PLANYC 2030

As Posted to Planyc2030

Home-furnishings retailer Bed Bath & Beyond reports fiscal second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, and Wall Street is hoping for another upside surprise as evidence that some sellers of home goods can stop hiding under the covers.

Executives at the Union, N.J.-based Bed Bath said in June that analyst estimates for earnings of 42 cents a share for the quarter ended Aug. 29 appeared “reasonable, despite uncertainty of the overall macroeconomic environment.” Analysts now expect the company to post 46 cents a share, which would be even with its results a year ago.

Since Bed Bath’s main competitor, Linens ‘N Things, bit the dust in January, investors have gotten used to the company beating its own estimates, as well as those from Wall Street. Last quarter, it posted earnings of 34 cents a share, above its guidance of 23 cents a share and ahead of analysts’ consensus of 25 cents a share.

Bed Bath achieved that result the new-fashioned way — impressive expense control. It lowered its advertising and staffing costs, despite net new store openings, and saw revenue growth of almost 3%.

As for sales at stores open at least a year, with consumers worried about job losses and home-foreclosure rates still high, no one is expecting Bed Bath to notch a big uptick. The company said it expects same-store sales to continue to decline in the low single digits.

Anything better could be good news. Last week, Pier 1 Imports saw its stock rise more than 9% when it posted a smaller profit loss than was predicted due, in part, to fewer markdowns.

But market watchers looking for signs of broad consumer demand shouldn’t make too much of any successes at Bed Bath, given continued housing headwinds.

Its strength has been in gaining market share in the downturn. That has helped send its shares up 55% this year, nearly three times higher than the broader market.

Last quarter, as total sales rose at Bed Bath, they dropped 13% for the home-furnishings sector. If Bed Bath can continue to show that it is grabbing market share, investors may remain impressed.

Story from Business Week

Xerox Corp. said Monday it will buy Affiliated Computer Services Inc. for $6.4 billion in cash and stock, joining the expensive race among technology companies to broaden their offerings.

Xerox said the deal will create a $22 billion business that combines Xerox’s copiers, printers and document management services with the “business process outsourcing” of Dallas-based ACS. Outsourcers like ACS take on tasks for other companies, such as helping to manage payroll or run health care plans.

Xerox’s offer amounted to a 33 percent premium over ACS’s closing stock price on Friday, although the value fell as Xerox shares lost $1.47, or 16 percent, to $7.50 in morning trading, while ACS shares jumped $6.53, or 14 percent, to $53.78.

The move takes Xerox deeper into the back-office operations of its business customers with the kind of acquisition that is popping up more and more as technology companies add a greater variety of equipment and services under a single tent.

Last week Dell Inc. said it would buy Perot Systems Corp. for $3.9 billion, kick-starting an information-technology services business for the company. That comes a year after rival Hewlett-Packard Co. expanded its own services business with the $13.9 billion buyout of Electronic Data Systems Corp. Business software maker Oracle Corp. also hopes to become more of a one-stop shop by closing a $7.4 billion deal for computer server and software maker Sun Microsystems Inc.

ACS, a $6.5 billion company with about 74,000 employees and profit of $350 million in its last fiscal year, offers a range of services, such as helping companies manage health care plans and accounting. It has customers in government, transportation, health care and retail.

By buying ACS, Xerox sees a way to boost profits and expand the roles it can play in assisting clients with running their businesses.

“They’ve told us they need a little bit more help,” Xerox CEO Ursula Burns said in an interview, adding, “This is not just two companies coming together to get costs down.”

ACS’s chief executive, Lynn Blodgett, offered automated toll collection as an example. For E-Z Pass, the electronic toll system in the Northwest, ACS gathers images of cars passing through tollbooths and has employees record license plate numbers manually for processing payments. Xerox has image-recognition technology that could automate that process and might take it a step further, checking to see if a car is up to date on its registration.

The deal marks Burns’s first big move since she took charge of Xerox on July 1. Although still profitable, Xerox has been hurt by the slowdown in spending by businesses during the recession. Apart from selling printers and copiers, Xerox gets most of its revenue from leasing equipment and charging for supplies and helping companies manage their documents.

Xerox said buying ACS will triple its services revenue to an estimated $10 billion next year.

In a conference call with analysts, Xerox Chief Financial Officer Larry Zimmerman said only about 20 percent of ACS and Xerox customers overlap, meaning the companies will have an opportunity to sell those clients more products. In particular, Xerox hopes to expand the overseas reach of ACS, which does more than 90 percent of its business in the U.S.

ACS stockholders will receive $18.60 per share in cash plus 4.935 Xerox shares for each ACS share they own. Xerox, based in Norwalk, Conn., will also take on $2 billion of ACS’s debt and issue $300 million of convertible preferred stock to ACS’s Class B shareholders.

The acquisition, which was approved by both companies’ boards, is expected to add to adjusted earnings results in the first year. Xerox expects to save $300 million to $400 million in the first three years after the deal closes, which is targeted for the first quarter of 2010.

The companies said ACS will function independently and will be headed by Blodgett, who will report to Burns.

From Article Base

Unlike adult’s footwear, kids shoes should be selected with utmost care and concern in mind about the little feet. In fact it’s healthy for the little feet to walk barefoot most often to strengthen the supple soles of the kids. But shoes too are necessary to protect the little feet from getting injured while walking on uneven surfaces.

An array of kids shoe styles and models are available in the market ranging from kids dress sandals to sneakers catered to the comfort and style needs of your child. So, choosing one right pair of footwear among many models will be quite a difficult task to do. One should be very alert and conscious while shopping kids shoes, as picking a wrong pair will ultimately affect your child’s growing feet. To make your difficult task of shopping this footwear easy, this article is providing you the best tried and proved secrets of shopping kids sandals. Below are some secrets that will be of great help to you when shopping for kids shoes;

• Shop footwear in a specialized children shoe store where the sales persons and other staff are well-versed with the hook and nook of kid’s shoes.

• Instead of spending much money on any single pair of stylish kids footwear for a special occasion, it’s always wise to prefer a fine pair of comfortable children footwear to allow the little tootsies walk freely without any worries.
• Have your child’s feet measured every time you shop for kids shoes. Because the shoes that prove to snugly fit your child’s feet for a moment in shoe store may prove unfit or uncomfortable after a day spending in the shoes or playing in them for a long time.
• Prefer shoes with half inch free space in the toe region to allow the little toes wiggle freely inside the footwear without any discomfort.
• Never buy kids shoes that are too big thinking that your child’s feet grow faster. Wearing kids shoes that are too big will trip the child to fall and may also develop foot problems in the future.
• Make sure the footwear fits snugly in the heel part without causing any discomfort. The shoe should snugly fit in the heel area but it should not be too tight or too loose.
• Avoid preferring backless or slip-on kids shoes that may cause them to trip or fall. Prefer footwear with laces, Velcro straps or any kind of fasteners that hold the feet firmly in a good position.

From Article Base

Unlike adult’s footwear, kids shoes should be selected with utmost care and concern in mind about the little feet. In fact it’s healthy for the little feet to walk barefoot most often to strengthen the supple soles of the kids. But shoes too are necessary to protect the little feet from getting injured while walking on uneven surfaces.

An array of kids shoe styles and models are available in the market ranging from kids dress sandals to sneakers catered to the comfort and style needs of your child. So, choosing one right pair of footwear among many models will be quite a difficult task to do. One should be very alert and conscious while shopping kids shoes, as picking a wrong pair will ultimately affect your child’s growing feet. To make your difficult task of shopping this footwear easy, this article is providing you the best tried and proved secrets of shopping kids sandals. Below are some secrets that will be of great help to you when shopping for kids shoes;

• Shop footwear in a specialized children shoe store where the sales persons and other staff are well-versed with the hook and nook of kid’s shoes.
• Instead of spending much money on any single pair of stylish kids footwear for a special occasion, it’s always wise to prefer a fine pair of comfortable children footwear to allow the little tootsies walk freely without any worries.
• Have your child’s feet measured every time you shop for kids shoes. Because the shoes that prove to snugly fit your child’s feet for a moment in shoe store may prove unfit or uncomfortable after a day spending in the shoes or playing in them for a long time.
• Prefer shoes with half inch free space in the toe region to allow the little toes wiggle freely inside the footwear without any discomfort.
• Never buy kids shoes that are too big thinking that your child’s feet grow faster. Wearing kids shoes that are too big will trip the child to fall and may also develop foot problems in the future.
• Make sure the footwear fits snugly in the heel part without causing any discomfort. The shoe should snugly fit in the heel area but it should not be too tight or too loose.
• Avoid preferring backless or slip-on kids shoes that may cause them to trip or fall. Prefer footwear with laces, Velcro straps or any kind of fasteners that hold the feet firmly in a good position.

Twitter users can now make short phone calls directly through their Twitter accounts using Jajah@call, a new service from Jajah, the Mountain View, Calif.-based IP communications company best known for Business VoIP services for landlines and mobile phones.

According to Jajah, the calling service works whether a user “calls” from Twitter itself or a third-party Twitter client — including mobile clients such as Tweetie and Twidroid. All that’s required is that both parties (the person making the call and the person answering the call) be Twitter users, both are signed up for Jajah and both are registered for the @call beta.

How it works is that the person making the call types @call into the Twitter prompt followed by the “@” symbol and the handle of the Twitter user (such as @channelweb), and Jajah connects the parties for a Business VoIP call that can last up to two minutes.

Telcos and mobile operators face huge challenges in a world where people check their Tweets or their Facebook messages before they check voicemail. Jajah@call showcases how easily we can bring telephony into the social media environment, where operators can now participate. The Jajah IP Business VoIP Communications Platform is chosen by carriers, mobile operators and online companies around the world who leverage not just our carrier-grade network, but our ability to develop proven, market-ready solutions that add value for their customers and their businesses.

It sounds great and all, Jajah, even though you’ll probably earn the ire of telcos that’ve been known to give free Business VoIP calling services the stink eye in the past. Jajah already offers an iPhone application, seeing as Business VoIP calls aren’t permitted on iPhone carrierAT&T (NYSE: T)’s 3G network.

And there’s plenty of other quick messaging services, VoIP and otherwise, out there, including Google Chat and Skype. But the key difference for Jajah might be that it’s tapping into a rapidly growing area (i.e. the Twitter community) with an easy-to-use Business VoIP service.

By The Dallas Business Journal

Builder confidence in single-family homes and kitchen remodeling Grand Rapids edged higher for the third consecutive month in September, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index.

The index rose one point to 19 this month, its highest level since May 2008.

Builders are seeing some improvement in buyer demand as a result of the first-time home-buyer tax credit, and low mortgage rates and strong housing affordability have also helped to revive some optimism. Builders are also optimistic that new home buyers are interested in turning their bathrooms into spa like retreats by adding shower enclosures.

Grand Rapids builders have seen a rise in demand for projects for home remodeling Grand Rapids and sunrooms Grand Haven. Customers have been asking for stick built rooms of any size or shape, built to seamlessly match your homes existing architecture.

In Quakertown, PA, builders have also seen more demand for home remodeling Quakertown.

The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as “good,” “fair” or “poor.”

The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very low.”

Two out of three of the HMI’s index components recorded gains in September. The index gauging current sales conditions rose two points to 18, while the index gauging traffic of prospective buyers rose one point to 17. Meanwhile, the index gauging sales expectations for the next six months declined one point to 29.

All four regions posted gains in their HMI readings for September. The biggest improvement was registered in the Midwest, where a three-point gain brought its HMI to 19, the highest level since July 2007. The Northeast posted a two-point gain to 24, the South had a two-point gain to 19 and the West recorded a one-point gain to 18.

By USA Today

The House voted Thursday in favor of the biggest overhaul of college aid programs since their creation in the 1960s — a bill to oust private student loans and lenders from the student loan business and put the government in charge.

The vote was 253-171 in favor of a bill that fulfills nearly all of President Obama’s campaign promises for higher education: The measure ends subsidies for private lenders, boosts Pell Grants for needy students and creates a grant program to improve community colleges, among other things. “These are reforms that have been talked about for years, but they’re always blocked by special interests and their lobbyists,” Obama said Thursday during a rally at the University of Maryland.

“Well, because you voted for change in November, we’re going to bring change in the House of Representatives today,” the president said.

Ending loan subsidies and turning control over to the government would save taxpayers an estimated $87 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Lawmakers would use that money to help make college more affordable, increasing the maximum Pell Grant by $1,400 to $6,900 over the next decade.

The choice before us is clear. We can either keep sending alternative student loans to banks or we can start sending them directly to students.

Yet the money also would be spent on things that don’t help pay for college, such as construction at K-12 schools and new preschool programs.

And while the measure would increase Pell Grants, it would do nothing to curb college costs, which rise much faster than Pell Grants do.

In addition, the CBO says that when administrative costs and market conditions are considered, the savings from switching to direct government lending could be much lower, $47 billion instead of $87 billion.

Republicans warned that instead of saving the government money, as Democrats promise, the bill could wind up costing the government more money.

“Unfortunately, the numbers just don’t add up,” said Minnesota Rep. John Kline, senior Republican on the Education Committee.

Lawmakers split largely along party lines on the bill, with only six Republicans in favor and three Democrats against. The measure goes next to the Senate, where its fate is a little less certain.

Obama didn’t get his way on one thing: The president proposed earlier this year to take Pell Grants out of lawmakers’ hands entirely, making the program an entitlement like Social Security and Medicare, which would have cost an estimated $117 billion — more than lawmakers have to spend.

Under the measure, Pell Grants would rise slightly more than inflation over the next decade, increasing on average about 2.6% yearly, according to the bill’s sponsors. However, the grants would still depend on annual spending bills and could rise less than promised, as has happened in the past.

Lawmakers met Obama halfway on the labyrinthine college aid form; Obama proposed to eliminate it altogether when he ran for president, but the bill would keep the form and shorten it.

As consumers, college students probably wouldn’t notice much difference in their loans, which they would get through their schools. However, officials at several colleges and pharmacy schools worry they may not be able to make the switch to direct government loans in time for next year, and Education Department officials said this week they do not intend to extend the deadline.

More schools administer federal loans through the subsidized loan program than from the government’s direct loan program. Private lenders made $56 billion in government-backed loans to more than 6 million students last year, compared with $14 billion in direct loans from the government.

Republicans argued it is wrong to put the government in near-total control of student lending.

Many also worry about job losses in their districts. Private lenders employ more than 30,000 people whose jobs depend on the subsidized loan program, and the industry says many would be laid off.

Sallie Mae, the biggest student lender, has about 8,500 employees in the program and probably would lay off about 30% of those workers. It still will have contracts to service federal loans.

Its employees have held a series of town hall meetings and petition drives to involve local leaders in Pennsylvania, Florida, Delaware, New York and Indiana.

Democratic Rep. David Wu of Oregon said lenders still could make all the loans they want. “What will not happen anymore is making those student loans with taxpayer subsidies,” he said.

By Triplepundit

The Dynojet Power Commander is ostensibly a high-performance, all-electric motorcycle part, but it really is more than that. Like any great entrepreneurial start-ups, it begins with a vision. If you think that you need to putter about town on a scooter in order to have a clean machine, the Mission One is out to prove you wrong.

Don’t get me wrong, like the Tesla (for whom North once worked), it doesn’t come cheap. You’d likely not get a Dynojet Power Commander just to tool about town. But the idea is to push boundaries, break new ground, and blaze a path for others to follow.

The team has worked hard to achieve this latest milestone, learning from problems encountered in late June (yet still making a strong showing, coming in 4th in a field of 13), intent on pushing the boundaries of what is possible in street-legal, zero-emission, all-electric motorcycle – and what is now the fastest all-electric production bike in the world.

The Dynojet Power Commander is one of the many incredible sport bike parts To Be Fast Carries. These are sport bike parts that can rip up the track, do power wheelies at 80 mph, and then come out here and dismantle the prior electric world speed record. It pulls hard all the way from 0 on up to 161mph, all in one gear, with incredible torque. It’s a riding experience like no other.

The company is selling many Dynojet Power Commander’s and other high-perfomance sport bike parts for 2010 models. To Be Fast also has a large selection of Joe Rocket Jackets at low prices. Visit ToBeFast.com Today.

John Mack and Morgan Stanley have shared a few near-death experiences over the years. Mack, who will leave his post as CEO at the end of the year, is hailed by his fans as a hero for saving the investment bank from the brink of extinction in the financial crisis. Others bestow high marks for resurrection of the bank and morale after the troubled 1997 merger with Dean Witter that threatened the firm’s success.

But it was Mack’s penchant for amping up risk and increasing the firm’s appetite for trading and risky mortgages that nearly ruined his legacy. No surprise then that his successor James P. Gorman is cut from a different cloth. The bank Gorman inherits is still in flux and is morphing into a tamer version of its former self. The bank is no longer one that would even consider hiring someone of John Mack’s ilk to run it as CEO.

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo! Inc. have been asked by the U.S. Justice Department for more details on a proposed Internet-search partnership, expanding the agency’s review of the agreement.

The request means regulators will do a more extensive examination, rather than approve the deal immediately. Microsoft predicted an in-depth review when the accord was announced in July, said company spokesman Jack Evans. He declined to comment on the contents of the request.

Over the course of the review, the companies expect to be asked about their search-engine investments, ad pricing and product plans, a person familiar with the matter said.

The outcome will shape the future of the market for Internet search ads, where Google has triple the U.S. sales of its two rivals. The companies may face more difficulty proving the deal won’t hurt competition as regulators step up oversight of the technology industry, said Michael Katz, a former chief economist in the Justice Department’s antitrust unit.

“The antitrust agencies are pretty skeptical of the argument that you need to be bigger to compete,” said Katz, now a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. “The Justice Department will respond, ‘Why can’t you get bigger by competing?’”

Under the partnership, signed in July, Yahoo will use Microsoft’s Bing search engine on its Web sites. Yahoo will sell ads that appear next to Web-search results, with the companies splitting the revenue.

Bing Investment

Even though the antitrust agency will scrutinize the deal closely, the companies probably can get it done as long as they do enough to persuade the Justice Department that the agreement doesn’t hurt competition, Katz said.

During the Justice Department’s review, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft expects to be asked to disclose its spending on Bing to ensure the company made enough investments to create a viable product, the person familiar with the matter said. Both companies also anticipate regulators will ask for their individual search-engine product plans so it can assess whether there’s an incentive to compete more or less vigorously as a result of the deal.

“Those plans will help the DOJ understand what the competitive impacts of the merger might be,” said Greg Neppl, an antitrust lawyer at Foley & Lardner LLP in Washington. If the department were to find the accord hinders innovation, it could seek to block the deal.

Ad Pricing

The government will also seek information on how the companies’ online-ad auctions operate and what might happen to prices as a result of the combination, the person said. While regulators will investigate pricing, it’s unlikely that they will dictate what prices will be, the person said.

The requests will help the agency determine whether to impose conditions to foster competition, or block the deal. Mountain View, California-based Google scrapped plans to team up with Yahoo last year after the Justice Department threatened to sue, saying the proposal would have helped them “become collaborators rather than competitors.”

“Google was dominant a year ago and is dominant today,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel. “Even if this is approved, Google will be dominant a year from now — but if this agreement is approved, at least there is a chance for a more credible No. 2 to emerge.”

Laura Sweeney, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said the agency is aware of the proposed Microsoft-Yahoo partnership, and declined to comment further.

Fully Cooperating

“Yahoo and Microsoft are cooperating fully with the Justice Department and firmly believe that the information they will be providing will confirm that this deal is not only good for both companies, but it is also good for advertisers, good for publishers and good for consumers,” Adam Grossberg, a Yahoo spokesman, said in an e-mail.

The companies are now responding to the latest request, which they received earlier this week, Microsoft’s Evans said yesterday. They still expect the deal to close on schedule.

Microsoft rose 22 cents to $25 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo added 67 cents to $15.45, while Google advanced $6.97 to $470.94. Microsoft has risen 29 percent this year, compared with a 27 percent gain at Yahoo and a 53 percent jump for Google.

“There has traditionally been a lot of competition online, and our experience is that competition brings about great things for users,” Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich said in an e-mailed statement. “We’re interested to learn more about the deal.”

Of the three largest search engines, Google had 75 percent of search-ad spending in the U.S. last quarter, with the rest going to Microsoft and Yahoo, according to data from search-ad firm Efficient Frontier Inc. in Sunnyvale, California. The market should expand to $12 billion this year, according to New York researcher EMarketer Inc.

European Commission

In Europe, Microsoft is also likely to notify the European Commission about the agreement, said Neil Macehiter, a partner at Cambridge, England-based technology consultant Macehiter Ward-Dutton. If the commission gets involved, it will conduct an initial 25 working-day review, which can be extended by 90 days if the regulator has “serious doubts” about competition issues.

Last week, the Brussels-based commission put on hold Oracle Corp.’s $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc., saying its initial probe suggested the deal may reduce competition and lead to higher prices.

“I’d bet on Microsoft-Yahoo prevailing because it would be difficult for Microsoft to leverage its position,” Macehiter said.

Google Partnership

Microsoft objected to a proposed partnership between Yahoo and Google last year, saying the accord would allow them to fix prices. Now the software maker is on the other side of the same argument, and will likely tell the agency the venture won’t raise prices, said Andre Barlow, a Washington-based lawyer who worked for the Justice Department’s antitrust division and is now a partner at Doyle Barlow & Mazard PLLC.

Advertisers probably will face questions on the deal too. Carl Fremont, executive vice president at Digitas, an online ad agency, said a Microsoft-Yahoo combination would force Google to keep on improving its search engine.

“From a product offering side, I believe it will be better over time,” said Fremont, whose firm is owned by Paris-based Publicis Groupe SA. “It creates new competition in the market.”