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Thursday, February 22, 2007

Cisco's WiFi Unit Gets a Boost From iPhone Settlement

Sponsored Article

Cisco has been making big news over the last few weeks as they worked to settle a deal with Apple over the trademark of the iPhone. Both parties settled up today and Cisco walked away from the deal in very good shape.

They owned the trademark iPhone going into the talks and walked out with a commitment from Apple to enable interoperability of their systems.

Cisco had launched the iPhone late last year as part of their wifi Wireless Group. Now as they come out of this deal with Apple their WiFi and VOIP products suddenly inherit an entirely new level of attraction as Apple iPod lovers seeking the iPhone will consider bringing in WiFi Wireless products and phone compatible with the devices and service at home.

Cisco covers many other products including VOIP, Networks and data centre solutions.

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Whole Foods Sews Wild Oats

Whole Food Market will buy Wild Oats Markets for $564 million.  Wild Oats is a chain of natural and organic food markets in Northern America.

The offer came from Whole Food Market after Wild Oats suffered the loss of its CEO and CFO.  It was apparently an opportunistic buy accepted by the interim CEO of Wild Oats.  The stock of Wild Oats had been down graded after the shake up of senior leader ship.  Whole Food Market will acquire 110 stores in 24 states and plans to put them through an upgrade, the purchase and possibly the upgrade will likely be financed with borrowings.  Wild Oats had annual sales of $1.2 billion.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Choosing a good Cell phone plan with WireFly and Tabbed Browsing

Sponsored Article

Many people these days spontaneously switch from one cell plan to the next when their contract comes up. Some people even pay to get out of old contracts paying out up to $200 or sometimes a pro-rated amount depending on the remaining time on their contract. 

They look at the new cell phone plan and sometimes make quick judgements about how many minutes to get and what texting options or internet options they need. 

The problem is that they are often in the middle of a transition and they are attempting to compare apples to oranges in a plan from mobile company A to a new plan from Mobile Company B.

Our sponsor Wirefly makes the switch easier to find not just a good cell phone deal but the cell phone deal that fits the best for your needs.  They can help you find the great price on that new cell phone as they walk you through the mobile carrier options.  All of the mobile carriers subsidize their cellular phone and at the end of the day the prices from one carrier to the next are not that different.  They may brand a RAZR with variations on the color pink, but its still a pink RAZR at the end of the day.

The service package offering, the ala carte options for those plans and the service package pricing provide the devilish details that make choosing a good plan complex and that is where Wirefly can help you make a better decision and more informed choice.

Through their site you can shop plans through the major US carriers, through prepaid plan providers and even many of the specialty or regional carriers like Amp'd or US Cellular or Disney Mobile.  Plus, I'll give you a tip to help price compare.

1.  Enter your zip code and then right click on one of the options for a carrier to submit the zip code and have it open the result in a new tab.

2.  Go back to the original screen and repeat this for each carrier you are interested in.  Then you can compare carrier to carrier plan to plan results in multiple tabs!

Note it does help to have Firefox or IE7 to do this as the new browsers support tabbed internet browsing.

SANYO Energy and Digi-Key announce Distribution Agreement

SANYO Energy (USA) Corporation and Digi-Key Corporation announced a new distribution agreement this week.

Digi-Key will be stocking lithium, nickel-cadmium and nickel metal hydride batteries and battery packs made by SANYO.  The agreement will allow SANYO to focus on research and development of its battery technologies while Digi-Key expands its battery product offerings.

Digi-Key offers over 875,000 products from over 300 manufacturers.  The move is expected to allow SANYO Energy (USA) greater focus in their engineering center, while Digi-Key will work to cover the application and design at the actual product level.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Rent to Own 2.0

A word from our Sponsor

As interest rates and inflation start to creep up, more consumers are starting to weigh the benefits of owning versus renting.  When interest rates on credit cards were in the low single digits, it typically made sense to go with a purchase for many shoppers.  However, as those rates increase and especially as they increase for the much differentiated  realms of credit customers renting to own options make more sense.

There is an added dimension when moves are considered.  Many people are moving more often with the real estate boom.  Moves are hard on furniture and renting to own makes more sense for habitual relocators that back up and move with their company every couple of years.  Why buy something that will get damaged during a move every two years when you can rent and start fresh in two years. This example is being partly fueled by consumers that have gained similar experience in car leases.  They are more savvy about the right times an the wrong times to lease.

Our sponsor Colortyme Rent to Own is a good example of a rent to own company that is capitalizing on changes in dynamics in the economy and in consumers lease knowledge. Plus they are moving the rent to own model and leveraging it through their online presence making it possible to establish a national brand that does not have some of the historical perception baggage that has troubled their competitors. They are growing and expanding out more fueled by changes in these demographics and their applied applications of technology.

Balanced Distributor Agreements Create Poor Financial Results for Retailers

In researching a related topic I came across an excellent article written by Geln Balzer at ExperLaw in 2003.  The article titled Constructing a Balanced Distributor Agreement covers the importance of creating a balanced agreement, understanding how imbalance occurs and the competing dynamics of Perceived Value versus Terms and Conditions.

As a distribution contract manager for several years, I have seen hundreds of agreements come and go in many varieties.  This article expresses a very important kernel of wisdom that any supplier or distributor or retailer should learn.  A one sided unbalanced distribution agreement will not survive the test of time and usually ends with many potential business opportunities unrealized.

When a Supplier or a Distributor attempts to get the upper hand in a distribution agreement, the other party will lose a little and this will be the seed that grows up to be a renegotiation or an exit strategy for the losing party to the deal.  Many large retailers have extremely one side agreements that penalize distribution partners and distribution suppliers for many different issues.  Most of these same retailers have troubled businesses as well. 

It is important for companies to stay focused on what is really important and overly complicated and unbalanced agreements often time create situations where the retailer and distributor focus on the most painful metrics in the agreement instead of focusing on the fundamental and most important aspect of getting business done successfully.  When every department that has costs is transformed into a business with its own revenue center, the company transforms from a thorough bred horse into a multi headed hydra that can not focus on one course of direction.  Show many any retailer in the United States that has financial difficulties and I will show you an agreement that is too long, too complex and very unbalanced.

Cashing Out on Life Insurance before You Cash Out on Life

An important message from our sponsors . . .

You can't take it with you is a truism in life that we will only completely learn after we go to the grave.  Many people take out life insurance policies for very sound reasons.  Covering death expenses, providing for loved ones or family, covering the loss of income if we perish, or even providing for the expenses of our estate after death.

Often times people bulk up on life insurance in their early years when the rates are cheaper.  They are growing families and starting to hit the highest earning years of their lives.  They purchase large policies to cover all of the unknowns in life. 

  • Who will take care of my wife and kids if I die?
  • Who will pay the mortgage or property taxes or Estate Taxes?
  • Who will take care of my parents?

As they make it past this season of life and move into retirement, their needs change.  Often times they do not have as many of risks to cover.  Their kids are grown and taking care of themselves.  Their parents may no longer be living.  The house is paid for or close to paid for.  The only concerns are the certainties in life, death and taxes.

Death and Taxes do not necessarily require an insurance policy of hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Similarly, retirees on a fixed income may need to compliment their retirement.

So the natural choice is to rebalance their investments and possibly consider decreasing their life insurance policy.  Your insurance agent can not give you back much of your value.  Surrender values are low and so its not worth the trouble.

Solution through Life Settlements

Our Sponsor provides Life/Viatical Settlements for people. They can help clients sell their insurance policies to investment bankers and bring in a market rate for the life insurance policy as opposed to a surrender value. The house can be paid off with the balance. A smaller more practical anuity can be established for the taxes. This just leaves death lurking in the wings, but at least you can get out there and enjoy the years to come. With surplus money in the bank, you might even be able to live healthier or move to a warmer climate or near to children and grand children and cheat death a few months and years.

Coke Settles Lawsuit with Bottlers

Coke has managed to put a difficult battle behind it.  Last year a suit was filed against the Coca-Cola Co as they attempted to realign distribution with Wal-Mart.  Originally, Coke products were distributed direct to store.  Wal-Mart wanted the distribution to go through its efficient network of distribution centers instead.  Coke wanted to please the world's largest retailer and said yes.

Lawsuit

This prompted all of the smaller bottlers and regional distributors to get sliced out of the Wal-Mart food chain.  So they filed a lawsuit to prevent the test of the distribution of the PowerAde product.

Settlement

The bottlers won that right in the settlement.  They make up about 11% of Coke's North American distribution volume.  The two groups of parties to the lawsuit have agreed to test a new distribution systems with Wal-Mart and other customers together.  The move was successful for the smaller regional bottlers.  It was also successful for Coca-Cola, which will benefit from supply partners that have now received an extreme and not to subtle wake up call.  Improve your distribution to please Wal-Mart or you will not remain our partner.

Friday, February 09, 2007

DUI Defense Options

Sponsored Article

Our Sponsor Rick Mueller, a San Diego DUI attorney, who runs the San Diego County DUI Law Center and SanDiegoDuiLawyer.com is one of the only DMV-DUI attorneys to have been featured five times as the speaker at DUI seminars in San Diego County.  Rick Mueller is also a recognized contributor to the California Drunk Driving Law book.

SanDiegoDuiLawyer.com features a victory page of dozens of DUI's that have been successfully defended.  The center uses several proven strategies to defend DUI case as outlined in detail on their DUI breath test defense page.  This page helps people charged with DUI's and their employers better understand the potential for false charges and recognize the path forward to defend against those charges in court.

 

AMD Appoints Synnex for Asia Distribution

Following the acquisition of ATI by AMD, AMD is now capitalizing on the relationships of ATI.  They have selected a former ATI partner Synnex and they are working to build out the channels previously established in Asia by ATI now under the cumulative ownership of AMD.

AMD hopes to grow the Asia channel out more thoroughly through the former ATI graphics card distribution.  They hope to see great things from Synnex that will build up the CPU and GPU channel especially as it relates to the AMD 64 platform.

Villas in Italy

Sponsored Article

Nothing sounds more relaxing than settling into a villa in southern Italy.  Life on the Mediterranean Sea, beautiful Italian weather, food and more.  I am a history buff in my spare time and would like nothing better than to be able to study the history of the region first hand, experiencing the architecture possibly even volunteering on archaeology excavations. 

Just to get away from the hustle and bustle maybe invest in some Property in Calabria, Italy and settle into a simpler form of life. Of course the grass is always greener on the other side, but if you work at anything hard enough you can make it happen and realize your dreams.

Circuit City Change Up Larger than Previously Reported

We reported earlier that Circuit City will be closing a Louisville Distribution center and closing a handful of stores in the US.

Circuit City is also closing about 62 stores in Canada (previously described as international).  Those 62 stores make up about 11% of Circuit Cities stores in Canada according to a report this morning in the Wall Street Journal. 

Circuit City is also changing up its management putting all retail channels under EVP George Clark Jr.  and moved merchandising services and marketing to SVP David Mathews president of the internet and B2B operations.

The changes come following Circuit City's third quarter surprise losses.  The losses were largely due to a flat screen TV price war that left many companies bleeding from losses in all segments of the consumer electronics industry.

Online Commission Rebate Hybrid

Sponsored Articles

A company named Ebates is changing the structure of retail sales forces and rebate management companies.  They are consolidating essentially the commission process with the rebate process and turning the consumer into the sale person at the same time!

Ebates.com has an online account system that allows consumers to setup an account with their company.  The consumers can then make purchases through Ebates system.  Ebates receives an affiliate sales commission from small and large retailers like target.

Ebates keeps a portion and gives the other portion to the consumer after the sale has taken place and the affiliate commission funds have been received.  The commission is essentially turned into a rebate and a portion provided to the consumer for completing the transaction through Ebates. 

Through this model consumers can earn up to 25% Ebate (Rebate Commissions) from their purchases. Ebates system also confirms that the customer completed the transaction and that they utilized Ebates exclusive system for the purchase.

Circuit City Closing Louisville Distribution Center

Louisville BizJounrals reports that Circuit City announced that they will close a 512,000 square foot distribution center in Louisville, Kentucky.  This distribution center is responsible for distributing store fixtures and signs. 

The company will also close 6 stores out of 643 nationwide.  The stores are reported to be either cash-flow negative or very low-volume, low-cash flow stores still setup under older formats that were being phased out any way for "brand reasons."

Circuit City also is tightening its belt slightly internationally where it will close 62 under performing stores.

 

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Mortgage Refinancing Solutions

Sponsored Article

Mortgage rates have inched up over the last two to three years, however rates on unsecured loans like credit cards has risen much faster.  Many consumers have had flipped credit card debt from one teaser rate to another.  However, many people like myself have learned that this solution treats the symptoms and not the root cause.  So there are two things that we can do to fix the problem. 

First we can refinance unsecured debt under a Mortgage Refinance option.  This does transfer unsecured debt to a secured option and might be a poor choice for consumers that have debt problems that could lead to bankruptcy.  However, Mortgage refinancing can lock in a lower rate of interest, saving many consumers a significant amount of interest expense in the long run, which can help them utilize step two.

Second, we need to stop using credit cards and pay off the loan balance.  The savings rate in the US is now a negative 1%.  We are truly as a group spending more than we are saving and that is a direct indication of a significant debt problem in the United States.

Wal-Mart's Losing Class Action Appeal

Wal-Mart lost an appeal to prevent a class action sex bias suit from proceeding.  The suit can now proceed after the appeals court ruled that a lower judge did have the authority to approve the class action formation.

There could be 1.6 million women eligible to join the lawsuit against Wal-Mart.  This would cover women that worked for the retailer since 1998.  Currently a group of women claim that Wal-Mart discriminated against them when it came to pay and promotions.

One of the dissenting judges wrote that the failure of the appeal has the potential to enrich undeserving women, while delaying justice for women that were actual victims of discrimination as not all women that work for Wal-mart seek to be promoted into management.  These words by themselves were written by the dissenting minority, but illustrate a potential further appeal strategy that Wal-Mart could pursue further. 

To give some perspective as to the size of this class action, possibly one of the largest in US history, if 1.6 million women could show that they were deprived of $1000 on average as a result of discrimination the claim just for that portion would total $1.6 billion.  If the average is $10k or $50k then that amount of compensation would total $16 billion and $80 billion respectively.  These amounts are estimates but do not even include damages.

 

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Monex Gold Coins and Precious Metals

Sponsored Article

The Monex Deposit Company (MDC) provides full service options to buyers interested in investing in gold coins, silver ingots and many other precious metals.  Their services include sales, shipping, distribution, storage and many more capabilities.  The company has been in the precious metals business for almost thirty years and brings a fresh perspective to an ancient industry.

They have recently provided a press release extolling their ability to sell gold bullion or silver bullion from their stock piles of precious metals in many different forms.  Precious metals prices have been falling off of one time highs sine last spring as a volatile world economy, high oil prices and political turmoil on several continents have convinced many investors to turn to one of the most ancient safe havens of value.

Brightstars Pan European Shipping Vision: Ship Anywhere in Europe within 24 Hours

Brightstar is moving forward with its pan European wireless distribution vision following its venture into business with Tech Data.  The wireless distribution company based in Miami, Florida plans to be able to ship to any country in Europe from anywhere in Europe within 24 hours of receiving the order.

The company is planning on having the joint venture launched by March once regulatory approvals are received.  The new joint venture will be named Brightstar Europe and will be based in the United Kingdom.

Dell Making Cut Backs to Get Back on Top

Michael Dell released a memo to employees after his return to head the company as CEO that he will trim management and cut bonuses in the company.  He also indicated that he plans to stay with the company for "the next several years."  These cut backs will stem financial losses a bit, but do not show any initiative towards fixing the plethora of problems in the company.

A bad year that hasn't stopped

Dell has seen

  • SEC Investigations
  • Losses of Chief Executives including the CFO Jim Schneider
  • Potential Accounting Improprieties,Shareholder lawsuits against the company and its partner Intel over a rebate program
  • Massive Sony battery Recall
  • Loss of number one computer sales position to HP

Puerto Vallarta Vacation

Sponsored Article

Well the Chairman of Hyundai may be taking a vacation to a rather drab location, but that does not mean that you can not enjoy all the pleasures of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  Our sponsor Vacations.net offers puerto vallarta all inclusive vacation packages to Mexico.

Their easy to navigate site and simple booking engine allow their customers to rapidly find and book the vacation packages they are looking for.  They recently provided a press release extolling their specialization in offering all inclusive vacation packages to Puerto Vallarta and many other spectacular locations in Central America, the Caribbean and South America.  They focus on all inclusive packages to take the unknown variables and risk out of their customers mind so that you can kick back, relax and know that everything is covered up front with no hidden fees or additional expenses.

Hyundai Chairman Sentenced to 3 Years for Embezzling

Chung Mong Koo, the Chairman of Hyundai Motors and son of founder Chung Ju Young, was sentenced to three years in prison in South Korea for setting up slush funds to woo political favors and embezzling.

Given the economic power of Hyundai many analysts expected the chairman to get a suspended sentence, but the courts took a stern and brave course and decided to send the chairman to jail for his micro managerial hand that brought his own admission that he had helped set up slush funds in the automotive conglomerate.

Hyundai is the number six auto manufacturer in the world and investors did not waste time discounting its value by 2.44% after the sentence amidst concerns that the absence will leave a managerial power void in the centrally run conglomerate. 

The courts had hoped that a strict execution of the law would be necessary to clean up some of South Koreas anti-market business practices.  That could be true, but the removal of the chairman will probably also force many Asian conglomerates to reconsider their centralized power and control schemes that leave the head of the company exposed during a scandal and the company exposed when leaders are removed.  The alternative however means that conglomerates will have to build trust with stakeholders and learn to do business more transparently, which will be a tough lesson for the wild west markets of Asia.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Internet Marketing Research Tips and Tricks

The rise of the Internet Market Forum at V7N has recently taken a turn towards greater things.  V7N has offered a Internet Market forum prolific  in a vast array of topics numbering around 543,000 posts as of this writing with almost 21,000 members(almost a thousand online at any given time).  V7N and the Internet Marketing Forum were founded by John Scott, an SEO Specialist among many other interests.

This provides a rich environment for webmasters and marketers looking for information, tips, tricks or trends in Internet Marketing and SEO.  Joining the forum or performing a search on its half million posts is sure to turn up useful information and discussions.  The Internet Marketing Forum covers a focused range of topics including sections focusing on:

  • coding
  • graphic design
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Marketing and Search Engine Marketing
  • Listing in Web Directories
  • Webmaster Revenue Concepts
  • and over a dozen other topics.

 

Dell King of PC Distribution is Back

Michael Dell is returning to the helm of the company he founded Dell Computer.  He is replacing the CEO he hand picked for the job to take over at Dell.

Dell lost its number one PC sales position to HP.  It has also been troubled by the Sony battery recall and most recently warned investors that it would not meet guidance for the fourth quarter.

Michael Dell follows a path set out by many founders that attempt to institute a succession plan and fail only to come back and bring the company back on course.  One of the most famous examples of such a turn around was led by Steve Jobs at another computer company that was losing its ways in the 1990's.