Whatever happened to drones?
Tax avoidance specialist Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is leasing 20 Boeing 767 aircraft from Air Transport Services Group as it ramps-up plans to build its own air delivery network.
The Boeings are not a sexy as drones, the Jetsons-style delivery mechanism that the online retailer has been toying with, but presumably are a lot more suited to delivering a bedstead and mattress – assuming Amazon.com sells such things.
Talking of the Jetsons – younger readers may have to check out that reference on a search engine run by another giant of the tax avoidance industry – the web site Mashable has a feature on a robot concierge that is answering guests' questions in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel in McLean, Virginia.
It is, apparently, the first robot concierge in the Hilton Hotels chain, which almost implies that helpful robots are everywhere to be found in hotels round the world, though I have never seen one.
“Connie”, named after Conrad Hilton, founder of the hotel chain, is a two-and-a-half-foot tall Aldebaran Nao robot, powered by IBM's Watson technology.
“The result is an all-hardware front-desk clerk who can answer dozens of routine questions that normally take up valuable front-desk time,” writes Lance Ulanoff.
Here's a marriage that seems more than coincidental.
Privately-owned Hallmark Cards is to buy Crown Media Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ:CRWN), owner of the Hallmark TV channel, offering $5.05 for each share it does not already own – which is not many, as it recently revealed it had a 90.3% stake in the pay TV network operator.
“Hallmark intends to operate Crown, and its use of the highly recognized Hallmark brand in the entertainment industry, to strengthen the Hallmark brand across all of the Hallmark businesses. Hallmark also intends to strengthen the link between Crown’s channels and Hallmark’s businesses,” the company said in a statement that, unofficially, won the prize for mentioning the word “hallmark” most often in a 42-word sentence.
Shares in Crown Media rose 3.25% to $5.09 on the news, which indicates some traders are taking a gamble on being able to squeeze a few more cents out of Hallmark Cards.
WHAT'S HOT AND WHAT'S NOT
RISERS
Astrotech Corp (NASDAQ:ASCT), up 79%. The shares were moon-bound after the company was awarded a contract by the US Department of Homeland Security to develop next-generation explosives trace detection systems.
GenVec Inc (NASDAQ:GNVC), up 25%. The company reported a net loss of $6.5 million, or $0.39 per share, for 2015 compared with a net loss of $2.5 million, or $0.16 per share, for 2014.
W&T Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:WTI), up 17%. The independent oil and gas producer reported a net loss per share of 68 cents for the fourth quarter, versus a loss of 44 cents in the same period of 2014. Excluding one-off items, loss per share was 44 cents, an improvement on the loss of 54 cents the year before. Wall Street had been expecting an underlying loss per share from the Gulf of Mexico operator of 88 cents.
FALLERS
Stemcells, Inc. (NASDAQ:STEM), down 32%. The shares fell 11.5 cents to 26 cents after the company revealed it would be issuing stock at 30 cents a throw.
Unisys Corporation (NYSE:UIS), down 22%. The company announced plans to sell $150mln worth of convertible senior notes, due 2021. Funds from the issue will be used for general corporate purposes.
China Sunergy Co Ltd (NASDAQ:CSUN), down 21%. Shareholders baled out of the stock after it received a delisting notice from Nasdaq as it had fallen foul of the exchange's listing rules.