(Credit: specialoperations)
Happy 66th birthday to Al Gore! Here are some of the stories we’re reading on a gloomy Monday in NYC…
Morning Reads: 2016 Could Offer Bush V. Clinton; The Hobby Lobby Of Union-Busting?
Showing posts with label offer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label offer. Show all posts
Monday, March 31, 2014
Morning Reads: 2016 Could Offer Bush V. Clinton; The Hobby Lobby Of Union-Busting?
Morning Reads: 2016 Could Offer Bush V. Clinton; The Hobby Lobby Of Union-Busting?
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Watch Paul Ryan spin how Republicans don"t offer jack
The key line from Ryan on Thurs will be a scathing synopsis of the Democrats’ pitch, saying they offer “a full stomach — and an empty soul.”— @costareports
Stupid Democrats. Don’t they know that nothing feeds the soul like tax cuts for the rich? That trumps food on the table, good education, clean air and water, and accessible health care any day of the week!
Watch Paul Ryan spin how Republicans don"t offer jack
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
VIDEO: Miley Cyrus rechaza la oferta de un adolescente
Miley Cyrus dice que no podrá asistir a un baile de graduación en Arizona, pero invitó al adolescente a su concierto y a pasar tiempo con ella.
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VIDEO: Miley Cyrus rechaza la oferta de un adolescente
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Ukraine protest leader vague on premiership offer
Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych, second left, talks to opposition leaders Oleh Tyahnybok, first right, Vitali Klitschko, second right, and Arseniy Yatsenyuk, third right, in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday Jan. 25, 2014. Ukraine’s embattled president on Saturday offered to make a top opposition leader the prime minister, but it was unclear if the overture would mollify the radical faction of protesters who have clashed with police for much of the last week. A statement on President Viktor Yanukovych’s website Saturday evening said he had offered the country’s No. 2 job to Arseniy Yatsenyuk, an ex-foreign minister who had led efforts to integrate Ukraine with the European Union. (AP Photo/Mykhailo Markiv, Pool)
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A top Ukrainian protest leader says the opposition is ready to accept leadership of the country, but isn’t immediately accepting embattled President Viktor Yanukovych’s offer to become prime minister.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s statement Saturday several hours after Yanukovych’s offer of the premiership leaves the adversaries in Ukraine’s two-month-long political crisis still jockeying for position.
Yanukovych’s offer, coming as protester anger rises and spreads from the capital to a wide swath of the country, appeared to have been both a concession and an adroit strategy to put the opposition in a bind.
Accepting the offer could have tarred Yatsenyuk among protesters as a sell-out, but rejecting it would make him appear obdurate and unwilling to seek a way out of the crisis short of getting everything the opposition wants.
The opposition seeks Yanukovych’s resignation, early elections and the repeal of harsh anti-protest laws that set off a paroxysm of clashes between demonstrators and police over the past week.
Yanukovych has called for a special session of parliament Tuesday and said it could discuss repealing those laws.
“Tuesday is judgment day,” Yatsenyuk told a large crowd of protesters on Independence Square. “We do not believe any single word. We believe only actions and results.”
Top Headlines
Ukraine protest leader vague on premiership offer
Opposition leaders reject Ukraine president"s offer
- Dealing peacefully with protesters is “futile” said Ukraine’s interior minister
- Talks between opposition leaders and the government ended in a stalemate
- The European Union is holding talks with the government and protesters
- Radical protesters killed a policeman, the Interior Ministry said
(CNN) — Using peaceful means to deal with pro-Western protesters “remains futile,” Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said Saturday.
Interior Minister Vitaly Zaharchenko accuses Oleg Layashko, leader of Ukraine’s Radical Democratic Party, of calling for attacks on law enforcement.
“As a result a policeman has been killed with a shot in the head overnight, and three other policemen have been captured by protester,” he said in a statement. He accused protesters of accumulating weapons and ammunition.
Talks between Ukraine’s government and leaders from three other opposition parties over the past few days have gone nowhere.
Protests against the government began in November when President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign a trade agreement with the European Union in favor of stronger economic ties with Russia.
The opposition is demanding the resignation of the government and early elections, but the government has so far refused and in turn accuses the opposition of creating a climate for extremist behavior.
Hundreds of protesters continue their vigil in Kiev’s Independence Square and surrounding streets where they have set up tent cities and put up barricades. Large plumes of black smoke billowed from the barricades Saturday as riot police watched and waited nearby.
A group of protesters blocked the entrance to the Energy Ministry on Saturday, a move Ukraine’s Energy Minister Eduard Stavytsky called a direct threat to the entire energy system. Some protesters entered the building and argued with Stavytsky.
“Your action is illegal,” Stavytsky told them. “You have crossed the red line. You have entered a high security building.”
The protesters left the building saying they did not intend to undermine the work of the ministry in any way.
Early Friday the Interior Ministry said that if protesters left the street where the violence has been focused, police would not seek to prosecute them and promised police would not use force against those rallying in Independence Square.
The European Union is now trying to end the growing stalemate. EU representative Stefan Fule met with Yanukovych and opposition leaders Friday and Saturday.
“My talks in Kiev showed the need for a series of concrete steps to first start to rebuild trust of people by stopping the spiral of violence and intimidation,” he said.
Fule’s talks were only a precursor to a scheduled visit next week by the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and a European Parliament delegation.
CNN.com Recently Published/Updated
Opposition leaders reject Ukraine president"s offer
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Boeing machinists to vote on revised offer, union says
Boeing machinists to vote on revised offer, union says
http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20131221&t=2&i=823434047&w=580&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE9BK1OAZ00
SEATTLE
Construction cranes and palm trees line the entrance at South Carolina Boeing in North Charleston, South Carolina December 19, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Randall Hill
SEATTLE (Reuters) – Unionized workers at Boeing Co (BA.N) who resoundingly rejected a proposed contract last month will get a chance to vote on the company’s latest offer, the union’s national office said on Saturday, despite opposition to the revised deal from local labor leaders.
“I can confirm that a vote will take place,” Frank Larkin, a spokesman for International Association of Machinists, told Reuters. “But the date and details are still being finalized.”
Boeing on Saturday said its offer was still valid, countering suggestions at a union rally last Thursday that said there was no offer because the local leaders had rejected it.
“The terms of Boeing’s enhanced contract offer to the IAM on December 12 stand,” Boeing spokesman Doug Alder said in an email. “If ratified by the membership, Boeing would honor that contract.”
In November, machinists at the Everett, Washington, plant where Boeing’s 777 jet is built voted 2-to-1 against the company’s initial offer.
The eight-year contract would have kept production of Boeing’s next jet – the 777X – in Washington state. But in exchange, management wanted to replace the workers’ pension plan with a 401(k)-style retirement savings account and raise their healthcare costs.
In the aftermath of that vote, Boeing said it would look for other locations to build the 777X, the only jet the company is likely to develop in the next 15 years.
Boeing later made a revised offer that included a larger signing bonus and other concessions, and asked union leaders to endorse it. But the leaders of IAM District Lodge 751, which represents the 31,000 workers, refused endorse it or put it up for a vote, saying the changes were not significant enough.
In an email to Reuters on Saturday, Bryan Corliss, a spokesman for District Lodge 751, said “our leadership is trying to contact our International President for details. As soon as we have them we will pass them on to our members.”
(Reporting by James B. Kelleher in Chicago and Alwyn Scott in Seattle; Editing by Sandra Maler and Eric Walsh)
Read more about Boeing machinists to vote on revised offer, union says and other interesting subjects concerning Business at TheDailyNewsReport.com
Monday, November 25, 2013
Blue Cross to offer one-year Obamacare reprieve
Blue Cross to offer one-year Obamacare reprieve
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By Deena Winter | Nebraska Watchdog
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska announced Monday it will allow policyholders whose individual health insurance was canceled to comply with Obamacare to keep their current plans for one more year.
EXTENSION: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska will give customers who buy their own insurance a one-year reprieve from cancellation due to Obamacare mandates.
The insurance company this fall sent notices to 46,000 Nebraska policyholders informing them that their insurance plans would be canceled at year’s end because they didn’t comply with the federal Affordable Care Act.
Customers were given the option of new policies that included benefits required under the federal health insurance law, or they could shop around on the health insurance exchange on Healthcare.gov. But glitches with the federally run website have made it difficult for people to shop for new coverage.
For that reason, President Obama recently said insurance companies can give people one-year reprieves. Nebraska’s state insurance commissioner, Bruce Ramge, recently ruled that insurers can offer such extensions, and Blue Cross is taking him up on that offer.
Blue Cross said in a news release that individual policyholders who received cancellation notices can keep their current 2013 plan or choose new insurance that complies with Obamacare mandates. Blue Cross’s individual plans will now be effective from Dec. 31, 2013, through Dec. 31, 2014, for customers with coverage in place by year’s end.
A provision in state insurance law allows insurers to set an early renewal date and keep the 2013 policies in force.
“Simply stated, we’re doing this because it’s the right thing to do for our customers,” said Blue Cross President and CEO Steve Martin. “We are glad to have the opportunity to offer customers the choice between their current plans and 2014 plans that comply with the Affordable Care Act.”
Blue Cross customers who had already chosen a new Obamacare-compliant plan will remain on that plan unless they notify the company or work with an agent to revert back to their old plans. People who choose to stay on their 2013 plans won’t qualify for federal tax subsidies available under Obamacare, and likely will see a premium increase.
“Customers will need to process their options quickly,” said Tom Gilsdorf, director of product development for Blue Cross. “We’re working diligently to ensure everyone is covered on the plan of their choice.”
Blue Cross is the state’s largest health insurer, with nearly half the individual market. It’s also one of four companies selling insurance on Nebraska’s health care exchange, which is being run by the federal government.
Contact Deena Winter at deena@nebraskawatchdog.org.
Editor’s note: to subscribe to News Updates from Nebraska Watchdog at no cost, click here.
Please, feel free to “steal our stuff”! Just remember to credit Watchdog.org. Find out more
Read more about Blue Cross to offer one-year Obamacare reprieve and other interesting subjects concerning NSA at TheDailyNewsReport.com
Friday, November 15, 2013
House passes Republican bill to let insurers offer old health plans
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The House of Representatives on Friday approved a Republican bill that would allow insurers to continue to offer for another year healthcare plans that do not comply with the higher standards of benefits under President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law.
House passes Republican bill to let insurers offer old health plans
U.S. House passes Republican bill to let insurers offer old health plans
U.S. House passes Republican bill to let insurers offer old health plans
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WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON Nov 15 (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved a Republican bill that would allow insurers to continue to offer for another year healthcare plans that do not comply with the higher standards of benefits under President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law.
The vote in the Republican-majority chamber was 261-157 for the measure sponsored by Republican Representative Fred Upton. Thirty-nine Democrats supported it despite a White House veto threat. The bill is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate and become law.
Read more about U.S. House passes Republican bill to let insurers offer old health plans and other interesting subjects concerning Bonds at TheDailyNewsReport.com
Monday, November 11, 2013
Amazon.com to offer Sunday delivery in the US through US Postal Service
Amazon.com to offer Sunday delivery in the US through US Postal Service
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IDG News Service – Amazon.com is getting the U.S. Postal Service to deliver packages on Sundays to its customers, adding an additional facility
to help it compete in the Internet retail market.
The Sunday delivery will start in Los Angeles and New York, with plans to roll out the service to “a large portion” of the
U.S. population by 2014, Amazon said Monday. Sunday delivery will come to Houston, Dallas, New Orleans and Phoenix among other
places, the company said.
The service is free for Amazon’s Prime members, who pay US$ 79 per year for unlimited two-day shipping and other facilities,
Amazon said. Customers will see the Sunday delivery option at checkout when available, it added.
Not all products will be eligible for Sunday delivery, but the service already covers millions of items, Amazon said.
Financial details about the deal with the U.S. Postal Service were not disclosed. Amazon did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
To get items to customers quicker, Amazon has expanded its delivery before. In 2009, for instance, it started a same-day delivery service dubbed Local Express Delivery for seven U.S. cities and has expanded that service to four more areas since then.
The service is currently available in New York, Las Vegas, Chicago, Washington D.C. and other locations.
Other companies followed. Same-day delivery was introduced by eBay in 2012. The company currently offers delivery in about
an hour from certain local stores in Chicago, New York and San Francisco areas.
Google is also interested in offering same-day delivery to its customers. In March, the search giant started a pilot called Google Shopping Express to serve San Francisco Bay Area residents.
Loek is Amsterdam Correspondent and covers online privacy, intellectual property, open-source and online payment issues for
the IDG News Service. Follow him on Twitter at @loekessers or email tips and comments to loek_essers@idg.com
Read more about Amazon.com to offer Sunday delivery in the US through US Postal Service and other interesting subjects concerning NSA at TheDailyNewsReport.com
Monday, October 28, 2013
Embattled G4S rejects $2.5-billion offer for cash delivery unit
Embattled G4S rejects $2.5-billion offer for cash delivery unit
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A G4S security van is parked outside a bank in Loughborough, central England, August 28, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Darren Staples
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) – G4S (GFS.L), the world’s largest security services firm which is fighting to restore its reputation after a series of contract scandals, has rejected a $ 2.5-billion offer for its cash transport business.
G4S said on Monday that the 1.55-billion pound bid from British private equity group Charterhouse Capital Partners CHCAP.UL was “highly opportunistic” and undervalued the unit, a move which garnered support among analysts and shareholders.
Swooping on a firm whose share price has been sapped by controversy, Charterhouse made the offer as G4S tries to salvage its relationship with the British government, a major client, after a series of blunders, including its failure to supply enough security guards for the 2012 London Olympics.
G4S faced new unwelcome publicity on Monday when it denied an allegation that its employees had abused inmates at a prison it ran in South Africa.
The group, which employees 620,000 people in 120 countries, cash handling was an important part of the growth strategy for a company whose services range from managing jails to protecting sports stars, such as tennis players at Wimbledon.
The cash unit, which distributes notes and coins for banks and shops using armored trucks, accounted for about 18 percent of G4S’s 7.3-billion pound turnover last year.
“We think G4S was right to reject the bid, on both valuation and strategic grounds,” JP Morgan analysts said.
The analysts said the offer, after taking into account the company’s debt, valued the unit at 7.1 times enterprise value to earnings before interest, tax and amortization, compared to the 2013 valuation of 12.1 times for the whole group.
Shareholder Threadneedle Investments, which owns a 1.3-percent stake in G4S, said it supported the rejection, describing the offer as low for a strategically important and strongly performing part of the company.
GOVERNMENT REVIEW
The British government put all of its G4S contracts under review in July after it discovered that it and rival Serco (SRP.L) had charged it for tracking tags on convicts who were either dead or in prison. Last week, the chief executive of G4S’s Britain and Ireland business resigned.
Panmure Gordon analyst Mike Allen said cash handling was a stable business that had not produced to its full potential in recent years because of low interest rates.
“At the moment G4S needs a business like that while they’re trying to find their feet when there’s so much uncertainty with the UK government,” he said.
Chief Executive Ashley Almanza, who was promoted from finance chief in June, is expected to unveil a detailed plan for how the company will cut debt and focus on emerging markets next month.
Shares in G4S hit a high of 315.8 pence in late April but fell to a four-year low of 203.6 pence after its British government contracts were put under review in July. On Monday, they were trading up 0.5 percent at 259.8 pence at 1446 GMT.
($ 1 = 0.6186 British pounds)
(Additional reporting by Sinead Cruise; Editing by Paul Sandle, Erica Billingham and Alastair Macdonald)
Read more about Embattled G4S rejects $2.5-billion offer for cash delivery unit and other interesting subjects concerning Business at TheDailyNewsReport.com
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Iran Will Offer to Limit Its Nuclear Program
Iran Will Offer to Limit Its Nuclear Program
Offer May Divide US From Rest of Negotiators
by Jason Ditz, October 08, 2013
According to Western officials familiar with the situation, Iran is expected to bring a package of serious proposals for a permanent settlement of the ongoing nuclear program dispute to the Geneva conference with the P5+1 next week.
The package will offer specific limits on the number of centrifuges Iran’s civilian enrichment program will use, and will reportedly also offer to phase out 20 percent enrichment and allow additional inspections above and beyond the requirements under their safeguards agreement, in return for an easing of sanctions.
The Iranian government has been winding down 20 percent enrichment at any rate, having made enough fuel rods for its aging US-built medical reactor for the rest of its life, and is more focused on ensuring a supply for its Bushehr power plant now, which runs on 3.5 percent enriched uranium. Weapons-grade uranium would need to be over 90 percent.
The offer may well split the P5+1 on the talks, with most of the nations likely to be in favor of an extremely reasonable Iranian offer and the US likely to be driven primarily by Israel’s opposition to any deal in general more inclined to counter with an “offer” for Iran to do all of this and more unilaterally without any real sanctions easing.
Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz
- North Korea Warns US of ‘Disastrous Consequences’ for Naval Buildup – October 8th, 2013
- Libya Demands US Return Kidnapped Citizen – October 8th, 2013
- UN: Syria Inspectors Face Complex, Dangerous Mission – October 8th, 2013
- Iran FM Reports Rebuke by Khamenei Over Obama Talks – October 8th, 2013
- Obama Swaps ‘Black Sites’ for ‘Justice at Sea’ – October 8th, 2013
Iran Will Offer to Limit Its Nuclear Program
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Obama says Syria deal could offer lesson for Iran talks
1 of 2. U.S. President Barack Obama meets Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, Kuwait’s emir, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, September 13, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that Syrian rebels were responsible for an August 21 chemical gas attack but, in an interview broadcast on Sunday, he welcomed Putin’s diplomatic role in the crisis.
Obama, in an interview on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopolous,” defended his handling of the Syria crisis and dismissed criticism of his zig-zag approach to the issue as an argument about style.
Obama also said he and new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had exchanged letters about the situation in Syria and that the Iranians understand the U.S. concern about a potential nuclear-armed Iran “is a far larger issue” for the United States.
Obama and Putin have become unlikely allies on Syria after U.S. threats to launch a military strike against Syria over the chemical weapons attack prompted a diplomatic initiative that has led to a framework deal on Saturday aimed at gaining control of Syria’s poison gas stockpiles.
Obama said he welcomed Putin’s involvement as helpful and said any deal on Syria must include a verifiable way to ensure that it gives up all its chemical weapons capacity.
“I think there’s a way for Mr. Putin, despite me and him having a whole lot of differences, to play an important role in that,” Obama said. “And so I welcome him being involved. I welcome him saying, ‘I will take responsibility for pushing my client, the Assad regime, to deal with these chemical weapons.’”
But Obama dismissed Putin’s charge that it was the Syrian rebels who launched the chemical weapons attack, instead of forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as Washington believes.
“Well, nobody around the world takes seriously the idea that the rebels were the perpetrators of this,” Obama said.
Washington says the attacked killed more than 1,400 civilians.
Obama’s response to the crisis in Syria has received mixed reviews from the American people. A Reuters-Ipsos poll last week found only 35 percent of Americans were satisfied with how he was handling the situation.
He also has come under criticism from some lawmakers and many analysts for a bumpy approach to the crisis by first threatening a unilateral military strike, then suddenly asking Congress to authorize it, then asking Congress to postpone the vote to give diplomacy a chance.
In the ABC interview, Obama defended his approach, saying the steps he has taken had led to a situation where Syria has acknowledged it has chemical weapons and that its key ally, Russia, is pressuring Syria to give them up.
“I think that folks here in Washington like to grade on style,” Obama said. “And so had we rolled out something that was very smooth and disciplined and linear, they would have graded it well, even if it was a disastrous policy.”
Obama did not reveal details of his exchange of letters with Iran’s Rouhani but made clear that U.S. concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions are paramount.
Obama said he doubted Rouhani would “suddenly make it easy” to negotiate with and said the United States would keep up the pressure for Tehran to give up a nuclear program that Iran denies is aimed at building an atomic weapon.
“My view is that if you have both a credible threat of force, combined with a rigorous diplomatic effort, that, in fact you can strike a deal,” he said.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Bill Trott)
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Obama says Syria deal could offer lesson for Iran talks
Sunday, September 1, 2013
LLCs Offer Secrecy To Foreign Criminal Groups That Want To Launder Money Through Miami Real Estate
Alvaro Lopez Tardon needed to launder tens of millions of dollars in proceeds from selling thousands of kilograms of cocaine trafficked from South America to Europe, so he turned to Miami condos, federal authorities say.
Read the whole story at South Florida Business Journal
Hand Chain Saw – a must have Survival tool, with many uses.
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com
LLCs Offer Secrecy To Foreign Criminal Groups That Want To Launder Money Through Miami Real Estate
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Apple wobbles in China as rivals offer more, for less
An iPhone 5 is pictured on display at an Apple Store in Pasadena, California July 22, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni
SAN FRANCISCO |
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Investors breathed more easily after Apple Inc turned in a quarterly report card with a pleasant iPhone sales surprise. But the resultant share-price rally may prove short-lived as Wall Street frets about sliding margins and puzzles over a dramatic revenue drop-off in its No. 2 market of China.
Without releasing a new product, Apple sold 31.2 million units of the iPhone – its most important device in the fiscal third quarter – or about 20 percent more than analysts had envisioned.
The company’s shares climbed 5 percent in after-hours trade, partly on Apple saying it will buy back stock at a faster pace.
But revenue from all Apple products in greater China plummeted 43 percent from the previous quarter and 14 percent from a year earlier – worrying for a region where smartphone penetration is still low.
Growing competition in a maturing global smartphone market, coupled with the rising number of lower-priced devices in Apple’s line-up, such as iPad minis and older-model phones, pushed third-quarter profit margins to below 37 percent from more than 42 percent just a year earlier.
Analysts and executives struggled to explain the slowdown in greater China, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan and accounts for 13 percent of Apple’s fiscal third-quarter revenue.
Tuesday’s stock rally may quickly lose steam, as Apple is dogged by issues such as lower selling prices and an uncertain product pipeline, said Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC.
“We’re not likely to have any new product shipping in June,” Gillis said. Average selling prices (ASP) “are declining and margins are going to be under pressure. These things look like the realities.”
Apple’s average selling price during the quarter was $ 581, which is about $ 27, or 4 percent, down from the previous year. Apple attributed this decline to the “mix of products” – the company saw significant growth in the lower-priced iPhone 4 – and foreign exchange problems.
“It’s not just the ASP per se,” said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. “What you have seen with iPhone 5 is the bill of materials is going up. You are spending more.”
CHINA DROPS OFF
The global battle for mobile supremacy is now being played out between heavy-hitters like Apple, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and relative newcomers like Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corp in China. Samsung, which for a year or more has been steadily encroaching on Apple’s turf particularly in Asia, is also showing signs of fatigue and issued a disappointing earnings forecast earlier this month.
Even excluding China, Apple’s revenue in the Asia Pacific region was down 35 percent sequentially.
Apple CEO Tim Cook – who has presided over a 20 percent drop in the California-based company’s share price so far in 2013 – blamed the shortfall partly on the economy and said he remained bullish on China.
The “economy clearly doesn’t help us, nor others,” Cook told analysts on a conference call.
He said however that the revenue numbers didn’t tell a complete picture. Apple books revenue when it sells to resellers, who then sell the products to consumers. Sales to consumers – or sell-through in industry parlance – were down just 4 percent from the year-ago quarter in China.
By that same measure, mainland Chinese sell-through sales were actually up 5 percent year-over-year, though that was a deceleration in growth, Cook said.
Finally, sales of the iPad – the device that catapulted tablet computing into the mainstream – underperformed. Apple shipped 14.6 million tablets in the quarter, a few million below rough estimates.
Some investors argue that Apple’s hold on the market it created may slip as the field gets increasingly crowded, with the smartphone makers as well as Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc piling in.
Cook however drew attention to usage data showing the iPad still commands a dominant share of Web traffic.
“iPad accounts for 84 percent of the Web traffic from tablets,” he said. “So if there are lots of other tablets selling, I don’t know what they are being used for.”
But Frank Gillett, principal analyst at Forrester, warned that the iPad numbers bear watching going forward.
“You are to wonder if we are reaching saturation,” he said. “But you can’t believe that as the idea of a tablet is very compelling.”
Given all those factors, the immediate stock rally should not be seen as proof that concerns surrounding the stock have abated, some analysts said.
“It’s nice to see a bit of a beat for a change,” said Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst. But “earnings are still down year over year.”
“It’s going to take a new product introduction before we see earnings turn positive,” Ernst said. “It’s a step in the right in the direction, with low expectations.”
(Reporting by Poornima Gupta and Edwin Chan, Editing by Peter Henderson and Stephen Coates)
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Apple wobbles in China as rivals offer more, for less
Apple wobbles in China as rivals offer more, for less
An iPhone 5 is pictured on display at an Apple Store in Pasadena, California July 22, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni
SAN FRANCISCO/HONG KONG |
SAN FRANCISCO/HONG KONG (Reuters) – A sharp drop in Apple Inc’s China revenue in April-June underscores the challenges it faces in its second-largest market as the technology gap with cheaper local rivals narrows and as Samsung Electronics keeps up a steady stream of new models across all price ranges.
While investors marked up Apple shares as the company sold more of its iPhones than expected, the stock rally may prove short-lived as demand for its products fades in China. Analysts predict Apple will lose market share in the world’s leading smartphone sector.
“There’s some cannibalization of Apple’s market share from competitive mid-tier models that cost a lot less and perform as well, from vendors such as Xiaomi and Vivo,” said Huang Leping, an analyst at Nomura in Hong Kong, referring to rival Chinese models.
Salespeople at several electronics shops in Hong Kong said South Korea’s Samsung was a bigger hit with consumers as it offers more products. Some display counters didn’t carry any Apple devices.
“Samsung products have enjoyed greater sales than Apple as many mainland (Chinese) tourists tend to buy Samsung due to a greater variety of models with a wider price range,” said a saleswoman at a Hong Kong computer centre. “That’s why we stock more Samsung products.”
SLIPPING DOWN
In the first quarter of this year, Apple ranked top in Hong Kong with 46 percent market share in smartphones, though that was down from 54 percent in the last quarter of 2012, according to market research firm Canalys.
Even without releasing a new product, Apple sold 31.2 million iPhones in its fiscal third quarter, around a fifth more than analysts had predicted. But revenue from all Apple products in Greater China, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, slumped 43 percent from the previous quarter and was down 14 percent from a year earlier – worrying in a region where smartphone penetration is still low.
Greater China accounted for 13 percent of Apple’s sales, or $ 5 billion, in April-June – down from nearly 19 percent in the previous quarter. Hong Kong was a particularly weak spot. “It’s not totally clear exactly why that occurred,” CEO Tim Cook said on a conference call with analysts.
“In the past three months, the number of mainland Chinese consumers of Apple products dropped about 50 percent,” said Sunny Tang, a salesperson at another Hong Kong electronics store that sells Apple products. “Android (Google’s operating system in many Samsung phones) is much better than Apple, and in that period Samsung released at least five phones and tablets.”
Nicole Peng Luping at Canalys said: “China is a very diverse market so you need to have very diverse products to serve different levels of customers – and that’s the weakness for Apple.”
HEATING UP
In the first quarter, Apple ranked 5th in China with 9.7 percent market share, well behind leader Samsung with 17.7 percent, and lagging, among others, Lenovo Group Ltd and Huawei Technologies, which said on Wednesday it was on track to hit 10 percent revenue growth this year.
Nomura’s Huang expects Apple’s China market share to slip 1-2 percentage points in the coming quarters as the novelty of the iPhone 5 fades and as new buyers opt for cheaper smartphones.
The global battle for mobile supremacy is not just between Apple and Samsung. Huawei and ZTE Corp are growing across their Chinese home base, and South Korea’s LG Electronics said on Wednesday it sold a record 12.1 million smartphones in April-June, more than double its year-ago sales.
As high-end smartphone sales hit a plateau, the $ 2 trillion industry – telecom carriers, handset makers and content providers – is buckling up for a bumpier ride as growth shifts to emerging markets, primarily in Asia.
Even excluding China, Apple’s revenue in Asia Pacific fell 35 percent quarter-on-quarter.
CEO Cook, who has seen Apple stock fall by more than a fifth so far this year, blamed China’s slowing economic growth, but said he remained bullish on that market. The “economy clearly doesn’t help us, nor others,” he told analysts.
He said, however, that the revenue numbers don’t tell the whole story. Apple books revenue when it sells to resellers, who then sell the products to consumers. Sales to consumers – or sell-through – slipped just 4 percent in Greater China from a year ago. By that same measure, mainland Chinese sell-through sales actually rose 5 percent year-on-year, though that was a deceleration in growth, Cook said.
WEB TRAFFIC
Beyond the Asia weakness, Apple’s sales of its iPad – the device that catapulted tablet computing into the mainstream – underperformed. Apple shipped 14.6 million tablets in April-June, some way below rough estimates.
Some investors argue that Apple’s hold on a market it created is likely to slip as rival smartphone makers as well as Google and Amazon.com Inc pile in, but Cook noted that usage data shows the iPad still commands a dominant share of Web traffic.
“iPad accounts for 84 percent of the Web traffic from tablets,” he said. “So if there are lots of other tablets selling, I don’t know what they are being used for.”
Given the pressures and increasing competition, Apple’s stock rally should not be seen as proof that concerns over its outlook have abated, some analysts said. “It’s nice to see a bit of a beat for a change,” said Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst. But “earnings are still down year over year.”
“It’s going to take a new product introduction before we see earnings turn positive.”
(Additional reporting by Edwin Chan in SAN FRANCISCO; Yimou Lee, Brian Yap and Lavinia Mo in HONG KONG; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
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Apple wobbles in China as rivals offer more, for less
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Experts offer Merkel tips on how to cheer up the Germans
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (C) inspects a flooded street near the Elbe river in the east German town of Pirna June 4, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Thomas Peter
BERLIN |
BERLIN (Reuters) – “Happiness experts” from all over the world offered Germany’s Angela Merkel tips on Wednesday on how to cheer up her citizens, often stereotyped as prosperous worriers who view their glasses as half empty rather than half full.
A forum on “What Matters to People – Wellbeing and Progress” heard from speakers whose common theme was that economic success alone does not bring happiness.
“We look at the stock exchange index or currencies on the news each morning and talk a lot about growth in terms of gross domestic product, but we often don’t prioritize what is really most important to people,” Chancellor Merkel said in an address.
Participants spoke about such varied routes to human contentment as keeping elephants off crops in southern Bhutan, mobile phone applications for organic farmers in Kenya or building bicycle paths in Colombia.
The shared conclusion was that once countries have developed enough to meet basic needs, economic indicators like GDP are less important than human relationships and mental health.
Merkel said that when Germany hosted the World Cup in 2006 she was “astonished to hear so many people think it always rains here and that Germans don’t know how to laugh”.
She tried to put a positive spin on Germans’ famed pessimism, saying that seeing the glass as half empty “could be a form of happiness, because they can see how to get it filled”.
Often herself the target of caricatures of dour German austerity and bossiness thanks to her push for budget cuts in the euro zone, Merkel was told that Germany’s Danish, Dutch and Swiss neighbors all tend to be happier than her compatriots.
British economist Richard Layard, editor of the World Happiness Report, said the main factor making people miserable was mental illness, and that only a third of Germans with anxiety or depression got treatment.
The forum heard from the head of Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Commission, U.N. development experts, a Saudi writer on women’s issues, a Kenyan entrepreneur and a former mayor of Bogota.
Merkel’s interest might not have been purely academic, as she prepares for elections in September.
“The electorate will respond to politicians who actually identify the things that worry people – the trouble your child is having in a badly behaved classroom or the fact that your mother is mentally ill,” said Layard.
(Reporting by Stephen Brown; editing by Andrew Roche)
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Experts offer Merkel tips on how to cheer up the Germans
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Group to offer free shotguns in 15 cities
As the NRA wraps up its annual convention, the group is setting its sights on the 2014 midterms and telling members not to give up the fight for gun rights. NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez reports.
By Alexandria Fisher, NBCChicago.com
As talks of gun rights and gun violence spark controversy throughout the nation and Chicago, a Houston-based gun advocate group is hoping to get into the line of fire.
The Armed Citizen Project, a nonprofit group that arms residents living in high-crime cities, reportedly hopes to put shotguns in the hands of residents living in Chicago.
The group is currently arming residents in the Houston and Tuscon areas, but made headlines after the National Rifle Association’s convention in Houston this weekend when they announced hoped for expansion into more than 15 cities, including Chicago, according to DNAinfo.com.
The group’s mission is to arm law-abiding citizens and train them in safety, legal, and tactical measures, according to ACP’s website. All participants who to receive a weapon and take the training program will receive a shotgun, for free.
According to their website, the group’s motto is “nothing in my house is worth losing your life.”
Project founder Kyle Coplen, 29, an Indiana native, said he grew up visiting the Chicago area and was an avid Cubs fan, but is heartbroken by the city’s violence, DNAinfo.com reported.
The ACP’s website calls Chicago’s current gun policies “overzealous” and an “utter failure” that results in “historically high levels of gun violence.”
Though Chicago has been in the spotlight for the gun violence debate with the death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton and many others, Chicago recorded a 43 percent decrease in murders last month, according to police.
“The first four months of this year, we’re in a position we haven’t been in since the mid-’60s as far as the murder rate goes,” Supt. Garry McCarthy told NBC 5.
McCarthy pointed to 84 fewer murders in the past seven months and about 180 fewer shootings so far this year.
So far this weekend, the city has recorded three people shot on the South and West sides.
Group to offer free shotguns in 15 cities
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