My financial blog

99 High Paying Keywords (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:58:00 +0000

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Here are some of the keywords that pay you the most per click in Google Adsense

Payouts averaging $2-$100 per click

1. Structured settlements

2. Mesothelioma

3. Acne

4. Life Insurance

5. Death Insurance

6. Bextra

7. Asbestos

8. Car Insurance

9. Dental Plans

10. Private Jets

11. Debt Consolidation

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Got my Google Adsense pin code

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 05:11:00 +0000

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I finally hit the $50 earnings peak and had receievd my in from Google. This is how it looks like

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How to get people's attention

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:28:00 +0000

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Some ways of getting people's attention is to have a catchy headline. Having a catchy headlines would be much better then you spending $10 worth of Adwords money to get a reader who might be in Nigera scramming you of your money.

Once the reader shows interest in the headline and then he would most likely come back to your blog for more stuffs on a later date.

Some examples

Why I want you to be poor?

Make Money Online, all the secrets revealed

But do remember to have good content in that post to attract people not like some freaking scram.

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Earning Money with Flixya

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:11:00 +0000

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Have you ever want to make money with all the videos you had done? Then there is no better place then Flixya.

They pay you to upload videos of anything to them. You can even embed videos from youtube. All you have to do is to sign up for an account and then enter your Google Adsense publisher code and after which you can start earning. The rates are at 50% of all the earnings. Or rather, Flixya would display your ads on your video homepage 50% of the time.

They are also introducing a new feature which pays you to solve technical problems. They can pay you up to $5 per question solved problems.

http://www.fixya.com/ecexplanation.aspx

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Why work from home

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 09:30:00 +0000

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Why work at home? Most people have the mindset of working at home as people who do not have a job and money or even qualification, that is why they are working at home instead in an office. But the fact is you are earning more then them. You leverage on your knowledge and people.

The Internet is so big, why do not make use of it and make money from it. With all the free blogging platform and the free hosting services, you are just seconds or rather minutes away from making an explosive income. No companies can ensure that you can secure your job forever.

Remember what Donald Trump always says "You Are Fired"

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Would RealRank trump PageRank?

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 04:38:00 +0000

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IZEA, the company of PayPerPost had released a new version of tracking and ranking blogs. With so many people and reports speculating that Google is going to strip the Pagerank thing,

RealRanks uses a piece of Javascript on your blog to track traffic, and requires you to be an IZEA user. That doesn’t strike me as being particularly accurate, but I think the point is to allow IZEA to replace Google’s PageRank as a way of ranking their own users’ blogs, rather than the wider world.

70% weighted towards visitors per day
20% weighted towards amount of ACTIVE inbound links per day
10% weighted towards pageviews per day

Unlike Google, they are open to feedback. They will publish the actual formulas for all to view. If they make any changes over time based on user input you will see what those changes are and why. They hope this becomes the most valuable site measurement tool worldwide and look forward to rolling this out.

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Setting Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:30:00 +0000

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Setting a Goal. Why is setting a goal so important today? Because it helps you to have a drive, a drive that pushes you to another level. You would never see the importance of setting a goal until you see the following success stories.

1. Microsoft CEO once had this vision of placing a computer in every house running Windows.

Although they did not have all computers running Windows, they have a market share of more then 80%. If Bill did not have this vision for the company, he might still be programing for IBM.

2. Microsoft said that they are going to make Xbox successful no matter what it takes.

Do you know how successful are they now with the Xbox. With the Halo 3 on the Xbox 360. It really crushed the PS3.

3. Donald Trump is richer then ever.

Do you know that Donald Trump lost in real estate before? He was in a huge debt and then he was not able to pay back. Instead of declaring bankrupt, he reserved his misfortune and became more successful then before.

So if you had yet to set your goal in life, I strongly recommend you to set your goals now and make yourself more empowered. There was always a joke. If you plan to be a billionaire, if you do not make it you are a millionaire. If you plan to be a millionaire, if you cannot make it, you would be a thousandaire. So it is always better to aim high and have more choices.

Here are some ideas on how you can start off.

Financially: I want to be a billionaire by the age of 20?

Health: I want to be fit by the age of 24?

Family: I want to have 2 children by 2 years time?

So start your planing now and get your plan ready and get ready to start working on your goal. I know you will and can do it. Never give up. Remember what Donald Trump always says Think Big and Kick Ass

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Intel Announces 13 Percent Increase in Cash Dividend

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 12:06:00 +0000

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Intel Corporation today announced that its board of directors has approved a 13 percent increase in the quarterly cash dividend to 12.75 cents per share beginning with the dividend that will be declared in the first quarter of 2008.

"Intel's product and technology leadership, the company's focus on growth and the success of more streamlined operations have put Intel in an extremely strong position, now and for the future," said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini. "Even with one of the highest dividend yields in the technology industry, Intel's cash generating capability allows us to again increase the dividend as a signal in our faith in the future and to reward shareholders."

Intel began paying a cash dividend in 1992 and has paid out approximately $8.9 billion to its stockholders over the past 60 quarters (through the third quarter of 2007). The Intel dividend rate was last increased in November 2006, effective with the first-quarter 2007 dividend.

The above statements and any others in this document that refer to plans and expectations for 2008 and the future are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Many factors could affect Intel's actual results, and variances from Intel's current expectations regarding such factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. Intel presently considers the factors set forth below to be the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the corporation's published expectations:

* Intel operates in intensely competitive industries that are characterized by a high percentage of costs that are fixed or difficult to reduce in the short term, significant pricing pressures, and product demand that is highly variable and difficult to forecast. Additionally, Intel is in the process of transitioning to its next generation of products on 45nm process technology, and there could be execution issues associated with these changes, including product defects and errata along with lower than anticipated manufacturing yields. Revenue and the gross margin percentage are affected by the timing of new Intel product introductions and the demand for and market acceptance of Intel's products; actions taken by Intel's competitors, including product offerings and introductions, marketing programs and pricing pressures and Intel's response to such actions; Intel's ability to respond quickly to technological developments and to incorporate new features into its products; and the availability of sufficient components from suppliers to meet demand. Factors that could cause demand to be different from Intel's expectations include customer acceptance of Intel's and competitors' products; changes in customer order patterns, including order cancellations; changes in the level of inventory at customers; and changes in business and economic conditions, including conditions in the credit market that could affect consumer confidence and result in lower than expected demand for our products.
* The gross margin percentage could vary significantly from expectations based on changes in revenue levels; product mix and pricing; capacity utilization; variations in inventory valuation, including variations related to the timing of qualifying products for sale; excess or obsolete inventory; manufacturing yields; changes in unit costs; impairments of long-lived assets, including manufacturing, assembly/test and intangible assets; and the timing and execution of the manufacturing ramp and associated costs, including start-up costs.
* Expenses, particularly certain marketing and compensation expenses, vary depending on the level of demand for Intel's products, the level of revenue and profits, and impairments of long-lived assets.
* Intel is in the midst of a structure and efficiency program that is resulting in several actions that could have an impact on expected expense levels and gross margin.
* The tax rate expectation is based on current tax law and current expected income. The tax rate may be affected by the closing of acquisitions or divestitures; the jurisdictions in which profits are determined to be earned and taxed; changes in the estimates of credits, benefits and deductions; the resolution of issues arising from tax audits with various tax authorities, including payment of interest and penalties; and the ability to realize deferred tax assets.
* Gains or losses from equity securities and interest and other could vary from expectations depending on fixed income and equity market volatility; gains or losses realized on the sale or exchange of securities; gains or losses from equity method investments; impairment charges related to marketable, non-marketable and other investments; interest rates; cash balances; and changes in fair value of derivative instruments.
* Intel's results could be affected by the amount, type, and valuation of share-based awards granted as well as the amount of awards cancelled due to employee turnover and the timing of award exercises by employees.
* Dividend declarations and the dividend rate are at the discretion of Intel's board of directors, and plans for future dividends may be revised by the board. Intel's dividend program could be affected by changes in Intel's operating results, its capital spending programs, changes in its cash flows and changes in the tax laws, as well as by the level and timing of acquisition and investment activity.
* Intel's results could be impacted by adverse economic, social, political and physical/infrastructure conditions in the countries in which Intel, its customers or its suppliers operate, including military conflict and other security risks, natural disasters, infrastructure disruptions, health concerns and fluctuations in currency exchange rates.
* Intel's results could be affected by adverse effects associated with product defects and errata (deviations from published specifications), and by litigation or regulatory matters involving intellectual property, stockholder, consumer, antitrust and other issues, such as the litigation and regulatory matters described in Intel's SEC reports.

A detailed discussion of these and other factors that could affect Intel's results is included in Intel's SEC filings, including the report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 29, 2007.

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House passes war bill tied to withdrawal

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 04:42:00 +0000

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House Democrats pushed through a $50 billion bill for the Iraq war Wednesday night that would require President Bush to start bringing troops home in coming weeks with a goal of ending combat by December 2008.

The legislation, passed 218-203, was largely a symbolic jab at Bush, who already has begun reducing force levels but opposes a congressionally mandated timetable on the war. And while the measure was unlikely to pass in the Senate — let alone overcome a presidential veto — Democrats said they wanted voters to know they weren't giving up.

"The fact is, we can no longer sustain the military deployment in Iraq," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "Staying there in the manner that we are there is no longer an option."

The White House pledged to veto the bill, and Republicans said they would back the president.

"These votes, like the dozens of previous failed votes, put the interests of radical interest groups ahead of the needs of our military and their mission," an administration statement said.

The bill represents about a quarter of the $196 billion Bush requested for combat operations in the 2008 budget year, which began Oct 1.

Bill includes interrogation language
It would compel an unspecified number of troops to leave Iraq within 30 days, a requirement Bush is already on track to meet as he begins in coming weeks to reverse the 30,000 troop buildup he ordered earlier this year. It also sets a goal of ending combat by Dec. 15, 2008, and states that money included in the bill should be used to redeploy troops and "not to extend or prolong the war."

The measure also would set government-wide standards on interrogation, effectively barring the CIA from using such harsh techniques as waterboarding, which simulates drowning.

The bill was on shaky ground this week, after some liberal Democrats said they were concerned it was too soft and would not force Bush to end the war. Conservative Democrats said they thought it went too far and would tie the hands of military commanders.

The bill's prospects brightened somewhat after three leading anti-war Democrats announced they would support it. California Reps. Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters said they had agreed to swing behind it because the bill explicitly states the money should be used to bring troops home.

But still uncertain the bill would pass, Pelosi on Wednesday delayed a vote by several hours while she met with supporters and asked them to help her round up votes.

Fifteen Democrats broke ranks and joined 188 Republicans in opposing the measure. Four Republicans joined 214 Democrats in supporting it.

Timeline nonstarter for opponents
Republicans fought bitterly against the timetable in the bill, as well as the restrictions on interrogations. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, his party's leader, said the bill would lead to "nothing other than failure."

Hours before the scheduled vote, the White House dispatched Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Capitol Hill to brief lawmakers on Iraq.

In one closed-door meeting, Gates urged a group of senators not to support the bill. He said the same lawmakers who criticized Pentagon civilians for previously ignoring the advice of its uniformed generals were asking him to ignore them now, according to an official who attended the meeting. The official requested anonymity because the meeting was private.

Similar legislation has passed repeatedly along party lines in the House only to sink in the Senate, where Democrats hold a razor-thin majority and 60 votes are needed to overcome procedural hurdles.

It is expected that if the measure fails in the Senate, Democrats will not consider Bush's war spending request until next year. Democrats say the military won't need the money until then and the Pentagon can transfer money from less urgent accounts or from spending set aside for the last three months of this year.

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GM's $39B loss a record

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 03:18:00 +0000

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General Motors, no stranger to hard times and red ink, still managed to shock Wednesday when it reported an operating loss more than 11 times larger than expected and a $39 billion charge that was among the biggest profit hits ever reported.

The nation's No. 1 automaker, which was hit with a soft U.S. auto market and a two-day strike by the United Auto Workers union during the quarter, lost $1.6 billion, or $2.80 a share, excluding special items.

That compares to the forecast of a 25-cent-a-share loss from analysts surveyed by earnings tracker Thomson First Call and earnings per share of $497 million, or 88 cents, on that basis in the year-earlier period.

Among the problems hurting GM results was a $2.3 billion loss in the home loan business at GMAC due to problems from the meltdown in subprime mortgages. GM sold a majority of GMAC but still owns 49 percent of the lender.

In addition, GM took a huge charge in the quarter related to the writedown of tax credits for losses over the last three years.

That caused it to post a net loss of $39 billion, or $68.85 a share, for the third quarter, compared with the net loss of $147 million, or 26 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Only a gain from the sale of the Allison Transmission unit stopped the loss from being worse.

The report caused shares of Dow component GM (Charts, Fortune 500) to be down 5 percent in midday trading, helping to spark a 200-point selloff.
Problems remain for Detroit automakers

To put the size of the charge in context, the total value of all GM shares outstanding was only $20.4 billion at the close of trading Tuesday.

In addition, the charge is significantly larger than the $12.4 billion net loss posted by GM for all of 2005 and 2006, when the company was hammered by falling shares and labor costs far in excess of its nonunion rivals. The company had net income of $953 million for the first six months of the year before hitting the problems in the third quarter.

The charge was a non-cash expense due to accounting rules, meaning it won't drain resources from the company's balance sheet. But the charge, which was revealed late Tuesday, raised concerns among investors that the automaker wouldn't be able to earn enough money going forward, despite winning a new cost-saving labor deal from the UAW, to fully utilize the tax credits it built up from losses the last three years.

Efraim Levy, equity analyst with Standard & Poor's, cut his recommendation on the stock Wednesday to a "sell" from a "hold."

"Looking at the near term outlook, there's more negatives than positives," said Levy. "The downgrade isn't because of the writedown. But I think it does signal a worsening outlook, that the level of profitability and the ability to use these tax benefits won't be there in the near term the way they would have liked. It bodes poorly on the outlook."

The company's statement about the charge said that it "does not reflect a change in the company's view of its long-term automotive financial outlook." But it also cautioned "the company faces more challenging near-term automotive market conditions in the U.S. and Germany."

Via CNN

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Cisco's earnings beat estimates

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 03:15:00 +0000

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Computer networking company Cisco Systems Inc., citing strong sales of its routers, set-top boxes and other products, reported higher-than-expected earnings on Wednesday.

Cisco said its latest quarterly net income was $2.2 billion, or 35 cents a share, an increase of 37 percent from a year ago. Excluding certain charges, the company reported a profit of 40 cents a share; analysts were expecting Cisco to report 36 cents per share on that basis.

Cisco's quarterly sales reached $9.6 billion, up 17 percent from $8.18 billion a year ago. Wall Street had been expected revenue of $9.5 billion.

In a conference call to analysts, Cisco Chief Executive John Chambers offered guidance of 16 percent revenue growth for the next quarter - in line with Wall Street's estimates.

Shares of San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco was trading about 4 percent lower after hours.

Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research, thinks that the stock is down because investors were looking for stronger results.

Earnings per share beat consensus expectations by one penny but that was expected, according to Wu. "The results were solid but investors were looking for more," he said.

Another analyst, Timothy Daubenspeck of Pacific Crest Securities, said that investors were looking for as much as $100 million more over the $2.2 billion net income the company reported.

Chambers said he expects overall economic conditions to cool Cisco's U.S. enterprise division, which sells to businesses. For example, Cisco saw a dramatic decrease in orders to its financial services customers, he said, and similar softness in orders from the automotive sector.

Chambers remarks were surprising, according to Wu, since the company had not previously acknowledged the impact of the broader economic turmoil on Cisco's performance.

However, Wu added that Cisco is "doing pretty well given the circumstances."

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PetroChina the first $1 Trillion company

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:08:00 +0000

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PetroChina became the world's first company worth more than $1 trillion on Monday, surging past Exxon Mobil as the Chinese oil producer's shares nearly tripled in their first day of trading in China.

State-owned PetroChina, a unit of state-owned China National Petroleum, is the country's biggest oil and gas producer. Its Shanghai initial public offering of 4 billion shares raised 66.8 billion yuan, or $8.94 billion - a record for a mainland exchange.

Adding the value of PetroChina shares traded in Shanghai, Hong Kong and New York - and those still owned by the government - the company's total market capitalization ballooned to just over $1 trillion, compared to Exxon Mobil's $488 billion.

However, more than 85 percent the shares outstanding - 157.9 billion shares - are held by PetroChina's parent company CNPC and are unlikely to trade in the market any time soon.

PetroChina's new shares listed in Shanghai surged to $5.90 Monday, nearly triple the IPO price of $2.24.

The stellar performance was expected: Shares in elite companies like PetroChina, which already trade in Hong Kong and New York, tend to soar in their trading debuts given the strong appetite among Chinese investors for highly valued companies.

Like other yuan-denominated "A shares" traded in China, the PetroChina shares issued in Shanghai are meant for domestic investors and are not generally available to foreign buyers. They account for 2.18 percent of the company's enlarged share capital of 183.02 billion shares.

"PetroChina's return to the A-share market is a result of the Chinese economy's fast growth and surging energy demand," the company said in a statement. "PetroChina's public offering will bring renewed energy to domestic capital markets and also provide an important investment indicator."
Oil prices back away from record

Before PetroChina's IPO, coal producer China Shenhua Energy's debut in Shanghai in September was the largest for a domestic exchange, raising $8.9 billion.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite index has more than doubled in value this year as investors have piled into the market chasing a slew of IPOs by big-name companies, hoping for higher returns than they can earn on bank savings.

The index fell 2.5 percent Monday, or 143.36 points, to 5,634.45 as institutional investors cut holdings in energy and financial companies to buy into PetroChina.

As of Friday, PetroChina's market value was $456.6 billion.

That was based on the company's share price in Hong Kong, where it has listed 21.09 billion shares, or about 11.5 percent of total stock. Those shares closed Monday at $2.31.

PetroChina's shares closed Monday in Shanghai at a much higher $5.90, lifting the value of company's remaining 162 billion shares - mostly held by CNPC - to $955 billion.

Adding the value of PetroChina's Hong Kong shares, worth about $49 billion, the company's total market capitalization rose to more than $1 trillion.

PetroChina's status as the world's most highly valued company by market capitalization thus does not necessarily reflect stronger profitability or productivity than its rivals.

The company has seen revenue soar amid surging oil prices but has struggled to boost production from its aging domestic oil fields. In refining, it has struggled with a widening gap between soaring world crude oil prices and state-controlled prices for oil products in the domestic market.

PetroChina reported that its first-half net profit rose 1.4 percent from a year earlier on modest output growth to $10.8 billion.

Like other Chinese energy giants, PetroChina is investing heavily in both overseas and domestic oil and gas fields as it rushes to meet soaring demand. The company said it plans to use around $5 billion of the proceeds from the Shanghai IPO to help finance five projects aimed at boosting its crude oil output and refining capacity.

The company's luster appears to have been undimmed by a decision by Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s decision to sell off all its 2.3 billion PetroChina shares.

The company made about $3.5 billion on the sale of that $488 million investment, Berkshire Hathaway chairman and chief executive Warren Buffett has said in interviews

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How can Apple spend

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:01:00 +0000

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The cash coffers are overflowing at Apple these days. While Silicon Valley is abuzz over the fact that social-networking startup Facebook is now worth $15 billion on paper, Cupertino-based Apple has at least that much money -- $15.4 billion to be exact -- in real, spendable cash.

Apple's cash reserves have nearly doubled over the past two years, thanks to surging sales of iPods, Mac notebooks and iMacs. At the end of 2005, Apple reported $8.7 billion in cash and short-term investments, or about 15 percent of its market capitalization. Now, at the end of a stellar fourth quarter, the company's market capitalization is surging past $160 billion.

With more money on hand than it's ever had, the question is: What exactly will Apple do with that pile?

It's easier to predict what the company won't do. If analysts agree on anything, it is that the company will not be making any major acquisitions. It's simply not in Apple's DNA.

While other companies like Intel and Microsoft typically use their excess cash for large acquisitions or the repurchasing of stock, Apple tends to quietly invest its money in forward-looking markets and technologies.

"They just don't make these billion-dollar acquisitions," says analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies, "but they do make (small) strategic ones." For instance, Apple's 2002 purchase of German company Emagic (for an undisclosed amount) was a stepping-stone that helped Apple develop what eventually became GarageBand. Earlier, its $400 million acquisition of Next Software in 1996 laid the groundwork for the Unix-based OS X -- and brought exiled founder Steve Jobs back into the Apple fold.

"Apple's stockpiling of cash has more to do with its money management than anything else," says Bajarin. In essence, he says, the company "uses its cash reserves as a way to buy secrecy."

In 2006, Apple formed an asset-management firm called Braeburn Capital in Nevada (where tax laws are more lenient than in Apple's home state of California). This subsidiary is said to function as a regional treasury office for the company, but Apple won't give precise details about the firm's duties other than to describe it as a vehicle for managing the company's investment portfolio.

One possible use for the cash reserves: strategic purchases of critical components. Carl Howe of Blackfriars Communications points to Apple's $1.2 billion dollar purchase of flash memory in 2005, in anticipation of using that memory in upcoming iPods. Much to the chagrin of other electronics manufacturers, that move created what's known as a monopsony -- a market condition where all of a particular product's supply is monopolized by a single buyer. "They basically locked up the flash memory market for two years," Howe says.

Bajarin concurs, speculating that Apple could use its wad of cash to ensure that iPhone-component makers are keeping up with demand. This is seen as critical for Apple at the moment, especially considering that it's set to launch the phone in Europe next month. Another potential investment could come in the form of building out the new property Apple purchased last year in Cupertino. Indeed, Jobs has said that the 50-acre parcel of land is to be the home of a new campus housing up to 3,500 of Apple's employees.

Less likely is the possibility that Apple might join a Google-led consortium of companies bidding in the upcoming 700-MHz spectrum auction. With the bar set at $4.6 billion just to qualify for the open access "C" block, analysts predict Google will likely want some monetary support from companies that could benefit from a new swath of open spectrum. That includes hardware manufacturers like Apple, whose iPhone and iPod touch might, in future versions, work with an open wireless network.

"Steve (Jobs) has a vision of a connected digital ecosystem," Bajarin concludes. "Right now, we have a limited perception of it, but we don't know what else he's got to fill it out. If you try to approach things from that perspective, then it's possible to get a hint of where that money may be going."

Via Wired

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Citigroup chief is set to exit after losses

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 04:19:00 +0000

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Citigroup's embattled chairman and chief executive has told senior officials at the bank that he expected to leave after an emergency board meeting this weekend, a banking industry official with ties to Citigroup said last night.

Charles Prince III, 57, had indicated that he expected to leave during this board meeting, this person said. Directors are also expected to discuss the possibility of another large write-off.

"The entire organization is in uproar and people have been looking for leadership," said one Citigroup executive familiar with the situation. "The organization is waiting for something."

"At some point, the company is worse off or better off without the guy," this person said. "That collective point has come and passed."

People close to the board said that a search committee would be formed to find a successor.

Prince's departure would be a crushing blow to the legacy of Citigroup's founder and former chairman, Sanford Weill, and will lead to renewed calls to break up the company.

Not only was Prince Weill's hand-picked successor, he was his chief lawyer who helped engineer a series of big deals that transformed Citigroup into a sprawling banking giant.

Reports of Prince's plans to resign were first reported on The Wall Street Journal online.

Prince would become the second chief executive to lose his job in the wake of the subprime mortgage problems. Also this week, the chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch, E. Stanley O'Neal, was forced to retire after the brokerage firm reported an $8.4 billion write-down and a $2.3 billion loss. O'Neal also angered directors with an unauthorized merger approach to a rival bank, Wachovia.

Citigroup, the country's largest bank by market value, in early October reported a $5.9 billion write-down and a 6 percent drop in earnings from the period a year earlier. The earnings report and the size of the write-down renewed speculation that Prince would have trouble remaining atop the bank.

The problems compounded on Thursday, when Meredith Whitney, an analyst at CIBC World Markets, downgraded Citigroup stock and said that the bank would need to cut its dividend or sell assets to stave off what she said was a $30 billion capital shortfall. The report sent Citigroup's shares down $3.39; they fell an additional 78 cents Friday.

Shares are down almost 18 percent for the year, much of that decline coming in the last four weeks.

Since taking over in October 2003, Prince has touted an ambitious strategy that called for expansion overseas and internal growth. This spring, he announced a restructuring effort to rein-in its expenses, months after the bank's biggest shareholder, Saudi Prince Alaweed bin Talal declared "draconian measures" were necessary." But despite a few signs small signs progress earlier this year, investors grew frustrated with the results.

For Prince, his abrupt departure comes as a surprise. In recent weeks two board members, Robert Rubin and Richard Parsons, had said firmly that they expected Prince to stay on for the coming years.

"Chuck is doing a good job, and I think he has been working in an extraordinarily complex situation through difficult markets," Parsons said in an interview in early October. "Now is not the time to be saying, 'Do we change course, or do we change captain.'"

But, in the wake of the quick reaction by the Merrill Lynch board in forcing out O'Neal, the Citigroup board began to feel pressure to take its corrective action.

To a large extent, Prince was bowing to the inevitable. Despite having been the chosen successor to Weill, Prince's austere, lawyerly manner, albeit leavened with a sharp sense of humor, did not go over well as Citi continued to flounder.

He was particularly unpopular within the investment bank, despite having overseen it for a period of time.

Prince became even more unpopular after the bank's write-down forced him to oust Thomas Maheras, a popular fixed income executive. Despite having presided over a series of trading losses in the last four years, Maheras had retained deep loyalty.

By firing Maheras's top lieutenants and placing Vikram Pandit in charge of revitalizing the bank, Prince lost what support he might have had even though it was a move that many saw as necessary given Citigroup's losses.

That there may be more losses coming would certainly seem to have been the last straw for Prince. But what may well have been his undoing was a broad strategic uncertainty that was highlighted in the analyst report written by Whitney.

While Prince has emphasized a more intense focus on international expansion, Whitney's report highlighted the $26 billion in acquisitions he had made in recent years and how it had drawn down the firm's capital. With credit markets seizing up and loans souring, Citigroup's weak capital position has become an indictment of sorts of Prince's strategy.

In the end, Prince's legitimacy was always a result of his close ties to Weill. As his chief lawyer, Prince was by Weill's side from the early days in Baltimore in the mid-1980s. The two men and a circle of other associates of Weill started to build the conglomerate that is today's Citigroup by turning around an obscure financial company called Commercial Credit.

With his sharp elbows and his indefatigable work ethic, Prince became indispensable to Weill. When Prince first took over Citigroup in October 2003, his legal skill served him well in navigating the choppy regulatory matters of the time and he was able to cut deals with U.S. federal and state regulators.

But he ultimately failed in taking the many disparate parts that Weill bequeathed to him and turning it into an organic whole.

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Chrysler to cut up to 12,000 jobs

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 16:56:00 +0000

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Chrysler LLC said it plans to cut up to 12,000 jobs, or up to 15 percent of its workforce, as part of an effort to slash costs and match slowing demand for some vehicles.

The automaker will cut 8,500 to 10,000 hourly jobs and 2,100 salaried jobs through 2008. The company already had begun cutting 1,100 temporary workers Wednesday. It will eliminate shifts at five North American assembly plants and cut four vehicle models from its lineup.

The cuts come in addition to the 13,000 layoffs Chrysler announced in February as part of a massive restructuring plan. Those cuts included 11,000 production jobs and 2,000 salaried jobs. The new round of cuts was expected to involve buyouts or early retirement packages similar to those made in February.

Chrysler officials said falling demand for vehicles in the U.S. market made the cuts necessary. Chrysler’s sales were down 3 percent in the first nine months of this year, according to Autodata Corp., and the company said it expects sluggish sales to continue in 2008.

“The market situation has changed dramatically in the eight months since Chrysler established the Recovery and Transformation Plan as its blueprint,” Bob Nardelli, Chrysler’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

As part of the new plan, shifts will be cut at vehicle assembly plants in Belvidere, Ill.; Toledo, Ohio; Brampton, Ontario; Jefferson North in Detroit and a plant in Sterling Heights. Also, jobs will be cut at the company’s Mack Avenue engine plant.

The announcement comes less than a week after Chrysler workers represented by the United Auto Workers union ratified a four-year contract with the automaker. The agreement passed by a slim margin after a six-hour strike. The Belvidere plant and Jefferson North were among the plants that voted against the agreement, while the Sterling Heights plant voted for it. All of the plants except the Toledo plant are covered by the contract, which promised $15 billion in investment at U.S. plants through 2011.

Chrysler became a private company in August when DaimlerChrysler AG, now called Daimler AG, sold 80.1 percent of Chrysler to the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP. Nardelli said earlier this week that the company is focused on amassing cash for its turnaround effort.

The company announced it will eliminate four auto models through 2008, including the Dodge Magnum wagon, the convertible version of the Chrysler PT Cruiser, the Chrysler Pacifica crossover and the Chrysler Crossfire sports car.

In the same time frame, Chrysler plans to add the Dodge Journey crossover and Dodge Challenger sports car, along with two new hybrid models, the Chrysler Aspen and Dodge Durango.

“These actions reflect our new customer-driven philosophy and allow us to focus our resources on new, more profitable and appealing products,” Jim Press, Chrysler’s new vice chairman and president, said in a statement. “These product actions are all in response to dealer requests.”

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Oil Prices hit a record high

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 16:56:00 +0000

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The prospect of a stronger economy and word of possible new U.N. sanctions against Iran sent crude oil futures back above $96 a barrel Friday, while retail gasoline prices extended their own march higher.

The Labor Department reported that employers boosted payrolls by 166,000 jobs in October, the biggest increase in months and double what economists had forecast. Meanwhile, October’s unemployment rate held steady at 4.7 percent. Separately, the Commerce Department said factory orders rose 0.2 percent in September, better than the 0.4 percent decline analysts were expecting.

“It suggests that concerns about the economy ... are overblown a little bit,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research Inc., in Winchester, Mass.

Oil futures added to their gains late Friday when the British Foreign Office said the U.N. Security Council has agreed to draft a new sanctions resolution that could be passed in November if Iranian cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency does not improve. Investors worry that any conflict between the West and Iran would disrupt oil supplies from the Middle East.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose $2.44 to settle at a record $95.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after rising as high as $96.05 earlier, short of a trading record of $96.24 set Thursday. On Thursday, oil prices retreated from that early record to close down more than $1, in part because of dismal reports on consumer spending and industrial activity that also factored into the Dow Industrial’s 362-point decline.

Crude prices are within the range of inflation-adjusted highs set in early 1980. Depending on the how the adjustment is calculated, $38 a barrel then would be worth $96 to $103 or more today.

At the pump, meanwhile, gas prices jumped 2.9 cents overnight to a national average of $2.942 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Gas prices have risen nearly 19 cents since mid-October.

Analysts say gas prices are rising to catch up with oil prices, which have jumped 39 percent since late August. But low demand for gasoline will keep prices from rising above $3 again this year, many analysts say. Gas prices peaked for the year at $3.227 a gallon in late May.

Refinery problems contributed to Friday’s gains. Operations at a 172,000 barrel-per-day Petroplus Holdings AG refinery in England are expected to be limited for a month due to a fire earlier this week. And Chevron Corp. said Friday its 330,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Pascagoula, Miss., will run at reduced rates until early next year due to an August fire.

December gasoline rose 9.63 cents to settle at $2.4395 a gallon on the Nymex, and December heating oil rose 6.14 cents to settle at $2.5737 a gallon.

Also supporting prices Friday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Turkish officials the U.S. views Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq as a “common threat” that the United States would help fight. Investors have sent oil prices sharply higher in recent weeks in part on concerns that a Turkish incursion into Iraq in search of Kurdish rebels would cut oil supplies from Northern Iraq.

Additionally, investors already concerned about falling oil supplies and imports received word that Hurricane Noel may have disrupted some oil shipments this week. And analysts said OPEC production increases that began Thursday have been hampered by maintenance at some Middle Eastern oil fields.

The confluence of headlines fueled fears that there will be fourth quarter shortages of oil and other petroleum products.

“I think people ... are worried about the fourth quarter (supply and demand) balance,” Lynch said.

“We’ve got some colder weather finally coming into the Northeast,” Andrew Lebow, senior vice president at MF Global Inc. in New York.

Meanwhile, the dollar dipped to a new record low against the euro on Friday. Oil futures offer a hedge against a weak dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the greenback is falling.

“The major trend of weak dollar and strong oil prices continues,” Lebow said.

Also on the Nymex Friday, December natural gas fell 21.9 cents to settle at $8.418 per 1,000 cubic feet as investors sold to lock in profits from Thursday’s 30.7-cent rally.

In London, December Brent crude rose $2.36 to settle at a record $92.08 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

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The richest man on earth is no longer Carlos Sim

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 09:46:00 +0000

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Carlos Sim is no longer the richest man on earth. He was topped by someone from India called Mukesh Ambani. He kicked Bill Gates off the top richest position not long ago.

This shows how important are the growing market. He was from Mexico and the current one is from India. I would not be surprised that the next one would come from one of the developing countries. However, if you see properly. Noone could get as rich or richer then Bill Gates at his age. And most of the richest people are mostly inherited assets. If you say who is the best richest man on earth, it would still be Bill Gates. Just compare the amount of money he donates as compared to other people who toppled him down the charts. They were obviously gaining their wealth to topple Bill Gates. With Bill Gates donating that much money, he is the nicest guys here on earth.

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Google goes head on with Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 08:38:00 +0000

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If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. And if you can’t join ‘em, get all your friends to band together—and gang up on them!

In a move that some Silicon Valley pundits are deriding as desperate, Google unveiled a plan to fight back against social network Facebook. A dozen companies, including social networks LinkedIn, Ning, hi5 and Google’s own social network Orkut, have aligned together under Google’s “OpenSocial” banner to “make the Web more social,” said Joe Kraus, who’s managing the project. Business software makers Oracle and Salesforce.com also joined the alliance.

The goal is to lure software developers back to the open Web from Facebook and create standards for applications that can run on any social networking site. In June, Facebook opened its site to apps makers, allowing them to launch their own applications on its social network, and make money from them. Some 5,000 applications were launched enabling Facebookers to do everything from play Scrabble to engage in virtual food fights. And that caused the young site to take off, with membership growing at the healthy rate of 3% a week. It now has some 50 million members and is expected to unveil a new advertising platform next week that, many believe, will cleverly target “social ads” at users, mining their connections for useful information. If it works, it could be a huge breakthrough in online advertising.

And that’s what’s got Google taking the offensive. Google’s business model hinges on selling ads targeted against search—a diminishing activity while people are cavorting within the closed-off walls of Facebook. Adding insult to injury, last week, Microsoft (MSFT) beat out Google and bought a minority stake in Facebook—valuing it at $15 billion. That secured Redmond’s role as the social network’s sole partner in international advertising, and potentially much more.

Google’s OpenSocial project aims to do Facebook one better: It’s opening the entire Web to developers and making it even more remunerative for them to create cool applications. How? For starters, Google will be sharing critical APIs—in this case, datastreams that divulge a user’s profile information, who their friends are and what applications they install. (Among other things, that info helps applications spread virally since people see which applications their friends just installed.) While Facebook does the same thing within its closed network, twice as many people are in the Google alliance—100 million—and it’s just getting off the ground. Better yet for the developers, Google isn’t extracting a penny from them. They can keep 100% of the revenues from advertising or referrals. Finally, while developers need to learn a special programming language to write apps for Facebook, they can write widgets in HTML and Javascript—the common language of the Web.

“It’s a little bit of an apples to oranges comparison, but the full application we’ve built on Facebook took us six months to write,” said Ali Partovi of iLike, one of the better-known music applications. “The one that we’re demoing here took us a matter of days to write.” (It also looked very slick.) Partovi said that since OpenSocial uses the common languages of the Web, it will also make it easier, and cheaper, to hire programmers. Developers such as iLike will continue to work with Facebook.

Ning founder Marc Andreessen applauded Google’s move. “This is more like what we always used to do at Netscape — someone does something proprietary, so we create or embrace an open alternative and get lots of people to support it,” he wrote in an e-mail. ” We did that originally with HTML (!!) and Javascript.”

While a hand-full of demonstration projects will be unveiled Thursday, Kraus said the goal of the announcement today was to invite in the developers and get them started on rolling out new apps. He said it would be about a month before consumers started to see the first OpenSocial apps. Ultimately, the widgets could run on virtually any website that elected to participate.

“They were totally desperate,” one Silicon Valley financier observed yesterday. “Google isn’t making a dime from this. It was just a way of keeping people off Facebook.”

Kraus said that Google’s interest was in preserving the open Web. “By making the web a better place to be, Google ultimately benefits because people spend a lot of time on the Web searching,” he said. Asked whether Facebook could join the alliance, Kraus said, “Obviously we would love to have them participate.” He declined to say whether Facebook was ever invited, however.

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Wing Tai doubles Q1 profit to S$61.8m

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 13:00:00 +0000

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Higher contributions from two condominium projects in Singapore have helped Wing Tai to double its first quarter profit.

For the three months to September, the property developer booked earnings of S$61.8 million, despite a 39 percent fall in revenue to S$100 million.

Wing Tai is planning to put several new residential projects in Singapore on the market in the next few months.

It says it will continue to position itself to ride on the positive sentiment in the Singapore property market and expand its business activities overseas.

Towards this goal, it signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a real estate project in Chengdu last month.

This will be the developer's first property project in China.

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Microsoft acquires Thai medical software firm

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 12:59:00 +0000

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Microsoft Corp, seeking to expand in the medical sector, has agreed to acquire the assets of a privately held, Thailand-based health information system company, the software giant announced yesterday.

Global Care Solutions (GCS) specialises in creating software modules for hospitals' clinical and administrative operations, allowing them to run more smoothly. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The Bangkok-based company, whose core product was first marketed in 2000, has implemented its systems in seven client hospitals in the Asia-Pacific region. They are based on already existing Microsoft software products.

'We are really amazed at the quality of care that can be delivered with Global Care Solutions' health information system,' said Peter Neupert, corporate vice-president for the Health Solutions Group at Microsoft, into which GCS employees will be incorporated.

Mr Neupert said that the deal, under which Microsoft will acquire software, intellectual property and other assets of GCS, would allow the technology to be marketed worldwide.

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Oil prices tops $93

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:45:00 +0000

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Oil prices hit a new trading high above $93 a barrel Monday before falling back, propelled by news that Mexico’s state oil company was suspending about a fifth of its oil production due to a storm.

The news that Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, was to stop as much as 600,000 barrels of daily crude production came amid political tensions in the Mideast, a weak U.S. dollar and a tight supply outlook that had already pushed crude oil to record prices.

The Pemex shut-in “is the one that has pushed prices above $93,” said Victor Shum, a Singapore-based energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz. “This is on top of what has already been simmering.”

Pemex announced Sunday that it had already suspended 200,000 barrels of daily production in the Gulf of Mexico because of bad weather and was planning to reduce by another 400,000. Pemex produces about 3.2 million barrels of crude oil a day, of which 2.7 million come from the Bay of Campeche in the southern Gulf.

In addition, Vienna’s PVM Oil Associates noted that “more bad weather could hit the region in the form of Tropical Storm Noel.”

Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose as much as $1.34 to $93.20 a barrel, a new intraday record, in early afternoon Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. By afternoon in Europe, it had slipped back to $92.26 a barrel.

That was still up 40 cents from Friday’s record close of $91.86 a barrel. The previous trading high was $92.22 a barrel, set Friday.

Oil futures have gained almost $8 a barrel, or 9 percent, since the U.S. Department of Energy reported last Wednesday a sharp drop in the country’s crude stocks.

“The strong price is due to supply concerns in general, on top of which we have the geopolitical news,” Shum said.

A rumbling of tensions in the Middle East and elsewhere last week already had traders worried about the disruption of oil exports.

A sharp escalation in fighting between Turkey and Kurdish rebels has brought Turkey to the brink of sending troops south across the border into Iraq, and the United States last week announced harsh penalties against Iran — the world’s fourth largest oil producer — in hopes of raising pressure on the world financial system to cut ties with Tehran.

Also, last Friday, gunmen in speedboats kidnapped six workers from an oil vessel off Nigeria’s coast, the second attack on an oil field there in a week. Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil exporter and the fifth-largest supplier of crude to the United States.

A weak dollar continues to be a factor in driving oil prices as well.

The dollar’s descent against major currencies has drawn investors to crude futures as a hedge against the weakening currency and made dollar-denominated oil futures less expensive to people dealing in other currencies, said David Moore, commodities strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.

Analysts note the price of oil is closing in on the inflation-adjusted highs hit in early 1980. Depending on the how the adjustment is calculated, $38 a barrel then would be worth $96 to $101 or more today.

In London, December Brent crude advanced 39 cents to $89.08 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.

Heating oil and gasoline futures rose just over a penny to $2.445 a gallon and $2.2850 per gallon.

Natural gas futures gained nearly 11 cents to fetch $7.325 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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UBS Confirms 3Q Loss

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 05:25:00 +0000

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UBS AG said its third-quarter loss will be in line with a profit warning earlier this month, but primed investors for further write-downs due to U.S. mortgage-securities the bank still holds.

The Zurich-based bank said it will Tuesday post a pretax loss of between 600 million and 800 million Swiss francs ($517 million and $690 million), as flagged earlier this month when the bank was forced to disclose massive write-downs and sweeping management changes as a result of the subprime mortgage woes.

UBS said the current quarter has started positively in all its units, including the investment bank, where the recent trouble has centered.

However, the bank cautioned that it may record further write-downs in the future because it remains exposed to the deteriorating market in the U.S. for mortgage-securities.

"As a result, UBS is not assuming that the quarter will continue as positively as it has begun, or that the current difficulties will be resolved in the short term," UBS said in a statement.

The bank's third-quarter report is scheduled for 0600 GMT Tuesday.

Investors had been fearful UBS would post a worse loss than flagged after U.S. rival Merrill Lynch & Co Inc. (MER) surprised the market last week with far larger third-quarter loss than originally indicated. UBS said it made the statement to refute a Swiss weekend media report, which suggested the losses may have spread further.

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Boeing Board Approves New $7 Billion Share Repurchase and Declares Dividend

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 01:30:00 +0000

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The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] board of directors has approved a new repurchase plan for up to $7 billion of common stock and declared a regular quarterly dividend of 35 cents a share.

Boeing has bought approximately $8 billion of its stock since resuming repurchases during 2004. This new plan follows the $3 billion buy back that the board approved in August 2006. The company is nearing completion of the repurchases authorized under that plan.

"Our strong financial performance allows us to return value to our shareholders while continuing to invest in our growth and becoming more productive," said Boeing Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Jim McNerney. "We are executing a balanced cash deployment strategy that's serving Boeing and its shareholders well."

The share repurchases will be made on the open market or in privately negotiated transactions. The number of shares to be purchased, and the timing of the purchases, will be based on the level of cash balances, general business conditions and other factors including alternative investment opportunities.

The dividend declared today is payable Dec. 7, 2007, to shareholders of record as of Nov. 9.

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Verizon Reports Continued Success in 3Q 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 01:21:00 +0000

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Verizon Communications today reported another strong quarter of financial and operational results. Verizon Wireless continued its record of industry-leading profitability, Verizon Telecom reported accelerating sales of FiOS TV, and Verizon Business increased overall sales and sales of strategic services.

Verizon reported third-quarter 2007 earnings of 44 cents in fully diluted earnings per share (EPS). This compares with third-quarter 2006 earnings of 53 cents per share before income from discontinued operations that have since been sold or divested.

On an adjusted basis (non-GAAP), third-quarter 2007 earnings were 63 cents per share. This is a 14.5 percent increase, compared with 55 cents per share in the third quarter 2006 after excluding discontinued operations.

Adjusted earnings in the third quarter 2007 reflect 19 cents per share in special items: 16 cents per share for international taxes, 2 cents per share for costs related to a previously announced spin-off of access lines and 1 cent per share in merger integration costs. Adjusted earnings in the third quarter 2006 excluded 2 cents per share in special items for pension settlement charges, and merger integration and Verizon Center relocation costs.

Successful Transformation

"Our third-quarter results show that we have hit our stride as a leading wireless, broadband and enterprise company," said Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg. "In recent years, we have transformed our business model and revenue base. Our results throughout 2007, and especially in the third quarter, show that our strategy has been successful. We expect to build on these results in the fourth quarter and beyond."

Strong Consolidated Results

Verizon's total operating revenues grew 5.8 percent to $23.8 billion, compared with the third quarter 2006. Operating revenues grew 6.0 percent on an adjusted basis (non-GAAP). Verizon's total operating expenses increased 3.4 percent to $19.6 billion, compared with the third quarter 2006. Operating expenses increased 3.5 percent on an adjusted basis (non-GAAP).

On a reported basis, Verizon's operating income grew 19.0 percent to $4.2 billion, compared with the third quarter 2006. On an adjusted basis, operating income grew 18.5 percent to $4.3 billion.

Operating income margin rose to 17.7 percent, compared with 15.7 percent in the third quarter 2006. On an adjusted basis, Verizon's operating income margin rose to 18.1 percent, compared with 16.2 percent in the third quarter 2006.

Cash flows from continuing operations totaled $18.0 billion through the first nine months of 2007. This represents 5.0 percent growth over the same period last year.

Dividends, Repurchase Program Reflect Confidence

Reflecting confidence in Verizon's business model and continued strong cash flows, Verizon's Board of Directors announced during the third quarter that it had increased the company's quarterly dividend 6.2 percent, beginning with the Nov. 1 dividend.

Verizon also repurchased nearly $800 million of its shares in the quarter, for a total of $1.7 billion in the last nine months. Verizon is increasing the 2007 target for its share repurchase program to $2.5 billion, up $500 million from the original target.

Wireless Continues to Lead Industry

Verizon Wireless extended its record of strong, industry-leading performance. It continues to be the largest domestic wireless company in total revenues, data revenues and retail customers.

In the third quarter:

* Nearly all of the 1.8 million retail net customer additions (including acquisitions and adjustments) were post-paid customers.
* Total customers (retail and wholesale) increased to 63.7 million. The company added 1.6 million total net customers after approximately 115,000 net reductions to the company's wholesale base.
* Verizon Wireless continued its industry-leading customer loyalty, with 1.21 percent retail churn. Churn among retail post-paid customers at 0.96 percent was substantially lower.
* Revenues totaled $11.3 billion, up 14.4 percent. Service revenues were $9.7 billion, up 15.1 percent, driven by customer growth and demand for data services.
* ARPU levels (average monthly revenue per customer) were the company's highest ever: $52.17 retail service ARPU, up 1.9 percent year over year; $10.59 retail data ARPU, up 42.9 percent.
* Wireless operating income margin was 27.1 percent, the company's second highest. EBITDA margin on service revenues (non-GAAP) was 44.7 percent.

Wireline Reports Strong Growth in FiOS, Strategic Services

Verizon's Wireline business, which includes Verizon Telecom and Verizon Business, reported continued strong growth in customers of FiOS fiber-optic services and sales of strategic services to enterprise customers.

In the third quarter:

* Verizon added a net of 202,000 new FiOS TV customers. The company has 717,000 FiOS TV customers in total, with approximately 600,000 added within the past 12 months. Including satellite TV customers served in partnership with DIRECTV (a net of 85,000 added this quarter), Verizon has more than 1.5 million video customers.
* Verizon added a net of 285,000 new broadband connections (DSL and FiOS Internet connections combined). Broadband connections totaled 8.0 million, an increase of 21.3 percent compared with the third quarter 2006. The company added a net of 229,000 FiOS Internet connections this quarter, for a total of 1.3 million.
* ARPU in legacy Verizon wireline markets (which excludes former MCI consumer markets) increased 10.8 percent to $58.79, compared with last year's third quarter. This increase was due to strong demand for broadband and TV services.
* Wireline operating income margin rose to 9.4 percent, compared with 8.8 percent in last year's third quarter.
* Verizon Business had revenues of $5.3 billion, or growth of 2.2 percent compared with last year's third quarter on an adjusted basis (non-GAAP). This is Verizon Business' fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year, pro-forma revenue growth (non-GAAP, calculated as if Verizon and MCI had merged on Jan. 1, 2005).
* Strong sales of key strategic services -- such as IP (Internet protocol), managed services, Ethernet and optical ring services -- continued to drive Verizon Business' growth. These services generated $1.4 billion in revenue, up 28.6 percent from last year's third quarter.

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Airlines may be fined for chronically late flights

noreply@blogger.com (Chew Jek Hui) — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 14:17:00 +0000

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Airlines that operate chronically delayed flights could face stiff fines in the coming weeks as the U.S. government concludes a six-month investigation into potentially deceptive business practices.

The Transportation Department in May began investigating flights that are at least 15 minutes late more than 70 percent of the time, and so far has identified 26 that meet those criteria, an agency spokesman said.

If any of those 26 flights also were delayed in the most recent quarter being reviewed, the responsible airlines will face "significant financial penalties," agency spokesman Brian Turmail said. Results of the investigation are expected within weeks.

The commercial airlines trade group criticized the government's possible penalties.

"We're disappointed that they're taking this course of action given the effort by industry to significantly reduce delays," said David Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association.

"No one has greater incentive to move its flights on-time than the airlines," Castelveter said, because they cost the industry $6 billion per year and it means "we fail our customers." But the answer is not eliminating flights from the chronically delayed list, which are there based on customer demand, he added.

The Federal Aviation Administration handles roughly 85,000 flights per day, a number predicted to reach more than 111,000 daily flights by 2020.

But delays this summer reached record levels. The Transportation Department earlier this month said more than 25 percent of domestic flights arrived late between January and August — easily the industry's worst performance since comparable data began being collected in 1995.

In August alone, 23 flights were late at least 90 percent of the time and more than 100 flights were late at least 80 percent of the time. Almost half of Atlantic Southeast Airlines' flights were delayed, and two arrived late every time they took off.

Kristen Loughman, a spokeswoman for the Delta Connection carrier owned by SkyWest Inc., said the company was not aware of any fines being considered by the government. Any Atlantic Southeast flight on the Transportation Department's monthly report of delays becomes its top priority to fix, she added.

Other airlines that operated flights that were late at least 90 percent of the time in August were: ExpressJet Holdings Inc., which flies regional service for Continental Airlines Inc.; SkyWest Inc.; AirTran Holdings Inc.; Delta Air Lines Inc. and its subsidiary Comair Inc.

Also Tuesday, federal aviation regulators opened a two-day summit aimed at fixing "epidemic" delays at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The latest government proposal for reducing congestion at JFK, which had the worst on-time departure record of any major U.S. airport through August, is to reduce the hourly flight limit by 20 percent.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters repeated the government's desire for airlines to voluntarily change their summer 2008 flight schedules in order to alleviate record delays at JFK and other airports, but also reiterated that schedule reduction mandates remain an option.

Peters said she has "high hopes for market-based incentives," including raising landing fees for airlines during peak periods, to help reduce record delays at JFK and elsewhere.

But airlines say that so-called "congestion pricing" approach would simply result in higher fares and pledged to challenge mandates for it, or mandated schedule cuts, in court or legislatively.

Other recommendations for reducing airline delays are due by Dec. 10 from an aviation rules committee made up of airline executives, government officials and aviation groups. The scheduling summit is being carried out in parallel to that process and FAA officials expect a series of one-on-one meetings with airlines to continue through early December.

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