WSJ By The Numbers - Top 10 for Oct.25
Cable
Horror? Comcast Hopes So: Comcast and other major cable operators are
expected to have 8 million phone subscribers by the end of the year,
compared with fewer than 100,000 TV subscribers for major phone
companies.
Currently, Comcast has just fewer than 2 million phone customers, less than 5% of the 40 million or so homes reached by its networks. 88 million households are expected to be subscribing to the high-speed Internet service by the end of 2010, up from about 53 million today, according to Leichtman Research Group. Cable operators currently are getting about 45% of the new customers.
| As Shoplifters Use High-Tech Scams, Retail Losses Rise: Retail crime rose to about $37 billion in 2005 from $31 billion in 2003, according to a study conducted by the University of Florida, increasing almost twice as fast as retail sales over that period. Store employees, who have access to merchandise and familiarity with antitheft systems, account for 48% of retail-crime losses, according to the 2005 study. A National Retail Federation survey last year estimated that 70% of gift cards sold in eBay were fraudulently obtained, either through scams or purchased with stolen credit cards. | $37B Retail Theft |
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Amazon Net Drops, But Investors Turn Optimistic: Amazon expects sales for the holiday quarter to increase between 22% and 33%, to between $3.63 billion and $3.95 billion. Amazon forecast operating income of $145 million to $235 million, or between a 12% decline. |
$3.95B Amazon Holiday Sales |
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Thomson Nears Plan to Put Learning Unit on Block: In 2005, Thomson Learning produced $2.3 billion in revenue and operating income before taxes of $350 million. The business should be able to fetch more than 10 times its annual Ebitda, getting a potential sale price greater than $5 billion. |
$5B Thomson Learning on Sale |
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As Tuition Soars, Federal Aid To College Students Falls: The College Board's latest annual reports find that over the past five years tuition at public four-year universities has soared by a record-breaking 35% when adjusted for inflation. About 35% of the nation's 15.2 million undergraduates attend four-year public universities and about 16% go to four-year private schools, according to the College Board. About 41% attend two-year public schools, with most of the rest going to for-profit colleges, such as the University of Phoenix. About $12.7 billion in Pell Grants (federal grants for low-income students) were awarded for the 2005-2006 academic year, to about 5.4 million students. |
15.2M U.S. undergrads |
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More Cable Networks Decline Commercial-Ratings System: DVRs are expected to be in more than 18% of U.S. households with TV sets by the end of 2006.Broadcast networks ran between 14 and 16 minutes of commercials, promotions and public-service announcements each hour in prime time in 2005, while certain cable networks ran between 12 and 17 minutes of "non-program minutes." according to a study of "clutter" by MindShare. Cable TV ad spending exceeded $15 billion in 2005, according to TNS Media Intelligence. |
18% DVR penetration |
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Sam's Club Adds Glitz to Holiday Ads: Sam's Club's 47 million U.S. customers have an average household income of slightly more than $60,000 this year and is steadily rising. Sam's Club operates 574 clubs with nearly $41 billion in cumulative revenue. Costco Wholesale, the industry's leading operator, has 488 clubs and $60.2 billion in sales in its latest fiscal year. BJ's Wholesale Club, the distant No. 3 operator has 166 clubs and $8 billion in annual revenue. |
47M Sam's Club Customers |
| U.S. M&A: Announced M&A activity for U.S. targets is up 15% year-to-year at over $1 trillion, according to Dealogic. The U.S. M&A activity during 2000 peaked to $1.5 trillion. Tech is leading the activity in terms of deals with 1,137 for $107 billion so far this year while Telecoms lead in terms of deal value at over $163 billion in 317 deals. | $107B Tech M&A |
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In Culture Shift, Japan Managers Warm to Buyouts: So far this year in Japan, 53 management buyout deals valued at a total $3.2 billion have been announced, according Thomson Financial. Those figures pale in comparison to the U.S., where 112 MBOs valued at $63 billion have been announced this year. But Japan's management-buyout market is much larger than those in other large countries, like Germany, where there have been 33 announced MBO deals totaling $59 million this year. |
$63B US MBOs |
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WSJ By The Numbers - Metrics 2.0 |
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