A senior United Nations official attacked biofuel subsidies today, telling world leaders in Rome that they are partly to blame for global food shortages.
Source:
Telegraph Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 2:30 pm
John Hutton, the UK's Secretary of State for Business and Enterprise, is urging British companies to open up businesses in Vietnam, saying there will be "major opportunities" in "one of the most dynamic...
Source:
Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 2:15 pm
John Hutton, the UK's Secretary of State for Business and Enterprise, is urging British companies to open up businesses in Vietnam, saying there will be "major opportunities" in "one of the most dynamic economies".
Source:
Telegraph Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 2:15 pm
WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) - General Motors Corp on Tuesday announced a series of steps to cut jobs, costs and its exposure to slow-selling trucks and SUVs in response to a rise in gasoline prices that the automaker now sees as permanent.
Source:
Reuters: Business News | 3 Jun 2008 | 2:02 pm
Oil prices are soaring near records, and the government wants to know if those prices are being manipulated higher by oil companies and artificially inflated by speculators.
Source:
Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 3 Jun 2008 | 2:02 pm
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday issued a rare warning on the risks that a weak dollar poses for inflation, but said U.S. interest rates are "well positioned" for an economy facing both price pressures and threats to growth.
Source:
Reuters: Business News | 3 Jun 2008 | 2:01 pm
Orders for U.S.-made factory increased a better-than-expected 1.1% in April, largely due higher prices for gasoline and other petroleum products, the Commerce Department reports.
Source:
MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2008 | 2:01 pm
Staples Inc. on Tuesday ratcheted up the pressure in its effort to buy Corporate Express, lifting its offer to 1.67 billion euros ($2.6 billion) and securing commitments from holders of nearly a quarter of the Dutch office-supplies group.
Source:
MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2008 | 2:01 pm
The Small Business Administration's most popular small-business loan is down 19 percent nationally in volume from the same time a year ago, based on agency data. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch "The reason for the dip is twofold: Some banks are making fewer loans, and fewer entrepreneurs are seeking them." Often, small business owners will use their homes as collateral for borrowing money for their operations. With many homes worth less than their mortgages, the practice is disappearing. The news points to another set of circumstances undermining the growth of smaller companies, which employ a large part of the...
Source:
24/7 Wall St. | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:59 pm
Drug stocks edged modestly higher in early action Tuesday while shares of Genentech Inc. were in slow retreat after jumping almost 4% on Monday on positive news for several of its cancer-fighting agents.
Source:
MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:59 pm
Energy shares traded mixed on Tuesday as the dollar rose and oil prices fell, but warmer-than-normal temperatures stoked gains in natural gas stocks.
Source:
MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:57 pm
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil fell more than $2 a barrel to less than $126 a barrel on Tuesday, after the U.S. Federal Reserve said a weak dollar had fuelled inflation in the United States.
Source:
Reuters: Business News | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:56 pm
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke painted a gloomy picture of the economy on Tuesday but hinted that the central bank was prepared to hold steady on interest rate cuts.
Source:
Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:54 pm
U.S. stocks open higher only to quickly turn mixed, with better results than expected from Toll Brothers offsetting worries sparked in part by a report that Lehman Brothers might have to raise additional capital.
Source:
MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:53 pm
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc executives dismissed a search-advertising deal with Google due to antitrust concerns, one day before Microsoft Corp made its takeover offer earlier this year, according to court documents made public on Monday.
Source:
Reuters: Business News | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:51 pm
Stocks struggled higher Tuesday morning as investors welcomed falling oil prices, but gains were limited by news that GM will be shutting plants and a report that Lehman may need to raise more capital.
Source:
Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:51 pm
ABSALOKA MINE, Montana (Reuters) - Underneath Montana lies an estimated $1.5 trillion of coal, but with uncertainty about future environmental rules, investors are wary about opening new mines in the rugged Western U.S. state.
Source:
Reuters: Business News | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:50 pm
Source:
Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:48 pm
Sherwin-Williams Co. (NYSE: SHW) is under trading pressure this morning based on an earnings warning the company issued in pre-market hours. The paint and coatings company cited lower sales, housing woes, and of course the lovely higher cost of raw materials. It had already lowered numbers earlier. For its second quarter, it sees $1.40 to $1.50 EPS, down from its prior guidance of $1.45 to $1.60 and under the $1.53 estimate from First Call. But the full-year forecast is far worse. It now sees $3.60 to $4.10 EPS for the year, down from its prior guidance of $4.70 to $4.85...
Source:
24/7 Wall St. | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:46 pm
Reuters - Stock futures opened higher on
Tuesday, helped by a drop in oil futures and a rise in shares
of General Motors Corp after it announced plans for cost
and job cuts and shifting production to more popular car
models.
Source:
Yahoo! News: Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:45 pm
General Motors is closing four truck and sports utility vehicle plants in the US, Canada and Mexico.
Source:
BBC News | Business | World Edition | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:45 pm
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock futures opened higher on Tuesday, helped by a drop in oil futures and a rise in shares of General Motors Corp after it announced plans for cost and job cuts and shifting production to more popular car models.
Source:
Reuters: Business News | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:45 pm
Older people can be targets in a number of financial scams. Here are a few tips to find your parents a professional planner.
Source:
Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:44 pm
Treasury prices fall and yields rise as bond investors digest Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments that benchmark interest rates are “well positioned” for now to promote moderate economic growth and price stability.
Source:
MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:44 pm
General Motors announced plans Tuesday to shut four truck and SUV plants that employ thousands of workers, saying high gas prices are here to stay - and, with them, consumers' growing preference for more fuel efficient vehicles.
Source:
Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:41 pm
AP - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled Tuesday that further interest rate cuts are unlikely because of concerns about inflation. High oil prices are a double-edged sword that can both put a damper on already weak growth and spread inflation, he said.
Source:
Yahoo! News: Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:39 pm
Reuters - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke on Tuesday issued a rare warning on the risks that a
weak dollar poses for inflation, but said U.S. interest rates
are "well positioned" for an economy facing both price
pressures and threats to growth.
Source:
Yahoo! News: Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:39 pm
Even as the trim their payrolls, companies are keeping one eye on the future by stocking up on summer interns.
Source:
Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:39 pm
Luxury builder Toll Brothers posts a second-quarter loss as reluctant customers remain nervous that home prices could decline further.
Source:
MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:34 pm
A roundup of the latest corporate earnings reports and what companies are saying about future quarters.
Source:
MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:31 pm
Hedge-fund manager George Soros will tell a congressional committee Tuesday that surging oil and commodity prices are in part a result of new index funds popular with institutional investors fostering market volatility, according to a published report.
Source:
MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:31 pm
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The largest U.S. defense contractor, Lockheed Martin Corp , did not follow required guidelines to track and manage costs on major weapons programs, according to an internal Pentagon report released on Tuesday by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight.
Source:
Reuters: Business News | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:23 pm
Breaking a long-standing tradition of relative silence on the dollar, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke signals discomfort with the weak dollar's ramifications for the domestic U.S. economy.
Source:
MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:22 pm
Reuters - General Motors Corp
on Tuesday announced a series of steps to cut jobs, costs and
its exposure to slow-selling trucks and SUVs in response to a
rise in gasoline prices that the automaker now sees as
permanent.
Source:
Yahoo! News: Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:19 pm
Are you enjoying the perks of executive life, while working only when absolutely essential? Take this quiz to find out if you're an accomplished trickster.
Source:
Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:13 pm
So far, banks have had little problem raising capital to meet their growing need for more cash.
Source:
Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:10 pm
SuccessFactors, Inc. (NASDAQ: SFSF) is exiting that 180-day lock-up period, and the company is going to sell shares along with shareholders according to the SEC FILING. The company filed to sell 7,540,612 shares of common stock, of which 2,500,000 shares will be sold by the company and the rest from shareholders. The company's original filing to offer shares was made last week. Underwriters for this offering are listed as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Pacific Crest, ThinkPanmure, Pacific Crest, and Broadpoint. What is more important than anything here is that this is going to greatly increase its public...
Source:
24/7 Wall St. | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:06 pm
How did you get to work today? The average U.S. commute is now about 30 miles and, with gas at a record $3.97 per gallon, that can hit employees' wallets pretty hard. (Oh, you've noticed?)
Source:
Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:04 pm
Laurent-Perrier results are boosted by sales of higher-priced vintages and emerging market demand.
Source:
BBC News | Business | World Edition | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:00 pm
Reuters - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc
has no need to raise capital and would only do so if the right
market opportunity presented itself or if the firm thought it
would help investor perceptions, a source familiar with the
situation said on Tuesday.
Source:
Yahoo! News: Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:58 pm
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc has no need to raise capital and would only do so if the right market opportunity presented itself or if the firm thought it would help investor perceptions, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.
Source:
Reuters: Business News | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:57 pm
The largest US builder of luxury homes and apartments called for greater government action to help boost demand for homes as it reported its third consecutive quarterly loss
Source:
FT.com - US homepage | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:56 pm
Wall Street stocks were set for a slightly higher start, as oil prices slipped back and investors shrugged off reports that Lehman Brothers may raise billions of dollars of extra capital
Source:
FT.com - US homepage | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:54 pm
Futures pointed to an early rebound for the major indexes, in spite of a troubling report on Lehman.
Source:
SmartMoney.com | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:49 pm
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Toll Brothers Inc , the largest U.S. luxury home builder, posted a quarterly net loss on Tuesday, hurt by weakened demand in most markets amid the nation's housing slump, but the results were not as bad as Wall Street had expected.
Source:
Reuters: Business News | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:46 pm
EU finance minister approve Slovakia's euro entry, which is due to happen on 1 January 2009.
Source:
BBC News | Business | World Edition | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:44 pm
The closures, part of an accelerated plan to shift its focus towards smaller, more efficient vehicles in its core US market, were announced as GM said it may sell its Hummer SUV brand
Source:
FT.com - US homepage | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:39 pm
General Motors plans to close four sport-utility vehicle and pick-up truck plants in North America as part of an accelerated plan to shift its focus towards smaller, more efficient vehicles in its core...
Source:
Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:39 pm
More companies now have business links with Burma, according to a pressure group.
Source:
BBC News | Business | World Edition | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:38 pm
Stocks on Asia’s biggest bourses endured a punishing day of trading as Wall
Street worries crushed sentiment and investors fled China’s telecoms sector
before its long-awaited transformation.
Source:
Latest Business News from Times Online | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:33 pm
Those big S.U.V.'s and trucks rumbling down the road? With
gasoline at $4, they may soon be dinosaurs.
Following
production cuts by
Ford Motor last month,
General Motors says it will close four North American plants to reduce its output of trucks and S.U.V.'s. It will also increase capacity at some smaller car plants.
And in a decision that has much symbolic importance, G.M. says it is engaging in a "strategic review" of the Hummer—the biggest of the Big Wheels—a review that could lead to a sale.
"From the start of our North American turnaround plan in 2005, I've said that our goal is not just to return G.M. to profitability, but to structure G.M. globally for sustained profitability and growth," said
Rick Wagoner, the company's chief executive.
"Since the first of this year, however, U.S. economic and market conditions have become significantly more difficult," he said. "Higher gasoline prices are changing consumer behavior, and they are significantly affecting the U.S. auto industry sales mix."
Speaking before the company's annual meeting in Wilmington, Delaware, Wagoner says high oil prices are here to stay. "We believe it is, by and large, permanent," he said.
Faced with that outlook, the company has approved funding of the Chevy Volt, an extended-range electric vehicle.
"We believe this is the biggest step yet in our industry's move away from our historic, virtually complete reliance on petroleum to power vehicles," Wagoner said.
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Portfolio.com: Top 5 | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:30 pm
The UN secretary general calls for revitalising agriculture as a way of tackling the world's worsening food crisis.
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BBC News | Business | World Edition | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:24 pm
The stock market will rally if the Democrat gets elected president, but not for long.
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SmartMoney.com | 3 Jun 2008 | 11:58 am
Retail real estate maven David Simon talks about the consumer.
Source:
SmartMoney.com | 3 Jun 2008 | 11:49 am
Reuters - U.S. office supplies retailer Staples
Inc increased its chances of winning control of
Corporate Express NV on Tuesday, raising its all-cash
bid for the Dutch company to 1.7 billion euros ($2.7 billion).
Source:
Yahoo! News: Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 11:48 am
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - U.S. office supplies retailer Staples Inc increased its chances of winning control of Corporate Express NV on Tuesday, raising its all-cash bid for the Dutch company to 1.7 billion euros ($2.7 billion).
Source:
Reuters: Business News | 3 Jun 2008 | 11:48 am
These are ten of the analyst calls we are focusing on this Tuesday morning in pre-market trading: Abercrombie (NYSE: ANF) cut to Market Perform at FBR. Ascent Solar (NASDAQ: ASTI) started as Neutral at Jefferies. ASM Intl NV (NASDAQ: ASMI) started as Underperform at Jefferies. Blue Nile (NASDAQ: NILE) Started as Underweight at Thomas Weisel. China Unicom (NYSE: CHU) cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse. CSX Corp (NYSE: CSX) cut to Neutral at UBS. Dr Pepper Snapple (NYSE: DPS) started as Underweight at JP Morgan. Linear Tech (NASDAQ: LLTC) cut to Neutral at UBS. Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) Started as Buy...
Source:
24/7 Wall St. | 3 Jun 2008 | 11:48 am
Michael O'Leary, the outspoken boss of budget airline Ryanair, has denied that the era of low cost air travel is over despite soaring oil prices and pledged to cut costs across the business in order to keep fares down.
Source:
Telegraph Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 11:45 am
Michael O'Leary, the outspoken boss of budget airline Ryanair, has denied that the era of low cost air travel is over despite soaring oil prices and pledged to cut costs across the business in order to...
Source:
Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 11:45 am
Lehman Brothers may blame its sinking stock price on
short sellers and rumormongers, but it is facing its greatest challenge to date as it is about to report its first quarterly loss since going public in 1994.
The issue is credibility. The boasts about liquidity and the talk of transparency haven't dispelled the questions about Lehman's balance sheet and its huge portfolio of debt securities.
Now Susanne Craig of the
Wall Street Journal reports that Lehman is considering raising billions of dollars in new capital—perhaps as much as $4 billion, according to analysts and Wall Street executives.
"The amount of new capital under consideration suggests Lehman's quarterly loss could be larger than the $300 million or so that some analysts have been expecting," Craig says.
Felix Salmon
points out that Lehman's troubles this quarter are a result of brutal market conditions and because of the firm's difficulty in hedging their positions.
"We've seen this movie before, most memorably at Bear Stearns," Salmon says. "The fact is that during a credit crunch, when you're stuck with illiquid assets, you can't hedge them. You can sell them at a loss."
"Could it be that Lehman, even after seeing what happened at Bear, is making the same mistakes? That it's trying to hedge its positions discretely, even in a market which has systematically slaughtered anybody who's tried to do that for the past year?"
Still, Lehman, unlike Bear, has been aggressive in seeking out new capital, raising $6 billion since February. But a new effort suggests that the worst may not be over.
On Monday, Standard & Poor's
lowered its ratings on debt from Lehman and other firms, saying that they are expected to announce additional write-downs on their investments. And Merrill Lynch analyst Guy Moszkowski lowered his rating on Lehman stock to "underperform" from "neutral."
Shares of Lehman dropped 8 percent, for a 48 percent decline so far this year.
"This is adding to the perception that there's a need for more write-offs and capital raisings," Greg Bundy, executive chairman of merger advisory firm InterFinancial Ltd. in Sydney and a former head of Merrill's Australian unit
told Bloomberg News.
And there are other signs of investors doubting Lehman.
Ben Bittrolff on the Financial Ninja blog
notes that the short position on Lehman, or a bet on a plunge in its stock, is now huge and will pay off only if the firm collapses.
"Either some idiots are going to be out a lot of money come June, July, and October," he says. "Or Lehman implodes before then."
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Is Bear Really Worth Only $2 Per Share?The Passing of PasserbyEstimate Upon Request
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Portfolio.com: Top 5 | 3 Jun 2008 | 11:30 am
BBVA said on Tuesday it would spend 800m ($1.2bn) to raise its stakes in two units of Citic Group, the Chinese conglomerate, as the Spanish bank seeks to increase its presence in Asia.BBVA intends to roughly...
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Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 11:16 am
The struggle for large daily metropolitan newspapers to stay profitable and survive is based on the race between the drop in their print advertising and the improvement of their online sales. Newspaper industry costs are rising along with fuel and commodities prices. Most large dailies have resorted to lay-offs. Even The New York Times and Washington Post are cutting staff, including reporters and editors. Revenue is falling sharply based on a review of the numbers from publicly traded newspaper companies. The sole exception may be The New York Times Company, where online revenue is now well over 10% of the...
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24/7 Wall St. | 3 Jun 2008 | 11:11 am
Turquoise, one of four new equity trading platforms emerging in Europe, on Tuesday set a firm date for its highly anticipated launch as the platform gears up to challenge established exchanges in the region...
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Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 11:08 am
China's roaring economy is beginning to stabilize, although surging demand for some commodities following last month's disastrous earthquake will add to inflationary pressures, central...
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Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 11:04 am
Wall Street headed for a narrowly mixed opening Tuesday as investors awaited a speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on the U.S. economy. Bernanke's speech out of...
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Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:58 am
Wall Street headed for a narrowly mixed opening Tuesday as investors awaited a speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on the U.S. economy. Bernanke's speech out of...
Source:
Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:56 am
London equities mounted a tentative recovery on Tuesday, with part of the banking sector rallying after the previous session's heavy losses. The FTSE 100 was flat at 6,005.5 The FTSE 250 was also unchanged...
Source:
Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:56 am
The euro bounced back above 1.56 dollars on Tuesday as new data showed that the eurozone economy grew at a faster than expected pace in the first quarter of the year, analysts said.
Source:
Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:54 am
Brussels Airline announced that its chief executive and managing director Philippe Vander Putten was leaving "due to divergences of view" over splitting the roles at the top of the company.
Source:
Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:52 am
Banks remained under pressure on Tuesday, leaving European equity markets flat, after rumours of a fresh cash call in the sector.By midday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was unchanged at 1,319.15, Frankfurt's...
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Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:51 am
Technical problems plagued stock exchanges in large parts of the Nordics for a second day Tuesday, postponing market openings in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and the Baltic countries for...
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Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:49 am
News of a state-orchestrated sector restructuring sent the shares of China's biggest telecom operators plunging on Tuesday as investors took profit before an anticipated increase in competition.China Telecom,...
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Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:49 am
Ken Costa, the veteran London-based banker, has been appointed by Reliance
Communications, the second largest Indian mobile company, to advise on its
negotiations with MTN, Africa's largest wireless group.
Source:
Latest Business News from Times Online | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:44 am
investors sought to gauge whether oil prices have peaked, even as many worry that supplies are barely meeting growing global demand. By midday in Europe, Light, sweet crude for July...
Source:
Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:43 am
Melyvn Weiss, the class-action lawyer who helped win billions of dollars in settlements from some of the world's biggest corporations, was on Monday sentenced to two and half years in prison for his role...
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Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:43 am
Reuters - Yahoo Inc executives
dismissed a search-advertising deal with Google due to
antitrust concerns, one day before Microsoft Corp made
its takeover offer earlier this year, according to court
documents made public on Monday.
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Yahoo! News: Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:38 am
Agricultural commodities remained in focus on Tuesday as delegates met in Rome for a summit on rising food prices to hear a strong attack on biofuels subsidies from the head of the UN's Food and Agriculture...
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Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:38 am
Mousetrap
weblog: Why the countryside can't catch up
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Latest Business News from Times Online | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:29 am
Toll Brothers says hefty write-downs on the value of land joint ventures drove the luxury homebuilder to a second-quarter loss, but results topped Wall Street expectations. For the...
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Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:28 am
Microsoft (MSFT) has cut a deal with HP (HPQ) to put its Live Search into the internet tool bar which ships on the hardware companies PCs in the US and Canada. Redmond is, in essence, trying to buy search share. According to The Wall Street Journal, "Google currently accounts for 62% of all searches in the U.S., while Yahoo has 20% and Microsoft 9%, Mr. Aggarwal estimates. That makes it important for Microsoft -- which recently mounted and then withdrew a buyout bid for Yahoo -- to increase its exposure with PC users." Of course, most PC users are savvy...
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24/7 Wall St. | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:26 am
The U.S. dollar was mostly lower against other major currencies in European trading Tuesday morning. Gold rose. The euro traded at $1.5596, up from $1.5545 late Monday in New York. ...
Source:
Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:20 am
Staples Inc. on Tuesday raised to $2.6 billion its hostile bid for Dutch office supplies distributor Corporate Express NV. Rather than accepting two previous overtures from Staples,...
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Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:19 am
The experts in the US government have finally come around to the reality that oil prices are not going to drop. And, they could stay high for a very, very long time. "You've got this global market still operating at very low spare (oil production) capacity, all of which is in Saudi Arabia," Guy Caruso, head of the Energy Information Administration told Reuters. It is a classic case of the government getting to the barn doors after all of the horses are gone and part of the reason that the Feds are slow to address the issues that keep crude...
Source:
24/7 Wall St. | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:18 am
High oil costs are welcome as they signal to consumers and firms to cut fuel usage, the OECD's head says.
Source:
BBC News | Business | World Edition | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:16 am
Ryanair results came in pretty much on the button. Unfortunately the company forecast for the year 2008-2009 is for no profit at all as they try to adjust price expectations for their army of cheap flyers to levels commensurate with 130 bucks a barrel.
Source:
Telegraph Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:15 am
After indicating that the worst was behind it, Lehman (LEH) may have to raise another $3.4 billion. That would be an indication that the brokerage will lose much more than expected in the second quarter. It also puts CEO Richard Fuld in a group which includes the heads of Wachovia (WB), Merrill Lynch (MER), and Citigroup (C). His board can no longer protected him from a series of bad decisions which have driven down the LEAH stock and started rumors that the company is in deep trouble. "Lehman still has a lot of exposure to the mortgage market, and they...
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24/7 Wall St. | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:07 am
Bernard Arnault, the French luxury goods billionaire, is poised to add luxury
motor yachts to his collection of handbags, watches, perfumes and
champagnes.
Source:
Latest Business News from Times Online | 3 Jun 2008 | 10:00 am
“It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.”--Noel Coward When Yahoo! (YHOO) tried to run away from a buy-out offer from Microsoft (MSFT), it sought comfort in the arms of Google (GOOG). Perhaps the two could form an alliance and the world's largest search company could provide services to the second place company. Analysts said Yahoo! could make hundreds of millions of dollars by letting Google have the business. The move was effective in making Microsoft think twice about its offer. But, then Microsoft just rode into the sunset. It now turns...
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24/7 Wall St. | 3 Jun 2008 | 9:53 am
For those who have not noticed, Sirius (SIRI) and XM Satellite (XMSR) are trading near multi-year lows. That is odd since many investors believe that the FCC will approve their merger. The agency may ask for a big concession which would be that the combined company would give up some spectrum so that a new satellite radio start-up could enter the market. But, the time that the merger could help the two companies is almost certainly in the past. Each still has well over $1 billion in long-term debt. Neither makes any money. Subscriber growth is slowing. Goldman Sachs recently...
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24/7 Wall St. | 3 Jun 2008 | 9:38 am
Biofuel subsidies came under attack at the opening of the United Nations food summit in Rome as the head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation claimed that 'nobody' understood the diversion of food to fuel cars
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FT.com - US homepage | 3 Jun 2008 | 9:10 am
A South Korean court upholds the suspended sentence on Hyundai boss Chung Mong-Koo.
Source:
BBC News | Business | World Edition | 3 Jun 2008 | 8:55 am
Water provider United Utilities sees pre-tax profits fall slightly but says the firm has had a successful 12 months.
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BBC News | Business | World Edition | 3 Jun 2008 | 8:49 am
A new compact car, to be built when UK production of Nissan's Micra ends, is to be built in Sunderland.
Source:
BBC News | Business | World Edition | 3 Jun 2008 | 8:40 am
Michael O'Leary, the outspoken boss of budget airline Ryanair, has denied that the era of low cost air travel is over despite soaring oil prices and pledged to cut costs across the business in order to keep fares down.
Source:
Telegraph Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 8:29 am
Lehman Brothers, the investment bank, is understood to be considering raising
up to $4 billion ($£2 billion) of new capital to bolster a balance sheet that
has been battered by the credit crunch.
Source:
Latest Business News from Times Online | 3 Jun 2008 | 7:37 am
Ryanair says it can cope with oil prices at $130 a barrel, as it announces a 20% increase in annual profits.
Source:
BBC News | Business | World Edition | 3 Jun 2008 | 7:12 am
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L.A. Times - Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 7:00 am
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L.A. Times - Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 7:00 am
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L.A. Times - Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 7:00 am
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L.A. Times - Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 7:00 am
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L.A. Times - Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 7:00 am
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L.A. Times - Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 7:00 am
Ryanair today insisted that "the irrational price of oil" would not
mean an end to low-cost air travel but gave warning that if prices stayed at
current levels it would only break even in the coming year.
Source:
Latest Business News from Times Online | 3 Jun 2008 | 6:54 am
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L.A. Times - Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 5:50 am
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L.A. Times - Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 5:39 am
The New Zealand dollar made gains today despite fresh fears of fallout from the global credit crisis and a fall in stocks that prompted investors to avoid risks and unwind carry trades.
Credit worries were renewed after Standard...
Source:
New Zealand Herald - Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 5:36 am
Billionaire George Soros is to tell US lawmakers that the ability of investment institutions to invest in the futures market through index funds is exaggerating price rises
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FT.com - US homepage | 3 Jun 2008 | 4:06 am
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L.A. Times - Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 3:40 am
Jasons Travel Media has reported a 35.3 per cent increase in annual net profit to $982,000, having spent $2.57 million on acquisitions during the past year.
In the year to the end of March, the company made three acquisitions -...
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New Zealand Herald - Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 3:00 am
The Commissioner of Inland Revenue has won an appeal over discovery of documents in a taxation case against Bank of New Zealand.
The IRD appealed a High Court decision forcing discovery of documents, arguing they were not relevant...
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New Zealand Herald - Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 2:30 am
The value of the New Zealand telecommunications market fell by 1 per cent in the March quarter, despite subscriber growth in broadband and mobile, according to independent tracking of the industry.
Telcos were finding it increasingly...
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New Zealand Herald - Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 2:00 am
Alan Bollard faces a double dilemma.
The first arises from the fact that the economy is in the worst-of-both-worlds phase of the cycle, with growth feeble but inflation running strong. One says cut rates, the other says wait. But...
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New Zealand Herald - Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:30 am
Libor (London interbank offer rate) has recently come in for some high-powered scrutiny, as serious questions are being raised about how it is set. This matters a lot because more than US$150 trillion of financial products are tied...
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New Zealand Herald - Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 1:00 am
Canadian Solar (CSIQ), a photovoltaic module maker, secured a five-year supply deal with Noe Solar Power. Shares rose 3.3% to 41.03.
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Investor's Business Daily: BUSINESS | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:37 am
PCs to promote Microsoft search. PC maker Hewlett-Packard will make Microsoft's Live Search the default search tool on new HP computers shipped in...
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Investor's Business Daily: BUSINESS | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:37 am
LULULEMON ATHLETICA (LULU), a sportswear maker, said Q1 EPS rose 140% to 12 cents, meeting views. Sales grew 75% to $78.2 mil, edging views. It...
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Investor's Business Daily: BUSINESS | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:37 am
Banks boost monitoring of staff. Spending by banks on what's called e-discovery technology is rising, as banks try to keep an eye on their...
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Investor's Business Daily: BUSINESS | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:37 am
It didn't take long for Nikolas Tavlarios to get the hang of making buyouts. Tavlarios, who's president of Aegean Marine Petroleum ANW , has...
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Investor's Business Daily: BUSINESS | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:37 am
Registrations of imported used cars in May fell 4 per cent on April to 8156 last month and were down a whopping 26 per cent on May last year, Land Transport NZ said today.
New car registrations rose modestly in May, up 1.4 per...
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New Zealand Herald - Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:10 am
The banks that financed the £1.7bn buyout of waste management group Biffa have managed to sell on all of the debt they provided for the deal, providing a potential boon for the private equity and infrastructure investment industries.
Source:
Telegraph Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:01 am
The Office of Fair Trading has raided the offices of high street banks Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays in a new price-fixing investigation.
Source:
Telegraph Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:01 am
Orange is preparing to unveil a major restructuring of its UK business led by former Virgin Mobile chief executive Tom Alexander.
Source:
Telegraph Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:01 am
Peter Fincham, ITV's new director of television, has given his senior programme commissioners a vote of confidence, despite the channel's difficult start to 2008.
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Telegraph Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:01 am
A weary Rod Kent, chairman of Bradford & Bingley, conceded that there had been "management failure" at the buy-to-let mortgage lender as he sought yesterday to outline a future for the business.
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Telegraph Business | 3 Jun 2008 | 12:01 am
The major indexes failed to recover after weak reports on manufacturing and construction.
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SmartMoney.com | 2 Jun 2008 | 11:58 pm
Source:
L.A. Times - Business | 2 Jun 2008 | 11:44 pm
World leaders will be urged today to cut EU and US biofuel targets immediately
and divert more grain to tackle the global food crisis.
Source:
Latest Business News from Times Online | 2 Jun 2008 | 11:00 pm
The Office of Fair Trading conducted a series of dawn raids at offices of
Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) as part of an investigation into
price-fixing on loans to lawyers and accountancy firms.
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Latest Business News from Times Online | 2 Jun 2008 | 11:00 pm
In this troubled world economy, to every silver lining there seems to be a
cloud. As fears for the safety of the global financial system have waned in
the past two months, alarm about the health of the so-called real economy
has waxed.
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Latest Business News from Times Online | 2 Jun 2008 | 11:00 pm
European antitrust investigators flexed their muscles yesterday by initiating
proceedings against Sanofi-Aventis, the French pharmaceutical giant, for
allegedly trying to block a dawn raid during an inquiry into generic
medicines.
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Latest Business News from Times Online | 2 Jun 2008 | 11:00 pm
Falls by the three top stocks pulled the sharemarket down 0.8 per cent in early trading today.
Renewed jitters about the financial sector sent Wall Street shares tumbling as the sector's latest troubles accelerated profit taking...
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New Zealand Herald - Business | 2 Jun 2008 | 10:40 pm
Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard is expected to leave the official cash rate at 8.25 per cent on Thursday, but the markets will be looking for a steer on what he sees as the greater danger at this point: growth at a standstill or...
Source:
New Zealand Herald - Business | 2 Jun 2008 | 10:30 pm
The Chicago Board Options Exchange, the US's biggest options exchange, took a big step towards flotation by striking a $1bn settlement to end a long-running legal dispute with members of the Chicago Board of Trade
Source:
FT.com - US homepage | 2 Jun 2008 | 10:25 pm
Passengers travelling to the United States from countries whose citizens do not need visas must register online with the US government at least 72 hours before departure, in the latest measure to strengthen American security
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FT.com - US homepage | 2 Jun 2008 | 10:13 pm
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Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 2 Jun 2008 | 10:02 pm
Yahoo C.E.O. Jerry Yang mapped out a scorched-earth defense against Microsoft, essentially arranging to encourage all 14,000 Yahoo employees to quit if Microsoft succeeded in buying the company earlier this year, newly released court documents suggest.
Yahoo executives also declined to tell its employees that Microsoft was prepared to offer them $1.5 billion in retention bonuses if they would stay with the company after a merger was completed, documents say.
A Delaware state court judge today unsealed a class-action complaint by two pension funds that sued Yahoo's board, claiming it failed to protect shareholders' interests after Microsoft offered to acquire Yahoo for $44.5 billion in January.
The
42-page complaint, filed by the New York class-action specialist law firm Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman, gives a window into internal discussions at Yahoo, and includes copies of internal emails among Yahoo executives.
The complaint asserts that the Yahoo board "handed to Yang responsibility for direct negotiations with Microsoft," and that "none of Yahoo's independent directors attended critical meetings with the company."
As early as January 31, the day Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer emailed his offer to Yang, Microsoft made clear it wanted Yahoo "employees to be okay" and had earmarked "$1.5 billion for the retention of employees" in addition to the "$5 billion for [the] deal," according to notes made that day by an unidentified Yahoo employee. But that fact was never conveyed to Yahoo's employees.
Meanwhile, Yang was engineering a plan for a "massive employee walkout" in the aftermath of a Microsoft takeover by offering all of Yahoo's 14,000 employees the right to quit his or her job and pocket 100 percent acceleration of their equity rights, if there was "substantial adverse alteration" of their jobs.
Yahoo's compensation consultant calculated that the proposal would cost $1.5 billion, or 3.2 percent of the transaction price. "That's nuts," he concluded in an email.
A Yahoo vice president wrote that it is "a bizarre outcome if people who stick around make off worse financially than people who [are] laid off."
But another Yahoo executive, using Microsoft's four-letter stock-ticker symbol, noted that the plan "will make things increasingly more expensive for MSFT though."
The "double trigger" plan Yang supported would have first required Microsoft to pay benefits to everyone who lost their jobs as a result of the merger; a second trigger would also require severance for people who were still on the payroll if their jobs changed.
A February 14 email exchange between two Yahoo executives—Gred Mrva, vice president of mergers and acquisitions, and John Dillon, senior director of integration and corporate development—shows them candidly observing they would be better off getting fired under the Yahoo.
"You and I will be f***ed as they will find a way to make us work for two more years," Mrva wrote.
Dillon responded by pointing out the double trigger also applied to change of roles. Before a deal could close, he noted, Microsoft would have to ask all remaining employees to waive their right to payment in case their job changed. "And to waive at close, they need to effectively buy us out," Dillon wrote.
The complaint also alleges that Yahoo executives compiled comparative data about similar severance plans from only three other unsolicited takeovers, and in any case never provided the information to any Yahoo director.
Chancellor William Chandler III of the Delaware Chancery Court unsealed the document despite what he said were the "defendants' strenuous arguments" that selective disclosure of the information would prejudice Yahoo at its upcoming proxy contest.
Chandler said the appropriate remedy would be for the release of more information, not less. He encouraged "defendants to release the full text of any communications they believe have been taken out of context or selectively quoted."
For its part, Bernstein Litowitz is pressing ahead with discovery, and will push to depose Yahoo director Arthur Kern, head of the compensation committee.
The lawsuit seeks to invalidate the employee severance plan and ensure that any merger deal maximizes shareholder value.
It also seeks damages if, at the end of the process, Yahoo remains an independent company with a depressed stock price.Related Links
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Portfolio.com: Top 5 | 2 Jun 2008 | 10:00 pm
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Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 2 Jun 2008 | 8:44 pm
The board gave the chief executive the boot as bad loans continue to dog the stock.
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SmartMoney.com | 2 Jun 2008 | 8:23 pm
Natural gas ETF gains as consumers get set to turn on their air conditioners.
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SmartMoney.com | 2 Jun 2008 | 8:18 pm
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Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 2 Jun 2008 | 8:15 pm
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Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 2 Jun 2008 | 8:02 pm
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Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 2 Jun 2008 | 7:59 pm
Even as violence and poverty wash over their country, some entrepreneurial Kenyans are getting the economy back on its feet with the help of a government program. Sarah Nics has the story.
Source:
Marketplace | 2 Jun 2008 | 7:53 pm
The Discovery Channel is preparing to unveil 'Planet Green,' a 24-hour, all-environmental cable network. New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter talks with host Bob Moon about the growth of eco-tainment.
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Marketplace | 2 Jun 2008 | 7:53 pm
How to best police emissions? Economist and commentator Andrew Samwick argues that only a flat tax on carbon will truly cut consumption across the board.
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Marketplace | 2 Jun 2008 | 7:53 pm
Host Bob Moon talks with Time's style and design editor Kate Betts about how the design industry has changed since Yves Saint Laurent hit the scene half a century ago. The renowned designer died this past weekend.
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Marketplace | 2 Jun 2008 | 7:53 pm
When the Lebanese government banned scooters and mopeds, the delivery industry was forced to get creative to protect its business. Ben Gilbert reports.
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Marketplace | 2 Jun 2008 | 7:53 pm
The World Trade Organization has ruled in favor of Brazil in a six-year trade dispute over U.S. cotton subsidies. Dan Grech explains what the ruling means for U.S. growers.
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Marketplace | 2 Jun 2008 | 7:53 pm
With banks running from risk, it's getting more difficult for students at small colleges to borrow money for their education. Nancy Marshall Genzer outlines options for students in the rapidly shrinking student loan market.
Source:
Marketplace | 2 Jun 2008 | 7:53 pm
With no relief in sight from high gas prices, more Americans are turning to public transit for their commutes. Sam Eaton reports on how transit systems are preparing for new riders.
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Marketplace | 2 Jun 2008 | 7:52 pm
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Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 2 Jun 2008 | 7:43 pm
Faced with a lousy economy and a sick dollar, President Kevorkian offered a prescription.
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SmartMoney.com | 2 Jun 2008 | 7:31 pm
Now this is what gets a Hollywood executive excited.
The
Sex and the City movie raked in more than $55 million this weekend, well above the studio's forecast of $25 million to $35 million. That number made the opening weekend the biggest-ever for a romantic comedy, bumping
Hitch, which raked in $43 million when it opened in 2005, to second place.
S.A.T.C. has also become the biggest-ever opening for an R-rated movie.
In addition,
Sex seduced the weekend's top-grossing spot from the new
Indiana Jones flick, which industry analysts had forecast to remain No. 1 in its second weekend in theaters. And the movie made good overseas as well, earning $40 million in its opening weekend.
With a reported budget of $60 million (not counting marketing), that means the pink-hued flick is well into the black. And even if there is a significant drop-off in viewers over the next few weeks, which might be expected since opening-weekend turnout was so strong, Warner Bros. isn't likely to lose sleep over it. With additional ticket sales trickling in, both domestic and worldwide, and plenty of gravy in the form of ancillary markets like DVD and per-per-view sales, the movie will keep W.B. execs in Manolos and cosmos—or Gucci brogues and Montecristos, whatever the case may be.
"They should make one of these every year," says Jeff Bock, who analyzes box-office sales for Exhibitor Relations, a Los Angeles-based entertainment-research firm. Bock notes the rarity of a movie hauling in such huge numbers of women—according to a press release from Warner Bros., 85 percent of viewers this weekend were female—and likens the film to
Titanic, another monstrously profitable film that female moviegoers made into "event" viewing, and whose success took the industry by surprise.
So should audiences expect a slew of female-friendly films, now that women have proved they can make money for chick flicks? The Katherine Heigl vehicle
27 Dresses—which has grossed over $155 million worldwide to date—Ellen Page's
Juno, and Miley Cyrus'
Hannah Montana are all recent examples of high-profile, female-oriented movies that made money for studios. But Bock doubts a flood of female movies will materialize, saying Hollywood's "male-oriented" mentality—in which action flicks dominate—is unlikely to change.
Instead, the happiest ending of all may be for HBO, which "has to be licking its chops right now," says Bock. He predicts that a rumored
Sopranos movie, based on the popular HBO series, will now be fast-tracked in production. And if that's true, viewers might soon see an
Entourage movie, or even one based on
The Wire.
After all, if you can make this money in the movies, why waste time on the small screen?
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Portfolio.com: Top 5 | 2 Jun 2008 | 7:30 pm
Macquarie Group Ltd will create a new securities operation by merging its wholesale capital securities and equity markets divisions.
Macquarie Securities will have 1700 employees, 1200 based outside Australia.
The operation...
Source:
New Zealand Herald - Business | 2 Jun 2008 | 7:30 pm
Apple has bought a slew of .me domains, the soon-to-be-launched domain suffix for Montenegro that's scheduled to go live on July 17th.
Macworld UK spoke to Predrag Lesic, in charge of the Montenegro’s .me registry, and he thinks the domain will be an international hit:
We think .me can offer a new business around domain names with verbs,” Lesic says, such as drive.me or fly.me
You can imagine what the others might be.
Speculation around the web says Apple may be planning to rebrand its withering-on-the-vine web service, .Mac, as Mobile Me. Daring Fireball points out that there is a new string inside one of iCal’s resource files hinting that .Mac will indeed be getting a new name, although it remains unknown what it will be.
These two facts go nicely together, sure, but isn’t it just as likely that Apple, like many other international companies, would snap up any new top-level domain before the squatters get hold of it? Indeed,
Macworld lists Microsoft, MTV and BMW as amongst the new owners of a .me domain. One extra discovery, found by Dmitry at the
Coding Robots blog, is the glue that sticks this puzzle together. The picture above shows a line inside the iPhone 2.0 SDK.
We won’t let that stop us hoping, though. Here are four things we’d love to see from Mobile Me.
Back to My Mac for iPhone Back to My Mac lets you access your home Mac from anywhere on the internet. The routing is all handled by Apple, so you never have to worry about firewalls or IP addresses (when it works, that is). Imagine, though, having full access to your music, movies and files from your iPhone. That would effectively turn it from a 16-GB handheld computer into a handheld computer the size of, well, your Mac’s hard drive. Drop in streaming video and you have a Sling-beating killer app.
Cheaper .Mac’s pricing certainly needs an overhaul. Currently $100 a year, it offers less than you can get from elsewhere for nothing. 10 GB of storage space is shared among the services. Gmail alone gives almost 7 GB. The iDisk can be replaced by many other online storage services and your photos are much better off on Flickr (the free version offers unlimited storage but limits monthly upload bandwidth).
As this theoretical service will be aimed at iPhone users who will already be paying carrier fees, we’d expect to see a significant price drop. Maybe free, maybe $30 with tiered upgrade pricing, but definitely not $100.
Over-the-Air Synching Your iPhone has WiFi. And soon, we expect, it will have a 3-G radio. So why should you need something as old-fashioned as a cable to transfer music, contact data, calendars and files? Microsoft’s Exchange already manages to update devices over the air, and Apple will be incorporating that into the iPhone 2 software. And Steve Jobs' new mission, after reducing the number of buttons on an Apple device to just one, seems to be a war on wires (see: MacBook Air).
Better still, if you have to head out before the latest Gadget Lab podcast has downloaded, you could sync it on the road.
Squirting Sure, you could send music wirelessly from one iPod to another, but as the Zune experiment showed, DRM cripples the experience. Imagine, though, a kind of peer-to-peer sharing with .Mac. Somebody “squirts” something at you and your iPhone automatically grabs it not from their iPhone but straight from the iTunes store. The download would be good for say, three days. Better yet, any podcasts would be unlimited.
So far, so almost-lame. But add in the long-rumored iTunes subscription model (with Mobile Me included) and your friend could instantly squirt you a whole playlist. This .xml file would be tiny, but your iPhone would then grab the full tracks from the iTunes Store. Even further, tie this into a barcode reader. You pass a poster promoting a cool looking band? Read the barcode with the iPhone’s camera and you get their music. Instantly.
Anything we missed? What features could a properly designed, always-on web service offer to the iPhone? Answers, as always, in the comments.
Product page [Apple]
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Portfolio.com: Top 5 | 2 Jun 2008 | 7:30 pm
New technologies and services make coupon clipping more accessible for shoppers.
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SmartMoney.com | 2 Jun 2008 | 6:58 pm
To: Eddie Lampert
From: Jack Flack
Subject: Know When to Fold'em
I'm writing you this Rescue Memo because of two big assumptions.
Assumption #1: Reality.
Sears can't be saved, at least as traditionally conceived. In a struggling economy that shows no signs of rejuvenation, you've tethered together two of the weakest players in a sector notorious for its ruthless economics.
Your flacks are already having to
defend the idea that Sears will be solvent next year, and you've provided no credible plan for fixing an operating model that is now
widely presumed to be
completely broken.
Assumption #2: Perception.
Your golden reputation as an investor can be easily salvaged. Your reputation as an ops guy probably can't. And your reputation as a retailer was burnt to an acrid crisp long ago.
Thus, you must refocus your story back on to the character of Eddie the Magical Investor. Here's how you can do it.
- Go back to who you really are. You're a tremendous finance guy, who the business press used to love to call the next Warren Buffett. That was heady stuff, but your track record at the time actually made it somewhat credible.
The bad news is that you're a lousy merchant.
Great merchants tend to have a talent for making the old retired guy who now greets shoppers at the door feel like he's doing brilliant work at the most important job in the world. You, on the other hand, have a talent for making veteran retail executives painfully aware that you're much smarter than they are, which tends to demoralize.
No turnaround, particularly in retail, was ever fueled by demoralization. Hedge funds and investor activism, however, require exactly the kind of ice-cold Prestone that flows through your veins, and you need to confine yourself to environments where your fundamental nature is a huge competitive advantage, not an impediment.
I'm still not sure why you felt the need to want to operate a business. But just as Michael Jordan cleanly walked away from the baseball diamond before it became embarrassingly obvious that he was never, ever going to be able to hit a Major League cutter, you must do the same at Sears.
If you get stubborn and cling to this episode in your career, it will end up overshadowing everything you've done in the past, and provide a poisonous prologue to whatever you decide to do next.
- Embrace reality. I'm not the first to point out that your troubles come from the fact that you violated two of Buffett's most important rules:
You bought companies with anemic core propositions, and then you insisted on managing them yourself. Even the Oracle of Omaha loses when he violates his own rules, but he also knows how to cut his losses and move on.
You can debate the projections of financial implosion, but your core operations are deteriorating at a rate that will not allow you to wait for the economy to turn.
In fact, each month you wait significantly weakens your hand, and you must now focus on the optimal way to fold while you still have some flexibility.
- End the interim. Quickly announce that Johnson is now your actual C.E.O., not just a placeholder. It will allow you to stop searching for a candidate who simply does not exist—that is, someone who is both qualified and interested.
Even more important, it will eliminate a huge internal uncertainty, and allow your people to get on with business.
- Take it private. I'm sure you've already done the math in your head. The real estate is worth X, and the brands are worth Y. As your stock price continues to track your operational decline, it won't take many quarters before the math of a leveraged buyout will make sense.
On the day that happens, make a sales call on Miller, Berkowitz, and Ackman. With the support of your biggest shareholders, you should be able to carry the vote easily, and with limited lawsuits.
With that strategy in mind, you may want to drag your feet on the share repurchase you just announced, keeping cash freed up and not artificially supporting the stock price.
Going private will get you out of the fishbowl, where every move will be highly scrutinized. That will be important, as you...
- Sell the real estate. You excel at transactions, and I have no doubt that you won't leave any panic money on the table, even in this environment.
This will effectively take you out of traditional retailing, a brutal sector where you are heavily disadvantaged. But it will allow you to recast Sears into a far superior business model, as you...
- Become the brands. In other words, as you shed the real estate assets, you will turn Sears back into what it started as, a trusted consumer-products company.
The fact that Craftsman, Kenmore, DieHard, and Lands' End remain solid brands despite being starved of support in recent years says much about their underlying strength.
Drag your feet on the stock repurchase program you announced, and actually start investing meaningfully in your brands.
- Properly contextualize the events. The media will want to cast this story as one of Midas losing his touch, personalizing events specifically to you. You've got to pull the camera back, reminding everyone of just how dire the presumed fate was for both Kmart and Sears before you came on the scene.
Here are the core messages that you must repeat until your mouth gets sore:
"I own half the company, and nobody takes the future of Sears more seriously than I do. It's painful, but we are doing what's required to make sure Sears survives.
"At a very challenging point in history, we made a bold move to try to save two American icons. We're proud of what we accomplished, but we probably underestimated the challenge.
"We're saving Sears by taking it back to its original roots as the provider of great products that Americans can count on."
- Emulate your idol, especially in acknowledging problems. I know you want your shareholder letters to be as notable as Buffett's, but that will never really happen unless you stop complaining about how unfair things are, particularly how the media treats you.
Notice that Buffett almost always personally embraces accountability for poor performance, which then gives him permission to make big changes without losing face. It's called manufacturing your own Teflon as you go.
That means you probably need to get yourself a fortysomething version of Loomis. If you can't find somebody who will stand up to you enough to steer you clear of disastrous conceits, give me a call. I'll give it my best. But if we can't make it work, then I can brag that I got fired by Eddie Lampert.
After all, minimizing your defeats by embracing them is often the real key to a lifetime reputation.
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Portfolio.com: Top 5 | 2 Jun 2008 | 6:30 pm
The embattled leaders on Wall Street started the day today with the promise that comes with the dawn of a new month and a new quarter—time to start over yet again with a clean slate and with their remaining troops ready and able to pounce on any sign of a rebound.
Unfortunately, the first trading day of June has brutally shattered that optimism.
Financial stocks dragged the broader markets down today after Standard & Poor's downgraded its ratings on debt from
Lehman Brothers,
Merrill Lynch, and
Morgan Stanley. That news brought the shares of the investment banks into the same negative territory as those of the commercial banks, which were already hammered by
news of leadership changes at both
Wachovia and
Washington Mutual.
S&P called the outlook for the large financial institutions "mostly negative," and it expects the banks to report even more write-downs on their assets. In addition to cutting the ratings on the three banks, S&P lowered its outlook on Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase, and it indicated it may also downgrade Wachovia.
Many investment banks, including Lehman, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs, will report earnings in the coming weeks for the quarter that ended last week. While there were signs that the credit market had begun to loosen a bit in April, Wall Street's fiscal quarter included the month of March, which was particularly hard for markets as the Bear Stearns debacle unfolded.
Despite banks' proclamations that their capital raising efforts have effectively bolstered their balance sheets, most analysts still expect the banks to report more write-downs and raise even more new capital.
Expectations are particularly low for Lehman, which has been desperately trying to quell rumors that it could face the same fate as Bear Stearns, as some investors have
raised questions about its financials. Its chief financial officer has indicated that the second quarter was tough and that more write-downs will be forthcoming.
Of course, in this day and age of magical accounting and inventive asset valuation, the lower credit ratings could end up having a positive effect for the banks on earnings day. Bloomberg News
reports today on the sheer insanity of a new accounting rule that has paved the way for the biggest banks to book nearly $12 billion in revenue from the declining value of their bonds. They effectively argued that if they were expected to mark their assets to market value, they should be able to mark their liabilities as such as well. When their bond prices fall, the banks can realize "savings" on their liabilities.
Equity investors, however, will need a bit more convincing. Shares of Lehman fell nearly 7 percent in afternoon trading, while Merrill and Morgan were off 3 percent.
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Portfolio.com: Top 5 | 2 Jun 2008 | 6:00 pm
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Reuters - The future of the long-running legal
battle over former New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard
Grasso's $187.5 million compensation package will be weighed by
the state's highest court on Tuesday.
Source:
Yahoo! News: Business | 2 Jun 2008 | 4:39 pm
Microsoft can't wait for an unlikely alliance with Yahoo or for cash rebates to rev up its search business. So it strikes deals like the one today with
Hewlett-Packard.
Microsoft's Live Search will be the default search-engine setting on Hewlett-Packard personal computers shipped in North America starting in January. Microsoft also has a distribution deal with Lenovo of China, which acquired I.B.M.'s PC business. Google, of course, has been dominant in search, handling 10 times more traffic than Microsoft.
"This agreement with H.P. is a strategic indicator of our increased focus on securing broadscale distribution for Live Search,"
said Kevin Johnson, president of the platforms and services division at Microsoft. "This is the most significant distribution deal for Live Search that Microsoft has ever done."
The headline on Vasanth Sridharan's
post on Silicon Alley Insider says it all: "Microsoft's Non-Google Killer." But Hewlett-Packard is the biggest PC manufacturer in the world. Sridharan says, "This won't do much in the long run, but at the right price, these deals aren't a terrible idea."
Om Malik
notes that "the distribution game used to be Microsoft's strategy" until it ran up against the Justice Department over Netscape.
"It is hard to imagine a leopard changing its spots. The desktop-search deal with H.P. is a good example."
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