Yahoo: Cowen Has Serious Doubts On Miller-Led Bid; Raising $30 Billion Would be “Extremely Difficult”

Cowen’s Jim Friedland this afternoon has weighed in on the WSJ report that former AOL exec Jonathan Miller is trying to raise cash for a bid for Yahoo, and finds the proposition to be something of a long shot. In a brief research note, he raises two key issues: Capital: He says it would be “extremely difficult” to raise the $28 billion to $31 billion that would be needed to cl...

Chip Makers Slashing Production As Demand Crumbles

Semiconductor companies are planning sharp production cuts for both Q4 2008 and Q1 2009, according to a report today by Craig Berger, chip analyst at Friedman Billings Ramsey. He says that PC chip firms are seeing “significant production weakness,” as are communications IC producers - and that semiconductor companies are adjusting their own output accordingly. Here’s a rundown...

Ex-AOL Chief Miller Seeks Cash For YHOO Bid, WSJ Says

Well, here’s a new twist to the Yahoo (YHOO) saga. According to the Wall Street Journal, former AOL chief Jonathan Miller is trying to raise money to buy all or part of the company. The story is sourced to “people familiar with the matter.” The story says Miller has been talking to private equity investors and sovereign wealth funds for months trying to come up the money for a...

Spot DRAM Prices At All-Time Low, Falling 33% In Nov.

The market for DRAM chips continues to collapse, making life rough for Micron Technology (MU) and other memory chip companies. According to DRAMeXchange.com, spot market prices for DRAM chips last week fell between 5% and 15%, depending on specific configuration, to new historic lows. For DDR2 1Gb chips, the price last week dropped to 68 cents, from 80 cents, with a 34% drop in November. For DD...

Research In Motion: J.P. Morgan Trims FY ‘09, ‘10 Ests

J.P. Morgan analyst Paul Coster today trimmed his profit forecasts for Research In Motion (RIMM) to reflect his view that “consumer and enterprise sales will be slower than originally forecast, owing to a global economic downturn.” Nonetheless, he says the stock is still too cheap, and repeats his Overweight rating. Coster still sees the company posting results for the fiscal third ...

Clearwire Sinks; Attractive Spectrum Isn’t Enough

Clearwire (CLWRD) shares are down sharply following negative comments on the company this morning from analysts at J.P. Morgan and Stanford Group. The company’s shares gained ground yesterday following the completion of its deal to acquire Sprint’s Xohm wireless broadband business; they also closed a $3.2 billion investment from Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Intel and others. ...

Cell Phones: Oppenheimer Sees Q4 Units Flat Vs. Q3; Cuts ‘09 View; Trims Ests On MOT, NOK, RIMM, RFMD, CELL

Conditions in the global handset market continue to deteriorate, according to Oppenheimer analyst Ittai Kidron. Kidron now sees global handset sell-in for Q4 of 315 million units, flat with Q3, and below the recent Nokia forecast of 330 million units. He says that checks find production cuts by OEMs, inventory reduction by carriers and weaker sell through in most regions, especially in November...

Weak Xmas Kickoff For Consumer Electronics Retailers

While the Black Friday weekend kick-off to the holiday shopping season may not have been as bad as some had feared, the consumer electronics retailers are apparently not off to a good start. Data from MasterCard SpendingPulse shows that consumer electronics retailers were a relative underperformer, with sales at electronics specialty retailers down 14% on Friday and Saturday, according to a res...

Goldman Sees ‘09 GDP Down 1.6%, IT Spend Down 4%; Cuts Targets, Estimates On A Zillion Software Stocks

Goldman Sachs has sliced its estimates and price targets on most of the enterprise software companies it covers to reflect a more dire outlook for the U.S. economy and IT spending. In a research note, Goldman’s Sarah Friar notes that the firm’s economics team now sees real GDP shrinking 5% in Q4 and 1.6% in 2009, worse than their previous forecast of down 3.5% and down 0.8%. Goldman...

Yahoo: Board Fiddles, Business Crumbles

While the Yahoo (YHOO) board attempts to find a new CEO and debates whether or not to revive talks with Microsoft (MSFT) - at least, I assume that’s what they’re doing - the fundamentals of the company’s business continue to deteriorate. Jefferies analyst Youssef Squali today cut his EPS estimates for the company for both this year and next year. For 2008, he now sees EPS of 6...