Author: Serkadis

  • IBM Agrees To Buy AT&T’s Sterling Commerce

    International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) agreed to buy Sterling Commerce from AT&T Inc. for $1.4 billion. The transaction will likely close in the second half of 2010, the companies said.

    IBM has spent nearly a lot on deals in the first quarter as it did last year. The company said that by 2015, it would spend $20 billion on acquisitions. Recently, IBM is into the software business, which has been the most profitable and fastest growing segment. IBM is moving away from the hardware business, after dropping its computer business in 2004 to Lenovo.

    The Sterling deal ranks among the highest in recent years. Sterling Commerce is a technology company that connects businesses with their suppliers, customers and partners to improve efficiencies.

    AT&T expects to gain a $750 million increase on the transaction once it’s completed. 2,500 Sterling employees towill be transferred to IBM.

    This acquisition is necessary for IBM to stay on top of the competition with giant companies like Hewlett-Packard Co. and Cisco Systems Inc.

    Related posts:

    1. IBM expects to double profits in 2015
    2. Mirant and RRI Merger- Form Second largest U.S. Power Company
    3. AT&T Takes A Giant Step, Plans $1 Billion Charge For Health Care

  • Simon Manjock’s Death Bed

    Simon ManjockSimon Monjack, the husband of the late actress Brittany Murphy, was found dead after five months after the Hollywood actress died. Monjack, a 39-year old British screenwriter, was found dead Sunday night in the master’s bedroom at his house in Hollywood Hills, California.
    Paramedics responded at his house when Brittany’s mother, Sharon, called 911 at around 9:40pm. According to her statement, she found Monjack unconcious in his bedroom. LAPD detectives and coroner officials that were investigating on the scene had found neither foul play nor criminal acrivities involved.
    According to the statement of Sgt. Louie Lozano, the preliminary cause of death of Monjack was said to be natural death like heart attack. Medical examineers confirmed that they have found some drugs that were recovered. But according to them, these drugs were just prescribed. Besides, they have found no traces of drug abuse in his autopsy.
    Monjack was credited as co-writer and producer some films like “Two Days, Nine Lives” and he was an executive producer of the 2006 film “Factory Girl.” While Murphy was best known for her major roles in the films “Clueless,” “Girl Interrupted,” and “8 Mile” produced in 2002. She died in December 20 of last yeat, at an age of 32 after collapsing in her home. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office concluded Murphy’s death was accidental, and is likely preventable. Monjack and Murphy married in 2007.

    Related posts:

    1. Simon Monjack’s Death Bed
    2. Brittany Murphy’s Husband, Simon Monjack Found Dead
    3. British Scriptwriter Simon Monjack Found Dead

  • Mark Twain’s Autobiography to be Out in Bookstores by November

    The American author, Mark Twain, will be popular in book stores again. Not because of his written works, but because of his autobiography.

    Mark Twain is only a pen name. The real name of the author of “The adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He became the friend of artists, industrialists, and even presidents. His popularity and his imagination earned praises from critics. He was said to be the “greatest American humorist of his age” and even “The father of American literature” as William Faulkner called him.

    Born in Florida, Missouri, Samuel Langhorne Clemens has encountered heartbreaking events like the death of his siblings and his father’s death when he was 11. However, his creative imagination has a big benefit for him since he had written a lot of great stories. When he was four, his family moved to Hannibal Missouri which later turned to be an inspiration for him in creating the fictional town of St. Petersburg in the story of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” however, at that time, Missouri is a victim of slavery so the young Twain became familiar with the institution of slavery.

    Twain loves Science and Technology. Twain patented three inventions, including an “Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments” and a history trivia game.

    Twain had many great works and he had contributed a lot in our history. He even tried to change the political world by stating in the New York Herald “I wanted the American eagle to go screaming into the Pacific …Why not spread its wings over the Philippines, I asked myself? … I said to myself, Here are a people who have suffered for three centuries. We can make them as free as ourselves, give them a government and country of their own..” These were some of his great words that were striking since he wants to awaken the Americans to let the Filipinos have freedom instead of colonizing them.

    Related posts:

    1. Shania Twain Is Back In American Idol With Her Own Theme Night
    2. Youngest in the History: American Teenager Summits Everest
    3. Ace Your AP World History Practice Test

  • Simon Monjack’s Death Bed

    Simon Monjack, the husband of the late actress Brittany Murphy, was found dead after five months after the Hollywood actress died. Monjack, a 39-year old British screenwriter,  was found dead Sunday night in the master’s bedroom at his house in Hollywood Hills, California.

    Paramedics responded at his house when Brittany’s mother, Sharon, called 911 at around 9:40pm. According to her statement, she found Monjack unconcious in his bedroom.  LAPD detectives and coroner officials that were investigating on the scene had found neither foul play nor criminal acrivities involved.

    According to the statement of Sgt. Louie Lozano,  the preliminary cause of death of Monjack was said to be natural death like heat attack. Medical examineers confirmed that they have found some drugs that were recovered.  But according to them, these drugs were just prescribed. Besides, they have found no traces of drug abuse in his autopsy.

    Monjack was credited as co-writer and producer some films like “Two Days, Nine Lives” and he was an executive producer of the 2006 film “Factory Girl.” While Murphy was best known for her major roles in the films “Clueless,” “Girl Interrupted,” and “8 Mile” produced in 2002. She died in December 20 of last yeat, at an age of 32 after collapsing in her home. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office concluded Murphy’s death was accidental, and is likely preventable. Monjack and Murphy married in 2007.

    No related posts.

  • Yes, Home Sales Surged, But So Did Inventories — That’s Not Good

    Existing Home Inventory, April 2010

    The NAR reports: Existing-Home Sales Rise

    Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 7.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.77 million units in April from an upwardly revised 5.36 million in March, and are 22.8 percent higher than the 4.70 million-unit pace in April 2009…

    Total housing inventory at the end of April rose 11.5 percent to 4.04 million existing homes available for sale, which represents an 8.4-month supply at the current sales pace, up from an 8.1-month supply in March.

    Keep reading at Calculated Risk >

    Join the conversation about this story »

  • Google AdSense Revenue Split Is 68 to 32 Percent

    Google’s advertising programs have been highly successful for the company and helped it become the giant it is today, a little over a decade after it launched. The biggest share of its ad revenue comes from its search engine, but a significant part also comes from the ads it serves on third-party sites. The AdSense program has been doing gr… (read more)

  • Could You Replace Copyrights And Patents With A Fairness-Based Legal Liability?

    Earlier this year, I recommended the book No Law by David L. Lange & H. Jefferson Powell. I still keep meaning to get around to writing a full review, but the book makes a very compelling argument that copyright law is a clear violation of First Amendment principles. However, rather than wiping out copyright law, the book suggests something of an alternative. In noting that the claim of “exclusive rights” has been bastardized from the original “exclusive rights to profits,” they suggest that no one be barred from using the content of others, with the requirement that profits due to those uses must then be shared with the originator. I have some issues with that conclusion, but it looks like others are investigating that concept as well.

    Andrew F alerts us to the latest work by Marshall van Alstyne, who we’ve mentioned before concerning his views on journalism business models and who did a great job at The Free Summit put on by Tech Policy Central, and emceed by me. His most recent paper, co-authored with Gavin Clarkson, explores both how strict intellectual property rights lead to socially inefficient outcomes, and how “fairness” principles could be much more efficient. The paper uses a combination of real world examples, previous research and game theory to make a rather compelling case.

    Basically, it explains all the reasons why intellectual property leads to hoarding of information that slows innovation:


    Property rights provide incentives to create information but they also provide incentives to hoard it prior to the award of protection. All-or-nothing rights, in
    particular, limit prior sharing. An unintended consequence is to slow, not has-
    ten, forward progress when innovation hinges on combining disparately owned
    private ideas.

    As to why this happens, it’s due to the injunctive ability of intellectual property holders to not just stop the specific use of their expression or invention, but effectively everything else built on top of it:


    Infringement of copyright provides injunctive relief as remedy. This permits copyright
    owners the use of take-it-or-leave-it offers as strategy. The trouble that results from such
    a hold-up strategy is that it allows the injunctive rights owner, when bargaining with a
    non-owner, to extract nearly the full value of any transaction (with full information it is
    full value.) For recombinant works, this affords the last negotiating rights holder undue
    influence much as the last negotiating landowner exercises undue bargaining power relative
    to other landowners in any effort to develop a multi-parcel tract of indistinguishable parcels
    of land. For works of modest value, such as a single sample of a song, image, or video,
    negotiation costs can vastly exceed market value. For transformative works, insignificant
    inclusions of lesser material can retard or reduce the progress of more valuable material as
    when the release of the movie
    12 Monkeys was enjoined due to the appearance in several
    scenes of a copyrighted chair.

    From there, they make the case models that follow on “fairness” and “liability” work much better than a strict “property rights” setup. Along the way, they discuss the study we mentioned in the past about how people view fairness and relative compensation, as well as debunk the myth that if one person can take advantage of another they absolutely will.

    The end result is a suggestion not unlike the one in No Law: that rather than setting up a system of artificial property-like rights called copyright and patents, there may be more social and economic efficiency in allowing unfettered usage of expression and inventions, with a system that then requires some sort of attribution and payment for a fair share of any of the profits. That would then actually encourage much greater sharing of ideas and inventions in an effort to get those concepts included more widely.

    It’s definitely interesting to think about, and I agree that in many ways it would likely lead to great net benefit than an IP regime, but it could also generate many other problems, especially in situations of independent generation or incidental copying — as well as long, and drawn out legal fights over these situations as well as a determination of what is, in fact, fair. The paper does try to address the latter point with three responses, but I’m sure this won’t be enough for some.

    Either way, this is certainly an interesting paper that contributes to this ongoing discussion.

    Permalink | Comments | Email This Story





  • David Goldman: The Next Shoe To Drop Is The Bad News Coming In From The US Economy

    david goldman

    Why did markets fall so hard last week?

    Most folks assumed that it had something to do with fears of a Eurolehman, but it also seems possible that the market is reacting to what it normally reacts to: expectations of a slowing economy.

    This was the essence of Richard Russell’s big “sell everything” call, that the market was telling him that a bad economy was around the corner.

    Credit expert David Goldman at Asia Times is thinking along the same lines, that the weakening US economy is the next shoe to drop.

    And the bad news is already coming:

    1) Unemployment claims rose to 471,000 vs expectations of 439,000 in the week ended May 15;

    2) One in seven American mortgages is behind in payments;

    3) Foreclosures reached a record as the banks work through their backlog;

    4) Mortgage applications last week fell to the lowest level since the survey was conducted;

    5) Commercial real estate prices continue to fall.

    Along these lines, this week we get Case-Shiller and the first revision to Q1 GDP, so, this idea might have more to go on very soon.

    Don’t miss: The 13 housing markets that will never recover >

    Join the conversation about this story »

  • Venus Williams’ Outfit Pulled Crowd’s Attention

    American professional tennis player Venus Ebony Starr Williams had her 6-3 consecutive victories this Sunday on the 2010 French Open, beating Patty Schnyder. The performance should have been the center of attention for her audience, but something else cultivated their eyes: Williams’ outfit.

    The record holder for the fastest serve struck by a woman claimed another title for her lacy black and red outfit “the illusion of being see-through“, as said by the AP. This made the most talked-about story since Williams wore a ’skimpy green uniform’ at the Australian Open last January whre she was majorly voted as Australian Open hottie.

    Williams received her degree in fashion Design from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale with Cum Laude honors on December 13, 2007. She is the chief executive officer of “V Starr Interiors“, an interior design firm which she owns, located in Jupiter, Florida.

    By June 2009, Williams was acclaimed as one of the most powerful women in America and one of the most successful women in drawing attention of the crowds.

    Related posts:

    1. Venus Williams French Open – Best Outfit
    2. Venus Williams’ Disturbing Outfit at the French Open
    3. Henin, Nadal Back To Regain Lost Glory

  • Canada Celebrates Victoria Day Today

    Victoria Day is a federal holiday in Canada that marks both the birthday of Queen Victoria and the official birthday of the current Canadian sovereign’s birthday.

    Victoria Day, also known as May Two-Four, May Long and May Long Weekend, is a holiday celebrated on the Monday preceding May 24. It also marks the end of the winter season and the unofficial start to the summer season.

    The Royal Union Flag must be flown from sunrise to sunset at all federal buildings, including airports, military bases, and other Crown owned property across the country during Victoria Day. There are evening fireworks display and parades in some cities. Many people gather in parks to enjoy this wonderful celebration.

    Victoria Day is regarded as a public holiday at a national level. Schools are closed and people have a day off. Some stores are also closed during that day. Malls, theme parks and museums are open for visitors.

    There will be a fireworks display in Toronto. For those interested in seeing fireworks, residents can head to the Beach at 9:30 p.m.

    Related posts:

    1. Federal Holiday: President’s Day
    2. Shore up! Today is Arbor Day!
    3. 2010 Ash Wednesday Tomorrow; Mardi Gras Today

  • Toyota struggling so far in May, GM and Nissan enjoying sales increase

    General Motors Chairman and CEO - Ed Whitacre

    General Motors Chairman and CEO – Ed Whitacre

    Early May auto sales figures show that Toyota’s sales are down 15 percent from the same period in April despite heavy incentive spending. On the other hand, General Motors and Nissan are enjoying an increase in sales from a month earlier.

    “Toyota’s incentive program is falling on deaf ears. Most people who were open to getting deals from Toyota already made their purchases,” said Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jessica Caldwell. “Toyota has not yet recovered from recent image problems.”

    GM’s sales are up 9 percent during the beginning of May when compared to April and up 24 percent from May 2009. Nissan is seeing a month-to-month increase of 10 percent.

    FoMoCo is also expecting May to be another good month and says that F-Series pickup sales will be up 30 percent from May 2009 due to the launch of the new 2011 Super Duty.

    – By: Omar Rana

    Source: AutoObserver


  • Yahoo and Nokia team up in online services

    Yahoo and Nokia team up in online servicesNokia and Yahoo have announced today in New York, a strategical alliance to jointly offer e-mail services, instant messaging, mapping and navigation. The Internet search engine Yahoo and the largest mobile phone maker in the world Nokia have reached a partnership through which Yahoo will offer Web services for Nokia terminals.

    Under the agreement, submitted by the two CEOs of both companies, Carol Bartz by Yahoo and Kallasvuo Olli-Peka contributing to Nokia, the Finnish company exclusively offer maps and navigation services for Yahoo. Thus, the search will be integrated into the Nokia Maps service, Ovi Maps.

    At the same time, mail services and services that incorporate into your Nokia smartphones are offered by Yahoo. The companies expect that during the second half of this year the results of this alliance in online services will already be available, although its global launch will not take place until 2011.

    Related posts:

    1. Nokia sues Apple again
    2. Hotmail Upgraded – Microsoft
    3. Nokia: Acquires MetaCarta, Specialist in LBS (Location By Satellite)

  • Hydrogen Fueling Pumps at Retails Stores and Shopping Malls?

    When building out the hydrogen highway system in California, New York, Washington DC, Florida or other places the conventional wisdom has to been either build an entire station from the ground up or add a hydrogen fueling pump to an existing gas station.

    In April 2008, I quoted Larry Burns of General Motors stating, “A network of 12,000 hydrogen stations in the United States would put 70 percent of the U.S. population within two miles of a fueling station. If the stations cost $2 million each (estimates for the cost of a station range from $1 million to $4 million) the network would cost about $24 billion.”

    Of course this cost estimate was based on the premise of building hydrogen stations from the ground up and not adding hydrogen fueling pumps to existing stations or to other alternative locations.

    I’ve gotten some alternative suggestions over the years from my readers as to where to place hydrogen pumps in order to build out the hydrogen highway system that doesn’t involve traditional gas station. Some of these suggestions involve large warehouse stores, large retailers and other locations such as convenience stores and rest stops.

    One reader said that since there are over 20,000 new car dealerships in the U. S. at least some of them could put up a hydrogen pump to support the hydrogen cars they are supposed to be selling in 2015.

    But, what really got me to thinking was the East Coast Hydrogen Highway plan by a company called Lumber Liquidators which owns 180 stores nationwide and will use their parking lots to erect about a dozen hydrogen fuelling pumps over the next two years from Maine to Florida as part of its corporate responsibility program.

    Now other large companies have come out also with their clean energy corporate responsibility programs. A few names like Google, Walmart, Yahoo and Kohl’s come to mind.

    In fact Kohl’s in California is putting more solar panels on their rooftops that both Google and Walmart. So, this got me to thinking about all of the other retailers and malls in the U. S. that have plenty of rooftop space for solar panels that could use some of this clean energy to create hydrogen and host a fueling station or two in their parking lots.

    Here’s a list of retailers in the U. S. that have a large number of stores that could build at least one hydrogen fueling pump in many strategic locations in their parking lots.

    1. Costco Stores in the U. S. – 460
    2. Sam’s Clubs in the U. S. – 602 (Oregon and Vermont are the only states without Sam’s Clubs)
    3. BJ’s Wholesale Club – 160
    4. Walmart stores in the U. S. – 3,700 – already testing hydrogen forklifts
    5. Seven-Eleven stores in U. S. 5,900
    6. Home Depot – 1,000 stores in the U. S.
    7. CVS Caremark – 6,300 drugstores
    8. Target – 1,500 us stores
    9. Sears – 3,800 us stores
    10. Safeway food stores – 1,175
    11. SuperValu – 2,500 stores
    12. K-Mart 1,400 stores
    13. J. C. Penney 1,000
    14. Delhaize American supermarket chain 1,500 stores
    15. Staples – 1,800
    16. TJX Companies fashion and apparel – 2,300
    17. The Gap 3,000
    18. Office Depot – 1,200
    19. Kohl’s 800 stores – already building rooftop solar panels
    20. H-E-B Grocery – 500 stores – already using hydrogen forklifts
    21. OfficeMax – 1,000 stores
    22. Dollar General Stores – 8,000
    23. Family Dollar Stores, Inc – 6,000
    24. Borders Books and Walden Books 1,100
    25. Lumber Liquidator stores – 180 – already committed to building East Coast Hydrogen Highway at 11 of their stores

    Now, perhaps this isn’t a totally fair comparison since some of these retail chain stores are located inside of malls and don’t have a say over what happens to the parking lots outside. In the U. S. there are a total of over 2,800,000 retail stores most of which rent space and don’t have a say about what happens outside the confines of their buildings.

    But, then I decided to check out the number of shopping centers in the U. S. that could support at least one hydrogen fueling pump and that number is 47,000.

    As one can see, this number far exceeds the 12,000 hydrogen fueling stations that GM’s Larry Burns had talked about 2 years ago. In an age of corporate green responsibility there is no reason that a company like Lumber Liquidators should be building the East Coast Hydrogen Highway system by itself.

    Where are the larger corporate partners in this venture? Where are the large nationwide retailers, wholesale clubs, car dealerships and mall operators that could step up to bat and take it upon themselves to build out part of the national hydrogen highway system with their own resources?

    Perhaps this is too outside-the-box thinking for most retailers. Or perhaps not? In Southern California at least several Costco wholesale clubs not only sell gasoline but have electric charging stations that are holdovers from a few years ago before the large automakers crushed their electric cars. These charging stations sit near the fronts of the stores similar to handicap parking spots and let consumers recharge their vehicles while shopping. Something similar could be done for hydrogen cars only fill-ups would be done much more quickly.

    Many of the 5,900 seven-eleven stores in the U. S. also sell fuel and like some of the Shell gasoline stations could easily add a hydrogen pump as well. So, this is not as radical of thinking as some would assume because similar projects have already been demonstrated.

    This is a call to action aimed at the U. S. retailers to take ownership of corporate environmental responsibility and start building hydrogen fueling pumps in strategic locations. Tax breaks and government subsidies aside, it’s the right thing to do.

  • Stating the obvious: Seniors are safer drivers than teenagers

    There is no surprise here. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the safest drivers on the road are in the age group between 64 and 69 years old. A study conducted by the two government agencies shows that teenage drivers are the most dangerous drivers on the road – especially male drivers.

    “In every motorized country around the world, teenage drivers are disproportionately involved in crashes,” said Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Institute. “The seriousness of this problem has been recognized for decades. Only in the last few years have public policies such as graduated driving licenses been enacted to address the situation. And those laws seem to be working, but fatalities are still high.”

    In 2008, 2,739 teenage-drivers between the ages of 15 to 20 were killed and an additional 228,000 were injured. However, the good news is that the number is down 27 percent since 1998 and driver fatalities for the age group also decreased by 20 percent in the same time period.

    – By: Kap Shah

    Source: DriveOn


  • Venus Williams French Open – Best Outfit

    Venus Williams’ outfit gets more attention. She won in the first day of the French Open against Patty Schnyder with consecutive 6 – 3 triumphs. Her win was not the topic for discussion, rather her outfit. She wore a lacy black and red outfit with a corset-like top and a tutu skirt which gave the outfit an illusion of being see-through. USA Today had a poll asking America on what they think of the outfit. The number 1 response that gained 42 percent of the votes said “They should have made her change”. This style that Venus Williams wore for tennis at the French Open was not the first of its kind. She wore the same outfit with a different color last week for the Madrid Open. During the last Australian Open which was held last January, she wore a green skimpy uniform and a similar underwear that she wore in the French Open 2010. At the Sony Ericsson Open, she wore a red spaghetti-strapped dress trimmed with a décor of ruffles. She could make a strange line of outfit with her outfits. Is her secret with her wins lie with the comfort from the clothes she wear? And lastly, what will be her next outfit?

    Related posts:

    1. Venus Williams’ Disturbing Outfit at the French Open
    2. Venus Williams’ Outfit Pulled Crowd’s Attention
    3. French Open 2010: Schedule and Live Stream

  • Paula Abdul Will Be a Lead Judge in the New CBS Show: Got to Dance

    The former American idol judge, Paula Abdul, will be back in primetime television as a judge again. This past August, Abdul announced that she will be living American Idol where she worked for eight years. Now, she will be one of the judges again in the reality show, “Got to Dance”

    This will be exciting for her since she will be the lead judge, executive producer, and even the mentor and coach on the new CBS show. The competition is based on the U.K. reality show, and it is said to be billed as the first all-ages all-genres dance series “from ballroom to break dance, bhangra to ballet, and tap to tango.”

    The CBS stated that the show will air by March next year. Abdul was rumored to be courted by all the major networks, including Fox, which had hoped to reunite Abdul with her old Idol sparring mate Simon Cowell for his upcoming U.S. version of The X Factor. Abdul had also reportedly received offers from Dancing With the Stars. However, it was the show of “Got to dance” that enticed Abdul to join in.

    Abdul was also said to be joining the “X factor” but she chose to have her own program, “Got to Dance”

    It is nice that we will see Abdul again as a judge, not only in American Idol. In the upcoming show, her role would be more challenging since she gets to meet the contestants of the show and she has responsibility over them because she will be their coach. Since it is a realty show, this show can be very interesting to more viewers just like American idol.

    Related posts:

    1. Simon Cowell Leaves Idol and Starts “X Factor”
    2. Ellen DeGeneres Could Not Fit into the Shoes of Paula Abdul!
    3. Forget Simon or Ellen: “American Idol” is all about Ryan now!

  • Ford said to be preparing Explorer-based pursuit-rated SUV for police fleets

    Filed under: , , ,

    When Ford introduced its Police Interceptor based on the Taurus, it said it had another vehicle in the works that “would share most parts with the Taurus and be available in a utility version.” Speculation was that it would be a Flex based on the component spec, but according to The Detroit News, it turns out the as-yet-unseen 2011 Ford Explorer has got the nod.

    Ford won’t say much about it at the moment as it hasn’t been announced officially, but it is understood that the model will be pursuit-rated and pack all-wheel-drive. The latter distinction arguably puts it atop the category: there is a pursuit-rated Chevrolet Tahoe that many police forces already use, but it’s only two-wheel-drive. The four-wheel-drive Tahoe, also already employed by rural and urban forces, isn’t pursuit-rated.

    Ford hasn’t given a timeframe for when the police-spec unibody Explorer will be here, but in addition to its arrival giving units like K9 and SWAT a better mobile command post, it ought to help Ford’s efforts to maintain its 70-percent share of the police market after the current Crown Victoria-based PI goes out to pasture. Hat tip to Matthew.

    [Source: The Detroit News]

    Ford said to be preparing Explorer-based pursuit-rated SUV for police fleets originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 24 May 2010 10:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Chrysler anuncia 1.080 vagas para trabalharem na nova Grand Cherokee


    O presidente da Chrysler, Sergio Marchionne, anunciou a expansão da fábrica “Jefferson North”, situada em Detroit, Michigan e que é responsável pelas fabricações do Jeep Commander e do Jeep Grand Cherokee, este último com uma nova versão em andamento. Marchionne diz o seguinte:

    “O início da produção da Grand Cherokee 2011 marca o renascimento do Grupo Chrysler. A Grand Cherokee é a assinatura da Chrysler”.

    Marchionne se alegra ao informar a produção do novo Jeep, pois mostra que a Chrysler está se re-erguendo após um período de “quase falência”, abatidos pela crise econômica no setor automotivo. Como resultado de seu renascimento, 1.080 vagas foram anunciadas para a expansão da fábrica, que teve um investimento de US$ 686 milhões, entre a produção da nova Cherokee e a reforma da fábrica.

    Via | Left Lane


  • Online Store Loses $1.6 Million Due to Pricing Glitch

    A software error can end up costing a company quite a lot. While for Google, the toll is still unknown, for an online retailer of shoes, clothing and other similar items, 6pm.com, the number is easier to pinpoint. The company, affiliated with Zappos, lost $1.6 million by its own account, after the pricing engine capped plenty of the items on … (read more)

  • Susan Docherty named GM VP, International Operational Sales, Marketing and Aftersales

    Susan E. Docherty – GM Vice President, International Operations Sales, Marketing and Aftersales

    Earlier this month, General Motors announced that Joel Ewanick will replace Susan Docherty as vice president, U.S. Marketing, effective today. Well, May 24 is here and Susan Docherty has been given new responsibilities at the Detroit automaker and has been appointed GM’s Vice President, International Operations Sales, Marketing and Aftersales.

    Starting June 1, Docherty will report to Tim Lee, president, GM International Operations (GMIO).

    “Growth in China and other emerging markets is important to the company’s future,” said GM Chairman and CEO, Ed Whitacre. “We are counting on Susan to make a significant contribution and I am glad to have her running this critical part of our business.”

    If you take a look at the statistics, the job is pretty demanding. GM sells almost 50 percent of all new vehicles within GMIO (General Motors International Operations), which is made up of more than 90 markets including Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Most of the GMIO countries are considered emerging markets and are an engine of GMIO growth over the next decade.

    Docherty will be responsible to coordinate sales, marketing and aftersales in GM’s Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Russia and CIS operations. She will have responsibility for market performance, improving the opinion and consideration of Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Holden and Cadillac brands to drive consumer demand for GM vehicles.

    Docherty will be replacing Don Johnson, whose new position will be announced soon.

    Keep the reshuffling going.

    – By: Omar Rana