Archive for the 'News' Category
I was more than a little surprised today to see Yahoo posting live stock ticker data in their finance section. This is the sort of information stock sites charge money for.
I tried checking on my stocks when I was both logged in and not logged in. Both times the FREE stock ticker data appeared above the general stock information area of Yahoo Finance.
I did a quick scan of the news to see if there was a news release about this and I found nothing.
If you look below the block you will find this message:
Quotes delayed, except where indicated otherwise. For consolidated real-time quotes (incl. pre/post market data), sign up for a free trial of Real-time Quotes.
Yahoo charges between $10.95 and $13.95 monthly for the up-to-date ticker information. Why they are now giving this information away for free is a mystery to me. Mystery or not, I like it.
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SlideShare, Inc., the world’s largest community for sharing presentations, today announced it has secured $3 million in series A funding, led by Venrock. As part of this round, SlideShare will be adding David Siminoff, a general partner at Venrock, to its board of directors.
Siminoff joins an esteemed group of SlideShare investors and advisory board, including Hal R. Varian, chief economist at Google; Guy Kawasaki, founder, Truemors and Alltop and managing director of Garage Technology Ventures; Ross Mayfield, co-founder and chairman at Socialtext; Dave McClure, startup advisor and angel investor; Marc Cuban, founder of Broadcast.com; Ariel Poler, internet entrepreneur and investor; Yee Lee, entrepreneur and startup advisor; Jonathan Abrams, founder and CEO at Socializr and Saul Klein, founding partner of The Accelerator Group.
SlideShare will use the financing to expand its San Francisco operations, invest in product development and accelerate customer adoption. Using SlideShare, individuals and organizations can easily upload presentations for free, to share their ideas, connect with others, and generate leads for their businesses. Anyone on the web can find presentations on topics that interest them. They can also tag, download, or embed presentations into their own blogs, websites, or social networks. Slideshows can be shared publicly or privately, and can be combined with audio to make “slidecasts”.
“Our use of the Internet is evolving from consuming and sharing text-based information – like email, news and blogs – to visual communication, using imagery and video,” said David Siminoff, general partner, Venrock. “With its focus on presentations, SlideShare blends the ability to communicate both verbal and visual elements through the most popular social media platforms. Putting your PowerPoint presentation on SlideShare is as easy as uploading and sharing a picture of your vacation on the Web.”
To date users have posted more than 300,000 presentations from 165 countries in more than 55 languages. Whether you’re a professor sharing your lecture with students or a speaker trying to connect with a broader audience, SlideShare is the easiest way to get your slides on the web and share them with the audience that matters.
With the latest investment, SlideShare will add David Siminoff to the board of directors who serves as a general partner at Venrock, a premier venture capital firm established by the Rockefeller family. Siminoff began his career in the media business prior to his entrepreneurial pursuits in technology. Before spending a decade at Capital Research, making early investments in Yahoo!, AOL, Amazon and eBay, Siminoff founded and later sold EastNet, a syndicate barter company, enabling television stations in Eastern Europe to trade American TV programs for advertising time from major brands. He also co-founded 4INFO and most recently, he served as chairman, president and CEO of Spark Networks. Venrock’s Dev Khare will also be actively involved with SlideShare.
“SlideShare fundamentally changes the way that people share presentations,” said Rashmi Sinha, CEO, SlideShare. “Millions of presentations are shared every day across the globe; presentations have become the primary way to illustrate your business idea. The Web and rise of social networking has added new dimensions – users now have the access and ability to share ideas on an enormous scale. This combination of trends is what led us to create SlideShare, and support from Venrock will help us take it to the next level. We want every presentation in the world to be shared on SlideShare.”
About SlideShare, Inc.
SlideShare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations. SlideShare gives users such as professionals, academics and authors the ability to publish and share presentations over the Web, on their blog, website, facebook profile or on slideshare.net. Founded in 2007, the company is privately held and based in San Francisco, California and New Delhi, India. For more information visit www.slideshare.net.
About Venrock
Venrock is a premier venture capital firm with offices in Menlo Park, New York, Cambridge, MA, and Israel. Originally established as the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family, Venrock continues a seven-decade tradition of partnering with entrepreneurs to establish successful, enduring companies. Having invested $1.9 billion in 405 companies resulting in over 120 IPOs over the past 39 years, Venrock’s investment returns place it among the top tier venture capital firms that have achieved consistently superior performance. With a primary focus on technology, healthcare, and energy, portfolio companies have included Adnexus Therapeutics, Apple Computer, Centocor, Check Point Software, DoubleClick, Gilead Sciences, Idec Pharmaceuticals, Illumina, Intel, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Sirna Therapeutics, StrataCom, and Vontu. For more information, please visit Venrock’s website at www.venrock.com.
BOTHELL, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Acucela Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing therapies for blinding eye diseases, announced today that it has filed an investigational new drug (IND) application to conduct a Phase 1 clinical trial for its lead compound ACU-02 with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The filing follows a successful pre-IND meeting in Washington D.C. where the company reviewed its current pre-clinical efficacy and safety data as well as development plans with FDA.
ACU-02 is an orally available small molecule modulator of the visual cycle, which is thought to play a key role in the pathophysiology of the dry form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease which afflicts over 29 million patients worldwide. In preclinical testing ACU-02 was found to be a potent modulator of the visual cycle with desirable pharmacokinetic profile, which significantly decreased the accumulation of the retinal related toxic by-product A2E that is believed to damage retinal cells, leading to the decrease or loss of vision in AMD patients. Acucela plans to initiate dosing of healthy normal volunteers in a double-masked, placebo-controlled, single ascending-dose study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of ACU-02 before the end of the second quarter of this year.
“We believe ACU-02 is a unique, first-in-class, potent, small molecule which holds significant promise for the millions of patients suffering the debilitating effects of dry AMD,” said Ryo Kubota, MD, Ph.D., Acucela’s chief executive officer. “Given the fact that this is a non-retinoid compound, we believe that it will have a better side effect profile, and additionally, this product candidate is delivered orally—an administration method which we believe would be popular with patients given that current AMD treatments are delivered by injection.”
BILLERICA, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies (NYSE: GE) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Rheonik, a leading manufacturer of high accuracy coriolis mass flowmeters used in the oil & gas, process and power industries. The transaction, terms of which are not being disclosed, will be completed upon receipt of regulatory approvals.
The acquisition will broaden GE’s current flowmeter technology offerings for sensing customers. Additionally, Rheonik’s customers will benefit from GE’s global presence, technology depth and broad range of sensing products and services.
“Rheonik has a strong reputation in the mass flowmeter world and is a highly complementary addition to GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies’ flow sensing product line,” said Caroline Reda, President & CEO of GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies. “This expansion of our product line is consistent with our goal to provide customers with high accuracy sensors for harsh environments.”
“Both Rheonik and GE customers will benefit from the synergies created by the transaction,” said Günter Küppers and Michael Küppers, Managing Directors of Rheonik. “Rheonik will bring a new range of versatile flow measurement products into GE’s growing sensing business.”
In 2007, GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies released four products designed to ensure pipeline integrity in harsh environments. The PanaFlow™ ISX, an intrinsically safe wetted ultrasonic flowmeter; the DPI 104 IS, an intrinsically safe digital pressure gauge; Rightrax, an ultrasonic, non-intrusive, on-line solution to corrosion/erosion monitoring for remote, difficult access or dangerous plant locations; and Weldstar, a complete, automated ultrasonic girth weld inspection system for transmission pipelines.
Rheonik, headquartered in Munich, Germany, is a manufacturer of coriolis flowmeters. The meters measure flow from 0.5 grams per minute to 1,500 tons per hour. Rheonik’s Omega tube design includes a torsion rod/cross bar design that offers versatility and a competitive advantage for the customer by providing temperature stability and increased safety in corrosive environments. Rheonik’s products serve high-pressure applications and can operate with relatively large amplitudes, which is important for highly viscous liquids or very low flow. For more information, visit www.rheonik.com.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Regulatory News:
Nordstjernan Ventures Investment AB (“NVI”) held approximately 93.8 percent of the shares in KMT Group AB (publ) (“KMT”) (STO:KMT) as of December 28, 2007.
On January 2, 2008, NVI submitted a written request to the Board of Directors of KMT for the redemption of remaining shares in accordance with Chapter 22, Section 6 of the Swedish Companies Act (2005:551). As a result hereof, the Board of KMT will immediately inform the shareholders of KMT that redemption has been requested through announcements in Post- och Inrikes Tidningar (The Swedish Gazette), in Dagens Industri and by letter.
CULVER CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Bidz.com (NASDAQ:BIDZ), a leading online auctioneer of jewelry, announced today that it has repurchased 100,000 shares of its common stock in the open market for a total purchase price of $886,000. The repurchased shares represent approximately 0.4% of the Company’s estimated 24.6 million outstanding shares as of December 31, 2007, and were repurchased at an average price of $8.86 per share.
In June 2007, the Company authorized the stock buyback program for up to $5.0 million of its outstanding common stock to be repurchased through the open market at prices deemed appropriate by management. The Company has $4.1 million of authorization remaining under this program.
“The share repurchase underscores our confidence in the strength of our business model and our commitment to enhancing stockholder value,” said Chairman and CEO, David Zinberg. “We will continue to use our balance sheet and cash flow from operations to invest in our business and repurchase our shares from time to time in the open market.”
Sam’s Notes
When a company announces it is buying back shares expect to see the stock price rise.
MCLEAN, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AVIEL Systems, Inc.’s wholly owned subsidiary Performance Management Consulting, Inc. (PMC), a federal IT and management consulting services provider, announced that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has awarded PMC two task orders with a combined value of more than $25 million.
Under the task orders, PMC continues and significantly expands its ongoing program management support to the Atlas Automation Modernization program, Common Computing Environment (CCE) project as well as new support to the Engineering Division of the ICE Office of the Chief Information Officer.
John Chapel, President and CEO of AVIEL, commented that the PMC team is proud to continue their history of excellence in assisting ICE and the mission-critical CCE project and to provide support to the Engineering Division through the establishment and management of project management offices. PMC provides the full spectrum of program support including budget tracking and formulation, contracts and acquisition, scheduling, and project tracking to further the DHS ICE OCIO’s enterprise modernization initiatives and program areas.
RIVERWOODS, Ill.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Economic confidence among small business owners is off slightly for December, down a half-point from the previous month, as small business owners expressed less confidence that economic conditions are getting better, either in the general economy or with their own businesses. At 92.7, the Discover Small Business Watch is down from 93.2 in November, a full 17 points lower than at the same time a year ago.
“The Index hasn’t moved enough this month to be of too much concern,” said Sastry Rachakonda, director of Discover’s business credit card. “The mood remains cautious as fewer small business owners feel like economic conditions for their businesses are getting better. The mood could change either way depending on holiday receipts.”
December Key Findings:
- 28 percent of small business owners feel that economic conditions for their own business are getting better. The percentage has been steadily decreasing since September, when 40 percent of owners felt conditions were improving.
- 65 percent of small business owners feel that economic conditions in the U.S. are getting worse, slightly fewer than the 68 percent who felt that way in November. The number who believe it is getting better remained the same.
- 42 percent said they have experienced cash flow issues over the last 90 days, an increase from 38 percent in November but even with 42 percent from December 2006.
- Plans for spending on business development increased this month, with 32 percent of owners planning to increase spending on activities such as advertising and inventory, compared with 29 percent in November, but lower than 37 percent in December 2006.
Poll: Men Want To Be Their Own Bosses, Women Seek Flexibility
In a poll of 1,000 small business owners who were asked to name their single biggest reason for becoming entrepreneurs, the majority cited being their own boss and having more flexibility as their top two motivations. Looking closer, among business women, more favor flexibility, 32 percent, to being independent, 17 percent; while men choose being their own boss, 27 percent, ahead of flexibility, 24 percent.
Differences also appear in decision-making: 77 percent of men said that they make most business decisions on their own, compared to 72 percent of women who said the same. Similarly, more women than men, 28 percent to 23 percent, allow employees and associates to participate in business decisions.
“Small business owners want to control their destiny,” Rachakonda said, “However, men and women do this in different ways. For men, it is about being in control and being their own bosses, while for women, it is about having more flexibility with their time.”
In the key areas of launching a business, networking and attracting new clients, both sexes think the other has the upper hand:
- 39 percent of male business owners think it is easier for women to start businesses, while 34 percent think it is easier for men. Conversely, 20 percent of female small business owners think it is easier of men to start businesses, compared to 15 percent who think women have it easier.
- 30 percent of men think it is easier for women to attract new business and only 16 percent think it is easier for men. Among women, 39 percent think it is easier for men to attract new clients while only 19 percent think women have the edge.
- 24 percent of men believe it is easier for women to network, while 15 percent of men think they have it easier. On the female side, 12 percent of women say men have it easier, while only 8 percent think women have it easier. Overall, two-thirds of all respondents think both sides are about the same when it comes to networking.
“It is interesting to see that the grass seems greener on the other side with both genders,” Rachakonda said. “However, the fact is that the majority of both genders feel that it does not make a difference.”
Daughters may have a harder time inheriting a business than sons. Among business owners who have children of both sexes and plan to have a child take over, 43 percent say they wouldn’t pass it on to a daughter, compared to 32 percent who said they would, while 25 percent weren’t sure. In the gender breakdown, women were more likely to pass their businesses to daughters, 39 percent, compared to 29 percent of men.
The poll also found similarities between the sexes. In handling home life versus work life, 81 percent of both sexes equally feel like they are balancing the two either “pretty well” or “very well.” Only 15 percent of owners said they were balancing “not so well,” followed by 3 percent who said they were balancing “badly.”
“The results seem to indicate that the vast majority of small business owners, led by their independence and flexibility, are finding the kind of time they need to spend with their families or with interests outside of work,” Rachakonda said.
The views and opinions expressed by small business owners and consumers who participate in the Small Business Watch survey are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Discover Financial Services or its affiliates.
SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Worldwide sales of semiconductors rose to $23.1 billion in November, an increase of 2.3 percent from November 2006 when sales were $22.5 billion, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported today. Sales increased by 0.7 percent from the October sales of $22.9 billion. Year-to-date sales of $231 billion are 2.8 percent ahead of the $225 billion in sales for the like period of 2006.
“Early indications are that consumer products with high semiconductor content such as LCD TVs, PMP and MP3 players, along with digital cameras all sold well in the holiday buying season,” said SIA President George Scalise. “These products are all finishing the year with very healthy unit sales increases. Cell phone unit sales in 2007 will grow by over 20 percent for the fifth-consecutive year, while unit sales of personal computers will grow by more than 10 percent.
“While unit demand has been very robust, average selling prices (ASP) have declined in a number of key product segments. Pricing pressure in the memory sector continues to impact industry sales. DRAM bit shipments, for example, increased by 25 percent in the three months leading up to mid-December while ASPs declined by 20 percent during the same time period.
“Microprocessor sales increased by 5.8 percent month-on-month and by 7.4 percent from November of 2006. Strong PC unit demand contributed to a 2.6 percent sequential increase in microprocessor unit shipments and a 3.2 percent increase in ASPs.
“Rising energy prices and concerns about sub-prime lending issues do not appear to have had a significant impact on consumer spending on electronic products during the holiday buying season. While total semiconductor sales continue on pace to surpass the record level of 2006, it will take very strong sales in December to meet our forecast of 3.8 percent growth in 2007,” Scalise concluded.
GREENWICH, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE: URI) (“United Rentals” or the “Company”) today said that it has delivered a notice of termination of its July 22, 2007 merger agreement with RAM Holdings, Inc. and RAM Acquisition Corp. (acquisition vehicles formed by Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.).
In delivering the notice, United Rentals has requested that Cerberus Partners, L.P., pursuant to the guarantee given at the time of the merger agreement, pay United Rentals the $100 million termination fee required by the merger agreement. Under the agreement, the fee is payable promptly and in any event within two days of termination.
A United Rentals spokesperson said: “In light of Chancellor Chandler’s December 21st opinion, the United Rentals Board of Directors has determined that the Company is best served by terminating the merger agreement and the constraints it imposes. We remain committed to enhancing shareholder value, and believe the immediate need is to move forward and focus our energies on our business.”
In light of the termination of the merger agreement, United Rentals also announced that it will not be appealing the Delaware Chancery Court opinion and is terminating the previously announced debt tender offers and consent solicitations (the “Offers”) being made by its wholly-owned subsidiary, United Rentals (North America), Inc. (“URNA”).
The Offers expired at Midnight, New York City time on December 21, 2007. The Offers were being conducted pursuant to URNA’s Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statement, dated October 16, 2007 (the “Statement”), and related to URNA’s outstanding (i) 6 1/2% Senior Notes due 2012, (ii) 7 3/4% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2013, and (iii) 7% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2014 (collectively, the “Notes”). The Offers have been terminated because completion of the merger contemplated by the merger agreement was a condition to consummating the Offers.
As a result of the termination of the Offers, the proposed amendments to the indentures pursuant to which the Notes were issued will not become operative.
All Notes that were tendered in the Offers will be returned promptly to the respective holders thereof without any action required on the part of the holders.
Sam’s Notes
$100 Million termination fee? From what I have read about this deal it was doomed for a while now. Neither the buyer nor the buyee was seeing eye to eye on the agreements and I think the buyer is happy to pay the $100 million just to get out of the deal.
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