Motley Fool Money - Motley Fool Money: 06.14.2013

Episode Date: June 14, 2013

Apple unveils a new look. Google buys Waze. And Lululemon surprises investors. Our analysts discuss those stories and share three stocks on their radar. And CNBC media and entertainment reporter Julia Boorstin talks about the future of television. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Good to see you, Chris. We've got the latest from retail, media, technology, and more. Just in time for Father's we will share some of the best pearls of wisdom from Dad. And as always, we've got a few stocks on our radar. But we begin with the big macro, volatility returning to the U.S. markets this week. And much of the credit or blame going to overseas markets, specifically Japan, the Niki index down around 15 percent from its highs in May. James Shirley, what is going on here and what does it mean for U.S. investors? Chris, it's pretty interesting. Japanese stocks were on fire, Chris, until kind of the end of May, and now they've just been hammered down 23 percent, I want to say, since that.

There are basically two reasons being tossed about. And the first is kind of the funnier one, that U.S. interest rates have risen. That's hilarious, right? U.S. interest rates are up, and so because of that, traders, and there's speculation that the U.S. might withdraw on its quantitative easing, so somehow traders worldwide are pulling out of Japan, which is intriguing because it makes Japan seem like a total accessory. I mean, as an example, this is an embarrassing story, but in college, a bunch of friends and I said, well, you know what, the mullet is a haircut that's not going to last forever. So we need to make some kind of video montage memorializing this, but nobody's going to want to appear in the video just to have their mullets. So we need to ask some kind of like serious question, like, what do you feel about the UN's policy towards Bosnia?

And the person is answering, but the video is like focusing on the haircut, you know, and just recording that. So it's kind of the same thing here. For those listeners that have hung with us through that story. I have. I have it. Reply the tape. It's very awkward. But basically, the idea is that people aren't taking Japan seriously for its own sake. It's just some accessory trade. The other more serious reason could be that the Bank of Japan had a meeting in June.

It did not add more stimulus. And so the market could be just saying, wait, we've heard all this talk from Abe, but he's not actually backing it up. Ron, to the point about the quantitative easing, it does seem like there is just this hair-trigger reaction amongst some. of the big institutional bond traders to just the notion of any kind of slight pullback, as though all of a sudden the money supply from the Fed is just going to be turned off completely. Right. Well, I don't have any interesting anecdotes to follow. That's okay. Yeah, you know, everyone is so hyper reactive. I think I can almost promise that any tapering

of the easing program will be gradual. If we're sitting here months from now and we say Bernanke has ripped the Band-Aid off and we went from 85 billion in easing to zero, I will. Shave your head? What you do? I don't know. We'll come to that. But it's not going to happen.

It's going to be gradual. Are they going to time it perfectly? Are they going to bring in a soft landing? I don't know that. But it's not going to be this crazy reactive thing. The markets are only off in the U.S. 3% from their high. We're still up 16% for the year. That's an amazing year.

Right. So I think everyone needs to just relax. And stocks are still here in the U.S. reasonably priced. And the alternatives still are just not attractive. So stocks, for the last, you know, long-term, if you're looking at three, five years plus, stocks are the way to go. Apple's worldwide developer conference was held this week, and a couple of the big headlines coming out of it, Ron, the complete redesign of the iOS 7 interface, and confirmation of what

had been the worst kept secret in the business world, which is iTunes Radio, the whole I-Radio. What'd you make of the conference? Yeah, I think there were some really interesting things that came out of the conference that will set Apple up well for the long term. Now, that is not what hedge funds want to hear. That is not what short-term investors want to hear. I almost kind of get sick of apologizing for Apple because we live in this kind of day and age where you get up in front of an audience and you're dressed kind of cool and you have great videos and you've got to make a big splash with the next big thing. It doesn't always happen that way. But Apple continues to really

innovate. These new software, the iOS 7, the Mavericks for the Mac, these are very strong pieces of technology that will set them up for the future. So when they do announce the Apple TV, or they do announce the next iPad or the watch, or whatever it is, these things will be very robust. So I'm fine as a long-term investor with what they're doing, but I could see how the street would be a little bit blasé. I like that they also took just a little bit of a shot at Google in the fact that Siri is now using Microsoft search engine Bing as the default. for search results. A little bit of a shot across at Google there.

Yeah, they take shots at each other, I think. It's part of the game. But it's a series is one of the things that are going to be improved. The whole app's kind of structure is going to be revamped to make it easier and more user-friendly. It's pretty user-friendly as it is, but they're going to even improve it there. So there's a lot of good things coming. Andy, what do you make of the eye radio because there are people very quick to say, oh, this is going to kill Pandora. Now, Pandora really is not really going anywhere. Shares weren't devastated when the news came out earlier in the week confirming iRadio.

Yeah, I think that's actually pretty interesting, Chris, because I think a few years ago, with Apple's power, it probably would have crushed the stock of Pandora, and it didn't. So I think that, I think people are saying, hey, this is a very competitive space. Pandora is an attractive, you know, offering. The interesting news with Pandora this week is they actually bought a radio station. Yes, a tiny station in South Dakota. South Dakota, Rapid City, South Dakota, population 7,000, less than one percent, one-tenth of one percent of Pandora's entire active user base of 70 million. So, and they did this to hopefully get preferential pricing on the fees that they're paying.

For fees they have to pay for composers and the artists. Now, there are lawsuits going back and forth on this, so we'll have to wait to see how that works out. Very competitive space. A lot of changes going on in this marketplace. And obviously the lawsuits for the rates that they have to pay and what the composers and the artists want to earn has been going on for many years. But this is just another offering from Apple

to help widen its ecosystem. And buying a radio station like that doesn't sound like any kind of technicality on Pandora's part. Not at all. Oh, no, no. 7,000 people. Yeah, well, that's exactly what it is. We love Rapid City, by the way.

Sticking with technology also this week was the National Cable Show. And Andy, you and I were talking earlier. Comcast really is attempting to rebrand itself. Brian Roberts, the CEO, there coming out and talking about how they're a technology company, they're an innovation company. As a longtime Comcast subscriber, I just think of them as my cable company. But it sounds like they may actually have cause for them. Yeah, it's like, hey, Comcast, welcome to 2007. Yeah. Great. This actually is a very cool device, and it does bring them up to speed and to compete with the likes of Netflix and Apple, their X2 product, which is their cloud-based offering far superior than what they have now. So I think this is a very good

move for mostly subscribers, the 22 million subscribers of Comcast, of which Chris, you I am and I am and maybe the other guys are as well. So this is an interesting development, and Comcast is certainly not your father's cable company. How this plays out and how what it means for Comcast, the business and the stock will continue to be able to generate more and more subscribers and more and more ad fees. That's the important part that Comcast shareholders have to watch. Last month, Facebook was on the verge of buying Waze for $1 billion. Ways is the Maps and Traffic Data Service that is based in Israel this week. Google confirmed that it's actually buying ways for somewhere north of $1 billion. First and foremost, Andy, do you think this is a good move

by Google. It is. And the more I read about it, the more I like this deal. I mean, Google has 50 billion of cash on its balance sheet, so it's looking for ways to broaden out its offerings. But this is a great pairing with a very great competitive edge that Google has in their mapping software. But what it really does is not so much about, you know, the old saying, not where you've been, but where you're going. That's really what they're looking at this for ways, because they're looking, I think, to broaden out beyond just traffic and mapping software to Really, however, wherever we carry our phones and our mobile application, because mapping is just integral to what we do these days.

And it's a key component to the mobile strategy. And it will hopefully allow Google to broaden out its offerings and continue to do what it does so well, which is search and advertising. That's an important part to this deal. Yeah, that's actually what I wanted to get at. I think there's so many neat new technologies coming out that we're all going to benefit from in so many ways, and it's so exciting. But so many of them are advertising-based.

And I'm just getting so fatigued about how many things can be supported by advertising. It makes sense, I think, if Google buys ways and then they can then put it on the ad platform of Google. But as standalone businesses, all these things, they're just not really enough advertising dollars to go around. Maybe we should all be willing to pay a little bit for some of these great technologies that are coming our way and kind of change the business model of some of these companies. Would you pay for Ways? Would you volunteer?

It certainly depends on the price point, but I would, something that would change my life in that I commute quite a bit, and sure I would. But this is also interesting to me is it's beyond just your car. This is like you're carrying your iPhone with you, and the way that I think they may be able to integrate this into the Google ecosystem with the Ways member base, and as people get more and more used to community-driven intelligence and having information on where you're going, whether it's your shopping mall or the golf course or the airport outside of your car, when you're just walking around, there's some interesting, compelling opportunities for Google there. Why do you guys think that Apple didn't step up and buy ways, particularly in the wake of last year with the iPhone 5 and the debacle that was Apple Maps?

I know that Apple does not have the track record, and by that I mean the taste for acquisitions that Google has, but it really seems like Ways would have just been perfect for Apple. And they've got the cash. I'll be the skeptic. I think Apple is being more responsible here. I think Google and Facebook are in the have cash looking to deploy mode. Apple is a little bit more mature. Now, you know, I've got to say Apple is really grown up as a company. I like Tim Cook a lot more than I thought I would. He certainly knows Steve Jobs as a pitchman, but financial, this is one of the reasons I recommended an income investor. He's really shown a lot of maturity in its capital usage and structure. So I think that's the reason. There's just no reason to pay $1.3 billion for a fuzzy payoff, in my view. Coming up, if you're a fan of yoga pants, have we got a job for you? This is Motley Full Money. Welcome back to Motley Full Money, Chris Hill here in studio with James Hurley, Andy Cross, and Ron Gross.

Lulu Lemon Athletica's first quarter earnings came in better than expected this week. But the bigger news is that CEO Christine Day resigned saying it is the right time for a change. And James, apparently investors disagree with that because shares of Lulu Lemon and down around 15% just in the wake of her resignation. And when you look at her track record over the last five years and how strong a leader she's been, maybe not that big a surprise. Yeah, the stock is up almost 400%, Chris, in the past five years. It's been phenomenal.

In a sense, it's probably not a bad time for her to go. If you really believe, like I do, this thing could be a passing fad. It's very hard to make a brand like this last for a long time. Remember track suits, you know, in the 80s of all the rage, right? You know, and we have, you and all we're talking before the show. You've got Nike, you've got Under Armour, probably Patagonia. There are a lot of other companies that can make these yoga pants and make them cool. So I think it's not a bad time for her to go.

I do think there was probably some pressure on her. A lot of times people can view the CEO almost like a football coach, you know, a tool to juice the stock price. And when the stock price looks like it's going to languish for a little bit or there's a problem, they try to replace. And maybe that's what's going on here. But I wouldn't want to be the incoming CEO. That's my bottom line. No, definitely, definitely some big shoes to fill there. And some people pointing to the recent debacle with the see-through pants and saying, well,

you know what? Maybe she was pushed out the door. Which leads me to this question. There are a lot of companies you guys follow. There are a lot of CEOs. We place a premium on really strong management here at the Motley Fool. And so I'm just curious. Let's just go down the line.

Who is a CEO that you trust the most? Who is a CEO that if they make mistakes? I think sometimes investors unfairly expect just perfection from CEOs. And we won't, you know, I think there's a difference between good, strong leadership and perfection. And Ron, just with you in mind, I'm removing Warren Buffett from the equation. You can't get Warren Buffett. As did I. As the CEO you trust the most. But who do you got? That's fair. You know, I really respect Kip Tyndall of the container stores. Now, that's a private company. But very recently, it's been rumored that they're going to go public.

Oh, yeah. And if so, that would be a stock that is on my radar in a big way. Mr. Tyndall, Kipp, if you will. You know your reaction. Is a big proponent of conscious capitalism. He treats his employees with utter respect, and he believes that will accrue to customers and then shareholders. And it's a great company to work, and he's a really great CEO.

He's a low-key guy. He came in here to talk one time. That was cool. Not a peppy guy, but he's very honest. Very soft-spoken. Have you been to a container store before? Yes, actually, quite recently. Really?

Yeah, it was very nice. And the employees really do seem very happy to work there. James, what about you? I will go with the CEO of a company called Buckle, which is a Nebraska-based jeans retailer. It sells mostly in the Midwest. A lot of his customers that have money from fracking in the booming economy there. So, a company's doing well. This guy's name is Daniel Hirschfeld.

He's the founder's son. He started as a sales clerk. He owns 34%. And I like him because he's one of the few non-idiotic CEOs in retail. I mean, it's so easy to be an idiotic CEO in the retail business because you have success and you want to expand, expand it overreesome. expand. And that's what kills many, many retailers. But these guys have been disciplined. They've restrained their growth. They've paid a nice dividend. And I really respect that. It's very hard

to show that kind of restraint. Well, and as we were just talking with Lulu Lemon, it's such a tough game. Retail, it's not like a McDonald's or something like that, or one of these large businesses that if you're the CEO, yes, you need to perform well. But there is an element to the underlying business, which essentially runs itself. Yoga pants, retail, particularly like teen fashion retail. That is a nightmare business I wouldn't want any part of. Andy, what about you? Jeff Bezos from Amazon. He revolutionized the way that we shop. And the way that he set out from the very beginning, his very first annual report, his letter to shareholders, he wrote a letter. And in there, he called a section out called the, it's all about the long term. And Jeff is legendary for focusing

on the long term and making sure his investors and his board members know that when you join Amazon, I am investing for the long term. I'm not focused on the short term. And he continues to attach that letter to every letter he has written since for Amazon.com. So I think he's just a really great leader and done so it's amazing things for business. And he's the one I would tag. And a great example of a guy who has made some missteps over his tenure, but the good far outweighs the bad thing. Absolutely. Father's Day weekend, and we just got a couple of minutes left, and I was just curious. First of all, happy Father's Day.

And to you. We're all fathers in the room here. Best advice you ever got from your dad or a grandfather or a father figure. It could be financial advice. It could be life advice. What do you got, Ron? I got two. Don't spend more than you make.

That's always good advice. Don't bunt on two strikes. Don't bunt on two strikes. My dad was my baseball coach for many years. years growing up, taught me the game, and that's one that sticks out. Have you passed that on to your son? I was his coach for quite some time as well. Did you actually follow that advice?

I did, sure. Okay. James, what about you? It's sort of simple, but my dad said, never become a lawn freak. And that's sort of like... A lawn freak? Lon freak. You know these people who are like always out, they're fertilizing their lawn, and they're

spraying crap all over it, and the guy's coming with all his chemicals? Like, I mean, my dad has a nice lawn now, but it's sort of like a lesson in priorities, I guess. I thought he was talking like flamingos and the... Don't be a person. Oh, those are even worse. Or the inflatables? Yeah, the inflatables are just criminal. Santa Claus is.

I want to go with a BB gun and shoot those things. Wow. Have you done that? I'm thinking about it. I think it would just make a hole and it would just cause further energy usage, which wouldn't help. Totally not. Andy, what about you? Reinvest your dividends.

And for the most part, I've stuck with that. My dad was a big believer in dividends. And as I know, James and I have talked many times, reinvesting your dividends is a really magic way to compound your investing returns over time. That's great. The one financial lesson I've tried to pass on to my kids is just understanding that money is a finite thing, which I think is something that even my seven-year-old understands where it's just like, no, no, no, you spent your money. And that's the thing you bought. And now the money's gone. There's no money tree in your backyard?

There is no money tree in the backyard. But for me, my dad, the best advice I got from him in terms of money was he taught me at a pretty young age the whole concept of being cheap. Not being thrifty, but being cheap, and making the distinction between being thrifty, saving your money, those are all good things. But what you never want to be in life is someone who is cheap. And that's just a lesson that has stuck with me for a very long time. Good stuff.

Which leads to my other thought, which is I think if everyone were forced to work in the service industry for just a couple of months every year, the world would be a better place. There you go. All right. Ron Gross, James Early, Andy Cross. Guys, we'll see you later in the show. Up next, CNBC's media and entertainment reporter, Julia Borsdon, on the future of movies and television. Stay right here. You're listening to Motley Fool Money.

Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. I'm Chris Hill. It's summertime, the time of blockbuster movies, and the television landscape is constantly changing. So here to help us make sense of it all is CNBC's media and entertainment reporter, Julia Borson. Julia, thanks for being here. My pleasure. Let's start with the movie industry because you just moderated a panel discussion at USC with a couple of promising young up-and-comers in the film industry by the name of Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas. And I have to say, I was somewhat surprised by the headline comments coming out of the panel where these guys basically say the film industry is on the verge of imploding,

that a combination of big budget features flopping at some point in the future, that combined with the rise of video on demand is going to lead us to a world where, and these are their words, not mine, you're going to have fewer theaters, they'll be bigger, but going to the movies will, in the not too distant future, essentially be akin to going to a Broadway show. It'll cost $100 bucks, $150, that sort of thing. Well, yeah, well, that's what George Lucas said. Stephen Spielberg had a little bit of a different perspective.

He said that maybe we'd be in a world where to go see Iron Man, it would cost $25, and then to go see Lincoln, it would cost $7. But I think that it, you know, you make it sound so grim, but I think in reality they were much more bullish than the headlines indicated. You know, what Spielberg said is he thinks that we will see some sort of implosion of the industry as we know it, because there is such a focus now on these big budget, ten-full movies like the Iron Man's and Superman, which is, of course, opening this weekend. But what he said is that after that, the market is going to look like, you know,

he compared it to what happened to the stock market in 2008. There was a crash, but then from there on up, it went really well. And he said the markets of the industry is going to improve, just like the stock market improved. And it's, in a way, a great time to be investing, if you will, in this business, by creating content because he thinks it's just going out from here. So I don't think the tone was entirely negative. He said it's going to recover from this implosion he,

projects, but it's going to come out a totally different but still strong model. One thing they were really optimistic about is the rise of video on demand and saying now that we all have these big television screens in our living rooms, we'll be able to access nearly all the content we could want, even sort of traditional movie film content from home, the same day a movie might be opening in the theaters, and it's just all going to be a video on demand model. So I was just going to say, if this scenario plays out, do you think that the people who are distributing the cable, the video distributors, do you think that they are in a better position

from a business standpoint than content providers, the studios, that sort of thing? Well, they're sort of on the same team. The content providers are going to sell content to the video-on-demand-demand distributors, whether it's a Comcast or direct TV or whoever, and then those will be the people who sell directly to you. We could also see a world where I buy content directly from Disney, and let's say I subscribe to a Disney app on my big television screen and it means I get unlimited access to Disney content for my kids. So there are many different models here, but I think that the reason why it's not a grim story is the fact that we all have these screens in our homes, which are getting bigger and bigger. And there still will be a variety

of content. They're just saying the type of content that makes it to a movie theater and that stays in a movie theater is going to be, you know, only really the big budget stuff. All right. Let's move over to the television industry. You just covered the national cable show the big annual convention. For your perspective, what was the big headline coming out of the event? Well, I think looming in the background of this show was this fear of cord cutting. Here you have these giants, Time Warner cable, Comcast, Cox Communications, and then you have the content companies, Discovery, BuyCom. They all make money from that monthly cable bill. And that monthly cable bill is getting so expensive. There are a lot of concerns that people are going to cut the

cord or that the new generation of consumers is never going to pay for it, ever. So they're trying to figure out how to deal with it. And I think it's interesting you're seeing two different strategies. You have the cable carriers like Comcast unveiling really cool new technologies to give the consumers added value. Comcast unveiled a new user interface called X2. And it's really personalized and customized and sleek and it looks great and it is, you know, sort of an intuitive and smart system.

And they basically say, we're giving you all these extra bills. whistles with the idea that it's going to be so worthwhile to pay your monthly bill. You will never think about canceling it. And then you have the content companies. Some of them like ESPN are locking people into that subscription system by saying you can only access ESPN content. And we will give you a lot of ESPN content in your mobile devices if you log in and show that you are a subscriber to either cable or satellite TV.

So they're sort of making sure that they give their subscribers a lot of content, but they have to keep paying. And then you have a company like Discovery, which is increasingly offering more and more content online for free, sort of hedging their beds in case people do start to cut the cord. Along with the whole notion of cord cutting up on Capitol Hill, there's talk of, once again, of the whole a-a-cart possibilities in the world of cable. And Senator John McCain, for going on 20 years now, has been pushing this legislation to potentially allow consumers to buy. or subscribe to individual channels.

What do you think of that? Was there talk of that at the National Cable Show? Because it seems like, on the one hand, if you're an ESPN, maybe for all the money you make through the traditional system, you could make even more money if you were just selling direct to consumers. On the other hand, maybe if you're ESPN, you're pretty comfortable with the model so far. Well, also, if you're ESPN, you're owned by Disney,

and Disney sells a whole bunch of channels bundled together to these companies. So they want to make sure the bundle. isn't broken up. I think it's an interesting idea, but the fact that McCain has been pushing this concept for so long means that people aren't really afraid of it happening. And a lot of the folks I talked to the cable show, including Philippe Domain, the CEO of ICOM, said, look, he's tried this before. It didn't work, and we don't think it's going to work this time. So I think it would be, in a lot of ways, great for consumers. There's also a lot of talk about how maintaining that bundle ends up giving consumers more options because it allows them to, to, to, make

some of the smaller niche channels that they couldn't afford to keep producing if it was up to just how many people subscribe just to that channel. You're listening to Motley Full Money talking with Julia Borsden, media and entertainment reporter for CNBC. At the conference, Brian Roberts, the CEO of Comcast, really played up his idea that Comcast is not really a traditional cable company. They're a technology company and innovation company. Personally, as a longtime Comcast subscriber, I don't necessarily see it that way, but he's the CEO, so he gets to make that claim. But what role do you think Comcast and other cable operators are going to play in really shaping the future of television? Well, I think the future of television is going to be, to a large extent, streamed over the Internet. Look at Netflix.

Look at Hulu. Look at all these video on demand tools. I mean, if you talk with the future, it's all about giving consumers what they want, when they want it, where they want it, that means it's on demand over the Internet and not at a set time when your cable provider or your local news network decides to show you something. So I think we have to remember that Comcast, though, as a cable company, it also sells broadband, and it's increasingly making more and more and more of its money from selling Internet access. And that is where a lot of things are shifting. And I think we can expect these companies to play a larger role

in making it easier for people to switch between Internet video and traditional video and to sort of realize that you don't care if something's coming on demand or if it's live on television. You just want to be able to find it easily. And that's what Comcast is going to try to make it easier to do. So as television increasingly shifts to the Internet, how are companies like Netflix and Amazon viewed within the... the cable industry? Are they viewed as competitors, as potential or future partners?

Well, I would call them frenemies. I mean, that's a term that's been used a lot in the media business over the past decade. But I really do think they're frenemies because on one hand, Comcast wants you to keep paying your cable bill. And if all you cared about was Netflix, you wouldn't pay your cable bill. But they understand that in order to access Netflix, you need to pay for broadband. And you're going to be streaming a lot of Netflix on broadband, to their high-speed, their high-speed internet access. So they understand they have to work together, but a company like Comcast has its own offering called StreamPix,

which is sort of an alternative to Netflix, with the idea that if you're a Comcast subscriber, you could add on this sort of digital streaming option and not necessarily have to get Netflix. But I think the reality is, if you're a Comcast or Tummer cable, you understand that Netflix and Amazon and Hulu are not going away, and the more they invest in original content, the more consumers are going to want to access them.

They just want to make sure that they don't give up their cable bill as a result of that. One thing that we've seen specifically with both Netflix and Amazon with respect to video is how each company is dealing with the rising cost of content, and it is rising. And so which companies do you think are really in the best position to deal with that? Because on the one hand, even though they're not really involved in the same way, way that Netflix and Amazon are, I look at a company like Apple with its massive pile of cash and think, gosh, if at any point they wanted to jump into this, they could. Yes, absolutely.

I mean, I think that obviously when you're talking about buying content rights or licensing original content or paying to create new content, what you really need is a lot of money. And that's why when we're talking about Hulu, which is up for sale. Whoever buys Hulu is going to have to have a lot of cash on hand to invest in original. content year after year. If you look at Netflix and Amazon, Amazon has really stepped up its game in the original content space. They have this unlimited streaming offer to their subscribers of Amazon Prime. Amazon's advantage is that it has really deep pockets because it's Amazon. Netflix says it has plenty of cash on hand and it's continuing to invest in originals. But as Amazon and

Netflix battle over the rights to either new content or existing content, the fact that Amazon does have such deep pockets could push up the prices for Netflix. It doesn't mean Netflix can't pay, but Netflix is just going to become more selective to make sure it's only paying for content that its consumers, its subscribers really want. One final question on the television front, in particular about the national cable show. Did anything really surprise you at the show? And by that, I mean, it could be a small upstart company with a new gadget that maybe has the potential to be big or just a comment that an executive made to you. I'm always curious to the extent

because so many of these events, and rightfully so, so many of these events are very carefully staged. So I'm just curious if anything surprised you with the show. Well, the National Cable Show was carefully staged, and all the big companies had a major presence. But what really struck me as different this year is this acknowledgement that cord cutting really is a problem that they have to watch out for. And I spoke to Pat Esser, who's the president of Cox Communications, and he, was very up front. He said, yes, cord-cutting is real, and we're trying to deal with it. And it was this kind of frank acknowledgement of a shift in consumer behavior and a shift in their strategy as they try to prevent against this potentially really dangerous issue.

Moving off of movies and television, one thing that got announced earlier in the week, I've been referring to it as the worst kept secret in business, is that Apple finally came out with their eye radio, their music streaming. service. And I'm just curious, since Pandora is also a company that you have in your purview, what you make of Apple's announcement and to what extent it's a threat to a company like Pandora. Well, I have been reporting on the pending launch of Apple's I-Radio for so long now that it really was no surprise when it finally ended up happening. And I think that every time there was a report about I-Radio, Pandora's stock would tumble. And over the past six months,

or so. There been a number of times, Pandora Stock has just fallen dramatically on concerns about the launch of this mysterious eye radio. But I think it's really interesting that over the past couple of days, Pandora Stock has been just fine. I mean, on Monday, the day that Apple announced its iTunes Radio, Pandora Stock went up. And I think what that indicates is that Apple's iTunes radio really seems like yet another player in the digital radio space. And it's not necessarily going to replace Pandora. Pandora has a lot of fans out there. They have massive user base, and Apple is going to make a play. We'll see how it works, but it's not, you know, it's not one or the other. And the whole thing about this radio service is that it's contingent on advertising.

And Apple doesn't necessarily have the best track record when it comes to advertising. It's just not an area where it invests a lot of money or time. And now it's going to need to go out there and sell ads to support I Radio. So I'll be curious to, try it out, and I'll be curious to see how it works. But I think it was such a long time in coming that it just didn't kill the competitor stocks. We'll wrap up with a round of buy-seller hold. As best I could tell, neither Steven Spielberg nor George Lucas would answer the question when you put it to them. So I want your best guess here, buy-seller-hold, another Indiana Jones movie in the next five years. I'll be bullish on this one. I'll say bye. I think they

They didn't rule it out, and there's so much fan excitement about this property. I myself would love to see another Indiana Jones, so I'll be optimistic here, hopeful. I hope it's a buy situation. I hope they could pull it off. Her cable network has had a rough go of it lately. Buy seller hold own the Oprah Winfrey Network. Well, I interviewed David Zazlov, the CEO of Discovery, which co-owns, own with Oprah Winfrey, and he said the channel, the network can become profitable.

He said Tyler Perry, it's been working out great. So based on his comments, I'd say bye. Tesla Motors CEO, Elon Musk, has more than a passing interest in space travel. And he says we need to start considering living on other planets or risk going extinct. So buy-seller hold, a colony on Mars in the next 20 years. I heard Elon Musk speak at the D-11 conference a couple weeks ago. And I found him pretty compelling. I don't know by the next 20 years.

But I tend to believe his enthusiasm for space travel, so I would say hold. And finally, he was the first person on Twitter to have 40 million followers, but not everyone is a fan. Buy seller hold, Justin Bieber. He's held on to his stardom for a lot longer than some of these guys. And I think that his presence on Twitter and Facebook, for that matter, actually probably helps his longevity. I'm not personally a fan. I'm not personally a believer. We'll just hold.

You know what? If you're interested in the business of entertainment and media, the person you need to be following on Twitter is Julia Borson. You can also catch her on CNBC. Julia, thanks so much for being here. My pleasure. Coming up, we'll give you an inside look at the stocks on our radar. This is Motley Fool money.

As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for her against. So no buy ourselves stocks. based solely on what you're here. I'm Chris Hill, joining me in studio once again, Ron Gross, James Early, and Andy Cross. Guys, it's that time, once again, time to wrap up with the stocks that are on our radar. You're up first, Ron. What do you got this week? I got a radar stock, not a recommendation yet, but FedEx, ticker symbol FDX. I've heard of this company.

Yes, I'm glad. They report next week, and I'm primarily interested to hear from them because they are a bellwether in mind about economic activity, not just here, but globally as well. Specifically to them, I do want to hear about their global expansion, how they're doing overseas. I think listening to their earnings report will inform me quite a bit about where we're going in the future. Ticker once again? FDX. James, what do you got? Mike Ron, this is a stock I'm watching. It's not a recommendation. Cracker barrel. The ticker is CBRL.

This is the kind of restaurant that I personally would not eat at, which means it's probably a very good stock in terms of popularity. This has just crushed the market over its time being traded. It jacked up its yield now pays 3.1%. It brings it into my territory. Still doing 20% you over your earnings growth. A guy named... Sadar Baglari. He believes the management is overstated.

The returns on capital of the new stores, but either way, they're making a lot of earnings, and they've got some great numbers. Two quick questions. Cracker Barrel, you go to their website, among the things that they're really focusing on pushing are furniture and music. What is that about? Is that a big economic driver for them?

I do not know, Chris. I know they're expanding a lot of ways. They're trying to bring their cracker barrel branded into supermarkets also, and they've gotten a lawsuit with Kraft who thinks that Kraft's Cracker Barrel cheese will be confused with the other cracker barrels, so they're doing tests. So, yeah, they're just trying to spread out as much as they can. We'll see what sticks. They sound like music, too, I think. Yeah, yeah, music. Yeah, music. And second question, do you just feel even greater inner turmoil at yet another

company that is totally at odds with your healthy lifestyle. Yeah, I feel so irresponsible, just giving these guys publicity and recommending them. I look at the numbers and I see one thing. But yeah, I mean, it's certainly one thing America could use less of. All right, Andy Cross, we've got about a minute left. What's on your radar? Alta Salon. Alta had a great week this week. They reported their earnings that were really quite good with revenue growth north of 25 percent in comp sales, almost 7 percent. This is a recommendation of ours in Stock Advisor. And I like the company.

very much. We have it on hold, actually, because their CEO resigned a few months ago, and they have not yet given out news on what and who it will replace him. Really? Yeah. And so that's why we put it on a whole because we really love to know who's going to lead our company, obviously, and great CEOs, as we talked about earlier in the show. So I'm watching that stock to see when did, when, if I hear news from them on their CEO, it's a great company with great growth prospects, we'll go back on my buy list. And the ticker? UL-L-T-A.

All right, Andy Cross, James, Charlie, Ron Gross. Guys, thanks for being here. Happy Father's Day. Thanks, Chris. That does it for this edition of Motley Fool Money. Our engineer is Steve Broido. Our producer is Matt Greer. I'm Chris Hill.

Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.