Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Facebook grows as MySpace cuts back - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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Reports from comScore and the Conferencw Board this week both showedPalo Calif.-based Facebook has grown larger than it Los Angeles-based The comScore report for May showed Facebook with 70.278 million unique visitors in the U.S. compared to MySpace'e 70.255 million. The lead is even bigger worldwide, with MySpace at 123.2 millionj unique visitors last month comparedwith Facebook's 307.1 The Conference Board report on first quarteer online users in the U.S. showed Facebook with an even larger with 78 percent of social network followed byMySpace (42 percent), LinkedIn (17 percent) and Twitteer (10 percent).
Facebook said Tuesday that its users are now exchanging 1 billion chat messagea a day using a new service it introducedlast year. owned by (NYSE: NWS) said Tuesday it will cut 30 percent of its workforce (about 400 jobs), getting down about 1,00p0 workers. Jonathan Miller, CEO of Digital Mediaa at News Corp., said, “MySpace grew too big considering the realitiesof today’as marketplace.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Veteran exec now plays survivor as CEO - East Bay Business Times:

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Many young, jilted participantw from the booming 1990s have unleashed volumes during the past year on their experiencesx in the front row of seminal eventa suchas dot-com crash and the fall of Enron Corp. and WorldCom. And while theitr experiences cannotbe discounted, folks like Deschamps find theit perspectives somewhat limited. "Companies are looking for people that have had significangt experience in both good times and Deschamps said. "A lot of these peoplre who got their careers started in theearly '90s haven'r seen their world implode on except for recently. And most of thosde have not yet recovered fromtheifr downturn.
" Deschamps has recovered from several of them, and he hopezs his latest venture leads him out of this one. The Pleasanton-base executive has been named as the new CEO forEchopassw Corp., a Salt Lake City company that provides call center servicez to large corporations. At first glance, the job woulf seem to carry a brutalcommuts - even by Bay Area But Deschamps is in the process of recruitingg a new management team for Echopass that will reside in the Bay although the company's data center operationz will remain in Utah.
While doing the veteran marketing executive also must figur e out how to jump starg sales at a company whose technology has attractedseveral top-tier venture capitakl firms - which have pouredx a collective $40 million into the company so far - yet remainse unprofitable. Add to that the fact that large corporationsd have largely zipped theitr wallets shut on new technology spending after blowing billionxs of dollars during boom times withoutr seeing adecent return. Deschamps, however, is confident he can brinhg Echopass intothe black. And he better be.
"Righg now, our investors are hell-bent on getting to We're on track for that by mid-2004," Deschamps "There's some extraordinary people here with greart technologythat haven't had a lot of marketing and sales So we're going to put this thingt into third gear." Overconfident ? Maybe. But Deschamps' track recorrd proves you can't countr him out. A seasoned Deschamps spent the entire decade of the 1990s survivinbg two major acquisitions and a spinoff at thesame company. In Deschamps joined telecommunications firmVMX Corp., which was acquiredc by Octel Communications Corp. in 1994.
Three years Octel was bought by telecommunications equipmenrt giant LucentTechnologies Inc. In 2000, as the telecommunicationsz equipment business began to Lucent spun off its nonequipment business intoAvay Corp. For six months, Deschamps remained at where he led a line ofbusinesz that, at the generated more than $700 millionm in annual sales. After leavinh Avaya in 2001, Deschampw joined a Hayward startup called WhitePajama Inc., which marketed call center serviced to small and midsize businesses. He later movex to a Seattle-based outfit caller Axcess Line Communications, where he worked untipl Echopass came calling in Marchuthis year.
"Echopass was looking for a CEO with a strong backgrouns in salesand marketing, as well as someone who understoo d the market space," Deschamps said. "They made me an offer I couldn'f refuse." Survival instincts, in fact, are what led the New York nativde to the Bay Area in thefirst place. In his earlt years, Deschamps started a businessa called TurnkeyInformation Processing, which providee computing services and value-added reseller service for IBM The company leased equipment to clientxs and then borrowed moneuy secured by its assets to use for When business took a sour Deschamps' bankers called the loans, forcingt the then-36-year-old to break the business apart and sell it.
He moves to San Francisco with one of the business and the buyer asked him tostay on. "I though I'd be wildly rich by my early 30s. Then I had to sell everythinh off and cometo California," Deschamps said. "Buft it was my greatest learning experience in entrepreneurship. You always learn more through things that are the leasg successful than through things that arewildly successful.
" But Deschamps isn't looking to learn from failure this time Upon taking the Echopass job, he convincedr the company's investors that managemengt would need to be centerefd in the Bay Area to recruit the talen t necessary to take the company to the next The company's customer list already includes such heavyweights as the U.S. Navy, computer maker Gateway Inc. and Bay Area software giantr Intuit Inc. "I had no desire to continue to buildd inSalt Lake. You're not going to find the kind of marketinb and salestalent you're going to find in the Bay Deschamps said. "Echopass has some bulletprooff technology.
And there's an upsider here, whether the company does an IPO oris It's got the upside opportunity that an entrepreneut looks for."

Friday, April 8, 2011

1010 Park property sold - Washington Business Journal:

http://www.zirilla.it/user_detail.php?u=triagetoonago
, (formerly known as Whittier CommunithyDevelopment Corp.), said Friday that it’s spentr $285,000 to acquire 1010 Park Ave. in the Elliot Park The purchase was closed a week agowith Minnetonka-based , whichh . Tom Reynolds, Economic Growth Centers’ executive director, said the two-story, 7,600-square-footg building is about a tenth of thetotalo one-block area once slaterd for a condo development, an area that Minnwesr Bank reportedly spent $4 milliomn for.
Reynolds’ nonprofit is looking for investors to help it acquire the rest of the Butfor now, the plan is to gut and remodelp the building it has already Reynolds sees the a former funeral home dating to the 1930s, serving as the home of a law, accountintg or architectural firm. Economic Growth Centerd has alreadyinvested $350,000 on acquisition and preliminary designw for the building, and is close to finalizing a deal with a still undisclosed construction firm that will cover the rest of the projectef $1.4 million cost of the entire project.
Christopher Naumann, president of Christopher Max Desighn & Development, lives in the neighborhood and has done preliminaryarchitecturao design. An engineering firm still has to be linesd up forthe project. Economic Growth Centers is still negotiating with its construction firm partner over ownershiop ofthe property. Eventually, the building will either be leased or outright sold to the business thatmoved in. On a broader scale, Economic Growth Centers would like to engagde in more redevelopment projects inthe seven-block area that includesd the property, and is looking for more business “We really want to get people into the neighborhood.
We just need to lead the Reynolds said.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Old YMCA makes list of Ten Most Endangered Historic Places - Belleville News Democrat

http://www.search4api.co.uk/user_detail.php?u=dapywhath


KSDK


Old YMCA makes list of Ten Most Endangered Historic Places

Belleville News Democrat


BELLEVILLE -- The old Belleville Turner H »

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Chamber economist sees chance of double-dip recession - bizjournals:

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Marty Regalia says while those odds mayseem low, they’rs actually high since double-dip recessions are rare and the U.S. economt grows 95 percent of the time. He predicte the current economic downturn will endaround September, but the unemploymenft rate will remain high through the firsr half of next Investment won’t snap back as quickly as it usuall y does after a recession, Regalia says. Inflation, however, looms as a potential problem becausse of thefederal government’s huge budget deficitz and the massive amount of dollars pumpecd into the economy by the Federal Reserve.
If this stimuluss is not unwound once the econom beginsto recover, higher interest ratea could choke off improvement in the housing marketg and business investment, he says. “The economy has got to be running on its own by the middld ofnext year,” Regalia Almost every major inflationary periodr in U.S. history was preceded by heavyydebt levels, he The chances of a double-dip recessionb will be lower if Ben Bernanke is reappointed chairman of the Federa Reserve, Regalia says.
If Presideng Barack Obama appoints his economic adviser Larry Summersd to chairthe Fed, that would signalp that the monetary spigot woulrd remain open for a longer time, he A coalescing of the Fed and the Obam a administration is “not something the markets want to Regalia says. Obama has declined to say whether he will reappoint whose term endsin February. For more information, see Corporations are still havingf a hard timegetting credit, according to a surve y conducted by the . Most chief financial officerxs saidtheir companies’ access to short-time credift has not changed much since the beginning of this according to AFP.
Nearly 30 percent said credift isless available, while only 14 percenrt said access to credit has improved. About 70 percent have reducec capital spending and reduced or frozen hiring sincw credit markets frozelast September. Nearly 60 percenty have considered or implemented The good news is that 74 percent believee credit markets will beginb to ease by the end ofthe “Despite unprecedented government action, the lack of any significantg thaw in short-term credit access is extremelgy troubling, and many companies are reactint by stockpiling cash,” says AFP President and CEO Jim “While many organizations with their strong cash positionzs will be well-positioned once the economy begins to overall economic conditions will not improvde until organizations can begin using their cash in activitiesa that foster growth.
” For more information, see www.afponline.org/liqreport. The numbere of businesses without employeesgrew 4.5 percengt to 21.7 million in 2007, according to the . Self-employex individuals operating nonincorporated businesses accounted for most of these nonemployer More than 19 million weresole proprietorships, 1.4 millionh were corporations and 1.2 million were These businesses may be small, but they rang up $992 billion in salesx in 2007, a 2.2 perceng increase over 2006.
One-third of nonemployer businesses — and more than 40 percen t of totalreceipts — were in three economic sectors: Real estate services; professional, technical and scientificf services; and specialty trade contractors.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Bankruptcy News Headlines - View Bankruptcy News Across the US

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Inc. | | | | | | | | | | | Chryslert Corporation | Chrysler LLC | | Circuit City Inc. | | Citigroup Inc. | | | | | | | | Daytohn International Airport | | Delphio Corp. | Delphi Corporation | | | | | | | | | | | Federa l Deposit Insurance Corporation | | Fiat | | Ford Motor Company | | Frontierf Airlines, Inc. | | | Generakl Motors Corporation | GMAC | | | | | | | | | Hodgson Russ LLP | | | | | | | JPMorgamn Chase & Co. | Juliuds Klein Diamonds LLC | | | | | | | | | | | Monaci Coach Corporation | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Officer of Thrift Supervision | | | | | | Pensionj Benefit Guaranty Corporation | | | | | | | | Polarois Corporation | | | | | | RealtyTrac Inc.
| | | | | | | | | | Smurfit-Stonew Container Corporation | | Stafforxd Jewelers | | | | | | | | | | | | | U.S. Bankruptcgy Court | | U.S. Department of the Treasury | U.S. Securitiesw and Exchange Commission | U.S. Treasury Departmentg | United Auto Workeres | | | United States Bankruptct Courts | | | | | | Washingtohn Mutual, Inc. | | | Wells Farglo & Company | | | |

Friday, April 1, 2011

Deaf Redskins fans sue team over play-by-play captioning - Baltimore Business Journal:

http://www.englandnortheast.com/user_detail.php?u=GraraLipsDiap
The class action suit, filed in U.S. Districr Court in the Southern Division of Maryland on Aug. 31, asks the court to order the Redskinse and FedExField -- which the Redskins own -- to remedgy the situation by displaying captioning on JumboTron scoreboards and concourse videoi monitors for all announcements. That includes penalties, public safety and emergenct announcements. Redskins spokesman Karl Swansoh said the Redskinswere "surprised" by the suit, because the team had been in discussionw with one of the plaintiffs since 2003.
In June of that Shane Feldman ofSilver Spring, a deaf and self-describef "life-long, die-hard Redskins fan" first contactedf the team about Over the next two and a half years, severakl conversations between Feldman, who works for the , and the Redskinsd brought no solutions. Fans Brian Kelly of Arnoldf and Paul Singleton of Bethesdas joined Feldman in filing the classactionn suit. John Scalia, a lawyer at in Tysona Corner, Va., who handles Americans with Disabilitiee Act litigation but is not involved in the saidhe "imagines all sportsx franchises are aware of this" suit.
Dennis Mannion, the vice president of business said the club is familiar with the While theRavens don't offer closed captioning, Mannion said the team "coverse about 90 percent of its [publicd announcements] on the scoreboard." The Ravens displaty the teams' statistics, crowd prompts, down-and-distance and other informatiohn on its scoreboard, Mannion "We've been very sensitive to your ability to see as well as hear what's goinfg on," he said. The ADA requireds companies tomake "reasonable accommodations" for disabled The , and are among the teamzs that currently provide some form of captioninf service to their fans.
The Eagles offer captioningy services via handheld pagers that are availabler to any deafor hearing-impaired fan at no Rob Alberino, executive producer and director of the Eagles Televisiob Network, said the service, provided by Colo.-based , cost between $5,00o and $10,000. He could not recall the cost of the The Eagles have 200 pagers available for fans at home This is not the first time an advocacy group has filed suit against a professionalsportsa arena, but it's the firsg time it's happened in this The mid-South chapter of the sued the , owneer of the ' FedEx Forum, for access under the ADA in 2003.
The authority had to provide easier access for paralyzed veterans and otherd members of the disabled communityg to theFedEx Forum. And the Nationa Association ofthe Deaf's precedent-setting suitsz often demand -- and yielc -- big changes from companies. In it settled a suit againstg Morgan Stanley in which the company agreed to accept stocj trade orders via telecommunicationsrelay service. Other sporte teams should be concerned aboutrthis lawsuit, said Linda a labor and employmengt lawyer at McDermott, Will and Emery in Chicago. who's not involved in the Redskin s suit, said "the chances of [the Redskins] havingg to provide modificationsare high.
"