China's long export boom slowed last month as the weakness of the American economy continued to affect its biggest supplier of consumer goods. Source: Telegraph Business | 9 May 2008 | 3:10 pm
HBOS chairman Dennis Stevenson has jumped to the defence of chief executive Andy Hornby in the wake of the bank’s move to carry out a £4bn rights issue Source: Telegraph Business | 9 May 2008 | 3:00 pm
Citi chief executive officer Vikram Pandit plans to "wind down" about $400bn of assets over the next three years as part of his plan to return the biggest US bank to profitability. Source: Telegraph Business | 9 May 2008 | 2:40 pm
When Microsoft walked away from its blockbuster bid for Yahoo, the media sought desperately to keep the news coming even when there wasn't much left to say. That seems to be how The Wall Street Journal came up with the notion that Microsoft had approached Facebook about an acquisition. It's not true.
The nation's trade gap narrowed in March, as a weakened U.S. economy led to the sharpest decline in Americans' demand for foreign imports in more than six years, according to a government report released Friday.
US stocks were lower as steep losses at insurer American International Group fuelled credit concerns and the soaring price of oil raised inflation worries Source: FT.com - US homepage | 9 May 2008 | 2:17 pm
Radio behemoth Clear Channel Communications Inc. says its first-quarter profit jumped 70% on a gain related to the sale of a South African outdoor advertising firm, but radio revenue remains on a downward spiral.
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices leapt to a new peak of more than $126 a barrel on Friday, hitting a record for the fifth straight session, in a market given an additional spur by tight supplies of diesel.
BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- A pair of exchange-traded notes giving investors both long and short exposure to the movement of platinum prices could launch on the New York Stock Exchange as early as Friday, giving individuals a way to invest in the precious metal which has seen its prices rocket higher.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Clear Channel Communications Inc posted a weaker-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday and the U.S. radio station operator said it was unclear whether a proposed buyout would be completed.
Reuters - Citigroup Inc, the largest U.S.
bank, said on Friday it aims to shed $400 billion of assets --
nearly 20 percent of its total -- over the next two to three
years to become more efficient and profitable.
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc, the largest U.S. bank, said on Friday it aims to shed $400 billion of assets -- nearly 20 percent of its total -- over the next two to three years to become more efficient and profitable.
Citigroup unveils plans to reduce about $500 billion of non-core, “legacy” assets over the next several years in a bid to shore up its capital base and rid itself of riskier investments.
AP - Consumer electronics retailer Circuit City Stores said Friday that it will allow Blockbuster to review its books in connection with the video-rental chain's bid to buy the company.
Retail shares fall after oil prices again probed new highs. Circuit City Stores Inc. shares jump after it said it would allow Blockbuster Inc. and the video rental chain’s largest shareholder Carl Icahn to look at its books.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks tumble as the financial sector spouted more leaks as American International Group Inc. reported a $7.8 billion loss and Citigroup Inc. unveiled plans to shed about half a trillion dollars in assets.
US bank giant Citigroup aims to sell $400bn of assets over the next three years to bolster its financial position. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 9 May 2008 | 1:51 pm
Citigroup confirmed that at least $400bn in non-core assets could be sold as part of plans to reduce costs and restore profit growth to double-digit rates Source: FT.com - US homepage | 9 May 2008 | 1:51 pm
Reuters - Stocks dropped at the open on Friday,
with the Dow briefly falling more than 1 percent early, after
American International Group's record loss hurt
financial shares and renewed fears of bad news from the credit
crisis.
Blinkx, the video search website spun off from Cambridge-based software group Autonomy, saw its shares soar more than 50pc today on rumours of a possible News Corp takeover. Source: Telegraph Business | 9 May 2008 | 1:50 pm
The US trade deficit narrowed by 5.7 per cent to $58.2bn in March, as weak demand for imported goods due to the economic downturn offset a shrinking of US export volume that was ascribed to a fall in aircraft shipments Source: FT.com - US homepage | 9 May 2008 | 1:49 pm
Crude surged to a new record high as concerns about supplies to the US mounted after Opec blamed a weak dollar for the recent spike in prices rather than a lack of production Source: FT.com - US homepage | 9 May 2008 | 1:46 pm
In June 2006, Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC) bought both Western Gas Resources and Kerr-McGee for a total of more than $23 billion. Last night, Anadarko announced that it had priced an IPO of 18.75 million shares for Western Gas Partners, LP (NYSE: WES) at $16.50 per common unit. APC also granted underwriters an overallotment of 2.82 million shares. Book-runners include UBS, Citi, Credit Suisse, and Morgan Stanley, with a host of other institutions getting into the act as well. Here were details from our coverage of the filing. The new company's assets are a natural gas treatment plant in Texas, and...
British Energy’s ageing nuclear reactors have a reputation for breaking down
at inopportune moments so it seemed fitting that an auction for the company
entered its final stages today amid a haze of uncertainty. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 9 May 2008 | 1:42 pm
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Circuit City Stores Inc said on Friday that it will allow Blockbuster Inc and the movie-rental company's largest shareholder, Carl Icahn, to conduct due diligence in connection with Blockbuster's proposed acquisition of Circuit City.
Reuters - U.S. crude futures jumped more than $2
to a record high above $126 on Friday, fueled by fund buying
and surging distillate prices on both sides of the Atlantic,
according to traders.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures jumped more than $2 to a record high above $126 on Friday, fueled by fund buying and surging distillate prices on both sides of the Atlantic, according to traders.
GLG Partners, the London hedge fund, has imposed a set of exit charges of as
much as 5 per cent on any investor who wants to pull their assets out of
Greg Coffey's £6.3 billion emerging markets portfolios before its star
manager formally quits at the end of October. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 9 May 2008 | 1:35 pm
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Aercap Holdings on Friday said its first-quarter profit declined 16% due to one-time charges while lease rents increased 7% on the growth of its aircraft leasing portfolio.
Reuters - Circuit City Stores Inc said on
Friday that it will allow Blockbuster Inc and the
movie-rental company's largest shareholder, Carl Icahn, to
conduct due diligence in connection with Blockbuster's proposed
acquisition of Circuit City.
AP - The U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply in March as demand for imports fell by the largest amount since the last recession was ending. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 9 May 2008 | 1:24 pm
NEW YORK (Reuters) - American International Group sees weak market conditions in the U.S. residential market affecting its operating results at two mortgage units into 2009, its chief executive said on Friday.
Allianz hopes to complete a legal carve-out of part of its Dresdner Bank subsidiary by the end of August, the insurance group said on Friday after further writedowns at Dresdner increased the pressure... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 1:24 pm
The US trade deficit shrinks by more than expected as the weak dollar leads to a surge in exports, figures show. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 9 May 2008 | 1:19 pm
Diageo, the world's largest producer of alcoholic drinks, today admitted it
will sell half of Guinness' historic home in Dublin and cut 250 jobs as part
of a £520 million investment plan. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 9 May 2008 | 1:15 pm
Alliance and Leicester joins other lenders in charging new customers with smaller deposits higher rates. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 9 May 2008 | 1:11 pm
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The trade deficit narrowed more than expected in March on a record plunge in the value of imports, even as average oil prices surged to a new record, a Commerce Department report on Friday showed.
Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) has finally capitulated. There are two separate announcements this morning, but in reality it is all part of the same issue. This will allow the company to deal with the activist pressure, and may ultimately lead to the company either being run by a better team or become a subsidiary of another company. The company just issued a release that it has reached an agreement with Wattles Capital Management. Circuit City will choose three board members proposed by Wattles, and now Wattles has agreed not to solicit proxies related to the 2008 annual meeting....
French utility EDF is set to make a takeover offer for the nuclear power firm British Energy, the BBC learns. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 9 May 2008 | 1:02 pm
If Stan Lee is the father of the modern comic book super-hero, then Avi Arad is the godfather of the modern super-hero movie - at least those that were adapted from Mr. Lee's creations for Marvel Comics.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures fell on Friday, with financial stocks poised to decline after American International Group , the world's largest insurer, reported a larger-than-expected record loss.
MUNICH/HAMBURG (Reuters) - Prosecutors investigating suspected bribery at German engineering group Siemens said on Friday they have found no evidence to warrant criminal charges against former Chief Executive Heinrich von Pierer.
Reuters - The trade deficit narrowed more than
expected in March on a record plunge in the value of imports,
even as average oil prices surged to a new record, a Commerce
Department report on Friday showed.
Last night we saw news out of the Financial Times reporting that Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) was on tap looking to unload some $400 Billion. The plan is set for today's analyst meeting, although no press release has come from the company regarding what assets this will be and just where that will go. While a billion dollars just isn't what it used to be, four-hundred of them is still a massive number no matter how you cut it. The FT also noted that CEO Vikram Pandit will aim to cut the company's $60 Billion cost basis by some 20%....
China's producer price index, a key inflation indicator, rose 8.1 percent in April, according to the official statistics agency, and a top economic official called Friday for tighter... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 12:35 pm
Citigroup says its is aiming for 9 percent revenue growth as it looks to rebound from recent struggles tied to deterioration in the mortgage and credit markets. Citigroup generated... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 12:33 pm
The U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply in March as demand for imports fell by the largest amount since the last recession was ending. The Commerce Department reported Friday that the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 12:32 pm
Futures prices for crude oil surged above $125 a barrel in early trading today, elevating the prospects for inflation and creating additional headaches for airlines and drivers this summer.
Oil's long steady ascent is largely a result of continued strong demand from China and other rapidly industrializing economies like India.
Supply has been hurt recently by disruptions to exports from Nigeria following rebel attacks on pipelines. Earlier this week, analysts at Goldman Sachs issued a forecast for oil prices to rise as high as $150 to $200 a barrel.
"We believe the current energy crisis may be coming to a head, as a lack of adequate supply growth is becoming apparent," a Goldman Sachs analyst, Arjun Murti, wrote in a note to clients.
Crude oil for June delivery rose as much as $2.29, or 1.9 percent, to $125.98 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg News reports. Oil prices have gained more than 7 percent this week.
Despite the run-up in prices, Abdalla El-Badri, OPEC's secretary general, indicated on Thursday that the cartel would not increase production. "There is clearly no shortage of oil in the market," he said.
Some have said the rise in oil is a speculative bubble, but the Goldman Sachs report took issue with that, saying "Unfortunately, we do not think the energy crisis will be solved by finding and punishing the big bad speculator."
Others have pointed to the rally as a play on the weak dollar (world oil is priced in dollars).
But the dollar has something of a comeback of late, and Barry Ritholtz of the Big Picture blog points out that "as the dollar has strengthened, precious metals have gone south. Yet Crude oil has continued upwards, implying that this is more than a mere currency story."
Ritholtz adds: "I got a lot of grief over an $86 forecast several years ago -- but $125 was pretty easily accepted. That implies a major change in psychology is taking place."
Diageo PLC said Friday it will close two Irish breweries, reduce operations at a third facility and cut its staff in the country by more than half as it consolidates Guinness brewing... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 12:29 pm
Blinkx, the video search website spun off from Cambridge-based software group Autonomy, saw its shares soar more than 50pc today on rumours of a possible News Corp takeover. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 12:25 pm
Blinkx, the video search website spun off from Cambridge-based software group Autonomy, saw its shares soar more than 50pc today on rumours of a possible News Corp takeover. Source: Telegraph Business | 9 May 2008 | 12:25 pm
US stocks were braced for a sharp sell-off at the opening bell on Friday as steep losses at insurer American International Group fuelled credit concerns and the soaring price of oil raised inflation worries... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 12:24 pm
Rice prices rise for a sixth straight day as supplies continue to be stretched after cyclone damage in Burma. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 9 May 2008 | 12:22 pm
Crude oil has hit yet another all-time high in Friday trading, as strong demand and supply fears continue. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 9 May 2008 | 12:20 pm
Citigroup has initiated coverage on several of the solar stocks in new coverage this morning. There may be other stocks attached to this full report, but these are the three we have seen so far early this Friday morning our of Citi. Evergreen Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: ESLR) started as Sell; shares are trading down 4% at $8.55 in pre-market trading. First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) started as Buy; shares trading up 2% at $282.00 pre-market. SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ: SPWR) started as Hold; shares indicated down almost 1% at $83.00 in pre-market trading. Jon C. Ogg May 9, 2008 Jon Ogg...
HMV urged shoppers to “get closer” to films, music and video games in its
pre-Christmas marketing campaign last year and that injunction appears to
have paid off. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 9 May 2008 | 12:14 pm
Shareholders of UK airport operator BAA have been forced to pump an emergency
£400 million into the airport operator as credit crunch turmoil dashed hopes
of re-financing £10 billion of debt by the summer. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 9 May 2008 | 12:09 pm
Is today the day when Vikram Pandit persuades the doubters that he can turn around Citigroup?
At a meeting with analysts and investors today, the chief executive is expected to show he is finally putting his stamp on the bank, announcing plans to sell some $400 billion of non-core assets.
Pandit, as Kit Roane reported last month, has won praise as he moved to stabilize the company and shore up its balance sheet since taking the reins in December. Citi has been hard hit by the subprime credit crisis, taking $45 billion in write-downs and credit losses.
But his cautious, analytical nature still has some questioning whether he has the vision and force of personality to compel change at the lumbering behemoth.
As David Enrich described in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday: "Executives who praise his cautious, deliberative approach express concern Mr. Pandit is taking too long to make decisions. He has earned high marks for quickly addressing the most pressing financial issues. Still, executives and investors alike complain that Mr. Pandit hasn't articulated his vision for the company. Some executives also say they are stuck in holding patterns awaiting instructions from his team on decisions that previously wouldn't have attracted such high-level attention."
Francesco Guerrera of the Financial Timessays Pandit is expect to say at today's meeting that about 20 percent of Citi's $2 trillion balance sheet consists of businesses outside its core banking operations.
But the sale of these assets is likely to take years, Guerrera says.
"Nevertheless, Mr. Pandit's decision to classify such a large portion of the balance sheet as non-core highlights his determination to root out underperforming businesses."
Pandit is also expected to spell out how the bank will fulfill a pledge to cut costs by as much as 20 percent.
Yves Smith on the Naked Capitalism blog, noting that she had been skeptical about Pandit, asks today, "Is it possible that Vikram Pandit, Citi's C.E.O., is doing a good job?"
"The absence of apparent major errors is encouraging," Smith says. "The real test is going to be whether he has the foresight and skill not only to repair the firm's financials, but to make progress in the far more difficult task of shifting the bank's culture and incentives."
Absent from the announced changes so far, as Smith notes, has been Robert Rubin, Citi's chairman and resident "wise man."
Perhaps today there will be some news about Rubin's future role at the bank. Nelson Schwartz and Eric Dash of the New York Timesreported last month that "Rubin may soon change his job title in order to clarify a clutch of duties that have always been ambiguous."
It is tempting to conclude from today’s trading update from Aga that the
former engineering conglomerate has disposed of its better half. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 9 May 2008 | 11:59 am
European stock markets fell sharply on Friday as record high crude prices above 125 dollars per barrel hurt oil-exposed airlines and heightened concerns about inflation and rising costs,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 11:52 am
Diageo, the maker of Guinness, is to invest €650m (£520m) in a new state of the art brewery in Ireland as part of a restructuring that will see it close two plants and lay off 250 employees. Source: Telegraph Business | 9 May 2008 | 11:50 am
Diageo, the maker of Guinness, is to invest 650m (520m) in a new state of the art brewery in Ireland as part of a restructuring that will see it close two plants and lay off 250 employees. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 11:50 am
Oil prices soared to fresh highs of more than $125 this morning, lifted by a
new round of speculative buying after Opec brushed aside US calls for an
increase in production, insisting that the market remained well-supplied.$ Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 9 May 2008 | 11:41 am
These are ten of the impact analyst calls we are seeing this Friday morning: Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT) started as Buy at UBS. Advanced Energy (NASDAQ: AEIS) Raised To Overweight By JP Morgan. American Superconductor (NASDAQ: AMSC) Cut to Hold from Buy at Jefferies. Cree (NASDAQ: CREE) started as Hold Lazard Capital. DRS Tech (NYSE: DRS) cut to Neutral at UBS; cut to market perform at FBR. FormFactor (NASDAQ: FORM) Raised To Overweight From Neutral By JP Morgan. FreightCar America (NASDAQ: RAIL) Raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies. Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) raised to Outperform at Bernstein. Penson Worldwide...
German insurer Allianz SE said Friday first-quarter net profit fell 65 percent due to difficult market conditions as it wrote down $1.3 billion tied to the U.S. subprime crisis. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 11:34 am
Radio broadcaster Clear Channel Communications Inc. says its profit soared in the first quarter while revenues rose 4 percent. The San Antonio-based company said Friday it earned $799.7 Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 11:28 am
Crude oil prices surged on Friday close to $126 a barrel for the first time, putting pressure on Opec, the oil producers' cartel, to increase output in an effort to lower global energy costs and prevent... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 11:24 am
The euro rebounded against the dollar on Friday as the market focused on the interest rate outlook for the United States and eurozone, traders said. In European trading, the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 11:16 am
HMV on Friday provided more evidence that its turnround was on track as the music and entertainment retailer reported a 13.8 per cent rise in like-for-like sales at stores in the UK and Ireland. Total... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 11:12 am
British Airways will begin to move its long-haul flights to Heathrow's Terminal 5 from June, the firm confirms. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 9 May 2008 | 11:06 am
London equities fell on Friday, as a fresh record high crude price and awful results from US insurer AIG unsettled investors.The FTSE 100 was 87 points, or 1.4 per cent weaker at 6,183.5. The mid-cap FTSE... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 11:01 am
Wall Street headed for a lower open Friday after the world's largest insurer reported a wider-than-expected loss for the first quarter, rekindling investors' anxiety about the strained... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 10:52 am
European equity markets fell on Friday in a broad-based retreat, led by heavyweight financial, pharmaceutical and energy and mining stocks.Another strong session for oil prices drove the benchmark US crude... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 10:49 am
Music retailer HMV has shrugged off the misery on much of the high street to predict that full-year profits will be ahead of expectations, as sales in its gaming and technology division jump. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 10:48 am
Music retailer HMV has shrugged off the misery on much of the high street to predict that full-year profits will be ahead of expectations, as sales in its gaming and technology division jump. Source: Telegraph Business | 9 May 2008 | 10:48 am
driving season as a weakening U.S. dollar drove investors to snap up commodities. Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose as high as $125.12 a barrel in electronic trading on the New Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 10:47 am
The opinion of most oil analysts and economists is that OPEC will let prices go up and up. That may not be true Goldman Sachs has said oil could spike to $200 a barrel sometime in the next two years, but OPEC may decide that such a big move up could poison the world economy and its profits. Oil is now at $125 and still rising. The kings and princes in Saudi Arabia and Dubai are adding to their wealth at the rate of hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Their plan has been to hold demand and blame...
Scottish billionaire Sir Tom Hunter today took another shot at Tesco after
beginning legal action to block a £150 million rights issue planned by
Dobbies Garden Centre, which is majority owned by the supermarket giant. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 9 May 2008 | 10:44 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pointing at a slew of job cuts, Chevron Corp said in a regulatory filing that about 1,100 employees were eligible for severance payments, after it implemented a restructuring plan in 2007.
China will begin to encourage companies within its borders to buy farmland abroad. The world's most populated country sees it as a way to lock in food supply. According to the FT "A proposal drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture would encourage domestic agricultural firms to make the offshore acquisitions, with the focus on South America and Africa." The countries where China makes its investments may not like the idea. They may need the yield from the land to make up for their own food shortages. But, money talks, and China will likely get its way, at least in part....
French industrial output falls four times more sharply than expected in March, raising concerns about the economy. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 9 May 2008 | 10:30 am
Crude oil futures set a fresh record high on Friday as concerns about supplies to the US grew.A warning from Opec that it would not increase output added to already heightened concerns about supplies of... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 9 May 2008 | 10:29 am
Venezuela president-for-life and psycho Hugo Chavez has been giving aid to rebels in neighboring Columbia. According to The Wall Street Journal "A cache of controversial computer files closely tying Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez to communist rebels seeking to topple Colombia's government appear to be authentic." The US may now have to decide if it wants to sanction Venezuela as a terrorist state and cut or curtail trade relationships. Mr. Chavez has already said he loathes the US. He views America as imperialist and only interested in Latin America for its rich trove of commodities like oil. If the US decides...
Aga Foodstuffs Group, the maker of cast iron country-style ovens, has said it expects sales to be "flat" in the UK and fall in Ireland this year as even wealthy consumers cut back. Source: Telegraph Business | 9 May 2008 | 10:10 am
There is nothing like having cash when no one else does. The few large sovereign funds have big bags of money and have used them to pick up assets in the US and UK, especially shares in big banks and brokerages which have been hit by subprime mortgage losses. Congressmen and regulators have tried to get the funds to promise that they will not invest to get "political" leverage. So far, that has not worked well. It never does when one party in a negotiation has no leverage. To make the point that big money from overseas will not be...
The dangers of following fashion in the drinks industry were laid bare today
when C&C, the Irish cider maker, reported a 41.4 per cent fall in
profits for its last financial year. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 9 May 2008 | 9:54 am
Job losses in the banking and insurance sector could reach as much as 40,000
over the next three years as the worldwide credit crunch takes hold on
Britain. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 9 May 2008 | 9:51 am
Hank Greenberg, former chief of AIG (AIG), still walks the avenues of Wall St. at night, plotting how to get his old job back. He has been in a series of disputes with the company since he was asked to leave. Under Greenberg, the company did remarkably well for decades. AIG is a bit like Citigroup(C). Both were built by larger-than-life executives. At Citi that was Sandy Weill. He was also pushed out. The two men come from a time when the top tier of the financial industry was Citi, AIG, and Goldman Sachs (GS). AIG made money in the...
The number of home owners who have had their properties repossessed has increased substantially since last year. Source: Telegraph Business | 9 May 2008 | 9:35 am
Gunmen loyal to the Shia militant group Hizbollah seized control of several Beirut neighbourhoods and shut down a pro-government newspaper and television station Source: FT.com - US homepage | 9 May 2008 | 8:16 am
After a week of ambivalence towards the offer of international aid, Burma has made it clear it wants to handle the cyclone crisis on its own Source: FT.com - US homepage | 9 May 2008 | 8:05 am
The number of home owners who have had their properties repossessed has increased substantially since last year, figures are expected to show. Source: Telegraph Business | 9 May 2008 | 7:55 am
Insurance giant AIG posts its biggest ever quarterly loss due to its continuing exposure to bad US mortgage debt. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 9 May 2008 | 7:11 am
After a closed-door meeting including building owners, the union agrees to go back to the bargaining table after having staged walkouts across the county.
The strike by Los Angeles janitors has been a peculiar one, involving not just the typical rallies and walkouts but also videos posted on YouTube, workers who are still largely on the job and now a cooling-off period brokered by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a onetime labor organizer.
The family friendly racing movie is trying to break out from a pack of blockbuster competitors.
The stakes in the industry's most competitive moviegoing season are high for all Hollywood studios, which spend heavily to sell their big-budget popcorn titles around the world. This summer, the risks are particularly steep for Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. studio, which has hundreds of millions of dollars riding on three major releases: “Speed Racer,” the Batman sequel “The Dark Knight” and “Get Smart,” a big-screen adaptation of the 1960s sitcom.
Shoppers pushed retail sales up last month, but the numbers didn't impress economists who are focused on rising oil prices and the struggling housing market.
Price-conscious shoppers pushed retail sales to their highest level in more than a year last month, but the numbers didn't impress economists who are focused on rising oil prices and the struggling housing market.
Some L.A. residents are relying more on bicycles, trains, buses, scooters and carpooling - or just walking.
When food and gasoline prices started climbing, Thomas Franklin started putting one foot in front of the other and -- the horror -- often walked where he needed to go.
The plan gains support as pressure mounts on both political parties.
The House on Thursday passed the most sweeping government plan yet to shore up the troubled housing market and help people struggling to pay their mortgages, adopting legislation that would underwrite $300 billion in new loans and keep an estimated 500,000 homeowners out of foreclosure.
The combined ability of the arena giant and his promotion company to stage major events means 'good things . . . for boxing,' Oscar De La Hoya says.
AEG, which owns the Kings, the Galaxy and Staples Center, has purchased a minority percentage of Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, it was announced Thursday, forging a partnership that is expected to not only help replenish the promoter's aging stable of fighters but also expand boxing's reach worldwide.
Since it withdrew its bid, the software giant has said it would not launch a proxy fight. Google presses on with an ad-search deal.
Microsoft Corp. continued to distance itself from Yahoo Corp. on Thursday, telling the people it had lined up to nominate to the board as part of a prospective hostile takeover battle that their services were no longer needed, according to a person familiar with the conversations.
Google expresses interest in extending an advertising partnership with fellow search engine Yahoo. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 9 May 2008 | 6:16 am
ASB has moved to cut its key mortgage rates for the first time since the global credit crunch forced interest rates higher earlier this year.
The move signals the worst of the credit crunch could be over amid signs that a sharply... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 9 May 2008 | 5:00 am
In the middle of the CBS Upfront ad-sales presentation in Carnegie Hall, the stage went dark. Suddenly, music rang through the venue and the lights flashed to reveal Pete Townshend of The Who, along with the rest of the band, singing "Who Are You."
The assembled ad honchos and members of the press were starstruck, and CBS executives, who had planned to announce the launch of CSI: NY with as much fanfare as possible, knew they'd hit gold.
The Who show happened only four years ago, but such elaborately staged events are now a thing of the very distant past.
While networks once maxed out their budgets on big-name entertainers and dazzled audiences with humorous skits starring top celebrities and high-ranking executives, the Upfronts—presentations in which networks pitch their new shows to advertisers before the start of the fall season—have become a more sober affair.
Starting last year, the major broadcast channels began making deliberate efforts to cut back on the length of the annual events, which could drag on for an entire afternoon. Fox's 2007 Upfront at the New York City Center kicked off with a conceit straight from its hit show 24: Fox pledged to present all their new shows within the confines of one hour, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The trend toward short-and-sweet Upfronts will continue next week when the 2008 version takes place. Indeed, with broadcasters still recovering from the writers' strike and all-time ratings lows for some of their biggest shows, the mood will be more austere than ever.
For example, all the major networks (except Fox) have canceled their traditional post-Upfront parties, the once-ubiquitous schmooze fests where deals could be made and contracts signed over cocktails.
The networks have also all but eliminated the news media from the presentation, substituting webcasts and conference-call briefings. The goal is to de-emphasize the importance of this once-seminal week.
Upfronts certainly aren't the make-or-break events they were as recently as just a few years ago. The reason: The internet has opened up so many options for advertisers.
NBC, for instance, announced a 52-week schedule in early April to reporters, but says that its "spotlight event," scheduled for next Monday, is merely a chance to introduce advertisers to the online and mobile ad forums that NBC will make available to them.
"Five years ago, the dollars changed hands and year-long commitments were made" around the time of the Upfronts each spring, says Alan Gould, founder and co-C.E.O. of IAG Research, a firm that measures the effectiveness of advertising and product placement on television.
Now that advertisers have so many more avenues open for reaching consumers, Gould adds, "the Upfront is the beginning of the negotiation" over ad rates, not the end.
Gould is quick to point out that none of this means the networks stand to lose ad revenue this year. But advertisers are going to be more selective on how they spend. Instead of plowing their budgets into traditional slots between prime-time programs, they are more and more conscious of reaching targeted and valuable—not necessarily large—audiences. These targeted viewers will have precisely the lifestyle and spending habits advertisers want.
In response, advertisers are experimenting outside of TV with increased use of the internet for search and branding, more sophisticated in-store advertising, display stations, coupons, and targeted online and mobile ads.
Meanwhile, new television strategies like product placement and one-sponsor shows and movies have become popular.
Viewer retention during ad breaks—long a weak point and newly tenuous since the advent of TiVo and other D.V.R.'s—is being encouraged with restructured ad "pods." These include shorter ad breaks, and breaks that consist only of one type of ad—say, funny ones.
Both TBS and MTV have tried the strategy. It's too soon to tell if it will, as planned, condition viewers to associate funny ads with a particular show and lead them to tune in again next week.
"Media buyers and advertisers are looking at a brave new world, and not just television," says Gould. Nevertheless, he anticipates "extraordinary interest" from advertisers in the programming announced next week.
Profits at the BNZ have jumped 14.9 per cent in the past half year.
The bank, a unit of the National Australia Bank, today reported its March half year net profit was $239 million.
BNZ chief executive Cameron Clyne said the... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 9 May 2008 | 12:25 am
Contact Energy shareholders are standing by for news from BG, the British gas giant that is trying to take over its parent company, Origin.
BG said today it has been in touch with the New Zealand Takeovers Panel, and is set to... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 9 May 2008 | 12:00 am
The crisis at American International Group deepened after $15bn in credit-related writedowns plunged the US insurer into a record quarterly loss Source: FT.com - US homepage | 8 May 2008 | 11:56 pm
The sharemarket marked time in early business today after staging a strong turnaround yesterday when ugly jobs data dramatically brought forward the prospect of rate cuts.
Wall Street gave a modestly positive lead after retail... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 8 May 2008 | 11:48 pm
The Warehouse has revealed a 4.3 per cent fall in third quarter sales to $394.6 million.
"Consumer demand has softened since the end of January with a marked slow down in demand for high ticket items, and a slow start to the autumn/winter... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 8 May 2008 | 10:19 pm
The news is fairly ugly. A.I.G. lost $7.8 billion during the quarter, missing analysts' expectations by a wide margin. It was forced to write down $9.1 billion on the value of its credit-default swaps. Its investment portfolio lost $6.1 billion.
It announced plans to raise a huge amount of capital to boost its balance sheet and offset some of those losses. A.I.G. is issuing common stock and equity units to raise $7.5 billion, and it says it will raise another $5 billion by issuing bonds at a later date.
It also said that it will replace its chief financial officer, Steve Bensinger, who was appointed vice chairman.
These all sound like rational, thoughtful moves for a risk-management company to make, especially one that has found it so difficult to value risk during this credit crunch.
But this move might throw some investors for a loop: A.I.G. said it was increasing its dividend by 10 percent.
That's right. At the same time the company says it needs to raise piles and piles of new capital, it plans to throw a chunk of it right back at its shareholders in the form of an increased cash dividend. While some shareholders will rightfully be upset that the common stock offering will dilute their shares, it's not clear that boosting their quarterly payout is the best way to appease them.
Call it the "easy come, easy go" cash-management strategy.
The quarter's results will almost certainly raise the question of chief executive Martin Sullivan's fate at the helm of the insurance giant. In February, investors staged a mini-revolt after the company announced that its credit-default losses during the fourth quarter of 2007 were nearly six times what it had predicted.
It was less than six months ago that Sullivan told investors there was "close to zero" chance that A.I.G. would sustain economic losses from its investments.
Will tomorrow's conference call be Sullivan's last? Stay tuned.
In our continuing series, "Food Fight," we look at the profitable side of the global food crisis. Sarah Gardner reports on the big agribusiness firms that are breaking earnings records as everything from grains to soybeans skyrockets. Source: Marketplace | 8 May 2008 | 9:26 pm
Tax-rebate checks go out Friday as part of the $150 billion economic stimulus effort. And retailers are eager for a cut of your cash. We went looking for some of the more unusual ways people are planning to spend their rebates. Kai Ryssdal reports. Source: Marketplace | 8 May 2008 | 9:26 pm
Commentator and investment strategist Andy Rothman says economic development pushed by Beijing will be great for Chinese workers and the environment, but now all of us will have to pay part of the cost. Source: Marketplace | 8 May 2008 | 9:26 pm
In World War II, scores of cultural landmarks in Germany were destroyed, including former royal palaces. Some were rebuilt quickly, while others are only now being revived as Germans look to connect with their past. Brett Neely reports. Source: Marketplace | 8 May 2008 | 9:26 pm
Baskin-Robbins, the biggest ice cream chain in the world, says it's branching out into soft-serve. Ashley Milne-Tyte has the scoop. Source: Marketplace | 8 May 2008 | 9:26 pm
India's government has decided it's had enough with rising food prices. It has suspended futures trading for some key commodites there, including soybean oil, chickpeas and potatoes. Sam Eaton reports. Source: Marketplace | 8 May 2008 | 9:26 pm
While it seems the price of everything is rising, electronics -- computers in particular -- are getting more powerful and cheaper at the same time. But Lisa Napoli reports that's about to end. Source: Marketplace | 8 May 2008 | 9:25 pm
Mortgage rates in some markets came down today, with banks offering certain jumbo loans at a little above 6% -- a lot cheaper than last week. Banks are loosening up on lending again because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a new strategy. Jill Barshay reports. Source: Marketplace | 8 May 2008 | 9:25 pm
Global inflation has re-emerged as a major threat to the world economy, the International Monetary Fund said in a stark warning that marked an abrupt change of tone from its emphasis on the risks to growth Source: FT.com - US homepage | 8 May 2008 | 8:44 pm
US stocks posted modest gains as investors responded to solid sales figures from Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, and encouraging data on retail sales and jobless claims Source: FT.com - US homepage | 8 May 2008 | 8:36 pm
Oil prices were steady over US$123 a barrel yesterday, pulling back from a record high as the US dollar's rise to a two-month high against the euro offset news of falling US diesel stockpiles.
US crude for June was up 2c at US$123.55... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 8 May 2008 | 7:30 pm
For those of you waiting for Airbus to launch its Spring Savings Sale before plunking down cash for a new jetliner, you're out of luck. Struggling to deal with the seemingly endless slide of the US dollar, the European aircraft consortium recently announced that it's raising prices on its commercial airliners.
Airbus is getting screwed by the weak greenback because the company sells its planes in US dollars. Every time the dollar drops, it buys fewer and fewer Euros, which means less cash in the bank for Airbus, and any other foreign company that sells its products in dollars. Airbus says this leaves it no choice but to hike its prices, though the company points out its numbers are still competitive with those of archrival Boeing.
Airbus offers a complete price list on its website, and we've listed some of the company's more popular models below. The A318, 19, 20, and 21 series are single aisle planes; the A330, 340, and 350 are wide-body jets; and the A380 is Airbus' problem-plagued superjumbo. Obviously, all prices are in millions of dollars.
For comparison sake, Boeing's prices are listed below, and they match up pretty closely with those of its European rival. The 737 series is the company's extremely popular narrow-body jet -- all of the other listed models listed are two-aisle planes.
767-200 $124.5-$135.5 767-400 ER $154-$169 777-200 $200-$225
777-300ER $250-$279
787-3 $146-151.5 787-9 $189-$200
One thing to keep in mind is that airlines rarely pay list price for new planes. Boeing and Airbus compete ferociously for business, and while specific numbers are rarely revealed, it's well known within the industry that both companies give customers Costco type discounts for buying in bulk.
Airbus now accepts Visa and Mastercard for purchases over $100,000,000, and it is widely expected that Boeing will follow suit.
A deal to raise up to $2bn from a consortium led by Spain's Grupo Santander would make the second-largest US savings and loan the latest in a line of banks seeking to raise capital to offset losses on loans Source: FT.com - US homepage | 8 May 2008 | 6:43 pm
Even though Microsoft's Steve Ballmer bungled Yahoo and Vista is sticking to store shelves, the company he runs is as dangerous as ever, says the author of a new book about the future of Microsoft post-Bill Gates.
While Gates will remain as Microsoft's chairman, he will no longer be involved in day-to-day decisions, leaving Microsoft's showy, sometimes sweaty CEO Steve Ballmer to his own devices.
Many industry watchers are hesitant about Ballmer right now, partly due to the botched Yahoo deal and a bumpy Windows Vista release. Still, Mary Jo Foley, a ZDNet blogger who has covered Microsoft since Bill Gates first emerged from puberty, believes the company has a big future ahead of it.
Wired: What's your prediction -- when do you think Steve Ballmer will give up or get kicked out?
Mary Jo Foley: I think he's going to stick to what he said. He said last year he would [serve as CEO] for nine years, because that's when his youngest son will be in college. I don't think they'll get rid of him before then.
[The board] would be hard-pressed to find a better CEO than Ballmer. He's pretty wedded to a lot of old-school ideas -- like, he's never going to say, "Let's just toss out Windows and start over," which is what a lot of people think is necessary. But he epitomizes Microsoft.
Wired: Do you think Ballmer's equipped to deal with Microsoft's biggest problems right now?
Foley: Their biggest challenge right now is to continue to profit from existing products while not neglecting new business models and strategies that come up. Many people think Microsoft's biggest challenge is competing with Google. That's not true. Their biggest challenge is to make sure Windows stays relevant.
Wired: So what do you think of Windows Mobile?
Foley: I've avoided it like the plague. Every time I get a new cellphone, everyone always warns me not to get Windows Mobile. The thing's awful. I think Windows Mobile is a huge challenge for them.
They've got this new "consumer" bug where they think they've got to be a player in every consumer market. I think they would be better served sticking to their enterprise roots and not chase every consumer trend.
Wired: You've covered this company for a long time. Did you have any "Aha!" moments when you were researching this book?
Foley: I was stunned by how quickly people count Microsoft out these days. It's almost like a knee-jerk reaction, like, "Oh, they're irrelevant." In the old days, startups pitching VCs used to have what they called the "Microsoft slide," they had to plan for what they would do when Microsoft came into their market. Now, instead of looking at Microsoft as a player, people think they don't matter. But it's dangerous for companies of any size to count them out. They're still good at figuring out how to come back into a market and steal everybody's lunch.
Wired: What did you make of the Yahoo takeover attempt?
Foley: When I first heard they were going to buy Yahoo I was completely incredulous. I thought, "This is going to be such a disaster." I had just submitted the manuscript the week before so I had to revise it. I knew a lot of employees at Microsoft didn't want it, and I just could not see how it would be a positive.
I sort of think they dodged a bullet -- I think it's going to be great for Microsoft [to have dropped the offer for Yahoo] and I hope they don't go back into negotiations.
Wired: And what do you think happens to Microsoft after Gates retires?
Foley: There's always been this dichotomy between "Bill's guys" and "Steve's guys." Steve's guys have MBAs and their roots are in sales. Bill's guys have been traditional technologists. The people who are more like Steve will probably get more power and will run the show, so I wonder who's going to be the tech champion for Bill's guys. I think that's going to be a big cultural and noticeable change once Gates is out from his day-to-day duties.
Wired: How has Bill Gates changed during the time you've covered Microsoft?
Foley: The first time I interviewed Bill Gates was in 1984, and back then, he was a really difficult interview. As a reporter you went into a Gates interview knowing that you were going to be insulted. He would say things like, "That's the stupidest question I've ever heard." Or he would look off into the distance and ignore you. He's a much better press-trained guy now. People attribute that to his marriage, having kids or getting older. But whatever the reason, he's more press-savvy now.
Wired: And Steve Ballmer?
Foley: He's the same. He's always been unpredictable and crazy. He's a really fun interview. You never know what he's going to say. You always walk out of a Ballmer interview with a great sound bite.
Rio Tinto, the world's third largest mining company, has warned its shareholders to be wary about potential unsolicited offers from sharemarket opportunist David Tweed.
Rio Tinto said it was aware that a company called Australian... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 8 May 2008 | 6:30 pm
Nearly 30 per cent of US domestic flights were late or cancelled in March, more bad news for an industry plagued with safety concerns and buckling under record fuel costs.
It was the worst March on record and second-worst opening... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 8 May 2008 | 5:30 pm
Honey-based health products company Comvita and WaikatoLink are suing each other after a breakdown between the two firms.
In December 2006 Comvita entered into an agreement with WaikatoLink - the commercial arm of the University... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 8 May 2008 | 5:00 pm
The merger between payment technology companies Provenco and Cadmus is now a reality - nearly two years after tech entrepreneur Peter Maire had the idea.
The merged entity, which has adopted the interim name ProvencoCadmus, has... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 8 May 2008 | 5:00 pm
On Wednesday morning, Disney announced its blowout second quarter with a 21 percent increase in earnings, to 58 cents a share—topping Wall Street expectations by 7 cents.
As a former employee and a current shareholder of rival media-conglomerate Time Warner, I struggled and failed to remember a quarter anywhere near as strong.
Since Jeff Bewkes took the Time Warner C.E.O. post, in January, there has been much talk of the possible spinoffs or sales of various divisions. Bewkes finally announced during the Time Warner quarterly earnings conference call last month that he would further separate the operations of the cable division from the rest of the conglomerate, making Time Warner, owner of HBO, Warner Bros., and CNN among other properties, a content company.
Eventually, Bewkes will have to do something with AOL (though at this point, even typing those three letters feels anachronistic, like typing TWA or ITT). And finally, maybe, if the debt markets improve, he will sell off the always profitable but sluggishly growing Time Inc.
None of this, besides divesting cable, will be easy to do in the midst of an advertising downturn. Which raises the question: What did Bewkes' predecessor, Dick Parsons, actually achieve while he was C.E.O., besides buying a vineyard in Tuscany and reputedly making some very nice wine?
Isn't it time to reassess the generally well-regarded Parsons? He did leave the company in better shape than he inherited it, but consider the state of Time Warner when he took over, still reeling from the worst merger in corporate history with the stock battered, at one point, into single digits. (There should be a term for executives who take over after calamitous results. No one benefits as much from the tyranny of low expectations, as Isiah Thomas' successor at the New York Knicks will happily discover.)
But Parsons' term was conspicuously lacking in any vision or return for shareholders. In January 2002, when Parsons took over from Gerald Levin, the stock opened at $31 a share. It opened this morning at about $16. Parson's strategy was defense—which actually isn't a strategy.
It's what happens when you're attacked. He cut costs and paid down debt, once boasting that his strength was "It's hard to get the ball from me if I have it." That kind of conservative thinking might have been appealing immediately after the debacle of the AOL-Time Warner merger, but it didn't serve the company for the last few years of his reign.
The Time Warner annual report shows that the company's major investment in 2006 and 2007, Parson's last two years, was buying its own stock, spending about $20 billion on share repurchases. Imagine what Rupert Murdoch could do with $20 billion. Parsons, of course was busy fighting off Carl Icahn and Bruce Wasserstein, two aging corporate raiders who, in the financial world equivalent of an 80s hair-metal band reunion, joined together to squeeze a few hundred million out of the company.
But consider what other media companies were doing during Parson's tenure. News Corp. was buying MySpace and Dow Jones and investing in Hulu, along with NBC Universal; Disney was building theme parks in China and launching the most successful tween franchises in history; and at least Viacom managed to get its divestment out of the way and snap up DreamWorks.
Besides paying to thwart the Icahn-led revolt, Parsons is usually given credit for a host of nebulous issues: healing the postmerger trauma; cutting down on interdivisional rivalry; stopping the bleeding. In other words, he gets credit for not making a colossal blunder.
Which made me realize that yet another terrible legacy of the AOL-Time Warner merger may have been that the company was so shell-shocked that it allowed a dolittle C.E.O. to stay in office precisely because he did little.
To roll out its new high-speed fiber-optic service FiOS in the Philadelphia area, Verizon lifted a page from AT&T’s old playbook—it reached out and invited the neighbors over for a block party.
More than 500 people came to Springmill, an adult community in Middletown, Delaware, to see a home-technology makeover sponsored by Verizon, get their faces painted, play Guitar Hero—and, of course, hear about how dropping cable for FiOS will enhance their lives.
The problem? Just because FiOS is a superior product in some respects, that doesn’t mean it’s going to trounce the cable companies. Not even close. Even when Verizon fully deploys FiOS, it’s estimated to only cover 15 percent of the nation, according to Craig Moffett, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.’s senior U.S. telecom analyst.
“The numbers are overwhelmingly in favor of the cable companies,” Moffett said. “And the telcos, including Verizon, are peddling to catch up.”
Still, even Moffett admits that FiOS—where it’s available—is a sweet deal. The fiber line offers customers broadband speed of up to 50 megabits per second, and upstream speeds that are higher than cable, a plus for those customers who like to upload files to YouTube and send photos by email. Verizon says its employees are using speeds of 100 Mbps, although that speed is not for customers—yet.
But to get this fiber into the 10.5 million homes that are connected—and the millions more it’s aiming to touch—the company is investing $18 billion (about the gross national product of El Salvador) between now and 2010.
Major urban markets still aren’t on the FiOS map, except for Philadelphia and Boston. In New York City, Verizon is negotiating for a cable-franchise license for video, and it doesn’t expect to have the city fully wired for TV until 2014.
Instead, FiOS has focused its early rollouts on outlying suburbs—Tupperware territory—hence the block parties and pitches targeted at soccer moms.
AT&T is also part of the video chess match. But it’s U-verse service, which currently offers a maximum broadband speed of just 10 Mbps, isn’t going to fully blanket the country either. In fact, Moffett estimates U-verse will have a 25 percent reach—but only when fully deployed.
Verizon and AT&T may be the most aggressive at deploying their connections, but by 2010, “they’re going to be deployed in only half of their own respective operating territories,” Standard & Poor’s analyst Todd Rosenbluth says.
And that makes it easy for cable giants Time Warner and Comcast to continue stealing the telcos’ core voice customers at a pace of roughly 11 to every one video order they lost in the first quarter of 2008.
More to the point, cable companies are offering perks such as call-waiting, call forwarding, even unlimited long distance and local calls all for one flat fee—especially if rolled into a triple play of video, broadband, and voice.
While the phone companies are offering triple plays too—they have a long way to go before they can build a video business as big as cable’s. Plus, they’re adding on the least-profitable portion of these services because the margins on video are going down as the cost of programming goes up. Someone, it turns out, has to pay for ESPN’s $1.1 billion N.F.L. deal after all.
Also, cable is flirting with its own high-speed offering—like FiOS—tagged DOCSIS 3.0, which has hit speeds of 100 Mbps in tests, 20 times the speed of traditional broadband.
Time Warner Cable has run the service in small markets, and Cox Communications is preparing to launch DOCSIS in certain markets depending on the competitive need, according to David Grabert, Cox’s spokesperson. Translation? When FiOS comes calling, Cox customers can expect high-speed options of their own.
But what some say cable is really waiting for is WiMax; think WiFi in hyperdrive. It’s expected to change the way consumers think of mobility by letting them access the internet at high broadband speeds wherever they are.
Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Intel, and Google, among others, are clearly committed to the technology, announcing investments of collectively more than $3 billion in Sprint Nextel and Clearwire’s WiMax venture on Wednesday.
Still, WiMax is very much in the initial testing phase in the U.S, and the first service provider to deploy WiMax in Australia declared it a complete failure just last month, saying the signal could not reach into a structure beyond 1,300 feet from its base station.
So, after all the technological bells and whistles, the final leg could be won by the simple, low-tech act of playing nice. After all, there are few customers who haven’t had a phone-line crackle, a broadband light go dark, or a cable guy who just never shows up.
When a customer is lucky enough to reside where there’s competition for the home connection, a block party and some good customer service isn’t going to hurt.
Ever wonder what model BlackBerry Barack Obama uses or where Reese Witherspoon gets her hair done?
Check out what may be a near-perfect mashup of celebrity obsession, rabid consumerism, and Web 2.0 functionality: Coolspotters.com.
Launched on Wednesday, the site helps you identify—and eventually buy—virtually any product featured in your favorite shows and movies or used by a celebrity.
"What Coolspotters is an association engine," explains Eric Kirsten, a co-founder of the company that started the site. "You can create profiles and associate nearly anything in pop culture."
Here's how it works: Users can create (or edit) a profile page for any celebrity, movie, product, or brand of their choosing—sort of like Wikipedia, but for pop culture. But Coolspotters takes the information indexing one step further by creating pages for the intersection of two profile pages, called spots.
For example, a Lotus Elise is featured in Iron Man, so that becomes a spot. If Mandy Moore is photographed in a Prius, that's a spot too.
While the beta version of Coolspotters doesn't include links to buying products, a big "buy me" button will soon appear on profile pages, directing users to one or more online retailers.
For brands as well as consumers, it is a breakthrough in the way celebrities can be associated with products.
"Promotionally it is a really innovative tool," says Marc Gobé, president of branding think tank Emotional Branding. "You have a photo of a celebrity carrying an iPod in their real life and it's a lot better than a paid endorsement. It brings a lot of authenticity and truth to the thing. It's reality branding."
There are magazines that bridge entertainment and shopping, but as a wiki, or a collaborative website, Coolspotters is different. Its users, not editors, make the connections, potentially allowing the site to be an instant, up-to-the-minute snapshot of consumers' tastes.
Of course, cataloging the fashion and product choices of the rich and famous is not the same as inspiring a purchase. The fact that Steve Jobs wears 501 jeans would probably not set off a stampede at the Levi's store. But seeing that the cool phone that James Bond used in Casino Royale is a Sony Ericsson M600? Now that's a hot product that someone just has to have.
Like anything wiki, Coolspotters depends on the credibility of its users. "If the information is not correct and it's frivolous, no one will continue to visit the site," Gobé says. "That's going to be the basis for success."
Given the difficulty of identifying products from pictures (are those Earnest Sewn or AG jeans that Kate Hudson is wearing?), there's a potential danger of the site devolving into overconfident users posting inaccurate information.
But the site's co-founders, Aaron LaBerge and Kirsten, aren't worried.
"We see the arguing back and forth as a good thing," says LaBerge.
"We're not trying to be the reference encyclopedia for everything factual," adds Kirsten. "This is about people's best guess. Seeing things that are wrong inspire people to go change it."
Association between product and celebrity has long been recognized as a powerful driver of buying decisions. Time Inc. has had tremendous success with In Style magazine, started in 1995, which shares a principle similar to Coolspotters: to provide readers with product details for trends modeled by America's favorite celebrities.
Portfolio.com's parent company, Condé Nast, took the idea a step further with Lucky magazine, called a magologue—the product offerings of a catalogue with the editorial influence of a magazine.
Transporting the concept to the Web removes the last purchasing hurdle: At a computer, readers can become buyers with just a click.
SeenOn.com is another example. It was created by a Web startup in partnership with most major television media companies and provides exhaustive product and purchasing information for items featured in a long roster of television shows and movies.
Coolspotters was created by Fanzter, a company founded last summer by LaBerge, a former senior vice president of technology and product development at ESPN and Kirsten, a former vice president of business development at AT&T Broadband.
"I oversaw fantasy gaming at ESPN and saw how well that worked," said LaBerge. "It led me to think about taking that social aspect of the 'new Web' and applying it to a different space."
Fantzer raised $2 million from the venture capital firms Second Avenue Partners and Curious Office along with several others.
In terms of ultimately turning a profit, Coolspotters has tremendous potential.
The site encourages users to rate and connect themselves to profiles and spots, allowing the site to build up a deep database of your tastes and preferences and serve ads intelligently.
The e-commerce functionality will provide a second revenue stream because Coolspotters will get a cut of sales they refer to online retailers.
And while all the site is currently free, LaBerge and Kirsten see future potential for some premium, subscription-based content.
Two private equity firms will get their day in a New York court to press claims against six banks who agreed to lend about $22 billion for financing the buyout of Clear Channel Communications.
New York Supreme Court Justice Helen Freedman has denied the banks' motion for summary judgment on breach-of-contract claims by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners.
The banks argued that the plaintiffs claims were not "ripe" because the time for performance on the commitment letter—June 12—they signed last summer is not yet passed. But Freedman found the plaintiffs established a "triable issue of fact as to whether the defendants presented the plaintiffs with an ultimatum" when they sought to change the terms of the deal under a "take it or leave it" approach.
Freedman relied on the "rather ominous tone" of the defendants' internal emails. She said the "most noteworthy email" was dated just after a December 2007 meeting, when the banks came "hat in hand" to change the terms of the financing to reduce their risk of loss. When Bain and T.H.L. Partners had not responded to the new terms, one bank employee wrote, "let's draft the nuclear version." His colleague agreed, writing, "that may elicit the response." A January 31 email from another employee said he was delivering drafts of documents that "are meant to be draconian." And on February 3, a bank employee wrote that it was "time to take the gloves off."
But Freedman dismissed the plaintiffs' claims of fraud, conspiracy, and violations of a Massachusetts consumer-protection statute. The buyout firms had asked for a May 5 trial, but, at a previous hearing, Freedman warned the firms not to count on that because she is wrapping up another case.
Reuters - Citigroup Inc, the largest U.S.
bank, said on Friday it aims to shed $400 billion of assets --
nearly 20 percent of its total -- over the next two to three
years to become more efficient and profitable.
AP - Consumer electronics retailer Circuit City Stores said Friday that it will allow Blockbuster to review its books in connection with the video-rental chain's bid to buy the company.
Reuters - Stocks dropped at the open on Friday,
with the Dow briefly falling more than 1 percent early, after
American International Group's record loss hurt
financial shares and renewed fears of bad news from the credit
crisis.
Reuters - U.S. crude futures jumped more than $2
to a record high above $126 on Friday, fueled by fund buying
and surging distillate prices on both sides of the Atlantic,
according to traders.
Reuters - Circuit City Stores Inc said on
Friday that it will allow Blockbuster Inc and the
movie-rental company's largest shareholder, Carl Icahn, to
conduct due diligence in connection with Blockbuster's proposed
acquisition of Circuit City.
Reuters - The trade deficit narrowed more than
expected in March on a record plunge in the value of imports,
even as average oil prices surged to a new record, a Commerce
Department report on Friday showed.