Tag Archives: AOL

Is The FBI Becoming A Three Stooges Act?

By Harvey Silverglate, Contributor

A man calls a brokerage firm to say he is the Chief Operating Officer of Magnolia International Bank and Trust (MIBT). He assures the broker he speaks to that MIBT is not the Melbourne Institute of Business and Technology, as a Google search returns, but the central bank for scores of Native American governments, including the Yamasee tribe, which the man on the phone says is a nation worth trillions of dollars, but which Wikipedia says ceased to exist in the 18th Century. The man requests that the brokerage firm lend him a sum total of $3 billion to build an oil pipeline across Siberia. He offers $5 billion in US Treasury notes as collateral, which he says will yield a 171% return, and sends a copy of the supposed T-notes in Word Pad form from an AOL account. The T-notes are assigned to the “Great Siberian Pipeline Company,” allegedly a “Republic of Wyoming Corporation,” but the caller claims he cannot produce the print notes, as they are hidden in Austria. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

How Yoga Might Save The U.S. Trillions Of Dollars, And A Lot of Lives

By Alice G. Walton, Contributor

Scientific evidence is mounting daily for what many have long sensed: that practices like mindfulness, meditation, and yoga can help us address certain intractable individual and societal problems. Prominent companies – Google, General Mills, Target, Apple, Nike, AOL, and Procter & Gamble among them – and prominent individuals have already embraced this possibility. Tim Ryan, the Ohio congressman who wrote the book A Mindful Nation, has been a big proponent of bringing mindfulness to the masses. He, along with others, believes that mindfulness should be a part of everyone’s day, to help wire our brains to deal with our many modern stressors. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

SAS Institute, National Instruments top list of companies with good work-life balance

Sixteen of the top 25 companies offering a good work-life balance are technology companies, according to a new ranking from the job site Glassdoor, with the SAS Institute and National Instruments leading the pack.

The SAS Institute, which makes business analytics software for industries ranging from casinos to oil and gas providers, occupied the number-one spot on Glassdoor’s third annual ranking of the top companies for work-life balance, up from number four last year. National Instruments, which makes automated test equipment and virtual instrumentation software, was ranked second.

Other enterprise IT companies such as Slalom Consulting, Mentor Graphics, FactSet and Agilent Technologies also ranked high on the list. Other companies offering consumer services and products, like Yahoo, AOL, Nokia and MasterCard, were also named.

It is not surprising that SAS topped the list. The Cary, North Carolina-based company provides a dedicated work-life department staffed by eight full-time social workers who provide services to employees, for free, that include support services for child development, aging and elder care, and advising for the college search process.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Ad networks agree to take steps against online piracy

A group of U.S. companies operating Internet advertising networks has pledged to bar websites trafficking in pirated goods from using their services and to take other steps to fight online copyright infringement.

Eight companies operating online ad networks, including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL, have agreed to best practices for fighting Internet piracy, they announced Monday.

The ad networks will prohibit websites “principally dedicated to selling counterfeit goods or engaging in copyright piracy” from advertising with them, according to the best practices. The networks will also allow copyright owners to file complaints about piracy websites running ads, in a process reminiscent of copyright takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

However, the ad networks may consider “any credible evidence” provided by the accused website in deciding whether stop running its advertising.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Media Digest (4/29/2013) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg

By 24/7 Wall St.

Filed under:

The form of taxation that is applied to a Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) buyout of the 45% of Verizon Wireless that Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) owns may decide the deal. (Reuters)

The global economy continues to rely on central bank aide to prop up gross domestic product. (Reuters)

China’s move to 4G will give some equipment suppliers huge contracts. (Reuters)

Tough European sales may start to badly damage U.S. corporate earnings. (WSJ)

The government blocks cash payouts to some General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) executives. (WSJ)

The number of people in the U.S. looking for jobs fell to its lowest level since 1979 because of retiring baby boomers. (WSJ)

Fred Hassan leaves as the chairman of Avon Product Inc.’s (NYSE: AVP) board. (WSJ)

A move to dividend-paying stocks may be causing their prices to move too high. (WSJ)

More Republican members of Congress will support a tax on online sales. (NYT)

Cable firm AXS TV will start to run programming from AOL Inc.’s (NYSE: AOL) HuffPo Live. (NYT)

Passengers may well shy away from flying the Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) 787, which recently fixed battery problems. (NYT)

Chat applications will continue to hurt revenue from texts, which have helped telecom earnings. (FT)

More Europeans may modify their positions on the value of austerity. (Bloomberg)

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) ups its commitment to $20 phones as it loses market share to smartphones from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Samsung. (Bloomberg)

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Press Digest Tagged: AAPL, AOL, AVP, BA, GM, NOK, VOD, VZ

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Racists in Restaurants, Part 2

By Michael Y. Park The other week, when I brought up the Dear Abby column that led to a discussion about how we deal with our un-PC friends and relatives making racist cracks in ethnic restaurants, I completely forgot to mention my own worst racist-in-a-restaurant tale, only realizing my omission later the next day. I’ll make redress here. This is the worst racist incident I can recall being drawn into in a restaurant, ethnic or otherwise. It was in … well, it was a hell of a long time ago. I’d recently finished grad school in New York, and was hired temporarily to do the kind of online chatrooom stuff that was big for a year or two before the dot-com bubble burst, for AOL. The mission: To open a metaphorical window for AOL users onto the world of college spring break in Panama City Beach, Fla. (The kind of gig that sounds great when you’re twentysomething, and worse than a trip to the dentist when you’re a decade or two older — at least at the dentist’s, your insurance will cover the anesthesia.) My partner in this endeavour, by the way, was Epi’s own Megan Steintrager, who I was friends with from school. She’ll have to correct me if my memory falters. At one point during the trip, we were chased around a “museum” of Florida-themed knick-knacks and alligator heads by a machete-wielding dog poisoner named Remus, but that’s a different story. Anyway, Megan and I drove down from New York City to the Florida Panhandle in a rented car on the AOL dime, and were excited to finally cross over the Georgia-Alabama border and find a roadside barbecue joint on the outskirts of Phenix City–shades of future food writers! We sat down in the otherwise empty log-cabin-y joint at an odd hour of the afternoon and ordered (I think, Megan might remember better) beef brisket and ribs, which I think came in paper baskets or plates on the sort of brown, molded-plastic tray you used to be able to swipe from McDonald’s. As we were digging into our long-delayed meal, in came a trio of locals: a boisterous, big-bellied middle-aged white man who looked like Boss Hogg‘s bigger, louder brother; his wife, who I don’t think said a peep the entire time; and Boss Hogg‘s slim, middle-aged black employee, who wore mechanic’s overalls and was also entirely silent. Spotting us–obviously not from around there–Hogg asked us where we were from. Friendly and smiling, nothing to hint at what was to be one of the most awkward moments in my life. “New York!” he whooped. “New York City! We got Yankees with us here in Phenix City, Alabama!” Grinning broadly, he introduced us to his wife and employee and explained that he owned a nearby car dealership, and that this was their favorite barbecue joint. This was when I in hindsight remember the two employees of the place–both black, I think–begin to cringe. His wife was already withering. “Today I’m taking this boy…<div

From: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/epicurious/epiblog/~3/4bKQxWmOWhc/racists-in-restaurants-part-2.html

The Monster Merger Deal to Watch For

By Dan Radovsky, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

There have been a number of huge merger deals in the not-too-distant past whose buyout numbers reached into low orbit. The most notorious — and most scoffed at — must be when AOL met Time Warner: $182 billion exchanged hands in 2000 before eventually vaporizing (most of it, anyway) along with the supposed synergies the transaction was supposed to generate.

But that was at right at the peak of the dot-com madness. No company would ever fall for that kind of hysterical dealmaking again, right? Maybe not. Never underestimate the appeal of financial madness, especially to those who should be minding the asylum.

The latest deal to end all deals — by quite a lot — is rumored to be brewing in the telecom world, this one between Verizon and Vodafone , partners in the joint venture called Verizon Wireless. Oh, and one other company, which I’ll get to later.

Verizon Wireless has been very good to the partners, and they have been able to split sizable profits from the deal over the past couple of years. Last year, Vodafone received $8 billion in dividend payments for its 45% share of the venture.

However, Verizon, which holds the other 55%, can choose to withhold those payments if it wants to use the money for acquisitions or capital expenditures. That makes Vodafone a bit nervous, especially as Verizon Wireless has been, as Australian hedge fund Bronte Capital‘s chief investment officer John Hempton wrote on his company’s blog last month, the only bright spot over the last 10 years in Vodafone’s “collection of modest success and abject failures.”

So instead of thinking about shooting its golden goose, Hempton had another suggestion:

“Any deal where Vodafone sells its Verizon Wireless stake rather than selling itself … would be insane, … The best outcome would be the sale of the whole of Vodafone at a good price.”

An astronomical price
And that price would be $245 billion, the enterprise value of Vodafone according to sources who spoke to the Financial Times earlier this month. And, still according to those unnamed sources, Barclays USA will put together a three-way deal which would divvy up Vodafone between Verizon and AT&T . Verizon would assume full control of Verizon Wireless, and AT&T would acquire Vodafone’s many overseas assets.

Verizon’s interest should be obvious — the whole slice of the pie — but why would AT&T want to get a piece of Vodafone? That answer has to do with AT&T’s being essentially blocked from acquiring much more of substance in the United States. The FCC’s and Department of Justice’s nixing of the company’s bid to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion in 2011 has caused AT&T to look elsewhere for expansion.

Verizon isn’t talking … much. Ten days ago it filed an 8-K current report with the SEC to say this:

Verizon Communications (‘Verizon’) notes the recent press speculation regarding a potential merger with or purchase by Verizon of Vodafone.

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/13/can-verizon-pull-off-the-biggest-deal-in-us-hist/

AOL Canada is Recognized as a Great Place to Work

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

AOL Canada is Recognized as a Great Place to Work


AOL Canada ranks fourth on list of 2013 Best Workplaces in Canada

TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)– AOL Canada has been recognized as one of the Best Workplaces in Canada, ranking fourth on this year’s list. The full list, and related stories, will appear in a special national report today, Wednesday April 10th, in TheGlobe and Mail.

AOL Canada is a brand company invested in premium online properties for consumers and focuses on providing advertising agencies, direct brand marketers, online publishers and digital media buyers with digital advertising and marketing solutions. The company has grown its business and its people significantly over the past three years, with offices in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver. AOL premium properties now reach over 10.3 million monthly unique visitors in Canada, and AOL‘s network, Advertising.com, reaches 23.5 million monthly unique visitors in Canada*.

AOL Canada is dedicated to encouraging a positive and creative work environment influenced by the culture embedded in our values, mission and people. With initiatives such as work benefits, health and fitness programs and memberships, charity work, most notably with AOL Canada‘s charity of choice, Free the Children, and educational opportunities, the work environment is an incubator for productive and positive activity. With a dedicated leadership team led by Graham Moysey, general manager of AOL Canada and SVP of AOL Global O&O, the company embraces a transparent strategy that includes all employees as thought leaders and contributors.

“We are very excited to be recognized on this esteemed list of companies as we continue to grow AOL in Canada. With incredible growth of our team since 2010, we have put a large emphasis on the people we hire and the culture that we embody. We hire people who love what they do and empower them to develop and grow their careers accordingly, as we are only as great as the sum of our parts it is important that our employees believe in the company’s core values and, ultimately, in our success,” said Graham Moysey, general manager of AOL Canada & SVP of AOL Global O&O.

This list of “Best Workplaces in Canada” is compiled by Great Place to Work® Institute Canada. The competition process is based on two criteria: two-thirds of the total score comes from a 58-statement survey completed by a random selection …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Liberty Interactive Corporation to Hold Annual Meeting of Stockholders

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Liberty Interactive Corporation to Hold Annual Meeting of Stockholders

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Liberty Interactive Corporation (Nasdaq: LINTA, LINTB, LVNTA, LVNTB) will be holding its Annual Meeting of Stockholders on Tuesday, June 4, 2013, at 10:00 a.m., Mountain Time, at the corporate offices of Starz, 8900 Liberty Circle, Englewood, Colorado 80112. The record date for the meeting is 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on April 10, 2013. At the meeting, Liberty Interactive Corporation may make observations regarding the company’s financial performance and outlook.

The presentation will be broadcast live via the Internet. All interested persons should visit the Liberty Interactive Corporation website at http://www.libertyinteractive.com/events to register for the webcast. An archive of the webcast will also be available on this website for 30 days.

About Liberty Interactive Corporation

Liberty Interactive Corporation operates and owns interests in a broad range of digital commerce businesses. Those interests are currently attributed to two tracking stock groups: Liberty Interactive Group and Liberty Ventures Group. The Liberty Interactive Group (Nasdaq: LINTA, LINTB) is primarily focused on digital commerce and consists of Liberty Interactive Corporation‘s subsidiaries Backcountry.com, Bodybuilding.com, Celebrate Interactive (including Evite and Liberty Advertising), CommerceHub, MotoSport, Provide Commerce, QVC and Right Start, and Liberty Interactive Corporation‘s interests in HSN and Lockerz. The Liberty Ventures Group (Nasdaq: LVNTA, LVNTB) consists of Liberty Interactive Corporation‘s interests in TripAdvisor, Expedia, Interval Leisure Group, Time Warner, Time Warner Cable, Tree.com (Lending Tree), AOL and various green energy investments.

Liberty Interactive Corporation
Courtnee Ulrich, 720-875-5420

KEYWORDS:   United States  North America  Colorado

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:

The article Liberty Interactive Corporation to Hold Annual Meeting of Stockholders originally appeared on Fool.com.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

The Deal That Rocked the Dow to New Highs

By Alex Planes, The Motley Fool

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On this day in economic and business history …

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed over 9,000 points for the first time in its history on April 6, 1998. The 9,033.23 close was reached largely on news of a merger between Citicorp — now Citigroup — and Dow component Travelers , the largest corporate tie-up in history to that time, defying the weakness in other, broader indexes. Travelers soared 21% on news of the deal, and non-component Citi rose 16%. The divergence between the Dow and other indexes prompted Charles Pradilla of Cowen to tell The New York Times that “this market is probably a little ahead of itself.”

It was a big year for big deals in 1998. At that point in the year, more than 2,500 deals worth more than $316 billion had already been announced, a 50% increase over 1997’s total for the comparable period. Stock-based transactions in an environment of ballooning stock prices surely helped to drive the year-over-year growth in deal value. The path to 9,000 also saw divergence in the Dow’s components — nine components, primarily heavy-industry and commodity stocks, were lower when the index reached 9,000 than they had been at Dow 8,000. This was offset by big gains of at least 30% in eight other Dow stocks, during that period. This group included all of the Dow’s financially focused components, including Travelers, American Express, and JPMorgan Chase .

The Citi deal, however, was far and away the largest of the year’s deals to date. Announced at a value of $70 billion, the stock-based merger swelled to $84 million during the day as investors bid up shares of the two companies, anticipating a clear path through regulatory hurdles that at that point would have made such a deal technically illegal. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley act had yet to be proposed, and a similar Glass-Steagall-destroying effort had died in the House of Representatives not a week before the deal was proposed. To become Citigroup, with an estimated $50 billion in revenue, $700 billion in assets, and $140 billion in market cap, the two companies would have to work hard to undo decades of regulatory precedent. Victory would have gained the new company top ranking among the world’s largest financial-services companies. Ultimately, they succeeded, ushering in a new era of financial consolidation — but talk of records would fade as the dot-com bubble produced ever more outlandish merger valuations, culminating in the disastrous AOL and Time Warner tie-up that wound up destroying the vast majority of its shareholders’ wealth after the bubble popped.

One man’s junk …
Drexel Burnham Lambert created the junk bond in 1977, and it found great success when offered for the first time on April 6, 1977. Drexel’s rise and fall would become the stuff of Wall Street legend (you can read more on its collapse by clicking …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Was Mark Zuckerberg’s First Website This Angelfire Profile?

By The Huffington Post News Editors

Just in time for throwback Thursday, this blast from the past is pretty much the most amazing thing ever.

Earlier this week, Y Combinator’s Hacker News posted a link to an Angelfire website that might be the first page ever designed by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. The page, attributed to the AOL email Themarke51@aol.com, welcomes visitors with a blinking dinosaur eye.

In an effort to confirm whether this is actually the Zuckerburg’s page, Motherboard’s Adam Clark Estes traced the screen name of the primary account holder back Dr. Edward Zuckerberg — the name of the CEO’s dad. And one “Mark Zuckerberg” is also listed as the author in the page’s source code.

Read More…
More on Mark Zuckerberg

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

Vodafone Group Reaches 5-Year High

By Sam Robson, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — Vodafone  continued its recent climb, rising 5.4% to reach 196.65 pence, off the back of further speculation surrounding Verizon Communications mulling its options regarding Vodafone’s shares in their joint venture, Verizon Wireless.

The move in share price comes following reports from the Financial Times Alphaville blog that Verizon and AT&T have been working on a “share break-up bid,” valuing Vodafone at 260 pence per share, around $245 billion. This would surpass AOL and Time Warner‘s $165 billion merger, and even Vodafone AirTouch’s acquisition of Mannesmann AG for $202.8 billion in 1999, the current record holder.

Vodafone’s shares had previously reached 191 pence in early August 2012, with today likely to end on a new five-year high. Following the recent rumors, the telecom company’s share price has climbed as the market appeared to have new-found hope for the stock. And on a price-to-earnings ratio of below 12 and a healthy yield forecast of 5.1%, well above the FTSE 100‘s average of around 3%-3.5%, it’s not hard to see why.

Rising over 46 pence to 6,458 pence at the time of writing, the news has helped push the FTSE 100 back toward its own five-year high of 6,533.99, reached on March 12.

If you already hold Vodafone shares and you’re looking for a stock on a similar yield, then you may wish to read this exclusive free in-depth report. The FTSE 100 company in question offers a 5.6% income, and might be worth 850 pence versus around 775 pence currently. Just click here to download the report — it’s absolutely free.

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The article Vodafone Group Reaches 5-Year High originally appeared on Fool.com.



Sam Robson owns shares of Vodafone.
 The Motley Fool recommends Vodafone. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Will Verizon and AT&amp;T Seal the Biggest M&amp;A Deal Ever?

By Alex Dumortier, CFA, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

After falling back from their record high yesterday, stocks are back in black this morning, with the S&P 500 and the narrower, price-weighted Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.6% and 0.57%, respectively, as of 10:05 a.m. EDT.

Pick up the ‘fone
According to the Financial Times‘ Alphaville blog, Dow components Verizon Communications and AT&T are together mulling the acquisition and subsequent breakup of Vodafone . According to the report, a potential offer would award Vodafone shares a 40% premium to their current price in a transaction with an enterprise value (i.e., equity value plus net debt) of $245 billion. That would surpass AOL‘s acquisition of Time Warner in 2000, so the possibility of such a deal is stirring up some excitement — nowhere more so than at Barclays. The bank is reportedly working on the deal, and a successful transaction of this size would be a huge fee bonanza.

Here’s the logic and mechanics behind the transaction:

  • Verizon buys back Vodafone’s 45% stake in Verizon Wireless. Verizon has made no secret that it seeks full control of the joint venture. For its part, Vodafone is not opposed to ceding the stake: In February, CEO Vittorio Colao told The Wall Street Journal he didn’t know whether the relationship would be the same in a year and that Vodafone has an open mind “on everything.” However, this could fairly describe the company’s stance on the joint venture since plans for a public offering collapsed in 2003.
  • AT&T takes the non-U.S. assets in a bid to become a global wireline provider and a more effective competitor against Verizon Wireless domestically.

For Verizon, this three-way structure might be the winning combination after merger talks with Vodafone reportedly got bogged down in December over the issues of leadership and domicile. Vodafone, meanwhile, would realize a premium for Verizon Wireless without the associated tax liability. For AT&T, empire-building is usually a good pretext for corporate mergers and acquisitions. Need we mention that the bankers will be pushing hard to see the deal through?

The vaunted cash piles of U.S. companies are said to be dry powder for M&A activity — but that would not be the case in this deal. Between them, Verizon and AT&T had more than $110 billion in net debt at the end of 2012. Sounds like more work for the bankers on the financing.

There is necessarily quite a bit of uncertainty on a deal of this size and complexity, but wilder things have happened (remember the RBS-Fortis-Banco Santander acquisition of ABN Amro in 2007?). The market seems to be taking it seriously: Vodafone shares are up 5.5% as of 10:20 a.m. EDT.

Get ahead of the curve
The amount of data we store every year is growing by a mind-boggling 60% annually. To make sense of this trend and pick out a winner, The Motley Fool has compiled a new report called “The Only Stock You Need to …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Record Social Media Activation Set for WrestleMania® 29

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Record Social Media Activation Set for WrestleMania ® 29

STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– WWE today announced a record-level of digital and social media initiatives during WrestleMania Week, providing fans with more access to Superstars and WWE content than ever before. WrestleMania 29 will be broadcast live on pay-per-view Sunday, April 7 at 7 p.m. ET.

WrestleMania 29 digital initiatives include:

VINCE MCMAHON JOINS TWITTER

Last night on Monday Night Raw, WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon officially joined Twitter (@VinceMcMahon). McMahon will reward his followers by making a “big announcement” (#bigreveal) on his official Twitter account on Friday, April 5.

WRESTLEMANIA PAY-PER-VIEW NOW AVAILABLE GLOBALLY ON MOBILE, PLUS XBOX AND SAMSUNG SMART TVS

For the first time, WWE is streaming WrestleMania 29 across all Apple, Android and Windows 8 devices and Kindle Fire tablets. The pay-per-view will also be available on Xbox consoles and Samsung Smart TVs, inside “Xbox Live” and the Samsung “Smart Hub.”

WWE FORGES PARTNERSHIPS WITH YAHOO! AND AOL, OFFERS WRESTLEMANIA DIGITAL TOOLKIT TO BLOGGERS

In anticipation of WrestleMania 29, Yahoo! Screen (http://screen.yahoo.com/wwe-wrestlemania-29/) and AOL have launched all-new channels featuring video content of WWE‘s most popular Superstars. Also, for the first time ever, WWE is providing blogs and news sites an embeddable content widget that delivers up-to-the-minute news, photos and videos of WWE events leading up to and through WrestleMania.

NEW FACEBOOK GAME LETS FANS COMPETE TO LEAD THE WWE UNIVERSE

WWE‘s new Facebook application, “Superfan Showdown,” lets players from around the world compete in fast-paced interactive trivia challenges, rapid-fire polls, mind-bending puzzles and much more. As fans go head-to-head, they earn points, climb the global leaderboard and accumulate “WWE Cash,” which can be spent to purchase exclusive virtual goods, including: limited edition badges, rare Superstar trading cards, and never-before-seen WWE video content.

WRESTLEMANIA 29 INTERACTIVE PRESS CONFERENCE

The WrestleMania 29 press conference at Radio City Music Hall will live stream on YouTube, Facebook and WWE.com on Thursday, April 4 at 1 p.m. ET. The interactive press conference will feature fan questions submitted via Twitter and answered live by WWE …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

AOL Canada Launches "MapQuest Discover" in Canada

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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AOL Canada Launches “MapQuest Discover” in Canada

Share, plan and discover new destinations

TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)– AOL Canada announced today the launch of MapQuest Discover (discover.mapquest.ca), a social platform for travel related content, brought to you by AOL‘s popular mapping site MapQuest. Discover encourages users to create personal pages with curated locations, events, and destinations and will also allow users to follow one another, browse popular feeds, favourite and share their collections on social networks.

“MapQuest Discover offers Canadians a new way to share photos, post articles and talk about travel experiences. Leveraging the 1.4 million Canadians that currently visit MapQuest, Discover offers a unique benefit to research destinations with photos and reviews and other users journeys,” said Paul Cramp, AOL Canada.

Key features of the site:

  • Travel Content: original content designed to inspire travel written by travel experts, travelers and locals.
  • Collections: a unique feature that allows users to curate and share photo collections of favourite places, plan trips and inspire future destinations.
  • Newsfeed: an aggregation of places, popular collections, trends and travel guides.
  • Passport: a passport serves as the user’s profile page.
  • Photos: users can upload personal photos and share one another’s collections.
  • Social media functionality: users can share collections, destinations and photos on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

MapQuest is a premium mapping destination reaching 1.4 million unique monthly visitors in Canada that continues to play a large role in online navigation and local travel directions*. With a robust suite of products such as maps, directions, the business locator tool and now Discover, MapQuest is the second most popular mapping site in Canada*.

To further engage users, the site launches with the Discover Dream Destination Contest, which can be found through the contest’s Passport page for the next six weeks. Prizes include two weekly “instant winners” and a grand prize getaway to the winner’s choice to one of the following destinations: The Mayan Riviera, Punta Cana or Cuba, provided by Transat Holidays and Tripcentral.ca.

Source: *comScore Inc., Total Canada, Home and Work, Unique Visitors, February 2013.

About AOL

AOL Inc. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Vringo: the Good, the Bad, and the Lawsuit

By Caroline Bennett, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Mobile-technology company Vringo announced its 2012 earnings last week, and as Charles Dickens would say: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Vringo, which specializes in mobile entertainment applications and application patents, aggressively set out to make its name known last year and pulled off a number of impressive feats as a result. Sadly, its final numbers didn’t do much to reflect this hard work. Here’s a closer look at the state of Vringo, and whether it deserves your investing dollars.

The good
As you’d expect from any corporate conference call, Vringo CEO Andrew Perlman was quick to announce the company’s high points of the year. The company’s Facetone product, which creates a photo slideshow on a phone screen whenever a friend calls, became available on both Apple‘s iPhone and Google‘s Android, snagging a huge new audience.

Vringo also joined forces with company Innovate/Protect, a company that aims to get the most bang out of a company’s intellectual-property buck. The resulting subsidiary won a fierce patent lawsuit against tech heavyweights Google and AOL, to the tune of $30 million. As if that wasn’t enough of an accomplishment, Vringo also snagged 500 copyright patents from Nokia. These all seemed like events worth celebrating, but in this case, there’s a darker side to success.

The bad
This company made some great strides in terms of working with high-profile companies, but you’d never know it by taking a look at Vringo’s financial statement. In 2012, Vringo’s overall revenue tallied up to $369,000, a 48% drop from last year’s total. The value of Vringo’s EPS dropped, too, from $1.17 to $0.53, because of an increase in the amount of shares.

Vringo investors may not approve of the company’s move to multiply its shares, since the fewer there are, the more they’re worth. By increasing the amount, however, Vringo is extending an invite for even more shareholders to hop on board.

The verdict
It’s never a good time for a company’s revenue to slice in half, but it’s an even bigger problem when that company is still a relative newbie to the market. Vringo has been on the scene for barely two and a half years, and for the moment its financials are in a huge slump.

The gears are fiercely moving behind this struggling company, however, and by expanding its scope to include patents, the company could be more valuable than it appears. Even though its stock is ridiculously cheap, it might be best to wait and see how Vringo’s latest strategies pan out before you think about buying.

Nokia, for its part, has been struggling in a world of Apple and Android smartphone dominance. However, the company has banked its future on its next generation of Windows smartphones. Motley Fool analyst Charly Travers has created a new premium report that digs into both the opportunities and risks facing Nokia to help investors decide if the company is a buy …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Liberty Interactive Corporation to Present at Morgan Stanley Retail &amp; Restaurant Conference &amp; Field

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Liberty Interactive Corporation to Present at Morgan Stanley Retail & Restaurant Conference & Field Trip

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Liberty Interactive Corporation (Nasdaq: LINTA, LINTB, LVNTA, LVNTB) announced that Mike George, President and CEO of QVC, Inc., will be presenting at the Morgan Stanley Retail & Restaurant Conference & Field Trip, on Friday, April 5th at 8:40 a.m., Eastern Time at the Loews Portofino Bay Hotel, FL. During his presentation, Mr. George may make observations regarding the company’s financial performance and outlook.

The presentation will be broadcast live via the Internet. All interested persons should visit the Liberty Interactive Corporation website at http://www.libertyinteractive.com/events to register for the webcast. An archive of the webcast will also be available on this website for 30 days.

About Liberty Interactive Corporation

Liberty Interactive Corporation operates and owns interests in a broad range of digital commerce businesses. Those interests are currently attributed to two tracking stock groups: Liberty Interactive Group and Liberty Ventures Group. The Liberty Interactive Group (Nasdaq: LINTA, LINTB) is primarily focused on digital commerce and consists of Liberty Interactive Corporation’s subsidiaries Backcountry.com, Bodybuilding.com, Celebrate Interactive (including Evite and Liberty Advertising), CommerceHub, MotoSport, Provide Commerce, QVC and Right Start, and Liberty Interactive Corporation’s interests in HSN and Lockerz. The Liberty Ventures Group (Nasdaq: LVNTA, LVNTB) consists of Liberty Interactive Corporation’s interests in TripAdvisor, Expedia, Interval Leisure Group, Time Warner, Time Warner Cable, Tree.com (Lending Tree), AOL and various green energy investments.

Liberty Interactive Corporation
Courtnee Ulrich, 720-875-5420

KEYWORDS:   United States  North America  Colorado  Florida

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:

The article Liberty Interactive Corporation to Present at Morgan Stanley Retail & Restaurant Conference & Field Trip originally appeared on Fool.com.

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…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Video: Were Saudis Behind Benghazi Attack?

By Kris Zane

The hacker known as Guccifer first came to prominence in February after breaching the AOL email account of Dorothy Bush Koch, the sister of George W. Bush. Guccifer released photos of Bush’s amateurish oil paintings and details regarding the ailing elder Bush. The mainstream media idiotically focused on Bush’s prowess as an artist rather than the fact that the public was being offered a glimpse into the secret world of the elite that pull the levers in American society and the world.

Guccifer’s real treasure, however, came in the form of a series of emails hacked from the AOL account of former Bill Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The emails are significant because there is one dated September 12, 2012, which of course was the day after the attack on the Benghazi consulate. Blumenthal cites a number of what can only be called spies throughout the world in order to supply Clinton with a clear picture of current events.

Some jaw-dropping revelations are revealed in the September 12 email, involving the Muslim Brotherhood and the CIA.

First, on the day of the attack on the Benghazi consulate, Libyan President  Mohammed Yussef el Magariaf summoned his advisors to discuss the attack, among them members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Per the email:

During the afternoon of September 11, 2012 new interim President of Libya Mohammed Yussef el Magariaf spoke in private with senior advisors, including the members of the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood, to discuss the attacks by demonstrators on U.S. missions in Tripoli and Benghazi.

Second, the attack on the Benghazi consulate was in part due to revenge for the CIA supporting the Qaddafi regime.

Third, when Qaddafi was overthrown, the rebels found a treasure trove of documents linking the CIA to the Qaddafi regime.

Again, continuing with the September 12, 2012 email:

At the same time, this individual noted that several of el Magariaf’s advisors share his concerns in this matter, pointing out that the return of Qaddafi’s intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi for trial in Libya has heightened public interest in the liaison relationships conducted by the CIA and British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) with Qaddafi’s intelligence and security services. These same individuals note that they believe Islamist militia forces under the command of General Abdelhakim Belhaj captured files and documents describing this relationship from Qaddafi’s offices in Tripoli.

By February 13, 2013, Blumenthal had discounted the ludicrous “protest turned violent” story regarding the attack on the Benghazi consulate. It was clear according to his sources that it was a terrorist attack by the group Ansar al-Sharia, of which Hillary Clinton early on publicly stated was untrue, despite the al-Qaeda-linked group taking credit for the attack, and despite the fact that this information was sent to the White House Situation Room hours after the attack on the consulate.

According to Blumenthal’s February 16, 2013 email to Clinton, the Benghazi attack was well-planned and well-funded by Saudi billionaires:

The attack…originated with wealthy Sunni Islamists in Saudi Arabia. During July and …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Hillary Clinton Caught With Her Pants Down?

By Jim Emerson

Hillary Clinton Jabba SC Hillary Clinton Caught With Her Pants Down?

The latest target of the hacker known as “Guccifer” was former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal. Guccifer has targeted former President Bush and Colin Powell, and now we are led to believe he is targeting Democrats.

In the last few months, Americans have seen that current and former government officials made frequent use of non-government email sites to conduct business outside of official channels. Though these email accounts are used to hide communications from Congress and the American people, they are principally used to hide correspondence from Freedom of Information Act scrutiny. Hillary was most likely communicating with Blumenthal in this way to create “talking points” to mislead the American public about the September 11 murders of the American Ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi.

Guccifer allegedly hacked into Blumenthal’s AOL email account last week. The hacked emails that were published on RT.com appear to be analyst summaries, opinions based on facts but which should nevertheless not be taken as gospel. They do however give the idea that the planned Benghazi attack was triggered by a YouTube video. The actual sources of this conclusion are unknown but were most likely from human source interviews, though they could be the opinions of the original author. Though the emails were sanitized versions of the original summaries, Hillary should have known better than to send even sanitized confidential reports by way of a public email account.  Either Hillary or Sid were extremely sloppy, or they intended this correspondence to become public. If she decides to run in 2016, she can use these hacked emails to deflect public criticism of her actions regarding Benghazi. Of course, she could also claim they were fraudulent.

The bottom line is that these emails might have been deliberately fed to Guccifer in order to “verify” Hillary’s lie that the attacks at Benghazi were launched in response to a little-known YouTube video. In this case, Guccifer is either a party hack or a tool. Hillary will undoubtedly refer to these leaked e-mails to silence her critics concerning the Benghazi murders. Don’t look for the Holder Justice department to do anything. There is no concrete proof that these emails are valid.

Photo credit: Dave Merrick

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism