MasterCard's going to become more competitive and focused on growing its bottom line rather than protecting the association,
You're starting to see a little bit of a relief rally.
That's making the 60 cents (a share earnings) look a lot softer. We're not too concerned about it. But if you want to call this a hit, it's not the best hit we've ever seen.
It was a great quarter and the stock rallied hard on that,
In the end, there's a high likelihood that in ten years, Capital One will look more like a thrift. I'd be surprised if I don't hear them make another bank acquisition by late 2006 in hot markets such as Florida or Texas.
With that premium and given their size, its not clear that there would be a plethora of demand to buy something that large.
It's those incremental time savings that these merchants are looking for. They may lose sales if the lines are too long.
This is a company that hasn't done many big acquisitions before, so there's some risk of the costs of integrating being higher than expected.
He made the comment that there's nothing new. That alleviates a lot of the concerns in this stock.
The timing could not be worse, as is the fact that no successor is named and the search is just getting under way.
