| Bank shareholder opposes Virgin bid
Sir Richard Branson's bid to salvage beleaguered Northern Rock has been met with opposition from the lender's biggest shareholder. A consortium led by Sir Richard's Virgin Group was named as preferred bidder to rescue the company, but hedge fund RAB Capital - owner of a 6.7% stake - said the proposals undervalued Northern Rock. The Virgin consortium is planning to inject £1.3 billion of funds into the group in return for a controlling stake of at least 55%. Part of the cash will be raised through new shares being offered at 25p each, giving Northern Rock an implied value of about £225 million - a fraction of the group's £5.2 billion value seen in February. RAB Capital chief executive Philip Richards said the events were a "step closer" to securing the business - but is pressing for a higher offer.
TOUSA chairman sells last of his shares
TOUSA's chairman sold the last of his shares in the company for 10.5 cents a share each, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed. Harry Engelstein said he sold the 7,500 shares on Wednesday. On April 9, he owned 63,750 -- less than 1 percent -- of the company's 59.6 million outstanding shares. The New York Stock Exchange suspended trading of the Hollywood-based home builder's common stock and debt securities a week ago. It now trades on the Pinks Sheets under the symbol "TOUS." TOUSA has said it is considering restructuring and reorganizing options, including Chapter 11 bankruptcy, after posting a third quarter loss of $619.7 million. Shares were down 2 cents to 9 cents in afternoon trading. No 52-week high/low information was available.
Brown feels heat as Libdems and Tories seek answer to West Lothian question
IT WAS always the unfinished business of devolution. Yesterday it returned to haunt Gordon Brown. First posed by Tam Dalyell 30 years ago, the West Lothian Question was left unanswered when Labour created the Scottish Parliament in 1999. Yesterday, the pressure on the Labour Prime Minister intensified as another senior politician demanded "English votes on English laws". Chris Huhne, a contender for the leadership of the Liberal Democrat Party, became the latest parliamentarian to join the increasing clamour for what many see as a rebalancing of the UK constitution. .
Chattanooga Weighs In On The Good, Bad, & Ugly Of The Internet
A recent report by the group "Connected Tennessee" finds 75% of all Tennesseans use the Internet. Aside from e-mail, researching products and finding health and medical information tops the list of uses. But some people still see the "net" as a breeding ground for pornography, gambling, and other lewd activities. So, we went in search of what's good, bad, and ugly about the Internet. PrinceThe year was 1986. Prince and Madonna ruled the music charts, "Top Gun" flew into movie theaters, and the first Internet Service Provider opened for business. It took two-decades, but the Internet grew from a way to send messages electronically into part of everyday life. Joseph Kizza, Ph.D., teaches Computer Science at UTC. "We are involved in it so much that if just out of the blue, somebody takes it away we wouldn't know what to do," says Kizza.
CRM developers catering to demand from smaller firms
For more than a year, small and midsize businesses have taken increasing advantage of customer relationship management software, benefiting from programs that once were too costly. During that time, CRM has transformed from a novelty into a necessity as demand for the software reaches deeper into the business food chain. CRM software comes in many different flavors, but ultimately it allows users to pinpoint their customer base, marketing focus and sales targets through electronic algorithms that optimize database information. Recent surveys by research firms Gartner Inc., Forrester Research Inc. and Triple Tree LLC show the CRM business is growing by about 12 percent a year. The market now is about $8 billion a year. By 2010, it will reach $11 billion, according to Forrester and Triple Tree.
Shifting into a Higher Gear
In the medical device industry, blazing a successful trail into uncharted technological and clinical areas sometimes takes a couple of tries. Such has been the case for Stereotaxis Inc. (St. Louis), a company that started out trying to address clinical needs in the neurology market and has wound up creating a powerful niche in cardiology. Stereotaxis and its corporate partners have developed innovative technologies that enable physicians to deliver treatment by navigating proprietary catheters, guidewires, and other delivery devicesusing computer-controlled, externally applied magnetic fieldsthrough blood vessels and chambers of the heart to targeted sites. To date, the company has sold more than 120 of its systems, and clinicians' use of the system has climbed to more than 10,000 procedures.
Valero Reports Its Profit Fell Almost 21%
Valero Energy Corp., the nation's largest independent oil refiner, said Tuesday its third-quarter profit dropped almost 21 percent from a year earlier. The company had warned earlier that lower margins would hurt its results for the July-September period, and the adjusted results came in above Wall Street expectations. Valero's shares rose nearly 3 percent in premarket trading. Chairman and CEO Bill Klesse also said the company will explore a sale of its Aruba refinery. Net income fell to $1.27 billion, or $2.09 per share, from $1.6 billion, or $2.55 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 2 percent to $23.70 billion from $23.24 billion. The company said refining margins in West Coast areas were substantially lower as gasoline and diesel margins fell compared to last year. Margins for other products, like asphalt, lube oils and petrochemical feedstocks, were also considerably lower, Valero said.
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