Grupo Televisa S.A. (TV) has decided to explore the wireless communications market. Televisa is the largest media company in Mexico as well as in the Spanish-speaking world. Its cable TV subsidiary Cablevision will start providing mobile phone services in Mexico from the first quarter of 2010. Televisa has already started its own telecom business. On May 9, 2007, the Mexican Ministry of Communication and Transportation granted Cablevision permission to offer fixed telephony services through its network. As of now, Cablevision offers digital cable television services, broadband Internet connection, high-definition television services and video-on-demand products.   Televisa is a dominant force in the Mexican media business. The company is almost a monopoly with around 70% of the Mexican open television market. Televisa has a stable customer base in many different areas, including television broadcasting, pay television network, publishing, and radio. Cablevision will try to leverage this long-established customer base ...

Consorteum Holdings Inc., a financial transaction solution provider, clearly believes it has the right people, with the right skills, along with more flexible access to the best technologies. In addition, it has extensive relationships within the payments and transaction industry. For all these reasons, the company sees itself as offering customers the best possible solutions when it comes to financial transaction processing.

Consorteum likes to identify new business opportunities, along with the supporting technologies, to help their clients always be on the leading edge. Their goal is to assist clients in:

• Entering new markets • Increasing revenues in existing markets • Improving operational performance • Delivering unique products/services more efficiently

Consorteum is not tied to any one technological approach, and is able to collaborate with the best providers to fit a given need. Moreover, the company believes strongly in long-term contracts and relationships, linking itself closely

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Recently, Merck (MRK) and Schering-Plough (SGP) received approval from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Swiss Competition Commission and the Canadian Competition Bureau for their proposed merger. However, the transaction has yet to receive approval from other regulators, including China and Mexico. The deal was approved by the European Union antitrust regulators last week. Shareholders of both the companies have already approved the deal in August. Merck expects to close the proposed merger by year end. The FTC approval has come with the condition that both companies will sell some assets. As a result, Schering-Plough has agreed to sell its rolapitant drug, meant to be used for the treatment for nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy patients to Opko Health Inc. In addition, Merck agreed to sell its interest in Merial Ltd, an animal health joint venture, to its French partner, Sanofi-Aventis ...

Much like characters in a real-life video game, the companies that make video game consoles – Sony ADR (NYSE: SNE), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Nintendo ADR (OTC: NTDOY) continue bashing each other as they battle one another for the largest share of the video game console market.

Most investors are well aware of this battle going on between these three rivals, so no surprises there. The real surprise in the games console market, of which most investors are unaware, is occurring in the area of handheld games consoles. It is this surprise which may lead to a profitable investing opportunity.

The challengers to the traditional handheld game console makers, like Sony and Nintendo, are the smartphone makers, such as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).

Handheld game console makers face increasing pressure from the rise in popularity of mobile phones with processors and graphics that are equal of their own devices, and with “app stores”

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 13, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: AT&T (T), Sprint Nextel (S), Deutsche Telecom (DT), MetroPCS (PCS) and Leap Wireless (LEAP).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

AT&T Unveils Pre-Paid Plan

AT&T (T) has introduced a new unlimited monthly calling plan for the prepaid wireless market. Starting today, customers subscribing to the company prepaid wireless services receive unlimited voice calls, instant messaging as well as text, picture and video messaging for just $60 a month. However,

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AT&T (T) has introduced a new unlimited monthly calling plan for the prepaid wireless market. Starting today, customers subscribing to the company prepaid wireless services receive unlimited voice calls, instant messaging as well as text, picture and video messaging for just $60 a month. However, the plan does not cover iPhone users. Apart from the U.S., the new unlimited plan covers Mexico, Canada and over 100 countries worldwide. Roaming within the U.S. is free of cost. This prepaid rate plan is about 50% lower than the company’s regular postpaid unlimited (voice and text) service plan. AT&T offers its prepaid services under the "GoPhone" brand, which does not require the customer to sign long-term contracts and keep a minimum deposit. While the company remains a dominant player in the postpaid market (representing 86% of the company’s total net customer additions), it is struggling to retain customers in ...

South Korea's incumbent wireless operator, SK Telecom (SKM), is set to launch T Store, the first mobile open market in Korea, on Sep 9. The upcoming on-line store will feature applications that are optimized for smartphones and other select regular handsets.

T Store will provide an open platform where content developers can sell their applications to users of mobile handsets based on the Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability (WIPI), which allows cell phones to run applications regardless of manufacturer or carrier. Customers can download from a large assortment of multimedia content (approximately 6,500 applications), including games, phone decoration, music, broadcasting/movie and language/education that are categorized under eight main menus.

Registered content developers can sell their applications against a yearly registration fee, which is expected to be waived by the company by end of 2009 to boost developers' participation. The current revenue split is 70%/30% for the developers and SK Telecom,

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Monsanto Corp. (NYSE: MON), the world’s largest seed maker, says it’s on track to more than double its 2007 profit by the year 2012 and is expecting a “technology explosion” to provide even stronger products going forward. But while Monsanto continues to build on its reputation as a cutting edge agricultural business, it is also under siege by competitors and advocacy groups who claim the company is a monopoly.

The St. Louis-based Monsanto said in June that its fiscal third-quarter earnings fell to $694 million, or $1.25 a share, from $811 million, or $1.45 a share, in the same period a year ago. Sales slipped to $3.16 billion from $3.54 billion last year. The company also said its annual earnings would likely be at the low end of its $4.40 to $4.50 a share forecast range.

That’s not very impressive for a company that last year posted record net sales

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Yesterday, BB&T Corp. (BBT) said expected losses in the loan portfolio acquired from Colonial BancGroup (CBCG) of $5 billion will not have a negative impact on its earnings because of its loss-sharing agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).   Last Friday, BB&T took control of Colonial after it was seized by regulators. As a result, BB&T is exposed to losses connected with its purchase of Colonial assets for $21.8 billion.   The estimated cost of Colonial’s failure to the deposit insurance fund would be $2.8 billion. The FDIC and BB&T have signed an agreement to share losses on about $15 billion of Colonial's loans and other assets.   The Colonial deal is the biggest acquisition in BB&T’s history, creating the nation's eighth-largest financial holding company by deposits. BB&T is a dominant player in Southeastern U.S., where many closures have happened. Having taken over most of ...

While stocks in the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index slid by 2.4% this week, and trading was halted in shares of the five banks that saw their CEOs unceremoniously sacked late last week, there may ultimately be attractive values forming among sound companies. For instance, Renaissance Capital, a Moscow-based investment bank, gave a ‘buy’ rating to Skye Bank last month and named it the ‘fastest growing tier-two Nigerian bank’. Of note, analysts remarked on the bank’s leading role in retail public sector collections for federal and state governments and tax authorities, as well as utilities, customs agencies, commercial subscriptions, regulatory institutions and examination bodies. Moreover, as noted earlier this year by RTC Capital, it is a “dominant player in Lagos state, Nigeria’s largest revenue collecting state. [And] with increased focus on diversifying revenue away from

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