| Belo sets exchange rate for newspaper spin-off
DALLAS—Media owner Belo Corp. has set a date for spinning off its newspapers, including The Dallas Morning News, with stockholders getting one share of the new company for every five shares of Belo they own on Jan. 25. Belo also said Friday that it asked the Internal Revenue Service to let the transaction qualify as a tax-free distribution to its shareholders. Dallas-based Belo, which will keep its 20 television stations, said the shares of the newspaper company, A.H. Belo Corp., would be distributed Feb. 8 and begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange three days later under ticker symbol AHC. Belo announced Oct. 1 that it would spin off its four daily newspapers and their Web sites into a new company. Some shareholders had pressed for the split in hopes that Belo stock would rise without the weight of the newspaper division.
Blog Posts related to Intellectual Property
After diligently re-checking its math, it has admitted that the 44% figure was really more like 15%. But even that number doesn't tell the full story. Only 20% of college students live on campus, which means that if college students are responsible for 15% of the movie studios' piracy-related losses (a number we still find dubious), then campus networks are responsible for something like 3%. So the MPAA is urging universities to install expensive, ubiquitous, and ultimately futile filters and surveillance equipment to solve 3% of their piracy problem. Makes you wonder if colleges and universities are really the best place to attack movie piracy, doesn't it? These “restated" MPAA numbers suggest that the MPAA is targeting universities not because college kids are a serious threat to the movie industry's bottom line, but because the studios hope to set a precedent on campus that can be used to force filtering on larger commercial ISPs.
BCCTA tackles grant, personnel issues
I guess the first thing would be to see what our immediate needs are, and I have a few things here that I think are probably at the top of our list. Number one is the grant, which is due this Friday," said Kevin Potter, chairman.Trust Authority member Sherry Musselman-Cox informed the group that the 2008-09 Broadway in Bartlesville series must be booked before the grant — worth $25,000 — could be submitted, and only two of the five shows have been booked."There has been a contact made with the Oklahoma Arts Council trying to get an extension, but there is no extension," said Potter. "It's not just the dollars, which we do need, but it's actually more of a prestigious thing to be able to say this is Oklahoma Arts Council sponsored."Potter indicated that he and Cox had spoken with BCC employee Leah Opitz on Friday, and that she told them she needed direction on her job."She said she had no job description and she didn't really have anything to do at this point.
B2B or Not B2B Focusing on Mint Technology Corp., TIO Networks Corp ...
Stock markets are normally volatile, but investors have enjoyed a four-year run of below normal volatility and steady upward movement. Ups and downs, yes. But the Bull Run has been great over the past three to four years and has not ended as abruptly as many have predicted. But while the end of the Bull Run has been predicted for more than a year, long-term investors shouldn't be worried. Of course, only if you know what you are doing. First off, don't throw all your eggs into one basket. Secondly, and most importantly, pick winners that last. And pick winners that have little effect against the daily ups and downs of the economy. Visit http://www.maybachfinancial.com/register.php to sign up free to receive your Special Report #1 and #2 for information on how to combat the markets or visit www.maybachfinancial.com for your free subscription and BONUS reports.
Structured Finance Under Duress
A few weeks ago, investors were in masochistic mode. A string of hefty writedowns from investment banks were greeted with rising share prices, on the assumption that the worst was now out in the open. Merrill Lynch appeared to take a 'kitchen sink' approach, with a massive $4.5bn writedown on collateralised debt obligations and subprime mortgages. Now it is clear that a large bathtub would have been more appropriate. Merrill on Wednesday increased the writedown to $7.9bn. That is shocking. How could Merrill have got the scale of its exposure to losses so wrong? Was it not conservative enough the first time round, factoring in instead some sort of price recovery in these illiquid instruments? Or was it simply unaware of the true depth of its problem?" October 26 - Financial Times (Ben White and Michael Mackenzie): "Subprime mortgage anxiety continued to spread on Thursday as a leading derivatives index hit a new low and fears grew that Merrill Lynch and other banks could be forced into even bigger asset writedowns.
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