Weekly Wrap

Another one of those weeks. busy busy busy. It's the NHL All Star Weekend, and since the Calgary Flames don't have anyone playing in the event, we all flew to Las Vegas for a little R & R. Yeah right, who rests in this town? My bed here at the Bellagio Hotel has yet to see my new Chick pajamas. I love this place.

This week in the Chicks Eye View we discussed IPO's. Icky People's Odor. Just playin' with ya. IPO stands for Initial Public Offering of a company's stock to the public. On Tuesday I set up a mock IPO. On Wednesday Chick Cheryl discussed Nasdaq newcomer, Peet's Coffee (PEET). And on Thursday, Cheryl wrote about California Pizza Kitchen (CPKI) and its recent IPO.

It was the slowest January since 1980 as only three companies went public this month and of the three, two cut their original offering prices. Peet's opened last week at $8.00 per share (below the estimated range of $10 - $14) and immediately had a gain of 17 percent. By January 31st it had come back down to earth and closed at $11-1/2. Right where it was supposed to start.

Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) which makes "invisible braces" for teeth, hit the market at $13 per share (below the estimated range of $14 to $16) and closed 33 percent higher at the end of its first day. It ended up closing January 31st at $13.50 (Why the heck didn't they make these when I was twelve?)

Exact Sciences went public on the last day of January at the low end of if is estimated range. It started the day at $14.00 and ended the day up 5% at $14.75.

A total of 18 companies have withdrawn their bid for the IPO market already this year. They state market conditions as the reason. But never fear... don't let the winter blues bring you down, (no matter what that Ground Hog said on Friday). In the history of January IPO's, the status of January doesn't necessarily predicate the rest of the year.

Online bookseller Amazon.com (AMZN) came out on Tuesday and finally gave the public a timeline on when it would become profitable. They expect to be in the black by the end of THIS YEAR!! (Black is good, red is bad. Black means go, red means stop. That is how I keep profit and loss straight in my head.) But, investors were a little disappointed that they projected sales to be in the 3.5 billion dollar range instead of the previously projected 4 billion. Oh yeah, our book hasn't hit the street yet. that should boost their sales. (Only 9 1/2 weeks to go!!) They also announced that they will be laying off 1,300 employees. Its stock had a rough week, dropping more than 11% on Friday.

Nokia (NOK) finalized a deal this past week that now has them owning a 5% stake in InterTrust Technologies. Chick Jana reported that InterTrust will help Nokia in their quest for controlling the mobil Internet as the company specializes in digital rights management.

Now this may not have been big news in the U.S., but it has been on the lips of every Canadian for the past week. The Montreal Canadiens hockey team has been sold to AN AMERICAN!! A Canadian hockey religion sold to a Yankee! Canadian Brewery Molson, Inc, the majority owner of the team sold an 80% interest to Colorado entrepreneur George Gillett Jr. for 181.5 million. Molson's CEO Daniel O'Neill stated "Molson is strongly attached to the hockey club, but as a publicly traded company, we have an obligation to those who invest in our company to provide them with a full return on their investment." (Before I was a Chick I would not have understood what he meant by a publicly traded company and returning them anything on an investment.) Au Revoir, Molson.

It was also another big earnings week bonanza. Chick-held company, AOL Time Warner reported fourth-quarter earnings for its America Online, Inc unit and topped estimates by a penny. AOL recorded a profit of 15 cents a share, compared with EPS of 9 cents in the year-earlier period, and revenue rose 31% over last year.

Investors have been a little skittish on Chick-held Cisco this past week as CEO John Chambers made an announcement that sure sounded like an earnings warning. Their fourth quarter earnings will be coming out next week. For a calendar of upcoming earnings, check out this one I found at the Motley Fool .

Chick Kristin keeps us informed on Coca-Cola this week with a couple of announcements.

Our Coca-Cola didn't advertise in this past Super Bowl, but Pepsi sure had a great roller-coaster of a commercial. I finally got to see all the commercials at www.adcritic.com. So hysterical. you have to watch the "What Are You Doing?" commercial from Budweiser.

Speaking of television, on Thursday, Survivor's ratings beat out Friends as the most watched show. I wish someone would please tell me who was voted off.. I was too busy beating the Black Jack dealer.

Oh, I love this town.

Chick Karin

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