Archive for April, 2007

Friday’s Finds - 04/20/2007

For today’s list, look no further than the Derrich.com Top Commenters List. I wanted to find a way to repay my Commenters without using a simple Top Commenter Love thread like last time. Happy Friday! And Happy reading.

• Blain over at Stock Trading 101 has initiated a second edition of his Guess The NASDAQ Close contest. To enter, simply enter your guess (NASDAQ close on Friday, 04/27) as a comment here in this post. The grand prize is $100. Why wouldn’t you venture a guess for a hundred bucks? The contest ends THIS Sunday (04/22) at 9:00 EST. So, comment today.
• The Retire Rich Blog takes annual earnings since 1996 and compares Intel to AMD…showing how Intel remains the solid stock choice.
• Ed Lau may be 3rd on the list of Top Commenters, but he’s definitely a frequent visitor (as evidenced by his MyBlogLog avatar is constant rotation). Ed has made a more personal post today regarding his experience in college…recommending that students unsure about their post-college pursuit should take a year off to help you refocus.
• Happy Birthday to Kelly Cho…dot com. Kelly’s blog is 1 month old today, and she shares her stats and experiences with us. Pay her a visit when you get a chance, and consider subscribing to her feed.
• Derrik Dyka over at FlippingRich.com might be known for his insight on the real estate market and for his T-Shirt ad campaign, but little did you know that the blog offers real financial insight as well. Sunny Yee discerns load and no-load mutual funds, and explains the different fees associated with the two.

Blogosphere News
Maybe you’ve noticed a couple of new graphics in my sidebar. OneDayBlogSilence.com has organized a one-day “moment of silence” in memory of the victims of the tragedy at Virginia Tech. That day will be April 30th. I plan to participate, and I hope you will consider it as well.

Derrich.com has been nominated for Hottest Daddy Blogger in the Blogger’s Choice Awards. *blush* While I don’t know about all that “hot” stuff, I’m certainly flattered by the honor, and hope that you will place your vote for Derrich.com. Have a great Friday!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Vince Young Takes A Shot At Breaking The Madden Curse in ‘08

What’s the difference between Wheaties and EA Sports’ Madden? There isn’t a curse inside the Wheaties box. It’s official. Vince Young is going to be on the cover of Madden ‘08. The opportunity was first passed on by Chargers RB LaDainian Tomlinson. Vince will reportedly be paid $125,000 for his mug in addition to several promotional appearances.

Now, while I’m a huge fan of the video game, you can’t deny the fabled curse that comes with being on the cover. The curse is thought to be a result of Barry Sanders’ early retirement from football…angering the football gods. But Garrison Hearst was the first player to appear on the Madden cover. He broke his ankle and didn’t play again until 2001. Aw, man. Say it ain’t so, Vince. Maybe it was a move to create an excuse later — you see, the Titans lost Travis Henry, Drew Bennett, and Bobby Wade. Um. I guess Vince could always throw to himself. Or just run. Former Titan Eddie George graced the cover in 2001. His appearance was followed by one of the best seasons of his career (2000 season). From 2001 and beyond, George never surpassed 3.4 yards per carry.

Find [via YouTube]

Perhaps Vince can break the curse for future Madden players. I wouldn’t bet on it, but as a die hard Vince Young fan, I sure as hell hope he does.

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Yahoo! Stock Price Falls on Flattering Expectations

Is it entirely Yahoo!’s fault? Today, Yahoo!’s stock is down about 12% as the market punishes the Company for reporting lower than expected earnings. According to an article on MarketWatch.com…

Quarterly profit dropped 11% on higher operating costs, as the No. 1 operator of Web sites by traffic spent heavily to better compete against rival Google Inc.

The results disappointed investors and the Wall Street analysts who were expecting much better profit and sales figures in light of Yahoo’s introduction of an upgraded ad feature, known as Panama, early in the quarter that was meant to help it more effectively do battle against Google.

Back in March, Chairman and CEO, Terry Semel and CFO, Susan Decker hyped up Yahoo!’s Panama system citing “higher quality leads at more competitive prices” and better click through rates. Cool. You guys may want to mention that these improvements would not translate into increased revenues immediately. And quite frankly all these analysts we saw talking about it in various media should have realized it as well. I can’t recall how many super bulls I’ve seen on TV in the last week hyping up the Company and its Panama system.

Just The Facts
So, Panama hasn’t boosted revenues all that much yet. Big whoop. Yahoo! did do some good things for Q1 2007. Let’s review.

• Gross profit was higher. By 5% according to a Yahoo! press release.
• Marketing services revenue was $1,469 million for the first quarter of 2007, a 6% increase compared to $1,381 million for the same period of 2006.
• Fees revenue was $203 million for the first quarter of 2007, a 9 percent increase compared to $186 million for the same period of 2006.
• If I recall correctly, Panama wasn’t even rolled out (in full force) until the beginning of March, and that took roughly 2 weeks to complete. I know this sounds a little cynical, but….um…I’m not sure a week from a partially operational ad system will cause an immediate burst in revenues.

What Should We Expect Going Forward
According to a monthly study released yesterday by comScore, Inc., Google sites captured 48.3% of the U.S. search market for the March 2007 period, gaining 0.2 share points from the previous month. Yahoo! sites maintained its second place ranking with 27.5% of U.S. searches. But traffic is the least of Yahoo!’s worries. Ad inventory is the concern. Google is doing a good job of covering each ad niche (text, video, mobile, radio) although they’re paying huge premiums for some of these. Yahoo! needs to figure out how to do this without overpaying. Today, an alliance with McClatchy Co., the nation’s third-largest newspaper chain, was announced in which Yahoo! would sell ads through these various newspaper websites via the Internet.

The addition of McClatchy, publisher of the Sacramento Bee and 30 other daily newspapers, brought to more than 260 the number of dailies nationwide whose local sales forces will start selling online advertising using Yahoo technology to target ads over the Web — showing shoe ads to frequent shoe shoppers, for instance.

So now that the stock price is down 11.90% at $28.27, maybe you should consider buying. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, consider this a “stock sale“. I mean….Google is $478, so why not get the next best thing. And it so happens that the “next best thing” seemingly has nowhere to go but up. (Previously mentioned stock prices as of close on 04/18/2007).

Disclosure: I do not own Yahoo! stock, nor am I a licensed financial advisor. But, man, do I love watching the stock market.

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Thank You, Joey Crawford

You better stop laughing or I’m gonna tell on you!

Thank you, Joey Crawford. Your two pointless Technical Fouls called against Spurs forward Tim Duncan may have helped. We already know you’re a bitter old man who throws T’s around like Kobe throws elbows. But, all you’ve woken a giant. And don’t worry…Tim Duncan won’t be laughing on the bench anymore. He’ll be focused on another ring with the supporting cast (see here and here) to do it.

Your timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Right before the playoffs, right before NBA fans start alleging that each series is influenced by questionable calls. I mean really…when is the last time a #6 seed won a championship since the 1994-95 Clutch City Rockets much less get beyond the first round? Oh yeah. I forgot about the 1999 NBA Playoffs following the lockout season. We get the asterisk after defeating the #8 New York Knicks (also the #1 TV market). Ok…I’m done ranting. Not even Mark Cuban would comment about Joey C’s questionable T’s.

EDIT: This just in at 1:04pm CST — Crawford Suspended For The Rest of the Season

NBA Playoff Seeding
The premature matchup between Spurs/Mavs last season was thought to be the awakening for the NBA to make the changes they did. Since the regular season ends tomorrow, I thought I’d show you how the seeding process works (according to NBA.com).

• The top four seeds will be the three division winners plus the team with the next best record. Those four will be ordered by record (and tiebreakers if needed), so it’s possible that two teams in the same division could hold the top two spots, with the other two division winners at #3 and #4.
• Seeds 5 through 8 are the next four teams according to record (and tiebreakers if needed).
• First Round matchups are as follows: 1 vs. 8, 4 vs. 5, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6
• Conference Semifinals matchups are as follows: 1-8 Winner vs. 4-5 Winner, 2-7 Winner vs. 3-6 Winner
• Homecourt advantage for any series is determined by record, not seed. So, it’s possible that the 5 seed could have homecourt advantage over the 4, or that the 6 seed could have homecourt advantage over the 3.

And the “tiebreakers” mentioned in the seeding process are as follows:

1. Head-to-head
2. Division record (if the teams are in the same division)
3. Conference record
4. Record vs. Playoff teams, own conference
5. Record vs. Playoff teams, other conference
6. Net points, all games

For current seeding, check out the NBA’s Nifty Numbers, which help put the seeding into perspective.

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2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640

Photo courtesy of Automobile Magazine

Lamborghini has come a long way for a company that began as a tractor builder. Almost eight years after being acquired by Volkswagen, Lamborghini has made notable impact in the supercar niche with the release of its potent Murceilago LP640. The LP640 differs in several ways from the previous Mucielago. But the most significant is perhaps the 0.3 liter increase in its engine size…bumped from 6.2 to 6.5 liters for a 60hp increase to 640hp at 8,000 RPM.

With a larger rear-diff and the optional e-Gear transmission, this Murcielago is worthy of a dig rematch with the Pagani Zonda. With the e-Gear activated, the 4-wheel-drive transmission won’t engage the clutch until it hits 4,000 RPM at which point you’re basically launched down the drag strip. The result is 0-60 in 3.4 seconds. But while it goes straight real fast, you’d better hope a challenge “in the twisties” means a drifting contest.

Photo courtesy of LamboCars.com

For the 2008 model year, the Murcielago LP460 gets a haircut with the release of the roadster. Rather than liter this post with vivid pictures of this breathtaking beast and a list of its specs and improvements, why not get all that and see it in action…Top Gear style. It finished 6th in Top Gear’s road course trial, just 1 back of the Ariel Atom, with a time of 1:19.8.

Find [via YouTube]

Popularity: 3% [?]

Stock Watch - 04/16/2007

I’m happy to annouce the Derrich.com Stock Portfolio is up again this week (as of the close of trading on Friday, April 13th). The portfolio welcomed 2 stocks on April 6th: COH (NYSE) and FMS (NYSE), up 1.15% and 1.22% respectively since April 5th. Not counting the addition of these two stocks, the portfolio is up 15.31%.

So due to the “newness” of our two picks, the overall gain is currently 10.47%…and hopefully climbing.

Coach Downgraded, Still A Top Performer
Despite what some consider discouraging news, the downgrading of Coach (via Forbes.com) by Standard & Poor’s Equity Research analyst, Marie Driscoll, is still underscored by good news. Driscoll downgraded the stock to “hold” from “buy”, arguing that shares are approaching her 12-month target price of $53. The article goes on to say that

[Driscoll] still sees Coach as the leading U.S.-leading positioned accessories brand executing on multiple growth levers with acumen…and thinks the shares are fairly valued at current levels, noting that the stock is now at a 40%-plus premium to apparel retail peers and a 70% premium to the S&P 500, based on calendar 2007 estimates.

Sounds good to me. If you haven’t gotten into Coach at this point, wait for a stock sale. I wouldn’t let these comments discourage you from a future purchase.

Google Keeps DoubleClick Out Of Microsoft’s Hands & Jumps Further Ahead Of Yahoo!
What a move by Google. Just when I thought Yahoo! might be making up some ground, Google shocks the world yet again. After the questionable $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube last year, Google outbid Microsoft for DoubleClick by bidding $3.1 billion for the online advertising company. No doubt that the combination will significantly expand opportunities for advertisers, agencies, and publishers and improve users’ online experience as stated in Friday’s DoubleClick Press Release. FYI, AOL and MySpace are two of DoubleClick’s major customers.

In an article released late yesterday at MarketWatch.com, Microsoft basically suggested that the purchase of DoubleClick should raise antitrust and privacy concerns. The Wall Street Journal quoted Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, as saying

Google’s purchase of DoubleClick combines the two largest providers of online advertising delivery and is going to reduce substantially the market competition on which Web sites rely on to provide advertising…taken together, Google and DoubleClick would handle more than 80% of the advertisements served up to third-party Web sites when a user pulls up a page, the Journal reported.

Other companies also expressed their concerns in the purchase including AT&T, Inc., Time Warner, Inc.

According to Larry Dignan from ZDNet.com, “Google just validated Yahoo’s display business, which just a year ago was the ugly stepsister of keyword ads”. Hopefully the market won’t lose faith in Yahoo! and its online ad campaign…not before the end of the year, when Google hopes to finalize the purchase of DoubleClick.

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comScore Compares Internet Explorer and Firefox With Its New Blog

Last Tuesday (April 10th), comScore introduced its new blog, comScore Voices. And rather than coming out with a general introductory post about…well, about it’s new blog, chairman and co-founder of comScore, Inc., Gian Fulgoni, utilized his resources to compare Firefox vs. Interenet Explorer. Fulgoni’s goal for the blog is simple:

…to discuss topics and provide information that I hope will be relevant – and valuable – to anyone who is keenly interested in the continued development of the Internet as a powerful platform for consumers and marketers alike.

Dr. Magid Abraham, President, CEO, and co-founder of comScore, Inc., will also contribute to the blog.

Post #1 discusses the demographic differences between the internet browsers Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox including age, gender, and affluence. This post sets up Fulgani’s upcoming post about how Firefox users are early-adopters of Web 2.0 technologies and how this plays a role in consumer trends and advertising strategies.

While comScore Voices has an RSS feed (it uses good ol’ Feedburner), it does not make an email subscription available. Hopefully that will change soon. While I visit the site weekly, I’d like to add the feed to my Inbox to compliment my growing blog subscription. Anyway, check it out for yourself.

Popularity: 1% [?]

BlogRoll

• Milk Was A Bad Choice
• CrackBerry.com
• Stock Trading 101
• For The Love Of Sports
• Project Spurs
• Busted Coverage
• WallStreetFighter

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