Saturday, February 4, 2012

After IPO, Facebook will face new profit pressures

FILE - This Oct. 15, 2011 file photo, shows Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg smiling during a meeting in San Francisco. Will Facebook list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq? It comes down to "where Mark Zuckerberg wants to get his picture taken," the founder of one market research company says. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

FILE - This Oct. 15, 2011 file photo, shows Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg smiling during a meeting in San Francisco. Will Facebook list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq? It comes down to "where Mark Zuckerberg wants to get his picture taken," the founder of one market research company says. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

This Dec. 13, 2011 file photo, shows workers inside Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.Facebook, the social network that changed "friend" from a noun to a verb, is expected to file as early as Wednesday to sell stock on the open market. Its debut is likely to be the most talked-about initial public offering since Google in 2004. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)

FILE - This Dec. 13, 2011 file photo shows a sign at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Facebook, the social network that changed "friend" from a noun to a verb, is expected to file as early as Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012, to sell stock on the open market. Its debut is likely to be the most talked-about initial public offering since Google in 2004. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? For all the huge numbers in Facebook's IPO papers, a surprisingly small figure stands out: $4.39, the amount the site generated per user last year.

It's one of the company's major challenges because the total is paltry compared with competing Internet companies. Google makes more than $30 a year from each registered user. Even struggling Yahoo and AOL make $7 and $10, respectively.

Once Facebook goes public, Wall Street will surely demand more. That means the social network will almost certainly have to attract a lot more users or be more aggressive with its advertising, perhaps by mining personal data even more than it does now.

But can Facebook do all that without spoiling the user experience?

The company may have a tough time increasing the number of ads on a site that has become primarily a home for online conversations.

"It's a communications tool. Can you imagine what a turn-off it would be if we were talking on the phone and AT&T tried to play an ad in the middle of our conversation?" said University of Notre Dame finance professor Tim Loughran, who studies IPOs.

Facebook stock probably won't begin trading until at least May, but analysts already believe the company will try to sell shares at a price that will give it a market value of at least $100 billion ? more than Yahoo, AOL and Hewlett Packard Co. combined.

To justify a valuation like that, Facebook will need to maximize its revenue to get closer to Google, one of its biggest rivals. Google's revenue of nearly $38 billion last year translated into about $35 per registered user.

Facebook recorded $3.7 billion in revenue last year.

The question is whether it can bring in more money without alienating the 845 million users who have become accustomed to hanging out with friends and family on the social network without an onslaught of ads.

Part of that online environment has been by design. Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wanted to get as many as people as possible to create profiles on the website before figuring out the best ways to profit from all the information about their interests and connections.

In theory, those insights should enable Facebook to target ads to people most likely to be interested in certain products or services. That should appeal to marketers, giving the site enough leverage to charge more for its ads than other sites. If the ads work, Facebook should easily be able to increase revenue per user to $10 to $12 annually, said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter.

Before Google went public, it also faced questions about its ability to make money from selling ads next to search results, in emails and within videos. Evidently most users don't mind because Google's annual revenue is now about 25 times higher than in 2003.

Advertising isn't the only way Facebook can make money. It charges a commission for some of the sales of games and other services on its website. Although advertising accounted for 85 percent of Facebook's revenue last year, that was less than at Google, where ads accounted for 96 percent of revenue.

Most of Facebook's non-advertising revenue comes from commissions paid by Zynga Inc., the maker of such popular Web games as CityVille and Words With Friends. In its IPO papers, Facebook says it may try to increase its revenue by introducing fees for other e-commerce features on its website.

Facebook, which is based in Menlo Park, Calif., easily could offer sales of movies, music, even houses and cars. But believing it can expand into those markets requires a huge leap of faith, said Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst.

"It's like saying because Chipotle has been good at selling burritos in certain urban markets in the U.S., it should be able to make more money selling Chinese food in France," he said.

Facebook says roughly half its audience ? about 425 million people ? now gets access to its service on smartphones, tablet computers and other mobile devices. But the site acknowledges it hasn't figured out the best way to make money from mobile users.

The application-driven systems on mobile devices pose another threat because they could allow Zynga and other services to offer their own mobile apps to bypass Facebook and connect directly with users.

The rise of mobile devices also opens up an opportunity for Google to expand the audience of Plus, its social networking alternative to Facebook. Although it hasn't done so yet, Google could make Plus part of the Android operating system that runs 250 million smartphones and tablets.

Zuckerberg, Facebook's controlling shareholder as well as its leader, is promising to put users' interests ahead of the company's financial interests.

"Simply put: We don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services," Zuckerberg wrote in a letter included in Wednesday's IPO filing. "These days, I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximizing profits."

___

AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in New York contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-02-02-US-Facebook-IPO/id-b82415d7bae64371acab17df18cfaa27

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Friday, February 3, 2012

Knowing the Relevance and also Availability of the actual U . s ...

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Source: http://lvoutlaws.com/knowing-the-relevance-and-also-availability-of-the-actual-u-s-fraction-mount/1784/

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The Finance Smackdown: Credit Cards vs. Payday Loans

With the state of the world economy in constant flux that does not seem to be turning itself around anytime soon, many people are left with the undesirable option of which way to incur more debt in order to maintain a decent lifestyle, or simply to pay off bills that were incurred in better times.

credit cards or cash Many banks will not lend to individuals who are just in need of short-term personal loans for small business owners who have need of bridge loans of some kind. This leaves an entire segment of the population with the two main alternative ways of short-term self financing ? credit cards and payday loans. This article will weigh the pros and cons of each, and determine once and for all which one is actually better for someone in need of short-term financial backing.

Credit Cards

Self financing with credit cards is definitely the most popular option of the two, as the credit card companies who profit from this sort of debt incurrence routinely spend billions of dollars in order to make people believe that credit cards are the end-all and be-all when it comes to debt. However, if the aftereffects of the real estate bubble of 2008 and the subsequent recession led by the United States and Europe have been any indication, there are more than a few holes in that theory.

However, there are some definite pros to incurring debt on credit cards. The first of these, which is not to be underestimated in any capacity, is the ability to pay off the loan without incurring any interest, as long as you can do it before the term period is up. So if you are looking at a loan term that is less than 30 days, by all means, take the debt on credit cards, pay it back before the end of the month, and you have basically financed yourself for free over that time period.

However, if it is not the case that you can do this, and it usually is not, then you have a great deal more to worry about.

Credit cards usually incur much larger interest rates than payday loans. You are also dealing with a large company that you most likely will have no personal leeway with. That means that the contract that they give you is set in stone more or less, and the punishments will be severe if you do not comply with the rules and regulations that are set forth.

Payday Loans

These businesses might have received a bad rap from all of the billions of dollars that the credit card companies are putting out there to make credit cards seem godlike and payday loans industry seem like the unscrupulous underbelly of the financial services industry. However, if you are able to find the right payday loans business, you can come out way ahead of any loan taken on a credit card.

The main reason that you would want to be involved with the payday loans business rather than a credit card is because the company is more local. You can work out terms that are specific to your needs, and you have a personal connection with the payday loans owner. They might even be a participating member in your community, which would make the relationship that much closer.

Andy helps Australian consumers to compare and apply for a range of credit cards. You can visit his website by clicking here.

Source: http://gvbizinfo.com/credit-cards/the-finance-smackdown-credit-cards-vs-payday-loans/

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Thursday, February 2, 2012

EU blocks "near-monopoly" of D.Boerse-NYSE merger (Reuters)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? European Union regulators have blocked the merger of exchange operators Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext to avoid giving them a stranglehold on the European futures market.

Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext, which unveiled the plan to create the world's biggest stock exchange as long ago as February last year, said they would now unwind the deal, the sector's fourth failed tie-up attempt in a year.

The European Commission said Wednesday that the combined entity would make it hard for new players to compete.

"The merger between Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext would have led to a near-monopoly in European financial derivatives worldwide," EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement.

"These markets are at the heart of the financial system, and it is crucial for the whole European economy that they remain competitive. We tried to find a solution, but the remedies offered fell far short of resolving the concerns."

Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext had refused to sell either the German operator's Eurex derivatives market operator or the U.S. company's London-based futures exchange Liffe to address such concerns.

NYSE said it would return $550 million to shareholders via a share repurchase program and seek to grow its derivatives business.

"While we viewed the merger as a way to accelerate our plans, our existing business model was always central to our strategy," NYSE Euronext Chief Executive Duncan Niederauer said in a statement.

"We will also take advantage of our financial strength to capture opportunities for growth in derivatives, and through our new initiatives, including technology services, NYSE Liffe US/NYPC and post-trade services," he said.

Deutsche Boerse said it was positive about the outlook for this year despite the failed deal.

The Hessian economics ministry, Deutsche Boerse's home regulator in Wiesbaden, Germany, had said Tuesday that the exchanges had not eased its legal concerns over the deal. The ministry was planning to issue a decision after the Commission's ruling.

U.S. regulators approved the merger in December last year on condition the exchanges sell a minor asset.

In the past year the sector has seen three other large deals fail.

Nasdaq and IntercontinentalExchange Inc's bid for NYSE Euronext was rejected by the U.S. Department of Justice, London Stock Exchange's takeover of TMX Group was rejected by shareholders of the Toronto Stock Exchange operator, and Singapore Exchange Ltd's bid for Australia's ASX Ltd was stopped by the Australian government.

(Additional reporting by Edward Taylor and Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt, Editing by Sebastian Moffett and Will Waterman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120201/bs_nm/us_nyseeuronext_deutscheboerse

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Travel companions -your travel buddies | Business Travel Tours

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Source: http://www.businesstraveltours.com/travel-companions-your-travel-buddies.html

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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Dr. Peggy Drexler: Fear Factor: The Religious Right's Problem With Women (Huffington post)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193785575?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Humble Indie Bundle Now on Android with Nearly Free Games (ContributorNetwork)

The Humble Indie Bundle is a promotion that started in May 2010 and has reappeared several times since then. It's a collection of games from indie developers, that's sold as a download with no DRM (meaning you can copy it as much as you want). What sets it apart is that you can name your own price, or even donate the money to charity instead. And all of the games are cross-platform, meaning they work on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Well, the Bundle is back, and this time it's added a new platform: Android.

Yes, that means mobile

Google's open-source Android operating system is the one with the friendly robot mascot, which powers nearly all smartphones and tablets that aren't BlackBerries or iPhones/iPads. If your phone or tablet gets its apps from the Android Market, it's running Android (unless you modded your BlackBerry PlayBook to use it).

The Humble Indie Bundle apps aren't being sold on the Android Market. You buy them on the Bundle website, humblebundle.com, and then download and install them manually. It isn't hard, but you need to first open the menu on your home screen, tap on "Settings," tap on "Applications," then tap the "Unknown Sources" checkbox to allow it. This is what lets you install from outside the Android Market.

What about updates?

If you buy an app through the Android Market, you get free updates and can download them at any time. Updates are trickier for apps that you install from outside it, but according to Brandon Lancaster of Android Police, that shouldn't be a problem for the Humble Indie Bundle games. Two of the games will prompt you when there's a new update available, and "hopefully" the other two will follow suit. Meanwhile, the Humble Bundle people are "working on an Android app" that should help you keep track of your games.

Which games are included?

The four games that are part of this bundle are on all three computer platforms, as well as Android.

You can name your own price for the first three, which are Anomaly: Warzone Earth (a sort of reverse tower defense game), Osmos (a game where you play as a single cell which absorbs others), and Edge (a puzzle platformer where you roll a cube through a maze).

If you try to donate less than $1, it will show you a picture of an impoverished programmer, note that you have no heart, and not grant you the keys to unlock the games on Steam (which is an option for people who use that service). It will still let you download the games, though; you just won't be able to put them on your Steam account.

If you donate more than the average price -- currently $5.30 -- you get World of Goo as well, a physics-based puzzle game that requires you to build bridges and scaffolds.

All games include soundtracks, and can be installed as many times as you like. Demos of the Android games can be found here.

How long does it last?

The bundle offer ends at 6 p.m. EST Feb. 14.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120131/tc_ac/10907191_humble_indie_bundle_now_on_android_with_nearly_free_games

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