News & Media by Category

“I think there probably are other banks that would be interested in looking at First California,” Gladue said, noting the attractive markets where that the bank operates. He pointed to companies like Irvine, Calif.-based Opus Bank; Los Angeles-based City National Corp.; and Los Angeles-based Grandpoint Capital Inc. as potential bidders.

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“Clearly with Green Mountain’s stock sell-off last week, Stiller had margin calls against his position,” B Riley & Co analyst Conrad Lyon said.

“And to satisfy those calls he has been selling his holdings in not only Green Mountain, but in Krispy Kreme (as well).”

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Eric Wold, analyst with B. Riley & Co. in Los Angeles, said Redbox would rather receive the discs directly from the studios as opposed to through a retail workaround program. He said the proposed 56-day delay was too long for Redbox even with the improved wholesale disc costs. The analyst said Redbox’s most recent financial results underscore the reality that it can operate profitably with a workaround. The fact Redbox is willing to talk to Warner should be considered more than a goodwill gesture, according to Wold, who always believed Warner would be the real loser if Redbox decided to go with a workaround program as it would lose a major distribution channel for their direct-to-video productions as well as any movies that did not fare so well theatrically.

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Sameet Sinha, an analyst at B. Riley & Company, expects Groupon’s take rate to decline as merchants push for more favorable terms.

Google Inc (GOOG) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN), which have rival daily deal businesses, are likely offering a bigger cut to merchants and may be paying them more quickly, the analyst added.

Over time, if Groupon is forced to offer better terms, its accrued merchant payables may decline, cutting what has been an important source of cash that the company has used to fund rapid expansion, Sinha and other analysts said.

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Yahoo’s CEO resume circus keeps getting more ridiculous. But the real joke is the company’s beleaguered board of directors, say analysts.

The Web portal announced on Tuesday (May 8) that it has formed a special committee to review CEO Scott Thompson’s hiring in light of the raging controversy surrounding a false degree listed on his resume. Comprising the committee are newly minted board members Alfred Amoroso, John Hayes and Thomas McInerney. And according to AllthingsD.com, Patti Hart, the Yahoo director who vetted Thompson during his hiring process, is apparently leaving the company.

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Groupon knows “that there’s a limit to the daily deals business,” Sameet Sinha, an analyst at B. Riley & Company, tells Reuters. “If they want to keep growing, they need to provide a lot more tools for merchants to show them the efficacy of these deals.“

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Web.com Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:WWWW) announced the launch of a secondary public offering of 8 million shares of its common stock. All of the shares in the offering are being sold by existing shareholders of Web.com. No shares are being sold by the company in this offering, and Web.com will not receive any proceeds from the sale of common stock by the selling shareholders. In addition, the selling shareholders will grant the underwriters of the offering an option to purchase up to an additional 1.2 million shares from the selling shareholders.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. are the joint book-running managers of the offering. SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., FBR Capital Markets & Co., Piper Jaffray & Co., Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Roth Capital Partners, LLC, B Riley & Co., LLC, and Craig-Hallum Capital Group are acting as co-managers of this offering.

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B. Riley & Co.’s Sameet Sinha today raised his rating on the shares of Groupon (GRPN) to Neutral from Sell after the shares last week fell below his prior $13 price target, even though he cut that target today to just $10.60.

“GRPN has been in the eye of the storm since before the IPO. Even after the IPO, the company has had a rough ride beset with controversy culminating in the revision to 4Q11 results,” writes Sinha, referring to the company’s April 2nd announcement it would revise its reported revenue and profit for Q4 to account for what it found to be “insufficient controls over financial reporting.

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Steve Madden might just be the King Midas of retail. Even last month’s bankruptcy filing of Betsey Johnson, whose trademark Steve Madden Ltd. acquired two years ago, is working to the shoe seller’s advantage.

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Steve Madden might just be the King Midas of retail. Even last month’s bankruptcy filing of Betsey Johnson, whose trademark Steve Madden Ltd. acquired two years ago, is working to the shoe seller’s advantage.  “They’ve really put themselves in a position to grow and to benefit from the acquisitions they’ve made,” said Jeff Van Sinderen, a retail analyst at B. Riley & Co.

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While the market for surf and skate retail is crowded, retail analyst Jeff Van Sinderen said Tilly’s offers this market something unique. “Tilly’s has a real girls’ business,” said Van Sinderen, an analyst with B.Riley& Co. “It’s truly dual-gender.” For Tilly’s rivals Pacific Sunwear and Zumiez, young men’s fashions make up the majority of their merchandise mix.

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MMRGlobal, Inc. announced that it has retained B. Riley & Co., LLC (“B. Riley”) www.brileyco.com, a leading independent investment bank, to serve as financial advisors to the Company in connection with a sale and/or merger involving the Company’s Personal Health Record (“PHR”) and other Health IT products and services and related assets including patents and intellectual property.  Additionally, B. Riley will explore opportunities for the sale of the Company’s biotech-related assets which include patents, patient samples, anti-CD20 antibodies and other IP.  B. Riley & Co., headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in San Francisco, New York and Newport Beach, provides a full array of corporate finance, research, sales and trading services.

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B. Riley & Co. analyst Eric Wold said the $76.4 million in operating income — compared to $23.7 million a year ago — speaks to how well Redbox’s workaround program is working. He said he wouldn’t be surprised if Warner came back to the negotiating table.

“With the workaround, Redbox is able to buy the titles it wants in the quantities it wants without having to stock the underperforming direct-to-video titles that Warner needs to monetize,” he said. “And getting the DVDs into the kiosks within 7 days helps to drive increased rental turns compared to the prior 28 day availability, which helps to further monetize the higher acquisition costs.

“All in all, Redbox management has learned significantly from the initial workaround attempts two years ago and is proving they can be successful, and I think they will continue to learn and improve.”

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Sagan, 53, has been with Akamai for almost 14 years, helping the company become less dependent on its content- delivery network business, which was becoming commoditized. He acquired companies to add services and products that would differentiate Akamai from competitors, said Sameet Sinha, an analyst at B. Riley & Co. in San Francisco.

“They’re positioning themselves as a cloud-computing applications-services provider, while their competitors just sell core CDN,” Sinha said. “Paul has been around a long time in a tough industry.”

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Eckert said that the company’s first-quarter common-stock dividend of 43 cents per share — 4 cents per share more than his estimate — suggests that first-quarter earnings also came in ahead of his estimates. He conceded that some of the suggested upside was from asset sales but believes prepayments were slower than expected.

The analyst remains concerned about prepayment speeds in the near term, but he said that given record low levels of mortgage coupons and delays in implementing HARP 2.0, he believes the increases in longer-term rates that he is forecasting for the second half of 2012 and in 2013 will provide more margin relief than modeled previously.

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B. Riley & Co. served as co-manager in $118,800,000 million public offering for Firsthand Technology Value Fund Inc. (NASDAQ: SVVC) representing 4,400,000 shares of common stock at $27.00 per share. Additionally, SVVC has granted the underwriters, led by Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. and National Securities Corporation, an option for 30 days to purchase up to an additional 660,000 shares of common stock.

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B. Riley analyst Sameet Sinha said proxy fights­—when investors try to use their clout to get public companies to take specific actions—are “inevitable” for Web 1.0 firms like AOL and Yahoo that have valuable assets but slow-moving management.

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B. Riley & Co.‘s Eric Wold today reiterates a Neutral rating on the stock, writing that revenue will be a bit higher, but the loss a bit deeper, predicting $869 million and negative 28 cents a share.

The street is focused on net subscriber growth, he thinks, after all the brouhaha last year over losing subscribers. That expectation “we believe will be met [but] at the expense of revenues and margins,” writes Wold. “[We] see more risk to the downside than upside potential.”

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Some investors and analysts dismiss corporate governance concerns. The bank made the loans at market rates and they were approved by the board, Joe Gladue, an analyst with B. Riley & Co. said in a telephone interview.

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Sameet Sinha, B. Riley & Co.: Reiterates a Buy rating and a $20 price target. Sinha liked the stronger-than-expected results in search, the discipline on operating expenses, the quarter-over-quarter 1% growth outlook, and the mention on the call that “conversations with Alibaba are ongoing” regarding how to monetize Yahoo!’s stake in its Asian assets. He wasn’t entirely satisfied by the strategy laid out, however: “We were waiting for more details around the plans for the company formulated by the new CEO. Management did provide some details but were short on specifics. Understandably, management cannot open the kimono here but some additional thoughts would have been helpful.” Sinha raised his 2012 Ebitda estimate to $1.77 billion from $1.68 billion, and raised his 2013 estimate to $1.93 billion from $1.86 billion.

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Target: $20. The new CEO has embarked on a substantial reworking of the company. Most of the value in the company is in its Asian assets, [which will create opportunities] in the turnaround of the core [search and display ad] businesses.

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B Riley – With the appointment of Scott Thompson as CEO, the prospect of an outright sale of YHOO has diminished, and investors are looking for Scott’s vision and plan for the company… Clearly fundamentals are not the driver for YHOO’s stock price. Investors are looking to hear Scott Thompon’s strategic plan for the company and get an update on the continued discussion on the sale of Asian assets.

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The campaign is designed to compete with studio efforts to impose longer embargoes on new release titles into physical rental channels, including kiosks. Warner Home Video recently doubled from 28 days the delay of new release discs to Netflix. Redbox, in turn, has implemented a workaround program for embargoed titles – a program B. Riley & Co. analyst Eric Wold said is working to ensure street date availability for most titles.

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Google (GOOG) late Thursday reported another big jump in profit and sales — and a second consecutive quarter of declines for a key metric called cost per click.

A falling CPC — the amount advertisers pay per ad click — seems out of place with 24% revenue growth and 25% EPS growth. But analysts expect that trend to continue — which many see as no problem.

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Yardi Systems, Inc. (“Yardi”), a leading provider of real estate investment management and property management software, has acquired Lead Tracking Solutions (“LTS”).  LTS is the creator of PopCardTM, a patented and complete lead tracking and lead management software solution.

B. Riley served as exclusive financial advisor and initiated, structured and negotiated the transaction on behalf of Lead Tracking Solutions in its acquisition by Yardi.  B. Riley’s banking team was led by Managing Director Paul Donnelly and Senior Vice President Adam Little.

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Google Inc. GOOG +2.37% unveiled a 2-for-1 stock split designed to assuage investors while also allowing its founders to maintain their control over the company.

The Internet giant said Thursday it would create a third class of stock, nonvoting shares that would be separately listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Current investors would receive one share of the nonvoting stock for each share they now hold.

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“If they come out and say that mobile CPCs have moved up significantly since 2011 then we could see the stock run, because that means that even if this quarter comes in-line, you could see numbers move up for the entire year,” said Sameet Sinha, an analyst with B. Riley & Co.

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“Yahoo was just a complex mess in terms of reporting structures,” said Sameet Sinha, an equity analyst with B. Riley & Co. “Scott’s just saying, ‘Let’s take it apart.’ “

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Mike Crawford, an equity analyst at B. Riley & Co., said the company is so undervalued in the stock market that it could also make a reasonably-priced acquisition for an interested buyer.

“The market is betting that there’s going to be a decline in value here rather than any value creation, and to me it looks a little too Draconian,” he said.

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While early reports have indicated high demand for the program, only a few mortgage REITs may have seen an impact from HARP so far, analysts said. B. Riley & Co. analyst Rich Eckert told SNL that some managers have noted elevated prepayment speeds as a result of HARP, while others said they have not yet experienced its effects. Still, the program is at the early stages of implementation, and should ramp up in the second quarter, he said.

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Analyst Eric Wold with B. Riley & Co. in Los Angeles added TiVo to his “focus list” after determining the service could generate greater-than-projected subscriber gains following license deals with Virgin Media and other multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs).

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SEC looking into Groupon's financial restatement, report says Groupon shares tumble after revision reduces 4th-quarter sales

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into Groupon Inc.'s revision of its financial results, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday night.

The story, which cited an unidentified person familiar with the situation, said the probe was in the preliminary stages and the financial regulator had not yet decided whether it would launch a formal investigation into the matter.

A representative for Groupon declined to comment on the report, and the SEC was not immediately available for Continue Reading >

“We actually believe we saw some interesting evidence of Redbox’s ability to get enough Warner Bros. titles into the kiosks using the workaround program,” Wold wrote in an April 2 note. “Given that Redbox’s average revenue per kiosk increased by 17% during Q4 with only a partial benefit of the 20% price increase taken during that quarter, we actually see the potential for upside to our assumptions.”

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B Riley & Co.’s Sameet Sinha reiterated a Sell rating on the shares, writing that “Admittedly, GRPN has grown at a blistering rate and systems always have trouble keeping pace,” but that, “it also seems the terminal guidance provided by the company does not hold true and growth rates and margins will be lower than promised during the IPO.”

Sinha cut his estimate for this year to $2.19 billion in revenue and a loss of 11 cents a share from a prior $2.23 billion and 10 cents profit.

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B. Riley & Co. LLC announced the addition of Signature Group Holdings Inc. (OTCQX: SGGH), a diversified business and financial services enterprise focused on acquiring controlling stakes in operating subsidiaries and providing lending solutions to middle-market companies, to its roster of sponsored companies for the OTCQX marketplace.

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The U.S. Treasury will end up with a loss of about $60 million from its January 2009 bailout of Central Pacific Bank, Hawaii’s fourth-largest bank.

The Treasury, through its Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, provided Central Pacific with a $135 million financial lifeline in the midst of the recession but will be collecting only about $74 million from selling its Central Pacific stock. The Treasury plans to sell the last of its Central Pacific shares today.

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Few phrases spook investors more than an “internal review” of the accounting variety, but B Riley doubts SABA’s delayed F3Q results because of that concern much more than when beancounters recognized some transactions.

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Eric Wold, analyst with B. Riley & Co. in Los Angeles, isn’t so sure about the Netflix connection.  Indeed, “Mad Men” had a built-in core audience hungry for new episodes from the critically acclaimed series when contract talks stalled. While the typical Netflix subscriber fits the demo associated with “Mad Men,” it is probably safe to assume most members had already seen past episodes before they became available for streaming.

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EarthLink stock is “mispriced” argues Michael Crawford, a special-situations analyst who covers deeply discounted or distressed companies at B. Riley, in a recent note. “Results, in fact, are heating up.”

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B. Riley analyst Eric Wold says that while the counterclaim “could pressure (TiVo’s) litigation expenses, we believe it is well worth the investment given past success rates and settlement amounts.” TiVo wants a jury trial, and payments from Motorola and Time Warner Cable for “compensatory damages.” The cable company won’t say yet what it thinks about the case, or how it will respond.

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B. Riley analyst Eric Wold notes that two weeks ago he raised his earnings estimates for Regal, Cinemark and Carmike assuming that overall box office sales for the quarter would be about +14%. “It now seems as though we were overly conservative,” he says. He estimates that Regal’s earnings per share in the quarter could hit 16 cents (vs. the consensus estimate of 8 cents), with Cinemark poised for 33 cents (vs. 26 cents forecasts), and Carmike at 28 cents (vs. 21 cents).

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B. Riley analyst Bill Ong picked up coverage of the LED lighting sector with a generally bullish outlook. He starts Veeco, Aixtron and Cree with Buy ratings, while starting Rubicon with a Neutral.

Here are some of the details on his call:

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“While some may not have expected any major issues to come from this complaint filed by MSFT, we believe that any outstanding litigation (especially from someone as powerful as MSFT) could be a deterrent to any company potentially looking to acquire TiVo,” he writes. “Removing this cloud could potentially move any decision closer to the goal line.”

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In Manhattan, Umami will face “really strong competitors” that charge under $10 for a burger, said Conrad Lyon, a senior equity analyst in Los Angeles for B Riley & Co. There are scores of them, including New York Burger Co. and J.G. Melon.

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Eric Wold, of B. Riley & Co., told TheWrap that he gives the company’s shares a “sell,” based on concerns of increasing competition in the large-screen arena.  Although he acknowledged that “this year, they’ve got a great slate,” he noted that some movie theater chains, like Cinemark and Regal, have developed their own large-screen formats.

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Facebook’s future research budget may hinge on the company getting a better idea of what areas it needs to focus on, said Sameet Sinha, an analyst with B. Riley & Co. For example, if it decides to pursue e-commerce more aggressively, that would put it in more competition with Amazon.com Inc.

“Once they decide what’s going on, what’s going to be important for them, I think they will intensify their R&D efforts,” he said.

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Overall, though Wall Street hasn’t always embraced American Eagle – there’s persistent hesitation about the merchandising mix of all retailers that cater to notoriously fickle teens – analysts are getting increasingly constructive about new management, which will be meeting with Wall Street this week, and with the company’s new commitment to pursuing fashion, keeping inventories lean, and easing away from promotion.

“The American Eagle brand is extremely strong and relevant and the enhanced management team is positioning the company to leverage that strength,” B. Riley & Co. says in a recent research note.

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“Yahoo has some 700 million visitors per month,” said Sameet Sinha, an analyst at B. Riley & Company. “It’s a matter of figuring out how to properly monetize them.”

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After Comcast last month bowed Xfinity Streampix, a bundled and standalone SVOD platform (with limited content), Hastings singled out the offering as a direct threat. When Reuters March 6 reported the CEO was in discussions with select cable operators, the drums of encroaching SVOD competition appeared stronger.

“I think the threat is real,” said Eric Wold, analyst with B. Riley & Co. in Los Angeles.

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On a related note, B.Riley & Co. chip analyst Mike Crawford today reiterated a Buy rating on shares of Silicon Motion Technology (SIMO), noting that the company may benefit from further sales of its 4G chip to Samsung Electronics (005930KS), which has already used the part in several phones.

He thinks Samsung likes nurturing SIMO in order not to be beholden to Qualcomm:

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While going public with debt is unusual for a Web company, the move by itself might not damp demand for Facebook shares, B. Riley & Co analyst Sameet Sinha said.

“The demand for Facebook’s stock is going to be so high that I think most investors are just going to overlook this aspect,” said Sinha, who is based in San Francisco. “I don’t see it impacting the overall valuation.”

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Eric Wold, analyst with B. Riley & Co. in Los Angeles, said the new deal should ease investor concerns regarding Redbox having to expand its workaround strategy to another studio beyond Warner Home Video.

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Eric Wold, analyst with B. Riley & Co. in Los Angeles, has questioned the necessity of a digital initiative, given Redbox’s market dominance in kiosk rentals — a market he believes shows no signs of slowing. Wold is less concerned about the workaround program. He also says accelerated Blockbuster store closures could generate as much as $100 million in annual revenue for Redbox given that it operates about four kiosks within a five-minute drive of all 1,500 Blockbuster stores.

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B. Riley analyst Joe Gladue said in a recent interviewthat there is still room for consolidation in the Puerto Rico market and that a logical combination would beFirst Bancorp(FBP_) with Doral, since First Bancorp has completed a recapitalization, but “one thing they don’t have is a big mortgage origination platform, which Doral has.”

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“While NFLX has solid technology and content leads, we believe those could narrow in 2012/13,” Wold commented. The analyst also said the company might need to increase marketing costs more than previously expected to compete with its rivals.

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“The main thing he’ll need to figure out is what sort of hardware strategy is needed to offset the assault by Apple,” said Sameet Sinha, an analyst at B. Riley & Co. in San Francisco, who has a buy rating on the stock and doesn’t own it. “It’s an interesting choice.”

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B. Riley analyst Joe Gladue says that “Puerto Rico has been in a recession for at least five years now,” but it now “looks like the local economy is not shrinking anymore.” The analyst also says that despite the consolidation of banks headquartered on the island territory—from seven to four over the past two years—“there is still considerable speculation that there can be additional consolidation in the market, and quite a few people think that would be beneficial for the remaining banks and the economy.”

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“What drives people to the New Jersey park is local,” said Ian Corydon, a stock analyst with B. Riley & Co. in Los Angeles. “You want to have a newness in all your parks so you want to advertise locally.”

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For the first time since 2004, all of Superior Industries International Inc.’s major customers – the Big Three U.S. auto makers – posted profits last year.  Sounds like it should be full speed ahead for the Van Nuys manufacturer of aluminum wheels, but not so fast [...] Though Superior’s sales rose last year, its profits are on track to fall by close to 10 percent when final numbers are released next month. The blame falls mostly on deals the company made while the auto makers were struggling.

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Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp., a Woodland Hills entertainment technology firm, is positioning itself to be an independent films distributor and a provider of alternative content for theater chains [...] “The partnership with New Video was a solid demonstration of management’s commitment to the indie film and alternative content distribution space,” said Eric Wold, an analyst with B. Riley & Co., who follows Cinedigm.

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Joseph Gladue, a bank stock analyst for West L.A.’s B. Riley & Co., said with loan growth sluggish at all levels, larger banks need to look at acquisitions in order to build business. He cited City National and PacWest Bancorp, a midsize Century City bank, as institutions that he expects will look for deals.

“A lot of the banks I follow have been very open that they are very eager to find banks to buy,” he said.

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Yahoo! Inc.’s discussions to sell its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and its Japanese operations in a tax-efficient manner have reached an impasse, according to a person briefed on the matter.

Representatives of Alibaba and Softbank Corp., co-owner of Yahoo Japan Corp., are prepared to approach Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Scott Thompson to explore another arrangement that would let companies buy back their stakes, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the talks are private.

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Saehan Bancorp (OTCBB:SAEB) announced it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hana Financial Group, based in Seoul, South Korea, for the sale of newly issued shares of common stock and a 51 percent ownership position on a fully diluted basis upon its proposed completion.

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Sameet Sinha, an Internet analyst at B. Riley & Co., said one way for Yahoo to get closer to people’s “purchase decisions” and take a cut of transactions would be to acquire a company such as Bankrate Inc., which helps consumers find mortgages or other investments; Angie’s List Inc., which publishes reviews of contractors, doctors and other service providers; Yelp Inc., which also provides information on local businesses; or Trulia Inc., which helps people search for real estate.

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“It’s another great acquisition,” said B. Riley & Co. analyst Jeff Van Sinderen. “The price they’re paying for this business appears to be reasonable. It’s immediately accretive. And it allows them to take their business in Canada into their own hands and grow it more aggressively.”

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By Olivia Oran

NEW YORK (TheStreet) --Although shares of Groupon(GRPN_) popped to their highest level ever last week following buzz surrounding the Facebook IPO, don't expect the halo effect to last.

Unlike Zynga(ZNGA_), which accounts for 12% of Facebook's $3.7 billion revenue, the social network's fortunes aren't intertwined with Groupon, which reports its first ever earnings after market close on Wednesday.

"They've completely decoupled from one another ... I don't see any ties," said Jeff Sica, chief investment officer of Morristown, NJ-based SICA Wealth Management, which Continue Reading >

Alibaba.com Ltd. (1688) suspended its shares from trading in Hong Kong as the company prepares a statement about a transaction involving its parent, which is raising about $3 billion to buy back stock held by Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO)

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Groupon’s (GRPN) stock plummeted in after-hours trading Wednesday, after the daily deals leader’s Q4 financial report lagged analyst expectations.  The company reported a loss of 2 cents per share, minus special items. Analysts polled by FactSet Research had expected a profit of 3 cents a share. The stock was down 15% after hours, after the company released its first quarterly results since its $700 million initial public offering in November.

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Reviewing performance for the period December 31, 2008 through December 31, 2011, as tabulated by Investars, the research firms with the best performance for buys and sells were B. Riley, MKM Partners and MPT, with 238%, 151% and 139% performance respectively.  Each of these firms also showed strong performance for the buy recommendations alone.  Also notable was Haugen Custom Financial Systems with 3 year buy recommendation performance of 146%.

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B. Riley & Co. has arranged a $25 million financing package for Prestige Corporation. The $25 million of capital is a combination of subordinated debt and preferred equity securities.  St. Cloud Capital, a leading private investment firm providing growth capital to lower middle market companies, led the investment. The capital will be used by Prestige Corporation to execute its growth plan that includes further penetration within its core New York Tri-State market and expansion into additional geographic regions.

B. Riley’s President, John Ahn, and Managing Director, Ryan Bernath, led the banking team for this transaction.

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The analyst wrote in a research report: “ARR reported preliminary estimates of Q4 2011 operating results. Well below Street consensus and our own estimates, these were, to say the least, disappointing. Particularly disturbing was the continued erosion in book value, notwithstanding falling interest rates—even if one is to make allowances for the pricing of increased prepayments into agency MBS. “

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A possible valuation of $75 billion to $100 billion for the world’s largest social networking company encouraged some investors to lift valuation estimates on other companies in the sector, according to Sameet Sinha, an analyst at B. Riley & Co.

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Coinstar, operator of more than 34,000 rental kiosks, is the second DVD-rental service to reject Warner’s effort to make consumers wait 56 days before renting the latest releases, following Dish Network Corp.’s Blockbuster. Getting DVDs sooner from other suppliers may attract more customers, making up for the higher per-unit prices Coinstar will pay, said Eric Wold, a B. Riley & Co. analyst who recommends buying its shares

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Eric Wold, with B. Riley & Co. in Los Angeles, said Netflix is bouncing back strongly from last fall’s PR gaffes as evidenced by management’s disclosure that more than 2 billion hours of content was streamed in Q4. Netflix also commanded 55% of the subscription/transactional video-on-demand market in 2011, which The NPD Group said accounted for 31% of all video rentals.

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Paid clicks—a measure of how frequently consumers click on its ads—rose 34% in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier, but the average amount paid by advertisers every time someone clicked on their ad fell by 8%...Some analysts voiced concerns that as more people access the Web through their mobile devices and click on Google ads that cost less than ads viewed on desktop computers, it was negatively affecting revenue. Sameet Sinha, an analyst at B. Riley & Co., said that potentially, growth in mobile was “cannibalistic” to desktop ad revenue.

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If history is any guide, the ugliest stocks on Wall Street could surprise their doubters and turn out to be this year’s beauties.  While investors often like to chase after the previous year’s winners, it’s often the losers that wind up scoring big.

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We have acted as exclusive financial advisor to Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. (Kratos) (NASDAQ: KTOS) in a $20 million acquisition.

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B. Riley analyst Eric Wold says it will in a major look-forward report today for the film business. He predicts 4% growth in box office sales this year — the result of a 1% uptick in attendance and a 3% rise in average ticket prices. What makes him so confident, especially following the 3.9% drop in 2011? Wold says that more consumers would have gone to the movies last year if Hollywood hadn’t released so many dogs.

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“In the long run, the bank’s focus on commercial borrowers, helped keep CVB alive when other banks fell victim to the housing crash,” Gladue said.

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Jeff Van Sinderen, senior retail analyst at the investment banking firm B. Riley & Co., said that it’s hard to predict which local stores will close as a result of the dismal performance.  But closing stores is probably the right move, Van Sinderen said.

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“To sum up the whole season, I would say extremely focused on bargains, that’s where the consumer’s mindset is, and the retailers generally, overall, delivered pretty compelling bargains, they gave the consumer a reason to shop,” said B. Riley & Co senior analyst Jeff Van Sinderen.

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Redbox may be ditching 28 day new release delay for Warner titles

by Rich Fiscus

As rumors fly that Warner is trying to delay new releases in Redbox kiosks by more than two additional weeks, one analyst is suggesting they are overestimating their leverage.

The introduction of 28 day delays between the time titles are released for sale and when they are offered for rental is a scheme the studios came up with in 2009. It is intended to be an incentive for consumers to Continue Reading >

“It was historically volatile,” said Bryant Riley, chairman of West L.A. investment banking firm B. Riley & Co. “A lot of the performance this year has to do with the macro world, whether it’s Europe, whether it’s the deficit. It’s been a very, very difficult year.”

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“We do not believe that Warner Bros. (or Universal Studios Home Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) holds all the cards in the DVD agreement negotiations,” Wold wrote. “While Redbox was forced into a workaround two years ago on minimal notice, the workaround plan developed since that time has been developed as a long-term replacement to a studio agreement (with copyright law in the company’s corner).”

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“In general, companies have been sitting on their hands, although they want to do things; that has created a dynamic of everybody being slow to react,” said Bryant Riley, chairman of the Los Angeles-based investment bank B. Riley & Co., which has an office in Newport Beach. “That’s going to change. At some point, banks are going to have to originate loans. We’re going to see much more transactions and activity in the next year.”

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“There’s a bunch of movies that look very strong next year,” Eric Wold, analyst with investment bank B. Riley and Co said, pointing to a new “Spider-Man” movie and sequels to “Men in Black” and “The Dark Knight.”

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Eric Wold, analyst with B. Riley & Co. in Los Angeles, said the Verizon deal likely occurred because the telco could provide Redbox with both an existing digital platform and requisite content license agreements—the latter increasingly expensive to attain in a market driven by Netflix and Hulu Plus spending, among others.

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“I think that’s a positive for Netflix,” said Eric Wold, a senior analyst at B. Riley & Co., in an interview with MarketWatch. “Up to now, they haven’t been able to connect to Facebook and Twitter. This can create a lot of marketing possibilities, as their customers can share what movies and TV shows they’ve been watching on Netflix.”

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“If you look at the progression of e-commerce, you see you always have to try to do something extra, like adding incentives, and now that means getting as close to every transaction as possible,” Sameet Sinha, analyst at B. Riley & Co., told the E-Commerce Times.

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BofI Holding, Inc. (NASDAQ: BOFI), parent of BofI Federal Bank, announced the pricing of a public offering of 750,000 shares of its common stock at a price per share of $16.00. The Company has granted the underwriter an option for 30 days to purchase up to 112,500 additional shares of common stock.

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We acted as exclusive financial advisor to Craftmade International Inc. in connection with the Company’s sale to Litex Industries Limited.  B. Riley also provided a fairness opinion to the board of directors of Craftmade.  Since November 2009, B. Riley had provided Designated Advisor for Disclosure (D.A.D.) services to the Company in support of its listing on the OTCQX marketplace.  Litex Industries Limited acquired Craftmade for $4.25 per share, corresponding to a total equity value of $24.5 million.

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“If you’re not promotional and you don’t have great product, I think you’re going to have a very challenging time this holiday season,” said Jeff Van Sinderen, senior analyst at B. Riley & Co.

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Eric Wold, analyst with B. Riley & Co. in Santa Monica, Calif., believes Netflix’s defections could reach 4.7 million, which he said represent upwards of $445 million in disc rental revenue up for grabs.  In a Nov. 16 note, Wold surmised that the majority of the aforementioned defectors would downsize their monthly rental activity since a-la-carte rentals carry a higher perceived cost than a monthly subscription.

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With the rental agreement between Warner and Redbox set to expire Jan. 31, 2012, B. Riley & Co. analyst Eric Wold doubts Redbox management would agree to a 56-day or longer embargo on new-release Warner titles — even with built-in per-unit discounts.

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B. Riley & Co. LLC acted as Kratos’ exclusive financial advisor for Kratos’ acquisition of SecureInfo. Bryant Riley, B. Riley & Co.‘s Founder and Chairman, provides strategic advice to Kratos and assists Kratos in the execution of its strategic business plan.

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“If, as we anticipate, elevated levels of prepayments subside next year and rates at the intermediate section and long end of the yield curve stabilize—and perhaps turn up in the second half—Anworth is well positioned for 2012 and beyond.”

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Jimmy Baker, with B. Riley & Co., wrote that engine sales are expected to be up 4 percent this quarter, compared with the same period last year, and that boat sales should be up 11 percent year over year, driven largely by a solid uptick in wholesale volume.

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Pressure from the GSEs has “definitely stanched the flow of credit to the mortgage market, but we had clearly gone too far,” said Richard Eckert, an analyst in San Francisco at securities firm B. Riley & Co. who wrote research on subprime lenders during the housing boom and then joined a hedge fund betting against property loans during the collapse. “We’ve got to return to some kind of happy balance.”

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“We try and find things that are out of favor,” Chairman Bryant Riley said. “As long as you’re investing in companies with good businesses and solid cash flow, the volatility is a benefit. We absolutely try and take advantage of that.”

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The Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet company, which is now shopping itself to potential buyers, on Tuesday said that its third-quarter profit dropped 26% from a year earlier while revenue fell 24%. Yahoo also reported its fourth consecutive quarterly slowdown in the growth rate of its display-ad sales—its most important business, which includes graphical, interactive and video ads. Display-ad sales revenue was flat from a year earlier.

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