Filed under: International markets, Earnings reports, Deals, Private equity, Technology, Israel

Gilat Satellite Networks (NASDAQ: GILT), a small Israeli company that develops and produces very small aperture terminals for satellite-based communications networks, posted very strong earnings this day.

Gilat’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board Amiram Levinberg stated, “The quarterly and annual results show a thriving core business, with record quarterly and annual revenues. We met our management financial objectives for 2007 with double digit revenue growth of 14% and, excluding the non-cash impairment, an expansion of our operating margin to 6.2% and net income margin to 7.9%.”

“Our GNS business unit has grown by winning big projects in Africa, Eurasia and Latin America. In the U.S., Spacenet, has successfully penetrated the government market with new deals in this sector as well as in its core customer base of enterprises. In the fourth quarter, we introduced our SkyEdge II, an advanced VSAT platform based on next generation technology. The product has already begun to receive high market acceptance and enhances our technology leadership in the market. Based on this technology platform, our strong position in the international market and our successful penetration into new markets in the U.S., we’re well positioned to continue our growth and meet our management financial objectives for the coming year.”

Gilat has been mentioned as a takeover target. As my friend Zack Miller wrote at IsraelNewsletter, “Competition in the satellite industry is heating up. Media companies, along with cable and wireless companies, have declared their desire to enter the satellite communications market. Instead of building an entire division dedicated to this, some of these companies are looking to either partner with, or acquire,an existing firm with good sales distribution. Gilat, with its focus on emerging markets and strong balance sheet, could be a good acquisition candidate.”

While an M&A of some sort continues to be an option, with the numbers the company reported today along with their outlook for the rest of ‘08, this might be a company that would be better off going it alone for the time being, continuing to grow earnings and holding out for a much higher valuation.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. DISCLOSURE: Writer’s fund has a position and owns stock in GILT and is long the stock. He has no positions in any other stock mentioned as of 2/21/08.

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Filed under: Business, Internet, Google

It’s time for YouTube to begin earning its keep. Back when Google purchased YouTube for $1.6 billion a lot of us were wondering how Google planned to make money from the video sharing site. And for a year or so, the company has been talking about embedding ads in YouTube videos. A while back, Google even started offering an ugly ad unit that fits in the border of embedded YouTube videos (pictured right).

Now NewTeeVee reports that Google is preparing to launch an improved version of its video ad units. The new ads will be in-video ads, showing up as pop-up overlays over the top of your video. Publishers will be able to decide whether or not to display ads and where they should appear in a video. Advertisers will be able to publish either short text or video ads that will show up in a video.

Like Google’s text and image-based ads, they’ll be chosen based on the other content of the internet site. But they’ll also be paired with relevant videos, which is a bit trickier to accomplish since it’s not easy for a personal to decide what a video is about. But then if you’ve ever noticed completely irrelevant ads popping up in your Gmail, you know that’s nothing new.

Update: Google has posted some more info on the company blog, including a link to Google’s new video advertising page.

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Filed under: Business, OS Updates, Linux, Open Source, Canonical

Bernd Korz, founder of the now defunct Yellow Tab, has kept a low public profile since the failure of his BeOS based Zeta Operating System. In his personal blog, he has expressed interest in Linux, and specifically, Ubuntu, for a few months now.

Although it seemed he’d given up on his dream to bring a BeOS based OS to the masses, he has jumped back into the spotlight. Or, at least, he’s been dragged back in by overzealous bloggers. He’s now leading a project called “Zebuntu“, which is planned as a hybrid of Ubuntu and Zeta.

In its current say, Zebuntu is tiny more than a Zeta themed Xubuntu derivative. However, the developer team is making tangible progress in making the system more speedy and useful. We hope that their plans to incorporate B.E.OS code for BeOS compatibility pan out, for the sheer novelty if nothing else.

We can’t help but wonder what he’s thinking with this new OS. We’d love to ask him, but he recently turned down an interview, saying that he’s sick of internet users picking on him and threatening his family. The developer blog is pretty active so far however, so we have the ability to look forward to plenty of news from them in the future.

[via OSNews]

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Filed under: Before the bell, International markets, Earnings reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Deals, Cisco Systems (CSCO), Market matters, Penney (J.C.) (JCP), Safeway Inc (SWY), Economic data, Federal Reserve

U.S. stock futures were higher this morning, looking to extend Wednesday’s rally following the Federal Resereve’s comments that the Fed’s focus should remain on helping the economy, even at the expense of inflation. Still, the As the Fed has lowered its economic forecast, it seems committed to spurring growth.

Stocks had another roller-coaster session on Wednesday. Stocks started the day with declines following further signs of inflation and a non-encouraging housing report, as well as oil trading near $100 a barrel. The market then reversed course, especially after the Fed released the minutes from the last policy meeting that indicated the Fed is ready for further rate cuts. That boosted stocks and they finished higher with the Dow industrial closing 90 points higher, or 0.73%, the S&P 500 adding 11 points, or 0.83%, and the Nasdaq composite rising20 points, or 0.91%.

Several economic indicators are due out this day.

• At 8:30 a.m. EST, weekly jobless claims are due.
• January leading indicators will be reported at 10:00 a.m., along with manufacturing in the Philadelphia region for February.

Oil prices held near $100 a barrel Thursday ahead of the government’s weekly report on crude inventories at 10:30 a.m. EST. Overnight, oil hit a record, pushing briefly past $101 per barrel, as investors poured more cash into crude and other commodities as a hedge against inflation and as possible rate cuts could further weaken the dollar. Precious metals such as gold and silver also hit records.

Overseas, Asian markets completed higher with Japan’s Nikkei 225 closing up 2.84%. Main European markets have also gained this morning, trading up around 1.5% even as the EU cut growth expectations.

Some companies reporting earnings this day include Safeway (NYSE: SWY), which is expected to report fourth-quarter earnings of 68 cents a share and J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP), which is expected to report $1.74 a share.

In deal news, Reed Elsevier PLC, the owner of the Lexis Nexis information service, stated Thursday it will buy U.S. data services firm ChoicePoint Inc. (NYSE: CPS) for $4.1 billion in cash.

Citigroup has upgraded Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) from Hold to Buy, upping the target price from $25 to $27. CSCO shares are up more than 2.6% in premarket trading.

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