Questor Tips Vodafone

Online Stock Trading - Questor Share Tips

• Buy Vodafone at 162.25p
• Avoid Benfield Group at 257p
• Hold BSS at 368.75p
• Buy Dawson Holdings at 92p

Finally - keep an eye on Dwyka Group (DWY) at 32p - that's from me not Mr Questor

Tweet

Shares Tips and Rumors

Online Stock Trades - Newspaper Share Tips

INVESTORS CHRONICLE

Sell – Phorm, GTL Resources
Buy - Delek Global Real Estate, Hampson, Faroe Petroleum, Lidco

Updates
Buy - Accident Exchange, Keller Group, Northern Petroleum, Serco, Renishaw
Sell - Carphone Warehouse

FINANCIAL TIMES
· Barclays' reaction to a fragile balance sheet and the scramble for capital is to do nothing

THE TIMES
Tempus
Hold - Henderson –
Aolid buy - BT
Buy – Luminar
Rumours of stakebuilding by foreign investor lifts Dermasalve Sciences

DAILY TELEGRAPH
Questor
Hold - Vedanta Resources
Buy - Invensys

INDEPENDENT
Investment
Hold - Balfour Beatty
Sell - Aer Lingus
Hold – Informa

DAILY EXPRESS
Other news
Dermasalve rumoured to have a large order in the pipeline

OTHER NEWS

FED chairman Ben Bernanke tells financial firms to raise capital and toughen risk management

Tweet

Newspaper Share Rumors and Tips

Online Stock Trades - Share Tips

THE TIMES
Tempus
Buy - Babcock
Hold TUI Travel
Pass – Lookers

Tiddler to watch - Gemfield Resources

Other news
Bid rumours raise Rio Tinto price
Harbinger may have been reducing its 10% stake in Northern Petroleum

DAILY TELEGRAPH
Questor
Avoid - Premier Foods
Hold - Galliford Try

Other news
Rio at new high as BHP rumoured to be increasing bid

THE INDEPENDENT
Investment
Sell - Enterprise Inns
Buy - Serco
Hold - Invu

Other news
Misys up on bid speculation

DAILY MAIL
Other news
Bid gossip around Misys

DAILY EXPRESS

Oher news
Logica and Misys up on bid rumours

OTHER NEWS
Bradford & Bingley set to launch £300-million rights issue
Rio Tinto at new high on rumours BHP Billiton to raise its bid
Carphone Warehouse says it is still in the race for Tiscali

FED chairman Bernanke says financial turmoil is easing, but still far from normal

Tweet

Blinkx Results Search Me

Online Stock Trading - Blinkx Brilliant or Awful - Search Me

Blinkx. the UK video search engine company recently buoyed by rumours of a possible takeover by Google or News Corp. has just announced results which are either brilliant or awful depending on which pair of spectacles or blinkers you are wearing at the time - a net loss of $3.2 million for the 6 months to end-March, with revenue of $3.6 million. They did say however that they are ahead of their plan to move towards profitability.

Pretax losses were $3.45 million. Content hours have more than tripled since May 2007, increasing to 26 million from 7 million,with daily video searches of over 5 million a day in March .

Their conference call failed to impress some from both a technical and a presentational viewpoint, which was a bit disappointing for a media company. All in all people on the 'virtual street' generally considered the performance lacklustre and nobody seems particularly hopeful of a rapid rise in the share price. The takeover rumour hasn't gone away though. The analysts too will have their say and from what I've seen so far I can't see them being too positive. Share prices tend to fall after results anyway, so I expect the Blinkx share price to be no exception (but I am a great contrarian indicator).

Tweet

Blinkx Results Date - Rumors Continue

Online Stock Trading - Blinkx Announces Results Date

Blinkx Plc (BLNX), the video search engine company, will announce its preliminary results for year ended 31st March 2008 on Thursday 15th May.

There will be a teleconference call to at 9.30am BST the same day live via webcast. To watch this live webcast you need to visit www.blinkx.com.

In my previous post Blinkx Was That a Denial? I expressed somewhat conspiratorial sentiments regarding the use of the word 'external' in their previous RNS, I'm now not so sure about such sentiments and it may be that the word 'external' should be taken at face value, but the shares are still too risky for me.

9 month Candlestick Chart



The shares are up 15% today almost back to where they were before their 'denial' RNS.

The rumors are that Google or Rupert Murdoch or someone else may make a 60p bid for the company, although the company itself denied any knowledge of 'external' bid -related acitivty.
online trading stock trading

Tweet

Craigslist v the Ebay Empire

Online Stock Trading for Beginners - Craigslist Battles the Ebay Empire

Ebay, which has a 25% stake in Craigslist launched a lawsuit against it a few weeks ago. Ebay bought a 28% stake back in 2004 and now accuses Jim Buckmaster and Craig Newmark of attempting to dilute its stake and thereby reduce any influence Ebay may have over the board and its decision.

Ebay obtained their original 28% stake from a former Craigslist employee and last summer launched a rival to Craigslist in the U.S kjiji.com (did I spell that right ?). Buckmaster and Newmark were never particularly keen to have Ebay as a shareholder (I wonder why), there own ethos being a desire to provide services free of charge wherever possible, and to make enough money to live comfortably whilst retaining control of their lives. Buckmaster is not really looking for the money he could undoubtedly make from his site, but at the same time has not ruled out the possibility of a sale if the price was right.

(Craigslist has adopted an unconventional stance)

Craigslist, despite its unusual stance is the biggest classified site on the net, getting 30 million classified listings every month.

Craigslist consciously trades off its anti-establishment image (most listings posted on its sites are free, and it makes money from charging professional recruiters for jobs adverts in 10 cities, along with brokers handling apartment rentals in New York City).

Mr Buckmaster’s says he has been called “a communist, and a socialist anarchist”. What he exhibits, however, is more a pragmatic brand of pinko liberalism. The Craigslist chief executive confesses to living a comfortable life on his earnings and does not rule out a sale of the company in the long term.

(Take that Ebay Empire dude !)
“We’re trying to be as useful as possible to as many people as possible,” he says, when asked about its mission. “Our strength is basic human needs – housing, jobs, buying and selling stuff, romance.”

Most people like to trade with other individuals, not brokers, he says, which helps to explain the anti-business ethos. He adds: “People like ‘free’. If there’s no use in charging from the user’s point of view, we don’t see any use in it.” Hooray, me neither.

Craigslist is nevertheless a very successful business, despite being largely free. Classified Intelligence says the site should have a turnover of $81 million this year, an increase of $26 million over last year (they get their money from paid real estate and help-wanted ads in a few cities in case you were wondering).

According to Henry Blodget (him again – why do people continually quote Henry Blodget ? – search me !) Craigslist may be worth $5 billion, so it is easy to see why the Ebay Empire would want to engulf it.

Jennifer Tilly plays a mean game of poker, but unfortunately she was unavailable for comment.

For more pictures of Jennifer Tilly I'm sure you know what to do.

Tweet

Blinkx - Was that a Denial ?

Blinkx Denial - A Strange Choice of Words

After its share price rocketed by as much as 50% at one point yesterday on rumours of a takeover bid Blinkx eventually decided to issue an RNS stating it "knew of no reason" etc... Such RNSs are common in circumstances where a share price suddenly jumps for no apparent reason. The Blinkx denial was however a very strange beast indeed. It specifically denied any knowledge of any "external bids" "or bid-related reason for the movement."

This inclusion of the word 'external' immediately gives rise to the assumption that there may be 'internal' bids. The wording also could be construed in such a way that 'external' also applied to 'bid-related reason' as in no 'external bid-related reason'. However, the board must have been aware that including the word 'external' would lead people to think that there may be an 'internal' bid , if so, why would they want people to believe there may be an internal bid ?

Are they sending a message that there will be an internal bid for the company or are they merely hinting that theremay be one, when there is in reality no likelihood of one ? The outcome of all this would, one would assume, be a higher share price, which would be to Autnnomy's advantage as their lock-up period will soon come to an end and they could then sell some of their 20% stake. They would undoubtedly prefer to sell there stake at the highest possible price.

Too conspiratorial ? Who knows? Time will tell I guess, in the meantime I don't think I'll be buying any Blinkx shares.

Tweet

BLINKX KNOWS NO REASON FOR SHARE PRICE MOVT.

Online Trading - Blinkx Shares Soar

Blinkx has issued an RNS saying it knows of no "bid-related reason" for share price movement.

BLINKX plc

"The Board of blinkx plc notes the recent increase in the Company's share price
and confirms that it is not aware of any external bids or bid-related reason for
the movement."

No external bids ? Are there internal bids then ?

Blinkx shares rose more than 50% at one point today on rumours of a News Corp Rupert Murdoch takeover. There were also rumours that MSN and Google were interested and rumours that the price would 60p. This is goo dnews for any long-term holders who got in when the company listed on AIM almost a year ago, as the share price has done nothing but fall since then, except for the last few days. So if there is a takeover then the long-term sufferers might at least get their money back.

Those who bought in under 20p were of course very pleased with the recent turn of events, perhaps less so after this latest RNS - as I type the share price is in backwardation.




Blinkx is a video search website which used to be part of the software group Autonomy. The group is apparently considering listing its shares on the Nasdaq.

Autonomy still has a 20% stake in Blinkx and it said would wait a year before selling its stake, due to a lock-up which ends on May 22. Could there be a connection ? Who knows ? Certainly not I or We.

Blinkx searches content according based on user requests and charges for ads. to be displayed alongside searches.

Media companies are among those who have signed up with Blinkx, which has over 200 clients.

The group has just launched new "indexing technology" and increased its sales team by 100%.

The shares were as high as 38p earlier they are now down to 27p. A fair amount of money has no doubt changed pockets !

Tweet

Microsoft's Takeover Interruptus for Yahoo

Online Stock Trading for Beginners - Microsoft Pulls Out

Microsoft withdrew from its flirtation with Yahoo over the weekend, but the result could be messier than if it had stuck it through to the bitter end. Now everybody's left feeling frustrated and they are probably going to have to start it all over again after a short rest and a cigarette.

Steve Ballmore (did I spell that right?) offered around $29 a share then upped it to $33 apparently, but Yahoo was not impressed "Is that all you've got ?" Well, maybe not, we all know how big Microsoft is, but it's all Steve was prepared to put on the table.

Monday morning will see Yahoo's share price wilt no doubt, Henry Blodget (remember him) reckons Yahoo's stock could fall to the low $20s. But given Microsoft's healthy appetite it will probably be back for another bite at the cherry at some future date.

I sense a group hug over at Yahoo as they brace themselves for the final push, this could get ugly! microsoft yahoo takeover yahoo Microsoft withdraw

Tweet