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Archive for the ‘Business News’ Category

More than 20 bank branches of HSBC is set to be bought by KeyBank. These branches were forced to sell by First Niagara Financial Group as part of their acquisition of HSBC’s upstate branch network.

Another 11 branches will also be acquired by KeyBank in the Rochester area. This is also part of its deal amounting to $110 million. It was announced that it helped KeyBank expand their position in two of its upstate markets.

In order to acquire the branches, KeyBank has agreed to give 4.6% premium as payment, basing on the total deposits. The branches will only be sold under the agreement between First Niagara and federal antitrust regulators before the year ends.

KeyCorp’s chairman and chief executive officer, Beth Mooney, said that the transaction is an exciting opportunity for the company to help them strengthen their franchise in the markets mentioned.

The branches acquired are still part of the $1 billion acquisition of 195 branches of HSBC in southeastern Connecticut and in upstate New York.

The 37 acquired branches have $2.4 billion deposits while the loans amount to $400 million which belong to residential mortgages.

Meanwhile, leading consulting company Ramboll Gruppen A/S has signed a loan agreement with the Nordic Investment Bank amounting to DKK 75 million necessary to finance the company’s acquirisition Gifford, a British consulting company.

The loan will party finance the said acquisition which was closed last 2011. It had a four-year maturity and may probably add another four years. The loan will also help Ramboll strengthen their current business in UK.

Ramboll was interested to purchase Gifford with the hope of bringing new expertise in the infrastructure sector such as roads and bridges. Ramboll will surely make use of it in the planned link between Germany and Denmark.

The share of Google in the enterprise email market presently swings around at 1% which Gartner, a technology research company, predicts to reach 10% within the next few years.

Gartner says Google is getting ground with enterprises which contain more than 5,000 seats. Gartner also named several users in public and in private sectors with 10,000 or more Gmail seats.

Huge companies that utilized Gmail include the US General Services Administration having 17,000 users, Motorola Mobility with 22,000 users, Jaguar Land Rover having 15,000 users, the Los Angeles City Government with 17,000 and the Intercontinental Hotel chain with 10,000.

Gartner analyst Matthew Cain says this is the start of a major escalation amidst the email war.  According to the research firm, cloud-based email systems make up for roughly 4 % of the overall enterprise email market.

In 2010, a cloud-based exchange service was released by Microsoft. This year, a more expensive cloud was offered named Office 365.

In the meantime, more improvements are being made in Google’s platform at an intense pace. In fact, substantial changes in the platform have reached more than a dozen for the past 12 months.

The upgrades include advances in manageability and in security. Security features improvements add in the ability to reset the users sign-on cookies. Manageability improvements include the faculty to manage policy by user groups.

Google announced that it exceeded the $10 billion quarter revenue for the first time.  This was after Larry Page’s take-over as CEO. Although, this was a celebration for Page, Wall Street didn’t give any toasts as it expected the company to achieve more. In fact, Google’s shares dropped by 9 percent during after-hours trading.

Even though Google’s earnings and net revenue appeared strong, it has failed to meet what analyst expected. The financial results were primarily caused by critical foreign exchange rates and too much spending by Google. Also, the company’s changes on ad formats.  Sale of mobile ads affected the over-all sales.

These factors are included in the analysts’ list of long-term concerns. All these may contribute to a difficult year in 2012 especially as Google is involved in antitrust investigations. They also face more issues with Android on intellectual property litigation, competition with Facebook, and the acquisition of the struggling handset maker Motorola Mobility.

Jordan Rohan of Stifel Nicolaus said Google has performed pretty amazing by outdoing online advertising in general. However, the company is yet to face huge-company problems. Mr. Page however is positive with the results, and looks at 2012 as a fantastic year.

Meanwhile, Google’s rival Yahoo has announced the resignation of their co-founder and chief executive Jerry Yang. Yang suddenly moved out from all of his positions with the struggling company effective immediately.  Yahoo’s shares went up by more than 3.5 percent or $15.99 post his resignation.

The company has not yet announced any replacement for Yang, but other sources claim other board member will also be stepping down soon including Roy Bostock.

As the economic fourth quarter of Microsoft ended in the month of June, the company announced a rise in its revenue. From the previous year of $4.52 billion or $0.51 per share, it blew to 30% to $5.87 billion or $0.69 per share as recorded by Microsoft.

The net income of Microsoft topped the estimations of the analysts of Wall Street. They only anticipated $0.58 per share and $17.25 billion in revenue. This is based on the survey by Thomson Reuters.

Microsoft reported that the net income went by 8.5%, from $16 billion to $17.37 billion.

On the other hand, a fall down of one percent to $4.74 billion was recorded in the sales of units of the software operating systems of Windows. As for the second successive quarter, the operating systems for computer units of Windows were constantly down. This is due to the transfer of customers to tablets from personal computers.

The executives of Microsoft are expecting that the decline of Windows will still continues because the decreasing sales in PC. According to a firm of market research, IDC, a 2.6% of increase worldwide is anticipated as the sales of PC are nearly attached to the fortune of the company.

In the regular trading, the stock exchange of Microsoft closed at $27.10 while its shares fell down with a lesser amount of percentage to $26.99.

The chief financial officer of Microsoft, Peter Klein said during an interview that they felt it was really a stable financial year for the company.

Europe’s largest semiconductor maker expects lower revenue for the first quarter 2012.  STMicroelectronics predicts a 10 percent fall due to lower sales in their wireless business.

From the fourth quarter 2011 revenue of $2.19 billion, a decline from $1.97 to $2.1 billion is expected with its weaker revenue performance. The Geneva-based company said the drop is probably due to its joint venture in wireless-chip with Ericsson AB.

According to analyst John Ernsen of Gartner Inc, the company is still struggling with its transition to new products which may put their 2012 outlook into a disappointing state. This means ST-Ericsson should turn their business around quickly before having difficulty in closing serious engagements with customers who are now worried with their financial status.

Since 2009, ST-Ericsson has not been profitable. With the venture, the fourth quarter net loss has broadened to $231 million from last year’s $177 million. Their sales also dropped down to $409 million from $577 million.

This is equivalent to 7.9% or as much as 5.18 euros. It has been considered as the biggest fall since October. During trading, the sales again fell down by 4.6% which gives it a market value of 4.89 billion euros.

Meanwhile, the semiconductor company RDA Microelectronics will be announcing their fourth quarter revenue and financial results for 2011. The company is known to design, develop, and market radio frequency along with mixed-signal semiconductors for applications on cellular, connectivity, and broadcast.

The financial results will be announced before the market opens on February 9, 2012. Chairman and chief executive Vincent Tai and chief financial officer Lily Dong will hold a conference call to further discuss the results.

The consumer-product Colgate-Palmolive reported a fall of 5.4 percent on its fourth-quarter earnings 2011. The company’s sales reflected a slower than expected results due to higher cost that hurt margins.

The largest toothpaste maker by market share and revenue has currently faced rising costs for resin, oil, and other products necessary to manufacture, ship, and package their products. Also some conscious shoppers have decided to change from branded products to more affordable ones. This is evident especially in developed markets like Europe and US.

The company has increased prices and reduced cost. But it was not able to somehow lessen the higher input cost. As a result, a decline in margins is expected this 2012.

A year earlier, Colgate-Palmolive had a $624 million for profit or $1.24 per share. This year, the profit was down to $590 million or $1.21 per share. Excluding the costs for business realignment and other items however, earnings went up from $1.24 to $1.30.

The revenue jumped by 4.9 percent while the volume went up by 4% along with the price which increased by 3%.

Thomson Reuters recently projected earnings of $1.29 on revenue of 4.18 million dollars. The margin fell from 59.1% to 57.4%.

Also, United Bankshares Inc. reported fourth quarter earnings and full year earnings for 2011. The fourth-quarter shares reached $20.3 million or $0.40 per share. For 2011, its overall earnings were $75.6 million or $1.61 per share.

The results gave an average return of assets of 0.94 % and average equity of 8.17%.  The average assets and average equity is favourable for United’s compared to Federal Reserve peer group with an average asset of 0.79 % and average equity of 7.37%.

Burger King has opened a new delivery service at some select stores in Virginia and Maryland.  One Twitter user commented that it is now safe to say to neighbors that last night, your dinner was served by “royalty” because of Burger King’s home delivery.

The newest service is now available in three stores in Virginia and in nine stores in Maryland. It is expected that six stores are to be opened in the Old Dominion State. Burger King has also expanded service in other countries like Turkey, Mexico, Columbia, Peru, and Brazil.

The company said they are still testing out the home delivery service to provide convenience to areas in United States. That is why it has opened only in few restaurants in DC area.

The service is open from 11 am to 10pm. Its delivery time stays within a 10-minute drive to keep the food packed in a thermal insulated bag fresh.

However, when ordering, the restaurant requires a minimum order of $8 to $10 and asks a $2 delivery fee. However, deliveries do not include liquids like milkshakes, fountain drinks, and coffee. Breakfast food is also not included in the menu.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s had a special look in its branch at John Fitch Highway. To celebrate the new look, restaurant representatives were invited to participate in festivities and a ribbon-cutting ceremony on January 17, 2012.  A presentation to “Our Father’s Table” was also done.

Marketing Supervisor Michael Gross, said they will never stop in looking for ways to improve the restaurant.  The new look of McDonald’s  clearly answers to what the customers and community need. With the new look, the McDonald’s experience is enjoyed more by customers.

A man who has been fired from TCW Group Inc. has started his own firm.  Jeffrey Gundlach just won a $66.7 million award from jury against his former employer who has not paid him with rightful wages.

Gundlach has to share the said money with three of his colleagues. On Sept. 16, it was found out that he has breached his fiduciary duty to TCW. He has also misappropriated the company’s trade secrets. The jury of has awarded the company no damages on the claimed breach; a judge will verify the damages on the trade-secret claim.

TCW lawyer Susan Estrich said the company will request a judge to award the $89 million on the trade-secret claim. TCW has also won international interference claim with contractual relations. They have been awarded with no damages.

The Los Angeles-based unit of Societ Generale has already sued Gundlach last January 2010.  After that, he joined DoubleLine Capital LP.  DoubleLine is an asset-management firm Gundlach established weeks after he was fired by TCW.  TCW has sought more than $566 million for damages.

DoubleLine lawyer Brad Brian says it would take months before the judge rolls out its decision regarding the reasonable royalty claimed by TCW.

The jury discovered that DoubleLine and Gundlach did not act maliciously and willfully in embezzling the trade secrets.  The jury’s verdict speaks directly to the principles of honesty, integrity and trust. These principles were both violated by the defendants.

Zappos, an online clothes and shoes retailer, has announced a security breach which exposed partial details on credit card, shipping and billing address, and some other personal information. The hack has affected more than 24M users.

A blog has disclosed that the attack was made possible through a Kentucky data center.  However, servers accountable for storing the significant information were not impacted. Zappos immediately mandated customers to change their passwords to restore security.

In a statement, Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh confirmed that they are currently working with the law to have an exhaustive investigation on the matter. More specific details on the attack have not been provided since the investigation is still on process. However, they assured customers that critical information on credit cards and payment data were not accessed.

The current action being done by Zappos is notifying customers on what had happened and helping them choose a new password for their accounts. The recent passwords have been reset and expired.

Meanwhile, experts say mobile shopping will still be a trend at the early stages of 2012. Most of these transactions will be made in app-related services. As more smartphones and Android devices come to shoppers’ hands, there will be a lot of store-price comparison and reviews. This means that sellers should provide support in mobile browsing in its many forms.

Funds and payments will also be expected to close using mobiles. Online sellers will then have to invest not just in their products but in making their mobile applications more friendly.

A series of protests was held against the Italian Dolce & Gabbana in its outlet in Hong Kong. Residents claim that the staff of the store have discriminated against them.

Earlier news reports have been spreading on how sales staff prevented people in Hong Kong – may it be foreigners or mainland Chinese – from taking photos along the shop’s windows from the outside.

Hundreds of protesters rallied outside the store last week. On Sunday, the people who protested outside taped posters on the store’s glass saying “Apologize or get out.” They also placed a papier-mache camera in front of its door. The shop was closed during that time.

An engineer, Steven Chan, said even if people respect a high-end brand, they still need people to purchase the brand. He believes Dolce & Gabbana should really apologize for that.  Angry comments have also been posted on the company’s website and on networking sites.

Dolce & Gabbana is firm that they have not intended to offend the Hong Kong public.

Corollary, mothers and pregnant women have gathered on the streets of Hong Kong to oppose the growing number of Chinese giving birth in Hong Kong. Said protesters have now reached more than 1500.

The number of women from mainland China who are eager to give birth in Hong Kong has grown since it has ceased to be a colony of Britain in 1997. Children born in Hong Kong are entitled to the right of education and abode.  This status have annoyed women and other residents of Hong Kong since they have to compete in hospitals, prenatal and post natal care services, and children’s education.