Yes, Stars Do Love Themselves More

It's one of the classic chicken-and-egg questions of our time: Do self-adoring attention-craving spotlight hogs naturally gravitate towards showbiz, or does showbiz make otherwise modest civilians into self-adoring attention-craving spotlight hogs?Fortunately yesterday, science has provided the answer. (More on that shortly.) Researchers S. Mark Young and Drew Pinsky (a.k.a. "Dr. Drew") of the University of Southern California claim that their study, which will be published in the Journal of Research in Personality, is the first "systematic" and "empirical" scholarly work done on this often perplexing, and more than slightly touchy, subject.And what they found was that -- yes! -- narcissistic personalities tend to seek out the entertainment industry more than any other. What's more, the celebrities with the highest scores on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory were the ones who -- no surprise -- have tended to become famous without any discernible artistic talent, i.e., reality television personalities. And, not that we're looking to start any wars, but the researchers did deduce that women celebrities are more narcissistic than their male counterparts.

NFL makes NBC "Must See TV" again

"Sunday Night Football" truly is the new "Monday Night Football" and pigskin fans could help lead an overall ratings revival at the Peacock Network.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- NBC finally may show some signs of life this year. That's because the athletic ability of 300-pound linemen will do for the network what a lousy "Friends" spinoff and Martha Stewart couldn't: give NBC a real hit.
NBC has a guaranteed ratings magnet on its hands this season with "Sunday Night Football." Sunday night games used to air on ESPN, but the cable sports network owned by Walt Disney (Charts) will now air Monday night games instead.
ABC, which had broadcast "Monday Night Football" since it began in 1970, will no longer air pro football.
According to data from Nielsen Media Research, "Monday Night Football" on ABC averaged 16.2 million viewers a week, making it the 10th most watched program in prime time last year.
If NBC is able to replicate that, it would instantly become the network's biggest hit. It would also be a huge improvement over last season's Sunday night lineup for NBC.
Of the three shows that the network aired from 8pm to 11pm on Sundays last year, "Crossing Jordan" and "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" averaged slightly less than 11 million viewers apiece, and "West Wing," in its final season, had a paltry audience of just 8 million.
For General Electric (Charts)-owned NBC, which finished in fourth place among 18-49 viewers last season for the second consecutive year, having football become a big hit obviously would be welcome news for the struggling network as it attempts to lure back advertisers.
"NBC has a lot going for them. The NFL is a proven ratings generator and it's the anti-TiVo (Charts). People don't tend to fast forward commercials when watching sports," said Rick Dudley, president and CEO of Octagon Group, a sports marketing firm.
But can Sunday night truly become the new Monday night?
Better games and the best broadcasters
Sure, you could argue that pigskin fans may feel burned out by the time Sunday night rolls around and that they'd rather watch something like ABC's "Desperate Housewives" or CBS' (Charts)s "Without a Trace" instead of another football game.
But there clearly is an audience for more football on Sunday nights. ESPN averaged about 8.9 million viewers a game for its Sunday night telecasts ... a respectable number considering that the cable network is available in about 83 percent of all TV households.
Availability won't be an issue for NBC since it's a broadcast network. What's more, NBC has several other developments working in its favor. One, the NBC Sunday night schedule looks great. (NBC actually kicks off the season on September 7 with a Thursday night game that pits defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers against the Miami Dolphins.)
This Sunday night, NBC has arguably the most anticipated regular season game of the year: the Indianapolis Colts versus the New York Giants (Go Big Blue!). That game pits the Colts' star quarterback Peyton Manning against his little brother, Giants' quarterback Eli Manning.
And later in the season, NBC will have the option of cherry-picking marquee games from Sunday afternoons and moving them to Sunday nights. That's a huge plus for NBC since it means fans won't be forced to watch games featuring a great team against a complete patsy or two mediocre teams playing each other as they did in seasons past.
ESPN often got stuck with games that may have looked intriguing on paper back when the schedules were made in the summer but turned into snoozers by the time fall rolled around.
For example, a Sunday night game last October matching up the Seattle Seahawks, who wound up going to the Super Bowl, and the Houston Texans, the league's worst team, pulled in just 5.7 million viewers. And a game featuring the Kansas City Chiefs against the Texans in November garnered an audience of only 6.8 million.
ABC often had the same problem with its "Monday Night Football" games toward the end of the season.
"One of the things that hurt 'Sunday Night Football' and 'Monday Night Football' was that there was no flexibility in the schedule. NBC won't have that problem," said Brad Adgate, senior vice president of corporate research for Horizon Media, a media buying firm that does work for NBC.
It also helps that NBC snared former "Monday Night Football" broadcasters Al Michaels and John Madden away from ABC to serve as the commentators for "Sunday Night Football." Madden and Michaels may have some critics, but they are widely viewed by many as the best broadcasting team in football.
"NBC has put together the A-plus team in the booth with Madden and Michaels," said Octagon's Dudley.
Some may scoff that people don't watch games because of the broadcasters. But a case can be made that NBC will have an easier time getting fans to adapt to Sunday night being the new Monday night because of the familiarity provided by Michaels and Madden.
Weaker competition bodes well for NBC
NBC may also have an opportunity to do well since other networks' Sunday night schedules don't seem as fearsome as they did two years ago. The critical and fan fervor surrounding "Desperate Housewives" cooled considerably last year, and ratings dipped a bit. ABC also moved its monster hit "Grey's Anatomy" from Sundays to Thursdays.
Plus, football won't have to compete with "The Sopranos" either since HBO isn't going to begin airing the final eight episodes of its hit series until next March at the earliest. (HBO, like CNNMoney.com, is owned by Time Warner (Charts).)
This is not to say that "Monday Night Football" on ESPN is going to be a ratings loser. It should do well also ... just not as well as NBC's broadcasts.
Add that all up and you have a touchdown for NBC on Sunday night ... which should help the network become more competitive in the overall ratings race.
NBC could parlay big ratings on Sunday into interest for new shows that are attracting a lot of favorable buzz, such as "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," "Heroes" and "30 Rock," as well as larger audiences for successful sophomore shows "The Office" and "My Name is Earl."
"Football does two things for NBC. It provides a promotional platform that it didn't have before and gives the network one less night that it has to program," said John Rash, senior vice president and director of broadcast negotiations with Campbell Mithun, a media buying firm.
"NBC should break its ratings fall this season and begin to position itself to be significantly more competitive," he added.
And if that's the case, NBC would have football to thank for finally making it Must See TV again.

Board-requested probe backs Merck on Vioxx

$21M report finds management 'acted with integrity' in the development and marketing of Vioxx.
NEW YORK -- A report commissioned by Merck & Co.'s board said Wednesday the drugmaker's top executives did not knowingly put patients at risk in developing and marketing Vioxx, the popular arthritis drug withdrawn after a study showed it increased heart risks.
The 20-month review of the drug company's conduct concluded Merck management "acted with integrity" in the development and marketing of Vioxx, according to former Manhattan federal judge John Martin, who led the probe.
The report, on which Merck (Charts) spent about $21 million, criticized certain Merck promotional activity but generally absolved top management.
"Critics contend that senior officials at Merck knowingly put patients at risk of cardiovascular events rather than jeopardize the profits that Merck generated from the sale of Vioxx," the report said. "After an exhaustive investigation, we have concluded that there is no basis for such a claim."
Martin, along with other lawyers and paralegals at the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, spent more than 53,000 hours on the 179-page report, which also included about 1,500 pages of appendixes.
They interviewed 115 people including top company executives and drew upon testimony in civil and governmental proceedings.
One securities lawyer who isn't involved in litigation involving Merck questioned the objectivity of the Merck-sponsored report.
"The conclusion of Merck's own counsel cannot possibly be surprising," said Jay Gould, partner in Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. "I don't know of any firm that wouldn't do what [Debevoise & Plimpton] did. That's our job. We're not paid to be impartial."
Merck board member William Bowen, who led the special committee reviewing the company's Vioxx conduct, said the board was "reassured" the report found company management acted responsibly.
"The main question the board wanted answered was: 'Did the senior people at Merck knowingly put people at risk in ways that they should not have done?'" Bowen said. "There is, I would submit, in the Martin report, no evidence to that effect."
The withdrawal in September 2004 of Vioxx, a $2.5 billion-a-year seller, sent Merck shares tumbling, drew investigations from U.S. authorities and prompted sharp criticism of a pharmaceutical company known for its sterling scientific reputation.
Although Merck shares have largely rebounded, the company continues to face federal probes involving Vioxx and more than 14,200 product liability cases. So far, the company and plaintiffs each have four victories.
The report found no member of Merck management tried to mislead scientists or consumers. It also said there was no support for assertions Merck propelled Vioxx to market without conducting necessary testing. And it rejected claims Merck scientists ignored signals the drug caused heart problems.
The report said it was "worth noting" that several Merck employees were taking Vioxx at the time of its withdrawal. They included its former top scientist, Edward Scolnick, and its general counsel, Kenneth Frazier, as well as the wife of former Chief Executive Raymond Gilmartin and the mother of research chief Peter Kim.
In a negative finding about the company, the report said "certain individuals" in marketing and sales "engaged in practices that were inconsistent with Merck's policies and at times proposed neutralizing critics through means that senior management viewed as unacceptable."
The report criticized some Merck interactions with academic scientists who raised questions about the company and Vioxx. Another criticism involved the use of a promotional aid by sales representatives that failed, on its own, to provide all of the available cardiovascular data on Vioxx.
Bowen said the board also would be working with the company to ensure that further scientific press releases would be clearer, following findings that some press statements involving Vioxx could have been read ambiguously.
The report "raises some questions," Bowen said. "It's up to management now to take advantage of this process."

Take that, Darth Vader!

Rofin-Sinar develops laser technology that make light sabers look like child's play. And its stock looks like a buy.
(Fortune) -- Luke Skywalker would be jealous. Rofin-Sinar, a company headquartered in Detroit and Hamburg, Germany, develops technology that make light sabers look like child's play. And while you may not have heard of Rofin, a 30-year veteran and leader of the laser industry, the company's prospects appear to be heating up and its stock looks like an attractive buy.
Indeed, the stock is up 26% this year to date compared with 8% for the Russell 2000 index, yet it's still trading at a discount to its peers such as Coherent , a Santa Clara, Calif.-based company that, among other things, makes industrial lasers used to produce flat panel displays; and Excel, based in E. Setauket, N.Y., which makes laser systems primarily for industrial and scientific applications.
"These guys are basically the celebrity chefs of lasers," says Rick Weed co-manager of the Putnam Small Cap Growth Fund, which has owned Rofin stock since 2004.
Rofin (Charts) makes lasers and laser systems that fall into three categories: macro for cutting and welding things like sheet metal and car parts; micro for fine welding and perforating small pieces in electronics and other items; and marking for literally making marks, like etching serial numbers on glass, metal or plastic. Its customers range from car makers who use its products in factories to, for example, cut plastic and metal pieces in vehicles; to hard-drive manufacturers, who use it for welding electronics; and jewelry designers who use it to cut precious stones.
The company is given top grades for its strong client relationships in North America, Asia and Europe, and its ability to develop new and useful products.
"They are excellent at controlling their process and the beam," says Weed, "so they get just the right recipe to do what [their customers] need."
That recipe has produced some high-quality earnings and strong revenue numbers. In its most recent quarter, ending in June, Rofin reported a 22% increase in revenues and a 52% increase in earnings. Most encouraging to Weed, though, is Rofin's $94 million backlog - in other words, orders that have been secured from customers, but not yet booked as revenue. The backlog is an all-time high for Rofin, signaling that demand for its products is strong.
While backlog is something companies can manipulate - orders may never materialize leaving a company long on inventory and short on sales, but Chuck Murphy, an analyst with Sidoti & Company says Rofin's management is straightforward, avoids "beating around the bush" and admits trouble when it exists.
"With this company, honesty as far as financial disclosure is not a problem," he says.
Rofin's big money comes from machine-tool-cutting and welding, automotive and semiconductor and electronics applications, which accounted for 54% of its $375 million sales last year. The remainder was spread across a wide variety of industries. For example, Rofin supplies aircraft manufacturers, as well as consumer-goods companies, universities and medical devices users.
Weed is excited about laser use in etching and cutting silicon and in welding lithium batteries and dental devices.
"It really is Star Wars cool technology," he says.
Rofin's products may sound like they are straight out of science fiction, but lasers are just another way to deploy energy, says Needham & Company laser analyst John Harmon, explaining "a drill removes molecules, a laser vaporizes them."
In other words, the market for lasers is much more down to earth than you might think, and isn't dependent on high-tech customers. Demand for them may grow among companies where traditional machine and manufacturing tools currently are used. "Lasers are a very generic tool for cutting, welding and writing," says Harmon.
Rofin can generate new business by targeting niche uses for laser technology - for example, architectural glass cutting, rather than huge applications - as in the automotive industry, says Murphy. It also helps that Rofin has a history of keeping the customers they sign on, and expanding the relationship by working with customers to find new applications for laser technology.
Since it takes about five years before companies need to replace laser equipment, "you have a big difference between the first purchase and the second," Murphy explains. "So if they can build up a relationship it makes it a whole lot easier for future sales."
Rofin has another thing going for it: cash. With about $9 in cash per share, analysts expect that Rofin will hunt for acquisitions, which could benefit the top and bottom line, protecting them against an economic slowdown. Rofin has and is expected to continue to use acquisitions to help it move into new markets and obtain new applications for its technology.
Wall Street sees little to be skeptical of, with fewer than 800,000 of the 15 million outstanding shares being sold short, which Weed says "heartens me to no end." Weed is projecting 12 percent to 15 percent earnings growth over the next year. With a PE of only 15 based on 2007 earnings compared to peers like Coherent trading at more than 18, Rofin-Sinar Technologies looks like a bright spot in the market.

Anheuser-Busch to launch Bud.TV

In an effort to find young male viewers, brewer is set to debut its own Web-based television network in February.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Web surfers, this Bud.TV is for you.
Brewer Anheuser-Busch (Charts) announced Wednesday that it will launch a Web-based video network, named Bud.TV, in February. The company says it will feature new humorous webisodes, sporting events, consumer-generated content, field news reports, celebrity interviews, music downloads and comedian vignettes.
The company said the network videos will allow users to view the content in full-screen DVD quality.
Content providers will initially include Wild West Picture Show Productions, TriggerStreet.com, LivePlanet, SEED, @radical.media, Omelet and DDB Worldwide, and the company said more providers will be announced in the future.
"We're always looking for new opportunities to connect with adult consumers on a more personal level," said a statement from company president August Busch IV. "With adults spending more time online looking for entertainment to fit their lifestyles, we believe Bud.TV will enable us to reach them in an engaging and fun way."
Anheuser-Busch is already a major advertiser on television and other traditional media, with U.S. ad spending of $606.7 million last year, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing statistics from TNS Media Intelligence. But the brewer's target audience of young male viewers has become more difficult to reach in recent years through traditional television programming.
"Traditional broadcast TV doesn't target to the male 21- to 34-year-olds; it tends to be a broader demographic and a more female draw," Tony Ponturo, Anheuser-Busch's vice president of global media and sports marketing, told the Journal. "So we are taking it upon ourselves to provide programming that hits that target base."
In 2007, Anheuser-Busch will dedicate about 10% of its U.S. ad budget to online, according to the Journal, about double the percentage it is spending this year, including online ads on third-party Web sites as well as Bud.TV.

Sony delays European PlayStation 3

Electronics maker postpones launch of video game console in region by four months, but says U.S. and Japan dates still firm.
TOKYO (Reuters) -- Sony Corp. said Wednesday it will delay the European launch of its PlayStation 3 (PS3) video game console by about four months to March and cut its target for shipments this year by half.
Sony (Charts) had planned to launch the new version of its blockbuster PlayStation console in November, setting the stage for a three-way showdown with Microsoft Corp. (Charts) and Nintendo Co. Ltd. during the key holiday shopping season.
Ken Kutaragi, the head of Sony's game unit and known as the "father of the PlayStation," told reporters Sony would ship 2 million PS3 units this year, half a previously forecast 4 million, but would make up the lost ground to hit a target of 6 million consoles shipped by March.
Sony said it still plans to launch the PS3 on Nov. 11 in Japan and Nov. 17 in the United States.
The game console is the widely awaited successor to the PlayStation 2, of which 100 million units have been sold since its launch in 2000.
Flagging potential problems with the PS3 rollout, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities last month cut by half its shipment forecast to 3 million of the new PlayStations in the current business year to March, citing difficulties in procuring its cutting-edge parts.
The success or failure of the PS3 will have a far-reaching impact on Sony's group earnings.
At stake is more than just pole position in the nearly $30 billion video game industry, but also dominance in next-generation DVDs and the commercial viability of the "cell" microchip co-developed by Toshiba Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. (Charts)
The PlayStation 3 comes with a Blu-ray high-definition optical disc player and is powered by the Cell microchip, dubbed a "supercomputer on a chip".
Sony holds high hopes that the PlayStation 3 will help Blu-ray technology conquer a rival format called HD DVD in becoming the standard for the next-generation DVD. HD DVD is backed by a group of companies lead by Toshiba.

Federated unveils campaign for Macy's relaunch

Operator plans for nationwide special events and community service projects to convert former May department stores.

NEW YORK -- Federated Department Stores Inc. Wednesday unveiled plans for the first national advertising and marketing campaign for the Macy's department store chain.
Federated (down $0.21 to $39.03, Charts) shares fell 1 percent during morning trade in New York.
The plan, which Federated called the largest nationwide campaign in its history, comes as the department store operator gets ready to convert more than 400 former May Department Stores to the Macy's nameplate on Sept. 9.
Federated did not disclose the budget for the campaign, which will include national broadcast and cable television, local newspapers, local and national magazines, radio spots, outdoor boards and online advertising that will center on a new spin to its theme, "Way To Shop."
"Expanding Macy's presence nationwide presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to introduce our brand to new shoppers," said Anne MacDonald, chief marketing officer, in a statement.
Federated is integrating its $11 billion purchase of May Department Stores and is changing hundreds of former May locations into Macy's stores. The conversion will create a nationwide chain of roughly 800 Macy's stores.
While having a nationwide presence gives Macy's more advertising power and sway with its vendors, analysts are waiting to see how well Macy's can attract former May shoppers or bring in new customers.
"When you've got a customer that's been shopping [at a May store] for years and years, you can't change them overnight," said Stacy Turnof, a retail analyst with Merrill Lynch.
Turnof, who said the conversion of former May stores into Macy's is going well, said she will be watching to see how Federated's third-quarter sales shape up and whether Federated is able to make progress at the former May stores, where sales were lagging.
Federated said it expects fiscal year sales to be more than $27 billion, compared with the current Wall Street average target of $27.2 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
Federated said the advertising campaign will be supported by hundreds of special events, such as an electronic gift card giveaway at all 800-plus Macy's stores on Sept. 9 and a nationwide program of community service projects.
It also said Macy's advertising through the fall will feature new marketing campaigns.

Axe in Hand MySpace Takes a Swing

As the signs of dismemberment of the music industry begin to surface with greater frequency in mainstreammedia, MySpace today announced what could prove to be the pivotal blow to current music business model and welcome mat to 'The Rebirth of Music' (headline of the September Wired).
MySpace, along with Snocap, the legal peer-to-peer network created by Napster founder Shawn Fanning, said today it had penned a deal with the site that will allow artists to sell music directly to fans through their own MySpace music pages. MySpace will now be able to provide tools to allow artists, as well as the record labels, to set prices, create stores, and sell music in MP3 format. This is without a question the natural progression for the News Corp owned MySpace in trying to establish other platforms of revenue with their still newlywed marriage with the world's leading social networking site.

"Up until now bands faced the challenges of content availability, technology and distribution," MySpace president Tom Anderson said. "This music service enables artists and labels to oversee their own commercial and distribution platforms while lowering the barriers for all bands to sell music directly to their fans in a way that's easy and totally legal."
The deal is by far one of the biggest stories within the music industry this year, as the repercussions have the potential to be almost immediate. What can not be forgotten is that no matter what the platform of distribution, the number of sales is all going to depend on the quality of music.

Radar Back on the Screen

Despite two failed incarnations, Radar Magazine is turning into the little magazine that could by unveiling its new online site on Tuesday.
The magazine, which takes an irreverent look at pop culture and politics, was originally launched in 2003, but folded after two issues. In 2005, it was relaunched but because of "lack of advertising traction" folded after just three issues.In the past, the magazine offered sharp and biting exposés on topics like the business of celebrity personal appearances and working for Disney World.At the moment Radar will maintain a strictly online presence, but a print version is scheduled to hit newsstands in the first half of 2007.Hopefully three times the charm and Radar won't fall off the, er, radar again.

Kate Moss' Erotic Films

Moss' latest gig has her modeling sexy undergarments in four short films, entitled "Dreams of Miss X," for the designer lingerie line Agent Provocateur.The supermodel, who has enjoyed a meteoric rise back to the top after entering a rehab clinic in 2005, speaks and even appears nude in one of the erotic films, which were helmed by Mike Figgis, director of "Leaving Las Vegas."Response has been so overwhelming that the first of the films, "Dream 1: Shadows," caused the company's site to crash after thousands logged on to check out the waif beauty in all her lacy splendor."Dream 2" will be available starting November 1 on the Agent Provocateur website, with the rest to debut in the following months.

Freston Ignores "MySpace," Loses "HisJob"

Since time immemorial, Hollywood has waited until just after Labor Day to uncork its nastiest surprises to the media.

This year was no exception. Despite having the best hair in the business, MTV's longtime architect and current Viacom CEO Tom Freston has been canned.Freston's departure from Viacom is such a bombshell, one hardly knows where to begin. On the one hand, it's fantastic theater, with classic - almost cliched - melodramatic trappings of business soap opera. (One imagines a scarlet-to-purple faced Redstone bellowing at his well-coiffed lieutenant, "I told you to make that deal, and you didn't! You're fired!")On the other, it clearly shows where traditional media is headed: On-line, dummy. As "The Wall Street Journal" remarked last week,"MTV Overdrive, a free video Web site featuring music videos, news and MTV's hit programming, attracts fewer than four million unique visitors a month, a small fraction of MTV's 82 million monthly U.S. television viewers. More worrisome: MTV's Web sites are being whipped by rivals such as MySpace, the new home of the MTV generation. MySpace gets nearly 55 million unique visitors in the U.S. a month. YouTube, a fast-growing video Web site, draws 16 million." In other words, in a world with a brand like MTV, why does MySpace even exist? Indeed, why wasn't social networking simply part of MTV.com?But in examining the firing of Tom Freston, we should begin with what loaded the gun, and then move on to what pulled the trigger.Two weeks ago, "Daily Variety" correspondent Jill Goldsmith filed a story that would have been the writing on the wall, were it not for the vigorous denials of an unnamed corporate flack.Viz, "...[recent] headlines over MySpace.com were the latest in a series of media stories touting its triumphs, including a lucrative pact with Google, a deal to download movies and the seven trillionth subscriber.
All this attention has made Viacom execs eager to explain why they didn't snap up MySpace. At media conferences, Viacom execs have said it's simple: The price was too high, and MySpace just didn't fit with Viacom's financial metrics. According to one company insider, however, Viacom CEO Tom Freston was asked by chairman Sumner Redstone to go to San Francisco to get the deal done but never went. [itals ours]
A company spokesman said, 'That's patently untrue.' "Now, class, compare and contrast: In Viacom's own CBS MarketWatch coverage of Freston's firing, what does Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone say? That Freston successor Phillipe Dauman would "never, ever, let another competitor beat us to the trophy."(As Bloomberg.com recognizes, "Dauman's background is in mergers and acquisitions, not in media programming.")And so as of 2005, clearly, the bullet was in the chamber.Now, some housekeeping and some other delicious behind the scenes details. As to housekeeping, the Wall Street Journal notes that "the 60-year-old Mr. Freston has been under pressure because of Viacom's sluggish price, down 7.6% since separating from CBS Corp. on Jan. 3."But it also notes, as yours truly did two weeks ago, that Freston's authority within Viacom appeared seriously undermined after Redstone shot Tom Cruise out of a cannon in August. in a recent City of Industry post entitled "Now Who's Running Amok?" we pointed out that the ancient Redstone had gone on the warpath against his CEOs many times before whenever he felt marginalized.Viz, "his castigation of Cruise is said by knowledgeable insiders to have taken both Viacom co-CEO Tom Freston and Paramount Pictures chairman Brad Grey by complete surprise...Some posit that the rationale for Redstone's indelicate (and apparently, unadvised) harangue was to take back the limelight he'd lost earlier this year. In essence, his Cruise missile was fired to reassert himself into the running of a company he'd split in two in January and divided between Tom Freston of MTV and Leslie Moonves at CBS. Based on Redstone's previous behavior, it's not such a wild theory: Redstone has gotten into fisticuffs with major Viacom execs before, including former Viacom CEO Frank Biondi, who Sumner fired because he wanted to run the company, and with Mel Karmazin, who so tired of being co-opted that he decamped Viacom's CBS for Sirius Satellite Radio."So, now what?Well, if the future is any indication at all, Dauman would be wise to open his checkbook and just buy YouTube.As a July think-piece in Variety observed, "it's new media that Viacom and particularly MTV really need to focus on. With a median age of 21, MTV's viewership is most likely to fall into the category that spends more time logged on than tuned in; a recent study noted people ages 13-24 now spend as much as 25% more time online than watching TV.Oh. and, Phillipe: If Sumner even hints that "I might find it amusing if I had diet Coke," I'd suggest dropping everything and getting your one calorie ass in gear to get him that soothing beverage, pronto. Even at 83, Sumner Redstone has again proven that he's no one to be ignored.

Major U.S. oil source is tapped

Successful test by Chevron partners in deep Gulf waters could rival Alaska in potential supply; U.S. reserves may swell 50 percent.
NEW YORK -- Chevron and its partners have successfully extracted oil from a test well in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, an achievement that could be the biggest breakthrough in domestic oil supplies since the opening of the Alaskan pipeline.
The news sent oil prices lower, with U.S. light crude for October delivery sinking 69 cents to $68.50 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The announcement helped dampen fears that oil supplies would be swamped by growing global demand, a concern that helped lift oil to record highs this summer, unadjusted for inflation.
But experts cautioned that relief at the pump from the breakthrough is many years away.
"It sounds terrific, but this means nothing for the near-term period," said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service, which surveys gasoline prices daily for AAA.
"But it should remind everyone that before they buy into the reckoning of $100 a barrel oil that all those estimates don't take into account tremendous amount of money can be spent on exploration when prices are at these levels."
Shares of the three partners in the test well known as "Jack 2" rose sharply in trading Tuesday. Chevron (up $1.51 to $66.34, Charts), which owns a 50 percent stake, jumped 3 percent, while Devon Energy (up $7.99 to $72.14, Charts) soared nearly 12 percent, and Norwegian oil company Statoil (up $0.66 to $28.17, Charts)'s U.S. shares added about 2 percent. Devon and Statoil each own 25 percent stakes.
Shares of other major oil companies with rights to this area of the Gulf, including Exxon Mobil (Charts), BP (Charts) and Royal Dutch Shell (Charts), rose modestly on the news.
Neither Chevron nor Devon would say how long it would take for oil from the well to reach market. Experts say it will take billions of dollars to build the deepwater oil platforms and pipelines needed to extract the oil and get it into world markets.
"At best we're not going to see a drop of oil for five years, maybe seven years," said Fadel Gheit, oil analyst for Oppenheimer. "It's great news for Chevron and even more so for Devon. But you can't hold your breath waiting for it."
A boon for the United States
Almost all the oil platforms in the Gulf are relatively close to the shore, on a shelf that puts them in less than 1,700 feet of water.
In recent years, oil has been found in the deeper waters of the Gulf known as the "lower tertiary" area, where the water is between 5,000 to 10,000 feet deep, but it had yet to be proved that oil could be extracted in enough volume to make such finds practical.
The Jack 2 well, which is 175 miles offshore, is in more than 7,000 feet of water and then drilled through more than 20,000 feet of rock below the sea floor, or about five miles below the surface of the Gulf. Chevron said the test had a flow rate of more than 6,000 barrels of crude oil a day.
Chevron would not estimate how much its reserves would be increased as a result of the test, nor would Devon. But Chevron said that it now believes the lower tertiary region of the Gulf could hold reserves of 3 billion to 15 billion barrels of oil. Total established U.S. reserves are estimated at less than 30 billion barrels.
"Until now no one was sure if the oil in this play would flow," said Zoe Sutherland, North American oil exploration analyst for Wood Mackenzie, a global oil research and consulting firm. "It doesn't matter how many large discoveries you have if you can't produce it. This is very exciting news."
Sutherland said it is fair to compare the breakthrough with the opening up of the North Slope of Alaska in terms of U.S. supply.
Ohio Northern University Professor A. F. Alhajji said the implications of this successful test could also help to open greater offshore supplies at other fields around the globe. He said that could mean even greater addition to worldwide reserves than those that now seem to be within reach in the Gulf.
"Whatever technology they used, I can tell you companies are scrambling right now to try to use it," said Alhajji.
Gheit said that it is only with oil at its current historically high prices that exploration at these depths really became economically practical.
"This is the silver lining of higher oil prices," he said. "If we didn't have higher oil prices, they wouldn't have dared to risk this much capital here."

CBS hopes for big ratings from Katie Couric

The former 'Today' show host is finally set to debut as CBS' evening news anchor. Can she help lift ratings and ad dollars for the Eye Network?
NEW YORK -- Katie Couric is finally making her long-awaited debut as the anchor of the CBS Evening News on Tuesday. But while that may be big news on Main Street, analysts say it doesn't mean much for Wall Street.
Couric signed a deal with CBS in April to become the first solo female anchor of a weekly news telecast. At the time, this was seen as a big coup for CBS (Charts) and a major blow to NBC, where Couric was the co-anchor of the network's "Today," the ratings leader for morning news shows.
CBS has seen an increase in viewers for its nightly newscast during the past year. But the network still trails NBC and ABC by a fairly wide margin. So the hope is that Couric's star power can help bridge this gap.
Still, some wonder if Couric really can have that big of an impact on the news ratings at CBS. And even if Couric's presence helps the Eye Network overtake NBC, which is owned by General Electric (Charts), or Walt Disney's (Charts) ABC in the nightly news race, it may not matter all that much in terms of increased ad revenue.
"CBS's news division is a very small part of a large corporation," said Joe Bonner, an analyst at Argus Research. "Sure, it would be nice if they broke even as opposed to losing money. But if they captured the number one spot in news it would be good more for bragging rights than anything financial."
But others think Couric can only help CBS. The addition of Couric comes at a time when the overall network is doing well. CBS finished in first place in the 2005-2006 primetime ratings race -- although it came in third with the advertiser friendly 18-49 demographic -- thanks to hits such as "CSI," "Survivor" and "Without a Trace."
According to media buyers, CBS sold about $2.3 billion in ad sales during this spring's upfront buying period, the time when marketers and networks negotiate ad rates for the upcoming fall TV season. That level is about flat with last year's upfront ad sales.
Ratings risk or reward?
So if news, the one major weakness at CBS, does get a boost from Katie Couric, then that could be a boon to CBS's overall ad sales.
"As long as CBS can continue with its hit programs and complement that with good ratings from of its news division then its financial success will continue. If the network can accelerate its revenue growth, that will only be warmly received by Wall Street," said Frederick Moran, an analyst with Stanford Group.
In fact, CBS has been rewarded by investors this year. Shares are up nearly 15 percent since the company was spun-off from its former parent Viacom in January. Viacom's stock, meanwhile has slumped more than 10 percent since the break-up and on Tuesday, Viacom (Charts) announced that its CEO Tom Freston was stepping down.
CBS has also won raves from analysts for new digital initiatives, such as running advertiser-supported online streams of the popular NCAA men's basketball tournament and launching an Internet broadband TV network called Innertube.
To that end, CBS has already said that it will air live simulcasts of the "Evening News with Katie Couric" on CBSNews.com as well as on demand versions after the show airs on TV.
But what about the financial ramifications for CBS if Couric doesn't pan out in the anchor chair? The network and Couric did not disclose the terms of her contract when she joined CBS but according to rumors, Couric is said to have signed a three year deal worth $39 million.
Even though $13 million a year sounds like a big gamble, analysts said that for a company like CBS, which is expected to generate $14.5 billion in sales this year, it really isn't a huge risk.
"CBS is a big company. It's hard to pay one person so much money that it can hurt the company," said Laura Martin, an analyst with Soleil/Media Metrics. "She's not expensive enough to affect the bottom line of CBS. If it doesn't work out, it costs them little."

ImClone's next headache

The biotech appears likely to lose a patent trial involving Erbitux, its lucrative cancer drug and sole product.
(FORTUNE Magazine) -- Imclone, the biotech best known for a stock collapse that helped land founder Sam Waksal and his pal Martha Stewart in the slammer, could use a dose of good news.
On Aug. 10, ImClone (Charts) gave up its seven-month attempt to sell itself and saw its swooning shares tumble further after the announcement. And less than two weeks later it agreed to offer board seats to corporate cage rattler Carl Icahn and three allies, who declared that it would be a "major error" to retain interim CEO Joseph Fischer.
At least one more headache looms: ImClone appears likely to lose a patent trial involving Erbitux, its lucrative cancer drug and sole product. The judge's verdict could come at any time.
The patent in question protects the method of combining monoclonal antibodies such as Erbitux with traditional chemotherapy drugs. A review of some 1,100 pages of testimony and court filings suggests that - although anything can happen - ImClone will lose at least part, and possibly all, of its control of the patent.
The trial is the culmination of a strange 20-year saga. It pits three distinguished scientists from Israel's Weizmann Institute against ex-colleague Joseph Schlessinger, who testified that he'd been nominated for a Nobel Prize.
The scientists accuse Schlessinger of absconding with their idea of combining a monoclonal antibody with chemotherapy, taking it to a corporate predecessor of Sanofi-Aventis (Charts), and secretly applying for a patent on it. While the application was pending, Aventis licensed the rights exclusively to ImClone. (Schlessinger denied impropriety and claimed credit for the antibody and the combination.)
ImClone had reason to question who the inventor was as early as 1994, when the U.S. Patent Office rejected its application on the grounds that the Weizmann scientists had published an article describing the combination idea before Aventis filed for the patent. ImClone told the patent office it would provide support for its claim, then dropped the application. The company later refiled, and the patent office relented.
Before and during trial, the judge expressed skepticism about ImClone's case. At one point the scientists' lawyer, Nicholas Groombridge of Weil Gotshal & Manges, protested that they couldn't be expected to discover the patent because ImClone had hidden it from them.
A defense lawyer interjected: "Objection. That's just argument, your honor." Responded the judge: "It's a good argument, though." And in one ruling the judge noted that "defendants have produced no documentation verifying their claim...."
How critical is this patent? An ImClone executive testified that "had we not had the patent, we would not have made this kind of investment" in developing Erbitux. ImClone spokesman David Pitts argues that "losing this patent doesn't prevent us from continuing to sell Erbitux" - it will simply make it more costly for ImClone. That would still be bad news. Citigroup analyst Yaron Werber (who titled a recent report "IMCL Likely to Lose Case") thinks ImClone's royalty rates would increase one to three percentage points and shave as much as 20% off its earnings.
Analysts also say that losing the patent may make it harder for ImClone to block certain uses of a potential competing drug from Amgen (Charts).
Not for the first time at ImClone, tumult is obscuring good news: Erbitux sales rose 76% last quarter (vs. the same quarter in 2005) after the drug was approved to treat head and neck cancer. And the company will probably seek the FDA's blessing to expand into the pancreatic and lung cancer markets. Yet ImClone can't seem to shake the demons of its past.

Delta to end pilot pension plan

The bankrupt airline says it received court approval to end its pilot pension plan.
NEW YORK -- A U.S. bankruptcy court Tuesday allowed Delta Air Lines Inc. to terminate its pilot defined benefit pension plan, clearing a major hurdle in its restructuring plans.
The plan covers more than 13,000 active and retired Delta pilots and their beneficiaries. Delta (Charts) must now also seek the approval of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the federal pension insurer.
The airline said it wants to terminate the plan effective Sept. 2.
Judge Adlai Hardin issued his ruling allowing Delta to end the plan after DP2, a group of about 100 retired pilots, withdrew its objection to the termination, Delta said. The airline will pay DP2 about $500,000 in legal fees and other expenses.
The airline's pilots' union, representing more than 6,800 current pilots, had already agreed to the move.
Atlanta-based Delta, which has been operating under bankruptcy protection since September of last year, had argued that continuing the plan would jeopardize its ability to emerge from Chapter 11.
The company said that the plan's costs are expected to exceed $1 billion in the near term and argued that not terminating the plan would make finding lenders for exit financing difficult.
Delta said it estimated that after the termination of the plan, each pilot retiree will receive, on average, about $75,200 in annualized pension benefits.
Delta also said it was on track to realize more than two-thirds of its business plan's $3 billion in annual financial improvements by the end of this year, and planned to emerge from bankruptcy by mid-2007.

Vaccine 'could cut cervical cancer deaths 76 pct.

Vaccine prevents infection from two strains of HPV, which account for about 70 percent of cases of cervical cancer.
LONDON -- GlaxoSmithKline's experimental vaccine against a virus that causes cervical cancer could cut the number of cases and deaths from the illness by up to 76 percent, the drug company said on Monday.
The vaccine known as Cervarix prevents infection from two strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV) which account for about 70 percent of cases of cervical cancer.
In a computer model study sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline and presented at a medical conference in Prague, the researchers predicted the impact the vaccine would have in Britain if all 12 year-old girls were vaccinated.
If coverage was 100 percent, the company said it could lead to 76 percent fewer deaths. Eighty percent vaccine coverage could reduce cases and deaths by 61 percent, according to the research.
"Over the lifetime of a UK cohort of 12 year old females, the model predicts the occurrence of 2,636 cervical cancer cases and 1,403 cancer deaths without vaccination," the researchers said in the study.
"With vaccination at 100 percent coverage, the forecast would be as low as 632 cancer cases (76 percent reduction) and 335 cancer deaths (also 76 percent reduction)."
The estimates are based on the vaccination being paired with the existing cervical screening program.
Dr Anne Szarewski, of the charity Cancer Research UK, said HPV vaccination offers great promise in reducing cases and preventing deaths from the illness.
"Currently there are 3,000 women in the UK who get cervical cancer each year -- despite a highly efficient screening program," she said in a statement.
Merck (Charts) has also produced a vaccine to prevent the illness. The European Medicines Agency has recommended Merck's Gardasil to prevent cancer caused by four strains of HPV. It also won approval from the Food and Drug Administration in June.
Shares of GlaxoSmithKline (Charts) closed Friday at $56.76 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Airbus replaces head of A380 program

Move is CEO Christian Streiff's first major appointment since he joined the troubled plane maker in July.
PARIS -- Plane maker Airbus replaced the head of its A380 superjumbo program Monday, two months after a crisis over production delays led to the resignation of the company's chief executive and the co-head of parent EADS.
Airbus said Frenchman Charles Champion had been replaced by Mario Heinen, 50, who until now has been in charge of the plane maker's chief cash engine, its single-aisle range.
The move is CEO Christian Streiff's first major appointment since he was drafted in from outside the aviation industry to replace Gustav Humbert as the head of Airbus in July.
Airbus announced the move on the day of its first long-distance A380 test flight with hundreds of passengers on board, drawn from Airbus staff and cabin design specialists.
The A380, the world's largest airliner, is due to be delivered to its first customer Singapore Airlines by the end of the year after two sets of delays totaling a year.

50 best companies for employees over 50

This year, the AARP's list gives special preference to companies that offer flexible hours. Plus, job sites for people who want to keep working through 'retirement.'
The AARP's latest list of the top places to work for people over 50 includes some household names, like Volkswagen of America (#6), drug maker Hoffmann-LaRoche (#10), L.L. Bean (#43), and John Deere (Charts) (#50).
As in previous years, however, by far the largest group of companies on the list are privately owned health-care providers, like No. 1-ranked Mercy Health System, headquartered in Janesville, Wis.
What they all have in common: They offer flexible work hours to an increasing number of their employees.
Volkswagen, based in Auburn Hills, Mich., is typical. The company makes flextime, compressed work schedules, job sharing, and telecommuting available to both full- and part-time workers, as well as letting some of its employees ease into retirement gradually by working part time first. After they do step aside, many of Volkswagen's retirees are offered consulting projects, temporary assignments, and part-time jobs.
Nonprofits like winner Mercy Health System, which runs 63 health-care facilities in Wisconsin and Illinois, offer other flexible-scheduling opportunities, like weekend-only work and on-call assignments involving a limited number of hours per month.
A recent study by the AARP and human-resources consultants Towers Perrin says that employees age 50 and over will account for 20% of the workforce by the year 2012, up from 13% now.
As a result, says smart employers are trying to create a "mutually beneficial work environment" for older workers, says AARP chief executive Bill Novelli. "Flexible arrangements can be a big part of that."
The full list of this year's honorees are below.
Web sites for older workers
Unfortunately, most of the employers on this year's list are limited to relatively small geographic areas. What if you're an over-50 job seeker who doesn't happen to live near any of them? Not a minute too soon, nationwide job sites for the older and wiser are beginning to appear on the Web.
Consider, for instance, RetirementJobs.com. Launched in May, the site acts as a matchmaker between the 50-plus crowd and employers who want to hire them for part-time, full-time, and temp jobs. Its services are free to job hunters, and so far some big names - H&R Block (Charts), Home Depot (Charts), Bank of America (Charts), and the American Red Cross among them - have signed on.
RetirementJobs.com also offers other resources, like resume-writing help, and features intriguing profiles of people who have found their dream jobs after retiring from their original careers.
Monster.com, meanwhile, has built an online job-search center called Careers at 50+ (careersat50.monster.com). A joint venture with AARP, the site features special advice for career changers, and interview and resume tips tailored to job seekers who have decades of experience. Check them out!

Alcatel investors set to swallow Lucent pill

Shareholders of French telecom giant are expected to approve the company's nearly $11B acquisition of Lucent.
PARIS (Reuters) -- Alcatel shareholders are expected on Thursday to vote in favor of the French network supplier's $10.9 billion acquisition of U.S. rival Lucent, more out of resignation than enthusiasm for the deal, analysts say.
Investors do not have much choice even if they agree that Alcatel is overpaying forLucent (Charts), particularly in light of its profit warning in July.
Analysts predict shareholders would lose more in the short and medium term if they scuppered the transaction than if they allowed it to proceed.
Blocking the merger would put Alcatel in a vulnerable position against rivals and raise uncomfortable questions about its growth strategy.
It would also put pressure on Alcatel's top management to resign, creating uncertainty about the quality of any new team.
"If they (shareholders) vote no, (Alcatel Chief Executive) Serge Tchuruk would have to go, the company would find itself isolated and by 2007 it would become obvious that it was lacking scale to compete," WestLB analyst Thomas Langer said.
Investors are also conscious that Alcatel and Lucent need to widen their global footprint and sharpen their product and marketing pitch as customers and competitors merge.
This year alone, rival Siemens joined forces with Nokia and giant Ericsson completed the acquisition of Marconi's network equipment assets.
Lucent and Alcatel fit together well geographically and by combining their suppliers and research and development activities, they will be leaner as well as more versatile. They can cut costs and convince customers to pay a little extra.
"Alcatel needs critical mass to resist pricing pressures," said analyst Remi Thomas at Cheuvreux.
Costly venture
But no matter how attractive the merger's strategic rationale is, the French investment advisory firm Proxinvest and many analysts have said they believed Alcatel was paying too much for Lucent.
Alcatel is offering Lucent shareholders 0.1952 of an Alcatel share for every Lucent share they own, valuing each Alcatel share at about five Lucent shares, an exchange rate Proxinvest and investors wished was raised to seven.
Alcatel and Lucent's shares have lost more than 25 percent since the merger was unveiled in early April but they could drift further in the medium term if the deal unravels.
But Tchuruk, who will become group chairman, made clear last week in interviews with Les Echos and the French weekly Investir that merger terms would not be renegotiated.
"The share prices of the two companies are now linked to each other and it is not possible to change the merger share-swap ratio," Tchuruk told Les Echos in a report published on Thursday.
Break-up fee
If shareholders block the merger and a rival offer is made, Alcatel will also have to pay Lucent an initial break-up fee of $250 million and possibly $500 million if a deal is done with another company within the next 12 months.
But no matter how long the list of negative consequences a "no" vote would bring, it does not make the pill easier to swallow, analysts and investors say.
The merger comes attached with strings that appear to strengthen the current management's job security and its position vis-a-vis shareholders, Proxinvest and analysts say.
For example, in the first three years after the merger is completed, the board would need two thirds of votes to oust Tchuruk and future Alcatel Lucent Chief Executive Patricia Russo, under a resolution to be presented to investors.
In most boardrooms, a simple majority is required.
At Thursday's annual and extraordinary meeting, shareholders will also be asked to vote on a resolution that allows Tchuruk, who turns 69 in November, to remain chairman of the combined group for a relatively long time.
The traditional age limit of 70 only applies if more than a third of the board is over 70.
Tchuruk, who has been at Alcatel's helm for more than a decade, is one of the few technology chief executives in Europe to have survived the Internet and telecoms boom and bust of the past seven years.
On the other hand, some investors say that allowing Tchuruk to stay on brought stability to the company at a risky time.
The prospective difficulty of integrating the two companies' operations was heightened this week after Alcatel announced it had agreed to buy Nortel's lossmaking third generation UMTS cell phone network unit for $320 million.

Factory orders fall moderately

July's 0.6 percent decline lower than the drop analysts expected.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- New orders at U.S. factories fell by a smaller-than-expected 0.6 percent in July, lead by sharp declines in orders for transportation and defense goods, according to government numbers released Thursday.
Wall Street analysts polled by Reuters were expecting a 1.0 percent decline in factory orders.

After stripping out transportation, factory orders increased 1.1 percent in July, the Commerce Department reported.
Excluding defense, they declined 0.2 percent.
Orders for transportation equipment fell 10.1 percent. In that category, orders for motor vehicle bodies, parts and trailers gained 2.2 percent, while orders for nondefense aircraft and parts fell 10.6 percent.
Machinery orders, one of the bigger categories in the report, rose 1.5 percent, while orders for computers and electronic components, another big category, increased 5.9 percent.
Gains in nondefense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, seen by economists as a guide to the health of U.S. business spending, rose 1.6 percent, the biggest gain since March. Orders for defense capital goods fell 16.4 percent during the month.
Total unfilled orders for durable goods, or items meant to last more than three years, rose 1.3 percent. Durable goods inventories rose 1.0 percent

UPS pilots ratify new labor agreement

New contract for 2,700 pilots at world's largest package delivery company ratified after four-year negotiation.
CHICAGO -- UPS's pilots' union said Thursday that its members ratified a new labor contract that took nearly four years to negotiate and provides wage and pension improvements.
The Independent Pilots Association, which represents the 2,700 pilots at the world's largest package delivery company, said 56.5 percent of its members voted for the new agreement.
The new contract will be valid until 2011.
Of the 2,652 IPA members eligible to vote, 1,482 voted to approve the agreement, while 1,141 voted against it.
Union President Tom Nicholson said the contract increased pilot compensation, retirement and benefits, while providing job protection for pilots flying international cargo.
"This is not a small thing," Nicholson said. "Our pilots are now secure in flying that stuff internationally."
Shares of UPS (down $0.76 to $69.78, Charts) fell 0.6 percent on the New York Stock Exchange.
On Monday, rival FedEx (Charts) and its pilot union said they'd reached a tentative agreement.

Tribune takes control of amNewYork

The owner of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune adds the free daily newspaper to its offerings.
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Tribune Co. said Thursday it has acquired full control of amNewYork after buying a minority interest from the free daily newspaper's management group led by co-founder Russel Pergament.
Tribune (Charts) - which also owns the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and other papers and Web sites - did not disclose financial details. A company spokesman declined to say what percentage Tribune previously owned but said it was more than 50 percent.
AmNewYork competes with Metro, a free daily offered by Luxembourg- and Britain-based Metro International. Metro International also publishes U.S. editions in Boston and Philadelphia.
Several newspaper publishers have started free dailies in the United States to attract more readers and advertising dollars as paid circulation in their core newspapers declines.
Among them are The Washington Post Co.'s (Charts) Express and Belo Corp.'s (Charts) Quick, which complements its paid daily paper The Dallas Morning News.
Tribune said it expected amNewYork, which was launched in October 2003, to be profitable in 2006. It said about 320,000 copies of amNewYork are distributed free from Monday through Friday in and around New York City.
Under the terms of a 2003 agreement, Tribune had rights to purchase the stake after three years. Christopher Barnes, amNewYork general manager and co-founder, becomes publisher, succeeding Pergament, who will take on a consulting role.

Intel to launch Conroe chip on 27 July

SANTA CLARA, California: Chipmaker Intel Corporation is scheduled to launch its next-generation Core 2 Duo, or “Conroe”, chip for desktop PCs on 27 July.
The company will also introduce a dual-core Itanium chip “Montecito” meant for high-end servers on 18 July.
The launch of these products marks the company’s efforts to retrieve lost market share and to arrest dwindling earnings.
A spokesperson for the company said the company plans to introduce multiple chips, more than 10, over the next 30 to 60 days. These will include a standard desktop version of Conroe and an advanced edition for gamers and other combinations of features and prices. The chip should be available in the market almost immediately as the company has already started shipping it to certain channels and manufacturers, the spokesperson said.
Intel wants to take advantage of the holiday season as well as the plans of IT departments of many companies for upgrades of their systems in the fourth quarter.
The launch of Conroe will coincide with the introduction of the chipmaker’s proposed VPro platform, which is a bundle of features for businesses. The company has been selling bundles of hardware and software for mobile desktops and Viiv for home entertainment. It now wants to extend the concept to business desktops.
Intel had in June launched its Xeon 5100 range of chips, called Woodcrest, meant for servers. The other product in the pipeline is the Merom chip for mobile notebooks, which is expected to debut in August.
All these new chips are built on the Core technology, which is a successor to the company’s Netburst class of processors.
Analysts say Intel has accelerated the launch schedule of its chip product line following the dismal performance in the first quarter when it missed estimates. It is also expected miss the forecast for annual revenue too.
Industry watchers say the company will continue to face stiff competition from rival Advanced Micro Devices as several high-end PC users had preferred AMD’s Athlon 64 X2 chips, while low-end users have the benefit of buying its inexpensive chips.
Intel says Core 2 Duo chips will deliver better performance with lower power consumption than Pentium D chips. It has also said that it expects the Core family of processors to deliver around 20 per cent better performance than AMD’s chips.

Adeza drug doesn't need new trial: FDA experts

FDA advisors recommend no new tests for Gestiva in prevention of preterm births.
NEW YORK -- A U.S. advisory panel on Tuesday said Adeza Biomedical Corp. did not need to conduct another study to show its drug Gestiva was effective in helping prevent premature births in women who previously delivered a baby too early.
The Food and Drug Administration panel of outside experts made the recommendation in a 12-9 vote against another trial for Adeza's (up $0.61 to $15.91, Charts) experimental drug.

Teva settles generic OxyContin suit

Pharmaceutical manufacturer agrees with Purdue Frederick Co. to stop making generic version of popular painkiller.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Teva Pharmaceuticals, the world's biggest manufacturer of generic drugs, has settled a patent infringement case with The Purdue Frederick Company over generic OxyContin, the companies said.
Teva (down $0.67 to $34.69, Charts), based in Jerusalem, said that as part of the settlement it will stop selling generic versions of the painkiller OxyContin "at a future date."
The settlement agreement will be submitted to the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, Teva said. The settlement still has to be approved by U.S. district court for the Southern District of New York.

Schering settles sales probe for $435 million

N.J. drugmaker pleads guilty to criminal charge, puts federal investigation to rest.
NEW YORK -- Schering-Plough said Tuesday it settled a criminal investigation into its sales practices and agreed to pay $435 million in fines and damages.
The New Jersey-based drugmaker said the agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts and the Justice Department calls for it to pay a criminal fine of $180 million to settle the investigation into its sales, marketing and clinical trials.
Schering (up $0.16 to $20.57, Charts), the nation's no. 9 drugmaker, said it pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to make false statements to the government.
The company also agreed to pay $255 million "to resolve civil aspects of the investigation." Schering has set aside $500 million in litigation funds to cover these costs, which more than covers the total damages.
"We do take full responsibility for the actions of the past, but by that same token we're happy to put this behind us and focus on continuing to build the state of the art compliance program for the future to make sure these things don't happen again," Brent Saunders, senior vice president of global compliance and business practices, said to CNNMoney.com.
Saunders said criminal activity occurred before a new management team led by Fred Hassan came to the company in April 2003. Saunders was hired as part of this team in 2003, and said he heads the new compliance department to bring "business integrity into the DNA of the company."
Hassan is seen as a success story, partly because the company's stock price shot up 17 percent since his takeover, compared to the drug industry's paltry gain of 1 percent during the same period. But Schering has underperformed the S&P 500, which gained 46 percent during that time.
The settlement still has to be approved in court.

Hackers steal AT&T customer info

Company notifying nearly 19,000 customers; online store shut down hours after breach occurred.
NEW YORK -- Personal data, including credit card information, of thousands of AT&T customers was stolen by hackers over the weekend, the company reported late Tuesday.
The breach, which affected customers who purchased DSL equipment through AT&T's (Charts) Web store was discovered within hours and the online store was shut down immediately, said AT&T in a press release.
AT&T said it was sending notifications to nearly 19,000 customers, and that it would pay for credit monitoring services for the affected customers.
"We recognize that there is an active market for illegally obtained personal information. We are committed to both protecting our customers' privacy and to weeding out and punishing the violators," said Priscilla Hill- Ardoin, chief privacy officer for AT&T, in a statement.
"We deeply regret this incident and we intend to pay for credit monitoring services for customers whose accounts have been impacted. We will work closely with law enforcement to bring these data thieves to account."

'Small-Marts' take on Wal-Mart

Small, local groups nationwide are fighting back against big business and helter-skelter globalization.
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Local businesses in Whatcom County, Wash., next month will exhort their customers to "Buy Fresh Eat Local." Some people in the scenic, mountainous region will take a pledge to nourish themselves for a week entirely from the local food shed - drinking milk from local cows, eating fresh-baked organic bread and patronizing restaurants like Flats Tapas Bar, which will serve such dishes as flatbread with all-local smoked salmon, caramelized apple, gouda cheese and hazelnuts. Others will enjoy the Downtown Carrot Jubilee, a chance to taste local carrots harvested that day; they'll wear "I Ate Local Today" stickers."We want to help raise awareness of the value of local food systems," explains Max Morange of Sustainable Connections, a network of more than 500 Bellingham-area businesses that sponsors the annual event. "We're losing farmland very quickly." So committed to localism is Morange, a 25-year-old slow-food activist, that last year he churned his own butter rather than buy spread "imported" from elsewhere.The campaign is a stunt, to be sure, but it's also evidence of a backlash - against look-alike chain stores and helter-skelter globalization. Groups like Sustainable Connections have taken root in a variety of places, including downtown Philadelphia, the coast of Maine, rural St. Lawrence County in New York, Santa Fe and Ithaca, N.Y. About 20 local networks have affiliated with a national business group called BALLE - the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies - that was formed just five years ago.How local businesses can fight backOne of the leading thinkers about the new localism is Michael Shuman, a BALLE board member, Stanford-educated lawyer and economist and author of a lively, new book called "The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses are Beating the Global Competition" (Berrett-Koehler, 2006).The subtitle is hyberbolic. Last time we checked, shoppers were leaving Main Street merchants to save money at Wal-Mart, independent bookstores were struggling to compete with Amazon and Barnes & Noble and global giants were swallowing regional banks. But Shuman tries to show how local firms can do battle with the global giants. "There's an awful lot of misunderstanding about small business," Shuman says. "Small-marts are responsible for most of a typical community's economy." He's got a point. Firms with fewer than 500 employees account for about half of private sector employment in the United States. But between 1990 and 2001, about 4 percent of jobs shifted from very small to large firms, a trend Shuman argues can be slowed down and even reversed. In "Small-Mart Revolution," Shuman identifies eight "deglobalizing" trends that he says will help local businesses compete. They include rising energy costs, the inefficiencies of global distribution, consumer desires for more personalized services and the growing loyalty of workers to small, local firms.You can see these forces coming into play already. As shipping costs increase, it doesn't make much sense to ship potatoes from Idaho to remote corners of America where farmers can grow their own. Local, small-scale sources of fuel - from wind farms to solar panels to cellulosic ethanol to methane gas digesters - look more attractive when oil sells for $70 a barrel. Shuman also makes a compelling case that the tax breaks and government subsidies that flow to big companies are not just a waste of taxpayer money, but an unfair burden for small, local, loyal companies. "The playing field is tilted like a double black diamond ski slope against locally-owned business," Shuman writes.To counter the market power of giants like Wal-Mart and Home Depot, Shuman says that small-marts have to join together and consumers have to become more aware of the impact of their spending and investing choices. That's what's happening in Bellingham.Sustainable Connections publishes a coupon book called "Where the Locals Go" that features discounts from more than 160 businesses. The group sponsors workshops on green building, featuring local contractors. It promotes renewable energy with Puget Sound Energy (Charts), the local utility company that operates one wind farm and is building another. While this example of a self-supporting economy is appealing, Shuman's book raises thorny questions. Can "local first" work for all cities and towns? Is it even a desirable goal? Local businesses, after all, are not likely to develop a Boeing 747, an iPod, Google or a Blackberry Green Tea Frappuccino. Nor are local businesses necessarily better for the world than global ones, especially as big companies embrace socially-responsible practices.Maybe the toughest issue raised by the new localism is its potential to morph into protectionism, slamming the door on exports from poor countries and hindering their efforts to grow. To his credit, Shuman addresses this issue at length. He argues that the developing world will benefit by developing small-scale local businesses rather than relying on exports to the west. But he doesn't want to go too far. "If I felt communities were going to shut their door to the rest of the world," he says, "I'd stop doing what I'm doing." Instead, he's trying to start a small-scale chicken business called Bay Friendly Chicken ("Better Bird, Better Taste, Better Bay") with chicken growers in the Delmarva Peninsula, so-called because it cuts across Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. The company will pay living wages, give ownership stakes to farmers and sell natural, air-chilled chickens. It sounds great, but don't expect to see Bay Friendly Chickens in the supermarket anytime soon - unless you live near the Chesapeake Bay.

Google sets ad deal with eBay

Search giant to supply Web search ads overseas, as well as 'click-to-call' links.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -- Google Inc. will supply eBay Inc with Web search advertising outside the United States, and the two will join forces on "click-to-call" ads that link online shoppers to customer service operators, the companies said Monday.
EBay (Charts) said that for international online text advertising it had agreed to rely exclusively on Google instead of existing partner Yahoo Inc (Charts), which in May struck a parallel deal to handle all of eBay's U.S. ads.

The eBay contract is part of a string of deals this month for Google. It previously said it planned to begin testing an ad-supported Web video syndication system with Viacom's MTV Networks. It also struck a deal to supply ads to MySpace users and other Web properties ofNews Corp. (Charts)
"This (latest deal with eBay) in fact is the most important of these areas," Google (Charts) Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in a phone interview.
"You can now see Google's strategy in each of these new markets," Schmidt said of MTV Web video, the MySpace community and eBay e-commerce partnerships. "These are very large businesses for us. I don't know what rate they will grow at."
Separately, on Sunday, Google said it was moving beyond search and advertising into the business software market, starting with a set of Web programs for e-mail, scheduling and communications. It plans to add additional programs later.
Financial terms for components of the deal involve revenue sharing, but the companies did not disclose specific details. EBay said it did not expect the Google agreement to have a material impact on its financial results in 2006 or 2007.
EBay increasingly depends on paid search advertising to drive bidders to its auctions and sales. Its new pacts seek to make it easier for buyers to search for items for sale on eBay, while being careful not to offend sellers with competing ads.
Through its deal with Yahoo, Whitman said eBay had already begun testing ads that appear when U.S. customers fail to locate what they want on an eBay auction search.
The Google pact expands this to international sites.
If and when eBay sellers become more comfortable seeing ads alongside their listings, eBay plans to expand the number of pages where Yahoo or Google ads may appear, she said.
Phoning web customer search
The companies said they will jointly offer "click-to-call" advertising using the respective instant message and Web phone-calling services of the two companies - eBay's globally popular Skype and Google's own nascent Google Talk service.
Click-to-call is where advertising merges into e-commerce. It allows potential buyers to click on Web-phone ad links and talk directly to sellers or their representatives.
The technique is seen as a promising way to reach merchants or advertisers who may not have a Web site, or who rely on Yellow Pages telephone directories to find possible customers.
"The vast majority of businesses still serve customers via the phone," eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman said in a joint interview with Google's CEO. "This is the online equivalent."
"Google and eBay are uniquely positioned to make this market a reality," she added.
EBay is the world's dominant provider of online auctions. It has also signed up more than 100 million users worldwide for its Skype message and Web phone-calling service. Google has a leading position in Web search and associated ad technologies.
EBay said it would soon offer Skype users the option to download the Google Toolbar, which has quick links to Google services, especially Web search. The two will explore making Skype and Google Talk work together for text chats and to help make users aware when users of the other service are online.

Barnes & Noble caught in options fray

Shares of bookseller fall nearly 2 percent as it receives subpoena, becomes latest company to be investigated over how it awarded stock.
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Barnes & Noble said on Tuesday that it received a subpoena from the attorney for the Southern District of New York, requesting documents on its stock option practices.
Barnes & Noble has become one of more than 80 companies to say it is being investigated in a quickly spreading scandal over stock options.
The operator of the bookstore chain said it received the subpoena on Friday, making the statement in a brief regulatory filing. It had previously announced it was reviewing stock option practices and said the Securities and Exchange Commission was conducting an informal inquiry with respect to them.
Barnes & Noble said it is cooperating fully with the SEC and intends to cooperate fully in responding to the subpoena.
Shares of Barnes & Noble (down $0.67 to $34.60, Charts) fell 1.8 percent on the New York Stock Exchange in early afternoon trading.

The lighter side of dark M&M's

Mars focuses on fun as it adds dark chocolate to its permanent M&M's collection.
NEW YORK -- A new ad campaign launched by the owner of the M&M's brand aims to make eating dark chocolate a scream.
M&M's is offering 2 million dark chocolate M&M's for the return of "The Scream," a painting by Edvard Munch that was stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, in 2004.
The campaign accompanies the permanent addition of dark chocolate candies to the M&M's product line, which was announced earlier this month.
"We've received tremendous interest from consumers to make M&M's Dark Chocolate a permanent offering," Michele Kessler, vice president of marketing at Masterfoods USA, said in a statement.
Masterfoods USA owns the M&M's brand and is a part of closely held food manufacturer Mars, Inc.
The campaign aims to bring some fun into the dark chocolate category, which is perceived to be more serious, Masterfoods said.

Hurl your cell phone, win a prize

Contestants at the Mobile Phone Throwing World Championship in Finland come from as far away as Canada to toss telephones.
SAVONLINNA, Finland (Reuters) -- Anyone wanting to throw away their mobile phone can do it in style and may even win a medal - at the Mobile Phone Throwing World Championship, Finland's latest contribution to offbeat athleticism.
Originally a local event in this small town close to the Russian border, the seventh annual contest Saturday drew some 100 throwers from as far as Canada, Russia and Belgium.
Founder Christine Lund describes the event as a good source of light exercise with an environmentally friendly twist. "There are a lot of mobile phones on the second-hand market, and we are recycling them [before they become toxic waste]," she said.
The inventive Finns had already given the world the Sauna World Championships and the Wife Carrying Competition before coming up with a new way to make mobile phones even more mobile.
This year's gold medal went to Finland's Lassi Etelatalo, who flung a scrapped Nokia unit a forceful 89.00 meters. "I prepared by javelin throwing, I haven't really practiced throwing mobile phones," Etelatalo told Reuters.
In the freestyle event, Dutchman Elie Rugthoven's phone landed outside the designated area, but he still won silver thanks to a phone-juggling performance that impressed the judges.
Lund says competitors all have their favorite throwing brand. "People choose by size, by color or by how it fits in the hand ... Some believe a heavy model will ensure a long throw, some want a light one."

Boeing sets $3 billion stock buyback

Aircraft maker to buy up to 5% of its stock, which has fallen since hitting a record high in May.
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Boeing Co., whose stock has fallen 16 percent since May, has approved a plan to buy back up to $3 billion of its own shares, equal to about 5 percent of its publicly traded stock.
The move, announced after the market close Monday, comes amid a general downturn in aerospace and defense stocks, which have fallen sharply in recent months after a three year run-up during the Iraq war and a boom in plane orders.
The Chicago-based plane maker, which is also the Pentagon's No. 2 supplier, said the repurchased shares would be used for general corporate purposes, including stock options.
Boeing (Charts) stock rose about 0.6 percent in after-hours trading on the news.
"We are enhancing shareholder value with a balanced use of our cash flow," said Boeing CEO Jim McNerney. "Our record backlog, strong operating performance and solid balance sheet allow us to invest in growth programs like the 787 Dreamliner while also pursuing a significant share-repurchase program."
Boeing has been performing well financially for the past year or so, despite recording a second-quarter loss last month after some large one-time charges.
In 2005 Boeing reported $2.6 billion in profit as it booked a record 1,002 net commercial plane orders and its defense unit reported its highest ever revenue on the back of strong U.S. defense spending.
But this year analysts are predicting a slowing of growth in the U.S. defense budget and saying the commercial airplane boom has already hit its peak. Boeing's shares hit an all-time high of $89.58 on May 10, but since then have fallen more than 16 percent.
The shares closed up about 1 percent in Frankfurt trading early Tuesday after the after-hour announcement Monday.
Boeing added that it had terminated its existing share buyback plan, which it said was largely complete. That plan, launched in 2005, authorized the repurchase of 40 million shares. The company said it has spent about $5 billion buying back its stock since 2004.

Big merchants learn from the Big Easy

Why large chain stores should tap into the $90B potential of inner-city markets like New Orleans.
NEW YORK -- In the year since Katrina devastated New Orleans, large chain stores like Home Depot and Wal-Mart have reopened most of their damaged stores there. More significantly, retailers like Walgreen and CVS are already looking to add new stores in the area.
What's the catalyst?
Industry watchers say these retailers want quickly to regain their foothold in one of America's most lucrative, yet largely untapped, retail markets: the inner cities.
"Most large scale suburban retail development is done. So the inner cities have become the new hot retail market. It's a market that has a lot of potential but it's still largely underserved," said Herb Tyson, vice president of state and local government relations with the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).
Prior to Katrina, the inner city of New Orleans was a booming $2 billion retail marketplace, according to a Boston-based nonprofit group called the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), which has assessed the retail potential for 100 of the largest inner cities across the nation over the past eight years.
To put that number in perspective, the size of Boston's inner-city market is about $1.5 billion, Chicago's market is valued at $6.5 billion and Los Angeles's at $7.3 billion.
According to ICIC's spokeswoman Deirdre Coyle, most of those cities - with the exception of New Orleans - showed a lack of mass-market retail penetration.
"Gateway cities like New Orleans are more attractive retail markets because merchants realize they can pull customers both from local residents and from tourists," Coyle said.
Why go to Detroit or Philly?
At the same time, Coyle said retailers are making a costly mistake if they think other cities like Detroit or Philadelphia aren't good business opportunities because they don't have the same customer appeal as the Big Easy.
Here's why.
First, the U.S. inner-city population of about 21 million people represents a retail market of more than $90 billion, according to the latest estimate available. That's a sizable expansion opportunity for retailers at a time when most big-box chains are threatened by saturation in their more typical suburban markets.
Secondly, about 38 percent of inner-city households are classified as "moderate to middle income," meaning they earn an annual income ranging from $20,000 to $50,000. That is slightly more than the national average of 36 percent, Coyle said.
Inner-city businesses are also at an advantage because of higher population density. "Our research shows that inner-city residents with lower per capita income tend to spend a higher percentage of that income on retail purchases," Coyle said.
For example, the group's research showed a grocery store in the suburbs of New York City requires a 20-mile radius to achieve a customer base with the same buying power as a 10-block radius in Harlem.
"Harlem is a great example of successful inner-city retail penetration," Coyle said. "Once the mass market retailers went to Harlem we started to see the next wave of business activity develop through new hotels, restaurants and other types of retailers selling better-quality products."
As retailers set up shop in these secondary markets, it also creates more jobs for local communities. New Orleans's clothing stores, for example, employ 13 of every 1,000 of its inner-city residents, Coyle said.
Obstacles remain
"We feel there is a very compelling business case to be made here for the business opportunities in cities like New Orleans. But we're also not na飗e to the challenges retailers face in those markets," Coyle said.
Higher rates of crime and poverty in many of these urban markets also act as a deterrent to retailers. ICIC defines an "inner city" as having a rate of poverty 20 percent or higher, an unemployment rate one and a half times or higher than the surrounding metropolitan area or median household income one-half or less that of the surrounding metropolitan area.
Other obstacles include restrictive zoning laws and limited land availability and higher land costs, she said. It's much harder for Wal-Mart, Target and other large format retailers to find the space in inner cities to build their supercenter stores.
Wal-Mart (Charts) continues to face opposition in some cities in California where residents fear the big-box format will cause traffic congestion, hurt smaller independent businesses and drive out better-paying jobs.
"It's an attitudinal challenge," Coyle said. "Unfortunately retailers get caught in a quagmire of regulations and city and community politics. But then again, the most successful business models are established in collaboration with everyone involved."
The retail road map for inner cities calls requires that retailers literally think outside "the box." "If you can't find space, build vertically and make smaller stores. Inner cities are heterogeneous markets with various ethnic and income groups. You can't have a one-size-fits-all model here," Coyle said.
Innovation helps
ICSC's Tyson said Wal-Mart, Target, Starbucks are a few retailers that have aggressively been targeting new locations in the densely populated inner cities.
Burt Flickinger, managing director with consulting firm Strategic Resources Group, credited drugstore chains CVS (Charts), Rite Aid (Charts) and Walgreen (Charts) with doing a "brilliant job in positioning themselves to cater to the urban inner city markets.
"Between 35 and 40 percent of their stores are devoted to conventional supermarket categories like dairy, foods and other refrigerated products even though they operate as drugstores," said Flickinger. "These companies almost operate as mini supermarkets in inner cities."
Other than innovating with the conventional store model, Flickinger suggests, inner-city retailers also up the ante on prices, service and products as a way to battle the growing dominance of family-owned retail chains.
"The other side of the urban retail story is the real growth of Latino-owned and operated retailers," Flickinger said. "They're quickly becoming very successful, high-volume chains because they can effectively cater to niche demands of a growing ethnic consumer base in these markets."
Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Target and Home Depot were not immediately available for comment.