Reuters / Rumeur Blackberry délistée = privée

BlackBerry Ltd is warming up to the possibility of going private, as the smartphone maker battles to revive its fortunes, several sources familiar with the situation said.

Chief Executive Thorsten Heins and the company's board is increasingly coming around to the idea that taking BlackBerry private would give them breathing room to fix its problems out of the public eye, the sources said.

"There is a change of tone on the board," one of the sources said on Thursday.

No deal is imminent, however, and BlackBerry has not launched any kind of a sale process, the sources said. Even if it tried, BlackBerry could find it hard to come up with a buyer and the funding to go private. With the company still posting losses and bleeding subscribers, private equity firms and other buyers may not want to step up.

The company's shares have fallen more than 19 percent this year. Its market value has fallen to $4.8 billion, from $84 billion at its peak in 2008.

BlackBerry, which had been pinning its hopes for a turnaround on its new line of BlackBerry 10 devices, declined to comment. The sources declined to be named because these discussions are private.

"downgrade festival" ...les ANALystes s'amusent

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. AU.NYSE was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at HSBC.

Calumet Specialty Products Partners L.P. CLMT.NASDAQ was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform with a $33 price target at Credit Suisse.

Crocs Inc. CROX.NASDAQ was downgraded to Underperform and given a $10 downside price target at Sterne Agee.

Curtiss-Wright Corp. CW.NYSE  was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA

Fusion-io Inc. FIO.NYSE missed earnings and lowered expectations, prompting downgrades from Nomura and Benchmark and estimate cuts elsewhere. Shares are down 20% and at a 52-week low.

Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. HMY.NYSE was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at HSBC.

Iron Mountain Inc. IRM.NYSE was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC RDS-A.NYSE  was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan stanley

Target Corp. TGT.NYSE  was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at J.P. Morgan.

Tesla Motors Inc. TSLA.NASDAQ) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight on valuation with a $141 price target at Barclays; shares are up more than 10% after earnings.

Franchises

A rift is developing between McDonald’s and its franchisees, Bloomberg reported.

Operating more than 80 percent of the restaurants, Bloomberg says the disagreement has been going on for at least several months as franchisees are upset with the amounts they have to pay corporate.

Franchisees are also outraged by the remodeling program which looks to cost at least $600,000, and new stores built in a close proximity of existing ones, cannibalizing sales.

In 2012, franchise margins (before rent and depreciation) made up two thirds of the company’s total margins. Margins are 83 percent of the restaurants’ revenue.

On top of income from margins, revenue for rent, royalties and initial fees accounted for almost nine billion of 2012 revenue, or 33 percent of total revenue.

In terms of rent agreements, for the next five years McDonald’s looks to spend 11 billion on operating leases for almost 12 billion of revenue, giving 823 million profit. This works out to an average of 165 million of income a year, or roughly three percent of total income.

AAPL et CHL ???

Avec l'augmentation rapide du niveau de vie des Chinois, le marché chinois deviendra vraisemblablement dans quelques années le premier marché pour les appareils électroniques haut de gamme (il l'est déjà pour l'entrée de gamme). Apple ne veut donc pas laisser celui-ci lui échapper, et, après plusieurs négociations infructueuses, elle serait de nouveau en train de discuter avec China Mobile pour que l'opérateur distribue les iPhone et iPad. C'est en tout cas ce qu'affirme Reuters, qui signale que les présidents des deux entreprises se sont rencontrés cette semaine.

Signer avec China Mobile a en effet une grande importance pour la conquête du marché chinois. Avec 740 millions de clients, China Mobile est, et de loin, le plus gros opérateur chinois, et même le plus gros opérateur mondial. Mais il exploite par contre sa propre technologie 3G, et sans accord avec l'opérateur, aucun de ses clients ne peut donc utiliser un appareil pommé : un exemplaire acheté nu ou auprès d'un autre opérateur sera techniquement incompatible avec le réseau de China Mobile.

Un tel accord pourrait donc mener à de gros chiffres de ventes, une part de marché de 5% chez les abonnés China Mobile représente l'équivalent des ventes de l'iPhone sur un trimestre. Il faudra par contre convaincre les clients China Mobile d'adopter un smartphone, alors que le taux de pénétration des smartphones chez China Mobile est aujourd'hui inférieur à 20%.

BBW

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