Archive for Business
Boeing 747-8 to fly Monday
Posted by: | CommentsThe Boeing Co.’s 747-8 Freighter is scheduled to make its first flight Monday, following what the company says was a successful taxi test on Saturday.
“The airplane performed well,” said Mo Yahyavi, 747 program vice president and general manager, in a release. “Based on early indications, the airplane is ready to fly.”
The flight is scheduled for 10 a.m. PST in Everett, Wash.
Boeing (NYSE: BA) will be showing the flight online at 747-8firstflight.com.
Wichita-based Spirit AeroSystems Inc. (NYSE:SPR) builds the nacelles that house the engines and the struts that hold them to the wing on the 747-8.
graco stroller recall
Posted by: | CommentsGraco Stroller Recall: 1.5 Million Strollers Could Amputate Baby’s Fingertips
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – More than a million strollers and hundreds of thousands of cribs are being recalled on Wednesday over safety fears. The recalls affect some of the most expensive products available for children.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), in cooperation with Graco and Dorel Asia SRL are voluntarily recalling the hazardous products.
About 1.5 million Graco strollers are affected in the recall. It specifically includes the Graco Passage, Alano and Spree Strollers and Travel Systems The hinges on the stroller’s canopy pose a fingertip amputation and laceration hazard to the child when the consumer is opening or closing the canopy. Graco has received seven reports of children placing their fingers in the stroller’s canopy hinge mechanism while the canopy was being opened or closed, resulting in five fingertip amputations and two fingertip lacerations.
The Dorel Asia manufactured crib is being recalled to replace drop side and non-drop side cribs that pose suffocation and strangulation hazards to infants and toddlers. Over 635,000 of the cribs have been sold.
According to the CPSCP the drop side hardware can fail causing the drop side to detach from the crib. When the drop side detaches it creates a space in which an infant or toddler can become entrapped and suffocate or strangle. In addition, the recalled cribs can pose a serious entrapment and strangulation hazard when a slat is damaged.
Consumers are urged to stop using the recalled cribs until replacement kits are obtained and installed.
CPSC and Dorel Asia SRL received a report of the death of 6-month old child from Cedar Rapids, Iowa who became entrapped and strangled in a crib after the drop side hardware broke. Aside from the one death numerous reports of injuries have also been reported.
Read more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7017574168#ixzz0dBXbuCuF
Sparkfun Free Day
Posted by: | CommentsMYFOXNY.COM – The Web site for SparkFun was crashing Thursday as customers swamped the site for “Free Day” where it gives away up to $100,000 of electronic items.
The Boulder, Colorado based site touts itself as an electronic enabler. It manufactures and sells microcontroller development boards and breakout boards used by hobbiests.
Wikipedia says SparkFun Electronics was founded in 2003 by Nathan Seidle.
It is sometimes known by its abbreviation SFE.
Its Twitter page was updating sales. The company says it had more than 100,000 customers for the day.
chattem is bought by Sanofi Aventis
Posted by: | CommentsChattem, Manufactures and sells health and beauty products, toiletries, proprietary drugs , fragrances and dietary supplements, is bought by Drug maker Sanofi-Aventis S.A for about $1.9 billion in cash in a deal it said would create the world’s fifth-largest consumer health-care company.
Sanofi-Aventis said that it will attempt to convert is popular antihistamine Allegra to an OTC product, which Chattem would then distribute. Sanofi-Aventis shares were mostly flat in premarket trading Monday.
“The acquisition of Chattem will be a significant milestone in Sanofi-Aventis’ transformation strategy and will provide us with the ideal platform in the U.S. consumer healthcare market, which represents 25 percent of the current worldwide opportunity,” the Sanofi chief executive Christopher A. Viehbacher said in a statement.
black friday ads 2009 best buy
Posted by: | CommentsBlack Friday 2009 is around the corner. Black Friday 2009 deals at Wal-Mart and Best Buy are important for Black Friday deal hunters. This year, Black Friday is more important than ever because job losses and uncertainty of the future makes many consumers hesitant to spend.
I know I will be keeping a better eye on Black Friday deals this year. I have to do more with less. Many retailers such as Sears, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy are offering stellar deals in the weeks leading up to 2009 Black Friday.
During the week of November 7, you can get an HP Notebook computer for $298, a Sharp 42 inch TV for 498, an Xbox 360 Arcade for $199 plus a $100 Wal-Mart e-gift certificate, a Sony BluRay player for $148 and $20 turkey dinners for 8.
Yes, you heard me right. Now through Thanksgiving, you can get the following meal items at Wal-Mart for $20 total:
One 12-pound Grade A turkey.
Three 11 to 15.5-ounce cans Green Giant vegetables.
Two 14-ounce cans Ocean Spray cranberry sauce.
Three 6-ounce boxes of Stove Top stuffing.
One 5-pound bag of red potatoes.
One 12-count package of Sara Lee dinner rolls.
One 22-ounce pumpkin roll cake.
Of course, Wal-Mart isn’t the only retailer offering early sales. Best Buy offered a 42″ TV for $498.99, only .99 more than Wal-Marts similar model. In addition, Best Buy is hosting their annual VIP Black Friday sale. Winners in each of their 25 markets will receive a $1,000 Best Buy giftcard and limo service to their nearby Best Buy location. In addition, the winners get to go in the store first and pick out all of their favorite deals. This would be the ultimate Black Friday deal of them all.
Expect to see a lot of discounts on electronics, gaming systems, computers – especially notebooks and smaller netbooks, TVs, Blu-ray players, DVD players, and much, much more. This may be the year you can afford to purchase your kids a computer AND an mp3 player, PLUS a variety of clothing.
T-mobile customer service
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s not your phone, it’s T-Mobile, and they say they’re working on it.
If you’ve been having problems with your T-Mobile USA phone today, don’t worry, you didn’t forget to pay your bill. Well, maybe you did, but that’s not the issue. The Bellevue-based company tonight acknowledged that it has been hit by an outage, without specifying the cause.
“Some T-Mobile customers may be experiencing intermittent service disruptions impacting voice and some data services,” the company said in a statement issued this evening. “Our rapid response teams have been mobilized to restore service as quickly as possible. We will provide updates as more information is available.”
We first encountered the problem this afternoon when trying to call a family member with a T-Mobile account. First the system informed us that the number we were calling was no longer valid. Subsequent attempts to call the same number returned a busy signal. Later this evening, however, it started working again.
In terms of customer service, this isn’t exactly what T-Mobile needs right now, after all the problems caused by Microsoft subsidiary Danger for T-Mobile Sidekick users. We’ll update this post as the company issues more information. In the meantime, if you’re a T-Mobile customer, let us know your status in the comments below.
zappos deals close with Amazon
Posted by: | CommentsZappos, an electronic commerce company specializing in footwear, close the deals with Amazon. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh said his board of directors has been “switched out,” and that the deal, worth about 10 million shares of Amazon stock, is valued at $1.2 billion, based on Friday’s closing price.
Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh wrote in a public letter:
We’ve been spending the past few months obtaining all the proper government approvals, and I’m happy to say that we officially closed the deal at the split second between Halloween (10/31/09) and All Saints’ Day (11/1/09). From a practical point of view, we’ve switched out our previous board of directors with a new management committee that is composed of people from Zappos as well as Amazon.
Our investors and other shareholders exchanged their Zappos.com shares for approximately 10 million Amazon.com shares. Given the closing price on Friday, 10/30/09, for Amazon stock, those shares were valued at approximately $1.2 billion at the time of close.
Stanley Works to Acquire Black & Decker for for $4.5 billion
Posted by: | CommentsTwo leading tool and equipment makers, Stanley Works and Black & Decker, said Monday afternoon that they had agreed to merge in an all-stock transaction that they valued at about $4.5 billion.
The combination would bring together two companies whose product lines appear to be complementary. Stanley is a diversified industrial company that sells hand tools and construction equipment, while Black & Decker is known for its power tools.
“Stanley and Black & Decker together will have a comprehensive offering across all major tool categories and greater resources to support continued expansion of our combined security and industrial businesses,” John F. Lundgren, Stanley’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
Nolan D. Archibald, Black & Decker’s chairman and chief executive, said the deal would result in $350 million in cost savings.
Under the terms of the transaction, which has been approved by the boards of both companies, Stanley would buy Black & Decker for stock valued at about $3.5 billion and assume about $1 billion in debt.
Shareholders of Black & Decker would receive 1.275 common shares of Stanley for each Black & Decker share they currently own. The companies said this price represented a premium of 22.1 percent over Black & Decker’s closing stock price on Friday, although that premium narrowed slightly to 21.6 percent by the end of Monday’s regular trading.
The deal was announced after the stock market closed Monday. Black & Decker’s shares ended at $47.34, up 12 cents, while Stanley’s shares closed at $45.15, down 8 cents.
Wall Street seemed to like the deal, as Black & Decker’s stock jumped more than 20 percent, to $57.10, in after-hours trading on Monday, while Stanley’s shares rose 4 percent, to $47. The gain in Stanley’s stock raised the implied price for Black & Decker’s shares to $59.93, from $57.57 at the close of regular trading.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2010, and Stanley shareholders would own about 50.5 percent of the the combined company, while Black & Decker shareholders would own about 49.5 percent.
Once the deal is closed, Mr. Lundgren would become president and chief executive of the combined company. Mr. Archibald would become the executive chairman for three years.
The nine members of Stanley’s board would be joined by six members from Black & Decker’s board, the companies said.
The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions and requires the approval of Stanley and Black & Decker shareholders.
Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs acted as Stanley’s financial advisers and Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Venable acted as Stanley’s legal counsel. Black & Decker’s financial adviser was J.P. Morgan Securities and its legal advisers were Hogan & Hartson and Miles & Stockbridge.
Bidu down 9% after Q3 result
Posted by: | CommentsBaidu said late Monday that its third-quarter earnings rose 42%, but shares tumbled after hours as its forecast for the current quarter disappointed analysts. Baidu (BIDU) reported after the close, issuing downside fourth quarter revenue, pushing the stocks ~13% lower.
Apple earnings AAPL earning increase nearly double
Posted by: | CommentsToday, one of the kings of tech volatility, Apple Inc., reports its September quarter results after the market closes.
Apple Inc. reports a 46% increase in its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings as the company posts higher revenue than a year ago led by better-than-expected sales of iPhones, Mac computers and iPods.
Here is some financial report highlights:
3.05 million Macs sold this quarter, up 17 percent from a year ago. The overall PC market is expected to grow just 2 percent in the third quarter. That means Apple is taking market share from Windows still. But average selling prices per Mac are down. Sales outside the U.S. were stronger than sales inside the U.S.
10.2 million iPods sold this quarter, down 8 percent from 11 million a year ago. The iPod Touch sales were up 100 percent year-over-year.
7.4 million iPhones sold in the quarter, up 7 percent from a year ago. That’s a new record. iPhone sell through in the quarter was up 38 percent over a year ago.
$9.87 billion in third quarter revenues, up 25 percent ; analysts expected $9.2 billion.
$1.82 a share in earnings per share, up 47 percent; analysts expected $1.42 a share.
273 Apple stores now open, up 15. Apple is spending $400 million a year on stores. It remodeled 72 of them and opened 26 new stores in the quarter. That means some Apple stores closed in the quarter.
45.9 million visitors to Apple stores in the quarter, up from 42.7 million a year ago. Average revenue per store is $7.1 million per quarter, down from $7.6 million a year ago.
Apple has $23.4 billion in cash and short-term investments. With long-term investments included, Apple has $34 billion in current assets, up from $31 billion last quarter.
Expected fourth quarter revenue: $11.3 billion to $11.6 billion Earnings per share in fourth quarter are expected to be $1.70 a share to $1.78 a share.
2.4 million iPhones are in the inventory channel, up 500,000 from a quarter before.
China and Korea are expected to roll iPhones out in fourth quarter. Canada and UK are expected to add a second iPhone carrier.
AAPL earned $1.67 billion, or $1.82 a share, on revenue of $9.87 billion. During the same period a year ago, Apple earned $1.14 billion, or $1.26 a share, on $7.9 billion in sales.