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May 2, 2012

German court rules against Microsoft on patents

Filed under: business, news — Tags: , , , — Professor @ 10:12 pm

A court in Germany ruled Wednesday that Microsoft infringed two patents held by Motorola, in a case that could affect sales of its popular Xbox 360 console and the Windows 7 operating system.

The patent spat between the two companies centers on technology used for video compression that is owned by Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., which Google is in the process of buying for $12.5 billion.

Following earlier complaints from Microsoft and Apple Corp., the European Union’s competition watchdog has opened two separate probes into whether Motorola unfairly limited rivals from using its patents by demanding exorbitant fees.

In Wednesday’s ruling, the state court in the southern city of Mannheim upheld Motorola’s complaint on the patent breaches and declared Microsoft Corp. liable for unspecified damages.

The court also ordered Microsoft to remove all products that infringe the patents from the German market, including its Xbox 360 console and the Windows 7 operating system.

But both parties have seven days to appeal before the verdict comes into force, and Microsoft spokesman Thomas Baumgaertner said the company plans to do so. Should Motorola want the verdict enforced before a final appeals ruling is issued, it would have to deposit several tens of millions of euros (dollars) as a legal security, the court said.

A U.S. court meanwhile has warned Motorola not to enforce the German verdict until it too has considered the patent issue.

“At the moment, there is no risk that we will be ordered to halt sales,” Baumgaertner said.

He said Microsoft hoped the German court’s ruling could open the way for a fairer licensing deal with Motorola.

Motorola issued a statement welcoming the verdict.

“We remain open to resolving this matter,” said the company. “Fair compensation is all that we have been seeking for our intellectual property.”

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March 27, 2012

Bernanke Says Accommodative Policy Needed - Bloomberg

Filed under: house, news — Tags: , , , — Professor @ 8:12 pm

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said while he

March 24, 2012

French Business Sentiment Climbs for Second Month on Recovery - Bloomberg

Filed under: legal, news — Tags: , , , — Professor @ 2:44 pm

French business confidence increased for the second time in nine months, suggesting growth is recovering as European Central Bank liquidity calms the region

March 19, 2012

Fed not yet decided on more easing, Dudley says

Filed under: economics, news — Tags: , , , — Professor @ 5:56 pm

The Federal Reserve has not yet decided whether to embark on a third round of quantitative easing, or QE3, though it remains an option, an influential Fed official said on Monday.

New York Fed President William Dudley, a close ally of Chairman Ben Bernanke, painted a mixed picture of the economy, tempering recent signs the recovery is gaining speed with warnings that it could just as easily stall out.

“Nothing has been decided,” he said of QE3, in which the Fed would make large-scale asset purchases in an attempt to lower rates and give the economy another controversial shot of adrenaline.

“It all depends on how the economy evolves,” Dudley added. “It’s about costs and benefits, and if we get to a point where we think the benefits of another program of QE outweighs the costs, then we’ll certainly do so.”

Dudley, like Bernanke in recent testimony to Congress, defended the central bank’s ultra-easy policy stance but seemed to temper any talk of exactly what more it was prepared to do to help along the recovery and ratchet down the unemployment rate, which remains high 8.3 percent.

After a meeting in Washington last week, the Fed’s policy-setting committee made no policy change and gave few clues how it interpreted some recent jobs growth, coupled as it has been with worries over GDP growth and oil price-driven inflation.

Dudley said U.S. economic activity is not yet strong or sustained enough to put a dent in the economy’s “slack,” which is keeping many Americans out of work some three years after the deep recession ended.

“The incoming data on the U.S. economy has been a bit more upbeat of late, suggesting that the recovery may be finally establishing a somewhat firmer footing,” Dudley said, citing expanding GDP late last year, payrolls, sales of motor vehicles, and somewhat firmer housing starts.

“While these developments are certainly encouraging, it is far too soon to conclude that we are out of the woods,” Dudley, a policy dove with a permanent vote on the Fed’s policy-setting committee, told a gathering of the Long Island Association no fax payday loan.

GASOLINE AND OTHER HEADWINDS

The U.S. central bank has kept interest rates near zero since late 2008 and bought $2.3 trillion in long-term securities to help revive the economy after the 2007-2009 recession.

Upbeat data so far this year has tempted some, including some Fed policymakers, to say the recovery is well underway and that the Fed will take no further steps.

Yet Bernanke and others have said more bond purchases remain an option. Last year, Dudley was among the most vocal about the efficacy of buying mortgage-based securities to help revive that sector of the economy.

Dudley warned that higher gasoline prices are “definitely” a risk to the world’s largest economy, which is heavily dependent on consumption.

“The upward pressure on prices caused by rising gasoline are offset by downward pressure on prices caused by all the excess slack in the U.S. economy,” he said. “It’s very hard to have an inflation problem when compensation costs are rising quite slowly.”

The annual rate of core inflation, Dudley argued, “has peaked and we expect it to begin to decline later this year.” He added that inflation expectations “remain well anchored.”

Besides gas, other headwinds include impediments to the housing sector, fiscal drags at the federal and state levels, and risks that foreign growth is weaker than expected, Dudley said.

Asked about a Fed expectation to keep rates low through late 2014, Dudley said: “We view this as the best path to an early-as-possible economic recovery … and the earliest normalization in short term rates.”

Bernanke, who along with Dudley spear headed the Fed’s unprecedented and easy policy steps, is set to deliver a public lecture on Tuesday.

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February 11, 2012

McKee seeking to buy 1,200 city-owned parcels

Filed under: news, technology — Tags: , , , — Professor @ 9:56 am

Developer Paul McKee is poised to more than double his real estate holdings in north St. Louis, a move that could represent a big step forward for his controversial plan to remake several battered neighborhoods there.

On Monday, McKee’s NorthSide Regeneration will ask three city development boards for the right to buy 1,233 parcels of city-owned land — roughly 162 acres in all — across the near north side. The price? About $3.2 million.

The move would be the biggest buy yet for McKee, whose vision of thousands of new homes, office buildings and more has been stalled for nearly two years since a judge tossed out a $390 million city subsidy, but who has continued to push his project forward in small steps while he appeals that ruling.

The purchase needs the approval of an alphabet soup of city agencies that own the land, but the request has the blessing of top development officials and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay.

“It’s a good thing,” said Slay chief of staff Jeff Rainford. “He’s willing to move forward even without the (tax increment financing) issues being settled.”

The purchase has been discussed at City Hall since at least 2009, when McKee first unveiled his NorthSide plans. But it’s not clear why it’s happening now. McKee answered several questions by email Friday but did not directly address his timing. He has, however, been showing the NorthSide to prospective tenants in recent months and says he has ’some deals that are pretty far along.”

“He wants to move forward on some projects,” said Rodney Crim, executive director of the St. Louis Development Corp.

McKee already owns about 800 parcels — totaling perhaps 130 acres — scattered across the 1,500-acre project area. Most of that he bought in secret over five years, using shell buyers to keep the price down. Since stepping out from behind the curtain, he has made a few purchases — like the 17-acre Bottle District site north of downtown, which he closed on in December — but nothing on a large scale.

Now, McKee wrote Friday that he can combine the city land with his current holdings to offer a wide range of sites to businesses or housing developers.

“Opportunities to create large-scale development in the most blighted areas of our cities are rare,” he wrote, saying that the combination can “create a unified development footprint worthy of the City’s hopes for the future.”

McKee has acknowledged that the project’s slow progress has stretched him financially but said Friday he has lined up funds to buy the land. He received $2.1 million in Missouri state tax credits in December, with an application for more still pending, and, according to city records, has continued to borrow in relatively small doses from the Bank of Washington, the only bank that has publicly committed to NorthSide.

He will not be able to claim the state tax credits for this land — purchases of city-owned property are not eligible — and city leaders say he’s paying full price, minus a small break for buying so much.

“We’re not giving him these properties. We’re not selling them at a discount,” Rainford said. “He is buying them for what we think these properties are worth.”

The land — much of which the city acquired after previous owners stopped paying taxes — includes hundreds of small lots and individual buildings scattered all over McKee’s 1,500-acre NorthSide footprint. In some cases, it amounts to nearly whole blocks of vacant urban prairie, with just one or two privately owned homes still occupied and standing.

The deal also comes with a two-year option to buy the site of the old Pruitt-Igoe housing complex for $100,000. The 33-acre site at Jefferson and Cass avenues, which has sat empty since the mid-’70s, is today basically a forest surrounded by chain-link fence, and may have pollutants in the ground. But it’s a key site for McKee, and he has suggested he’ll turn it into a retail complex.

The deal also highlights the city’s long history of “land banking” — assembling unwanted land for future development.

The practice has become more popular in recent years as cities like Detroit and Cleveland wrestle with widespread abandonment, and Missouri lawmakers are considering a bill to create a land bank in Kansas City. But St. Louis has been doing it since 1971, when the Land Reutilization Authority became the nation’s first city-run land bank.

Today, the LRA owns about 10,000 parcels, with other city land banks owning about 1,000 more.

It pays to mow grass and picks up trash and, if there’s a building on the site, is responsible for keeping it safe. It collects no taxes on these properties, and many it has owned for decades. Selling more than one-tenth of that property will generate at least $100,000 in new taxes, even without any development, said Crim.

And selling it to a developer increases the odds that something will get built there, said Rainford.

“Whenever possible, we want land in the hands of the private sector,” he said. “As long as the city’s holding the ground, nothing’s going to happen on it. Our bias is trying to get this land out the door.”

The city’s land-banking program has come under some fire in recent years.

Free market think tank the Show-Me Institute found that the LRA rejected nearly half of all offers to buy its property from 2003 through 2010, often citing possible “future development” as a reason why. Some of those rejections were in the NorthSide footprint, said Audrey Spalding, a Show-Me policy analyst who conducted the study. That McKee is buying them now comes as no surprise, she said, but it also provides no guarantees.

“I’m thrilled that 1,200 parcels are being bought. In terms of tax revenue, it’s a positive. And if Paul McKee’s dreams come to fruition, it’s going to be great for the city,” she said. “But I don’t see it as a validation of holding land vacant in hopes of a big development.”

Source

January 11, 2012

The King of Beers slips another notch

Filed under: finance, news — Tags: , , , — Professor @ 2:08 pm

The King of Beers slipped another notch down the list of beer royalty in 2011.

Sales of Budweiser fell 4.6 percent last year, according to estimates by Beer Marketers Insights, to 17.7 million barrels, while Coors Light eked out a 0.8 gain to 18.2 million barrels. That means the Silver Bullet is now the nation’s second best-selling beer, after Bud Light.

It’s the first time in almost two decades that Anheuser-Busch (now Anheuser-Busch InBev) couldn’t claim the country’s two top brews, and it comes amid a long decline for the company’s flagship lager. Bud’s 4.6 percent decline actually marks its best performance in some time – sales fell nearly 10 percent in 2009 – and ABI has said one of its top priorities is to boost sales of the brand, both in the U no fax payday loans.S. and overseas.

Both ABI and Miller Coors saw overall shipments fall last year – 2.9 percent and 3 percent, respectively – amid a tough sales climate for the beer industry. ABI sold less beer in 2010 than it did in 2000, Beer Marketers estimates. But its income on those sales nearly doubled.

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December 31, 2011

Corn Traders Extend Bullish Bets on South America Crop Damage: Commodities - Bloomberg

Filed under: news, technology — Tags: , , , — Professor @ 3:00 am

Corn traders are bullish for a fifth consecutive week on speculation that dry weather in South America is damaging crops, boosting demand for U.S. supplies at a time when stockpiles are predicted to shrink to a 16-year low.

Nineteen of 25 traders surveyed by Bloomberg expect corn to advance next week. Lower-than-average humidity and dry soil will curb crop development in Argentina and southern Brazil through at least Jan. 7, according to T-Storm Weather LLC, a forecaster in Chicago. Argentina is the world

December 26, 2011

First Solar stock plunges 20%

Filed under: news, prices — Tags: , , , — Professor @ 10:43 am

+%3Cp%3E+Shares+in+solar+power+company+First+Solar+fell+over+20%25+in+early+trading+Wednesday+after+the+firm+lowered+its+sales+forecast+for+2011.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThe+Arizona-based+company%2C+which+is+a+leading+maker+of+thin-film+solar+panels+and+also+a+developer+of+solar+power+projects%2C+predicted+net+sales+in+2011+of+%242.8+to+%242.9+billion.+That%27s+down+from+earlier+projections+of+%243.0+to+%243.3+billion.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%3Cp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%3Cp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThe+company+said+the+lower+sales+were+due+to+delays+in+its+projects+caused+by+weather+and+%26quot%3Bother+factors%2C%26quot%3B+but+predicted+a+healthy+2012.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%26quot%3BOur+diverse+business+model+and+robust+project+pipeline+will+help+First+Solar+generate+a+significant+amount+of+cash+in+2012+while+improving+operational+efficiencies%2C%26quot%3B+Mike+Ahearn%2C+Chairman+and+Interim+CEO+of+First+Solar%2C+said+in+a+statement+Wednesday.+%3C%2Fp%3ESolar+power+bankruptcies+loom+as+prices+collapse%3Cp%3EThe+company%2C+which+has+been+steadily+growing+in+profitability+since+2007%2C+is+expecting+its+earnings+per+share+to+range+between+%243.75+and+%244.25+in+2012.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThin+film+solar+panels+are+less+efficient+than+traditional+silicon-based+solar+panels+but+have+historically+been+cheaper+to+produce.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3ELike+all+solar+panel+makers%2C+shares+in+First+Solar+%28%29+have+been+battered+this+year+as+a+huge+oversupply+and+slack+demand+caused+the+price+of+silicon+solar+panels+to+plummet.+First+Solar+shares+are+down+over+70%25+since+January.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EDozens+of+solar+panel+makers+are+expected+to+go+bankrupt+this+year+as+the+depressed+prices+prune+weaker+companies+from+the+market.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThe+most+visible+victim+of+the+price+collapse+so+far+has+been+Solyndra%2C+a+maker+of+advanced+but+pricey+solar+panels+that+went+bankrupt+after+receiving+a+half-billion+dollar+loan+backed+by+the+U.S.+government.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EFirst+Solar+does+not+have+any+government-backed+loans.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EJesse+Pichel%2C+an+analyst+at+the+investment+bank+Jefferies+%26amp%3B+Co.%2C+maintained+a+hold+rating+on+First+Solar+stock+earlier+this+week+even+in+anticipatiinon+of+the+lowered+sales+figures.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EStill%2C+Pichel+said+the+company+has+to+work+on+lowering+costs.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%26quot%3BFirst+Solar+has+projects+which+are+profitable+and+is+not+a+bankruptcy+risk+near+term+in+our+view%2C%26quot%3B+he+said.+%26quot%3BBut+the+future+of+the+company+will+be+determined+by+its+ability+to+lower+module+costs+and+increase+efficiency.%26quot%3B+%26nbsp%3B+%3C%2Fp%3E++%3Cp%3E%3Ca+href%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fmoney.cnn.com%2F2011%2F12%2F14%2Ftechnology%2Ffirst_solar%2Findex.htm%27+rel%3D%27nofollow%27%3ESource%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E+

December 17, 2011

Sony’s PlayStation Vita hits stores in Japan

Filed under: money, news — Tags: , , , — Professor @ 10:04 am

Sony’s long-awaited PlayStation Vita portable game machine has hit stores in Japan as thousands of game enthusiasts lined up at shops from early in the morning.

Sony is predicting brisk sales, even though Saturday’s launch may have missed some holiday shoppers. A successful debut would help the company offset the rest of its struggling business.

The device is a touch-interface and motion-sensitive handheld seen as a successor to the PlayStation Portable. Vita’s launch will heat up competition with rival Nintendo Co.’s 3DS.

Many of the purchasers Saturday had made advance orders on the Internet so they can start playing immediately.

The PS Vita goes on sale in North America and Europe on Feb. 22.

Source

December 12, 2011

Lee Enterprises files for bankruptcy

Filed under: news, uk — Tags: , , , — Professor @ 2:56 pm

Lee Enterprises, owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other newspapers, filed for prepackaged bankruptcy early today in an effort to refinance about $1 billion in debt.

The bankruptcy was expected. Two weeks ago, the Davenport, Iowa-based publisher announced it would file for bankruptcy “on or about Dec. 12″ as part of a debt refinancing plan it had successfully negotiated with creditors.

Lee filed its Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in the Wilmington, Del., bankruptcy court, becoming the latest newspaper publisher saddled with debt to seek the court to help its finances. Though based in Iowa, the publisher is incorporated in Delaware.

The company said that the bankruptcy will have no impact on its business and that its papers will continue to publish. Vendors, advertisers, subscribers, employees and the company’s operations will not be affected.

In its bankruptcy filing, Lee lists $1.15 billion in assets and $994.5 million in liabilities.

When the publisher announced its bankruptcy plans, Lee said had secured agreements with nearly all of its creditors, which it predicted would allow an exit from bankruptcy in 60 days or less.

The filing is unusual in that the company plans to shed no debt and pay a higher interest rate to all lenders.

In return, lenders agreed to extend the loans - now due in April - until at least December 2015. The plan also preserves most of the stock’s value, allowing Lee to continue trading on the New York Stock Exchange during the bankruptcy process.

Lee also previously said it would cede a 13 percent ownership stake to three creditors, Goldman Sachs, Monarch Master Funding Ltd., and Franklin Templeton/Mutual Quest Fund.

The newspaper publisher says the refinancing plan is needed to keep it in business.

“Our ability to operate as a going concern is dependent on our ability to obtain approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the refinancing plan approved by creditors and to generate cash flows and maintain liquidity sufficient to service our debt,” the company said Friday in its annual report.

Though the refinancing plan will increase its higher interest payment - it would pay an average of 9.2 percent interest rate on its debt versus 5.1 percent currently - the publisher said it can pay that level of interest while also paying down the principal.

Lee’s newspapers turn an operating profit, and Lee has been making its debt payments. But the company, one of the nation’s largest newspaper chains, has been struggling for months to refinance the debt before it comes due in April.

Like other newspaper chains, Lee piled on debt to make acquisitions, then only to suffer from declining circulation and advertising revenue brought on both by the sluggish economy and the migration of advertising revenue and readers to the Internet.

Without refinancing, Lee would not have the cash to repay the maturing debt.

An effort to issue junk bonds in the spring failed, forcing the company to negotiate a refinancing plan this summer with creditors. Those negotiations led the refinancing plan with two groups of creditors.

One group holds about $865 million in debt secured by properties that Lee owned before 2005. Most of that debt was assumed that year when Lee bought St. Louis-based Pulitzer Inc., then the owner of the Post-Dispatch, for $1.5 billion.

The company said 94 percent of those debt holders have agreed to the deal. At one point, Lee hoped to borrow money to redeem the debt of those creditors not consenting to the refinancing, but those plans fell through.

A second group of creditors holds $138 million in debt, which Lee inherited with the Pulitzer deal. That debt is secured by the old Pulitzer properties, including the Post-Dispatch. All of those creditors agreed to the deal.

To deal with creditors not agreeing to the refinancing, the Lee has resorted to a prepackaged bankruptcy, in which a company works out terms with most creditors in advance. This allows the debtor to quickly reorganize and emerge from bankruptcy. The company then uses the bankruptcy proceedings to force its plan on lenders who didn’t agree to the refinancing.

In order to gain approval of the prepackaged plan, at least 50 percent of each class of creditors must vote to approve it, and those voting for it must own two-thirds of the dollar amount of the debt.

Dissenters can object, but they must convince the court that the deal is not fair and equitable.

Lee newspapers have a combined daily circulation of 1.3 million and Sunday circulation of 1.6 million, as of the end of September. Lee also owns nearly 300 specialty publications, including the Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis, Ladue News, and Feast and St. Louis’ Best Bridal magazines.

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