Opec ministers are expected to leave oil supplies unchanged, despite calls for an increase to help ease high prices. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 Mar 2008 | 12:19 pm
Among the companies whose shares are expected to see active trade in Wednesday's session are the seeds producers, Big Lots, BJ’s, Frozen Food Express, New York Times, PDL BioPharma, and Yahoo.
VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC ministers on Wednesday agreed to keep output steady and said record high prices had been driven by factors that were beyond their control.
Opec agreed to leave its official production levels unchanged, delegates said, in spite of criticism by US president George W. Bush, who accused the oil cartel of worsening the US economic slowdown Source: FT.com - US homepage | 5 Mar 2008 | 12:15 pm
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Applications for U.S. home mortgages rose for the first week in a month as falling interest rates increased incentives to refinance existing loans, according to data from an industry group on Wednesday.
Prices in the British service sector rose to a record high in February,
reducing the likelihood a further cut to the UK interest rate when the Bank
of England announces its decision tomorrow. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 5 Mar 2008 | 12:01 pm
The volume of applications filed for mortgages went up a seasonally adjusted 3.0% last week, coinciding with a big drop in interest rates charged on fixed-rate mortgages, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's latest survey. Applications to refinance existing loans rose 4.5% for the week ended Feb. 29 compared with the previous week.
Organised criminals are increasingly turning to mortgage fraud to fund their activities, police warn. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 Mar 2008 | 11:59 am
Online gambling group PartyGaming surprises investors with the announcement that CEO Mitch Garber intends to step down as it also reveals a 68% drop in 2007 profit due to the loss of its U.S. customer base.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A long slowdown in the United States could shrink risk appetite and prompt emerging countries with high external financing needs to raise interest rates, ratings agency Standard & Poor's said on Wednesday.
Ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, convening in Vienna as oil prices stubbornly hold above $100 a barrel, decided Wednesday to leave the group’s production levels unchanged.
The U.K. budget plan to be unveiled next week by Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling will include a plan that would grade all British mortgages and give the safest ones an official seal of approval, according to a Financial Times report.
Apparently, the revolution will be televised - and recorded - on Tivo. With apologies to '70s jazz-poet Gil Scott Heron, Tivo is poised to continue the media upheaval it began more than a decade ago with faster growth and a new plan to help advertisers, and cable and broadcast providers, rethink their relationships with consumers.
Reuters - OPEC ministers on Wednesday agreed to
keep output steady and said record high prices had been driven
by factors that were beyond their control.
Partygaming talks to US authorities over bets it took before legislation in 2006 wiped out its American trade. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 Mar 2008 | 11:36 am
Apple has said that it is on track to hit its target of selling 10 million
iPhones this year, and confirmed that the device will go on sale in other
territories - including China and India. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 5 Mar 2008 | 11:35 am
U.S. stock futures were pointing to an early advance on Wednesday on increased optimism toward the tech sector, though oil futures reclaimed $100-a-barrel territory and a report could show tepid employment growth.
FKI said on Wednesday it would open its books to Melrose after it raised its indicative offer for the engineering group to around 82p a share. That would value FKI's equity at 482m, and Melrose would also... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 11:10 am
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. dollar took a breather from recent selling pressure Wednesday, rebounding slightly against major counterparts after European officials reiterated worries about a strong euro.
Johnston Press, the owner of the Scotsman and Yorkshire Post, this morning
pointed to a gloomy start to the year, as it said the advertising market in
the early weeks of 2008 were down on the same period a year ago. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 5 Mar 2008 | 11:05 am
Ukraine's prime minister promises to maintain gas supplies to Europe, despite its row with Russia. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 Mar 2008 | 11:03 am
Reuters - Stock futures pointed to a modest rise
for Wall Street on Wednesday before data that may give some
taste of Friday's employment report and as hopes grew for a
prompt rescue for bond insurer Ambac Financial .
LONDON (Reuters) - Stock futures pointed to a modest rise for Wall Street on Wednesday before data that may give some taste of Friday's employment report and as hopes grew for a prompt rescue for bond insurer Ambac Financial .
Partygaming said this morning that chief executive Mitch Garber is quitting the world's biggest online poker and casino group just as it has returned to profit. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
Hiring managers are increasingly using the Web as a supplement to your paper résumé, creating a sort of unauthorized biography pieced together from all the references to you on the Internet. Problem is, you write your résumé, while your profile online is a collaborative property written by many.
Two of the companies hardest hit by the US crackdown on online gambling - software developer Playtech and bookmaker Sportingbet - have bounced back with strong sets of results. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 Mar 2008 | 10:45 am
BEIJING (Reuters) - CITIC Securities , China's top brokerage by assets, is in talks to get a bigger stake in Bear Stearns Cos Inc to reflect a drop in the share price of the Wall Street bank since the two firms agreed to swap stakes last October, a CITIC executive said on Wednesday.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Washington Mutual Inc's board of directors approved a plan which helps protect its management's bonus targets from the impact of the subprime loan fallout, according to a filing with U.S. regulators.
BERLIN (Reuters) - A majority of private and institutional investors do not expect the U.S. credit squeeze to peak before the third quarter of this year, a survey by the Sentix research group showed on Wednesday.
Flights from German airports are severely disrupted after members of the Verdi union go on strike. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 Mar 2008 | 10:40 am
Reuters - A majority of private and institutional
investors do not expect the U.S. credit squeeze to peak before
the third quarter of this year, a survey by the Sentix research
group showed on Wednesday.
Reuters - Washington Mutual Inc's board of
directors approved a plan which helps protect its management's
bonus targets from the impact of the subprime loan fallout,
according to a filing with U.S. regulators.
Profits at South Africa's Standard Bank rose 32% after personal and commercial banking businesses grew. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 Mar 2008 | 10:27 am
Consumers and the service sector suffer a fall in optimism ahead of Thursday's decision on interest rates. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 Mar 2008 | 10:23 am
Crdit Agricole sought to put paid to rumours that it was seriously considering a bid for Socit Gnrale, its bigger rival, when its chairman ruled out large acquisitions as it published worse-than-expected... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 10:18 am
Jim Koan has gone hog-wild in his battle against a beetle that threatens his 120-acre organic apple orchard. As part of a research experiment believed to be among the first of its ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 10:12 am
Adidas reports a 63% improvement in fourth-quarter profit and says orders for its own brand of footwear were strong due to European and Asian demand, even as it continues to struggle to sell Reebok sneakers in a tough U.S. market.
Most Asian markets ended lower Wednesday after a roller-coaster ride, with Shanghai-listed stocks declining on worries about monetary tightening and Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China’s mega-share issue.
Hong Kong Disneyland hopes to reverse the fortunes of Disney's first theme park in China with a marketing campaign geared toward young, well-to-do Chinese adults. Mainland... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 9:57 am
PARIS (Reuters) - Credit Agricole SA, France's biggest retail bank, posted a fourth-quarter loss on Wednesday after large writedowns due to the global credit crunch and said it was not planning any major acquisitions.
Restaurant Group, which runs 300 pubs and restaurants in the UK, including the Garfunkel's and Frankie and Benny's chains, on Wednesday reported a sharp increase in full-year profits but warned that consumer... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 9:48 am
European equity markets moved higher on Wednesday, with gains across most sectors as investors sought bargains among recently sold down stocks, including banks and insurers.In early trade, the FTSE Eurofirst... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 9:48 am
PartyGaming, the world's biggest online gamer brought low by the US ban on
internet gambling, said it would begin the hunt for a new chief executive
after Mitch Garber revealed plans to take his family back to North America
next year. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 5 Mar 2008 | 9:43 am
Asian shares took a turn for the worse on Wednesday as weak capital spending data out of Japan sent Tokyo stocks to a six-week low and a decline on Wall Street added to negative sentiment all round. Shares... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 9:30 am
China’s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, said this morning inflation tops the list
of economic concerns this year and he set a target of reining in rising
prices to 4.8 per cent. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 5 Mar 2008 | 9:18 am
Clients come to me with money in college savings plans from dozens of states, but I've never seen a single one who had invested in Utah's 529. Why is that? I assume it's because, unlike most states, Utah doesn't have an adviser-sold plan, so financial planners have no incentive to invest their clients' money in it.
Michael Grade on Wednesday said that ITV's "turnaround plan is on track" even though the broadcaster reported a 35 per cent fall in pre-tax profits to 188m for 2007 and left its full-year dividend unchanged... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 9:17 am
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc Chief Executive Vikram Pandit is making his first visit to Asia since taking the helm, sources with knowledge of the situation said, amid speculation... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 9:09 am
London equities made progress on Wednesday, helped by bid speculation in the property sector. The FTSE 100 started the session 0.3 per cent higher at 5,783.9, a rise of 12 points, but was held back from... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 9:04 am
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Top U.S. phone company AT&T Inc will invest $1 billion worldwide this year to expand networks and its services in key markets, the company said on Wednesday.
Commodity markets finally saw a touch of profit taking and my comments yesterday about the possible short squeeze in Oil on Monday proved neatly prophetic. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 Mar 2008 | 9:00 am
ITV chairman Michael Grade today insisted that the television company was not "a business in decline", despite revealing a 35pc fall in profits and holding the dividend at the 2006 level. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 Mar 2008 | 8:57 am
MADRID (Reuters) - The Investment Corp. of Dubai (ICD) has agreed with leading shareholders of Spanish property firm Colonial on the broad terms of a 3 billion euro ($4.56 billion)... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 8:53 am
France's biggest retail bank Credit Agricole posts a quarterly loss made worse by sub-prime woes. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 Mar 2008 | 8:51 am
Credit Agricole, the top-tier French financial services group, has been hit by
a sharp decline in annual profits after its investment banking arm, Calyon,
took a €3.3 billion impairment charge as Europe's capital markets continue
to be rocked by credit turmoil. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 5 Mar 2008 | 8:38 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc and media conglomerate Time Warner Inc have stepped up talks to create an alternative to Microsoft Corp's offer to take over the Web company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter.
VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC ministers are poised to hold output steady at a meeting on Wednesday, resisting pressure from top consumer the United States to pump more oil to help prop up a... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 8:24 am
ITV sees its annual profits for 2007 fall by 35% to £188m, but says its turnaround plan is on track. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 Mar 2008 | 8:18 am
Hillary Clinton put her presidential campaign back on track with Democratic primary victories in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island, while John McCain clinched the Republican nomination Source: FT.com - US homepage | 5 Mar 2008 | 8:14 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Social networking site Facebook has approached major music labels about launching a music service, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 8:12 am
Porsche, the sports car maker, said its net income in the first half of its fiscal year nearly doubled, helped by a bigger stake in Volkswagen and better sales of cars. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 8:04 am
The Brea-based bank says the action comes as its market value slips to less than $40 million. A successful lawsuit could shut it down altogether. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
Landmark Communications is seeking as much as $5 billion for the cable television network Weather Channel, with preliminary bids due next week, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
L.A. city attorney asks Blue Cross to substantiate claims that it has revised its rescission practices.
The Los Angeles city attorney's office has expanded its probe of patient cancellations to the state's largest for-profit insurer, Blue Cross of California.
With Wall Street's credit crunch turning costly for many states, cities and other government entities, a California financing agency says it wants to help municipal borrowers cut their interest rates on certain pricey debt.
ITV chairman Michael Grade today insisted that the television company was not "a business in decline", despite revealing a 35pc fall in profits and holding the dividend at the 2006 level. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
Sheryl Sandberg was in charge of advertising at the Internet giant. Now its rival plans to extend its global reach with one of Silicon Valley's most prominent female executives.
It was the shot heard 'round Silicon Valley: Internet upstart Facebook Inc. raided search giant Google Inc. for a No. 2 executive it hoped would turn the social-networking website into a major moneymaker.
A judge calls unfair a law that delays firings when big supermarkets are taken over.
A Superior Court judge has struck down a 2005 law passed by the Los Angeles City Council that barred large supermarkets from taking over a store and immediately firing all its workers, an industry group said Tuesday.
Saying banks must do more to stem rising foreclosures, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke called on lenders Tuesday to go beyond trimming interest rates on some troubled mortgages by cutting the size of the loans as well.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Top U.S phone company AT&T Inc will invest $1 billion worldwide this year to expand networks and its services in key markets, a company statement said on... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 7:54 am
ITV, which last week appointed former BBC One controller Peter Fincham as
director of television to replace Simon Shaps, said today that last year's
pre-tax profits plunged by more than a third to £188 million. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 5 Mar 2008 | 7:53 am
Reuters - Yahoo Inc and media
conglomerate Time Warner Inc have stepped up talks to
create an alternative to Microsoft Corp's offer to
take over the Web company, the Wall Street Journal reported on
Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc and media conglomerate Time Warner Inc have stepped up talks to create an alternative to Microsoft Corp's offer to take over the Web company, the Wall... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 7:49 am
VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC looks set to leave its oil output unchanged, OPEC President Chakib Khelil told Reuters on Wednesday. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 7:45 am
Cathay Pacific Airways reports a 72% rise in profits for 2007, but says conditions will be tougher this year. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 5 Mar 2008 | 7:38 am
Adidas, the second biggest sportswear company, posted increased 2007 results Wednesday even though its Reebok unit lagged behind. The German group said net profit had gained... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 5 Mar 2008 | 7:32 am
Gordon Brown's pledge to transform the World Bank into an "environment bank" has been dealt a major blow after a leading parliamentary committee warned this could undermine the institution's fight against poverty. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 Mar 2008 | 7:30 am
AP - China's premier called for "powerful measures" to rein in inflation that is battering ordinary Chinese and warned of risks from a global slowdown and the U.S. credit crisis.
BP's top executives have missed out on share bonuses worth a potential £10.7m after the company's dreadful performance in 2007. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 Mar 2008 | 7:10 am
Leading stocks drove New Zealand sharemarket upwards today, shrugging off a down day on Wall St.
The NZSX-50 rose 0.9 per cent or 34.99 points to 3619.46 on total turnover worth $164 million, $60m of which was Telecom's.
Falls... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 5 Mar 2008 | 6:22 am
The New Zealand dollar held steady today ahead of the Reserve Bank's quarterly Monetary Policy Statement due tomorrow morning.
At 5pm, the kiwi was buying US79.84c from US80.45c at 5pm yesterday. Against the aussie, the NZ dollar... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 5 Mar 2008 | 6:02 am
When I moved to San Francisco in 1997, Silicon Valley was in the midst of the dot-com frenzy. Coming from the far less-hip East Coast, I marveled at what seemed to be a Peninsula-wide psychosis.
Sure, the internet sizzled with possibilities, but the promises being made and the business plans being proffered seemed more often nutty than not—an assessment that led more than one dot-com true believer to inform me that I just didn't get it, whatever "it" was.
Still, it was a heady moment for technology. Hundreds of startups participated in a culture-shifting, multibillion-dollar experiment to see what businesses would work online.
At the time I likened it to World War I, when radical new technologies for killing people were tested by sending legions of 18-year-olds to the front to step in front of them. Millions were killed while generals and politicians figured out what worked.
A brutal comparison, perhaps, but I do recall what seemed like legions of 28-year-olds being given millions by investors to set up everything from online designer-kibble stores to portals offering empowerment for the oppressed.
At ground zero here in San Francisco, much of this money seemed to go to some fabulous parties, Foosball tables, and Razor scooters for every employee, and a good time was had by all.
The apparently sudden appearance of companies that want to test your DNA for recreation, ancestry, disease, and criminal culpability is a small, staid affair in comparison. Investors are pouring in millions instead of billions, and there are virtually no parties. Even the toolmakers that make the sequencers and create the software to analyze genes have an aggregate market value of less than $1 billion.
The question is, are we seeing the early stages of what will become a new flurry of companies rushing to the genetic front lines to see which business plans and technologies work for potential consumers of DNA?
Already, early leaders in one subset of the industry, the direct-to-consumer online genetics companies, are experimenting with different approaches to selling you information on what is hidden in your DNA.
Google-backed 23andme down the peninsula from San Francisco is mixing serious genetic markers associated with dread diseases with "recreational genetics"—finding out about "fun" traits such as caffeine-resistance and preference for evenings.
DeCodeme out of Iceland is offering a slightly more sober site featuring less fun and more on gene markers for disease, many of which their parent company, deCode, discovered themselves.
Both 23andme and deCode offer basic information on genealogical DNA—tracing one's genetic roots and links to ancestors.
Bay-area-based Navigenics will open for business next month with a site devoted to the DNA of disease, with Web-MD-like links to A-list medical institutions and a feature the other two do not have—access to live genetic counselors. Navigenics plans to charge about $2,500, compared with about $1,000 for 23andme and deCodeme. Other companies such as DNA-Direct of San Francisco offer a test-by-test service, charging from the low hundreds to the low thousands of dollars for tests. They include Food and Drug Administration-approved diagnostic tests for, say, breast cancer.
None of the markers offered by the others are F.D.A.-approved, and the sites take great pains to insist that their tests are informational, and not medical diagnoses.
Many more companies exist on the Web, including those devoted to just genealogy, paternity, and nutrition. A few of these in this largely unregulated space have attracted the attention of authorities in Europe and the U.S.
In 2006, a document issued by the F.D.A., Federal Trade Commission, and the Centers for Disease Control advised consumers to be wary of online nutrigenetics sites that offer dodgy tests intended to sell pricey nutraceuticals—supplements and other dietary products with purported medical benefits.
A huge problem with these sites is that most genetic markers for diseases are incomplete and often not applicable to individuals. [For more information on this see my "Welcome to the Future" column.]
I have a hard time imagining that these companies will reshape (perhaps warp?) my adopted city like the dot-coms of yore. Dot-coms covered the consumer landscape, from shoes and pornography to getting a Second Life, while genetics is a much narrower slice of life.
Also, you need to sequence a person's DNA once, since genes stay largely the same throughout someone's lifetime. There will be no Windows-style updates to genomes, though the analytical tools and programs will improve, and websites will think of ever-edgier and useful ways to tell you about your genes.
None of this is likely to create a consumer-driven information company the size of a Microsoft or Google, generating tens of billions of dollars. However, billions will be made by using genetic information to develop custom drugs and devices.
That process is already beginning with Herceptin from Genentech. This anti-cancer medicine, with revenues last year of $1.3 billion in the U.S., is given only to patients who test positive for a mutation in the HER-2 gene.
Dot-coms may be remembered as the epitome of 1990s irrational exuberance, though of course the Somme-like slaughter of youth largely worked. Online sales of virtually everything have exceeded even the most exuberant forecasts of a decade ago. Pets.com may be gone, but I can buy almost anything pet-related from PETCO.com. Guru.com might be long gone, but Monster.com survives.
I doubt that the DNA market will ever be as wild or cool as dot-coms. Indeed, the very first thing that young genetics entrepreneurs—"young" being thirtyish or even fortyish—do to start DNA-testing services is recruit an award-winning Ph.D. geneticist or two and a couple of famous physicians to legitimize their efforts.
This is another barrier to entry. Three guys fresh out of grad school with a harebrained idea aren't going to be taken seriously by investors or customers without connecting up with the establishment, something dot-comers mostly didn't have to worry about.
Personally, as I explore my own genome for a book due out this fall, I'm finding myself mostly confused by the information available. (More on this later.) Even enthusiastic early adopters I have talked to agree that much of the information isn't ready for prime time.
But it will be.
Genetics testing today is about where the internet was in 1986. Few people have even heard of the technology, but as Bob Dylan once observed, "There was music in the cafes, and revolution in the air."
Most New Zealanders seem to think we should come down hard on countries who aren't as committed to climate change action as we are.
A new nationwide poll released today shows New Zealanders support imposing a carbon tax on imports... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 5 Mar 2008 | 3:00 am
MELBOURNE - Investors on both sides of the Tasman are going to get the chance to purchase additional shares in agricultural chemicals giant Nufarm Ltd.
Australian-based Nufarm has acquired British crop protection firm AH Marks... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 5 Mar 2008 | 2:30 am
Facebook is approaching big record companies about creating a music service on the social networking site, according to several people familiar with the matter Source: FT.com - US homepage | 5 Mar 2008 | 1:40 am
A report from the world body warns that the central Asian nation's record poppy crop is fuelling an intensifying drugs emergency in neighbouring countries Source: FT.com - US homepage | 5 Mar 2008 | 12:09 am
Travis Perkins, the owner of the Wickes DIY chain and the builders' merchant stores, has warned that the DIY market will shrink over the course of 2008. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
The chief executive of John Wood Group, the UK's largest provider of oil field services, has dismissed speculation that the company is a takeover target. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
Schroders, the global asset management group, has reported better-than-expected results but warned that turbulent markets are set to continue. Source: Telegraph Business | 5 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
The Chancellor is expected next week to close a loophole in Sharia finance
rules that have allowed commercial property investors to avoid paying stamp
duty on more than £1 billion of deals, <i>The Times</i> has learnt. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 5 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
It was a fortunate coincidence for Premier Foods that 200 pig farmers and a
porker named Winnie were demonstrating in Downing Street yesterday. The
porcine message was plain: rocketing grain prices are sending feed costs
soaring, making pig farming hopelessly uneconomic. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 5 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
Permira, the British private equity group, has emerged as a potential suitor
for Reed Business Information, the trade magazines arm of Reed Elsevier,
which could soon be for sale for about £1.25 billion. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 5 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
The International Year of the Potato has got off to a bad start for local potato growers, with yields well down due to a cold spring and dry summer.
Potato Product Group chairman Terry Olsen said crops already harvested this year... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 4 Mar 2008 | 11:35 pm
Three real estate franchises in north-western Sydney have gone under with debts of A$5 million ($5.8 million), it was reported today.
The three Raine and Horne businesses in Castle Hill, Dural and Cherrybrook/West Pennant Hills... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 4 Mar 2008 | 11:30 pm
Market leader Telecom led the sharemarket slightly lower today in quiet action.
Wall Street was again a negative influence although the blue chip Dow Jones index pared 200-point losses to around 45 points by the close.
The NZSX-50... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 4 Mar 2008 | 11:15 pm
Citigroup's share price fell to its lowest level in nearly a decade after an analyst forecast an $18bn writedown in the first quarter Source: FT.com - US homepage | 4 Mar 2008 | 11:03 pm
Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, called on banks to forgive chunks of mortgage loans issued to troubled borrowers as pressure grew in Congress for government intervention to resolve the worsening US housing crisis Source: FT.com - US homepage | 4 Mar 2008 | 10:07 pm
Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, is to start selling wine in the US, entering a business fraught with regulatory complexities and littered with the wreckage of previous failures Source: FT.com - US homepage | 4 Mar 2008 | 10:03 pm
Investment bankers are proposing new guidelines on pay and bonuses to head off a backlash against excessive rewards for bankers whose risk-taking helped cause the credit crunch Source: FT.com - US homepage | 4 Mar 2008 | 10:00 pm
US equities recouped some of their earlier losses, helped by reports bond insurer Ambac was progressing toward a deal to raise capital and upbeat comments from Amazon Source: FT.com - US homepage | 4 Mar 2008 | 9:50 pm
Reuters - Banks may have to swallow
reductions in the principal of some troubled home loans to ward
off greater losses that could result from outright default,
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Tuesday.
Christchurch-based Jade Software Corporation today reported annual net profit up 3 per cent to $8 million.
Jade reported revenue for the year to the end of December up 7 per cent to $42m.
The privately-owned company said it... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 4 Mar 2008 | 9:30 pm
Over the last year, as Facebook has exploded in popularity, a nagging question has overshadowed the company: Can founder Mark Zuckerberg and his team make the transition from flavor-of-the-month Web phenomenon to profitable company with a sustainable business model?
After a series of widely criticized missteps—including the company's disastrous launch of its "Beacon" social advertising platform—skeptics have wondered if Zuckerberg, a 23-year-old Harvard dropout, had the experience and judgment to guide his company to his goal of an initial public offering.
"She has just about the most relevant industry experience for Facebook, especially since we need to scale our operations and scale them globally," Zuckerberg told Boomtown blogger Kara Swisher, who was first to report the hire today.
Sandberg, a widely respected tech executive, had been on the shortlist of possible candidates. She becomes the first woman to join the senior management ranks of Facebook.
Zuckerberg reportedly met Sandberg last December at a Christmas party thrown by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Dan Rosensweig, who was once Yahoo's chief operating officer.
Prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist Roger McNamee then shepherded the courtship—which included a meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos and several dinners at Sandberg's home in Atherton, California—that led up to today's announcement.
In interviews published today, Zuckerberg acknowledged that Facebook has stumbled recently—notably with complaints that its Beacon advertising system invaded users' privacy. Zuckerberg said Sandberg would bring needed leadership experience to the company.
"Communicating what we are about clearly is an important thing for us to do," Zuckerberg toldThe New York Times. "We can do that better, and Beacon showed that, as did a handful of other things." With Sandberg as his side, Zuckerberg can now focus on the monumental challenge facing the social networking website: Justifying Microsoft's decision to invest $240 million for 1.6 percent of the company. The price implied that all of Facebook was worth $15 billion.
Although Facebook has 66 million users worldwide, the company has yet to come up with sustainable model to spin a reasonable profit from its user base. (The company currently earns $30 million annually on revenue of $150 million, according to published reports.)
Clearly, Zuckerberg is betting that Sandberg's experience building up Google's advertising platform—which generated the vast majority of the company's $16.6 billion revenue haul in 2007—will pay dividends for Facebook.
Sandberg's pedigree is impeccable: She holds a bachelor's degree (summa cum laude) from Harvard, where she was awarded the John H. Williams Prize as the top graduating student in economics. She then earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker and Ford Scholar.
After working for McKinsey, Sandberg worked as an economist with The World Bank. According to her Google biography, she focused on eradicating leprosy in India. Sandberg then became chief of staff to Larry Summers during his stint as President Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary.
After George W. Bush was elected in 2000, Sandberg joined Google, becoming vice president for global online sales and operations.
During her six years at the search juggernaut, Sandberg was instrumental in several of initiatives, including both AdWords and AdSense. She was also involved in the company's launch of its philantropic arm, Google.org, where she served as a board member.
In 2007, the 38-year-old Sandberg became the youngest person on Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women list.
Given how integral Sandberg has been to Google's astonishing rise, the search leader faces a challenge replacing her.
"Sheryl was a valued member of the Google team and we wish her well in her new endeavors," Omid Kordestani, Google's senior vice president for global sales and business development, said in an e-mail statement received by The New York Times.
Kordestani said that David Fischer would succeed Sandberg.
California, the largest borrower in the US municipal bond market, forged ahead with plans to issue debt without paying for bond insurance, completing a $1.75bn bond issue sold largely to retail investors Source: FT.com - US homepage | 4 Mar 2008 | 9:14 pm
Shares in listed finance company Dorchester Pacific plunged over 16 per cent, 13 cents, to a 10-year low of 66 cents today.
Last week, the company said it had cut its annual profit guidance by up to half, due to reduced lending... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 4 Mar 2008 | 9:10 pm
Stationery manufacturer Croxley says it will close its Papakura site later this year, a decision affecting around 90 jobs.
The company says it intends to consolidate all of its manufacturing operations to its Avondale head office,... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 4 Mar 2008 | 9:00 pm
On the anniversary of President Roosevelt's first inaugural address, we look back on how he used the New Deal to help end the Great Depression. Tess Vigeland speaks with former Labor Secretary Robert Reich about how New Deal principles could be applied to our current economic situation. Source: Marketplace | 4 Mar 2008 | 6:51 pm
Don't miss the missives from our listeners. This week our listeners weigh in on stories about compact fluorescent light bulbs and elephant sanctuaries. Source: Marketplace | 4 Mar 2008 | 6:51 pm
In spite of a slowing economy, Atlantic City plans to spend almost $10 billion on a new wave of casino projects. The city is betting on a new demographic of gamblers to spruce up the local economy. Joel Rose reports. Source: Marketplace | 4 Mar 2008 | 6:51 pm
Botox maker Allergan Inc. received a subpoena for documents related to the anti-wrinkle injection. The company believes the subpoena relates to alleged off-label promotion of Botox to treat headaches. Jeff Tyler reports. Source: Marketplace | 4 Mar 2008 | 6:51 pm
Citigroup's shares dropped 4% after the leader of a Dubai-owned investment firm stated that it will take "a lot more money" to rescue the struggling bank. Bob Moon reports on how Middle East investors influence the market. Source: Marketplace | 4 Mar 2008 | 6:51 pm
The Hope Now Alliance has modified about 150,000 subprime loans since the federal mortgage program's inception. Tess Vigeland speaks with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson about the program and other government efforts to fix the mortgage crisis. Source: Marketplace | 4 Mar 2008 | 6:51 pm
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke called for mortgage lenders to help defaulting homeowners by reducing the principal they owe on their mortgages. John Dimsdale reports banks are reluctant to follow the advice. Source: Marketplace | 4 Mar 2008 | 6:48 pm
In an effort to bring more experienced leadership to its management ranks, Facebook today said it has hired a top Google executive to become chief operating officer of the booming social-networking company.
Sheryl Sandberg joins Facebook after six years at Google, where she served as the internet-search giant's vice president of global online sales & operations. Before Google, Sandberg—who earned an M.B.A. from Harvard—was chief of staff to Treasury secretary Larry Summers in the Clinton administration.
"Sheryl is a great manager who will help scale Facebook's operations globally," said Facebook's 23-year-old founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. "She has relevant experience and a track record of scaling business operations and building new kinds of advertising networks. Sheryl understands Facebook's goal of connecting everyone in the world and is passionate about building a business that will enable us to realize this mission."
For months, many observers have suggested Zuckerberg should bring in an experienced technology executive to help run the company—especially after the Beacon "social advertising" P.R. disaster last fall. Today, it appears that Zuckerberg did just that.
"I have learned so much during my time at Google, and I've loved working with the people there," said Sandberg. "Together, with Mark and the great team at Facebook, we'll be able to scale this company into a global leader and enable Facebook users worldwide to communicate and share information better. I am thrilled to have this opportunity."
While home prices continue to fall, credit markets remain tight, and a general sense of economic malaise infects consumers, investors have few good options for where to put their money.
There is little refuge in the stock market. In his annual shareholder letter published on Saturday, Warren Buffett told investors that if their brokers are still telling them they can earn 10 percent annual returns on equities, they're being had. "Beware the glib helper who fills your head with fantasies while he fills his pockets with fees," he charmingly wrote.
If the stock market sounds iffy, the bond market looks positively toxic. And unless you've got an appetite for risk and a gut of steel, real estate isn't an option either.
Commodities sure are on a tear—oil, gold, and platinum are at or near their all-time highs. But getting in on any type of investment at its high is never a comforting choice.
It's a conundrum facing small and large investors alike. The economic research firm CreditSights recently met with clients representing a mix of institutional money managers, and the conversations were the same from one to the next.
"The tone in most of our meetings was no longer characterized by fear, but more by simple resignation and cynicism," the analysts wrote in a report published this morning. "Whether that shift from fear to cynicism is a first step on the road to recovery for the credit markets or simply a sign that risk aversion is becoming entrenched remains to be seen."
Judging by recent investment choices, the latter possibility seems more likely. Most investors admit to having high cash positions and provide no indication of that changing soon. Even where the investors unanimously see value—which is in the loan market—they remain on the sidelines since there are no signs of market prices recovering (which won't likely happen until they jump back in).
They were "almost uniformly bearish on the outlook for the U.S. consumer, on the ability of the global economy to truly decouple from the U.S. economy, and on the effectiveness of the recently announced U.S. fiscal stimulus package."
If the so-called "smart money" is cash, individual investors might also feel most comfortable in a high-yield savings account or C.D.
If that sense of resignation persists—the feeling that investors are more comfortable earning inflationary returns than taking risks on securities—the repercussions will be felt across a broad swath of the economy.
There will be opportunity for banks to attract deposits, but their brokerage counterparts will suffer from a decline in investment activity among retail and institutional investors alike.
Lower returns will almost certainly stifle consumer spending even more. Stagnant or falling stock prices will adversely affect corporate balance sheets and access to capital, which would only exacerbate the recessionary blows to many companies.
Some are already comparing today's economic outlook for the U.S. to that of Japan's post-boom struggles, when monetary policy failed to spark its hard-hit economy. While there are plenty of differences between the two economic scenarios, investing behavior here in the U.S. is beginning to show signs of discontent similar to that of the 1990s Japanese consumer.
How long will this last? It's anyone's guess. Some economists are predicting a prolonged period of stagflation, which combines rising inflation with slowing economic growth.
Of course, the Federal Reserve will use just about every tool available to combat rising inflation, but until a reason for optimism emerges, expect investors to take that tax return straight to the bank.
The state of California, the largest issuer of municipal bonds, will stop using bond insurance, Charles Gasparino of CNBC reports.
"In the current market—and given the condition of the bond insurers—it makes no sense," Tom Dresslar, the director of communication for the California State Treasurer's Office, told CNBC. "There's no value to the taxpayer."
States and municipalities pay billions of dollars to firms like MBIA and Ambac Financial to insure debt offerings that finance things like bridges and schools. They do so to get a triple-A rating that, in theory, allows the muni issuers to pay a lower interest rate.
But many are questioning the value of this insurance.
Jesse Eisinger in the March issue of Condé Nast Portfolio calls it "a giant taxpayer rip-off."
California, for instance, is rated A. So it pays Ambac to have its bonds rated triple-A. This makes bond insurance very lucrative.
As Eisinger explains: "The reason the business can be so rewarding is that government bonds are intrinsically safe: Municipalities almost never default. From 1970 through 2006, only slightly more than 0.1 percent of all muni bonds went bad, according to a large Moody's study. By comparison, corporate bonds in the same period had a 9.7 percent default rate. In other words, corporate bonds are 94 times as likely to fail as muni bonds are."
So what is there to insure?
And how can Ambac, as Bill Gross of Pimco asked in the Financial Times, with equity capital of less than $5 billion, take the weight of California, the world's sixth-largest economy, on its shoulders like some modern-day Atlas?
California paid $102 million to insure more than $9 billion in general obligation debt between 2003 and 2007.
On its last two issuances, a $3.3 billion economic recovery bond, sold in February, and a $1 billion general obligation bond, issued in November, the state did not buy insurance. Nor does California plan to do so for its general obligation bonds that will be sold and priced on Wednesday, Dresslar told CNBC.
Reuters - Staples Inc , the No. 1 office
supply retailer, on Tuesday posted a flat quarterly profit and
cut its full-year outlook, citing a weak economic climate.
In a speech before bankers in Orlando, Florida, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke urged lenders and government to do more to "reduce unnecessary foreclosures," saying that the situation "calls for a vigorous response."
Meanwhile, two of Bernanke's policy colleagues issued similarly sobering speeches at two separate events in Washington, D.C. today. The consensus? It's bad, folks.
Federal Reserve vice chairman Donald Kohn told the Senate banking committee that things are likely to get worse in the banking sector before they get better. He expects continued liquidity problems and further write-downs from investment banks. Kohn also said the Fed is closely monitoring the consumer lending sector, including credit cards and auto loans, for signs of increasing weakness. It is "paying particular attention to the securitization market for credit cards," he said in his opening statement.
Over on the other side of the capital, Federal Reserve governor Frederic Mishkin warned attendees of the National Association for Business Economics conference that he sees "significant downside risks" to the economic projections made by the Federal Reserve Board just a couple of weeks ago.
Bernanke is hoping that some relief for struggling homeowners will help ease part of the problem. A number of solutions have focused on suspending or modifying the troubled borrowers' interest rates, especially in cases when faced with a sharply higher reset. But Bernanke said that a reduction in principal ought to be considered as well.
Though most loan modifications by lenders have focused on reducing the interest rate on a borrower's loan, Bernanke said a reduction in the principal may be more appropriate when the price of the home has fallen below the value of the home.
"Both types of modification involve a concession of payments, are susceptible to additional pressures to write down again, and result in the same payments to the lender if the mortgage pays to maturity."
When the mortgage is "under water," he noted, "a reduction in principal may increase the expected payoff by reducing the risk of default and foreclosure."
Bernanke acknowledged that lenders would be resistant. As the Calculated Risk blog wryly notes, "If it becomes common for lenders to reduce principal, their phones will be ringing off the hook!"
Congress is considering several proposals to help homeowners, but the wave of foreclosures is growing.
RealtyTrac, an online real-estate-data company, recently reported that foreclosures rose 57 percent in January, to 233,001. Among the foreclosure actions, the number of bank repossessions rose 90 percent.
Bernanke noted that more than a fifth of the 3.6 million subprime adjustable-rate mortgages outstanding were seriously delinquent at the year-end.
And Moody's Economy.com estimated that 8.8 million homes, or 10.3 percent of the total, are worth less than the mortgage on them.
Commodities are showing no sign of easing from their remarkable bull run, as investors pile in from weak stock markets and a sagging dollar.
Gold prices climbed closer to the long-hoped-for threshold of $1,000 an ounce, trading in London at $986.36. Platinum prices also surged, reaching a new high of $2,297 an ounce. Both gold and platinum prices have been buoyed by power outages in South Africa that have disrupted mining of the metals.
Oil, a day after hitting $103.95 a barrel, topping the 1980 inflation-adjusted record, remained above $102 a barrel.
Some major OPEC ministers, on the eve of a meeting of the cartel in Vienna, signaled that production levels would not be raised.
Chakib Khelil, president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said that members were reluctant to increase production because of expectations that global demand will slow, according to the Associated Press.
"Large financial flows are heading to commodities because of the falling dollar and falling stocks markets, even if fundamentally, there is no reason for prices to rise further," Marc Lansonneur, Société Générale's head of commodities derivatives in Asia, told Reuters
If there ever was a sign that the enormous Persian Gulf funds have become confident, Westernized investors, it's this: Now they are trash-talking each other's investments.
Asked about the billions of dollars invested in Citigroup by rival sovereign wealth funds and Prince Walid bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, Sameer al-Ansari, the British-educated chief executive of Dubai International Capital, told a private equity conference in Dubai today: "It's going to take more than that to rescue Citi."
Al-Ansari's comments will be taken as another indication of investors' lack of confidence in Citigroup's efforts to turn itself around. Charles Gasparino on CNBC is reporting that the bank, under its new chief executive Vikram Pandit, may cut another 30,000 jobs over the next year and a half because of additional write-downs on investments tied to subprime mortgages.
But Dubai International Capital has its own investing strategy when it comes to banks. It has taken a sizable stake in Citigroup's global rival, HSBC of Britain, and a small slice of ICICI Bank, one of India's largest. It also has a 9.9 percent share of Och-Ziff Capital Management, the publicly traded American hedge fund company.
Al-Ansari is implicitly criticizing Citigroup's new investors, which include the neighboring Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which took a 4.9 percent stake in Citi for $7.5 billion.
And that is a very healthy thing.
Signs of competition and different investment approaches among the giant sovereign wealth funds will help demystify them and possibly ease concerns among some U.S. lawmakers that there is a hidden geopolitical agenda rather than a purely return-driven one.
Dubai International, which has some $13 billion in assets, is the private equity arm of Dubai Holding, which is owned by Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. It and other Persian Gulf funds have hundreds of billions of dollars in cash because of the long, steep climb in oil prices.
In another respect, Dubai International is acting like a very conventional Western investor. Flush with success, it now wants to buy a sports team. The fund has reportedly been in talks to buy 50 percent of Liverpool Football Club, soccer champions of England 18 times, from its American owners for nearly $400 million.
It turns out that al-Ansari, having studied at Liverpool University School of Law, is a big fan of the Reds. With billions of dollars at your disposal, you will never walk alone.
Reuters - OPEC ministers on Wednesday agreed to
keep output steady and said record high prices had been driven
by factors that were beyond their control.
Reuters - Stock futures pointed to a modest rise
for Wall Street on Wednesday before data that may give some
taste of Friday's employment report and as hopes grew for a
prompt rescue for bond insurer Ambac Financial .
Reuters - A majority of private and institutional
investors do not expect the U.S. credit squeeze to peak before
the third quarter of this year, a survey by the Sentix research
group showed on Wednesday.
Reuters - Washington Mutual Inc's board of
directors approved a plan which helps protect its management's
bonus targets from the impact of the subprime loan fallout,
according to a filing with U.S. regulators.
Reuters - Yahoo Inc and media
conglomerate Time Warner Inc have stepped up talks to
create an alternative to Microsoft Corp's offer to
take over the Web company, the Wall Street Journal reported on
Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter.
AP - China's premier called for "powerful measures" to rein in inflation that is battering ordinary Chinese and warned of risks from a global slowdown and the U.S. credit crisis.
Reuters - Banks may have to swallow
reductions in the principal of some troubled home loans to ward
off greater losses that could result from outright default,
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Tuesday.
Reuters - Staples Inc , the No. 1 office
supply retailer, on Tuesday posted a flat quarterly profit and
cut its full-year outlook, citing a weak economic climate.