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American Morning
Minding Your Business: Jungle Boogie
Aired January 28, 2004 - 08:52 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Why is an AOL executive on thin ice with the NHL after a fight at a hockey game?
Here with that, plus a look ahead to today's trading, is Andy Serwer. He's "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning.
What is that old line? I was at a fight, and a hockey game broke out. The same kind of deal here, only with an NHL owner. We'll get to that.
Let's talk about the market. Yesterday, a bit of a retreat for stocks. The Dow was down over 90 points -- as you can see after that banner day we had -- to open the week. A lot of action this morning.
Altria, the old Philip Morris, Time Warner, those are going to be hopping, because they've reported some numbers. The fed announces its findings to the FOMC meeting at 2:15. Don't expect anything there.
Amazon.com, hats off, reporting a first annual profit ever, $35 million, maybe not as much as people expect, but, hey, I'll take it. Now, late 2001, this stock was in single digits. It's now at $55, more than half of where it was at the top of the bull market. So, it's really regained a lot of ground, $22 billion market value of that company. It's for real, folks. I mean, they've shown it now, I think.
O'BRIEN: Yes, and people who held onto that stock and didn't waiver are doing well.
SERWER: That's right. Or bought it at the bottom.
O'BRIEN: Right.
SERWER: All right, let's talk about this story out of Washington, D.C.
O'BRIEN: It's a weird story.
SERWER: It is a weird story. Ted Leonsis, the majority owner of the Washington Capitals hockey team, not having a very good season, projected to lose about $30 million this year, just had to trade Jaromir Jagr to the Rangers. That's a whole other story. Ted is also vice chairman of Time Warner, it's now called -- originally AOL Time Warner. That's a whole other story.
Anyway, on Monday, a fan held up a sign making fun of Ted Leonsis and the situation there. Here's the sign. I want to hold up a -- it's not the sign. It's a replica we've recreated here at CNN. It said: "Caps hockey; AOL stocks. See a pattern?"
Now, what happened after that is a matter of some dispute, but apparently Leonsis and this fan, Jason Hammer, got in a scuffle. And the NHL is going to see what theyre going to do.
I want to go back to the sign for a minute, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Literally in a scuffle?
SERWER: They did get in a scuffle, absolutely.
O'BRIEN: He came out of the box?
SERWER: Well, what happened is, is that they ran into each other after the game in one of the walkways, and apparently the fan held the sign up in his face, and Leonsis went after him.
Two problems with the sign. It's not AOL anymore, Jason. It's Time Warner. And as far as the stock goes, the stock has gone from 10 to 19. So, you're kind of a little off-base with the sign. I was getting in touch with my inner Tim Russert there. But it's a funny story.
You know, it's not a good thing when an owner goes after a fan like that.
O'BRIEN: Yes, never.
SERWER: But he did apologize, and the young man has agreed not to sue him. So maybe a happy ending there.
O'BRIEN: Wow! Yes, that's unusual.
SERWER: It is.
O'BRIEN: An unusual happy ending.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thanks a lot.
SERWER: OK, you're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Strange story, huh?
SERWER: It's an interesting one, I think.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired January 28, 2004 - 08:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Why is an AOL executive on thin ice with the NHL after a fight at a hockey game?
Here with that, plus a look ahead to today's trading, is Andy Serwer. He's "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning.
What is that old line? I was at a fight, and a hockey game broke out. The same kind of deal here, only with an NHL owner. We'll get to that.
Let's talk about the market. Yesterday, a bit of a retreat for stocks. The Dow was down over 90 points -- as you can see after that banner day we had -- to open the week. A lot of action this morning.
Altria, the old Philip Morris, Time Warner, those are going to be hopping, because they've reported some numbers. The fed announces its findings to the FOMC meeting at 2:15. Don't expect anything there.
Amazon.com, hats off, reporting a first annual profit ever, $35 million, maybe not as much as people expect, but, hey, I'll take it. Now, late 2001, this stock was in single digits. It's now at $55, more than half of where it was at the top of the bull market. So, it's really regained a lot of ground, $22 billion market value of that company. It's for real, folks. I mean, they've shown it now, I think.
O'BRIEN: Yes, and people who held onto that stock and didn't waiver are doing well.
SERWER: That's right. Or bought it at the bottom.
O'BRIEN: Right.
SERWER: All right, let's talk about this story out of Washington, D.C.
O'BRIEN: It's a weird story.
SERWER: It is a weird story. Ted Leonsis, the majority owner of the Washington Capitals hockey team, not having a very good season, projected to lose about $30 million this year, just had to trade Jaromir Jagr to the Rangers. That's a whole other story. Ted is also vice chairman of Time Warner, it's now called -- originally AOL Time Warner. That's a whole other story.
Anyway, on Monday, a fan held up a sign making fun of Ted Leonsis and the situation there. Here's the sign. I want to hold up a -- it's not the sign. It's a replica we've recreated here at CNN. It said: "Caps hockey; AOL stocks. See a pattern?"
Now, what happened after that is a matter of some dispute, but apparently Leonsis and this fan, Jason Hammer, got in a scuffle. And the NHL is going to see what theyre going to do.
I want to go back to the sign for a minute, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Literally in a scuffle?
SERWER: They did get in a scuffle, absolutely.
O'BRIEN: He came out of the box?
SERWER: Well, what happened is, is that they ran into each other after the game in one of the walkways, and apparently the fan held the sign up in his face, and Leonsis went after him.
Two problems with the sign. It's not AOL anymore, Jason. It's Time Warner. And as far as the stock goes, the stock has gone from 10 to 19. So, you're kind of a little off-base with the sign. I was getting in touch with my inner Tim Russert there. But it's a funny story.
You know, it's not a good thing when an owner goes after a fan like that.
O'BRIEN: Yes, never.
SERWER: But he did apologize, and the young man has agreed not to sue him. So maybe a happy ending there.
O'BRIEN: Wow! Yes, that's unusual.
SERWER: It is.
O'BRIEN: An unusual happy ending.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thanks a lot.
SERWER: OK, you're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Strange story, huh?
SERWER: It's an interesting one, I think.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
