http://www.wikio.com/search=Eric Jackson Wikio - Eric Jackson http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69421305 Tom and Eric Jackson's love of tailgating before a Steelers game is turning them into nomads -- again. Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:26:36 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69421305 2008-08-29T14:26:36Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69391341 The Chargers must reduce their roster from 75 to 53 tomorrow, but coach Norv Turner says he already has the final makeup of the team set in his mind. Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:00:02 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69391341 2008-08-29T10:00:02Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69372660 The bottom of the old city dump was on the mountaintop of the world Thursday night. Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:47:06 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69372660 editor@denverpost.com (Woody Paige / <i>Denver Post Columnist</i>) 2008-08-29T06:47:06Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69359399 Just a heads up, I’m going to hold another chat tomorrow afternoon. I’ve got some errands to run in the morning, but I figure we can get going around 2pm EST. I’ll post a reminder tomorrow with the definite time. Here’s the transcript from the last (and only other) chat we did. Triple-A Scranton (3-2 loss [...] Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:36:22 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69359399 2008-08-29T02:36:22Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69357836 There are no USC running backs on the Doak Walker watch list, given annually to the nation's top running back. The only two Pac-10 running backs on the list are UCLA's Kahlil Bell and Keegan Herring of Arizona State.... Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:07:24 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69357836 2008-08-29T02:07:24Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69352953 All: While I'm gone, Tanta and Paul Jackson (of Housing Wire) will be posting. Plus a guest post or two ... I've also scheduled some cartoon of the day posts. Enjoy. To start, here is the first in a series on housing from Eric G. Lewis, a freelance cartoonist living in Orange County, CA. This is from 2003: Click on cartoon for larger image in new window. Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:00:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69352953 2008-08-29T01:00:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69421574 USA - Bandit Lites recently wrapped another successful tour with country music superstar, Carrie Underwood. Underwood rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol. ... Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69421574 2008-08-29T00:00:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69341573 Judd Zulgad reports on the very fine (and indispensible) Access Vikings blog that Tarvaris Jackson sported an “obvious limp” when he came out to get some work in with the starters ahead of tonight’s preseason game against Dallas (it’s all the work the starters will be getting as none of them will be appearing in [...] Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:54:04 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69341573 2008-08-28T22:54:04Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69275088 Crikey’s Eric Beecher was quoted in this Sally Jackson piece as saying online media will not be able to bridge the quality gap that’s being created by the long emergency we’re seeing in the usual MSM outlets. Mr Beecher warned that Fairfax’s decision this week to sack staff at its flagship broadsheet newspapers — The Sydney [...] Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:41:29 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69275088 2008-08-28T12:41:29Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69272396 The New England Patriots play tonight in their final preseason game against the New York Giants. Then the coaching staff has to get together and by 4 p.m. Saturday cut the roster from 75 to the 53-man limit for the regular season. They are also allowed 8 players for a practice squad (PS). So let’s take a [...] Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:00:56 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69272396 2008-08-28T12:00:56Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69225757 Yike, Baltimore John Watch reports that a working girl was attacked by a tall, skinny man with "calcium deposits" on his face. Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:41:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69225757 2008-08-28T03:41:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69209221 The growing backlash among viewers and critics this year made it plain: Fox needs to upgrade "American Idol" before the franchise becomes seriously stale. Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:29:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69209221 2008-08-27T23:29:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69141376 Despite rumors to the contrary Steven Spielberg, will direct the first installment of the eagerly awaited Tintin franchise. The Adventures of Tintin? is a series of comic strips created by Belgian artist Hergé, the pen name of Georges Remi (1907–1983). The movie, which focuses on mystery-solving teen reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy, stars Thomas Sangster [...] Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:34:52 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69141376 2008-08-27T13:34:52Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69134702 I've been a fan of Diane Trautman since she ran for State Rep. in HD127 last time, where she significantly... Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:03:35 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69134702 2008-08-27T11:03:35Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69110520 08/25/08 - 02:22 PM EDT From TheStreet.com By Eric Jackson My first Activist Investor column for TheStreet.com in March featured GeoEye ( GEOY - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr ), a satellite company in which I had just started an activist campaign. This investment is down more than 20% since the start of the year (despite a 50% run-up since mid-July); however, the company's management has been receptive to recent behind-the-scenes activist efforts. GeoEye looks ready to make significant gains in the remainder of this year and into next year after the launch next Thursday of its newest satellite (GeoEye-1). GeoEye leads the market, in terms of revenue, in operating satellites that capture geospatial images used by government and businesses. Its images are used by such customers as Google Earth, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as well as agriculture companies, city developers and planners , real estate developers, video-game makers and companies that develop location-based applications. GeoEye offers a whole set of tools and services for customers to package its images (including historical images from its library) and help them analyze and dissect the information. What first attracted me to small-cap GeoEye was its low valuation. It had a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 12 in February, despite projections of growing earnings by 20% each year for the next five years. Unfortunately, that figure kept dropping until it was below 6 in early July. Up until the last couple of quarters, when the company started losing some orders to competitor DigitalGlobe, which currently operates the newest satellite in the sky, GeoEye was generating $200 million in revenue with operating margins in excess of 45%. If you assume a rapid return to these numbers (and likely higher) once GeoEye-1 launches next week, this company's shares can be bought for just above 4 times next year's earnings. The company's stock price has slumped in the past six months for several reasons. Its planned launch of the GeoEye-1 satellite had been delayed several times and investors have worried it would be delayed again. The successful launch of the satellite is a gate for future earnings potential. Until the launch happens, however, customers will go to GeoEye's competitor, which currently has the best satellite in the sky. Other uncertainty has weighed on the stock price. GeoEye announced earlier this year that it would need to restate a small part of its previous year's earnings based on advice of its accountants to ensure they had properly accounted for previous net operating loss carry-forwards. One of GeoEye's greatest problems has been poor communication. Management has done a lousy job outlining its competitive advantages to investors. This poor communication only exacerbated investors' concerns about the GeoEye-1 launch delay and the earnings' restatement. It got so bad that one analyst, during the first-quarter earnings call, excoriated GeoEye's CEO and CFO for their poor job of communicating. He directly blamed this failure for the company's low P/E ratio. Positive Signs But some things have gone on behind the scenes in the past six months that should please investors. First, GeoEye's No. 1 competitor, DigitalGlobe, filed to go public. This meant it had to open its books to the public in an S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a disclosure that revealed it was smaller than GeoEye. DigitalGlobe's decision to go public also allowed Matthew O'Connell and Henry Dubois, GeoEye's CEO and CFO respectively, to speak more freely about their business without fear of giving their private competitor an unfair advantage. The second thing that has happened is that O'Connell and Dubois have listened to the criticism of shareholders and learned from it. The recent second-quarter earnings call was much improved over previous ones. On the most recent call, held earlier this month, they laid out all the details of the Sept. 4 satellite launch and cleared up what they had recently concluded about their recent restatement in a way that comforted investors. The stock has held its recent gains, instead of dropping precipitously as it did after the first-quarter call. GeoEye has also been responsive to private criticisms I've directed to management, so I would like to give them public credit for this. When I launched my activist campaign against GeoEye in the spring, I outlined in a letter to GeoEye's chairman and CEO three important but fixable problems I urged them to correct: 1) raising the company's price-earnings ratio through better investor relations and better communication in general, 2) clearing up the earnings delay immediately, and 3) ensuring management and the board had enough "skin in the game" and adding new board members to strengthen the overall team. I have spoken to Matt O'Connell and Henry Dubois several times since I sent my first letter. In my view, communication with investors is much improved when it comes to discussing what the company is doing to achieve its immediate-term goal of a successful satellite launch, frequent pitching of the strong GeoEye story through investor meetings. Speeches at investment banking conferences have clearly laid out why GeoEye is significantly ahead of DigitalGlobe and why the market for geospatial images is expected to explode in the years ahead. On its most recent call, GeoEye specifically mentioned how it's spending much more time talking to investors and telling its story. GeoEye is now covered by four analysts (all with buy ratings) compared to the one analyst it had last quarter. GeoEye has spelled out how its newest satellite will be the industry-leader for the next two years until DigitalGlobe launches its next satellite. Also, last week, they hired their first chief technology officer, whose job it will be to better communicate the technical advantages of GeoEye's images and how they will play a part in the burgeoning location-based services market. This last point is still what has been missing in the recent GeoEye presentations and speeches. The earnings restatement has now occurred, and it did not prove significant. Past years' lost earnings should be equaled out by a tax credit awarded later this quarter. There has been no cash impact on the company and the company still has a strong balance sheet to see it through the successful launch of GeoEye-1. In terms of management and the board improving its makeup, there is still some work to do. O'Connell, Dubois and some others on the management team purchased some stock earlier this spring. I had encouraged them to do so as a sign of confidence in the company. Unfortunately, they only bought about $18,000 each. In my opinion, that's not enough -- especially given the generous executive pay they receive. The CEO , O'Connell, deserves a pass on this issue, as he came from Wall Street to run GeoEye a number of years ago and had to make a big personal investment in the company. I know he understands the concept of "skin in the game." I wish he would encourage other officers and directors to follow his lead. Management needs to realize that stock options given to them as part of their compensation is "found money," compared to open market stock purchases. On the issue of improving the board, there are already a number of strong individuals on this board, many with a government background (which makes sense as the government is GeoEye's largest customer and a co-investor in the new satellite). This board still could use some people with more of a commercial background, as that's a growing customer area for GeoEye. However, when I spoke to O'Connell, I made it clear that I was much more interested in seeing the company tell its story effectively, clearing up any restatement uncertainty and encouraging insiders to buy some more stock than discussing the board composition issue. I believe they've prioritized the criticisms appropriately. The bottom line is that GeoEye has listened to its critics and taken action to address many of the criticisms. Management needs to go further in some areas, but they deserve credit for what they've done to date. As an investor, I feel much more confident in this company's prospects based on my interactions with management and seeing them make some progress against these weak points. GeoEye's biggest weak point remains communicating its powerful story to investors. It can't rely on its CTO to explain its competitive advantages to Wall Street. This is the job of the CEO and CFO, and they've only improved from a "C-" to a "C+" on their communication skills in the last three months. All eyes are now on the Sept. 4 launch of GeoEye-1. The company needs to continue to actively communicate with investors on the day of and the day following the launch. The launch team has a 98% success rate over the last 150 launches. After launch, the company will perform tests to ensure everything is working correctly, and its largest customer, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, will sign off that everything looks good at the end of October. That sign-off will allow the agency to agree to a new service-level agreement with GeoEye to buy images in the quarter ahead. Other customers will likely follow. The launch should therefore have a large catalyst effect on the stock price . A more reasonable valuation for the stock would be 12 times next year's earnings, or triple its current price. It might take a few quarters to get there, but patience and activism are likely to be rewarded. At the time of publication, Jackson was long GeoEye. Eric Jackson is founder and president of Ironfire Capital, LLC, and the general partner and investment manager of Ironfire Capital US Fund LP and Ironfire Capital International Fund, Ltd. Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:39:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69110520 noreply@blogger.com (Eric Jackson) 2008-08-27T06:39:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69091564 …and the press, courtesy of Eric Boehlert: CNN polling director Keating Holland (figures, he doesn’t work in the newsroom), who posted a lengthy analysis at CNN.com. Holland’s piece not only put Clinton’s role in Denver into historical perspective (”Overall, between 1972 and 1992, 10 Democratic candidates who lost the nomination in the primaries went on to [...] Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:34:58 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69091564 2008-08-27T02:34:58Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69092538 Austin Jackson and Kevin Russo are headed to the Arizona Fall League. The Yanks still have five more spots left to fill - four pitchers and an infielder. Triple-A Scranton (9-1 win over Buffalo) Justin Christian: 1 for 5 Melky: 1 for 4, 2 R, 1 K Matt Carson: 2 for 5, 3 R, 1 K - threw a [...] Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:23:17 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69092538 2008-08-27T02:23:17Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69087879 Rule #1: Hearing someone talk about their fantasy team is more boring than watching paint dry. Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:25:37 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69087879 2008-08-27T01:25:37Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69082707 No Idea has announced the most up-to-date lineup for The Fest 7. I don’t know about you but I am ready to freakin’ party! Lineup after the jump. FEST 7 CONFIRMED BANDS SO FAR: Leatherface, Less Than Jake, Bouncing Souls, Strike Anywhere, Dillinger Four, Atom and His Package, Municipal Waste, Coalesce, Dead to Me, Paint It Black, [...] Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:35:07 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69082707 2008-08-26T22:35:07Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69069387 While tailback Rudi Johnson said he would not be surprised to be traded, this afternoon head coach Marvin Lewis played down an ESPN report that the Bengals are shopping the running back. Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:00:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Eric+Jackson?rinfoid=69069387 2008-08-26T21:00:00Z