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14 Sep 2011 00:58

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Biz: After dodging a Supreme Court bullet, Walmart focuses on women

  • june In what would’ve been the largest class-action suit ever, over a million female employees tried to sue Walmart for discrimination. The Supreme Court, however, said it stretched the definition of a class-action suit way too far, blocking the suit from moving forward.
  • september Looking to improve its image after avoiding what could’ve been a hugely damaging lawsuit, the company says it plans to double its investment in businesses run by women, and show in other ways that they’ve changed their ways. Have they? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Aug 2011 10:31

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Biz: Warren Buffett invests a ton of cash in struggling Bank of America

  • $5 billion investment from Warren Buffett to Bank of America source
  • » Giving it to the needy: Our boy Warren Buffett, who recently took the U.S. government to task for not raising taxes on the rich, is giving a big cash infusion to a company that’s struggling build confidence in investors. It’s taken a hit on the stock market — its shares are down nearly 30 percent since the beginning of August and it just announced some huge job cuts — and it owns a couple of properties, Countrywide and Merrill Lynch, noted for their spectacular combustions during the financial crisis. Buffett’s deal is pretty sweet — a 6 percent annual dividend and a 5 percent premium if he buys back the stock — but he nonetheless sounds like he’s doing it out of respect for the company. “I am impressed with the profit-generating abilities of this franchise, and that they are acting aggressively to put their challenges behind them,” Buffett said in a statement. “Bank of America is focused on their customers and on serving them well. That’s what customers want, and that’s the company’s strategy.”
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Aug 2011 18:33

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Offbeat: Shocker: Tooth Fairy investing less in kids’ teeth due to the recession

  • $2.60 average amount the tooth fairy gives a kid for a lost tooth
  • 40¢ dip from the last survey; that’s $3, for the math-challenged source
  • » We’ve been really worried about the whole debt-ceiling mess for the past few days, but it really says something about the economy when the tooth fairy isn’t even giving as much for kids’ pearly whites. Perhaps, like Glenn Beck, she’s chosen to invest in gold instead of teeth. We hear gold’s doing pretty well nowadays.
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Mar 2011 10:29

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Biz: Twitter valuation: A stock auction suggests they’re growing in value

  • $7.7 billion valuation based on a private stock auction source
  • » Worth noting: Just three months ago, that valuation was $3.75 billion, so this is a pretty big jump for the company. Still not Facebook numbers, but getting there. We credit the Dickbar.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Feb 2011 21:56

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Biz, Tech: Could Google or Facebook buy Twitter? It’s a definite possibility.

  • valuation A December financing round put Twitter’s valuation around $3.75 billion – not peanuts in any sense but not anywhere near Facebook’s valuation. Back in February 2009, they were worth just $250 million.
  • offers? The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google and Facebook have both eyed taking over Twitter – with offers ranging in the $8 billion to $10 billion range – but talks have gone nowhere so far. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Jan 2011 19:32

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Biz, Tech: Mark Zuckerberg swimming in Facebook cash infusions right now

  • We know what Mark Zuckerberg’s doing right now. He’s taking his daily swim in Facebook money. (We’re sure the Winklevi are rowing through their much smaller pile of litigation money.) As we’re sure you’ve heard, Facebook has been making fast friends with Goldman Sachs to increase its funding base without going public, which they’re going out of their way to not do for some reason. How much money have they raised? Well, to give you an idea:
  • $1.5 billion raised by Facebook in the last freaking month
  • $500
    million     the amount Facebook raised in that shady-sounding Goldman Sachs deal a while back
  • $1
    billion     the amount Facebook raised from Goldman Sachs’ uber-rich individual international clients source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Jan 2011 13:02

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Biz: Does Goldman Sachs’ Facebook deal hurt their image rehab?

  • The committee was undertaken in the hope and the commitment to do some things that were going to help restore and improve trust … [Instead] people are going to look at it and say do those standards seem credible in light of the Facebook deal?
  • Boston University School of Management professor James Post • Suggesting that the recent Facebook deal that Goldman Sachs put together may be questionable in the light of Goldman’s recent ethics troubles. The company even put together a business standards committee to help prevent future kerfluffles. They have a report that’s coming out next week. But instead of the story being the ethics report and the image rehab work that Goldman is doing, it’s Facebook. Somebody somewhere screwed up. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

03 Jan 2011 10:31

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Biz, Tech: Goldman Sachs investment: Facebook worth more than God

  • $450
    million     the amount that Goldman Sachs just invested in the massive film-worthy social network
  • $50
    billion     the valuation of Mark Zuckerberg’s baby, based largely on Goldman’s huge investment source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Dec 2010 10:08

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Tech: Based on their latest financing, here’s how much Twitter’s worth

  • $200
    million     the amount Twitter just raised in their latest financing round
  • $3.7
    billion     the company’s estimated value; that’s a lot of tweets, guys source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Dec 2010 20:49

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Tech: Smelling a trend, Amazon invests in site kinda like Groupon

  • $6
    billion     the amount Google offered fast-growing deals site Groupon in a buyout offer last week
  • $175
    million     the amount Amazon invested in the similarly growing deals site Living Social earlier today source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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