I usually have a gut feeling about consumer electronics probably due to the fact that I am of the generation that grew up with DSL, laptops and mp3 players. My gut feeling with stand alone GPS devices is that in a couple of years, only ones that are built in to your car will exist, and they will pretty standard. For Garmin, this is not good news. These units are only going to get cheaper which will cut margins even more and integrated with phones which have already started integrating mp3 players. Apple and some other companies have been doing this already.

So what is Garmin trying to do now? The Nuvifone. THE NUVIFONE HAS THIS AND THAT BLAH BLAH. Come on, can it really compete with the IPhone. Does it really have any features that will make someone say “you know what, go to hell iPhone, I’m buying the NUVIFONE!!”. No. Tim Weidman wrote that the coolest feature is that you can talk on the phone and still get directions. WOW! How about just saying hold on or when the voice command comes on just ignore your phone or even better, just look at where you need to turn with your eyes.

Anyway, those are just my impressions, if I didn’t back this piece up with any facts about why I think Garmin is done, there would be no credibility.

1. Garmin is the leading portable GPS unit maker (56% market share), but its margins are slimming every single quarter (down 15%). The CEO thinks units prices will drop another 20% this year

2. SiRF Technology (SIRF), a GPS chip maker, is cutting jobs because of softening consumer demand

3. Delayed Nuvifone. Putting your eggs in one basket and then delaying the release to ‘sometime’ in the first half of 2009 isn’t going to cut it. Steven Halpern must be going OOPs as he released an article yesterday praising the Nuvifone and rated the stock a buy.

4. Revised revenues for 2008 see 3.9 billion instead of 4.5. Eps down to 4.13 from 4.40. COGS and SG&A have also increased by more than 25% each.

Should you short this ?? I think so in the long run, this is a short. In the short run… this just bonked 20%, it may recover a little with all the indicators pointing at oversold.

Many individuals think of debt consolidation as the only way out of loans. That is a bad approach. The first thing should be getting rid of every credit card. Security bonds like a health insurance should be retained.
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I got an email the other day introducing me to Global Agri-Med Technologies (GAGO). The ‘company’ manufacturers breast abnormality indicators in Chile and the U.K. I wish I could find a way to short this fraud and if one of you indeed does find a way, please tell me, I will pay you if you get me these shares. Anyway, this company is so blatantly a scam that it’s utterly hilarious. The worse part about it is I think they have already scammed 10 million out of people as the market cap is around this number. Now there are a billion reasons why this is a fraud, but here are just five of the most absurd and obvious.

1. The last time they filed their 10-k, the auditor gave them an unqualified opinion expressing doubt that the company can continue as a going concern.

2. The company just randomly changes its OTCBB stock ticker from GAGT to GAGO, its not even trading in another exchange so why the change???

3. The company has been in existence since 1999 and has 0 revenue. Sometimes this is expected of a medical company but it’s not like they have increased r&d to back this up. But as expected, stock is paid out as compensation for doing nothing.

4. The company has 2 employees, Roger Fidler and his wife Wanda Billet. I’m not sure how Roger Fidler, a lawyer, owns a medical device company?

5. This is the most hilarious of them all. Roger Fidler, as mentioned above is a lawyer that helped defend a couple who scammed investors into believing they had made a biohazard neutralizer. The gadget turned out to none other than a ‘brightly painted yellow two-drawer file cabinet with a red strobing light and siren attached to the top.’ The company’s stock went from .46 to 2.40 because of this scam and the couple originally plead guilty but then withdrew their guilty plea after meeting Roger. Roger is quoted as saying ‘These are people who wouldn’t know how to conduct a securities fraud if you put a gun to their heads, They are not Andrew Fastow.’

Heres the link

Well Roger looks like they might not be Andrew Fastow but you are and your scheme is no more complex and probably less successful than theirs

God I wish I could profit off dumbasses actually buying this shit.

I recommended this stock on June 6th at 17 link . Its at 23 now after a nice earnings report in which profits jumped 57% and the company raised guidance. The Olympics will help them beat this raised guidance since there will be more subway riders in Beijing.

Bidu posted second quarter earnings of 265 million or 38.6 million dollars. This was an 87 percent increase in quarterly profit. The stock subsequently rose 12% in after-hours and is up about 40 points since earnings. The company was able to do what Google wasn’t, beat expectations by 3.3 million. Forecasts are also inline with analyst expectations of 136 million.

I think it’s clear why Bidu is a great long-term investment. The company has a 63% market share of search in China while Google holds a 26% share. China as a whole, surpassed the United States for the most number of internet users 2 months ago with more than 221 million now online. Yet this 221 million is only 16% of the Chinese population, this average is below world average and shows the potential for increase in Chinese internet users. The USA has about 50% of its users online. Recently, Bidu’s Hao123 and Video Search have been gaining popularity and the company has branched off into Japan.

The Olympics are coming up in less than a month and Bidu has a lot to gain from the exposure Beijing will bring it. The company expects consumers to utilize its search engine for information regarding the games and has even set up a site 2008.baidu.com as an Olympic channel. The extra exposure will not only help the company gain more domestic users and revenue through advertisement, but also allow global investors to see the potential and undeniable influence of this search giant.

BTW for those who are looking for a quick play on the Olympics, ( I don’t think BIDU is really an Olympic ‘play’) here is an informative seekingalpha article on investing in the Beijing Olympics.

I came across an interesting video from my friends at ino.com (original link) that showed
why buying Apple Computer at the 149 range after the stock was down 10% afterhours was
not a big risk.