Filed under: Deals, Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM)

Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian must know something we don’t. Or perhaps at his level, he might have other considerations than such trivial matters as a mere $34.5 million. That’s the premium his Tracinda Corp. would pay for 20 million of Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) shares over today’s price if it went ahead with the offer.

On Might 9th, Kerkorian offered, through Tracinda Corp., to buy an additional 20 million shares of Ford at $8.50 a share. At the time, it was a small premium over the $8.20 price. Naturally, such a savvy investor had a clause providing him an out should the shares fall more than 10% from the time of the offer. Well, they fell about 18%, but Kerkorian is waiving the provision, saying he will go ahead with the purchase and that “Tracinda continues to believe in Ford’s management and turnaround efforts.”

For Kerkorian, it’s the third try with one of the Large Three. Chrysler and General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) felt his weight in the past, and while he may have effected changes in Chrysler despite, or maybe because, of his failed attempts to take it over, he didn’t manage much change and gave up on GM despite owning almost 10% of it. Currently, Tracinda owns 100 million Ford shares, a 4.7% stake, and will likely own 20 million more by June 9 when the offer expires.

No doubt, Kerkorian’s show of support in Ford and its management, namely Alan Mullaly, is meaningful, but it was just last week that Ford stated it does not anticipate to meet its goal of returning to profitability by 2009. Ford has also announced further cuts and a product mix shift in an attempt to superior respond to consumer demands due to the high cost of gas.

Ford shares could get a temporary lift from Kerkorian’s apparent support, but at the same time, the billionaire investor doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to auto companies. Unless something fundamentally changes and investors begin seeing the fruits of the turnaround and the current actions taken, Ford shares will likely continue to be pressured.

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Filed under: Deals, Technology

At a meeting yesterday, everyone had a smartphone. It’s just standard nowadays.

But whose keeping track of the metrics on these devices? Well, one of the top players is M:Metrics. This week the company concurred to sell out to comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) for $44.3 million and 50,000 stock options.

It’s a savvy deal. According to the investor conference call, comScore’s CEO, Dr. Magid Abraham, said that M:Metrics is a “significant” player in the space and has a three-year lead. Yes, in the topsy-turvy tech world, that’s a large deal.

M:Metrics has a variety of products, with more than 180 customers. For example, MobiLens grants for a monthly online surveys of mobile phone usage from more than 40,000 users. Next, MeterDirect is an on-device meter, which is used by 4,000 users of smartphones and is compatible with 280 device models. Finally, there’s M:Ad. As the name implies, this tracks mobile ads.

No doubt, mobile is going to be a large growth driver for comScore. Apparently, the revenue contribution could be 10% or more by 2009 as mentioned on the conference call.

Plus, comScore should derive some cost savings (from its well-developed infrastructure) as well as cross-sale opportunities (from its extensive product offerings). Actually, there’s tiny customer overlap between the companies.

Wall Street seems to care about the deal. In Thursday’s trading, comScore’s shares were up 5% to $24.68.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

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Filed under: Earnings reports, Analyst reports, Deals, Industry, Consumer experience, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO)

There have been concerns that the rate at which people clicking on the text ads next to Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) search results has been falling. These concerns caused spirited debate before the company’s last earnings report and may have even pushed the firm’s stock price down. But, earnings were excellent, and much of the fear went away.

Now it turns out the Google ads are doing better and superior, and clicks on ads at rivals are falling. The Wall Street Journal using comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) data reports that Google’s performance improving in April and “Paid clicks for Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT). and Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ:YHOO). meanwhile declined during the month, according to the data.” The paper reports that Google’s performance in the US was 20% ahead of expectations.

Good for Google, but very bad for its two chief rivals. The information indicates that even if Microsoft buys Yahoo!, the combined operation will have a much smaller market share in search than Google, and its advertising will perform worse. If Microsoft and Yahoo! stay separate, their uphill battles could face extremely long odds.

From all the data available, Google’s search technology brings back better results for consumers. Its technology for matching ads to searches also appears to work much better. The fight for the domination of this critical portion of the internet is over. The only question is whether the second and third place firms can make money long-term.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 letter.

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Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Deals, Apple Inc (AAPL), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), Novell Inc (NOVL), Marvell Technology Group (MRVL)

Before the bell: Dell, oil help futures rise

Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) reported late Thursday a first-quarter profit, beating analyst estimates. Revenue rose 27%. MRVL shares are up almost 17% in premarket trading. J.P. Morgan upgraded Marvell from Neutral to Overweight and Oppenheimer from Perform to Outperform with a target price of $21.

J. Crew (NYSE: JCG) shares, on the other hand, are dropping over 18% after it said late Thursday it cut its full-year earnings outlook. Seems the high-flying retailer isn’t immune to weak U.S. consumer spending. Citigroup downgraded JCG from Hold to Sell and cut the target price from $42 to $34. Wachovia downgraded JCG from Outperform to Market Perform.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) shares are up over 1.3% this morning after Tracinda Corp., the investment arm of billionaire activist investor Kirk Kerkorian, said Friday it will waive a condition on its $170 million cash tender offer that the market price of Ford shares does not fall by 10% or more from its Might 8 close of $8.20. Since the time of the offer to buy up to 20 million shares at $8.50 per share — at the time a slight premium — shares have fallen 18%. The offer expires June 9.

A Japanese newspaper reported that Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM) is considering whether to build its fuel-efficient hybrid Prius at a California plant it jointly operates with General Motors (NYSE: GM). Toyota stated nothing had yet to be decided and denies the report. Meanwhile, with General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) 19,000 hourly workers signing a buyout, it may also be moving entire shifts of workers at some truck factories to nearby car plants as it restructures to adjust to a rapidly changing U.S. market brought on by $4 per gallon gasoline. The restructuring moves, however, weren’t confirmed and will be announced by CEO Wagoner on Tuesday at GM’s annual meeting.

Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) stated late Thursday it swung to a profit of $5.87 million, or 2 cents a share. Meanwhile revenue rose to $235.67 million. Excluding special items, Novell said earnings from continuing operations for the quarter were 6 cents a share, inline with estimates.

The blogosphere has been abuzz after Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) said it is closing its 24-hour flagship 5th Avenue retail store in Manhattan for the night. Apparently, a commercial is being shot there and many wonder if its a commercial for the 3G iPhone.

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Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Deals, Dell (DELL), Market matters, Tiffany and Co (TIF), US Airways Group (LCC), Contl Airlines’B’ (CAL), UAL Corp (UAUA), Economic data, Oil

Stock futures were higher early Friday morning as oil futures continued to drop and Dell reported surprising strong earnings. (Read the full transcript of the conference call that followed the earnings announcement.)

Some upcoming economic readings about personal income might affect the Street’s mood yet, but as long as oil prices remain at around $125 a barrel or go even lower, investors might feel more positive on the day.

If last week stocks witnessed one sharp-drop session after another, this week stocks have been more consistent on their way up and on Thursday U.S. stocks rose for the third session in a row due to a large drop in crude-oil futures. The Dow industrials rose 52 points, or 0.41%, the S&P 500 added 7 points, or 0.53%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 21 points, or 0.87%.

On the economic calendar today several releases:

• At 8:30 a.m. EDT April Personal Income and spending is due. While not perfect, personal income is a decent indicator of future consumer demand. Once personal income starts to stagnate, meaning inflation has caught up with income growth, this is another indication of a recession.
  A price index is included in the income report. The personal-consumption expenditures is often considered to be the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge.
• A tiny after the open, Might Chicago PMI, a regional manufacturing survey, is due out.
• Finally, at 10:00 a.m., a revised reading on consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan for May will also be released.

On the corporate side, Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) is the large surprise. Dell shares jumped 10% in premarket trading after the computer maker reported Thursday after the close a 4% rise in quarterly profit and a 19% revenue growth. The solid first-quarter results beat Wall Street expectations for first-quarter sales and profit.

After financial media got so excited about their executive meeting, UAL Corp. (NYSE: UAUA) United Airlines and UA Airways (NYSE: LCC) has ended merger talks, according to published reports as United is close to an alliance agreement with Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL).

Also, Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) reported results Friday morning. TIF shares are up over 5.7% in premarket trading after the jeweler said that strong growth in Asia-Pacific and European markets helped its first-quarter profits rise 19%, beating analysts’ expectations. The company warned that it doesn’t anticipate an improvement in the U.S. until later this year.

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