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29 Dec 2011 15:06

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Biz: Verizon plans to add fee for non-automatic online payments

  • $2 fee to pay your bill online, as planned by Verizon Wireless source
  • » Nickel and diming, redux: To be clear, this fee wouldn’t be instituted in every case — people using automatic bill-pay wouldn’t be subject to it, nor would people paying by electronic check (at least according to the initial source of this news, a leaked memo obtained by Engadget). That said, if you’re looking to make a one-off payment, or aren’t scheduled for automatic payments, you can expect  a tidy little $2 charge starting January 15th. What reaction consumers will have is yet unclear; it has, however, been a bad year for companies trying to slip extra fees onto customers.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Dec 2011 10:42

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Biz: Blue light not-so-special: Sears, K-Mart locations closing due to falling sales

  • 120 locations will close amid a longstanding decline source
  • » Sales down across the board: Since K-Mart and Sears merged into one company back in 2005, sales have declined yearly, a trend that continued during this year’s all-important holiday season. (A holiday season, mind you, where things were actually looking positive for most retail chains.) At Sears, sales fell by 6 percent. At K-Mart, they fell by 4.4 percent. Together, that’s a 5 percent decline. The company has long kept underperforming stores open despite declining sales, but they’ve chosen to cut off dead weight this time, which has the potential of buoying the performance of the 2,000-plus U.S. stores and 500 Canadian stores between the two chains.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Dec 2011 14:11

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Biz: Reed Hastings punished financially for Netflix’s sucky year

  • $1.5 million chopped off his stock options in 2012 source
  • » Merry Christmas, screwup: The Netflix CEO, who oversaw a months-long decline in his company’s stock price in the wake of customer-angering moves, lost half of his stock options for next year — from $3 million to $1.5 million. The company will likely face its first net loss in more than a decade next year, due in part to lost subscribers.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Dec 2011 11:28

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Biz: Christmas miracle: Why Virginia farms plant lots of evergreens these days

  • cause Tobacco has long been a key crop for farmers in Virginia, and until the early 2000s, it was a heavily-regulated industry, with quotas and price supports for farmers. However, in 2004, the industry was largely deregulated.
  • reaction After the deregulation happened, farmers got money from the federal government allowing them to focus on new kinds of crops. One of the big ones? Christmas trees, which are hard to smoke but pretty easy to decorate. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Dec 2011 14:56

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Biz: Apple scores court victory against HTC, Android in patent case

  • A bad day for HTC smartphones: While it didn’t represent everything Apple had sought to secure through the legal process, today’s court ruling against HTC struck a blow, and moved along Apple’s bid to prove Google’s Android operating system copied the iPhone. This was, you may remember, a rather intense preoccupation on the part of the late Steve Jobs — the ruling held that some of Android’s data collection software was, in fact, an infringement of Apple’s patent rights, and will cause some HTC phone models to be blocked from sale in the United States starting next year. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Dec 2011 11:16

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Biz: Christmas miracle? New unemployment claims hit 3.5-year low

  • 366,000 the number of people who filed for unemployment benefits last week — a number that’s been on the decline for months
  • 365,000 the number of people who filed during a week in May 2008, the last time that the jobless benefits numbers were quite this low source
  • » However: Don’t get too excited, guys. While the heavily-fluctuating number is certainly better than it’s been in a long time (and the unemployment number is at its lowest level in a long time), the comeback is far from here. Example: During the financial crisis, the U.S. lost roughly 8.8 million jobs; less than a third of those jobs have returned. On top of this, many are still unemployed, and their benefits could run out soon if Congress does not act on the extension for unemployment benefits. Yeah, sorry we have to be such downers, but let’s look in perspective here.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Dec 2011 11:08

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Biz: Black Friday backfire: Best Buy’s profits nosedive on heavy deals

  • 29% drop in Best Buy’s profits in the third quarter source
  • » Too many deals? Best Buy, which has become shorthand for “company that throws all its chips in on Black Friday,” lost its bet on this year’s Black Friday, as its third-quarter results (which include the waffle-iron-rioting-day) showed major weaknesses, as discounts got people into the stores but failed to get them to actually work as loss-leaders. “They were more promotional and that doesn’t bode well for the holiday season, which is going to be very, very intense,” noted Barclays Capital analyst Alan Rifkin.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

12 Dec 2011 15:19

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Biz: Rumors fly on possible Verizon/Netflix acquisition

  • If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em: That would seem to be the principle behind an effort by Verizon to purchase the DVD-shipping and movie streaming giant, though it bears noting that this is reported as little more than rumor at present. It would, however, be fitting with Verizon’s general posture of late; they’ve been open about their desire to enter the streaming movie business, with their CEO last week admitting they’d looked into purchasing Hulu. This would be an advantageous time for somebody to acquire Netflix, as their stock has plummeted in recent months following announced price increases, and the utterly disastrous Qwikster plan; conversely, though, these rumors have sent their stock upwards by 6%. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Dec 2011 11:03

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Biz: Amazon’s controversial price-check app draws Senator’s ire

  • Amazon’s promotion — paying consumers to visit small businesses and leave empty-handed — is an attack on Main Street businesses that employ workers in our communities. Small businesses are fighting everyday to compete with giant retailers, such as Amazon, and incentivizing consumers to spy on local shops is a bridge too far.
  • Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) • Openly criticizing Amazon’s new price-check app, which allows users to go in stores, scan the barcodes and see if Amazon has lower prices than said shops do — for a discounted price at Amazon. With the location feature turned on, consumers effectively can let Amazon know what their brick-and-mortar competitors are selling something for. What do you all think? Clever or sketchy? Does it empower the consumer or hurt small businesses? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Dec 2011 10:33

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Biz: MF Global: Jon Corzine doesn’t know where your money is, investors

  • Well, that’s reassuring: In statements published online to be spoken aloud at a House committee hearing, the former MF Global CEO plans to say he has no idea where he put investors’ money. “I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date,” he plans to say. He claims that, since his resignation, he hasn’t had access to the information that would allow him to understand or reconstruct events. No word if angry farmers with pitchforks (some of whom might be among the investors in MF Global) will be among the crowd at this morning’s hearing. (AP file photo) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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