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Nov
20
Jerry Yang to quit Yahoo
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Yahoo founder, Jerry Yang has decided to call it quits after anchoring it for 14 years. Although he still hopes to cling on, Yang felt the need for shifting base after his phobia of Microsoft. As the story unfolds, Yang had refused to sell Yahoo to Microsoft for $47.5 billion; an event that had taken place six months ago. He felt at the time that the company was being undervalued and instead took to striking up deals with arch rivals, Google.
With the company at an all time low, he had reason to worry as the company’s share prices had hit an all time low. According to latest update, Yahoo shareholders would expect the next chief executive to slice a beneficial deal with Microsoft in an urge to survive.
For the moment of course Yang will remain the titular head Yang, with the profile of “Chief Yahoo,” and will also remain on Yahoo’s board of directors.
Nov
8
Surge of Text Messages Sent on Election Night
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Three of the four major wireless carriers in US reported at least a ten percent surge in text messaging on the night the country elected its newest president.
AT&T said on Thursday that on election night it witnessed the largest jump in text messaging in the company’s history as traffic jumped by 44%. Sprint too claimed that there was at least a 30% surge in text messages sent in LA County between seven and nine on election night. According to Sybase 365, another provider of mobile messaging service, the number of text messages sent shot up by three times the normal level during the ten minutes after West Coast polls closed and TV channels declared Barack Obama the winner of the presidential elections.
The surge in text messaging that occurred on election night can be put in perspective when compared to the rise in text messages sent on other important occasions. While AT&T reported messaging services peaking by 44% on election night, in comparison last year’s Christmas saw a 30% spike in traffic while Valentine’s Day witnessed a marginally better 33% boost. Last New Year’s Day however saw a slightly more modest 26% rise in text messaging service.
The interesting phenomenon perhaps can be seen as marking a fitting end to a presidential campaign that made innovative use of text messaging services as an effective campaign strategy.
Nov
7
Barack Obama’s historic victory in the US presidential elections proved to be lucrative occasion for the struggling newspaper industry as the day’s editions were grabbed up by buyers and major newspapers struggled to keep pace with the demand.
People who missed November 5th’s edition during the day could find them later online but at a high price. By Wednesday evening around 800 sellers were offering newspaper copies - proclaiming Obama’s historic win - for sale at the popular online auction site eBay. According to a report in the online edition of Reuters, bids for The New York Times with its banner headline “Obama” rose to $400 while those for Washington Post proclaiming “Obama Makes History” went up to $41.
At one point major newspapers like Washington Post and The New York Times found out that they had run out of copies due to the surging demand and were then led to put out commemorative editions to cope with the growing number of buyers. Likewise newspapers in Denver, San Francisco and Chicago reported selling out within a brief span of time and had to print special editions. Thousands of extra copies were also brought out cities like Baltimore, Connecticut, Hartford and Orlando, Florida.
The heavy demand for newspaper copies reporting the historic event comes at a time when newspaper industry in the US is struggling with falling advertisement revenues and is even being forced to scale down operations.
Nov
1
US Justice Dept Clears Verizon-Alltel Merger
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The proposed merger between two of the biggest mobile carriers in America, Verizon Wireless and Alltel Corp, took one step closer to reality after the US Department of Justice gave its nod to the deal.
The planned acquisition of rural carrier Alltel by Verizon Wireless will result in the largest cellphone company in United States if Verizon divests in around hundred markets across twenty-two states. Sources close to negotiations have pegged the price of acquisition at $28.1 billion and after the recent credit crisis, there was speculation in some quarters whether Verizon Wireless would go through the deal at all. However after it gets the green light from all government agencies, Verizon Wireless will most likely complete all requirements of the acquisition.
Verizon Wireless agreed to sell operations in the markets that overlap with Alltel so that the anti-trust concerns of federal regulators can be eased. The divestitures are expected to cover the whole of North Dakota and South Dakota as well as large areas of Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming and South Carolina besides some regions in fourteen other states. The proposed merger is yet to be approved by Federal Communications Commission as well.
Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group PLC.
Oct
30
In one of the biggest mergers in recent aviation history of the US, two of its major domestic carriers, Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines announced that they would be coming together. The official announcement of the merger came just hours after the US Department of Justice declared that the agreement to create the world’s largest airline did not raise anti-trust concerns for the government.
The new airline after the merger will be named Delta and will have its headquarters at Atlanta. It will take from 14 to 16 months for the operations of the two carriers to combine. After the merger, the new airline will be the largest in the world by several measures like the total number of passengers carried, the number of departures as well as the total number of destinations.
In the past few months, domestic airlines in the US too have felt the negative impact of weakened economy. While job cuts and stagnant wages cut down on the average people’s disposable income, they take to travelling less in order to save money for essentials. However the recent fall in fuel prices from record-level highs in the summer has spelt good news for the aviation industry which was already giving rise to talks of airline bankruptcies and wider industry consolidation.
Oct
25
The CNNMoney list of 1991 billionaires hardly springs any surprises at the start. The first rank continues to be held by the Sultan of Brunei who controls the oil reserves of one of the smallest countries of the world and remains secure in his position as one of the last absolute monarchs on earth. While the Sultan’s status as the biggest billionaire in the world is the result of his royal lineage, the CNN list of billionaires also includes members of the nouveau riche or those who have gathered the billions by themselves.
Nouveau riche or “new money” refers to an individual who has acquired great wealth within his or her own generation. In the 21st century, America witnessed the rise of many individuals to wealth and high social status on the dint of entrepreneurial success. Many of these belonged to industries such as oil and real estate but the rise of the Silicon Valley in the early 1990s saw many a young people riding the wave of material success. The CNNMoney billionaire list includes first-timers as varied as Japanese entrepreneur Kenkichi Nakajima, Cosmetic queen Estee Lauder and software giant Bill Gates.
A nouveau riche is often distinguished from those belonging to “old money”. In the latter case, the individual is born into wealth and inherits vast fortunes from the earlier generation while the former is generally a self-made success and has acquired social power and prestige through material success.
Oct
25
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Oct
22
The US Treasury Secretary announced on Monday that the federal proposal to invest $250 billion in financial institutions had evoked “interest from a broad group of banks of all sizes”.
Speaking at a Treasury Department news briefing, Henry Paulson Jr declared that the federal move to invest in banks had drawn a wide response from financial institutions across the country. This comes after several reports indicated last week that bank executives in US were unhappy with the federal emergency program and less than thrilled at the prospect of government intrusion in their companies.
Under the $250 billion bank rescue plan, the amount of federal funds a bank may receive is restricted to 3% of the institution’s “risk-weighted assets”. However, Treasury officials reiterated at Monday’s news briefing that enough money had been allocated to cover every financial institution eligible for the funding.
The next major step in the implementation of the bank rescue program will be to decide which banks will be allowed to participate. According to Treasury’s previous statements, it would prefer to invest only in those banks which are “healthy” and well-positioned to use the federal funds to issue new loans. Such banks need help because though they have adequate capital to get through, they may not be positioned to lend as widely as it is necessary to get the economy back on its tracks.
Oct
21
South Korea became the latest country to bail out its financial system by offering a $30 billion rescue package for its banking sector as well as backing foreign currency debts of its lenders worth $100 billion. The measures come in the wake of a global market crisis whose impact has left finance sectors of several national economies in shambles.
The finance rescue plan was unveiled by the South Korean government on Sunday and it led to a marginal rise in its currency on Monday morning as won gained 4.1% 1280.80 against the US dollar. The Kospi stock market however remained largely unchanged with the index losing 0.3% to rest at 1177.11 at 9:29 a.m at Seoul on Monday morning after an initial rise of 1.3 %
South Korea’s currency has taken a huge battering in recent times and has emerged as one of the worst=performing currencies in Asia. Likewise its stock market has lost as much as 38% this year. With its government initiatives, South Korea joins Europe, Hong Kong and Australia in providing banks with state guarantees in order to ease global lending which had dropped alarmingly in the aftermath of the world finance crisis and loss of confidence among lenders.
Oct
20
Exelon is not taking hostile bid for NRG of the table
Filed Under Finance, Investing, News | Leave a Comment
Exelon Corp, might make a hostile bid for NRG Energy Inc if the company rejects its $6 billion takeover offer.
Exelong is the United States’ largest Nuclear power operator and it announced its bid for NRG on Sunday. The company offered a flat exchange ratio of 0.485 Exelon share for each NRG share, equivalent to about $25.27 a share at current prices.
Exelon’s Cheif executive, John Rowe, said while addressing investors in a conference call “We hope this turns out to be friendly rather than hostile, but we are committed to pursuing this offer and we shall do so,”.
“We did not do this lightly and we were very well advised about what it might take to get this done,”
The news of the takeover plan gave a 25% NRG Energy Inc’s shares, they were one of the big gainers on Wall Street when trading opened but still are values below what Exelon is offering. If the takeover is sucessful Exelon would effectively become the United States No. 1 power company.
Exelon has suspended a $1.5 billion share buy back plan due to worsening market conditions.
ProfitEdition- Jerry Yang to quit Yahoo
- Walt Disney Profits Fall by 13%
- Surge of Text Messages Sent on Election Night
- Grim Forecast for Retail Industry Ahead of Holiday Season
- Wall Street Bonuses Set to Plunge, Says Report
- Historic Presidential Win Boosts Newspaper Sales
- ArcelorMittal Announces Output Cut, Lowers Forecast
- Global Markets Trade Cautiously as US Votes
- South Korea Plans $11 Billion Boost to Economy
- American Express Plans 7000 Lay-offs to Cut Costs
- US Justice Dept Clears Verizon-Alltel Merger
- Exxon Posts Record $14.8 Billion Profits in Third Quarter
- Fed Opens Swaps with Central Banks of Four Developing Nations
- Delta and Northwest Airlines Merger Given Clearance
- China Brings Down Interest Rates Still Further
- Qwest Profits Fall in Third Quarter
- Many a Nouveau Riche Figures in CNN Billionaire List
- EZUnsecured.com Offers Easy and Quick Start Up Loans
- Treasury Secy Says Banks Interested in Bailout
- China’s Growth Rate Slides Below 10%
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