Category: News

Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, MISC

Fiat and Ferrari aren’t the only ones undergoing a comprehensive restructuring as longtime rival (both on and off the track) McLaren has announced a major reorganization of its operations and several management changes.

The biggest shift for McLaren is the split between McLaren Automotive (which will produce the new MP4-12C supercar) and the McLaren Group (which operates the racing team). The roadcar unit is being split off into its own operation, based out of the McLaren Production Centre, which shares its grounds with the McLaren Technology Centre next door.

The two companies will now report to two separate boards, which will in turn be accountable to separate shareholders. But to keep things sufficiently confusing for the rest of us, most of the key players – including executive chairman Ron Dennis, team principal Martin Whitmarsh, CFO Andy Myers, incoming legal counsel Tim Mumane and shareholders Mansour Ojjeh and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Essa al-Khalifa – will continue to serve on the boards for both companies. Richard Lapthorne, who was until now serving as non-executive chairman of the single unit before the split, will be leaving the company. Details in the press release after the jump.

[Source: McLaren]

Continue reading McLaren announces comprehensive restructuring, management changes

McLaren announces comprehensive restructuring, management changes originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Once the gold standard among profitable automakers, Toyota Motor Corp. has fallen on hard times in recent months, and now credit rating agency Moody's Investors Service has joined the chorus of negativity.

Tadashi Usui, a Japanese analyst with Moody's in Tokyo, downgraded the credit rating for Toyota and its subsidiaries on Wednesday night to Aa2 from Aa1, with a "negative" ratings outlook.

"The ratings action reflects the ongoing low level of profitability evident at Toyota, and which we expect to continue for an extended period, Mr. Usui said in the report. "Moreover, its product quality and recall challenges — largely centred in the United States — have created significant uncertainty over whether it can maintain the pricing power it has historically achieved over its rivals."

And with global auto sales expected to be sluggish in 2010, along with persistent overcapacity, Toyota's profit margins could remain well below "what is appropriate for its rating level until 2012 at the earliest and possibly beyond," he said.

Mr. Usui is also concerned about future litigation costs related to the product recalls.

However, the fact that Toyota is Japan's largest automaker — and likely to remain so — means there will be government and banking support if it really needed it.

"This assumption has lifted its rating by one notch from what it would be otherwise," he said.

The highest rating available with Moody's is Aaa, while Aa (and its relative 1,2 and 3 qualifiers) is still considered high quality.

Eric Lam

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are heading back to the big screen for a third Men In Black movie, FOX News’ Showbiz 411 Column has learned.

The duo will reteam as Kay and Jay — roles they originated in the 1996 original — in a 3D sequel, we hear. MIB director Barry Sonnenfeld reportedly told Showbiz 411’s Roger Friedman that, despite rumors of Will’s departure, the actor has signed on to return. Sonnenfield hinted that MIB could roll into the cinema just in time Memorial Day weekend 2011.

The last Men In Black film hit theaters in 2002. To date the hit franchise has earned over $1 billion at the international box office.

…Sort of.

While the entire Mideast-centric wing of the foreign-policy community waits to see if the Obama administration will actually offer its own plan to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with an independent Palestinian state — to say nothing of the bated breath in Mideast capitols — Jim Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser, sounded warm, soothing tones last night about the U.S.-Israel relationship to a leading pro-Israel group, the center-right Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“There has been a lot of distortion and misrepresentation of our policy recently,” Jones said, getting that out of the way. “We will never forget that since the first minutes of Israeli independence, the United States has had a special relationship with Israel. And that will not change.” And he continued on in that vein. It even got subtle: As Israel tries to rebrand itself as a tech-centric “start-up nation,” Jones said the U.S.-Israel bonds were “the bonds of pioneers in science, technology and so many fields where we cooperate every day.”

Bona fides affirmed, Jones’ speech attempted to thread several needles: convincing Israel and its American advocates that taking risks for a two-state solution right now is in both the Israeli and American interest; that the U.S. is about to take action on Israel’s enemy, Iran, and so Israel needs to reciprocate on the peace process; and that the Obama administration’s broader national security strategy — ensuring nations fulfill their international obligations and uphold the rights of their citizens as the key to global security, prosperity and dignity — is inextricably tied to Mideast peace. “We recognize that peace must be made by the parties and cannot be imposed from the outside,” Jones said, echoing a recent formulation of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. “At the same time, we understand that the status quo is not sustainable.” He called for the resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations — pointedly eliding the indirect talks the administration has for weeks tried to use as a bridge to direct talks:

So it is time to begin those negotiations and to put an end to excuses. It is time for all leaders in the region—Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab—to support efforts for peace. It is time for today’s leader to demonstrate the courage and leadership of Anwar Sadat, King Hussein, and Yitzhak Rabin.

That looks like the Fierce Urgency of Now again. Jones left hanging in the air the prospect of an Obama peace plan — he didn’t touch on the idea at all — but the thrust of his speech was about the need for concerted and immediate action on peace. The vectors point in the direction of such an Obama peace plan if those talks don’t get underway, and Jones closed by emphasizing that the Obama administration isn’t going to relent on Mideast peace: “This is the work we will continue to pursue in the months and years ahead… not only for the sake of America’s security, but for the world’s.”

In a week when all eyes were on a phone found in a bar, Dell has been leaking information about its mobile roadmap. Dell looks to make a splash in this space this year as details about several phones and handheld devices would indicate. The company looks committed to the Android platform, but not exclusively as the Lightning with Windows Phone 7 demonstrates.

The Dell Lightning is the first look we’ve gotten of a real handset running Windows Phone 7, and it looks like a dandy. The Snapdragon processor, which seems to be rapidly becoming the standard against all other are judged, is running a 4.1-inch OLED screen that looks gorgeous in the leaked photos. The Lightning is a portrait slider with a QWERTY keyboard which will make quite a few folks happy. In addition to all of the hardware goodness packed in the Lightning, leaked details indicate it will get an LTE upgrade in the last quarter of this year. Oh my, the Dell Lightning is looking mighty tasty.

Several Android phones are in the works by Dell, including the Thunder which has a hardware design that looks similar to the Lightning without the slider and with Android on board. The Thunder is reported to also have a 4.1-inch display, and Dell is following HTC’s route by putting its own shell on top of Android to make it distinguishable from the competition. The “Stage” UI follows a familiar route by integrating social networking into the UI, in a very attractive package. The Thunder is also reported to be coming in an LTE version late this year.

Dell is not forgetting those looking for a cheaper, simpler phone, as the Flash proves. This handset will have a slower processor and more sedate design, but with the same Android and Stage UI as the Thunder. There will be a smaller 3.5-inch screen on the Flash, and all of the standard features one expects in a smartphone. The Flash is expected in early 2011.

We have been teased by Dell with handheld Android tablets for quite some time, but haven’t seen any hit the market yet. That teasing has been cranked up to a high level with new information about the Dell Streak, the 5-inch handheld tablet that is now reported to get the latest version of Android in September. This news is exciting as it may mean we’ll actually be able to buy one of these puppies soon. The Streak is looking mighty fine with its dual cameras hinting at video conferencing.

A big shout out to our friends at Engadget for getting all of this “secret” information about Dell’s mobile roadmap. We understand no German beer was involved, which is no small feat.

Image credit: Engadget

Related research from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Marketing Handsets in the Superphone Era

For now, let’s chalk this up in the rumor category. A user from 4Chan has posted a few pictures of a myTouch running Android 2.2. He says a new feature in 2.2 will be the ability to set the market to automatically update your apps when they become available.

We’ve seen our fair share of fake screenshots in the past but this one looks like it could be real. All of us have had days where we just don’t want to update apps over and over. This new feature would make this process as painless as it can be. The only downside I see in this is when an app is updated to a broken version or to one that has limitations put on it. But, over all this will be a good thing especially if they can incorporate some way to downgrade apps back to the original functioning version. 2.2 are rumored to be released next month so if it does, we’ll see if this is true or not.

The differences are clear – Apple’s selling phones and associated content faster than Nokia.

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) smartphone shipments grew by 50 percent in the year’s first three months, compared to 131 percent more iPhones reported this week.

But Nokia isn’t juicing the uses for these smartphones – sales from services (ie. Nokia’s Ovi suite) are 12 percent down from last year at €148 million.

Nokia still shifts more phones than Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) – it sold 21.5 million “converged mobile devices” in the quarter, compared with 8.75 million iPhones.

But the first phone powered by Symbian^3 – the upgrade that’s critical to improving an OS that’s now seen as relatively clunky – is now forecast to ship in Q3, delayed from Q2. CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told analysts this is “close to our milestone date” – but shares took a dive.

“It’s a painful thing to delay something a bit,” Kallasvuo said. “But meeting the quality requirements is the right thing to do. It will be more intuitive, more fun and faster.” Analysts piled in with unflattering questions, like: “Can Nokia be fast and big, or just big?”

It must be both, Kallasvuo said. “We are not going for the high end with Symbian only, but also going for the even higher end with Maemo,” he added, somewhat optimistically, referring to the Linux-based smartphone OS.

Operating profit bounced back 787 percent to €488 million on three percent higher net sales of €9.5 billion.

For its coming Q2, Nokia expects 10 percent higher mobile volume across the industry, but expects no higher market share for itself compared with last year.

One thing’s going okay – sales from the Navteq mapping subsidiary are up 41 percent, and Nokia has got 10 million downloads for the free GPS navigation service since introducing in January.

North America continues to be Nokia’s slimmest market – devices and services sales down 27 percent over the year to just €219 million, and its share of the market down 21 percent to just 2.7 percent. But sales grew fastest in Latin America (42 percent) and Middle East/Africa (30 percent).

“What image would you like on the cake, sir?” “I’ll shoot you the URL.” And with these simple, misunderstood words, an epic cake wreck was born. So what was supposed to be on the cake? This: More »

Content: The Passing
Price: 560 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions
Dash Text: Left 4 Dead 2’s “The Passing” brings the original Left 4 Dead Survivors down south for a meeting with the L4D2 cast, while delivering new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.

Purchase The Passing and add it to your Xbox 360 download queue

Remember: You’ll need a full version of Left 4 Dead 2 to access this content.

Research In Motion Ltd. is expected to unveil its most recent hardware and software offerings at its annual Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) and Capital Markets Day in Orlando, Florida next week. This should include its new operating system (OS), browser and new devices.

The market is also looking for more clarity on the BlackBerry-maker’s 2010 growth plans, specifically what it has in store for the consumer segment. While RIM has generally been successful in its push into this part of the market, the OS and User Interface have long been the BlackBerry’s Achilles heel, says Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek. Many users feel the device is lacking in terms of navigation, look and feel.

However, the recently leaked BlackBerry OS 6.0 looks to offset the vast majority of these shortcomings and keeps the OS competitive with Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android, Mr. Misek said in a research note.

He expects the new browser, which was revealed in February, will offer tab switching, new favourites, and both pinch-to-zoom and sub three-second download speed for the most media intensive websites.

The analyst also anticipates “tap-and-hold” technology will be included, which will enable quicker access to context menus, an improved customizable homescreen, a redesigned message inbox with Facebook, Twitter and RSS integration, and a redone media player.

In terms of timing, Mr. Misek said the new OS should be available this summer on major U.S. networks.

Jonathan Ratner

Striking a decisive blitzkrieg to an internet meme that had gotten old fast, Constantin Film has asked video hosting sites to take down all the re-subtitled Hitler videos of the war room rant scene from Downfall, TechCrunch reports.

Although I’m glad to see copyright law win out over humanity’s innate sense to overkill a good joke, it’s a shame we can’t get one last Hitler video complaining about Constantin’s move.

Hitler Is Very Upset That Constantin Film Is Taking Down Hitler Parodies [TechCrunch]

This offering from Dell is a bit toned down from the recent leaks but is still a great device. The Dell Aero will be released for AT&T sometime in the second quarter. It has a 624 MHZ processor and a few other tricks up its sleeve.

Like the Moto Cliq and a few Sense devices, the Aero will come equipped with QuickOffice. And for you business people, it also has Microsoft ActiveSync and Exchange support. The browser has Flash lite support and there is a very good music player that will have some sort of music streaming and download ability that is protected by Windows Media DRM. It does have two things going wrong for it though, it has Android 1.5 and its going to be on AT&T. 2.1 is expected to be pushed to the device sometime later in the year.

[via engadget]

Our beloved Dorothy Zbornak — a devoted animal rights activist — is making a posthumous appearance in the latest ad from the fur-hating zealots at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA is bringng actress Bea Arthur back to life almost a year to the day of her death in a new campaign promo sticking it to McDonald’s.

A photograph of Bea appears next to this headline: “McCruelty. It’s enough to make Bea Arthur roll over in her grave.” The bold print in followed by a pro-animal monologue that begins with the words: “Death couldn’t stop this Golden Girl from fighting the Golden Arches’ cruel slaughter practices….”

The late sitcom legend “was a staunch supporter of PETA’s initiatives against so-called factory farming techniques and she will be the public face of an effort in that campaign to be aimed at McDonald’s. A photograph of Ms. Arthur is to appear in the ad next to this headline: ‘McCruelty. It’s enough to make Bea Arthur roll over in her grave,’” The New York Times said Thursday.

“When she was alive, Bea Arthur was one of PETA’s most stalwart supporters, and now—through a provocative campaign that PETA is launching thanks to a bequest in her will—Bea will remain an activist even in death,” a PETA spokesperson remarked in a presser this morning.

Arthur, best known as star of the hit TV comedies Maude and The Golden Girls, died of cancer last April 25.

President Barack Obama will give a speech on financial regulatory reform this morning at New York’s Cooper Union college, located one mile from Wall Street. He plans to demand that five elements make it into the final bill:

• Protect taxpayers from too-big-to-fail firms
• Impose the Volcker rule, named for former Fed Chair Paul Volcker, which stops firms from making large bets with their own money, or “proprietary trading”
• Make derivatives trades transparent
• Create a consumer protection agency
• Institute pay reforms to give investors a say over executive pay

Here are three excerpts from the speech, released to the press this morning:

One of the most significant contributors to this recession was a financial crisis as dire as any we’ve known in generations. And that crisis was born of a failure of responsibility — from Wall Street to Washington — that brought down many of the world’s largest financial firms and nearly dragged our economy into a second Great Depression. It was that failure of responsibility that I spoke about when I came to New York more than two years ago — before the worst of the crisis had unfolded. I take no satisfaction in noting that my comments have largely been borne out by the events that followed. But I repeat what I said then because it is essential that we learn the lessons of this crisis, so we don’t doom ourselves to repeat it. And make no mistake, that is exactly what will happen if we allow this moment to pass — an outcome that is unacceptable to me and to the American people.

As I said two years ago on this stage, I believe in the power of the free market. I believe in a strong financial sector that helps people to raise capital and get loans and invest their savings. But a free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it. That is what happened too often in the years leading up to the crisis. Some on Wall Street forgot that behind every dollar traded or leveraged, there is family looking to buy a house, pay for an education, open a business, or save for retirement. What happens here has real consequences across our country.

A comprehensive plan to achieve these reforms has passed the House of Representatives. A Senate version is currently being debated, drawing on the ideas of Democrats and Republicans. Both bills represent significant improvement on the flawed rules we have in place today, despite the furious efforts of industry lobbyists to shape them to their special interests. I am sure that many of those lobbyists work for some of you. But I am here today because I want to urge you to join us, instead of fighting us in this effort. I am here because I believe that these reforms are, in the end, not only in the best interest of our country, but in the best interest of our financial sector. And I am here to explain what reform will look like, and why it matters.

U.S. equity index futures are lower this morning. S&P 500 futures are down 8 points in pre-opening trade. Index futures are responding to a Eurostat report showing that the debt to GDP ratios by European nations have increased again. The debt to GDP ratio by Greece is particularly of concern. The Euro is under pressure this morning and is testing support just below 133.

Weakness in the Euro has boosted the U.S. Dollar. Commodities priced in U.S. Dollars including crude oil, gold, silver and copper are trading slightly lower.

Economic news released at 8:30 AM EDT did not impact equity indices significantly. Consensus for March Producer Prices was a gain of 0.5% versus a decline of 0.6% in February. Actual was a gain of 0.7%. Consensus for PPI ex food and energy was an increase of 0.1% versus an increase of 0.1% in February. Actual was a gain of 0.1%. Also, weekly jobless claims rose 24,000 to 456,000.

A large volume of first quarter earnings reports were released overnight. Prominent reporting companies included EBay, Amgen, Qualcomm, Starbucks, Verizon, Pepsico, Union Pacific and Philip Morris. Most reported higher than expected earnings. Most quickly came under profit taking pressures following news.

Nokia was a notable exception. It reported less than consensus first quarter results. The stock fell 11% in overnight trade.

Century Tel announced a friendly share exchange offer to acquire Qwest Communications. Qwest Communications gained 13% on the news.

Boeing added 1% after Credit Suisse upgraded the stock from Neutral to Outperform.

Dupont was unchanged after Soleil upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy.
Nabors added 1% after CLSA upgraded the stock from Under Perform to Outperform.

Starbucks added 1.5% after Jesup & Lamont upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy. Target was raised from $25 to $32. 

Don Vialoux, chartered market technician, is the author of a free
daily report on equity markets, sectors, commodities, equities and
Exchange-Traded Funds. For more visit Don Vialoux's Web site

Denise Gellene wrote:

Progress on the drug development front dominated the headlines in the past week, although one company, Phenomix, also had some bad news. Get those details and more here.

—Phenomix announced that diabetic patients who took its experimental drug dutogliptin in a clinical trial saw statistically significant drops in their blood sugar. But the company is looking for a new strategic partner to help develop dutogliptin after New York-based Forest Laboratories said it had terminated its alliance with the San Diego biotech.

—My end-of-flu-season wrap up showed some San Diego companies received a temporary revenue boost from sales of products related to swine flu, and at least one company garnered enough funding to continue work on a H1N1 vaccine.

—Luke profiled Amplyx, a startup that is working on redesigning existing drugs to make them more effective or tolerable. The company’s first project is to develop improved protease inhibitors for H.I.V.

—Anadys Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ANDS) reported promising interim clinical trial data for its experimental hepatitis C drug ANA598. The results were announced at the European Association for the Study of the Liver meeting in Vienna, Austria.

—Luke chatted with Nobel laureate Roger Tsien of UC San Diego about his startup company, Avelas Biosciences, which is working on fluorescent molecular tags that surgeons may use to distinguish tumors from healthy tissue.

—Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: LGND) earned a $6.5 million milestone payment from Switzerland-based Roche for advancing its experimental hepatitis C drug RG7348 into clinical trials. Ligand obtained the drug through its acquisition of Metabasis Therapeutics; Metabasis shareholders will receive $2.7 million from the milestone payment.

—The Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute promoted Kristina Vuori to president from her previous position as executive vice president of scientific affairs. John Reed will continue as CEO of the institute.

Comments | Reprints | Share:  

 
 
 

UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

When it comes to speech to text, Vlingo has BlackBerry covered. I’ve been using the app since it was released, and it has certainly served me well. The price tag — free — helps matters, too. Yet they’re not the only game in town. While Dragon doesn’t cover all the features that Vlingo does — it’s limited to your email — it does present an alternative. It uses Nuance’s technology, which has been available in other formats. Now that it’s on BlackBerry, it’s worth giving a try.

(more…)

The Dell Aero, the sort-of good-looking Dell Android phone headed to AT&T, just got some new information that’s just not worth getting excited about. The Aero is said to use a middling 624 MHz Marvell processor, a 3.5-inch capacitive screen, and a capacitive stylus for handwriting recognition. If you remember, the software is all sorts of crazy and the leak suggests that there’ll be a media player that will use Windows Media DRM to protect downloaded music (dont ask us why). But it’s not all bad, QuickOffice, ActiveSync, on-device photo editing, and social networks come stock on the Aero too. However, it’s expected to run Android 1.5 with 2.1 as a promised update later this year, and we all know how that story goes.

Compared to the other Dell phones leaked yesterday, the Aero is just, un-exciting. At least it’s going where Android phones go to die AT&T. [Engadget]

[JURIST] Rwandan authorities arrested opposition presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Wednesday, accusing her of denying the 1994 Rwandan genocide and collaborating with terrorists. Authorities cited Ingabire’s call for the prosecution of those who killed Hutus during the genocide, in which over 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, were slain, as evidence of her denial of the genocide. Prosecutors also alleged that Ingabire has collaborated with Hutu rebels in the Democratic Republic of Rwanda, which borders Rwanda. The arrest comes at a time when current Tutsi President Paul Kagame has received criticism from Human Rights Watch (HRW) for his treatment of opposition parties. The United Democratic Forces (FDU), the party chaired by Ingabire, released a statement Wednesday condemning the arrest:
Such a barbaric and unlawful act against a peace loving mother who braved the system to show that there is another way to bring about lasting peace and development in Rwanda is not only a challenge to the conscience and dignity of the Rwandan people but also to the international community, in particular foreign governments who are sponsoring the government.The UDF urged “governments and peace loving people and organisations to support us in getting our chair immediately and unconditionally released.”Rwanda continues to try those involved in the 1994 genocide. In March, an aid to Ingabire who had been convicted in absentia, pleaded guilty to genocide charges in exchange for a reduced prison sentence of 17 years. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was established for the prosecution of high-level officials responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law during the Rwandan genocide. Last month, the Appeals Chamber of the ICTR affirmed the genocide conviction of popular Rwandan singer-songwriter Simon Bikindi. The court also reversed the conviction for counts of genocide, murder, and extermination against Rwandan district attorney Simeon Nchamihigo. Earlier in March, the widow of assassinated Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, Agathe Habyarimana, was arrested in France on suspicions of complicity in genocide and was later released on bail. In January, the Rwandan government released a report concluding that the assassination of then-president Juvenal Habyarimana, which sparked the genocide, was the work of Hutu extremists.

Fifteen thousand taxpayers came to Springfield Wednesday to tell the members of General Assembly to do the job they were elected to do by raising the taxes of the protesters.

Isn’t people demanding their taxes be raised sort of a classic “Man bites dog” story, the kind of story that defines what is considered “news?”

The SOS rally received a brief wire story in the online New York Times business section.

The number of attendees was many times the number of participants of any Tea Party event.  Yet, people who are heavy users of government services (transportation, Medicare, Social Security, etc…) demanding tax cuts are considered to be some sort of significant “movement” that is reshaping our country.

Rachel Maddow used the SOS rally to make this very important point last night.   You can see the entire program here. Watching it is a sort of “sanity check” for those of us who are having trouble understanding why our state government has allowed the current budget crisis to fester for so long.

The most oft-asked question about the rally is, “Will it make a difference?” We think the answer is “yes,” because there is no reason to believe that the politicians will fix what’s wrong on their own.  They have to be asked, pushed, cajoled.  Rallies like Wednesday’s are an important part of the process.

But there is another reason to take the action that was taken in  Illinois yesterday.

As Maddow’s guest, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell stated, “If we’re going to go down in November, and I don’t think we are, but if we do, let’s go down fighting for the things we believe in.”

So, does it makes a difference?  Yes.  And, it also is something that we have to do for ourselves because it reflects our values.

Be sure to watch the Maddow story about SOS.  You might want to send the link to a friend who wonders whether all of this matters.