Media & Entertainment

Verizon launched its Custom TV service in April. A skinny bundle service, it gives more choices to customers, allowing them to select their TV channels

Disney is incurring significant pre-opening expenses for Shanghai Disneyland (FXI), which will be unveiled in spring next year.

The Walt Disney Company’s (DIS) advertising revenues made up 37% of its Media Networks segment’s total revenues of $5.7 billion in fiscal 3Q15.

ESPN is a part of Disney’s Media Networks segment. Affiliate fees are major component of this segment and are under pressure due to subscriber loss.

Hulu is planning to launch an ad-free service priced at $12–$14 per month later this year. Hulu is also looking at programmatic ad buying to better monetize its content.

Informed investors can profit from businesses that have filed for bankruptcy. A chapter 11 bankruptcy gives a company a second chance to revive its business.

Netflix is grabbing eyeballs with its original content and taking advantage of an audience prone to hyper-consumption or binge viewing.

In the camcorder market, GoPro (GPRO) has the leading market share of 47.50%. It’s followed by ION, Sony (SNE), and Polaroid.

Netflix pricing is the lowest among all video streaming service players. Its basic plan of $7.99 is propelling the company’s streaming membership growth in the United States.

On June 29, Disney announced it will merge two of its stand-alone segments into one. Disney Consumer Products and Disney Interactive will become Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media.

Disney’s Studio Entertainment segment had revenues of $1.7 billion in 2Q15, down 6% from 2Q14. The segment had operating income of $0.4 billion, a 10% fall from 2Q14.

In May 2012, Facebook’s stock price was $38, and its PE ratio was 80.0 x. The ratio reached an all-time high of 7,930x, when net income dropped to $53 million that year.

New Charter is the proposed merged entity. The company will include networks of some of the largest cable operators in the US.

An integrated business model helps Walt Disney (DIS) utilize value created by its intellectual properties such as Frozen across its different segments.

The Gigabit Pro service can provide much faster speeds than those offered by Verizon (VZ) FiOS, AT&T GigaPower, and Google Fiber.

What are the components of a risk arbitrage spread? There are a number of factors that figure into a trade. Let’s look at a typical cash deal first.

Not all deals are cash deals, however. Often companies will issue stock in lieu of giving cash for a deal. This adds a layer of complication to the process and also some risk factors we need to consider.

Other important merger spreads include the deal between Time Warner Cable and Comcast as well as the merger between Pharmacyclics and AbbVie.

Along with its move toward the digital space, console upgrades are the reason Electronic Arts stock returned 66% to shareholders in 2013 and 105% in 2014.

In this space, companies whose franchises have yet to make a mark spend considerably on marketing to raise customer awareness.

IBM (IBM) intends to fuel its growth in the cloud space through the investment of billions of dollars, as well as strategic acquisitions.

The largest studios are owned by conglomerates like 21st Century Fox (FOXA) whose studio had the largest 2014 domestic box office market share.

Electronic Arts’ (EA) EA Studios encompasses studios and development teams that create games and related content, franchises, and services.

Six Flags’ per capita guest spending increased $2.79, or 7%, to $42.97 in 2014, primarily due to improved admissions pricing and new offerings in the parks.

Six Flags’ (SIX) admissions revenue per capita increased by 9% in 2014, primarily driven by pricing improvements on multi- and single-use ticket offerings.

We’ll look at Yahoo’s search market business. In the third quarter, Yahoo (YHOO) generated 41% of its revenue from the search advertising business.

Mobileye, the Israel-based vehicle safety technology company, earned gross proceeds from its initial public offering of $1.023 billion.

Tiger Global Management’s holdings included 48 stocks during the third quarter. The size of the fund’s US long portfolio fell slightly from $7.8 billion to $7.5 billion.

Kraton is a leading global producer of engineered polymers and one of the world’s largest producers of styrenic block copolymers. The company reported sales revenue of $323.8 million in the second quarter.

ValueAct Capital initiated a new position in 21st Century Fox (FOX). It’s a diversified global media and entertainment company. FOX accounts for 0.67% of the fund’s first quarter portfolio. 21st Century Fox is home to a global portfolio of cable and broadcasting networks and properties.

Variety first reported that Google (GOOG)(GOOGL) reached a preliminary agreement to buy Twitch for $1 billion. Then Business Insider reported that Yahoo (YHOO) had also made an offer to buy Twitch.

On June 15, 2014, Medtronic (MDT) and Covidien (COV) reached an agreement to merge via a scheme of arrangement. The two companies more or less offer complementary goods.

Merger arbitrage, otherwise known as “risk arbitrage,” is an investment strategy that primarily focuses on mergers and capturing the spreads on announced deals.

The Chicago-based Orbitz Worldwide Inc. (OWW) is a global online travel company (or OTC). It recently posted a net loss for the first quarter of 2014 although its revenue grew, driven by hotel bookings.

XLY and XRT have performed better in terms of absolute returns over longer periods of three and five years

During economic uncertainty, investors want steady, guaranteed returns from the Treasury instead of quick returns from price movements in equity ETFs.

The businesses in the Consumer Products segment generate royalty revenue by licensing characters from its film, television, and other properties to third parties.

Spinco will have one of the largest, most diversified portfolios of strip centers and malls in the United States. It will hold a total of 98 assets.