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Friday, November 1, 2013

Red ink runs at Sony again, cuts profit forecast

A man walks by a discount electronics shop displaying Panasonic products in Tokyo Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Panasonic said its quarterly profit improved to 63.3 billion yen ($644 million) from a 698.6 billion yen loss the year before. Panasonic, like Sony, has benefited from weaker yen. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

A man stands by a huge advertisement board of Panasonic at a train station in Tokyo Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Panasonic said its quarterly profit improved to 63.3 billion yen ($644 million) from a 698.6 billion yen loss the year before. Panasonic, like Sony, has benefited from weaker yen. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

TOKYO (AP) — The "White House Down" flop added to earnings woes at Sony Corp. in the latest quarter, dragging the entertainment and electronics giant to a 19.3 billion yen ($196 million) loss.

The action movie's lackluster box office, especially compared with last year's releases of "21 Jump Street" and "The Amazing Spider Man," contributed to a 17.8 billion yen ($181 million) operating loss for Sony's pictures division, the company said Thursday.

The company slashed its profit forecast for the fiscal year ending in March to 30 billion yen from 50 billion yen, reflecting deep-seated problems in its electronics business, televisions in particular, and the disappointing performance at Sony Pictures.

"White House Down" starred Jamie Foxx as President of the United States and Channing Tatum as a Capitol police officer who ends up as the president's impromptu bodyguard while touring the executive residence with his daughter just as a band of rogue former soldiers and government employees attack. Milder in its violence, it appeared to suffer from comparisons with "Olympus Has Fallen," a slightly earlier release featuring a former North Korean terrorist who takes the president hostage.

Sony's sales for the July-September quarter rose 10.6 percent from a year earlier to 1.78 trillion yen ($18.1 billion), thanks mainly to the favorable impact of the yen's decline against the U.S. dollar. Adjusted for the 20 percent drop in the value of the yen, revenue fell 9 percent.

The company's sales of digital cameras and video cameras fell while its television, music and smartphone businesses improved. Sales of its Xperia Z smartphone helped and are expected to remain strong, the company said.

Although sales of televisions and personal computers improved slightly from earlier in the year, they were lower than the same quarter of 2012.

"The electronics business is declining beyond expectations" due to shrinking sales of televisions and other audio-visual equipment, along with slowing growth in major emerging markets such as China, the company said in its presentation.

"Sony expects its business environment to continue to be severe in the second half of the fiscal year," it said.

Sony said it is striving to improve profitability at its troubled television division by focusing on sales of higher cost products such as its 4K LCD TVs.

The company, which has suffered declining fortunes for several years, is also gearing up for the launch of its PlayStation 4 game machine.

But it still faces fierce competition from Apple Inc's iPad and iPhone as well as from powerful South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co.

Sony sank to record losses for the fiscal year ended March 2012, reporting the worst result in the company's six decade history.

Still, its loss for April to September narrowed to 15.8 billion yen ($161 million) from 40 billion yen in the first half of the previous fiscal year.

Rival Panasonic, meanwhile, said its quarterly profit improved to 63.3 billion yen ($644 million) from a 698.6 billion yen loss the year before.

Panasonic, like Sony, has benefited from weaker yen. While its domestic sales fell 4 percent, sales overseas climbed 11 percent. Total revenue of 1.88 trillion yen ($19.1 billion) was up 3 percent from a year earlier after taking a hit from the sale of Sanyo businesses carried out in the current fiscal year.

Panasonic raised its sales forecast to 7.4 trillion yen ($75.3 billion) and doubled its profit forecast for the fiscal year to 100 billion yen ($1 billion).

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-10-31-Japan-Earns-Sony/id-bc6751b9c6eb49a5a6b78c1d9f721663
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Alessandra Ambrosio Takes the Family to Mr. Bones

Stepping out for some Halloween fun, Alessandra Ambrosio and her family stopped by Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch in West Hollywood on Wednesday (October 30).

The 32-year-old supermodel and her kids Anja and Noah enjoyed a few activities while making their rounds to find the perfect pumpkin for the spooky holiday.

Meanwhile, Miss Ambrosio faces drama surrounding the 2013 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show after one of the Angels started causing a few issues.

According to the New York Post, Erin Heatherton might be removed from the rosters as she been declared as being too "difficult to work with."

This is the second Angel that has been removed from the fashion show this year for bad work ethics. Miranda Kerr was also kicked off the line for having a "difficult" reputation and not being considered a big seller.

Stay linked for GossipCenter for more info on this year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show!

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/alessandra-ambrosio/alessandra-ambrosio-takes-family-mr-bones-952833
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We've Finally Figured Out Why Hot Water Freezes Faster Than Cold

For centuries, scientists have puzzled over a counter-intutive observation: hot water, for some reason, seems to freeze faster than cold. Fortunately, now a team of physicists has worked out why it happens.

Insight: Militant financing case puts Israel and China in spotlight

By Crispian Balmer

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Long determined to deprive Islamist groups of funding, Israel has unexpectedly hit the brakes in a U.S. court case centered on allegations that the Bank of China knowingly let cash flow to Palestinian militants.

Apparently reluctant to send a former Israeli intelligence official who is a potentially crucial witness to testify in New York, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces accusations from his critics that he might let the case unravel rather than put bilateral trade ties with Beijing at risk.

The law suit against the Bank of China was brought by the American family of Daniel Wultz, a 16-year-old killed while on holiday in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv in a 2006 suicide attack claimed by the Islamic Jihad faction during a Palestinian uprising.

From the horror of the attack grew a complex investigation that has already seen the governments of Iran and Syria convicted in a U.S. court for sponsoring Islamic Jihad. They were ordered to pay $323 million in damages to the Wultz family, but have yet to hand over the money.

The family alleges that the Bank of China allowed money from Syria, Iran and elsewhere to pass unhindered through its accounts to the Islamic Jihad, listed by Washington as a terrorist organization, in violation of U.S. financing laws.

The bank, which is China's fourth largest lender, denies any wrongdoing and is contesting the case. Contacted in China, the state-controlled company declined to comment further.

Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said last month that Netanyahu, looking to pave the way for a high-level visit to China in May, had promised not to let any civil servant, past or present, give testimony which might help the prosecution.

Netanyahu's office declined to comment on the report.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman in Beijing, Hua Chunying, said she was not aware of the case. She added that China implemented "a strict oversight ... to prohibit any institution from supporting terrorist activities in any way".

Showing discontent within the Israeli establishment, the former head of Israel's Mossad spy agency has said he was ready to defy Netanyahu and testify himself if the original witness, ex-intelligence official Uzi Shaya, was muzzled.

"If they ask me, if I receive a request from a U.S. court to testify, I would go testify at any time," Meir Dagan, who led Mossad from 2002-2010, told Reuters.

A regular critic of Netanyahu, Dagan helped to orchestrate Israel's international drive to strangle militant funding.

"I think that a continued war on terror, and a clear Israeli position on the matter, should be our priority. Because we, unlike other countries, suffer from terrorism all the time, and apparently we will continue to suffer from it," he said.

ALARM BELLS

Israel was the driving force behind the Wultz case against the Bank of China, but alarm bells rang for the family in July when Shaya did not give his eagerly awaited deposition. Shaya could not be reached to explain his failure to testify.

"The Israeli government wanted to initiate this case in support of stopping those who help finance terrorism and it provided critical information," said Daniel's father, Yekutiel Wultz, who was wounded in the blast on April 17, 2006.

Israel was keen for the family of Daniel, who was the only U.S. victim of an attack that killed 11 people, to file the suit in the United States to take advantage of anti-terrorism laws that banks operating on U.S. soil must honor, a legal source close to the case said.

In their 2008 suit against China, the Wultzs say the bank's "conduct was criminal in nature, dangerous to human life, outrageous, intentional, reckless and malicious, and so warrants an award of punitive damages".

Bank of China is expanding its U.S. network, and this case could have implications for its future development in America.

In an emailed statement, Wultz, who lives in Florida, did not speculate why there was a hold-up in the testimony, saying only that the family was "determined to see this through".

U.S. authorities issued a subpoena to Shaya when he visited Washington in September, ordering him to make his deposition on November 25.

The prosecution has said it hopes he will confirm that Israel had told China about accounts that Islamic Jihad, which largely operates out of the Gaza Strip, was covertly using to launder funds from Iran and to pay for their operations.

According to court transcripts seen by Reuters, the Bank of China has denied any knowledge of a meeting in 2005 when Israeli officials, including Shaya, allegedly told their Chinese counterparts about suspect bank transactions.

Judge Shira Scheindlin, hearing the case in the Southern District of New York, has written to Israel's Justice Ministry on at least three occasions this year seeking information on whether it planned to let Shaya testify.

Addressing a court session on July 19, she told lawyers it made sense to her that China would not want Shaya to testify.

"It seems pretty plain to me right now that that would be their wish," she said, according to a transcript of the hearing reviewed by Reuters.

"If the decision is no ... that may be a make-or-break decision for this case," she said, adding: "This may be the only person who really has the knowledge as to what transpired at the (2005) meeting."

Israeli officials declined to discuss any aspect of the case, saying that they were still considering the matter.

"I will not comment on this issue," Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Ze'ev Elkin told Reuters. "It is a very delicate issue. We are dealing with it in our way and I am not sure that it should be part of public discussion."

GAZA FAMILY, MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS

Prosecution lawyers in a September 17 letter to the U.S. court said 22 members of the al-Shurafa family from Gaza had accounts at a Bank of China branch in Guangdong province. The lawyers said hundreds of thousands of dollars moved through the accounts to help bankroll Islamic Jihad operations.

Since the case surfaced, Bank of China has shut the accounts, and a member of the Shurafa family was expelled from China. The Shurafa clan owns a string of stores in Gaza, a Palestinian coastal enclave, and says it had opened legitimate accounts to pay for the import of Chinese goods.

A member of the family, who declined to give his first name but who spoke on behalf of the family, said their only dealing with Islamic Jihad was when it wired them money to pay for a consignment of school bags for a charity project.

"We are shocked at what happened. We lost our business line from China ... We are the ones who should claim compensation for huge financial losses we have suffered," he said.

Israel has lobbied countless countries over the years concerning the need to crack down on money laundering. Netanyahu himself has developed a strong rapport with U.S. policymakers, thanks partly to his image as an uncompromising figure in what the United States calls its "war on terror".

The case has generated U.S. political interest, where the family has secured support of Florida politicians, including U.S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairman of the influential House Committee on Foreign Affairs until January.

"The Congresswoman and Prime Minister Netanyahu have had conversations regarding this matter and want a resolution to it," her spokesman said in an email, declining further comment "due to the sensitive nature of the case".

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Dan Williams in Tel Aviv and Michael Martina in Beijing; editing by Peter Millership)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/insight-militant-financing-case-puts-israel-china-spotlight-095233697--sector.html
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Candy Sales Are Flat; The Industry Blames The Weather

Halloween candy is offered for sale at a Walgreens store on September 19, 2013 in Wheeling, Illinois.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Halloween candy is offered for sale at a Walgreens store on September 19, 2013 in Wheeling, Illinois.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Halloween candy sales have been flat over the last few years. And candy makers point to several reasons, including one I hadn't thought of: bad weather.

"The past two years have been plagued with major weather disruptions in key celebration regions," Jenn Ellek of the National Confectioners Association tells us in an email.

In 2011, there was unexpected snowfall in the Northwest, which kept candy sales at $2.36 billion for the Halloween season. Sales remained basically flat in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy coincided with the holiday, she says.

So, why is the trade industry forecasting a very conservative growth of 1 percent in candy sales this year? This time, they say it's the day of the week.

According to the NCA, fewer people throw parties and there's less time for holiday preparations when Halloween falls on a weekday compared to when it falls during the weekend.

If this reasoning holds up, the industry could be looking at two good years in the near future, with Halloween falling on a Friday in 2014 and a Saturday in 2015.

But how about all those messages we hear to cut back on sugar and empty calories? Will this end up eating away at confectioners' future growth?

It's not clear, but with all the chatter about tackling obesity, the candy industry has joined the message of moderation.

In fact, the NCA, as part of its Treat Right messaging, has published a Guide to Moderate Candy Consumption.

The portion sizes they recommend are a lot smaller than you might think. If you limit calories from candy to 50 to 100 calories per day, that equates just 15 to 25 small jelly beans.

Or, if you're craving chocolate, make it one fun-sized candy bar (that's the small one).

Perhaps to keep sales up, candy-makers will have to sell more packages — with less in them. As we've reported, the move to downsize candy bars is well underway.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/10/31/242115164/candy-sales-are-flat-the-industry-blames-the-weather?ft=1&f=1001
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Apple, Microsoft-backed 'Rockstar' uses Nortel patents to sue Google, Samsung and others

Early last year, the "Rockstar" consortium backed by Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry, Sony and Ericsson closed its purchase of thousands of patents previously owned by Nortel for $4.5 billion (around the same time Google, after failing to purchase the patents itself, closed a $12 billion deal for ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/XZlzVAoIBVY/
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Obama gets more tech help to fix healthcare site

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Obama administration has recruited engineers from several prominent technology companies to help fix the problems preventing people from signing up for government-mandated health insurance.

Oracle and Red Hat are pitching in as well as Michael Dickerson, an engineer on leave from Google, according to a blog post Thursday by Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison told shareholders at the software maker's annual meeting Thursday that the Redwood Shores, Calif., company is trying to make the Healthcare.gov website more reliable and secure.

"Most of us want to see our government operating efficiently and effectively and it is incumbent upon us to help them do that," Ellison said.

Red Hat Inc. and Google Inc. declined to comment.

Dickerson is a site-reliability engineer at Google. He is now working directly with QSSI, the general contractor hired to upgrade Healthcare.gov, Bataille said.

Exasperation with the website's buggy technology has been compounded by concerns that the service lacks the security measures needed to protect the sensitive information of people looking for insurance.

Besides Dickerson, the government also identified entrepreneur Greg Gershman as one of its new troubleshooters. Gershman currently is director of innovation at mobile app developer Mobomo, according to his profile on professional networking site LinkedIn.

Gershman's resume says he received a Presidential Innovation Fellowship last year to work with the White House on a project seeking "to re-imagine the relationship between citizens and government around the citizen's needs."

The Obama administration has pledged Healthcare.gov will be running smoothly by Nov. 30.

___

Online:

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services blog post:

http://www.hhs.gov/digitalstrategy/blog/2013/10/more-on-the-tech-surge.html

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-10-31-US-Technology-Help-Health-Overhaul/id-d93911e807b242e9a5f20b9a11c97720
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