11 Nov 10. Tech bellwether Cisco Systems (CSCO.O) lost 17.3 percent of its market value in frenzied trading on Thursday, a day after a gloomy revenue outlook left investors jittery, and some brokerages downgraded the stock. More than $23.5bn eroded from the company’s market cap with about 370 million shares changing hands by 1240 ET — more than 7 times their 50-day moving average volume. About 200 million shares were traded in the first half hour after opening. If the Dow component closes with this percentage loss, it would be the worst one-day percentage fall for the shares since July 1994, when they fell 17.71 percent on a profit warning, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream. Cisco dragged down the broader market, sparking a selloff in technology stocks, including rivals Juniper Networks (JNPR.N), F5 Networks (FFIV.O), Riverbed Technology (RVBD.O) and Jabil Circuit (JBL.N). At least three brokerages lowered their ratings and eight others cut their price targets on the shares of the company, which said weak spending by its public sector customers and soft orders from its cable segment hurt its results. The disappointing forecast comes a quarter after Cisco warned of an uncertain economy, but led industry watchers to speculate if the weakness was in Cisco’s business alone, given its high exposure to the public sector, which has been hemmed in by debt. In an interview with CNBC on Thursday morning, Cisco Chief Executive John Chambers said the shortfall is not a “call on the economy in any way,” adding that the world’s top manufacturer of routers and switches did not see any unusual price competition. Brokerage Stifel Nicolaus said in a note to clients: “While we believe that the
public sector issue is likely to impact Cisco’s peers too, Cisco probably has bigger exposure to that market than some competitors.”
Juniper, F5 Networks and Riverbed had forecast upbeat growth prospects while reporting quarterly results recently.
“We consider the weakness at least in part a function of (market) share loss rather than a soft macro,” said Barclays Capital. (Source: Reuters)
07 Nov 10. The Sunday Times reported that Manroy, the East Sussex-based armaments Company which Glyn Bottomely’s AEI Group purchased 51% in 2008, will float on the AIM, with a value of £12m, by Arbuthnot Securities. The Company, which had a turnover of £12m and 32.5m pre-tax aims to enter new markets such as bolt action rifles and pistols. Hurlingham is buying Manroy, an East Sussex-based manufacturer of machine guns, gun mounts and other related products that has supplied Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) for the last 26 years. Manroy’s flagship product is the heavy machine gun (HMG), which can be fitted to many types of light and heavy armoured vehicles, patrol boats, helicopters and aircraft and has been used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hurlingham plans to raise the cash by issuing new shares in the enlarged company, which will be renamed Manroy Group and listed on AIM. It hopes to use the money to increase the number of products that the group sells and to expand it into new regions. The group’s adviser is Arbuthnot. Hurlingham’s chairman Andrew Blurton said Manroy was an established, profitable and cash-generative business with good expansion prospects and relatively few rivals.“We are very pleased to have identified this opportunity,” he said. (Source: The Sunday Times)
12 Nov 10. DCNS and Navantia have put an end to their disagreement concerning their submarine collaboration. As a result, the arbitration procedure between them will be terminated. Scorpene submarines will from now on be built and marketed by DCNS. Similarly, S80 submarines will be built and marketed by Navantia. Neither party will make any further comments.
09 Nov 10. Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) announced today the results of the cash tender offers for any and all of an aggregate $1.919bn of Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (NGSC) debt securities (Notes) on the t