The MoPR Blog

Five months ago we introduced the MoPR 500, an “index” of mobility industry stocks. We selected companies across a broad swath of the mobility industry, and “buying” one share of each, we assembled a list of stocks we could purchase for $500; hence the MoPR 500. We were inspired to create this index by forecasts of the stock market’s impending doom. Certainly a lot of what was forecasted as played out. But five months later, how are our mobility stocks doing?

We began at the close of market October 3, 2008 with an index value of $500.49. At Friday’s market close (March 6, 2009) the MoPR 500 was valued at $358.82, a loss of 28.31 percent.

For some context, at the close of the market on October 3, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was valued at $10,325.38. On March 6 the DJIA was valued at $6,626.94, or a loss of 35.82 percent. As we watched the ups and mostly downs of the market these past five months, we observed that our mobility index usually though modestly outperformed the DJIA.

Of our 27 mobility stocks, 26 went down in value. Standing alone was Broadcom (NASDAQ: BCRM). On October 3, a share of Broadcom was worth $16.63, and last Friday it closed at $16.97. Only a 2.04 percent gain, but in this volatile market, who wouldn’t take that? For the most part, Broadcom has traded consistently over $16 per share over the past five months. Perhaps part of the stock’s appeal is that Broadcom recently introduced multimedia chipset technology for mobile phones.

The next four best performing stocks in the top of the of MoPR 500 are:

• Sybase (NYSE: SY), purchased for $28.76 and trading last at $26.48 for a loss of 7.93 percent.
• Syniverse (NYSE: SVR), purchased for $16.11 and trading last at $14.14 for a loss of 12.23 percent.
• Verizon (NYSE: VZ), purchased for $31.24 and trading last at $27.28 for a loss of 12.68 percent.
• Neustar (NYSE: NSR), purchased for $18.83 and trading last at $15.63 for a loss of 16.99 percent.

It’s sad when three of the best five performers have double digit losses, but these losses are about half the average loss for the index and about a third of the loss of the DJIA.

Four of the five worst performing stocks comprising the bottom of the MoPR 500 cost about $3.00 per share. At such a low initial value, every cent lost makes the stock drop more percentage-wise. The sole exception was Clearwire, purchased for $9.92 per share. Clearwire is in the midst of a much-watched consumer WiMax service roll out.

The five worst performing stocks of the MoPR 500 are:

• Powerwave (NASDAQ: PWAV), purchased for $3.32 and trading last at $0.25 for a loss of 92.50 percent.
• Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT), purchased for $2.08 and trading last at $0.32 for a loss of 84.62 percent.
• UTStarcom (NASDAQ: UTSI), purchased for $2.88 and trading last at $0.70 for a loss of 75.69 percent.
• Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR), purchased for $9.92 and trading last at $2.82 for a loss of 71.57 percent.
• Alcatel Lucent (NYSE: ALU), purchased for $3.54 and trading last at $1.16 for a loss of 67.23 percent.

More information about the individual holdings can be found on our Stockalicious and Herdstreet portfolio pages, as well as our MoPR 500 Index page.

These last few weeks have certainly been crazy on the stock market. The only stock that seemed to do well the last two weeks was Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB). It made us wonder how mobility stocks would fare as compared to the rest of the market. So we’re trying an experiment.

We looked at some representative companies across the wide mobility spectrum — from wireless to Wi-Fi, from mobile entertainment to network infrastructure — and we put together a portfolio buying a single shares of as many of these mobility stocks as we could purchase for $500. So yes, the “500″ in the name means dollars, not the number of stocks in our index.

On October 3, 2008 the “MoPR 500 Stock Index” was valued at $500.49. How’s it doing today? See how our mobility stock index is performing by visiting the MoPR 500 Index page here on TheMoPRBlog. You can get detailed information about all the stocks her at our MoPR 500 index pages on Herdstreet and Stockalicious.

As the year slowly starts to wind down, the tradeshows and events in the mobile and wireless space just keep on coming. One show right on the horizon is Mobile Internet World 2008, being held October 21-23 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

Billed as “the leading conference and expo for connecting the people, technologies and trends that will shape the future of the mobile Internet,” the show promises to deliver some outstanding themes and tracks. And, proving how important mobile technologies have become in the past few years, the three-day conference is expanding its agenda to cover mobile Internet trends; open platform development standards; mobile transactions, and ultra-mobile devices.

Event themes will range from “monetizing mobile Internet applications” to “application development,” while the show will offer an 8-track program that features mobile Internet business models and mobile content & entertainment, among other important and relevant sessions.

The conference will include keynotes and networking sessions from a wide variety of industry thought leaders from companies such as Intel, Verizon Wireless, Google, Sprint Nextel, and Yahoo. Keynote speakers will include some industry heavyweights, for example:

• Steve Elfman –President of Network Operations, Sprint Nextel
• Anthony Lewis –VP of Open Development, Verizon Wireless
• Rich Miner -EVP of Mobile, Google
• Anand Chandrasekher, SVP, GM,Ultra Mobility Group, Intel
• Len Lauer –COO, Qualcomm
• Emily Nagle Green –CEO, Yankee Group
• Bruce Stewart –VP & GM, Connected Life Americas, Yahoo!
• Ian McKerlich, Director of Mobile Web and Content Services, T-Mobile USA

Networking sessions promise to showcase some of the mobile industry’s brightest talents and technologies including the following tracks and events:

The Mobile Web Developer Challenge – Featuring some of the most exciting new applications available on over 5,000 device types, including games, portals, social networking and more. Developers will compete for prizes worth over $40,000.

The Mobile Internet Innovation Awards – These awards will recognize leaders in the development and deployment of mobile internet technology.

The RFID Special Interest Group – Presented by the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge to offer best-practice examples of where RFID technology fits in enterprise and public-sector applications.

The Google Android Developers Workshop – Highlighting Google’s wireless platform strategy and how companies can effectively build Android applications.

Based on conversations with the show organizers it sounds like this year’s show has added opportunities for attendees and media to experience hands-on the latest application and service innovations available in the mobile Internet market.

Go here for more information on the show. As we get news and other details on this event we will be sure to share them here as well.