Health & Fitness
Health and Fitness
Health and Fitness
Wed, December 8, 2010
Tue, December 7, 2010
CHICAGO--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Zacks.com Analyst Blog features: Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: [ PFE ]), Merck (NYSE: [ MRK ]), Amazon.com (Nasdaq: [ AMZN ]), eBay.com (Nasdaq: [ EBAY ]) and Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: [ NFLX ]).
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Here are highlights from Mondaya™s Analyst Blog:
Change at Pfizera™s Helm
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: [ PFE ]) delivered a surprise over the weekend with the sudden appointment of Ian C. Read as the new President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Director of the company. The announcement was made following the sudden and unexpected retirement of the erstwhile CEO, Jeffrey B. Kindler.
Jeff Kindler was responsible for pulling off the $68 billion Pfizer-Wyeth merger, which led to the creation of a more diversified company. Mr. Kindler also streamlined operations across the world through cost-cutting initiatives and the setting up of more focused and agile business segments.
While reasons like fatigue and lack of personal time for family were given for Mr. Kindlera™s sudden retirement, rumors have been doing the rounds that the retirement was more to do with investor and Board dissatisfaction regarding the companya™s stock price and recent late-stage pipeline failures. Moreover, there has been some element of dissatisfaction regarding the company's strategy of boosting revenues through acquisitions and driving the bottom-line through cost cutting initiatives.
The new CEO has been heading Pfizera™s global biopharmaceutical business since 2006. The biopharma business has five global business units which together accounted for about 85% of Pfizera™s revenues. Pfizera™s Board intends to elect a non-executive Chairman in a couple of weeks.
The new CEO will have his work cut out with the company facing a major patent cliff in the next few years. Pfizer is entering a challenging operating period with the loss of patent exclusivity on several products. Moreover, the company has faced several pipeline setbacks in the recent past.
Pfizera™s news comes just a few days after Merck (NYSE: [ MRK ]) announced the appointment of Kenneth C. Frazier as its CEO and President, effective Jan 1, 2011.
Consumers Continue Shopping Online
The recession, job cuts and poorer purchasing power notwithstanding, U.S. consumers have retained their appetite for spending. Thus says latest data from ComScore, which has disclosed online spending estimates for the first phase of the 2010 holiday season.
Although the heaviest days were Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, online spending in the first 33 days since November 2 jumped 12% from last year. Cyber Monday spending reached new heights, crossing the $1 billion mark for the first time.
Specifically, Thanksgiving Day sales were up 28% from 2009, Black Friday sales up 9%, Cyber Monday sales up 16% and sales in the following week through December 3 up 9%.
We are inclined to think that the data is deceptive, since it was no doubt helped by the continuing shift from offline purchases to online purchases. So it may not be indicative of increased spending on the part of consumers. Moreover, consumers are displaying unprecedented cost-consciousness, which is not evident from the overall growth numbers.
But retailers across the board agree that consumers are more likely to buy any item after reading consumer reviews and in case there was a discount on offer. Customer service is another important area. We attribute this as the main reason for the success the large retailers, such as Amazon.com (Nasdaq: [ AMZN ]), eBay.com (Nasdaq: [ EBAY ]), Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: [ NFLX ]) and the like are having.
Big companies are naturally in a better position to offer discounts, consumer reviews and better customer service. This is the reason that the top 25 online retailers saw their market share expand to around 68%, while that of the small to medium-sized players shrunk to around 32%.
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