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Business News
for 01/28/2009

(last updated 7:30am EST 01/28/2009)

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• German business confidence unexpectedly ... German business confidence unexpectedly increases in January
01/27/2009
German business confidence has slightly increased in January, the Ifo institute in Munich said on Tuesday, out of the expectation of experts. The Ifo institute said German business confidence increased to 83 in January from 82.7 in December, ending the falling trend since June 2008, as the influence of global financial crisis becomes more and more serious, but this data can not be taken as a cyclical turnaround. The Ifo said the firms in manufacturing and exports continue to exp ... (8 h ago)

• EU economy commissioner cautious about "... EU economy commissioner cautious about "bad bank"
01/27/2009
The European Union's chief economy official said here on Tuesday that it was too soon to start work on a "bad bank" to remove toxic assets and reactivate lending. Joaquin Almunia, Economic and Monetary Policy Commissioner, urged EU member states to coordinate at EU level on what the 'bad assets' need to be dealt with and "what is the best way to value them" before rushing into creating it. "The recent announcement of huge losses by some European banks has shown us that we are not ... (8 h ago)

• Dutch telecom firm KPN profits down by h... Dutch telecom firm KPN profits down by half in 2008
01/27/2009
Dutch telecom company KPN said Tuesday its net profit plunged by half in 2008 to 1.34 billion euros (1.77 billion U.S. dollars). Its turnover rose by 16 percent to 14.6 billion euros (19.3 billion dollars), while the operational profit climbed 3.2 percent to 5 billion euros (6.6 billion dollars), the company said in a statement. In the fourth quarter of last year, KPN's net profit plummeted 81 percent to 297 million euros (392 million dollars). Its turnover went up by 1.6 percent ... (8 h ago)

• Brazil registers record-high tax collect... Brazil registers record-high tax collection in 2008
01/27/2009
Brazil registered a record-high tax collection of 685.6 billion reais (295.2 billion U.S. dollars) in 2008, up 7.68 percent from 2007, Brazil's Secretariat of the Federal Revenue announced on Tuesday. In December, Brazil registered a tax collection of 66.2 billion reais (28.5 billion dollars), up 20.67 percent from November but down 4.71 percent from December 2007. According to the Secretariat, compared with November, the sharp increase was caused by Christmas bonuses and investm ... (8 h ago)

• Petrobras discovers gas in Brazil's sout... Petrobras discovers gas in Brazil's southeastern coast
01/27/2009
Brazil's state-owned oil and gas giant Petrobras announced on Monday that it has found gas in the country's southeastern coast. The discovery was made at Block BM-S-7 in the shallow waters of the Santos Basin, off the coast of Sao Paulo state. Petrobras said the gas was found 210 km off the coast and 214 meters under water above a salt layer. The discovery is significant and its exploitation could be highly feasible due to its short distance below the water surface, the c ... (8 h ago)

• Dollar at lower 89 yen level in Tokyo Dollar at lower 89 yen level in Tokyo
01/27/2009
The U.S. dollar stood firm at the lower 89 yen level Wednesday morning in Tokyo. The dollar traded at 89.12-17 yen at midday, against 88.94-89.04 yen in New York and 90.02-04 yen in Tokyo at 5 p.m. Tuesday. The euro was quoted at 1.3253-3258 dollars and 118.14-19 yen, compared with 1.3156-3166 dollars and 117.12-22 yen in New York and 1.3260-3263 dollars and 119.38-42 yen in Tokyo late Tuesday. &$ &$Source: Xinhua&$ &$ ... (8 h ago)

• Dollar falls against most major currenci... Dollar falls against most major currencies
01/27/2009
The U.S. dollar fell against most major currencies Tuesday as U.S. consumer confidence hit a record low and the British government announced a bailout plan for the country's auto industry. The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index, which had decreased in December, inched lower in January, hitting a historic low. The January figure was 37.7, down from 38.6 in December. Analysts had forecasted a modest increase. U.S. consumers remain quite pessimistic ... (8 h ago)

• Canada to stimulate economy through gove... Canada to stimulate economy through government spending, tax cuts
01/27/2009
Canada's Conservative government on Tuesday unveiled a plan to stimulate the economy through profuse government spending and tax cuts. The government plans to invest 12 billion Canadian dollars (about 9.6 billion U.S. dollars) on infrastructure and cut personal income taxes and businesses taxes, among other measures, to help rescue the sagging economy, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said while delivering the 2009-2010 fiscal year budget in the Parliament. The budget comes at a massive ... (8 h ago)

• Geithner sets new lobbying rules for bai... Geithner sets new lobbying rules for bailout package
01/27/2009
U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner Tuesday announced several key reforms to crack down on lobbyist influence over the 700 billion U.S. dollar financial bailout package. "American taxpayers deserve to know that their money is spent in the most effective way to stabilize the financial system. Today's actions reaffirm our commitment toward that goal," said Geithner in a statement. According to the new rules, the Treasury Department will implement safeguards to prevent lobbyist in ... (8 h ago)

• Canadian Liberal leader hints he may sup... Canadian Liberal leader hints he may support budget
01/27/2009
Leader of Canada's Liberal Party Michael Ignatieff said Tuesday he will announce his decision on whether to support the government's budget at 11 a.m. local time (1600 GMT) Wednesday. Speaking outside the House of Commons after Finance Minister Jim Flaherty released the budget, Ignatieff said he would meet with his caucus in the evening before announcing his party's decision Wednesday. "There are some developments in this budget that would have been unthinkable before Christmas," ... (8 h ago)

• U.S. stocks rise despite weak economic d... U.S. stocks rise despite weak economic data
01/27/2009
U.S. stocks edged up Tuesday on some better-than-expected earnings, but pulled back from the day's high as U.S. consumer confidence hit record low. A series of upbeat earnings results shored up the stocks in the early trading. U.S. Steel reported Monday that its fourth-quarter earnings have soared following the company's acquisition. Meanwhile, American Express Co., the biggest U.S. credit-card company by purchases, posted a drop of 79 percent in fourth-quarter profit, which stil ... (8 h ago)

• Canada's NDP, Bloc Quebecois say not to ... Canada's NDP, Bloc Quebecois say not to support budget
01/27/2009
Two of Canada's opposition parties -- the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Bloc Quebecois -- said Tuesday they will not support the Conservative government's budget. The two parties had already indicated they would vote against the budget even before the budget announcement, saying they had lost faith and trust in the government. Immediately after the budget was released, NDP leader Jack Layton said in a statement the budget will not adequately save and create jobs. ... (8 h ago)

• Crude prices plunge on weak U.S. economi... Crude prices plunge on weak U.S. economic data
01/27/2009
Crude prices plunged nine percent Tuesday as weak U.S. economic data refreshed investors' concerns on energy demand. U.S. consumer confidence dropped to a record low in January, said the Conference Board, an economic research group. The index edged lower in January to 37.7 from a revised 38.6 in December. Meanwhile, U.S. home prices plunged in November from a year earlier. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city index of home prices tumbled by a record 18.2 percent while 10-ci ... (8 h ago)

• Mexican Central Bank releases $322 mln t... Mexican Central Bank releases $322 mln to boost peso
01/27/2009
The Central Bank of Mexico (Banxico) on Tuesday sold 322 million U.S. dollars to stop the depreciation of the peso. On Tuesday, the selling price of the U.S. dollar was 14.55 pesos and the buying price 14 pesos, almost 26 cents more than on Monday. Banxico said it had offered 400 million U.S. dollars, 322 million of which was sold at 14.21 pesos. The bank has released some 18 billion dollars to the exchange market since October 2008 in attempt to boost the sluggish peso. ... (8 h ago)

• S. Korean manufacturing jobs expected to... S. Korean manufacturing jobs expected to drop below 4 mln this year
01/27/2009
The number of jobs in the South Korean manufacturing sector is expected to drop below 4 million this year, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported on Wednesday. According to Yonhap, the National Statistical Office (NSO) and the Bank of Korea (BOK) said that jobs in manufacturing sector decreased steadily to 4.07 million in 2008 from 4.11 million in 2007. In December, the number of people working in the manufacturing industry fell 2.4 percent to 4.02 million, marking the sharpes ... (8 h ago)

• Honda to further cut output in Japan, No... Honda to further cut output in Japan, North America
01/27/2009
Honda Motor Co. announced Tuesday it will further slash auto production by some 50,000 units in Japan and North America by the end of March due to shrinking demand for vehicles worldwide amid global financial meltdown. The decision was made a week after Honda announced a cut in production in Japan and Britain. Accordingly, the Japan's second largest automaker's total output for fiscal 2008 is expected to contract by 12 percent to 1,147,000 units in Japan and by 14 percent to 1,26 ... (8 h ago)

• Japan's brokerage house Nomura logs $5.5... Japan's brokerage house Nomura logs $5.5 bln net loss
01/27/2009
Nomura Holdings Inc. Tuesday reported a net loss of 492.36 billion yen (5.53 billion U.S. dollars) for the first nine months of fiscal 2008 ending March, compared with a loss of 86.01 billion yen (980 million dollars) a year earlier. The huge loss of the largest brokerage house in Japan was attributed to depressed stock and bond trading, and growing evaluation losses on securities holdings following Lehman's collapse last September amid deepening global financial turmoil. Meanwhi ... (8 h ago)

• Philippines posts big drop of imports am... Philippines posts big drop of imports amid financial crisis
01/27/2009
The Philippines' imports fell 31.5 percent in November last year amid the global financial crisis, the government said on Tuesday. The November imports stood at only 3.482 billion U.S. dollars, down from 5.084 billion in the same month of the previous year, the country's National Statistics Office said in a statement. Electronics, the Philippines' biggest imported item, accounted for only 1.303 billion dollars, 41.9 percent lower than the year-ago level. Aside from electr ... (8 h ago)

• 250,000 Filipinos to lose jobs in next 6... 250,000 Filipinos to lose jobs in next 6 months
01/27/2009
About 250,000 Filipino workers are likely to lose their jobs in the next six months amid the global financial crisis, local media reported on Tuesday. The Philippine Department of Labor and Employment has so far recorded more than 30,000 laid-off workers since last December and the figure could reach 35,000 by the end of the month, the Philippine Star reported, quoting an anonymous labor official. "We have posted a total of 33,548 workers displaced and subjected to reduce working ... (8 h ago)

• The Reserve Bank of India lowers GDP gro... The Reserve Bank of India lowers GDP growth forecast to 7%
01/27/2009
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday lowered India's economic growth forecast to 7 percent, saying the global economic crisis has hit Indian shores, according to the website of RBI. But the bank has kept its key policy rates and ratio unchanged, The bank also lowered inflation estimates to 3 percent by Marchend. The RBI left its lending rate steady at 5.5 percent and its reverse repo rate unchanged at 4.0 percent. The RBI also kept the cash reserve ratio, th ... (8 h ago)

• Supermarket Asda to take on 7,000 more s... Supermarket Asda to take on 7,000 more staff
01/28/2009
The number of new jobs at British supermarkets will reach nearly 30,000 this year, after Asda announced plans to take on 7,000 more people. Other supermarket chains are also hiring thousands of new staff – bright spots in an otherwise increasingly gloomy economic picture. Companies ranging from banks to clothing retailers and manufacturers are announcing thousands of job losses every week, putting unemployment overall on course for 3 million. Asda, Britain's second-biggest grocer, plans to create the new jobs throughout this year and said it was committed to recruiting up to 3,000 long-term unemployed people for existing vacancies, a mix of full- and part-time roles. The chain, owned by US giant Wal-Mart, intends to create 3,700 of the jobs by opening nine new food stores and five new non-food Asda Living stores and by expanding 15 existing stores. It will take on 2,000 more people at its home shopping business Asda.com, plus about 1,000 more through organic growth and 120 in its pharmacies and optical centres. In total, Asda plans to create 580,000 square feet of new store space in 2009. This takes the total number of new jobs at Britain's supermarkets to 27,000. Despite slowing sales, Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, intends to expand as planned this year and to take on 10,000 new staff in Britain. Morrisons said it would hire 5,000 more people by the end of the year and J Sainsbury, which had record Christmas sales, is creating up to 4,000 jobs as it expands its convenience stores business. Discount retailer Poundland hopes to create about 1,200 jobs by opening at least 35 stores this year. However, Marks & Spencer is shedding 1,200 members of staff after dire Christmas trading. Asda Supermarkets Retail industry guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (3 h ago)

• Barack Obama's $825bn economic stimulus ... Barack Obama's $825bn economic stimulus package set to clear first hurdle
01/28/2009
US president Barack Obama's $825bn (£578bn) stimulus package for the ailing American economy is expected to clear its first hurdle today despite sharp divisions in the House of Representatives. Republicans have attacked the plan for being wasteful on spending and not containing enough tax cuts. To placate them, the new president has included $275bn of tax cuts, a move that has alienated some Democrats. The vote will come as the Federal Reserve, America's central bank, wraps up its monthly meeting. Interest rates are expected to stay unchanged as they are already close to zero, but the Fed's statement, due at 2.15pm local time (1915 GMT), will be scoured for news on further credit easing measures. At its December meeting, the Fed took the unprecedented step of slashing its key rate from 1% to a new range of between zero and 0.25% . Other tools at the Fed's disposal include buying long-term treasury securities or expanding a programme aimed at improving the availability of consumer loans. The programme is expected to start in February and will make up to $200bn available to support car, student and credit card loans as well as loans to small businesses. The Fed could also expand another programme under which it is buying up to $500bn in mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by the state-supported mortgage giant Fannie Mae. The Fed pledged last month that it would explore other options of using its balance sheet to support credit markets and lift the economy out of recession. "They will hold rates down for a good long time and do everything they can to turn the economy around," said Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services. If the $825bn stimulus bill passes today, it could by signed by Obama by mid-February. "There are some legitimate philosophical differences with parts of my plan that the Republicans have, and I respect that," the president said yesterday. He said he didn't "expect 100% agreement" but hoped both sides could put politics aside. Also today, world leaders, bankers and businessmen are gathering at the annual Davos World Economic Forum to discuss the worst global economic crisis in 80 years. US economy Economics United States Global economy Barack Obama guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (5 h ago)

• Alistair Darling receives Institute for ... Alistair Darling receives Institute for Fiscal Studies warning
01/28/2009
Alistair Darling will be forced to raise taxes or cut spending by an extra £20bn to plug the black hole in the public finances blown by the credit crunch – and it will still take a generation for government debt to return to pre-crisis levels, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). In the Green Budget, the IFS's annual assessment of the choices facing the chancellor, the thinktank calculates that public debt has risen by £10,000 for every family in the country as a result of the collapse in tax revenues from the ailing financial sector and housing markets, and the costs of the Treasury's £20bn fiscal stimulus package. Darling announced a tough financial squeeze from 2010-11 onwards in November's pre-budget report , to help get the public finances back on an even keel, but the IFS says he will have to do much more, raising taxes or cutting spending by an additional £20bn – the equivalent of a 4p rise in the basic rate of income tax. The Treasury has conceded that public debt is set to rocket to 57.4% of GDP by 2013-14 as recession takes its toll, busting through the 40% ceiling set by Gordon Brown under his "sustainable investment" rule, but the IFS believes even that forecast is too optimistic and debt will actually peak at 62.1% of GDP. Even if Darling followed the IFS prescription for an extra £20bn of tax rises or Whitehall cuts, the thinktank reckons it will still take until 2030 to wrestle borrowing back below the 40% ceiling. It warns that the continuing price of this borrowing for future taxpayers will depend on the whims of the financial markets: "If investors lose confidence in the government's willingness and ability to implement the tough decisions necessary to get the public finances back into shape and borrowing costs rise, the fiscal arithmetic will become increasingly unattractive." The IFS infuriated Brown throughout his decade-long stint as chancellor by repeatedly pointing to a "black hole" in the public finances, which would eventually have to be filled with higher taxes or lower public spending. It likens the evolution of the public finances since 1997 to the Conservatives' record, characterising it as "three years of impressive fiscal consolidation, eight years of drift (masked by economic overconfidence), and then a big jump in borrowing thanks to recession and newly discovered structural weaknesses". Despite the thinktank's dire warning about the health of the public finances in the years ahead, it does offer some support for the government's fiscal-stimulus measures, in particular the 2.5% temporary cut in VAT announced in the pre-budget report. It argues that the decision may have boosted consumption by up to 1.2% and says: "Those dismissing it as a failure ignore the likelihood that things would have been even worse without it." Economics Economic growth (GDP) Economic policy Alistair Darling Government Borrowing Tax and spending Tax Credit crunch Recession Thinktanks guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (5 h ago)

• Automotive and aircraft engineering firm... Automotive and aircraft engineering firm GKN reveals extent of redundancies
01/28/2009
The crisis in the car industry has forced automotive and aircraft engineering firm GKN to make 2,800 people redundant since the autumn, with more cuts to follow. GKN said this morning that the downturn in the auto sector had forced it to cut staff around the world, including 242 in the UK. It warned that the recent slump in demand for car parts meant it would continue cutting staff and putting more workers on shorter hours. "In the final quarter of 2008, the group's automotive businesses were severely impacted by the sharp global decline in automotive demand," said GKN, which supplies car parts to manufacturers around the world. In November, GKN said it had made 1,400 people redundant, but explained today that it had doubled its cuts because "conditions in global automotive markets have continued to deteriorate". In the UK, 95 permanent staff and 147 temporary workers based in the West Midlands have lost their jobs. GKN revealed that all four of its automotive plants, in Birmingham and Telford, have been working short time since November. Joe Morgan, the regional secretary of the GMB union, called the job cuts "another body blow for an already beleaguered engineering industry". "We need to discuss the implications of this on a plant-by-plant basis and see if there is any scope for government assistance," Morgan said. Yesterday, the government announced it will provide £2.3bn of loans to help Britain's struggling car industry. Lord Mandelson will meet with manufacturers later today to hammer out details of the package, which has been dismissed as "too late" by the Conservatives and "a massive disappointment" by the Unite union. GKN, though, said it backed the plan. "The company is pleased that the government is giving support to the car industry, and welcomes any help it can give," said a spokesman. However, it appears that more redundancies and production cuts are inevitable. "They are likely to happen either way because the UK is a very small part of the overall business," GKN said. GKN Automotive industry Recession Manufacturing sector guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (6 h ago)

• Santander offers to compensate private b... Santander offers to compensate private banking clients in Bernard Madoff case
01/28/2009
Santander has offered to compensate private banking clients who lost €1.38bn (£1.3bn) in the alleged fraud by US broker Bernard Madoff to try to ward off a class action lawsuit and rebuild its tarnished reputation. Spain's largest bank is the first institution to make such an offer. Investors in its Optimal Strategic fund are thought to be some of the biggest victims and Santander said it had made the move "on the basis of purely commercial reasons" to help "maintain its business relationships with those clients". Spanish legal firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo has teamed up with America's Labaton Sucharow to represent victims. Both filed a class action lawsuit on Monday in a district court in southern Florida. "The putative class seeks a recovery of billions of dollars in damages," the law firms said. Javier Cremades, a partner at Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, reportedly said last night that the Santander offer "went in the right direction". Santander counts some of Spain's richest people as its private clients, as well as a high number of Latin American investors. The offer will not apply to institutional investors. It means Santander's private clients will only lose the interest they expected to have accrued through Madoff's funds. They will be able to exchange their investments in Optimal for preference shares in Santander, with an annual coupon of 2%. The move will cost the bank €500m – a figure that will be absorbed in last year's results, which will be announced next Thursday. The Spanish bank previously announced that Optimal had a total exposure of €2.33bn to Madoff's alleged $50bn fraud while Santander itself only lost €17m . Santander shares rose 1.4% this morning. Reports from Spain have shown that many small Spanish investors put their savings into Madoff Securities via Optimal, including a retired school teacher who put half her savings in the fund, and a street vendor who invested more than $400,000 in lottery winnings in the fund. Victims who lost money investing with Madoff range from financial firms to charities and celebrities around the world. The latest to emerge was Hungarian-born actor Zsa Zsa Gabor, who has lost about $7m. US regulators now believe Madoff may never have made a single trade . He is accused of running a massive pyramid scheme, using cash from new investors to fund payments to earlier clients. He is still on bail in New York and wore a bullet-proof vest on his last court appearance. Bernard Madoff Banco Santander Banking Spain guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (6 h ago)

• Sky to take on 1,000 workers as customer... Sky to take on 1,000 workers as customers rush to sign up
01/28/2009
BSkyB has shrugged off the economic gloom by grabbing 171,000 new customers over Christmas and announcing plans to recruit 1,000 engineers and call centre staff as it launches a major push to get people to sign up for high definition TV. The satellite broadcaster reckons more than 7m households already have TV sets that can receive HD programming - and this is set to double by the end of the decade. Announcing a 26% increase in first-half profits, Sky said it was looking to grow its HD customers from the 779,000 it had at the end of last year. As a result, today it is slashing the cost of a Sky+ HD box by two-thirds to £49. To back up its drive for HD viewers, Sky is recruiting 1,000 more staff and opening a call centre in Leeds. The company, which employs about 15,000 workers, said it needed about 600 new engineers and 400 call centre staff to meet anticipated demand for HD services. Recruiting the staff, which has already begun, will add about £30m a year to Sky's cost base. In the three months to the end of December, Sky gained 188,000 new HD customers – including existing subsribers who have upgraded – double the rate of first-quarter additions and five times the rate seen in the fourth quarter of last year. The broadcaster now offers access to 31 HD channels, more than any other broadcaster, but just 8% of its total customers base are taking the service. It refused, however, to set a target for how many HD customers it wants by the end of the decade. Overall Sky added 171,000 new customers in the three months to end December – its second financial quarter – compared with 167,000 in the same period in 2007 as cash-strapped consumers opted to stay at home and watch TV rather than go out to the cinema or a restaurant. In fact, over the past year average TV viewing per individual in the UK increased by 3% to 3.7 hours per day. City analysts had forecast Sky would add between 95,000 and 167,000 new customers in the quarter. Sky now has 9.24 million customers with 13% taking all three of its services – TV, broadband and home phone. Sky Broadband reached 1.955 million subscribers, with 163,000 net additions in the quarter while Sky Talk customers increased by a further 139,000, to 1.5 million, reaching the company's 2010 target more than two years ahead of plan. Overall, average revenue per user, a crucial metric for analysts, increased 5% year on year to reach a new high of £444 for the 12 months to the end of December. Churn – the measure of people cancelling their contracts – reduced by one percentage point from the previous quarter to 9.9%. Revenue for the six months to the end of December was up 6% to £2.6bn, above analysts' forecasts of £2.55bn to £2.58bn, while operating profit was up 26% to £388m, also slightly above forecasts. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". BSkyB BSkyB Television Media business guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (7 h ago)

• National Express may abandon rail busine... National Express may abandon rail business
01/27/2009
National Express, once Britain's biggest rail operator, could quit the train business altogether if its £1.4bn east coast franchise places too great a strain on group profits, according to a city commentator. Public transport groups are under pressure after the Department for Transport revealed last week that five franchises - out of 19 across the UK - have been classed as "red" under a "traffic light" system monitoring the financial health of rail contracts. National Express has the toughest payment schedule after agreeing to pay the DfT £1.4bn for the right to operate trains between London and Edinburgh until 2015. That contract was struck in August 2007, at the peak of an economic boom that pointed to rising passenger numbers, with customer willingness to absorb inflation-busting fare rises. However, a note published this month by the investment bank JP Morgan said the east coast contract could miss revenue targets this year and make an underlying loss of £26.1m. National Express needs revenue growth of about 10% to meet targets this year but it could be heading for flat growth instead, said JP Morgan. If the UK economy shrinks by 2.3% in 2009, said JP Morgan analyst Damian Brewer, the group's rail division could slip into an earnings trajectory that will see it remain loss making, or narrowly profitable at best, until the middle of the next decade. National Express also owns the National Express East Anglia and c2c franchises, which expire in 2013 and 2011 respectively. "If our projections were to materialise, then by 2010 the rail operations would carry a negative NPV [net present value], and it might prove economically positive to exit UK rail," he said. JP Morgan added that, due to the underperforming rail business, it is cutting its earnings per share forecast for National Express by 30% for 2009. By exiting rail, said JP Morgan, National Express will lift earnings per share by 6.4% in 2011. JP Morgan described the east coast franchise as the "key swing factor" in its parent group's fortunes. National Express has a stockmarket value of about £530m and its debt burden of £1.1bn is a cause of concern to analysts, standing at more than three times projected earnings for 2009. Alongside its rail operations, National Express owns coach and bus businesses in the UK, Spain and the US. Brewer said a further decline in the UK economy could see short-term losses on the contract increase but could also lead to radical action by train operators such as handing back the franchise or seeking a change in payment terms. The contract requires a premium payment to the DfT of £133.6m this year, rising steadily to £521.7m in 2014. Under DfT guidelines, any rail company that defaults on a contract can be ordered to hand back its other franchises and an attempt to renegotiate financial terms could trigger a default. Other analysts have also warned that National Express might need to hand back the east coast franchise or renegotiate it. "There could be a point where the company sees substantial losses for several years and decides that perhaps the sensible thing is to hand back the keys. But we are not at that stage yet," said Gert Zonnefeld , analyst at Panmure Gordon. A National Express spokeswoman said the company did not comment on market speculation. She added: "We will update the market on 26 February as normal and we don't have any reason to update the market before that time." National Express Travel & leisure Transport policy guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (15 h ago)

• Directors of state-backed Lloyds asked f... Directors of state-backed Lloyds asked for a pay rise
01/27/2009
Lloyds Banking Group has sounded out shareholders about a change in its executive remuneration plans that could generate pay rises for its directors despite being bailed out by the taxpayer. The bank, in which the government holds a 44% stake, is understood to have approached big City investors between a month and six weeks ago with outline proposals for a modified pay package for the executive team of the bank . The discussion about possible pay rises comes as research by the Guardian shows that 12 top bankers earned more than £1bn in performance-related pay and shares in the run-up to the credit crunch - even though their banks have subsequently racked up more than £300bn in losses, writedowns and emergency bail-outs from governments and shareholders. Nevertheless, advisers to the recently created Lloyds Banking Group are thought to have argued to shareholders that pay rises were warranted because the new bank was considerably larger as a result of the takeover of HBOS in a deal brokered by Gordon Brown last September at the height of the banking crisis. One shareholder said: "It was not the best time to bring forward a plan where the potential rewards looked quite big." In the face of shareholder reticence, Lloyds withdrew the plan and has not awarded pay rises for its directors. But a fund manager said he still expected the bank to return with a new scheme, "but a little less generous". Shareholders advised Lloyds to put its plans in front of UK Financial Investments, the body set up by Alistair Darling, the chancellor, to look after taxpayer stakes in Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland. UKFI refused to comment but would be able to influence any potential pay deals. While it does not want to dictate levels of pay to the banks, it is likely to be aiming to influence the basis upon which pay cheques are handed over. Eric Daniels, the Lloyds chief executive, is currently paid a basic salary of £1.03m. The bank's other five executive directors before the HBOS takeover was announced had a basic salary of between £590,000 and £680,000. They also have short- and long-term incentive schemes that include annual bonuses of up to 200% of basic salary, with the exception of Daniels, who can boost his salary with a 225% bonus payout. Lloyds Banking Group Banking Executive salaries Credit crunch guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (15 h ago)

• Pay packet envy: the greed that drove th... Pay packet envy: the greed that drove the City's bonus culture
01/27/2009
It was Valentine's Day and for Sir Fred Goodwin there was a very special present. The youthful banking executive was one of elite group of Royal Bank of Scotland directors handed bonus cheques totalling £2.5m as reward for clinching control of the ailing high street lender NatWest. The payments created a furore but Sir George Mathewson, the plain talking RBS executive who had led the eight month campaign, could not understand what the fuss was about. "They wouldn't give you bragging power in a Soho wine bar," an unrepentant Mathewson said. The bonuses helped drive RBS along its road to ruin. The bank's executives got the deal-making bug and embarked on an orgy of acquisitions, gobbling up more than 24 companies in the next eight years - culminating in the £50bn record-breaking takeover of ABN Amro just as the credit crunch started to bite. Nine years on, the bonuses help illustrate what happens when pay deals reward risk taking and highlight the gulf in pay between boardroom bosses and those who work in the City, earning even bigger bonuses through private pay deals that do not have to be published. "Without question my research points to the fact large companies seem to have been paid for getting bigger not better. We saw that with RBS," said Peter Hahn, a fellow in finance at Cass Business School. But City pay deals give even boardroom bosses cause for pay packet envy. Mathewson's remarks were aimed at the City where RBS's advisers at investment bank Merrill Lynch - notably corporate financier Matthew Greenburgh - were taking home bigger success bonuses than the RBS board. Greenburgh, who took the lead in many of the Edinburgh-based bank's deals, is rumoured to have shared in a bonus of £10m for his work on NatWest. Such eye watering sums of money have been paid out in City bonuses for two decades but the City minister Lord Myners - who sat on the board of NatWest at the time of the RBS takeover - has proclaimed the "golden days of huge bonuses in the investment banking arms are gone". "I have met more masters of the universe than I would like to, people who were grossly over-rewarded and did not recognise that. Some of that is pretty unpalatable," Myners said last week. Adair Turner, the chairman of Financial Services Authority , has gone further still, suggesting the vast rewards on offer sucked talent from more productive parts of the economy. "In the years running up to 2007, too much of the developed world's intellectual talent was devoted to ever more complex financial innovations, whose maximum possible benefit was at best marginal, and which in their complexity and opacity created large financial stability risks," he said. The concern about City bonuses has not just been their size but the way they are structured. In existence for long before the credit crunch, they were once regarded as a legitimate way to pay staff in an industry that has cyclical earnings and only one real cost: people. Richard Lambert, director general of the CBI, said: "Before all this happened you would say bonuses were the right way to reward people where the highest costs are salaries and revenues are very volatile." In the old-style City partnerships the profits were distributed among partners at the end of each year. They were largely profits generated from giving advice to companies and did not involve taking big risks that could backfire later. But when US investment banks started to operate in the City 20 years ago they took bonuses to new dimensions: the major US players used their balance sheets to bolster profits by allowing traders to use the banks' own money to take bets on the financial markets. Bonuses were bigger because profits were bigger. And rival banks were paying even bigger sums which drove up bonuses in a never ending spiral. As the credit boom exploded it became apparent that banks had encouraged their traders to devise complex financial products that fuelled profits and in return added zeros to their bonuses. Those complex instruments - usually characterised by acronyms such as CDOs or CDSs - are now among the toxic waste clogging up the financial system and being ring-fenced by governments desperate to revive their collapsing economies. Trades that looked hugely profitable little more than a year ago, are now loss making. But the bonuses have already been paid and pocketed by traders, with shareholders, and in many cases the taxpayer, left to shoulder the pain. The financial crisis has forced the City to come to terms with the excesses of the bonus culture. Hahn recalls that in his days as banker, new entrants to a firm were aspiring to a lengthy career that might, if they were lucky, culminate in them being the chief executive. Not any more, he said. "People felt they were entitled to a bonus. The bonus was everything. It's hard to describe the pressure because the amount is enough to pay off your mortgage," he said. One City worker believes there is now a "gradual realisation that the glory days are gone". He explains that MBA students were lured to the industry despite its 60 hour weeks and gruelling weekends at their desks because of the promise of bonuses. "Young people came into the City and gave up their lives but knew they would become filthy rich at the end of it. Not any more. Most people have lost their entire net worth," he said. Herein lies the problem at the heart of the debate about rethinking City culture. Big banks all paid some part of their bonuses in shares - the one thing that pay experts have always argued should keep a cap on excessive risk taking because it is in everyone interests not to damage a share price. It has been proved not to be true - no more so than at Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, the two US investment banks that collapsed year, wiping out their share prices and in the case of Lehman paralysing the financial system. Both banks were lauded for their employee share ownership culture Hence the attempts to devise new ways to pay bankers - and crucially be able to claw back bonuses paid for performance that proves to be short-lived. Goldman Sachs, regularly nicknamed Goldmine Sachs for its extraordinary rewards, has always been able to demand traders hand back shares awarded for previous performance. Swiss bank UBS, the biggest continental European casualty of the credit crunch, has devised a novel "bonus-malus" system under which bonuses for the top executives are held back to discourage risk taking. The bank intends to introduce the system in the boardroom first and then for key managers in risky parts of the businesses. But UBS executives acknowledge privately that implementing the system lower down could prove more difficult. Hahn argues that getting pay right at the top is the crucial thing. "If you're the chief executive and the head trader comes to you and says we made an extra billion bucks because we took a big bet ... you're not going to pay him for it (if your own bonus doesn't pay out)". One senior banker reckons the best way to keep excess in check would be to devise a greed detector test for fresh entrants. The government has charged the Financial Services Authority with sorting out the problem. The regulator has visited the biggest firms in the City and scrutinised bonus structures not just for top executives but throughout the organisations. The FSA has warned that those firms with pay structures that encourage too much risk taking could be forced to set aside more capital. It is not yet clear how the system will be enforced but Lambert said this is one way that the lid could be kept on pay. "Regulators will require financial firms to take less risk and require them to hold more capital. Profits won't be as high and the capacity to have huge compensation will be less," he said. Academics writing in the National Bureau of Economic Research also argue that the higher wages in the financial industry will eventually disappear. "Wages in finance were excessively high around 1930 and from the mid 1990s until 2006," Thomas Philippon of New York University and Ariell Reshef of the University of Virginia said. Even after a year such as the last, when taxpayers around the world have bailed out their banks, bonuses have still been paid. UBS is the latest, preparing to pay out bonuses from a bonus pool reported to be SFr2bn (£1.24bn). Regulators are said to have forced a SFR1bn reduction in the size of the total payouts. Bonuses, though, nonetheless. Executive salaries Recession Banking Credit crunch Pay Banks and building societies Royal Bank of Scotland Bear Stearns Goldman Sachs UBS guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (15 h ago)

• Yahoo chief executive deflects talk of s... Yahoo chief executive deflects talk of selling company
01/27/2009
The new boss of Yahoo brushed aside talk of selling the business as the struggling Silicon Valley internet empire slumped $303m into the red for the final quarter of 2008. Just two weeks into the job, chief executive Carol Bartz admitted that Yahoo needed a sharper strategy, quicker decision-making and further streamlining. But she said: "I didn't come here to sell the company." Yahoo ran up one-off costs of more than $600m during the quarter as it shed 1,600 jobs, equivalent to 10% of its workforce, and took a hefty accounting charge on its international operations. For the full-year, the company remained in the black with profits of $424m, compared to $660m in 2007. But Yahoo spent $79m on advisory fees as it fended off a takeover offer from Microsoft, struck an aborted co-operation partnership with Google and wrestled with a shareholder rebellion. Bartz, a former boss of software company Autodesk, replaced Yahoo's founder Jerry Yang to take day-to-day charge of the company. She praised the "wonderful energy" and "can-do attitude" of staff but conceded that Yahoo needed organisational change. "This organisation is extremely complex and it's hard for people to get speedy answers and to get decisions made," said Bartz. Yahoo's revenue fell 1% during the fourth quarter as the global advertising industry slowed in response to weakening economic conditions. But the firm took heart from a stabilising share of internet searches, suggesting that Google is no longer extending its lead as the number one player. Last week's inauguration of President Obama produced the busiest day ever for Yahoo's news site with 12m visitors accessing 300m page views. The figures were not as bad as Wall Street had anticipated and Yahoo's shares rose 4% during after-hours trading to $11.83 – still little more than a third of the $33-a-share offered by Microsoft a year ago. Yahoo Yahoo US economy United States guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (16 h ago)

• Financiers in the spotlight at World Eco... Financiers in the spotlight at World Economic Forum
01/27/2009
The annual World Economic Forum kicks off for the 40th year tomorrow with quite a different mood prevailing than in recent years when masters of the universe would strut their stuff and tell governments to get out of the way. Now the pendulum has swung rapidly back the other way and it is politicians who are turning up in force to try to come up with urgent solutions to the global recession that threatens to turn into a depression to match that of the 1930s. The wealth creators of recent years have suddenly become the wealth destroyers, although there were already many nervous people at last year's five-day conference in the frozen Alps as the credit crunch was already six months old. Bankers, though, assured the world that they understood the problems, were fully on top of what their organisations were doing and would steer the world's economies through the downturn. Last year they felt no need to cancel any of the lavish parties they threw in Davos's swankiest hotels. That was before the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, before the rescue of US mortgage corporations Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, before Bank of America was forced to swallow Merrill Lynch and before the pride of British banking had to be taken over by the government. The message from the WEF's founder, Klaus Schwab, is that some of the people responsible for the mess the world is in have to say sorry. Schwab, who has defined the WEF's mission as being "committed to improving the state of the world", wants the meeting to focus on business morality, questioning whether business needs its equivalent of the hippocratic oath taken by doctors. "People should feel remorse," said a Davos insider. "Some people should be apologising." In the new mood of austerity, banks are claiming they are cutting right back on entertaining lavishly. There has also been a shift from business to government – there are 40 heads of state this year, more than twice the usual number. Gordon Brown is attending, along with Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin, and China's premier, Wen Jiabao. They probably all wish that John Maynard Keynes could attend to advise them on how to solve the global financial crisis that is threatening to get worse before it starts to get better. But they can expect a powerful performance from President Barack Obama's chief economic adviser and former Treasury secretary, Larry Summers, who will take a couple of days off from putting together his boss's stimulus package for the world's biggest economy. The WEF organisers say there have been cancellations but no more than in a regular year. There will be 2,600 people in attendance, slightly above the 2,500 they think is optimal. Celebrities will be much less in evidence than in previous years – Bono is finishing off his new album and there are no Hollywood stars such as Sharon Stone. The number one theme of the conference will be getting through the economic crisis, so delegates will be expected to put forward ideas as well as listen to what others have to say. "We need to stop the bleeding," said the insider. Schwab says this is more than a cyclical downturn in the global economy of the sort seen with the Asian crisis or the dotcom collapse. It exposes structural problems that have to be addressed. Davos Economics Credit crunch guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (18 h ago)

• Industry accused of abusing EU's carbon ... Industry accused of abusing EU's carbon trading scheme
01/27/2009
Britain's biggest polluting companies are abusing a European emissions trading scheme (ETS) designed to tackle global warming by cashing in their carbon credits in order to bolster ailing balance sheets. The sell-off has helped trigger a collapse in the price of carbon, making it cheaper to burn high-carbon fossil fuels and leading to a fall in the number of clean energy projects. The moves were seized on by environmentalists and other critics who have previously criticised the European Union's ETS for delivering more windfall profits for business than climate change. "This [ETS] was not designed as a scheme to give corporates cheap short-term funding options in the face of a credit crunch meltdown where banks are not lending, but that appears to be what's happening," said Mark Lewis, a carbon analyst at Deutsche Bank. Steel, concrete and glassmakers are believed to be the main sellers along with financial speculators such as hedge funds. The sell-off of the pollution permits has led to carbon prices plunging 60% – from over €30 to around €12 per tonne. The EU's emissions trading scheme was set up as a market solution to cut greenhouse gas pollution from industry. Polluters were issued with permits that can be traded between companies and countries as a way of encouraging an overall reduction in carbon output. However, companies are now cashing them in for their own financial benefit. Up to €1bn-worth of carbon emissions permits are said to have been sold off in recent months as industrial companies see an opportunity to bring in funds at a time when their carbon output is expected to fall due to lower production. Environmentalists expressed anger last night about the way the ETS was being used. "The ETS has bowed to corporate self-interest at every stage of its design and implementation, so there is no surprise that it is now being used as a cash cow to see firms through a difficult financial phase," said Oscar Reyes, a researcher with Carbon Trade Watch. Point Carbon, an information provider and consultancy, claims the sell-offs are only one of a number of factors that are influencing prices and argues it is "rational" for companies to be selling off credits at this time. The falling price of oil – from $147 per barrel last summer to less than $40 now – has dragged down the cost of gas, making it relatively cheap to burn in power stations, it argues. "Recession in Europe is bringing a slowdown in manufacturing meaning less production and less emissions. Companies are doing exactly what is the rational thing to do in these circumstances which is to sell if they are long on credits. It is right that if they are emitting less then they do not need the credits so much and the price of carbon will fall," said Henrik Hasselknippe, global head of carbon at Point Carbon. But the price collapse brings echoes of 2006 when it emerged that EU states had given industry too many carbon credits, creating a glut that made them almost worthless. Since then the European commission has amended the scheme and some of the credits have been auctioned rather than given away. A study commissioned by the WWF environmental organisation from Point Carbon, published in March last year, estimated that "windfall profits" of between €23bn (£21.4bn) and €71bn would be made under the ETS between 2008 and 2012 on the basis that the price of carbon would be between €21 and €32. Up to €15bn could be made by British companies that were given credits they did not need. Analysts said it was very hard to identify on an individual basis which companies were selling their credits but easier to say which sectors they came from such as cement, whose production is expected to drop 20% this year and steel where volumes could fall by 15%. Lafarge, the world's biggest cement maker and owner of Blue Circle Cement in Britain, said last night that it had only sold a small number of credits on the open market. "We mainly sell our credits from one country to another, for example if we have too many in France then we might sell them to Romania if we don't have enough there. Very few credits are being sold on the [open] market," said a spokeswoman at its Paris headquarters, while steelmaker Corus was unavailable for comment. The collapse in the price of carbon has also caused a slowdown in clean energy projects in developing countries against which western firms can gain credits. The price of Clean Development Mechanism (CDMs) offsets has slumped by nearly 30% over the last couple of weeks. CantorC02e, a broker in the field, says it is scaling back its operations. The emissions trading firm has no immediate plans to cut its 40 staff, but says this cannot be ruled out while EcoSecurities, a stock-listed carbon offsetting company, has seen its share price collapse from £1.50 to less than 30p. The low price of UN-approved offsets, known as Certified Emissions Reductions, is slowing the number of clean energy projects being developed in China. "I'd say there is half the number of players now than there was a year ago. Banks have cut back considerably," said a small Chinese project developer. James Thompson, finance director of EcoSecurities, says he is confident that the price of carbon will rebound along with a wider economic recovery in 12 or 18 months' time. "The short-term price will also recover when the flow of credits stop coming on to the market and long-term pressure will come from governments realising they need a strong carbon price for environmental reasons." Emissions trading Climate change European Union Pollution Carbon emissions guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (21 h ago)

• John Thain subpoenaed over Merrill Lynch... John Thain subpoenaed over Merrill Lynch bonuses
01/27/2009
The former Merrill Lynch boss John Thain has been subpoenaed by New York's attorney general to explain the controversial payment of billions of dollars in bonuses to staff just before the bank was taken over by Bank of America. Thain, who lost his job last week, has been battling allegations of profligacy in his stewardship of Merrill which ran up losses of $15bn (£11bn) during the final quarter of 2008. He has already apologised for spending $1.2m refurbishing Merrill's executive offices with antiques. New York state's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, yesterday issued subpoenas to Thain and to Bank of America's chief administrative officer, Steele Alphin. Cuomo wants to know why $4bn of bonuses to Merrill staff were paid in December – earlier than the usual compensation round in January. The prosecutor said: "The fact that Merrill Lynch appears to have moved up the timetable to pay bonuses before its merger with Bank of America is troubling to say the least and warrants further investigation." The bonuses are an issue of contention between Thain and Bank of America and are one of the reasons why the former Merrill boss was prevailed upon to resign. Bank of America maintains that its senior executives were kept in the dark about the level of losses at Merrill. The North Carolina-based bank's chief executive, Ken Lewis, has said he only pressed ahead with the takeover of Merrill after receiving pressure from the US Treasury, which stumped up $20bn of aid. Bank of America maintains that in spite of its red ink, Merrill opted to hand out cheques to staff. A spokesman said: "John Thain and the Merrill Lynch compensation committee made the decision on the amount and timing of year-end compensation at Merrill Lynch. We had no legal right to challenge it." Thain has disputed this, telling CNBC television this week that Bank of America executives were given full disclosure. A source close to Thain has named Alphin as a Bank of America executive involved in bonus discussions – and has suggested that Bank of America pushed for a shift in the make-up of bonuses from stock to cash. With Wall Street banks relying on financial support from taxpayers, scrutiny over compensation and expenditure has become intense. A trade union, the Service Employees International Union, yesterday called for Bank of America's boss to be sacked over the Merrill bonus payouts. "Bank of America took taxpayers' money and allowed Merrill Lynch to hand out bonuses at the same time as it was preparing pink slips for 35,000 employees," said the SEIU's president, Andy Stern. "It is time to start enforcing some basic standards for corporate behaviour." Merrill Lynch US economy Global recession United States Credit crunch guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (22 h ago)

• Hornby ups prices to get profits back on... Hornby ups prices to get profits back on track
01/27/2009
Hornby has raised its prices to cope with the slump in sterling, and warned today that they might be increased again if the pound fails to recover. The toys group, which makes model railways, Scalextric sets and Corgi cars, said it suffered disappointing sales in the run-up to Christmas. Its shares slid by over 12%, to 84p, as it admitted current-year profits would be at the low end of City expectations. It blamed a fall in orders from major customers during November and early December, as toy retailers braced themselves for one of the most challenging festive periods in decades. Although demand picked up as Christmas drew closer, beating last December's sales, it came too late to reverse the damage. A Hornby spokesman said the sales decline had been "across the board". One highlight was Hornby's new Airfix model of Lewis Hamilton, which sold out following his success in the formula one world championship. The company raised its prices in an attempt to offset the impact of the weak pound, which hit a 23-year low against the dollar last week. This will erode Hornby's profit margins in the months ahead, unless sterling rallies. "We are considering a number of measures to mitigate such erosion including, if appropriate, further price increases later in the year," Hornby said. Hornby has pursued an expansion drive in recent years, buying Airfix and Corgi. Its chairman, Neil Johnson, said the company was performing well following a "difficult" pre-Christmas period. "Strong demand in the early weeks of 2009 gives us further confidence that our hobby-based businesses will continue to demonstrate their defensive characteristics in what is likely to continue to be a challenging economic climate," he said. Retail industry guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 d ago)

• Retail sales volumes continue to fall Retail sales volumes continue to fall
01/27/2009
Retail sales volumes have fallen for the 10th month in a row, and are expected to fall sharply again next month as consumers tighten their belts further. The CBI's distributive trades survey for January showed that 63% of retailers said year-on-year sales volumes fell in the first half of this month. A balance of +52% expect sales to fall in February, which is the weakest forecast since the survey began in July 1983. Many large retailers, including Debenhams and Marks & Spencer, launched sales in the run-up to Christmas to try to lure shoppers into their stores. With the UK now officially in recession, retailers will continue to suffer this year, warned Ian McCafferty, the CBI's chief economic adviser. "Most of the retail sector continues to struggle as the recession bites more deeply, and February will be tough. It is possible that pre-Christmas discounting by some retailers numbed many shoppers to the allure of new year sales," McCafferty said. The three-month moving average of sales volumes, which smooths out monthly volatility, also hit a record low. Motor traders saw sales fall for the eighth month in a row. Retail industry Recession guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 d ago)

• Pfizer to buy rival Wyeth for $68bn Pfizer to buy rival Wyeth for $68bn
01/26/2009
The world's largest drug company, Pfizer, has broken through Wall Street's credit freeze to borrow billions of dollars for a $68bn takeover of rival Wyeth in the first US corporate deal of its scale since the economic crisis began. The takeover is the biggest tie-up in the pharmaceuticals industry since Glaxo Wellcome's merger with SmithKline Beecham in 2000. It is intended to bolster Pfizer's product pipeline in preparation for the expiry of patent protection on its blockbuster anti-cholesterol medicine Lipitor. "Investors have rightly been concerned about the clarity of what happens when Lipitor goes off patent," Pfizer's chief executive, Jeffrey Kindler, told a press conference in New York. "Today's announcement definitively addresses that question." Between them, the two companies will have nearly 130,000 employees although large-scale job cuts are likely as they pool resources in areas such as research and development, marketing and administration. Pfizer is borrowing $22bn to help pay for Wyeth. Five banks are each lending $4.5bn - Barclays, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup and Bank of America. The four US banks involved have all received substantial bail-out funds from the treasury, and Pfizer acknowledged that taxpayers were effectively financing part of the transaction. "It's really good for America to support a healthy, strong biopharmaceutical organisation," said Kindler, who suggested that few industries created more "intellectual capital" than pharmaceuticals. "It's good to see banks doing what banks are supposed to be doing - lending money to advance the American economy and moving companies forward." Approved by board meetings of both companies yesterday, the takeover is widely expected to spur further deals in the drugs industry as more multinationals cope with lucrative products losing patent protection. Wyeth investors will get $33 in cash and 0.985 of a Pfizer share for each Wyeth share - an initial valuation of $50.19 – although Pfizer's stock slumped by 9% during early trading on the New York stock exchange, sharply depressing the price of the deal. Wyeth's top drugs include an antidepressant, Effexor, and a paediatric vaccine, Prevnar. The company owns over-the-counter brands such as ChapStick lip balm and Robitussin cough mixture. The firm employs 1,500 staff in Britain at four sites, including its European headquarters campus in Maidenhead. Wyeth's chief executive, Bernard Poussot, said his firm concluded there was a "remarkable" fit: "Everybody in the industry realised that Pfizer would take something of magnitude at some point." A newly disclosed slump in earnings underlined Pfizer's need for a tonic. Its fourth-quarter profit collapsed by 90% to $266m, partly blamed on a $2.3bn settlement with US prosecutors over the mislabelling of several painkillers. But its underlying sales were weak, with pharmaceuticals revenue down 4% to $11.2bn. Wyeth, which is based in New Jersey, has insisted on a $4.5bn break fee in the event that Pfizer's deals with banks fall through and the takeover collapses. But irrespective of financing challenges, analysts predict more such pharmaceutical tie-ups. "This will not be the last deal," said Barbara Ryan, drug analyst at Deutsche Bank in New York. "While Pfizer has specific issues with regard to Lipitor, these issues are systemic and throughout the entire industry. The industry will continue to consolidate to eliminate excess spending." Pfizer Pharmaceuticals industry United States guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 d ago)

• Banking crisis brings down Iceland gover... Banking crisis brings down Iceland government
01/26/2009
Iceland's prime minister today announced the immediate resignation of his government because of the country's severe financial crisis, which saw the collapse of the currency and banking system. Geir Haarde announced as recently as Friday that his coalition administration would remain in office until early elections called for May 9 after violent protests at its handling of the economic situation. Today he said his Independence party and its Social Democrat partners were quitting immediately after a disagreement over whether he should step down as prime minister. "I really regret that we could not continue with this coalition. I believe that that would have been the best result," he told reporters at parliament. "We couldn't accept the Social Democratic demand that they would lead the government. That is not something we agreed on in 2007." Haarde said he would speak to Iceland's president, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, to arrange the formal dissolution of the coalition, which has ruled since May 2007. Haarde himself has been in office since mid-2006. The 57-year-old becomes the first world leader to leave office as a direct result of the financial crisis. Announcing the election date last week, Haarde revealed he had been diagnosed with throat cancer and would not be seeking re-election anyway. The prime minister's previous national popularity was obliterated in October when the global credit crisis ravaged Iceland's hugely indebted economy, leading to a collapse in the country's currency, the crown, and forcing the government to take control of its three major banks. The population of 320,000 – who had enjoyed years of rising incomes and high growth rates, thanks in no small part to an economy burdened with a foreign debt that peaked at 10 times the annual national GDP – now face a potential economic contraction of up to 10% this year, with unemployment rising rapidly. After months of rallies outside the parliament building, last week protesters pelted Haarde's car with eggs while riot police using teargas for the first time in the country since 1949. The protests continued at the weekend despite Haarde's announcement of the early election. Yesterday the country's commerce minister, Bjorgvin Gudni Sigurdsson, resigned, apologising for the collapse. "I accept my part of responsibility in the collapse of the banking sector even if numerous other people have their share of responsibility," Sigurdsson, a Social Democrat, told a press conference. Who will take over from Haarde is unclear. The leader of the Social Democrats, Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, currently Iceland's foreign minister, immediately ruled herself out. She has only just returned to Reykjavik after undergoing treatment for a brain tumour in Sweden. Gisladottir has called for another senior member of her party, Johanna Sigurdardottir, the social affairs minister, to lead a new government. Iceland Credit crunch Global recession Banking guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (2 d ago)

• Electronics giant Philips cuts 6,000 job... Electronics giant Philips cuts 6,000 jobs after first loss in five years
01/26/2009
Philips, Europe's biggest electronics consumer group, today underlined the steep scale of falling demand when it reported a net €1.5bn (£1.4bn) loss in the final quarter of last year – its first deficit for five years, and said it was shedding 6,000 jobs around the world. The Dutch group, held up by strong sales and earnings growth at its healthcare division, was forced to write off €1.3bn of assets, including recent acquisitions, in the last three months of 2008 as the continental recession deepened and the financial crisis accelerated. Philips, a rival of the US's General Electric and Germany's Siemens, reported full-year pre-tax earnings of €931m on sales of €26.4bn. GE announced a 43% drop in earnings last week and Siemens is due to report big losses tomorrow, partly because of the cost of settling its corruption case with the US authorities. Gerard Kleisterlee, the Philips chief executive, said the final quarter figures reflected "both the severe impact of the global financial and economic crisis and the decisive actions taken by management." The group is taking out a further €400m of costs annually. "The development of our quarterly results reflects the unprecedented speed and ferocity with which the economy softened in 2008," he said. The depressed sales came especially in consumer products and lighting, with Kleisterlee indicating the group, makes devices such as scanners, would focus more on healthcare. Philips said it would stop its share buyback programme until further notice and proposed a 2008 dividend of €0.70 per share, unchanged from 2007, meeting analyst expectations. Europe Manufacturing sector Netherlands Global recession guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (2 d ago)

• Independent News & Media plans to raise ... Independent News & Media plans to raise £94m from sale of assets
01/25/2009
Independent News & Media will unveil plans this week to raise at least €100m (£94m) from the sale of assets that could include its flagship Independent title as it struggles to manage its €1.4bn debts. A spokesman said the company would make a statement to the stock exchange this week after continued speculation surrounding the fate of the media group run by Irish billionaire Tony O'Reilly. Its share price in Dublin fell 45% last week to just 19 cents and has now crashed 95% from a high two years ago. According to Ireland's Sunday Business Post newspaper, the group was likely to sell its British online bingo business, Cashcade, its German price comparison firm Verivox and its African outdoor advertising operation. The paper said the group could offload the London Independent completely. It is also understood that INM has hired Merrill Lynch to advise on raising a 200 euro million bond from investors, which will be used to repay a similar bond that is due in May. Gavin O'Reilly, INM's chief operating officer, told the newspaper that the company would ''be issuing a full trading statement in the next week where all of these questions will be answered and more". INM said in November it would cut jobs at the London Independent and its Sunday sister title to slash costs as a global downturn hits advertising revenue. It also announced that staff would move from the current headquarters in London's Docklands to the Daily Mail newspaper group's base in Kensington. There has been widespread speculation that Russian spy turned oligarch Alexander lebedev, who last week bought the London Evening Standard from the mail's owners for £1, would be interested in acquiring the Independent titles. INM, which also publishes the Irish Independent and titles in South Africa and India, said in October it planned to sell its stake in Australasian radio and newspaper group APN News & Media Ltd (APN.AX) to cut its debt by about €800m. No buyer has been found so far. INM was not available for comment at the time of publication. Independent News & Media Newspapers & magazines guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (2 d ago)

• Germany looks at new bank rescue plan Germany looks at new bank rescue plan
01/25/2009
David Gow Brussels The German government is poised to do a U-turn and approve several "bad banks" to take over its banks' toxic assets for up to five years as the financial crisis and recession deepen. German banks are estimated to have between €300bn (£285bn) and €1tn of these assets sitting on their books, adding to the pressure on Berlin to act. The total of bad assets held by banks across Europe could be as high as €4.8tn. Private sector banks and Landesbanken, or state-owned regional banks, in Germany are due to declare multibillion losses for 2008. Deutsche Bank, the country's biggest, has already indicated a near-€4bn loss and BayernLB, the Bavarian regional bank, one of €5bn. This dire situation has emerged as eurozone and EU governments consider handing the European Central Bank the lead role in supervising Europe's 46 big cross-border banks in the wake of the crisis that saw the nationalised Fortis bank of Belgium indicate last week it had lost close to €20bn last year. Chancellor Angela Merkel and her finance minister, Peer Steinbrück, are under pressure from leading Bundestag deputies of their respective parties — the Christian (CDU) and Social (SPD) Democrats — to draw up a second bank rescue plan on top of the current €480bn scheme. Steinbrück has been the most vocal opponent of the notion of a bad bank, and his spokesman said late last week that there could be no question of nationalisation. CDU experts said a "state-financed toxic waste dump" was out of the question. The finance minister has also sharply queried Britain's latest scheme to insure the banks' toxic assets, saying that nobody could price these and they could potentially amount to up to 30% of banks' balance sheets. But Berlin's "grand coalition" is now reportedly coming round to the notion of adopting a solution whereby individual banks would park their toxic assets in separate bad banks. The state would guarantee these as they were unwound and sold off over the next few years. The new Obama administration in the US is also reportedly considering a bad banks solution as EU governments pile the pressure on the banks to come clean about how big their exposure is. On February 25 an independent body of advisers, led by Jacques de Larosière, the ex-Bank of France chairman, is due to propose an overarching supervisory role for the ECB to prevent a recurrence of the crisis. This will come in a report to the European commission. Both he and the current French central bank chairman, Christian Noyer, have pinpointed the ECB as a more viable solution than the current system of cross-border supervisors, including the City-based Committee of European Banking Supervisors. But David Wright, deputy head of the European commission's internal market department, has insisted that the banks must first own up to the scale of their toxic assets. "How can you deal with the problem if you don't know where it is? Even today we are struggling to define the size of the problem," he said on Friday. The UK government, pressing British and other European banks to come clean, is already casting a wary eye on the proposed new ECB role, given the once-mighty position of the City as the EU's leading financial centre. Banking Germany Credit crunch guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (3 d ago)

• Film Channel Has Name, but No Network Ca... Film Channel Has Name, but No Network Carrier
01/27/2009
Epix, backed by Paramount Pictures, MGM and Lionsgate premium movie channel, will launch online in May, having not yet found a television distribution deal. (9 h ago)

• Advertising: Advertisers Change Game Pla... Advertising: Advertisers Change Game Plans for Super Bowl
01/27/2009
Advertisers that have purchased commercial time on networks during the Super Bowl are pondering changes to the ads they plan to run in those spots on account of the economy. (9 h ago)

• Self-Publishers Flourish as Writers Pay ... Self-Publishers Flourish as Writers Pay the Tab
01/27/2009
Companies that charge writers to publish are growing while many mainstream publishers are losing ground. (9 h ago)

• New Analysis: Change at Union May Re-ene... New Analysis: Change at Union May Re-energize Hollywood Talks
01/27/2009
The firing of Doug Allen, the executive director of the Screen Actors Guild, could mean a return to long-stalked talks on a labor contract. (10 h ago)

• James Brady, Reporter, Dies at 80 James Brady, Reporter, Dies at 80
01/27/2009
Mr. Brady created the New York Post’s gossipy Page Six and wrote celebrity profile columns for Parade magazine. (10 h ago)

• Movie Production Incentives Are Said to ... Movie Production Incentives Are Said to Help New York
01/27/2009
The revenues yielded by New York’s tax incentives for film and television production more than cover their costs, a study found. (10 h ago)

• For Iraqi Journalists: Free Press vs. Fr... For Iraqi Journalists: Free Press vs. Free Land
01/27/2009
Iraq’s land-for-journalists program illustrates the challenges democratic principles face when they clash with entitlements that were never before questioned. (10 h ago)

• BBC Assailed for Refusing to Carry Gaza ... BBC Assailed for Refusing to Carry Gaza Appeal
01/27/2009
Citing concern with protecting its impartiality in the Arab-Israeli dispute, the BBC declined to broadcast an appeal by aid agencies for victims of the recent conflict. (16 h ago)

• Screen Actors Guild Fires Its Executive ... Screen Actors Guild Fires Its Executive Director
01/27/2009
Members of the Screen Actors Guild forced the firing of Doug Allen in a bid to restart long-stalled negotiations. (18 h ago)

• Advertising: Teaching Teenagers About Ha... Advertising: Teaching Teenagers About Harassment
01/27/2009
Digital harassment has gotten to be such a problem that it’s now the focus of a campaign from the Advertising Council. (18 h ago)

• William Kristol’s Column in the Times En... William Kristol’s Column in the Times Ends
01/27/2009
A single sentence printed below Mr. Kristol’s weekly column in the Monday issue broke the news: “This is William Kristol’s last column.” (20 h ago)

• Senate Approves Digital TV Delay Senate Approves Digital TV Delay
01/27/2009
The Senate voted to delay next month’s transition to June 12 because some viewers would not be ready for the switch. (21 h ago)

• Movies Sell Slowly at Sundance Movies Sell Slowly at Sundance
01/27/2009
In a weakening entertainment economy, sales slowed, but did not halt, at the usually more exuberant festival. (1 d ago)

• Slicing Decades of Video for New Life on... Slicing Decades of Video for New Life on the Web
01/26/2009
Video clips of TV shows and behind-the-scenes outtakes are omnipresent online -- but how do they get there? (1 d ago)

• With Magazines Folding, One Finds a Surp... With Magazines Folding, One Finds a Surprising Bid
01/26/2009
The publisher of a small magazine called Hardcore Gamer was determined to keep it alive. So he put it up for sale on eBay and a last-minute savior swooped in. (1 d ago)

• ‘Obama Girl’ Team Retools for Tech Satir... ‘Obama Girl’ Team Retools for Tech Satire
01/25/2009
The “Obama Girl” music video attracted 13 million Internet views, twice as many as the Obama campaign’s official videos. (2 d ago)

• Advertising: Infomercials Find Their Way... Advertising: Infomercials Find Their Way to Television’s Prime Time
01/25/2009
A sign of the ailing economy, infomercials are now filling television slots that traditional advertisers like banks and automakers once owned. (2 d ago)

• New on the Networks: Safe Formulas From ... New on the Networks: Safe Formulas From the Past
01/25/2009
With significant ratings declines, the networks are extending the runs of old shows and limiting the experimentation seen in recent years. (2 d ago)

• Isle of Man Plans Unlimited Music Downlo... Isle of Man Plans Unlimited Music Downloads
01/25/2009
Promoting an offbeat remedy for digital piracy, the rainy outpost in the Irish Sea is suggesting a fee on Internet service to pay for downloaded music. (2 d ago)

• Sometimes, a Political Position Is Just ... Sometimes, a Political Position Is Just About Wanting a Cigar
01/25/2009
The latest issue of Cigar Aficionado magazine advises President Obama on relations with Cuba and argues for abolishing preconditions if the United States should re-engage the Caribbean nation. (2 d ago)

• Spanish Bank Offers $1.8 Billion to Sett... Spanish Bank Offers $1.8 Billion to Settle Madoff Claims
01/28/2009
Banco Santander offered to pay $1.8 billion to reimburse private banking clients for money lost in Bernard Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme. (4 h ago)

• Toyota to Recall More Than 1.35 Million ... Toyota to Recall More Than 1.35 Million Cars Worldwide
01/28/2009
Toyota Motor Corp said it would recall more than 1.35 million Vitz and two other models globally to fix a defect in the seat belt, the exhaust system or both. (7 h ago)

• Canon’s Quarterly Profit Tumbles Canon’s Quarterly Profit Tumbles
01/27/2009
The world’s largest digital camera maker announced profits 81.5 percent down compared to the year before. (9 h ago)

• European Court Refuses to Delay Intel In... European Court Refuses to Delay Intel Inquiry
01/27/2009
European regulators have been investigating Intel’s business practices since the start of the decade, after a complaint by a rival, Advanced Micro Devices. (9 h ago)

• Siemens Profit Drops 81%, but Revenue Is... Siemens Profit Drops 81%, but Revenue Is Up
01/27/2009
The falling profits were caused by the sale last year of one of Siemens’s businesses, but the sale helped boost the company’s revenues. (10 h ago)

• Japan Moves to Take Stakes in Ailing Com... Japan Moves to Take Stakes in Ailing Companies
01/27/2009
The country outlined a plan to inject state funds into ailing companies in exchange for stakes in them, a move that echoes the partial nationalization of some troubled financial firm in the U.S. and Europe. (10 h ago)

• Britain Offers $3.2 Billion in Aid to It... Britain Offers $3.2 Billion in Aid to Its Carmakers
01/27/2009
After months of pleas from unions and executives of Jaguar Land Rover and General Motors’s Vauxhall, Britain joined other governments bailing out their auto industries. (10 h ago)

• W.T.O. Finds China Copyright Law Lacking W.T.O. Finds China Copyright Law Lacking
01/27/2009
China was found to have failed to protect and enforce copyrights and trademarks on a wide range of goods. (17 h ago)

• Olhão Journal: From a Portuguese Marsh, ... Olhão Journal: From a Portuguese Marsh, Salt, the Traditional Way
01/27/2009
What to do when a dream of marketing microalgae goes bust? One group of entrepreneurs found an answer in the salt marshes of Portugal’s Algarve region. (19 h ago)

• Barclays to Write Down £8 Billion, but A... Barclays to Write Down £8 Billion, but Asks for No Help
01/26/2009
After investors punished its stock last week, Barclays attempted to restore trust in its earnings, saying it did not need fresh capital. (1 d ago)

• France Looks to Help Airbus With Loan Gu... France Looks to Help Airbus With Loan Guarantees
01/26/2009
The move is squarely aimed at helping Airbus and its parent company, European Aeronautics Defense and Space, maintain production during the current credit crunch. (1 d ago)

• Siemens Quits Venture to Build Reactors Siemens Quits Venture to Build Reactors
01/26/2009
The decision by Siemens, the German engineering company, to withdraw from a venture with Areva adds financial challenges to the French nuclear reactor builder. (1 d ago)

• In India, Clues Unfold to a Fraud’s Fram... In India, Clues Unfold to a Fraud’s Framework
01/26/2009
As investigators seek a clearer picture of Satyam’s accounting, many wonder whether its executives had help. (1 d ago)

• UBS Is Said to Have ‘Weeks’ to Release D... UBS Is Said to Have ‘Weeks’ to Release Documents
01/26/2009
Federal prosecutors have given UBS “several weeks” to hand over scores of United States client names or face possible indictment over its offshore banking services. (1 d ago)

• College-Educated Chinese Feel Job Pinch College-Educated Chinese Feel Job Pinch
01/26/2009
Anxiety is rippling through a generation of Chinese who had grown up thinking that prosperity was guaranteed. (1 d ago)

• Once a Boon, Euro Now Burdens Some Natio... Once a Boon, Euro Now Burdens Some Nations
01/26/2009
Euro membership allowed some countries to gloss over economic problems that have now roared to the fore. (1 d ago)

• OPEC Achieves Cuts in Output, Halting Pr... OPEC Achieves Cuts in Output, Halting Price Slide
01/26/2009
Members of the oil cartel have slashed their output by more than three million barrels a day in recent months, temporarily stopping the slide in oil prices. (2 d ago)

• At Davos, Crisis Culls the Guest List At Davos, Crisis Culls the Guest List
01/25/2009
Politicians, not corporate titans, are poised to be the big draw at this year’s World Economic Forum gathering, as power shifts away from the free market. (2 d ago)

• Treasury Weighs Hard Choices To Save Ban... Treasury Weighs Hard Choices To Save Banks
01/28/2009
President Obama's top advisers are in the final stages of debating several perilous options to right the financial system, all of which are likely to prove unpopular and in some cases carry a significant risk of failure. (3 h ago)

• Treasury Doles Out $386M To 23 Banks Treasury Doles Out $386M To 23 Banks
01/27/2009
The Treasury Department said Tuesday it has distributed another $386 million to 23 banks, the first awards from the federal bailout fund since President Barack Obama took office. (13 h ago)

• Starbucks Stops Brewing Decaf After Noon Starbucks Stops Brewing Decaf After Noon
01/27/2009
Starbucks customers who are used to getting their decaf grande mochachino after lunch will have to wait a little longer than usual to get their fix. (13 h ago)

• Investors Robbed Of $370M In Ponzi Schem... Investors Robbed Of $370M In Ponzi Scheme
01/27/2009
The owner of a New York investment firm ran a $370 million Ponzi scheme, luring in clients with promises of astronomical returns while secretly blowing tens of millions of dollars on bad trades and conspicuous spending, federal authorities said. (14 h ago)

• Senate Grills SEC Officials On Madoff Senate Grills SEC Officials On Madoff
01/27/2009
A multibillion-dollar pyramid scheme allegedly spawned by Bernard Madoff is being probed by a Senate panel that will question federal regulators responsible for inspecting investment firms and enforcing action against violations. (14 h ago)

• Yahoo Swings To Loss, But Beats Street Yahoo Swings To Loss, But Beats Street
01/27/2009
Yahoo handily cleared Wall Street's pessimistic earnings expectations for a grim fourth quarter and matched anticipated revenue, but charges swung the Internet pioneer to a net loss for the quarter. (15 h ago)

• Congress Takes Aim At Wage Discriminatio... Congress Takes Aim At Wage Discrimination
01/27/2009
Congress sent the White House what is expected to be the first legislation that President Barack Obama signs into law, a bill that makes it easier for women and others to sue for pay discrimination. (15 h ago)

• State Farm To Fla.: We're No Longer Ther... State Farm To Fla.: We're No Longer There
01/27/2009
Florida's largest private homeowners insurer - State Farm Florida - is planning to stop selling property insurance in the state. (18 h ago)

• Missing Hedge Fund Mgr. Surrenders To Fe... Missing Hedge Fund Mgr. Surrenders To Feds
01/27/2009
A Florida hedge fund manager who disappeared after agreeing to an independent audit turned himself in to authorities to face securities and wire fraud charges. Arthur Nadel is accused of bilking investors of over $300 million. (19 h ago)

• Recession Claims Thousands More Jobs Recession Claims Thousands More Jobs
01/27/2009
It's shaping up to be another lousy year for workers, with more companies expecting to cut payrolls in the months ahead. Thousands of layoffs were announced Monday, underscoring the bleak economic forecast. (20 h ago)

• After Bailout, Lavish Spending Lives On After Bailout, Lavish Spending Lives On
01/27/2009
Citigroup has received so much bailout money to date that the American taxpayer is now its major stockholder. So there was outrage when it was reported that the company is taking delivery of a new, $50 million luxury corporate jet. (20 h ago)

• Home Prices Take Record Tumble Home Prices Take Record Tumble
01/27/2009
A closely watched index shows home prices dropped by the sharpest annual rate on record in November. (20 h ago)

• Bank Execs Still Clock In Despite Failur... Bank Execs Still Clock In Despite Failures
01/27/2009
At banks that are receiving federal bailout money nearly nine out of every 10 of the most senior executives from 2006 are still on the job, according to an Associated Press analysis of regulatory and company documents. (23 h ago)

• Pfizer Will Pay $68B For Wyeth Pfizer Will Pay $68B For Wyeth
01/26/2009
Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drugmaker, will pay $68 billion for rival Wyeth in a move that will consolidate two of the industry's largest drug developers. (1 d ago)

• Giant Caterpillar Reports Steep Plunge Giant Caterpillar Reports Steep Plunge
01/26/2009
The world's largest maker of mining and construction equipmen said its fourth-quarter profit plunged 32 percent, and that it expects sharply lower results this year as the world economy continues to contract. (1 d ago)

• McDonald's Posts Big 4Q Drop McDonald's Posts Big 4Q Drop
01/26/2009
McDonald's Corp. reported a 23 percent drop in its fourth-quarter profit on because of a year-ago tax benefit, but strong same-store sales helped the hamburger chain beat Wall Street's expectations. (1 d ago)

• States Roll The Dice On Legal Gambling States Roll The Dice On Legal Gambling
01/25/2009
A tell-tale sign America's chips are down: States are increasingly turning to gambling to plug budget holes. (2 d ago)

• U.S. wading deeper into banking industry U.S. wading deeper into banking industry
01/28/2009
The Obama administration is drawing up a new plan to save the banking system, sparking talk of a government "nationalization" of the industry. Here is what is at stake. (3 h ago)

• 6 held over $600 million stock fraud 6 held over $600 million stock fraud
01/28/2009
Spanish police have arrested six people in connection with a $600 million fraud on the London Stock Exchange, Spain's Interior Ministry said Wednesday. (4 h ago)

• The home you save could be your own The home you save could be your own
01/28/2009
A growing number of American homeowners in foreclosure are representing themselves as what are called pro se – a Latin phrase meaning “for oneself” -- litigants in court proceedings. Msnbc.com's Mike Stuckey explains why. (4 h ago)

• Risky options weighed to save banks Risky options weighed to save banks
01/27/2009
President's advisers debate perilous choices to right economy, all of which may prove unpopular and even carry a significant risk of failure. (8 h ago)

• Unemployment rose in every state in Dec. Unemployment rose in every state in Dec.
01/27/2009
Rising unemployment spared no state last month, and 2009 is shaping up as another miserable year for workers from coast to coast. (14 h ago)

• Target to cut jobs, close distribution c... Target to cut jobs, close distribution center
01/27/2009
Target said on Tuesday that it will cut roughly 600 jobs at its headquarters, leave another 400 positions unfilled and close a distribution center that employs 500 workers. (14 h ago)

• Yahoo losses not as bad as Wall Street e... Yahoo losses not as bad as Wall Street expected
01/27/2009
Yahoo Inc. stumbled to a fourth-quarter loss of $303 million, but the Internet company withstood the recession better than analysts had expected. (14 h ago)

• Oil prices slip as market frets about de... Oil prices slip as market frets about demand
01/27/2009
Oil prices tumbled sharply on Tuesday with more evidence of decline in the U.S. housing industry, more job cuts and plunging consumer confidence. (15 h ago)

• SEC regulators on defense at Madoff hear... SEC regulators on defense at Madoff hearing
01/27/2009
Government and industry regulators were on the defensive Tuesday at a hearing over their failure to uncover the multibillion-dollar fraud allegedly carried out by Bernard Madoff. (15 h ago)

• The wealthy turn stealthy as economy wea... The wealthy turn stealthy as economy weakens
01/27/2009
Call it stealth wealth. As the economy weakens, the wealthy and the businesses that cater to them say it's chic to scale back extravagant spending and play down affluence (15 h ago)

• Congress sends Obama pay discrimination ... Congress sends Obama pay discrimination bill
01/27/2009
Congress sent the White House its first legislation of Barack Obama's presidency Tuesday, a bill that makes it easier for women and others to sue for pay discrimination. (17 h ago)

• Ads of the Weird: PETA’S Super Bowl porn... Ads of the Weird: PETA’S Super Bowl porn
01/27/2009
The concept of animal rights may be important, but it has very little to do with softcore porn featuring vegetables. (18 h ago)

• Dark side of Wall Street at center stage Dark side of Wall Street at center stage
01/27/2009
The dark side of American business was on full display Tuesday as four men accused of defrauding investors were arrested, investigated, surrendered or sentenced. (19 h ago)

• Chastised Citigroup grounds plans for pl... Chastised Citigroup grounds plans for plane
01/27/2009
Citigroup Inc. has no plans to take possession of a new $50 million business jet aircraft, a spokesman said after the bank's plan to take delivery of the plane raised political hackles. (20 h ago)

• Interest rates for most credit card type... Interest rates for most credit card types fall
01/27/2009
The average annual interest rates charged on two popular types of credit cards fell last week, according to Bankrate.com, while one rate edged higher. (21 h ago)

• The view from the auto mall darkens The view from the auto mall darkens
01/27/2009
At the Tempe Autoplex, the natural optimism that is essential to the car business is running up hard against the cold reality of today’s economy. (23 h ago)

• Auto market rebound depends on housing Auto market rebound depends on housing
01/27/2009
When will the moribund automotive market rebound? For an answer, it pays to monitor the state of the housing market. (1 d ago)

• AP: 9 in 10 execs at bailout banks keep ... AP: 9 in 10 execs at bailout banks keep jobs
01/27/2009
At banks that are receiving federal bailout money nearly nine out of every 10 of the most senior executives from 2006 are still on the job, according to an Associated Press analysis of documents. (21 h ago)

• Thain to pay back office decorating cost... Thain to pay back office decorating costs
01/26/2009
Former Merrill Lynch Chief Executive John Thain said Monday he plans to reimburse Bank of America for a $1.2 million renovation of his office a year ago. (1 d ago)

• Big U.S. companies announce massive job ... Big U.S. companies announce massive job cuts
01/26/2009
A slew of American heavyweight companies, including Caterpillar, Pfizer, Sprint Nextel, Home Depot and General Motors, announced cuts Monday adding up to 45,000 jobs lost. (1 d ago)

• The top 10 Super Bowl ads of all time The top 10 Super Bowl ads of all time
01/26/2009
Nothing makes the economy appear sound like scores of corporations lining up to spend $3 million for a 30-second advertisement that may or may not help their company. (1 d ago)

• Super Bowl feels, and ignores, down econ... Super Bowl feels, and ignores, down economy
01/26/2009
The economy has put a hit on plans for this year's Super Bowl, not that visitors to Tampa for the game and hundreds of millions watching on TV will be able to tell the difference. (1 d ago)

• Pfizer to buy Wyeth for $68 billion, cut... Pfizer to buy Wyeth for $68 billion, cut jobs
01/26/2009
Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest drugmaker, will pay $68 billion for rival Wyeth in a move that will consolidate two of the industry’s largest drug developers. (1 d ago)

• Libel trial begins over mortgage scam ch... Libel trial begins over mortgage scam charges
01/26/2009
A libel trial scheduled to begin Monday is the latest chapter in a Texas-sized legal battle between a mortgage-servicing firm and a wealthy family that has raged for years. (2 d ago)

• Super Bowl pregame ads proving a tougher... Super Bowl pregame ads proving a tougher sell
01/25/2009
Sales of Super Bowl ads are holding up fairly well, even at $3 million for 30 seconds. But commercial spots that will run in the pregame hours? That's a different ball game. (2 d ago)

• OFFICE CONDOS GROWING TREND OFFICE CONDOS GROWING TREND
01/27/2009
THE office building at 575 Fifth Ave. has been quietly turned into a commercial condominium by owner MetLife. The 35-story tower on the southeast corner of East 47th Street has been divided into four pieces, three of them retail. When it was... (9 h ago)

• SUPER BOWL ADS STRUGGLE IN NOT-SO-FLUSH ... SUPER BOWL ADS STRUGGLE IN NOT-SO-FLUSH TIMES
01/27/2009
The Super Bowl kicks off in five days, but some of the game's biggest sponsors are still deciding what spots to run and how to set the right tone in such downbeat times. Meanwhile, NBC said yesterday it has four open slots during the game and... (9 h ago)

• NADEL HAD CASH PILE FOR WIFE NADEL HAD CASH PILE FOR WIFE
01/27/2009
Arthur Nadel, the Florida hedge-fund manager who turned himself in after being on the lam for nearly two weeks, set aside a stash of cash to ensure his wife survived after he went on the run, the feds said. According to investigators, Nadel in a... (9 h ago)

• KNICK'S NEW DRIVE TO 'NET KNICK'S NEW DRIVE TO 'NET
01/27/2009
Stephon Marbury hasn't lost a step off his game. Not basketball, mind you, where Marbury's career hangs in limbo because of an ongoing dispute with the Knicks, but his business game centered around his low-price Starbury brand of sneakers and... (9 h ago)

• BANKS GIVEN $386M MORE BANKS GIVEN $386M MORE
01/27/2009
WASHINGTON, DC - The Treasury Department says it distributed another $386 million to 23 banks on Friday, the first awards from the federal bailout fund since President Barack Obama took office. The department says the latest capital infusions... (9 h ago)

• STILL NO 7 CENTS SOLUTION STILL NO 7 CENTS SOLUTION
01/27/2009
BATTLE lines have now been drawn in the magazine-wholesaler war. Time Inc. yesterday became the first major publisher to say it won't distribute magazines through Ron Burkle's Source Interlink Cos. if the company insists on imposing a... (9 h ago)

• SCHUMER: MOVE SEC TO NEW YORK SCHUMER: MOVE SEC TO NEW YORK
01/27/2009
Some angry senators think the Securities and Exchange Commission isn't smart enough anymore to catch swindlers, and must relocate to New York so it can keep closer tabs on Wall Street's problems. The SEC's spanking came yesterday as agency... (9 h ago)

• MERRILL BROKERS IRKED AS 'BIZ' TRIPS BAN... MERRILL BROKERS IRKED AS 'BIZ' TRIPS BANNED
01/27/2009
Merrill Lynch brokers, already frustrated by Bank of America's purchase of their company, are crying foul over their firm's decision to slash hundreds of rookie brokers and ban trips for star brokers. The suspension of broker trips was announced... (9 h ago)

• BUSINESS BRIEFS BUSINESS BRIEFS
01/27/2009
GE rating GE's Aaa long-term debt ratings and that of its finance arm GE Capi tal may be lowered by Moody's Investors Serv ice because "deepening global weakness" may hurt GE Capital's ability to meet its $5 billion profit goal this year. No... (9 h ago)

• BOFA'S LEWIS IS NEXT BOFA'S LEWIS IS NEXT
01/27/2009
John Thain may not be the only one having to answer questions posed by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo about Merrill Lynch's controversial 11th-hour bonus payments. Sources tell The Post that Bank of America chief Ken Lewis could soon find... (9 h ago)

• BARTZ PLAYS IT CAUTIOUS AS YAHOO! POSTS ... BARTZ PLAYS IT CAUTIOUS AS YAHOO! POSTS $303M LOSS
01/27/2009
Yahoo!'s fourth-quarter results illustrate the Herculean task facing new CEO Carol Bartz as she attempts to clean up the operational mess left by Jerry Yang's 18-month reign as chief executive. The beleaguered Internet giant swung to a... (9 h ago)

• Relief Seen for Jobless and States in He... Relief Seen for Jobless and States in Health Care Plan
01/27/2009
For Democrats, the stimulus bill is also a tool for rewriting the social contract with the poor, the uninsured and the unemployed, in ways they have long yearned to do. (8 h ago)

• Stimulus Plan Would Provide Flood of Aid... Stimulus Plan Would Provide Flood of Aid to Education
01/27/2009
School districts, child care centers and university campuses would receive $150 billion in new federal spending in the economic stimulus package that is scheduled for a vote in Congress on Wednesday. (9 h ago)

• Patient Money: Seeing Straight Without B... Patient Money: Seeing Straight Without Breaking the Bank
01/27/2009
A month’s rent just for eyeglasses? Taking care of your eyesight doesn’t have to cost so much. (23 h ago)

• In Effort to Build Support, Obama Detail... In Effort to Build Support, Obama Details Stimulus Plan
01/26/2009
Releasing new details of an $825 billion economic recovery plan, President Obama depicted the proposal as critical to rebuilding for a new era. (1 d ago)

• Your Money: Doing the Right Thing by Pay... Your Money: Doing the Right Thing by Paying the Nanny Tax
01/25/2009
Consider a couple of reasons it may be wise for people who are not paying their housekeeper or baby sitter’s taxes to reconsider. (2 d ago)

• The Count: The Horror of Examining a 401... The Count: The Horror of Examining a 401(k) Balance
01/25/2009
Those who can bring themselves to open the envelope are often stricken by columns of minus signs and descending numbers. (2 d ago)

• Mortgages: Safeguarding Against Loan Dis... Mortgages: Safeguarding Against Loan Discrimination
01/25/2009
New York State authorities announced a settlement this month with two mortgage brokers accused of discriminating against minority borrowers. (2 d ago)

• Editorial: From Here to Retirement Editorial: From Here to Retirement
01/25/2009
The wipeout in 401(k)’s has made it clear that there needs to be a better way to ensure that a lifetime of savings can’t be undone by forces beyond one’s control. (2 d ago)

• Ponzi schemes proliferate Ponzi schemes proliferate
01/28/2009
When the Bernard Madoff scandal broke, it was inevitable more Ponzi schemes would come to light. For a good reason too. With every bubble there is fraud. Look behind every bubble and you'll find... (1 h ago)

• Sarbanes-Oxley: It's crunch time for sma... Sarbanes-Oxley: It's crunch time for small companies
01/28/2009
It looks like the honeymoon is over for small companies.Incoming Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman Mary Schapiro says she wants small public businesses to start complying with the... (1 h ago)

• The axe man cometh: get ready for a shor... The axe man cometh: get ready for a shorter working week
01/27/2009
It's the year of the axe with companies axing more than 75,000 jobs, led by Caterpillar which is sacking 20,000. For a good breakdown, check this little table from the Financial Times.The news... (8 h ago)

• Guess who's coming to Davos Guess who's coming to Davos
01/26/2009
The financial meltdown has hit the world's most prominent gabfest which kicks off in Davos today. Last year's event included Bill Gates, Bono and Queen Noor (pictured above) but this... (1 d ago)

• Obama's options Obama's options
01/26/2009
What are Obama's options to breathe life back into the banks and get the economy going again?Basically, it boils down to three options, says the New York Post's Michael Gray.The first is to... (2 d ago)

• The meltdown's rogue gallery The meltdown's rogue gallery
01/26/2009
So who is responsible for the financial crisis?The Guardian's City editor Julia Finch picks out the 25 who were at the heart of the meltdown.The list is headed by former Fed chairman Alan... (2 d ago)

• Financial meltdown claims its first casu... Financial meltdown claims its first casualty
01/25/2009
One down, how many more to go?With his country's economy melting, its three biggest banks nationalised and then placed in receivership and public anger rising, Iceland's Prime Minister Geir... (3 d ago)

• Dollar holds strong despite bailouts Dollar holds strong despite bailouts
01/27/2009
The value of the U.S. dollar has been holding up pretty well, even though more and more money is being printed by the government to bail out the banks. Why? Ashley Milne-Tyte reports. (22 h ago)

• Super Bowl ads sell despite economy Super Bowl ads sell despite economy
01/27/2009
Even in this recession, companies are shelling out millions for Super Bowl advertising. Kai Ryssdal speaks with journalist Rob Walker about why some brands are still spending such big bucks for so little time. (22 h ago)

• If it worked for Bernie, why not U.S.? If it worked for Bernie, why not U.S.?
01/27/2009
As a Senate committee looks into how regulators missed Bernard Madoff's investment scam, the Marketplace Players wonder if the senators are really interested in fixing what's broken. (22 h ago)

• Mixed martial arts rises in popularity Mixed martial arts rises in popularity
01/27/2009
The Ultimate Fighting Championship, or mixed martial arts, has emerged from the shadows to become a huge moneymaker. Kai Ryssdal speaks with Sports Illustrated writer L. Jon Wertheim about the combat sport's fast-growing audience. (22 h ago)

• Fed should be taking on more risk Fed should be taking on more risk
01/27/2009
With interest rates approaching zero and billions of federal dollars already pumped into the banking industry, are there more tricks up the Fed's sleeve? Commentator Krishna Guha says there could be. (22 h ago)

• Geithner's new TARP rules murky Geithner's new TARP rules murky
01/27/2009
New Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is trying to rein in TARP with rules that limit the power of lobbyists and ensure more oversight for the billions of dollars being handed out. Will Geithner's new rules make it clearer where our tax money is going? Nancy Marshall Genzer reports. (22 h ago)

• Food vendors sell with personal touch Food vendors sell with personal touch
01/26/2009
The recession hasn't stopped some entrepreneurs from breaking into the specialty food market. The Fancy Food Show in San Francisco was ripe with new companies marketing their products -- but not necessarily for huge profits. April Dembowsky reports. (1 d ago)

• More Tips On Saving Money On Your Food B... More Tips On Saving Money On Your Food Bills
01/28/2009
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 3000673 One thing that a lot of us love to do more than about anything is to eat. We love to eat and we love to eat a lot. It's definitely easier, too, to... (4 h ago)

• Saving Money on Food Tips Saving Money on Food Tips
01/27/2009
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 1589114 When you fall into the habit of spending money regularly, it does not take long before you begin to ignore it altogether. Even worse, it becomes possible... (1 d ago)

• 7 More Ways to Save Money 7 More Ways to Save Money
01/26/2009
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 2172516 When the winter comes and money is tight because of heating costs, finding ways to save money becomes a little tougher. Here are some simple tips about... (2 d ago)

• Forecasters see historic drop in retail ... Forecasters see historic drop in retail sales
01/27/2009
The nation’s retailers had a rough 2008, but this year will likely be even scarier, according to a sales forecast released Tuesday from the world’s largest retail trade organization. (1 d ago)

• California drought may raise vegetable p... California drought may raise vegetable prices
01/25/2009
Consumers may pay more for spring lettuce and summer melons in grocery stores across the country now that California farmers have started abandoning their fields. (2 d ago)

• Report: Starbucks may cut 1,000 more job... Report: Starbucks may cut 1,000 more jobs
01/25/2009
Coffee chain Starbucks Corp could cut another 1,000 jobs in the coming weeks, according to a report in the Seattle Times on Saturday. (2 d ago)

Business

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Entertainment

This is abundant, look forward to looking into ea...
John gogs :: 12/28/2009

Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?...
CocoChanels :: 07/03/2009

Hi, my friends!! I want to get program XRumer 5.0 ...
MagicOPromotion :: 05/03/2009

Where is this money coming from except from the mo...
carl allen :: 04/11/2009

out of control
staystrong :: 02/23/2009

The poor thing! Once so high and mighty and far ab...
leaf :: 02/22/2009

It always amazed me how eagerly people flocked to ...
David :: 12/23/2008

• Your Career: More companies using furlou... Your Career: More companies using furloughs
01/26/2009
Many companies, universities and governments across the country are forcing their workers to take time off. There’s one catch — no pay. (1 d ago)

• Out of work? Try self-employment Out of work? Try self-employment
01/26/2009
If you're among the thousands of unemployed now trying to go it alone, where do you start? (1 d ago)

• Bill Gates on Philanthropy in Crisis Bill Gates on Philanthropy in Crisis
01/26/2009
In a letter scheduled to be released today, January 26th, Bill Gates is offering insight to the world both about the current financial crisis as well as what his foundation has been able to do despite... (2 d ago)

• Hedge Fund Operational Due Diligence - B... Hedge Fund Operational Due Diligence - Book Review
01/25/2009
Informative book by Jason Scharfman on, well, pretty much everything you need to run a hedge fund, from risk management to disaster recovery, all need-to-know material for both investors and hedge... (2 d ago)

• The world’s most valuable pro sports tea... The world’s most valuable pro sports teams
01/27/2009
This may be hard to believe: In 2003, no pro sports team in the world was worth a billion dollars. By the end of 2008, there were 24. (19 h ago)

• The richest people that you’ve never hea... The richest people that you’ve never heard of
01/25/2009
Meet the not-so-famous people behind some of the biggest fortunes on earth. (2 d ago)

• Focus on Strength Focus on Strength
01/27/2009
Black in Business ran in encouraging piece earlier this month on how to develop a positive outlook on your business activities. It's a simple message. Manage your weaknesses; we all know that. But... (10 h ago)

• The Market for MBA Grads Tightens Up The Market for MBA Grads Tightens Up
01/26/2009
National Public Radio ran a story today on the job prospects for MBA graduates these days. While it is harder to find a job than it used to be, many businesses evidently learned a lesson from the... (1 d ago)

• Profit Reports Give Wall Street a Lift Profit Reports Give Wall Street a Lift
01/27/2009
NEW YORK, Jan. 27 -- Some of Wall Street's earnings anxiety eased Tuesday after companies including United States Steel and American Express managed to post profits in a difficult recession. (11 h ago)

• J. Peterman riding tall in the saddle ag... J. Peterman riding tall in the saddle again
01/25/2009
“It's not fun going bankrupt,” says John Peterman. He should know. His $75 million catalog company went bust in 1999. But now the “Seinfeld"-parodied businessman is back. (2 d ago)

• Geithner on Currency Manipulation, and C... Geithner on Currency Manipulation, and China's Reaction...
01/26/2009
China is manipulating the value of their currency, the yuan renminbi. At least that's what Obama's new Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner says. The statement came as part of his 102-page... (1 d ago)

• PE Hub Interviews NVCA President Mark He... PE Hub Interviews NVCA President Mark Heeson
01/25/2009
PE Hub published a interesting interview with Mark Heeson a few days ago. Heeson is the president of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). The interview examines a number of issues -... (2 d ago)

• Will Employee Micro-Blogging Help Busine... Will Employee Micro-Blogging Help Business?
01/26/2009
Yammer: it's not a rare type of woodpecker or a new cocktail for yuppies. It's a micro-blogging tool similar to Twitter - but designed for businesses. VentureBeat ran a story last week on the... (1 d ago)

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