $46.50 on the New
York Stock Exchange. The stock rose 17.4% last
year, but the oil group's average gain was double
that at 34.4%, Gheit
said.
• • Among
those taking a close look at Unocal are China
National Offshore Oil Corp., a state-controlled
operator known as CNOOC, and Royal Dutch/Shell
Group, according to published
reports.
• • CNOOC
reportedly was weighing a bid of about $13 billion;
Unocal's current stock market value is $12.2
billion.
• • Formerly
called Union Oil Co. of California, Unocal was
founded in 1890 in Santa Paula and was a leading
player in California's oil and gasoline markets
until the
mid-1990s.
• • That's
when it shed the last of its California oil fields
and sold its Union 76 gasoline business to focus on
exploration and production in other regions,
especially overseas. It now employs 6,600 people
and is the seventh-largest U.S.-based oil company
by revenue, according to industry researcher Energy
Intelligence Group Inc.
• • As
the 21st century arrived, Unocal was struggling to
grow. Its exploration efforts had produced mixed
results. Its stock trailed those of other oil
companies. Its investors were
frustrated.
• • But
Unocal doggedly pursued an ambitious exploration
plan that included deep-water wells in Asia and the
Gulf of Mexico, which are starting to pay off. The
company also shed some of its less-profitable North
American assets to shore up its domestic
profitability. As a result, about 66% of Unocal's
production now comes from foreign sites.
• • Through
the first nine months of last year, Unocal's profit
more than doubled to $940 million from $463 million
for the same period in 2003, aided by crude prices
that hit record highs. Unocal's nine-month revenue
jumped 20% to $5.9
billion.
• • Unocal's
average daily production of oil and natural gas in
last year's third quarter -- the most recent figure
available -- was the equivalent of about 407,000
barrels a day, and that's expected to climb 6% to
430,000 during 2005, Value Line Investment Survey
estimates.
• • CNOOC
is said to be especially interested in Unocal's
Asian assets, which include properties in
Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh and
Myanmar.
• • Unocal's
West Seno field in deep water off Indonesia is
particularly attractive, producing an average of
40,000 barrels of oil daily, up from 20,000 early
in 2004.
• • Unocal
also has a 10.3% interest in a Caspian Sea field
being developed for Azerbaijan. The project's
average daily production this year is expected to
rise to 200,000 barrels a day from 140,000 in
2004.
• • The
properties' locations are appealing largely because
of the continued rise in Asian demand for oil and
natural gas, said Aliza Fan, senior analyst in
Houston for John S. Herold Inc., a consulting
company.
• • Unocal
also has natural gas fields in Alaska and
operations in Vietnam, the North Sea, Canada and
Texas' Permian
Basin.
• • It's
also active in the Gulf of Mexico. It has a 15.6%
interest in one deep-water project there, dubbed
Mad Dog, that's expected to produce its first oil
next month. Unocal has said it hopes several other
projects in the gulf will come online by
2010.
• • But
one source close to Unocal said the Chinese --
their economy booming and thirst for oil growing
rapidly -- weren't looking at Unocal simply in
terms of its Asian properties. China wants oil and
gas reserves badly enough to look at South America
and the reopening of Libya's oil fields to foreign
companies, among other
prospects.
• • The
Chinese "need to import a lot of oil for their
growing industry, and they're sending their
national oil companies far afield," the source
said.
• • The
United States could be a difficult
frontier.
• • If
the Chinese did buy Unocal, "it's very unlikely in
my view that they would keep any of Unocal's U.S.
operations," Gheit said. The United States "is
virgin territory for them, and would subject them
to all the U.S. rules and regulations. They want to
stay away from
Washington."
• • If
acquired, Unocal would provide the buyer with
another potentially lucrative asset: Unocal's
patents on cleaner-burning gasoline sold in
California.
• • In
the early 1990s, Unocal helped develop a standard
for the cleaner fuel while also securing patents on
various gasoline recipes. Although Unocal sold its
refineries and service stations, it held on to the
gasoline
patents.
• • Other
oil companies, which would have to pay royalties to
Unocal, have repeatedly challenged the patents in
court, but they remain in
force.
• • The
Federal Trade Commission last fall also reinstated
civil antitrust charges against the company,
alleging that the patents gave Unocal "unlawful
market power" to demand the royalties. Unocal
denies that
claim.
• • The
FTC claims that the patent royalties would saddle
California consumers with an additional $500
million a year in pump prices. Unocal's estimate of
annual royalties ranges from $75 million to $150
million.
ByLines:
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