Mattel recalls millions more toys by Delia Cruceru
In less than two weeks, Mattel the largest toy maker in the world reported Tuesday a second major recall of its toys. They warned the parents that more than 18.6 million toys sold globally and made in China might contain tiny magnets and lead paint. Nancy Nord, acting chairwoman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said: "There is absolutely no excuse for lead to be found in toys entering this country. It is totally unacceptable and it needs to stop. This agency is going to take whatever action it needs to take to address that problem aggressively." This second recall raises many questions about the quality and the safety of products made in China and now retailers are worried that sales of their Chinese-made products will drop. Mattel declared that they voluntarily recalled 18.2 million Polly Pocket, Doggie Day Care, Batman, Barbie and One Piece toys. These toys might contain small magnets and if they're swallowed by children, the magnets connect in their intestines causing blockage that can be fatal. "Consumers should immediately take these products away from their children and contact Mattel to arrange for a return and to receive a replacement toy of the consumer's choice, up to the value of the returned product," Mattel statement said.
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Wednesday, the first Virgin America planes took off to the sky linking its San Francisco hub with New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Los Angeles. The airline is part owned and founded by the UK billionaire Richard Branson. He was received very well by his employees with applause and whistles. "Virgin (America) will make a real difference. Some American airlines have not prided themselves on quality in the sky," he said. Flies for Washington, Las Vegas and other cities are expected to be coming soon, the company has almost 500 employees, and they're expecting to hire more as the routes expand. One customer said about their service: "their small counter at LAX terminal 6 was literally overflowing with employees. I guess they really want to speed passengers through check-in and my check-in only took 30 seconds." They promised to have a wireless connection as soon as the FCC will give them approval to start the service. With cheap prices, Virgin America is a very fearful rival with other domestic carriers like Southwest Airlines Co. and JetBlue Airways Corp. Mike Boyd, a consultant at The Boyd Group, based in Evergreen, Colorado said: "If you're going to start an airline, right now may be the best time â" everybody's full and there's limited ability to competitively respond."
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Until last year Google rarely shut down services that did not seem to bring any profit. In November 2006, the company had to give up a service that answered user's questions through hired researchers. According to the last press release they will now close a service that sold and rented online videos. This project that they started 19 months ago proved to be useless because of the existence of free clips on other Web sites like its subsidiary, YouTube. The entire purpose was to develop an advertising format to capitalize on the online video popularity. Google's earnings are mostly from ads, most of them are text-based messages posted alongside search results or written content on the Web. In order to bring the advertising to a whole new level, Google bought last year YouTube for $1.76 billion. An effective advertising system for video ads is expected to be settled by the end of the year, making the new acquisition to be the center of the company's expansion into video advertising. The service originally created for video advertising sold and rented videos including sports, music and news. To compensate the customers who paid to watch videos indefinitely (the price was from a couple of bucks to 20 dollars), according Gabriel Strickler, Google spokesman, there will be created credits that can be used for online payments through its online payment service, Checkout. This way the company will not be affected in any way and the customers will be content in getting their money back. Surf on and check for your money!
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European aerospace group EADS announced at the beginning of the year that it plans a restructuring plan called "Power8" that involves the selling of six Airbus plants from Europe. Until recently on the auction block were two sites in Germany, at Laupheim and Varel, a factory in France at Saint-Nazaire-Ville and three other factories from France (Meaulte), Britain (Filton) and Germany (Nordenham) will be jointly operated by subcontractors. Now, the group has announced that it is evaluating the inclusion of Augsburg plant, the single biggest supplier of Airbus aerostructures, to the sales process of Airbus aerostructures sites. Situated in the southern German region of Bavaria provides he main structures that make up the group's aircraft. As an invitation to a partnership, the group said that a major partner owing Nordenham, Varel and Augsburg would represent a risk for Airbus. 10,000 jobs, including 3,700 in Germany will be cut due to the financial losses produced by the delays of A380 superjumbo project. Because of the management instability, operational difficulties and the euro that is becoming stronger every day, the company finds hard and expensive to extend on the international markets. There is nothing sure and the confirmation of Augsburg selling was not made yet. The European aerospace group is still debating on this subject, but because of the current situation it is more likely to happen. Until further notice, stay connected and surf for more information. Enjoy!
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Sotheby's earnings are on fire by Ana Maria Ciobanu
International auction house Sotheby's recorded a 48 percent jump in earnings as investors have flocked to purchase the art works of Claude Monet, Mark Rothko and Francis Bacon. The company's revenue has beaten all the analysts' expectations. The analysts estimated Sotheby's revenue at $319.35 million but Sotheby brought in $339.5 million. The company's contemporary art series sales in New York include Mark Rothko's "White Centre (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)". The work of art had an estimated price of $40 million and it sold for $72.8 million. This was the highest price of any contemporary art work sold at the auction. Sotheby's was born in England in 1744 and its father was Samuel Baker, the founder of the auction house. He sold back then some old or valuable books for a few hundred pounds. Two hundred years later, in 1983 the company sold a single book for more than eight million pounds. The company has more than 35 locations worldwide To find out more about the prestigious Sotheby's company visit their Web site at http://www.sothebys.com/ Art is a symbol of emotions and feelings, it represents life itself and the act of creation but it seems what's really so great about it is that emotions are tied to simple huge numbers...
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Wealth gap across Asia by Ioana Madalina Tantareanu
According to research, China and many other Asian countries are experiencing huge growth of the gap between rich and poor. According to the Asian Development Bank, this inequality has grown more in China than any other countries, except maybe for Nepal. While other countries such as India Cambodia and Sri Lanka experience the same growth in the gapsince the 1990s, only six Asian countries - Indonesia, Mongolia, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Thailand - seem to have narrowed the difference over this same period. The bank considers the main reasons for this problem to be the discrepancy between the urban an rural areas - which favoured better-off, better-educated urban populations - and the rural infrastructure being held back by government policies which dettered private investment. "In a region as dynamic and vibrant as developing Asia, low growth in incomes of the poor is reflective of weakness in the pattern of growth," said Ifzal Ali, the ADB's chief economist. "Growing inequalities can weaken social cohesion," he added. Even if the urban-dominated China and India, gets in the way of foreign investment in remote areas, the ADB says empployment opportunities should be made more widely available instead of thinking about turning back the tide of globalization. "Inequalities in life start early and they begin with extreme circumstances that deny millions the opportunity to have adequate nutrition, health and basic education," the ADB added.
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No bad news for this week. No good news for this week. by Ana Maria Ciobanu
After everyone wondered what's going on with Wall Street, what's going on with the economy, what is the Fed going to do about it, are they going to do something about it and so on, it turns out the economy wasn't threatened by turmoil in the credit markets. Stocks made a late-day surge after the Fed failed to move toward an easing of interest rates Tuesday. Initially the investors were very disappointed that policymakers who kept benchmark rates on hold at 5.25 percent didn't provide them any hints about a possible cut. It didn't take them long though to solace the economy is likely to withstand problems in the mortgage industry. The Fed's Open Market Committee's economic assessment informed everyone that the Central Bank's primary concern is the risk that inflation will fail to moderate as it is expected. The Dow gained 0.26 percent to 13,504.30. Investors moved back into stocks and as a result the treasury bonds fell. Gold prices fell. The statements of the Fed weren't to strong and certainly weren't different from the ones in their last meeting. No positive or negative news was released... Again we have to wait till they'll publish some strong reports about this situation, some strong economical analysis. Everything is still blurry at the moment and who knows for how long it will remain this way?
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Bridge disaster to increase gas taxes by Ioana Madalina Tantareanu
The crumbling infrastructure of the United States, and the billions of dollars needed for repairs have once again been brought to attention by the Minneapolis bridge disaster. According to former chairman of the House Transportation Comitee, Don Young, there are 500 more bridges around the country who could become potential deathtraps. One quarter of the nation's bridges have been classified structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, while one third of the major roads have been judged as being of poor or mediocre condition. The human tragedy of the Minnesota bridge collapse once again reminded that road conditions represent one third of the 40,000 traffic fatalities every year, and that the total sum needed for repairs has now reached $461 billion. Also traffic congestions cost drivers $63 billion in wasted time and fuel costs. "It's a tragic wakeup call," said Matt Jeanneret, spokesman for the American Road and Transportation Builders Association. "This is gut check time for members of Congress for what they are going to do at the federal level." Within a day of the Minneapolis bridge disaster, the Senate moved to create a national commission to look into what must be done to improve roads, bridges, drinking water systems and other public works. Advocates said it basically boils down to two issues â" finding the money and the political will. According to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce study last year, indexing fuel taxes retroactively to 1993 would have boosted the tax to about 25 cents a gallon last year, raising an average of $20 billion annually.
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American workers doing great by Ioana Madalina Tantareanu
Worker efficienty has grown, according to The Labor Department, to an annual rate of 1.8 percent in the April-June quarter, which is more than double than the 0.7% of the first 3 months of the year. Unit labor costs have rose on the other hand to a 2.1% rate. And while these high wages are good for workers, if they get too high, it can lead to unwanted inflation. A key interest was expectedly kept by Fed policymakers on they're meeting on Tuesday, while they were signaling that "downside risks to growth have increased somewhat." The second quarter improvements in productivity and wage pressures were not viewed as large enough to convince the central bank that inflation has been contained. Analysts noted that for the 12 months ending in June, unit labor costs are up by 4.5 percent, the highest year-over-year increase in nearly seven years. Still this 1.8 percent growth in productivity is seemingly low, considering the 2 percent expected. The government said that productivity rose by just 1 percent last year, down from a previous estimate of 1.6 percent. For 2005, the increase was 1.9 percent after a 2.7 percent rise in 2004. Previously, 2005 had been put at 2.1 percent and 2004 at 2.9 percent.
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After Friday and Monday madness, Tuesday at the Federal Reserve meeting the interest rate remained at 5.25 percent, making the investors to bid higher. A lot of other important decisions were made and also a lot of concerns were revealed at that meeting. Some of the biggest issues that pose risk to the economy are Wall Street turbulence, Main Street credit problems and a nationwide housing slump, but the most important is the inflation. One of the decisions was to establish a 8.25 rate for commercial banks' prime interest for certain credit cards, home equity lines of credit and other loans. There were forecasts of growth in employment and incomes, rates' cuts if the inflation remains stable and the economy will expand. The national economy is depending on the flow of credit, so if there will be any more restrictive lending conditions, the people will lose their ability to acquire a big credit like that for houses, cars, etc. The reduced appetite will be reflected in the overall economic activity that will become slower and slower. Gasoline prices receded at 3 dollars a gallon in some cities and the core inflation rose 1.9 percent over the 12 months. The economy grew at a solid 3.4 percent pace and the forecast is good. Unemployment rate is likely to grow to 5 percent by the end on the year, according to analyst. That is not a good thing, especially because it represents the blood of economy. However, despite all the drags, economy is expected to bounce. Stay close to see where it will get!
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Chrysler is beginning a new era. The new Chrysler wants to prove the world it can shed its old boom-or-bust image. We're talking about a historic deal which came like a big earthquake in the auto industry. Cerberus Capital Management took control of Chrysler with a $7.4 billion deal. The acquisition set Chrysler free from its parent who stood by it for nine years. Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda told employees in an e-mail: "The completion of the deal marks the beginning of a historic opportunity for us to build a company that can compete with the best in the world." As an independent automaker Chrysler has to make some big steps in the race of increasing sales and facing the over competitive global market. The divorce from the Daimler-Benz can't ensure their success. They have a lot of work to do, it can't work this easy. We'll have to wait a while to see how this deal will work for Chrysler. For Cerberus it's already working because it helped them prove they are one of the most aggressive players on the market.
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World oil prices hit more than 3 dollars by Ioana Madalina Tantareanu
World oil prices hit more than 3 dollars on Monday, due to economic troubles in the U.S., which may lead to a weakened energy demand. The contract for September, in New York hit 3.42$ with 72.06$ per barrel, but soared a historic high of 78.77$ on Wednesday due to declining stockpiles of the world's biggest energy consumer. In London, on Monday, the delivery for September hit a 3.58$ price with 71.17$ per barrel. "Oil prices have fallen back from record highs as weak non-farm payrolls and unemployment figures in the US on Friday once again undermined (economic) confidence, which has already been knocked by the subprime mortgage crisis," Sucden analyst Michael Davies said. It is also probable that this oil crisis be induced onto other markets such as the housing market : "There are now many who are concerned that the (US) subprime mess could spread to other markets, and even hurt demand for oil," said Davies, referring to defaults on subprime loans -- made to those with risky credit. Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading, also warned that the housing market crisis could lead to a pullback in consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of US output. Oil prices rose by more than 20% during June and July, with China, India and the U.S. as the biggest demanding parts, especially for petrol products in the transport sector. Kuwait, one of the members of OPEC declared on Sunday that these record prices were due to political instability in major oil-production regions, such as the incresing tensions between Iran and the U.S., and due to growth in the world economy.
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The Dutch bank ABN AMRO, one of the largest banks in Europe, with operations all over the world, is the newest prey for which both Barclays, the third largest bank in the United Kingdom based on assets, and the Royal Bank of Scotland, owned subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc. Until recently there was the problem that the deal between Barclays and ABN would pose competition risks, but European Commission gave green light to the merge because the Dutch bank had only marginal activities on the UK's market. This agreement between the two banks was announced on 23 April 2007 and as part of it US division and Chicago-based LaSalle Bank will be sold to Bank of America for â¬16 billion. Three other banks, Royal Bank of Scotland, Fortis and Banco Santander, acting as a consortium contacted ABN AMRO on 13 April 2007 to propose a deal. The biding war made the RBS-led group to bid â¬72 Billion if LaSalle Bank will not be sold to Bank of America. ABN originally supported the Barclays offer, but withdrew its backing last month. However, RBS' offer has still unsolved questions; mostly about the intention to carve it into pieces. The fact that the other bank that bids will keep Dutch lender mostly intact makes the tie to be high. The question is if the difference of 9.8 percent between the two offers will make the difference necessary to win the bidding. Don't click away, more interesting news are about to come.
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Wall Street tried to recover from the losses incurred on Friday and turned towards volatile sessions. There are high expectations from the Federal Reserve meeting after the last two weeks of twisting trades. The nation's benchmark rate is expected to remain steady at 5.25 percent; economic assessment and credit are still a matter of concern. The Dow Jones industrials 286 points are the subject of great controversy, but Charles Norton, principal and portfolio manager at GNI Capital Inc., advises to not be too surprised that financial stocks and regional banks sometimes bounce like that, but it won't last. The global credit markets are also affected by the stock market situation, investors are afraid that some loans made to borrowers with poor credit will not be disclosed to soon. Another problem is the liquidity crisis and represents a great risk to the financial markets. Monday rally brought big changes: bond prices fell; Warren Spector, Bear Stearns Cos. co-President and co-Chief Operating Officer, resigned and the stock price fell briefly below 100 dollars and then quickly rose to $113.81. The instability is explained by the future meeting of Fed and the investors are not too keen in making big bets despite the fact that the stocks are having their biggest advance. Credit markets are about to seize up and more changes are more likely to occur after the Fed's decisions will be made public. More to come on this subject!
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The Fed is expected to come to the rescue by Ana Maria Ciobanu
Unless the Federal Reserve will come to the rescue, Wall Street faces the prospect of more problems and it certainly doesn't need more. Worrying has sent stocks gyrating, with the Dow Jones industrials swinging by triple digits four straight days last week. After Bear Stearns Cos.' chief financial officer described the current situation as being the worst he'd seen in 22 years, the Dow plunged more than 280 points. The markets need to settle down and the Fed's Open Market Committee's meeting scheduled in August could be the only key for this door. The economy is expected to recover for months but everything seems to be getting worst. Even if the Fed will give the market a boost, we should expect it to be a short time one, as it happened before. Is everybody so overwhelmed by the situation that nothing is being done, not even some economic reports? We just have to wait because all the data released is "assumed", "believed", "predicted" and "expected"... The reports from the Commerce Department for June wholesale trade are expected on Thursday and the reports on July import prices on Friday.
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Bribing senators may mean years in jail for VECO chiefs Allen and Smith by Corina Ciubotaru
Oil reserves and their exploitation have been generating controversy and interest for years and it was only a matter of time before they lead to another corruption scandal. After a year of FBI investigations, the plot seems to thicken in the lawsuit against VECO chief executive Bill Allen. Many other former senators and high-raking individuals are accused of having sold their votes to Allen during the debate on oil taxes last year, and now three more Republican legislators from Alaska have been arrested for bribery, extortion and conspiracy. Their names: Vic Kohring, Pete Kott and Bruce Weyhrauch. Their influence would have been enough to guarantee a bill passing through the Senate to allow the building of a natural gas pipeline in the Alaska region known as North Slope. This is the most productive oil region in the USA and oil is the most important source of income for the state, so it is only natural that the interests are high and service firms in the area, like VECO, are making billions. The FBI has been tapping phones of the Baranof hotel in Juneau for months and is now in possession of hard evidence against Allen, VECO vice president Rick Smith and a few senators. Both Smith and Allen pleaded guilty in the trial and have resigned their positions in the company's board. Together, they admitted to having paid $400,000 in bribes to government officials. They each face a maximum of five years and $250,000 on conspiracy counts and a maximum of 10 years and another $250,000 on the bribery counts.
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Qatar bank's $6.1 billion Ahli United takeover bid stalls by Delia Cruceru
International Bank of Qatar (IBQ) said yesterday that the talks with the Ahli United Bank, formed in 2000 through the merge of two banks based in the UK and Bahrain and listed on Bahrain and Kuwait stock exchanges, have stalled. Tamdeen Investment Corporation, which holds a 13 per cent stake in AUB insisted that only an independent party will have access to the the books of Bahrain's biggest lender. "IBQ confirmed that they have been in discussions with certain shareholders of AUB but these discussions have stalled," International Bank of Qatar said in a statement. AUB is worried about IBQ's due diligence process, which they said it might affect its interests if no deal is reached and the direct involvement of IBQ officials in the due diligence process. "Ahli United Bank sees a contradiction in the due diligence process with standard practices and with its interests in particular in case the deal is not concluded," Tamdeen said. AUB shareholders forced IBQ to complete the complex exercise of due diligence in one month, instead of minimum period of three months. BQ, an affiliate of National Bank of Kuwait offered to buy 55% of Ahli United Bank for $2.25 a share in cash and the remainder of the lender in stock, according to Ahli's second-biggest shareholder, Kuwait's Tamdeen Investment Co, the total value for the takeover being to $6.1 billion.
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UPS at its centennial anniversary by Claudia Sonea
Some companies make history and UPS is one of them. A hundred years ago, in 1907 to be precise, it was called American Messenger Company and was opened with a $100 loan from a friend of Jim Casey who was only 19 years old at that time. Together with his 18-year-old friend, Claude Ryan, ran errands and carried notes on foot or on bicycle and used their basement in Seattle as headquarters for their employees- Casey's brother and a couple of other teenagers. Six years later renamed itself Merchants Parcel Delivery, acquired a Model T Ford as delivery car and switched from messages to packages. In 1919 they expanded beyond Seattle and renamed itself United Parcel Service. The brand of UPC was taken for years after it went public, in 2003. A long history for a company started with only 100 dollars and the irony is that it is now hundred years old. It's a $47 billion business with a fleet of trucks, an airline and operations in 200 countries. Their policy of adapting to customers demand and trends must be good in order to be the world's largest shipping carrier. Chief Executive Mike Eskew said that they have to transform the same time the world does it and that was one of the reasons in purchasing Mail Boxes Etc and change it into The UPS Store. However, they are facing now a huge problem with their employees union. Contract negotiations between UPS and the Teamsters union and the CEO says they have to put any raise in the context of its overall cost structure, this way making it harder to get to an agreement. Due to the fact that the company counts on its employees to work, they will come to a deal that will benefit both sides. The predictions for this company are very good. They invest a lot in technology to find the shortest routes for its trucks and to save on fuel. The goal is to keep costs down and the customers happy. For its centennial anniversary UPS has been holding events around the world. On 28th August the company celebrates 100 years and Eskew the 35th anniversary with the company. Cheers to you, UPS!
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Google's desire to change the telecom market hit the FCC refusal by Corina Ciubotaru
Spectrum auctions aren't something new to the US; they've been carried out since 1994. Rather than choosing which company gets the most wavelength to broadcast over by conducting hearings or by lotteries, the Federal Communications Commission or FCC in the United States of America organizes auctions. The form they use is Form 175 and any company or individual can become a bidder if they complete and submit this form and then pay the upfront payment. This allows the bidder to bid on a certain number of licenses in any given round, depending on the amount he paid upfront. Every stage of the auction, including submitting the form and placing the bid is carried out over the Internet and the FCC even provides an upfront payment calculator for the interested bidders. Compared to older systems, the auctions allow ownership to take place sooner, within a year from the auction itself. The big auction everyone expects now is a 700MHz spectrum auction in January, where Google had promised to pay the $4.6 billion upfront payment if the FCC agreed to change the rules as the search engine company and other organizations required. The group of organizations wanted four changes to be made which would open up the telecom industry to other interested companies and disrupt, if not end, AT&T and Verizon's oligopoly on the market. The FCC only agreed to change two of the rules and make the change applicable to only 22MHz of spectrum so it is unsure if Google will agree to take part in the auction any further.
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SigEx Ventures : Tech group files complaint against sports leagues by Delia Cruceru
Computer & Communications Industry Association (CIAA), a trade group with members like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, RedHat, and others that promotes "open markets, open systems, and full, fair, and open competition" filed a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission alleging that two major professional sport leagues and other four corporations "violate consumers' fair-use rights under U.S. copyright law." The CIAA complaint is against the NFL, Major League Baseball, NBC Universal, Morgan Creek, DreamWorks, Harcourt Inc., and Penguin Group (USA), accusing them of mispresenting the rights of consumers to use copyrighted material. Ed Black, CCIA's president says that warning on broadcasts, books and DVDs are "not to educate consumers, but to intimidate them. Certain warnings mislead consumers." "No deceptive message may be more widespread, more pervasive, more ubiquitous in our vast nation than the copyright warning which tells you that you have no rights." The CIAA wants that the Federal Trade Commission to stop those organizations to use warnings that violate people rights and to come with a new plan to keep away these mispresentations from happening again as well as a model copyright notice that is "accurate, balanced, and consistent with all provisions of the US Copyright Act and Federal Trade Commission Act" to educate consumers on their fair-use rights.
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Warning: Laser Printers Could Be a Health Hazard by Delia Cruceru
Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia discovered a new health hazard in our offices: laser printers. According to them office laser printers pose a real threat to workers health because they spew out as much particulate matter as a cigarette smoker inhales. Lidia Morawska, Ph.D., and her colleagues studied 62 printers including popular models in the U. S. and Australia sold internationally under the Canon, HP Color Laserjet, Ricoh and Toshiba brand names. The study revealed that 17 of the printers were high particle emitters" because they released such elevated quantities of particles, the researchers think that is from the toner used in laser printers. 37 released no particles that would damage the air quality, six released only low levels, and 2 medium levels. Effect of inhaling these small particles can range from simple irritation to much more serious illnesses, including cardiovascular problems or cancer. "Even very small concentrations can be related to health hazards," said Morawska. "Where the concentrations are significantly elevated means there is potentially a considerable hazard." Most of the printers studied were from Hewlett-Packard. HP released this statement Wednesday: "HP is currently reviewing the Queensland University of Technology research on particle emission characteristics of office printers. Vigorous tests under standardized operating conditions are an integral part of HP's research and development and its strict quality control procedures. As part of these quality controls, HP assesses its LaserJet printing systems, original HP print cartridges and papers for dust release and possible material emissions to ensure compliance with applicable international health and safety requirements."
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SigEx Ventures : American Broadband connections not really what you'd expect by Corina Ciubotaru
Apparently, America is the land of possibilities, where everything is good, people are rich and they benefit from all of the latest advances in technology. Well, it's not really like that, at least not when it comes to the Internet. Americans enjoy some of the worst Internet broadband connections of all developed nations, and that's probably the reason why they don't have that many subscribers to the service. The US is number 12 in the world when it comes to broadband adoption rate, and they also pay more for lower speed. There are also few companies that provide the service so consumers are pretty much forced to accept anything they are given. The speed is bad, the fees are high, and the government doesn't seem capable to find a solution. It's like the birth of the mobile phone industry all over again; remember when mobile telephony caught on first in Europe and Japan, even though it was Americans that developed it? With the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction early next year, companies like Google are trying to change things by suggesting a new set of rules for the broadband operators who acquire some of it. They want more freedom for consumers to choose the provider, and also for consumers to use the network without the provider imposing the ground rules. The auction rules were not changed entirely to Google's liking, but they are a step forward in the right direction and will hopefully lead to better competition and subsequently better service.
SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and SMS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to add-on royalty revenue models
SigEx Ventures : Apple says iTunes sales top 3 billion songs by Delia Cruceru
Apple announced that its online music store iTunes reached sales of 3 billion songs. Downloading one song from the online music service costs $0.99, which means iTunes sold music of $2,970,000,000. Apple has a deal with the music industry giving them every cent for the downloaded music, but they make money from selling iPods, gaining power. According to a consumer surveys by The NPD Group, Apple surpassed Amazon and Target to become the third largest US music retailer, behind Wal-Mart and Best Buy. The Cupertino based company is the only one from the top 3 retailers that sales digital music files, meaning this sector will grow fast, but that also means that sector of CD sales will fall. iTunes was launched in April 2003 and until February 2006 it reached sales of 1 billion songs. At the start of 2005 Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, told that they were selling 1.25m track/day, annualising at a rate of 0.5 billion tracks a year. At the end of 2005, they became the 7th largest US music retailer. Six months ago surpassed the 2 billion tracks-sold mark. The ranking was based on units sold, not revenue from sales, and counted every 12 tracks purchased online as equivalent to an album in compact disc format.
SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and SMS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to add-on royalty revenue models
SigEx Ventures : Eminem sues Apple for copyright infringement by Delia Cruceru
Rapper artist Eminem sued Apple again. First time Eight Mile Style and Martin Affiliated, the companies representing Eminem, sued Apple because they used the rapper's song "Lose Yourself," in a TV commercial for Apple's iTunes music store. Now they filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit against Apple over iTunes downloads in U.S. District Court in Detroit, alleging that Apple allowed unauthorized downloads of Eminem's song from iTunes onto iPods. "Eight Mile and Martin have demanded that Apple cease and desist its reproduction and distribution and Apple has refused,'' the complaint alleges. There is confusion in the music industry about who owns the rights for downloading. Owen Sloane, the rapper's lawyer told that many lawsuits like this will come in the future, if artists and record labels would not set an agreement that would enable publishers to gain the final say on whether an artist's work can be distributed online. Many music publishers have expressed their disagreement about the royalties are distributed. "All the publishers are rankled that they have to go after the record labels to collect their fees," Sloan said. "Sometimes these fees may not be accounted for properly. The publishers would prefer to collect directly from the source instead of the labels."
SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and SMS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to add-on royalty revenue models
SigEx Ventures : PS3 promotions by Ana Maria Ciobanu
Everybody is talking about PS3 and comparing it to Nintendo's Wii or to Microsoft's Xbox 360. Everybody is arguing on the prices of the game consoles, on the quality of the games etc. As I was looking for something new to write about PS3 I've run into a very funny Sony promotion. It happened last fall in October. Perhaps PS3 should play this card again. The promotion was about "What Would You Do To Be On Robot Chicken and Win A PS3?". PlayStation fans were asked to send homemade videos showing just how crazy they'd get to win the PS3. Only one grand prize winner was transformed into an action figure and appeared in a Robot Chicken episode. You can check out the video's on http://www.us.playstation.com/EP/Events/279. I really think last year's promotion was a wonderful image strategy and that Sony's PS3 would really need something like this at the moment. The $100 price cut didn't do them any good because everybody knows the Wii is twice cheaper. The trials over the construction of PlayStation 3 Blu-ray discs and the system's digital security technology with Parallel Processing Corporation of Newport Beach, California aren't a plus either. They could do a great promotion with their SingStar. People are always dying to enter a singing contest. They're probably working on a promotion or a big image strategy because it's time they do something to attract the masses attention and not only the dedicated fans attention.
SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and SMS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to add-on royalty revenue models
