“Burford Capital makes first two investments - Marketwatch” plus 3 more |
- Burford Capital makes first two investments - Marketwatch
- Ciena Buys Nortel Ops for $769 Million: Sources - CNBC
- Small Talk: Customer gifts shouldn’t be economic casualties - Naples Daily News
- Honduras back to business as usual after coup - News-Leader.com
| Burford Capital makes first two investments - Marketwatch Posted: 23 Nov 2009 12:07 AM PST MADRID (MarketWatch) -- U.K. commercial dispute investor Burford Capital /quotes/comstock/23s!e:bur (UK:BUR 103.00, -2.50, -2.37%) on Monday announced its first two investments since an initial public offering on the Alternative Investment Market in London last month. The first case involves theft of trade secrets and breach of contract; it is set for trial in a U.S. federal court in May 2010. Burford will invest $2 million to cover getting it to trial and some legal fees, with potential returns between 35% to 67% of settlements or judgments. The second is shareholder dispute over the application of proceeds from the sale of a business, with a hearing scheduled for February 2010. Burford has invested $2.3 million and could see a return three or four times that amount. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Ciena Buys Nortel Ops for $769 Million: Sources - CNBC Posted: 23 Nov 2009 03:06 AM PST Ciena Corp will buy the optical networking and carrier ethernet business of bankrupt Nortel for $769 million, the two companies said Monday, after it trumped Nokia Siemens Networks in a three-day auction. The deal will more than double Ciena's turnover, prompting the market to focus on how the U.S. network equipment maker will integrate the new operations and cope with an increased debt load. Shares in Ciena traded in Frankfurt were down more than 2 percent, compared with a 0.7 percent stronger DJ Stoxx European technology shares index. Nokia's [NOK Loading... () Ciena's [CIEN Loading... () The final bid by rival Nokia Siemens, which had teamed with private equity firm One Equity Partners, came "very close" to Ciena's offer, the source said. "Nokia Siemens Networks believes that its final offer represented fair value for the assets, and further bidding could not be financially justified," it said in a statement. Nokia Siemens — which is struggling to make a profit and faces an aggressive rivalry from Huawei — was looking to strengthen its position in North America. It made revenues of just 127 million euros ($189.6 million) there in September quarter, less than 5 percent of the group total. Nokia Siemens lost a similar auction in July, when bigger rival Ericsson [ERIC Loading... () The Ciena deal values Nortel's unit at almost 0.8 times annual sales, which gives "pretty good premium to the market," said Earl Lum, president of EJL Wireless, a wireless infrastructure research firm. Last month Ciena made a stalking-horse offer for these assets of Nortel Networks, the Canada-based telecommunications company that filed for bankruptcy in January and has been auctioning off assets. That bid set a floor price, but Nortel was free to seek higher offers. Ciena initially offered $390 million in cash and 10 million shares, for a total deal value of $522 million based on Friday's closing price of Ciena stock. On Nov. 18, another source familiar with the sale told Reuters that Nokia Siemens and One Equity Partners, which manages $8 billion in investments for JPMorgan [JPM Loading... () A Big Deal to Digest For Ciena, the purchase of these core assets in Nortel's metro ethernet networks business is an opportunity to increase sales. The equipment manufactured by these companies is used to build the Internet infrastructure that supports corporate and residential networks. But analysts and investors have been concerned that the deal will weigh down Ciena's operations, hurting the U.S. company's shares in recent weeks. To integrate the unit, Ciena would have to swallow a business with annual revenues of around $1 billion — higher than the $902 million it earned in the same period. Ciena had total cash and securities of just over $1 billion and $798 million of debt on its balance sheet at end-July, according to regulatory filings. Winning the auction for these Nortel assets would have helped Nokia Siemens, a 50-50 joint venture of Nokia and Siemens AG, which has said North America is one of its top four growth targets, along with India, Japan and China. Nortel has yet to sell its assets related to GSM-R technology, which could also interest Nokia Siemens, analysts said. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Small Talk: Customer gifts shouldn’t be economic casualties - Naples Daily News Posted: 23 Nov 2009 03:20 AM PST NEW YORK — Small business owners with cash flow problems might be tempted during yet another difficult holiday season to forgo gifts for clients or customers. Many look at gifts as budget items that just aren't critical. There's another, bigger-picture way to look at business giving. Gifts selected with care convey to customers how important they are, and how much an owner will continue to value their relationship going forward.  Joyce Rosenberg They also don't have to break the bank. They can be very small but still be meaningful. Or an owner can splurge on just a few of his or her biggest customers. Spending as an investment Many company owners see holiday gifts as an investment in their companies, one that will continue to pay off as business gets better. Even in a difficult economy, Terri Slater doesn't think it's a good idea to stint on client gifts. "I know it's rough out there and people are cutting back, but this is one area where you really say, you can't afford to" stop giving, said Slater, who runs Healthy Lifestyle Publicity, based in Boca Raton. "I think it's important to acknowledge the people you work with and who are contributing to your success." "I've never missed a year. I've never cut back," she said, and explained that while she did briefly consider not giving client gifts this year as she lost some revenue, "I wouldn't feel right about it." Slater tries to match the gift with a client's personality, so one might get a tower of chocolates, while another will get a high-quality pen. Think twice about tchotchkes The pens, mugs and calendars that used to be staples of companies' gift-giving have been falling out of favor in recent years and cost is just one reason. Many small business owners have tried in recent years to give clients and customers gifts that help build or cement a relationship, and a mug or a pen just doesn't do that. Of course, if you run a retail business or a service business like a gas station or dry cleaner, handing out these smaller gifts is more feasible than giving personalized ones (although you might want to make an extra effort for some of your very best customers). And if you're aiming for name recognition or making sure your phone number is easy for a customer to find, refrigerator magnets can help you achieve that goal. But you might want to give something that your customers will appreciate even more — a discount. Giving customers 10 percent off their dry cleaning bill or a free oil change is a great way to strengthen the relationship with them and keep them coming back. Gifts with a dual purpose Some owners are giving gifts that are more than relationship builders. They also help sell a client's products or services. Caroline Lubbers has always devoted a great deal of time and energy to finding what she calls cool presents for her marketing firm's clients. "I'd usually pick different things for different personalities, and it's very time consuming," said Lubbers, whose company, Goldfish Marketing Communications, is based in Chicago. Not this year. "I have to work harder, so I have less time to seek things out," Lubbers said. So she got the idea to make gift baskets that contain the products of her clients, who include specialty food makers. It takes less time than shopping and helps do some marketing for her clients. Lubbers is also including products made by some of her friends who are entrepreneurs. It's also cheaper. "I looked at the amount I budgeted for holiday gifts and I realized I could probably save hundreds of dollars," Lubbers said. Giving the gift of face time A material gift isn't the only way to go. Some owners have been making donations to charitable organizations rather than buying gifts. Maureen Rothman used to give traditional gifts like candy or cookies, but this year she's taking clients to lunch, making face-to-face contact that is as much networking as it is celebrating. "What I've done is really focus on the people I have done work with throughout the year and have helped keep my business afloat," said Rothman, whose Philadelphia-based firm, Rothman Associates Inc., is a manufacturers representative for the furniture industry that serves hotels and other hospitality companies. "I really want that one-one-one that I think is more important this year than ever." Rothman is also finding opportunities to give what she calls spontaneous gifts, in the form of buying another business associate a drink at holiday networking parties. If she knows that some furniture designers are struggling, she'll offer to pay for their tickets to the events. She believes even such small gestures during the holidays will have an impact on her business. "For those of us who understand small business, networking is more important now," she said. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Honduras back to business as usual after coup - News-Leader.com Posted: 23 Nov 2009 02:44 AM PST Tegucigalpa, Honduras -- The coup last summer in this tiny, Central American country blew up into an international incident, with thousands of Hondurans taking to the streets while everyone from Barack Obama to Fidel Castro lined up behind ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Now, with Zelaya still holed up in the Brazilian Embassy, voters will choose a new president Sunday from the political establishment that has dominated Honduras for decades. No one is pushing the leftist agenda of the ousted leader, who said he was trying to lift a country where seven in 10 people are poor. That's because Zelaya was disturbing a deeply conservative society that has long cherished peace and stability. "It's a risk-averse culture," said Manuel Orozco, a Central America expert with the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. The months of turmoil as Zelaya pressed for his reinstatement, the negotiation and U.S. shuttle diplomacy are about to be overtaken by business as usual -- Honduran style. Even many of the poor who supported Zelaya as he aligned himself with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Latin America's new left say they will vote for conservative front-runner Porfirio Lobo, a 61-year-old wealthy businessman who is ahead by double digits in the polls. "I will vote for the one who can fix this and give us work right now, because those suffering are the poor," said Reina Gomez, 53, a single mother who washes clothes for a living and who supported Zelaya in 2005. Zelaya, a commanding figure whose standard uniform includes a white cowboy hat, was prohibited by the constitution from running for more than one term -- even before the military whisked him out of the country at gunpoint in the June 28 coup. His opponents said he wanted to follow in Chavez's footsteps and revise the constitution to extend his time in office. Zelaya denies any such intention. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
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