Well folks as predicted jennifer hudson (American Idol wannabe) won a golden Globe! That's lots of free publicity for the show just as the new season gets off the ground. NY Post piece over the weekend adding up records sold by the last several idols was impressive- so far this is a well oiled machine. Now with the hype machine in full gear we have to ask ourselves is investing as easy as buying CKXE now?
One factor in making this decision is how many people can draw a line from american Idol to CKXE? Why oh why couldn't they have the symbol IDOL? We would have a double by now.
Lets take a quick look at the REST of the business for CKXE: CKX (Nasdaq: CKXE) is the company which owns an 85% stake in Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc., giving it control over the licensing opportunities for the legendary singer; it also operates the Graceland estate. CKX believes that it can enhance value for its shareholders by acquiring the rights to entertainment content. Besides Elvis, the company also owns the rights to the American Idol brand -- via the acquisition of 19 Entertainment -- and has a controlling stake in the licensing business for Muhammad Ali.
2007 marks the 30th anniversary of Presley's death. CKX will be pulling out all the stops to ensure that young people are aware of the milestone -- as well as what Presley's catalog has to offer. The company operates an interesting business model based on content-rights acquisition. CKX's latest quarterly financial statements show that it is doing well in terms of operational cash flow -- the company booked $46.1 million of net cash from operations for the nine-month period, versus $25 million in the comparable time frame -- but its acquisition activity and capital expenditures didn't leave any true free cash behind. Over time, that could change, as the company's intellectual-property portfolio is monetized.
How can we extract value for the American Idol part of the business? That is what's been lacking so far from the CKXE gameplan as given to investors. For now all we have to ask ourselves is do we take a chance that someone will put out this stock in a newsletter or in a newspaper and get people excited about the Idol tie in?
And will CKXE keep going up as the show goes on and on week after week building the audience?...
Questions, questions, I'm inclined to go for it today.