Wednesday, April 7, 2010

“AT&T plans to invest $1 billion in business network ... - St. Louis Post-Dispatch” plus 3 more

“AT&T plans to invest $1 billion in business network ... - St. Louis Post-Dispatch” plus 3 more

AT&T plans to invest $1 billion in business network ... - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Posted: 06 Apr 2010 08:54 PM PDT


AT&T Inc. said Tuesday that it would invest $1 billion to upgrade its business network, services and products for large companies worldwide as well as for small U.S. firms as network traffic in global economies migrate from voice to video and data.

The investment brings to more than $4 billion the total that AT&T has spent to upgrade its systems and services for over 3.5 million businesses since 2006.

The changes range from increasing U.S. broadband speeds to 24 times the slowest DSL speeds available over phone company copper wires to laying additional undersea cables to boost data flow capacity to Europe, Asia and elsewhere.

AT&T has previously announced plans to boost its mobile broadband capabilities, such as investing more in Wi-Fi and the next generation broadband technology called Long Term Evolution, so executives on the go can have smoother, easier online access. It will increase support for wireless devices, such as netbooks and electronic readers, for businesses.

AT&T has also indicated plans to delve more deeply into so-called cloud computing services as well, an increasingly popular option in which it would manage software applications and store data for corporate clients off-site.

The phone company, which is based in Dallas, said it plans to open another Internet data center in London and finish expanding centers in Ashburn, Va., and Piscataway, N.J.

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Business software maker CA to cut 1,000 jobs ... - San Francisco Examiner

Posted: 07 Apr 2010 02:37 AM PDT

Business software company CA Inc. said Tuesday that it's cutting 1,000 jobs — or about 8 percent of its work force — and consolidating offices as part of a restructuring plan to reduce costs and become more efficient.

The company also steered earnings expectations to the lower end of its previous guidance for the year.

"I recognize that the actions we're taking are difficult. But in the end, they will make CA stronger and more competitive," CEO Bill McCracken said in a memo to employees Tuesday.

The job cuts will occur mainly in North America and mostly be completed by the end of September, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Islandia, N.Y., company has already shed 3,100 positions over the last three years amid office closings.

The reductions are part of CA's efforts to mold the company to better fit its new business strategy of focusing on emerging technologies and high-growth markets. A key area of interest is cloud computing, where it would handle software and data storage for corporate clients off-site.

"We are taking the necessary steps to further align our organizations and skills with CA's strategy," McCracken said. "The industry and the market are changing, and we have to change, too."

CA will be consolidating an unspecified number of offices, which could include closings, reductions in office space and merging of locations.

The company expects to incur a $50 million pre-tax charge in the fourth quarter, of which $47 million would be for severance payments and the rest related to facility consolidations.

CA also said full-year earnings will come in at the lower end of the range it had previously given. It expected to earn $1.60 per share to $1.71 per share for the year, excluding one-time items. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting $1.69 per share, on average.

Shares of CA fell 45 cents, or 1.9 percent, to close at $23.40 Tuesday.

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Business Roundtable Releases First Quarter 2010 CEO ... - Businesswire.com

Posted: 06 Apr 2010 04:29 PM PDT

Increased Sales, Capital Spending, Employment Outlooks Drive Rise in Economic Index

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The CEOs of America's leading companies anticipate increased capital expenditures, sales and employment in the next six months, according to the results of Business Roundtable's first quarter 2010 CEO Economic Outlook Survey.

"As the economy recovers and demand returns, we are seeing across-the-board increases in sales, resulting in increased capital expenditures, less job reduction and some employment stabilization"

"As the economy recovers and demand returns, we are seeing across-the-board increases in sales, resulting in increased capital expenditures, less job reduction and some employment stabilization," said Ivan G. Seidenberg, Chairman of Business Roundtable and Chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications. "This survey shows each category of economic measurement moving in the right direction."

Survey Results

The survey's key findings from this quarter and last quarter include:

 
    2010 Q1   2009 Q4
  Increase   No Change   Decrease   Increase   No Change   Decrease
How do you expect your company's sales to change in the next six months?  

73%

 

23%

 

5%

 

68%

 

15%

 

17%

How do you expect your company's U.S. capital spending to change in the next six months?  

47%

 

46%

 

7%

 

40%

  44%   16%
How do you expect your company's U.S. employment to change in the next six months?  

29%

 

50%

 

21%

 

19%

  50%   31%
 

The CEOs employment outlook, in particular, has risen over the past year.

In terms of the overall U.S. economy, member CEOs estimate real GDP will grow by 2.3 percent in 2010.

First Quarter 2010 CEO Economic Outlook Index

The Business Roundtable CEO Economic Outlook Survey's Index expanded to 88.9 in the first quarter of 2010, up from 71.5 in the fourth quarter of 2009, and 44.9 in the third quarter.

The Index is a composite diffusion index that combines member CEO projections for sales, capital spending and employment in the six months ahead. The Index is centered on 50, and results can range from negative 50 to positive 150. An Index reading of 50 or lower is consistent with overall economic contraction and a reading of 50 or higher is consistent with expansion.

Business Roundtable is an association of chief executive officers of leading corporations, representing a combined workforce of more than 12 million employees and nearly $6 trillion in annual revenues. Business Roundtable's CEO Economic Outlook Survey, conducted quarterly since the fourth quarter of 2002, provides a forward-looking view of the economic outlook of Business Roundtable member CEOs.

The survey was completed between March 15 and March 30. The percentages in some categories may not equal 100 due to rounding. Results of all surveys can be found at http://www.businessroundtable.org/ceo_survey.

Business Roundtable is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with nearly $6 trillion in annual revenues and more than 12 million employees. Business Roundtable companies provide health care coverage to more than 35 million employees, retirees and their families. Member companies comprise nearly a third of the total value of the U.S. stock markets and pay more than 60 percent of all corporate income taxes paid to the federal government. Annually, they return more than $167 billion in dividends to shareholders and the economy.

Business Roundtable companies give more than $7 billion a year in combined charitable contributions, representing nearly 60 percent of total corporate giving. They are technology innovation leaders, with more than $111 billion in annual research and development spending – nearly half of all total private R&D spending in the U.S.

Please visit us at www.businessroundtable.org, check us out on Facebook and LinkedIn, and follow us on Twitter.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6239774&lang=en

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More Business - San Francisco Chronicle

Posted: 06 Apr 2010 12:26 PM PDT

(04-06) 13:34 PDT San Francisco (AP) --

The struggling Internet company AOL Inc. plans to sell or shut down the online community Bebo nearly two years after buying it for $850 million in an expansion of its social-networking ambitions.

In an e-mail to employees Tuesday, Jon Brod, who runs AOL's startup acquisition and investment unit, AOL Ventures, said Bebo would need a "significant investment" to remain competitive.

Although Bebo has been in the shadow of rivals such as Facebook, it has been strong in foreign markets, including Britain. AOL wanted to tap that strength abroad to drive traffic to AOL's other free, ad-supported Web sites, especially internationally, while leveraging AOL's instant-messaging communities, AIM and ICQ, to try to grow Bebo in the United States.

But Bebo's audience has instead been slipping in the U.S. According to comScore Inc., Bebo had 5.1 million U.S. users in February, down from 5.8 million a year earlier and a sliver of the 210 million that Facebook has.

Brod said AOL will look for potential buyers and plans to finish a strategic evaluation by the end of May.

The $850 million in cash that AOL paid for San Francisco-based Bebo in May 2008 made it AOL's largest deal since it bought MapQuest for $1 billion in 2000 (not counting AOL's $106 billion purchase of Time Warner in 2001). At the time, AOL was still joined with Time Warner Inc., but it separated from the media conglomerate late last year.

Since spinning off from Time Warner, AOL has sold one property: affiliate marketing business Buy.at, which it sold in March to Digital Window Ltd. for an undisclosed price. Digital Window runs a network of affiliate marketing sites, which steer customers to e-commerce sites in exchange for a cut of sales.

AOL, a pioneer in the dial-up Internet business during the '90s, has been trying to streamline and concentrate on rebuilding itself as a content and advertising business. It runs dozens of Web sites, including popular tech blog Engadget and personal finance site WalletPop.

Clayton Moran, an analyst at The Benchmark Co., said the price AOL paid for Bebo was questioned from the start.

"It made a lot of industry watchers scratch their heads," Moran said. "At this point they probably would admit they overpaid for it and now they're just cleaning it up."

He said that if AOL does sell Bebo, it would likely fetch a fraction of its original purchase price.

Shares of New York-based AOL rose 25 cents, or 1 percent, to close Tuesday at $26.39.

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