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SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) — As Yahoo Inc. gets ready to face the wrath of its shareholders, the company may learn from the plight of another tech firm, whose board directors rejected a sweetened takeover offer and are now on the verge of being booted out.

This happened just last week, shortly before Microsoft Corp. withdrew its blockbuster offer to buy the beleaguered Web portal.

At a little-known Massachusetts company called Axcelis Technologies (ACLS), three directors were voted down by investors after the company rejected what many shareholders felt was a generous $616 million takeover offer from Sumitomo Heavy Industries.

The shareholder revolt got some support from a company policy that says director-nominees who don’t win a majority of the votes cast must offer to resign anuncios.

The Axcelis battle underscores a trend in the corporate world where more companies, responding to the clamor for greater boardroom accountability, have adopted similar policies often referred to as a “majority-voting rule.”

Chris Young, director of M&A research at RiskMetrics Group, described the Axcelis case as “the first test case where a hostile M&A transaction and a relatively new innovation of majority voting for the election of directors collide.” Leggi il seguito di questo post »

Circuit City is finally throwing in the towel. Confronted with weak sales, impatient shareholders, and a U.S. consumer pummeled by recession, the electronics chain capitulated on May 9 and retained Goldman Sachs to help negotiate a deal. The same day, Circuit City Stores (CC) agreed to allow three board nominees from activist shareholder Mark Wattles to stand for elections (BusinessWeek.com, 4/8/08).

The moves almost certainly presage a sale of the chain, likely to Blockbuster (BBI), where Carl Icahn has stepped up and agreed to finance (BusinessWeek.com, 5/9/0 a Circuit City acquisition. The billionaire—Blockbuster’s largest shareholder—has bought into a “game-changing” scheme announced last month in which the troubled electronics retailer would be combined with the troubled movie retailer to create a new national chain selling consumer hardware and software. Leggi il seguito di questo post »

The two sides in a union strike that has shut down a key supplier of General Motors Corp. signaled no softening of positions after an offer by GM last week to contribute $200 million toward settling the dispute – possibly in hopes of getting the auto maker to increase the offer.

Over the weekend, Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Auto Workers, said GM’s move encouraged the supplier, American Axle & Manufacturing Inc., to take a harder line in the talks. In an interview with a Detroit radio station, Mr. Gettelfinger called GM’s offer a “mistake” and added that it dealt the negotiations a setback.

American Axle, which gets much of its business from GM, now wants to close a plant in Cheektowaga, N.Y., Mr. Gettelfinger said. That comes in addition to two other plant closures and other concessions the UAW already agreed to in past years.

“It’s going to make the talks increasingly difficult,” he said, referring to American Axle’s latest demand. “I was very, very leery when I saw that General Motors had put in $200 million.”

Despite Mr. Gettelfinger’s tough public reaction to GM’s offer, people close to both sides in the talks said the union and American Axle are hoping to force GM to play a major role in the talks. Brushing off GM’s initial offer could pressure the auto maker into proposing an even large sum.

About 3,600 American Axle workers have been on strike for about two-and-a-half months, crippling GM’s ability to build full-size pick up trucks and sports-utility vehicles. GM estimated the strike lowered its first quarter pre-tax profit in North America by $800 million.

American Axle wants the union to make similar wage and benefit concessions that it has already granted Dana Corp., another axle maker, and to accept closures of some U.S. plants. If it doesn’t get the concessions, American Axle could move more work to plants in Mexico.

According to people familiar with its thinking, American Axle believes the strike could be resolved either by the UAW relenting, or by GM stepping in to help fund a settlement.

The Axle strike puts GM in a tough spot. The company is also involved in the bail out Delphi Corp., another supplier in conflict with the UAW. GM has already committed about $8.3 billion to helping Delphi, which is in bankruptcy protection.

GM is also facing UAW strikes at two of its own plants that has halted production of some key models. A plant near Lansing, Mich., makes highly profitable “crossovers” and another in Fairfax, Kan., makes the highly touted Chevrolet Malibu sedan.

In a pair of regulatory filings made last week, American Axle and GM said the $200 million was for employee buyouts and early retirements. The offer was predicated upon an expedient resolution of the dispute.

As American homeowners fall behind on their mortgages in growing numbers, bankers and policy makers worry that while many of these people cannot pay, some simply will not.

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A foreclosure can make it hard for borrowers to get other loans.

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Housing Bailout Bill Seems to Be on Shaky Ground (May 10, 200

Millions of Americans are “upside down” on their mortgages — they owe more on their homes than their homes are worth. So far, however, there is little evidence that people who have the means to pay are walking away from their homes as values sink.

The blogosphere is full of tales of homeowners who supposedly are choosing to mail the house keys to their lenders rather than keep their depreciating homes. And yet “jingle mail,” the term for those tinkling packages of keys, appears to be far rarer than many seem to think.

Freddie Mac, the big government-sponsored mortgage company, estimates that just 0.14 percent of the defaulted mortgages in its portfolio involved properties that were abandoned by borrowers. Fannie Mae, another mortgage company, puts the figure in the single digits. Both companies deal in relatively conservative loans, so the total rate may be somewhat higher. Industry officials say they have no way of knowing for sure.

Even so, the idea that some people are simply refusing to pay their mortgages has gripped the popular imagination. The notion picked up momentum in the last few weeks after “Inside Edition,” the celebrity-focused TV news program, reported that Jose Canseco, the former American League most valuable player who made millions during his baseball career, abandoned his $2.5 million mansion outside Los Angeles to move into a smaller property. Leggi il seguito di questo post »

What do you know about industrially produced trans fatty acids? Unless you are actually a nutritionist or a doctor, the answer is most likely to be: nothing at all. And why should you? One survey a few years ago found that of the sample asked, 15 per cent thought trans fats were good for your love life.

Trans fats are a closely guarded secret. The food production and catering industries want to keep it that way. A handful of outlets have voluntarily started to cut back on their usage under consumer pressure, but there is no law against them.

Trans fats are a lethal side effect of boiling vegetable oil. Why boil vegetable oil? That all goes back to a pharmacist called Wilhelm Norman in 1903. Mr Norman was trying to find a way of making a substitute for tallow, which was very expensive at the time. Mr Norman discovered that if he boiled cotton seed oil up to 260 degrees Centigrade in the presence of a catalyst such as nickel, that when it cooled, it went hard. He had produced cheap candle wax by ‘hydrogenating vegetable oil’. The thick, greyish-white slabs produced were great candles but Mr Norman didn’t anticipate human beings eating them. Leggi il seguito di questo post »

Gardening is a hobby that will bring many hours of work, but also produces great satisfaction as your garden grows and shows off throughout the summer. If you have not gardened before there are guidelines that you can follow to make your efforts turn into a gratifying array of blooms and vegetables you’ll enjoy all season long.

The gardening equipment you need depends on the size of your garden, your age and strength, and whether you want to get the job done in a hurry or prefer to take your time. The basic equipment needed includes a shovel or spade, a hoe, a rake, a trowel, and pruning tools. A wide selection of styles is available in each of these tools, and the choice is really one of personal preference and price range.You can get the best value for the price range you choose by knowing each tool’s uses and particular qualities when comparison shopping. Leggi il seguito di questo post »

As a business owner or even someone looking to promote an event you are part of at your church or non-profit group, you should know that a press release can be very powerful.

A friend of mine was president of a youth baseball league for five years. He tells me the use of press releases far outweighed the return then most paid advertising in the same newspaper.

So what makes a good press release? Here are some handy tips to help get your press release going.

The headline of your press release should not be made up of some infomercial gimmick where your readers think you are trying to con them. A bad headline would be, “Miracle Product Cleans Your Floors For You”. You can tell the headline is a bad one, and chances are no one will read the release. However if you reword it to grab the readers attention can make all of the difference. For example, “Self Cleaning Product for Floors Hits the Shelves in Record Numbers”, might do better. Come up with a good headline.

Every press release must, according to my friend, answer the whos, whats, whys, wheres and hows of what it is you are trying to talk about. In his case he was trying to promote his youth league. He had to talk about who they are, what the league is about, why they exist, where they are located and how the readers can get in touch with them. If you cover all of these questions you will have all of the information in there that you need. Leggi il seguito di questo post »

Il marchio Imperia rinascerà. Questo è il sogno di un gruppo di ingegneri belgi, che hanno creato questa particolarissima proposta di supercar, caratterizzata dall’interessante mix di propulsione ibrida e linee retrò.

Dietro il gruppo c’è la mano di Green Propulsion, che dal 2001 crea mezzi “verdi” come bici elettriche e piccole auto ibride. Questa Imperia GP rappresenta in un certo senso il grande salto, come evidenziano anche i numeri: il motore a benzina (un 2.0 V4) eroga 176 CV e l’elettrico 95 kW (130 CV), per una potenza totale di 306 CV, più che sufficiente per conferire un carattere forte all’auto.

L’accelerazione da 0 a 100 orari avviene in 4,8 s, ma anche in modalità elettrica le prestazioni sono di tutto rispetto: sempre sullo 0-100 lo scatto richiede solo 7,1 s. Le batterie durano fino a tre ore ed il pilota può scegliere manualmente tra propulsione ibrida o elettrica.

Continua a leggere: Imperia GP: ibrido in salsa retrò

1.692 milioni di euro. A tanto ammontano i ricavi netti della casa tedesca nel 2007 secondo il rapporto annuale diramato dalla casa. Tuttavia il dato veramente impressionante è quello dell’incremento percentuale: nel 2006 i guadagni netti erano stati di 1343 milioni di euro; ciò vuol dire che in 12 mesi, Audi ha alzato i suoi margini di profitto del 26%. Il ritorno sugli investimenti effettuati è cresciuto dal 14,2 al 18,6%.

Ad affermarlo sono stati Rupert Stadler (Audi Chairman)e Axel Strotbek(Board Member for Finance), secondo i quali Audi , non solo batte un nuovo record aziendale per gli introiti accumulati , ma conferma inoltre di essere uno dei marchi automobilistici con margine di guadagno più alto.

Un successo dovuto alle numerose vendite (oltre 964.000 unità ;+6.4%), ai nuovi modelli come la Q7, la A5, la TT e la R8 e al gradimento per la casa nei marcati emergenti dell’estremo oriente oltre che agli storici mercati europei.
Inoltre, attualmente la casa investe circa 2 bilioni di euro ogni anno nello sviluppo di nuovi prodotti. Questo garantirà il passaggio della gamma dagli odierni 25 modelli a circa 40 per il 2015, anno in cui Audi ambisce a produrre 1.5 milioni di veicoli.

Stadler lancia anche una frecciatina a BMW, che ha in programma un corposo piano di licenziamenti: “Contrariamente ad altre case, abbiamo creato nuovi posti di lavoro (circa 600 solo i nuovi ingegneri assunti nel 2007) e ne creeremo di nuovi nel 2008: 800 nuovi laureati ed oltre 700 apprendisti saranno assunti al fianco dei nostri 53.347 dipendenti. Il successo del nostro brand è dovuto principalmente a loro”.