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Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. agreed to settle a shareholder lawsuit seeking to rescind an allegedly improper loan that the billboard advertising company made to its ailing parent Clear Channel Communications Inc. The loan “so significantly” depleted Clear Channel Outdoor’s cash reserves that the company was forced to borrow $2 billion to fund a special dividend, according to the lawsuit filed in Delaware’s Chancery Court in March last year. Clear Channel Communications Inc and its owners, private equity firms Bain Capital and Thomas H Lee Partners, were also named as defendants.

(Reuters) – Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc agreed to settle a shareholder lawsuit seeking to rescind an allegedly improper loan that the billboard advertising company made to its ailing parent Clear Channel Communications Inc.

The loan “so significantly” depleted Clear Channel Outdoor’s cash reserves that the company was forced to borrow $2 billion to fund a special dividend, according to the lawsuit filed in Delaware’s Chancery Court in March last year.

Clear Channel Communications Inc and its owners, private equity firms Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H Lee Partners LLC, were also named as defendants.

As part of the agreement entered into on March 28, Clear Channel Outdoor will demand payment of $200 million under the revolving promissory note from its parent company, and pay a special dividend of the same amount from the proceeds of the repayment. ()

Clear Channel Holdings Inc – the outdoor company’s direct parent and a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications – would receive 89 percent of such a dividend, to be paid out the day the note is repaid.

Clear Channel Communications, which owns 89 percent of Clear Channel Outdoor, was bought by Bain and Thomas H Lee in 2008 for about $18 billion.

Clear Channel Outdoor’s shares were flat at $7.38 in mid-day trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

The post Reuters – Clear Channel Agrees to Settle Shareholder Lawsuit appeared first on peHUB.

Carlyle Group co-Chief Executive David Rubenstein said on Wednesday that inflicting losses on deposits at Cypriot banks has had a chilling effect across the world and could drive investors to pull their money from banks in other countries. A European Union bailout deal to save Cyprus from bankruptcy came with a raid on deposits over 100,000 euros in Cypriot bank accounts, an unprecedented move that has sent jitters across the single currency euro zone and beyond.

(Reuters) – Carlyle Group LP co-Chief Executive David Rubenstein said on Wednesday that inflicting losses on deposits at Cypriot banks has had a chilling effect across the world and could drive investors to pull their money from banks in other countries.

A European Union bailout deal to save Cyprus from bankruptcy came with a raid on deposits over 100,000 euros in Cypriot bank accounts, an unprecedented move that has sent jitters across the single currency euro zone and beyond.

“Cyprus is 0.2 percent of the EU’s gross domestic product so it’s insignificant. The real thing that has resonated around the world is that for the first time, people realized that governments could come in and wipe out their bank accounts,” Rubenstein told Reuters Editor in Chief Stephen Adler at the Thomson Reuters Buyouts East conference in Boston.

“Even in the United States people are beginning to wonder, could the government do that to me someday. It’s unlikely that would ever happen here but the idea that a government could just push a button and all of a sudden 10 percent of your bank account is wiped out, is something that has scared people,” Rubenstein added.

While a much feared run on Cypriot banks did not materialize when they re-opened last week, the country has imposed capital controls to stem a flight of euros from the island.

A lawyer by training, Rubenstein served as a domestic policy adviser to President Jimmy Carter between 1977 and 1981 and in 1987 founded Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle together with William Conway and Daniel D’Aniello.

“If you are in a bank that is not all that strong, in a country that is not all that strong, you might not keep your money there any longer. That’s the real impact of Cyprus; it’s scaring to death a lot of depositors all around the world,” Rubenstein said.

Thanks to support from the European Central Bank, however, the existence of the euro is currently not at threat, Rubenstein added.

Rubenstein, whose net worth is pegged by Forbes at $3 billion, has given away hundreds of millions of dollars to charitable and educational causes and is a signatory to the 2010 Bill Gates-Warren Buffett “Giving Pledge,” having committed to dedicate most of his wealth to philanthropy.

Rooted in private equity, Carlyle has in recent years expanded in other alternative asset classes including corporate credit, real estate and even commodities. It now boasts more than $170 billion of assets under management.

The post Reuters – Carlyle’s Rubenstein Says Cyprus Scaring Depositers appeared first on peHUB.

Sensitive non-public information could be compromised if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fails to take additional steps to improve its internal controls, an agency watchdog has found, Reuters reported. In two separate audits completed late last month, the SEC’s new inspector general, Carl Hoecker, found vulnerabilities in the SEC’s information technology system. The first audit, dated March 25, examined how well the SEC maintains controls to protect sensitive information that it shares with the U.S. Financial Stability Oversight Council, or FSOC, a body of regulators that guard against systemic risks.

(Reuters) – Sensitive non-public information could be compromised if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fails to take additional steps to improve its internal controls, an agency watchdog has found.

In two separate audits completed late last month, the SEC’s new inspector general, Carl Hoecker, found vulnerabilities in the SEC’s information technology system.

The first audit, dated March 25, examined how well the SEC maintains controls to protect sensitive information that it shares with the U.S. Financial Stability Oversight Council, or FSOC, a body of regulators that guards against systemic risks.

The second audit, dated March 29, reviewed the SEC’s compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act, a federal law that lays down a framework for government agencies to protect themselves against threats and ensure data is secure.

Both audits were conducted as routine reviews to ensure compliance with federal rules and regulations, and were not investigating any wrongdoing.

The inspector general’s audits come as Congress and the White House are restarting negotiations on legislation aimed at improving U.S. defenses against cyber attacks.

The White House wants critical companies to comply with minimum security standards and also wants to help protect private information turned over to the government.

Protection of private company data is particularly important for financial market regulators, who routinely use it to help police the marketplace.

Hoecker’s March 25 audit found that the SEC needs to take more steps to safeguard critical information that companies such as hedge funds provide to the SEC on a confidential basis.

That information, which often includes proprietary data, is later reviewed by the FSOC.

The audit found that the SEC does not have controls to restrict or prevent employees and contractors who are accessing their e-mail remotely via the Internet from uploading or saving non-public information to a non-government computer.

“As a result, sensitive or nonpublic information could potentially be saved to a non-SEC computer,” Hoecker wrote. “There is a risk that an unauthorized person could gain access to sensitive or nonpublic SEC information.”

The SEC said the audit did not inquire whether any information was actually compromised.

The second audit found that generally the SEC needs to do more to continually monitor the security of its systems. It also found the SEC did not always properly disable network accounts for employees or contractors who have left the SEC.

“By not disabling these accounts, unauthorized employees/contractors can have access to the SEC’s network,” the report said, adding it was “putting the SEC at a higher risk for malicious acts.”

SEC spokesman John Nester declined to comment beyond the agency’s comments attached to the two audits.

The SEC concurred with the recommendations and said it would take steps to correct the problems. (By Sarah N. Lynch)

The post Reuters – SEC Needs Better Protections for Data appeared first on peHUB.

Cisco will pay $310 million in cash to buy Ubiquisys, a privately-held company headquartered in Swindon, UK. Ubiquisys is a provider of 3G and LTE small-cell technology.

PRESS RELEASE
Today, I am pleased to announce Cisco’s intent to acquire Ubiquisys, a privately-held company headquartered in Swindon, UK for $310 million in cash and employee retention incentives. Ubiquisys is a leading provider of intelligent 3G and LTE (Long-Term Evolution) small-cell technologies that provides seamless connectivity across mobile heterogeneous networks for service providers.

The acquisition of Ubiquisys exemplifies Cisco’s innovation framework based on a build, buy and partner approach. The Ubiquisys acquisition also complements Cisco’s mobility strategy along with the recent acquisitions of BroadHop and Intucell, reinforcing in-house research and development, such as service provider Wi-Fi and licensed radio. These technologies will tie together the mobility architecture that leverages the intelligence of the network from the wireless edge of the network into the wired core.

As carriers around the world increase cellular data capacity to serve the rapidly growing population of smartphone and tablet users, adding small cells is one of the most cost-effective ways to multiply data capacity and make better use of scarce spectrum assets. Ubiquisys’ indoor small cells expertise and its focus on intelligent software for licensed 3G and LTE spectrum, coupled with Cisco’s mobility portfolio and its Wi-Fi expertise, will enable a comprehensive small cell solution to service providers that supports the transition to next generation radio access networks.

The acquisition of Ubiquisys further reinforces Cisco’s commitment to service providers and strengthens Cisco’s mobility capabilities to continue to extend the intelligent mobile network.

Ubiquisys’ product portfolio and team will be integrated into our Small Cell Technology Group led by Partho Mishra.

The post Cisco Buys Ubiquisys appeared first on peHUB.

Last week we told you that AT&T would be opening up pre-orders for the Galaxy S 4 on April 16th and would be coming with a $249.99 price tag. However AT&T wasn’t clear on whether or not that price tag would be for the 16GB or 32GB model. Well today they ended up shedding some light on the matter. The 32GB model will come with the $249.99 price tag and the 16GB will be $199.99. AT&T hasn’t given an official date for when the phone will be actually available but at least you’ll have some options when you pre-order. Paying an extra $50 for 16 more gigabytes may be worth it but you could always use that extra $50 for an SD card. Either way, it’s nice to have options. Which one are you buying?

source: AT&T

Come comment on this article: AT&T Clarifies Galaxy S 4 Pricing

The Galaxy S 4 will be the most successful phone for Samsung this year, but there is still a huge market for entry-level phones. They just announced the Galaxy Star and Galaxy Pocket Neo, which will end up in emerging markets. The only glaring difference between the two phones is the CPU. The Galaxy Star comes in at 1GHz, while the Pocket Neo comes in at 850MHz. You will also find a digital compass on the Pocket Neo as well. Both phones feature a 3-inch QVGA (320 x 240) display, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal memory, microSD slot for expandable memory, 2MP rear camera, dual-SIM capability, and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

No word on pricing or availability yet, but I can’t imagine they will be too expensive.

source: Samsung

Come comment on this article: Samsung announces the stylish and compact Galaxy Star and Galaxy Pocket Neo

Seagate will be shipping a 4TB hard drive that has the distinction of being the world’s first to include a 1TB per platter design. This basically means that each spinning disk in the hard drive has a capacity of 1TB, and that there are four of them.

It’s not everyday that you can claim to that have something that’s the “world’s first”, so don’t be too hard on Seagate.

This certainly isn’t the first hard drive to have a 4TB capacity, but apparently the new 1TB per platter design significantly increases the hard drive’s performance over the competition. It consumes 35 percent less power than comparable drives on the market with 4TB capacities, and at 145MB/s, it has the highest average data rate as well.

But most importantly, the new design will also bring down costs. A hard drive in an external casing can be had for $212, while just the bare drive will cost around $190.

Bring on the terabytes, Seagate. My body and my illegally downloaded movies are ready.

IBM talked up the latest ways in which it has sped up databases and introduced a Hadoop appliance at a press and analyst event in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday. The developments aim to bring enterprises closer to running analytics on more types and greater quantities of data as close to real time as possible — a higher and higher priority as big-data projects proliferate.

In the long run, as more and more data piles up and in greater varieties, IBM wants to help to prevent its customers from drowning in the deluge of data and instead give them tools to get better results, such as more revenue, said Bob Picciano, general manager of information management at IBM Software. That’s why tools have to be fast, capable of working on huge data sets and easy to use.

Toward that end, IBM announced BLU Acceleration. When a user of an IBM database such as DB2 runs a query, BLU quickly slims down a big set of data to the amount needed for analysis and spreads tiny workloads across all available compute cores to give a result. One feature of BLU — data skipping — essentially fast-forwards over the data that’s not needed and hones in on the small area that is. And with BLU, data can stay compressed for almost the entire duration of the analysis. IBM claimed BLU produces results a thousand times faster than a previous version of the DB2 database without BLU in some tests.

The IBM PureData System for Hadoop appliance.

IBM also unveiled another IBM PureData box tailored for big-data purposes, this time around Hadoop. Previous boxes in the line include the PureData System for Analytics. The IBM PureData System for Hadoop appliance will become available later this year. It enables customers to start loading data in 90 minutes, compared with two or three weeks for a company’s Hadoop instance in a data center, said Phil Francisco, vice president of Netezza product management and product marketing at IBM Software. The box can store data processed in Hadoop right in the box, a perk for companies facing retention requirements.

Look for IBM to offer more big-data hardware and software. The company has spent $16 billion on big-data and analytics acquisitions, and it wants to “spend as much organically as well as inorganically to figure out what clients need in this space,” said Inhi Cho Suh, vice president of information management product strategy at IBM Software. Meanwhile, Picciano said IBM will soon come out with a way to do for many servers what the BLU Acceleration does with the processors inside a single server.

The new IBM products sound like they could speed up analytics. If enterprises don’t believe the need is there now, they will as data gets bigger.

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Today in Colorado, President Obama asked the American people to continue calling on Congress to vote on a set of common-sense proposals to help reduce gun violence, including closing loopholes in the background check system to keep guns out of the hands criminals and others who should not have access to them.

Since the tragic shooting in Newtown, Connecticut prompted a national call for action just over 100 days ago, gun violence has killed more than 2,000 Americans. “Every day that we wait to do something about it, even more of our fellow citizens are stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun,” President Obama said today.

Colorado – a state that’s experienced two of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history – has already taken action to prevent future violence. State officials worked together to enact tougher background checks that help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people without infringing on the rights of responsible gun owners.

“There doesn’t have to be a conflict between protecting our citizens and protecting our Second Amendment rights,” President Obama said. “Colorado has shown that practical progress is possible.”

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Harlequin Romance has prevailed in a class action suit brought by three authors who accuse the book publisher of depriving writers who published books between 1990 and 2004 of their fair share of ebook revenue.

In a ruling issued on Tuesday, a New York federal judge threw out the authors claim that Harlequin had used a corporate sleight-of-hand to pay them 3-4% of ebook royalties instead of the 50% they believed they were due.

The case, which turned on technical questions of law, is an example of the collisions that can arise as a result of book contracts signed in age that pre-dated the current boom in ebooks. (In another case in the same court, parties are squawking over whether an author signed to a 1971 contract can shop ebook rights to another publisher.)

In the Harlequin case, the authors pointed to publishing contracts that granted them 50% of the digital royalties that the publisher collected. The authors believe this should let them collect half of the $4 Harlequin earned from an ebook with a cover price of $8

Harlequin instead decided to pay 3-4% ($0.24 to $0.32 on an $8 book) on the grounds that this was half of the 6-8% it received from licensing the rights to a different publisher. The issue became contentious because the third party publishers in this case were subsidiaries created by Harlequin for tax purposes.

In a related letter to authors, Harlequin explained that, prior to 2005, no one had foreseen the growth of ebooks and that it was reasonable to pay authors less than 50%.

In a four-page decision, the New York court declined to consider the authors’ arguments that the “third party publishers” were alter-egos for Harlequin. Instead, the court relied on a narrow interpretation of contract law to dismiss the claim.

The decision is very brief and contains an unusual footnote stating that the judge’s clerk, a second-year law student, had largely researched and drafted the opinion (clerks often help with such tasks but judges rarely acknowledge this).

The authors’ counsel included veteran publishing lawyer David Wolf. Reached by phone, Wolf declined to comment and said his clients were considering their options. You can read the ruling for yourself here:

Harlequin Dismissal

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WASHINGTON D.C. — The Internal Revenue Service announced today that it would increase the value of the wind Production Tax Credit from 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour to 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, a change that increases the taxpayer cost by more …

Ed. note: This post was originally published on Treasury Notes, the official blog of the US Department of the Treasury. You can read it here

The Affordable Care Act not only protects patients from hidden and high prices and unreasonable collections actions – it also requires charitable hospitals to take an active role in improving the health of the communities they serve.  Today, the Department of the Treasury took the next step in refining new policies already in place that hold charitable hospitals to a higher standard when it comes to addressing the health needs in their communities.  The proposed rules issued today add details on how hospitals should conduct community health needs assessments and define how the IRS will enforce any violations of the new standards.  

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Media theorist Douglas Rushkoff has a new book out entitled “Present Shock,” which is about modern society’s obsession with what is happening now, and how that obsession is exacerbated by tools and technology such as social media. In a recent interview with the Nieman Journalism Lab, he talked about what that means for media outlets such as the New York Times, and how some of these entities are stuck between catering to what he calls “the flow” of the real-time news stream and their traditional status as gatekeepers or storehouses of knowledge.

Rushkoff argues that in a world of always-on, 24/7 news coverage from hundreds or even thousands of different sources, there is even more value in having a single entity like the 6 o’clock news that can pull things together and give people an overview of what happened — as opposed to the constant news crawl of something like CNN. That’s also an argument for newspapers, the author says, but some are caught between these two modes of information delivery:

“The Wall Street Journal has held onto a lot of what the nightly newscast provides… there’s a periodicity to what they’re doing, so they stay anchored in time. The New York Times, on the other hand, it’s so hard to even comment on them, because there are so many New York Timeses happening simultaneously. It’s schizophrenic. I don’t even know how to consume it anymore… I just feel like they haven’t distinguished between that which is fit to print and that which is part of the stream.”

Trapped between the stock and the flow

In his book, Rushkoff talks about the difference between “flowing information” — such as Twitter or Facebook or other stream-based sources — and “stored information,” of the kind that newspapers and books specialize in, where it is fixed in time and remains more or less unchanged. In a nutshell, the author says that newspapers are caught between trying to serve these two very different needs. And it’s not just those companies themselves, but news consumers as well:

“You just can’t use the newspaper to keep up in society any longer. And you can’t use live blogging to make sense of anything.”

Rushkoff isn’t the only one to notice this: for me, the tension between those two modes of information delivery — the real-time stream and the fixed-in-time reservoir — was best described by Robin Sloan, author and former Twitter staffer, in an essay about what he called “stock” and “flow.” Those terms come from the world of economics, where people are used to talking about stored value (such as cash and other monetary instruments, or physical resources) and the real-time fluctuation in the value of those things: i.e., the trading of currency or the sale of goods.

Sloan said at the time that the idea of stock and flow was “the master metaphor for media today,” and I think he was right. We are all caught between the stream and the reservoir — because we want to be part of the real-time flow, but we also want to capture the value that comes from taking the time to analyze that flow. Atlantic editor Alexis Madrigal wrote about this challenge in a recent piece on the life of a digital editor, but it is something we all struggle with, whether we are the New York Times or just someone trying to keep up with the news.

(Note: We’ll be talking with a bunch of smart media types about these and other challenges at our paidContent Live conference in New York on April 17)

Post and thumbnail images courtesy of Shutterstock / Fedorov Oleksiy

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Samsung and Mozilla announced a new partnership today that involves the development of a next generation browser engine. Called Servo, this browser engine will take advantage of multiple cores, allowing it to work even faster than today’s mobile browsers. To start, Servo will run on ARM-powered Android devices. Servo is written on a new language called Rust which was developed by Mozilla and will help to beef up security. There is no official release date as Rust is not considered stable yet and if you are a developer, you can access the source code from Github.

Here is how Mozilla explains the programming language:

“It is intended to fill many of the same niches that C++ has over the past decades, with efficient high-level, multi-paradigm abstractions, and offers precise control over hardware resources. But beyond that, it is *safe by default*, preventing entire classes of memory management errors that lead to crashes and security vulnerabilities. Rust also features lightweight concurrency primitives that make it easy for programmers to leverage the power of the many CPU cores available on current and future computing platforms.”

Source: The Mozilla Blog

Come comment on this article: Samsung And Mozilla Working On Browser Engine With Multi-Core Support

Last month Google CEO Larry Page announced Android founder and team member Andy Rubin was moving on to something new at Google. In his place, Sundar Pichai will be taking over the lead on Android. While all parties have been pretty mum on the subject of what Google was up to, that has not stopped the rumor mill from cranking up and trying to read between the lines. Recently, some folks with Business Insider spent some time speaking with insiders and former Google employees to see if they could piece together a better understanding of the situation.

The first issue addressed was whether Rubin had been transitioned away from the Android team because of his temper and general gruffness. The sources indicate that while it is true that Rubin could sometimes be difficult to interact with, that was not a reason for Page to give him the axe. They point to Nikesh Arora, chief business officer at Google, who supposedly has a similar temperament, but is not going anywhere.

Rather than issues related to interpersonal technique, some think it has more to do with where Rubin saw Android going and how that fit in with Google’s overall strategy. Apparently Page sees Google as a services company, built on products like Search, Maps, Mail, and YouTube. Android is really just a means to get those services into the hands of customers. You may recall back in February when there were suggestions of friction between Samsung and Google driven by comments Rubin had made about Samsung getting too big and becoming a threat to Android. Such a view is not consistent with a company that sees itself as a services provider since they would not necessarily care what platform is used or what it is called. So, it may be the case that Page did not like Rubin stirring the pot and potentially chasing away an “access point” for Google services.

This concept of Android really just being a way to get Google services into the hands of consumers is bolstered by the selection of Pichai. Pichai made a name for himself by convincing computer makers to install the Google Toolbar on their products. This effort involved the establishment of partnerships with many different players in the market and would not have been successful if Pichai had been choosy about who got the Toolbar, since the Toolbar was also a means to an end. If the conjecture is right, Page is hoping Pichai can guide Android in the same way to land on as many devices as possible regardless of the name or who controls the platform.

The last piece that some may be wondering about is Motorola. Why would Google need a device manufacturer in-house if the platform does not really matter? Two possible answers exist. The first is the ever popular patent portfolio that Google can leverage. The second has to do with what Motorola does well – hardware technology development. Apparently Page is not so interested in seeing Motorola, or Google branded, devices as much as he is in seeing smartphones in general continue to improve so the Google services can run better and do more things. Pushing Motorola along in this direction is more important than creating an Apple-like integrated platform.

source: Business Insider

Come comment on this article: Sources speculate as to why Android’s Rubin is starting new chapter