Tories to launch TV ad campaign against Dion

The Conservative party intends to run TV attack ads against new Liberal leader Stephane Dion, CTV News has learned.

Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenny will hold a briefing tomorrow in Ottawa to unveil the ads that mock Dion's leadership abilities and his environmental record, sources say.

Party insiders say the Conservatives will buy TV spots during the Super Bowl and other prime time slots for maximum impact.

They stress the ads are not part of a strategy to force an early election.

Sources say the party is concerned that Dion is getting a free ride from the mainstream media and the Tories want to go over the heads of the national media in Ottawa to reach ordinary Canadians.

The ads -- which party officials showed to the Conservative caucus on Friday -- cast doubt on Dion's environmental credentials and leadership abilities, according to sources that have seen them.

One Conservative insider told CTV News the party "wants to define Dion before the Liberals get the chance to define him with a free ride from the media."

One of the ads is a clip from the Liberal leadership campaign.

"You don't know how hard it is to set priorities," Dion states in one ad as a perplexed Ignatieff looks on, according to a Tory source.

Another ad mocks Dion's failure as environment minister to meet the Kyoto climate change targets.

"We didn't get it done." Deputy Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff says to Dion in an exchange taken from the Liberal leadership race.

Tory MPs roared when the ads were played for them at the caucus retreat.

"They are all Liberals in the ads and they are quite funny," one Tory MP said.

It is not known how much the ads will cost but the Conservative Party is flush with money compared to cash-strapped Liberal Party.

Polls show the Tories and Liberals in a virtual tie and most observers say it is unlikely there will be an election this spring.

Liberal Party national director George Young told CTV the attack ads show "how desperate the Tories are" and he predicted "it could hurt them with the public."

www.ctv.ca

WEB-SAVVY CAMPAIGNING

Hillary Clinton signaled that hers would be an Internet-savvy presidential campaign by announcing her candidacy with a video posted on her Web site and e-mails to supporters. Throughout the week, she has been hosting live video chats. And on Thursday, Clinton held her first town hall meeting in cyberspace.

Clinton, a New York Democrat, used the Yahoo Answers service to ask voters: ``Based on your own family's experience, what do you think we should do to improve health care in America?''

By 5 p.m. Pacific time, Clinton had gotten more than 33,000 answers, making her question the second-most popular in the history of Yahoo Answers, a place where users can ask questions and get other users to answer them. Clinton is trumped by Oprah, who received 37,000 answers over several days to the question: ``If you were given $1,000 to change the life of a perfect stranger, what would you do?''

Clinton's moves put her in the company of a cadre of politicians and interest groups who have successfully harnessed the power of the Internet as a political tool. In 1998 Jesse Ventura effectively used e-mail; in 2000 Sen. John McCain taught his colleagues a lesson in online fundraising; in 2002 MoveOn.org showed how the Internet could be used to mobilize voters; and Howard Dean showed how it could be used to connect with them.

``This is the great era of experimentation of politics and the Internet,'' said Lee Rainie, founding director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

In a recent study, Pew found that 15 percent of all American adults said they got most of their campaign news during the 2006 election from the Internet, up from 7 percent in the midterm election of 2002.

``It's a chance to reach out to as many voters as we can and to try to continue the conversation that the senator wants to have with them,'' said Blake Zeff, a campaign spokesman.

Zeff said Clinton has had an ongoing relationship with Yahoo that has included contributing to a blog on Yahoo Health. In September, Clinton asked Yahoo if she could pose a question on the Answer service.

On Oct. 1, Clinton asked: ``How can we help to prevent and someday eradicate breast cancer, which has touched the lives of so many people?'' She got 4,890 responses -- enough for her to say yes when Yahoo asked if she wanted to try again.

Yahoo stresses that the invitation was not an endorsement, and it would be happy to give equal time to any candidate. In an introduction to Clinton's question, the company wrote: ``We are not siding with any candidate or party -- in general or for the 2008 U.S. elections. We're hopeful that people from all perspectives will realize the great insights that the Answers community can have, and will turn to us for future discussions.''

Melissa Rische, a Yahoo spokeswoman, said the service has become increasingly popular with celebrities and politicians. Since Al Gore participated in its ``Ask the Planet'' promotion in June, questions have been posed by Cindy Crawford, Tyra Banks, Maria Shriver, Martha Stewart, William Shatner and Leonardo DiCaprio.

``It's a very smart move,'' said Dan Schnur, McCain's former communications director who helped run McCain's online campaign.

Julie Barko-Germany, deputy director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet at George Washington University, said Clinton is showing that the Internet is the new town hall.

``So many people are used to politicians telling them what they think,'' Barko-Germany said. ``In this case, it's the politician asking voters what they think and actually listening to the answers.''

www.twincities.com

Korean bank loans to small firms surge in 2006

Korean bank lending to small and medium-sized companies soared in 2006 from a year earlier as lenders extended more loans to firms with a good credit rating, the nation's financial watchdog said Thursday (Jan. 25).

Outstanding bank loans to small and medium enterprises totaled 303.9 trillion won ($323.7 billion) as of the end of December, up 45.9 trillion won from a year earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service. Growth totaled 12.8 trillion in 2005.

"Bank lending to small and medium firms was very sound last year," the service said. "State and commercial lenders actively pushed to pick good-credit small firms and provided more loans."

Stronger government regulations on mortgage loans also led banks to eye small and medium businesses, it added.

The Industrial Bank of Korea boosted its lending to small and medium companies most sharply. Lending by the policy bank rose by 10.3 trillion won to an outstanding 56.9 trillion won as of the end of December.

Loans by Woori Bank increased by 9.1 trillion won to an outstanding 41 trillion won, while that by Hana Bank rose by 6.2 trillion won to 23.9 trillion won.

Top lender top Kookmin Bank extended an outstanding 36.4 trillion won in loans as of December, up 4.3 trillion won from a year ago, the watchdog said.

www.kois.go.kr

Intuit offers a report on the future of small business

Fellow ZDNet blogger Maurene Caplan Grey who covers collaboration and workplace productivity on her blog, recently wrote about her pursuit of time management nirvana. In her post she lays out the evolution of technologies from personal information managers (PIM) to groupware to collaboration. Along the way, she reflects on the move from personal to group to the current blend of both that collaborative tools are beginning to provide. It’s an interesting exercise in overlaying the personal and social consequences of technology development and it resonated even more than it might usually because earlier this week I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours speaking with a class of working professionals who are pursuing an advanced degree at the University of New Mexico’s Andersen School of Management on many of the same topics.

Since I contributed an essay titled “Work is Broken” to the More Space project a couple of years ago, the themes of personal productivity and how it scales to teams, workgroups, and organizations, the emergence of the read/write web, and the increasing power, utility, and affordability of mobile devices have been coalescing in a perfect storm of ideas. Coupled with the societal and demographic trends chronicled by some very smart folks like Don Tapscott, Daniel Pink, Thomi Ahonen, and Alan Moore, the confluence of these trends has become increasingly interesting to me and has provided a rich vein of information that I’ve spent a considerable amount of my time mining.

I’ve become a big believer in serendipity over the past few years as stuff that I need to know, people I need to connect to, or information I need to help crystalize an emerging train of thought, appears with little or no conscious effort on my part on an increasingly frequent basis. I’ve come to call this self-perpetuating flow of information and personal connections my “serendipity engine”. A big part of this engine is the amount of networking and connecting I’ve been able to do on the internet using disruptive and evolutionary technologies like free (or nearly free) VoIP telephony and video conferencing and shared tools and workspaces like online office-type applications with collaboration features, wikis, and blogs has made that serendipity possible. Embracing these technologies and incorporating them into my tool kit and skills set has opened a wide range of opportunities to participate in some really challenging and rewarding projects.

Circling back around to Maurene’s post, the statement that jumped out at me most was the following:

“I'm convinced that a natural outcome of working collaboratively is a gain in personal time efficiency.”

Absolutely right. And, I’d take that statement one step further and say that the gains generated by working collaboratively transcend mere efficiency in your use of time and actually represent an exponential increase in the amount of information and number of personal connections you have access to. Business and social connection services like LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, and MySpace all leverage this human network effect (admittedly to varying degrees of success) as do more transactional and commerce-driven environments like Craigslist and eBay.

The other day, as I was on my way back to my office from a lunch meeting, I got a call from a PR guy representing Intuit. Nothing particularly unusual there – I get calls and e-mails like these every day – they’re an important component in my “serendipity engine”. What was unusually synchronistic about this particular call, inviting me to review the findings from a recent research study of the small business market conducted by Intuit and the Institute for the Future, was how it aligned with my emerging focus on the perfect trend storm I described above, the class discussion I participated in two nights ago, and the conversation I had just finished having over lunch.

The Intuit Future of Small Business Report, as the summary of the research project has been titled, is not so much an epiphany as it is an affirmation of what many of us in the baby boomers segment have come to recognize as the inevitable direction we’re headed in our work and our play as we get older and (hopefully) wiser. That inevitability is the acknowledgment that the social contract of work we understood years ago when we first began our careers has vanished, that any notion of a job-for-life or real security or loyalty from an employer is a mirage, and that opportunities to leverage the skills and connections we’ve built up over twenty or more years of work can be a powerful springboard to the creation of a new kind of work that is at once more liberating, enjoyable, immersive, and profitable.

Thomas Friedman referenced this trend in his book The World is Flat in the context of his notion that we’re currently experiencing Globalization 3.0. That book came up in the course of the classroom conversation the other night and I remarked that while it was an enjoyable, well-crafted read, the book really provided no new insights or breakthrough recommendations to those of us who keep up with business news and trends. I said that I understood why it was popular despite the absence of these takeaways – like a number of texts that achieve “must read” status, the value is in the organization and presentation of ideas, not in the delivery of epiphanies. The instructor of the class I visited, a longtime friend and deep thinker about knowledge management and organizational dynamics and change echoed that comment I had made yesterday after he read the Intuit report which I forwarded to him.

“I’m convinced,” he wrote “that few people ever get past the funnies and the sports page. That’s why summaries like this and Friedman’s book are so useful.”

blogs.zdnet.com

Home Sales Fall; Show Faint Life-Signs

New home sales fell in 2006 by the largest amount in 16 years, but they were up for a second straight month in December, raising hopes that the worst of the housing downturn is coming to an end.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that sales last month rose by 4.8 percent, following an even bigger 7.4 percent rise in November.

Those two increases, however, were not enough to salvage the entire year, with total sales of 1.06 million units, down 17.3 percent from 2005. That marked the biggest decline since a 17.8 percent plunge in the housing downturn of 1990.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average had another down day, falling by 15.54 points to close the week at 12,487.02.

The housing bust is occurring after a boom in which sales of both new and existing homes set records for five consecutive years. The lowest mortgage rates in four decades powered a surge in sales that was bolstered by investors making purchases in hopes of turning around and reselling the properties for quick profits.

Analysts attributed the big declines in 2006 to a cooling of that speculative boom. That reversal has given the housing industry its toughest downturn since the recession of 1990.

The slowdown trimmed 1.2 percentage points off overall economic growth in the July-September quarter. Analysts are looking for an equally severe hit in the final three months of the year, with housing expected to be a continuing drag in the first half of 2007.

The downturn has meant a break for home buyers, as double-digit price gains during the boom years have slowed considerably.

The median price of a new home sold in 2006 rose by 1.8 percent to $245,300. That was far below the 9 percent price gain turned in during 2005.

David Seiders, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders, said he looked for home prices to continue to be depressed in 2007 as builders scramble to reduce near-record levels of unsold homes.

He said his organization's January survey of builder sentiment showed continued extensive use of incentives to clear the backlog, with 60 percent of builders surveyed offering optional items such as kitchen upgrades or decks at no charge. That's up from 41 percent at the beginning of 2006.

Other incentives include paying closing costs, which 52 percent of builders said they were doing, up from 31 percent a year ago, and paying purchasers' financing points on loans, something 30 percent of builders in the survey said they were doing.

Seiders said he looked for new home sales to be essentially flat for 2007. He predicted that new home construction, which fell by 12.9 percent last year, will fall by another 14 percent in 2007.

The cutback in building has led to thousands of job layoffs in the construction industry.

The report on new homes followed a report Thursday that sales of existing homes dropped by 8.4 percent last year to 6.48 million units. That's the biggest decline in sales of previously owned homes since 1989.

New home sales were up in all parts of the country in December except the West, which posted a 4.4 percent drop. Sales rose by 27.3 percent in the Northeast, 26.6 percent in the Midwest and a much smaller 0.3 percent in the South.

Analysts cautioned that part of the strength seen in November and December could be weather-related, given the unusually warm temperatures during those two months.

In a separate report, the Commerce Department said that orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods rose in December by 3.1 percent, the largest gain in three months.

The increase was led by a huge jump in demand for commercial aircraft and the biggest increase in orders for cars and trucks in more than two years. That gives hope that manufacturing activity will not be seriously affected by the housing-led slowdown.

Excluding transportation, orders for durable goods posted a solid 2.3 percent increase, the best showing in this category since last March. It's also much better than analysts had been expecting.

For all of 2006, new orders rose by 7 percent, a slight slowdown from an 8.6 percent increase in 2005.

Economic growth slowed to a lackluster 2 percent in the July-September quarter, raising concerns that the steep slump in housing could trigger an outright recession.

However, in recent weeks a number of reports have shown the year ended with stronger-than-expected activity, easing worries about such a general slowdown. Many analysts now believe the overall economy grew at a respectable 3 percent rate in the October-December period, a figure that the government will release next Wednesday.

story.news.ask.com

Storms Punish Frontier With 3Q Net Loss

Back-to-back holiday storms that punished Frontier Airlines in December and pushed its third-quarter loss deeper have lingered into January, the company's chief executive says.

In separate reports Thursday, Midwest Air Group Inc. and Alaska Air Group Inc. reported improved earnings, although Alaska Air said winter storms also hurt its performance.

Frontier Airlines canceled 875 flights that affected 105,000 passengers when two December storms battered its hub at Denver International Airport, forcing the airport to close for nearly two days.

The carrier, which released results after the market closed Thursday, said the net after-tax impact of the storms was estimated at $12.2 million, or 27 cents a share.

Frontier President and CEO Jeff Potter said the storms proved to be "the greatest challenge in our history as an airline excluding the events of Sept. 11, 2001."

"We continue to suffer some adverse effects from the winter storms of December and the subsequent storms which continue to impact our Denver hub even as recently as this week," he said in a statement.

Passengers who had planned to fly in December and return in January never left Denver, said Paul Tate, Frontier's chief financial officer. In addition, reservations employees were so busy helping stranded passengers that they were unable to book new trips.

For the quarter that ended Dec. 31, Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc. reported a net loss of $14.4 million, or 39 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $10.3 million, or 28 cents a share, in the previous third quarter.

The most recent results reflected a non-cash derivative gain that decreased the net loss by 2 cents a share. The third quarter of the previous year included special items that increased the net loss by about 3 cents a share.

In the first nine months of its fiscal year, Frontier reported a net loss of $9.9 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $6.1 million, or 17 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue totaled $878.4 million, up from $741.8 million in the first nine months of the previous fiscal year.

Seattle-based Alaska Air Group, parent of Alaska Air and Horizon Air, reported a net loss of $11.6 million, or 29 cents per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of $33 million, or $1.15 per share, in the prior-year quarter.

Excluding fuel-hedging losses and an adjustment of pension costs, the fourth-quarter loss would have been 8 cents per share. Revenue totaled $790.3 million, up 8 percent from $730.6 million in the comparable quarter of 2005.

The results missed the expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Financial, who had forecast flat earnings on revenue of $793.4 million.

"Alaska looked a little bit worse than expectations," Calyon Securities analyst Raymond Neidl said, attributing it to storm-related challenges.

For the year, Alaska Air said net loss was $52.6 million, or $1.39 per share, versus a loss of $5.9 million, or 1 cent a share, in 2005. Revenue totaled $3.33 billion, up 12 percent from $2.98 billion.

The 2006 results included charges related to severance programs and fuel hedging adjustments, while the 2005 results reflected charges for severance programs, fuel hedging and other factors.

Based in Milwaukee, Midwest Air Group reported fourth-quarter earnings on the same day its board recommended that shareholders reject a buyout offer worth $345 million from AirTran Holdings Inc.

Midwest, the parent of Midwest Airlines and Midwest Connect, posted fourth-quarter net income of $3.6 million, or 16 cents a share, reversing last year's fourth-quarter loss of $13.8 million, or 79 cents a share.

Revenue totaled $168.3 million in the most recent quarter, up from $142.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2005.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast earnings per share of 11 cents on revenue of $168.4 million.

For the year, Midwest Air reported net income of $5.4 million, or 29 cents a share, compared with a loss of $64.9 million, or $3.71 a share, in 2005.

The previous year's results reflected an impairment charge on aircraft equipment, capitalized expense write-offs and other special charges equal to 98 cents share, the company said.

The full year's revenue totaled $664.5 million, up from nearly $523 million in the previous year.
www.latimes.com

Wall Street Mixed After Economic Reports

Wall Street closed out a volatile week with a mixed performance Friday after a pair of economic reports dashed hopes for an interest rate cut anytime soon. The major indexes were down for the week.

Stocks found some late-day strength as investors sought bargains after a two-day pullback that erased most of its 2007 gains. The market had its worst performance so far this year, despite optimism about earnings earlier in the week that lifted the Dow Jones industrials to its fourth record high of the year.

Strong results from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) helped lift technology stocks, while heavy machinery maker Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) lent some support to the Dow Jones industrials. However, those gains were offset by economic reports that raised concerns about interest rates.

The Commerce Department said new home sales rose 4.8 percent in December, well above economists' projections and a sign that the slumping housing market might have bottomed out. The department also said orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods rose in December by the largest amount in three months, led by demand for commercial aircraft.

Investors had been holding on to hopes that central bankers might cut rates in the first half of the year. However, a steady stream of positive economic data like Friday's is making that unlikely and instead raising the possibility the Federal Reserve might resume its campaign of rate hikes that ended in August. The Fed's Open Market Committee meets next week.

"The biggest driver is concern the Fed might see more reasons to raise rates than to lower," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 15.54, or 0.12 percent, to 12,487.02.

Broader stock indicators were mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 1.72, or 0.12 percent, at 1,422.18, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 1.25, or 0.05 percent, to 2,435.49.

Long-term bonds were little changed, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note flat at 4.88 percent, compared with late Thursday. Shorter-term bond yields rose during the session. The market on Thursday was hit by a lackluster report on sales of existing homes, which sent long-term interest rates sharply higher and raised concern about the housing market.

The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

Oil prices rose after a steep decline in the previous session because of doubts that OPEC members are making the production cuts promised last year. The price of a barrel of light sweet crude rose $1.19 to $55.42 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Friday's performance capped a week in which the stock market shuttled from great optimism about earnings and a possible interest rate cut in the first part of the year to dejection over an economy that could be strong enough to force a rate hike. Generally good earnings reports were cast aside while investors focused on the Fed's likely moves.

For the week, the Dow was down 0.62 percent, while the S&P lost 0.58 percent and the Nasdaq fell 0.65 percent.

Steven Goldman, chief market strategist for Weeden & Co., said the retreat in stocks should offer buying opportunities. He said the market isn't "terribly overbought, but had been listlessly moving up" and believes "pulling back allows the market to clean out its excess."

The major indexes had been up more than 1 percent on Wednesday, its highest levels this year, before the two-day retreat. For the year, the Dow is up 0.19 percent; the S&P is up 0.27 percent; and the Nasdaq is up 0.84 percent.

Caterpillar, whose earnings are heavily tracked as an indication about the pace of U.S. construction, rose $1.46, or 2.5 percent, to $61.09 after it reported a 4.3 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit. The company also stuck by its full year forecast, which it believes will show continued strength in industries like mining, oil and gas.

Honeywell International Inc. (HON), a diversified high-tech manufacturer, reported fourth-quarter profit jumped 14 percent. However, lackluster 2007 projections sent shares down 7 cents to $44.13.

Technology stocks rose after Microsoft reported second-quarter results beat Wall Street expectations, and projected double-digit growth in all of its core businesses through the rest of the fiscal year that ends June 30. Strong sales of its Xbox video game console helped offset the delayed release of its latest operating system, Vista.

Microsoft, which hit a 52-week high in the previous session, rose 15 cents to $30.60.

Amgen Inc. (AMGN) declined after the world's largest biotechnology company said fourth-quarter profit missed fourth-quarter projections. The stock fell $3.35, or 4.5 percent, to $71.50.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.51 billion shares.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 3.95, or 0.50 percent, at 788.14.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average closed lower by 0.21 percent. At the close, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.66 percent, France's CAC-40 declined 0.44 percent, while Germany's DAX index dropped 0.48 percent.

story.news.ask.com

Stocks Set to Open Higher on Tech Gains

U.S. stock futures on Thursday were pointing to a second day of technology sector-led gains, this time after eBay's and Nokia's surprisingly strong results, while markets also will be waiting for data to see if there are signs of stabilization in the housing market.

S&P 500 futures edged up a half point at 1,446.70 while Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 4 points at 1,819.75. Dow industrial futures rose 9 points.

News out of Yahoo and Sun Microsystems lifted the Nasdaq Composite by 34.9 points, or 1.4 percent on Wednesday, with the Dow industrials climbing nearly 88 points and the S&P 500 rising 12.1 points.

Data on weekly jobless claims, December existing-home sales and weekly natural gas inventories are due for release on Thursday. The dollar lost ground against the yen, after a Bank of Japan member said the central bank should not delay in making rate increases.

Crude oil futures fell 3 cents at $55.34 a barrel in electronic trade after reaching a two-and-a-half week high on Wednesday.

EBay Inc. shares jumped 12 percent in Frankfurt after posting a stronger-than-forecast 29 percent rise in quarterly sales.

Nokia Corp. (NOK) rose in European trading after the world's top handset maker posted a better-than-forecast 19 percent profit rise on 13 percent revenue growth.

Netflix Inc. (NFLX) also is expected to climb after the DVD rental company's earnings excluding stock-option expenses rose more rapidly than expected, after adding more subscribers than analysts expected.

Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) also may advance after reiterating 2007 guidance and posting a 5 percent profit rise.

Siemens AG (SI) climbed in Frankfurt trade after its operating profit and revenue in the first quarter rose more than anticipated and it announced it was planning an initial public offering of its automotive supply unit.

Earnings news on Thursday is due from heavyweights AT&T Inc. (SBT), Ford Motor Co. (FPA), and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)

In Asia, the Nikkei 225 closed lower after hitting a six-and-a-half year high during the session. The FTSE 100 rose 0.3 percent in London.

story.news.ask.com

Ford Posts Record Loss of $12.7B in 2006

Ford Motor Co. (FPA) lost $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter amid slumping sales and huge restructuring costs, pushing the fabled automaker's deficit for the year to $12.7 billion, the largest in its 103-year history.

The annual loss reported Thursday surpassed its previous record for a year of $7.39 billion set in 1992. It earned $1.44 billion in 2005.

The Dearborn-based company expects continued losses for this year. It expects to burn up $10 billion in cash on automotive operations through 2009 and spend another $7 billion to invest in new products.

Excluding special items, Ford lost $1.50 per share in all of 2006, worse than Wall Street predicted. Fourteen analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a loss of $1.35 per share for the year, excluding special items.

Ford said that special items associated with restructuring costs totaled $9.9 billion for the year as the company continues efforts to shrink itself to match reduced demand for its cars and trucks.

story.news.ask.com

Iran to Forbid UN Nuclear Inspectors From Entering the Country

Iran will forbid 38 inspectors from the United Nations nuclear agency from entering the country, the state-run Iranian Students News Agency said, citing a lawmaker.

Iran has decided ``not to give permission for 38 inspectors to enter Iran and this restriction has been officially announced'' to the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, was quoted as saying by ISNA.

The Iranian parliament last month passed a law forcing the government to review its cooperation with the IAEA, following a resolution by the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment work.

www.bloomberg.com

Earnings Command Wall Street's Attention

Wall Street faces another busy week with a passel of major earnings reports, and investors will also be watching for any surprises that might unfold in Tuesday's State of the Union address.

Earnings will likely command most of investors' attention as Wall Street debates whether profit growth will hold up and searches for signs of a larger slowdown that could prompt a reduction in short-term interest rates by the Federal Reserve. Results from scores of big companies such as American Express Co. (AXP), Ford Motor Co. (FPA) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) are expected and will likely overshadow a comparatively light economic calendar.

Investors have shown particular interest in earnings forecasts because double-digit profit growth helped justify the robust gains in stocks last year. But investors have spent much of the new year in a more sober mood. Stocks have struggled to move higher as Wall Street has lost confidence that the Fed will soon lower rates. Robust earnings and strong economic reports, while good news over all, have damped enthusiasm that the economy will slow gently to cool inflation and make room for a rate cut.

Last week, the Dow industrials rose 0.08 percent, while the S&P fell 0.02 percent, and the Nasdaq lost 2.1 percent as investors reconsidered recent enthusiasm for technology stocks.

While earnings figures are expected to dominate, politics could play a larger-than-normal role in the coming week. On Tuesday, President Bush's State of the Union speech is expected to touch on new efforts to curb global warming. While the White House has come out against mandatory caps in emissions of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide, the business world could look for signals that increased regulation is in store. The speech could also hit on a range of topics that affect business from taxes to health care.

The intersection of business and government will again be in focus Wednesday when power brokers from businesses, governments and nonprofits gather for the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Bold-faced names expected to attend from the business world include Google Inc. (GOOG) co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page as well as Citigroup Inc. (C) Chairman and Chief Executive Charles Prince.

ECONOMIC DATA

On Monday, the Conference Board is scheduled to release its index of leading economic indicators. The reading attempts to predict the health of economy in six months.

On Tuesday, the Richmond Federal Reserve is expected to report on regional manufacturing.

Then, on Thursday, the Labor Department is expected to report weekly figures on jobless claims. The National Association of Realtors plans to release a report on existing home sales for December.

Friday brings a report from the Commerce Department on durable goods orders, which can offer insight into the manufacturing sector. The agency also plans to release its report on new home sales for December.

EARNINGS

On Monday, American Express will kick off a busy week with its planned report of fourth-quarter results. Wall Street expects the company will earn 76 cents per share. The stock, which closed Friday at $58.09, has traded from $49.73 to $62.50 in the past 52 weeks.

Tuesday brings reports from drug maker Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), which analysts expect will earn 79 cents per share for the fourth quarter. The stock closed at $67.76 Friday and has traded from $56.65 to $69.41 in the past 52 weeks.

Also due that day is a report from industrial conglomerate United Technologies Corp. (UTX) The maker of Otis elevators and Pratt & Whitney aircraft equipment is seen as earning 85 cents per share. The stock has traded from $54.20 to $67.47 in the past 52 weeks and closed Friday at $65.18.

On Wednesday, online auction house eBay Inc. (EBAY) plans to report results; Wall Street is looking for earnings of 28 cents per share. The stock, which traded from $22.83 to $47.86 in the past 52 weeks, ended Friday at $29.66.

McDonald's Corp. (MCD) also plans to report fourth-quarter results Wednesday. The world's largest fast-food chain is expected to earn 61 cents per share. The stock closed Friday at $44.81 and has traded from $31.73 to $45.06 in the past 52 weeks.

On Thursday, Ford Motor Co. is expected to show a loss of 97 cents per share for its fourth quarter. The automaker's stock has traded between $6.06 and $9.48 in the past 52 weeks and closed Friday at $8.30.

Microsoft is also scheduled to post results Thursday. Wall Street expects the software company will earn 23 cents per share for its fiscal second quarter. The stock closed Friday at $31.11; it has traded from $21.45 to $31.45 in the past 52 weeks.

Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) is scheduled to end the week with a fourth-quarter report on Friday. The maker of construction and mining machinery is expected to earn $1.34 per share. The stock, which finished Friday at $59.37, has traded from $58.82 to $82.03 in the past 52 weeks.

story.news.ask.com

Bertelsmann Names New CEO

Media company Bertelsmann AG announced Friday that Hartmut Ostrowski, a long-serving executive who heads its printing and services division, Arvato, will take over as chief executive next year.

Ostrowski, 48, will replace current CEO Gunter Thielen on Jan. 1, 2008, with Thielen moving to become head of Bertelsmann's supervisory board, the company said in a statement.

The appointment of Ostrowski, who has sat on the executive board since 2002, was widely expected and signaled continuity at the privately held company.

Bertelsmann, based in Guetersloh, Germany, owns a range of media properties, including Europe's biggest broadcaster, RTL Group SA, and book publisher Random House.

Thielen - Ostrowski's predecessor as head of Arvato - has led Bertelsmann since 2002.

He took over after the departure of predecessor Thomas Middelhoff, who reportedly clashed with Bertelsmann's controlling Mohn family over the company's direction and his proposal that they sell part of their stake.

Bertelsmann has made a recovery under Thielen, who has refocused the company on traditional businesses including book clubs and publishing.

Ostrowski's appointment and other planned changes "safeguard both continuity and new momentum in the group's development," supervisory board chairman Dieter Vogel said.

Vogel will step down after 11 years as chairman, making way for Thielen.

Liz and Reinhard Mohn echoed those comments in a joint statement.

Ostrowski's "style of leadership through partnership embodies Bertelsmann's proven corporate culture," they said, adding that he "systematically made the most of his entrepreneurial freedom."

Thielen's planned move to the supervisory board "ensures that his counsel, which we value deeply, will be retained at a key position in the company," the Mohns said.

story.news.ask.com

Oil Prices Edge Higher After Fall

Oil prices edged up Friday, recovering from declines in the previous session after the U.S. Energy Department reported the biggest increase in crude inventories in more than four years.

Traders appeared eager to buy to cover earlier commitments ahead of the weekend, accounting for the increase.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery rose 17 cents to $50.47 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by afternoon in Europe. On Thursday, the contract briefly fell below $50 a barrel for the first time since May 2005 before settling at $50.48.

February Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange added 45 cents to $52.20 a barrel in Friday's trading.

Heating oil futures were up by over a penny at $1.4857 a gallon while natural gas prices rose 14 cents to $6.4570 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Crude futures have slipped for eight of the first 12 trading sessions of 2007, partly on mild winter temperatures in the U.S. Northeast, a key consumer of heating fuels, and growing fuel stockpiles.

Skepticism about the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' commitment to delivering 1.2 million barrels of production cuts that were supposed to have started in November also weighed on oil prices.

Confirming speculation that mandated cuts were not being met, OPEC said Friday that production from the group in December was 490,000 barrels a day above its October output goal.

OPEC, which has placed compliance with the October decision as key to stemming the recent tumble in oil prices, said in its January report that output from its 10 quota-bound members was 26.79 million barrels a day in December, down 111,000 barrels a day from November.

Most oil analysts say OPEC has fallen short of its compliance with the October agreement by between 400,000 and 700,000 barrels a day.

Victor Shum, an analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore, said the dramatic increase in U.S. crude inventories "is a result of imports going up and indicates that OPEC production cuts have not really come through."

"In the short term, market sentiment is overwhelmingly bearish and it's possible for (the) price to go lower than $50. A lot is based on OPEC's plans to cut production," Shum said. "If OPEC maintains supply discipline and sticks to production cuts, the oil market will gain."

But Vienna's PVM Oil Associates noted some resistance to prices falling below the $50 level while suggesting that - in the absence of positive market fundamentals - "next week could see another downward move."

In its latest snapshot of supplies, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude stockpiles rose by 6.8 million barrels to 321.5 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 12. It was the biggest barrel-by-barrel gain since October 2002. Analysts had been expecting an increase of just 325,000 barrels, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey.

Gasoline stockpiles rose by 3.5 million barrels and distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, rose by 900,000 barrels. Both were at or above the upper end of the average range for this time of year, the EIA said.

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Associated Press writer Derrick Ho in Singapore contributed to this report.

To pay or not to pay… for advertisement

While some people spend money like crazy of buying tons of links on high PageRank websites, others work their way slowly by swapping links, promoting their websites in forums and submitting to free directories.

Those who pay for a PR link normally only do so to increase and help their own ranking in Google, rather than generating actual traffic. Eventually, developing a higher Page Rank will help their site to appear at better positions in Google and Other Search Engines, and drive more potential visitors from SE. But, it will happen only AFTER their own PR will grow.

It’s important to remember that one link on PR7 will not improve your ranking dramatically, you need hundreds, if not thousands of back links to pull your own rank higher, and the question is, will you be able to afford it? Assuming that an average price for a PR6 link would be no less than 5$, and for PR7 no less than 15$ (by the way, good luck finding one for that price! :D ), and, as we already said, you need about one thousands of them… It comes to a lot of money, ain’t it? Multiply 15$ by 1k and you will realize that there is nothing wrong with PR3!

Personally, I never hunted the PR, not saying that I’d not want to see my main site - LoreleiWeb.com becoming PR8 one day, but I’d never pay for a link on a particular PR, unless it will guarantee me real traffic. Your best bet would be, if your are ready to invest in adverting, to find a site that has both high PR, massive traffic (above 3k daily) and is related to your website’s theme. In this case, you don’t pay only for improving your ranking, but also pulling visitors. It worked for me, and I hope will work for you.
www.tutorialized.com

CPA: Winners and Losers

Every advertiser is looking for a CPA deal these days. The cost-per-action model has become a popular buying strategy for many web advertisers. What it means is that publishers get paid not on how many times an ad is seen or even on how many times it's clicked, but according to how many people click on it and take action on the advertiser's site. The question for publishers is: Does this pricing model work for me?

Stats to Chew On

Many people have discussed various aspects of this topic, but I thought I would go right to the numbers.

I manage a permission-based marketing network that allows advertisers to reach their target audience via text-based email, banners, sponsorships, or interstitials. Most of my advertisers target a very specific audience, e.g., males over 30 years old who make more than $60,000 per year and work in the energy industry.

To get a feel for the value of CPA, I examined the last 50 campaigns we ran on a CPA basis. I then took all of these campaigns and turned them into CPM campaigns by determining the number of impressions it took to reach the target number of actions. Here's what I found:

• CPA campaigns that ran as banners (468x60 or 120x60) had an average effective CPM of $.78 (highest campaign was $1.80, lowest was $.03).
  
  
• CPA campaigns that ran as interstitials had an average effective CPM of $1.90 (highest was $8.01, lowest was $.40).
  
  
• CPA campaigns that ran as email sponsorships had an average effective CPM of $5.90 (highest was $39.06, lowest was $1.08).

To further the analysis, I split the CPA campaigns into two groups according to whether the target action was "hard" or "soft." A "hard" action was anything that required an audience member to provide a significant amount of information. This category included making a purchase, filling out a credit card application, or completing a multipage registration form. "Soft" actions were things like contest sign-ups or registration forms with fewer than 15 fields.

When I looked at the effective CPMs in this manner, here is what I found:

• "Hard" campaigns that ran in any format had an average effective CPM of $1.20 (highest was $10.01, lowest was $.03).
  
  
• "Soft" campaigns that ran in any format had an average effective CPM of $5.08 (highest was $39.06, lowest was $2.10).
  
  
• "Soft" campaigns that ran as email sponsorships had an average effective CPM of $12.09 (highest was $39.06, lowest was $6.07).

So what does all this data tell me?

• CPA can be an effective model if the campaign includes a worthwhile, relevant offer that's easy to sign up for.
  
  
• Email sponsorship is the best "call to action" format.
  
  
• Be leery of advertisers wanting to run banners just on a CPA basis. Banners provide branding and image beyond their CPA value, and advertisers understand that. If they get a publisher to accept a CPA deal on a banner, they usually will get more than they're paying for.
  
  
• Publishers who are very selective as to what CPA campaigns they will accept should realize money can be made on them.

If you're a publisher considering whether you can offer CPA deals, follow these guidelines:

• Look at the ad in question and ask yourself if you would sign up. If you wouldn't, then others probably wouldn't either.
  
  
• Make sure the link on the ad goes directly to the action page and not to a home page. It's all about making the process simple for the audience.
  
  
• Analyze the creative and make sure it has a strong call to action, one that will get people to go to a site to do something.

CPA deals put a lot more pressure on the publisher. It forces them to analyze each campaign carefully to determine how much money they will make. Before you run any CPA campaign, make sure you can make money.
www.tutorialized.com

Yahoo Personal Finance to launch

Yahoo planned to launch on Friday a new site with personal-finance information for consumers. Yahoo Personal Finance builds on the company's popular finance site and adds free tools and how-to guides for tax planning, budgeting, real estate planning, and saving for college and retirement.

It also offers calculators to help determine issues such as loan payments. Yahoo has licensed content from 25 partners including CNNMoney.com, Consumer Reports, The Motley Fool and The Wall Street Journal. The site also integrates pertinent Yahoo Answers that have been culled from the question-and-answer site.
news.com.com

IBM Posts Big Fourth-Quarter Profit Rise

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) rode cost cuts and software acquisitions to healthy fourth-quarter profits, and the company posted a blockbuster number for contract signings. But investors found reasons to be disappointed, sending IBM stock down more than 5 percent.

The earnings report released Thursday showed an 11 percent gain in net profit, to $3.54 billion, or $2.31 per share, on revenue of $26.3 billion.

Five cents per share of profit came from gains related to discontinued lines of business, so continuing operations earned $2.26 per share.

That was well above the $2.19 per share and $25.7 billion in revenue expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. But investors may have been wanting even more. Six cents of the earnings upside stemmed from beneficial changes in the company's tax rates.

Shares of Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM were down to $94.24 in extended-session trading after closing Thursday at $99.45 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The quarterly figures all surpassed results from a year earlier, when profit was $3.19 billion, or $1.99 per share, and revenue was $24.4 billion. However, profit in that comparison quarter was dragged down about $200 million after taxes, or 12 cents per share, by a one-time accounting charge and costs IBM incurred in freezing its pension plan.

By increasing revenue 7 percent in the quarter, IBM grew faster in that period than it did in the rest of 2006. However, without currency fluctuations, the revenue rise would have been a modest 4 percent.

"We had a very strong finish to the year," Chief Financial Officer Mark Loughridge said on a conference call with analysts. He said he expects 2007 earnings to be in line with current forecasts - a typically conservative appraisal but nonetheless one that may have worried some investors.

One closely followed measure of IBM's business is services signings because that division accounts for more than half of the company's revenue. In the fourth quarter, the company closed $17.8 billion in services contracts, a hefty leap from $10.5 billion in the prior quarter and $11.5 billion a year ago.

Revenue from those services signings - including a $4 billion-plus deal recently sealed with the German government - will be booked over the course of several years. In the fourth quarter itself, IBM's services division posted revenue of $12.8 billion, up 6 percent from the prior year. Without currency fluctuations, however, the rise would have been 3 percent.

Improving that division's profitability has become a huge effort. IBM is trying to lower the costs of its services projects by relying less on consultant labor and more on software and other "repeatable assets."

The services unit's gross profit margin rose to 27.9 percent from 27.4 percent, the eighth straight quarterly increase. Annex Research analyst Bob Djurdjevic said the figure was "pretty impressive ... compared to other players in the industry that are struggling to make it into the 20s."

IBM's next-largest division, the hardware-focused systems and technology group, saw a 3 percent revenue rise, to $7.1 billion, but would have been flat at constant currency.

Meanwhile, software, IBM's most profitable unit, had a revenue gain of $5.6 billion, an increase of 14 percent - though it would have been 11 percent without fluctuations in the dollar. Loughridge called it software's best growth in five years.

For all of 2006, IBM earned $9.49 billion, or $6.11 per share, on revenue of $91.4 billion. That marked a 20 percent increase in net profit from 2005, when IBM earned $7.93 billion, or $4.87 per share, on revenue of $91.1 billion. The increase in earnings per share was even higher than the net profit figure because IBM spent $8 billion buying back its stock in 2006, reducing the number of shares on the market.

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On the Net:

IBM: http://www.ibm.com

Stock Futures Fall With More Earnings Due

U.S. stock futures edged lower Friday after a solid but not spectacular set of results from tech stalwart International Business Machines, with investors also eyeing the quarterly financials from General Electric and Citigroup for signals that recent turnarounds in stock-market performance from the large-cap behemoths may accelerate.

S&P 500 futures edged 0.7 of a point lower at 1,432.70 and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 3 points at 1,803.00. Dow industrial futures slipped 15 points.

U.S. stocks closed lower Thursday as earnings forecasts from technology icon Apple Inc. (AAPL) disappointed investors, sending the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite to a loss of almost 1.5 precent. The Dow industrials dropped 9 points and the S&P 500 ended 4.2 points lower.

General Electric and Citigroup are among the companies due to release earnings on Friday.

Investors have been looking for signs that GE's push into faster-growing businesses - as demonstrated by a deal reached with Abbott Laboratories (ABT) late Thursday to buy two diagnostics businesses for $8.1 billion - will pay off.

Operating expense growth has been an area of concern from the world's top bank, Citigroup. Rivals including Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase and Merrill Lynch have recently posted strong results from capital markets arms.

IBM shares slumped 5 precent in trading in Frankfurt. Though the company's profit rose 11 precent on 7.5 precent revenue growth, some investors had looked for more. Its goal of 10 precent earnings per share growth in 2007 is at the lower end of its long-term 10 precent to 12 precent target.

Also of note, Morgan Stanley' (MS)s real-estate arm agreed to buy upscale hotel operator CNL Hotels & Resorts for $6.6 billion.

The economic calendar includes the University of Michigan's consumer confidence survey for January, which may have climbed as gasoline prices cooled off.

February-dated crude oil futures edged up a penny to $50.49 a barrel in electronic trade.

The dollar was broadly steady against the euro and the yen.

In overseas trade, the Nikkei 225 closed 0.4 percent lower, and Germany's DAX-30 index was down 0.3 precent in late morning trade.
story.news.ask.com/

Citigroup fourth-quarter profit falls

Citigroup Inc. (C.N: Quote, Profile , Research) said on Friday that fourth-quarter profit fell from a year earlier, when it took a one-time gain, although the company benefited from growth in investment banking.

Net income for the New York-based company fell to $5.13 billion, or $1.03 per share, from $6.93 billion, or $1.37 a share, a year earlier, when Citigroup recorded a $2.1 billion gain from selling its asset management business.

Earnings from continuing operations rose to $5.13 billion, or $1.03 per share, from $4.97 billion, or 98 cents a share.
today.reuters.com/

Chrysler Redesigns Minivans for Families

They're calling it "Swivel n' Go," and it could be the most important innovation in Chrysler's recent history. The new versions of the company's minivans to be unveiled this week at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit have second-row seats that swivel 180 degrees to face the third row, and a table can be installed for family card games, homework or a million other things that people might try to do on the way to wherever.

DaimlerChrysler AG's struggling Chrysler Group is banking on the feature, the centerpiece of its redesigned minivans, to attract buyers at a time when minivan sales have sputtered. But there's also new opportunity because Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. have abandoned the minivan market.

"As we observed families, the family room of yesterday, 20 years ago, really doesn't exist any more," said Ann Fandozzi, Chrysler's director of front-wheel-drive product marketing. "Families are very busy, running to sporting events three, four, five times a week, traveling a lot. So what we wanted to deliver with this new minivan is literally a family vehicle, a family room on wheels."

Chrysler rolled out the first minivan in 1983 and has led the market ever since. Its new Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Caravan minivans are a little boxier looking than in the past but have more interior head and shoulder room than their predecessors. Yet Fandozzi said they don't lose any aerodynamics and even get better fuel economy, especially with an optional six-speed transmission.

Key to "Swivel n' Go" is that the safety belts are contained within the seats and work even while facing backward, helping the vans meet crash test standards no matter which way the seats are configured, Chrysler says. The new vans also have standard all-row side curtain air bags with rollover protection, the company says.

The new seating arrangement should help Chrysler stay ahead of Honda and Toyota, which have gradually chipped out slices of the minivan market in recent years, said Tom Libby, J.D. Power and Associates' senior director of industry analysis.

"I applaud them for innovation. If you don't innovate, you'll fall behind," Libby said. "They're innovating to remain leaders. They're showing that they're not going to go back into second place in terms of innovation."

Ford and GM never really made inroads against Chrysler in the minivan market. Ford officials believe sales in the segment are going to drop as baby boomers age out of child-rearing years and as the segment is overrun by dozens of car-based crossover vehicles that carry as many people but don't have the "soccer mom" stigma.

Chrysler, however, sees hope in the children of baby boomers, Generation Y, who Fandozzi says are more family oriented, less status-conscious and less likely to buy a truck-based sport utility vehicle.

Crossovers, she said, are more likely to take buyers from SUVs because buyers want better fuel economy.

U.S. minivan sales sputtered last year, dropping 12.2 percent from 2005. Consumers bought roughly 1.1 million two years ago compared with roughly 971,000 last year.

Fandozzi blames the drop on the sluggish economy affecting budget-conscious families.

"You're going to see it in the minivan segment before anywhere else," she said, predicting a minivan recovery later this year to around 1.2 million in sales.

Judging from its sales last year, Chrysler could use a new van. The current versions of the Caravan and Town & Country both dropped in sales last year, with the Caravan off 6.9 percent and the Town & Country down 12 percent.

Yet Chrysler's closest van competitors, the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna each showed sales increases, with the Odyssey up 2.1 percent and the Sienna rising 1.2 percent.

The new vans also can be equipped with separate video systems for the second and third rows of seats, and they have as an option a hard drive behind the dashboard that can store music and handle iPods and other digital music players.

The redesigned vans are critical to Chrysler's efforts to turn its sales around. Chrysler Group's U.S. sales fell 7 percent last year, and it lost $1.5 billion in the third quarter.

"This product is so incredibly critical for Chrysler because it represents their highest-volume selling vehicle in their product lineup when you put Caravan and Town & Country together," said Erich Merkle, director of forecasting for the auto consulting company IRN Inc. in Grand Rapids.

The 2008 vans are due in showrooms this coming fall. Chrysler won't say how much they'll cost, but Fandozzi said the company realizes that things are tight for families.

"We're very conscious of the fact that the economy has slowed down a bit," she said.

* ___

On the Net:

DaimlerChrysler AG: http://www.chrysler.com

China Chery sales to hit 1 million by 2010: media

DaimlerChrysler AG's partner in China, Chery Automobile Co., said its annual sales would rise to a million automobiles by 2010 from just over 305,000 last year, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.

"In 2007, Chery will produce its one millionth automobile and will reach annual sales of 1 million autos by 2010," Yin Tongyao, Chery's chief executive was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

The company's car sales climbed 61 percent to 305,236 in 2006, following a 118 percent sales jump in 2005, Xinhua had said earlier.

China has set a goal of promoting exports from its fast-growing auto industry into developed markets, including the United States.

Late last year, the company, based in Anhui province, signed a deal with DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group to build small cars under the Chrysler brand for export to global markets.

Chery's exports rose 178 percent to 50,000 cars last year.

In October, Chery signed a memorandum of understanding with Italy's Fiat Auto to supply the Italian maker with 100,000 gasoline engines for cars produced both in China and abroad.

Chery executives have said the company was considering an initial public offering to raise money to fund its expansion.

Chery planned an IPO in 2008, possibly choosing a simultaneous listing in both the mainland A-share market and the Hong Kong market, Xinhua has said.

(US$=7.8 yuan) [via]

Maritime Union Leaders Convicted

Two national maritime union leaders accused of spending organizational funds on personal luxuries, including a bachelor party, have been convicted of corruption charges.

Brothers Michael and Robert McKay were found guilty Friday of racketeering conspiracy and several lesser charges stemming from their time as president and secretary-treasurer, respectively, of American Maritime Officers.

In addition to the racketeering charge, which carries a possible 20-year sentence, Michael McKay, 59, and Robert McKay, 56, were convicted of mail fraud and record-keeping offenses. Robert McKay, 56, was also convicted of embezzlement.

Prosecutors said the brothers used the union to pay for personal luxuries such as a bachelor party and repairs for a dive boat.

Defense attorneys said they were shocked that the jury reached a verdict after only one day of deliberations. Robert McKay's lawyer Fred Haddad said he would ask U.S. District Judge James Cohn to order a new trial.

The McKays remain free on bail until their sentencing March 29.

During the trial, Robert McKay was voted out of office. Michael McKay was narrowly re-elected president. Labor laws prohibit convicted felons from holding union office.

The union has 4,000 members.

eBay Fees Increase; Finditt Auctions Offers Free Auction Listings in Response

For a limited time Finditt Auctions is offering members the ability to list their products at no cost. In response to the rise in listing rates and seller fees on eBay, Finditt Auctions is providing an environment that promotes seller participation not seller exploitation.

As sellers drive the traffic to online auction sites, Finditt Auctions recognizes the importance of providing the necessary tools to market and merchandise their products. By offering free auction listings Finditt Auctions enables sellers to price their items in a manner that attracts customers and maintains profitability.

To register and begin selling your products on Finditt Auctions go to:

http://auctions.finditt.com/register.php

Finditt Auctions offers several marketing options to further enhance the visibility of a seller’s products. Options that include Featured Spots on the home page and category listing, highlighting and bolding auction listings, buy-it-now offers, and multiple picture uploads are among the ways to create product awareness.

Seller’s can even create and maintain a free online auction store on Finditt Auctions. Unlike eBay and other online auction sites there are no monthly fees for your store on Finditt Auctions. A free store on Finditt Auctions enables a seller to direct customers to one spot where all of their products are located. This allows a seller’s clients to easily shop and purchase multiple items.

Start selling your products today on the online auction site that offers you the most comprehensive services available to achieve your goals, Finditt Auctions.

http://auctions.finditt.com/index.php

Google Stock Boom Boosts Calif. Coffers

Someday, this era may simply be known as The Google Years. California, whose budget revenue slides up and down like a yo-yo with changes in capital gains and stock options, is once again counting on outsized income tax filings from a handful of tech executives to help balance its budget.

For this wave, California can largely thank Google Inc.

After cashing in more than 9 million shares valued at $3.7 billion last year, 16 Google insiders will owe the Golden State as much as $380 million in taxes - enough to cover the salaries of more than 3,000 state workers.

Taxes paid by Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page account for nearly half the amount. There is virtually no way for them or other California billionaires to escape a 9.3 percent state capital gains tax or a recent voter-approved 1 percent tax on the wealthy to underwrite the state's mental health programs.

"On behalf of a grateful state, I'll be happy to wash their windows or mow their lawn," said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for California's Department of Finance.

In the often slippery world of state finance, the wildly successful Google has had an unusually tangible effect on California's budget. It has become the face of an extraordinary two-year resurgence in state capital gains and stock-options revenue, much of which can be traced back to the tech sector.

Mega-sized tax filings from Google executives began flowing into state coffers in earnest in 2006, two years after the company went public. The receipts helped fuel a multibillion dollar tax windfall last spring that allowed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pour money into roads, classrooms and other popular programs, pleasing political enemies and helping smooth his path to re-election.

Schwarzenegger's good fortune, it turns out, did not end there.

As Google's stock topped $500 in 2006, company executives continued to sell hundreds of thousands of shares each month, according to an analysis of insider transaction data provided to The Associated Press by research firm Thomson Financial.

The analysis makes clear that California will reap big benefits from a rebounded tech economy for the budget year that will begin in July. The revenue even might allow Schwarzenegger to avoid painful cuts to a budget that ballooned 11 percent last year, to $131.4 billion.

Google insiders are on pace to pay a cumulative $1 billion by 2008 in state income tax since the company went public. Combined, that's about 1 percent of the state's annual general fund budget.

Although the company is helping push capital gains revenue above historical averages, state finance experts say they are not overly concerned that the latest tech boost is another bubble ready to burst and wreak havoc with the state budget.

According to the state's latest figures, capital gains and stock options accounted for nearly 14 cents of every tax dollar collected in California in the fiscal year that ended last summer. Similar numbers are expected this year. That's nearly double the percentage two years ago, following the dot-com bust.

But that's still less than the heady days of the Internet boom in 2000, when capital gains and stock options accounted for a whopping 40 percent of all personal income in California and a quarter of the state's tax revenue.

Nonetheless, state officials say they are closely monitoring the income.

"I admit, I've been looking at those insider trading sheets almost daily. It's amazing; day after day, millions and millions of shares," said Brad Williams, senior fiscal forecaster for the state's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. "It's not all attributable to one company, but Google is a big sign that we're going to see capital gains again this year and that the budget won't be as bad as it could be."

Last month, the analyst's office released its fiscal outlook for the budget year beginning in July. It predicted capital gains and stock options would help lift California's current-year bank balance $1 billion above earlier forecasts.

California also will receive a bounce from the 2006 stock sales of other leading high-tech CEOs.

That includes nearly $17 million from the sale of shares by Oracle Corp. Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison and nearly $10 million from shares sold by Cisco Systems Inc. Cisco Chief Executive John Chambers, according to figures provided by Thomson Financial.

The state also will receive about $3.5 million in unexpected tax revenue from a million shares of Hewlett-Packard Co. stock that company insiders sold during the spying scandal that rocked the computer and printer maker last year.

The news, however, is not all good for the state.

California faces a $5.5 billion budget gap in the next fiscal year, and billions in revenue the state is counting on could evaporate overnight with a drop in the stock market.

Economists say California's increasing dependence on tech stocks underscores the state's unusually high reliance on such volatile revenue sources. It also exacerbates the state's structural budget imbalance by providing bursts of money that lawmakers have been eager to spend on new or expanded programs, rather than setting it aside in reserves.

That money can dry up in down years and leave the state facing massive spending deficits.

Lawmakers drove up state spending nearly 40 percent during three years of the dot-com boom, a spree that has left the state's spending needs perched above its revenue. The state has largely balanced its budget since then with a combination of borrowing, cuts and deferred payments.

Schwarzenegger has opened a reserve fund and with the help of Google ensured the state has $3.1 billion to put toward next year's shortfall. But fiscal watchdogs point out that the governor also has allowed many costly state programs to grow, and the tech windfall is masking a drop in tax revenue from a depressed housing market.

Last week, Schwarzenegger bet that by spending more he might help prevent another tech bust. Schwarzenegger proposed spending $95 million to pump up biomedical, nanotech and other research programs at California universities.

"It's money that has a very direct impact on this state. It's where you're going to find the next Oracle, next Google or next eBay," said Palmer, the finance spokesman. "It's not only about being on the cutting edge of nano, bio or what have you, but about job creation in the state and the revenue the state takes in. The benefits are pretty obvious."[via]

Biltmore Estate Grows by Building Brand

Merely running America's largest home - a 1890s French Renaissance-style, 250-room chateau in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina - wasn't enough.

Over the past 50 years or so, those trusted with George Vanderbilt's palatial Biltmore Estate have added a winery, a luxury hotel, five restaurants, a dozen shops and a network of retailers that sell their collection of home and garden products. Biltmore is now a successful national brand, a private company with $130 million in annual revenue and growing sales.

'What's fun is that we haven't always promoted ourselves,' said Jerry Douglas, senior vice president of marketing and sales at The Biltmore Company. 'Over the years, the Biltmore name and all things associated with Biltmore have become more recognized.'

At the same time, the estate welcomed more than 1 million visitors in 2006 for the first time in its history. That's quite a feat, especially at a time when historic homes nationwide are being shuttered and even sold after neglect by their owners and wear from tourist visits.

Preservationists say the upkeep of some of America's most prestigious houses has become an expensive chore. To help with the costs of cost of repairs, maintenance and staffing, several are being offered up for private purchase, including Colonial Williamsburg's Carter's Grove.

But by building a brand, Biltmore is different. Along with making the estate a tourist spot, Biltmore developed its own food, home decor, furnishings, plants and building products, and sells them at its gift shops and through 3,000 retail locations.

All of it ties to the estate and the elegant lifestyle of a family once among the wealthiest in the world.

'It's nice how you can take a part of your visit home with you,' said Pat Peacher of Clarksville, Tenn., who recently visited the estate with her family and left with a portrait of the Biltmore, Christmas ornaments, some dip mixes and a blackberry drink mix.

The shops also sell Biltmore-inspired cookware, china, cookbooks, and books and DVDs cataloguing historical events.

'They started with an asset and then the question became what do they need to do with it,' said J. Myrick Howard, president of Preservation North Carolina. 'They have been extremely remarkable in achieving what they've done.'

Once a self-sufficient 125,000-acre estate, Biltmore opened Christmas Eve in 1895 as the private residence of George and Edith Vanderbilt. Then, its farms yielded fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy products. The forest produced firewood and a 300-acre nursery offered plants for sale.

But after George Vanderbilt's death in 1914, Edith sold a majority of the estate's land and a couple of the Biltmore's businesses. Edith later remarried and moved on, but the Vanderbilt's daughter, Cornelia - who had married John Francis Amherst Cecil - continued to live at Biltmore.

Today, Vanderbilt's grandson, William A.V. Cecil, owns Biltmore Estate. His son, William A.V. Cecil Jr., is the estate's chief executive.

In 1930, the Cecil family opened Biltmore House to the public. The house closed during World War II, but reopened in 1945. By 1960, the estate was a bit lackluster, and Cecil Sr. left a banking career in New York City to join his brother in managing Biltmore, which the two men had inherited.

Cecil Sr. started restoring the house, which the family stopped using as a private residence in 1958, and maintained its public tours, while looking at the same time to diversify the business.

During the oil crisis of the 1970s, Cecil Sr. worried the business - which started turning a profit in 1968 - would suffer as tourists decided they couldn't drive to the estate.

And so, by 1979, he had remodeled the estate's dairy barn for use as one of the state's first modern wineries. Now, Biltmore's very own Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Syrah - among other varieties - is sold in 12 states and the District of Columbia.

The Biltmore Company has also gotten into the lodging business, opening the high-end Inn on Biltmore Estate in 2001, with 213 rooms designed to resemble the Biltmore House.

And last year, the Cottage on Biltmore Estate was opened to anyone interested in a more private, luxurious experience. Originally the 1896 residence of the Biltmore Estate gardener, the Cottage houses up to four adults and includes a personal chef, a butler and admission to the estate. The cost: $2,800 a night.

As the company evolves, customers seem to be following it right along. In the 2006 fiscal year, ticket sales at the estate were up 8 percent, revenue at the inn jumped 12 percent and the wine company increased revenue by 24 percent.

'Biltmore For Your Home' brands also doubled their revenue, building on partnerships with companies such as Anderson Hardwood Floors, Belk and Magnussen Home.

Industry experts believe the company and its lines can continue their growth.

'The beauty of the Biltmore is that all their products and distribution channels make sense,' said Jim Dettore, president and chief executive of Brand Institute Inc., a brand identity consulting firm in Miami. 'You can continue to extend the brand out just as long as the initial brand plays a part in the new brand.'

Howard agreed, adding, 'There's a line that you could certainly go over, like if they started selling Biltmore trinkets made in China. They haven't gone over that line.'

Biltmore leaders don't plan to.

'As long as we are family owned, I don't see us getting too big and losing sense of our original purpose,' Douglas said. 'There's a place for us in a lot more places where we're not.

'Thirty years ago you would have thought all this was impossible. Today, we're thinking of what's next.'

Biltmore Estate: http://www.biltmore.com

British Airways reaches pension deal with unions

British Airways Plc (BAY.L: Quote) has reached an agreement with its four main trade unions on a package of reforms to tackle its 2.1 billion pound ($4.1 billion) pension deficit, the airline confirmed on Saturday.

The deal, struck late on Friday, will be recommended by the unions to the workforce to end months of negotiations and should lift the threat of industrial action at the airline.

BA has agreed to make a one-off contribution of 800 million pounds into the pension fund subject to acceptance of benefit changes.

The airline said together with a one-off employee saving of 400 million pounds and changes to future benefits, the New Airways Pension Scheme (NAPS) pension deficit will be reduced by more than half to 900 million pounds.

Its annual contributions will be around 280 million pounds for the next decade.

"Together with the NAPS trustees and staff, we have found a shared solution that helps secure the pensions of our 33,500 NAPS members and removes a major blocker to future investment in British Airways," BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh said in an emailed statement.

"This brings the NAPS deficit and ongoing contributions to a level which is affordable by British Airways and effectively tackles one of the most fundamental issues we face," Walsh said.

Further details of the proposed pension arrangements will be released following communications to employees on Monday, BA said.

It agreed a funding plan to clear the NAPS deficit with the pension scheme trustees in 2006, subject to members accepting changes to future benefits.

BA said in November it had agreed to make a one-off injection of 800 million pounds and pay up to 50 million pounds a year for three years to tackle its pension deficit, but still had to negotiate the deal with unions.

The airline last year proposed raising the retirement age of its 2,500 pilots to 60 from 55 and raise the retirement age for other staff to 65. [via]

Mediacom May Lose 22 Sinclair Stations

Some football fans who pay for cable television in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will need to make special arrangements to catch Sunday's NFL playoff game between the New England Patriots and the New York Jets. Ditto for devotees of "Grey's Anatomy" in St. Louis who want to catch Thursday night's hotly anticipated new episode.

The culprit? A financial stalemate between cable operator Mediacom Communications Corp. and Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. (SBGI), the owner of the CBS affiliate in Cedar Rapids and the ABC affiliate in St. Louis.

Because Sinclair did not extend its retransmission consent to Mediacom past midnight Friday, Mediacom will not carry those stations and 20 others owned or programmed by Sinclair unless Sinclair agrees to binding arbitration of a dispute over how much Mediacom should pay for the right to include the stations in its cable package.

Late Friday, Mediacom said in e-mailed statement that Sinclair "has refused to extend Mediacom's right to carry the Sinclair broadcast stations and directed Mediacom to pull the stations from the channel lineup as of midnight tonight." Mediacom also said it would provide content from other programmers on the channels previously occupied by the Sinclair stations.

A 1 a.m. EST Saturday, KDSM-TV in Des Moines, Iowa, a Fox affiliate that is a Sinclair station, went to a blank screen, then broadcast alternative programming. However, in Birmingham, Ala., WDBB-TV, a CW affiliate, was still broadcasting that network's shows.

Essentially, Sinclair argues that it provides some of the most popular shows on television and should be compensated accordingly. Mediacom contends that Sinclair is nothing more than a middleman for programming generated by the major broadcast networks, unlike cable channels that produce original programming.

"Sinclair made the case that they want to get paid like cable networks. They certainly don't behave like cable networks," Mediacom Chairman and Chief Executive Rocco B. Commisso said Friday in a conference call.

Barry Faber, vice president and general counsel of Hunt Valley, Md.-based Sinclair, said Sinclair was asking for a fraction of what Mediacom pays for cable channels that appeal only to niche audiences.

"If they were taking off Animal Planet, I don't think this would be quite the big issue that it is," Faber said. "The reason it's a big issue is that people care about our television stations because they're popular."

The Federal Communications Commission's media bureau on Thursday rejected Mediacom's complaint alleging that Sinclair didn't negotiate in good faith as the companies tried to agree on the value of Sinclair stations that reach Mediacom customers in 13 states.

The panel "strongly encouraged" the parties to submit to binding arbitration while noting that it does not have the authority to require them to do so.

If the dispute went into arbitration, Mediacom would continue to carry the Sinclair stations until a decision is reached, Commisso said.

"We offered binding arbitration to Sinclair and are still awaiting their response," he said.

But Faber said Mediacom had not been specific about how it wanted the case to be handled if it went to arbitration.

"The suggestion of doing binding arbitration is a much more complicated decision than I think Mediacom would lead people to believe, because there are an awful lot of parameters that would need to be established," Faber said.

Commisso alleges that Sinclair has made "outrageously escalating demands" and is trying to charge Mediacom significantly more than it charges larger cable operators for carrying its stations. He did not specify the financial terms of Sinclair's offer but said the rates it has proposed to Mediacom are "100 percent to 500 percent" higher than what it has offered other companies.

Faber said he wouldn't base negotiations with Mediacom on his deals with other companies.

"Every negotiation is different. It's impossible in many ways to compare one to the other," Faber said. "We think we're offering them a tremendous deal."

Middletown, N.Y.-based Mediacom is the nation's eighth-largest cable company, with about 1.3 million subscribers. By comparison, the largest cable provider, Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), has 24 million subscribers, according to the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.

The dispute affects more than 800,000 Mediacom cable subscribers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The Sinclair stations include six Fox affiliates, four ABC affiliates, four CW affiliates, one CBS affiliate, one NBC affiliate and six affiliates of MyNetworkTV - the network formed by News Corp. (NWS) for stations left out when the WB and UPN networks merged to create CW.

Sinclair has warned Mediacom customers that the dispute could mean they might not able to see their favorite programs and is urging them to switch to satellite providers. The company is offering rebates for Mediacom subscribers who sign up for DirecTV.

"We think people who care about our programming will continue to find ways to watch it," Faber said. "We don't think that people are going to change what they want to do because two businesses can't come to an agreement." [via]