Summer Meltdown For The Video Game Industry -07/30/09 at 8:18 AM CDTby Perry Rod

Sony and Nintendo reported disappointing numbers in Japan overnight. Nintendo Wii sales dropped 57% year over year from 5.17 million to 2.23 million units worldwide.  Sales of PlayStation 3 dropped 31% year over year from 1.6 million to 1.1 million units worldwide.  PS3 software sales were down 35% in that same period.  The PlayStation Port...

THQ Talks Up Darksiders and Red Faction 2, But Talk is Cheap For This... -07/28/09 at 7:15 PM CDTby Perry Rod

THQ announced today that they made .09 non-GAAP earnings from what looked to be a spectacular quarter, which included UFC Undisputed, Red Faction and considerable cost reductions.  Now they are talking about making only around 90 million in revenues in the second quarter and somewhere in the ballpark of -.50 earnings.  That'll make it around -.4...

UBS Research and Other Dendreon Critics Revisited -07/27/09 at 2:13 PM CDTby Mark Mitchell

Adam Kidan was named as a suspect in the murder of Gus Boulis and was questioned, but never charged. Instead, he went to jail for his dealings with Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Washington lobbyist. Moscatiello, the alleged Mafia bookkeeper, was arrested and charged with the murder. When he was released on parole, he disappeared. Lately, he has been featur...

Citigroup When-Issued Share Discount Narrows -07/27/09 at 11:09 AM CDTby Peter York

The discount on when-issued shares of Citigroup Inc. decreased today from 5% to around 1.5%.  Citigroup buyers planning to hold until Friday can buy discounted "when issued" (formerly preferred exchange) shares on the open market rather than the common shares.  They will likely convert to common shares by Friday.  As of 12 p.m. eastern, vol...

The Dendreon Fraud: Joel Sendek of Lazard Research and ProQuest Inves... -07/24/09 at 12:10 PM CDTby Mark Mitchell

It is easy for executives of public companies to know that they are “battleground” targets of the Milken network because the members of this network have quite distinctive characteristics. Whether they be journalists tied to Cramer, financial analysts, or hedge fund managers, they are unusual among financial professionals in that they take ove...

Jim Chanos, Jonathan Aschoff and More on the Dendreon Saga -07/22/09 at 5:46 PM CDTby Mark Mitchell

When the FDA’s advisory panel voted in favor of Provenge, most Wall Street research analysts were predicting a bright future for Dendreon. But as naked short sellers piled on with ever increasing gusto, hedge fund managers continued to whisper in reporters’ ears. And two Wall Street analysts did more than whisper – they shouted, day afte...

No Regrets, No Responsibility: Strauss Zelnick, Take Two Interactive'... -07/20/09 at 11:03 AM CDTby Perry Rod

“I don’t engage in regrets,” he said in an interview with CNBC last month. It was a revealing statement by the chairman of Take Two Interactive, Inc. (TTWO). A humble man may have had some regrets, given the dramatic fall of the company’s stock.  But humility is almost certainly not a quality requirement for one who engages in...

Dendreon & Deceit: Jim Cramer, Pequot Capital -07/19/09 at 12:02 PM CDTby Mark Mitchell

“SELL! SELL! SELL!” shouted Jim Cramer on March 28, 2007. The CNBC “journalist” assured his viewers that the FDA advisory panel would vote that Dendreon’s treatment for prostate cancer was neither safe nor effective (notwithstanding the fact that the FDA had given the treatment “priority review” status because Pro...

Citigroup Shares Rise After Share Collapse in Japan -07/13/09 at 9:45 AM CDTby Peter York

Citigroup Inc. (C) shares in Tokyo had fallen over 6% last night, with the Nikkei index down 2.55%.  It looks like Japanese Citigroup traders may have overreacted. This morning, despite an analyst earnings warning, Citigroup shares are up around 3%, suggesting that Tokyo's light trading of Citigroup had little impact on United States trading.  C...

The Case For American Intervention in Iran -07/10/09 at 12:46 AM CDTby Perry Rod

Iranian-Americans voices have been heard in the United States.  Yes, America did support the Shah of Iran and even undermined democracy there.  Yes, America may be largely responsible for the current radical Islamic regime in Iran. However, American foreign policy as it relates to Iran has been an even bigger failure since 1979, when Iranians sh...

Reverse Stock Split on FAZ and FAS Direxion ETFs Should Be a Wake Up ... -07/09/09 at 3:46 PM CDTby Perry Rod

It finally happened.  A reverse stock split of a popular exchange traded fund now tells us with little uncertainty that three times leveraged exchange traded funds are proving to be an abysmal failure. The era of exchange traded funds, only a few years old, is starting to already see some victims.  Today the ever popular financial ETFs, FAS and ...