Mega Uranium and STEC

Unfortunately I own both of them.

STEC is being acquired by Western Digital (bought at around $13 and I will get some $6, should be grateful as the last price was around $4) and Mega is changing its' name to Uranium Capital Corporation as it was nothing mega about a penny stock worth $0.08/share down from the $3 I bought at and from a maximum of $7.4 in 2007.

The name change won't make any difference like in this case From Olympus Pacific Minerals to Besra.
The stock dropped -75% from when they changed the name. It is now $0.055 and yes I own this one too.

UPDATE:
"TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

We have been informed that the merger between sTec Inc. and Western Digital Corporation is effective. As a result, holders will receive approximately $6.85 USD for each common share of sTec Inc. held."

I cannot be bothered to check the exact purchase price, it was around $13 but it does not matter as the stock was in a registered account. And what is this sTec starting with a small letter? They just wanted to be more interesting.

How BlackBerry (RIM) Failed to Adapt

Today I have read an interesting article in the Globe and Mail: Inside the fall of BlackBerry: How the smartphone inventor failed to adapt

Very sad for everyone who works there and for shareholders like me also. I mean like me because I bought at $120 and $55 and $13.

Not so sad for Thorsten Heins: Thorsten Heins' "Punishment" For Destroying BlackBerry: A $55 Million Golden Parachute

And some other executives will get nice packages if the company is sold and the new owner fires them.

I was curious to see the ad they mentioned in the article:

"The marketing campaign was confusing and vague: An ad that ran during the Super Bowl failed to explain what made the product distinct. A source close to the board said directors weren’t shown the ad before it ran, and some didn’t understand the content or the slogan, “Keep Moving.” 

Neither I liked it nor I understood it.

Will Z30 start the revival of BB or perhaps it is only a swan song?

http://crackberry.com/blackberry-z30-unboxing-video

and

My TFSA Anti-bragging Story

And the stories behind the ill-fated purchases:

BIOEXX www.theskepticalinvestor.net/2013/06/protein-for-world.html

CELM www.theskepticalinvestor.net/2012/11/no-more-chinese-companies.html

EGL www.theskepticalinvestor.net/2012/12/the-eagle-that-turned-out-to-be-turkey_20.html

HYX recommandation from beatingtheindex.com, I mean Mich the guy behind the site put the money where his mouth is and bought it himself so no hard feelings here, only the facts

REM I read somewhere about it

XHY, XSB, XRB I bought bonds as I'd thought they are safer than stocks, it doesn't seem so

LONGTOP www.theskepticalinvestor.net/2012/11/no-more-chinese-companies.html

MQL same as HYX

MKP If the people pay their mortgages I should be doing o.k. and they seem to be paying them, don't know why the stock is down

PDL Doctor Stock from www.investinthemarkets.com

PBR In 2009 the stock was $51, how much could it go lower especially as the price of oil has gone up in the past 4 years? But it did.

RWX my love affair with real estate

TMC same as MKP

Steve Ballmer's Last Stand

"From: Steve Ballmer

To: MS FTEs
Date: Sep. 2, 8:00 PM PDT (Sep. 3, 6:00 AM EET)
Subject: Accelerating Growth

We announced some exciting news today: We have entered into an agreement to purchase Nokia’s Devices & Services business, which includes their smartphone and mobile phone businesses, their award-winning design team, manufacturing and assembly facilities around the world, and teams devoted to operations, sales, marketing and support. ....."

Reuters: "Two years after hitching its fate to Microsoft's Windows Phone software, Nokia collapsed into the arms of the  U.S. software giant on Tuesday, agreeing to sell its main handset business for $7.2 billion....
Nokia's Canadian boss Stephen Elop, who ran Microsoft's business software division before jumping to Nokia in 2010, will return to the U.S. firm as head of its mobile devices business - a Trojan horse, according to disgruntled Finnish media."

I bought Microsoft and Nokia around 2 years ago. Haven't sold any MSFT but sold 75% of NOK until last week. Today Tuesday 3 September, MSFT is -6% and NOK +30%. I cannot catch a break.

MSFT went up 7% when Ballmer announced his resignation. "So you are happy I am leaving!" said Ballmer to the investors. "He who laughs last, laughs best." added he. And the stock went down 5% after he announced MSFT would buy Nokia phone business. 

I dream all day and night about someone, anyone, buying Blackberry (formerly Research in Motion).

I have no hope I will get back the $120 I bought it at long time ago or even the $65 my wife bought it at, but I think in my loser's opinion around $25 for a share would be a fair price.

So who could buy Blackberry, just my list:

• the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim who owns America Movil

• a billionaire from China

• a billionaire from India

• Facebook 

• Amazon

• someone, anyone.

Carl Icahn's Tweets Boost Aple Stock

I am very pleased with Mr. Icahn's tweets.

Both of us could make a very good team. I would be the one who Single-Handedly Stopped Apple! and he would increase the stock at the right moment after he has loaded with the shares that I have driven down.

Initially I wanted to send Mr. Icahn the postcard I sent to Apple as they would listen to him if he would care to pass on my message but how many postcards shall I send?

An email would suffice not that anyone would read it either (even fewer chance to be read than a postcard).

Starbucks +7.61%

They had 'silly numbers' as an analyst commented their latest results.

Starbucks Corporation (SBUX)' third-quarter operating income increased 25% to $615.2 million, or $0.55 per share. Total sales jumped 13% to $3.7 billion. Global comparable-store sales increased 8%, with 7% of that made up of all-important traffic growth. Lower costs, for example for coffee, also fed into the cafe giant's improved profitability.

More and more people buy the overpriced, bitter and burnt Starbucks coffee.
And sometime last year I could see the potential of Starbucks; the recession was over, most people were safe about their jobs so let's enjoy life as they could.

My strategy was to double my position in Starbucks in small steps until the price hit around $70. And once the stock got to $100 I would have sold half of it. So I started buying at around $55-60, increased my position by 20% and all the sudden the stock started sliding and got dangerously close to my average price of $47. I could not stomach any longer and started selling back what I had acquired recently until I had the same number of shares I started with before I had decided on the 'strategy' of doubling SBUX,

And now the stock is $73!

Postcard to Apple Investor Relations

"We were in an Apple store shortly after the iPhone 5 was released and heard a Genius Bar employee tell a customer that the iPhone 5 should have been bigger. This is clearly something some people want. " from 'Sweeping changes' coming to Apple stores


The following is what I wrote in the postcard and a few other things that did not fit:

***

I am an Apple shareholder so I am allowed to send suggestion :).

1. iPhone with a bigger screen and a very powerful processor. It will have MacOS installed as well that will be used for a ‘device’ (display + keyboard) plugged to the phone. No need to carry a smartphone and a notebook.

'The notebook is dead, long live the notebook!'

2. Apple to buy www.britannica.com and provide free access to anyone with an Apple device (Wikipedia is the 6th most visited website, so you can see what I am getting at).

3. Buy the rights to everything that BBC produces, and any old American and foreign movies that are not expensive and set up a website where they can be accessed from anywhere in the world again free of charge for anyone who uses an Apple device.

4. I can borrow DVDs from my library to watch movies. I wonder whether they would be allowed to digitize them so I can watch the DVD online that would be a better experience (sometimes the DVD does not work due to its overuse I suppose). Watching the DVD online would involve checking it out and in - only one 'library card' watching the movie - so it would be a similar process to borrowing the physical item.
Apple would provide the 'equipment' to quickly digitize the DVDs with the condition that for a certain period of time only users with an Apple device to be able to watch them.

***

Initially I wanted to use this photo, an apple cocktail tree (multiple apple varieties on the same tree) but the photo was not to clear and anyway too much of a cliche.

So I went for this photo taken when I was in Whistler, BC, Canada. It is July and Investor Relations receive a winter postcard. It would keep them cool looking at it.

I was thinking to send the same postcard to one of the top institutional holders of Apple but no point in doing it.

UPDATE: sent an e-mail with my ideas (I know, everyone has ideas) to Northern Trust Corporation and Invesco just not to say I have not done it. Apple would not listen to me but perhaps they might listen to some of their major shareholders.

Top Institutional Holders

Holder	Shares	% Out	Value*	Reported
Vanguard Group, Inc. (The)	43,247,824	4.61	19,144,081,771	Mar 31, 2013
State Street Corporation	37,194,631	3.96	16,464,575,358	Mar 31, 2013
FMR, LLC	34,747,682	3.70	15,381,408,914	Mar 31, 2013
BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A.	25,668,431	2.73	11,362,387,666	Mar 31, 2013
Northern Trust Corporation	13,848,715	1.48	6,130,272,181	Mar 31, 2013
JP Morgan Chase & Company	13,551,257	1.44	5,998,599,423	Mar 31, 2013
Bank of New York Mellon Corporation	12,562,591	1.34	5,560,956,532	Mar 31, 2013
Invesco Ltd.	12,307,498	1.31	5,448,037,064	Mar 31, 2013
Susquehanna International Group, LLP	12,059,221	1.28	5,338,134,767	Mar 31, 2013
Price (T.Rowe) Associates Inc	11,659,713	1.24	5,161,288,556	Mar 31, 2013