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US Cellular: We turned down iPhone (AP) : Technet |
- US Cellular: We turned down iPhone (AP)
- Yahoo investor demands board ouster of co-founder (AP)
- Make retro movies on 35mm film with the LomoKino toy video cam (Yahoo! News)
- Just Show Me: How to rent movies on your Android phone or tablet (Yahoo! News)
- Google Could Be Planning to Completely Disrupt the TV Business [REPORT] (Mashable)
- Anonymous won't expose Mexican cartel's "servants" (Reuters)
- Groupon shares surge but concerns linger (Reuters)
- Sprint says may use debt to fund Clearwire (Reuters)
- HTC Rezound will be Android 4.0 ready (Appolicious)
- The Week's Top 20 in Social Media (The Atlantic Wire)
- Nook Tablet expected to be unveiled Monday (Reuters)
- This little piggy went to market: Oink hits the iTunes App Store (Appolicious)
- Jumping 3D printed spider-bots created to help save lives not enslave them (Digital Trends)
- Next Kindle Fire may have an 8.9-inch screen (Digital Trends)
- iPhone 4S top selling phone on America's three largest carriers (Digital Trends)
- Openwave shares spurt on Microsoft deal and Q1 profit (Reuters)
- Arrest at The Sun spreads Murdoch hacking scandal (AP)
| US Cellular: We turned down iPhone (AP) Posted: 04 Nov 2011 11:38 AM PDT NEW YORK – U.S. Cellular Corp., the country's sixth-largest cellphone company, on Friday said it had the opportunity to carry the iPhone but turned it down because the phone is too expensive. It's the first U.S. carrier to acknowledge turning down the phone. Consumers pay $200 for the base model of the iPhone 4S, but Apple charges carriers about $600 for it. Carriers count on making their money back in service fees over the life of the contract. U.S. Cellular CEO Mary Dillon told analysts on an earnings conference call Friday that "the terms were unacceptable from a risk and profitability standpoint." She didn't provide any details, but said the added load the iPhone could have placed on its data network was not a big consideration. Chicago-based U.S. Cellular has 5.9 million subscribers, a number that has been shrinking slowly over the past two and a half years. Only a quarter of its subscribers on contract-based plans have smartphones, compared with half at AT&T Inc. Carriers see the ability to sell the iPhone as a crucial competitive advantage, though its high price means it's not an easy path to profits. Sprint started selling the phone last month and has said it will take two years for it to pay off. AT&T was the exclusive U.S. carrier for Apple Inc.'s phone for three and a half years, until Verizon Wireless got it in February. Now, tiny Mississippi-based carrier C Spire Wireless is set to add it too. T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest carrier, has a data network that isn't compatible with the iPhone. |
| Yahoo investor demands board ouster of co-founder (AP) Posted: 04 Nov 2011 02:23 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO – A major Yahoo shareholder believes the slumping Internet company would be better off without Jerry Yang on its board as it mulls a possible sale. In a Friday letter to Yahoo's board, hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb asserts Yang has too many conflicts of interest to keep the board seat he has held since starting the company more than 16 years ago. Loeb, who owns a 5.2 percent stake in Yahoo Inc. through a fund called Third Point LLC, based his conclusion on published reports that Yang has been talking to several buyout firms about joining forces to buy a controlling stake in the company. The letter lists the Texas Pacific Group, Providence Equity Partners, Silver Lake, KKR & Co. and the Blackstone Group as the firms talking to Yang. In a statement, a Yahoo reiterated its board has been exploring various ways to boost the company's stock price and brushed off the reports cited in Loeb's letter as "rumor and speculation." "Mr. Yang is one of nine directors with the exact same fiduciary duties and motivation as all of his fellow directors — to serve the best interests of all the company's shareholders," Yahoo said. Loeb questioned whether Yang is more interested in selling Yahoo to the highest bidder or negotiating a deal that keeps the company in "friendly hands." The letter also refers to Yang's "ineptitude" in 2008 when he squandered an opportunity to sell Yahoo to Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share — more than twice the company's current market value. "It is now clear that (Yang) is simply not aligned with shareholders," Loeb wrote. Yang holds a 3.6 percent stake in Yahoo, meaning he no longer owns as much of the company as Loeb does. The attack on Yang is the latest bit of drama at a company that has been immersed in a soap opera since former movie mogul Terry Semel resigned as CEO to placate frustrated shareholders in mid-2007. Yang then took a stab at being CEO, only to spend much of his time at the top fending off Microsoft's unsolicited takeover bid and jousting with another brash shareholder, Carl Icahn. Microsoft eventually withdrew its offer in exasperation and Icahn gained three seats on the company's board before Yang turned over the CEO job to Carol Bartz in January 2009. Loeb entered the picture two months ago after Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock fired Bartz in a brusque phone call. In an in initial attempt to shake up the board, Loeb urged Yang in a Sept. 14 letter to work with him to oust Bostock, who has been lambasted by other unhappy shareholders during the past three years.. Now Loeb wants both Yang and Bostock to be tossed from the board so he can be awarded two director seats. If he doesn't get his way, Loeb indicated he is prepared to finance a shareholder rebellion against the board — a tactic that Icahn used in 2008 to muscle his way into the company's boardroom. Icahn stepped down from the board two years ago. Besides discussing a possible sale to buyout firms, Yahoo is also believed to be considered selling its holdings in China's Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan. Those Asian stakes could fetch as much as $16 billion before taxes, based on analyst estimates. Yahoo shares fell 24 cents Friday to close at $15.24. |
| Make retro movies on 35mm film with the LomoKino toy video cam (Yahoo! News) Posted: 04 Nov 2011 06:57 PM PDT |
| Just Show Me: How to rent movies on your Android phone or tablet (Yahoo! News) Posted: 04 Nov 2011 06:48 PM PDT |
| Google Could Be Planning to Completely Disrupt the TV Business [REPORT] (Mashable) Posted: 03 Nov 2011 05:18 PM PDT |
| Anonymous won't expose Mexican cartel's "servants" (Reuters) Posted: 04 Nov 2011 06:19 PM PDT (Reuters) – Latin American members of the activist hacker group Anonymous called off a planned November 5 plan to expose people associated with the Zetas, Mexico's most violent drug cartel, according to the group's blog. In a post written in Spanish on the group's Latin American blog, the members said they had called off the action after the Zetas met a demand to release a kidnapped group member, and that: "We can say that, while bruised, he is alive and well." The hacker group said the person was freed with a note warning that if information were released, the cartel would make the kidnapped member's family suffer, and kill 10 people for each exposed name. Anonymous members previously threatened by video to release names and addresses of taxi drivers, journalists and police officers who they said acted as "loyal servants" to the cartel to see if that would prompt arrests. They said they were "fed up" with the cartel's actions, particularly the alleged kidnapping. For much of the week, people claiming to be Anonymous members have gone back and forth saying the hacker action was canceled or would go ahead. Anonymous, a loosely knit group that has attacked financial and government websites around the world, had in September claimed responsibility for orchestrating the shutdown of several Mexican government ministries, but did not give a reason for that action. Barrett Brown, a Texas hacker who posted details about the planned action, said via his Twitter account: "I will be continuing the fight against the cartels." Brown said via a post on Pastebin he would avoid revealing names that would trigger the ire of the Zetas but still intended to send information to the German newspaper Der Spiegel for confirmation. "In the meanwhile, I will be going after other cartels with the assistance of those who have come forward with new information and offers of assistance," he said. (Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh) |
| Groupon shares surge but concerns linger (Reuters) Posted: 04 Nov 2011 05:45 PM PDT NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Shares of Groupon Inc surged as much as 56 percent on Friday, a solid debut aided by a small number of shares sold, yet still fell short of the first-day performances of recent Internet IPOs. Groupon's stock closed up 31 percent but the first day pop paled in comparison to LinkedIn, the professional social network that went public in May, whose shares doubled in their debut. Real estate website Zillow also nearly doubled in its debut in July. Groupon sells Internet coupons for everything from spa treatments to nose jobs and is one of this year's most closely watched IPOs. It has won plaudits for its phenomenal growth, but its ability to sustain that expansion in the face of intense competition from the likes of Google Inc has been questioned. Still, a strong first few trading days could help other private Web companies -- such as Angie's List, social gaming firm Zynga and even Facebook -- pursue their own IPOs. Groupon's offering, the largest by a U.S. Internet company since Google's in 2004, is the first major IPO since the market descended into a slump in August. There remains a huge backlog of companies that filed to go public earlier this year, then put their plans on hold. "They wanted to have a decent pop on the stock so they didn't take that much public," said David Berman, a consumer technology and retail specialist at hedge fund firm Durban Capital. "They created demand by limiting supply, and they got the pop." After a grueling year of preparing for the IPO, Chief Executive Andrew Mason -- now worth $1.2 billion with ownership of over 46 million shares -- and Chairman Eric Lefkofsky rang the opening bell on the Nasdaq, then hugged in Times Square. Dozens of people involved in the IPO -- including bankers, investors, current and former employees -- painted a picture of the excruciating path the three-year-old Web phenom took to become the first daily deals site to go public in the United States. "We continue to be concerned about Groupon's model, especially given the low barrier for entry into this space," said Michael Yoshikami, head of money-management firm YCMNET Investment Committee. "But it's a familiar name and investors tend to gravitate to familiar names at first." The shares rose as high as $31.14, or 56 percent above the IPO price, at one point pushing the market value of the company to $19.9 billion. They closed at $26.11, 31 percent above their $20 IPO price and granting Groupon a value of $16.7 billion. CRACKLE AND POP Groupon put up the third-highest trading volume on the Nasdaq Friday, with nearly 50 million shares changing hands. A spokeswoman for Deutsche Boerse AG's International Securities Exchange said it expects to list options on Groupon on November 14, with other major exchanges expected to follow suit. Options can be used to bet on the direction of stocks, or to hedge stock positions. Groupon was founded in October 2008 and has never been profitable. In the nine months ended September 30, it posted a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $308.1 million on revenue of $1.1 billion. Employees at company headquarters in Chicago donned lime green T-shirts emblazoned with the company's ticker symbol "GRPN" printed in old, ticker-tape-style lettering. Some analysts and investors warn that Groupon's early surge could be a short-term phenomenon and its shares could reverse course and trade down like those of Internet radio station Pandora Media Inc. There are still lingering questions about Groupon's business model and about competition from better-funded rivals such as Amazon.com Inc and Google. Groupon has lost two chief operating officers in the past year and had to adjust its accounting twice under regulatory pressure. Still, a small float helped drum up demand. On Thursday, Groupon upsized its IPO and sold 35 million shares for $20 each. But that stake amounts to only about 5 percent of the company. Underwriters on the IPO were led by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. The $700 million raised was on the larger side for a U.S. IPO, but the 5.5 percent represented the second-smallest share float in the United States in the past decade, according to capital markets data provider Ipreo. "There's a lot of excitement around the shares. But we should put this in context. The company sold 35 million shares and almost 29 million traded in less than an hour," Morningstar analyst Rick Summer said. That suggested heavy "flipping", or investors selling stock they got in the IPO. "We don't think they can have 50 percent growth and make money at the same time," Summer said. "They have to pay to launch new categories, get new merchants and new customers. They have to spend to grow." (Reporting by Clare Baldwin, Brendan McDermid, Rodrigo Campos, Edward Krudy and Phil Wahba in New York, Alistair Barr in San Francisco and James Kelleher and Doris Frankel in Chicago; editing by Derek Caney, Gerald E. McCormick, Steve Orlofsky, Andre Grenon and Bernard Orr) |
| Sprint says may use debt to fund Clearwire (Reuters) Posted: 04 Nov 2011 06:21 PM PDT (Reuters) – Sprint Nextel Corp said it could use the proceeds from a private debt offer to fund Clearwire Corp, sending shares in the cash-strapped high-speed wireless firm up 8 percent on Friday. But one research firm warned that hopes for Sprint's participation in a long-awaited financing deal for Clearwire may have been too high. Sprint sold $4 billion in bonds on Friday, according to underwriters. The company had included Clearwire funding among possible uses for the debt proceeds when it announced the offering on Friday morning. But Sprint executives later told debt investors that Clearwire's inclusion on that list did not indicate any increased willingness to fund the debt-strapped wireless network operator, according to one investor. "Specifically, they said they were not going to invest any more that would put them above a 50 percent voting share in Clearwire," said Scott Dinsdale, a vice president for KDP Investment Advisors, a research and asset management firm. Dinsdale said he participated in an investor call held by lead manager JPMorgan to discuss the debt offering. Sprint has a majority stake in Clearwire but holds less than 50 percent of voting rights in the company, as a way to insulate itself in the case of a Clearwire default. Sprint, whose credit rating was downgraded on Friday, declined to comment beyond a brief statement in which it said other potential uses for the proceeds could be repaying existing debt and upgrading its network. SPRINT RAISES $4 BLN Shares in Clearwire closed up 8 percent on Friday, after rising as high as 28 percent. Sprint had previously refused to say if it would help Clearwire's current efforts to raise almost $1 billion in financing. But KDP's Dinsdale said Sprint told the conference call it only included Clearwire on the list for legal reasons. Mizuho analyst Michael Nelson said it would have been striking if Sprint had not included Clearwire. "It provides a glimmer of hope," said Nelson. Investor nerves have frayed after Sprint executives triggered a 32 percent drop in Clearwire's shares on October 7, when they suggested at an investor conference that a Clearwire bankruptcy could be "constructive." Sprint, Clearwire's biggest customer, also said at the event that it would only sell phones for Clearwire's current service through the end of 2012. Sprint has since softened its tone. It said on October 26 that it was negotiating an expansion of its network deal with Clearwire, but refused then to discuss funding prospects. Clearwire is seeking up to $300 million to fund operations and about $600 million for a network upgrade that it urgently needs to help it compete with rivals and win wholesale customers other than Sprint. It said earlier this week that the companies were in talks but that they had "gaps" due to differing strategic goals. Even after Friday's move, Clearwire's low share price indicated investor concern that it could still end up filing for bankruptcy, Mizuho's Nelson said. Standard & Poor's CCC+ rating of Clearwire also indicates a bankruptcy risk. SPRINT DOWNGRADE A Clearwire spokesman declined to comment. Clearwire said earlier this week that it has enough money to fund its operations for the next 12 months. Sprint itself needs to raise financing to upgrade its network and pay for the high cost of its agreement with Apple Inc to sell iPhone. S&P downgraded Sprint's corporate credit rating one notch to B+ from BB- on Friday but said it is no longer under review for another downgrade. Ratings downgrades tend to increase the cost of raising capital. Sprint said on October 26 that it could need up to $7 billion in new financing. On Friday it priced $4 billion in two tranches, including $3 billion in junior guaranteed notes due in 2018 with a 9 percent yield. The second tranche was $1 billion of non-guaranteed notes due in 2021 with an 11.5 percent yield, according to underwriters of the debt. One source familiar with the matter had said earlier in the day that Sprint was looking to issue $2 billion to $2.5 billion in junior guaranteed 2018 notes at a yield of 9 percent and $500 million of 2021 unguaranteed debt for about 11.5 percent. Clearwire closed up 14 cents, or 8 percent, at $1.89 after touching $2.25 earlier in the session on Nasdaq. Sprint closed up 6 cents or 2 percent at $2.87 on New York Stock Exchange. (Additional reporting by Stephen Carter in New York; editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Derek Caney, Bernard Orr and Richard Chang) |
| HTC Rezound will be Android 4.0 ready (Appolicious) Posted: 04 Nov 2011 07:40 AM PDT |
| The Week's Top 20 in Social Media (The Atlantic Wire) Posted: 04 Nov 2011 01:27 PM PDT
Related: Is Facebook Turning Us Into Lonely Robots? Or Worse? The social media sphere is an increasingly noisy place, especially for brands. But hiding somewhere in the static, some companies are sending strong signals that reaches their customers in innovative ways. The Dachis Group has recently begun a real-time ranking of which companies have the most effective social strategies with their Social Business Index. Each Friday we're taking a tally of who's getting heard, what they're saying and why it matters. Related: How Facebook's 'Like' Button Is Taking Over the Internet Related: Facebook's Middle East Censorship Problem Related: Prius Drivers Will Get Their Own Social Network Related: Catching Up with Google+, Facebook Unveils Skype Integration Facebook seems to suffer from the opposite problem as Reuters. "There had been a flurry of product launches and upgrade announcements in recent weeks, both of which are extremely buzz-worthy events," Dachis data analyst Ahmed Khamash explained to The Atlantic Wire. "The company has since gone dormant in outbound communications having not posted anything in almost two weeks to their main two community outlets, a Facebook Page and a Twitter account." This doesn't mean that Facebook has been out of the news entirely, but the lines of communication on social networks have slackened significantly since last week. Facebook's communication team didn't respond to our questions about their strategy and plans, but Khamash thinks this uncharacteristically bad showing is short-lived anyhow. "Also in the conversation is the public threat from hacker group Anonymous pledging to take down the social networking giant on November 5th," he says. "It looks as though Facebook has lost it's stronghold at the top of the rankings for the time being, but this is not likely to last long." JetBlue was an early adopter of Facebook and Twitter as customer service venues and their sky-rocketing success in building buzz over the past week proves that they're still ahead of the curve. Last weekend, an incedent that left several JetBlue planes sitting on the tarmac for 7-hours before deboarding understandably upset many of their customers, but Khamash tells us that JetBlue "did well to address the situation in a timely manner." We reached out to JetBlue's social media team who explained how they handle incidents like this. "During last weekend’s events, we responded to inquiries via Twitter in real-time and pushed a BlueTales blog post out on Sunday," JetBlue's Allison Steinberg told us in an email. "Additionally, we published a video message from our Chief Operating Officer on Monday on our YouTube channel and our BlueTales blog." JetBlue's massive following, including 1.6 million Twitter followers, means that these messages get spread widely. And the key to the strategy, Steinberg suggests, is transparency. "We understand that keeping open doors — whether it’s to help prepare customers for an upcoming weather event or to share stories from inside the company to explain how JetBlue (and airlines in general) run — helps create a more intimate relationship with our customers," she said. Methodology: A project of the Dachis Group, a social business professional services group, the Social Business Index analyzes the conversations on social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and othrs. The index, which currently covers approximately 25,0000 companies and 27,000 brands, detects behaviors and activities exhibited by these companies, analyzes their execution and effectiveness at driving outcomes such as brand awareness, brand love, mind share, and advocacy. The Atlantic Wire takes a snapshot of the rankings at the close of business on Thursdays. |
| Nook Tablet expected to be unveiled Monday (Reuters) Posted: 04 Nov 2011 05:52 PM PDT NEW YORK (TheWrap) – When Amazon unveiled its first tablet, the Kindle Fire, in September, most tech experts and analysts predicted it would be the first real challenger to Apple's iPad. Now, before the Kindle Fire has even debuted, Engadget is reporting that a familiar foe is also entering the tablet market -- Barnes & Noble. The company has invited journalists and analysts to a news conference in New York November 7, where everyone expects Barnes & Noble to unveil the Nook Tablet. As of now, the Nook is an e-reader, but one with a lot of different versions. Some are black and white, some are color, some offer Internet access and others don't. The tablet is expected to be a lot like the Nook Color Reader, though one would expect there to be some more features. Like the Kindle Fire, this tablet seems to be reusing a popular brand name - Nook - and will have a seven-inch screen. According to various tech blogs, it will be priced at $249 -- $50 more than the Kindle Fire. |
| This little piggy went to market: Oink hits the iTunes App Store (Appolicious) Posted: 04 Nov 2011 08:18 AM PDT |
| Jumping 3D printed spider-bots created to help save lives not enslave them (Digital Trends) Posted: 04 Nov 2011 01:41 PM PDT
Inspiration for the spider-robots came after the researchers spent months studying real life arachnids. Because of their excellent mobility, the eight-legged spider-bots are able to access areas simply unreachable by humans and other technological devices. The spider-bot relay information to researchers thanks to its built-in camera, sensor, and measuring equipment. According to Fraunhofer, the robots are even able to jump by pumping fluid into its limbs. The method of 3D printing, which utilizes a process called selective laser sintering helps produces these rather large spider-bots quickly — reducing cost and allowing for multiple bot construction at the same time. While there are no concrete plans to begin mass-producing these eight-legged arachnid bots, Fraunhofer will be showcasing its impressive prototype at the EuroMold 2011 trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany from November 29th to December 2nd. [Source: Tecca]
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends More from Digital Trends MI6 hacks Al-Qaeda website, swaps bomb instructions for cupcake recipes British architectural firm proposes complete overhaul of UK infrastructure with the Thames River Hub Boeing’s Dreamliner completes first commercial flight (finally) |
| Next Kindle Fire may have an 8.9-inch screen (Digital Trends) Posted: 04 Nov 2011 09:29 AM PDT
The rumor mill is turning again. Before its first tablet has even hit shelves, Amazon is rumored to be prepping its next Kindle Fire, which will have an 8.9-inch screen. The first Kindle Fire has a 7-inch screen and is being sold for $200, which is either at cost or losing Amazon money with each unit sold. We imagine that a large screen would mean even higher costs, but it's hard to know what the online retailer has planned. The Kindle Fire is seen as a loss leader. Amazon may lose money on the hardware, but it plans to make it back by selling apps, games, music, books and other media on the device. DigiTimes reports that Amazon's current 7-inch screen suppliers, Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) and LG Display (LGD) have begun preparations to manufacture 8.9-inch displays for a future tablet device. The site also says that after Amazon launches its 8.9-inch tablet, the company may move to a 9.7- or 10.1-inch model in 2012. Honestly, from our experience with tablets so far, 8.9 inches may be the perfect tablet size, as we noted in our Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 review. It's small enough to hold and thumb type on, but not so small that it feels like an oversized smartphone. You get the benefit of a full-screen experience without the bulk that comes with larger screens. If this rumor is true, it would mean that Amazon may announce an 8.9-inch tablet fairly early in 2012. This seems odd as the company usually sticks to a yearly product lifecycle for its Kindle e-reader products. The tablet market is moving quickly, however, so it's hard to say what will happen come CES in January. To learn more about the Kindle Fire, check out our full impressions of the new tablet. This article was originally posted on Digital Trends More from Digital Trends Amazon may bring Silk browser to PC, Mac, Android, and Windows Phone Amazon Android tablets may launch in Aug-Sept Rumors of an ‘iPad mini’ begin to surface Our Kindle Fire impressions and why Amazon is destined to dominate |
| iPhone 4S top selling phone on America's three largest carriers (Digital Trends) Posted: 04 Nov 2011 03:26 PM PDT
After selling 4 million phones in the first weekend it was expected that the iPhone 4S would produce some very impressive numbers. Something that might not have been expected is the fact the over a year old iPhone 4 is in the top three selling phones for each carrier. Sadly we aren't able to see which phone(s) bested the iPhone 4 and on which networks. With the Droid RAZR coming out on November 11 it will be very interesting to see if it will be able to unseat the iPhone on Verizon's network. There does not seem to be any real contenders coming out in November for Sprint so it seems as though the iPhone is safe on that network. AT&T will be releasing the HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket on November 6, but with so few LTE areas it is very unlikely that they will have overwhelming sales. It seems as though Apple is in a fantastic place sales wise leading into the holiday season. While we fully expect the iPhone 4S to remain the top selling phone for the foreseeable future, we are curious how long the iPhone 4 can compete.
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends More from Digital Trends Apple confirms bug in iOS 5 causing battery life issues Droid Razr vs iPhone 4S: Verizon super-phone showdown |
| Openwave shares spurt on Microsoft deal and Q1 profit (Reuters) Posted: 04 Nov 2011 06:30 AM PDT (Reuters) – Shares of Openwave Systems Inc rose 30 percent in pre-market trade on Friday, a day after the software maker reported a surprise first-quarter profit and announced that Microsoft Corp agreed to license itss patent portfolio. Openwave, which makes software for telecom operators to give customers wireless access to data and applications, said Microsoft was the first to license its entire portfolio of about 200 patents, including wireless and cloud patents. The company, which has filed several patent infringement complaints against tech bigwigs Apple and Research In Motion, said it would continue to invest in protecting its intellectual property. Separately, Openwave also reported a surprise first-quarter profit of 11 cents helped by service and patents revenue growth. Analysts on average expected the company to report a loss of 8 cents per share for the quarter. Shares of the company which have lost 29 percent since the start of this year, recuperated all their losses to close at $1.57 on Nasdaq on Thursday. They were trading at $2.04 in Friday's pre-market trading. (Reporting by Siddharth Cavale in Bangalore) |
| Arrest at The Sun spreads Murdoch hacking scandal (AP) Posted: 04 Nov 2011 10:01 AM PDT LONDON – A journalist at Rupert Murdoch's The Sun tabloid has been arrested on suspicion of police corruption, British media reported Friday, a development that spreads the taint of scandal to the country's biggest-selling newspaper. U.K. broadcasters and newspapers identified the journalist as award-winning editor Jamie Pyatt, whose name appeared on one of The Sun's most sensational scoops — a story with a photograph showing Prince Harry attending a costume party dressed in Nazi garb. The Associated Press could not immediately confirm whether Pyatt had been arrested, although the Sun's publisher, News International, confirmed that one of its current employees had been detained. Police said only they had apprehended a 48-year-old man "outside of London" and had brought him to the capital for questioning. Public records show that Pyatt lives in Windsor, just outside of London. Word of Pyatt's arrest first broke on Twitter, where photographer Alison Webster, who has worked for the Sun, said Pyatt had been arrested. Contacted by the AP, Webster said she was only repeating something she'd heard from a colleague. The Sun is Britain's highest-circulation daily, putting out more than 2.7 million copies a day, according to Britain's Audit Bureau of Circulation. It was once one of Murdoch's most profitable papers and until recently wielded considerable political influence — the paper famously claimed to have swung the 1992 election in favor of Britain's right-leaning Conservatives. An ethics scandal at the Sun could mean further legal and financial problems for Murdoch's global media empire, which has already had to write off $91 million in restructuring costs linked to the closure of its now-defunct News of the World tabloid. The paper was shut down in July after it emerged that its staff had routinely intercepted the cell phone voicemails of public figures — including celebrities, sports stars, politicians, and even crime victims. The scandal has shaken Britain's establishment, leading to the resignation of the prime minister's top media aide — a former News of the World editor — and two of the country's most senior police officers. More than a dozen journalists, most of them former News of the World employees, have since been arrested. More revelations about wrongdoing at the tabloid could still emerge. British police say the paper could have targeted over 5,795 people in its relentless quest for scoops, and the company faces 60 active lawsuits related to the phone hacking, according to Tamsin Allen, a lawyer who's coordinating the litigation. Costs are expected to run into the tens of millions of dollars. In a bid to control its legal fees, News International said Friday it was unrolling a compensation program supervised by a retired judge that would settle cases quickly and out of court. News International called the program "a speedy, cost-effective alternative to litigation" for people who had been spied upon by the News of the World, although victims' lawyers suggested the company was trying to save on attorney's fees. "That's a commercial decision — they're saving a lot of money on legal costs with this procedure," said Allen. She acknowledged that some victims could find such a plan useful, but others might have questions that "will only be answered if they're pushed through the courts with the power of disclosure." Mark Lewis, another victims' lawyer, said it was not clear how hacking victims would be treated by an out-of-court settlement system. He did say one of his clients, the family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, whose phone was hacked by reporters investigating her disappearance, managed to get a 2 million pound ($3.2 million) payout from News International without going to trial. ___ Associated Press writer Cassandra Vinograd contributed to this report. ___ Online: The compensation plan: http://www.newsint.co.uk/compensationscheme/ |
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