Several news items today seemed to be piling on the "Microsoft is Dying" bandwagon, but just last week the company's CEO Steve Ballmer told shareholder that Microsoft is seeing “fantastic demand” for its touch-screen PCs and tablets and Ballmer always seems optimistic about the … [Read more...]
SEC Has Their Hands Full – From the JOBS Act to Working Majority
Recent news coverage of the Securities Exchange Commission's (SEC) activity has focused quite a bit of attention on an issue involving outgoing Chairman Mary Shapiro's motivation for her alleged last minute involvement in delaying the passage of one of the main pieces of the Jumpstart … [Read more...]
China’s Economy Showing Growth but Cautious Optimism Should be Used
A recently released figures for China's economic outlook show cause for guarded optimism about China's growth. This comes on the heels of many companies' Chinese operations being cited as the cause for slowdowns in their business' growth. To keep these projections in perspective it's … [Read more...]
Yahoo’s Meltdown in Mexico $2.7 Billion Dollar Judgment
Yahoo's announcement today that it is being hit with a $2.7 billion judgment related to a 2003 deal done through its Mexican subsidiary is yet another indication of the company's splintered old strategies and its struggles to refocus. The deal, with Ideas Interactivas and Worldwide … [Read more...]
Yum! Brands Stock Down on Fourth Quarter Expectations
Yum! Brands stock price opened sharply down Friday as Wall Street digested the company's revised fourth quarter forecast. Yum's CEO, David Novak, told analysts he expected same-store sales in China to drop by about 4% for the fourth quarter, a dramatic drop considering the company … [Read more...]
Hostess Bankruptcy a Windfall for Some Twinkies Coming Soon
Twinkies and their cousin snacks will live to fight for your shopping dollars another day. Hostess, the parent company that makes Twinkies and many other snacks Americans have come to love, may be going bankrupt, but their brands will live on. As the Hostess company makes its way … [Read more...]
Costco Dividend Silver Lining to Fiscal Cliff
Costco announced they will be distributing a special dividend to stockholders next month. The company already had plans to pay their quarterly dividend of 27.5 cents per share, which they will pay in addition to the one time special dividend. The special dividend comes at a time that … [Read more...]
Cyber Monday Sales Record Breaking
Cyber Monday was up 30% compared to last year, powered mostly by smart phones and tablets. Not only was Cyber Monday a big shopping day this year, but according to IBM it was the biggest day of online shopping ever. Almost 20% of consumers browsed their way through deals on their … [Read more...]
Black Friday Shows Major Signs of Things to Come
The figures for Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping are in and online shopping is gaining huge momentum that foretells a continued shift to more dollars being spent online. Experian and Hitwise tallied up their numbers and what they tell us is the online shopping traffic on … [Read more...]
Cyber Monday Continues Holiday Shopping Trends
Analysts expect Cyber Monday to continue this year’s holiday shopping trend of higher sales, as many Americans seem optimistic about their finances. In spite of worries about the potential fiscal cliff and many other concerns about the overall economic outlook in the U.S., American … [Read more...]
Black Friday and Walmart Protests
The early kickoff to Black Friday this year, Black Thursday, certainly must have stolen business that would have otherwise been transacted on Friday. But, according to The International Council of Shopping Centers, over eighty million shoppers still attacked their shopping list … [Read more...]
Sony Smartphone Comeback
A recent Wall Street Journal article talked about whether or not Sony Corporation is gaining momentum in the smart phone market. Sony actually moved up from being the sixth largest maker of smart phones in the world to the number three slot for the third quarter of 2012. Sony’s share … [Read more...]
Groupon Stock on the Rise
The stock price of daily deal giant Groupon jumped 15% two days after Tiger Global Management (Tiger) revealed a 9.9% stake in the company, bringing the stock price gains for the week to about 30%. This was the second daily gain for Groupon stock after Tiger's public disclosure of its … [Read more...]
Retail Workers Holiday Woes
Thanksgiving may just be one of the first casualties of increasing financial pressures on companies struggling to remain financially strong in an increasingly competitive retail environment. As Black Friday becomes Black Thursday families across America ponder how far business … [Read more...]
Hewlett-Packard’s $8.8 Billion Blunder
Hewlett- Packard Co. (HP) announced its most recent quarterly financial statements, which included not only disappointing results, but a huge unexpected write-down related to questionable accounting at Autonomy, the software giant HP acquired in October 2011. The total hit to HP's … [Read more...]
Hostess Brands May Survive Bankruptcy
Hostess, the maker of such American icon food products as Twinkies and Ho Ho's recently announced plans to cease operations amid attempts to cut workers' pay and benefits in a last ditch effort to avert financial disaster. As word spread of the impending end of American's Twinkie … [Read more...]
Walmart Responds to Employee Walkout Threats
As retailers nationwide adjust their holiday schedules to squeeze even more out of Black Friday, Walmart faces additional challenges. For many retailers it's not even Black Friday anymore, but Black Thursday, as many have rolled forward the start of their sales. Target is opening … [Read more...]
