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CIC

Wednesday, 23. May 2012 von Superman

Jin Liqun, chairman of China Investment Corp.

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Wednesday, 16. May 2012 von Superman

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Pound Favored as Haven Currency Amid Europe Debt Crisis - Bloomberg

Monday, 14. May 2012 von Superman

The British pound has become currency traders

GlaxoSmithKline in takeover bid for Human Genome

Wednesday, 09. May 2012 von Superman

GlaxoSmithKline PLC has tabled an offer to take over U.S. drug maker Human Genome Sciences Inc. which values the target at nearly $2.6 billion.

GlaxoSmithKline, which has profit-sharing agreements with HGS on three drugs but a minimal shareholding, said Wednesday it is offering $13 cash per share for the company. A private offer last month by GSK at the same price was rejected by HGS management last month.

GSK said its offer was 81 percent more than the HGS share price on April 18, before HGS disclosed the earlier private offer. HGS shares closed at $14.39 Tuesday on the Nasdaq exchange.

The tender offer, which is a direct approach to the target’s shareholders, will remain open for 20 days. GSK said it hoped to complete the deal on a friendly basis.

GlaxoSmithKline shares were down 0.7 percent at 1,414 pence in early trading.

Human Genome Sciences, based in Rockville, Maryland, has a 50-50 profit sharing agreement with GSK on the lupus drug Benlysta, which won regulatory approval in the United States and Europe last year small personal loans. Benlysta accounted for $31.2 million of HGS’ first quarter revenue of $47.1 million.

The two companies are also cooperating in late-stage development of darapladib, for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, and albiglutide, for type 2 diabetes.

“GSK values the long relationship it has with HGS and has clearly stated its preference to complete a transaction on a friendly basis in a timely fashion,” the company said. “GSK remains willing to meet and review its offer with HGS at any time.”

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Arch Grants name 15 winners

Monday, 07. May 2012 von Superman

Online practice tests for medical board exams. A system to trade recyclable materials. “The Hulu of foreign TV.”

Those are a few of the startups that received $50,000 Arch Grants Monday, winners of the first round of a new program designed to boost entrepreneurship in St. Louis. In all, 15 companies were awarded $750,000 in grants, which come with professional services and office space downtown.

The startups come from a mix of industries and backgrounds. Several are affiliated with other startup incubators in St. Louis. Four are moving here from elsewhere, including one from Costa Rica.

They were picked from more than 400 applicants from around the world, and most of the winners made it to Monday’s ceremony, where they gathered on a big staircase for the award presentation.

One of the people on that staircase was Dan Garcia. He’s a senior at Washington University, studying chemical engineering. He’s also director of science at Saturnis LLC, which is trying to commercialize a process for turning turn biomass into fuel for trucks and other vehicles.

Winning the grant is a big help, Garcia said, and will anchor his company in St. Louis – near plant research giants like Monsanto – for the forseeable future.

That’s the idea, said Jerry Schlichter, an attorney who co-founded the Arch Grants, to give companies with potential the chance to grow here in St. Louis, instead of going elsewhere for funding.

“We want to change the game here in St. Louis for entrepreneurs,” he said.

The event was held on the 10th floor of a downtown office building, with, fittingly, a picture-window view of the Arch. It was packed with bankers and biotech executives and other business leaders from around St. Louis. Gov. Jay Nixon was there, to talk about the importance of small business in growing Missouri’s economy.

Many of those business leaders – and Nixon’s Department of Economic Development – had kicked in money to fund the program. Arch Grants so far has raised just under $3 million in pledges, and plans more rounds of annual awards.

That money goes a long way, said Schlichter. It also sends a message that St. Louis is serious about startups.

“We’re building a community around entrepreneurship here,” he said. “The message we want to send is that St. Louis is the place, the place, to be for entrepreneurs.”

And to help pound that message home, they enlisted one of St. Louis’ best known entrepreneurs, Square co-founder Jim McKelvey, to address the crowd. McKelvey, who’s an advisor to the Arch Grants and helped judge the entrants, noted that starting a company from scratch can be “a lonely process.” But, he said, the people in that room want to help, and he hoped that message would resonate.

“We understand what it’s like in St. Louis, and we’re committed. Come to St. Louis, and you’ll be among friends,” McKelvey told the winners.

“Now get back to work.”

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Winners

Companion Pharma Inc. (veterinary medicine)

Food Essentials (Food labeling data analysis)

Graematter, Inc. (regulatory database)

IDC Projects (mobile, location-based social gaming)

Iveria TV (foreign-language TV streaming)

Labor Voices (crowd-sourced supply chain intelligence)

Material Mix (Exchange platform for trade in recyclables)

Med Preps (tests and flash cards for medical board exams)

Observable Networks (Network security and management)

Obsorb (small business work platform for web, smartphone and tablet)

Pharos Scientific (medical imaging)

Saturnis LLC (creating fuel from biomass)

simMachines (search engine technology)

Techli (blog for digital startup community in Midwest)

Unique Metal Solutions (pipe systems for food/beverage processing)

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Hiring slowdown sends the stock market reeling

Sunday, 06. May 2012 von Superman

Stocks plunged Friday after the government reported that hiring slowed sharply last month. The report confirmed investors’ fears that the U.S. economic recovery is faltering.

The losses in the market were widespread. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 168 points and the Nasdaq composite had its worst day since Nov. 9. Both the Nasdaq and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed out their worst weeks of the year. The Dow had its second-worst.

The dollar and U.S. Treasury prices rose as investors dumped risky assets and moved money into lower-risk investments. Energy stocks were among the hardest hit after the price of oil fell below $100 a barrel for the first time since February. Only one of the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 rose, utilities, which investors tend to buy when they’re nervous about the economy.

“The jobs numbers were a disappointment,” said Phil Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investors.

It was the third straight daily loss for the Dow, but it’s too early to know if it’s the start of a correction in the market. Even after its 1.4 percent decline this week, the Dow is still up 6.7 percent this year.

Investors are on edge about Europe once again as France and Greece both hold elections over the weekend. In France the socialist candidate Francois Hollande has a chance to unseat the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been at the forefront of fashioning Europe’s efforts to prevent its share currency from collapsing.

Crude oil plunged $4 to $98.49 a barrel on worries that demand would drop because of a weakening world economy. It was the first time oil has dropped below $100 since February 13.

The late slump in the week was a stark contrast to Monday, when the Dow closed at its highest level more than four years, propelled by a report that showed a pickup in manufacturing. All that become a distant memory after a slew of poor economic reports were released in the rest of the week.

On Thursday major retailers including Costco and Macy’s reported that April sales inched up less that 1 percent, the worst performance since 2009. Thursday also brought news that U.S. service companies expanded their business more slowly in April.

The Dow closed down 168.32 points, or 1.3 percent, at 13,038. All 30 companies that make up the index fell, led by Bank of America and Cisco.

The S&P 500 slipped 22.47 points, or 1.6 percent, to 1,369, while the Nasdaq index fell 67.96 points, or 2.2 percent, to 2,956.

For the week, the S&P lost 2.4 percent, the Nasdaq 3.7 percent.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped sharply to 1.88 percent from 1.92 percent late Thursday as demand increased for safe investments payday loan lenders. The yield hasn’t settled that low since early February.

The culprit for the distress in financial markets was a report from the Labor Department Friday showing that U.S. job growth slumped in April for a second straight month. The 115,000 jobs added were fewer than the 154,000 jobs created in March.

Job creation is the fuel for the nation’s economic growth. When more people have jobs, they have more money to spend.

Orlando noted that the first few months of the year were marked by a number of abnormal conditions including an uncharacteristically warm January and February. That led to a spurt in hiring which usually occurs in spring.

Retail sales and hiring were also affected by an earlier Easter, which fell on April 8 this year, 16 days earlier than last year. That pushed some retail sales ahead to March, leaving April’s numbers weaker than they might have been. Retailers also blamed a late Mother’s Day for pushing some sales out of April and into May. Unusually warm weather in February and March also pulled forward some sales that would have normally occurred in April.

“The surge in hiring and spending that usually occurs in March through April, occurred earlier in the year this year,” said Orlando. “We have to wait for economic numbers from May and June to get a better idea of the underlying strength of this economy.”

After the price of oil fell, energy company stocks turned lower in response. Southwestern Energy Co. fell 7 percent and Marathon Oil Corp. fell 3 percent.

In other trading:

_ Warnaco Group Inc. dropped over 6 percent after the clothing maker lowered its 2012 forecast and said that its first-quarter net income fell, hurt by the weak European economy.

_ Aon Corp. fell almost 6 percent after the insurance broker reported first-quarter net income fell 3 percent due to higher costs and unfavorable currency exchange rates.

_ LinkedIn Corp. rose 7 percent after announcing late Thursday that its first-quarter profit more than doubled, topping expectations. The social networking company also announced an acquisition.

_ Tilly’s Inc. climbed 8 percent in the clothing retailer’s debut on the New York Stock Exchange. Tilly’s sells surf-inspired and casual West Coast-styled clothing and accessories.

_ Einstein Noah Restaurant Group Inc. soared 19 percent after the owner of bagel chain Noah’s Bagels said it is considering strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of the company

.

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Intel wants to plug a smartphone into your brain

Friday, 04. May 2012 von Superman

Show off a new gadget to your friends or family and inevitably one person in the group will declare, "Soon they’ll just plug these things directly into your brain!" And everyone will laugh, as if they’ve never heard that joke before.

It’s no joke.

An Intel-commissioned white paper released Wednesday on the future of mobile technology concludes that connected devices interfacing with the human brain is an inevitability.

Here’s how the paper’s authors, from consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton, put it: "As convergence continues across device types, functions, and capabilities, the melding of mobile technologies directly into the human body becomes the logical next step."

They add: "By harnessing the processing power and capabilities of mobile devices, for example, our biological brain will be augmented exponentially by a digital counterpart."

Don’t expect to plug your iPhone directly into your cranium in the next few years. There’s a few remaining steps on the path toward turning us all into cyborgs.

First, "form factors" need to die. If you can do it on your computer at work, you should be able to do the exact same thing on your smartphone, or even your glasses.

Processor speeds need to continue rising, and computers need to improve their natural-language support so we can interact with our devices like we would with another human being. Also, security has to advance so that devices can recognize their owners, eliminating the need for passwords.

It sounds like far-off sci-fi stuff, but all of those evolutions are in the works today.

Microsoft (, Fortune 500) is starting to show progress on its vision of one converged operating system for all devices. IBM (, Fortune 500) is making incredible strides in its Watson technology that can "understand" natural human language. Google’s (, Fortune 500) latest Android phones can recognize their owners’ faces to unlock their devices, and both Google and Microsoft are working on wearable computer displays.

Related story: 5 new looks for your future PC

So that’s step one: a lag-free operating system that anyone can use intuitively to perform any computing task.

Step two: Interfacing with the body. These kinds of interfaces are already operating in a relatively rudimentary way, with implants and pacemakers. But in its paper, Intel suggests that the link-up will be much more robust.

How robust? Well, have you seen The Matrix?

"With thoughts able to be delivered seamlessly to the cloud and data projected in real time onto our vision … our bodies and minds will become the devices with all of the associated benefits," the paper’s authors write.

You’ll literally be "plugged-in" to the cloud, so your brain will have access to all the information on the Internet. You’ll never again forget a name or miss a meeting. You won’t have to get a routine check-up from a doctor, either, since your gadgets will monitor your vital signs and test your blood for you.

Of course, for every wonderful benefit, there’s an equally scary potential consequence.

Think about all the privacy issues we have today with sites like Facebook. Now imagine giving people the capability to record everything they see and hear and immediately post it to the Internet. The human race could turn into something like Star Trek’s Borg, who can access the entire network and literally knew everyone’s thoughts.

Plus, how would exam-taking work? If people begin to rely on their connectedness like a crutch, can it just be turned off or wiped out for security purposes?

We’d better be prepared to answer these questions, because Intel (, Fortune 500) says it’s coming soon, whether we like it or not.

"While the future is never certain, a future where humans are infused with mobile technology where we are part of the device, our own bodies and brains part of the technology, and where there are no barriers to pure capability, is becoming more believable by the day," Intel’s paper concludes. 

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King Says BOE Will Risk Unpopularity to Prevent Future Crises - Bloomberg

Thursday, 03. May 2012 von Superman

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said central bank officials are prepared to take unpopular measures to prevent banking excesses from undermining financial stability and economic growth.

Samsung family in public spat over inheritance

Wednesday, 25. April 2012 von Superman

A feud over the riches of South Korea’s Samsung business empire has erupted in public as family members prepare to take an inheritance battle to court.

Lee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung Electronics Co., which is the flagship company of the Samsung conglomerate, is facing off against his older brother, a sister and a nephew’s wife who all want a bigger piece of the Samsung cake.

The court battle might upset a dynastic succession in Samsung’s leadership as it could result in the unraveling of a cross-shareholding structure that allows Lee Kun-hee to control the group as a minority shareholder.

Lee, who is South Korea’s wealthiest individual, on Tuesday took the rare step of publicly attacking his brother, Lee Meng-hee, declaring on YTN television that the 81-year-old “has been already kicked out from our home.” Lee Meng-hee had earlier called his brother “greedy” and “childlike.”

Battles for control of Chaebol, South Korea’s family-controlled industrial groups that wield immense power over the economy, are not uncommon but it is unusual for the internal wrangling to become public.

Lee Meng-hee filed a lawsuit in February, demanding more than 700 billion won ($613 million) of shares in Samsung Life Insurance Co. and other companies. Similar claims followed by Lee’s older sister and the wife of a dead nephew.

Lee Kun-hee, the third son of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull, was tapped in 1979 by his father to lead what would become South Korea’s most valuable company. The decision apparently disappointed Lee Meng-hee who later wrote in his autobiography that he had thought his father would turn over the throne to him.

The 70-year-old Samsung chairman has refused to settle the dispute out of court. A date for the first hearing in the case will be announced after the court reviews responses from Samsung, said lawyer Jeong Jin-su of Yoon & Yang LLC, which represents the three plaintiffs.

The family members have taken to public denunciations that are being lappped up by local media.

“I’m trying to retrieve my property that Lee Kun-hee has been hiding for 25 years,” his sister Lee Suk-hee said in a statement released by the law firm.

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And the analysts say… ABI Dominican deal smart, but spendy

Wednesday, 18. April 2012 von Superman

The deal is done, and now the reviews are coming in on Anheuser-Busch InBev’s takeover of the Dominican Republic’s national brewer.

The consensus: Smart, but spendy.

Bernstein Research senior analyst Trevor Stirling calls the $1.2 billion deal for a controlling stake in Presidente parent Cerveceria Nacional Dominicana “strategically attractive,” if also “pricey.”

ABI was already in the market - the Caribbean’s second-largest - with its Brahma label, but by combining two competitors, the brewer will now control 99 percent of all beer sales, which will allow them to “restore a healthy pricing environment” (in other words, beer’s about to get more expensive in Santo Domingo). It’ll also give them a strong platform to keep growing in that part of the world.

Stirling was confident in ABI’s ability to cut costs and make the operation more efficient. But he also noted that, at a price that’s 24 times CND’s earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortization, the deal was the most expensive beer merger in recent memory (on an EBITDA basis it cost twice what InBev paid for A-B in 2008, for instance) business card.

Fitch Ratings, too, calls the deal “a strategic positive,” and notes that the terms of the purchase mean that ABI could eventually own a 90 percent stake in CND. The Dominican brewer could “benefit greatly from the expertise” at InBev, which has a “great track record of integrating acquisitions and increasing profitability.”

“But at what a price!” wrote Beer Business Daily, which, like several other outlets reports that interest from Heineken drove up the price tag for CND. Still, BBD wrote “La Maquina (The Machine) continues to feed on what acquisitions they can get done out there.”

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