Marketplace

Do you VooZoo?

Now that Facebook has you hooked on Scrabulous, it's serving up a new application:
Movie clips. Paramount Pictures will make clips from thousands of its movies available for use by Facebook members. It's the first Hollywood film studio to make clips widely available online. You can share moments on films ranging from Beverly Hills Cop to Breakfast at Tiffany's. The application, called VooZoo, goes live today. Paramount hopes to use the application to market its movies in the future.

Entertainment

Permalink | Comments (0)

BMW expands here, cuts there

The weak dollar is driving BMW's production plans in the U.S. In Europe, the company plans on cutting nearly 8 percent of its work force over two years. But on this side of the pond, BMW is looking to increase production by more than 50 percent within four years.

An auto industry analysts says BMW can save money on the lower dollar and on wages since its workers in South Carolina make less than German workers. The company has scheduled an announcement for today in Greer, South Carolina to discuss an addition to the plant, which makes the X-5 and Z-4 models.

Auto Industry

Permalink | Comments (0)

$5 for cruise-goers

If you or someone you know went on a cruise recently, you may soon have an extra five bucks to your name. Florida's attorney general says Royal Caribbean and Celebrity cruise lines plan to reimburse passengers for fuel surcharges. The Attorney General says the $5 charge per person wasn't adequately disclosed. Around $21 million will be returned to people who made trip deposits as of November 15t

Permalink | Comments (0)

A deal this good won't last forever

Actually, the opposite may be true at the post office. The Postal Services says sales of the Forever Stamp jumped by $95 million after people heard first-class rates will go up by a penny. The price jumps to $0.42 May 12. Until then, you can buy Forever Stamps for $0.41 a piece and use them without penalty after the rate hike. The Postal Service says it has sold $2.3 billion worth of the new stamps since they were introduced less than a year ago.

Retail

Permalink | Comments (0)

Gates to Congress: More foreign workers, please

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is heading to Capitol Hill today to talk about an issue he's brought up before. He wants the government to issue more visas for highly-skilled workers. Gates says changes to immigration laws are necessary for the U.S. to remain competitive in the technology sector. Right now, the H1-B visa cap is at 65,000 people. In 2007, that quota was filled the first day applications were accepted. Gates is also calling for more math, science, and engineering programs in schools.

Politics Science - Technology

Permalink | Comments (0)

Abe's getting a makeover

A new version of the five dollar bill goes into circulation today. The greenback will actually be splashed with swaths of purple and gray -- It'll be one of the most colorful bills in circulation. And it's outfitted with several counterfeit protections including two watermarks and high contrast ink. The first place this bill will be spent? At President Lincoln's Cottage in Northwest Washington.

Marketing - Advertising

Permalink | Comments (0)

A new face for Wrigley

Wrigley is chewing on some ideas to give its gum a better look and taste. The iconic name in chewing gum is making changes to Doublemint, Juicy Fruit, Big Red, and Extra. U,S, sales have been a little sticky, so the company hopes the new packaging and flavors to snap things back into place.

Marketing - Advertising

Permalink | Comments (0)

Even Greenspan says it's bad

When Alan Greenspan says it's bad, run for the hills. For months, the former Fed chairman has been issuing his predictions -- first it was a less-than-50 percent chance of recession, then it was about 50-50, and now it could be the worst financial crisis since the end of World War II. In an editorial in the Financial Times, Greenspan says the crisis will end only when home prices stabilize. When that happens, he says, financial institutions will either need to recapitalize or go out of business.

The Economy

Permalink | Comments (0)

Vodka strong enough for a man, but marketed to women

Here's a new product bound to become a staple of the ladies night in Russia. Damskaya -- a new brand of vodka -- is being marketed to women. Advertisements for the liquor feature an "elegant, violet-tinted bottle wearing a pleated white skirt," and the skirt is blown upwards -- ala Marilyn Monroe in "Seven Year Itch" -- to reveal the label.

Russia's vodka market is estimated to be worth around $15 billion a year. With market growth at around 15 percent a year, distiller Igor Volodin says it's about time women had a drink of their own.

International Retail

Permalink | Comments (0)

Chicago's not gonna take it

The newspaper wars of Chicago are not dead. Last week, we told you about how the Tribune Company's Sam Zell is shopping for a new corporate sponsor to take the name of Wrigley Field. Chicago is in an uproar. And the Chicago Sun-Times held a contest -- $1,000 for the best music video that skewers the plan to change the park's name. The bids went out, the YouTube videos came in and the went to this song based on the Twisted Sisters 1984 hit. This morning, there are reports that people behind the winning entry were actually a group of reporters from the Sun-Times's rival paper The Chicago Tribune -- which also happens to be owned by Sam Zell. The entry was submitted by an intern and it seems Sam Zell IS actually getting the last laugh -- in this battle, anyway.

Marketing - Advertising

Permalink | Comments (0)

Still a battle in the high-def world

Blu-Ray may have won the DVD wars, but the battle over high definition may not be over yet. The U.S. International Trade commission is launching an investigation into possible patent infringement involving 30 companies including Sony. The investigations is in response to a complaint filed by a Columbia University professor. Gertrude Neumark Rothschild is seeking to block imports into the U.S. that she claims infringe on her patent.

Permalink | Comments (0)

Gibson in dischord over Rock Band

Gibson Guitar is going after the video game Rock Band. The guitar company is claiming the Electronic Arts game violates its 1999 patent on technology that simulates musical performance. So it has filed a lawsuit. The company already has another lawsuit against Guitar Hero. No word on how much the company wants in compensation.

Crime - Law Entertainment

Permalink | Comments (0)

I prefer my fast food grilled anyway

KFC ditched the Kentucky Fried Chicken in name a while back. But now it's diversifying its menu as well. In the coming weeks, the restaurants will be rolling out "Kentucky Grilled Chicken." In an effort to serve up some healthier options, the fast food chain says the new menu items will have significantly less salt, fat and calories. The restaurants already cut trans fats from their cooking oils last year. Six cities will get to test out the new menu -- which will even include a made-over serving bucket -- Colorado Springs, San Diego, Oklahoma City, Jacksonville, Florida and Austin, Texas. KFC plans be grilling nationwide next year.

Health

Permalink | Comments (0)

World hunger as pressing as ever

The American consumer isn't the only one feeling the pinch in the food market. The World Food Program is kicking off an "emergency appeal" for donations. According to a report in The Financial Times, the U.N. agency is asking world governments to give an additional $500 million, due to the rising cost of everything from bread to beef. The agency says if fresh money does not arrive by May 1, it will have to reduce rations to those who depend on it for meals. The agency is blaming its shortfall on a 20 percent spike in food costs in the past three weeks.

Agriculture Charity - Giving International

Permalink | Comments (0)

XM-Sirius deal approved

The Justice Department approved the merger of two major satellite radio companies. The department concluded that the deal is unlikely to hurt competition or consumers. Sirius Satellite Radio wants to buy XM Satellite Radio for around $5 billion. The deal still needs approval from the Federal Communications Commission. When the FCC first provided satellite radio operating licenses more than a decade ago, it said it would stand in the way of mergers between two competing companies.

Wall Street

Permalink | Comments (0)

A different kind of home-buying risk: scams

Federal prosecutors have charged 19 people in a nationwide mortgage scam. They say the ring -- which appears to be based in California -- stole nearly $13 million in home equity and involved more than a hundred homeowners. Victims have been found in as many as 18 states -- including California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada. The operation worked like this: The scammers contacted strapped homeowners. They offered to pay their bills by cashing out the equity in their homes. In some cases, homeowners would sign over their titles and pay "rent," while their equity would cover the rest of their monthly payments. After using up the equity, the ring would allegedly sell the home. There may be several other rings like this throughout the country. The FBI says it has received 60,000 reports involving mortgage fraud this year.

Housing - Real Estate

Permalink | Comments (0)

Disarm you with a lawsuit

The Smashing Pumpkins are suing their record label of 17 years. The band says Virgin Records illegally used the Pumpkins name and music in a Pepsi promotion with Amazon.com. The lawsuit says Virgin only has permission to sell digital downloads of the band's songs. And that using the Smashing Pumpkins name to sell other things threatens their reputation for artistic integrity.

Crime - Law Entertainment

Permalink | Comments (0)

You need more options for space travel

If a visit to outer space is one of your vacation destinations, a California-based aerospace company may soon be able to book that trip. X-cor Aerospace is expected to announce today that they'll be offering short flights to interested tourists starting in 2010. X-cor's ship is called The Lynx. It's a two-seat vehicle designed to take off from a runway like any normal plane, and it can reach altitudes almost 40 miles above the Earth. No word yet on ticket prices.

Travel

Permalink | Comments (0)

Race a core issue of Walgreens lawsuit

About 10,000 former and present black Walgreen's employees will be splitting a multimillion-dollar settlement in a federal racial bias lawsuit against the company.
The suit alleges that Walgreen's assigns black workers to low-performing stores and denies them promotions based on race. Walgreen's is the nation's largest drugstore chain. Under the settlement plan, the company has agreed to pay $20 million to employees. The plan was approved by a federal judge yesterday.

Crime - Law Jobs

Permalink | Comments (0)

The deal is no longer so Clear

There was a time, not so long ago, when we heard of a multibillion-dollar deal every other day. These days, we hear more about buyouts falling apart. The latest deal to be in jeopardy is the sale of Clear Channel, the nation's number one owner of radio stations.
This time, it's not the buyers that are pulling the plug, it's the banks lending the money to the two private equity firms. Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse want to renegotiate the terms of the financing -- as in they want to set stricter terms (You see, it happens to the rich people, too). Clear Channel shares fell 5 point 6 percent before the markets closed and 21 percent in after-hours trading.

Investing Wall Street

Permalink | Comments (0)

A sad day for breakfast

The man who invented McDonald's popular breakfast sandwich, The Egg McMuffin, has died. Herb Peterson created the McMuffin in 1972 as a fast -food version of his favorite breakfast dish, Eggs Benedict. The sandwich made it's debut at a McDonald's franchise owned by Peterson in Santa Barbara. Peterson made his debut with the company many years before that, however, when he came up with McDonald's first national ad slogan: "Where quality starts fresh every day." He was 89.

Retail

Permalink | Comments (0)

Photoshop offers free Web version

Adobe is joining the Web software game to compete with the likes of Microsoft and Google.
The maker of Photoshop is releasing a free, online version of the software today. Since Photoshop Express is completely Web-based, it can be used on any type of computer, operating system, and browser. Adobe says it hopes some customers will move from the free version to its boxed software that starts at $99.

Internet

Permalink | Comments (0)

Prius could help drive Japan's joblessness down

Japan's inflation rate jumped 1 percent last month, the quickest rise in 10 years. High prices for imported oil is blamed partly to blame for the increase. Other date released today shows the country's jobless rate climbing to almost 3.9 percent. Unemployment has been hovering around 4 percent in Japan since last Fall.

But Toyota Motors may help draw down the jobless rate a bit. The company is planning to boost production of the popular Prius hybrid at it's Japanese plants. Today's Nikkei business daily reports Toyota hopes to increase output to 450,000 cars a year by 2009. Last year, the auto maker built about 280,000 Prius cars.

Asia Auto Industry International Jobs

Permalink | Comments (0)

Longest cab ride ever

A New York cabbie got some unique recognition this week. The city's Taxi and Limousine Commission awarded Douglas Guldeniz the "Extra Mile Award." That's because he went thousands of extra miles for a couple in Queens. The Turkish immigrant drove Bob and Betty Matas to their new retirement home in Arizona last April. The idea came up when the couple joked they should cab it to Arizona since they never learned to drive. They negotiated a flat rate around $3,000. The metered rate would've been $5,000

Betty Matas died just a few months after making the trip. She was 75. The trio turned a lot of heads crossing almost a dozen states to make the 2,500 mile trip to Sedona in a yellow cab.

Arts - Culture

Permalink | Comments (0)

When the chairman sells all his company stock . . .

Bear Stearns Chairman James Cayne made a sale this week. He unloaded all of his Bear stock for just over $61 million. Last year, the 5.6 million shares would have been worth about $1 billion. That's when Bear's share price peaked at more than $170. JP Morgan agreed earlier this week to increase its original $2 a share bid for Bear Stearns to around $10 per share. Cayne's sell-off probably means bank shareholders won't get a higher price for their stock.

Wall Street

Permalink | Comments (0)

Aloha, Aloha

If you visit the Web site for Aloha Airlines this morning, you won't be able to check out any flight deals to Hawaii. Instead the site gives notice that the airline's shutting down passenger service today. Then you'll see a couple links to carriers United Airlines and Hawaiian Air.
The airlines are providing assistance to Aloha passengers to help get them where they were booked to go. Aloha's been hurt by high fuel prices and competition for inter-island passenger business with Mesa Air Group's Go! airline.

Travel

Permalink | Comments (0)

An Absolut tug-of-war

French company Pernod Ricard beat out the favorite in a heated auction to buy the maker of Sweden's Absolut vodka. Fortune Brands, the maker of Jim Beam, had been the frontrunner. Pernod Ricard is the world's second-largest wine and spirits company. They'll pay nearly $9 billion for Absolut. The sale of the vodka icon is the center of Sweden's largest-ever push to privatize state assets.

Wall Street

Permalink | Comments (0)