Barack Obama's sweeping victory in the North Carolina primary and the narrow defeat in Indiana appeared certain to extend his almost unassailable lead in the Democratic race as it emerged that Hillary Clinton had lent her campaign a further $6.4m Source: FT.com - US homepage | 7 May 2008 | 2:31 pm
The head of airport operator BAA says he "was unaware" that Heathrow's Terminal 5 was not ready for business. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 7 May 2008 | 2:28 pm
Reuters - Stocks opened little changed on
Wednesday as optimism about data on productivity and labor
costs and about higher-than-expected earnings from Walt Disney
Co and Cisco Systems Inc was offset by a dip
in oil prices that weighed on energy shares.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened little changed on Wednesday as optimism about data on productivity and labor costs and about higher-than-expected earnings from Walt Disney Co and Cisco Systems Inc was offset by a dip in oil prices that weighed on energy shares.
Sales of previously-owned US homes fell 20% in March as the housing downturn continued, figures show. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 7 May 2008 | 2:26 pm
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pending sales of previously owned homes fell 1 percent in March, as expected, as turmoil in the housing and mortgage markets continued, a real estate trade group report on Wednesday showed.
GIBSON CITY, Illinois (Reuters) - The first batch of taxpayers has already started to receive their federal tax rebates as part of the economic stimulus package, but very few consumers interviewed by Reuters in the past week said they plan to spend them on anything other than necessities.
Airline stocks search for direction early Wednesday as crude oil futures hover near record highs and investors await U.S. government data on petroleum supplies.
Devon Energy’s first-quarter net income climbs 15% amid higher output of oil, gas and natural-gas liquids as well as strong growth in commodity prices.
In a sign that the U.S. housing market may have further to weaken, an index of sales contracts on previously owned homes fell 1.0% in March from the prior month, the National Association of Realtors says.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. reports a 92% plunge in first-quarter profit as demand for tires in the key North American market slipped at the same time the cost to make them increased.
Oil and gas stocks back down slightly as the market waits for cues from the latest weekly fuel inventory update from the Energy Information Administration.
Sprint Nextel Corp. and Clearwire Corp. said Wednesday that they will merge their next-generation wireless broadband businesses to form a new wireless communications company.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Cisco Systems Inc. edge higher after the company reports better-than-expected sales, even though an acquisition-charge led to a 5% drop in third-quarter profit.
Synchronoss Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: SNCR) looks now like it will be one of the worst seen earnings moves of popular companies in all of this earnings season. The outsourced device activation provider posted $0.16 non-GAAP EPS and revenues were $29.1 million. The company lowered next quarter guidance to $0.10 to $0.11 EPS on revenues of $24 to $25 million. First Call had estimates of $0.19 EPS and $35.2 million in revenues. After going back over everything, the company's weak forecast is being largely attributed to declining revenue from activating Apple Inc's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone. The reason isn't iPhone sales, it...
The number of homes under contract for sale fell in March, hitting a record low for the second consecutive month, according to a report released Wednesday.
Stocks were mixed Wednesday morning as investors weighed Cisco Systems' upbeat earnings and mild forecast, strong earnings from Walt Disney, and a surprisingly strong reading on labor productivity.
The House on Wednesday will begin debate on a housing package that would let the government back loans for homeowners at risk of foreclosure - a move many Republicans have opposed.
REGENERX BIOPHARMACEUTICALS, INC. (AMEX: RGN) filed for a secondary offering late yesterday to sell some $60 million in a secondary offering of stock and warrants. Its fully diluted market cap on last look was $92.8 million. As of April 30, 2008, the aggregate market value of its outstanding common stock held by non-affiliates was approximately $48,048,508, based on 51,553,527 shares of outstanding common stock. Approximately 27,456,290 shares are held by non-affiliates, and a price of $1.75 based on the closing sale price of the common stock on April 30, 2008. This biotech is focused on the discovery and development of...
The stock market is mixed in early trading, with investors anticipating data on pending home sales and waiting to see if oil prices will climb further into uncharted territory. Wall... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 1:36 pm
CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Board Governor Randall Kroszner said on Wednesday that the Fed would work with a national affordable housing group to help stabilize neighborhoods with high foreclosure rates.
US worker productivity topped analysts' forecasts during the first three months of 2008, official figures show. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 7 May 2008 | 1:26 pm
Mozambique has been chosen to take part in a pilot UN programme to identify risks and enhance early warning systems in disaster-prone countries, a UN official said Wednesday. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 1:21 pm
BOSTON (Reuters) - Financial markets believe Fannie Mae, the biggest provider of funding for U.S. home loans, can reverse losses by applying fresh capital of $6 billion toward profitable investments, the company's federal regulator told CNBC on Wednesday.
A top-ranking UBS executive was briefly detained in the United States in connection with an investigation into the banks work with questionable tax transactions, the bank said. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 1:16 pm
PlayStation 3 will help Sony reclaim its spot as the leading console maker, says the head of the firm's games division. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 7 May 2008 | 12:59 pm
Harry & David Holdings, Inc. has withdrawn the company’s IPO Filing registration statement and all related exhibits. The current climate is being blamed for the IPO withdrawal: ".....the Registration Statement has been abandoned due to, among other things, market conditions." Harry & David Holdings, Inc. was formerly Bear Creek Holdings. The company is a multi-channel retailer and producer of gift-quality fruit, gourmet food products and other gifts that are marketed under the Harry and David brand. The products include Royal Riviera pears, Fruit-of-the-Month Club, Tower of Treats gifts, and Moose Munch caramel and chocolate popcorn snacks. You can join our...
AP - Worker productivity rose by a better-than-expected amount in the first three months of the year while labor cost pressures eased. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 7 May 2008 | 12:54 pm
US stocks were set to open lower on Wednesday with oil prices that are hovering around $122 a barrel threatening to curtail already weak consumer spending and little in the way of positive news to perk up markets Source: FT.com - US homepage | 7 May 2008 | 12:54 pm
Reuters - The U.S. credit crisis is easing and the
risk in its housing market is dramatically lower now, but
economic growth will remain under pressure over the next year,
the chief executive of Merrill Lynch & Co Inc said. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 7 May 2008 | 12:51 pm
MUMBAI (Reuters) - The U.S. credit crisis is easing and the risk in its housing market is dramatically lower now, but economic growth will remain under pressure over the next year, the chief executive of Merrill Lynch & Co Inc said.
Reuters - Sprint Nextel Corp and Clearwire
Corp are planning a $14.5 billion venture to build a
wireless high-speed Internet network based on the emerging
WiMax technology.
The United Nations said it had obtained permission to fly emergency supplies to cyclone-ravaged Myanmar but aid workers were still waiting for visas to enter the isolated country Source: FT.com - US homepage | 7 May 2008 | 12:46 pm
Itron Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) announced after yesterday's close that it will sell 3.4 million shares of common stock in an at the market public secondary offering. Yesterday's closing price was $94.47 per share, so gross proceeds will be in the vicinity of $321 million. Itron said it plans to use $250 million of the proceeds to repay a portion of outstanding non-convertible debt and the rest will be used for general corporate purposes. While this will effectively be a spot secondary in result, this is under an existing shelf filing. The funds are expected to close on or about May 12,...
The U.S. dollar was higher against other major currencies in European trading Wednesday morning. Gold fell. The euro traded at $1.5418, down from $1.5533 late Tuesday in New York. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 12:37 pm
Worker productivity rose by a better-than-expected amount in the first three months of the year. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that productivity, the amount of output per... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 12:32 pm
Worker productivity rose by a better-than-expected amount in the first three months of the year. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that productivity, the amount of output per... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 12:31 pm
Did Grand Theft Auto IV live up to the hype? Oh, yeah.
Its maker, Take-Two Interactive Software, says that it sold 6 million of the videogames in its first week, and 3.6 million games on its debut, April 29.
That totals more than $500 million in global sales, easily surpassing the record of more than $400 million by Microsoft's Halo 3 in September. Some analysts expect sales of the $59.99 game to top 10 million this year.
That is vital for Take-Two, which has recorded two years of losses.
"Grand Theft Auto IV's first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date," said Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take-Two.
And the success of Grand Theft could determine the next step in a $2 billion hostile takeover effort being waged by rival Electronic Arts.
Matt Richtel of the New York Times said, "If Take-Two can exceed sales expectations on Grand Theft Auto IV, it has the potential to drive up the share price and force Electronic Arts to raise its offer."
Or Electronic Arts may decide it is too expensive and walk away.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Take-Two Interactive Software Inc scored more than $500 million in global sales of criminal action game "Grand Theft Auto 4" in its first week, marking what it said on Wednesday is one of the most lucrative entertainment events in history.
Recession? Or just a slowdown? Some will tell you it doesn't much matter - that it's a distinction without a difference. Nothing could be further from the truth - or as dangerous a delusion.
Money market mutual funds are known for being both liquid and solid. Liquid because you can get your money out of them at any time; solid because they maintain a steady value of $1 per share. And they're popular because they tend to pay slightly higher rates than Treasury bills or bank savings accounts. Individuals and institutions alike use them to park cash they are waiting to deploy and to ride out market storms. Amid the turmoil of the past year, assets have soared 45%, to $3.5 trillion. But with the credit crunch casting doubt on many formerly safe-seeming securities, the big question for many investors has become, Is my money fund safe?
UK interest rates are set to be held at 5%, most analysts predict, despite a flurry of downbeat economic data. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 7 May 2008 | 12:08 pm
These are ten of the top analyst calls we are focusing on this morning: Aqua America (NYSE: WTR) cut to Market Perform at Wachovia. Boyd Gaming (NYSE: BYD) started as Sell at Banc of America. CNET (NASDAQ: CNET) started as Buy at Kaufman Bros. Ctrip.com (NASDAQ: CTRP) cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) started as Buy at Kaufman Bros Housevalues (NASDAQ: SOLD) raised to Buy at Cantor Fitzgerald. Knight Capital Group (NASDAQ: NITE) cut to Equal Weight at Lehman Brothers. NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank. Sohu.com (NASDAQ: SOHU) cut to Hold at...
A day after announcing a quarterly loss of more than $17 billion, as well as plans to cut a wide swath through the ranks of its investment bank, it is clear that UBS, the giant Swiss bank, has another big problem on its hands.
U.S. prosecutors and regulators are investigating whether UBS advisers helped American clients evade U.S. taxes from 2000 to 2007.
The bank said today that U.S. authorities had briefly detained an employee when he entered the country, and he is still in the United States.
"Our understanding is that the respective employee, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing by the U.S. government, will remain in the United States pending discussions with the U.S. authorities regarding resolution of his status as a witness," the bank said in a statement.
UBS did not identify the employee, but Haig Simonian of the Financial Timesreports that it is Martin Liechti, the Zurich-based head of North and South America for its international wealth-management business and one of the most senior private bankers at UBS.
The Financial Times says: "People close to the situation said the detention was an aggressive tactic and may have been chosen by the authorities to put pressure on UBS and its employees to reveal its business practices."
UBS' strength has been in its wealth-management business, providing the ultarich of the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East with expertise in investing and tax advice. The apparent escalation of tax investigations could damage that business.
German prosecutors have said they are considering an investigation into whether UBS helped wealthy Germans avoid taxes.
"UBS has been hit by a perfect storm," Edwin Merner, who oversees $2 billion at Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo, told Bloomberg News. "Clients may run away if they think they'll leak information to tax authorities in Germany and the U.S."
Questions about UBS' possible role in tax evasion have been around for a while.
A 2003 report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations identified UBS as one of several major banks that had roles in questionable tax shelters set up by the accounting firm KPMG, which reached a deferred-prosecution agreement in 2005 to avoid an indictment. UBS noted in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday that federal prosecutors in Manhattan are continuing to examine UBS' conduct in some KPMG transactions during 1996 to 2000.
In the cross-border tax examination, the Justice Department, according to UBS, is looking at whether Swiss-based UBS advisers helping U.S. investors failed to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and whether the bank violated the terms of a 2001 agreement with the Internal Revenue Service.
Standard Chartered has had a "very good start to the year", shareholders heard at the bank's annual meeting on Wednesday, with both its consumer and wholesale businesses showing "good momentum". However,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 11:52 am
Hopes the Bank of England will reduce interest rates at its monthly meeting on Thursday following a downbeat set of data helped housebuilders rebound and shares in London extend morning gains.A survey... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 11:51 am
Retail spending across the eurozone declined more than expected in March, official figures show. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 7 May 2008 | 11:47 am
It was the latest in a series of rare but increasingly ambitious protests against government-backed industrial projects on environmental and health grounds. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 11:46 am
The directors of Tui on Wednesday began the annual general meeting of the German travel and shipping group with quiet confidence that they would be able to parry the attacks of activist investor John Fredriksen,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 11:45 am
Explosions and gunfire ring out across the Lebanese capital during a highly politicised strike for a hike in minimum wages. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 7 May 2008 | 11:43 am
Clearwire and Sprint Nextel are planning to merge their wireless broadband units to create a new $14.55 billion wireless communications company. The new company, to be named Clearwire, Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 11:33 am
The Woolwich is the latest big lender to demand a 10% deposit from all new mortgage borrowers. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 7 May 2008 | 11:32 am
Food prices rose almost 5 per cent last month driven by wheat and milk, new
figures show today. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 7 May 2008 | 11:24 am
Picture the Manhattan skyline filled with Nike swooshes. Or the golden arches of McDonald's gently drifting over Los Angeles. A special-effects entrepreneur from Alabama has come up... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 11:13 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Clearwire Corp and Sprint Nextel Corp said on Wednesday they would combine their next-generation wireless broadband businesses to form a new $14.5 billion communications company.
The dollar climbed against the euro and yen on Wednesday, supported by hopes that the worst of the credit crunch is over, and on the eve of a rate decision by the European Central Bank,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 11:11 am
Reuters - U.S. satellite television service
provider DirecTV Group Inc posted a higher quarterly
profit on Wednesday as it added more subscribers than expected. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 7 May 2008 | 11:10 am
Russia's new president Dmitry Medvedev held out the prospect of a thaw after the democratic restrictions of the Putin era, pledging to develop civil and economic freedoms during a stately Kremlin inauguration ceremony Source: FT.com - US homepage | 7 May 2008 | 10:59 am
European equity markets were higher on Wednesday, driven by chemicals and household goods groups after strong results and comment from brokers.By midday in London, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.6 per... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 10:53 am
Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, said today that the software giant was
not pursuing any further deals following the collapse of its $47.5 billion
bid for Yahoo!, the struggling internet portal.$ Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 7 May 2008 | 10:46 am
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices steadied on Wednesday, down from the record high over $122 hit the previous day, ahead of U.S. weekly oil inventory data.
Art records fell for works by Claude Monet, Auguste Rodin and Alberto Giacometti in New York City at a Christie's auction dominated by foreign buyers taking advantage of the weak US dollar Source: FT.com - US homepage | 7 May 2008 | 10:44 am
NEW YORK - Art records fell on Tuesday for works by Claude Monet, Auguste Rodin and Alberto Giacometti in New York City at a Christie's auction dominated by foreign buyers taking advantage of the weak... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 10:44 am
The pound dropped to a 10-week low against the dollar on Wednesday as plummeting consumer confidence and a surprise fall in UK industrial production heightened speculation that the Bank of England would... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 10:36 am
Qatar Airways said today that it intended to seek compensation from Boeing
over delays in delivering its first 787 Dreamliner aircraft, part of a $13.5
billion order.$ Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 7 May 2008 | 10:28 am
Rice prices have gained for the fourth consecutive day, as shortages are aggravated by the cyclone in Burma. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 7 May 2008 | 10:19 am
The operating theory of most oil analysts and economists is that OPEC will let prices go up and up. Nothing could be further from the truth. Goldman Sachs has said oil could spike to $200 a barrel sometime in the next two years, but that won't happen. Oil is now at $120 and on its way up. The kings and princes in Saudi Arabia and Dubai are adding to their wealth at the rate of tens of billions of dollars a year. Their plan has been to hold demand and accuse speculators and the dollar of pushing up prices. They...
THE Italian design store Etro has plunked down $12.03 million to buy the 2,500-foot, ground-floor retail space at 89 Greene St. The space, in a prominent five-story, red brick building on the northwest... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 7 May 2008 | 10:09 am
ZURICH (Reuters) - A senior UBS employee was briefly detained by U.S. authorities in April as part of an investigation into the bank's cross-border business, UBS said on Wednesday.
It looks like Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) will sell $500 million of its new game "Grand Theft Auto IV" the first week that it is on the market. That is better than most expectations. It will help the company make the case that the buy-out offer larger rival Electronic Arts (ERTS) has made is too low. It cannot be said that the news is not good for TTWO. According to The New York Times "The company is expected to report it sold six million copies of the graphically violent game, 3.6 million of them on the first day." Electronics Arts has...
UK Manufacturing output fell by 0.5 per cent in March, its sharpest decline in
six months. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 7 May 2008 | 9:46 am
Sprint (NYSE: S) was dead and being lowered into the grave when the big firms which really hate the phone companies came in and exhumed it At this point Verizon Wireless and AT&T (T) are the hegemonic players who have locked up cellular service in the US. Between them, they have 130 million subscribers. Their customer bases are rising. Sprint's is not. Their profits are spectacular. Dislodging leaders from the high ground takes more than a modest assault. Sprint would not have been able to do it on its own. Bring on Google (GOOG), Intel (INTC), Comcast (CMCSA), and Time...
UK manufacturing output fell in 0.5% in March - its sharpest decline in six months, official data shows. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 7 May 2008 | 9:27 am
Cadbury has become the latest member of the FTSE 100 to weigh into the growing tax row engulfing the Government. Source: Telegraph Business | 7 May 2008 | 9:25 am
Disney (NYSE: DIS) certainly did well in the first quarter. Walt Disney himself would have been proud. Revenue at the entertainment company moved up 10% to $8.71 billion. EPS rose 35% to $.58. Wall St. opened the champagne and passed around the caviar. The Disney theme park business, which analysts view as a proxy for consumer spending, posted a revenue increase of 11% to $2.725 billion. Of course, no one bothered to read the fine print. Easter moved into the first quarter this year. Last year it was in the second. No matter. Nice jump in sales anyway. The total...
Reuters - A senior UBS employee was
briefly detained by U.S. authorities in April as part of an
investigation into the bank's cross-border business, UBS said
on Wednesday.
Here's some dinner advice for the inflation-weary food shopper: Buy the chicken breast, hold the corn.
Even as food prices worldwide have been soaring, the wholesale price of boneless, skinless chicken breasts is falling. They've declined more than 4 percent from this time last year, even as poultry producers are squeezed by the soaring costs of corn and soybean-based feed.
Food Crisis Since 2005, food prices have soared 80 percent, and analysts don't expect prices to abate soon. Here is a look at recent developments around the world.
The reason? Rising grain prices have made it cheaper to slaughter livestock than to feed it. So there's a glut of protein in the market, and an export bottleneck is preventing producers from sending the excess to hungry consumers abroad.
The country's largest poultry producer, Pilgrim's Pride, said it lost $111.4 million last quarter, placing the blame squarely on $200 million in additional expenses for the corn and soybean meal that turns little chicks into plump entrées. It also predicted another loss in the current quarter, as it sells chicken for 8 cents a pound less than it costs to produce.
"The current operating environment is among the most difficult I've seen in my 27 years in this business," Pilgrim's Pride chief executive Clint Rivers said on a conference call.
Bargain chicken is helping McDonald's keep a lid on its food expenses. The company said in April that it expects cheese prices to rise 30 percent this year, compared with only 5 percent or 6 percent for chicken. On Tuesday, it announced it would give away 8 million chicken-biscuit sandwiches on May 15 as it introduces poultry into its breakfast lineup.
These dynamics have made meat a bargain in the supermarket. Boneless chicken breast cost an average of $3.37 a pound in March, up just 1 percent from March 2007, according to Department of Labor statistics. Meanwhile, supermarket prices for a gallon of milk rose 23 percent and bread prices climbed 16 percent over the period.
Six poultry producers have announced plans to reduce production this year and shorten the length of their supply contracts, raising hopes in the industry that reducing the supply of chickens will lift the price of prepared breasts.
But a range of factors are working against the poultry industry, from stiffer competition with pork and beef producers to backups at the ports where quartered chickens begin their journey to eager consumers in China and Russia.
Pig and cow slaughterhouses are going gangbusters as farmers decide it's too costly to feed their animals with corn that costs nearly $6 a bushel. The resulting glut of protein on the market hog-ties chicken processors' ability to raise prices.
According to an April report from the Department of Agriculture, federal inspectors have seen a 5.9 percent increase in the slaughter of adult female hogs through the first quarter. The amount of pork in cold storage has jumped 25 percent in the last year. Beef slaughter is also at elevated levels.
"Cattle people are losing $100 a head right now," Richard Lobb, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council, said. "They have every incentive in the world to get those animals off of feed and into the market."
Adding to Pilgrim's Pride's woes, the company said it can't find enough containers to carry its chicken legs on cargo ships headed to export markets. Fewer suitable containers are landing on U.S. shores because the weaker dollar is crimping U.S. imports, Bob Wright, the company's chief operating officer, said in a conference call with analysts.
Containers that do arrive here are being diverted to the southern hemisphere to accommodate the suddenly very lucrative trade in rice, wheat, and other grains.
"There is plenty of demand for U.S. chicken in foreign markets," said Rivers. "There simply are not enough containers to move the product in a timely fashion."
Then there's the matter of efficiency, a slaughterhouse version of Moore's Law that could lead to overproduction. Technology that improves the efficiency of inspecting chickens for contamination is helping the industry move toward a standard processing speed of 140 chickens in 60 seconds—birds per minute, in industry parlance—up from the current standard of 71 to 91 b.p.m.
The chicken industry can hope for a reprieve as the weather warms up and the "summer grilling season" begins. Pilgrim's said it expects to see higher prices after Mother's Day, but others aren't sure the industry's woes will end anytime soon.
"We haven't seen the worst of this yet," said the Chicken Council's Lobb. "The chickens are still eating their way through corn that was five bucks or four-fifty."
easyJet said today that soaring fuel costs would cause some of its smaller rivals to collapse, as oil hit a record high of $122 a barrel. Source: Telegraph Business | 7 May 2008 | 8:20 am
UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank, said the US Department of Justice is investigating whether the firm helped clients evade US taxes. Source: Telegraph Business | 7 May 2008 | 8:05 am
According to Reuters, Cisco (CSCO) has a good quarter but was cautious about the future. Reuters reports that Sprint (S) and Clearwire (CLWR) will announced a $12 billion project for national broadband service. Reuters writes that Paulson thinks the markets are emerging from their crunch. Reuters reports that the Fed will seek to pay interest on bank reserves. Reuters writes that one of the Fed's members said inflation is having a corrosive impact on the economy. The Wall Street Journal reports that the West is concerned about Russia's new sovereign wealth fund and where it may try to invest. The...
Sales of multi-million pound London homes have fallen by 40 per cent over the
past three months and the drought in housing activity looks set to continue
as Nationwide reported today consumer confidence at a four year low. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 7 May 2008 | 7:41 am
Sterling fell this morning in London on speculation the Bank of England is now on the verge of its first back-to-back interest rate cut in almost seven years after a blizzard of miserable economic data. Source: Telegraph Business | 7 May 2008 | 7:30 am
When word got out that NBC plans to charge $3 million for each 30-second ad slot it sells for next year's Super Bowl, Fox executives, who sold most of their slots this year for about $2.7 million each, were no doubt gnashing their teeth.
Indeed, much of the media coverage surrounding the announcement, first reported in the Wall Street Journal, questioned whether NBC's price hike—at 10 percent, roughly double the typical annual increase—was realistic. For context, when CBS aired the Super Bowl in 2006, it charged about $2.6 million per 30-second slot.
As the U.S. enters a recession and advertisers are increasingly hesitant to spend large sums on traditional print and television outlets, NBC, which has been beleaguered by viewers fleeing to cable, delayed-viewing, and online forums, seemed overly optimistic with the price hike.
And with the decline of traditional advertising, the idea that major television events can still guarantee blockbuster audiences to advertisers and huge paydays to networks has itself come under threat.
The Academy Awards show, which commands the second-highest ad prices in TV (and is affectionately known among advertisers as the "Super Bowl for women"), was buffeted by the writers' strike this year and brought in a paltry 32 million viewers, the fewest in its history.
ABC, which broadcast the show this year, sold almost all the ads in advance, charging $1.8 million for 30-second spots. But the poor performance is expected to hurt ad sales for next year's Academy Awards.
Other awards shows—the Grammys, Emmys, and Golden Globes—suffered their worst ratings in years this year. For the Emmys, the numbers were the poorest since 1990.
Still, there is reason to believe that the Super Bowl can buck these ominous trends. For one thing, the game is "TiVo-proof," as one industry expert put it, because sports fans prefer to watch the action live.
Fans of awards shows, by contrast, can check online to see who won, to read what actors said, and to critique what celebrities wore. Fans can even check TiVo for next-day replays of the acceptance speeches that interest them the most.
And, of course, there's no incentive to skip the Super Bowl commercials, which have become as much a reason to tune in as is the game itself, if you want to be up to date for watercooler chat the next day.
As a result, this year's Super Bowl, broadcast live from Glendale, Arizona, was the most-watched ever, with 97.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. (Fox claimed a total of 130 million people tuned in by the end of the game.)
In fact, the game was the second-most-watched show in the entire history of television, ranking second only after the final episode of the situation comedy M*A*S*H, which garnered 106 million viewers in 1983.
With momentum like that, NBC, which hasn't hosted the Super Bowl in years, probably feels justified in hiking ad prices, says Brad Adgate, senior vice president and director of research at Horizon Media, a media-services company.
The Super Bowl is the "highest-rated show across every demographic, including kids and teens," a very desirable demographic for advertisers, said Adgate. "It's a juggernaut, and it wouldn't surprise me if they get that pricing, whether or not it's a recession. Where else can advertisers get 90-plus million viewers all at the same time?"
In addition, says Adgate, the National Football League is a canny marketing machine when it comes to the Super Bowl. The game airs in the month of February, when it's cold and dark outside, and generally starts at 6 p.m., so it ends at a reasonable hour for East Coast viewers, unlike the Oscars.
"The N.F.L. took a championship football game and created an event around it," says Adgate.
EasyJet, the low-cost airline, revealed the full extent of soaring fuel costs
today when it reported that its first half pre-tax losses had trebled to £57
million, compared with £17.1 million in the previous year. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 7 May 2008 | 7:10 am
The Dow gains 51.29 points despite continuing high oil prices and some disappointing earnings reports.
Wall Street reversed early losses to close higher Tuesday as investors monitored the movements of record high oil prices but still laid bets that the economy and companies were in recovery mode.
He and his brother-in-law each opened ice cream stores in the Los Angeles area after WWII, then combined them by 1948 to form what would become an empire.
Irvine Robbins, co-founder of Baskin-Robbins whose penchant for creating unusual ice cream flavors helped push post-World War II America far beyond its chocolate-vanilla-strawberry tastes, has died. He was 90.
The CEO could be the target of a proxy campaign after takeover talks with Microsoft fizzle.
Yahoo Inc. shareholders are so mad about the company's failure to cut a deal with Microsoft Corp. that several said they would consider a proxy fight to oust Chief Executive Jerry Yang and Yahoo's board of directors if that would bring the Seattle suitor back to the table.
Billions from partners would help create the fastest nationwide network for laptops, smart phones and other devices.
Sprint Nextel Corp. plans to combine its costly wireless broadband effort with a smaller company founded by cellphone pioneer Craig McCaw in a $12-billion venture funded by Internet search powerhouse Google Inc., cable television companies and others.
Hollywood studios hope to make a quick deal with AFTRA, the smaller actors union, putting pressure on SAG before its pact expires June 30.
Hopes for a last-minute breakthrough in negotiations between Hollywood studios and the Screen Actors Guild were dashed Tuesday when contract talks ended on a bitter note, fueling anxiety over the prospect of another strike.
CEO says the funding from Grupo Televisa and others will be used to help the company expand in the U.S. and abroad.
Los Angeles advertising firm Spot Runner Inc. said Tuesday that it had received $51 million in financing from Grupo Televisa and a slew of other international media companies, evidence that even global advertisers are interested in local ads.
Martin Liechti, a senior banker at UBS, has been detained by US authorities
investigating whether the Swiss banking giant helped its American clients to
avoid taxes. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 7 May 2008 | 6:56 am
Study suggests that manufacturers have limited resources to offset rising fees.
U.S. manufacturers who provide health insurance spend an average of $2.38 per worker per hour on healthcare -- more than twice as much as their foreign competitors, an analysis released Tuesday found.
The New Zealand dollar was perched somewhat shakily below US79c at the close of local trading today after a Reserve Bank report was published stressing risks to the economy and currency.
The kiwi had been trading at US79.25c just... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 7 May 2008 | 5:41 am
April was the biggest month yet for KiwiSaver, says the Government, with 78,000 people joining up with the scheme.
Total enrolments in the Government-endorsed retirement savings plan have now passed 600,000 in ten months since... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 7 May 2008 | 5:30 am
The number of people defaulting on their bills has risen 11 per cent, says New Zealand's largest credit information company.
This jump has been seen over the first three months of the year, says Veda Advantage. It says rising... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 7 May 2008 | 4:04 am
It’s happening again: A new technology and breakthrough discoveries are equipping entrepreneurs with the tools to rattle the status quo.
It occurred 10 years ago when the internet introduced radical new ways to communicate, be subversive, and sell things. Now it’s the turn of gene-techs—the fledgling industry that’s attempting to mine the DNA inside us.
Their goal: To help us determine who we are, and maybe to provide clues to everything from our ability to taste bitter foods to our proclivity for depression and our chances of having a heart attack.
I'm Doomed. Or Not. Part 2: Commercial genetic tests tell me I have high, medium, andlow risk of heart attack. What gives?
Recreational DNA and Genetic Voyeurism Part 3: Are there really genes for sprinting and bitter taste? A comparison of genetic traits from new online DNA testing sites.
In just the past year, dozens of genetic markers associated with traits have been coming out of labs at a furious pace as genetic knowledge, technology and computing power has hit a critical mass one decade after the race to sequence the human genome was raging.
The question is: As new, direct-to-consumer genetic testing sites begin delivering this fresh and sometimes incomplete DNA news to customers online, how will Big Medicine and government regulators react? And how will they shape what DNA testing sites look like?
Consumer reaction is crucial, too. But with testing companies charging $1,000 to $2,500 for information of questionable validity and usefulness, I suspect that most people who aren't both well-heeled and DNA-curious will wait until prices drop and physicians and regulators catch up.
“The recent explosion of genetic testing has blown the door off the old model of researchers testing one gene at a time and then taking it to the clinic,” says W. Gregory Feero, senior adviser to the director of genomic medicine at the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
“We now have to move much faster to make this information relevant and useful,” he continues, adding that more effective oversight is required because the results of genetic tests are being interpreted "all over the map.”
Feero was the lead author of a commentary in March issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association about the current state of genetic testing. The article's evocative title: “The Genome Gets Personal—Almost.”
The catch up has begun. In just the past month, the effect of these new sites has been felt in two arenas that have been caught off-guard by the advent of commercial genetic tests for healthy individuals: Big Medicine (researchers and healthcare providers) and the government.
The new wave of online sites has been led by 23andMe in California and DeCode in Iceland; both opened for business late last year. For $1,000, either will take your spit in a mail-in container, isolate your DNA, and through a secure website will tell you about attributes ranging from restless-leg syndrome to lactose intolerance. A third major company, Navigenics, began offering its more medically oriented service for $2,500 last month.
Days after Navigenics opened for business, Congress overwhelmingly passed the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act, legislation that protects Americans from having insurers and employers use their genetic information against them. The legislation had languished for more than a decade.
My sources on Capitol Hill say that the arrival of direct-to-consumer testing was one of the deciding factors in pushing forward the vote. (President Bush is expected to sign the legislation in the next few days.)
Regulators are also stirring. Last week, an advisory committee at the Department of Health and Human Services called for tighter regulation of consumer genetic tests, warning that they were often marketed with little scientific evidence of their usefulness to individuals.
The panel called for the Food and Drug Administration to require tough evaluation standards to prove the usefulness and validity of these tests, and for a mandatory registry of all laboratory tests.
"There are plenty of tests out on the market now that have essentially had no scrutiny of any type," Marc Williams, a member of the panel and the director of the Clinical Genetics Institute at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City, told the Wall Street Journal.
Previous attempts by the F.D.A. and others to require more oversight have stalled. It's unlikely that much will be done in the waning days of the Bush administration, though Congress is considering two bills—one co-sponsored by Senator Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat running for president, and the other by Senator Edward Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts.
In recent weeks, New York State health officials have written to at least six online genetic testing companies, warning them that it is illegal in their state to offer DNA tests without a physician’s approval. Violations could lead to fines and jail time.
No one has been charged with any violation. California officials are also investigating consumer complaints about online testing companies violating a similar law there.
“We welcome regulation,” said [WHO?] the co-founder of a major online genetic company. “There need to be medical standards and a system for validating this information.”
But it should avoid being too restrictive, said the co-founder, or new technologies and methods in delivering and analyzing genetic information may be squashed. “We need to be medically responsible with this information,” [HE/SHE] said.
Feero agrees. “We have relatively little oversight for this information, which you’re seeing for yourself with your heart attack results,” he says.
(He is referring to my conflicting results for heart attack risk from the three websites. One rated me as high risk, one as low risk, and the other as medium risk. “You should not be getting contradictory results like that,” says Feero.
Universities and medical groups are also taking steps to move into the new age of genomics, with initiatives to improve education for doctors and a flurry of articles and letters in medical and research journals.
Several major medical centers are developing their own tests vetted by scientists and physicians.
Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, for instance, is developing a custom gene-testing array focused on about 10,000 genetic markers associated with diseases. This is different from “off the shelf” arrays used by retail testing services; they do not cover many genetic markers associated with disease.
In New Jersey, meanwhile, the nonprofit Coriell Institute for Medical Research is developing a service that will test for a slate of validated genetic markers, and provide free—yes, free—information and analysis for common diseases. The institute plans to sign up 10,000 people in the next two years, and eventually enlist 100,000 people.
My sense is that there will continue to be a mini-version of the dot-com shake out that happened a few years back. Much needs to be done—including more research on the interaction of the environment with genes.
But make no mistake: the long anticipated age of personalized genomics has arrived—perhaps in fits and starts, but it’s here. And it will change not only the practice of medicine and how we take care of ourselves, but also may change how we view our health and who we are.
The majority of property investors expect house prices to fall or grow very slightly over the next year, and so are pinning their hopes on higher rents, the ANZ bank says.
ANZ's annual survey of residential property investors showed... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 7 May 2008 | 3:00 am
Alarm bells ringing at bellwether stock Briscoe Group may be a general warning for the economy.
Briscoe managing director Rob Duke today said other companies would be similarly hit after his retail chain reported a 10 per cent... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 7 May 2008 | 2:30 am
Hanover Finance chairman Greg Muir has questioned a report saying that the company is concerned about delays at a large Queensland resort which it is funding.
"I have no idea what they're on about," Muir said today of a report... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 7 May 2008 | 2:00 am
In spite of the slowing US economy, better-than-expected performance at its parks division and box-office movies have lifted the group's net income by more than 22% Source: FT.com - US homepage | 7 May 2008 | 1:58 am
The number of permanent jobs being advertised in Britain has fallen for the second time in three months.
Vacancies for permanent staff languished at their lowest levels since mid-2003, a survey today showed.
The Recruitment... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 7 May 2008 | 1:30 am
The boss of Wellington retailer Kirkcaldie and Stains says it has had a good first half, but warns that even his store faces strong headwinds.
The listed department store posted a 12.8 per cent increase in first half net profit... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 7 May 2008 | 1:00 am
The Government will provide $4 million towards a new building for a Waikato business park.
Economic Development Minister Pete Hodgson today said the Government had agreed in principle to provide $2 million towards the $8 million... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 7 May 2008 | 12:25 am
Fannie Mae shares staged a rebound after the US mortgage financier received permission from its regulator to expand its activities amid the global credit squeeze Source: FT.com - US homepage | 7 May 2008 | 12:17 am
The Bank of England is now on the verge of its first back-to-back interest rate cut in almost seven years, experts have claimed after a blizzard of miserable economic data. Source: Telegraph Business | 7 May 2008 | 12:01 am
BAE Systems is to appoint a senior executive to oversee the implementation of a new code of conduct at the defence company after its chairman, Dick Olver, and chief executive, Mike Turner, accepted that it had not paid sufficient attention to ethical standards. Source: Telegraph Business | 7 May 2008 | 12:01 am
UBS, the troubled Swiss bank that has written off $37bn (£18.5bn) amid the credit crisis, is cutting 5,500 jobs and selling $22bn of sub-prime mortgage assets cut-price to see it through the current market turmoil. Source: Telegraph Business | 7 May 2008 | 12:01 am
The British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) is to send a senior delegation to the Gulf state of Qatar this month to ask Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to sign up to Sir David Walker's code on private equity transparency. Source: Telegraph Business | 7 May 2008 | 12:01 am
The Reserve Bank is adopting measures to ensure there is sufficient liquidity in the banking system in case there is further turbulence on international markets.
It is considering a need for banks to diversify their funding sources... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 7 May 2008 | 12:00 am
Global turmoil and a western backlash over sovereign wealth funds have pushed Dubai International Capital, the $13bn, fund into focusing on emerging markets Source: FT.com - US homepage | 6 May 2008 | 11:03 pm
One of the most senior private bankers at UBS, the world's leading wealth manager, has been detained by authorities in the US investigating whether the Swiss bank helped its American clients evade tax Source: FT.com - US homepage | 6 May 2008 | 11:03 pm
Aberdeen Asset Management is considering abandoning the UK as its headquarters
for tax purposes as speculation mounts that a wave of British fund managers
could head for the exit in frustration at Treasury tax changes. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 6 May 2008 | 11:00 pm
It looks the most toxic of chalices. The chairmanship of the Financial
Services Authority (FSA) is not a job for the faint-hearted. The present
incumbent, Sir Callum McCarthy, was in front of Treasury
Select Committee again yesterday for what has become a regular beating
up. Even in quiet times, the FSA was often under fire from MPs; Northern
Rock has given fresh impetus to their whacking arms. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 6 May 2008 | 11:00 pm
Chinese regulators accused US drug company Baxter of failing to co-operate in an investigation over deaths linked to impurities in blood thinner heparin Source: FT.com - US homepage | 6 May 2008 | 10:13 pm
In a major deal that could launch the next generation of wireless broadband, Sprint Nextel and Clearwire are close to announcing a $12 billion joint venture to build a nationwide WiMax network offering super-fast wireless service for cellphones and laptops.
The partnership, which includes $3.2 billion in financing from Comcast, Intel, Google, and Time Warner Cable, could be announced as early as Wednesday, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the pact. Under the terms of the deal, Sprint will merge its broadband business with Clearwire, the Kirkland, Washington broadband company founded by cell phone pioneer Craig McCaw.
With such powerful backers, the deal suggests that WiMax--long touted as the successor to WiFi--could be finally by poised for widespread adoption throughout the United States.
"This is a big deal because it significantly increases the likelihood of widespread deployment of WiMax," said Rob Enderle, president of Silicon Valley-based tech advisory firm Enderle Group.
The joint venture marks the culmination of months of complex on-again, off-again negotiations between the parties, and provides a much needed lift to the WiMax standard, a still unproven technology that backers say offers speeds five time faster than traditional wireless networks.
The deal is a major boost for Sprint Nextel, which lost 1 million phone subscribers last year and has been outperformed in the mobile space by competitors Verizon and AT&T, which are pursuing their own next-generation wireless standard, known as Long Term Evolution, or LTE.
"Without this deal, it was unclear whether Sprint would be too distracted to make WiMax happen, and whether it could independently raise the billions needed," said Glenn Fleishman, editor of WiMax Networking News. The new joint venture has "a real chance to push out something that's as fast as today's typically higher-end cable and DSL."
"While metro areas will get the focus, there are tens of millions of people in rural areas and exurbs that could be served by a very cheap WiMax rollout by Sprint and Clearwire, who currently have dial-up or satellite," Fleishman added. "This is a huge amount of money that's left on the table by incumbent wireline providers."
By providing financing, the two cable companies and Google are positioning themselves to be key players in the roll-out of the network. Intel has long supported the WiMax standard. The new company, which will keep the Clearwire name, will receive $1.05 billion in financing from Comcast, $1 billion from Intel, $550 million from Time Warner Cable, and $500 million from Google.
"For the cable companies, thise could solve the 'last-mile' problem because it's much easier to beam the signal into homes than to have to install new cable," Enderle said. As for Google, "the company doesn't care who owns the network, just as long as they can send their content over it."
The market for houseboats seems to be floating right along. And it just so happens that one of the most famous houseboats in the world is up for sale in Seattle. Chana Joffe-Walt takes us on a tour. Source: Marketplace | 6 May 2008 | 9:26 pm
The wedding between Microsoft and Yahoo might be off, but commentator and venture capitalist Paul Kedrosky says CEOs Steve Ballmer and Jerry Yang could still use some counseling and support. Source: Marketplace | 6 May 2008 | 9:26 pm
Since speed cameras were introduced in France five years ago, they've been smashed, sawed-off, daubed with paint or sprayed with hunting-rifle shot. Now, a clandestine group has even turned to blowing them up. John Laurenson reports. Source: Marketplace | 6 May 2008 | 9:26 pm
Russian President Vladimir Putin is handing over the reigns of power to Dmitry Medvedev, a 42-year-old corporate lawyer and former head of Gazprom. Russia expert Martha Brill Olcott talks with host Bob Moon about what the change will mean for the country. Source: Marketplace | 6 May 2008 | 9:26 pm
In addition to the human cost of the cyclone that has ravaged Myanmar, damage from the storm will continue sending ripples through rice markets across the world for some time to come. Steve Henn reports. Source: Marketplace | 6 May 2008 | 9:26 pm
Chrysler has announced that customers who buy or lease one of its selected new cars in the next few weeks can lock in lower gas prices for three years. What is it thinking? Amy Scott reports. Source: Marketplace | 6 May 2008 | 9:26 pm
Fannie Mae, the biggest mortgage underwriter in America, reported a loss of more than $2 billion last quarter. Investors are now bracing for more bad news when its federally-sponsored cousin Freddie Mac reports results later this week. Alisa Roth has the story. Source: Marketplace | 6 May 2008 | 9:21 pm
Vodafone will be celebrating today. It will down some Champagne, move on to shots of whisky or perhaps tequila (even though it knows slamming tequila will give it a splitting headache tomorrow) and finish with a drunken punch-up.
After this, the telco will stumble over to Apple. It will throw one of its arms around the now repulsed Cupertino company, who has been sipping nothing more than mango smoothies all night, and start pumping its hand enthusiastically. Vodafone will then slur loudly into Apple's ear "You're my best mate, you are" and then fall down onto the scratchy conference room carpet, slipping off into a sloshed slumber.
The reason for this celebration? Vodafone has signed a deal with Apple to provide the iPhone in ten more countries. If your name is on this list, you too can come to the party:
The price of digital music could be in flux. Warner Music Group plans to run a test starting this month that will alter the price of certain songs on a number of unspecified online music stores to reflect demand.
Like an artificially intelligent version of Amie Street, Warner's partner on the project Digonex "gathers sales data in real-time, analyzes purchasing behavior, and sets new prices that hit the 'sweet spot' where consumer demand and market potential meet." Nettwerk Records experimented with the same system last year, charging 33, 66, or 99 cents for singles, and between $3.30 and $10 for albums.
For the past five years, the labels have been playing the game Steve Jobs' way, offering their songs digitally for 99 cents or so across a wide variety of online music stores. Jobs prefers the simplicity of the 99 cent pricing structure, but some labels would rather price songs on a sliding scale depending on popularity and other factors.
In some cases, the system will charge more for recently-released popular recordings, as indicated by the company's chart (above). However, according to Billboard, popular stuff could sometimes end up costing less: "In some cases, the company recommends lowering the price on a hot-selling album in order to spike even more sales and increase overall volume."
Yahoo investors may be upset about losing out on the 20 to 40 percent premium they would’ve gotten from Microsoft, but would the deal really have saved Yahoo?
Microsoft's and Yahoo's motivations were simple: Join forces to aggregate enough traffic to compete with Google for Web advertising dollars. The result probably would have been a marriage of also-rans destined, like so many others, not to leapfrog the leader.
The problem is that such a deal didn't play to Yahoo's remaining strengths. It is, at this point, a powerful news brand, a sports brand, a weather brand (if such a thing exists), and a personal-finance brand.
It is slumping in just about every other category: email, instant messaging, e-commerce, community. (Guess who also sucks in all those areas? That's right, Microsoft, though its stake in Facebook should help.)
Now that Microsoft has taken its offer off the table, Yahoo's supposed options have been well trod by reporters and tech bloggers. But are they worthwhile?
Joining with AOL shouldn't even be considered as a real option. How has anyone ever benefited from joining with AOL?
The oft-mentioned deal to hand over the paid search business to Google, which is far better at monetizing those results, in exchange for a revenue bump would start the gradual transformation of Yahoo executives into very wealthy, totally irrelevant philanthropists.
All these options overlook a more tantalizing possibility: Craigslist.
The company has taken over the classified-ad business and is on pace to earn nearly $200 million in 2008—all with fewer than 30 employees! Since eBay bought its 25 percent stake in Craigslist, in 2004, that has been considered the most likely pairing.
Yet the online auctioneer, in April of this year, sued Craigslist for "unfairly diluting eBay's economic interest." If Craigslist and eBay are no longer an inevitability, then why not Craigslist and Yahoo?
The two firms have natural synergies. Yahoo's news, weather and finance fit nicely with Craigslist's classifieds offering a myriad of goods and services. And think of the synergies between classified and paid search, which would allow a far more efficient monetization of Craigslist's 30 million monthly classified ads. (Craigslist currently charges only for real-estate and help-wanted ads in select cities.)
Craigslist is at the beginning of a massive international expansion, something Yahoo’s strong Japanese and Chinese operations could certainly accelerate. From Craigslist’s perspective, the logical non-eBay partner might be—who else? Google.
Desperation could force Yahoo to pay more of a premium or even consider a merger instead of a purchase. If Microsoft valued Yahoo at $46.2 billion, then Yahoo, using a roughly similar metric of valuing unique visitors, would have to pay about $12 billion for Craigslist—probably more than the closely held classified giant could raise going public.
Does Yahoo have that kind of cash? Nope. And issuing equity would dilute, not to mention enrage, some shareholders. Making the deal a merger rather than an acquisition would leave Yahoo's balance sheet torn but not totally frayed, give Craigslist a larger stake in a vaster enterprise than it would have by going public, and make Craigslist’s few-dozen employees unimaginably wealthy.
The new Yahoolist would have a growth driver—Craigslist's revenues are rising at several hundred percent a year—and the aggregated scale, and cachet, to battle Google.
Of course, Yahoo is too busy thinking of selling to turn around and consider buying, but zigging when everyone is zagging was once what Yahoo did, back when it earned that exclamation point at the end of its name.
Miller, the Legg Mason fund manager who was among the highest regarded stock pickers until 2006, the first year in a decade and a half that he failed to outperform the S&P 500 Index, is still trying (and failing) to claw his way back to positive territory two years later.
But he's still a long way off. His Legg Mason Value Trust fund lost 20 percent during the first quarter and, although it has reversed some of those losses since the end of March, it still trails the index and its peers by more than 10 percent, according to Morningstar.
And this morning Legg Mason only added to the bloodshed with its fourth-quarter results. It posted its first loss ever as a public company during the March quarter, missing analysts' expectations by nearly a dollar per share.
Investors are fleeing the firm's funds. Customers withdrew $17 billion from Legg Mason equity funds during the March quarter, 60 percent more than the outflows during the December quarter.
But despite the dismal returns, Legg Mason's star manager still manages to create headlines as if investors should listen to him. Miller has been among the most outspoken Yahoo investors during Microsoft's three-month attempt to acquire it.
But his comments are beginning to smack of desperation. And it's not clear that increasing Miller's public relations is the right strategy to improve his investor relations.
In February, Miller said he supported a sale to Microsoft, albeit at a higher price than the $31 per share it offered. And on Sunday, a day after a $33-per-share deal died and Microsoft walked away, a frustrated Miller told the New York Times that he would have considered a $34- or $35-per-share bid. He also implied that Yahoo would be making a big mistake if it didn't initiate a significant share-buyback plan, even though it's far from proven that such a move would benefit existing shareholders like Miller.
Other Yahoo investors, and clients of Legg Mason Capital Management by extension, were obviously not pleased to see Yahoo's shares plummet yesterday. At times it seemed almost like the more the shares fell, the more Miller kept running his mouth to the media.
"I'm more puzzled by Microsoft's not going up to $37 than Yahoo's wanting to walk away,'' he told Bloomberg, adding that he expects Microsoft to come back. "Microsoft needs Yahoo much more than Yahoo needs Microsoft.''
Translation: "Please, please come back, Microsoft."
Miller has reason to plead, although, by all accounts, Microsoft isn't listening. And judging by Legg Mason's outflows, Miller's investors aren't listening to him either. They're still feeling the sting from Miller's wrong calls on Bear Stearns, oil stocks, and Countrywide Financial. The publicity Miller is creating over the failed Yahoo deal can't help ease their jitters.
The Wall Street Journal's Evan Newmark speculated recently about whether Legg Mason will have to cut Miller loose in light of recent events. But, for now, the firm is still standing squarely behind its man.
"Bill Miller is a very smart investor who has been blessed with extended periods of extraordinary performance and has endured extended periods, such as now, where he underperforms," according to statement from a Legg Mason spokesperson. "He is a classic intrinsic long-term value investor whose strategy has consistently worked best at times of market dislocations, where investment returns in some of the more depressed parts of the market offer the best opportunities over a long-term horizon."
Miller may indeed return to his glory days at some point during his long-term horizon, but until then, he might be best advised to stay out of the spotlight and focus instead on picking better stocks. Quietly.
AFP - Swiss banking giant UBS said on Tuesday it could cut up to 5,500 more jobs within the next year as it struggles to recover after wracking up huge losses in the US subprime home loan crisis.
Reuters - Stocks opened little changed on
Wednesday as optimism about data on productivity and labor
costs and about higher-than-expected earnings from Walt Disney
Co and Cisco Systems Inc was offset by a dip
in oil prices that weighed on energy shares.
Reuters - Sprint Nextel Corp and Clearwire
Corp are planning a $14.5 billion venture to build a
wireless high-speed Internet network based on the emerging
WiMax technology.
Reuters - A senior UBS employee was
briefly detained by U.S. authorities in April as part of an
investigation into the bank's cross-border business, UBS said
on Wednesday.
AFP - Swiss banking giant UBS said on Tuesday it could cut up to 5,500 more jobs within the next year as it struggles to recover after wracking up huge losses in the US subprime home loan crisis.