BLOG OF ADAM HARTUNG
Growth Stall Worries – General Electric in trouble
General Electric's (chart here) future earnings and valuation were recently lowered by an analyst at J.P. Morgan (read article here). Reviewing the difficulties facing GE he commented, "Former [Chief Executive Jack] Welch built a culture of...
More of the same – problems – Dell Downgrade
Dell had a tough day Thursday when J.P.Morgan downgraded the stock to the equivalent of a sell (read article here). The stock continues its relentless slide - despite the return of Mr. Dell as CEO (chart here). Some quotes: "Our downgrade ......
What are you counting? – Bank Bailouts and Mark to Market accounting
The U.S. banks are asking for more bailout money - and Congress is resisting (read article here.) Most people don't understand why banks are failing, and lots of them are ready to say "let them fail." But why they are failing is important -...
Getting Things Backwards – New York Times Co. and Tribune Co.
In a recent presentation I told the audience that they had quit printing newspapers in Detroit during the week. The audience said they weren't surprised, and didn't much care. The other day I asked a room full of college students when the last...
Who should buy whom? – Microsoft and Yahoo!
Last week was quite a contrast in tech results. Google announced it had hired 99 new employees in the fourth quarter, but was planning to lay off 100. Not good news, but a veritable growth binge compared to...
So easy to quit – Home Depot
Do you remember when Home Depot was a Wall Street - and customer - darling? Home Depot was only 20 years old when its incredible growth story vaulted it onto the Dow Jones Industrial Average 9 years ago, replacing Sears. Unfortunately, that...
Financial Machination to hide poor performance – Pfizer
Two weeks ago I blogged about R&D layoffs at Pfizer (chart here), and warned that all signs were indicating Pfizer was nearing really big trouble because it had missed the boat on new technologies as it road out its patent protection looking for new ways to extend...
Act to meet challenges, not Defend the past – Microsoft
Microsoft announced today it intends to lay off 5,000 workers (read article here). This action, included in its announcement that Microsoft is going to miss its earnings estimate, spooked the market and is blamed for a one-day market dip (read here). The...
Uh Oh at eBay
By now most people know the story of eBay. Originally, the founders were looking at the internet as a place to trade PEZ dispensers. But over the next 2 decades, eBay became the world's biggest garage sale. If you have something to sell, you...
Economical – or Locked-in?
As we enter 2009, more people than ever are talking about behaving ecomically. From TV news to newspapers to web sites there are a rash of articles about how to save money. Many of these talk about how to save pennies on things electic consumption...
Cheaper versus Disruptive – Sprint
Sprint's prepaid mobile unit, Boost Mobile, announced today a new pricing plan. Customers can get nationwide unlimited calling, text and web access - with no roaming charges. The company President said "This plan is designed to be...
Doing what’s easy, or what’s right? – Motorola and Google
It was only 2003 when Ed Zander joined Motorola as its new CEO. In the midst of lost market share and declining revenue, analysts were calling for massive layoffs. But, Mr. Zander layed off no one. Instead, he eliminated the executive dining room,...
Seeking Success vs. Avoiding Calamity – Yahoo! vs. Chicago Tribune
Yesterday Yahoo! announced it was replacing its old CEO with Carol Bartz, former CEO at Autodesk. Interestingly, most analysts aren't very excited - because they don't think Ms. Bartz brings the right experience to the challenge (read article on analyst...
Peering into the Whirlpool – Pfizer
Today one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies announced it was cutting R&D staff (read article here). This is a very big deal because pharmaceutical companies rely on new drugs (new innovations) to extend their Success...
When things change, look at new competitors – Sears, Walgreen, Best Buy
Do you remember when Jim Cramer of Mad Money fame told his viewers to buy Sears Holdings because "his good friend" Ed Lampert, hedge fund manager, was going to make them all rich? That was in back in 2005 and 2006. For many months analysts,...
Nothing new, so why be optimistic? – Microsoft & Wal-Mart
"You never get a second chance to make a first impression." I'm not sure who said that first, but it's appropriate for the speech given by Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's head, at the current Consumer Electronics Show. Almost 2 years...
Do Marketers Lead, or Follow – MENG Study
The Marketing Executives Network Group (site here) has just released its second annual top marketing trends study (read press release and overview here, and study results here). Kudos to MENG for keeping up the effort - and especially so given...
Disruptions versus Disturbances – New York Times
The New York Times Company is in a heap of trouble (see chart here). Long the #1 daily newspaper in the USA, advertising revenues fell 21% versus a year ago in November - a feat similar to its revenue decline in December, 2007. NYT is in a growth stall -...
In 2009, vow to watch competitors – GM, Ford, Chrysler, Sears
2009 starts in earnest for businesses this week. And for many leaders and managers, the focus will be about "what should I do now?" Things were tough in 2008, and many are wondering if 2009 will be even worse. So the tendency is to look...
Use 2009 to grow! — Domino’s “Pizza” company vs. Microsoft
The prognosticators are busy forecasting a tough 2009. Coming after the big slowdown in 2008, it would be tempting to do like Microsoft (see chart here) and cut costs in an effort to improve short term profits (read article here). Microsoft hasn't...
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