LONDON (Reuters) - Egg, the Internet bank owned by Citigroup , will withdraw credit cards from 161,000 customers following a risk review, a spokesman for Egg said on Saturday. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 9:21 am
LONDON (Reuters) - Egg, the Internet bank owned by Citigroup , will withdraw credit cards from 161,000 customers following a risk review, a spokesman for Egg said on Saturday.
US stocks rose yesterday, capping their best weekly gain in five years, after Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo! and a plan to rescue bond insurers overshadowed the first decrease in jobs since 2003.... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 8:31 am
In a move rarely seen in the extremely clubby technology world, Microsoft Corp. yesterday went public with an unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover offer for beleaguered rival Yahoo! - and hinted it's ready... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 8:31 am
Carl Icahn reportedly has taken a big stake in J.C. Penney, spurring speculation that the billionaire financier may prod the retailer to boost its shares by buying back stock or selling off real estate.... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 8:31 am
Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo! may not be as rich as some investors would have hoped, but it may be enough to keep other potential buyers on the sidelines, analysts said yesterday. "Microsoft... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 8:31 am
IAC trial Liberty Media Chair man John Malone will face off with IAC/ Inter ActiveCorp. Chairman Barry Diller in a battle to control the entertain ment company at a trial in March, a Delaware judge ruled... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 8:31 am
Merrill Lynch & Co. was accused of securities fraud by Massachusetts regulators for selling the city of Springfield $13.9 million in collateralized debt obligations that lost 91 percent of their value.... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 8:31 am
Another Middle East undersea Internet cable has been damaged, adding to disruption in Indian online services caused when several lines were cut earlier this week, a cable operating firm... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 8:20 am
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp offered to buy Yahoo Inc for $44.6 billion, in a bold bid to transform two ailing Internet businesses into a worthy competitor for market leader Google Inc.
It makes an unsolicited $44.6-billion offer for the struggling titan in a battle with Google for online supremacy. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
AP - In a shower of pink slips, U.S. employers cut jobs last month for the first time in more than four years, the starkest signal yet that the economy is grinding to a halt if it hasn't already toppled into recession.
It doesn't take highly paid Wall Street analysts to figure out why corporate earnings are trending toward their worst performance in six years. With roughly half the companies in the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 6:28 am
The line of towering wind turbines stand motionless on the ridgeline above Interstate 70 in central Kansas, Y-shaped silhouettes amid the swirling snow. Despite the weather, dozens of... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 6:17 am
The United States and Russia signed a deal that will boost Russian uranium imports to supply the US nuclear industry, the Commerce Department said Friday. "This agreement... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 5:12 am
Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6 billion bid Friday for Internet rival Yahoo Inc. is a radical departure for the storied Redmond, Wash., firm in terms of financial scope, ambition and fundamental strategy.
China's efforts to rein in rampant inflation took a step backward this week after the central bank made an emergency effort to soften the economic pain caused by ongoing brutal snowstorms.
Investors will attempt to cement a nascent recovery in stocks next week, seeking help from earnings growth outside the battered financial sector and trying to gauge whether much lower interest rates will be enough to prevent the U.S. economy from sliding into recession.
The US Congress Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing next week to scrutinize Microsoft's multi-billion-dollar bid to acquire Yahoo in order to take on Internet goliath Google. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 3:17 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Friday, capping Wall Street's best week in almost five years, after Microsoft Corp's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo Inc overshadowed news that employers... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 3:01 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Friday, capping Wall Street's best week in almost five years, after Microsoft Corp's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo Inc overshadowed news that employers cut payrolls for the first time since 2003.
US employment fell for the first time since 2003, the Labor Department reported, with non-farm payrolls falling by 17,000 jobs in January against a backdrop of recession fears Source: FT.com - US homepage | 2 Feb 2008 | 2:59 am
US and European banks are joining forces to try to solve the crisis among US bond insurers that could exacerbate the impact of the credit squeeze Source: FT.com - US homepage | 2 Feb 2008 | 2:49 am
Microsoft made a dramatic attempt to stifle Google's growing dominance of the internet by going public with an unsolicited $44.6bn bid for Yahoo Source: FT.com - US homepage | 2 Feb 2008 | 2:45 am
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Whoever first thought of boiling investment decisions down to a simple trade-off between "risk and reward" should try fathoming the world's two most populous markets. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 2:06 am
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Whoever first thought of boiling investment decisions down to a simple trade-off between "risk and reward" should try fathoming the world's two most populous markets.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fears of a looming recession could batter U.S. stocks next week as investors weigh a dim earnings outlook for 2008 against a view that holds shares are cheap as seen by Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 2:01 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fears of a looming recession could batter U.S. stocks next week as investors weigh a dim earnings outlook for 2008 against a view that holds shares are cheap as seen by Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo.
A judge said Friday that she will reconsider whether three investment firms being sued by investors for $40 billion in connection with Enron Corp.'s collapse should be excused from the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 2 Feb 2008 | 1:08 am
Chinese state-owned company Chinalco has stunned the market with a daring raid on Rio Tinto, disrupting a potential takeover of Rio by BHP Billiton and risking the wrath of Australia's political establishment. Source: Telegraph Business | 2 Feb 2008 | 1:01 am
BP chief executive Tony Hayward has continued his series of top-tier management changes with the replacement of David Allen as managing director and chief of staff. Mr Allen, who was a close associate of former BP boss Lord Browne of Madingley, is being replaced by Steve Westwell, former vice- president of BP Alternative Energy. Source: Telegraph Business | 2 Feb 2008 | 1:01 am
Senior US lawmakers pledged to conduct their own investigation into the joint takeover of 3Com by Bain Capital and Huawei because of "genuine concern" about the Chinese equipment maker's involvement in the transaction Source: FT.com - US homepage | 2 Feb 2008 | 12:51 am
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Cosmetics giant Estee Lauder Cos. said Friday its second-quarter profit rose 7.7%, driven by sales outside of the U.S. and for products such as M-A-C cosmetics. Shares rose after the company kept its full-year profit forecast and second-quarter results fared better than some analysts expected.
Reuters - Microsoft Corp
offered to buy Yahoo Inc for $44.6 billion, in a bold
bid to transform two ailing Internet businesses into a worthy
competitor for market leader Google Inc .
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has
quietly amassed a large stake in department store operator J.C.
Penney Co Inc , The Wall Street Journal reported on
Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
American demand for small-size sport-utility vehicles helps General Motors Corp. beat out its rivals in January sales, and helps the automaker become one of the few to post gains in what is widely expected to be a sour month.
Microsoft has launched an audacious $44.6bn (£22.6bn) bid for Yahoo! in an attempt to take on Google in the global search engine market Source: Telegraph Business | 2 Feb 2008 | 12:02 am
BOSTON (Reuters) - Fidelity Investments, the world's
biggest mutual fund firm, has made a second round of layoffs
due to the ongoing restructuring at the group and axed about
250 jobs, a spokeswoman said on Friday.
The political unrest and violence in Kenya, which has plagued the African country since December's disputed presidential election, has hit tea supplies with production of the crop set to fall 7pc this year. Source: Telegraph Business | 2 Feb 2008 | 12:01 am
British Airways has thrown down the gauntlet to Eos and Silverjet by announcing the launch of a business class-only service from London City Airport to New York. Source: Telegraph Business | 2 Feb 2008 | 12:01 am
Greene King and Fuller, Smith & Turner yesterday became the latest pub companies to report slowing sales in the wake of weakening consumer confidence and the smoking ban. Source: Telegraph Business | 2 Feb 2008 | 12:01 am
The French have rallied behind the rogue trader who admitted losing his bank £3.7bn in illicit bets, instead pointing the finger at management. Source: Telegraph Business | 2 Feb 2008 | 12:01 am
The Miller family, which owns the UK's largest housebuilder, has settled a disagreement that had threatened to break up the company at a time when the housing market was weak Source: Telegraph Business | 2 Feb 2008 | 12:01 am
Reuters - Fidelity Investments, the world's
biggest mutual fund firm, has made a second round of layoffs
due to the ongoing restructuring at the group and axed about
250 jobs, a spokeswoman said on Friday. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 2 Feb 2008 | 12:00 am
Reuters - A group of large banks has joined
together to find ways to shore up Ambac Financial Group Inc
, a large bond insurer battered by the global credit
crunch, two people briefed on the talks said on Friday.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A group of large banks has joined together to find ways to shore up Ambac Financial Group Inc , a large bond insurer battered by the global credit crunch, two people briefed on the talks said on Friday.
Two female suicide bombers killed at least 70 people in Baghdad in the deadliest attacks in the Iraqi capital since the "troop surge" of US reinforcements began to make its presence felt last spring Source: FT.com - US homepage | 1 Feb 2008 | 11:16 pm
Record oil prices helped Chevron offset losses at its refining unit and a slight fall in energy production last year. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 1 Feb 2008 | 10:47 pm
Soaring oil prices help Exxon Mobil to post $40.6bn in net profits in 2007, a record for a US company. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 1 Feb 2008 | 10:42 pm
Microsoft offers to buy the search engine company Yahoo for $44.6bn in cash and shares. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 1 Feb 2008 | 10:41 pm
Two years ago, AOL was the belle of the Internet ball as its owner, Time Warner, entertained teams of suitors hoping to cozy up to the once-dominant Web portal. Microsoft offered to buy half of AOL, but the board of Time Warner demurred. Yahoo offered to acquire the company with stock, which was also a non-starter. In the end Time Warner settled on a deal under which search giant Google invested $1 billion in AOL in exchange for running its search business.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp said on Friday record oil prices propelled its quarterly and yearly profits to the highest-ever levels by a U.S. company.
Reuters - Wal-Mart Stores Inc is actively
working to open its first small-scale grocery stores in
Arizona, according to city planning officials, as the world's
largest retailer looks to fend off competition from British
supermarket rival Tesco . Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 1 Feb 2008 | 8:25 pm
After the latest round of mixed earnings from the biggest players in pharma and biotech, companies are hampered by a frustrating dynamic: a product mix that isn't strong enough to match an exodus of blockbusters.
FT.com - US stocks were volatile on Friday as traders weighed up the first fall in US employment in 4½ years against a possible rescue plan for troubled bond insurers. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 1 Feb 2008 | 7:30 pm
China weighed into the bidding battle for the world's minerals deposits when it launched the largest-ever dawn raid to snap up a 9 per cent stake in Rio Tinto, the UK-listed mining giant at the centre of a takeover battle Source: FT.com - US homepage | 1 Feb 2008 | 7:16 pm
The news that Microsoft finally put a formal offer on the table for Yahoo places new emphasis on an oft-asked question: What will happen to AOL?
Speculation that Time Warner would spin off the troubled internet unit it merged with seven years ago has persisted since shortly after the deal closed. The $124 billion merger, reached at the very peak of the tech bubble, is widely regarded as one of the worst corporate combinations ever.
Time Warner could seek a buyer for all or part of AOL, or it could spin it out in an initial public offering. Today's news that Microsoft values Yahoo at a 60 percent premium to what the market values it is great news for Time Warner brass looking to unlock shareholder value.
David Katz, a Time Warner shareholder and chief investment officer at Matrix Asset Advisors, believes that AOL is worth 60 percent more today than it was yesterday. "It puts significantly different valuation metrics on the business," he says.
Only that's not how the market is viewing it. Time Warner shares surged more than 9 percent before the market opened, but they've since settled down to trade about 1 percent higher.
This makes an I.P.O. look like a challenge for AOL. Even though the cash-rich Microsoft values Yahoo at a premium, there's no guarantee that investors will do the same for AOL.
The company is in the midst of a turnaround as it shifts from a subscription-based business model to an advertising-based one. As a result, AOL's subscriber numbers have fallen off a cliff in recent quarters. But the advertising side has yet to pick up the slack: During the last quarterly earnings conference call in November, Time Warner said it expected advertising revenue growth to slow in the fourth quarter, and it believed its pageviews would be flat.
Instead, the company is focused on growing profits by slashing costs—not exactly the kind of show to take on the road. They could spin it as a separate entity for Time Warner shareholders, but the sales pitch might still be challenging.
An alternative scenario would be that another major media player takes Time Warner's problem off of its hands by acquiring it. Google took a $1 billion stake in AOL, in a deal that valued the company at $20 billion.
But that was two years ago. Yahoo's market value has been cut in half since then (as of yesterday's close), so it's hard to argue that AOL's has fared much better. At the time Google made the deal, AOL accounted for 10 percent of its advertising revenues. Now it accounts for half that.
Perhaps a better option for Jeff Bewkes, who took the helm at Time Warner last month and who has pledged to focus on shareholders, is to use Microsoft's lofty valuation of Yahoo to sell AOL for a deal.
It's hard to imagine Google swooping in and coughing up a 60 percent premium for a company in which it's already realized a loss. Another potential acquirer, News Corp., already paid that eye-popping premium for Dow Jones last year, so it might be tough to pull off two years in a row, even for Rupert Murdoch.
But Matrix Advisor's Katz does have a point. Valuation metrics in the online advertising industry are changing with today's news. If Microsoft is willing to buy Yahoo for a 60 percent premium, then AOL at a 20 or 30 percent premium looks like a steal.
But a premium to what? A clearer answer should emerge next week, when more is revealed about just how bad things are at AOL during Time Warner's fourth-quarter earnings call on Tuesday.
British Airways reports 35% growth in nine-month profits, despite rising fuel costs and a consumer slowdown. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 1 Feb 2008 | 6:59 pm
Reuters - U.S. employers cut payrolls for the
first time in 4-1/2 years in January, the Labor Department said
on Friday in a report that showed the slowing economy was at
growing risk of sliding into recession.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employers cut payrolls for the first time in 4-1/2 years in January, the Labor Department said on Friday in a report that showed the slowing economy was at growing risk of sliding into recession.
The US has seen the first decline in employment since August 2003, in a fresh sign that a recession is looming. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 1 Feb 2008 | 5:17 pm
On one side will be Microsoft, Yahoo, and Facebook, which has a strategic partnership with the software giant. On the other side, Google and its Open Social protocol, which seeks to develop a common software standard to bridge together MySpace, LinkedIn, and Plaxo.
Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer, has long sought a way to counter Google's meteoric rise. For Ballmer, it's not just business. It's personal.
In 2005, after Google snared former Microsoft China guru Kai-Fu Lee to run its own China operations, Ballmer launched into an expletive-laden, chair-throwing tirade, in which he cursed Google C.E.O. Eric Schmidt.
"I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again," Ballmer raged, according to court documents from a lawsuit over the dispute. "I'm going to fucking kill Google."
A tie-up with Yahoo represents Microsoft's best shot at trying to "kill Google."
In his letter to Yahoo, Ballmer wrote of his "vision that the online businesses of Microsoft and Yahoo should be aligned in some way to create a more effective competitor in the online marketplace."
One year, ago, Microsoft offered to enter a strategic partnership with Yahoo, but was rebuffed after Yahoo said it wanted time to capture the "upside" presented by the company's rollout of Panama, its much-ballyhooed advertising platform.
"A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved," Ballmer wrote in his letter. "While a commercial partnership may have made sense at one time, Microsoft believes that the only alternative now is the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo that we are proposing."
But even after a merger with Yahoo, Microsoft faces an uphill climb. Google currently has 70 percent of the Web-search market, while a combined Microsoft-Yahoo would command only 30 percent.
Referring to Google, Ballmer wrote: "Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisition. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo can offer a credible alternative for consumers, advertisers, and publishers."
Reaction to the offer around the blogosphere has been largely positive, if for no other reason than most observers feel this is the only alternative for either Microsoft or Yahoo to have a shot at taking on Google.
Todd Bishop, who writes the influential Microsoft blog for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, said, "It's a huge move that, if successful, promises to reshape the internet industry, pitting Microsoft against Google in a head-to-head competition between two online giants."
Fred Wilson, who just this week told Portfolio.com that the time is right for a Microsoft-Yahoo linkup, wrote, "We all knew this was coming. Yahoo was cheap. Too cheap. And a mess. Rats were leaving the sinking ship en masse. It was not sustainable. Something had to happen."
Firms in the Middle East and South Asia face problems after undersea broadband cables were damaged. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 1 Feb 2008 | 3:48 pm
Wall Street's hopes for upbeat employment news were dashed on Friday morning when the Labor Department reported that U.S. employment shrank for the first time in more than four years.
The report on January employment showed that employers pulled back sharply, cutting jobs in the face of rising costs and a slowing economy.
Employers slashed 17,000 jobs last month, while median forecasts were for hiring to grow by 80,000 jobs. It was the first drop since August 2003, when payrolls slid by 42,000. Job growth was upwardly revised to 82,000 from an originally reported 18,000 in December.
Steep losses in construction and manufacturing jobs continued, offsetting gains in health care, food services, and retail trade, the Labor Department reported. Employment in professional and technical services and financial services remained little changed.
The unemployment rate, which was at 4.5 percent a year ago, is now 4.9 percent, down from 5 percent in December. Average hourly earnings rose by 4 cents, or 0.2 percent.
The unexpectedly gloomy data will mean yet another big challenge for the Federal Reserve, which is trying desperately to combat weakness in the credit markets while at the same time encourage growth and stifle inflation. The Fed has cut the benchmark interest rate a total of 1.25 percent in the past weeks, from 4.25 percent to 3 percent.
New owners and a TV deal help top English clubs reach a record January spend of £150m on players. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 1 Feb 2008 | 12:05 pm
A global war for dominance on the internet has just erupted.
Seeking to directly confront Google, Microsoft has made an unsolicited offer to buy Yahoo, the struggling search giant, for $44.6 billion.
On a conference call this morning, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, said that the deal would mark "the next major milestone in Microsoft's companywide transformation to embrace online services overall."
It would be the largest technology deal ever. It is also something of a departure for Microsoft, which has previously shied from making big acquisitions. Its largest was a $6 billion deal for Aquantive last year.
Still, as Mark Mahaney, an analyst with Citigroup, said in a note, "For Microsoft or any other company seeking to gain scale in Internet advertising, Yahoo is an obvious strategic choice."
As Kevin Johnson, Microsoft's president of platform and services, said on the conference call this morning, "Scale matters" in online advertising.
The offer, half cash and half stock, represents a premium of 62 percent over Yahoo's closing stock price on Thursday.
In a statement, Yahoo said its board "will valuate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo's strategic plans."
Given Yahoo's battered stock price and its warning on Tuesday that it faced "headwinds" as spending on online advertising slows, the bid appears to be a sure-fire knock-out punch.
Henry Blodget on the Silicon Alley Insider blog says, "By going public with the offer, Microsoft is seeking to 'pull a Murdoch'—going over the heads of Yahoo's management team straight to independent shareholders, in the hopes that the shareholders will force management to sell. This is the same play Murdoch used so brilliantly to swipe Dow Jones from the Bancroft family."
Ballmer said that he called Jerry Yang, the C.E.O. of Yahoo, about the offer on Thursday night, but he did not say what Yang’s immediate response was.
The approach from Microsoft now appears friendly, but as the New York Times' DealBook notes, Microsoft has other options if Yahoo puts up resistances. Microsoft could put up a slate of directors to run for Yahoo's board. All of Yahoo's directors come up for election at the same time.
There are sure to be antitrust issues. A deal would combine the largest software company with the largest Web portal.
A major hurdle to a deal may come in Europe, where regulators have long been critical at what they see as Microsoft unfairly leveraging its dominance in operating software.
There has long been speculation that Microsoft might acquire Yahoo to take on Google. In Microsoft's letter to the board, it said that it approached Yahoo over a possible alliance in late 2006 and early 2007.
And Microsoft made clear who it had in its headlights, noting that in online advertising, "the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisition.
"Together, Microsoft and Yahoo can offer a credible alternative for consumers, advertisers, and publishers."
Shares of Yahoo jumped 43 percent, to $27.58. Microsoft shares fell 6 percent, while Google shares tumbled 9 percent.
Will there be a higher bid? Rob Cox and Jeff Segal on Breakingviews.com argue that Yahoo's board should not capitulate immediately. "While the headline numbers look nutty, once stripped of its cash and Asian investments, Yahoo looks more reasonable."
But there is unlikely to be another bidder, says Henry Blodget on Silicon Valley Insider. No media company can afford to go mano-a-mano with Microsoft. Google can, but it is unlikely to want to further antagonize media companies and regulators.
Valleywag notes that Yahoo has recently hired a number of executives from Microsoft, hinting at a possible Fifth Column of sorts inside Yahoo.
Before each of Google's founders was married, they were all wed to their business venture.
Cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and chief executive Eric Schmidt let it drop in an interview with Fortune magazine that in the summer of 2004, just before Google's initial public offering, they made a pact to work together for 20 years.
In this age of perpetual career change, it's refreshing to see people commit to each other for the long haul. But any marriage therapist could tell you that pledging a 20-year commitment is a far different thing than stumbling into a 20-year-long collaboration. Such agreements are exceedingly rare in the business realm, and in the personal one, well, are only met with a 50/50 success rate these days.
Still, this wouldn't be the first time that Google's top execs were the first to spot and execute a trend. Are Brin, Page, and Schmidt on to something, with the 20-year pledge?
Tom DeLara, who teaches marriage and family therapy at Syracuse University, in addition to holding an M.B.A., agrees that business partners making an explicit commitment to work together and to see their way through a set of challenges is as significant a decision as couples saying "I do."
And in the case of personal relationships, the experts believe that there are some distinct advantages to making such an outright commitment.
Couples counselor Pepper Schwartz, a University of Washington faculty member and relationship expert, says that the most important predictor of couple stability is the determination and commitment to stay together "no matter what."
"The benefit in a lifetime pact is not unlike a lifetime marriage or lifetime friendship—you can say the hard things, and deal with deeper feelings and issues—if you know the relationship is not on the table every time a hard session occurs," she says.
From a professional perspective, the notion is not out of line with certain successful business models based on making overt professional commitments. For instance, major Japanese corporations until recent years were dependent on a high level of explicit dedication on the part of leadership and employees, which "set a foundation for very positive things to happen," according to DeLara.
But DeLara also warns that the value of creating a long-term tie like the one at Google is only as good as each executive's personal ability to carry it out.
"If the parties are reasonably mature emotionally, then those commitments are understood and intended and likely to help structure the way in which people will navigate their way through problems," says DeLara.
So will Brin, Page, and Schmidt's pledge stand the test of time? Schwartz points out that "all contracts end with enough provocation," and Google is likely to throw innumerable challenges in the founders' direction in the years ahead.
Some advice from the relationship experts: Being able to weather times of growth and change depends on trust, communication, and having clearly outlined rules and expectations at an early stage of the game.
"They will need the same skills as married people do: Don't take each other for granted, do not use a lifetime contract as a license to abuse, and keep refreshing the relationship!" Schwartz wrote in an email.
So far, the three executives have not had any trouble keeping things new and exciting at Google.
AP - In a shower of pink slips, U.S. employers cut jobs last month for the first time in more than four years, the starkest signal yet that the economy is grinding to a halt if it hasn't already toppled into recession.
Reuters - Microsoft Corp
offered to buy Yahoo Inc for $44.6 billion, in a bold
bid to transform two ailing Internet businesses into a worthy
competitor for market leader Google Inc .
Reuters - A group of large banks has joined
together to find ways to shore up Ambac Financial Group Inc
, a large bond insurer battered by the global credit
crunch, two people briefed on the talks said on Friday.
Reuters - Exxon Mobil Corp said on
Friday record oil prices propelled its quarterly and yearly
profits to the highest-ever levels by a U.S. company.
Reuters - U.S. employers cut payrolls for the
first time in 4-1/2 years in January, the Labor Department said
on Friday in a report that showed the slowing economy was at
growing risk of sliding into recession.