Shares of Sirius XM Radio (SIRI) are up 12 cents, or almost 10%, at $1.44, after Howard Stern said on his morning show he has signed a five-year deal to remain with the broadcaster.
Deals for Stern’s cast and crew have not been signed, but Stern said he expected those deals [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

A couple bits this morning in Apple (AAPL) product news:
AppleInsider reports this morning that Radio Shack (RSH) is offering $50 off all current iPhone models through December 11th, and is offering credits of $75 and $125 for toward purchase of a new phone with a trade in of a working [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

As many of you may be aware, some of us intimately, each year Paul Tudor Jones holds a Christmas spectacular on his front lawn in Greenwich, Connecticut. Open to the public, it’s become a favorite event for children and adults of all ages, far and wide. After being forced to cancel his Halloween extravaganza this year, as a result of neighbors who lack any heart, some worried that PTJ’s Christmas show would suffer the same fate. Well worry no longer. This thing is on, and that’s not all.

According to Greenwich Time, “the display is expected to rival those of past years.” Considering that in “past years,” the display has included upwards of 36,000 lights, little drummer boy dances synchronized to music that people can listen to on the radio as they pull up to the house, one wonders what PTJ could to do to top himself. Will the ladies of Beamers be performing as Rockettes on the front lawn? Will every onlooker get a free bucket of chicken? Will a Santa suit-wearing PTJ allow guests to bounce on his knee? These are the things we need answers to.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Barclays Capital analyst Michael Lasser this morning cut his rating on Radio Shack (RSH) to Equal Weight from Overweight, while trimming his price target on the retail chain to $22, from $26.
“While we believe RSH has a very attractive long-term investment story and management is taking a number of prudent [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

Apple (AAPL) will start selling the iPhone through Target (TGT) stores, according to the blog Apple Insider. Target recently began selling the iPad at its stores nationwide.
The post notes that Target is in the process of adding mobile phone centers in 850 of its 1,743 stores in partnership with Radio [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

Howard Stern told listeners to his Sirius XM (SIRI) radio show this morning that he is “pretty sure” he will leave the satellite radio business when his contract expires at the end of the year, according to the blog Orbitcast.
Stern also reportedly said it he not considering leaving the radio [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

Maxim Group analyst John Tinker this morning launched coverage of Sirius XM (SIRI) with a Buy rating and a $1.40 price target.
“We believe that Siriuis XM is the Amazon.com of the radio space,” Tinker writes in a research note. “Sirius XM improves upon local radio with 130 channels and a [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

Blackstone Group and TPG Capital are not likely to continue to pursue a possible bid for Radio Shack (RSH), Reuters says, citing “two sources familiar with the situation.”The two firms had reportedly been working together on a possible offer.
The story also says that Bain Capital had been interested in bidding [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

True or false: all the Apple/iPhone craziness has left you confused re: how to play this trade. You don’t know which analysts to trust and what you could really use is a sober voice of reason to tell you what to do. Well, today’s your lucky day. Rush Limbaugh has decided to share his formidable market savvy with the masses.

Limbaugh launched a passionate defense of Apple and its iPhone 4 on his syndicated radio program Thursday, saying he “had no reception problems” with the one he recently purchased. Limbaugh argues that if there were serious problems with the phone, we’d be hearing from thousands, maybe millions, of consumers experiencing dropped calls. Instead, the talk show host blames the Obama administration, a liberal media, and Sen. “Chuck you” Schumer, for as he puts it – attacking Apple because it’s become too successful. “I know a shakedown when I see it,” he told his radio audience. Limbaugh calls the loss of market cap in Apple shares “a buy opportunity”.

So there you have it, ladies. And for those of you foaming at the mouth for more of Limbaugh’s wisdom, you’ll be pleased to hear we have it on good authority the newly-minted stock picker has plans to keep this up, though it will be mostly relegated to the sector in which he has the most experience, Big Pharma.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

A big chunk of the new wireless broadband spectrum that President Obama wants to make available in the next five years would come from television broadcasters, who will be asked to give up radio spectrum slots for which they have fought and paid so that wireless data carriers can use them mostly for mobile Internet access instead.

The proposal would nearly double the available amount of bandwidth for wireless broadband, from today’s 547 megahertz to about 1,000 megahertz. (Don’t confuse these megahertz of bandwidth, which counts the amount of the radio dial allocated to Internet access, with the megabits used to measure throughput speed of a connection. “Bandwidth” is a popular misnomer for connection speed rather than actual wireless radio band width.)

Obama’s Presidential memorandum issued today, “Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution,” could just as well be called, “Taking Back Lots of Wireless Spectrum Assignments.” Obama’s proposal is based on the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, a wonky but pragmatic proposal to reassign 300 megahertz’ worth of bandwidth between now and 2015.

The Obama administration wants to make a full 500 megahertz of bandwidth available for auction to companies that would use it for wireless broadband data connections for consumers and possibly first-responder networks. About 120 megahertz would come from broadcast TV. Administration officials told The New York Times that around 45 percent, or 225 megahertz, would come from various government spectrum blocks that are used lightly or not at all.

The FCC’s plan comes with a footnote: “Timing and quantity depends on Congressional action to grant incentive auction authority as well as voluntary participation of broadcasters in an auction.” Broadcasters, represented by the National Association of Broadcasters, may not be too voluntary about participating. They’ve complained that the government’s most recent spectrum auctions took parts of the airwaves that had been reclaimed by disabling traditional analog TV broadcasts, and sold these radio frequencies to buyers who are now “warehousing” it, i.e. letting it lie idle rather than developing new consumer services. An NAB spokesman told The New York Times that broadcasters hope “further reclamation of broadcast television spectrum will be completely voluntary.”

Tags: broadband

Companies: FCC

People: Barack Obama

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » MediaBeat