The Russian state has secured a controlling stake in the world’s second largest diamond miner, Alrosa. Source: Telegraph Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 11:43 am
Societe Generale will wind up a $4.3 billion structured investment vehicle in a move that will repay senior debt but leave holders of the lowest-ranked debt with nothing.
London shares fell on Tuesday, as most stocks related to the housing market and consumer spending trends fell, although Bradford & Bingley rallied after investment vehicle Resolution revealed an alternative funding plan for the lender.
The main Israeli stock benchmarks were down in the early afternoon on Tuesday, with several prominent companies taking it on the chin, but Koor was higher and in the spotlight on a deal inquiry.
Japanese steelmakers led by Nippon Steel Corp. are poised to accept a doubling of iron-ore prices demanded by Rio Tinto for the current fiscal year, according to a Japanese media report. Shares of Japanese steelmakers end broadly lower in Tokyo as investors play off the reports.
Credit Suisse has issued a new coverage rating systems for its homebuilder universe. These are some of the calls we saw in the sector: Centex (NYSE: CTX), DR Horton (NYSE: DHI), and KB Home (NYSE: KBH) were all started with "Outperform" ratings. MDC Holdings (NYSE: MDC) and NVR (NYSE: NVR) were both started as Neutral. Hovnanian (NYSE: HOV) and Meritage Homes (NYSE: MTH) were started as "Underperform." We'll follow up if we see any of the other calls in the sector out of Credit Suisse. Jon C. Ogg June 24, 2008
US lawmakers said yesterday they intend to tighten restrictions on investors,
to limit speculation on the soaring price of oil and bring the price of a
barrel back down. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 24 Jun 2008 | 10:39 am
BG Group, the UK oil and gas group, on Tuesday put its A$13.8bn (US$13.2bn) takeover proposal for Origin Energy directly to shareholders, unveiling an ambitious hostile all cash offer for the Australian... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 10:36 am
Among the companies whose shares are expected to see active trade in Tuesday’s session are the airlines and auto makers as well as Ace, Advanced Medical Optics, Alcon, Brady, Cooper Tire, General Mills, Nokia, Origin Energy and UPS.
Motorola (MOT) hit a 52-week low today. Make that a multiple year low, at $7.36. Piper Jaffray downgraded the stock last week. The question about the company is whether it is worth more than the sum of its parts. The handset division is about to be spun-out. Those shares are probably an immediate “sell”. The unit has gone from a global market share of 22% to about 12% and it has not new products to improve that trend. RIM (RIMM), Apple (AAPL), Palm (PALM), and Nokia (NOK) have all launched new handsets. That will squeeze MOT even further. But, holding...
Debenhams saw its shares climb nearly 8pc today after the department store chain brought forward a trading statement to announce better than expected results. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 10:30 am
Debenhams saw its shares climb nearly 8pc today after the department store chain brought forward a trading statement to announce better than expected results. Source: Telegraph Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 10:30 am
LONDON (Reuters) - Stock futures pointed to a lower start on Wall Street on Tuesday as the market remained under pressure. Package delivery company United Parcel Service cut its second-quarter earnings outlook after the closing bell on Monday, citing slow economic growth and high fuel costs.
Oil companies and many lawmakers are pressing to open up more U.S. land for drilling. But the industry is drilling on just a fraction of offshore areas it already has access to.
European shares reversed early gains in a sharp sell-off on Tuesday, as another uptick in crude-oil futures meant that worries about how companies such as automakers are going to cope with higher costs in an environment of slowing economic growth came back to the fore.
Nokia Corp., the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, on Tuesday offered to buy the 52% of Symbian it doesn’t already own for about 264 million euros ($410 million) in cash and said it will make the software royalty-free in response to the rising threat of companies like Google, Inc.
NYSE Euronext has taken a 25 per cent equity stake in Qatar's stock market, stoking the three-way battle for regional financial supremacy in the petrodollar-fuelled Gulf region. The transatlantic stock... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 10:11 am
NYSE Euronext has taken an equity stake in Qatar's stock market, stoking the three-way battle for regional financial supremacy in the petrodollar-fuelled Gulf region Source: FT.com - US homepage | 24 Jun 2008 | 10:11 am
The Fed could raise rates to make the consumer feel better. Lowering rates has not helped him. As the agency has cut interest rates to moderate the credit crisis, banks and brokerages have been able to do their borrowing and repair their balance sheets with some relief from what they pay for the capital. All evidence is that this has not been passed on to the average citizen. His mortgage rate has not dropped. Nor has the rate that he pays on his credit card, which is still a phenomenal 19.9% annual compounded. The US economy is entering its selling...
U.S. stock futures tumbled early Tuesday, as oil prices jumped and investors headed for the sidelines ahead of a Federal Reserve decision on interest rates.
Nokia plans to buy out its fellow shareholders of Symbian, the UK-based handset software firm, and throw the mobile phone operating system open for royalty-free use. Source: Telegraph Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 10:00 am
It's a classic Wall Street “whodunit," complete with a collection of greedy investment bankers, slow-witted policymakers and numbskull Florida home buyers. But with so many suspects, how will Americans ever figure out who killed the once-vibrant and cheery U.S. economy?
"There were a lot of people who contributed to the real estate bubble and the easing of lending standards that led to the subprime debacle," says Ethan Harris, chief U.S. economist at Lehman Brothers. So many, indeed, that he and other pundits find it difficult to point the finger at any single player.
Real estate speculators took foolish risks because lax lenders such as Angelo Mozilo's Countrywide Financial let them; mortgage bankers and investment bankers allowed greed to override caution; credit-rating analysts and central bankers alike relied on risk-management models that proved inadequate to the task at hand.
"Bubbles grow because nearly every player pitches in to make them grow," argues Tobias Levkovich, market strategist for Citigroup.
Of course, at the core of any bubble is an apparently rational demand for a rational good or service that at some point tips over into irrationality. So the quest to assign blame should start with whomever it is that is demanding the free lunch—the purchasers of tulips, dotcom stocks, or, as is the case today, townhouses in Naples, Florida, or on the outskirts of Phoenix.
"The speculative fever that swept through the ranks of home buyers was quite astonishing," says Jason Trennert, co-founder of Strategas, a market-analysis firm. "Everyone wanted to cash in on what they saw as a one-way ticket to riches by buying real estate."
The problem wasn't just the greed of the buyers, however. Lenders were equally hungry for quick profits and all too willing to satisfy that buyer's need for immediate gratification, waiving the requirements for income or job verification in exchange, of course, for only slightly higher interest payments on the mortgage.
No down payment? No problem. Suddenly, there were few true obstacles to borrowing; after all, minimal percentage points of extra interest would compensate for the added risk of lending to these subprime borrowers, rationalized the banks and other lenders doling out the cash.
But perhaps those lenders wouldn't have been quite as eager to throw their traditional rules out the window if creative savants toiling at investment banks hadn't found a way for them to quickly remove any risk they were taking from their books and dump it into the laps of other investors. Some, like Merrill Lynch's ousted chief, Stan O’Neal, jumped headfirst into the risky business.
The folks who ran those portfolios, says the freshly indicted Ralph Cioffi of Bear Stearns, eagerly snapped up those securities without questioning their outsize yields, all too willing to accept the risks as benign and remote.
After all, analysts at the credit-rating agencies such as Moody's and Standard & Poor's were awarding these collateralized-mortgage obligation securities and other such packages far higher ratings than they ultimately deserved. No one was able or willing to delve far enough beneath the surface to realize how risky the investments actually were, or how much investors stood to lose if housing prices started to dip or interest rates started to climb.
Does the blame spread to Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve? Was a lack of vigilance on the part of policymakers responsible for the bubble and thus, ultimately, our current economic plight? What about Hank Paulson at the Treasury? Shouldn't the former Goldman Sachs boss have felt the ill winds blowing?
"Tighter monetary policy would have been helpful," concedes Lehman's Harris, before adding that "it's very hard to identify an asset market bubble, and frankly, this was a big problem that had a lot of participants." Ultimately, though, he's unwilling to pin too much blame on Fed chairman Ben Bernanke or his predecessor, the once-revered Alan Greenspan.
"Everyone was eager to take the risks when things were going well; it isn't until it all starts going wrong that we look for someone to blame," says Levkovich. "But if we're honest with ourselves, it's far easier to have perfect hindsight than it is to buck the trend when a bubble is taking shape."
Nokia plans to buy out its fellow shareholders of Symbian, the UK-based handset software firm, and throw the mobile phone operating system open for royalty-free use. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 10:00 am
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Most Asian markets extended their recent losses Tuesday in a session marked by volatility, with Hong Kong stocks finishing lower for the fourth session in a row and Mumbai shares on the way down for their fifth.
Energy chiefs are asked to defend expected future rises in bills as they appear before MPs. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:54 am
United Airlines says 950 of its pilots will lose their jobs as spiralling fuel costs hit earnings. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:53 am
SHENZHEN, China, June 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Vestasia Limited (Symbol: MLVES; ISIN: HK0000041928) a leading financial services provider to fast growing companies in Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:53 am
Oil prices rose towards 138 dollars a barrel on Tuesday, closing in on record highs, as OPEC's president rebuffed calls from oil consuming countries for increased supplies from the cartel. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:52 am
The market took the UPS (UPS) news hard. High fuel prices and slowing customer demand made the company cut its earnings forecasts, just as rival Fedex (FDX) did a week ago. According to MarketWatch: UPS "warning that second-quarter profit is foreseen coming in at 83 cents to 88 cents a share. It previously expected earnings of 97 cents to $1.04 a share." There has been a scintilla of hope that UPS might offset gas prices with strong international sales, but there was nothing to it. What should be viewed as a surprise is that UPS is making money at all....
Lone Star and its South Korean chief were found not guilty of stock price manipulation in an appeals court ruling that should clear the way for the US private equity group's sale of Korea Exchange Bank... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:49 am
Reuters - A South Korean high court on Tuesday
cleared U.S. private equity house Lone Star of manipulating the
stock price of a former credit card firm, removing an obstacle
to HSBC's $6.3 billion deal to buy control of Korea Exchange
Bank.
SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean high court on Tuesday cleared U.S. private equity house Lone Star of manipulating the stock price of a former credit card firm, removing an obstacle to HSBC's $6.3 billion deal to buy control of Korea Exchange Bank.
High-speed rail would benefit the environment and the economy more than plans to expand Heathrow airport, says the RMT union. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:46 am
The cost of a barrel of crude oil has edged closer to its all-time high after OPEC president Chakib Khelil warned that oil prices “will not come down”. Source: Telegraph Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:44 am
A hostile takeover bid for Origin Energy, one of Australia's biggest natural gas producers, enlivened otherwise quiet trading on Tuesday. China agreed to a record rise in the price of iron ore, which... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:44 am
The cost of a barrel of crude oil has edged closer to its all-time high after OPEC president Chakib Khelil warned that oil prices will not come down. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:44 am
BEIJING/SYDNEY (Reuters) - The focus in annual iron ore price talks shifted on Tuesday to whether BHP Billiton would convince Chinese steelmakers to pay more than the record settlement reached with Australian rival Rio Tinto a day earlier.
BEIJING/SYDNEY (Reuters) - The focus in annual iron ore price talks shifted on Tuesday to whether BHP Billiton would convince Chinese steelmakers to pay more than the record... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:40 am
Reuters - The focus in annual iron ore
price talks shifted on Tuesday to whether BHP Billiton
would convince Chinese steelmakers to pay more
than the record settlement reached with Australian rival Rio
Tinto a day earlier.
Kesa Electricals, the retail group which owns Comet, has warned of tougher times ahead as consumer confidence continues to cool. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:38 am
Kesa Electricals, the retail group which owns Comet, has warned of tougher times ahead as consumer confidence continues to cool. Source: Telegraph Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:38 am
Finnish phone giant Nokia is paying £209m to acquire total control of handset software firm Symbian. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:35 am
A South Korean appeals court Tuesday found US buyout fund Lone Star not guilty of rigging shares following its purchase of a local bank in 2003, and cancelled fines totalling almost 50... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:32 am
There is no more such a thing as "interest free" car loans than there is Big Foot in the northern forests. There may be tracks in the snow, but, out beyond the tree-line, there is nothing. It is a myth because there is no such thing, no matter how many delusional trackers want it to be. GM (GM) has decided to offer "interest free" loans on many of its cars for up to six years. If the customer does not like that, he can get up to $7,000 of cash back. Even among dunces, the idea of "interest free" is...
London equities ticked higher on Tuesday, with the banking sector once more attracting attention after news of a rival rescue proposal for Bradford & Bingley. The banking sector was absorbing news... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:29 am
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's Bayer AG agreed to supply a generic version of its Yasmin oral contraceptive for Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc to market in the United States in return for a fixed portion of sales.
A South Korean appeals court on Tuesday overturned a guilty verdict against U.S. private equity group Lone Star Funds, which had been accused of stock manipulation in a case that has been... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:18 am
Auto stocks pushed European bourses lower as concerns about oil and raw materials prices drove shares towards key resistance levels.Italy's Fiat was in the vanguard of losers, falling 3.9 per cent to 11... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:16 am
Fears of a housing market crash in the UK heightened today as annual mortgage
lending in May plunged by 56 per cent to a record low. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:12 am
Thomas Cook, the UK-based travel agent, said that it was eyeing acquisitions in Europe as rivals battle for survival in the face of spiralling fuel prices. Source: Telegraph Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:10 am
PARIS/DUBAI (Reuters) - The state of Qatar has agreed to sell 25 percent of the Doha Securities Market to NYSE Euronext for $250 million in a bid to become the booming region's financial hub and extend global links.
IRVINE, Calif., June 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Un-Bottled Water, Alternative Fueling Stations, Recycled Heat -- these are just a few of the countless green Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:06 am
Texan private equity firm Lone Star is cleared of rigging shares by a South Korean appeals court. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:02 am
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., June 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Stradling Global Sourcing today announced that it has changed the company's name to Avasant to more accurately reflect Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 9:00 am
Russian oil producer Lukoil is to pay 1.35 billion euros (2.1 billion dollars) to buy 49 percent of a refinery owned by Italian group ERG, ERG announced on Tuesday. The... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 8:58 am
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) today received a slap in the face from the
Gulf state of Qatar, which has agreed a ground-breaking deal for rival
exchange operator, NYSE Euronext, to build up the kingdom's financial centre
and take a 25 per cent stake in the local stock market. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 24 Jun 2008 | 8:54 am
Reuters - The state of Qatar has agreed to
sell 25 percent of the Doha Securities Market to NYSE Euronext
for $250 million in a bid to become the booming
region's financial hub and extend global links.
Shares in Bradford & Bingley (B&B) today surged by nearly 16 per cent as
shareholders came out in support of investors' plans to inject £400 million
into the struggling mortgage lender and put Resolution, the insurance
investment vehicle, in charge. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 24 Jun 2008 | 8:37 am
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's Bayer agreed to supply a generic version of its Yasmin oral contraceptive for Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc to market in the United States in return for a fixed Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 8:36 am
Nokia has stepped up the pressure on Apple and Google after offering to buy Symbian, which makes operating systems for so-called smart mobile phones Source: FT.com - US homepage | 24 Jun 2008 | 8:32 am
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Paramount Pictures said on Monday it had topped $1 billion in sales at U.S. and Canadian box offices, boosted by hit films "Iron Man" and the latest "Indiana Jones" saga, and become the first studio to pass that benchmark this year.
HAMBURG, Germany, June 24 /PRNewswire/ -- The offer by the investor group coordinated by J.C. Flowers to acquire a 20.0 to 24.9 per cent stake in Hypo Real Estate Holding Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 24 Jun 2008 | 8:25 am
The Russian chairman of BP's joint venture, TNK-BP, tells the BBC the firm's chief executive should quit. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 24 Jun 2008 | 8:12 am
According to Reuters, a proposal from the SEC would cut the role of credit rating agencies. Reuters writes that United (UAUA) will lay-off 950 pilots. Reuters reports that GM (GM) will cut truck output and offer interest free financing on most models. Reuters reports that UPS (UPS) cuts its earnings outlook on higher gas prices. Reuters reports that Paulson has suggested oil producing nations up their output. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google (GOOG) will offer a new product which measures web traffic to specific sites. The Wall Street Journal writes that Rio Tinto (RTP) and BHP (BHP) won...
When prices were soaring, credit was flowing and selling was as easy as jamming a FOR SALE sign into your front lawn, the simplest way to upgrade your home was to sell and get the heck out of it. In other words, move to a bigger and better one.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission plans to propose rules that may diminish the importance of credit ratings across various markets, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
Markets in Asia were mixed. The Nikkei was down a fraction to 13,850. Nippong Steel was down 2.5% to 565. Sony (SNE) was down 1.4% to 5000. The Hang Seng was off .7% to 22,587. China Petroleum (SNP) was down 3.2% to 7.64. CNOOC was up 3.3% to 13.34. The Shanghai Composite rose 1.5% to 2,803. Data from Reuters Douglas A. McIntyre
Investment group Resolution is in talks with shareholders at Bradford & Bingley about a plan to pump £400m into the troubled UK lender. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 24 Jun 2008 | 7:25 am
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Smart-casual fashion house Tommy Hilfiger is focusing on expansion after turning around its U.S. business and currently has no plans for a stock market listing, its chief executive said.
Debenhams, the department store group, this morning sought to reassure
investors concerned by its high debt levels by bringing forward its interim
management statement. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 24 Jun 2008 | 7:18 am
Reuters - British gas producer BG Group launched a
hostile $13.1 billion bid for Australia's Origin Energy, as it
seeks to boost its position in Asia-Pacific's fast-growing gas
market.
PERTH (Reuters) - British gas producer BG Group launched a hostile $13.1 billion bid for Australia's Origin Energy, as it seeks to boost its position in Asia-Pacific's fast-growing gas market.
Kesa Electricals, the retail group that runs Comet stores and is Europe’s
third largest electronic retailer, warned today of declining consumer
confidence and said it was deferring plans for a share buyback programme. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 24 Jun 2008 | 7:03 am
BG Group, the British gas producer, has made a A$13.8 billion ($£6.7 billion)
hostile all-cash bid for Australia’s Origin Energy. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 24 Jun 2008 | 6:36 am
Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwe opposition leader, was sheltering in the Dutch embassy in Harare as the UN Security council ruled that a free and fair presidential election run-off was impossible because of violence against opposition supporters Source: FT.com - US homepage | 24 Jun 2008 | 6:33 am
British energy firm BG Group makes a $13.15bn hostile bid for Australian power company Origin Energy. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 24 Jun 2008 | 6:30 am
ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss agrochemicals group Syngenta and U.S. chemicals maker DuPont have signed an agreement to grant each other access to certain crop protection technologies, Syngenta said on Tuesday.
A senior FBI officer says more arrests will be made as part of its probe into mortgage fraud and the credit crunch. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 24 Jun 2008 | 5:58 am
The New Zealand dollar lost about two-thirds of a cent against a broadly strengthening greenback today.
It ended the session on US75.61c from US76.21c yesterday.
The US dollar rose as weak euro zone data took the steam out of... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 5:07 am
Reuters - The U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission plans to propose rules that may diminish the
importance of credit ratings across various markets, the Wall
Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 4:32 am
St Laurence Ltd today became the second major finance company within a week to strike major trouble.
Heavily involved in lending to property developers, it said today it had stopped lending ahead of a likely default.
It will... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 4:00 am
The decision paves the way for the insurer's other claims to go to trial as it fights to regain control of shares held by Starr, which were once used to compensate executives Source: FT.com - US homepage | 24 Jun 2008 | 3:38 am
Property financier Strategic Finance says potential buyers with strong capital backing have started talks about buying New Zealand's fourth largest finance company.
The company is also going through an intensive review of its... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 3:00 am
ING New Zealand has appointed Helen Troup chief executive, a promotion from her current role as executive director of life risk at ING Australia.
Ms Troup will lead the funds management and real estate businesses at ING NZ.
Current... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 2:30 am
Reuters - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry
Paulson on Monday urged oil-producing nations to boost their
output and warned that soaring energy costs threatened to
prolong a U.S. economic slowdown.
British gas producer BG Group went hostile today with its A$13.8 billion ($17.5 billion) bid for Australia's Origin Energy, launching the offer direct to Origin shareholders.
BG's all-cash bid, which values Origin at A$15.50 a... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 2:00 am
The fibre optic policies of both National and Labour will offset this country's isolation problem, a Telecommunications Summit in Auckland was told today.
Telecommunications Users Association (TUANZ) chief executive Ernie Newman... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 1:00 am
Auckland Airport is checking what implications new Commerce Commission information published today might have on its plan to move from two to one duty free operator.
The commission today gave its reasons for turning down an application... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 12:30 am
The banks financing the $34bn takeover of the Canadian telecoms group are seeking 'significant' concessions that could make their commitments to the deal more attractive Source: FT.com - US homepage | 24 Jun 2008 | 12:18 am
There seems to be no stopping Weir Group, with the engineering company's long bull run gathering further momentum following yesterday's trading update. Source: Telegraph Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 12:01 am
The BBC wants to develop a technology that would enable video posted on the internet to be watched on television sets. Source: Telegraph Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 12:01 am
Tesco has poached the head of non-food from rival J Sainsbury - a move that could hit Sainsbury's ambitious expansion plans. Source: Telegraph Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 12:01 am
Nick Samuel, the chief executive of Hobbs, the women's fashion retailer, will step down later this summer after seven years in the role. Source: Telegraph Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 12:01 am
China's largest steel maker Baosteel and Rio Tinto have agreed on the highest price hike in at least over a decade in iron ore term contracts, the companies announced today.
Baosteel has agreed to pay up to 96.5 per cent more for... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 24 Jun 2008 | 12:00 am
One of the most powerful jobs in American journalism went up for grabs with the announcement that Leonard Downie, the long-serving executive editor of the Washington Post, is stepping down in September Source: FT.com - US homepage | 23 Jun 2008 | 11:33 pm
Saudi Arabia's plan to crank up oil output may not be enough to choke crude's record rally and bring relief to consumer economies battered by surging fuel costs.
Opec's biggest exporter announced plans to hike output to 9.7 million... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 23 Jun 2008 | 11:30 pm
UK youngsters can illegally buy violent video games through online auction sites, a trading standards group says. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 23 Jun 2008 | 11:11 pm
Almost alone among powerful people, central bankers crave tedium. Let
politicians wrestle for the spotlight of public attention. Let business
leaders cavort in the glare of financial market excitement. The grey men -
and a few women - of monetary policy, whose merest word can cause havoc for
the global economy, are never happier than when plodding their way through
periods of mind-numbing boredom, doing their crucial jobs in the obscurity
of economic and financial calm. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 23 Jun 2008 | 11:00 pm
The price of buildings, cars and machinery will increase sharply this year
because the cost of steel is expected to rise by up to 40 per cent. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 23 Jun 2008 | 11:00 pm
Full marks to Bradford & Bingley's big investors. They haven't just sat
there moaning about the value the company is proposing to give away to TPG
and the underwriters of its cut-price rights issue. They have got up and
done something about it. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 23 Jun 2008 | 11:00 pm
I subscribe to several management newsletters. One starts with a 'Thought of the Day' from some notable guru. A recent one proclaimed:
"Golden Rule #1 of Management: manage others the way you would like to be managed."
American... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 23 Jun 2008 | 11:00 pm
Gushan Environmental Energy Limited (NYSE: GU) has filed to sell up to $100 million in ordinary shares, which it notes as having a HK$0.0001 par value (HONG KONG). This notes that selling shareholders are selling ADS's, with each share representing 2 ordinary shares. This is an unspecified number of shares but based upon a closing price of $11.78 (-6.5% today) of nearly 8.5 million shares. Gushan will not receive any of the proceeds from this offering. The underwriting group here is rather large for a $100 million secondary offering. Merrill Lynch is the lead underwriter; co-managers are listed as Oppenheimer,...
Shares of Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) are trading lower in after-hours trading. The company hasn't issued any new news, but the problem is that United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) gave an earnings warning. The tie here isn't directly the higher fuel prices, but that comment about softening demand "on lower than expected package volume." Amazon.com closed down 0.5% at $80.68 in normal trading with a weak NASDAQ today, and shares are down about 1.4% in after-hours at $79.55 on about 89,000 shares. The reason for the tie is even more simple that the overall mail delivery ties from one company to...
General Motors rolled out fresh incentives in an attempt to staunch plummeting sales of gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicles, pick-up trucks and other slow-selling models Source: FT.com - US homepage | 23 Jun 2008 | 8:51 pm
United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) is currently halted on NYSE trading. Big Brown decided it better follow the lead of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) and come clean with an earnings warning. You can guess the two culprits, demand issues on lower than expected package volume and high energy costs. The company now put earnings in a range of $0.83 to $0.88 EPS, down from a prior guidance of $0.97 EPS to $1.04 EPS. The company did note that supply chain and freight unit performance have exceeded expectations. On the lower demand, the company noted specifically that it has seen...
US stock markets fluttered around the unchanged mark as rising oil prices lifted energy companies but hurt consumer-facing stocks while more analyst downgrades weighed on the financial sector Source: FT.com - US homepage | 23 Jun 2008 | 8:41 pm
When George Carlin grew his hair out, toured college campuses and coffeehouses, and began performing countercultural material in the early 1970s, he was forging a reputation for irreverent social commentary that would make him one of the best-loved comedians of all time.
But Carlin, who died on Sunday in California at the age of 71, was an upstart in other ways. For stand-up comics who had depended on appearances on network television to find financial success, he blazed a new path in finding audiences and in touring, always touring.
Today "the live venues are the real bread and butter of a comedian's revenue stream," says Andrew Alexander, owner and executive producer of the Second City, a training center for sketch comedians with locations throughout the United States.
Carlin "probably was making over $5 million a year, very quietly," estimates Caroline Hirsch of Carolines on Broadway, the comedy club where countless stand-up comedians have come up through the ranks.
He made that money not through movie deals or TV shows, but a steady routine of writing and performing material. "No one was as prolifically evolved as he was," says Hirsch. "That man writes a new show every year."
That level of achievement looked far from certain back in the late '60s, when Carlin told his managers and agents that he wanted to go open for rock bands and perform for college students.
"He put his career at risk. It was a very brave thing for an artist to do," says Richard Zoglin, a writer for Time and author of Comedy on the Edge: How Stand-Up in the 1970s Changed America.
Of course, Carlin was not always a renegade, and he did perform on some comedy-circuit staples. In the '60s and '70s, he appeared regularly on The Merv Griffin Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, and The Tonight Show, making a name for himself and building the audience of fans that would flock to see him live.
In 1975, he hosted the first-ever broadcast of Saturday Night Live, the sketch-comedy show that would go on to make the careers of scores of young comics.
And throughout his career, he released comedy albums and taped HBO specials that expanded his reach to new audiences across the country.
In the 1980s, starring roles on sitcoms became the standard pot of gold for stand-up comics like Roseanne Barr, Bill Cosby, and later, Jerry Seinfeld. Carlin belatedly joined the wave with The George Carlin Show on Fox in 1994. His attempt to join what he called the "corporate entertainment structure" lasted only one season.
Movies, similarly, held little appeal for him. Other major comedians, like Robin Williams, Steve Martin, and Billy Crystal, says Zoglin, "all used TV and movies, and that made them hot draws on the concert circuit. Carlin was hot even without that other stuff."
Zoglin says that comics able to mobilize those kinds of loyal fans without a similar "boost" are rare today.
One comic of a younger generation, Dane Cook, for a while seemed to be making a bid in that direction, with his Carlin-like focus on releasing comedy records and persistent touring. Cook famously established himself via the social-networking website MySpace, where he built a fan base of young people much the way Carlin did by performing at colleges and rock concerts.
Carlin had an instinct for making his brand of humor profitable without turning himself into a bland, mainstream movie star. Perhaps that was the most countercultural choice—more than swearing on live television, admitting to substance addictions, or growing his hair long—that he ever made.
Says Alexander of the Second City: "George Carlin was such an extraordinary social behavioral comedian that he kept relevant, and had an acute sense of how to translate that into funny."
John McCain has proposed a $300m government-funded prize to encourage development of more energy-efficient cars, as part of efforts to reduce US dependence on foreign oil Source: FT.com - US homepage | 23 Jun 2008 | 7:45 pm
With the opposition party's leader forced out of the race, host Tess Vigeland asks reporter Gretchen Wilson in South Africa about the fate of Zimbabwe's presidential election. Source: Marketplace | 23 Jun 2008 | 6:54 pm
Ford and GM are cutting back on SUV production as dealers have a hard time getting existing models off their lots. Is this the beginning of the end for the SUV? Jeff Tyler reports. Source: Marketplace | 23 Jun 2008 | 6:54 pm
On July 1, California starts cracking down on drivers caught with their hands on a cell phone, a move that has accessory manufacturers counting down the days. Rob Schmitz reports. Source: Marketplace | 23 Jun 2008 | 6:54 pm
The money available for veterans to go to college could double if a new GI Bill is approved. Commentator Kim Clark says the measure's costs are greatly offset by the benefits it brings to the troops. Source: Marketplace | 23 Jun 2008 | 6:54 pm
Between a weak dollar, inflation worries and losses by investment banks, the Fed has its work cut out for it. Host Tess Vigeland talks with NYU financial historian Richard Sylla about the path back to a stronger economy. Source: Marketplace | 23 Jun 2008 | 6:54 pm
John McCain and Barack Obama both kicked off their campaigns in Iowa, the state where corn is king, but they have very different views when it comes to corn in the form of ethanol. Nancy Marshall Genzer reports. Source: Marketplace | 23 Jun 2008 | 6:54 pm
High-fructose corn syrup has been taking heat as a possible cause for the obesity epidemic, so producers are investing in building a more natural reputation for the sweetener. Jill Barshay reports. Source: Marketplace | 23 Jun 2008 | 6:54 pm
Global inflation fears deepened as Chinese steelmakers agreed to a record increase in annual iron ore prices in a move likely to boost the cost of cars, machinery and other products Source: FT.com - US homepage | 23 Jun 2008 | 6:08 pm
The hands that shook over leveraged buyout deals made before credit dried up are turning cold and clammy. Agreements that were made during the height of the rocking party now look unappealing in the cold light of the sober next day.
While there are plenty of candidates for the biggest losers in these botched deals, it's impossible to argue that there are any winners bigger than the lawyers.
In the latest legal showdown, the Texas-based chemicals provider Huntsmansued Apollo Management and its partners Leon Black and Joshua Harris for allegedly fraudulently misleading Huntsman with its proposed acquisition by Apollo-owned Hexion Specialty Chemicals.
The $6.5 billion deal, whose handshake happened last July in the final days of the buyout boom, appeared all but dead last week when Apollo and Hexion first sued Huntsman. The buyers contend that Huntsman's business deterioration constituted a material adverse change to the deal terms and that consummating the merger would result in an insolvent company.
The deal was made at $28 per share. Huntsman now trades for less than half that amount.
Curiously, unlike in the Clear Channel and B.C.E. legal battles, there has been nothing but radio silence from the banks in the Huntsman deal. In its complaint filed in Delaware last week, Apollo and Hexion said that they "no longer believed" they would be able to obtain the necessary financing from the lenders Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank. The banks themselves have not publicly said anything about their intention to finance the deal.
As Steven Davidoff notes on the New York Times' DealBook blog, this legal battle is likely happening because "Apollo probably just wants to get out of the transaction altogether."
Beer goggles. They always come back to bite you.
But if the litigation escalates, it's likely that the banks will eventually enter the fray. After all, there is one name that recurs in the Clear Channel, B.C.E., and Huntsman deals. And that name is Deutsche Bank.
In both the Clear Channel and B.C.E. lawsuits, it was the banks versus the buyout shops. The lenders wanted better terms for their financing commitments now that the credit market has turned against them. The private-equity firms still wanted to consummate their deals.
On Friday, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that the B.C.E. buyout could continue, and that the banks and the buyers would need to negotiate their differences. The Clear Channel deal went through on revised terms after months of legal wrangling.
But in the Huntsman case, it appears that no one wants this deal to happen except Huntsman. Deutsche Bank hasn't had to pony up its legal eagles yet because Apollo is doing the hard work for it.
AFP - Leading shares closed higher on Monday, as the anticipation of a bounce on Wall Street turned the FTSE 100 around, with Shire a top blue chip riser following a Goldman Sachs upgrade.
The cost-cutting on Wall Street is playing out in painful slow motion, as month after month another bank eliminates thousands of jobs, long after markets and businesses were first walloped by the credit crisis.
For their workforces, it's death by a thousand tiny cuts.
In the latest wielding of the ax, Citigroup will eliminate some 6,500 jobs, or 10 percent, from its global investment-banking business, report David Enrich and Dennis Berman of the Wall Street Journal. Citi has already announced this year that it will eliminate more than 13,000 jobs.
Even Wall Street's golden child, Goldman Sachs, is downsizing. Chris Hughes and Saskia Scholtes of the Financial Timesreport that Goldman has already begun cutting investment-banking staff and plans to reduce the merger advisory and underwriting workforce by 10 percent.
Everyone else on the Street is getting smaller as well. Lehman Brothers is aggressively cutting jobs, and thousands of Bear Stearns employees lost their positions in the takeover by J.P. Morgan Chase.
Bloomberg News estimates that the world's biggest banks and investment houses have eliminated more than 80,000 jobs since the collapse of the subprime-mortgage market.
"I see more downsizing to come," Andy Mantel, managing director of Pacific Sun Investment Management Ltd. in Hong Kong, told Bloomberg News. "Banks need to take precautionary measures."
Wall Street—and the New York region—will feel the brunt of the cuts. Although Wall Street accounts for just 5 percent of the jobs in New York, it provides nearly a quarter of all wages in the city.
But the way that Wall Street is cutting jobs—over months and often with large severance packages—means that the impact is being felt only gradually, Patrick McGeehan of the New York Timesnoted last week.
"It's like the tsunami is still making its way across the ocean," Marcia J. Van Wagner, New York's deputy comptroller for budget, told the Times.
She estimates that the Street has cut 20,000 to 40,000 jobs in recent months.
To American consumers, Google is a hero and Halliburton is a zero.
Or so concludes Harris Interactive in its latest annual Reputation Quotient survey, which polled thousands of Americans to determine the reputations of the 60 most visible companies in America—for better or for worse.
The survey is now in its ninth year, and this time around the headlining change is that Google beat out Microsoft as 2007's best reputed brand, which in turn last year pushed Johnson & Johnson out of the top spot it had held for all seven years of the survey.
This year marked greater-than-usual movement in reputation changes overall: Of the 52 companies measured both this year and last, 15 moved up or down. That's more change than in the previous four years combined.
Robert Fronk, a Harris Interactive senior vice president and senior consultant, hypothesizes that volatility in the survey may have to do with the changing ways in which consumer get their business news.
"The large number of companies that experienced significant change in one year might provide some evidence that the increase in online media, blogs, and social networking may lead to a less-glacial pace of impacting corporate reputation," Fronk said.
Rounding out the survey's top five brands were Johnson & Johnson, Intel, General Mills, and Kraft Foods, the last of which puzzlingly appeared on the list for the first time this year and managed the No. 5 spot. Equally puzzlingly, Microsoft fell in one year all the way from No. 1 to No. 10.
Halliburton is the least-respected company on the list of 60 businesses, preceded by Altria Group, Royal Dutch/Shell, Chevron Texaco, Exxon Mobil, and Citgo.
Still, those companies can take some comfort in the fact that Harris Interactive's survey is just one of several studies that attempt to rank companies and brands.
There's also Interbrand's annual ranking of the top-100 global brands, which examines brand strength by modeling future earnings rather than soliciting survey data.
Then there's Brandweek's annual Superbrand Ranking, which tries to determine which brands are most visible by comparing how much they spend annually on advertising.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index, which the University of Michigan has published since 1994, interviews about 80,000 Americans annually and asks about their satisfaction with the goods and services they have consumed.
Harris Interactive's study involves a two-step process that begins with interviews with more than 7,000 people in the U.S. to identify the most visible companies. The second part of the study assesses the reputations of the most visible 60 companies, and this year included 20,477 online interviews.
Harris Interactive asks participants to rate a company's reputation on six dimensions: emotional appeal, products and services, social responsibility, vision and leadership, workplace environment, and financial performance.
So, the results serve as a window into which companies are foremost on Americans' minds, and how positively they view them.
While Google's meteoric rise to the top spot might be notable (it didn't even appear on the survey until 2004), its presence there is not surprising. Google is prominent in the financial press, its products are widely and heavily used by consumers, and the touchy-feely corporate culture at "the Googleplex" is by now practically legendary.
Google is absent from Brandweek's Superbrand Report because its advertising budget is virtually nil; it's only No. 20 on Interbrand's global list, though it is moving up those ranks swiftly.
Berkshire Hathaway knocked the ball out of the park in Harris Interactive's Financial Performance and Vision and Leadership categories, catapulting Warren Buffett's financial services company to No. 6 from No. 21.
Also notable: Companies that didn't make the list of 60. What about Citigroup, American Express, and Anheuser-Busch, not to mention airlines? Why no luxury brands?
The results might have to do with Harris Interactive's methodology. The survey asks initial respondents to name the two companies they believe have the best reputations and the two they believe have the worst in order to compile the list. That could end up leaving out companies which everyone would agree are highly visible, but no one would designate a "best" or "worst."
Another surprise had to do with the relatively poor performance of certain companies that were included. Apple's position at No. 19, up from 22, is surprisingly low given the omnipresence of the iPod, the mania over the iPhone, the company's charismatic C.E.O. Steve Jobs, and its blockbuster financials.
Starbucks ranks at No. 32 with a score of 72.96, below the cutoff of 75.00 that designates a "good" reputation. That's surprising given the large tribe of Starbucks loyalists that have led to the wild proliferation of outlets within the past few years, not to mention its sterling reputation as an employer.
In terms of overall industry trends, though, there are no big surprises. Harris Interactive headlines that 71 percent of consumers say the reputation of corporate America is "poor"—which sounds shocking, but for the fact that that figure was exactly the same in 2005, and just slightly lower at 69 percent in 2006.
While this year five of 11 industries saw their ratings slip, last year the automotive industry was the only sector down overall as Ford and General Motors plummeted to 55th and 57th place, respectively (though Toyota and Honda were both in the top 15). This year, automakers improved in general, with Ford and G.M. in 54th and 52nd places, while retail, consumer products, airlines, insurance and financial services, and the pharmaceutical industry all lost ground.
The poorest performers on the list are oil companies, telecoms, financial-services companies, and automakers, while consumer products and technology rank high.
How do the judgments match up with those of Interbrand, Brandweek, and A.C.L.S. overall? As it turns out, the four studies produce a diverse group of favorites.
Interbrand ranks Coca-Cola, Microsoft, I.B.M., G.E., and Nokia as the best global brands. BrandWeek ranks AT&T, McDonalds, Verizon Wireless, Macy's, and Sprint as the biggest media spenders. When it comes to consumer satisfaction, Michigan's consumer survey says that Heinz, Hershey, Clorox, Amazon.com, and Toyota rule the day.Related Links Bleg: Looking for a Free-Float League Table How Google is Like a Hedge Fund Dow Kicks Into Gear Again
Reuters - A South Korean high court on Tuesday
cleared U.S. private equity house Lone Star of manipulating the
stock price of a former credit card firm, removing an obstacle
to HSBC's $6.3 billion deal to buy control of Korea Exchange
Bank.
Reuters - The focus in annual iron ore
price talks shifted on Tuesday to whether BHP Billiton
would convince Chinese steelmakers to pay more
than the record settlement reached with Australian rival Rio
Tinto a day earlier.
Reuters - The state of Qatar has agreed to
sell 25 percent of the Doha Securities Market to NYSE Euronext
for $250 million in a bid to become the booming
region's financial hub and extend global links.
Reuters - British gas producer BG Group launched a
hostile $13.1 billion bid for Australia's Origin Energy, as it
seeks to boost its position in Asia-Pacific's fast-growing gas
market.
Reuters - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry
Paulson on Monday urged oil-producing nations to boost their
output and warned that soaring energy costs threatened to
prolong a U.S. economic slowdown.
AFP - Leading shares closed higher on Monday, as the anticipation of a bounce on Wall Street turned the FTSE 100 around, with Shire a top blue chip riser following a Goldman Sachs upgrade.