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Tag: report
2009-01-08 00:23:50| paidContent.org
An unspecified group of investors is gearing up a buyout offerall with financing from Microsoft, reports Techcrunch, citing unidentified sources. The buyout terms call for $13 per share, which would value Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) at around $20 billion. By way of perspective, MSFT offered to buy Yahoo early last February for $31 per share, and in May, upped its offer to $33, before ultimately being rejected. Since then, Yahoo's fortunes have taken a turn for the worse, as the financial markets melted this past fall. As for what would happen if the takeover succeeds, Techcrunch's sources claim they would try to convince former Yahoo staffers to return after installing a new executive team. They also say that this deal would leave Yahoo standing independently, though it would still be tightly connected to Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT). A Yahoo rep had no comment on the Techcrunch report, and Microsoft reps were unavailable. This latest turn in the never-ending MSFT-YHOO takeover saga follows a report at the end of November that said Microsoft was putting together a deal that would ultimately net it Yahoo's search business for $20 billion. That rumor involved Velocity Investment Group founders Jonathan Miller and Ross Levinsohn taking control of a new Yahoo new search division with a promise to match MSFT's funding with $5 billion from external investors. Levinsohn, however, denied there was any truth to it. Related Update: Microsoft, Yahoo Said To Be Hammering Out $20 Billion Search Buyout; Denied Yahoo Shareholder Pleads With Board To Make $15 Billion Search Deal With Microsoft Icahn: No MSFT-YHOO Search DealFor Now; Opposes Sale To Miller Microsoft's Ballmer: Read My LipsNo Bid For Yahoo Our streamlined mobile application for the BlackBerry and other smart devices brings you the latest headlines quickly on the go. Click here to download.
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2009-01-08 00:14:00| CFO.com: Today in Finance
The pension expense S&P 1500 companies will have to record in their financials will soar by $60 billion in 2009, a Mercer study predicts.
2009-01-06 23:38:43| GoldSeek.com News
Gold and silver fell as much as 2.06% and 4.31% to $838.70 and $10.76 by late trade in Asia before they steadily climbed higher in London and morning New York trade to see just slight losses by about noon EST, but they both then soared even higher in the last hour and a half of trade and ended near their session highs of $866.00 and $11.453 with gains of 0.98% and 1.56%.
2009-01-06 01:06:44| Guardian Unlimited Business - more business news
Now that the boutique hotel trappings of Egyptian cotton sheets, walk-in slate showers and elegant dark wood have been adopted by even the most modest places to stay, tourists might think we live in an era of luxury for all. But a report from undercover hotel inspectors published today reveals a grimier reality beneath the surface of the British hospitality industry.Researchers for Which? Holiday magazine who checked into 16 budget hotels in London and Manchester pretending to be ordinary guests found mouldy mattresses, stained duvets and dirty toilets at some leading chains. Ibis performed "particularly badly", the team said, and Travelodge was also criticised in their report.The results of the investigation come as domestic tourism is preparing for a boom, with credit-squeezed holidaymakers tightening their belts, and cost-conscious business travellers trading down.Despite these favourable conditions, Which? said it was concerned by the standards of cleanliness it found.The team, consisting of a researcher and a microbiologist, said their "most disturbing" discovery was a mattress in the Ibis on Charles Street, Manchester, which was so badly soiled that the cover had started to fray and mould had begun to grow. A duvet at the Ibis on Portland Street in the same city was stained, with the microbiologist suggesting one of the marks was blood. There was "something sticky on the bedside table surface", the report added.The Ibis Euston in London was home to the dirtiest toilet the researchers found, with urine and faeces around the edge of the seat and urine streaked down the pedestal, according to the report. On the bedroom floor they observed a stray fingernail and food debris.Which? said bathrooms at the five Travelodges it visited were unclean and it was concerned that bacteria found in four of the rooms could indicate poor cleaning.At the chain's Gray's Inn Road hotel in London, inspectors found "appalling" levels of dust under the bed. "It was so bad that when we kicked the carpet, dust rose before our eyes and our consultant's footprint was left outlined on the floor. The wall behind the curtains was also thick with ground-in dirt, which contained a handprint streaked down the wall."At Blackfriars Street in Manchester, a Travelodge room had mould around the bath, and in Ancoats Street the inspectors found a stained duvet and mattress.Which? Holiday's researcher, Amanda Diamond, said the results were a surprise. "When we set out to do the report we really thought we would find nothing; we thought it would be more to do with comparing budget hotel chains, given that the market is growing and more people are looking for cheaper rooms in the current economic climate. We took a microbiologist as a precaution. We certainly didn't expect to find rooms in such poor condition."Research published by Travelodge this week suggested that more than half of Britons plan to stay in the UK for their summer break this year. Overseas travel declined by 10.5% in October, according to the Office for National Statistics, and trips to Spain - British tourists' favourite destination by far - fell 15% last year, the Spanish tourism ministry said.Whitbread, which owns Premier Inn, plans to double its rooms in the UK to 55,000 within five years while Travelodge hopes to have 55 new properties by 2015 and raise capacity from 24,600 rooms to 70,000 by 2020.Lorna Cowan, editor of Which? Holiday, said: "Although this investigation was just a snapshot, it does raise concerns about the cleanliness of some budget hotel chains. It's clear from our research that some of the hotels are getting it right when appropriate cleaning methods are being used. Paying guests should be guaranteed, at the very least, a clean room. "There doesn't seem to be one single accepted standard for hygiene in hotels across the UK, and we would like to see this change." An Ibis spokesman said: "Ibis treats matters of cleanliness and hygiene as critically important. We were, therefore, very disappointed to see the results of the investigation which showed standards that are totally unacceptable to us. "We have clear procedures in place to ensure that housekeeping standards are to the highest levels. Clearly the Which? investigation indicates that those procedures are not being implemented in some cases and we have taken immediate remedial actions to ensure we deliver the standards of cleanliness that all our guests have the right to expect."We have submitted the results Which? obtained to an established independent health and safety consultant, who has confirmed that nothing in those results constitutes a danger to public health."A Travelodge spokesman said the chain rejected any suggestion that Which? or its customers should be concerned at the level of bacteria found. "According to a leading independent microbiologist that reviewed Which's findings, the levels of bacteria found were so low that they could not cause any health risk whatsoever."With regard to the isolated incidents of dust, we would like to reassure customers that we immediately remedied these cases through strengthening of cleaning procedures and superior cleaning materials."Our six million customers should always enjoy a good quality stay, so this report has helped us by highlighting a handful of cases where we needed to improve."HotelsUnited KingdomBudget travelTravel & leisureguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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2009-01-02 14:34:51| FXstreet.com The Foreign Exchange Market
Gold Slips in Quiet Start to 2009; Investment Demand Has Room to Grow as Central Banks Try to Inflate Away Recession THE SPOT PRICE of wholesale gold bullion slipped into the first, quiet session of 2009 trading on Friday, recording a London AM Gold Fix of $869.75 an ounce some 3.4% above the start of 2008 for Dollar investors. The Gold Price in Sterling held just shy of 600 an ounce, higher by more than 40% from this time last year. French, German and Italian buyers saw the AM Fix set at
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