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Pirates likely to get arms ship ransom

noreply@blogger.com (Danar's Site) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:13:00 +0000

Pirates holding a ship full of tanks and ammunition off the coast of Somalia are likely to be paid millions of dollars in ransom within days, senior U.S. military officials said.(Read More)

Crackdown on credit card practices OK'd

noreply@blogger.com (Danar's Site) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:10:00 +0000

Cash-strapped consumers got a break Thursday, when regulators voted to rein in controversial credit card practices, CNNMoney reports. The new rules, which take effect in July 2010, include prohibiting raising interest rates on some balances for late payment. And issuers will no longer be allowed to increase the interest rate on one card if a payment is missed on another.(Read More)

Chrysler shuts down production for a month

noreply@blogger.com (Danar's Site) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:50:00 +0000

Chrysler said late today that it is stopping all vehicle production in the United States for at least a month, CNNMoney.com reports. All 30 of the carmaker's plants will close after the last shift on Friday, and employees won't be asked back before January 19 -- about two weeks longer than the company's typical holiday break. (Read More)

DirtCheapCouture.com

noreply@blogger.com (Danar's Site) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:57:00 +0000

(Fortune Magazine) -- If you are an urban woman of a certain age, chances are you've spent at least one afternoon in line at a sample sale. They are the end-of-season fashionista free-for-alls where designers try to clear their inventories with deep discounts. Sample sales are the way you get a Marc Jacobs handbag cheap, or perhaps a pair of Sergio Rossi pumps.

High fashion, low price plays well under any economic circumstances - but during a flagging economy? How countercyclical can you get? The only drawback to sample sales: They tend to be held in rag-trade enclaves like New York and Paris.

Well, ladies (and gentlemen) in Tacoma and Tampa and every other fine metropolis in between that doesn't happen to have a luxury-apparel industry: An enterprising team of techies at Giltgroupe.com has brought sample sales online.

Gilt, as the site is known, was started by two women who share a taste for couture, as well as an alma mater and some business chops. Alexandra Wilkis Wilson and Alexis Maybank - ages 32 and 33, respectively - met as undergrads at Harvard. The former head of North American retail operations for Bulgari, Wilkis Wilson supervises the merchandise.

Maybank, who was an early employee at eBay Canada, handles strategy. (There's a third co-founder: Kevin Ryan, who helped start DoubleClick years ago before selling it to Google. Gilt is a part of Alley Corp., Ryan's New York-based Internet incubator.)

And in September, Gilt landed a big hire: Susan Lyne, former CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO), passed on a job running Oprah's media company to become Gilt's CEO. The site has a handful of competitors - ideeli.com, HauteLook.com, and Editor's Closet, to name some. But Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute, calls Gilt "one of the leading innovators in online luxury," highlighting the site's strong designer collection and its management team.

You can't just join Gilt; another member has to invite you. The site hosts roughly 20 sales a week, each starting at noon and lasting exactly 36 hours. Merchandise includes clothing, accessories, and housewares; designer names range from up-and-coming Page Sargisson to ruling gentry like Paul Frank.

Everything goes at flat-rate discounts of up to 70%. (Yes, there's a return policy for apparel and accessories, so no need to worry about getting stuck with something that doesn't fit.) The site's professional buyers - many of them veterans of Saks - build relationships directly with brands, picking from their excess inventories. Gilt, which launched in November 2007, expects sales of $25 million for the year.

The site has amassed more than 500,000 members. Customers are mostly women in their late 20s and early 30s with incomes in the low to middle six figures. They're often women like Antonia Thompson, 26, a senior associate at fashion consultancy Robert Burke Associates. Thompson visits the site daily and says, "The best stuff is sold out in five or ten minutes." During one week in November, she purchased a set of LuLu D.K. for Matouk linens for $560 (regularly $1,400) and a pair of Banfi Zambrelli over-the-knee boots for $250 (down from $900).

Gilt has unquestionably hit its stride. October sales were the highest to date. But will the momentum last as cold winds begin to blow down Fifth Avenue, the epicenter of high-end retail, and even the new stuff is marked down by as much as 40%?

Lyne believes so and is already talking about a whole empire of Gilty pleasures. "You can use this platform for any white-label sale," she says. "Imagine the possibilities. High-end appliances. Cars."

It's jarring to hear a retailer sound so upbeat just now. But she's got a point: Never, not even in a recession, should you underestimate the simple allure of a really good deal.

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AMD warns of 25% revenue drop

noreply@blogger.com (Danar's Site) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:54:00 +0000

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) -- Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. warned Thursday its fourth-quarter revenue will drop about 25% from third-quarter levels due to weaker-than-expected demand, particularly in the consumer market.

That implies sales of $1.19 billion, based on third-quarter revenue of $1.59 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, expect much higher sales of $1.54 billion.

AMD (AMD, Fortune 500) had been struggling long before the economy took a turn for the worst, losing $5.6 billion over the past eight quarters. Last month, AMD said it will cut 500 jobs, or about 3% of its global work force - the company's second big round of layoffs this year amid a huge restructuring.
Layoffs

AMD had already laid off 1,600 workers, replaced its chief executive and revealed plans to spin off its factories - which represent a huge expense for chipmakers - to help the company return to profitability.

AMD and larger rival Intel Corp (INTC, Fortune 500). are responsible for making the bulk of the world's microprocessors - the electronic brains of personal computers. Intel owns about 80% of the worldwide microprocessor market; AMD essentially has the rest.

Chip sales have been suffering as companies worldwide lay off workers, slash capital spending and delay IT upgrades. The Semiconductor Industry Association said global chip sales were down 2.4% in October from a year ago, mainly due to falling prices for memory chips. The SIA expects the worldwide financial crisis to continue to hold back demand for chips next year.

AMD will report fourth-quarter results after the market closes on Jan. 22, 2009.

Shares slipped 3 cents to $2.17, after earlier falling to as low as $1.92. The company has lost about 71% of its market value this year.

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noreply@blogger.com (Danar's Site) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:28:00 +0000

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Global chip sales slip 2.4%

noreply@blogger.com (Danar's Site) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:36:00 +0000

Global sales for memory capacity in cameras, phones, and music players decline from the previous year.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Global chip sales fell 2.4% in October from a year ago as prices declined for chips used in digital cameras, cell phones and music players amid the worldwide financial crisis.

The Semiconductor Industry Association said Monday that the impact is expected to be felt into next year.

Chip sales dropped to $22.5 billion in October from $23 billion a year earlier. Sales for the month were 2.1% lower than the $23 billion in September, the SIA said.

Falling prices for memory chips were behind much of the decline. Excluding memory, sales rose 3.8% from a year ago. Sales of NAND flash memory, used in digital cameras, cell phones and music players, fell 41% in dollar terms even as they rose 123% in terms of memory capacity shipped, the SIA said.

Sales of DRAM, the memory chips used in computers, were down 14% from a year ago, while the capacity of the sold chips was up 73%.

"The worldwide financial turmoil is expected to continue to impact demand for semiconductors as we enter 2009," said SIA President George Scalise in a statement. "For 2009 PC unit shipments are forecast to decline by 5% and cell phone unit shipments are projected to be down by 9%. PCs and cell phones account for approximately 60% of total demand for semiconductors."

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Big Blue's big plan

noreply@blogger.com (Danar's Site) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:33:00 +0000

(Fortune Magazine) -- "We've been given this on a silver platter," says Sam Palmisano, CEO of IBM. "We might as well use it as an opportunity."

Believe it or not, the leader of Big Blue is talking about the financial crisis and the prospect of systemic overhaul. As companies around the globe try to get ahead of the economic maelstrom by laying off employees, shuttering factories, and cutting R&D, IBM (IBM, Fortune 500) is headed in another direction.

In the face of a meltdown, Palmisano continues, "you can retrench, pull in your horns, protect the balance sheet, and preserve cash. Or you can realize that this is about humanity screaming for change."

What kind of change? The planet is buckling under the weight of snarled traffic, wasted energy, toxic emissions, poor distribution of food and water, and insufficient health care.

Palmisano thinks all those dilemmas are connected in one important way: They're the result of dumb underlying networks. Traffic bogs down because of overwhelming demand at peak hours. Health care suffers from the lack of a universal database of symptoms and diagnoses. Add intelligence to the networks, and the problems will go away.

It's not an altruistic notion. As speculation swirls that the Obama administration may invest in a "new New Deal" to stimulate the economy, Palmisano is positioning IBM as a leader in infrastructure overhaul. In fact, he's been preparing for this juncture for a while now.

In the past five years Palmisano has sold off marginal businesses like PCs and redirected the company's $6 billion annual R&D budget toward the "Smarter Planet" initiative, which focuses on inserting sensors into massive networks, such as the electricity grid, and making sense of it all through data analytics software.

IBM has also adjusted its M&A strategy to follow suit. Its biggest acquisitions of late - Cognos, FileNet, and PricewaterhouseCoopers - have all added to the technology giant's already formidable data acquisition, analysis, and consulting capabilities.

Such investments have allowed IBM to create, for example, food-tracking systems using tiny radio transponders. Last year it rolled out Stockholm's congestion-pricing traffic system after a seven-month pilot program reduced air pollutants by 12%, inner-city greenhouse gases by 40%, and gridlock by 20%. IBM didn't work on that system alone; it had almost 30 partners. But it was a leader, and it subsequently won the right to redo London's system.

In energy IBM has co-developed "smart meters" that reveal electricity-use patterns. Merely showing consumers a cheaper time to do a load of laundry, it turns out, can reduce consumption by up to 15% and lessen peak demand by 10%.

The company has also introduced grid-monitoring programs in India. According to Michael Valocchi, the head of IBM's intelligent utility practice, one Indian utility was losing 47% of all generated power to "splicing" - that is, consumers and companies literally stealing electricity by tapping transmission lines. By putting sensors around the grid, IBM cut those losses to 21%. Now, rather than building new power plants, the Indian utility is focusing on improving existing ones - which is good for everyone.

Palmisano knows IBM isn't alone in drooling over big infrastructure projects. In tech, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500), Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500), and SAP (SAP) all stand to benefit too. The same goes for the likes of GE (GE, Fortune 500).

"These are global issues and huge opportunities," Palmisano says. "Someone has to step out and take the lead. But we'll never do it by ourselves."

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BlackBerry maker cuts outlook

noreply@blogger.com (Danar's Site) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:29:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. on Tuesday lowered its forecast for its third-quarter revenue and earnings per share, citing the impact of the strong dollar and the weak U.S. economy.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company said it now expects its adjusted earnings per share to be in a range between 81 cents and 83 cents for the quarter that ended Nov. 29. That's down from its initial forecast of between 89 cents and 97 cents per share.

Analysts had been expecting, on average, 91 cents per share, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

The lowered forecast was "primarily due to the lower-than-estimated revenue and the unfavorable impact of the strengthening U.S. dollar during the quarter," RIM said.

It said it now expects third-quarter revenue to be in a range between $2.75 billion and $2.78 billion, down from a previous range of $2.95 billion to $3.10 billion.

Analysts had expected revenue of $2.96 billion.

RIM said two-thirds of the difference in the revenue forecast was due to lower-than-estimated unit shipments of existing products, which it attributed to the weak U.S. economy and shifts in product launch dates within the quarter.

It said its gross margin for the quarter would be between 45 and 46%, which it described as lower than expected.

RIM said it expects the number of net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts added in the quarter to be about 2.6 million, lower than the 2.9 million forecast earlier.

But it cited strong customer response to its new BlackBerry phones launched in the current quarter and noted "strong momentum" in recent weeks.

"Initial sales of new products have been very positive ... however product launch timing, general economic conditions and foreign exchange volatility have tempered our results in the third quarter," said Jim Balsillie, the company's co-chief executive.

Earlier Tuesday, RIM's (RIMM) shares fell to their lowest levels since 2006 after a J.P. Morgan analyst cut his earnings forecasts due to the global economic crunch.

The stock fell $2.48, or 6.2 percent, to close at $37.32. Earlier, it went as low as $35.76. As late as June, the stock hit $148.13.

The company is due to report its third-quarter results on Dec. 18.
Now hiring in Silicon Valley

Big Blue's big plan

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iPod holiday sales: Hot or cold?

noreply@blogger.com (Danar's Site) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:20:00 +0000

We’re getting an unusually sharp divergence of expert opinion on how well the iPod is likely to do this holiday season.

The conventional wisdom — reflected in Arik Hesseldahl’s “Apple’s iPod Problem” in Businessweek — is that everybody who wants an iPod already has one, and doesn’t see much reason to upgrade, especially with the economy in the dumps. “As a result,” he wrote, “some analysts believe this will be the first quarter since the iPod was introduced in 2001 that sales will decline from the year-earlier quarter.”

Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster is one of those analysts. He’s projecting sales of 18.6 million units in Apple’s December quarter, down 16% from 2008 Q1.

A cooling off of this magnitude would mean that Apple’ (AAPL) other business units — chiefly the Mac and the iPhone — need to pick up the slack if the company is to continue the quarterly growth to which investors have become accustomed.

But the reality on the ground, according to Kaufman Bros.’s Shaw Wu, is that iPods are selling like Christmas hotcakes.

In a note issued earlier this week, he reported that Amazon (AMZN), whose giant warehouses tend to have plenty of iPods in stock, was reporting a backlog of several models.

“iPod touch was surprisingly stocked out and now has lead times of 11 days for the 8 GB model and three to five weeks for 16 GB,” Wu wrote. “This is likely due to unexpected strong demand and we find this interesting as iPod touch is Apple’s highest-end iPod.” (link)

Now AppleInsider’s Katie Marsal reports that Apple is “scurrying to restock some of its reseller channels” as those iPod shortages spread.

In a new report to clients issued Wednesday, Wu writes that spot checks are turning up shortages at Best Buy (BBY), Target (TGT), Wal-Mart (WMT) and Crutchfield.com.

“Frankly, we find these sell-outs on iPods surprising, given how difficult the macroeconomic environment is,” he told clients. “From our assessment, we believe iPod is holding up better than most, due to its relatively low [selling price] and strong consumer understanding of the value it provides.” (link)

Wu estimates that Apple will sell some 21 million iPods this quarter — less than the 22 million it sold the year before, but not by much.

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A year later, Amazon's Kindle finds a niche

noreply@blogger.com (Danar's Site) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:05:00 +0000

(CNN) -- It has the curves of a Lamborghini, looks like something an astronaut might take into space and weighs only 10.3 ounces.Amazon.com's electronic Kindle reader -- a device meant to remove the paper from the page and make reading both more convenient and eco-friendly -- is celebrating its first birthday.

Released in November 2007, the Kindle has sold more than a quarter million units. Its texts account for 10 percent of Amazon's book sales despite the fact that 200,000 titles -- a tiny fraction of the books offered on the site -- are available in digital form.

While exact sales figures are hard to come by, recent estimates have put the Kindle's sales on par with other high-profile mobile devices in their first year. Amazon.com says that the Kindle is currently sold out due to heavy demand.

So what has spurred its success? After all, electronic books have been around, in small numbers, for about a decade. Even Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and CEO, has admitted that the book is "elegantly suited to its purpose. It's hard to improve on."

One thing that's helped the Kindle is marketing. Where other readers failed to connect with consumers, the Kindle has excelled. The media-savvy Bezos has hardly been publicity shy, gaining his electronic toy a level of exposure most CEOs couldn't begin to fathom.

"You can't discount the prominence of having Amazon behind this," says Paul Reynolds, technology editor at Consumer Reports. "Jeff Bezos is respected for what he's done with Amazon, and if he feels this is a future product in media, people are willing to trust him."

Second, the gadget has been heralded by Oprah Winfrey, whose influence in the publishing world is immense. It's also been embraced by some prominent writers, including Nobel laureate Toni Morrison and best-selling thriller author James Patterson.

Third, with more and more consumers accustomed to reading text on their cell phones and BlackBerrys, the world finally may be ready for an electronic version of a book.

"I checked it out on Amazon and thought it was an intriguing idea, a great way to have a lot of books that don't take up a lot of space," says Emily Branch of Florida, who was moved to buy a Kindle after seeing the hosts of "The View" chatting about it.

"I figured if I didn't like it I could return it within 30 days," Branch says. "There wasn't a chance of that happening once I got it in my hands though."

One clutter-killing Kindle can hold about 200 books. And while other e-readers such as Sony's Reader must connect through a USB port to upload content, the Kindle is a wireless device, thanks to Whispernet, which is powered by Sprint's high-speed data network.

"I think the Whispernet is what sets the Kindle apart from all the other e-readers on the market," says Leslie Nicoll of Portland, Maine, who co-authored "The Amazon Kindle F.A.Q." book after her tech-loving teenage daughter urged her to get a Kindle.

Like Branch, Nicoll says she likes the Kindle's low-impact effect on her bookshelves. "I don't have to worry about giving it to someone else, reselling it on Amazon or finding a place to store it in my house," she says. "For the enjoyment and convenience, it has given me in the past seven months, I consider that it has paid for itself already."

Readers can visit Amazon's online store and upload a new book right to their Kindle. Subscribers also can have electronic versions of The New York Times and other newspapers and magazines delivered automatically to their Kindles in time for reading with their morning cup of coffee.

"The large and tightly interacting collection of Kindle features, that go far beyond those of any other previous e-Book attempt, will cause the Kindle to be the first e-Book to succeed," wrote one reviewer on an Amazon discussion board.

But not everything in Kindle world is roses and gumdrops. There's a difference between modest early success and making a centuries-old print format obsolete. The Kindle sells for $359, a steep price for the average reader in the current economic climate.

"I'm not going to pay $360 for that. I can get books for free," says Nikki Johnson, a college student in Atlanta, Georgia, speaking for traditionalists who are wary of giving up their bound paper volumes.

"There's nothing like reading a nice paperback," she says. "There's nothing like holding or carrying a book, having that tangible quality and it being more than just a piece of data."

So in an unforgiving economy and in a stubbornly old-fashioned medium, will the Kindle ever expand from a tech novelty to a mainstream accessory? It might be too soon to tell.

Blockbuster writers such as J.K. Rowling, author of the "Harry Potter" series, have said they'll never allow their books to appear on the market in electronic form. Yet future, better versions of e-readers may seduce younger consumers who grew up on PSPs and iPhones.

A next-generation model of the Kindle is due in 2009. Early reports indicate the new device will be thinner and will have fixed some current design bugs, such as poorly placed buttons that cause readers to turn pages accidentally.
"I think it's certainly a ways away from hitting the mainstream ... because of the price and the experience a reader gets from long-form reading," says Reynolds of Consumer Reports. "Whether these ... are successful, stand-alone devices remains to be seen. From what I've seen and heard, I think the technology is here to stay."

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