[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
Republican senator says open to U.S. climate bill
Sat Oct 17, 2009 11:05am EDT
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Republican in the United States Senate, conservative Senator Lisa Murkowski, said she would consider voting for a "cap and trade" climate change bill Democrats are pushing if it also contains a vigorous expansion of nuclear energy and domestic oil drilling.
In an interview set to air on Sunday on the C-SPAN cable TV network, Murkowski said cap and trade legislation, which aims to mandate reductions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, must protect consumers from energy price increases and contain safeguards against market manipulation of pollution permits that would be traded by companies.
Some of these elements already are included in Democratic legislation in the Senate and House of Representatives.
"Count me as one of those who will keep my mind open as we move forward," said Murkowski, the senior Republican on the Senate energy panel and a member of her party's leadership.
Murkowski's remarks came after her fellow conservative, Senator Lindsey Graham, published a column in The New York Times with liberal Senator John Kerry, in which they vowed to work together to advance legislation tackling global warming.
In signaling her willingness to work on a bill, Murkowski said Democrats must include tangible incentives for building nuclear power plants and stepping up domestic oil drilling, offshore and on land. It has got to be "more than just window dressing," she warned.
Most Republicans in Congress have dismissed the Democratic initiative as little more than a "national energy tax" that would kill U.S. jobs at a time when the country is grappling with severe economic problems.
While the full Senate probably will not have time this year to debate and vote on a climate change bill, the willingness of some Senate conservatives to consider major environmental legislation could keep the effort in play next year.
Legislation narrowly passed the House in June, but faces a tougher time in the Senate.
ALASKA SEEING CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked about the Kerry-Graham column, Murkowski said, "It's a good indicator that perhaps the conversation is changing."
As the senior senator from Alaska, Murkowski acknowledged problems that could be linked to climate change.
"When you see changes to the land coming about ... what is causing the loss of the sea ice that adds to the erosion issues, yes, in Alaska we are seeing change," she said. "That's why I have been one of those Republicans who has stepped out front a little bit more on the issue of climate change."
President Barack Obama has been urging Congress to pass a bill reducing industries' carbon emissions through a cap and trade system. It would require companies to hold a dwindling number of pollution permits over the next four decades.
Companies that find ways to use clean, alternative energy in manufacturing and end up with an excess number of permits could sell them to firms making slower environmental progress.
The effort in Congress is intended to be part of an international fight against global warming, which scientists say could bring catastrophic consequences as temperature changes hurt agriculture, especially in poor countries, and create more violent storms and the spread of disease.
The problem with weaning the world off of cheap, high-polluting fossil fuels is that they would be largely replaced by wind, solar and other energy sources that for now are more expensive, with some of the technology unproven.
(Editing by Chris Wilson)
[Small Business]
Facebook sees ad potential bigger than Google search ads
Fri Oct 16, 2009 6:45am EDT
By David Lawsky
PALO ALTO, California (Reuters) - Facebook's chief operating officer said the social networking company was targeting a bigger ad market than the search ad market that has made Google Inc rich.
Sheryl Sandberg also told a group of high-tech specialists on Thursday that revenues were growing so fast at privately held Facebook that it turned cash positive recently, instead of in 2010 as predicted earlier this year.
A member of the board told Reuters the company was on target to bring in revenue of $500 million this year. Sandberg gave no numbers that would update that figure.
Sandberg, who has long fought the perception Facebook lacked a revenue model, laid out a gameplan to turn the company into a cash machine by describing how the company aimed to bring in revenues from novel ads aimed at its 300 million users.
She said advertising was a "funnel" that starts at the top by engaging many people and creating demand, then getting to the bottom where a select group bought a product.
Google does a better job than any other company in advertising to people who are at the bottom of the funnel and know what they want, and are searching to buy it, she said hours after Google reported third quarter net revenue of $4.38 billion, beating analysts expectations.
"If you look at global ad spend its about a $640 billion annual business ... It's 10 percent demand fulfillment," which is what Google's search ads do, she said.
"Where we are playing in the ad market is in that demand generation, which is the top 90 percent of the funnel."
Sandberg said Facebook has been shifting to an approach similar to Google's, in which the style of the ad resembled the style of its searches.
One success story she cited involved Starbucks Corp, which posted a video that created complaints. In response, Starbucks altered the video and won kudos from Facebook members. She said the message was, "Thanks so much ... isn't it great to have a company that listens."
(Reporting by David Lawsky; Editing by Dan Lalor)
[Small Business]
CIT amends restructuring plan with bondholders
Sat Oct 17, 2009 10:46am EDT
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Commercial finance company CIT Group Inc and a group representing its bondholders have agreed on changes to the company's proposed restructuring plan as it looks shore up its finances.
The changes, announced by CIT late Friday, include a mechanism to accelerate the repayment of new notes; the shortening of maturities by six months for all new notes and junior credit facilities; and offering more equity to subordinated debt holders.
The changes would include notes maturing after 2018 in the company's exchange offer and increase the interest paid on Series B notes being offered by CIT Delaware Funding to 9 percent from 7 percent. They would also provide preferred stockholders contingent value rights in the reorganization and modify the allocation of common stock in the company's recapitalization after the exchange offers, as part of an agreement with the Treasury Department.
On October 1, CIT, founded more than a century ago, launched a debt-exchange plan as it looks to cut its debt by at least $5.7 billion.
The company, which is one of the largest lenders to small and mid-sized companies, also asked bondholders to approve a prepackaged plan of reorganization that would allow it to initiate a voluntary filing under Chapter 11 if the debt exchange failed.
CIT said on Friday that completion of either the debt exchange or a bankruptcy filing would generate significant capital and improve the company's liquidity.
The exchange offer expires at 11:59 p.m. EST on October 29.
(Reporting by Brad Dorfman)
[Green Business]
Republican senator says open to U.S. climate bill
Sat Oct 17, 2009 11:05am EDT
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Republican in the United States Senate, conservative Senator Lisa Murkowski, said she would consider voting for a "cap and trade" climate change bill Democrats are pushing if it also contains a vigorous expansion of nuclear energy and domestic oil drilling.
In an interview set to air on Sunday on the C-SPAN cable TV network, Murkowski said cap and trade legislation, which aims to mandate reductions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, must protect consumers from energy price increases and contain safeguards against market manipulation of pollution permits that would be traded by companies.
Some of these elements already are included in Democratic legislation in the Senate and House of Representatives.
"Count me as one of those who will keep my mind open as we move forward," said Murkowski, the senior Republican on the Senate energy panel and a member of her party's leadership.
Murkowski's remarks came after her fellow conservative, Senator Lindsey Graham, published a column in The New York Times with liberal Senator John Kerry, in which they vowed to work together to advance legislation tackling global warming.
In signaling her willingness to work on a bill, Murkowski said Democrats must include tangible incentives for building nuclear power plants and stepping up domestic oil drilling, offshore and on land. It has got to be "more than just window dressing," she warned.
Most Republicans in Congress have dismissed the Democratic initiative as little more than a "national energy tax" that would kill U.S. jobs at a time when the country is grappling with severe economic problems.
While the full Senate probably will not have time this year to debate and vote on a climate change bill, the willingness of some Senate conservatives to consider major environmental legislation could keep the effort in play next year.
Legislation narrowly passed the House in June, but faces a tougher time in the Senate.
ALASKA SEEING CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked about the Kerry-Graham column, Murkowski said, "It's a good indicator that perhaps the conversation is changing."
As the senior senator from Alaska, Murkowski acknowledged problems that could be linked to climate change.
"When you see changes to the land coming about ... what is causing the loss of the sea ice that adds to the erosion issues, yes, in Alaska we are seeing change," she said. "That's why I have been one of those Republicans who has stepped out front a little bit more on the issue of climate change."
President Barack Obama has been urging Congress to pass a bill reducing industries' carbon emissions through a cap and trade system. It would require companies to hold a dwindling number of pollution permits over the next four decades.
Companies that find ways to use clean, alternative energy in manufacturing and end up with an excess number of permits could sell them to firms making slower environmental progress.
The effort in Congress is intended to be part of an international fight against global warming, which scientists say could bring catastrophic consequences as temperature changes hurt agriculture, especially in poor countries, and create more violent storms and the spread of disease.
The problem with weaning the world off of cheap, high-polluting fossil fuels is that they would be largely replaced by wind, solar and other energy sources that for now are more expensive, with some of the technology unproven.
(Editing by Chris Wilson)
[Small Business]
Facebook sees ad potential bigger than Google search ads
Fri Oct 16, 2009 6:45am EDT
By David Lawsky
PALO ALTO, California (Reuters) - Facebook's chief operating officer said the social networking company was targeting a bigger ad market than the search ad market that has made Google Inc rich.
Sheryl Sandberg also told a group of high-tech specialists on Thursday that revenues were growing so fast at privately held Facebook that it turned cash positive recently, instead of in 2010 as predicted earlier this year.
A member of the board told Reuters the company was on target to bring in revenue of $500 million this year. Sandberg gave no numbers that would update that figure.
Sandberg, who has long fought the perception Facebook lacked a revenue model, laid out a gameplan to turn the company into a cash machine by describing how the company aimed to bring in revenues from novel ads aimed at its 300 million users.
She said advertising was a "funnel" that starts at the top by engaging many people and creating demand, then getting to the bottom where a select group bought a product.
Google does a better job than any other company in advertising to people who are at the bottom of the funnel and know what they want, and are searching to buy it, she said hours after Google reported third quarter net revenue of $4.38 billion, beating analysts expectations.
"If you look at global ad spend its about a $640 billion annual business ... It's 10 percent demand fulfillment," which is what Google's search ads do, she said.
"Where we are playing in the ad market is in that demand generation, which is the top 90 percent of the funnel."
Sandberg said Facebook has been shifting to an approach similar to Google's, in which the style of the ad resembled the style of its searches.
One success story she cited involved Starbucks Corp, which posted a video that created complaints. In response, Starbucks altered the video and won kudos from Facebook members. She said the message was, "Thanks so much ... isn't it great to have a company that listens."
(Reporting by David Lawsky; Editing by Dan Lalor)
[Small Business]
CIT amends restructuring plan with bondholders
Sat Oct 17, 2009 10:46am EDT
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Commercial finance company CIT Group Inc and a group representing its bondholders have agreed on changes to the company's proposed restructuring plan as it looks shore up its finances.
The changes, announced by CIT late Friday, include a mechanism to accelerate the repayment of new notes; the shortening of maturities by six months for all new notes and junior credit facilities; and offering more equity to subordinated debt holders.
The changes would include notes maturing after 2018 in the company's exchange offer and increase the interest paid on Series B notes being offered by CIT Delaware Funding to 9 percent from 7 percent. They would also provide preferred stockholders contingent value rights in the reorganization and modify the allocation of common stock in the company's recapitalization after the exchange offers, as part of an agreement with the Treasury Department.
On October 1, CIT, founded more than a century ago, launched a debt-exchange plan as it looks to cut its debt by at least $5.7 billion.
The company, which is one of the largest lenders to small and mid-sized companies, also asked bondholders to approve a prepackaged plan of reorganization that would allow it to initiate a voluntary filing under Chapter 11 if the debt exchange failed.
CIT said on Friday that completion of either the debt exchange or a bankruptcy filing would generate significant capital and improve the company's liquidity.
The exchange offer expires at 11:59 p.m. EST on October 29.
(Reporting by Brad Dorfman)
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