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CNN Money Morning
Disney Reportedly Ready to Block AOL-AT&T Deal
Aired September 11, 2001 - 06:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: In today's business news headlines, as AOL moves closer to a possible merger with AT&T's cable TV unit, Disney is reportedly ready to use all its lobbying power in Washington to try to block the deal. "The Wall Street Journal" says if the merger is successful, Disney will demand -- demand that AOL, the parent of this network, sell off all its content holdings. Yes, that'll happen.
The markets are waiting on a couple of key earnings reports due out this morning. Food giant H.J. Heinz still hasn't reported but it is today, expected to post slightly lower earnings from a year ago. And the Street's looking for high-end department store chain Neiman Marcus to show a much bigger drop off and a loss for the quarter. We'll have those numbers if we get them before we get off the air here.
Just when it seems like it can't get any worse for the depressed advertising industry, the world's three biggest tobacco companies are reportedly set to pullback on their advertising budgets. "The Journal" reporting Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco are making the move in the face of government pressure to cut cigarette advertising. And, of course, it'll save the money in a slowing economy so gee, what a good time to go along with the government's request.
Let's check in with Sasha Salama at the Nasdaq marketsite in Times Square, and I want to share one of our very first viewer mails with you.
SASHA SALAMA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Uh-oh.
CAFFERTY: You ready?
SALAMA: Yes.
CAFFERTY: My husband and I have gotten up each morning to the "CNN BUSINESS" for years since Deborah Marchini and Stuart Varney were on it together, and we were appalled this morning at the new show, the format and the caliber of the conversation among the reporters. We have changed to CNBC. And I hope you'll rethink this program, as it seems aimed at people who like to wake up to ridicule and inanity instead of business news. So we're starting to get some fans already -- Glenn (ph).
SALAMA: Boy, thanks for sharing.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
SALAMA: I suppose -- well, what could we say, we're hoping to keep our viewers and...
CAFFERTY: Hey look, don't give up on us yet.
SALAMA: ...win some more.
CAFFERTY: You know we're just -- this is only the second day.
ALLEN WASTLER, MANAGING EDITOR, CNNfn.COM: We're an acquired taste.
CAFFERTY: Sorry, but I don't like your revamped format. Put Jack back on the hours he used to work on "BEFORE HOURS" on CNNfn, otherwise, I may as well watch CNBC.
I'm on "BEFORE HOURS" but just from 7:00 to 8:00. Let me do one more here.
SALAMA: Right, OK.
CAFFERTY: The -- you know. This is a way you get yourself in a really good mood on the second day of the show is you click into this mailbox and find out, you know, that there's people out there would like to see you bleeding in the street.
I really enjoy the humor, it's tremendously refreshing to be delivered financial news without the -- oh here, here's one of ours. This must be one of the fn viewers that switched over with us.
WASTLER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: Financial news without the pomposity of most financial news programs. As you can see by my name, I agree that a mix of humor and finance is a healthy combination.
So what have we got, one plus, one minus and one neutral. We'll take that for the first day.
SALAMA: OK, not bad.
CAFFERTY: How you doing?
SALAMA: Not bad. I'm doing OK. I mean I'm glad you shared some of our viewer e-mail. But I suppose...
CAFFERTY: I love the first one, we like Deborah and Stuart and we hope you die.
SALAMA: Yes, I mean Stuart's wonderful, but he hasn't been with us for, what, three years now?
CAFFERTY: Yes, no, no, he's -- Stuart's gone. He's -- you know he's got a gas station in Hackensack or something.
(LAUGHTER)
CAFFERTY: He's not here anymore.
SALAMA: Boy, Jack, yes. Well listen, thanks for sharing.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
SALAMA: And I suppose that you have to worry when they don't react at all to you, right?
CAFFERTY: You know what's hard is keeping these two shots in focus. There we go.
SALAMA: How are you doing this morning?
CAFFERTY: Better, I watched a little of the Giants game last night out at...
SALAMA: Oh yes, they lost in Denver.
CAFFERTY: Yes, out in INVESCO Stadium. You know it used to be Mile High Stadium where you know they -- where the Broncos played. Now it's INVESCO Stadium.
SALAMA: Yes.
CAFFERTY: I mean the "Denver Post" won't even print the name of the stadium.
SALAMA: Is that right?
CAFFERTY: Yes, they won't. INVESCO,...
SALAMA: Boy, big mutual fund company.
CAFFERTY: ... I mean there's a limit to corporate -- yes, it's like corporate interference.
SALAMA: Everywhere. Everywhere you turn.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
SALAMA: Well, I'll tell you, Jack, what I'm hearing from folks on the street is worry, ongoing worry about this market that it's going to retest its lows. For the Nasdaq that's 1638 from April 4, and a lot of traders saying, you know what, let's just get it over with already and move on. And yesterday was not the day for that to happen. The Nasdaq gaining 7 points to 1695 on moderate volume, 1.6 billion shares changing hands.
Some stocks that we're watching today include Amazon.com. "Wall Street Journal" saying that the online retailer expected to announce a deal with Target to sell goods over the Internet. Now Target focuses on home furnishings, sports equipment, clothes, luggage, that sort of thing. We don't have financial terms here, but we do know that Amazon has been cutting deals with other retailers like Circuit City earlier this year, Borders Group. So we're watching Amazon.
We're also watching Xilinx, which gave back more than 2 percent yesterday. This is a maker of specialty chips -- XLNX. The news from Xilinx, it's reaffirming its sales outlook for the current quarter. It held a mid-quarter update after the close yesterday and that reaffirmation is for a decline of 20 to 25 percent in revenues. Europe and Japan sales were below average, demand from North America actually picked up in July and August.
And Vitesse, another specialty chipmaker, VTSS, actually is going to miss its revenue forecasts and bottom line forecasts for this quarter. Bottom line, Jack, it's looking for a loss of 12 to 15 cents versus a loss of 9 cents that had been expected. Vitesse and Xilinx, by the way, down in the premarket so we'll be watching those specialty chips for you.
CAFFERTY: All right. Futures, for what it's worth at least at this early hour, showing a little heartbeat.
SALAMA: A green arrow.
CAFFERTY: A green arrow. It's a little up thing.
SALAMA: That's a good thing.
CAFFERTY: By the way, if you want to write to us and, you know, complain or...
SALAMA: Yes, what's that e-mail?
CAFFERTY: ... whatever, it's -- what is it? Allen, what's the address?
WASTLER: Moneymorning@cnn.com.
CAFFERTY: Right.
WASTLER: Just moneymorning@cnn.com.
CAFFERTY: OK. And you can also use that to sign up for the newsletter, "Eye-Opener."
WASTLER: Actually, we simplified signing up for the newsletter. Just go to the bottom of the cnnfn.com homepage, click on your picture.
CAFFERTY: Good. But only -- I mean only send us -- I don't want to read crummy mail, send us nice letters. I mean, you know, be nice.
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