Hamleys, London's world famous toy store, is preparing to enter the Indian
market through a joint venture with Reliance Industries, the conglomerate,
to bring the 248-year-old retailer to the subcontinent. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 21 Mar 2008 | 1:28 pm
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) today added to the growing chorus of
concern the US is heading for a full-blown slowdown, stating that the
world's largest economy "remains very weak, certainly close to a
possible recession." Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 21 Mar 2008 | 1:01 pm
Reuters - Severstal (CHMFq.L), Russia's largest
steel maker, will expand its U.S. presence with the $810
million acquisition of the Sparrows Point mill in Maryland,
which ArcelorMittal is selling for antitrust reasons.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Severstal , Russia's largest steel maker, will expand its U.S. presence with the $810 million acquisition of the Sparrows Point mill in Maryland, which ArcelorMittal is selling for antitrust reasons.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Acting Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said on Friday that dealing with global market turmoil was his top priority, but warned those expecting a cut in interest rates that he has no preconceptions on where to take monetary policy.
US Vice-President Dick Cheney arrives in Saudi Arabia for talks focusing on security and the oil market. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:19 pm
The US Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation into Alcoa, the
US aluminium group, over allegations the company bribed officials in the
Persian Gulf state of Bahrain. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:05 pm
Barack Obama has won endorsement for his presidential bid from New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the only Hispanic governor in the U.S., according to press reports.
Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico will endorse Senator Barack Obama for president today, according to several reports.
The endorsement by the nation's most prominent Hispanic official is a blow to the campaign of Hillary Clinton and could solidify Obama's status as the Democratic front-runner ahead of the next primary, in Pennsylvania on April 22.
"I believe he [Obama] is the kind of once-in-a-lifetime leader that can bring our nation together and restore America's moral leadership in the world," Richardson said in a statement obtained by the Associated Press. "As a presidential candidate, I know full well Senator Obama's unique moral ability to inspire the American people to confront our urgent challenges at home and abroad in a spirit of bipartisanship and reconciliation."
Richardson will appear with Obama at a rally at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon, at 9:30 a.m. local time, ABC News reports.
Richardson, who dropped out of the Democratic race for the nomination in January, had been heavily courted by both sides. As a governor, he is a superdelegate to the Democratic convention.
Moreover, notes Patrick Healy of the New York Times "as the nation's only Hispanic governor, Mr. Richardson could become a champion for Mr. Obama among Hispanic voters, who have been a key voting bloc for Mrs. Clinton in the primaries thus far."
Richardson served as ambassador to the United Nations under Bill Clinton.
The U.S. State Department said it has fired two contract employees and disciplined a third for inappropriately looking at the passport file of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, the Associated Press reported.
The U.S. Department of Justice is opening a criminal investigation into whether Alcoa Inc. was involved in bribery in the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain, the Associated Press reported.
Wall Street capped a week of remarkable volatility with a big advance Thursday that left stocks higher for the week but didn't silence all of investors' concerns about the economy and the Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 11:34 am
Russian steel company OAO Severstal said Friday it will buy Baltimore's Sparrows Point steel from ArcelorMittal for $810 million in cash. Sparrows Point is a fully integrated mill. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 11:27 am
Japan's interim central bank chief vowed Friday not to let the absence of a governor hamper the country's economic and financial activities while another central bank official said the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 11:26 am
AP - Japan's interim central bank chief vowed Friday not to let the absence of a governor hamper the country's economic and financial activities while another central bank official said the economy is slowing "sharply."
The campus-recruiting page on the Bear Stearns corporate Web site says, in part, "If you're really good at what you do, you probably have a lot of choices when it comes to [starting] your career."
Hong Kong's initial public offering market, which has been rattled by plummeting share prices, is "almost dead" as companies continue to pull their offerings. Evergrande, the Chinese property developer,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 10:40 am
Taiwan’s Cathay Financial Holding Co. has written of NT$1.76 billion ($57 million) in losses from collateralized debt obligations this year, according to wire reports Friday.
KYOTO, Japan (Reuters) - Japanese analytical instrument and airplane component maker Shimadzu Corp has held preliminary talks with Airbus after repeated delays in plane deliveries at client Boeing Co .
While the economic downturn is forcing bloated retail chains to shut some mall-based locations, it's also created an opportunity for a new breed of businesses eager to move into those vacant storefronts.
Cash-strapped retailer Borders put itself up for sale, stoking speculation that activist investor Bill Ackman is looking to merge the battered book chain with its larger rival, Barnes & Noble. Borders,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 9:30 am
Bad outlookThe US economy is at greater risk of a reces sion, according to an index of leading indica tors, and manufacturing in the Philadelphia re gion contracted for a fourth consecutive month. The... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 9:30 am
Amazon.com Inc., the world's largest Internet retailer, apologized to buyers for having to wait as long as six weeks to receive the Kindle electronic reading device after the company ran out. Amazon.com... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 9:30 am
News Corp. is in talks with Sam Zell to explore a possible strategic alliance with Newsday, sources close to the situation said. Zell, the Chicago real estate magnate who took over Tribune Company in... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 9:30 am
Bear Stearns Cos., the troubled brokerage whose stock has fallen more than 90 percent this year, was sued by a pension fund asking a judge to halt a planned buyout for $2.32 a share by JPMorgan Chase &... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 9:30 am
CIT Group Inc.shares and bonds plunged after the largest independent US commercial finance company fell victim to the freeze in short-term debt markets. The company drew on its entire $7.3 billion of... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 9:30 am
Bain Capital Partners LLC and its Chinese partner abandoned a $2.2 billion bid for 3Com Corp. after failing to agree to new terms that would satisfy US government concerns over national security. 3Com... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 9:30 am
FedEx Corp. said profit fell for the second-straight quarter and would decline in the current period as soaring fuel costs and an economy teetering on the brink of recession reduced demand for US package... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 9:30 am
US stocks rallied, capping the first weekly advance in a month, after an analyst said more mortgage purchases by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will help stabilize the home-loan market and Merrill Lynch advised... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 9:30 am
The two largest cell phone companies dominated bidding in a record- setting government airwaves auction, according to results released Thursday. AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless combined Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 9:28 am
With three teenage children, Lorri and Bruce Wilke of Danville, Calif. are caught in the perfect parental spending storm. Between laptops, cell phones and clothes, the Wilkes seem to outgrow their budget the way kids outgrow shoes.
Citigroup Inc. is continuing to cut investment banking and trading jobs this year as the bank tries to lower costs while recovering from colossal credit-related losses. "Each year we... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 9:20 am
Britain’s central bank is considering a request by the nation’s top five banks to reform the way it provides emergency funding, the BBC reported on its Web site.
The dollar rose against the Japanese yen Friday in Asia, holding firm after falling to a 12 1/2-year low earlier in the week. The dollar was trading at 99.59 yen midafternoon, up from... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 9:04 am
Japanese shares rose Friday, buoyed by gains in property developers and financial issues. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 222.13 points, or 1.81 percent, to close at 12,482.57 on the Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 9:02 am
Barack Obama has won endorsement for his presidential bid from New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the only Hispanic governor in the U.S., according to press reports.
After the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the University of California, Davis established a research department that led to the flourish of the California wine industry. Now, it hopes to... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 8:50 am
TOKYO (Reuters) - The U.S. International Trade Commission said it would launch an investigation into some 30 companies including Sony Corp on possible patent infringements related to Blu-ray disc players and other products.
The US Treasury Department said it agreed with Abu Dhabi and Singapore on a set of principles for sovereign wealth fund investment that specifies politics should not influence their decisions Source: FT.com - US homepage | 21 Mar 2008 | 8:37 am
Reuters - The U.S. International Trade Commission
said it would launch an investigation into some 30 companies
including Sony Corp (6758.T) on possible patent infringements
related to Blu-ray disc players and other products.
TOKYO (Reuters) - The U.S. International Trade Commission said it would launch an investigation into some 30 companies including Sony Corp on possible patent infringements related to... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 8:25 am
The State Department has fired two employees and reprimanded a third for improperly opening electronic information from the passport file of Senator Barack Obama, State Department officials said Source: FT.com - US homepage | 21 Mar 2008 | 8:15 am
KYOTO, Japan (Reuters) - Japanese analytical instruments and airplane components maker Shimadzu Corp has held preliminary talks with representatives of Airbus Industrie after... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 21 Mar 2008 | 8:14 am
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard , the world's top software and PC firms, on Thursday announced plans for a new technology centre in Taiwan, the world's computer-manufacturing hub.
Melvin Weiss will get 18 to 33 months for paying plaintiffs to sign on in lawsuits against major companies, generating millions in legal fees.
One of the biggest corruption cases to hit the American legal profession moved a step closer to its finale Thursday as lawyer Melvyn Weiss agreed to plead guilty to participating in a kickback scheme that generated millions of dollars in fees from class-action lawsuits against high-profile companies.
The wireless giants gain large chunks of spectrum in FCC bidding.
The nation's two largest wireless companies emerged as the biggest winners in a record-setting auction of public airwaves, increasing the odds that they will continue to dominate that market for years to come.
Financial sector and major indexes post gains on hope that the Fed's moves will succeed.
A week that began with the near collapse of a Wall Street firm and extraordinary steps by the Federal Reserve to prop up the financial system ended with the stock market posting a huge weekly gain on hope that the central bank's actions would work.
Madea's return to the big screen could help Tyler Perry's latest film.
Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse uses just a pinch of cloves in the marinade for his Cajun deep-fried turkey. Ace pitcher Johan Santana fires his fastball at 94 mph, but he can fool batters into lunging haplessly at his 77-mph change-up.
Owners benefit, but already cash-strapped governments will see less-than-expected revenue.
The tumbling housing market has prompted county tax officials around Southern California to begin reducing the assessed value of many houses, resulting in lower tax bills for homeowners but less-than-expected revenue for already cash-strapped governments.
Uncertainty in the industry tempers the usual glitz and buzz
As the last gasp on the months-long auto-show circuit, New York's confab is traditionally a heavy dose of fun with a splash of car debuts -- a chance for the industry to display its latest concept vehicles, party in the city that never sleeps and wash it all down with a stiff drink.
Soaring costs of bonds lead to big losses at the Getty, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Orange County Performing Artscenter, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the Colburn School.
Some of Southern California's major cultural institutions are bleeding because of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, with combined losses of more than $3 million -- and mounting -- since February, when their seemingly safe and innocuous construction bonds turned into fiscal leeches.
A proposed technology deal that had become the latest lightening rod for US mistrust of Chinese investment in sensitive US industries has finally collapsed after running into political opposition in Washington Source: FT.com - US homepage | 21 Mar 2008 | 6:05 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks jumped on Thursday, capping a tumultuous week, on optimism that giving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a bigger role in the mortgage market will ease a credit crunch that claimed Bear Stearns as its biggest victim.
In the debt markets today, there are a lot of willing sellers and few interested buyers.
Unsold leveraged loans from some of the mega-buyouts by private equity firms last year are weighing down the balance sheets of Wall Street biggest banks. And holders of some municipal bonds—corporate and individual investors alike—are desperate to unload the bonds to free up some cash, but week after week, no one's showing up at their auctions.
But there are signs that relief is on the way, that the secondary debt markets are about to come alive again by new buyers. And who are these brave souls willing to push their shopping carts down the vacant aisles of the sketchy debt big-box store?
The very entities that issued the debt in the first place—the municipalities that raised money by issuing bonds can now buy those bonds back in the secondary market, and the private equity firms that borrowed loans to finance deals are now scooping up that debt at a discount.
Welcome to the new world order, where borrowing money is as easy as paying yourself interest.
It's not quite that simple, of course. The leveraged loan market was rocked by the dawn of the credit crisis, leaving heaps of unsold debt on the balance sheets at banks like Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan. These banks helped private equity firms like Apollo Group and the Blackstone Group to finance massive corporate buyouts during the run-up to last summer's end to easy credit. If the banks couldn't find buyers for the leveraged loans, they often agreed to take on the debt themselves until buyers emerged.
But the buyers still haven't emerged and the banks, desperate to shore up their liquidity and restore confidence to the markets, are now unloading that debt at major markdowns.
Bank of America credit analyst Jeffrey Rosenberg noted earlier this week that some banks are selling pieces of leveraged debt for as little as 80 cents on the dollar. Banks have reduced their leveraged loan portfolios from $163 billion in January to $129 billion today.
And who are the buyers? Among them, the private equity firms that paid the banks to issue the debt in the first place.
Apollo has bought about $1 billion worth of distressed bonds and loans recently, Bloomberg reports. Perhaps it will consider buying up debt in Harrah's Entertainment, which Apollo took private in January, when it goes up for sale in the coming weeks.
The Blackstone Group raised a $1.4 billion distressed fund late last year. Will it consider buying up discounted debt in Alliance Data when it closes on that $8 billion deal? Time will tell.
A similar scenario is playing out in the troubled market for auction-rate securities, which are long-term municipal bonds with rates that reset at auction every seven, 14, 28, or 35 days. Buyers in these auctions essentially vanished in February. This lack of liquidity is worrisome both for the cash-strapped bondholders who bought the securities and now can't unload them, and for the municipal issuers—when no buyers surface at auction, the bonds reset at a penalty rate, which is much more costly for the government entity to pay.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking for ways to unfreeze this market, and one solution is to let the issuers bid on their own debt. In testimony before Congress last week, Erik Sirri, director of the S.E.C.'s trading and markets division, said the agency is planning to tell the market how the municipalities can scoop up their own debt "within the bounds of applicable laws" and "without triggering market manipulation concerns."
In many ways, this makes sense, provided the municipalities can afford to take on their own debt. If a local transportation authority suddenly went from paying 3.5 percent interest on its bond to 20 percent after the debt failed to sell at auction, it has every incentive to push that rate back down. And buying a piece of it back should send a signal to other potential buyers that the borrower tends to make good on its payments.
The S.E.C. issued guidance last week, and some municipalities jumped at the chance to buy their own debt, the Bond Buyer reports. They are working with their lawyers to figure out how to do it within the boundaries of the law.
It's not easy because, as Arnold Stenberg, finance officer for All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, told the publication: "This is uncharted territory."
Reuters - A San Diego Superior Court Judge
ordered coffee chain Starbucks to pay $87 million plus
interest to workers who say that their tips unfairly had been
shared with supervisors.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A San Diego Superior Court Judge ordered coffee chain Starbucks to pay $87 million plus interest to workers who say that their tips unfairly had been shared with supervisors.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bolstered by the Federal Reserve's aggressive liquidity action, U.S. stocks could extend their solid rally next week even in the face of still weak consumer and housing-related data.
NEW YORK - Best we know there is no federal bail-out planned for Starbucks nor is one of its competitors, say Dunkin' Donuts, poised to buy it for a rock-bottom price. Things are not that fragile at the house of the double-shot soy-milk... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 21 Mar 2008 | 1:42 am
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc, the two largest U.S. mobile phone companies, grabbed the lion's share of a $19.12 billion auction of airwaves being vacated by television broadcasters.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Primary dealers borrowed more than $13.4 billion a day from the Federal Reserve in the latest week, showing brokers were swift to take advantage of new rules allowing them to obtain loans directly from the central bank.
One of Europe's biggest investment banks has been forced to admit that it had uncovered a £1.4 billion fraud among its London-based traders. Source: Telegraph Business | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
South African and UK-listed investment bank Investec is to take a hit of up to £60m on Kensington Group, the sub-prime mortgage business it bought for £283m less than 12 months ago. Source: Telegraph Business | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
Vodafone's US joint venture has seen off a rival bid from Google by agreeing to pay $4.74bn (£2.4bn) for the choicest chunk of the American airwaves on offer in a high-profile auction. Source: Telegraph Business | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
It's not for nothing that Rentokil Initial is in the extermination business. Whatever the group's rat-catching prowess, it's clearly got a king-size aerosol in the boardroom. Source: Telegraph Business | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
The US government has signed a landmark agreement with two of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds in a bid to foster closer relationships. Source: Telegraph Business | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
CIT, America's largest independent commercial finance house, is to draw on $7.3bn (£3.67bn) of emergency unsecured credit lines in order to keep afloat as it struggles to raise cash in the open market. Source: Telegraph Business | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
A number of London's stockbrokers have followed the lead of MF Global and demanded that clients put up more cash to cover derivative positions. Source: Telegraph Business | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
JP Morgan Chase wants Bear Stearns shareholders to vote on its $236m (£118m) purchase of the stricken bank in the first week of June in a bid to close the deal amid growing dissent from unhappy investors. Source: Telegraph Business | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:01 am
The credit crisis engulfing America’s banking system yesterday threatened the
independence of Borders, the retailer of books and DVDs, which put itself up
for sale and admitted that it had been forced to seek emergency funding. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
It was the decision by Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, to fight a
lean war in Iraq that opened the door for private security companies (PSCs). Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
The Bank of England announced an unprecedented series of £5 billion cash
injections for the banking sector, after high street bank chiefs pleaded for
more liquidity. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
Shareholders in Carter & Carter, the motor manufacturing training company
worth £530 million a year ago, will be left with nothing, the company's
newly appointed managers said yesterday. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
ArmorGroup, the private security company, became another casualty of the war
in Iraq as it succumbed yesterday to a £43 million bid from rival G4S. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
Mortgage lending slumped 7 per cent last month as the credit squeeze and
sliding house prices continued to take a toll on borrowers and lenders. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
A new management team for Rentokil Initial, the support services company, is
in line for a bumper reward package of shares worth up to £95 million if it
succeeds in more than tripling the group’s share price to 280p in the next
five years. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 21 Mar 2008 | 12:00 am
Reuters - Verizon Communications Inc
and AT&T Inc , the two largest U.S. mobile phone
companies, grabbed the lion's share of a $19.12 billion auction
of airwaves being vacated by television broadcasters.
LONDON - Oil prices extended a week-long slide on Thursday, briefly tumbling below $100 a barrel for the first time in two weeks amid growing concerns an economic slowdown in top consumer the United States would cut global energy... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 20 Mar 2008 | 11:37 pm
NEW YORK - US stocks jumped on Thursday, capping a tumultuous week, on optimism that giving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a bigger role in the mortgage market will ease a credit crunch that claimed Bear Stearns as its biggest victim.
Stocks... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 20 Mar 2008 | 11:35 pm
The smartphone maker Palm reports a three month loss but says its reorganisation is still on track. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 20 Mar 2008 | 11:33 pm
Investor's Business Daily - The Federal Reserve's move to take on $30 billion in risky Bear Stearns holdings may turn out to be the political equivalent of crossing the Rubicon. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 20 Mar 2008 | 10:42 pm
The Council of Trade Unions has added its voice to the annual debate on Easter trading, saying that the requirement that retailers close on Friday and Sunday is not onerous and should be respected.
"The current Easter Sunday trading... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 20 Mar 2008 | 9:49 pm
Reuters - Book retailer Borders Group
Inc on Thursday suspended its quarterly dividend and
said it may sell itself, sending its shares down as much as 44
percent to a new low.
CIT Group, the largest independent commercial finance company in the US, said it drew on $7.3bn in emergency credit lines and may sell assets to meet funding requirements Source: FT.com - US homepage | 20 Mar 2008 | 9:23 pm
Wall Street stocks ended an abbreviated week higher for the first time in a month as investors found renewed confidence and bought into financial stocks Source: FT.com - US homepage | 20 Mar 2008 | 9:14 pm
The volatile week on stock markets continues with New York shares rising sharply before the long weekend. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 20 Mar 2008 | 9:13 pm
ITV retains the rights to broadcast UEFA Champions League matches as part of a new deal for 2009 - 2012. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 20 Mar 2008 | 8:53 pm
Reuters - Stocks jumped on Thursday, capping a
tumultuous week, on optimism that giving Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac a bigger role in the mortgage market will ease a credit
crunch that claimed Bear Stearns as its biggest victim.
AB Volvo agrees to pay millions of dollars in fines for its part in Iraq's oil for food programme. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 20 Mar 2008 | 8:33 pm
BRUSSELS - EBay Inc is restructuring its operations worldwide which will lead to a small cut in global staffing levels but with some countries hit harder than others, a company spokeswoman said.
"It's less than 1 per cent globally,"... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 20 Mar 2008 | 8:23 pm
If you're like the rest of America, your old Rock Band has learned a few new tricks lately.
Over 70 downloadable tracks like "Buddy Holly" and "Wonderwall" have kept mock musicians rocking since the game's November launch, and Harmonix announced today that they have sold over six million of them.
Expect this number to explode in the coming months with Rock Band's new in-game music store. Now that players don't have to jump into Xbox Live Marketplace's clunky interface every time they want to download songs, they'll buy a lot more of them.
"The success of Rock Band downloadable content to date firmly reinforces our vision and its potential as a platform for music discovery," said MTV senior vice president Paul Degooyer in a statement today.
MTV said one more thing about Rock Band sales: For the months of January and February, Rock Band was the top-selling videogame by revenue in the U.S. Of course, that's down to the fact that it's a hundred and seventy freaking dollars.
Verizon Wireless has apparently outbid Google for a set of highly coveted frequency spectrum licenses, offering $4.7 billion, the Federal Communications Commission said.
The so-called C block of frequencies Verizon Wireless won were the main prize in the F.C.C.'s closely watched 700 MHz auction, which raised nearly $20 billion for the federal government, F.C.C. chairman Kevin Martin said at a press conference in Washington today.
Verizon Wireless—which is jointly owned by Verizon and Vodaphone—won six C-block licenses. That covers most of the country. It didn't win licenses covering Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the Gulf of Mexico.
In a statement, Verizon Wireless said it was "pleased with our auction results."
"We were successful in achieving the spectrum depth we need to continue to grow our business and data revenues, to preserve our reputation as the nation's most reliable wireless network, and to continue to lead in data services and help us satisfy the next wave of services and consumer electronics devices," the company said.
Google, which had said it would bid the reserve price of $4.6 billion for the C block, did not win any licenses, Martin said, bolstering the view that the search giant was "bidding to lose" the C block after winning F.C.C. approval of two "open access" provisions that require the winner of the C block to allow consumers on its network to mix and match handsets and applications.
F.C.C. rules had required that in order for the open-access provisions to kick in, the C block's reserve price had to have been met.
Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of consumer group Public Knowledge, praised Google for "stepping up and making certain the minimum bid in the C block was achieved, so that the open-access provisions would be required to be followed."
AT&T and Qualcomm picked up smaller regional licenses in the B and E blocks.
Meanwhile, controversy deepened over the failure of the auction's D block to meet its $1.3 billion reserve price. The D block was for frequencies that the buyer would share with public-safety agencies.
Portfolio.com reported yesterday that Martin was delaying announcing the winners of the auction in order to address the controversy over the failed sale of the D block.
Today, the F.C.C. issued an order delinking the D block from the rest of the auction, and said it "will not re-offer the D block immediately in Auction 76 but will consider its options for how to license this spectrum in the future."
Public Knowledge, which had asked the commission to delink the D block, praised the move.
"We are pleased the Commission has decided to separate the D block from the rest of the auction and will not re-auction the spectrum quickly," the group said.
DR Congo cancels "many" mining contracts and is to renegotiate others after a review into the deals. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 20 Mar 2008 | 6:29 pm
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is working on a "cap-and-trade" plan to cut the state's greenhouse gases, compelling companies to buy and sell credits regulating potentially harmful emissions. But some environmentalists are skeptical of a market-based approach. Sarah Gardner reports. Source: Marketplace | 20 Mar 2008 | 6:10 pm
The U.S. currently imports two-thirds of its oil needs -- even President Bush believes the nation is "addicted to oil." But commentator Jerry Taylor says that since importing oil is cheaper than producing it domestically, energy independence isn't a good idea, or even practical. Source: Marketplace | 20 Mar 2008 | 6:09 pm
PepsiCo and its largest bottler have bought a majority stake in Russia's leading juice producer, Lebedyansky. Lebedyansky squeezed $800 million from the Russian juice market last year, and PepsiCo believes there's much more where that came from. Stacey Vanek-Smith reports. Source: Marketplace | 20 Mar 2008 | 6:09 pm
Bonds called sukuks, designed to conform to Islamic rules forbidding interest on loans, have been popular investments the past few years. But now a leading scholar has cast doubt on whether the bonds are truly Islamic, prompting fears of a subprime-like meltdown. Stephen Beard reports. Source: Marketplace | 20 Mar 2008 | 6:09 pm
The Chinese crackdown on Tibet has been a major news story leading up to Beijing's 2008 Olympics. Now corporate sponsors who have contributed hundreds of millions are worried about the implications of the political unrest. Kai Ryssdal talks to Scott Tong in Shanghai, China. Source: Marketplace | 20 Mar 2008 | 6:09 pm
Some Wall Street investors actually profited from the dramatic fall of Bear Stearns, gambling the investment bank's stock would plummet in value. Now there's an investigation into possible insider trading among those short-sellers. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports. Source: Marketplace | 20 Mar 2008 | 6:09 pm
In the wake of the Bear Stearns fire sale, Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, says the government should monitor and regulate risk in the financial sector -- an idea that makes Wall Street cringe. Jeremy Hobson reports. Source: Marketplace | 20 Mar 2008 | 6:09 pm
There was a big boost in commodities markets when stocks took a beating earlier this week, but now commodities are starting to cool off. Those Fed rate cuts shored up the dollar, making commodities produced in the U.S. more expensive for foreign buyers. Lisa Roth reports. Source: Marketplace | 20 Mar 2008 | 6:09 pm
Bear Stearnscollapsed for two reasons. It had a short-term funding crisis where lenders pulled their loans and customers pulled their cash. But it also had a longer-term leverage problem. Last week’s crisis didn’t happen in a vacuum; that leverage eventually led to the collapse in confidence.
After the collapse, Wall Street’s attention naturally turned to the other investment banks, especially Lehman Brothers, perceived as the most vulnerable. So, investors were thrilled when Lehman topped earnings expectations on Tuesday—as the firm took pains to reassure the markets that it has plenty of cash to ride out the turbulence.
Yet aside from a smattering of attention here and there, investors and the media mostly overlooked the balance sheet. In other words, they forgot what happened mere hours earlier with Bear Stearns. Wall Street’s short-term memory is notoriously lousy, but this must set a record. (Could Jimmy Cayne be sharing his stash with his hedge fund buddies?)
What actually happened to Lehman’s balance sheet in the first quarter? Assets rose. Leverage rose. Write-downs were suspiciously minuscule. And the company fiddled with the way it defines a key measure of the firm’s net worth. Let’s look at the cautionary flags:
Lehman’s balance sheet isn’t shrinking, as we’d expect.
Lehman finished the first quarter was total assets of $786 billion, up almost 14 percent from the previous quarter and 40 percent from a year earlier. Other financial institutions are taking down their exposure right now amid the market turmoil to be prudent. Lehman says it wants to. It is not.
Lehman got more leveraged, not less.
The investment banks “gross” leverage hit 31.7 times equity, up from the fourth quarter and way up from last year’s 28.1. According to Brad Hintz, an analyst with Sanford Bernstein, Lehman’s leverage reached its highest point since 2000. Lehman, like all the investment banks, prefers to look at net leverage, excluding hedges, and that went down. And the firm says that the asset increases was mainly a result of increases in short-term items that have low risk. But we’ve heard a lot of that lately across the financial world. It’s quite simple: The more leverage Lehman has, the less room assets have to fall to wipe out its equity.
Lehman includes debt in its calculation of equity. Say what?
It’s always worrisome when a company changes a key definition of a closely watched measure of financial performance. In a note in its earnings release, Lehman said it has a new definition of “tangible equity,” or the hard assets that it has left over after subtracting its liabilities. This is a measure of net worth, the yardstick by which investment banks are valued. Lehman’s new definition allows for a higher portion of long-term subordinated borrowings (which it calls “equity-like”) in tangible equity. Previously, it had a cap on the percentage of “perpetual preferred stock,” a form of equity-like debt that doesn’t have a maturity date, in its equity. Now, it doesn’t have a cap. Think of it this way: If you borrow money from your parents to make your down payment on your house and they don’t expect to get paid back right away (at least not before you pay your mortgage off) is it equity in your house? No, it’s a loan. And Lehman hasn’t borrowed from mommy and daddy.
Lehman says it is merely conforming to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s definition of tangible equity and had contemplated making the change for a while. And the firm says the change didn’t result in any difference to its net leverage ratio.
Lehman reaped substantial earnings gains because investors thought it is more likely to go bankrupt.
For several quarters, all the investment banks have been taking gains on its liabilities. Say you owe $100 to your friend. But you run into severe problems and your friend starts to figure you can only afford to pay back $95. If you were an investment bank, the magic of fair value accounting dictates that you could get to reduce your liability. What’s more, that $5 gain gets added to earnings. Because investors thought Lehman was more likely to default, its liabilties fell in value and Lehman garnered earnings from this. How much did Lehman win through losing? $600 million in the quarter. How much was its net income? $489 million.
Lehman and all the other investment banks are following the accounting rules on this, but that $600 million is hardly the stuff of quality earnings. Indeed, Bernstein’s Hintz called the bank’s earnings quality “weak.”
Lehman’s write-downs seem tiny.
Lehman finished the quarter with $87.3 billion of real estate assets. These include residential mortgages and commercial real estate paper. The bank only wrote these assets down by 3 percent. And its Level III assets —the hardest to value portion of these instruments—were written down by only the same percentage. The indexes and publicly traded instruments and companies that serve as proxies for these securities generally fell more than that in the quarter. Lehman points out that took larger gross write-downs and then made money through hedges, for a smaller net number.
Lehman remains exposed to lots of dodgy mortgages, including a group labeled: “Prime and Alt-A.” Prime mortgages represent loans to good quality borrowers; Alt-A loans go to borrowers a mere step up from subprime, and represent an area with almost as many problem loans as subprime. The total amount of such mortgages on Lehman’s balance sheet was $14.6 billion in the first quarter and it actually rose from $12.7 billion in the previous quarter. Is this the time to be increasing exposure to questionable mortgages? More ominously, only $1 billion of that figure is prime and the rest is Alt-A, according to Hintz’s estimate.
The picture emerging is that of an investment bank that is dancing as fast as it can. If Lehman can keep piling up more assets, and if these assets come back, Lehman comes out a big winner. But if it didn’t properly mark down those assets during these bad times, the investment bank’s returns —and therefore its profitability—will be much lower in the future.
And that’s the good case. If the assets do not recover, then time is against the firm.
There is a larger, monetary policy issue here. The Federal Reserve has announced that it will lend to investment banks for the first time since the Depression, acting as a lender of last resort. At the very least, regulators should be demanding that the investment banks bring down their leverage and reduce their risk. Are the regulators sending a stern-enough message to Lehman? If so, it’s not getting through.
Tim Kendall, monetization director at Facebook, is one of the first guys we've heard concede that the online ad market could be vulnerable to a recession.
"It's pretty clear that when consumer confidence is down, brands cut back on [advertising spending]. Social media spending was considered experimental, and therefore ad spending came out of discretionary budgets, but as it's becoming less discretionary, you need to deliver a demonstrable ROI [return on investment]. . . I think it's going to be a challenge for us," Kendall said while speaking at Dow Jones VentureWire's Web Ventures 2008 conference in Redwood City.
(Incidentally, Google hasn't set the date for its first-quarter results, but they were released on April 19 last year, so we'll probably hear very soon just how untouchable the company is.)
On the Beacon fiasco, Kendall also had an interesting take: "The biggest misunderstanding about Beacon is that it has anything to do with advertising," he said. "We made a mistake in launching it concurrently with our ad network."
Asked about the adoption of Beacon, Kendall says all the negative press stalled progress on the product.
Borders Group, the second largest US bookstore chain, responded to growing pressures on its business by announcing a financing agreement with its largest shareholder that will create time for a possible sale of its entire operations Source: FT.com - US homepage | 20 Mar 2008 | 5:03 pm
The global credit market turmoil that has increased New Zealand fixed mortgage rates in the last month can take some of the blame for houses remaining unaffordable in February despite a fall in house prices.
The Fairfax Media Home... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 20 Mar 2008 | 5:00 pm
I'm glad I'm not a trust fund heiress. I mean it. I am far too lazy. If I knew all I had to do was shimmy about town wearing a gold fob chain and I would eventually get handed a bottomless Zurich chequeing account, I would be even... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 20 Mar 2008 | 4:59 pm
Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel has rejected calls from distraught Blue Chip investors for the property investment group to be placed in statutory management.
She says that she has met Blue Chip liquidator Jeff Meltzer and had... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 20 Mar 2008 | 4:58 pm
Companies already committed to spending millions to advertise at the Beijing Olympics would find it hard to pull their ads if they felt the situation in Tibet was hurting their images.
Advertisers and their agencies say that, at... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 20 Mar 2008 | 4:58 pm
The dollar recovers against the euro and yen on the back of interest cuts and commodity sell-offs. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 20 Mar 2008 | 4:40 pm
US bookseller Borders says it may put itself up for sale and takes out a loan to help it keep operating. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 20 Mar 2008 | 4:39 pm
Melvyn Weiss, the most senior partner at a law firm that championed shareholder class actions and was reviled by corporate America as a result, has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges for his role in paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to people who agreed to serve as plaintiffs in securities class actions.
Weiss will plead guilty to federal racketeering, one of four charges brought by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles. In the wake of the February 12 sentencing of William Lerach, Weiss' former law partner, Weiss and his lawyer met with prosecutors last week to discuss a deal.
Lerach, 62, received a two-year prison sentence—the maximum term under the plea agreement he struck in October. Lerach is scheduled to surrender to begin serving his prison term tomorrow. Lerach and Weiss split their law practice in 2004, partly owing to tensions from the lengthy criminal investigation, which began in 2001.
Together, Weiss and Lerach transformed the business of securities litigation, winning tens of billions of dollars from corporations and prompting Congress to change the law in the late 1990s. But they were accused of making illegal payments to plaintiffs and of trying to hide them.
Weiss, 72, has struck a deal to serve 18 to 33 months, and the government is expecting Judge Walter to impose the maximum sentence. Weiss has also agreed to forfeit $9.8 million and pay a $250,000 fine, and to admit his role in the scheme. Weiss made staggering profits from the kickback scheme. According to the indictment, his share of the law firms profits from 1983 to 2005 amounted to more than $209 million.
Thomas P. O'Brien, the United States attorney in Los Angeles, commented on Weiss's guilty plea in blunt terms: "The scheme was based in greed and it affected the integrity of the courts and the interests of an untold number of absent class members" in securities fraud class actions.
An assistant for Benjamin Brafman, Weiss's lawyer, issued a statement referring to Weiss' guilty plea "to his limited participation" in the criminal conspiracy and expressing hope that Judge Walter will "recognize Mel Weiss as one of the true legal giants of his generation."
The indictment against Milberg Weiss remains pending. Under Weiss' deal, like the one cut by Lerach, he will not cooperate against the remaining defendants.
This morning, the law firm changed its name to Milberg L.L.P. In July 2007, prosecutors and the firm tried to resolve the case against the law firm. Members of the firm's management committee have been adamant that they will not allow the firm to plead guilty, and will seek instead a deferred prosecution agreement.
Sanford Dumain, a member of the Milberg L.L.P. executive committee, said, "Having previously believed former leaders' assurances of their innocence, the firm is now seeking to find a fair and appropriate resolution of remaining issues so that we can continue to work on behalf of injured investors and consumers."
The firm added in a statement: "Milberg L.L.P. apologizes to all judges, lawyers, clients, and class members, who deserve full and complete adherence to all legal and ethical norms."
The firm has 70 lawyers. Milberg Weiss ranked fourth in settlements of class actions reported in 2007, according to a survey released March 6 by Institutional Shareholder Services, with 22 settlements totaling $1.6 billion. If the firm pleaded guilty to a federal criminal offense, it is highly unlikely that a judge would approve the law firm to serve as lead counsel for the plaintiff in a class action.
Calls to William Taylor of Zuckerman Spaeder, and Marc Harris and Bryan Daly of Mayer Brown, defense counsel for Milberg Weiss, were not immediately returned.
Weiss "is a man of indominable spirit," says Ralph Ferrara of Dewey & LeBoeuf, a lawyer has often been his adversary as counsel for the defense in shareholder class actions. " He will carry on in one way or another as an advocate for shareholders and investors. This guy will never fade away."
Russia charges two men with British links with industrial spying, threatening to further worsen the countries' ties. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 20 Mar 2008 | 4:20 pm
Remember November 16, 2006? Oil futures stood at $56 a barrel and Bear Stearns shares swapped for $155. It's also the day that the private equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital agreed to take Clear Channel Communications private for $18.7 billion.
Now, 16 months later, Bear Stearns is worth $2 per share and oil sells for $100. And unfortunately for the buyout firms, their relationship with the radio giant is one that has still not yet been consummated.
It took a full 10 months of wrangling over deal terms for the shareholders to finally give their okay to a new offer for $19.5 billion, or $39.20 per share, plus the assumption of $8 billion of debt.
Meanwhile, the housing market continued its free fall, subprime mortgages backfired in a big way, and the leveraged buyout bubble officially burst with the onset of a credit crisis.
But still, Bain and T.H. Lee pressed on.
As recently as last week, the deal's close looked temptingly within reach. The website Private Equity Hub reported that the limited partners behind the deal began wiring the capital to Bain and T.H. Lee for the equity piece of the deal. Clear Channel also closed on the $1.1 billion sale of its television unit to another private-equity-backed media company.
Now, it's up to the banks to market the debt, which is no easy feat in this environment. Citigroup is leading the deal, with Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Wachovia lending portions of it as well. Fortunately for Clear Channel, Bear Stearns is conspicuously absent from that syndicate list.
The banks have until the end of next week to market the debt—if it isn't sold it will wind up on their own books. The Wall Street Journalreports that the banks are prepared to fund $22 billion to finance the transaction, but about $18 billion of it will be in senior secured loans, which are selling at about a 15 percent discount.
This means that the banks are set to lose $2.7 billion on the day the deal closes. If the banks choose to walk away from the deal instead, the private equity firms would be forced to pay a $500 million breakup fee and the banks could face litigation from the buyout firms, Clear Channel, or both. So the banks need to weigh the cost of potential litigation against an automatic $3 billion loss plus another load of hefty debt added to their balance sheets.
And just what does the rest of Wall Street think about this deal? Shares of Clear Channel shed nearly 10 percent of their value yesterday, although they've recovered some of those losses this morning. Still, the stock trades at about $33.50, which is well below the buyout offer of $39.20.
That's a clear bet against the banks getting this deal done. Pay lawyers? Or pay for a struggling media firm with debt? For investors, anyway, the answer appears to be a no-brainer.
The rising cost of fuel will impact on future earnings at Fedex, the delivery company says. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 20 Mar 2008 | 3:30 pm
Advanced economies are "not sheltered from financial turmoil" and economic prospects have deteriorated faster than was expected as recently as December, said the OECD as it cut its forecast for US economic growth to 0.1 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter and zero for the second Source: FT.com - US homepage | 20 Mar 2008 | 3:10 pm
The Swiss bank further knocked confidence by revealing that the surprise writedowns revealed days after its 2007 results last month had stemmed partly from 'intentional misconduct' by traders Source: FT.com - US homepage | 20 Mar 2008 | 2:19 pm
FedEx warned that mounting fuel costs and a weak US economy, which crimped quarterly profit, may weigh on the package-delievery company's results well into its next fiscal year Source: FT.com - US homepage | 20 Mar 2008 | 2:04 pm
Barney Frank, the powerful US lawmaker who chairs the House financial services committee, called for Congress to consider authorising the Fed to broaden its powers and act as a 'financial services risk regulator' Source: FT.com - US homepage | 20 Mar 2008 | 1:55 pm
Could Steve Jobs be right? Are books going the way of the dinosaur? Or just traditional booksellers?
On the heels of two years of disappointing performance, Borders Groupannounced today that it has suspended its quarterly dividend and is considering a possible sale.
The country's second-largest bookseller managed to swing to a profit, but said it had retained J.P. Morgan and Merrill Lynch as advisers to help "review strategic alternatives," including selling all or parts of the company.
Borders also announced a $42.5 million financing commitment from Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management, the company's largest shareholder. Pershing Square may also choose to purchase some of the company's international businesses, pursuant to a $125 million backstop commitment.
George Jones, Borders Group's chief executive, expects that the cash loan, paired with the halt to dividends, will allow Borders to stave off liquidity issues and fully fund itself through 2008.
"This will be a challenging year for retailers due to continued uncertainty in the economic environment," Jones said in a statement.
There are not many likely buyers for Borders, which has a market value of $473 million. Private equity is a possibility. And there has been periodic market speculation that Borders would merge with its larger rival, Barnes & Noble, DealBook notes. While such a deal would presumably attract antritrust scrutiny, the brick and mortar chains are competing more with Wal-Mart and online booksellers than with themselves.
Borders has been struggling to maintain market share from the likes of Wal-Mart and Amazon.com. It operated at a loss for fiscal 2007, and spent the first three quarters of fiscal 2008 in the red.
But Borders did manage to pull out a profit for the most recent quarter.
The company reported net income of $64.7 million, or $1.10 per share, compared with a loss of $73.6 million, or $1.22 per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 2 percent to $1.35 billion. Still, analysts expected profits of $1.42 per share on sales of $1.37 billion.
Amid flagging performance and a slumping stock price, Starbucks had been promoting its annual meeting as its chosen venue for unveiling sweeping changes.
So Howard Schultz, who returned as chief executive in January, tried not to disappoint on Wednesday, pulling broad changes from his bag of tricks, including state of the art machines, a brand-new coffee blend, and a social-networking website aimed at capturing customers' ideas for innovation.
But the 4 percent tumble in shares of Starbucks that day shows that investors are still looking for more answers to how the coffee chain will respond to shrinking margins and slowing sales.
Of the six initiatives unveiled at McCaw Hall in Seattle, the biggest headline grabbers revolved around machines: the Clover and Mastrena.
Starbucks announced that it would acquire the makers of the Clover machine, a buzzy new brewing system that provides French-press quality coffee on an industrial scale. That means customers will have the option for customized, individually ground and brewed coffee. Ethiopia Yergacheffe to order? You got it. Aged Sumatra in a flash? Coming right up.
"Demand will be the largest of any single initiative ever done," Schultz told reporters. "Every store manager in the system wants that machine, and they're not all going to be able to get them at the same time."
Starbucks also introduced a new state-of-the-art espresso machine called the Mastrena, which grinds every shot to order, nearly eliminates margin of error, froths milk better, gives greater customization options, and has a lower profile to allow baristas to see eye to eye with customers.
Along with new hardware, Starbucks unveiled a new coffee blend called Pike Place Roast (named after the location of the original Starbucks) which will become the everyday coffee in stores starting in mid-April.
Schultz claims it is the highest quality blend of coffee they've ever created—but the real kicker is that beans will now be ground at individual stores, rather than shipped ground as has become the practice in recent years.
The remaining three initiatives were slightly further removed from the beans themselves: additional benefits to Starbucks card users (various coffee freebies), a Digg-style social-networking site called mystarbucksidea.com, and an expanded partnership with Conservation International to bolster the company's ethical coffee-sourcing practices.
In other ways, the annual meeting was a big hit. The coffee and baked treats were ample and the staff was accommodating. K.D. Lang played acoustic guitar for a capacity crowd, and no less than three slide shows scrolled through images of happy baristas, happy coffee farmers, and even happy coffee plants, to the likes of "Here Comes the Sun" and a rock cover of "What a Wonderful World."
It really was a Starbucks affair, through and through, right down to the green-aproned Starbucks employees (er, "partners") handing out approximately 4,000 goody bags stuffed with mugs, CDs, Tazo Tea...you get the picture.
But while Wednesday's meeting was long on bright and shiny strategy talk—the focus on "coffee leadership" and "putting the romance back in coffee" came through loud and clear—it was short on the details.
Schultz didn't pause long on questions of additional store closings, commodity prices, or plans to maintain margins. Some wonder how effective the initiatives announced on Wednesday will be at driving profit in the short term, especially given a retail environment that Schultz himself acknowledges is bleak. While fully bullish on Starbucks' ability to right its course, the company's chief characterized the U.S. economy as "in a tail spin," saying he saw no end to economic problems in sight.
"Perhaps we haven't witnessed in 30 years this level of pressure on the consumer," Schultz told reporters. "You've got Alan Greenspan saying the economy is in its worst condition since World War II."
And shareholders are skeptical as to how initiatives like a beefed-up loyalty card, mystarbucksidea.com, and the expanded partnership with Conservation International will move the needle in upcoming quarters.
"These are things that are going to cost money to do, and I know they're intended to get people coming to Starbucks more often, but I just don't see how it necessarily translates into higher sales," said Eric, a shareholder from Seattle who was present at Wednesday's meeting.
In a note published on Wednesday afternoon, Citigroup restaurant analyst Glen Petraglia kept his view on Starbucks unchanged, noting that there were positive changes afoot but no single answer to the company's challenges.
And then, on top of all those concerns, there's always the question of whether all of Starbucks' grand plans will even stick around. That's something about which August, another attendee at Wednesday's meeting, is wary. "Every year they announce these big plans, like with the Chantico and selling CDs in stores, and by the next year it's already gone," he said. "There isn't a lot of follow-through."
Reuters - Severstal (CHMFq.L), Russia's largest
steel maker, will expand its U.S. presence with the $810
million acquisition of the Sparrows Point mill in Maryland,
which ArcelorMittal is selling for antitrust reasons.
AP - Japan's interim central bank chief vowed Friday not to let the absence of a governor hamper the country's economic and financial activities while another central bank official said the economy is slowing "sharply."
Reuters - The U.S. International Trade Commission
said it would launch an investigation into some 30 companies
including Sony Corp (6758.T) on possible patent infringements
related to Blu-ray disc players and other products.
Reuters - A San Diego Superior Court Judge
ordered coffee chain Starbucks to pay $87 million plus
interest to workers who say that their tips unfairly had been
shared with supervisors.
Reuters - Verizon Communications Inc
and AT&T Inc , the two largest U.S. mobile phone
companies, grabbed the lion's share of a $19.12 billion auction
of airwaves being vacated by television broadcasters.
Reuters - Book retailer Borders Group
Inc on Thursday suspended its quarterly dividend and
said it may sell itself, sending its shares down as much as 44
percent to a new low.
Reuters - Stocks jumped on Thursday, capping a
tumultuous week, on optimism that giving Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac a bigger role in the mortgage market will ease a credit
crunch that claimed Bear Stearns as its biggest victim.