Saab Turnaround 2011 – The Struggle and the Pain

In February, I wrote a piece titled “Can Saab Be Turned Around?” in which I pondered the chances of Saab being able to do a herculean amount of work with what little they had to work with, and, in the process, turn themselves around. 

Since that time, Saab has plunged into a financial abyss, been forced to shut down production, and taken on one Chinese investment partner (Hawtie), and then been forced to abandon that deal within two weeks because the Chinese company could not get the required permissions from the Chinese government to do the deal, and then, take on another Chinese business partner (Pangda). 

What bought on the aforementioned sudden fall, you might ask? 

To put it succinctly, the CEO’s rash actions. Saab had been paying all of their suppliers late for months, trying to conserve their cash flow, more or less “stealing from Peter to pay Paul”, which in this instance meant they were trying to put more money into sales, marketing, research and development; the first two things they desperately need to do to get more cash now (by selling some cars), and from the development perspective, they need to get the next generation of the 9-3 moving along, which is their volume model, and which needs an update. 

Amazon Says, Hey, Look at Me, I’m Flying

Amazon, the online retail behemoth, has decided to forgo that pesky thing called a music license as it launches their Amazon Cloud Drive, a “virtual” place where Amazon customers can store their digital music on Amazon’s gargantuan servers. Once stored, Amazon facilitates “streaming” of those music files to a computer or handheld device through Amazon Cloud Player.

Amazon has taken the position that they don’t need a license because their customers are only going to store and stream music that they already own. It looks like the record companies may not agree with that point of view. They’re either staying mum, or, as in the case of Sony, “reviewing their options”.

In A Surprise Move, Radio Gained Listeners Last Year

The “Statistical Abstract of the United States”, a weighty, riveting (that’s veiled sarcasm, its dry as dust) tome produced by the United States Census Bureau, states that the number of hours America spends with radio has fallen from 836 hours per year per person in 2003 (about 16 per week) to a projected 716 hours in 2009 per person (about 13.7 hours per week).

However, Arbitron, the media and marketing research company that tracks radio listening, among other things, released a study Monday (3/22/11) that states that listenership among people 12 years of age and older actually rose in 2010. Arbitron’s numbers say that an average of 241.6 million people in this group listened to conventional radio stations each week last year, an increase of 2.1 million over 2009.

Carol Hanley, Arbitron’s executive VP of Sales and Marketing, commented, “Radio is much stronger than the general perception of it has been”.

My response is: “Maybe”.

If you’re in charge of marketing somewhere, and you’re thinking about spending some money on radio spots, here are some things to consider:

The renewed vigor of radio listenership numbers is due in no small part to the increase in Hispanic radio stations and the Hispanic listeners that come with them. Radio added 1.1 million Hispanic listeners in the United States last year. As an industry analyst (not with Arbitron) pointed out recently, the state of Texas alone went from 25 Spanish-language stations in 2000 to 154 Spanish-language stations in 2009, and at least a few more were added in 2010, although those numbers are not yet out. That’s great if Hispanics is one of your target markets, but not so meaningful if this group is not in your target demographics.

Rovio Mobile, Developer of Angry Birds, Gets $42 Million in Funding

The newest overnight sensation of the digital gaming industry has now officially been crowned. Rovio Mobile, a tiny mobile gaming company out of Finland run by Niklas and Mikael Hed (cousins), has ridden their Angry Birds game to lofty marketplace success (40 million active users) and a financing round of $42 million USD, led by Accel Partners and Atomico Ventures. 

Of course, someone gets the obligatory board seat, and in this case, that someone is Niklas Zennstrom, a co-founder of Atomico Ventures, as well as another company named Skype. He is going to sit on the board of Rovio Mobile, his new investment. He also issued the even-more-obligatory statement, saying, “Angry Birds is one of the fastest-growing online products I’ve seen, growing even faster than Skype, and the company has done a brilliant job of extending it across different platforms and merchandise.” 

It’s worth noting that little Rovio put out 50 titles before they went platinum with Angry Birds, courtesy of the explosion in smart phones; now that they have a thoroughbred in their stable, they intend to ride that horse until they can breed another winner. 

Can Saab Be Turned Around?

There are turnarounds of an average degree of difficulty, and then there are turnarounds that might take a couple of years off of your life.

Bringing Saab, the Swedish automaker, back from near-death, is probably in the latter category.

Just a quick recap, for those unfamiliar with the Saab story:

Saab originally made airplanes (and a subsidiary spun off long ago still does), developed a prototype car in 1949, started selling cars in earnest in the Fifties, entered the U.S. market, and developed what could probably be accurately called a small but fanatical following in America. Saabs were quirky, front-wheel drive when almost nothing else was, extremely safe, very economical, and, last, but hardly least, had design that was truly innovative and different-looking.

Things Have Changed

Yes, I am quoting a Bob Dylan song title on a business blog.

But things have changed with the passage of the 2010 Tax Relief Act two weeks ago, and I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some of the provisions that might hold the greatest interest for small and medium-sized businesses.

So, here we go:

Small Business Investment: Section 760 of the Tax Relief Act amends section 1202 of the Internal Revenue Code (the Code), with the intent of increasing incentives to invest in small businesses. The Code now states that if an investment is made in 2011 in stock of a qualified small business and the stock is held for a minimum of five (5) years the gain is tax free. Prior to passage two weeks ago, the Code section 1202 incentive was a 50% gain. Some details: The investment must be in qualified small business stock. That means the investment must be in new shares of a “C” corporation. The investment must be made as an original issue of stock and can be granted for money, property or services performed, except for service of underwriting. To qualify, a company must be a domestic corporation with a cap of aggregate gross assets of $50,000,000 USD before AND after the issuance of the new shares. And, a minimum of 80% of the total assets must be used in an active trade or business. An active trade or business is defined by the IRS as a trade or business other than a personal service business like law, medicine, engineering, consulting, athletics, financial services, and includes other trades or businesses where the business is dependent on the reputation or skill of 1 or more of its employees.

Small Business Expensing: Businesses will be able to write off 100 percent of their equipment and machinery purchases, up to $500,000, that were placed in service after Sept. 8, 2010 but before Jan. 1, 2012. The cost of the equipment (up to $500,000) reduces the total taxable income of the business.

Estate Tax: The revised estate tax level was set at a $5 million exemption and 35 percent top rate through 2012.

Payroll Tax: Employees will receive a 2 percent reduction in their Social Security (FICA) payroll tax in 2011. The rate for employees will drop from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. It is important to note here that employers (no matter what size) will continue to pay the 6.2 percent rate. Self-employed individuals will pay 10.4 percent instead of 12.4 percent. The FICA tax rates for everyone will return to 2010 levels in 2012.

Research Tax Credit: The research tax credit had originally expired as of December 31, 2009. The Tax Relief Act has now extended this for 2010 and 2011.

That wraps it up on this end, and I hope this provides a quick overview of some of the changes in the recent tax legislation. We are not tax accountants (not even close), so if you have questions, it is in your best interests to contact a certified tax accountant, not us.

Brendan Moore is a Principal Consultant with Cedar Point Consulting, a management consulting practice based in the Washington, DC area, where he advises businesses in marketing, sales, front-end operations, and strategy. Cedar Point Consulting can be found at http://cedarpointconsulting.com.