Oil investing: 2007 a tough act to follow

It was a banner year for energy - the sector was up 30% and crude jumped 60%. But don't count on a repeat performance in '08.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It's been a phenomenal time to invest in oil, but analysts say the huge gains of the last year are most likely a thing of the past.
2007 was truly a banner year for the industry. The big integrated oil companies - ones that produce and refine crude - saw stock gains in the 30 percent range. Crude itself rose nearly 60 percent. The biggest winners were the oil production companies, some of which saw their stock prices double. Overall, the AMEX oil and gas index rose about 30 percent in '07, trouncing the near-stagnant S&P 500.
But most analysts say 2008 is unlikely to mimic the staggering returns of the last year. And on the heels of such a runup, some say the sector is simply overvalued.
Oil company stocks tend to rise and fall with the price of crude, so any prediction on stock prices needs to start with a look at the underlying commodity.
Although U.S. crude is trading near $100 a barrel, 2007 was a very volatile year. Prices began the year by dipping below $50 in January, spiking above $75 in July, then pulling back to the high $60s by the end of August before embarking on its recent record run. For the year, the average price for crude was around $72.
Most analysts have bumped up their estimate for 2008 to around $80 to $85 a barrel from the low $70s, reflecting a view that oil prices will rise but not by another 60 percent, like they did in 2007.
"I don't think too many people are talking about $150 oil, unless they're also stocking up on canned goods and ammunition," said Jeff Tjornehoj, a research analyst at the data and research firm Lipper.
John Kilduff, an energy analyst at MF Global in New York, said he expects crude prices to top $100 a barrel in the first quarter - perhaps peaking around $110 - then pull back to maybe $70 as the economy slows and speculative money retreats.
Still, he says investors are still pricing oil company stock as if oil costs $50 a barrel and sees room for those stocks to go up.
Energy and the presidential race
Companies that produce oil - as opposed to refining it - have been the stars of the sector in 2007. Frontier (FTO, Fortune 500) stock is up 45 percent, Occidental (OXY, Fortune 500) is up 60 percent, and Hess (HES, Fortune 500) has surged a staggering 105 percent.
But the stock of those companies is most directly tied to the price of crude, and with crude unlikely to post another 60 percent runup, its doubtful those stocks will see similar gains.
For the integrated companies - those that produce and refine oil - earnings growth for 2008 may be stronger than in 2007.
In the third quarter companies like Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500), BP (BP) and Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500) saw profits slip as oil prices rose much faster than gasoline prices and eroded the profit margin for refining.
When these companies report their 2007 earnings in January they will struggle to beat their 2006 results. As a result, stocks for the integrated companies lagged the producers, although they still posted healthy - 30 percent - growth for the year.
But gasoline prices have rebounded, and Reuters estimates predict a 9 percent growth in energy company earnings in 2008. That's lower than the 15.7 percent growth that it predicts for the S&P 500, but still a solid performance.
"It's still a good place for investors to hide out an make money in 2008," said Kilduff.
But others think the sector is played out.
"Fundamentally, it's expensive," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago. "A lot of investors are eager to get into energy, and it's pushed the values to unattractive levels."
Ablin said stocks of energy companies are expensive by a number of metrics. Their price-to-book value - the value of all their outstanding stock compared to book value of their underlying assets - is about 5 percent higher than the S&P average. Normally, energy companies have a price-to-book value about 15 percent lower, said Ablin.
He said he sees a similar pattern with other measures like price to cash flow and price to sales.
"For people holding [energy stocks], we recommend they continue holding them," said Ablin. "But we'd encourage buyers to wait on the sidelines until the values come back down to earth."
Other analysts don't see the sector as expensive, and point to the long-term trend in crude prices - strong demand and limited supply - that pushes prices higher and higher.
"It's high, but it's high in anticipation of higher prices," said Hugh Johnson, chairman of asset management company Johnson Illington Advisors. "Earnings prospects in 2008 are much brighter than they are for many other sectors."
For those looking for a deal in energy, one analyst suggested natural gas.
While companies like Chesapeake (CHK, Fortune 500), EOG Resources (EOG) and XTO Energy (XTO, Fortune 500) have had an impressive year - their stocks are up between 30 percent and 40 percent for the year - natural gas prices are likely to rise faster than oil prices in 2008, said Neal Dingmann, an energy analyst with the New York-based energy investment boutique Dahlman Rose & Co.
Dingmann said oil prices are more than 13 times higher than natural gas prices. The usual ratio is about 6 times higher, he said.
"Either oil is too high or natural gas is too low, but they won't continue at that level for very long," he said.
The spread will encourage more use of natural gas, which should drive up prices and stock values.
"I don't see any way oil can go up another 60 percent," said Dingmann. "But could natural gas go up [from about $7 per 1,000 cubic feet] to $9 or $10, absolutely. That's where I think the play is."

Baidu.com says CFO killed in China accident

BEIJING, Dec. 30, 2007 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) -- China's main internet search engine Baidu.com (NASDAQ:BIDU) said its chief financial officer Shawn Wang, who helped it list on the Nasdaq stock market, has died while on holiday in China.Wang, a key figure in Baidu's successful 2005 listing on the Nasdaq, died on Dec 27, the company said in an announcement seen on its website Sunday.No other details of his death were given, and calls to the company Sunday went unanswered.'Shawn's leadership and vision helped transform Baidu into a leading US public company, and his presence will be greatly missed,' Baidu chairman and chief executive officer Robin Li said in the company statement.Baidu is often referred to as China's version of Google because of the Chinese-language search engine's soaring popularity and profits. It made a net profit of 24.2 mln usd in the third quarter of 2007.tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.comCopyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.

Crude edges above $96

Oil gains on concerns about Middle East supply disruptions; gas futures at record high.

SINGAPORE (AP) -- Oil prices edged up Monday in Asia after declining in the previous session on a housing report that ignited fresh concerns about the U.S. economy.
Light, sweet crude for February delivery added 16 cents to $96.16 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midafternoon in Singapore.
The contract fell 62 cents to settle at $96 a barrel Friday after a report showed weak figures on new home sales in the United States. The data again raised fears about a possible economic slowdown in the world's largest consumer of oil products.
Oil prices remain supported, though, by concerns about supply disruptions from the oil-rich Middle East.
Turkish jets hit suspected Kurdish rebel shelters in northern Iraq for a third time on Dec. 26. Turkey has also launched a cross border raid and fired artillery at Kurdish rebel positions since the first airstrike on Dec. 16. The rebels have vowed to take the group's battle for autonomy deep inside Turkey if the cross-border airstrikes do not stop.
The heightening of tensions in the Middle East usually brings worries that oil shipments from the region will be reduced or halted.
In late November, oil threatened to rise to $100 a barrel. It has since retreated as supplies appeared to be growing and demand seemed to be falling. But over the past several weeks, inventories have fallen in the U.S. while demand has remained strong.
Gasoline futures have been pushed to new records in recent days, in part by the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index's plan to boost its gasoline futures holdings next month. Nymex gasoline futures were untraded Monday, after closing at $2.4597 a gallon Friday.
The $90 billion fund, administered by Standard & Poor's, will boost its gasoline futures holdings by about $3 billion, according to Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. That would raise its percentage holding in gasoline futures to 4.55 percent of the fund from 1.37 percent.
In other Nymex trading Monday, heating oil futures rose 1.31 cent to $2.6501 a gallon while natural gas prices dropped 6.4 cents to $7.322 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, February Brent crude added 12 cents to $94 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Counting down on Wall Street

Futures point to modest gains on last trading day of the year; existing home sales due to be released.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks looked poised for a slightly higher on the last trading day of the year as investors awaited the latest reading on the housing market.
At 6:44 a.m. ET, Nasdaq and S&P futures were narrowly higher, suggesting a flat to positive start for Wall Street on Monday.
Trading is expected to be thin as investors count down to the start of 2008. Bond markets will close early at 2 p.m. ET.
Investors will look to a report on November existing home sales for direction. Last month's figure - an annual rate of 4.97 million - was the lowest on record amid ongoing trouble in the mortgage sector. Economists are looking for annual growth of 5 million units this month, according to Briefing.com. The report from the National Association of Realtors is due out at 10 a.m. ET.
Despite recent turbulence, U.S. stocks look set to finish the year higher. Year-to-date, the Dow is up about 7 percent, the S&P 500 is up about 4 percent, and the Nasdaq is up nearly 11 percent.
In corporate news, billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corporation is paying $684 million for a 35 percent stake in Delta Petroleum Corporation (DPTR), an independent energy exploration company.
Among tech stocks to watch, Chinese search engine Baidu.com (BIDU) said its chief financial officer died in an accident while on holiday in China.
The Semiconductor Industry Association also said November chip sales rose 2.3 amid steep cost cutting, and annual sales may fall short of previous predictions. The news could move the stocks of semiconductor companies like Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, Fortune 500).
In global trade, most Asian markets finished the year with strong gains. Many exchanges posted gains of more than 20 percent in 2007, although Japan's Nikkei ended the year down 11.1 percent. In Pakistan, stocks tumbled 5 percent on Monday as markets reopened after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. European markets got off to a mixed start and will close early.
Oil rose slightly amid concerns about supply disruptions in the Middle East. U.S. light crude for February delivery rose 16 cents to $96.16 a barrel in electronic trading.
The dollar fell against the yen and was little changed against the euro.

Bear Stearns CEO sells stock

James Cayne sells 172,621 shares of the investment bank in what a spokesperson calls a routine sell. He still owns 5.6 million shares.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Bear Stearns Chief Executive James E. Cayne sold $15.4 million of the investment bank's stock this month, at the end of a year in which he found himself at the forefront of a global credit crisis.
Cayne, who is also Bear Stearns' chairman, exercised and sold 172,621 shares of stock vested under a capital accumulation plan last Friday, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Thursday.
He fetched $89.01 per share, according to the filing. At the beginning of the year the stock traded at more than $160.
Cayne still owns 5.6 million shares, or about 5 percent of the company.
Every year, Bear Stearns grants executives "CAP units" entitled to a share of the company's annual profit and dividends. After five years, the CAP units become stock. The stock Cayne sold this month was acquired through CAP units granted in 2002.
A spokeswoman for Bear Stearns said executives for tax reasons typically sell stock acquired through CAP units. She pointed out Cayne and most other executives sell stock vested through their CAP units every year.
"The sale of stock by the members of the executive committee is in line with what each of them has done in the past," the spokeswoman said.
Bear Stearns has been at the heart of this year's liquidity crisis, which has pushed scores of mortgage lenders out of business, bled more than $100 billion from Wall Street's books, and coaxed the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by a full percentage point.
Some people point to the collapse of two Bear Stearns hedge funds established to bet on risky mortgage debt as the trigger for the subprime crisis.
Merrill raises $6.2 billion in slew of deals
Bear Stearns executives triggered a 2.6 percent one-day sell-off in the stock market this summer when they compared the lack of liquidity plaguing financial markets to the bond market crisis of the late 1990s, the bursting of the tech bubble, and the stock market crash of 1987.
Cayne later came under fire after the Wall Street Journal reported that as the two hedge funds were going bankrupt, he was playing golf and bridge without access to e-mail or a telephone.
Bear Stearns' profit plummeted 89 percent in fiscal 2007 as the bank wrote billions of dollars of bad debt off its books. The company's stock has lost almost 47 percent of its value this year and on Friday registered its cheapest trade in three years.
Still, Cayne has managed to hold on to his job even as colleagues like Citigroup's (C, Fortune 500) Charles Prince and Merrill Lynch & Co.'s Stan O'Neal have been ousted from their offices.
Last year, the company granted Cayne a compensation package worth $38.1 million. Bear has already said Cayne will not take a bonus this year.
British investor Joseph Lewis has poured money into a growing stake in Bear Stearns (BS), having acquired 11.1 million shares for a 9.6 percent stake to become the bank's biggest shareholder.
Earlier this week, Lewis disclosed he bought nearly 2 million shares, most of them at more than the stock is worth because he had granted or sold options to another investor.

StubHub's winning ticket

The lively online market for the big Patriots game shows how an upstart site has changed ticket sales - and why it is our Sports Business of the Year.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- When the Patriots try to finish off an undefeated season tonight, thousands of Pats fans will come out to Giants Stadium and thousands of Giants season ticket holders will be counting the money they collected by selling them the tickets.
To some people, those simple business transactions between football lovers were signs of the apocalypse, or at least proof that fans have become as disloyal as free agent players or owners who move their teams in the middle of the night in pursuit of a sweeter stadium deal from a new set of taxpayers.
And greasing many of those transactions, and catching some of the flack along with the Giants fans dumping their tickets, is StubHub, the leading online ticket resale service that has handled the sale of more than 6 percent of tickets at Giants Stadium for the big game.
But the secondary market - the formal name for the slur known as ticket-scalping - has always been a part of sports. And this weekend's game shows that the secondary ticket market benefits everyone the more developed it becomes.
Giants fans who have to shell out big bucks for season tickets can make back a bit of that money by reselling their seats for a game that means little to the team, which has already earned an entry to the playoffs.
For the Giants, the secondary market ensures that the stadium will have few empty seats.
Why $75,000 World Series tickets are a good thing
And Patriots fans will have a weekend getaway and the chance to see a game they might be able to tell their grandchildren about.
A lot of these fans found one another online. Ticket resale Web sites have blossomed, growing as much as 50 percent this year to become a $2.5 billion business, according to an Forrester Research.
No company has done more to transform that business, and the business of sports overall, than StubHub - and that's why I've named it my first annual Sports Business of the Year.
It's been a busy year in the business of sports. Clashes between sports networks and cable giants. Free agent contract dramas that overshadowed the World Series. Industry-changing sponsorship deals.
But nothing has been more significant, or will have as long-lasting effect, as the rise of the market for ticket reselling.
StubHub, which handled more than 5 million ticket sales in 2007, or more than it had done in its six-plus year history leading into 2007, is clearly the leader in that field.
It's name is on its way to becoming the shorthand for those buying and selling tickets, the way "to Google" has come to mean conducting an Internet search.
More than 5,000 of those ticket sales on StubHub were for this Saturday's Patriots-Giants game, a bit more than double the number of Giants tickets the site handles in a typical week. About a quarter of the tickets sold went to buyers in New England states, while just over half stayed in the New York-New Jersey area, meaning there's a good chance more Giants fans than Patriots fans got tickets to the game through StubHub, despite the gnashing of teeth.
The most expensive seats sold to Saturday's game went for $1,600 a ticket. The average was $222.
StubHub was launched by a couple of Stanford Business School students, Jeff Fluhr and Eric Baker, after the Internet bubble burst in 2000. Fluhr said his parents were upset when he left school to start the company. But he and Baker, along with their investors, saw some business advantages to an online ticket marketplace, including a proven revenue stream and an existing off-line version of a fragmented industry.
"We knew that on every transaction we were making money," said Fluhr. "This was existing consumer behavior. It wasn't like we were trying to create a new behavior. We were just trying to provide an easier and safer way to do it."
Baseball close to catching NFL as top dollar sport
Baker left the company soon after it started, and eventually founded Viagogo, a European competitor that is moving into the U.S. market. Fluhr left soon after he sold StubHub to eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) for $300 million at start of this year. He remains a consultant to the company.
The new leadership at StubHub comes from eBay, which has allowed it to essentially continue to operate as a stand-alone company, said Chris Tsakalakis, the president of StubHub, who had been with eBay since 2003, most recently running its ticketing business.
Earlier this year, StubHub passed parent eBay for the first time in the total number of tickets sold, according to Tsakalakis.
Tsakalakis said he understands that some fans blame StubHub and other online sites for driving up prices of tickets to hot events. But he believes he's simply opening up the marketplace. Many tickets end up selling for less than their face price, particularly as demand for the tickets falls.
For example, the average ticket price on StubHub for Sunday's Jets-Chiefs game - a contest being held in the same stadium as the Patriots-Giants game but with far less at stake - was $74. And tickets for the Seahawks-Falcons game in Atlanta, a game with even less demand, was going for only $49.
Tsakalakis doesn't apologize for the forces of supply and demand.
"If par value of stock were treated like face value, we wouldn't have a stock market," he said. "People put a lot of faith in face value. But there's a big difference between face value and market value. The market value of a product really varies over time. The real demand is highly variable, highly dynamic."
But this was also a year when not just fans embraced the online ticket resale market. Finally, so did the leagues and many teams.
The eBay ownership of StubHub was a key to the company becoming the official ticket reseller of Major League Baseball.
And that sponsorship deal is a sign that many sports teams and leagues have finally figured out that the secondary market is not only something they can't fight, it's something they can and should embrace. And that is helping that market to start to reshape the business of sports.
The fewer no-shows means increased concession sales. More important, teams are seeing greater, not reduced, demand for their original ticket sales.
Fans are more willing to buy seats if they know there's a safe, liquid market to resell tickets. It makes them more willing, and able, to buy season and partial-season ticket packages. Even baseball's top officials concede the sport's record attendance this year was helped, not hurt, by the growth of StubHub.
There are still some states, such as Massachusetts, where the resale of tickets at a profit is basically illegal, but those laws are on their way out. Not surprisingly, StubHub led the charge to change the laws governing reselling tickets in many states, including New York.
Of course, some teams are still trying to fight the trend. Most notable in this category are the Patriots, which sued StubHub in November 2006 for violating the team's policy on ticket resale and Massachusetts law.
A month later StubHub countersued, accusing the the team of monopolization, conspiracy to restrict trade and unfair trade practices. Both suits are pending.
The legal battle probably didn't help the company in its effort to reach a sponsorship deal with the NFL similar to its MLB deal. Last week, the NFL signed up with IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI, Fortune 500) unit TicketMaster for a sponsorship deal.
But that sponsorship loss is not as serious setback for StubHub. In fact, with TicketMaster making a push in the ticket resale market, it can only serve to grow the overall online ticket resale industry. And that's a winning ticket for both fans and teams in the long-run.

Analysts in fantasyland

Despite years of reform, the latest numbers show that Wall Street prognosticators are every bit as deluded and inaccurate as they ever were.
By Geoff Colvin, senior editor-at-large

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Maybe Wall Street analysts are more honest and less compromised than they were pre-SarbOx, but recent events show that they're still awful at their most important job: predicting bad news. They haven't lost their habit of falling in love with the companies they cover and refusing to face unpleasant realities until everyone else has already done so. Now, eight years after they were inflating the bubble, we again have to question whether analysts do retail investors any good.
The latest evidence: Analysts have only just discovered that corporate profits in the fourth quarter aren't going to be nearly as strong as they had supposed a month or two ago. The consensus view going into the quarter was that S&P 500 profits would go up 12 percent to 15 percent, a large jump coming on top of the 20 percent rise in last year's fourth quarter. In light of the credit crunch, the housing collapse, and the towering price of oil, that forecast seemed highly - one might say insanely - optimistic. This it proved to be, but only after the quarter began did the consensus view finally lurch into the real world. Their growth forecast is now about 1.5 percent and still falling.
It has been obvious for many months that profit growth would have to slow way down simply because it couldn't continue at recent rates. Profits have been rising sharply the past few years, which makes sense after the hole they fell into in 2001 and 2002. But by early this year they had grown to 12 percent of GDP, way above their historical average of 9 percent. Analysts knew all this, and in case they didn't, various commentators (including Fortune's Shawn Tully) were insistently pointing it out. But the analysts, ever hopeful, chose to believe that U.S. companies would perform magic.
They still believe it. To see the stubbornness of Wall Street's Pollyannas, look at new data from Merrill Lynch. The firm's chief North American economist, David Rosenberg, regularly and realistically forecasts S&P 500 profit growth. He cut his 2008 forecast sharply (to zero growth) in June, even before the credit crunch. He has since cut it twice more, and it's now -3 percent.
But Merrill's analysts hold a far different view. Add up their 2008 profit growth forecasts for individual S&P companies, and you get 14 percent. In analyst-land, 2008 is going to be another knockout year, with profits yet again growing several times faster than the economy. What's more, Merrill's analysts have actually been increasing their 2008 growth forecasts in recent months. In their bizarre world the logic goes like this: Since we must now admit that 2007 profits will be much lower than we expected, and since we're still certain that 2008 will nonetheless be totally fabulous, then the percentage increases will be even bigger than we thought.
How these nonsensical situations arise is no mystery. Each analyst can accept that the future may be tough overall while still believing that the companies he or she covers are special and will beat the trend. The analysts individually think they're being reasonable, but in the aggregate, they're crazy.
It's similar to what happened in subprime mortgages in recent years or stocks in the late 1990s: Many players realized the situation wasn't sustainable but figured they were especially perceptive and would get out ahead of the pack.
In the days of the market bubble, when many analysts failed to cut their earnings estimates until the collapse was underway, we blamed their motivation. They were afraid their firm's investment-banking arm would lose business. That problem has at least been reduced by SarbOx and by fear of public scrutiny. But if analysts are still predicting fantasy earnings, who cares why? Individual investors are no better off than they were.
Not every analyst gets it wrong. It's always possible in retrospect to find some who hit bull's-eyes. The trouble is, you never know who they'll be. Of course, you may be tempted to believe that while analysts in general are poor, the ones you're relying on are special and will ... no, wait. We know how that turns out.

Battle of the business plans

MuscleMorph
Founders: Rodrigo Alvarez, 31; Howard Katzenberg, 28; Rahul Kothari, 30 Date launched: April 2006 Startup capital: $26,000 in prizes from business plan contests School: The Wharton School, University of PAProduct or service: A muscle-like device to replace traditional motors in prosthetic and orthopedic limbs, providing a quieter, less bulky and less expensive alternative, according to its founders.Chief scientist Rodrigo Alvarez (left), created a new kind of flexible artificial muscle made of plastic. With two MBA students from the Wharton School, Rahul Kothari (right) and Howard Katzenberg, Alvarez launched MuscleMorph, which aims to use that artificial muscle to transform the prosthetics industry by providing a new way to move artificial limbs. Much like a human muscle, Alvarez's device is composed of thousands of strands of microfibers, which respond to electrical charges from a battery by contracting smoothly and silently. In the lab, the founders claim, MuscleMorph's prototype has proved as strong and as responsive as human muscle. The company holds two provisional patents on the technology.MuscleMorph's device comes at a critical time for the prosthetics industry. There are about 1.8 million amputees in the U.S., and their numbers are expected to increase because of a rising incidence of heart disease and diabetes. Several motorized prosthetics have come on the market in the past year, but they are bulky, noisy and power-hungry machines that cost between $50,000 and $100,000. Limbs using MuscleMorph's technology will have more lifelike motion, could cost significantly less - and will be completely silent, claims Kothari.To speed its path to market, MuscleMorph is seeking $1.5 million from angel investors. It already faces some brawny competition. Artificial Muscle in Menlo Park, Calif., was spun off in 2004 from SRI International, one of the world's largest contract research institutes, and has attracted about $10 million in venture capital. Last January, Artificial Muscle introduced its first "muscle," using technology similar to MuscleMorph's. However, this rival says it does not intend to focus initially on the prosthetics market, but on the consumer electronics, automotive, and industrial markets, leaving MuscleMorph with a good shot at putting millions of amputees back on their feet. --Patricia B. Gray.

Collectica
School: University of ChicagoProduct or service: Online community for collectors of stamps, coins and other items.Visitors can use Collectica.com to upload, link and trade with peers as well as use auction and appraisal services. The site generates revenue through e-commerce and advertising. Pictured (from left to right) are founder and president Michael Dworecki, a serial Internet entrepreneur; VP of software development Tu Nguyen, who has designed software for major institutions; Samuel Dixon, head of community development and buzz marketing; and William Thoburn, head of community development and partnership marketing.

Internet Security Company
School: University of GeorgiaProduct or service: The team intends to develop a line of internet security products under the brand name SecureSurfer to market to Internet service providers.Founded at the University of Georgia, Internet Security plans to market a suite of products that blocks viruses and prevents sensitive information such as passwords from being monitored during online transactions. The company's first product contains its patent-pending NarrowGate software, which closes off access to a PC's operating system, existing software and writable memory during Web browsing. Co-founders Andrew Maliszewski (left) and Stephano Righi each have more than 20 years of experience in computer product development.

Liveiniowacity.com
School: University of IowaProduct or service: A Web site that allows students looking for low-cost apartments near the school's campus to search listings of more than 17,000 rental units.President Michael Hubbard (left), a finance major, VP of operations David Oliver (right), who has been a branding consultant and VP of technology Brian Clark, an engineer, aim to build similar sites in more than 75 other markets across the country. Clark and Oliver previously acquired the Police Law Institute, an online training company, and grew their client base by 65 percent in two years.

Cash2Bet.com
School: University of MiamiProduct or service: This startup handles promotion and marketing services for online gambling and entertainment companies.The company enables customers to wager first-time bets of up to $50 on its partner casino and sports booking sites, which Cash2Bet refunds at the end of betting. Prior to launching Cash2Bet, the firm's undergraduate founder Jeffrey Blum owned and operated a Web site design firm.

Precision Reproduction
School: University of California at Los AngelesProduct or service: A patented procedure for in-vitro fertilization that, according to its founders, gives doctors the ability to consistently deliver an embryo to an ideal implantation site - eliminating the risk of ectopic pregnancy and reducing multiple births.Chief science officer Michael Kamrava, M.D., is director of West Coast Infertility Clinic. Other team members include Sanjaya Mohottala (left), a former brand manager; Jeff Kendig (center), a former business analyst and healthcare consultant; and chief business officer Gregory Samson (right), a former investment banker.

Toyota introducing hybrid pickup

The concept truck, to be shown at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, features a hybrid drive and Prius styling.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Toyota Motor Corp. plans to introduce a concept hybrid pickup truck featuring improved fuel economy and lower emissions at the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the automaker said Friday.
The A-BAT concept vehicle is equipped with Hybrid Synergy Drive, Toyota's third-generation gas-electric hybrid powertrain technology, according to the company. Its trapezoidal profile was borrowed from the Prius, another hybrid Toyota vehicle.
"This concept is the next evolution of the compact truck," said Kevin Hunter, president of Calty Design Research, Toyota's North American-based research and design center, in a statement.
The four-passenger pickup features a 4-foot bed, while a translucent roof panel slides open to allow for tall cargo inside the cab. The bed can be extended by 2 feet by folding down the pass-through midgate into the cab and by another 2 feet by opening the tailgate.
The truck uses a unibody platform for improved handling and a smoother ride. Inside, there is a retractable portable navigation unit with a 7-inch screen and wireless Internet, while the center console houses a portable battery pack.
Cars: Best of the best, 2007
Both the driver and front passenger have large display screens to view the status of their high-tech gadgets and climate and audio settings.
The A-BAT has solar panels atop the instrument panel to capture sunlight and convert it to energy, to assist in charging the navigation unit, battery pack and backlit information displays, Toyota (TM) said.

No fraud in $1.5B Genesco buyout: Judge

Rival retailer The Finish Line must complete buyout after its case, alleging Genesco fraud, is dismissed.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A judge ruled Thursday that Genesco executives did not commit fraud during negotiations over a $1.5 billion acquisition and that fellow mall retailer The Finish Line must complete the purchase.
Nashville Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle dismissed Finish Line's claims that Genesco withheld key financial information that could have signaled worse-than-expected earnings after the deal closed in June.
Lyle said Indianapolis-based Finish Line and investment bank UBS were sophisticated enough to know what they were getting into with the $54.50-per-share purchase.
The buyout was conducted by "teams of lawyers, advisers and handlers being paid enormous sums to orchestrate the procedure for obtaining information" she wrote.
"This milieu is UBS' home territory," Lyle said.
UBS has filed a separate federal lawsuit in New York asking that its commitment to finance most of the deal be declared void because the combined entity would go bankrupt and default on its debt payments.
That case is still pending, but Lyle disagreed that the combined company would be doomed.
"The merger has a reasonable chance of succeeding," she said.
UBS (UBS) issued a statement saying it disagrees with the court and believes "there are material issues in our client's and UBS' favor in this matter."
"We have consistently stood with our client in its position on this transaction and have been prepared to fund the transaction if the conditions of the financing are met."
Nashville-based Genesco operates 2,000 retail stores in the United States and Canada under brand names like Journeys, Johnston & Murphy and Hat Shack, and is about twice the size of Finish Line.
Genesco rejected a slightly less generous buyout offer from Foot Locker (FL, Fortune 500) in favor of the highly leveraged deal from Finish Line (FINL).
Lyle said making Finish Line simply pay damages to Genesco wouldn't have been enough to repair the harm done by the attempt to get out of the deal.
"Genesco's business has been irreparably harmed as a result of the stalled merger," Lyle said in the ruling. "Genesco's business is in a state of limbo."
Target 'first casualty of the holiday season'
The negative effects of the court battle included dwindling stock prices, damaged vendor relationships and low employee morale, she said.
Genesco's (GCO) earnings swung to a loss in the second quarter and dropped 65 percent in the third quarter, but Lyle declined to find that Genesco had suffered a specific financial flaw that prevents it from making money.
"Genesco's decline in performance in 2007 is due to general economic conditions such as higher gasoline, heating oil and food prices, housing and mortgage issues, and increased consumer debt loads," she said.

Why companies need owners

Today's CEOs are accountable to no one, says shareholder activist Bob Monks.
By Marc Gunther

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- "What this company needs is an owner," declared Sam Zell, after completing the $8.2 billion deal that put him in charge of the Tribune Co., which owns newspapers including the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and Newsday. "It needs someone who accepts the responsibility for what this company does."
How true. Whether Zell, as a committed owner, will help save newspapers is an open question. But the fact that the real estate billionaire has a lot of skin in the game - $315 million of his money, plus the right to buy up to 40 percent of the company down the line - means that he, and his people, will be very focused on getting the job done.
All companies need owners who are engaged, committed and, ideally, thinking about long term. So argues Robert A.G. Monks, the shareholder activist, author, lawyer, entrepreneur and corporate director in a new book, called "Corpocracy: How CEOs and the Business Roundtable Hijacked the World's Greatest Wealth Machine - and How to Get It Back" (Wiley, 2007, $29.95).
Corporacy is not a pretty word, but this is not a pretty story. Shareholders of most Fortune 500 companies are so dispersed and unorganized and disempowered that CEOs are accountable to no one but themselves, Monks argues.
"A venture with one million shareholders ultimately has no real owner," he says.
The result, he argues, are the by-now familiar horror stories about excessive CEO pay, lavish severance payments for failed leaders, rejiggering of stock options and the like.
Monks writes: "History will look back on the 1990s and early 2000s as a time when the principal officers of public American corporations transferred from shareholders to themselves approximately $1 trillion - or 10 percent of the market value of public exchanges. This must be the largest peacetime movement of wealth ever recorded, and it was accomplished through stealth that amounted to theft and in a spirit of regulatory permissiveness that certainly rises near to the level of criminal neglect."
Such rhetoric aside, Bob Monks is no wild-eyed left-winger. He believes that capitalism and corporations "provide the best chance for humankind to improve its lot on earth." But like Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose administration created the Securities and Exchange Commission and modern-day securities law, Monks is a product of the world of the well born, the WASP establishment and Harvard University who wants to save capitalism from its own excesses. A biography of Monks published a few years back was called "A Traitor to His Class."
At 74, Monks has toiled for decades in the field dryly known as corporate governance, which, in fact, is all about power and accountability. He is a founder of Institutional Shareholder Services, a company formed to advise shareholders on proxy votes; of the LENS Fund, a successful activist investment fund; and of The Corporate Library, which analyzes corporate governance and ranks boards of directors. All these enterprises aim to shift the balance of power away from hired managers and toward active owners.
Surveying the landscape of corporate governance today, Monks is outraged. He skewers familiar targets - the Home Depot (XOM,Fortune 500) shareholder meeting where most of the directors didn't bother to show up, the imperial leadership of former ExxonMobil (XOM,Fortune 500) CEO Lee Raymond, the $198 million payout to former Pfizer (PFE, Fortune 500) CEO Hank McKinnell after five years of sub-par performance. Recent SEC rulings that make it all but impossible for shareholders to nominate their own candidates for corporate boards mean that shareholder democracy remains an oxymoron.
Monks finds a few heroes, as well. He's a fan of Warren Buffett, the model of an active owner, and of Jeff Immelt, the General Electric (GE,Fortune 500) CEO who works without an employment contract and for a modest wage, by today's standards. He praises institutional investors like Hermes Investment Management Co., a British pension fund, and the Norwegian Government Pension Fund because they make long-term capital investments and actively exercise their ownership rights. He calls on public-purpose organizations like Harvard and the Gates Foundation, which owns billions of dollars of equities, to do the same.
At the heart of his life's work is Monks' belief that engaged owners (as opposed to speculators or short-term shareholders) are more likely to guide corporations in ways that align with the common good. This, he says, is because owners who take a long-term view want more than a return on their investments; they want to live in a healthy, just and peaceful world, and so they want corporations to be a force for good.
This argument is hard, if not impossible, to prove, but there's logic to it. Homeowners, after all, are more apt than renters to take care of their property, invest in their neighborhoods and exercise their duty as citizens.
But even if corporations with engaged owners act no more responsibly than others, there's little doubt that CEOs, like the rest of us, benefit from strong oversight. Just the fact that Sam Zell is minding the store should bring new energy to Tribune.

Stock comeback seen

U.S. futures edge higher as talk of bank asset sales could help markets recover from selloff on Pakistan strife.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Wall Street is set to recover slightly Friday after a big selloff on the assassination of Pakistan's ex-prime minister, with talk of big bank asset sales helping to boost futures.
At 6:25 a.m. ET, Nasdaq and S&P futures were higher.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that major U.S. and European banks, including Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Britain's HSBC (HBC), are considering the sale of branches and various units. The sales would be an effort to recover from the hit the banks have taken in 2007 from the global credit crunch.
Asian markets tumbled in the first trading following the slaying of Benazir Bhutto. Japan's Nikkei index was down 1.7 percent in the final trading session of 2007, with the Nikkei ending the year 11.1 percent lower than a year earlier.
Oil was slightly higher. U.S. light crude gained 7 cents to $96.69 a barrel in electronic trading.
The dollar fell against the euro and yen.
After the opening bell, the government will issue its report on new home sales for November. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expect a decline in the annual rate to 715,000 from 728,000 in October.
Among stocks in the news Friday: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Genesco (GCO) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

Regulators step in at troubled ACA Capital

Bond insurer relinquishes authority to Maryland Insurance Administration; S&P earlier downgraded ACA.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The bond insurance unit of ACA Capital Holdings Inc. has agreed to turn over substantial control to Maryland insurance regulators, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late Wednesday.
The agreement with the Maryland Insurance Administration gives regulators the authority to approve or reject any deals made by ACA to pledge assets, pay dividends or engage in "certain material transactions." ACA's bond unit also agreed not to object to any move by regulators to declare it delinquent on its obligations.
ACA has faced doubts over its future since Dec. 19, when Standard & Poor's downgraded ACA Financial Guaranty Corp. to the junk "CCC" rating from an investment-grade "A" rating. Like other bond insurers, ACA has substantial exposure to weakening credit markets, which has led to speculation it could have difficulty meeting its insurance obligations if defaults worsened.
In the SEC filing, ACA said that its insurance contracts typically include provisions that would have required it to post collateral in the event of a rating downgrade -- at least $1.7 billion in collateral based on its Sept. 30 obligations, ACA said. But, the company said it has received a waiver on those additional collateral requirements through Jan. 18.
ACA also said that it entered into the deal with Maryland regulators before the S&P downgrade.

Citi could cut dividend by 40%

Goldman Sachs analysts said the bank might write down billions more than expected and cut its dividend to preserve capital.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Citigroup could cut its dividend by 40 percent and write down billions of dollars more than expected in the fourth quarter, Goldman Sachs analysts said, forcing it to raise even more capital than it already has.
"Although we have seen many firms take the appropriate actions in recent weeks as they relate to write-downs and capital raises, we still believe it will be a couple of quarters before the current credit crisis is fully digested by the markets," wrote Goldman analysts William F. Tanona, Betsy Miller and Neil C. Sanyal in a note to investors late Wednesday.
The analysts said Citi could write off as much as $18.7 billion in the fourth quarter.
Goldman's projection estimates write-offs as much as 70 percent higher than the $8 billion to $11 billion Citi forecast in early November, when it ousted Chief Executive Charles Prince as the extent of its bad bets in mortgage-related debt became known.
They also suggested the bank could cut its dividend by 40 percent and may need to raise $5 billion to $10 billion more cash.
That would come on top of a $7.5 billion infusion Citi received when it sold a 4.9 percent stake to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in late November.
Goldman increased its estimate for a fourth-quarter loss to $1.33 per share, from 52 cents per share, based on the higher writedown prediction. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial, on average, predict a loss of 63 cents per share for the fourth quarter, which ends Monday.
Citi (C, Fortune 500) shares edged down 15 cents in premarket trading, from their close Wednesday at $30.45.
CIBC perdicts more losses for Merrill Lynch
The Goldman team also said they expect an additional $11.5 billion write-off from Merrill Lynch & Co., and increased their loss estimate for the broker to $7 per share for its fourth quarter, versus a prior forecast for a loss of $1.50 per share. Wall Street, on average, expects Merrill to report a loss of $2.78 per share, according to Thomson Financial.
Merrill (MER, Fortune 500) shares were trading flat in the premarket from their $54.54 close.
For JPMorgan, the Goldman analysts see a $3.4 billion writedown, and cut their profit estimate to 65 cents per share, from $1.04, noting in particular concerns about "higher charge-offs and provisions for the firm's consumer business, particularly credit cards and mortgage."
Analysts, on average, see JPMorgan (JPM, Fortune 500) posting a profit of $1.03 per share, according to Thomson Financial. JPMorgan shares closed at $44.94 Wednesday and were trading down slightly in very light trading early Thursday.

Pakistan violence could hurt stocks

Reports of death of Bhutto in suicide attack turns futures lower.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stock futures turned lower early Thursday after former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was killed in a suicide attack leaving a rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
At 8:35 a.m. ET, Nasdaq futures were down after being up slightly before the first reports of her death shortly after 8 a.m., while S&P futures fell further into negative territory.
Trading had been expected to be light as many market participants continue their year-end holiday celebration, which could add to market volatility.

Oil was slightly higher ahead of the government's weekly inventory report, as prices rose from earlier lows following the report of Bhutto's dealth. U.S. light crude was up 8 cents to $96.05 a barrel in electronic trading.
Asian markets ended mostly higher, although Tokyo's Nikkei index lost 0.6 percent.European stocks gained ground, as London returned from an extended holiday, although those markets also fell off of earlier highs.
The dollar was flat against the euro and lower versus the yen.
Economic reports showed much weaker demand for durable goods than had been forecasts as November orders were up only 0.1 percent, rather than the 2.2 percent jump that had been forecast. Weekly initial jobless claims came in higher than forecasts.
The latest reading on consumer confidence for December will be released at 10 a.m. ET.
In corporate news, Internet search leader Google ( GOOG, Fortune 500) suffered a legal setback when a federal appeals court revived a patent infringement claim by HyperPhrase Technologies that had been dismissed earlier in the month.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT, Fortune 500), the world's largest retailer, announced late Wednesday it is having problems processing gift cards due to what it described as an error in a third-party verifier's systems.
Hollywood had a good weekend ahead of Christmas, with a total box office of $160 million, up 34 percent from a year earlier. The leading movie was "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" from Walt Disney (DIS, Fortune 500), which sold $65.4 million in tickets over the extended five-day holiday.
Student lender Sallie Mae (SLM, Fortune 500) announced plans late Wednesday to sell common and mandatory convertible preferred stock in order to raise $2.5 billion. Shares lost nearly 6 percent in after-hours trading on the news.
The Wall Street Journal reported that News Corp. (NWS, Fortune 500) unit Twentieth Century Fox and Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) are preparing to announce a deal in which Fox movies would be available for rent digitally through Apple's iTunes store.

Beware the dreaded R word

You don't know whether we're in a recession until months after it starts. But investing successfully requires looking forward, not backward.
By Allan Sloan , senior editor at large

(Fortune Magazine) -- Everyone and his brother seems to be talking about recession these days. It dominates every public investment discussion and is the topic 24/7 on cable TV. But let me tell you a little secret: When it comes to investing, the question of whether we're in a recession (or are heading for one) just doesn't matter.
How in the name of Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and all the other economic saints and seers can I be so dismissive of something that's attracting so much attention? Because while the economy obviously matters a lot, both politically and economically, the "R" word is irrelevant to people who want to know how to place their bets on the markets.
Gather around the campfire, folks, and I'll tell you why.
It's actually elementary. Investing successfully is about looking ahead, while determining whether we're in a recession involves looking behind. Way behind. We won't know that a recession has started until months after it's begun. And by that time, things in the economy may well be getting better rather than worse - which might make it a good time to invest.
Now, exactly what is a recession? Opinions vary. Many people think that a recession is defined as two consecutive quarters in which "real" gross domestic product - GDP adjusted for inflation - declines. If you accept that definition, which I don't, you don't find out that a recession is underway until six months - two calendar quarters - after it has started. (Sorry, too late!) If you use what I consider the proper definition - a declaration by the National Bureau of Economic Research's business cycle dating committee that the economy has peaked - you may have to wait even longer. Nevertheless, I prefer the NBER version because it's the collective opinion of seven savvy people rather than a rote formula.
"We wait long enough so that the existence of a recession is not at all in doubt," Bob Hall, a Stanford business professor who chairs the cycle dating committee, told me in an e-mail. "We concentrate on finding the date of the peak in activity, usually at a time the press [has] lost interest in the question of whether we are in a downturn." Typically, Hall wrote, the committee makes its call six to 18 months after the downturn started - or economic activity peaked, depending on your point of view.
I won't bore you with all the grubby details, which you can find for yourself on nber.org. One thing that will leap out at you is the contrast between economic reality and what many people believe. For example, conventional wisdom is that the devastation wrought on Sept. 11, 2001, sent the U.S. economy into a tailspin. The reality, according to NBER, is that the economy was already in a recession, which had started in March 2001 (or, some committee members now feel, even earlier) and ended in November - two months after 9/11. The committee, however, didn't announce this until July 17, 2003. By then, the popular assumptions about the effects of 9/11 were set in stone.
I'm not naive, and I know that the question of whether there's a recession has enormous political implications for the 2008 elections, which is a major reason so many of my colleagues in the media are obsessed with it. But we're talking about investments here, not politics.
I have no idea if we're in a recession or heading for one. Nor do I know where the market is going over the next few months. If I did, would I tell you for $4.99 ($5.99 Canadian)? What I do know is that if you want to do well in the market, you've got to think ahead, not behind. The "R" word isn't helpful. What you need is the "F" word: foresight.

MONEY

You're only as good as Google says you are
Face it, you're going to get 'Googled'. Here's how to burnish your digital brand.

NEW YORK (Money Magazine) -- Who's Scott Burkett? A small-time actor; a family lawyer; a techie at the University of North Carolina.
But if you Google "Scott Burkett," eight of the top 10 results, and most of the next 20, point to the 38-year-old chief executive of PlayMotion, a small video-game company.
That's no coincidence. Over the past decade, video-game Scott has carefully nurtured his digital dossier. Why bother?
"Everyone is going to see this stuff," says Burkett. "It's not just customers and investors who look you up. It's everyone."
Including the person who may find you your next job. According to ExecuNet, a career-networking company for executives, more than 80% of recruiters use Google to uncover information on candidates.
While you can't completely control what appears under your name on search engines, it's not that hard to burnish your digital brand.
Start a Weblog
Blogging can quickly shoot your name from obscurity to the top of search indexes, says Robyn Greenspan, senior editor at ExecuNet. Try to update it at least three times a week and use keywords that you think searchers are likely to look for.
An aeronautical engineer might naturally use words like "aviation" and "altitude" in his blog, for example.
Blogger.com is a commonly used (and free) place to get started. The site will guide you every step of the way. You'll also want to set up a social-networking profile.
Buy your domain
Purchase your first and last name as a Web address. Even if you don't plan to set up a Web site now, it's a good idea to park it - GoDaddy.com will let you reserve a dotcom name for $9.99 a year. Don't let someone beat you to it. Buying on the secondary market can be expensive.
If your name is common, try variations like "Firstname-Lastname.com" or your name followed by your profession.
Bury the bad stuff
If you've got a reasonably high profile in a competitive field or if you've ever jilted an employee, uncomplimentary words about you may find their way onto an industry message board or blog. The poster will use a pseudonym - but he or she will make sure that the reader knows who you are.
Sweeping dirt to the second or third page of a Google search by buying your domain and blogging is usually enough. But if the stuff is really toxic, you can try having it removed.
If contact information for a Webmaster isn't readily apparent on the site where you're being maligned, go to CheckDomain.com and search for the domain name. The search will spit back the e-mail address of the site's owner and may reveal a phone number and mailing address. Ask nicely. The site can't really be forced to do anything without getting lawyers involved, a costly and often ineffective strategy.

Shoppers jam stores as Christmas nears

With just days until the Christmas holiday, retailers' hopes are high as they report stores crowded by last-minute shoppers.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The nation's shoppers -- taking advantage of deep discounts and expanded hours -- jammed stores over the last weekend before Christmas to try to grab a hard-to-find Wii or scoop up bargains on other items. But the spending surge may not be enough to offset what is shaping up to be a mediocre December for some retailers.
Based on early reports on Sunday, mall operators including Macerich Co. said they were pleased with the spending spree over the weekend, but they were still counting on Christmas Eve and post-Christmas business to meet holiday sales goals in what has turned out to be a nail biter of a season.
Meanwhile, even as shoppers continued to snap up flat-screen TVs, video game software and other gadgets, benefiting stores like Best Buy Co., the apparel business remains challenging, analysts said.
Ed Schmults, chief executive of toy merchant FAO Schwarz, which operates stores in Chicago and New York, said Sunday that pre-Christmas business is below expectations despite a sales surge this weekend.
"It's almost kind of worth waiting and shifting through the hustle and bustle," said Carly Moore, of Chicago, who was heading to Macy's on the city's State Street shopping corridor to scoop up some discounted clothing. But she was still frustrated that she couldn't find Nintendo's Wii game console, after trying at least five stores.
Credit card defaults alarmingly high
Valerie Glodowski of Stevens Point, Wis., who was with her boyfriend at Wisconsin's Wausau Center Mall, said she started holiday shopping two weeks ago and waited until the last weekend to finish out of sheer laziness.
"I am just winging it," she said.
Many merchants, which had struggled through a sluggish December after a strong start to the season, are counting even more on the final days before Christmas to make their holiday goals. With the three days prior to Christmas accounting for as much as 15 percent of holiday sales, there's a lot of business left on the table.
Macy's Inc. is keeping several of its stores in the New York metropolitan area, including its flagship store in Herald Square, open until 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve. About 1,000 of Sears Holdings Corp.'s 1,387 Kmart stores are open for 64 hours straight, beginning at 6 a.m. Saturday and ending at 10 p.m. on Dec. 24, for the first time since 2002.
Retailers' big fear: 35M procrastinators
With Christmas falling on a Tuesday, shoppers were enticed to wait even longer this season to finish their holiday shopping. A challenging economy -- higher gas prices and a housing slump -- also made some shoppers hold off until the final days before the holiday. Retailers routinely discount items deeper as Christmas draws nearer.
"The gas prices and car insurance ... is up. I would say I'm spending less and worrying more about it," said Sondra Newton, of Warren, Mich., who was at Oakland Mall in Troy, Mich., a suburb outside of Detroit on Friday. "I used to just take their (her children's) list and get the top ones on it. Now I have to think about 'what can I get at the best deal."'
Nevertheless, Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at International Council of Shopping Centers, is sticking with his December forecast for a 1.5 percent gain in same-store sales, or sales at stores opened at least a year. That would mean same-stores sales for the November-December period would be up 2.5 percent from a year ago.
Green gifts
"I think when the dust settles, stores will have met expectations, though they are modest," said Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which tracks total sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets. He said he is still sticking with his 3.6 percent forecast for the November and December period, though he added, "some retailers will do OK, and others won't."
ShopperTrak is expected to release total sales for the week ended Saturday late on Monday.
Jerry Storch, chairman and CEO of Toys "R" Us Inc., said the past weekend was strong, and that people were buying "everything," from video-game software to games. He noted that shipments of Wii are selling out as fast as Toys "R" Us gets them, while the retailer is running out of Fisher-Price's Smart Cycle, a stationary bike that plugs into the TV. The season's hot video game, "Guitar Hero 3," is also hard to find.
Karen MacDonald, spokeswoman at mall operator Taubman Center Inc., noted that on Saturday business was up in the mid-single digits based on a spot-check of malls. Gift card sales are up in the double digits, and "more men are out buying fragrance gift sets and jewelry," she said.
Ken Gillette, senior vice president of operations at Macerich, noted that the weekend was "very busy," with traffic on Saturday up 20 percent from the previous Saturday. He said while the day after Black Friday starts off the season, the most intense sales volume comes in the few days before Christmas.
Still, overall holiday sales gains could come at a cost for retailers, says Sherif Mityas, partner and central region leader at consultancy A.T. Kearney, noting that stores discounted heavily at the expense of margins. He believes that apparel merchants will see their fourth-quarter profits most hurt.
For many shoppers, it paid to wait given the plentiful offerings and good deals. The Children's Place Retail Stores Inc. was offering three graphic T-shirts for a total of $20. Pier 1 Imports Inc., which has been hit hard along with other home furnishings stores by the housing slump, was offering 50 percent discounts on candle gift sets and 35 percent price cuts on holiday potpourri.
"I got very good deals," said Nichelle Jones, of Chicago who had purchased two shirts at Lady Foot Locker, owned by Foot Locker Inc., winter boots and an iPod at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Edison Alberto of Miami Beach, Fla., got all of his shopping done in about an hour and a half on Friday night. He had about a dozen gifts to buy and found them all at a mall near Miami. His best deals, he said, were sneakers he bought for two cousins at Champs Sports.
"I thought they were going to be $80 or up," he said. "They were $55 each."

What a rate cut means to homeowners

How to keep ahead of rates and lower them when your card issuer hikes them up.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Most analysts see the Fed cutting rates for the third consecutive time tomorrow. What investors don't know is just how deep the Fed will cut. What will this mean for your mortgage? Here's what you need to know.
1: Long-term mortgages won't move much
Right now investors are split on whether the Fed will lower the funds rate by another quarter point to 4.25% or cut it by a half-point, to 4%. But the fact is, there's not much doubt that the Fed will cut rates. And because of that, the market has already priced that in, says Mike Larson with moneyandmarkets.com. 30-year fixed rates have been falling for some time.
In July, the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 6.66%. Last week, it was 5.82%. So, a rate cut won't really do very much to lower long-term rates. They're already low. So if you want to refinance, it's a good time to start shopping.
2: ARM resets not as severe
The Fed move tomorrow may be more significant to borrowers with adjustable-rate mortgages than what the government is doing in freezing subprime interest rates. That's according to Greg McBride at bankrate.com. Most resets on adjustable rate mortgages will reset in the middle of next year. And the fact that the Fed is cutting rates, will make these resets more manageable for prime borrowers, which aren't covered by the foreclosure-prevention plan announced last week.
So, if you had an adjustable rate mortgage that started at 4.5% and your rate was going to reset at 7.5%, you may only face a rate reset of 5.7%.
3: HELOCS will be cheaper
Home equity lines of credit will be cheaper if the Fed does cut rates. It may take up to three billing cycles to see the actual decrease in your bill. If you need to consolidate debts or you need money for medical bills or college expenses, you may consider shopping around for a HELOC since lenders are likely to price in the Fed's cut immediately.
4: Keep it in perspective
The take away here is that the Fed is on your side. This rate cut won't be the silver bullet that fixes the housing market. But it's apparent that Fed is in a rate cutting mode, and the cumulative effect on that will help consumers. There are a number of things the Federal Reserve can't control, like the impact of the credit crunch.
You need to look at inflation, job growth and the overall health of the economy as indicators of when this housing crisis may subside. When we get down to it, there are two issues here, according to McBride. That's inventory of houses on the market and the affordability of houses. Interest rate cuts won't do much to make that go away. Sometimes, it's just a matter of time.

PARTNERCENTER(Rates provided by Bankrate.com.

Mortgages - 15 Year Fixed 5.38%

Mortgages - 30 Year Fixed 5.82%

Mortgages - 5/1 Year ARM 5.54%

Used Car - 3 Year 7.38%

New Car - 3 Year 6.86%

Mortgage rates at lowest level in 2 years

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Interest rates on fixed-rate mortgages slipped again this week as the glut of available homes exerted downward pressure on prices and construction activity, Freddie Mac reported Thursday.
The government-sponsored loan buyer said the rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan fell to an average 6.10 percent for the week ended Nov. 29, from 6.20 percent the prior week. At this time last year, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.14 percent.
The 30-year rate has not been lower since the week ending Oct. 13, 2005, when it averaged 6.03 percent, Freddie Mac said.
"Interest rates for U.S. Treasury securities have been drifting lower this month over market concerns that the housing slump and stress in the credit markets could slow future economic growth," said Freddie Mac (Charts, Fortune 500) chief economist Frank Nothaft.
With home prices falling 4.95 percent in the 12-months ending September and 15 metropolitan areas showing annual declines, "the overall picture does, indeed, appear glum with no immediate relief in sight," Nothaft said.
New home prices: Worst drop in 37 years
Freddie Mac said rates on 15-year fixed-rate loans averaged 5.73 percent, down from 5.83 percent last week. A year ago, the 15-year FRM averaged 5.87 percent. The 15-year rate has not been lower since the week ending January 26, 2006, when it averaged 5.70 percent.
Five-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) averaged 5.86 percent this week, down from 5.88 percent last week. A year ago, the five-year ARM averaged 5.95 percent.
One-year Treasury indexed ARMs averaged 5.43 percent this week, from 5.42 percent last week. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 5.46 percent.

Current Mortgage Rates

30 yr fixed mtg 5.82%
15 yr fixed mtg 5.38%
30 yr fixed jumbo mtg 6.71%
5/1 ARM 5.54%
5/1 jumbo ARM 6.02%

Banks to abandon 'Super-SIV' fund

Citigroup, JPMorgan and BofA cancel plans for a mortgage backed securities rescue fund, but leave the door open in case of more credit woes.

By David Ellis and Ben Rooney, CNNMoney.com staff writers

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Wall Street consortium seeking to establish a bailout fund for troubled mortgage securities announced it would abandon efforts to establish the so-called "Super-SIV" fund, adding that it could revisit the solution if credit market conditions worsened.
In a statement issued late Friday, the consortium, which includes Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) and Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) said the rescue fund is "not needed at this time."
In recent weeks, a number of banks that sponsor or own these SIVs, or structured investment vehicles, have developed their own solutions including selling assets or finding other sources of liquidity.
Citigroup, for example, announced late last week it would take the $49 billion in assets held by its seven SIVs onto its balance sheet.
The group, however, remained open to revisiting the "Super SIV" or Master Liquidity Enhancement Conduit, if needed.
"The consortium will continue to monitor market conditions and remain committed to work collaboratively on any appropriate solutions, including an activation of MLEC, if needed," the group said in a statement.
The news, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, comes just days after the three banks and BlackRock (BLK), the fund's investment manager, tried to downplay recent talk that the rescue fund was jeopardy.
The companies had said Tuesday they were committed to the rescue fund, adding it would launch in several weeks.
SIVs typically issued debt in the commercial paper market, becoming a key source for short-term financing, the proceeds of which were used to buy higher-yielding, long-term assets, such as mortgage-backed securities.
But following this summer's credit crisis, the market for these securities and notes issued by SIVs dried up, hence creating the need for a rescue fund.
With the backing of the Treasury Department, the three banks announced the creation of the "Super SIV" in October. It was designed to hold the shaky mortgage assets that were owned by these banks' off-balance sheet investment funds, or SIVs, until investors could get a better sense of the default rate of the mortgages backing these bonds and other securities.
Calls to the Treasury Department for comment were not immediately returned.
The plan, however, had plenty of critics, including former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, who suggested that the "Super SIV" could do more harm than good.
Ultimately, the rescue fund was intended to be an important first step in wooing debt investors back into the market, but some claimed that it was ultimately a bailout for these banks.

Goldman's Blankfein collects $68M bonus

Payday in restricted stock, options and cash marks biggest ever for Wall Street CEO.

By David Ellis, CNNMoney.com staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein will take home nearly $68 million in restricted stock, options and cash, making it the largest bonus ever given to a Wall Street CEO.
Blankfein was awarded $26.8 million in cash and $41.1 million in restricted stock and stock options, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission issued Friday.
With this year's bonus, Blankfein shatters the record he set a year ago, when he was awarded $54 million.
News reports had originally projected that Blankfein will take home as much as $70 million, after helping to lead the company through this summer's market meltdown and the ongoing credit crisis.
Unlike some of its rivals, which have witnessed billions of dollars evaporate from their balance sheets, Goldman Sachs has proved unshakable. Just this week, the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, while peers like Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns recorded steep losses.
As it stands right now, Blankfein will be among the few Wall Street CEOs to collect a bonus this year. After this week's dismal results, Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) Chairman and CEO John Mack and Bear Stearns (BSC, Fortune 500) chief James Cayne both announced they would forsake their 2007 bonuses.
While bonuses are common throughout corporate America, they are a far bigger part of overall compensation for all levels of employee pay on Wall Street than they are at a typical corporation.
Tom McMullen of the Hay Group, a human resources and management consultant, estimates that cash bonuses typically equal between 40 and 100 percent of base salary for top executives on Wall Street, while senior managers receive between 15 to 30 percent of base pay as bonus payments. Even entry-level employees might see 10 to 20 percent of their base pay in the form of a bonus.
This year was expected to be a difficult one for finance pros given the recent market turmoil and the ongoing credit crisis. Overall, financial firms were expected to cut bonuses up to 10 percent from a year ago, according to industry projections.
A year ago, bonuses on Wall Street reached a record $23.9 billion, averaging more than $136,000 per employee, according to the New York State Comptroller's office.
Facing the biggest bonus squeeze were those individuals working in mortgage-related areas, with their bonuses declining by as much as 50 percent from a year ago, according to a report published last month by the compensation research firm Options Group.
Even though dealmaking has slowed considerably on Wall Street, investment bankers are still expected to enjoy a bump in their annual bonus from a year ago given the frenetic pace of merger-and-acquisition activity in the first half of 2007.
With so many banks underperforming, many financial firms were widely expected this bonus season to shift from cash to stock in an effort to compensate employees while retaining talent. Some firms have already said they would cap their cash compensation, including UBS, which announced a limit of $750,000 for its workers.
Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) stock finished more than 3 percent higher in Friday trade.
Your bonus is safe, your boss' isn't

Muscle car wars 2009

Despite demands for greater fuel economy, there's still a market for big-power performance.
By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney staff writer

Performance plays its part
The desire to go faster - even the desire to go too fast - has played a role in the development and sale of cars since the first automobiles were built. Henry Ford came to broad public attention behind the wheel of a race car he had designed.
Performance models attract customers, motivate engineers and designers and, ultimately, build sales. Although the cars themselves will probably sell in low numbers, they provide an image-boost for car companies and attract foot traffic into dealer showrooms.
There's no question that cars like these burn more gas than economy models or, in some cases, even large SUVs. But, let's face it, that's the reason few people will buy them and, in turn, car companies won't make too many of them.
Customers may turn, instead, to more fuel-efficient and less expensive V6 versions of these models. Or they may even turn to an economy model and enjoy feeling like they're driving a car from the same company that still produces a legendary performance car.
While the car magazines will concentrate on whether the Challenger can beat the Camaro on the track, what Chrysler and GM really care about is which one gets your attention on the street, even if you end up buying a Caliber or Cobalt.

Your bonus is safe, your boss' isn't

Bear Stearns' James Cayne and Morgan Stanley's John Mack aren't getting them, but Wall Street bonuses aren't disappearing.

By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- John Mack isn't getting one this year. Neither is James Cayne. But the subprime mess and the red ink it spilled throughout the canyons of Wall Street hasn't washed away the bonuses that are staples of compensation packages at financial services firms.
In fact, the New York State Comptroller's office forecasts that the overall bonus pool will drop no more than 10 percent from the record level of $23.9 billion in 2006, despite an estimated drop in investment bank earnings of about 24 percent, according to earnings tracker Thomson First Call.
For most professionals up and down Wall Street, a difficult 2007 will end with a bonus check - perhaps smaller than a year ago - but lucrative nonetheless.
Helping to keep the bonus pool strong is Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), which has largely escaped the hit to its earnings from the subprime mortgage securities losses being reported by its rivals.
The firm reported the total of both employee salaries and bonuses rose 23 percent this year to $20.2 billion. CEO Lloyd Blankfein reportedly is in line for a $70 million bonus, which would best the previous record bonus of $54 million he received in 2006.
But other top firms haven't done as well as Goldman, with Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) and Bear Stearns (BSC, Fortune 500) both reporting their first quarterly loss in those fabled firms' histories this week. Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Merrill Lynch (MER, Fortune 500) are expected to report large losses when they report their fourth-quarter results early next year. Larger than expected writedowns already caused both those firms to replace their chief executives.
Morgan Stanley CEO Mack and Bear Stearns CEO Cayne were able to hang onto their jobs, but both firms announced they would go without bonuses this year - components which are central to both men's compensation packages. The Bear Stearns executive committee is also going without bonuses.
Bad news at Bear Stearns
"We designed our executive compensation programs to pay for performance," said a Bear Stearns statement explaining the zero bonus for its top executives. "In a year in which we produced unacceptable results, the plans are working as they were designed."
Mack received no cash bonus a year ago, but received stock and options worth an estimated $40.2 million, which was 50 times greater than his $800,000 base pay.
Cayne received a bonus of $33,600,000 in 2006, which dwarfed his base pay of $250,000.
Compensation experts say it's smart for those executives to have scrapped their bonuses, especially since most of the professionals at those firms will be taking home smaller bonuses this year.
"I think it's a good gesture, both for the shareholders and the professionals who work for them," said to Options Group Director Eric Moskowitz. "No bonus is a real sign these guys want to make things right and sending a signal that they're not satisfied with results."
But going without a bonus will likely be limited to a relatively small group of top executives at the firms.
"The closer you are to Mack or Cayne, the bigger the haircut you just took," said Brent Longnecker, chief executive of Longnecker & Associates, a corporate compensation associate.
The compensation experts say that even in the divisions within the investment banks that ran up large losses, such as fixed income, there will be bonuses for top producers, even if those employees will be taking home quite a bit less this year.
Goldman's $20 billion payday
"They'll make sure they've got a retention bonus plan in place," said Longnecker, who said the managers at the firm realize these employees stopped losses from being worse than they were.
"These top performers can get an attraction bonus real quick if they go someplace else," said Longnecker.
The experts say one reason for the top executives to give up their bonus payments this year is to have more money to spread around and pay to top performers.
At the firms that took a big subprime hit, almost no one will escape some cut in bonus payments this year, even if their own performance, or the profits from their division, outperformed targets, according to Longnecker.
While bonuses are common throughout corporate America, they are a far bigger part of overall compensation for all levels of employee pay on Wall Street than they are at a typical corporation.
Tom McMullen of the Hay Group, a human resources and management consultant, estimates that cash bonuses typically equal between 40 and 100 percent of base salary for top executives on Wall Street, while senior managers receive between 15 to 30 percent of base pay as bonus payments. Even entry-level employees might see 10 to 20 percent of their base pay in the form of a bonus.
Banks saving for a rainy day
Longnecker said he believes management at both Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns made the decision to forgo bonuses, without it being pushed on them by the compensation committees of the firms' boards, although he added, "The compensation committee probably feels relieved they did so."
And he said that as much as Mack and Cayne saw their bonuses reduced, it was limited compared to the huge declines in their net worth this year from the drop in the value of their stock and options.
Both firms are off nearly 50 percent from their highs of earlier this year, a drop that cost Mack about $146 million off the value of his stock and options since July, and cost Cayne a whopping $571 million in the value of his holdings since February. Still that leaves Mack with $177 million in Morgan Stanley stock and options, and Cayne with about $617 million in Bear Stearns shares and options.
"They're in good positions to forgo a bonus," said Longnecker.

Bear Stearns CEO James Cayne, left, will go without the bonus this year that accounted
for most of his compensation this year, while Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is expected to take
home a record bonus of about $70 million.

101 Dumbest Moments in Business

Ah, what a dumb year it was! Fortune chose the absolutely dumbest of the dumb that the gods of fate and humor delivered into our laps - and yours - this past year.
CNNMoney.com

1. China
The bad news is that 2008 is the Year of the Rat.
During 2007, the Year of the Pig, Mattel is forced to recall almost 20 million items made in China because of lead paint on toy cars and tiny magnets that could be deadly if swallowed. Lead paint problems are also found in 844,000 Chinese-made Barbie accessories and toys with the Sesame Street brand. Pet food makers recall more than 60 million cans of food laced with tainted melamine in wheat gluten from China. A huge underground distribution network for steroids, human growth hormones, and other bodybuilding drugs is traced to 37 companies in China. Chinese-made lunch boxes, given away by the California Department of Public Health to promote healthy eating habits among children, are found to contain lead. Nike recalls 235,000 football helmets because the Chinese-made chin cup has a defective strap and has caused at least two concussions and a broken nose. Ethylene glycol is found in Chinese-made toothpaste. The government of China executes the former head of its State Food and Drug Administration.
2. Eli Lilly
Thank God. We've been so worried since Lucky dyed his hair jet black and started listening to the Smiths.
Eli Lilly wins FDA approval to put Prozac into chewable, beef-flavored pills to treat separation anxiety in dogs.
3. Leona Helmsley
Don't laugh - if she were your master, you'd need a lifetime supply of Prozac too
Upon her death, Leona Helmsley leaves $12 million to her white Maltese, Trouble.
4. Merrill Lynch
Mission accomplished!
In the first quarter of 2007, thanks to its $1.3 billion purchase of First Franklin Financial, Merrill Lynch becomes the world's top underwriter of subprime-mortgage-backed securities. Nonetheless, with the market in meltdown just a few months later, Merrill CFO Jeffrey Edwards (pictured) tells analysts that the firm's subprime exposure is "limited, contained, and appropriately marked." In October, Merrill announces a quarterly loss of $2.24 billion after $7.9 billion in subprime-related write-downs.
5. Stanley O'Neal
Payback is a bitch
In August and September, as his company is racking up the largest quarterly loss in its 93-year history, Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O'Neal squeezes in 20 rounds of golf, including three rounds on three different courses in a single day. In October, O'Neal announces his "retirement," walking away with a compensation package valued at $161.5 million.
6. Chuck Prince
Not so flush
Citigroup CEO Chuck Prince resigns after the company takes an $11 billion write-down.
7. High-tech toilets
Too bad nobody gave one of these to Chuck Prince
Japanese manufacturer Toto apologizes to customers and offers free repairs for 180,000 high-tech toilets - thrones that feature heated seats, air purifiers, blow dryers, and water sprayers - after at least three catch fire. "Fortunately nobody was using the toilets when the fire broke out," says a company spokesman. "The fire would have been just under your buttocks."
8. KFC/Taco Bell
Ooh, gross!
A video clip showing hordes of rats in a closed-for-the-night KFC/Taco Bell outlet in New York City gets nearly a million hits on YouTube.
9. French newspaper Le Monde
Ooh-la-la, gross!
The French daily Le Monde calls Ratatouille, Pixar's movie about a rat in a kitchen, "one of the greatest gastronomic films in the history of cinema."
10. Electronic voting machines
Election officials in Florida promptly order 5,000 units
Diebold tightens security after it is revealed that a simple virus can hack its electronic voting machines. Months later a hacker uses a picture of a key from the company website to make a real key that can open the company's machines.
11. Oil spills
A touch of under-statement
"I touched the delta tower." -- Captain John J. Cota, the pilot of the container ship Cosco Busan, after the vessel strikes the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and spills 58,000 gallons of diesel fuel from a 160-foot gash in its hull.
12. Procter & Gamble
Deep doo-doo
The parents of two Florida toddlers sue Procter & Gamble after they are surprised to find images of their children on packages of Luvs diapers. The parents say they were paid a "nominal fee" at a casting call but were promised an additional payment if the photos were selected.
13. Disneyland
It's a fat world, after all
Disneyland announces plans to close the "It's a Small World" attraction to deepen its water channel after the ride's boats start getting stuck under loads of heavy passengers. Employees ask larger passengers to disembark - and compensate them with coupons for free food.
14. Naked Sunday
Getting buff
The Fitworld gym in Heteren, the Netherlands, introduces Naked Sunday.
15. Bindeez
But officer, it was the Toy of the Year!
Australia's Toy of the Year, a bead toy called Bindeez made by Moose Enterprise, is pulled from stores after scientists discover that the beads contain a chemical that converts into the date-rape drug GHB when ingested.
16. Microsoft's PR firm
And the Patricia Dunn Pretexting Award goes to ...
While working on an article about Microsoft, Wired contributing editor (and former Fortune writer) Fred Vogelstein receives a 13-page dossier about himself, describing him as "tricky" and his stories as "sensational." The document, prepared by the company's public relations firm, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, as background for Microsoft executives, was sent inadvertently to the writer.
17. Cocaine energy drink
Quite a blow
After receiving a warning from the FDA, Redux Beverages agrees to stop calling its energy drink Cocaine. It changes the name first to Censored, then to NoName.
18. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
There will always be an England
A contributor to the website of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds complains that he is being censored when a filter in the site's Microsoft software automatically replaces the word "cock" - the common designation for a male bird - with asterisks. "As bird lovers will know," he writes, "a Parus major is a great tit, and while a **** doesn't get past the forum censors, tits do not cause offense."
19. New Jersey Superior Court
What Lindsay Lohan will be driving in '08
New Jersey Superior Court Judge Joseph Falcone dismisses drunk-driving charges against a Zamboni operator even though he tests positive for alcohol. The judge rules that the ice-grooming machines aren't motor vehicles because they are not street legal.
20. O.J. Simpson
Oh, that explains it
"The police, since my trouble, have not worked out for me." -- O.J. Simpson, on why he took matters into his own hands to reclaim memorabilia he says were pilfered. He is charged with kidnapping and armed robbery.
21. Cartoon Network
Right back atcha ...
To build buzz for its animated show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network places electronic lightboards throughout Boston, triggering a bomb scare that shuts down two bridges, an expressway, a subway station, and a stretch of the Charles River. The devices depict a character from the show saluting passersby with an upraised middle finger.
22. Co-op Funeralcare
That no-good Uncle Bertie is finally doing something useful
Co-op Funeralcare, a funeral home in Dunfermline, Scotland, says it is investigating reports that employees routinely used the cremains of the departed to keep passersby from slipping on icy sidewalks. "There's every chance people living nearby will have walked through the remains," an ex-employee says. "Some of them probably even inhaled them."
23. Don Imus
Say what?
Shock jock Don Imus refers to members of the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos."
24. Chris Albrecht
What happens in Vegas...
HBO President Chris Albrecht allegedly punches and chokes his girlfriend while drunk at 3 A.M. in a Las Vegas parking lot.
25. Adam 'Pacman' Jones
...stays in Vegas
Tennessee Titans Cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones rains dollar bills down on dancers at a Las Vegas strip club, setting off a melee in which three people are shot.
26. Isiah Thomas
Guess she didn't want to play ball
New York Knicks General Manager Isiah Thomas is found in a sexual-harassment lawsuit to have subjected an employee to unwanted advances and verbal abuse.
27. Phil Spector
But aren't mullets making a comeback?
Record producer Phil Spector unveils a mind-blowing array of outdated hairstyles, each do creepier than the next.
28. Keith Richards
I mean, since there wasn't any bloody ice on my bloody sidewalk ...
In an interview with a British rock magazine, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards admits to snorting his father's ashes: "He was cremated, and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow." A day later Richards denies the incident, explaining, "I was trying to say how tight Bert and I were - that tight!"
29. Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung
Faux de Cologne
SonntagsZeitung, a Swiss newspaper, publishes a two-page ad for Gucci Eau de Parfum that turns out to be a hoax by a prankster who took a picture of himself posing naked next to a bottle of the high-end scent.
30. James Cayne
Remarkably, he has yet to be weeded out
In July, as Bear Stearns executives futilely attempt to prop up two hedge funds that ultimately collapse amid the subprime meltdown, CEO James Cayne spends ten of 21 workdays out of the office, playing golf and competing in a bridge tournament in Tennessee. According to The Wall Street Journal, his fellow bridge enthusiasts claim that Cayne sometimes smokes marijuana at the end of tournament sessions.
31. Bear Stearns analysts
We'll say this for Mr. Cayne: He clearly shares his primo stuff with the research department.
In March, shortly after No. 2 U.S. subprime lender New Century Financial announces a major earnings restatement as a result of failing loans, Bear Stearns analysts Scott Coren and Michael Nannizzi write a research note on New Century. They argue that despite New Century's stock having plunged 50%, to $15 per share, its downside risk is no worse than $10 in a "rescue-sale scenario." Within a month, New Century drops below $1 a share, is suspended by the NYSE, and files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
32. Jay-Z
Gimme some skin, dawg
Rapper Jay-Z, founder of the Rocawear clothing line, is taken to task by the Humane Society after it finds that the "faux fur" in jackets sold by his company is actually dog fur.
33. Oral B
And we just thought our wives were really into oral hygiene
Lawyers representing Procter & Gamble send a 66-page cease-and-desist letter to British sex-toy company Love Honey, demanding that it stop using images of its Oral B electric toothbrushes to promote a product called the Brush Bunny - a rabbit-shaped piece of plastic that slips over the top of an Oral B to turn it into a vibrator.
34. Summit Products
G-strings and sweaty bald men sold separately
Summit Products of Trussville, Ala., introduces the YOUniverse Funk Fone, a working telephone for little girls that bears a striking resemblance to the footwear worn by dancers at Scores.
35. M&Ms
Who knew 'M&Ms' stood for Meatloaf & Mutton?
Masterfoods, the maker of Mars, Snickers, and other candies, abandons plans to begin using animal products in its chocolates.
36. Best Buy
Let the Best Buyer beware
The state of Connecticut sues Best Buy for setting up in-store kiosks set to a website that looks identical to bestbuy.com but lists higher prices than those they would actually find online.
37. Judge Roy Pearson
... thus making our satisfaction complete
District of Columbia judge Roy Pearson loses a $54 million lawsuit against the owners of a dry-cleaning establishment that he claims misplaced a pair of his pants. Pearson argued that the cleaner committed fraud by failing to live up to the SATISFACTION GUARANTEED sign displayed in the shop. Four months later a judicial review committee votes against reappointing him to his post, finding that he failed to demonstrate "appropriate judgment and judicial temperament."
38. Google
Are you a moron? Click here now!
To test Google's ability to block harmful advertising, Belgian IT security consultant Didier Stevens posts an ad that reads "Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here!" It is accepted by Google and displayed 259,723 times; 409 web surfers actually click on the ad.
39. Damien Hirst
Oh, for the love of ... wait, you already said it yourself.
British artist Damien Hirst, famous for such works as a tiger shark preserved in a tank of formaldehyde, creates the most expensive piece of contemporary art in history: a platinum human skull covered with 8,601 diamonds. Called "For the Love of God," the piece is reportedly sold to an unnamed investment group for $100 million.
40. Comcast
Oh, Manny, you're soooooo handy
Young Comcast customers in New Jersey are surprised when a scheduled showing of Disney Channel's Handy Manny - featuring bilingual handyman Manny Garcia and his talking tools - is replaced by hard-core pornography. A parent says she will cancel her Comcast subscription just as soon as the NHL playoffs are over.
41. National Amusements
What could be worse than porn for impressionable young minds, you ask?
At a National Amusements multiplex in Holtsville, N.Y., an audience set to watch family film "The Last Mimzy" is instead treated to the opening scene from "The Hills Have Eyes 2," in which a chained woman gives birth to a cannibalistic mutant.
42. Pfizer
They had such high hopes
Predicting a blockbuster, Pfizer introduces the diabetes drug Exubera, a form of insulin inhaled through a tubular device. It's quickly dismissed as a "medicinal bong" by a prominent diabetic blogger, while the president of the American Diabetes Association, citing lung-function risks, says, "I see it as my job to talk people out of it." Pfizer quickly gives up on the product, taking a $2.8 billion write-off.
43. The Toronto Blue Jays
Child abuse: It's fan-tastic!
The Toronto Blue Jays trumpet the arrival of designated hitter Frank Thomas with a TV commercial in which the 6-foot-5, 275-pound slugger - nicknamed "The Big Hurt" - is seen pillow-fighting with a small boy. He swings so hard he sends the child flying from the bed. Though the boy pops up unhurt, the ad is banned by the Television Bureau of Canada
44. Bank of America
Another subprime stunt
A Bank of America branch in Ashland, Mass., is evacuated after it receives a fax with the image of a lit match being held to a bomb's fuse. The fax, sent by the company to alert employees to an upcoming promotion, somehow comes through without its text, which should read "The Countdown Begins ... Small Business Commitment Week June 4--8."
45. Serendipity 3
We seriously mistrusted those sprinkles
Just one week after unveiling the world's most expensive dessert - the $25,000 Frrozen Haute Chocolate, 28 cocoas infused with edible 23-karat gold served in a goblet with a diamond bracelet at its base - New York restaurant Serendipity 3 is shut down for failing its second health inspection in a month. Inspectors find a live mouse, multiple piles of mouse droppings, fruit flies, houseflies, and more than 100 live cockroaches.
46. Johnson & Johnson
And if those guys in Rome don't stop using our logo, we'll nail them too
Johnson & Johnson sues the American Red Cross for infringement of its trademarked red cross.
47. John Mackey
He's also honest, humble, and nuttier than an organic fruitcake
"I like Mackey's haircut. I think he looks cute." -- Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, posting under the screen name Rahodeb, on a Yahoo Finance stock forum. The Federal Trade Commission reveals that Mackey authored this and numerous other posts over an eight-year period, hyping his company and himself while trashing the competitor he hoped to acquire, Wild Oats.
48. The European Union
They don't call it the European Union for nothing
To highlight its role as a patron of the arts, the EU posts a mashup on YouTube featuring two dozen sex scenes from movies it has funded, followed by the line, "Let's come together."
49. German screw factory
The red-light district in Amsterdam immediately closed
A worker in a German screw factory smuggles out 2,000 to 7,000 screws per night, ultimately stealing more than a million units. He sells the screws below cost on the Internet, artificially depressing the entire screw market.
50. The Defense Department
Makes you wonder what it would cost to ship a million German screws
Exploiting a flaw in a Defense Department purchasing system, South Carolina parts supplier C&D Distributors rakes in $20.5 million in shipping fees on just $68,000 in sales. The scheme is finally detected when a Pentagon clerk spots a $969,000 bill for shipping two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas.
51. Apple
One, two, three, four, we'll sue you if you send us more
Nine-year-old Shea O'Gorman sends a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs suggesting ideas for improving her beloved iPod Nano, including adding onscreen lyrics so people can sing along. She gets back a letter from Apple's legal counsel stating that the company doesn't accept unsolicited ideas and telling her not to send in any more suggestions.
52. Swiss watchmaker Romain Jerome
And those Hindenburg gas grills are fantastic too
Swiss watchmaker Romain Jerome unveils its new Titanic-DNA line of timepieces, made with steel salvaged from the liner's wreck site and selling for $7,800 to $173,100 a pop.
53. Japanese arm-wrestlers
Get a grip, Tinkerbell
In Japan three players of arm-wrestling game Arm Spirit break their arms while challenging the machine, which pits them against such opponents as a French maid, a drunken martial arts master, and a Chihuahua.
54. Research in Motion
This is your brain on e-mail
BlackBerry users are forced to go cold turkey when maker Research in Motion's servers go down for the better part of a day. "I felt like my left arm had been amputated," says one. Six months later a number of prominent addicts - including venture capitalist Fred Wilson and Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams - admit to experiencing phantom incoming-message vibrations even when not wearing their devices.
55. Frank Gehry
Who left R2D2 alone with the AutoCAD and peppermint schnapps?
MIT sues architect Frank Gehry, alleging that flaws in his design of the school's $300 million Stata Center - which Gehry himself once described as looking "like a party of drunken robots got together to celebrate" - resulted in problems including cracks, leaks, and mold.
56. Chrysler
Which explains why Michael Vick bought himself a Nitro
Chrysler pulls an online ad in which a dog urinating on its four-wheel-drive Dodge Nitro gets electrocuted and goes up in flames, followed by the tagline "Charged with adrenaline."
57. Endemol Southern Star
Cultural sensitivity? We don't need no stinkin' cultural sensitivity
"The segment was intended as a lighthearted tribute to Mexico and its vibrant cultural heritage, which we all admire and enjoy." -- Australian TV production company Endemol Southern Star, in a statement apologizing to the Mexican government for a segment of its "Big Brother" reality program in which contestants wear sombreros and floppy mustaches and throw water balloons at a Mexican flag.
58. Taco Bell
The cardboard shell and mysterious meatlike substance are intended as a lighthearted tribute to Mexico and its vibrant cultural heritage
After flopping in a previous run for the border 15 years ago, Taco Bell tries again, opening an outlet in Mexico City. This time the company takes out half-page newspaper ads announcing, "It is a fast-food alternative that does not pretend to be Mexican food."
59. Radiohead
Can't wait for the follow-up album, 'In Debt'
British rock band Radiohead makes its new album, "In Rainbows," available for download on the Internet and lets its fans decide how much they want to pay. Sixty-two percent, according to comScore, decide to pay nothing, while the other 38% voluntarily fork over an average of six bucks.
60. John Griffin
Can't say he didn't warn you
John Griffin, CEO of a Livermore, Calif., startup, pockets about $750,000 of seed capital after lying to investors lured by the company's promise to develop a "dirt eater" to clean toxic soil. After reportedly spending the money on such necessities as a Ferrari, Super Bowl tickets, and steroids, Griffin is sentenced to 30 months in prison. The name of the startup: VaporTech.
61. Sony
Hey! That was Howard Stringer's goat!
To promote the European release of the videogame God of War II, based on Greek mythology and described as "an adult-rated, fast-paced bloodbath," Sony hosts a party at the foot of the Parthenon in which guests are invited to pull live snakes from a pit, be fed grapes by topless hostesses, and reach inside the still-warm carcass of a freshly slaughtered goat to eat offal from its stomach.
62. Nepal Airlines
In related news, Sony plans to acquire Nepal Airlines
After mechanical problems ground one of its Boeing 757s, officials of Nepal Airlines sacrifice two goats on the tarmac at Kathmandu airport to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu god of sky protection. The plane then successfully completes its scheduled flight to Hong Kong.
63. Sony
That beheaded goat on the altar was really uncalled-for
Sony is criticized by the Church of England for using Manchester Cathedral as the setting for a bloody shootout in the videogame Resistance: Fall of Man.
64. Spain's National Institute of Statistics
... thus putting the term "inflation" in a whole new light
Spain's National Institute of Statistics adds plastic surgery procedures such as breast augmentation and nose jobs to the basket of goods and services it uses to calculate the nation's consumer price index, while excluding the cost of garment fabric, upholstery, and home-appliance repairs.
65. Verizon Wireless
Another PR department in the fetal position
Verizon Wireless refuses to distribute text messages from the abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America to people who ask to receive them, citing its prohibition of "controversial or unsavory" content. But after media coverage, the company reverses course, asserting "great respect for the free flow of ideas."
66. Rhode Island Hospital
It's not as if they're doing brain surgery or anything
The state Department of Health fines Rhode Island Hospital $50,000 when, for the third time in less than a year, one of its doctors operates on the wrong side of a patient's head.
67. McDonald's
In fact, many of our employees go on to be McBrain Surgeons
McDonald's launches a "word battle" against the Oxford English Dictionary to amend the definition of McJobs, which the OED currently describes as an "unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects." The goal, according to a company vice president, is to change the citation to "reflect a job that is stimulating, rewarding, and offers skills that last a lifetime."
68. Thomas the Tank Engine
Sir Topham Hatt was very cross indeed
Illinois-based RC2 Corp., maker of Thomas the Tank Engine toys, recalls 1.5 million of the wooden trains because of excessive levels of lead in their paint (see Mattel). Consumers who return the tainted toys are then sent free boxcars, some of which are recalled three months later for the same reason.
69. Exelon Nuclear
Good job. You're fired.
Exelon Nuclear terminates its contract with Wackenhut Security at its Peach Bottom plant in Pennsylvania after receiving a videotape showing a number of Wackenhut employees sleeping on the job. Exelon thanks the whistle-blower who shot the tape, then lets him go because he works for Wackenhut.
70. Circuit City
Good job. You're all fired.
In a cost-cutting move, Circuit City lays off all sales associates paid 51 cents or more per hour above an "established pay range" - essentially firing 3,400 of its top performers in one fell swoop. Over the next eight months Circuit City's share price drops by almost 70%.
71. TCF Bank
Take Cash Freely? Totally Clueless Fiduciary? Two Crime Friday?
A TCF Bank branch in West St. Paul, Minn., is robbed twice in one day - the second time when a police detective interviewing witnesses from the first heist steps out to retrieve some paperwork from his car.
72. Paris Hilton
Tort reform: That's hot
Paris Hilton sues Hallmark after the company creates a greeting card depicting her as a waitress, served up with the following witty dialogue: "Don't touch that, it's hot." "What's hot?" "That's hot." Hilton, who had trademarked her catch phrase seven months earlier, claims commercial appropriation of her identity and invasion of privacy, seeking at least $100,000 in damages.
73. Easy-Bake Ovens
Hilton quickly files suit against all 278 kids
In February, Hasbro announces a recall of nearly one million Easy-Bake Ovens after 29 children get their fingers stuck inside, some suffering severe burns. Five months later the company is forced to reissue the recall after receiving reports on 249 additional incidents, 77 involving burns, including one that required a partial finger amputation.
74. Google
Kidding. We kid. That's what friends do, right?
As thousands of eBay's biggest sellers gather in Boston for a convention sponsored by the auction site, Google invites them to a party promoting Google Checkout, a payment system that competes with eBay's PayPal. In response eBay, the single largest buyer of search ads on Google, "tests" a shift of its marketing dollars, pulling all its U.S. ads from the search engine for more than a week. Google cancels its party.
75. Mummified corpses
The real estate market must be dead over there too
A Spanish bank repossesses a house and puts it up for auction - complete with the mummified corpse of its former owner, who had stopped making mortgage payments six years earlier. The body, preserved by the salty air in the seaside town of Roses, is discovered by the buyer.
76. Jessica Simpson
... and cardboard boxes ... and the color red ... and, come to think of it, Pizza Hut
Jessica Simpson stars in commercials for Pizza Hut's Cheesy Bites pizza, then tells Elle magazine that she's allergic to wheat ... and tomatoes ... and cheese.
77. Jackson Hewitt
What, you never heard of a barber who makes house calls?
Two weeks before April 15, the Department of Justice files suit to shut down more than 125 franchised offices of Jackson Hewitt, the nation's second-largest tax preparer. The DoJ alleges that the franchisee had engaged in a "massive series of tax-fraud schemes" costing the government more than $70 million.
78. The Virginia Tourism Corp.
Virginia is for bangers
The Virginia Tourism Corp. scraps an ad campaign featuring people making heart symbols with their hands after it's noted that the gesture is also the gang sign of Chicago's Gangster Disciples.
79. Hugo Chávez
Granted, I flunked econ ...
To reduce his nation's 17% annual inflation rate, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announces a plan to chop three zeroes off his nation's currency. Economists say the move will have the reverse effect, as new pricing will tend to be rounded upward.
80. Juan Carlos
... but I aced international diplomacy!
After Hugo Chávez calls the former Prime Minister of Spain a "fascist" at a summit in Chile, Spanish King Juan Carlos leaps to his countryman's defense. His retort to Chavez, "Why don't you shut up?" becomes one of the nation's most popular cellphone ringtones, downloaded more than 500,000 times within ten days.
81. 365 Main
Fate's here to see you, and she brought her wire cutters
On July 24, San Francisco data-center operator 365 Main issues a press release touting its 24/7 reliability: "In the unlikely event of a cut to a primary power feed, the state-of-the-art electrical system instantly switches to live backup generators, keeping the data center continuously running." That day a power outage hits and three of its backup generators fail, taking down high-profile customers including RedEnvelope, Technorati, and Craigslist.
82. One Laptop Per Child
On the bright side, they're learning a lot about anatomy
Nigerian schoolchildren receive $200 computers under the U.N. One Laptop Per Child program and quickly learn a few things nobody expected - such as how to find adult websites and how to store their favorite images on the computers' hard drives. Program leaders say future laptops will be fitted with filters.
83. CIBC analyst Meredith Whitney
Her husband, on the other hand, is more than a little freaked out by the downstream effects of the subprime crisis on the world's capital markets
After issuing a bearish note on Citigroup that contributes to a 7% drop in its stock, CIBC analyst Meredith Whitney receives death threats. Whitney says she isn't daunted. She is married to a former World Wrestling Entertainment champion called Death Mask.
84. Southwest Airlines
Fly the not-so friendly skies
A Southwest Airlines gate agent tells Kyla Ebbert - a 23-year-old college student and Hooters waitress wearing a denim miniskirt, high-heeled sandals, and a sweater over a tank top - that she's dressed too provocatively to be allowed on a flight from San Diego to Tucson. Though the agent ultimately relents and lets her onboard, an indignant Ebbert goes public, appearing on the Today show. Southwest takes a massive publicity hit; Ebbert is hired by Richard Branson to promote rival low-cost carrier Virgin America and by Playboy to pose for a pictorial.
85. Singapore Airlines
Fly the don't-get-too-friendly skies
Singapore Airlines inaugurates the Airbus A380, the world's largest jet, with a seven-hour flight from Singapore to Sydney. To the chagrin of those who forked out $15,000 for one of 12 private, double-bed-equipped suites, the airline asks its passengers to refrain from having sex. Says first-class passenger Tony Elwood: "So they'll sell you a double bed, and give you privacy and endless champagne, and then say you can't do what comes naturally?"
86. Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin-Talal
Fly the I'll-join-the-mile-high-club-if-I-damn-well-please skies
Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin-Talal buys his own Airbus A380, paying more than $320 million for a "flying palace."
87. SkyWest Airlines
Fly the smells-like-the-back-row-of-a-Greyhound skies
SkyWest Airlines apologizes to passenger James Whipple after he is barred from using the plane's restroom during a one-hour flight from Boise to Salt Lake City. Whipple, who says he had two "really big beers" before takeoff, winds up urinating into his airsickness bag and is questioned by airport police upon landing.
88. Doug Parker
Fly the well-at-least-he-didn't-have-to-use-an-air-sickness-bag skies
Just hours after US Airways comes up short in its $9.8 billion bid to acquire Delta, CEO Doug Parker is pulled over by police in Scottsdale, and arrested for drunken driving.
89. British Airways
Fly the petty skies
For its in-flight version of the James Bond flick "Casino Royale," British Airways edits out the cameo of rival Richard Branson and obscures the tail fin of one of Branson's Virgin Atlantic planes.
90. Southwest Airlines, Part 2
Fly the didn't-you-learn-anything-from-the-Kyla-Ebbert-fiasco skies
A man boarding a Southwest Airlines flight in Ohio is ordered to change his T-shirt, which depicts a fictional fishing shop with the words MASTER BAITER. The airline is again forced to apologize.
91. Iberia Airlines
Fly the someone-in-the-marketing-department-is-out-of-his-freakin'-mind skies
Spanish national airline Iberia advertises its service to Cuba with a cartoon featuring dark-skinned Cuban women in bikinis bottle-feeding a tourist baby as he sings, "Feed me, mulattas ... come on, little mamas, take me to my crib." The women then transport the baby to the beach, dance for him, and massage him. After an outcry, the commercials are pulled.
92. Jet Blue
Fly the nope-we're-still-not-flying skies
Despite whiteout conditions at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport during a Valentine's Day blizzard, Jet Blue loads passengers onto its planes, pulls the planes away from their gates ... and leaves them there, stranding hundreds of passengers on the runways for as long as 11 hours. "You can look out the window and you can see, there's the gate," says passenger John Farrell, who spent nine hours on the J.F.K. tarmac. "If you just let us off the plane, we can walk there."
93. British Airways Part 2
Fly the oh-gross-oh-gross-ohgross-get-it-away-from-meskies
On a British Airways flight from New Delhi to London, first-class passenger Paul Trinder wakes up from a nap to find the corpse of a woman who had died in the economy cabin being placed in the seat next to him. Upon complaining about the incident, Trinder - a gold-level frequent flier who logs 200,000 miles a year with the airline - says he is told he will not be compensated and should just "get over it."
94. World Toilet Association
Funny, that's what Larry Craig calls stall No. 2 at the Minneapolis airport
Sim Jae-Duk, a South Korean lawmaker and the founder of the World Toilet Association, unveils a $1.6 million home built in the shape of a loo. Sim, who claims to have been born in a lavatory, names the house Haewoojae, which means "a place of sanctuary where one can solve one's worries."
95. Kitson boutique
Hand wash with like colors in dishwater
John Wesley Jermyn, a homeless man dubbed "the Crazy Robertson" for his constant presence on the West L.A. fashion corridor of Robertson Boulevard, strikes a deal with Kitson, one of the street's trendiest boutiques, for a "Crazy Robertson" clothing line. Among the most popular items: a $98 hoodie inscribed with the phrase NO MONEY, NO PROBLEMS.
96. WikiScanner
All the vitriol that's fit to print
Soon after the launch of WikiScanner - a website that links the editing of entries on Wikipedia with the computer networks where the changes were made - users uncover some newsworthy revisions: A Washington Post employee is found to have changed a reference to the owner of a rival paper from Philip Anschutz to Charles Manson, while someone at The New York Times added the word "jerk" 12 times to the entry on George W. Bush.
97. Blogger
What comes up first when you Google "screwup"?
Google's Blogger software misidentifies a company-written blog as spam and automatically disables it.
98. Intel
Just pop in your Birth of a Nation DVD, and you're off and running ...
To promote the speed of its Core 2 Duo Processor, Intel releases a print ad featuring six bare-shouldered black sprinters crouched in their starting positions beneath a white guy dressed for the office. "We made a bad mistake," says Don MacDonald, the company's director of global marketing. "I know why and how, but that doesn't make it better."
99. Century 21
Her grandfather made a killing in the stock market back in '29
"There is a lot of bad news, but this is still the second-or third-strongest year historically over the past 30 to 40 years, and it is still a very strong, vibrant market." -- Bev Thorne, senior vice-president of marketing for Century 21, on the outlook for real estate in 2007.
100. D.R. Horton
Apparently he missed the memo from Bev
"I don't want to be too sophisticated here, but '07 is going to suck, all 12 months of the calendar year." -- Donald Tomnitz, CEO of homebuilder D.R. Horton, on the outlook for real estate in 2007
101. Maria Bartiromo
What, no action figure?
In January, CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo files to trademark her nickname, "Money Honey," for use with a wide array of children's products, including piggy banks, jigsaw puzzles, mousepads, comic books, and stuffed animals.