US auto sales power ahead in February

 Economy
Mar 032013
 
US auto sales power ahead in February

DETROIT (AP) — Americans want new cars and trucks, and they’re not letting higher gas prices or political dysfunction stand in their way. New car and truck sales were up four percent in February as rising home construction and cheap financing kept the US auto recovery on track. While the pace of growth is slowing, industry analysts expect more gains in the coming months, saying there’s little that could derail demand for new cars. Car buyers have already shrugged off higher Social Security taxes, which cut their take-home pay starting in January. Gas prices — which rose 36 cents to $3.78 per gallon in February — didn’t change their habits, either. And they ignored the debate over automatic spending cuts that were due to take effect Friday. “Quite frankly, we think most of America is getting a little tired of hearing about some of the dysfunction,” said Kurt McNeil, General Motors Co.’s US sales chief. “We think the fundamentals are strong and that’s what’s important, and that’s what’s driving the economy.” February sales hit an annualized rate of 15.4 million cars and trucks. That’s still short of the recent peak of close to 17 million in 2005, but it’s quite healthy compared with the anemic 10.4 million recorded during the recession in 2009. The industry isn’t likely to see the double-digit monthly gains it saw last year, when Japanese automakers came roaring back after the 2011 earthquake in Japan. Instead, auto companies are settling in for a period of slower Read More …

Local smartphone app created for sari-sari store load sellers

 Economy
Mar 012013
 
Local smartphone app created for sari-sari store load sellers

MANILA, Philippines — A new smartphone application was introduced for “sari-sari” stores or mini-stores in the country which sell prepaid cellphone load credits to their customers. Called the SariLoad, the app was developed by Sari Software Solutions, a local company in the Philippines. The company said SariLoad demonstrates a first-of-its-kind smartphone-based loading app for sari-sari stores. A public demo of the app was made recently at the 2013 Globe National Convention which was attended by Globe Telecom’s load distributors and resellers from all over the Philippines. SariLoad is designed to run on Android-based smartphones and comes packed with features that address the needs of sari-sari store owners. The app was first fielded to several sari-sari stores in a closed beta testing for a few months in order for Sari to gain real-world insights and learning. During the SariLoad demo led by Sari’s CEO and founder Ibba Bernardo, user interface designer Philip Cheang, and product research manager Cristina del Rosario, it only took seconds to perform the task compared to the traditional methods which take a few minutes to sell load, thereby saving sari-sari store owners valuable time and allowing them to serve more customers. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The app can also show how much the store is earning at any given time period. Del Rosario highlighted the creation process for the SariLoad app which took into account all the suggestions of the sari-sari store owners who tested the app. Del Rosario reiterated that such Read More …

Google clings to cash for acquisitions, says CFO

 Economy
Feb 282013
 
Google clings to cash for acquisitions, says CFO

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google plans to cling to its bulging stash of cash to pay for potential acquisitions and other technology investments that might boost future profits, a top executive said Thursday. Patrick Pichette, who oversees Google Inc.’s bank accounts as the company’s chief financial officer, explained the company’s rationale for hoarding $48 billion in cash during a technology conference hosted by Morgan Stanley. “It serves the shareholder best to actually have that strategic ability to pounce” when there is the opportunity to make a major acquisition, Pichette said. Although he didn’t identify possible takeover candidates for the future, Pichette cited Google’s $12.4 billion acquisition of cellphone maker Motorola Mobility last year as a prime example of why the company believes it needs to have lots of money at its disposal. Although Motorola has been a financial drag on the company so far, Google believes having it will ultimately will help it put its digital services on more smartphones and tablet computers. The money-management policies of publicly traded companies are getting more attention as more firms hoard huge amounts of cash instead of introducing or increasing dividends to reward stockholders. Apple Inc., the world’s most valuable company and a Google rival, is currently under the most scrutiny because it holds $137 billion in cash. One of Apple’s shareholders, hedge fund manager David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital, is pressing Apple to create a new class of dividend-paying stock that would supplement the quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share that the Read More …

Facebook buying Atlas ad business from Microsoft

 Economy
Feb 282013
 
Facebook buying Atlas ad business from Microsoft

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook is buying a set of online advertising tools called Atlas from Microsoft in its latest attempt to build a more effective marketing system around its social network. In making the deal announced Thursday, Facebook is betting the acquired technology will be more fruitful under new ownership than it was during the past 5 1/2 years under Microsoft’s control. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Atlas is part of an online advertising service called aQuantive, which Microsoft Corp. bought for $6.3 billion in 2007. Aquantive didn’t bring in as much online ad revenue as Microsoft envisioned, prompting the software maker to absorb a $6.2 billion charge last year that resulted in its first quarterly loss in its 26-year history as a public company. Given the magnitude of that writedown, Facebook probably didn’t have to pay much to take Atlas off Microsoft’s hands. The undisclosed purchase price is a sign that the amount isn’t substantial enough to leave a big dent in the company’s finances. Atlas provides monitoring tools that help advertisers assess how their online marketing tools are faring. It helps marketers make adjustments needed to connect people more likely to buy their products and services. Facebook Inc. already analyzes the interests that people share on its social network to target ads at certain audiences. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Those insights helped Facebook sell $4.3 billion in advertising last year, a 36 percent increase from 2011. But that Read More …

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