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03 May 2010 10:19

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Biz, U.S.: BP on massive oil spill: Yeah, we’ll pay for this huge mess

“It is indeed BP’s responsibility to deal with this and we’re dealing with it,” says CEO Tony Hayward on the massive cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico. Good to hear he agrees. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Apr 2010 15:27

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Biz: Goldman Sachs under investigation? Let’s send your stock tumbling!

  • 9.5% stock freefall thanks to new legal troubles source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Apr 2010 09:24

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Biz: Consumers driving gross domestic product’s improvement

  • 3.2% the increase in gross domestic product this quarter – good, but smaller than expected
  • 2.55% of that growth came from
    consumer spending – the largest boost since 2006 source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Apr 2010 09:45

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Biz: Exxon Mobil’s huge profits somehow not good enough

  • $6.3
    billion     the size of Exxon Mobil’s
    quarterly profits, helped by rising
    oil prices of late
  • 38%
     increase     from last year’s levels –
    an increase which missed Wall Street’s hefty estimates source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Apr 2010 20:52

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Biz, Tech: Win/win situation: How Palm and HP’s merger benefits them both

  • Palm The smartphone company’s big problem has been a lack of money to take on the big boys in the field. HP, if nothing else, has money.
  • HP The company gets access to a pretty impressive smartphone platform in WebOS, and they have the money to make it a hit. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Apr 2010 20:30

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Biz: McDonald’s not very happy with Santa Clara County right now

  • What happened?Santa Clara County, Calif., decided they had enough of the Happy Meal convincing kids to eat crappy food by teasing them with a cheap toy, so they banned selling crappy food with toys inside. “This ordinance breaks the link between unhealthy food and prizes,” the county supervisor claimed.

    healthy food excluded The ordinance really only limits restaurants from giving away toys with crappy food. If your meal has less than 485 calories, 600 milligrams of sodium, 35 percent of calories from fat and 10 percent of calories from sugar, you’re golden.

    Grace period Restaurants have a little over 100 days to make changes to their menus. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

28 Apr 2010 10:23

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Biz: AOL’s profit picture looks a lot worse than it did a year ago

  • $48
    million     decrease in AOL’s profit
    between this quarter and the
    same quarter a year ago
  • 4.6
    million     number of people who STILL subscribe to AOL’s legacy service after all these years source
  • » Why the cruddy profits? It’s worth keeping in mind that AOL is a different company than it was a year ago. The company, fresh after leaving the disastrous merger with Time Warner which hurt both companies, is in the midst of making a big push into content, away from its core subscription business. (Disclosure: We freelance for AOL News occasionally.) Even considering that, their profit picture is significantly lower than expected – instead of the analyst-expected 70 cents per share, they could only muster 39 cents per share. Part of this is due to the quickly-falling legacy subscriber base and part of it is due to continuing advertising declines.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

28 Apr 2010 10:03

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Biz: Protip for WellPoint patients: Don’t get breast cancer before Friday

  • After much criticism, the insurer will back off of canceling policies after on May 1. After a Reuters feature put pressure on the massive insurer by noting many patients were getting their policies canceled almost immediately after getting breast cancer, Democrats put lots of pressure on them to change the policy. They would have had to change it anyway due to the new health care law, but the Democrats got them to change it early. The company claims “there have been a lot of misrepresentations and inaccuracies in recent days,” but the decision would help bring clarity to the company’s stance. Good move. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

27 Apr 2010 20:27

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Biz: Fabrice Tourre: Goldman Sachs’ fraud mastermind or fall guy?

Fabrice Tourre, a kid in these circles at 31, reportedly created the ABACUS system which defrauded investors in 2007. He looked scared today. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Apr 2010 20:20

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Biz: Goldman Sachs execs had a lot of sweat furrowing their brows today

  • They’re buying something from you, and you are betting against it. And you want people to trust you? I wouldn’t trust you.
  • Sen. Carl Levin • Talking in very harsh terms to Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein – a hearing put together in the wake of the SEC lawsuit against the company. He and other Goldman staffers looked really uncomfortable with being there, and Levin didn’t help – especially due to all the profanity he was using in criticizing them. He said “)*#(%@” eleven freaking times in a ten-minute period. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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