Home » Archive for July, 2012
UBS Hit With Huge Facebook Loss
Shares of UBS plummeted on Tuesday after the giant Swiss bank posted earnings that were worst than expected. Profits for the second quarter fell by 58% because of the huge losses the bank suffered from the initial public offering of... More of this article »
Senate Rebukes HSBC Over Money Laundering (NYSE: HBC)
A 335-page Senate report says that executives at HSBC and regulators at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ignored warning signs and failed to stop illegal behavior by Mexican drug cartels looking to get cash back into... More of this article »
Microsoft Faces New Inquiry In Europe (NASDAQ: MSFT)
The European Commission announced a new set of antitrust proceedings against Microsoft. The European Commission said that the company failed to live up to a agreement made three years ago to give users of Windows software better... More of this article »
Apple versus Samsung Opens Today
A new court battle between Apple, Inc. and Samsung Electronics, two of the largest technology companies in the world begins on Monday. The latest of many court battles between the two will be one that is closely watched, as it might... More of this article »
Something in the water at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS)
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) may be sporting a gleaming new headquarters building in lower Manhattan, but not everything there is quite perfect. While the building sports the usual amenities of any high end office building in Manhattan,... More of this article »
Management Shake Up at JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM)
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is executing a management shake up in follow-up to the London Whale trading debacle. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon reshuffled managers just below him, signaling that the biggest U.S.... More of this article »
Bank Deposit Insurance Near Spotlight Again
Deposit insurance has been a stabilizing force in the US banking industry since the formation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). During the financial crisis of 2008, the increase in FDIC levels helped avert... More of this article »
Sandy Weill of Citigroup (NYSE: C) Fame Now Advocates Breaking Up Big Banks
Sandy Weill, the engineer of supermarket banking through his creation of Citigroup (NYSE: C), has now spurned the notion of massive banks and turning his back on what amounted to his career’s crowning achievement. Weill displayed... More of this article »
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) Buys Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate Building
A fund managed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) agreed to buy a building near Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate valued at about $184 million from Commerzbank AG (NYSE: CBK), two people with knowledge of the matter said. While... More of this article »
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Expanding In Asia
In the banking industry, the market potential for Asia remains as hot a topic as ever. While the major US based banks have sought to expand and grow market share, hoping to gain a piece of IPO action and potentially billions of... More of this article »
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Expanding Mobile Banking Services
The Charlotte based banking behemoth Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) seems to be heeding the client demand for mobile banking products. Today, the firm launched new mobile banking products and service enhancements including Mobile... More of this article »
Chicken Salads at Trader Joe’s Being Recalled
Chicken salads under the name Huxtable’s Kitchen salads include contaminated red onions. The onions are contaminated with listeria, which could cause a disease that has a mortality rate of 20%. Over two tons of chicken salad that... More of this article »
Authorities Could Hold Man for Full Week
A man taken into custody last week, who has been accused of threatening a former co-worker, might be held an entire week in a hospital. Police also found a cache of arms in his home. He might remain under custody in the hospital until... More of this article »
Yahoo Results Show Stall In Earnings (NASDAQ: YHOO)
Yahoo’s quarterly financial report shows that revenue and net income have stalled at last year’s levels. Yahoo’s revenue from online display ads rose just 2% in the second quarter compared with a year ago, and it continues... More of this article »
Expansion In China Causing Headaches For Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)
Apple’s slow pace of expansion in China has been causing major headaches for the company. Apple’s stores in China are usually very crowded and customers often have to wait in long lines for repairs for their iPhones. Apple has... More of this article »
Will Experimental Marketing Work in 2012 and Beyond?
In this day and age for your marketing campaign to work you need to have a slightly different approach that people haven’t seen before. People are very skeptical these days and it can be easy to dismiss something that we see being... More of this article »
Greinke Traded To Angels
The Milwaukee Brewers have sent their pitching ace, Zack Greinke to the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for Jean Segura, a shortstop and two minor league prospects. Greinke was considered the best pitcher available prior to Tuesday’s... More of this article »
Growth Slows In U.S. Due to Consumers Spending Less
The largest economy in the world, cooled off during the second quarter due to very little growth in jobs that in turn prompted Americans to cut back spending. Local and state governments also made cutbacks adding to the problem. The... More of this article »
Vaccine Works in Thailand Trial against Dengue
The first vaccine in the world against dengue virus has shown it protects against three of four strains of the virus. Those results were from a trial that took place in Thailand, said the maker of the vaccine this week. The vaccine... More of this article »
Economy Slows to Tepid Rate of 1.5%
The economy in the U.S. grew by just a tepid 1.5% rate during the second quarter of 2012. It lost the momentum that had appeared during the early part of the year. Holding back the growth of the economy was the lack of purchasing by... More of this article »
US Banks Should Not Be Forced to Breakup
In the United States, banks are starting to separate their commercial and investment banking operations. According to banking analyst Meredith Whitney, there’s no need for any radical breakup as suggested by former Citigroup chairman... More of this article »
Study says Ecstasy Causes Loss of Memory
A recent study has said there is link between Ecstasy use and memory loss. The research was done by German scientists who said over 100 users of Ecstasy were tracked over a one year period. The research found that the users did not... More of this article »
Samsung Doubles Smartphone Shipments of Apple
Samsung, the South Korea based electronics giant said its shipments for smartphones number more than 52 million for the recently ended second quarter. That number was more than double the number of iPhones Apple shipped during the... More of this article »
Campbell Soup Strikes Deal To Buy Bolthouse Farms (NYSE: CPB)
The Campbell Soup Company announced that it would buy food company Bolthouse Farms from the private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners. Campbell will pay $1.55 billion in cash to close the deal. Denise M. Morrison, Campbell’s... More of this article »
Huge Protests over Police Shooting in Anaheim
Officials in the city of Anaheim voted on Tuesday to request an official investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office over recent police shootings. That includes one that took place last weekend where an unarmed man was shot by police.... More of this article »
European Commission Looks into Possible Optic Drive Cartel
The European Commission of the European Union announced yesterday that it has started an investigation into possible price fixing by 13 makers of optic disk drives. The allegations are that the makers of the drives participated in... More of this article »
Lopez Turns 43
Jennifer Lopez the superstar entertainer and former judge on American Idol celebrated her 43rd birthday today. Lopez has two beautiful twins Emme and Max who are four years old. She is currently touring with Enrique Iglesias and has... More of this article »
Pickup Crashes and Kills Fourteen Aboard
A pickup crashed into a group of trees on a remote stretch of Texas highway early Monday morning killing 14 of the 23 people onboard. Authorities said at least 23 people were in the pickup when it crashed, with the number possibly... More of this article »
Rupert Murdoch Resigns from 3 Boards
News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch resigned from three of the company’s boards, which include the News International newspaper division in the United Kingdom. The move was made to prepare for impending... More of this article »
Els Wins British Open after Scott Collapse
South African Ernie Els knew he would have to play almost flawless golf in the final round of the British Open if he hoped to have any chance of winning. He went out and played a brilliant round, recording a birdie on the last hole... More of this article »
Rupert Murdoch Stepping Down From Boards
Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch announced he was stepping down from the two News Corp businesses in the United Kingdom. By doing so, he has symbolically put a distance between himself and the vast empire he started 43 years ago... More of this article »
Holmes in Solitary Confinement
James Holmes, the accused gunman in the movie theater massacre, remains completely unapologetic for his alleged action. He is accused of killing 12 people and injuring as many as 58 more. Holmes is a former honors student and was studying... More of this article »
Amazon Hacker Finally Arrested
A hacker from Russian was taken into custody last week in Cyprus for two cyber attacks he is alleged to have performed against Internet giant Amazon.com. Dmitry Olegovich Zubakha was taken into custody by local and international law... More of this article »
Viacom Agrees With DirecTV
On Friday, Viacom and DirecTV came to a new seven-year agreement. The agreement makes over 20 million DirecTV subscribers very happy as they will now receive their favorite shows once again. The satellite TV provider reached the agreement... More of this article »
Kayak Goes Public
Kayak is now public. The Connecticut company had its initial public offering on Friday. Behind its successful Kayak.com site the company went public and will trade on Nasdaq. The company saw its initial stock prices jump by 16% as... More of this article »
WellPoint Makes Plans To Buy Amerigroup (NYSE: WLP)
WellPoint has agreed to buy Amerigroup in a $4.9 billion deal. The deal is one of WellPoint’s biggest since the company was created in a 2003 merger. The company has also recently acquired 1-800 Contacts, a contact lens retailer,... More of this article »
Yahoo CEO Mayer Gets $100 Million Over Five Years
It looks like Yahoo is confident with its new Chief Executive Marissa Mayer. She will receive up to $100 million in compensation, bonus, stock and retention awards for the next five years. According to the announcement made by the... More of this article »
Passenger Gets Strip Searched Due To Feeding Tube
John Deaton from North Texas announced that his wife was strip searched and had her feeding tube touched by Transportation Safety Administration screeners prior to one of her flights. His wife, Melinda Deaton, has a feeding tube that... More of this article »
First Loss As Public Company Posted By Microsoft
Microsoft announced on Thursday it had made an accounting adjustment to reflect that an online advertising company it purchased in 2007 had not lived up to expectations that top executives had hope for. The result led to Microsoft’s... More of this article »
Capital One to Pay $210 Million Fine for Credit Card Add-Ons
Capital One Financial Corp. has to pay $210 million as settlement for its deceptive marketing of credit card add-on products such as payment protection and credit monitoring. This has been the first public enforcement case file by... More of this article »
No-Fly Listed People Can Attend Flight School
American citizens, thanks to a government regulation, can enroll and attend flight school even though they appear on a no-fly list because of being suspected of involvement with terrorist activities. They are not even required to have... More of this article »
Bank of America Reports $2.5 Billion Profit (NYSE: BAC)
Bank of America reportedly earned $2.5 billion, or $0.19 a share, compared with analysts’ projections of $0.14 for the quarter. The bank reported revenue of $22.2 billion for the second quarter, slightly less than expected... More of this article »
Leaders in Syria Killed In Bomb Blast
The National Security building in the capital of Syria was struck Wednesday by a massive bomb. Killed in the blast was the brother-in-law of President al Assad and the country’s defense minister. The bombing was the worst to hit... More of this article »
Lack of Exercise Could Be As Deadly As Cigarettes
A recent study shows that a lack of exercise is causing as many people to die as smoking, around the world. The report claims that close to 33% of all adults do not have enough physical activity in their lifestyle and that causes close... More of this article »
HSBC Handles Drug Money and other Shady Funds
According to a US Senate report, HSBC Holdings Plc has a pervasively polluted culture that allowed the bank to act as financier to clients looking for a way to route shady funds from the world’s most dangerous regions, such as Mexico,... More of this article »
Toronto Shootout Kills 2 with 22 Injured
On Monday night, a shootout in Toronto took the lives of two people, wounded another 19 and saw three more trampled at a block party in the city’s east end. The two who died at the shooting scene were a teenage female and a 20-year... More of this article »
Fast Food Restaurants Lower Trans Fat Levels in New York City
Patrons of fast food in New York City now eat much less unhealthy fat because of restrictions on the use of trans fat placed by the city over four years ago, says a new report. Trans fats are very common in hydrogenated vegetable oil... More of this article »
MSNBC.com Becomes NBCNews.com
NBC News got full control of msnbc.com as well as its digital network from Microsoft. It will undergo a rebranding and will be known as NBCNews.com. Most of the details of the deal are still being worked on and the financial terms... More of this article »