text:
News Articles

The hard way

In Jacksonville, WJXT is leaving CBS behind but says, with the help of news and Kelsey Grammer, it can be just as profitable 6/16/2002 08:00:00 PM Eastern

Months before the announcement of the breakup between CBS and Post-Newsweek's WJXT(TV) Jacksonville, Fla., other stations in the market had figured out that Post-Newsweek President Alan Frank and station General Manager Sherry Burns were not bluffing.

The cost of syndicated programming in Jacksonville was rising. That meant Frank and Burns were stockpiling shows so that they would be prepared to dump CBS and take WJXT independent.

Everybody knew that the station's 53-year affiliation with CBS was on the rocks. In 2001, the network and station had been able to hammer out a one-year extension of the affiliation, but they continued to squabble. The big issue was compensation, the estimated $2 million CBS paid the station each year for carrying network commercials.

CBS wanted to eliminate the compensation. No compensation, no deal, said WJXT.

As the other station executives had guessed, WJXT wasn't bluffing. But neither was CBS. So, in April, WJXT announced that the affiliation under which it had prospered and dominated the 53rd-largest TV market was ending. WJXT would become an independent on July 15.

"It will be hard to do as well as or better than we've done," says Burns. "But, obviously, we think we'll do very well. We've got a lot of the same advertisers; we don't expect to lose any. We've opened up the schedule, and people are assuming our audience is going to be younger—although our demos are good right now. We're in control of our own destiny."

The WJXT-CBS breakup has transformed "sleepy little Jacksonville," as one GM calls it, into one of TV's liveliest markets.

Here's what's happening: Post-Newsweek's WJXT drops CBS; Clear Channel's WTEV-TV drops UPN and picks up CBS. Clear Channel's Fox affiliate, WAWS, picks up UPN and schedules its programming to run after Fox prime time and local news.

Meanwhile, Gannett's strong NBC affiliate, WTLV, and weak ABC affiliate, WJXX, and Media General's news-less WB affiliate, WJWB, sit, content in the knowledge that viewers know where to find them.

Come July 15, thanks to the CBS-WJXT breakup and liberalized local-ownership rules, Jacksonville will have five network affiliates in the hands of two owners, Clear Channel (CBS, Fox and UPN) and Gannett (NBC and ABC). At least in terms of broadcasting, Jacksonville is a very special place.

For Post-Newsweek and WJXT managers, the disappearing compensation offer from CBS was an affront that ignored the station's impressive history and the success it has helped bring CBS in the market. Staffers are looking at independence as a crusade, says Station Manager Ann Sutton, noting that Spencer Johnson's book about change, Who Moved My Cheese?
, is being passed around.

As a CBS affiliate, according to BIA Financial, WJXT had revenue of nearly $30 million in 2001. (Some local executives consider that number a bit high.) The station's challenge is to maintain its profitability without CBS's prime time sitcoms and dramas, afternoon soaps, early-morning news, Dan Rather and David Letterman.

It can be done, say Frank and Burns. Costs will rise as the station spends more for top-tier syndicated programming and expanded news programming, and viewership in most dayparts will fall when the CBS programming goes away. But offsetting those negatives will be many more spots to sell, particularly in news.

"It helps that we'll have the inventory," says Burns. "It also helps that we have faith in our product."

What is that product? Mostly news. WJXT plans to expand its news from 41/2 to 81/4 hours a day, adding a two-hour morning news block to replace CBS's low-rated The Early Show,
expanding the noon news to an hour, and introducing
hour newscast at 10 p.m. The station will also offer a newscast with an international dimension to compete with Rather at 6 p.m.

In place of its current 11 newscast, it will air the 15-minute Eyewitness News Express. Because it will end at 11:15, subsequent late-night programs will begin and end on the quarter hour. Viewers bored with the waning minutes of The Tonight Show
can switch at 12:15 a.m. to In the Heat of the Night.

If you like Frasier, you'll love WJXT in prime time. A double run of Frasier
will dominate WJXT's weeknight prime with a double-run at 9—except on Tuesdays when fans of the TV shrink will have the choice of turning to WTLV for a first-run episode or stay with WJXT for the show from which Frasier
spun, Cheers. Cheers
and Access Hollywood
will also be staples of WJXT prime.

In daytime, the station loses soaps and The Price Is Right
and adds two supermarket-shopping shows and second runs of Maury
and Texas Justice. In the fall, Dr. Phil
will replace Sally
before Oprah.

Frank says the station has some strong programming in the pipeline. WJXT will offer King of Queens
and Becker
in fall 2003. Both are shows that did well on the station in CBS prime.

Frank sees plenty of cause for optimism. "We feel we'll be successful in the mornings with a local show and that we'll have a successful daytime lineup. We'll be expanding our noon news, which does high ratings. I don't know if our 6:30
World News With Tim Wills
will win the time period, but it will be competitive."

Burns expects the 10 o'clock news will work. "This market likes to go to bed early. It's going to be news of record, not just hard news. We're beefing up our investigative unit.

"It's unrealistic to think we can equal our current prime time ratings," she concedes. "But a significant rating will be valuable to our station."The extra ad inventory adds up. WJXT's Local Sales Manager Tom Becker explains that, as a CBS affiliate, the station currently gets about 132 spots per week for three hours a night in prime time. Figuring an average 9 rating, that brings $1,125 per spot and $148,500 a week.

But, as an independent with only two hours in prime time before the news, Becker says, the station will get a total of 405 spots a week. The station expects to keep 60% of its average viewership. If it does, all those spots will bring in $250,000 week—an increase of about $100,000 over CBS. "And that doesn't include our 10 o'clock news," Becker adds.

Other Jacksonville broadcasters think it is unrealistic that WJXT will retain 60% of its prime time audience.

WJXT will need all the revenue it can get. It now has to pay for its prime time programming (sources say it's paying a few thousand dollars a week for Frasier
and King of Queens), and it has to pay to produce the extra hours of news. "Our margins will go down this year and next," Frank says. "But eventually, we believe within two years, we'll be at our current level of profits or higher."

With its 10 o'clock news, WJXT will be going head-to-head with Clear Channel's WAWS. And despite WAWS's head start, some believe WJXT will prevail.

"WAWS has been the only game in town," says a local executive. "But 'JXT is a very polished news operation with a strong following, and they should win big, unless Clear Channel invests a lot of money in its product."

Bill Moll, the head of Clear Channel's TV group, who happily snapped up the CBS affiliation, acknowledges WJXT's strength in the market. "They've got news talent that's recognized in the market," he says. "They've got a strong head start."

But the good news, he notes, is that, over the years, WJXT's audience has developed a habit of watching CBS programming. Do viewers watch programs or stations? "I think it's a little of both," Moll says.

WTEV/WAWS General Manager Susan Adams Loyd is less generous in her comments. "WJXT is a very strong local news brand, but it's an aging product with old-skewing demos. KTVK's success [as an independent in Phoenix after having been an ABC affiliate] was another time. There's not enough good programming out there."

Adams Loyd acknowledges that the market's new independent "has a shot at mornings," but she is not ready to concede late news. "There's no tradition for them at 10 o'clock, and they'll have no lead-in, no flow. The Fox news viewer is different. Certainly, they'll have an impact. But we're the incumbent."

Gannett's Ken Tonning, who runs both WTLV and WJXX, believes that change is good for TV stations—as long as it's not his stations that are changing. "Right now," he says, "there's so much confusion in marketplace we're getting huge buys just because of the uncertainty."

Mike Liff, GM at Media General's WB affiliate WJWB, says his station has "been an ABC, an NBC, an ABC again and now a WB. It's nice not to be changing. But I look at WJXT's strength and say that anything can happen. Turning the market upside down like this makes it really fun."

Going independent has a mixed history. KRON-TV San Francisco has suffered massive loss of viewership since it switched from NBC to an independent at the beginning of this year. But that station maintains that it's doing well and argues that comparing its former NBC affiliate numbers is hardly a fair measure.

On the other hand, KTVK Phoenix, now Belo-owned, successfully made the transition from ABC affiliate to independent in the mid 1990s and continues to prosper.

KTVK's former general manager, Sue Schwartz, now running Meredith's CBS affiliate WGCL-TV Atlanta, has been given much of the credit for KTVK's transition. "All around the country today," she says, "stations are trying to determine if they're better off controlling their own destiny or letting the network control their destiny. It's triggered by the relationship with the network itself. If you're a strong television station, you have the ability to consider [going independent] as an option.

"You need to ask: How strong is your news effort? How tied-in to the community are you? How much is your image tied in to the network? And can you live with the change in the margins?"

WJXT's independence-day parade
Sun Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat
Note: This schedule goes into effect on July 15, 2002, and should remain in effect throughout the summer. Between 1:45 a.m. and 4:35 a.m., the station will air paid programming.
5:00A Paid Program Eyewitness News (cc) Paid Program
5:30A Sunday School Forum Paid Program
6:00A In Touch Ministries Eyewitness News (cc) Paid Program
6:30A Paid Program
7:00A Wild Moments E/I (13-16) Eyewitness News (cc) Eyewitness News (cc)
7:30A Wild About Animals E/I (13-16)
8:00A Eyewitness News Eyewitness News (cc) Eyewitness News
8:30A Sun Morning (cc) Saturday Morning (cc)
9:00A Eyewitness News Texas Justice CNN Headline News
9:30A Sun Morning (cc)
10:00A Paid Religion Maury Povich Critter Gitters
10:30A Critter Gitters
11:00A Robert Schuller Supermarket Sweep Wild Moments
11:30A Shop Til You Drop Wild About Animals
12:00N Marketwatch Eyewitness News at noon (cc) Paid Program
12:30P Paid Program Eyewitness News (cc) Paid Program
1:00P Paid Program ET-rpt Paid Program
1:30P Paid Program Texas Justice-rpt Paid Program
2:00P Ron Hazelton's House Calls Maury II Paid Program
2:30P Today's HomeOwner Paid Program
3:00P Hometime Sally Jessy Raphael MASH
3:30P Your New House MASH
4:00P P Allen Smith & Gardens Oprah Steel Dreams
4:30P Famous Homes & Hideaways
5:00P ER II Eyewitness News First at 5 (cc) In The Heat Of The Night
5:30P Eyewitness News Live at 5:30 (cc)
6:00P Eyewitness News (cc) Eyewitness News at 6 (cc) Eyewitness News (cc)
6:30P Inside Edition Weekend World News With Tom Wills (cc) CNN Headline News
7:00P ET 60 Entertainment Tonight Andy Griffith
7:30P Inside Edition Andy Griffith
8:00P Perry Mason Movie Access Hollywood Lost World
8:30P Cheers Cheers Cheers Cheers Cheers
9:00P Frasier Cheers Frasier Frasier Fraiser Tracker
9:30P Frasier Frasier Frasier Frasier Frasier
10:00P Eyewitness News (cc) Eyewitness News at 10:00 P (cc) Eyewitness News at 10:00 P (cc)
10:30P 1st 4 Sports (cc) 1st 4 Sports (cc)
11:00P Eyewitness News Express (cc) Eyewitness News Express (cc) Eyewitness News Express (cc)
11:35P Access Hollywood 60 (11:15p) MASH (11:15p) ER I (11:15p)
12:05A ET 60 (repeat) (12:15a) MASH (11:45p) The Pretender (12:15a)
12:35A In The Heat Of The Night (12:15a)
1:05A Inside Edition wkend-rpt (1:15a) Access Hollywood-rpt (1:15a) Eyewitness News Express (1:15a)
1:35A Eyewitness News Exp-rpt (1:45a) Eyewitness News Express-rpt (1:45a) Paid program (1:30a)
4:35A CNN Headline News (4:30a) CNN Headline News (4:30a-5a)(Tue-Fri morning) Paid program (4:30a)


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Truncated: length

WARC-Type: response

text:
The constant bemoaning of never-ending road construction

-A A +A
By Stacey Manning, Managing Editor

Ahh, my endless tirade…

Since the construction on Smith Avenue and Main Street doesn’t seem it’s ever going to end, why should complaining about it?

I can’t resolve the situation or hurry it along or improve what I think is a horrific traffic pattern. Since I can’t, I’ll join plenty of others of bemoaning the project as it crawls along.

Last week an NCDOT official asked residents to be patient in hopes the project will be worth the wait when finished.

If you subscribe to the newspaper, you receive FREE access to all the exclusive content of the web site! Simply register to receive uninterrupted access to our award-winning and in-depth local online content!

Renew Current or Past Subscription / Register for Online Subscription

If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the Brunswick Beacon, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.

Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.

Newspaper Acct. ID:
Street Address:
(exactly as it appears on the label)

If you are a subscriber and you do not know your account ID or don't have a copy of your newspaper available that shows the information on the address label you can click continue below to search for your account.

New Subscription/30 Day Free Trial Account

If you are new to the award winning Brunswick Beacon and wish to get a subscription or simply gain access to our online content then please enter your ZIP code below and continue to setup your account.

ZIP Code:

Create a limited access account.
Register to participate in community forums, post on the community calendar, blog etc. This registration does not give you full access to read our award winning content, etc.

The Brunswick Beacon | circulation@brunswickbeacon.com | 910-754-6890
P.O. Box 2558, Shallotte, NC 28459
Office Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday

warcinfo:
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-180-212-248.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2014-23
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for July 2014
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


text:
AGNI Online
  Subscribe      Donate    Stay Connected    Submit      About Us

Coeur d’Alene

by Sue Standing

For years he secreted shards of words,
a magpie of language. Words creased
the corners of his mouth like letters

folded and unfolded too many times.
Now, his own face is a stranger’s.
He looks at himself in the mirror and says:

“He bothers me; I want him out of my room.”
It’s as baffling as the Hitchcock story
where the murder weapon, a frozen

leg of lamb, is cooking in the oven
by the time the detective arrives.
As if the icicle driven through the brain

has melted: no weapon, no fingerprints.
Who he was has vanished into the snow.
It’s been a long time since

the unglazed light of day touched him.
All our names are lost
in his artificial wakefulness.

I wait in a nerveless way for sleep
or something better to take him farther
than we can follow, where shadows

of birds sweep over his childhood body:
body of light, body of time,
full of joy in the humming field.

Sue Standing teaches at Wheaton College. Her poems have been published in APR, Poetry Northwest, The Nation, and elsewhere. Last year Zephyr Press put out her chapbook Amphibious Weather. (1982)

End of Article
AGNI Magazine :: published at Boston University ©2008 AGNI


text:
Gift Cards   |
Soft Shell Hoodie with Contrast Seam

    Soft Shell Hoodie with Contrast Seam

    Clearance $19.98
    Compare at $80.00

    You save up to 75%

    Sorry, this item is out of stock. You can try again later or look for it in one of our stores.

    A casual mix of refined silhouette and urban chic. This soft shell hoodie offers a twist on an everyday essential. Stretchy soft shell has allover decorative contrast seams, two zipper pockets, and un... Read more

    Item usually ships in 2 business days.
    Item #BCF170909584    Style #H22648-BU

    Others You May Also Like

    Others Also Viewed

    Our Picks For You


text:
Popular Today in Social: All Popular Articles

Jack of all Trades, Master of… The Problem with Google

Jack of all Trades, Master of… The Problem with Google image chrome extensions

So, it looks like Google is entering the comment system fray.

Never mind that it smacks of yet another “let’s copy Facebook” move. Nor that there are already excellent comment systems out there at the minute – the awesome Livefyre (used on this very blog), Disqus and IntenseDebate to name just some of the third-party options.

Google’s clearly taken a look at how Facebook Comments tie the user into Zuckerberg’s network, and wants a piece of that pie to go along with their recent abandonment of their “don’t be evil” mantra.

While it’ll no doubt attract its fans and users – especially the Google+ aficionados – I can’t help but feel the announcement is just another indication of why Google is struggling when it comes to social.

Related Resources from B2C
» Free Webcast: Bye-Bye Solution Selling: Why Sales Teams Are Moving To Insight Selling

We Think We Want To Be…

One of the problems Google faces is it doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. It was a lot easier in its early days, when search was the be all and end all of the Google equation.

But search only gets you so far (in Google’s case, being #1 means you kind of have nowhere else to go). Cue growth time.

Google Ads; PageRank; Google Earth; Blogger; YouTube; Feedburner; Google Voice; Gmail; Google Labs and more. From the small beginning of a search idea between two friends, Google became a fully-fledged multimedia company.

And it seems to be confusing them.

While Google was busy adding cool stuff to its repertoire, it wasn’t really making that cool stuff particularly sticky with the general public. Yes, they own the search space – but think of their real success stories, and they’re mostly external projects.

YouTube, they bought. Android, they bought. Google Earth, they bought. Google Voice, they bought. In fact, when you really think about it, the biggest success story for Google internally is its very first product.

And maybe that grinds them, when they see what Facebook has achieved since its inception back in the middle of the last decade.

  • It got the everyday user buy-in that most Google products haven’t (yet).
  • It made the web fun.
  • It appealed to all ages.
  • It attracted brands as well as consumers.
  • It’s continued to innovate internally.

Yet, perhaps more importantly, Facebook has managed to do all this without really needing the search strength of Google to achieve its popularity and success (just ask yourself how many other businesses don’t care about where they rank on Google’s algorithm).

Jack of all Trades, Master of… The Problem with Google image google plus 300x200To combat this, Google launched Google+, their own social network and the one that Google is pinning a lot of its hopes on in its battle with Facebook, especially after the abysmal failures of Buzz and Wave.

Early indications are good – 100 million users and reports of the network’s importance to search.

Although numbers aren’t everything – Google forces you to create a Google+ profile whenever you open a new Google product account, so that immediately adds to installed user base.

And when questioned recently at South by Southwest, the Google representative admitted that they class “active use” of Google+ something as miniscule as clicking the little alert button in your Gmail account, without even going through to the main Google+ site.

So take the numbers with a huge pinch of salt.

And now there’s the news of the Google comments system. Talk about throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the wall…

Too Many Google Pies

As i mentioned earlier, it’s easy to see why Google is going this route. With their recent “One Privacy” announcement, Google are looking to bake all their products into a more cohesive offering.

By doing this, they’ll (hopefully) make it such an integrated experience that you won’t need – or want – to use any other provide. From email to videos, business applications to smartphones, search, social networking and e-commerce, Google wants to be be the kingpin.

The problem is, they’re not doing a very good job of it so far.

If they really wanted to integrate, they’d already be making Google+ the centrepiece for their users, and a simple one at that. Unfortunately, that’s not coming across (currently) in the user experience.

Let’s say I wanted to create a promo video with customer testimonials, for example.

I should be able to grab images from my storefront on Google+ (the one they don’t really provide), collate them into a slideshow, add a voiceover, create a Hangout with some of my best customers, get testimonials, edit into the video, polish and then publish direct to YouTube.

Then I should be able to work in Google Docs to create a promo kit, call up my Circles of journalist friends, and send an invitation to the media kit as well as embedded video for them to watch. Voila, an instant interactive release.

Could this be on the way? Maybe – but if Google really wants Google+ to be truly adopted, they need to be doing this now. Instead, they’re just adding more things and, by doing so, adding to the problem.

Take the Google comments system. Let’s say that’s adopted as Google’s standard system – what happens to all the comments left on a Blogger blog post? Or a YouTube video? How do these get integrated – do they, or are they just cast aside, which seems to be Google’s usual way (just look at Picnik).

And the problem when you can’t merge old platforms or designs with new ones doesn’t always go over well (just ask YouTue users who got pissed at that channel’s makeover, and how it messed up their feeds).

One World or One Success at a Time?

There’s no doubt Google has the resources to take on Facebook and other platforms and businesses they want to compete with. Their Android platform is going head-to-head with the Apple machine and doing very well for itself.

But social seems to escape them, for some reason. Do we really need another comments system, even one that’s baked into Google’s core products? Will that be enough to see Facebook users – or at least the ones used to using their comments system – add Google+ to their repertoire?

Despite their early success, the jury’s still out on Google+ in general, and what Google actually wants to be as a company.

The latest comment news doesn’t really answer any questions; instead, it just poses more. And no matter what company you are, get too many users asking too many questions about who you really are, and that’s never a good thing…

Your thoughts? Is Google over-extending itself, or simply laying the bricks for an unassailable foundation?

Comments on this Article: 1

Add a Comment
  1. Sahil C. says:

    Good write up, but I think GOOG knows what it is doing. Its essentially working its way up to becoming an Ad Agency for the digital market. Think about the recent M&A’s they have done: Ad-Meld, Ad-Mob etc. They are working to put together a comprehensive platform to buy digital advertising across media sources (Mobile/Display/Search/IPTV.) The goal is to control the Digital budgets of marketers. My 2cents.

Add a Comment:

Thank you for adding to the conversation!

Our comments are moderated. Your comment may not appear immediately.


text: 11 Billion-Dollar Startups You've Never Heard Of http://www.businessinsider.com/11-unknown-startups-worth-billions-2014-2/comments en-us Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500 Mon, 14 Jul 2014 00:22:45 -0400 Ryan Bushey http://www.businessinsider.com/c/52ef7afbeab8eaf4162b25db Riccardo Mon, 03 Feb 2014 06:18:19 -0500 http://www.businessinsider.com/c/52ef7afbeab8eaf4162b25db If you have never heard about Xiaomi, Zalando and Stripe, you must be living on the moon! http://www.businessinsider.com/c/52ef1c176da811bb55698e39 ricky.malinao.56 Sun, 02 Feb 2014 23:33:27 -0500 http://www.businessinsider.com/c/52ef1c176da811bb55698e39 Just heard about this.. wow. http://www.insidertradingwire.com/klaus-kleinfeld-chairman-and-ceo-of-alcoa-inc-common-sells-3371107-worth-of-aa/ http://www.businessinsider.com/c/52eef151eab8eaa61d93cffe André Kenji De Sousa Sun, 02 Feb 2014 20:30:57 -0500 http://www.businessinsider.com/c/52eef151eab8eaa61d93cffe Most of these companies are large and established companies, not startups. http://www.businessinsider.com/c/52eec47269bedd542d698e34 d Sun, 02 Feb 2014 17:19:30 -0500 http://www.businessinsider.com/c/52eec47269bedd542d698e34 a company founded in 1998 cannot credibly be called a startup. http://www.businessinsider.com/c/52eeadf1ecad04ce4bc77f7b Lilach Sun, 02 Feb 2014 15:43:29 -0500 http://www.businessinsider.com/c/52eeadf1ecad04ce4bc77f7b I have an idea that will provide you 30% interest on a quarter of a million investment. It is a universal T-shirt that will sell world-wide plus a line of merchandise to accompany it. If you (or you know someone who is) are interested in my proposition, please call at this number: (1)202-417-4800. -Lilach http://www.businessinsider.com/c/52ee8fe46da811456b698e36 kmq Sun, 02 Feb 2014 13:35:16 -0500 http://www.businessinsider.com/c/52ee8fe46da811456b698e36 My Paypal account is worthless without Ebay. If I need to give a friend/relative money I give cash. If I want to help a charity I use Debit/Credit Card. The whole mobile payments sector is just wishful thinking, is it not? A bit like the pathetic Bitcoin Ponzi scheme. The masters of the Ponzi schemes are well aware of its worthlessness. It's just that they get a cut from the Ponzi schemes created. The wannabe Entrepreneurs draw in the fools and they each get a share. The whole world is beginning to realise what the so called market really is! http://www.businessinsider.com/c/52ee84e7eab8eaa81193d002 kmq Sun, 02 Feb 2014 12:48:23 -0500 http://www.businessinsider.com/c/52ee84e7eab8eaa81193d002 Worth Billions yet very little profit. Not likely to have profit in the future unless you are dreaming! Rational economics: Size of the market. Product competitiveness - Can the product be made cheaply and yet still have quality features. Are other companies making profit in the sector? Is the sector overcrowded to make a decent margin? These are the questions that go through the mind of a rational CEO. Unfortunately a pathological lying CEO only thinks of how he is able to deceive others! http://www.businessinsider.com/c/52ee79dd6bb3f7ba6693d000 Escroton Sun, 02 Feb 2014 12:01:17 -0500 http://www.businessinsider.com/c/52ee79dd6bb3f7ba6693d000 "Bloom Energy creates fuel cells called Bloom Boxes that produces clean energy and the first customers for these devices included Walmart, Federal Express and Coca Cola according to The Guardian. The cost of these boxes are $750,000 but Sridhar hopes to cut that down $3,000 within a decade." WHAT IN THE FLYING CRAP, BUSINESS INSIDER? MY 4-YEAR-OLD CAT COULD WRITE THAT WITH LESS TYPOS THAN YOU. GO FINISH GRADE-SCHOOL, SUCKER.


text:
The leveraged buyout – a deal structure made popular during the Wall Street boom of the 1980s and again in the wake of the tech bubble – could become much more common soon, according to a report from BofA Merrill Lynch.

BofA credit strategists Hans Mikkelsen and Yuriy Shchuchinov write that current market conditions have become "unusually conductive for leveraging transactions for this stage in the typical cycle," and that as a result, "credit investors should be concerned about more extreme releveraging in the form of leveraged buyouts."

A leveraged buyout typically involves a relatively small equity investment into a takeover target, with loans that are usually multiples of the size of the equity in terms of dollar value making up the difference.

In the aftermath, companies often have to resort to stringent cost-cutting measures to service the debts that were used to execute the buyout.

The bigger the deal, the more the debt.

And the BofA strategists say they even envision deals up to $20 billion:

Clearly at this stage in the cycle we are nowhere near once again talking about Home Depot as an LBO candidate. In fact, most LBOs will likely initially be rather small – less than $5bn with a few up to $10bn in transaction enterprise value, consistent with deals seen post-Lehman.

However, in an area of historically low yields and abundant liquidity in the public markets, with banks having finally rebuilt capital, we think we have the ingredients in place for even larger deals, up to $20bn.

Markets have QE3 to thank in part for the return of the LBO, according to the report. As the Federal Reserve continues to buy mortgage-backed securities, yields grind lower, and banks no longer see most fixed-income assets as attractive investments.

Now, Mikkelson and Shchuchinov think banks will instead be forced to lend in order to make money, and that "they will also be willing to expand lending for highly leveraged transactions (as long as leverage stays below 6x per guidance from the regulators)."

The BofA strategists expand on this by noting that finding sufficient equity to put into the LBO investments will be the real limiter on deal size:

The most constraining factor for deal size appears to be equity - not debt. During the pre-Lehman environment large LBO deals were possible as private equity firms pooled resources in so-called “club deals”. Subsequent litigation makes it less likely that enough firms are willing to pool enough resources anytime soon for such mega deals, in our view.

However, the example of Synthes, discussed below, highlights that we could still potentially see a three-firm club deal for a $20bn LBO – such a deal would likely require perhaps $2bn of equity from each private equity firm. Furthermore, nothing prevents private equity from pooling resources with alternative investors such as pension funds.

Mikkelson and Shchuchinov explain that last year, when Johnson and Johnson acquired Synthes, a post-transaction SEC filing revealed that three private equity firms came together and submitted a $20 billion bid to buy out the company.

Although the consortium of PE firms ultimately didn't win the deal, the BofA strategists write that "it also makes the clear point that a $20bn LBO was feasible at the time."

Since bond yields – and thus the cost of financing a big buyout with mostly debt – have only continued to fall since the Synthes deal, Mikkelson and Shchuchinov figure the current environment has only gotten better for LBOs.


text:
A street vendor in San Francisco is suing the San Francisco Giants over use of one of their logos.

The Giants and Major League Baseball never trademarked one of the team's logos ("San Francisco" script logo seen here). So the street vendor trademarked it for themselves and starting selling t-shirts. When the Giants finally tried to trademark the logo for themselves, they were denied.

Now the two sides are bickering over the use of the logo by Gogo Sports (the street vendor), which has led to the vendor suing the team so that Gogo can continue using it on their apparel.


text:
Oprah Winfrey was beamed into "The Daily Show" via satellite yesterday to announce a special surprise for audience members -- free plane tickets to Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" in Washington D.C. on Oct. 30, the one that pretty much every mainstream news outlet has barred its journalists from attending (unless they're there on the clock).

"We need a bit more sanity in the world," said Winfrey, who just had Stewart as a guest on "The Oprah Show. "I wanted to show my support for you, Jon, and your audience, so here's what I did. I had my staff sneak into your studio with a little gift."

There was an envelope hiding under each audience member's seat.

"You're going to the rally!" Winfrey thrice exclaimed as the audience went wild. She also plans to pay for their hotel stays.

Winfrey clearly enjoys showing up unannounced and showering large groups of people with expensive gifts. Back in June, she went to the New York offices of her magazine and bestowed upon each staffer a free iPad and a check for $10,000. She also recently announced to one of her own audiences that she would take them on an all-expenses-paid trip to Australia.

Watch the "Daily Show" clip below, starting around the 6:30 mark:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear Announcement
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity


text:
Dubai Frame Project To Start In December 2013

News: Construction work on the AED120mn (US$32.6mn) Dubai Frame, near the Star Gate of Zabeel Park in the UAE, is expected to begin in December 2013 and is likely to be ready by H215. The landmark, which is expected to have up to 2mn visitors a year, resembles a huge picture frame, at the base of which will be a museum. On one side of the 150m high, 93m wide structure, landmarks like Emirates Towers and Burj Khalifa can be viewed, while on the other, the city's older regions like Deira, Umm Harair and Karama can be seen. 'We have already opened tenders and will be giving the contract to the appropriate contractors, according to our plan,' Director General of Dubai Municipality Hussain Nasser Lootah said (ConstructionWeekOnline).

This article is tagged to:
Sector: Infrastructure
Geography: United Arab Emirates

Related products in our Store...

Check out our most popular reports below or view more in our store


text:
Spain Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare Articles

Epratuzumab Study Shows Promise In SLE

At the 2013 European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) Annual Congress, held from 12th to 15th June, in Madrid, Spain, new data were presented from an open-label extension (SL0008) of the EMBLEM...

Read article ›
Co-Payments Depress Medicine Spending

BMI View: The deterioration of the Spanish economy and the government's implementation of increasingly aggressive fiscal austerity policies that focus on cost containment in the healthcare sector...

Read article ›

Filter results

By Geography

By Sector

By Information Type


text:
Posted under Technology
from 726 days ago

If you’re looking to complement your air-conditioned shirt with a pair of pants to help keep your bottom half cool in the summer heat then Japanese company Kuchofuku has you covered. The Kuchofuku Air-Conditioned Cooling pants feature two battery-powered fans to direct a refreshing flow of air onto your legs and nether regions... Continue Reading Keep cool downstairs with Kuchofuku’s air-conditioned pants

Section: Wearable Electronics

Tags: Clothing, Cooling, Japan

Related Articles:
  • Air conditioned shirt has its fans
  • Vaude bike pants deliver weather protection, casual jeans-style
  • Scientists create an air-conditioned bulletproof vest
  • 3D-printed sand Microclimates to cool public places
  • Ubiquitous Drum Pants puts a drum kit in your jeans
  • "Beauty and the geek" keyboard pants - would you wear them?

blog comments powered by Disqus
Editor's Pick
Popular Today


text:
AP News

Watson climbs after FDA approves generic Lidoderm

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Watson Pharmaceuticals climbed Friday after federal regulators approved its generic version of Endo Health Solutions Inc.'s Lidoderm pain patch.

THE SPARK: Watson said its version of the patch had been approved after the market closed on Thursday. Under terms of a lawsuit settlement between Watson and Endo, Watson can begin selling its generic in September 2013. The Parsippany, N.J., company said it believes competing generics will be barred from the market for 180 days after its product goes on sale.

Endo said it is disappointed with the the Food and Drug Administration's decision. The Lidoderm patch is its biggest-selling product.

THE BIG PICTURE: Endo had sued Watson over patent infringement. The companies settled their dispute in late May, and Watson agreed not to market its generic until Sept. 15, 2013. Endo will get royalties of 25 percent on early sales of Watson's generic. It will also provide $96 million in branded Lidoderm to Watson over the first 8 months of 2013.

Watson says U.S. sales of Lidoderm are $1.2 billion.

THE ANALYSIS: Analysts said the approval is bad news for Endo, but it's not a surprise. Stifel Nicolaus analyst Annabel Samimy said the approval is the "worst case" scenario for Endo, but added that it is "fully priced into the stock and already reflected in consensus views" for the company.

Samimy and other analysts added that other companies are seeking approval for their own generics. Those could go on sale in early 2014 and further cut into Endo's revenue. Roth Capital Partners analyst Scott Henry said he thinks Endo's Lidoderm revenue will fall to about $500 million in 2014.

SHARE ACTION: Shares of Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. rose $4.57, or 5.8 percent , to $83.20 in midday trading. Earlier the stock reached a high of $83.54. Watson stock is up 34 percent since March, when reports surfaced that Watson might buy European competitor Actavis. It agreed to buy Actavis in late April for $5.6 billion.

Shares of Endo, which is based in Chadds Ford, Pa., lost 21 cents to $31.67.

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
AP News

Tech-fund winner Xtreme Power files for bankruptcy

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — An energy storage company near Austin, Texas that received $2 million in taxpayer dollars under the state's Emerging Technology Fund has filed for bankruptcy.

Kyle-based Xtreme Power Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection in federal bankruptcy court last week. Gov. Rick Perry awarded the company money in 2007 from his investment fund for high-tech Texas startups.

Phone messages left with company officials and Perry's office were not immediately returned Monday.

The tech fund was created in 2005 and is one of Perry's signature initiatives as governor. Many Republican candidates for statewide offices, however, are skeptical about the program's future and say the state shouldn't be picking winners and losers.

At least a dozen tech-fund recipients have filed for bankruptcy. The fund's annual performance report to lawmakers is due this week.

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
Strategy & Competition

Blasting Away at Product Placement

Nothing infuriates Corie Wright more than when a TV network and advertiser try to sneak a product pitch past viewers. Case in point: Elisa and Jack of 30 Rock fame discussing whether McDonald's (MCD) McFlurry is the best dessert in the world. "It's egregious and deceptive," says Wright, a lawyer and policy adviser for Free Press, a nonprofit activist group. "Product placements don't allow us to have the usual veil of skepticism we have when we watch a standard commercial."

Free Press is among a coalition of 50 groups waging war on product placements. The critics, who range from consumer advocates to pediatricians seeking to protect kids from sugary cereal, are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to implement tougher disclosure rules for what many activists consider stealth advertising.

Product placements are nearly as old as TV itself, but they have become ubiquitous in recent years—especially as recession-hit advertisers scramble for a cost-effective way to reach consumers. In the first half of this year, product placements in prime time rose 8% from the same period in 2008, says ratings tracker Nielsen. Fox's (NWS) American Idol alone had 580 product placements.

Other than rules that restrict how much advertising networks can put in kids' programming in a given hour, the FCC has few regs for product placements. Last year the commission, under pressure from Congress, asked for comments from the public on how it might regulate placements, but little has been done since. A spokeswoman for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski says his first priority is implementing a national broadband policy and that product placement is on the "back burner for now."

RED LIGHTS ON SCREENS?That is not deterring protesters, who are meticulously tracking product placements as the fall TV season gets under way. They are troubled not just by products that appear in shows but also by so-called integrations, when products are actually written into plotlines. On CBS's (CBS) The Big Bang Theory, for example, Sheldon informs Penny that he needs access to the Cheesecake Factory's (CAKE) walk-in freezer.

Critics want the FCC to require networks to disclose placements. Their proposals range from forcing programmers to run text along the bottom of the screen when a product appears in a given scene to a flashing red light on the screen alerting viewers that an advertiser is pushing something. None of this sits well with TV programmers. "Seriously, what viewer is going to stand for that?" says a network executive, who, like many of his peers, was loath to speak on the record.

Advertisers aren't thrilled, either. Tony Pace, Subway's chief marketing officer, opposes disclosures, except at the end of a program. In shows such as Chuck and The Biggest Loser, Subway staffers collaborate with the producers to work the brand into the plot. In one Biggest Loser episode, the dieting contestants hiked from one Subway to another to get a meal as part of the contest rules. "We'd rather seem like a natural part of the show," says Pace, "rather than punch the viewer in the nose with a message like, 'Hey, this is paid for.'"

Clearly, the FCC's Genachowski faces a delicate balancing act: protecting the public on the one hand without undermining the already precarious economics of television.
Helm is marketing editor for BusinessWeek in New York.
Lowry is a senior writer for BusinessWeek in New York.

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
Bloomberg News

Croatian GDP Contracts for Second Quarter as Crisis Damps Demand

June 20, 2012

Croatia’s economy contracted for a second consecutive quarter as capital investments declined and Europe’s debt crisis lowered demand for exports.

Economic output fell 1.3 percent from the same period a year ago, matching the preliminary figure released on May 31, the statistics office in Zagreb said today. Gross domestic product shrank 0.4 percent in the previous quarter from a year earlier.

“This trend will continue as we expect a further fall in capital investment coupled with weak domestic demand,” Zdeslav Santic, chief economist at Soc-Gen Splitska Banka d.d., said before the data report. The decline was softened by a temporary rise in personal consumption in the first quarter, as citizens prepared for a VAT increase to 25 percent from 23 percent from March 1, he added.

The Adriatic Sea nation, which is set to become the European Union’s 28th member in July 2013, is struggling to recover from two years of recession and a period of stagnation in 2011.

Government consumption declined 1.5 percent in the first quarter, while gross fixed capital formation decreased 2.8 percent and household demand dropped 0.3 percent, the statistics office said in the statement.

The government plans to boost competition and domestic demand to limit the effects of Europe’s debt crisis and allow the economy to grow 0.8 percent this year, Finance Minister Slavko Linic said on Jan. 31. Central bank Governor Zeljko Rohatinski and the World Bank predicted the economy will shrink 1 percent this year.

The government in January also proposed 4 billion kuna ($673.4 million) in budget cuts to narrow the deficit to 3.8 percent of GDP from 5.5 percent in 2011. In addition it said it will lower expenditures in the public sector and reduce subsidies for state companies.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jasmina Kuzmanovic in Zagreb at

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James M. Gomez at

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
Bloomberg News

Peregrine Trustee Seeks to Subpoena Banks on Transfers

July 31, 2012

The trustee liquidating Peregrine Financial Group Inc. asked a judge for authority to subpoena the defunct futures brokerage’s banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM:US) and Citigroup Inc. (C:US) for information about transfers from segregated accounts and proprietary accounts.

Citing a lawsuit by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission against the company and founder Russell Wasendorf Sr. over misappropriation of customer funds, the trustee said he needs records from “various financial institutions” to identify “abnormalities” in the company’s records.

Ten financial institutions maintained account applications, authorization forms, agreements, statements, wire transfers, canceled checks, deposit slips and correspondence, he said.

“Official financial institution records will also enable the trustee to examine transfers from the debtor’s proprietary accounts and segregated accounts,” Ira Bodenstein, the trustee, said in a filing today in federal court in Chicago.

The other financial institutions that will be asked for information are U.S. Bank, Bank of New York Mellon (BK:US) Corp., First Premier Bank, Commerzbank AG, Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, Jefferies Bache LLC, Morgan Stanley (MS:US) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS:US), he said.

Customer Accounts

Peregrine’s July 10 bankruptcy, cutting off customers’ access to their accounts, came less than a year after the failure of MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MFGLQ:US), whose clients are still missing $1.6 billion. In district court in Chicago, a receiver is finding and securing Wasendorf’s assets on request of the CFTC, which is probing more than $200 million of missing customer money, as is the Justice Department.

Wasendorf may have funded his personal investments with Peregrine brokerage money, the receiver has said.

In its bankruptcy petition, Cedar Falls, Iowa-based Peregrine listed more than $500 million in assets and more than $100 million in liabilities. The brokerage estimates it has more than 10,000 creditors, according to the filing. Peregrine had 241 employees, of which 56 were retained to help liquidate the company.

Separately, Bodenstein asked the judge to set up procedures for paying his fees and expenses, and said he is seeking to hire as bankruptcy adviser Shaw Gussis Fishman Glantz Wolfson & Towbin LLC, the law firm where works, at rates of as much as $650 an hour.

The criminal case is U.S. v. Wasendorf, 12-mj-131, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Iowa (Cedar Rapids). The bankruptcy case is Peregrine Financial Group Inc., 12-27488, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago). The regulatory case is U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Peregrine Financial Group Inc., 12-cv-05383, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).

To contact the reporter on this story: Linda Sandler in New York at

To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Pickering at

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

Companies Mentioned

  • JPM
    (JPMorgan Chase & Co)
    • $55.8 USD
    • 0.24
    • 0.43%
  • C
    (Citigroup Inc)
    • $47.0 USD
    • 0.10
    • 0.21%
Market data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
Bloomberg News

Rousseff’s Stimulus Measures to Spur Brazil Economy: Timeline

October 24, 2012

Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff has implemented a series of measures since taking office to boost domestic demand and protect industry from imports.

March 3, 2011: Alessandro Teixeira, deputy trade minister, announces the Treasury will lend an additional 55 billion reais ($27 billion) to state development bank BNDES.

Aug. 2, 2011: Rousseff exempts four industrial sectors -- clothing, footwear, software and furniture -- from Brazil’s 20 percent payroll tax as part of her “Bigger Brazil Program.” Rousseff also announces tax credits for exporters of industrial goods equal to 0.5 percent of their sales abroad.

Sept. 15, 2011: Finance Minister Guido Mantega announces a 30 percent increase in the excise tax known as IPI for carmakers that do not source at least 65 percent of their parts from the Brazil, other nations in the Mercosur trade bloc or Mexico. The tax increase is effective through December 2012.

Oct. 27, 2011: Mantega announces lifting of the debt limit for 10 states by a total of 15.7 billion reais.

Nov. 10, 2011: Rousseff announces lifting the debt limit for seven additional states by a total 21.3 billion reais.

Nov. 11, 2011: Brazil’s central bank cuts capital requirements for some consumer loans with maturities of as much as five years, including car loans.

Dec. 1, 2011: Mantega announces that the IPI tax on appliances will be cut to 0 percent to 10 percent, from 4 percent to 20 percent previously, until March 31.

The government also suspends the IOF transaction tax on foreigners’ purchases of stocks, reduces the IOF tax charged on consumer loans to 2.5 percent from 3 percent, and lowers sales taxes on basic foodstuffs.

Feb. 16: Government raises debt limit for three additional states by total of 2.3 billion reais.

March 15: After Brazil expressed concern about its growing trade deficit with Mexico in automobiles, Mexico’s economy minister announces the two countries agreed to cap car imports from Mexico for three years.

March 16: Rousseff removes IOF tax on currency derivatives for exporters.

March 26: Mantega announces extension of IPI tax cut for appliances until June 30. Also eliminates the 15 percent IPI tax on furniture, and cuts taxes on wallpaper and light fixtures.

April 3: Mantega announces expansion of the 20 percent payroll tax elimination through 2013 to include a total 15 industries. Also announces expansion of subsidized lending by state development bank BNDES, and says government will prioritize buying locally manufactured pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, backhoes and graders that cost as much as 8 percent to 25 percent more than imported goods.

May 21: As part of the Bigger Brazil Program, Mantega announces a further cut in the IOF transaction tax to 1.5 percent from 2.5 percent, and lower reserve requirements for banks’ car loan portfolios.

Mantega also announces cut in the IPI tax on vehicles to a range of 0 percent to 6.5 percent, depending on engine size, from a previous range of 4 percent to 13 percent.

June 14: Rousseff pares IOF tax on overseas loans with maturities as long as two years, as opposed to maturities as long as five years previously.

June 15: Mantega announces tax reductions for public-private partnerships, and that BNDES will lend as much as 20 billion reais to states in order to boost infrastructure investment.

June 27: Mantega announces a 6.6 billion reais increase in Brazil’s budget to purchase tractors, buses, trucks, other vehicles and equipment from local manufacturers.

The government also cuts the rate that BNDES charges on loans, known as TJLP, to 5.5 percent from 6 percent, where it had remained since July 2009.

June 28: Central bank halves the rate of additional reserve requirements on banks’ demand deposits to 6 percent for lending to the agricultural sector for the 2012/2013 harvest.

June 29: Mantega announces extension of IPI tax cuts on furniture through Sept. 30, and on appliances through Aug. 31.

Aug. 15: Rousseff announces government will sell licenses to build and operate 7,500 kilometers of roads and 10,000 kilometers of railways, requiring as much as 133 billion reais investment over 30 years.

Aug. 29: Mantega announces extension of IPI tax cuts for vehicles through Oct. 31, and all other goods already receiving the tax cuts through year-end 2012.

Aug. 31: Rousseff announces that corporations will be entitled to accelerated depreciation on trucks and trains for purposes of calculating income tax.

Sept. 3: Finance Ministry increases debt ceiling for Rio de Janeiro state by 7.1 billion reais.

Sept. 4: Government raises tariffs on 100 products to as high as 25 percent, effective Sept. 26.

Sept. 13: Mantega announces elimination of 20 percent payroll tax for 25 additional industries, of which 20 are from the manufacturing sector, three from transportation and two from services.

Sept. 14: Central bank eliminates the additional reserve requirement rate for cash deposits, which had been at 6 percent, and reduces the rate for time deposits to 11 percent from 12 percent starting Oct. 29.

Oct. 4: Rousseff decrees local content, energy efficiency and investment requirements for carmakers. Manufacturers whose cars exceed the government’s efficiency requirements can earn as much as two percentage points in IPI tax reductions from 2017 to 2020.

Oct. 24: Rousseff also announces an extension until year-end for the IPI tax cuts on car purchases. Also decrees release of 1.95 billion reais for states and cities to boost exports.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Biller in Boston at

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
Bloomberg News

Does This Nike Ad Signal a Future After Tiger?

January 14, 2013

Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Golfer Rory McIlroy has signed a sponsorship deal with Nike, the company announced today. McIlroy, 23, and Tiger Woods, 37, also a Nike endorsee, are featured in a new television ad for the apparel maker. The commercial has media pundits buzzing that Nike will begin shifting its marketing muscle toward the younger McIlroy and away from Woods. (Source: Bloomberg)

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
Bloomberg News

Fusion-io Back in Play as Growth Converges With Price: Real M&A

May 22, 2013

Former Fusion-io Inc. CEO David Flynn

Shane Robison replaced David Flynn as CEO after Flynn, seen here, and fellow co-founder Rick White left to pursue “entrepreneurial investing activities,” Fusion-io said May 8. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

Potential acquirers long tempted by Fusion-io Inc. (FIO:US)’s industry-leading growth prospects got another reason to consider a takeover when the memory-technology company’s valuation sank this month.

The price-sales ratio for Fusion-io has fallen to a record low after the chief executive officer and a co-founder both quit this month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Despite the plunge, the Salt Lake City-based company’s prospects are intact, according to the average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg, with sales projected (FIO:US) to more than double through 2015 as more data centers use Fusion-io’s flash-memory technology.

“It’s a leader in a fast-growing segment where most of the other large technology providers have a gap in their offerings,” Abhey Lamba, a New York-based analyst at Mizuho Securities USA Inc., said in a telephone interview. “Any large hardware provider who has storage solutions could find value in them. And any time there’s a break in valuation, buyers are usually more attracted to the firm.”

Fusion-io may lure suitors including NetApp Inc. (NTAP:US), which Elliott Management Corp. is pressuring to boost shareholder value, and Oracle Corp. (ORCL:US) even though the new CEO said the $1.4 billion company isn’t for sale, according to Longbow Research. As both a competitor and customer, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ:US) Co. may be the most logical buyer once its turnaround is complete, Dougherty & Co. said. Fusion-io, which counts Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc. as its biggest customers (FIO:US), has repeatedly been the subject of takeover speculation, starting with a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. report in 2011.

CEO’s Focus

A sale “is not my focus,” Shane Robison, the new CEO, said in an interview on May 8. “My focus is on growing the company and building on what we have. If somebody expresses interest, our board knows how to deal with that.”

Shannon McPhee, a spokeswoman at Fusion-io, didn’t respond to a phone call or e-mail asking whether the company has been approached by suitors.

Robison replaced David Flynn as CEO after Flynn and fellow co-founder Rick White left to pursue “entrepreneurial investing activities,” Fusion-io said May 8. They are both still board members and together own about 3 percent of the company, data (FIO:US) compiled by Bloomberg show.

Fusion-io shares lost 19 percent, the most ever, on May 8 after the company announced the management changes. Robison is a former executive at Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard who helped lead the 2011 purchase of Autonomy Corp., which resulted in an $8.8 billion writedown and allegations of accounting lapses. That track record raised concerns about how well he can direct strategy at Fusion-io, said Andrew Nowinski, a Minneapolis-based analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos.

Depressed Level

Fusion-io’s stock price closed at a record low of $14.22 yesterday, pushing its price-sales ratio to 3.1, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“When the stock goes down, it’s certainly more attractive” for suitors, Joe Wittine, an Independence, Ohio-based analyst at Longbow Research, said in a phone interview. “You have to assume that they were getting interest in the past and maybe the feelers were out there. As a buyer, you would definitely take another look at them now because the stock is cheap.”

Today, the stock climbed 0.6 percent to $14.31 at 9:40 a.m. New York time.

Takeover speculation has buoyed the share price on at least 10 days since its June 2011 IPO, according to data (FIO:US) compiled by Bloomberg. In October 2011, Goldman Sachs analysts said Fusion-io was among companies with as much as a 50 percent probability of being acquired.

Flash Pioneer

Fusion-io is seen as an attractive target partly because it was a pioneer in flash-memory technology for servers, and competitors are still trying to catch up, Wittine said.

Its software and memory chips work together to speed the rate that server computers can access data, a handy tool for customers such as Apple and Facebook that have data centers constantly processing large amounts of information. Last month, the company said it added music-streaming service Spotify as a customer.

“Fusion-io’s technology is cutting edge,” Mark Kelleher, a Boston-based analyst at Dougherty, said in a phone interview. “It’s pretty amazing and unique.”

Hewlett-Packard, which uses Fusion-io’s products in the servers it sells, is the most logical buyer, though it needs to complete its turnaround efforts before striking a deal, Kelleher said.

100 Times

NetApp of Sunnyvale, California or Redwood City, California-based Oracle should acquire Fusion-io to get a leading position in flash memory, Wittine of Longbow Research said. Oracle has a market value of $165 billion, more than 100 times bigger than Fusion-io.

NetApp, a $13 billion data-storage company, is being pressed by activist shareholder (NTAP:US) Elliott Management to change its board and study options to boost shareholder value, people familiar with the situation said last week. One way to do that may be to acquire Fusion-io, Wittine said.

“If you’re an activist taking a stake in NetApp and you potentially want it to make some smarter acquisitions, flash is considered one of the areas where NetApp is behind,” he said.

Representatives at Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, NetApp and New York-based hedge fund Elliott Management declined to comment.

Sales Growth

Fusion-io would give a buyer access to a business that’s projected to increase sales (FIO:US) by 102 percent in the next three years, topping every rival, according to the average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

While that adds to the appeal, it also means an acquirer will have to pay up to persuade Robison to sell the company, Kelleher of Dougherty said. Mizuho’s Lamba said that just because Robison said he isn’t weighing a sale, it doesn’t rule one out.

“Most companies wouldn’t say if they are available for sale,” Lamba said. “Most of the good acquisitions out there are the ones where management teams remain focused on operations. So we could see activity on that front.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Tara Lachapelle in New York at

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sarah Rabil at

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

Companies Mentioned

  • FIO
    (Fusion-io Inc)
    • $11.28 USD
    • 0.02
    • 0.18%
  • NTAP
    (NetApp Inc)
    • $37.13 USD
    • 0.49
    • 1.32%
Market data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
Bloomberg News

Gen Re $72 Million Settlement Wins Final Approval From Judge

September 10, 2013

General Reinsurance Corp.’s $72 million settlement of investor claims that it participated in a fraudulent transaction with American International Group Inc. (AIG:US) was approved by a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts in Manhattan approved the accord today. An appeals court last year reversed Batts’s decision to block the 2009 settlement.

AIG investors, led by three Ohio public pension funds, sued in 2004 alleging the companies were involved in a scheme in late 2000 and early 2001 that allowed New York-based AIG to improperly inflate its revenue and loss reserves. Gen Re is a unit of Warren Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

“This is the last piece of the AIG litigation,” said Thomas Dubbs, a lawyer for the investors. The Ohio Attorney General’s office and the pension funds were pleased with Batts’s ruling today, he said.

The case is In Re American International Group Inc. Securities Litigation, 10-4401, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Van Voris in New York at

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

Companies Mentioned

  • AIG
    (American International Group Inc)
    • $54.52 USD
    • 0.04
    • 0.07%
Market data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
Bloomberg News

U.S. Forces Raid Al-Shabaab Hub and Catch Fugitive in Libya

October 06, 2013

U.S. forces raided a Somali town in search of a leader of the Islamist group al-Shabaab and captured a fugitive in Libya wanted for al-Qaeda bombing plots, as part of anti-terrorism efforts.

The Somali operation was carried out against a known al-Shabaab terrorist, said George Little, a Pentagon spokesman. He declined to give further details. The fugitive, Anu Anas al-Libi, is “currently lawfully detained under the law of war” outside of Libya, Little said in a subsequent statement yesterday.

U.S. armed forces undertook the missions “to continue to hunt down those responsible for acts of terrorism,” Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday during a trip in Bali, Indonesia. “This makes clear that the U.S. will never stop in its effort to hold those accountable who conduct acts of terror.”

Special Operations forces raided the port of Baraawe, south of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, a U.S. official briefed on the mission said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because counter-terrorism operations are classified, said one of the main targets of the air and sea assault was a suspected leader of al-Shabaab, which said it carried out an attack on the Westgate Mall in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, last month that killed at least 67 people.

The official declined to given the name of the leader, who he said was targeted for capture and may have been killed in an extended firefight between U.S. Navy SEALs and fighters in the village. The objective of most such missions is to capture and interrogate terrorist leaders, not kill them, the official said. No U.S. personnel were killed or injured, he said.

Embassy Bombings

In a separate operation, U.S. forces captured al-Libi in connection with his alleged role in al-Qaeda’s efforts to kill U.S. nationals and to conduct attacks against U.S. interests worldwide, Little said yesterday. He has been indicted in the Southern District of New York, he said.

“Our first priority is and always has been to apprehend terrorist suspects, and to preserve the opportunity to elicit valuable intelligence that can help us protect the American people,” Little said in the statement. “These actions are a clear sign that the United States is committed to using all the tools at our disposal to bring to justice those who commit terrorist acts against Americans.”

The al-Qaeda plots targeted U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia and U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, Little said. The operation was approved by President Barack Obama.

Obama’s Preference

“The president has made clear our preference for capturing terrorist targets when possible, and that’s exactly what we’ve done in order to elicit as much valuable intelligence as we can and bring a dangerous terrorist to justice,” National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement yesterday. The statement didn’t mention the raid in Somalia.

“These operations in Libya and Somalia send a strong message to the world that the United States will spare no effort to hold terrorists accountable, no matter where they hide or how long they evade justice,” U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. “We will continue to maintain relentless pressure on terrorist groups that threaten our people or our interests, and we will conduct direct action against them, if necessary, that is consistent with our laws and our values.”

New York Indictment

Born Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, al-Libi had been indicted by the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York in 2000 for taking part in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Jumaa Al Mishri, an Interior Ministry official, said in a phone interview yesterday that al-Libi was taken in front of his house in eastern Tripoli as he was returning from a mosque. Those who took him “spoke the Libyan dialect,” Al Mishri said without elaborating.

Libya, in a statement on the government’s official Facebook page, yesterday asked the U.S. to explain its role in the seizure of one of its citizens.

“The government stresses how keen it is that Libyans should face trial in Libya regardless of the charges, and that suspects are innocent until proven guilty,” it said in the statement. “Concerned ministries have been tasked with following up the matter with U.S. authorities.”

The Libyan government said it “hopes” the strategic partnership with the U.S. “isn’t threatened by this incident,” according to the statement.

The al-Shabaab figure sought in Somalia was also a link between extremists in East Africa and the remnants of al-Qaeda’s senior leadership in Pakistan and its Yemeni affiliate, according to the official briefed on that raid.

Mall Attack

The “raid is definitely connected to the Westgate attack, because the target was al-Shabaab leaders,” Emmanuel Kisiangani, a Nairobi-based analyst at the Institute for Security Studies, said yesterday in a phone interview. “We are likely to see the U.S., Kenya and other countries actively pursuing terrorists to step up efforts to at least disorganize al-Shabaab using tactics like this raid.”

U.S. and Kenyan authorities hoped to question members of al-Shabaab captured in Baraawe about the mall attack, and wanted to know whether the group was making plans with other al-Qaeda affiliates for attacks elsewhere in the world, the official said.

Manoah Esipisu, a Kenyan presidency spokesman, said in a phone interview yesterday that the “assault” was a U.S. operation and questions about it should be directed to the Americans.

U.S. Special Operations forces killed another senior al-Shabaab leader, Saleh Ali Saleh, not far from Baraawe in 2009, the official said.

To contact the reporters on this story: John Walcott in Washington at; Indira A.R. Lakshmanan in Bali, Indonesia at

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at; John Walcott at

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
Frontier Home Business Week Home Contact Us Business Week Archive

Advice and Columns

A Slowdown Isn't All Bad for Small Business
It should take the edge off the labor shortage

A cooling economy could give small businesses relief in the one area where the boom of recent years has brought them pain -- labor costs.

In a period of low inflation, small businesses -- at the bottom of the economic food chain -- have had almost no leverage to raise prices. At the same time, with the jobless rate at a mere 4.6%, they have been squeezed by labor costs. That's especially true in high technology, where there has been a large shortage of software engineers for several years. Indeed, a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of small, hot high-tech companies released this week showed 76% blame a shortage of qualified workers for slowing revenue growth in the next 12 months. And it's hardly an abstract problem, since 84% said they plan to hire more staff.

But the problem may not last long. "If they say they can't find [new employees], they'll be around soon," says Bill Dunkelberg, chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business, pointing to layoffs at several major high-tech companies -- Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, and Packard Bell NEC, for example. "Employment in high tech is falling," he says. Companies in other sectors are cutting back, too. Among those joining the layoff trend this week: Amerada Hess, the oil company, and Times Mirror, the media chain.

That should take some pressure off small-business wages. In September, the NFIB found that 28% of those it surveyed reported higher labor costs, three points below its record, while a net 2% raised prices -- that's the difference between the percentage of those who raised prices and those who did not. By contrast, in 1997, a net 6% raised prices on average.

Not that there won't be tightness in some regions and industries. Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Development Corp. who watches the region's small businesses closely, says, for example, that the metal fabricating business -- which has many small manufacturers and benefited from the laid-off aerospace workers a few years ago -- is now worried that there will be a dearth of skilled replacements as they retire.

TO HIRE -- OR NOT? Of course, bulking up on employees before a slowdown may not be the best idea, even if they do come cheaper than before. But Irwin Kellner, an economics professor at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., and a former chief economist at Chemical Bank, says he thinks small businesses will be able to avoid being caught with too much staff, in the way major companies do nowadays, by making do with part-timers and consultants.

Even if they do hire full-timers, Kellner doesn't see much risk. He says the slowdown won't be nearly as cataclysmic as it was billed in September, after the stock market had crashed, along with much of Asia and most of the other emerging markets. "The second Fed rate cut calmed the irrational fears affecting the markets," says Kellner. "It was clearly a case of the tail wagging the dog," with the economy slowing because of the stock market weakness rather than the other way around, which is more common. He points to such positives as the weaker dollar, which helps U.S. exports and takes the edge off the downward pressure on prices from foreign imports.

Dunkelberg agrees that the bogeyman of the credit crunch has apparently been laid to rest, but he still thinks a slowdown is under way. "It's very clear that manufacturing is being hit by three quarters of declines in a row. Clearly, we have trouble there. In construction, there's a lot of heavy-duty dirty stuff. Housing is strong, but it looks like we're overbuilding again," he says. That should take even more heat off the labor market -- fine for small business, so long as consumers don't get chilled, too.

By Julia Lichtblau in New York

Look Who's Still Smiling -- High-Tech Companies

In a Global Economy, You're Always On the Front Lines

Trends Archives

Business Week Logo

Copyright 1998 Bloomberg L.P.
Terms of Use


text:
Businessweek Archives

Spam Buster

Enterprise -- In Box

Spam-spam-spam-spam. It clogs servers; it wastes time. A new "opt-out" service, called SAFEeps, aims to help E-mail users escape unsolicited commercial E-mail, while letting them get promos they might want. Here's how it works: You register your E-mail address (or an entire domain) at and tell it to accept spam on up to 21 topics, or block it all. There's no charge. Marketers then pay SAFEeps $29.95 to run up to 300,000 E-mail addresses through its system, removing people who have opted out of receiving spam. Why would marketers agree to this? Because if they don't police themselves, the government is threatening to do it for them.EDITED BY EDITH UPDIKE

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
Businessweek Archives

U.S.: Manufacturing Is Finally Ready To Get Up Off The Floor

Business Outlook: U.S. Economy

U.S.: Manufacturing Is Finally Ready to Get Up Off the Floor

But with weak global growth, recovery won't be quick

Now that the finance heads of the Group of Seven industrialized nations have pledged to promote "more balanced growth" in the world economy, U.S. manufacturers are undoubtedly hoping they will honor that commitment sooner rather than later. Despite booming demand at home, U.S. factories have been hampered for nearly two years by global weakness precipitated by the Asian crisis, reflected in sagging exports and ever-growing import competition.

The good news is that the worst is over for the manufacturing sector, but don't expect a rapid recovery. The world outside the U.S. is stabilizing, but growth is not likely to pick up substantially--until, perhaps, next year. Commodity prices are off their lows, suggesting some relief from the weak pricing climate that hammered manufacturing profits last year. Yet, U.S. factory capacity is still more than ample in a world beset by overcapacity, suggesting that pricing power will not return quickly.

A key plus for manufacturers has been booming consumer demand, and the sixth consecutive monthly increase in consumer confidence in April suggests that households show no sign of letting up. Hot domestic spending is helping to lift factory orders, and it has reduced business inventories to very low levels, relative to sales (charts). The need for some restocking this spring and summer will buoy output. But even here, as the first-quarter surge in imports shows, a lot of U.S. demand is bypassing U.S. manufacturers.

ONE OF THE BEST SIGNS that the industrial sector is finding its legs is the improved first-quarter performance of earnings at many basic manufacturing companies. Most recently, for example, Alcoa, Cooper Tire & Rubber, and Lear have shown solid earnings growth, while Eastman Chemical, Weyerhaeuser, Caterpillar, and Whirlpool all have posted large positive earnings surprises, according to First Call Corp., a financial research company.

Based on actual reports from 344 companies in the manufacturing-oriented Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, plus the latest earnings estimates for the remaining 156 companies, First Call projects that first-quarter operating earnings per share for the S&P 500 will rise 8.7% from a year ago. Moreover, of the 344 companies that already have reported, earnings have been a hefty 4.6% above expectations.

Because the S&P 500 is heavily weighted with industrial companies, many of which do a lot of business globally, earnings of companies in the stock index were hit especially hard last year relative to other U.S. companies. As a result, the waning drags from weakness abroad and falling commodity prices, plus the nascent pickup in factory activity, should provide some support for factory earnings this year that was lacking last year.

Moreover, manufacturers are sharply cutting their labor costs at a time when their productivity growth remains strong. Through the first quarter, average hourly earnings of production workers in the factory sector grew only 1.8% from a year ago. That pace is down steeply from 3.2% during all of 1997. At the same time, manufacturing productivity is growing about 4% per year. As a result, factory unit-labor costs fell at a 2% annual rate in the second half of last year, and that rate of cost-cutting appears to have accelerated in the first quarter. Thus, any firming in prices this year will go straight to manufacturers' bottom lines.

OVERT SIGNS OF INCREASED ACTIVITY in manufacturing remain fuzzy. Regional industrial surveys taken in April by the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia and Atlanta, along with a March survey by the Richmond Fed, show sharply improved factory sector activity, as did the March purchasing managers' index. The problem is that these indicators tend to be so-called "diffusion indexes" that report the breadth of improvement or deterioration in activity, not the actual volume of output, orders, and so forth. That is, the lessening drag from the Asian crisis will cause a diffusion index to rise as fewer companies report falling business, but that doesn't necessarily mean factory activity has picked up in any significant way.

Indeed, manufacturing production through March stayed in the doldrums. However, the trend in new orders looks hopeful. Orders taken by makers of durable goods rose 2% in March, and the three-month average of bookings is in a clear uptrend. Moreover, the growth rate of orders accelerated rapidly in the first quarter, to an annual rate of 14.8%, compared with the fourth quarter of last year. That was the largest quarterly increase in four years. Fourth-quarter bookings grew only at a 2.5% rate.

THE FIRMER TONE OF ORDERS partly reflects the boom in consumer spending, and there is no indication that it is about to wane. Consumers were brimming with optimism in April, according to the Conference Board, whose index of consumer confidence rose to 134.9, from 134 in March. The index is only 3.3 points from recovering all of the 19-point drop that occurred during last year's global financial market meltdown. Prior to that, confidence stood at a three-decade high.

However, consumers are also a key risk for the manufacturing recovery. That's because U.S. growth has become increasingly dependent on household spending at a time when demand in other sectors is slowing. A renewed widening in the trade deficit this year will hinder growth. Although March sales of existing homes hit a record 5.05 million pace, housing's potential for additional gains is about played out. Also, the outlook for capital spending is looking dimmer, partly because all that capacity that manufacturers have been adding in recent years has been increasingly idle. The March factory operating rate fell to a seven-year low.

Manufacturing capacity growth is already slowing, and the pace was down sharply in the first quarter, led by a slowdown in capacity additions by non-high-tech industries (chart). Capacity growth in manufacturing excluding computers, semiconductors, and communications equipment--some 91% of factory output--grew at an annual rate of only 1.9% last quarter. Capacity growth in high tech has also slowed but is still growing at greater than 30% per year, compared with more than 40% two years ago.

The interesting offshoot here is that with capacity growth set to continue to slow this year, it will take less output growth to get operating rates rising again, compared with previous years when capacity was increasing faster. That situation could even give some manufacturers a little lift in their pricing power, especially if consumers keep spending with abandon. So for 1999, the faster the rest of the world can get its act together, the faster U.S. manufacturing can work its way back to health.BY JAMES C. COOPER & KATHLEEN MADIGANReturn to top

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
Markets & Finance

Stocks Finish Lower

Stocks finished lower Tuesday, as the price of oil hovered around $70 a barrel, and gasoline futures shot up 20% near the end of the session, on worries that Hurricane Katrina damaged refineries. The retail sector was also broadly lower on concerns that the hurricane hurt revenue prospects for retailers in the coming quarter.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 50.23 points, or 0.48%, to 10,412.82. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 3.87 points, or 0.32%, moving to 1,208.41. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 7.89 points, or 0.37%, to 2,129.76.

Crude oil prices continued to flirt with the $70 a barrel mark throughout the session Tuesday, as energy companies assessed the extent of hurricane damage to rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. The price of October futures settled up $2.61, at $69.81 a barrel.

U.S. chain store sales fell for the fourth consecutive week, down 0.3% in the week ending Aug. 27, and falling short of expectations. Higher oil prices were partly to blame, according to the report from ICSC-UBS. For the entire month of August, U.S. chain store sales were down 1.0%.

Meanwhile, U.S. consumer confidence headed higher. The confidence number was up to 105.6 in August, beating median expectations.

U.S. factory goods orders dropped 1.9% in July, a number that was less than expected after the 4.9% decline in durable goods orders. The inventory/shipments ratio was unchanged at 1.19.

In economic news later this week, the preliminary second-quarter GDP figure will be reported Wednesday, followed by Thursday's release of personal income figures for July and the ISM manufacturing index for August. The employment report for August is due out Friday.

In corporate news, Apple (AAPL) has reached a deal with Cingular Wireless to offer a wireless version of its iTunes music downloading service using Motorola (MOT) phones, according to several press reports.

Sprint Nextel (S) announced plans to acquire an affiliate, Gulf Coast Wireless, in a $287.5 million deal, including the assumption of some debt. Sprint Nextel also announced it would acquire another affiliate, IWO Holdings, for about $427 million, including $208 million in debt.

Electronics Boutique (ELBO) posted earnings per share of 14 cents in the second quarter, vs. 16 cents in the year ago quarter. Same-store sales rose 24%.

Later in the week, earnings reports are expected from jeweler Tiffany (TIF) on Wednesday and tax preparation group H&R Block (HRB) on Thursday.

Treasury Market

Treasury yields headed lower as traders looked for safety amid falling stock prices and surging oil. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note was at 4.14%.

World Markets

European stock markets finished mixed on Friday. London's Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100 index was up 27.70 points, or 0.53%, to 5,255.80.

Germany's DAX index fell 20.52 points, or 0.43%, to 4,791.72.

In Paris, the CAC 40 index lost 4.61 points, or 0.11%, to 4,356.66.

Asian markets finished higher on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 143.31 points, or 1.16%, to 12,453.14.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index rose 85.25 points, or 0.57%, to 14,922.22.

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

Sponsored Financial Commentaries

Sponsored Links

Buy a link now!

blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
"Follow My Money" (Personal Business, Mar. 6, 2006)

In "Follow my money" (Personal Business, Mar. 6), bloggers have $154,020.99 in debt, not $98,615.39.

In "Is the MBA overrated?" (B-Schools, Mar. 20), the name of a Hartford Financial Services Group (HIG) executive was misspelled. The correct spelling is David K. Zwiener.

In a table accompanying "China, savior of the Rust Belt?" (Government, Mar. 13), a saying used to express Chinese investors' caution was misquoted. The correct saying is: "The Chinese cross the stream by feeling the stones first."

In "Battling for the eyes of Texas" (News: Analysis & Commentary, Mar. 20), Verizon's TV service in Keller, Tex., downloads at up to 5 or 15 megabits a second, not megabytes.

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
Businessweek Archives

Skype's Prices Are Creeping Up

? An iPhone Reality Check |

| Have You Tried Joost? ?

January 18, 2007

Skype's Prices Are Creeping Up

Olga Kharif

I've written about the creep up of VoIP calling rates before. But here's another piece of evidence that this is happening: On Jan. 18, Skype unveiled a slew of new calling plans. Called Skype Pro, these plans, which have just debuted in Europe and will be rolled out worldwide this year, allow users to make unlimited calls to domestic phones for a fixed monthly charge. People who sign up won't have to pay per-minute fees for SkypeOut, and will also enjoy lower international calling fees (yup, Skype Pro users will still have to pay international calling rates, in addition to purchasing the plan).

What I find difficult to believe is that a lot of people will want to take advantage of this. Today, an average Skype user only spends a few bucks a month on SkypeOut, if that. Would users want to pay the expected $6-7 monthly charge? And, on top of that, pay for international calling and for connection fees? Honestly, I think it would be cheaper for people to just buy traditional calling cards.

By the by, Skype is not alone in revving up its charges. A few days ago, Verizon increased rates it charges users of MSN Live Messenger in Mexico, for instance. What's happening is, many VoIP service providers are raising their prices, big time. Sure, they need to find a way to make money. But I think raising prices is a big mistake. In the past, users switched to VoIP because it was the cheapest calling option around. When it's no longer that, customers might no longer hurry to abandon their traditional telecom services providers for upstarts.

02:34 PM

TrackBack URL for this entry:

Most traditional phone companies have abandoned "connection" charges. People perceive connection charges as a phone company usage tax that doesn't benefit the subscriber in any way.

This is the wrong direction for Skype. It makes costs less transparent. Soon if I call someone on a landline for 1 minute, I will need to add the connection cost to the minute rate to find out what the total cost will be.

My cable company provides phone services. I can call free every evening and on weekend to landlines within Switzerland. Skype is much more expensive.

My mobile provider (with certain restrictions such as time of day and who I am calling) charges me CHF 0.70 per hour per call. Skype can not compete at these rates.

Posted by: swissfondue at January 19, 2007 05:06 AM

I'm disgusted with Skype new prices, but still I have to disagree with swissfondue. I'm living in Switzerland too and I know what you're talking about. For the free calls to landlines you still pay 20-25 swiss franc a month as abonament for the line which I find totally ridiculous! For 25 swiss francs a month I can still call a lot with Skype even with the connectiocn fee to many international ountries. Depending how much you call Skype can be still cheaper. Moreover, I think Cablecom is super disgusting as well. They use the same cable for tv, internet and the phone and it costs so much! 3 abonaments!!

Posted by: guilli at January 20, 2007 05:08 AM

Having just rifled off an email to skype advising them of my own thoughts regarding their ability to quadruple a minimum call cost in the UK for a less than one minute call without adequately advising the consumer, I wonder if they realise the kind of reputational damage this may cause to their business. In many instances with all the home telephony and free mobile minutes etc, packages around it wil be easier and cheaper to call through traditional means.

A bad move for skype, I will certainly think twice before using and recommending their services.

norman nesbitt

Posted by: norman at January 26, 2007 07:06 AM

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
Businessweek Archives

Is Nokia's Netbook Too Expensive?

On Sept. 2, Nokia announced the specs of its first netbook, the Nokia Booklet 3G. The netbook, which comes with a global positioning system and runs Nokia mobile services, will cost $819. Most analysts I??e talked to expected it to cost less than $500, which is the price of premium netbooks today.

The same day, Nokia also announced some neat Facebook features.

The high price could dramatically impede Nokia?? progress in conquering the netbooks market. Nowadays, most manufacturers?netbooks cost between $200 and $350 to the carriers, which subsidize and sell them for consumers for as little as zero dollars with a wireless service contract. But no carrier can afford to subsidize the Booklet’s full cost. Germany’s O2 plans to sell the Booklet to consumers for about $356, after subsidies and with a long-term wireless contact. That’s a lot of money for a consumer to shell out. And my hunch is, not many consumers will take O2 up on this offer.

Even though its product looks attractive and works well, according to demos, the high price leaves little hope for Nokia’s success in this market. While the company does not want to cheapen its brand, or jeopardize its margins with a cheap netbook, it has to come out with a competitively priced device to make sales. Today, in my opinion, Nokia prices itself right out of the market.

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
Playboy Bypasses Apple's App Store

Playboy finally arrived—uncensored—on the iPad Thursday, but not through Apple's prudish App Store. It came as an iPad-optimized Web app, which means it doesn't have to abide by the App Store's rules or share subscription revenue with Apple. Sounds like a sweet deal. Is it a model that will be attractive to other magazines?

Obviously, Playboy had little choice but to go the route of a Web app with its uncensored iPad offering. While Playboy does have an app in the App Store, that doesn't offer anything near the content of the magazine. Because of restrictions against nudity and pornography in the App Store guidelines, it never could. But there are advantages to Playboy's approach that extend beyond sidestepping the censors.

The magazine doesn't have to deal with Apple's in-app subscription system, or the tithes the company expects from publishers in exchange for using it, for instance. The $8 monthly subscription fee that Playboy charges for access to its Web app goes directly to its bottom line without having to take out a 30-percent cut for Apple. Playboy also gets complete control over its relationship with the consumer. When you fill out your valuable personal info at sign-up, Playboy gets instant access to that info, without Apple's pesky permissions dialog getting in the way.

Playboy's Web app also does a pretty good impression of a native app. The app detects orientation rotation, and provides you with either a single page or two-page layout accordingly. It switches smoothly between pages with swipe animations. Table-of-contents items are hyperlinked, so you can just tap on an article title to jump to that piece. If you add a shortcut icon to your iPad's home screen, you might not even notice the app is housed in a browser.

A Low-Res Digital Magazine Copy

But while the Web app well resembles a native app, a native app it is not. That means it comes with drawbacks, such as no offline access, the occasional stutter when switching orientations, and an experience that doesn't go very far beyond being a scanned digital representation of the print original. There are, for instance, no interactive features within the magazines themselves. Even the most recent issue (every single Playboy issue ever published is available to subscribers as a nice bonus) has fairly low-res text that's hard to read and rendered somewhat fuzzy by JPEG artifacts. Also, two-page features and ads have a visible seam down the middle that rarely, if ever, matches up correctly.

Nor does Playboy support multitasking. It asks for your login credentials every time you jump out of and back into the app. But the Web app's biggest failing is that it doesn't do any local caching; if you're not connected to the Internet, you have no access to any content. Most native iPad magazine apps, by contrast, provide you with offline access once an issue has been fully downloaded to your device.

Playboy may derive some potential benefit for itself by avoiding the institution that is Apple's App Store, but it's not doing customers any favors. The Web app only superficially resembles a native one, and I suspect App Store reviewers would've greeted the low-res scans with underwhelming scores had Apple's family values not precluded the possibility entirely.

The bottom line is that if publishers want to cut Apple out of the equation, they need to take extra care to ensure that the product they come up with is one that users are willing to venture afield to find. The App Store may be a confining space, but it takes care of a lot of legwork related to marketing and discovery. Staying outside the gates requires a lot more effort than it seems Playboy has proven willing to put in.

Also from GigaOM:

Amazon's E-book Imprints: Another Big Threat to Publishers (subscription required)

Don't Check In for Offers; Just Wait for Them to Find You

Watch and Learn U.S.; the U.K.Shows Mobile Payments Done Right

Bill Gates Backs Liquid Metal Battery

Video Haunts and Shapes the Spectrum Debate

Etherington is a professional blogger, writer, and editor.

American Apparel's Future

(enter your email)
(enter up to 5 email addresses, separated by commas)

Max 250 characters

Sponsored Links

Buy a link now!

blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
SHARE THIS PAGE View Viral Dashboard ›
    • darylo

      So let me get this straight: 33 kids suspended, removed from their prom, and denied the ability to walk their graduation… for DANCING??? What the hell? Is the entire administration made up of the parents from “Footloose?”Ithink it is irrelevant if some people don’t like it, think it’s tacky, or express some other bias against the dance itself. What is their problem? It too closely simulatesasexual act or overtones? Man, that’s all dancing has EVER been. Once again, the INTENT of the students is neglected while they go for the jugular based on loosely interpreted “regulations”. The only thing being “administered” here is intolerance, prejudice, and zealotry based in ignorance. DoIlike it? Nope. WouldIwant my daughterapart of it? Nope. WouldIbe disappointed? Yep. But these are children takingafad and running with it. No one got hurt. (except the pride ofafew) And that is hardly worthy of the heavy handed response of these “Administrators”. The message? “Toe-the-line, kids! Don’t express yourself or have fun… or else!” When will people learn you can not legislate morals.


text:
Jamaican Man Beat His GirlFriend In Public

Damn She bust his chain he got even crazier. Crazy part is everybody supports this. I hope he’s in jail.

View this embed ›

This post was created by a user and has not been vetted or endorsed by BuzzFeed's editorial staff. BuzzFeed Community is a place where anyone can post awesome lists and creations. Learn more or post your buzz!

Facebook Conversations
    Hot Buzz

    What’s The Weirdest Dream You’ve Ever Had?

    Which Emoji Do You Use The Most?

    Now Buzzing


text:
35 Ways You Are A Young George Costanza

I take it back. George is the most relatable person on Seinfeld.

1. You dance while you eat:

2. Biting into a ball of cheese as if it were an apple sounds appetizing to you:

3. You often end up in questionable situations:

4. And oh look, here’s a picture I found of you on a windy day:

6. You also know your weaknesses:

10. Nailed it. Your life in 3 words:

11. You have an excuse for everything:

12. You spaz out over ketchup bottles:

13. Massages make you uncomfortable:

14. Your mornings often start like this:

15. These are your passions:

16. This is what happens when you don’t take your cellphone into the bathroom and it starts ringing:

17. This is how it feels when you do your hair:

18. This is what it looks like when you take sexy pictures:

19. And this is how your sexy pictures actually turn out:

20. Here’s an intimate portrait of you sharing a tender moment with a vending machine:

21. How you feel on a nice day:

22. And how your parents feel about you:

23. This is how you tell jokes:

24. This is how your friends react to your jokes:

25. This is what your life would be like if you were a prostitute:

26. This is how you eat when you are alone:

27. Which doesn’t look that much different than how you eat in public:

28. Have I mentioned all of the times you had food on your face and nobody told you about it? It happens a lot!

29. I also just found this image of you overreacting:

30. This is how you look at the gym:

31. You sweat a lot… in situations when you really shouldn’t be:

32. Basically, your life is a bunch of lies.

34. Focus on what you do well.

35. Go drape yourself in some velvet or something.

Check out more articles on BuzzFeed.com!

Facebook Conversations
    Now Buzzing