Daily deal website LivingSocial held meetings earlier this week to select bankers to lead an initial public offering, which could raise north of a billion dollars, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The offering could value the company at up to $15 billion, according to this person, a significant increase compared to a recent private transaction which valued it at $3 billion.
The Washington, DC based company, run by CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy, also expects to be cash flow positive by 2012, boosted by expected revenue of $1 billion for this year, according to this person.
LivingSocial’s race to IPO comes just weeks after rival Groupon filed registration paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an IPO of its own.
Groupon’s offering is slated to be at least $750 million in size, and is being led by Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs.
A spokesperson for LivingSocial was not immediately available for comment.
When the Wimbledon tennis championships got under way at the All England Club in the 1900s, refined-looking competitors wore boater hats, long sleeves, neatly pressed trousers and floor length dressers.
While it remains the most traditional tournament, as the only grand slam requiring players to wear white, the outfits on display at Wimbledon have become a little more outlandish.
Five-times champion Venus Williams raised eyebrows when she took to the court for her first round match in an all-in-one lace outfit, featuring a zip up the front and a cut-out back which the American deemed "a peek-a-boo."
"It's just kind of like a trendy dress, it's a jumper, jumpers are very now, as is lace," she said of her creation, which appeared to put the quest for style before practicality.
"The shoulders have a lot of draping, which is also in at the moment, it's fun. I'm really into zippers, so it has like a focal point of a zipper in the front."
While Wimbledon's organizers are not oblivious to fashion, choosing Polo Ralph Lauren to design outfits for its umpires, line judges, ball boys and girls, elegance is the order of the day with court officials dressed in clean-cut navy blazers, cream trousers and flat caps.
Defending champion Serena Williams favored this more reserved approach when picking her outfit for this year's tournament, despite accessorizing with big jewelry and long glittery purple nails.
"The inspiration was to be classic. So I kind of took classic lines and brought it to tennis with a cardigan as well as the dress," she told reporters.
"It reminded me of something you would have seen in like the '60s. I love it. It's so feminine. It's almost like a little baby doll. I really think it's cute."
Wimbledon's decree on clothing color is a relatively recent one, introduced in 1963 when it decided that except for a cardigan, pullover or headwear, competitors must be dressed "predominantly in white," updated in 1995 to "almost entirely white."
In a nod to this classic tennis look, Kate Middleton donned a layered white knee-length Alice Temperley dress for her appearance in the Royal Box with husband Prince William, an outfit which would have looked less out of place on court than that of self-proclaimed Lady Gaga of tennis, Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
With menacing black face paint daubed under her eyes, Mattek-Sands arrived for her match in a fringed biker jacket adorned with white tennis balls, teemed with knee-high socks and a one-sleeved dress.
The jacket, a collaboration with British designer Alex Noble who has also worked with Gaga, ensured the number 30 seed made her mark on the tournament despite crashing out in the first round.
While less daring, the men's game is not without its own fashionistas. Style conscious six-times champion Roger Federer regularly sports clothing and a racket bag embellished with his own gold "RF" insignia.
But players who try to push the boundaries too far risk putting style before sport.
"Any competitor who appears on court dressed in a manner deemed unsuitable by the committee will be liable to be defaulted," the club states in its rules.
Pope Benedict XVI has tweeted for the first time, announcing the launch of a Vatican news information portal.
Benedict's tweet on Tuesday read: "Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI"
Vatican officials said the Benedict touched on a touchpad to send the tweet.
The portal www.news.va was launched for the feast day of St. Peter and Paul, which falls on June 29 but officially begins with a vesper service June 28.
Wednesday also marks the 60th anniversary of Benedict's ordination as a priest.
The portal for the first time aggregates information from the Vatican's various print, online, radio and television media.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Microsoft has officially launched its Web-based email and Office services, part of its ongoing effort to keep Google at bay when it comes to business software.
"Office 365" has been available in a test version since last year. It combines Web-based versions of Word, Excel and other Office applications. It also includes the Exchange e-mail system, SharePoint online collaboration technology and Microsoft's instant messaging, Internet phone and video conferencing system.
Google Inc. has its own set of office software that's based in the "cloud," that is, hosted on remote servers and accessed online instead of on users' desktop computers.
Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday that it plans to charge $2 to $27 per month for Office 365 depending on what's included. Google Apps costs $4 or $5 per month.
News Corp. is aiming to sell struggling social network site MySpace this week after three years of massive losses, according to a person familiar with the matter. The move will likely result in the layoff of more than half of the site's remaining 500 workers.
It's a jarring goodbye for a once-hot Internet property, which News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch predicted four years ago would eventually make $1 billion in annual revenue. MySpace never reached that goal. This year, MySpace is expected to make less than a fifth of that as ad sales plummet, according to research firm eMarketer.
MySpace's crash coincided with Facebook's rise — due in large part to its cleaner interface, smoother operation and better integration with other services. MySpace was generally clunky, slower and littered with display ads. It was also slower to adapt.
At least three bidders are still in the running for MySpace — online advertising network operator Specific Media, private equity fund Golden Gate Capital and Austin Ventures, an investment fund that is working with MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe. The company hasn't chosen a buyer yet, according to the person, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
News Corp. is looking to cut a deal Wednesday or Thursday in order to have it completed in its fiscal year, which ends Thursday.
Earlier, the News Corp.-owned website All Things D reported that MySpace was on the verge of being sold for $20 million to $30 million. The person said the deal price will likely be much higher and include a combination of cash and stock.
Any sale around that price would mark a stunning reversal from 2005, when News Corp. bought the promising startup for $580 million when social networking was in its infancy.
Facebook has turned into the dominant social media platform with more than half a billion users. A recent investment by private fund GSV Capital Corp. valued Facebook at $50 billion. LinkedIn Corp., a social network for professionals, recently went public and now has a market capitalization of about $8 billion.
The low estimate for MySpace suggests there may only be residual value in its brand, technology and declining visitor base, said Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst with research firm eMarketer.
"It shows that this is just something that News Corp. wants to get off of its books at any price it can get," she said.
MySpace unveiled an extensive overhaul in October in an attempt to transform itself into a hub for consuming entertainment content, but it didn't help reverse visitor declines. In January, it slashed nearly half its staff, or about 500 people, in hopes of returning to profitability.
The site still lost money. For the three months through March, the News Corp. segment that includes MySpace lost $165 million. That was worse than the $150 million loss it posted a year earlier, mainly because of lower advertising revenue at the site. That marked the 11th straight quarterly loss since mid-2008, over which time the segment lost about $1.4 billion cumulatively.
MySpace CEO Mike Jones is the last remnant of a three-person executive team that came in to fix the site in April 2009. It is unclear if Jones will stay on after a sale.
According to tracking firm comScore Inc., MySpace had 74 million visitors from around the world in May, down 32 percent from a year earlier. By comparison, Facebook had 1.1 billion, up 26 percent; Twitter had 139 million, up 54 percent; and LinkedIn had 86 million.
News Corp. shares rose 25 cents, or 1.5 percent, to close Tuesday at $17.17.
Google Inc, frustrated by a string of failed attempts to crack social networking, is taking another stab at fending off Facebook and other hot social sites with a new service called Google Plus.
Google designed the service, unveiled on Tuesday, to tie together all of its online properties, laying the foundation for a full-fledged social network. It is the company's biggest foray into social networking since co-founder Larry Page took over as chief executive in April.
Page has made social networking a top priority at the world's No 1 Internet search engine, whose position as the main gateway to online information could be at risk as people spend more time on sites like Facebook and Twitter.
To set its service apart from Facebook, which has more than 500 million users, Google is betting on what it says is a better approach to privacy, a hot-button issue that has burned Facebook, as well as Google, in the past.
Central to Google Plus are so-called "circles" of friends and acquaintances. Users can organize contacts into different customized circles -- family members, co-workers or college friends, say -- and share photos, videos or other information only within those smaller groups.
"In the online world there's this 'share box' and you type into it and you have no idea who is going to get that, or where it's going to land, or how it's going to embarrass you six months from now," said Google Vice President of Product Management Bradley Horowitz.
"For us, privacy isn't buried six panels deep," he added.
Facebook, which has been criticized for confusing privacy controls, introduced a feature last year that lets users create smaller groups of friends. Google, without mentioning Facebook by name, said other social networking services' attempts to create groups were "bolt-on" efforts that do not work as well.
Google Plus will be rolled out to a limited number of users in what the company is calling a field trial. Only those invited to join will initially be able to use the service. Google did not say when it would be more widely available.
Learning frrom the Buzz
Google's stock has been pressured by concerns about rising spending within the company and increasing regulatory scrutiny -- not to mention its struggles with social networking. The US Federal Trade Commission, among others, is currently reviewing its business practices.
Its shares are down almost 20% this year after underperforming the market in 2010.
To create Google Plus, the company went back to the drawing board in the wake of several notable failures, including Google Wave and Google Buzz, a microblogging service whose launch was marred by privacy snafus.
"We learned a lot in Buzz, and one of the things we learned is that there's a real market opportunity for a product that addresses people's concerns around privacy and how their information is shared," said Horowitz.
Google, with USD 29 billion in revenue last year, drew more than 1 billion visitors worldwide to its websites in May, more than any other company, according to Web analytics firm comScore. But people are spending more time on Facebook: The average U.S. visitor spent 375 minutes on Facebook in May, compared with 231 minutes for Google.
Google Plus seems designed to make its online properties a pervasive part of the daily online experience, rather than being spots where Web surfers occasionally check in to search for a website or check email.
As with Facebook's service, Google Plus has a central Web page that displays an ever-updating stream of the comments, photos and links being shared by friends and contacts.
A toolbar across the top of most of Google's sites -- such as its main search page, its Gmail site and its Maps site - allows users to access their personalized data feed. They can then contribute their own information to the stream.
Google Plus will also offer a special video chat feature, in which up to 10 people can jump on a conference call. And Google will automatically store photos taken on cell phones on its Internet servers, allowing a Google Plus user to access the photos from any computer and share them.
When asked if he expected people to switch from Facebook to Google Plus, Google Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra said people may decide to use both.
"People today use multiple tools. I think what we're offering here offers some very distinct advantages around some basic needs," he said.
Taking a little time off this week. My daughter turned 21 (21!) and she's decided she wants me to go with her to Las Vegas. That way she doesn't have to pay for anything.
How could I say no?
We'll be driving. Gas prices are falling and airline prices are rising.
While the two of us might get a little crazy—emphasis on "little"—I can rest assured that one thing is safer in Vegas than back home in California: my car.
Hmmm, seems the Golden State is just a golden opportunity for car thieves.
The Golden State dominates the list of cities where you're most likely to have your car stolen.
The worst three cities are in the heart of California's farm country — Fresno, Modesto (backdrop for "American Graffiti"), and Bakersfield. Based on what I see driven there, F-150s and decrepit old Impalas must be hot, figuratively speaking.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau says car thefts per 100,000 residents are rising in that region, even as the number is dropping nationally. In Fresno, there were 7,559 car thefts reported in 2010, or 812 per 100,000 residents.
Out of the top 10 spots, only two are outside California—Spokane at #4 and Yakima at #10 (what's going on up in Washington apple country?)
California has the most people, has the most cars, and has the most thieves. Why so many per capita? You are nothing without a car here.
Nobody walks in LA.
I drive, therefore I am.
The Business Journal in Fresno reports that police believe car crime is up in the Central Valley because of the increased use of methamphetamine (users need cash) and the desire for car parts needed for street racing.
The Journal reports that even though the Central Valley is the worst based on per capita thievery, you can guess where to largest number of actual thefts occur. "They lose as many cars in the half time at a Lakers game in Los Angeles as they do in Modesto," says Frank Scafidi of the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
So if I'm playing the odds, which I will this week, I'm safer out of state.
Las Vegas is way down at #17 on the list.
I'll still lock the car.
Here is the list:
Fresno, Calif.
Modesto, Calif.
Bakersfield-Delano, Calif.
Spokane, Wash.
Vallejo-Fairfield, Calif.
Sacramento, Calif. area
Stockton, Calif.
Visalia-Porterville, Calif.
San Francisco-Oakland, Calif. area
Yakima, Wash.
Laredo, Texas
Detroit, Mich. area
Seattle, Wash. area
Macon, Georgia
San Diego, Calif. area
Myrtle Beach, SC area
Las Vegas, Nev.
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.
Jackson, Miss.
Albuquerque, NM
Source: NICB
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Apple may introduce the new iPhone5 in September, along with a lower-end iPhone with less technological capability, a pre-paid voice plan option, and a price tag of about $349, according to a Deutsche Bank analyst note.
“With Nokia and RIM struggling, the time is right for Apple to aggressively penetrate the mid range smart-phone market (i.e. $300 to $500 category),” said analyst Chris Whitmore, in a note. “Apple could further segment the market by offering an unlocked iPhone 4S with a pre-paid voice offering. We’d expect this product to look a lot like the low-end iPod touch with wireless connectivity built in.”
Shares of Apple are off their highs this year as some investors were disappointed the iPhone5 wasn’t introduced in June. However, the stock is up almost 6 percent from its 2011 low, in part because of the speculation brought to light by the Deutsche Bank note. Also, Morgan Stanley reiterated its "overweight" rating on the stock Monday.
Shares of Research In Motion and Nokia are both off more than 40 percent so far this year, because of customers switching to the iPhone and devices running Google’s Android system. If prepaid iPhones catch on in emerging markets, it could be the knockout punch for Nokia.
Apple now has 205 carriers in 98 countries, according to Deutsche Bank, giving it access to a total of 1.5 billion subscribers, including 1 billion pre-paid customers. While still No. 1, Nokia’s international smartphone market share has plummeted to just 25 percent from as much as 45 percent three years ago. Apple is now second at 17 percent, according to Whitmore.
“It is a good move and has been the subject of speculation,” said Stephen Weiss of Short Hills Capital. “They have multiple products at multiple price points in iPods, laptops and PCs hitting various levels of the consumer, so it is reasonable to expect them to do the same here, particularly if they want to go after the business customer where cost is more of an issue.”
BlackBerry models account for 13 percent of the smartphone market and a lot of that has been propped up by information technology departments unwilling to spend the money to switchover to Apple’s technology. That attitude may be starting to change, however, as the economy enters its third year of recovery. Total U.S. enterprise and public sector IT spending is expected to climb 5.6 percent in 2011, much faster than he economy, International Data Corp. reported in a release Monday.
To be sure, the introduction of the lower-end handset could backfire on Apple, some traders said, as it hits margins and reduces the cachet of Apple’s stylish and innovative products.
“Offering old hardware without the technological capability to run the software at the same quality as the most recent products only opens them up for criticism, which they don't take well,” said Dan Nathan, options trader and creator of RiskReversal.com.
Apple’s gross margins are the envy of the tech hardware space at 41 percent, compared to 29 percent for Nokia, as the Finland-based company allowed its generic phones to become commodity over the last few years.
“We see this often in retailing that the brand with such great ‘cachet’ has to be careful that they do not get an image as cheap,” said Joe Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at TD Ameritrade’s thinkorswim brokerage. “As long as Apple keeps its high-end technology as impressive as it is, they can retain their cool factor better than anyone. In doing so, they can also use the different phones as a product ladder so that you can ‘graduate’ up to the best phone.”
( Source: CNBC )
Sachin Tendulkar on Friday lost the coveted number one spot in the ICC Test rankings to South Africa`s Jacques Kallis.
However, Rahul Dravid, adjudged man-of-the-match for scoring a century in the first Test against West Indies, returned to the top-20 after jumping nine places.
According to an ICC media release, left-hander Suresh Raina, too, moved up 26 places to be placed 61st after his after his useful knock of 82 in the first innings against West Indies at Kingston.
Tendulkar lost the top after the iconic batsman decided to skip the series against West Indies. He is currently placed second.
As a player loses one per cent of his rating points for every Test he misses, Tendulkar will lose more points as he will not figure in the remaining two Tests.
However, the Mumbaikar will still enter next month`s Test series against England as the number two batsman.
Dravid, who notched up a patient 112 on a difficult Sabina Park pitch, earned 45 rating points for his effort and is placed at the 20th spot.
This is Dravid`s best position since November 2010 when he slipped out of the top 20 following the Nagpur Test against New Zealand.
The veteran batsman`s seven-hour vigil at the crease set the platform for India`s 63-run victory, and a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Dravid won the ICC Cricketer and ICC Test Player of the Year awards in 2004.
Other batsmen losing ground include VVS Laxman (13th), down by five places, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (38th), down by two places.
Among the bowlers, fast bowler Ishant Sharma has moved up three places to 11th position after returning with figures of 3-29 and 3-81 in the Jamaica Test.
West Indies opener Adrian Barath has rocketed 29 places to 62nd after his scores of 64 and 38.
But Shivnarine Chanderpaul, (8th), slipped by a place, Ramnaresh Sarwan (39th), by two, while Brendan Nash slipped down five places to be 52nd.
Wrist spinner Devendra Bishoo maintained his upward movement and is ranked 49th. He moved up 12 places after returning match figures of 7-140.
Dale Steyn of South Africa maintained his pole position among Test bowlers followed by England`s Graeme Swann and James Anderson in second and third positions, respectively.
Children as young as eight years old are invited to Las Vegas this summer to learn that it's cool to be a hacker -- provided they don't cheat, steal or commit other crimes.
The first-ever Defcon Kids conference in August is a chance for children between eight and 16 to learn the skills of computer hackers, as well as protect themselves against cyber attacks.
It will also be an opportunity for U.S. federal agents to size up tech-savvy youngsters who could form the next generation of digital crime-fighters.
Police, intelligence agents, military officers and the consultants working for them have long attended as well as recruited from Defcon, the world's biggest gathering of hackers held in Las Vegas every summer.
This year, against a backdrop of high-profile cyber attacks on targets ranging from Google Inc to the International Monetary Fund, Defcon organizers are holding Defcon Kids on August 6 and 7 alongside the main conference. Kids need to register in advance at www.defconkids.org to be able to participate in some conference activities.
One goal of Defcon Kids is to convince children from age 8 to 16 that it is cool to be a "white hat," or benevolent hacker who uses computer skills to fight crime.
"Black hats," in contrast, work on the dark side of the Internet, using their skills to steal money, identities and other perform nefarious deeds.
"Hacking isn't just fun and games. It isn't about breaking into systems," said a 16-year-old who goes by the hacker handle "FS." He will teach Defcon Kids how to protect against Internet spies who sniff wireless networks for private data. (www.defconkids.org).
"It's about securing yourself and the people around you," said FS, who gets paid by companies to conduct penetration testing, which is breaking into computer networks to uncover vulnerabilities.
Like many hackers, FS uses a handle rather than his real name to protect himself from being targeted by black hats.
Such names have special meaning for hackers, who often keep their significance secret. FS stands for forty seven, which is code for the initials of his real name, which FS declined to disclose.
HACKING TOOLS
Law enforcement around the world is scrambling to combat cyber crime, and each week seems to brings a new attack -- from activists promoting a cause, to more serious security breaches and data thefts at Sony Corp or Citigroup.
Some of the world's most elite hackers have volunteered to teach at Defcon Kids, running sessions on basic computer programing, lock picking and puzzle solving. A course in hardware hacking, for example, will show children how to modify a circuit board so it plays the game "Simon."
"CyFi," a 10-year-old Girl Scout whose identity has been stolen twice, is helping to organize the conference. Her personal agenda is to network with other young hackers, advance her lock-picking skills and meet real federal agents while she's there.
"Most of the time when people think of hacking, they think 'Oh that's a bad thing,'" she said. "I want to get more people to become good hackers and to have fun doing it."
While she has few friends who share her passion for hacking, CyFi is a fan of a website called CryptoKids (www.nsa.gov/kids) managed by the National Security Agency.
The highly secretive NSA, which runs spying operations for the U.S. government, tries to make hacking cool on the website by offering for download coloring books for the young, video games, and tips on breaking codes for older hackers.
Cartoon characters on the website include the code-breaking team of Crypto Cat and Decipher Dog, as well as Cyndi, a fictional hardware hacker who loves to figure out how gadgets work.
Defcon Kids will learn how white hats use Google's search engine to find confidential information that is exposed over the public Internet. But they won't cross the line into illegal activity by forcing their way into private sites.
"It will give the kids an avenue to practice certain skills without the fear of getting into trouble," said Chris Hadnagy, one of the Defcon Kids instructors.
That doesn't mean they won't have fun.
"We want to expose kids at an earlier age to the wonders of taking things apart and making them do things that they weren't intended to do," said Jeff Moss, Defcon's founder.
( Source: Reuters )
From his parents’ California garage Steve Jobs launched the personal computer revolution and built Apple into the most envied, and valuable, technology company in the world.
Steve Jobs, the irrepressible and iconic leader of the personal computer revolution, has been the undisputed king of Silicon Valley for the better part of three decades. From the Macintosh and the iPod, to iTunes and the iPhone, Jobs has secured his legacy as one of the few who dared to “Think Different.”
Here, we take a look at his life: From adoptee to college dropout to business maverick and cancer patient, these are some of the personal and professional highlights of Steve Jobs' life.
1955: Adopted at Birth
Jobs was born Feb. 24, 1955, in San Francisco and was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. He grew up in the house pictured left and actually created the first Macintosh computer in the garage.
His biological parents — Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Simpson — were unmarried graduate students at the time of his birth. The couple later married and had a daughter, whom they raised. Jobs' biological sister is the novelist Mona Simpson.
1972: Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out
Jobs is famously known for dropping out of college after only one semester. After he left, he ended up travelling to India in search of spiritual enlightenment and returned to the United States as a Buddhist with a shaved head.
During this time, Jobs also experimented with psychedelic drugs. He is quoted in the 2005 book What the Dormouse Said by New York Times reporter John Markoff as saying his LSD experiences were "one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life."
1978: You and Me and Baby...
Like his biological parents, Jobs also had a child out of wedlock. In 1978, Jobs' love interest, painter Chrisann Brennan, gave birth to a baby girl. Jobs denied paternity based on claims that he was sterile, so Brennan raised their daugher on her own, even using the welfare system to get by.
Jobs later acknowledged Lisa Brennan-Jobs as his daughter. Lisa was the namesake of one of Jobs' "worst" creations, the Lisa, a $10,000 "ugly piece of machinery ."
Lisa graduated from Harvard in 2000 and is a writer. Her essays are available at www.lisabrennanjobs.net .
1981-1982: Joan Baez
In the unauthorized biography, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs , author Alan Deutschman wrote that Jobs once dated Joan Baez.
Jobs has never confirmed his relationship with the singer, but in another unauthorized biography, iCon: Steve Jobs by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon, the authors suggested that Jobs would have married Baez, but her age meant it was unlikely the couple could have children.
1982: The Bigger Apple
Jobs bought an apartment in The San Remo apartment building on Central Park West in New York in 1982. Other famous residents of the building include Demi Moore, Steven Spielberg and Steve Martin.
Jobs reportedly spent years renovating the apartment in the building's north tower, but never moved in. He later sold it to U2 singer Bono.
1984: The Big Mac
Apple rolled out the Macintosh computer with 128K RAM of memory in January, 1984. It soon became obvious more memory was need, and Apple released an updated version with 512K RAM.
The Mac was the first personal computer driven by a graphical user interface, becoming the basis for all of today's PC interfaces.
1985: What's NeXT?
Jobs left Apple in 1985 after a power struggle with CEO John Sculley, and started a new computer firm, NeXT Inc. The company's hardware didn't take off, but the software was so solid that Apple eventually bought NeXT in 1997 and invited Jobs back as an advisor.
NeXT software eventually became the basis for Apple's OS X, which runs today's Macs, iPhones, iPod touch and the iPad.
1991: Love and Marriage
Jobs married Laurene Powell on March 18, 1991, in a ceremony at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, with a Zen Buddhist monk presiding. The couple has three children, Reed Paul, Erin Sienna and Eve.
1995: Toy Story
In spite of his successes with computers, Jobs' first major hit of the 1990s was a movie. Jobs bought animation studio Pixar from George Lucas in 1986.
In 1995, Toy Story became a box office blockbuster, grossing more than $191 million in the U.S. and Canada. When Pixar IPO'd in November 1995, Jobs, who had sunk $60 million into the enterprise, recouped a paper profit of more than $600 million for his 80 percent stake.
2004: The Big C
In July, 2004, Jobs underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer. While he recuperated, Apple's sales and operations chief, Tim Cook, ran Apple, while Pixar's president Ed Catmull oversaw operations there. Jobs returned to work at Apple the following September.
2008: The Business Model
Jobs is famously known for his affection for The Beatles. In fact, when asked about his business model by television news magazine 60 Minutes he replied: "My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys that kept each other's negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are not done by one person, they are done by a team of people."
2008: Rumors of My Death...
In August, 2008, Bloomberg News mistakenly published a 2,500-word obituary announcing Jobs' death. Jobs responded duringa keynote address in September by borrowing a line from Mark Twain: "reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
It had been just four years since Jobs underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer. Six months later, in April, 2009, he would undergo a full liver transplant. In January, 2011, it was announced Jobs was taking a medical leave of absence.
2011: Man in Black
For the last decade or so, Jobs is almost always seen wearing the same outfit: black mock turtleneck, Levi's 501 jeans and New Balance 991 sneakers.
This seeming uniform has been the basis of much speculation on the Internet — he wears the same thing so he has one less decision to make every day, it's his own personal branding — and even a tech-geek joke or two: Why does Steve Jobs always wear a black turtleneck? A suit has too many buttons for him.
2011: Patent Not Pending
Jobs has been involved in some amazing projects during his career. In fact, Jobs is listed as either primary inventor or co-inventor on more than 230 awarded patents or patent applications on a range of technologies, from computer and portable devices to user interfaces, speakers, keyboards, power adapters and staircases.
( Source: CNBC )
Online video site Hulu has been approached by a potential buyer and is weighing whether to sell itself, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The approach presents another decision point for the jointly owned company, which has shown an unclear strategy and last year spent six months planning an initial public offering before dropping the plan.
The development has encouraged the Hulu board to engage with the banking community to help handle the approach from the "serious" buyer and other potential offers, the person said.
Hulu is jointly owned by News Corp, Walt Disney, Comcast Corp's NBC Universal and private equity firm Providence Equity Partners.
The acquisition approach has not been made by any of the current equity holders, the person said. The buyer is expected to be either a strategic buyer or private equity. No decision has been made about whether the board is prepared to sell the company or not.
Hulu is best known for offering free online access to popular TV shows like 'The Office' and 'Modern Family' from its strategic owners but last July launched a paid subscription service as a way to expand its offerings to include TV shows from other programming partners like Viacom.
Though Hulu has been immensely popular with users, its owners have come under increasing pressure from their cable and satellite distribution partners reluctant to pay premium dollars to carry content that is being offered for free on the Web.
Added to that has been the unwillingness of many program makers to put their shows up on a free site with an advertising model that is yet to prove itself with premium video.
Hulu Chief Executive Jason Kilar said in April that Hulu is on track to nearly double its revenue to $500 million and bring its paid subscriber count to more than 1 million this year.
However, Hulu's stiffest competition online is from Netflix,which now has more than 20 million paying subscribers in the United States.
Last year, Hulu had been planning to raise $200 million to $300 million in a public offering that would have valued the company at about $2 billion. But the company backed out of the plan in favor of a focus on new subscription models.
A Hulu representative was not immediately available. Wall Street Journal first reported news of Hulu's possible sale.
Women who get silicone breast implants are likely to need additional surgery within eight to 10 years to address complications such as rupture of the device, U.S. health regulators said on Wednesday.
The Food and Drug Administration will work to revise safety labels for silicone breast implants after reviewing data from several long-term studies, which also showed that implants had a small link to a rare form of cancer.
"The key point is that breast implants are not lifetime devices," said Jeff Shuren, director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
"The longer you have the implant, the more likely you are to have complications."
There were almost 400,000 breast enlargement or reconstruction procedures in the United States in 2010, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. That includes silicone and saline implants.
Post-approval studies showed up to 70 percent of all women who received reconstruction surgery, and up to 40 percent of those getting an enlargement procedure using silicone, needed another surgery within eight to 10 years.
The FDA first approved silicone gel-filled breast implants in 2006 for Allergan's Natrelle and Mentor Worldwide's MemoryGel. Since then, the manufacturers and the agency have been conducting studies to review post-operation safety.
The FDA said the most common complications were hardening of the breast area around the implant, additional surgeries and rupture or deflation of the implant.
Other local complications include implant wrinkling, asymmetry, scarring, pain, and infection at the incision site.
The studies also found a small correlation between implants and anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (ALCL), a form of cancer that affects about 3,000 Americans a year.
From 1997 to 2010, there were about 60 cases of ALCL reported for women worldwide out of about 5 million to 10 million women who had breast implants, Shuren said.
"If there's a true association between that cancer and implants, it's very, very rare," he said.
However, the FDA said most long-term studies confirmed initial results, and that most risks of implants were well known.
"Most women reported high levels of satisfaction with their body image and the shape, feel and size of their implants," the FDA report said, adding that women should monitor their breasts for the rest of their lives to make sure there are no problems.
The FDA is releasing a report on the safety of silicone implants, as well as an updated website, brochure and handout for patients considering implants, and a video about ALCL.
Co Name | Pledge As on 17-Jun-11 | Actual Promoter holding | Unpledged Share |
Pipavav Shipyard Ltd | 44.81% | 45.00% | 0% |
Essar Oil Ltd | 13.41% | 15.97% | 3% |
United Spirits Ltd | 24.52% | 28.01% | 3% |
India Cements Ltd | 18.55% | 25.18% | 7% |
Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd | 10.95% | 20.04% | 9% |
Unitech Ltd | 38.04% | 48.57% | 11% |
Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd | 8.87% | 22.97% | 14% |
Asian Paints Ltd | 38.03% | 52.34% | 14% |
Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd | 30.50% | 44.93% | 14% |
Suzlon Energy Ltd | 37.73% | 54.84% | 17% |
Videocon Industries Ltd | 49.97% | 68.48% | 19% |
Tata Power Company Ltd | 11.32% | 31.81% | 20% |
Ashok Leyland Ltd | 17.82% | 38.61% | 21% |
Max India Ltd | 15.52% | 36.55% | 21% |
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd | 3.36% | 24.90% | 22% |
Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd | 23.98% | 45.92% | 22% |
Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd | 14.74% | 38.07% | 23% |
Dr Reddys Laboratories Ltd | 1.39% | 25.65% | 24% |
Tata Chemicals Ltd | 6.84% | 31.23% | 24% |
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd | 18.26% | 42.79% | 25% |
Tata Motors Ltd | 9.78% | 34.83% | 25% |
Yes Bank Ltd | 1.12% | 26.57% | 25% |
India's heretofore "insatiable" appetite for precious metals will need to find a new adjective to describe it, after it surged by an absolutely unprecedented 500% in May MoM, and 222% compared to May of 2010, touching on a massive $8.96 billion in imports in the past month. Putting this number in perspective the yearly average Indian imports are about $22 billion: in one month the country will have imported about half its average quota for the year! And while inflation may have much to do with it, events like the Sensex flash crash from last night certainly are not helping matters: "The gold story is puzzling" added financial analyst A S Kirolar. "Consumers are shying away from stocks and bonds and heading to safe assets like gold and real estate, but one cannot understand this given the meagre 12% growth in imports of petroleum and oil products." Granted demand is not just at the retail level as ever more institutions are buying up gold: "Analysts maintained that India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India's decision to grant licenses to seven more banks to import bullion has helped push up demand. Karur Vysya Bank, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, Punjab and Sind Bank, South Indian Bank, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Travancore were added to the list. As of the start of 2011, some 30 banks in India have been granted permission to import gold and silver. Jewellers are getting easy supplies which is also helping push up demand. Moreover, the flow of scrap is also expected to fall from a yearly average of 200 tonnes, which could again boost imports, underlining the insatiable appetite of the Indian consumer." Add ongoing Chinese demand for PMs, and one can see why calls for an imminent gold crash absent a global deflationary vortex are largely overblown.
Mineweb has more:
"Even as inflation and a widening trade deficit to $15 billion in May continues to weigh on the minds of Indian investors, the demand for fresh gold has continued to grow. This is very confusing, especially when one sees it against the backdrop of a 400% rise in the value of the rupee over the last decade," said bullion analyst Anand Patnaik with a brokerage firm.
India's commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma recently released trade figures. India's imports have surged to a 4-year high at a scorching pace of 54% mainly due to rising oil prices and a surge in gold imports.
The country's imports have jumped to $40.9 billion, which has resulted in the gap between imports and exports widening to $15 billion – a 67% increase which is the largest since August 2008, prompting the government authorities to caution that India's trade deficit for 2011-12 could touch a record $145-150 billion.
Minister Sharma pointed out that exports of iron ore were down given the ban on exports imposed by the country. Imports in pearls and precious stones, however, have risen 24.6% to $ 5.20 billion, gold and silver by 222% to $ 13.5 billion and iron and steel by 13% to $ 1.80 billion, he said.
But the true cause of this endless demand is and always will be the threat of central bank hijacked purchasing power :
"People in India have accepted high inflation as a reality of life," said Rajesh Shukla of the centre for Macro Consumer Research. Noting that Indians tend to use gold as a hedge against inflation, Shukla said this would be partly responsible for the spike in imports.
He added that high imports reflected a strong demand for the yellow metal, despite the weakening of the rupee.
The Indian rupee fell to its lowest in three weeks on Monday weighed down by losses in domestic shares and the euro, with dollar demand from oil companies also adding pressure.
"Bidding from oil companies is keeping the rupee lower. All of last week, the rupee depreciated. Hiking of key interest rates has further weakened the rupee," said a forex dealer at a national bank.
And that's merely the anchor for current gold prices at over $1500 even as stocks continue to sink. Once the Fed announced Operation Twist 2 either on Wednesday, or in one or two month's time, the PM complex will explode, reaching $2000 in no time whatsoever.
