http://altlanticinternationalpartnership.net/2011/05/atlantic-international-partnership-headlines-dubai-financial-market%E2%80%99s-first-quarter-net-plunges-96-amid-mideast-unrest/
Dubai Financial Market (DFM) PJSC, the only Gulf Arab stock market to sell shares to the public, had a 96 percent plunge in first-quarter profit as trading volumes declined amid political unrest in the Middle East.
Net income for the quarter ended March 31 was 2.18 million dirhams ($594,000), the exchange said in an e-mailed statement today, without giving comparative numbers for the year-earlier period. The bourse had a profit of 53.58 million dirhams in the first quarter of 2010, according to Bloomberg data.
First-quarter trading volumes dropped to a daily average of 116 million from 235 million in the year-earlier period as political unrest toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, according to data compiled by Bloomberg data. Abdullah Al Turaifi, chief executive officer of the Securities & Commodities Authority, said in February the market regulator would support a merger between the exchanges in Dubai and neighboring Abu Dhabi.
“Dubai Financial Market pursues an ambitious strategy to diversify revenue streams and downscale reliance on trading commissions as the main source of income,” Chairman Abdul Jalil Yousef Darwish said in the statement. “Since the beginning of this year we have started the implementation of this strategy, which will reflect positively on our revenue and profit and maximize shareholders’ value.”
Shares of Dubai Financial Market fell 1.5 percent to 1.31 dirhams at the 2 p.m. close in Dubai today. The stock has lost 13 percent this year compared with a 2.4 percent decline in the benchmark Dubai Financial Market General Index.
Signing Agreements
Revenue for the first quarter was 48.7 million dirhams, comprising 33.6 million dirhams of operating income and 15.1 million dirhams in investment returns, the company said. The value of shares traded was 10.9 billion dirhams during the quarter, it said, without giving year-earlier figures.
Dubai Financial Market in that past few months signed agreements to sell market data to 14 local, regional and international data vendors and applied listing fees in April, Chief Executive Officer Essa Kazim said in the statement.
The U.A.E., the second-biggest Arab economy, is home to the Dubai Financial Market, Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Nasdaq Dubai. Dubai Financial Market and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange are implementing systems to qualify for an upgrade to emerging market status at index provider MSCI Inc. (MSCI)
donderdag 12 mei 2011
According to the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation, Rep. Noem, who pledged to voters not to make Washington her home, held at least 10 fundraisers in D.C. during that first quarter, her first months as a member of Congress. They included two dinners at the Capital Grille, at which attendees donated between $1,500 and $2,000 apiece, and lunch at We, the Pizza on Pennsylvania Avenu
Atlantic International Partnership Headlines: Teaching new dogs old tricks
http://altlantic-internationalpartnership.com/2011/04/atlantic-international-partnership-headlines-teaching-new-dogs-old-tricks/
Remember that scene in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” when Jimmy Stewart arrives in the capital for the first time? The freshman senator shakes off his handlers in Union Station and jumps onto a sightseeing bus, eager to see all the statues and monuments honoring the greats of American history.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so thrilled in my life,” he says afterward. “And that Lincoln Memorial — gee whiz! Mr. Lincoln, there he is. Just looking straight at you as you come up those steps. Just sitting there like he was waiting for somebody to come along.”
For all their talk of the Founding Fathers, the Constitution and core principles, you’d have thought that the current freshman class of Congress, the sprouted seed of Tea Partyers and the 2010 midterms, would have made a similar tour their first priority on arrival. And for all I know, many of them did just that. But for some, the siren song of cash and influence has proven stronger, already luring them onto the rocks of privilege and corruption that lurk just inside the Beltway. They’ve made a beeline not for the hallowed shrines of patriots’ pride but for the elegant suites of K Street lobbyists, where the closest its residents have been to Lincoln is the bearded face peering from the $5 bill — chump change. So much for fiercely resisting the wicked, wicked ways of Washington. These new members were seduced faster than Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate.”
In an April 2 editorial, the New York Times reported:
The revolving door between government and lobbyists has never spun faster. Then there’s this, from Wednesday”s Washington Post:
According to the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation, Rep. Noem, who pledged to voters not to make Washington her home, held at least 10 fundraisers in D.C. during that first quarter, her first months as a member of Congress. They included two dinners at the Capital Grille, at which attendees donated between $1,500 and $2,000 apiece, and lunch at We, the Pizza on Pennsylvania Avenue.
AP/Susan Walsh
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio delivers the oath of office to Republican members of the House of Representatives during the first session of the 112th Congress, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so thrilled in my life,” he says afterward. “And that Lincoln Memorial — gee whiz! Mr. Lincoln, there he is. Just looking straight at you as you come up those steps. Just sitting there like he was waiting for somebody to come along.”
For all their talk of the Founding Fathers, the Constitution and core principles, you’d have thought that the current freshman class of Congress, the sprouted seed of Tea Partyers and the 2010 midterms, would have made a similar tour their first priority on arrival. And for all I know, many of them did just that. But for some, the siren song of cash and influence has proven stronger, already luring them onto the rocks of privilege and corruption that lurk just inside the Beltway. They’ve made a beeline not for the hallowed shrines of patriots’ pride but for the elegant suites of K Street lobbyists, where the closest its residents have been to Lincoln is the bearded face peering from the $5 bill — chump change. So much for fiercely resisting the wicked, wicked ways of Washington. These new members were seduced faster than Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate.”
In an April 2 editorial, the New York Times reported:
Since last year’s Republican victories, nearly 100 lawmakers have hired former lobbyists as their chiefs of staff or legislative directors, according to data compiled by two watchdog groups, the Center for Responsive Politics and Remapping Debate. That is more than twice as many as in the previous two years.
In that same period, 40 lobbyists have been hired as staff members of Congressional committees and subcommittees, the boiler rooms where legislation is drafted. That again dwarfs the number from the previous two years. While some of those lobbyist-staffers were hired by Democrats, the vast majority are working for Republicans… In many cases, those hiring lobbyists were Tea Party candidates who vowed to end business as usual in Washington.
Many of the Republican freshmen in the House won election vowing to shake up Washington, so it’s a little surprising that many of them seem to be playing an old Washington game: raising much of their campaign money from corporate political action committees.For example, freshman star Kristi Noem of South Dakota — one of the two newbies anointed as liaison to the Republican House leadership — raised $169,000 in PAC money, including cash from General Electric, Boeing, Raytheon, Wells Fargo, Fedex, AFLAC, Altria (the parent company of Philip Morris and Kraft Foods) and pharmaceutical giants Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline.
More than 50 members of the class of 87 GOP freshmen took in more than $50,000 from PACs during the first quarter of 2011, according to new campaign disclosure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Eighteen of the lawmakers took in more than $100,000.
According to the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation, Rep. Noem, who pledged to voters not to make Washington her home, held at least 10 fundraisers in D.C. during that first quarter, her first months as a member of Congress. They included two dinners at the Capital Grille, at which attendees donated between $1,500 and $2,000 apiece, and lunch at We, the Pizza on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Atlantic International Partnership Headlines: Robotics morphs into more-mainstream investment
http://altlantic-internationalpartnership.com/2011/05/atlantic-international-partnership-headlines-robotics-morphs-into-more-mainstream-investment/
Sunday, May 1, 2011
BEDFORD, Mass. — Top scientists around the world are trying to improve upon robots, which can already detect bombs, perform surgery and even go into battle.
At iRobot Corp., they’re trying to make a better vacuum.
Of course, iRobot’s scientists do other things too. The company, best known for its Roomba floor vacuum, recently sent machines to Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster to help detect radiation, to the war zone in Afghanistan to find bombs, and to the Gulf of Mexico to locate spilled oil in the water.
But home robots — dominated by vacuums — make up 55 percent of the company’s revenue and are part of the reason iRobot is on a tear. Shares are up 43 percent since the start of the year, and the company earned a profit of $26 million on sales of $401 million last year, up from $3 million on $299 million in revenue the year before.
The company recently announced it had won a contract to make bomb disposal robots for the Navy.
That iRobot, the only public company that focuses purely on robotics, is getting attention from investors indicates that this young industry is becoming more mainstream. As analysts and consumers get more comfortable with robots, more companies might succeed in the space.
“It’s almost like buying Internet companies in the 1990s,” said Alex Hamilton, an analyst with Early Bird Capital who covers iRobot. “The sky’s the limit.”
Not everyone is a fan. A 2008 Consumer Reports review of vacuums found that the Roomba 560 “was among the worst performers at cleaning edges and corners.” On consumer tech site CNET, comments ranged from “always broken, warranty poor” to “It’s awesome! Great for what it costs.”
The company is now trying to boost sales of secondary items, such as pool and gutter cleaners, to go along with its bestselling Roomba and Scooba robots.
Next up: a device on wheels that can follow you around the house like Rosie from “The Jetsons” and someday maybe even bring you a beer. The company predicts an expanding market in robots that assist the country’s aging population.
“No one has ever made money with robots before,” said Chief Executive Colin Angle, a freckle-faced 43-year-old who happens to be married to Erika Ebbel, Miss Massachusetts 2004. “But ours create more value than they cost to build.”
The growth is evident at the company’s headquarters in a Bedford, Mass., office park, where young men in ties and white shirts follow a tour on their first day of orientation. Awards from the last decade sit along the walls: gold-plated and silver Roombas, a crystal Entrepreneur of the Year award for Angle. IRobot now employs about 650 people.
The success is new for a company that teetered on the edge of survival for its first decade and a half. Founded in 1990 by Angle, MIT professor Rodney Brooks and graduate student Helen Greiner, the company’s mission was initially vague: to make practical robots that could be useful in everyday lives.
At the time, few investors believed this was a profitable venture, so the three put company expenses on their credit cards, and struggled.
“We were unfundable,” said Angle, walking through an exhibit in the company’s headquarters of experiments from iRobot’s past — a baby doll robot, a Zamboni-like vacuum, a furry creature that runs away from humans when it senses anger.
IRobot didn’t receive its first venture funding until 1998. Even then, its endeavors were disjointed, spread across eight divisions: robots that could vacuum floors, entertain children and work on oil wells, to name just a few. It sent robots to work in war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the government contracts weren’t profitable enough to support the flailing consumer side.
The company nearly went under in 2002 as it tried to find retailers that would stock the newly completed Roomba. Just when its founders had given up hope, the Brookstone retailing chain called, saying that a test run of the machines had gone well and that consumer demand was increasing.
“We went from the lowest of the low to the most exciting time,” Angle said. “Suddenly, things started to work.”
Even after the company went public in 2005, its financial problems continued. Its stock slid, precipitously at times, to a low of $7 in 2009 as the company burned through cash because of manufacturing issues and the high price of nickel, which is used to make batteries.
A new chief financial officer, John Leahy, has helped the company better manage its finances, analysts say, as has a focus on what it does best: robotic vacuums. Demand is growing overseas as the company expands into Latin America and Europe. International sales grew 70 percent in 2010, and international home robot revenue made up two-thirds of the company’s home robot sales.
The military machines have been a success too: IRobot is one of only two companies that provided robots to the military that have actually ended up on the ground, said Barbara Coffey, managing director at Brigantine Advisors, an investment research company. And the contracts keep coming in. Aside from the Navy deal, the Army said in March that it had ordered 76 small unmanned ground vehicles from iRobot.
“The company during that period really did grow from focused on the next flashy thing to the nuts and bolts of running a business,” Coffey said. “Things like quality assurance and all the heavy lifting stuff came to bear.”
IRobot hopes next to enter the health care field with Ava, essentially a device on wheels that works with existing tablet computers and can follow people around, sensing walls and other obstacles. If someone is trying to reach a senior citizen who isn’t answering the phone, for example, Ava can go find the person, Angle said.
The company is inviting iPad developers to get into the game, designing apps for Ava.
It’s just one way the company is expanding outside of cleaning products to make robots a more common presence in our lives.
“Nearly 100 percent of robots are going to help us do more and more and be part of a better life,” Angle said. “It’s the stuff of dreams.”
Read more: Robotics morphs into more-mainstream investment – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_734815.html#ixzz1L4ryn26L
Sunday, May 1, 2011
BEDFORD, Mass. — Top scientists around the world are trying to improve upon robots, which can already detect bombs, perform surgery and even go into battle.
At iRobot Corp., they’re trying to make a better vacuum.
Of course, iRobot’s scientists do other things too. The company, best known for its Roomba floor vacuum, recently sent machines to Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster to help detect radiation, to the war zone in Afghanistan to find bombs, and to the Gulf of Mexico to locate spilled oil in the water.
But home robots — dominated by vacuums — make up 55 percent of the company’s revenue and are part of the reason iRobot is on a tear. Shares are up 43 percent since the start of the year, and the company earned a profit of $26 million on sales of $401 million last year, up from $3 million on $299 million in revenue the year before.
The company recently announced it had won a contract to make bomb disposal robots for the Navy.
That iRobot, the only public company that focuses purely on robotics, is getting attention from investors indicates that this young industry is becoming more mainstream. As analysts and consumers get more comfortable with robots, more companies might succeed in the space.
“It’s almost like buying Internet companies in the 1990s,” said Alex Hamilton, an analyst with Early Bird Capital who covers iRobot. “The sky’s the limit.”
Not everyone is a fan. A 2008 Consumer Reports review of vacuums found that the Roomba 560 “was among the worst performers at cleaning edges and corners.” On consumer tech site CNET, comments ranged from “always broken, warranty poor” to “It’s awesome! Great for what it costs.”
The company is now trying to boost sales of secondary items, such as pool and gutter cleaners, to go along with its bestselling Roomba and Scooba robots.
Next up: a device on wheels that can follow you around the house like Rosie from “The Jetsons” and someday maybe even bring you a beer. The company predicts an expanding market in robots that assist the country’s aging population.
“No one has ever made money with robots before,” said Chief Executive Colin Angle, a freckle-faced 43-year-old who happens to be married to Erika Ebbel, Miss Massachusetts 2004. “But ours create more value than they cost to build.”
The growth is evident at the company’s headquarters in a Bedford, Mass., office park, where young men in ties and white shirts follow a tour on their first day of orientation. Awards from the last decade sit along the walls: gold-plated and silver Roombas, a crystal Entrepreneur of the Year award for Angle. IRobot now employs about 650 people.
The success is new for a company that teetered on the edge of survival for its first decade and a half. Founded in 1990 by Angle, MIT professor Rodney Brooks and graduate student Helen Greiner, the company’s mission was initially vague: to make practical robots that could be useful in everyday lives.
At the time, few investors believed this was a profitable venture, so the three put company expenses on their credit cards, and struggled.
“We were unfundable,” said Angle, walking through an exhibit in the company’s headquarters of experiments from iRobot’s past — a baby doll robot, a Zamboni-like vacuum, a furry creature that runs away from humans when it senses anger.
IRobot didn’t receive its first venture funding until 1998. Even then, its endeavors were disjointed, spread across eight divisions: robots that could vacuum floors, entertain children and work on oil wells, to name just a few. It sent robots to work in war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the government contracts weren’t profitable enough to support the flailing consumer side.
The company nearly went under in 2002 as it tried to find retailers that would stock the newly completed Roomba. Just when its founders had given up hope, the Brookstone retailing chain called, saying that a test run of the machines had gone well and that consumer demand was increasing.
“We went from the lowest of the low to the most exciting time,” Angle said. “Suddenly, things started to work.”
Even after the company went public in 2005, its financial problems continued. Its stock slid, precipitously at times, to a low of $7 in 2009 as the company burned through cash because of manufacturing issues and the high price of nickel, which is used to make batteries.
A new chief financial officer, John Leahy, has helped the company better manage its finances, analysts say, as has a focus on what it does best: robotic vacuums. Demand is growing overseas as the company expands into Latin America and Europe. International sales grew 70 percent in 2010, and international home robot revenue made up two-thirds of the company’s home robot sales.
The military machines have been a success too: IRobot is one of only two companies that provided robots to the military that have actually ended up on the ground, said Barbara Coffey, managing director at Brigantine Advisors, an investment research company. And the contracts keep coming in. Aside from the Navy deal, the Army said in March that it had ordered 76 small unmanned ground vehicles from iRobot.
“The company during that period really did grow from focused on the next flashy thing to the nuts and bolts of running a business,” Coffey said. “Things like quality assurance and all the heavy lifting stuff came to bear.”
IRobot hopes next to enter the health care field with Ava, essentially a device on wheels that works with existing tablet computers and can follow people around, sensing walls and other obstacles. If someone is trying to reach a senior citizen who isn’t answering the phone, for example, Ava can go find the person, Angle said.
The company is inviting iPad developers to get into the game, designing apps for Ava.
It’s just one way the company is expanding outside of cleaning products to make robots a more common presence in our lives.
“Nearly 100 percent of robots are going to help us do more and more and be part of a better life,” Angle said. “It’s the stuff of dreams.”
Read more: Robotics morphs into more-mainstream investment – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_734815.html#ixzz1L4ryn26L
Atlantic International Partnership Headlines: Panthers protect their investment in rounds 6 and 7
http://altlantic-internationalpartnership.com/2011/05/panthers-protect-their-investment-in-rounds-6-and-7/
I’ve always been of the opinion that you can never have too many DL or OL. The trenches are always fraught with exceptionally hard play, and by extension injuries. No one knows this better than the Carolina Panthers who have at times been forced to piecemeal together a makeshift offensive line while dealing with the oft injured Jeff Otah, while even the stalwart Travelle Wharton missed games in 2010.
It wasn’t a surprise the Panthers addressed the OL in the draft, but the names may not be household (sense a theme here?). With their 6th round compensatory pick the Panthers added C Zachary Williams out of Washington State and T Lee Ziemba out of Auburn.
At the next level Williams projects to add depth at guard, while helping where needed at center. If you remember correctly the Panthers were relying on Mackenzey Bernadeau to help snapping the ball during the preseason last year, with disastorous results. Meanwhile Ziemba played right tackle for Auburn, but he figures to move over to right guard and will likely compete for the starting job there. He is more NFL ready than Williams at this point, and the move to guard should hide the issues with his lack of athleticism.
Ziemba could compete at RT, but more likely figures to play a role at RG
It wasn’t a surprise the Panthers addressed the OL in the draft, but the names may not be household (sense a theme here?). With their 6th round compensatory pick the Panthers added C Zachary Williams out of Washington State and T Lee Ziemba out of Auburn.
At the next level Williams projects to add depth at guard, while helping where needed at center. If you remember correctly the Panthers were relying on Mackenzey Bernadeau to help snapping the ball during the preseason last year, with disastorous results. Meanwhile Ziemba played right tackle for Auburn, but he figures to move over to right guard and will likely compete for the starting job there. He is more NFL ready than Williams at this point, and the move to guard should hide the issues with his lack of athleticism.
Atlantic International Partnership Headlines: Berkshire stands by investment in BYD
http://altlantic-internationalpartnership.com/2011/05/atlantic-international-partnership-headlines-berkshire-stands-by-investment-in-byd/
(Reuters) – Berkshire Hathaway is happy with its investment in Chinese car maker BYD Co Ltd, despite product delays and declining sales, Berkshire’s vice chairman Charlie Munger said on Saturday.
Munger and Warren Buffett were asked at the company’s annual meeting whether they still considered BYD a good investment despite the company’s recent problems.
“I’m quite encouraged by what’s going on, and I expect delays and glitches,” said Munger. Buffett has said that Munger was the inspiration for Berkshire’s September 2008 purchase of nearly 10 percent of BYD.
BYD’s March sales were down more than 40 percent from a year earlier, and its entry into the U.S. market has been repeatedly delayed. Munger said such growing pains were natural given BYD’s aggressive growth plans
(Reuters) – Berkshire Hathaway is happy with its investment in Chinese car maker BYD Co Ltd, despite product delays and declining sales, Berkshire’s vice chairman Charlie Munger said on Saturday.
Munger and Warren Buffett were asked at the company’s annual meeting whether they still considered BYD a good investment despite the company’s recent problems.
“I’m quite encouraged by what’s going on, and I expect delays and glitches,” said Munger. Buffett has said that Munger was the inspiration for Berkshire’s September 2008 purchase of nearly 10 percent of BYD.
BYD’s March sales were down more than 40 percent from a year earlier, and its entry into the U.S. market has been repeatedly delayed. Munger said such growing pains were natural given BYD’s aggressive growth plans
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