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Buzz will be shut down "in a few weeks," Google said in a blog post Friday, as the company redirects its social focus toward its new Google+ network. The move is part of a broader effort at Google to cull its product portfolio and shut down low-profile offerings. "More wood behind fewer arrows" was the way Google put it in the July blog post announcing its first wave of product eliminations.

Google added a few more projects to the scrap heap on Friday, including Code Search, a tool for finding open-source code on the Web, and Jaiku, a Twitter-like microblogging service that Google acquired in 2007.

Eliminating Buzz will help Google close the book on one of its most explosive missteps. When Buzz launched in February 2010, Gmail users were furious to discover that the network's default settings automatically set members to follow their most e-mailed contacts -- and then posted those contacts publicly after a user "buzzed" about something.

One woman wrote a profanity-laden, much-circulated blog post about how Buzz revealed some of her Internet activity to her abusive ex-boyfriend and his friends.

Within two days of Buzz's launch, Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) made changes to the defaults that largely satisfied the concerns of users and organizations dedicated to information privacy.

But the damage was already done: Critics wondered openly about Google's dedication to user privacy. The debacle lead to a class-action lawsuit and a settlement deal with the Federal Trade Commission, which now requires Google to undergo annual privacy audits.

Users won't be able to post on Buzz after the shutdown, but they will be able to view their existing content on their Google Profile and download it using an export tool called Google Takeout.]]> 1 Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:49:55 +0400 http://asimulation.ru/business/97-stocks-brace-for-earnings-deluge.html http://asimulation.ru/business/97-stocks-brace-for-earnings-deluge.html
The week ahead includes reports from nearly half of the Dow's 30 components, including Intel (INTC, Fortune 500), McDonald's (MCD, Fortune 500) and General Electric (GE, Fortune 500), and 96 members of the S&P 500 including, Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500), Southwest Airlines (LUV, Fortune 500) and Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG).

S&P 500 company earnings are expected to have climbed 23% in the third quarter of 2011, according to earnings tracker Thomson Reuters. Revenues of the companies in the benchmark index are expected to have risen 10%.

Stocks posted stellar gains last week, with the S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (COMP) delivering their best weekly performances since 2009. They'll start the week at the high end of the range that they have been trading between since early August.
Bring profits home and create jobs? Maybe not

Whether they'll be able to break above those levels will primarily depend on the health of and guidance from corporate America, said Paul Zemsky, chief investment officer of multi-asset strategies at ING Investment Management.

"Earnings will determine the moves in the market," said Zemsky. "If companies aren't positive, we could see stocks continue to drift in the territory they've been in for two months. "

Zemsky said investors will pay especially close attention to companies with global footprints to get their take on the pace of worldwide economic growth, amid rising fears of a slowdown.
]]> 1 Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:10:14 +0400 http://asimulation.ru/business/96-g20-finance-chiefs-back-europe-bank-rescue.html http://asimulation.ru/business/96-g20-finance-chiefs-back-europe-bank-rescue.html
"We will ensure that banks are adequately capitalized and have sufficient access to funding to deal with the current crisis," the Group of 20 finance ministers said in a statement issued after a two-day meeting in Paris.

The meeting comes as officials in Europe move closer to an agreement on a comprehensive plan to secure the banking system and resolve Europe's long-standing sovereign debt problems.

The plan, outlined by European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso last week, will be discussed in detail at a meeting being held by the European Council in Brussels on Oct. 23.

"We heard encouraging things from our European colleagues in Paris about a new comprehensive plan to deal with the crisis on the continent," said U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in a statement.

Geithner added that European leaders "clearly have more work to do on the strategy and the details."

But he sounded optimistic about the support the plan has received from Europe's two largest economies. "When France and Germany agree on a plan together and decide to act, big things are possible," he said.
Europe: Many hurdles, little time

European leaders have been under pressure to decisively resolve the debt crisis in Greece and increase the firepower of a recently overhauled bailout fund to provide a stronger "backstop" for other euro area nations struggling with unsustainable levels of debt, such as Italy and Spain.

The 27-nation European Union has also been grappling with the threat of a banking crisis, amid fears in financial markets that banks do not have enough capital to withstand the shock of a contagious sovereign debt crisis.

The G20 ministers welcomed the recently approved overhaul of the European Financial Stability Facility, which now has power to intervene in the sovereign debt market and loan money to governments that need to recapitalize banks.

The EFSF is still widely seen as needing additional "leverage" to address both the sovereign debt and banking crisis simultaneously.

EU officials are expected to discuss ways to give the €440 billion fund greater "firepower" at a meeting later this month, but increasing the amount of money the fund controls has been ruled out.]]> 1 Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:06:22 +0400 http://asimulation.ru/business/77-russia-raids-bp-offices-prompting-oil-giants-anger.html http://asimulation.ru/business/77-russia-raids-bp-offices-prompting-oil-giants-anger.html
The company issued a statement about the raid, saying there were "no legitimate grounds for such a raid," and that the court decision it was based on should not be allowed to stand.

The raid is related to a long-running battle between BP and Russian partner, TNK-BP, over oil exploration in the Russian Arctic.

It comes a day after ExxonMobil signed a deal with Russian oil company Rosneft that includes Arctic exploration, a blow to BP.

BP said the raid targeted a part of the company that was not involved in the dispute with TNK.

It was ordered by a Russian court in the city of Tyumen, BP said.]]> 1 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:51:19 +0400 http://asimulation.ru/business/76-panel-tallies-massive-waste-and-fraud-in.html http://asimulation.ru/business/76-panel-tallies-massive-waste-and-fraud-in.html
Washington (CNN) -- A nonpartisan panel reporting to Congress says the United States is wasting $12 million a day among contracts issued in support of American efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Commission on Wartime Contracting spent the past three years documenting whether American funding went where it was supposed to. The findings show misdirected money has totaled between $31 billion and $60 billion, and that both the government and the contractors are to blame for fraud and waste.

Commissioner Katherine Schinasi told reporters at a news conference Wednesday that the numbers don't seem to have an impact on people concerned about spending.

To make it easier to grasp the magnitude of the problem, Schinasi said, "we've broken it down to $12 million a day."

"We are wasting $12 million a day," she said, "maybe that will make a difference."

The study looked at contracts from 2001 through the projected end of fiscal year 2011.]]> 1 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:50:38 +0400 http://asimulation.ru/business/75-solyndra-fades-away.html http://asimulation.ru/business/75-solyndra-fades-away.html
The company has not yet filed its bankruptcy papers, but did say in a press release that it plans to evaluate options that could include a sale of its business and licensing of its technology. It also said that 1,100 full-time and part-time employees will be laid off, effective immediately.

Since being founded in 2005 to build solar panels for commercial rooftops, Solyndra had raised nearly $1 billion in private equity financing. The biggest backer was the George Kaiser Family Foundation, which was listed as holding more than a 35% equity stake when Solyndra filed for a $300 million IPO in late 2009 (it would later cancel the offering, due to "adverse market conditions). Other significant shareholders included Madrone Partners, a VC firm affiliated with Wal-Mart's Walton family, with an 11% stake, U.S. Venture Partners (10.19%), RockPort Capital Partners (7.5%), CMEA Ventures (6.81%), Redpoint Ventures (5.94%) and Virgin Green Fund.]]> 1 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:49:43 +0400 http://asimulation.ru/business/73-apple-attacked-over-pollution-in-china.html http://asimulation.ru/business/73-apple-attacked-over-pollution-in-china.html
In a report released on Wednesday, five Chinese non-governmental organisations said the US technology company was using suppliers with public records of environmental violations and taking "advantage of the loopholes in developing countries' environmental management systems".

The accusations escalate a standoff between Apple and Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a co-author of the report, which is threatening to damage Apple's image. The groups have sought to persuade 29 big electronics brands over the past year to work with them on containing pollution in their supply chain, but singled out Apple as unresponsive.

In a highly unusual move for Apple, the company relented just hours before the report's publication, inviting Mr Ma to start a dialogue on his allegations. Mr Ma said Apple told him some of the factories on his list were not the US company's suppliers but gave him no details.

Although Apple does not directly manufacture anything itself and does not disclose, with very few exceptions, the names of its suppliers, the Chinese environmental groups say they used public information and court documents to form a list of more than 20 Apple suppliers with environmental violations to their name. These suppliers also work for other companies.]]> 1 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:48:19 +0400 http://asimulation.ru/business/72-britain-delivers-millions.html http://asimulation.ru/business/72-britain-delivers-millions.html
The Royal Air Force delivered 280 million dinars (about 140 million pounds) to the Central Bank of Libya in Benghazi, the statement said.

The money is among billions of dollars ordered frozen by the United Nations when the crisis began.

The money "will be used to pay the wages of Libyan public sector employees, including nurses, doctors, teachers and police officers," the statement said.

It also said the money will be used to pay the disabled and refugees, as well as medicines and food.

Meanwhile, France is releasing up to 1.5 billion Euros frozen at the start of the war in Libya, the French foreign minister told Radio RTL on Thursday.

Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said France has obtained permission to release the money to the National Transitional Council, the rebel leadership.

"It is money that belongs to Libya -- to the NTC so that it can begin rebuilding," Juppe said.]]> 1 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:47:33 +0400 http://asimulation.ru/business/10-chinas-oil-groups-ready-for-more-deals.html http://asimulation.ru/business/10-chinas-oil-groups-ready-for-more-deals.html

(FT) -- Solid first-half profits at China's state-owned oil companies have paved the way for further expansion overseas as the country's oil needs continue to rise.

Sinopec, the world's second-largest oil refiner, said on Sunday it intended to raise up to Rmb50bn ($7.8bn) through the sale of bonds and convertible bonds to fund projects, boost working capital and pay debts. The instruments will be issued or placed with existing shareholders, Sinopec said.

The fundraising plan accompanied the company's announcement of a 12 per cent rise in net profit, to Rmb41bn, in the first half of the year, beating analysts' expectations.

Results were rosier still for offshore producer Cnooc, which reported first-half net profit of Rmb39bn, up 51.4 per cent, despite production disruptions from a recent oil spill.

PetroChina, the listed subsidiary of China's largest oil and gas producer CNPC, reported net profit of Rmb66bn for the first half, up 1 per cent from a year earlier, the weakest profit growth among its peers. Profits at both PetroChina and Sinopec were dented by Beijing's price controls on fuel, which capped gasoline and diesel prices this spring even while Brent soared above $120 a barrel.

Analysts agreed Chinese oil companies were likely to sustain their interest in overseas acquisitions as they seek to grow their production base.]]> 1 Tue, 30 Aug 2011 10:25:17 +0400 http://asimulation.ru/business/9-across-the-steppes-new-wealth-emerges.html http://asimulation.ru/business/9-across-the-steppes-new-wealth-emerges.html
The copper resources aren't new to locals -- after all, for thousands of years locals dug out copper to melt down into things like arrowheads, CNN's Stan Grant reports.

But the massive Gobi Desert copper and gold mine -- a joint venture with foreign mining conglomerates Ivanhoe and Rio Tinto -- is expected to account for one-third of the nation's total economic output by 2020 and boost the average earnings of Mongolia by 60%.

The numbers are staggering. The development phase runs to nearly $5 billion. The mine is projected to produce to 450,000 tons of copper and more than 300,000 ounces of gold. Developers claim there's enough here to mine for the next 50 years or more.]]> 1 Tue, 30 Aug 2011 10:24:15 +0400