Filed under: Business, World wide web, Features, Blogging, Web services, web 2.0

Triggit is a service for bloggers that lets you add YouTube videos, Flickr images, and text-link advertisements to your page without editing HTML or even launching your blog post editor. The system takes just a few minutes to set up, and once you’ve done so, you can add content to your blog in seconds.

We’ve put together a tiny video showing how it works. But in a nutshell, you add a bit of JavaScript to your site, and drag a bookmarklet to your browser toolbar. When you click on the bookmarklet, a toolbar will pop up that lets you add content to your site including videos, images, and affiliate ads from sites like Amazon and Wine Zap. You can do everything right from your browser toolbar. No need to launch WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, or any other blogging client.

Content you add using Triggit might load more slowly than other material on your site. That’s because your site is basically sending a request to Triggit’s servers asking which content to display.

Triggit supports Firefox and Flock. While there’s no love for Opera, Safari, and World wide web Explorer users, at least Triggit picked a browser that works on all the major operating systems.

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Filed under: Business, Internet, Features, Blogging, Web services, web 2.0

Triggit is a service for bloggers that lets you add YouTube videos, Flickr images, and text-link advertisements to your page without editing HTML or even launching your blog post editor. The system takes just a few minutes to set up, and once you’ve done so, you can add content to your blog in seconds.

We’ve put together a little video showing how it works. But in a nutshell, you add a bit of JavaScript to your site, and drag a bookmarklet to your browser toolbar. When you click on the bookmarklet, a toolbar will pop up that lets you add content to your site including videos, images, and affiliate ads from sites like Amazon and Wine Zap. You can do everything right from your browser toolbar. No need to launch WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, or any other blogging client.

Content you add using Triggit might load more slowly than other material on your site. That’s because your site is basically sending a request to Triggit’s servers asking which content to display.

Triggit supports Firefox and Flock. While there’s no love for Opera, Safari, and Internet Explorer users, at least Triggit picked a browser that works on all the major operating systems.

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Filed under: Business, Utilities, News, Web services, Commercial

If it feels like the on the internet storage and file sharing market is getting a tiny crowded, that’s because it is. Just in the past few weeks, we’ve seen services such as Dropbox, AOL’s Xdrive Desktop, Windows SkyDrive, and more, come into the market.

Now HP is dropping its hat into the ring, with HP Upline. HP Upline offers unlimited storage for as low as $59 per year. Features of Upline include:

• Automatic Backup
• 1-click restore
• Access from anywhere
• Capability to share files with friends

HP Upline also offers upgraded packages for family and professional use. If you want to try HP Upline, you can sign up for a limited account with one measly GB of storage. The limited account expires in one year; after that, you’ll need to upgrade to the paid service to access your files, or kiss them goodbye.

One other note: The Upline software requires Windows. Mac users, you’re out of luck. Well, out of Upline, anyway.

It’s nice to see that two formerly disparate services, online backup and file sharing, are slowly merging into one complete service, with the choice of several offerings from large players.

[via TechCrunch]

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Filed under: Deals, Verizon Communications (VZ), Technology, Israel

Readers of IsraelNewsletter.com know that one of the Israeli firms we follow is Gilat Satellite (NASDAQ: GILT). In fact, my colleague Aaron Katzman and I’ve featured Gilat here on BloggingStocks and gave a synopsis of what we felt was the long case for Gilat.

We’ve speculated for months that Gilat was about to be acquired for a premium over its current stock price. The Israeli communications provider has been very active from a sales point of view, landing deals with the U.S. Postal Service, building a network for Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and expanding its global distribution. It had turned down offers earlier last year. Prominent hedge fund, York Capital, owned a large chunk of Gilat’s debt, which it converted into stock last year, making it a 30% holder. Pretty bullish signal for Gilat.

Well, the firm announced that it is to be acquired by a group of investors for $11.40/share recently. I’m blogging this less as giving us a pat on the back (though, it does feel good to get one right) but to point out an interesting part of the deal.

The deal isn’t supposed to close for another six months or so. Interestingly, in a squirmy market, this stock is trading almost 7% down from its acquisition price. A 6% return for six months, or an annualized 12%, isn’t a bad return if you think the deal is going to go through. I won’t handicap this deal, but the consortium appears serious about its offer and its capability to get the deal done. In a bad market, it’s very possible that a deal like this falls through. We saw a similar thing occur with ECI Telecom, an Israeli buyout last year, that traded almost 10% below its purchase price leading right up to the deal.

Worth taking a look and doing the research.

Zack Miller is the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund.

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Filed under: Major movement, Deals, Management, Citigroup Inc. (C), Washington Mutual (WM), Options

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) shares are rising after a few news items regarding the company. First, C named Mark Rufeh as chief administrative officer and head of productivity for the institutional clients group. Rufeh is known as a cost-cutter, and the company hopes he can restore efficiency and discipline. Discover (NYSE: DFS) also concurred to purchase Diner’s Club from Citi. Lastly, most banks are getting a boost from the news that Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) may get as much as a $5 billion investment. If you think that the stock won’t fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on C.

After hitting a one-year high of $55.55 in Might, the stock hit a one-year low of $17.99 in March. C opened this morning at $24.85. So far this day the stock has hit a low of $24.61 and a high of $25.19. As of 12:45, C is trading at $25.11, up $1.03 (4.2%). The chart for C looks neutral but improving, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would think about a June bull-put credit spread below the $17.50 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the buy and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn’t do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we’ll make an 8.7% return in just two and a half months as long as C is above $17.50 at June expiration. Citi would have to fall by more than 30% before we would begin to lose money.

C hasn’t been below $17.50 at all in the past year and has shown support around $21.50 recently. This trade could be risky if the US economy turns out not to have hit bottom yet, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by the support the stock might find around $20, where it found support twice in the past month.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in C or DFS. He does control a bullish hedged play on WM that could be doing superior.

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Filed under: Deals, Competitive strategy, Polo Ralph Lauren’A’ (RL)

Determined to bring a more formal, stylish fashion to the U.S. Olympic team garb for the Beijing games later this year, the Olympic committee has dumped Roots Ltd. in favor of Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL). According to The Wall Street Journal [subscription], Tom Brokaw, former NBC news anchor, was asked by USOC COO Norman Bellingham to approach Ralph Lauren about the possible affiliation.

The deal, which also includes the Paralympics, builds on the company’s growing affiliation with sports events, including the U.S. Open and Winbledon, and should result in a terrific boost to sales at both its own boutiques and other retailers with whom it is negotiating distribution.

The designs will supposedly evoke the styles of the film Chariots of Fire. The duds will be kept under wraps until the opening ceremonies in August, even though the many Chinese who will probably sew the garments will have a good idea of what to expect. I’ll be interested to see if the Chinese government’s clampdown on counterfeit goods successfully keeps fake U.S. uniforms off of the streets of Beijing before the games even began.

The line of consumer clothing to be spun off the Olympic garb should dovetail nicely into Lauren’s line and burnish its image, even though it will be interesting to see at what price point this line will fall. The equalitarian nature of the Olympic sport might not be reflected in the cost of dressing like our champions.

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Filed under: Deals, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO)

Back on January 30, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) shareholders were just treated to disappointing December 2007 quarterly results and quite frankly, a pretty dismal outlook for at least the first half of 2008. Co-founder Jerry Yang had taken over the CEO role back in early 2007 and his unabridged enthusiasm is both admirable and almost believable. However, the short term reality was that the US was experiencing an economic slowdown and even the best of growth companies were bound for contraction.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) entered the picture on January 31 with a $44.6 billion offer to buy Yahoo!. All in all, Microsoft was smart in waiting for an economic slowdown before pouncing on Yahoo!. Shareholders were witnessing the stock price dwindle back to teenage levels without the prospects of share growth for at least three to four quarters out. With Microsoft’s offer, the stock rocketed back to $29, allowing for the usual $2 arbitrage delta.

Yahoo! isn’t and will never be comparable to Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). Google is the winner in the search engine world and the advertising/marketing revenue streams associated with the business was Google’s to own. Microsoft was the third player in this game with market share numbers hovering in the single digits. At least with yahoo! in the fold, Microsoft could become one-quarter the size of Google and at least stay in the game. It all seemed pretty simple until Yahoo! began to hedge its bets and desired to look at other alternatives.

That was over two months ago and Microsoft has become impatient. A competitive bid for Yahoo! is not forthcoming as anything above a $45 billion is almost impossible to find. Partnerships and strategic alliances were bandied about, but let’s get real: all of these would require time and execution excellence. Immediate rewards to shareholders would be two to three years in the making. Microsoft stood by patiently, waiting for the juvenile game to play out, but its time is up.

Yahoo! shareholders now face a three week deadline to either accept Microsoft’s bid or go back to teenage prices. The choice is an easy one and Yahoo’s board of directors is running out of “alternative options.” If Microsoft is forced to go directly to a shareholder vote, Mr. Yang and his management team had superior dust off their resumes because it won’t be pretty.

Georges Yared writes about great growth stocks in GameOn Investing

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Filed under: Deals, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Time Warner (TWX)

Will Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) beat Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) for Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO)?

According to the Wall Street Journal, talks between the two companies have “heated up recently.” Maybe the discussions have obtained a heightened sense of urgency now that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has threatened to make his company’s unsolicited bid for Yahoo hostile. Ballmer has given Yahoo until April 26 to respond to the offer. No doubt that deadline won’t be the last line in the sand to be drawn.

I still give Microsoft the edge in this contest. The software maker wants Yahoo in the worst way, offering $44.6 billion, or $31 per share, for the beleaguered World wide web portal. Time Warner also is under pressure from shareholders to turn around AOL. But unlike Microsoft, it doesn’t feel the force of Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) breathing down its neck. I would be surprised if Time Warner would match Microsoft’s offer for Yahoo.

I also sincerely doubt that Time Warner shareholders would jump for joy if this deal were to happen. While merging Yahoo and Time Warner’s AOL makes sense on some level, it would do little to boost the media conglomerate’s share price unless it was accompanied by a spin-off. The headaches such a deal would create would be enormous. Merging MSN and Yahoo would be no picnic either.

Even in a Microsoft/Yahoo deal, MSN would likely cease to exist. Advertisers would never tolerate the duplication of content if Microsoft were to purchase Yahoo. Shareholders, who argue that Microsoft is wasting its time chasing Google, wouldn’t tolerate it either. Huge layoffs at MSN would result to keep shareholders off Microsoft’s back.

Ballmer needs to remember the ancient proverb of being careful what he wishes for because he might get it.

Freelance writer Jonathan Berr edits the blog Ketchup and Eggs.

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Filed under: Deals, Rumors, Washington Mutual (WM)

News that Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) is close to receiving a $5 billion cash infusion from a U.S. consortium bucks the trend that we have seen of late where U.S. banks take money from foreign sovereign wealth funds. I think that this is a very important step.

First, it shows that American private equity groups believe that U.S. banks are starting to get cheap and they are willing to pull the trigger on some big deals. This should help drive the market forward, as it will be a sign to many that the worst is over.

Additionally, it keeps the financial system in U.S. hands. I posted a while back about the potential security threats posed to the U.S. by foreigners taking control of our financial system. One of the big tools in the war on terror has been using the banks to track all kinds of money transfers. With foreigners taking over sizable chunks of the banking system, this tool will be much harder for the security agencies to use.

Thirty years ago, when Washington Mutual was just a small local bank operating in the say of Washington, its slogan was “a friend of the family.” It looks as if it is going back to its roots.

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 no position in any stock mentioned, as of 4/7/08

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