Ericsson AB is considering an offer for some of the patents being auctioned off by Nortel Networks Corp., increasing the number of potential bidders to at least four, said two people familiar with the plans.
Ericsson hasn't made a final decision on whether to make an offer or which patents it's most interested in, said the people, who wouldn't be identified because the company's plans aren't yet public. The Stockholm-based company is considering teaming up with another company on the bid, and has approached Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp., one of the people said.
Nortel, a Canadian phone equipment maker that filed for bankruptcy in January 2009, has already attracted several potential bidders for its portfolio of wireless and technology patents. Google, whose Android software runs phones made by Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., offered $900 million last month in what Nortel said was a starting point for an auction.
"All the big Canadian banks have higher dividend yields than government bonds, as well as the telecom stocks and utilities. And globally, hundreds of stocks have dividend yields higher than bond yields," he says.
"So there's a straight valuation argument here, but there's also this idea that earnings and dividends should grow over time and help protect you from inflation."
Cooper isn't saying blue-chip stocks will necessarily rally now.
But for investors who have a five to 10-year investment horizon, he says now is a good time to start picking away at high-quality names.
"In the last six weeks or so you're seeing some of these things bounce back, but from a relative performance perspective they've underperformed for a long time," he says.
"I'd view this as part of a longerterm cycle, which started around 2000. In 2000, large-cap stocks were very expensive relative to small, so they started to decline," he notes.
"Today if you look at U.S. blue chips, they have not been this cheap relative to the overall market in the last 25 years."
Here in Canada, Cooper's colleague Anish Chopra -who oversees the TD Canadian Value Fund, among others -says he's finding value among small to midcap energy stocks, as well as global technology companies.
He also likes some largecap Canadian financial stocks -CIBC and Manulife are two current favourites -as well as natural gas giant Encana.
(C) Ottawa Citizens
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