22 May 2012
Last updated at 13:54

Students are invited to build visual collages of their search results and share them with others

Microsoft has opened up its So.cl social networking service to the general public.

The website is designed to let users share and comment on interesting search results and connect with “like-minded” people.

It is targeted at students and had formerly been restricted to invitees at universities and schools in the US.

The service integrates with Facebook and is being pitched as an “experiment” rather than a rival to other networks.

Microsoft noted that the product was developed by its Fuse Labs unit as a “research project… focused on the future of social experiences and learning.”

Members are invited to create “collages of content” using the firm’s Bing search engine technology and external links which they can then share with others.

Users can then identify people who are interested in the same topics, monitor their associates’ feeds and take part in “video parties” during which members watch online videos together, commenting on them via a chat function.

Members can sign in using their Facebook log-in details, but their So.cl activities do not show up on Facebook’s pages unless the option is activated.

Quiet roll-out

The move to open up the service was taken over the weekend with little fanfare, prompting some analysts to speculate that Microsoft only had limited ambitions for the project.

So.cl lets users watch and comment on videos from YouTube and other sites at the same time

“The fact that So.cl is targeted at students echoes Facebook’s beginnings and has made many assume it is a Facebook clone,” said Eden Zoller, principal analyst at technology consultants Ovum.

“But So.cl is, as Microsoft stresses, an experiment designed to be a layer on existing social networks.

“Microsoft is being sensible in positioning So.cl in this way – the opposite approach of Google, which entered social networking all guns blazing with a full on service, and is having modest success.”

Boosting Bing

Mr Zoller added that the project could also help Microsoft further improve Bing’s search capabilities.

A study by Comscore suggested that Microsoft had a 15.4% share of the US search market in April compared with Google’s 66.5% lead. Earlier surveys have suggested the gap is even wider in the UK and parts of Europe.

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced another tie-up with Facebook to integrate tips from the social network into Bing’s results.

Users in the US are shown a new sidebar which identifies “friends” who can help answer queries based on topics they had “liked” or posted photos about.

Google has also shown interest in being able to use Facebook to improve its search results but has criticised the fact that the site has refused to sign a data-sharing agreement.

In a recent interview on the US network PBS, Google’s chief executive Larry Page described the situation as “unfortunate” adding that “in general , I think we’d like to see content on the internet being made more open”.

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European oil biggie
Royal Dutch Shell Plc

(

RDS.A

) along with Asian partners – Japanese energy giant Mitsubishi
Corporation, state-controlled China National Petroleum Corporation
and Korea Gas Corporation – officially launched the liquefied
natural gas (LNG) terminal project in Western Canada, near Kitimat,
British Columbia.

The companies will execute all necessary engineering and
evaluation works plus conduct meetings with the local authorities
regarding the prospects and potential of the venture.

The project, which is expected to come online by the end of
2020, involves the design, construction and operation of a gas
liquefaction unit as well as LNG facilities for storage, export and
marine off-loading facilities and shipping purposes.

The initial phase of the venture will have two LNG processing
units or trains. Each unit will have an annual production capacity
of six million tons of LNG, with the possibility of expansion in
the future.

Shell controls 40% interest of the venture, while the other
three companies have an equal share of 20%.

Shell and its partners have decided to put up this unit to
facilitate a smooth supply of LNG to the Asian market to satiate
the growing demand of the region.

Additionally, excess supply of natural gas has pulled down the
North American markets, forcing many companies to look for
alternative routes. Hence, the big energy firms are eyeing the
potentially rich Asian land that still offers a high price for
LNG.

In October last year, Shell had first announced the plans for
this venture, following the purchase of the dormant Methanex marine
facility in Kitimat along with other partners. In February 2012,
PetroChina Co. Ltd

(
PTR

) – unit of China National Petroleum Corp. – agreed to fund the gas
development project, becoming Shell’s financial associate.

Apart from this venture, the Kitimat area also holds two planned
liquefaction projects – Kitimat LNG that is controlled by
Apache Corp

(
APA

),
Encana Corp

(
ECA

) and
EOG Resources

(
EOG

); and BC LNG, monitored by a 13-member private cooperative.

We believe that Shell owns a strong and diversified portfolio of
global energy businesses that offer attractive long-term growth
opportunities. The group – renowned for its success in bringing
some of the largest and technically challenging capital-intensive
projects to fruition – is expected to continue accelerating revenue
and earnings growth over the next few quarters.

However, the company remains susceptible to its exposure to oil
and gas price fluctuations, lofty capital spending and
international business risks. As such, we see Shell performing in
line with the broader market and maintain our Neutral
recommendation.

 

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22 May 2012
Last updated at 13:01

Countryside campaigners have complained that broadband projects are taking too long to deliver

The government risks “sleepwalking into another monopoly” in the way it is allocating funds for rural broadband, shadow business minister Chi Onwurah has warned.

The Labour MP says she plans to tell the House of Lords communications select committee on Tuesday that the current system is “skewed towards BT”.

Rival Virgin Media has already accused the government of subsidising BT.

BT says that others are welcome to bid for funds.

Open networks

Counties around the UK have been allocated a share of £530m of government cash. The aim is for them to match the funding and appoint firms to roll out super fast networks in their areas.

But the process has been slow. So far, just two contracts have been awarded – in Lancashire and Rutland. Both have gone to BT.

BT rivals Fujitsu and Cable Wireless have withdrawn from the process in many areas – leaving the telecoms firm as sole bidder in some places.

In a letter published by the Guardian newspaper, Virgin Media chief executive Andrew Barron said it was not in consumers’ interests for BT to win all the contracts.

“If we agree competition is the best way to encourage further sustainable investment, and that embedding dominance in markets is bad for consumers, we must also accept that providing the vast majority of available public funding to an incumbent is not in the UK’s best interests,” he said.

The money would be better spent funding alternative networks such as 4G and wi-fi, he added.

In response, BT called on Virgin Media to open up its network to rivals.

“BT would be more than happy to compete directly with Virgin for BDUK funds but we doubt that will happen. That is because Virgin have steadfastly refused to provide open wholesale access to their network – a key BDUK requirement – and because they have shown no interest to date in supplying rural areas with broadband,” a BT spokesman said in a statement.

“This is in contrast to BT who offer broadband services on a wholesale basis to 99% of UK premises. Fujitsu have announced their intention to bid for funds and so there will be a competitive process. We are already seeing this in several parts of the UK.”

Sums

Ms Onwurah told the BBC that she was not impressed by BDUK – the group set up by the government to oversee the government’s broadband strategy.

“BDUK does not regard competition as its responsibility. We risk sleepwalking into another monopoly,” she said.

“BT is in an advantageous position because it has an existing network. Fujitsu is always going to have higher costs,” she added.

Virgin Media has publicly thrown itself behind Fujitsu plans.

Project failure

Andrew Ferguson, editor of broadband news site ThinkBroadband, said the system set up by BDUK was not be perfect, but at least it was getting broadband to rural areas faster than before.

“Certainly the way the funding has been set up does favour the large telecoms companies, and particularly those that have a big presence and wholesale service already up and running. Short of excluding the BT group from bidding, almost any system would have seen them getting a large chunk of the projects,” he said.

But he argues that is not such a bad thing.

“If the money had been spent on new start-ups, then it is possible that some projects would have failed, requiring further investment by the public purse to avoid collapse,” he said.

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Bon-Ton Stores Inc

(
BONT

) reported adjusted loss of $2.18 in the first quarter of 2012,
well below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of break-even. The
lower-than-expected results were due to sluggish sales and margin
contraction.

On a reported basis, including gain from sale of property and
severance cost, the company posted a loss of $2.23 per share, much
wider than the loss of $2.01 per share in the year-ago quarter.

Total revenue of the departmental store chain fell 1.3% year
over year to $640.8 million in the reported quarter, attributable
to a 1.3% drop in the same-store sales. The comps suffered due to
weak performance of categories like moderate traditional ladies
sportswear, ladies outerwear and juniors.

Gross margin in the quarter contracted 120 basis points (bps) to
34.3%, attributed to increased net markdowns rate. EBITDA of the
company also plunged $18.3 million to $4.8 million in the reported
quarter.

Selling, general and administrative expenses, as a percentage of
revenue, jumped 140 bps to 35.6% in the quarter, attributed to
higher store, marketing, insurance and severance costs, partially
offset by the profit from the sale of certain property.

Financial Position

Bon-Ton ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of
$14.3 million, shareholders’ equity of $91.8 million and long-term
debt of $872.7 million.

Outlook

Bon-Ton, headquartered in York, Pennsylvania and Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, trimmed its outlook for 2012. The company expects
earnings in the range of loss of 95 cents per share to a profit 50
cents per share, down from its prior outlook of a profit of 15
cents to 75 cents per share and EBITDA is expected between $160
million and $190 million, below the previous guidance of $180
million-$200 million. Comparable store sales are estimated to be in
the range of negative 1.5% to positive 1.0%, lower than the earlier
estimate of positive 1% to 2%.

Our Take

The company reported disappointing results and also reduced its
outlook. Hence, we expect a downward movement in estimates over the
coming days. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is currently pegged at 13
cents for 2012 and a loss of 15 cents for 2013.

However, Bon-Ton is taking host of initiatives like shifting to
profitable mix, increased focus on smaller market, cost saving
efforts, expansion of updated merchandise and enhancement of
marketing program to drive performance of the company.

Bon-Ton, which competes with companies like
Dillard’s Inc.

(
DDS

), currently retains a Zacks #3 Rank, which translates into a
short-term Hold rating. We also maintain our long-term Neutral
recommendation on the stock.

 

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21 May 2012
Last updated at 16:53 ET

Continue reading the main story

Facebook Inc.

Last Updated at 21 May 2012, 16:00 ET

*Chart shows local time

Shares in Facebook closed well below the price at which they were floated amid doubts that the newly-listed company can live up to expectations.

The shares debuted on the Nasdaq stock exchange at $38 each on Friday, but ended 11% down on Monday.

Some analysts said the shares would have fallen on Friday had not underwriters stepped in to buy stock.

Critics say Facebook’s advisers have set the price too high, although others argue that it is too early to tell.

The company’s shares fell about 12% immediately the Nasdaq opened, and hovered around 9%-10% down for most of the day until a late bout of selling.

Facebook’s offer price on Friday valued the social network at $104bn (£66bn).

One US-based analyst told the BBC that this valuation was too high. “The market is just not valuing what Facebook has to bring to the table,” said Patrick Moorhead, analyst at Moor Insights Strategy.

However, BTIG, the US-based global stockbroker, said it was too early to judge Facebook. “Valuing Facebook is more art than science at this stage of its development and the current state of both social and mobile advertising,” the firm said in a statement.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

For other technology firms hoping to follow Facebook on the road to IPO riches, any sign that the bubble may burst is deeply worrying”

End Quote

Rory Cellan-Jones Technology correspondent

• Read more from Rory
• Facebook: Behind the likes and pokes
• Facebook feature growth timeline

The firm said it had confidence in Facebook’s long-term advertising prospects, forecasting that advertising revenues will rise to $8 billion in 2015 compared with an estimated $4bn for 2012.

Mixed fortunes

Strong demand in the run-up to the flotation had led the company to increase both the price and the number of shares available for sale.

Mr Moorhead said that meant the Initial Public Offering (IPO) had been a success for Facebook’s founders and early investors. Some of them managed to sell parts of their stakes for hundreds of millions of dollars.

But he said the share price fall could have long-term consequences for the world’s biggest social network.

“The challenge is this will sully the long-term brand of Facebook, and in five years time people will look back on the IPO and have a negative connotation and none of that is good for the Facebook brand and the Facebook service itself,” Mr Moorhead told BBC World.

Other internet companies have had mixed experiences recently when they have started selling shares.

Shares in business networking site LinkedIn more than doubled from their $45 offer price on their debut in May 2011. They peaked at $117 and are now trading around the $100 level.

Discount voucher firm Groupon’s shares jumped 30% on their debut in November. But they are now at about $12, well below their $20 flotation price.

Online games maker Zynga’s shares fell 5% on their first day of trading in December 2011. They are currently around $7, below their $10 offer price.

Google, however, is the star performer of the technology IPOs. Launched in 2004 at $85 a share, it is now trading above $600. It has yet to regain its pre-financial crisis peak of over $740, hit in 2007.

Sticky start

The start of trading in Facebook shares on Friday, one of the most high profile stock market IPOs in recent years, was delayed by technical problems on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Nasdaq boss Robert Greifeld said he was “humbly embarrassed” by the glitch.

Trading was delayed by about 30 minutes due to late order cancellations, and the shares closed on Friday at $38.23, having hit $45 earlier in the day.

“This was not our finest hour,” said Mr Greifeld. As a result of the glitch, a number of investors were unsure whether their buy and sell orders had actually gone through.

However, Mr Greifeld said that once the glitch had been fixed, trading had been “successful”.

More than 566 million shares in the company changed hands, a record volume for US market debuts.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18141990#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

Traders who are comfortable with a high level of risk/reward
frequently will gravitate to the small-cap space where big gains
(and losses) in a short amount of time are commonplace. One of
the strategies that momentum oriented small-cap traders utilize
is relative strength, which is a measure of where a stock is now
compared to where it has been in the past. One of the most
commonly used relative strength indicators is the RSI – a high
number means that a stock is strong while a low number means that
it has been weak.

I ran a scan looking for the strongest stocks in the market
over the last 14 trading sessions and turned up 6 names, all with
market-caps below $2 billion. These stocks all have RSI readings
which are above 70. Given the extreme strength of these stocks,
they could be ripe for a pullback, but on a very near-term basis,
these 6 stocks could continue to push higher.

In any event, these stocks’ high RSI readings indicate that
they could be volatile in the coming days. Hence, they may be
providing opportunity for short-term traders who look to
capitalize on volatile price movements. Below, Benzinga outlines
these 6 stocks.

Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:
ARNA

)

– The strength in this name is due to recent FDA approval of
Arena’s weight loss drug lorcaserin. As a result of this
favorable decision, ARNA shares have surged more than 171% over
the last month. Year-to-date, the stock is up better than 215%.
The approval of the company’s weight loss drug is a major
milestone as the FDA has not approved a weight-loss drug
treatment in many years. On Monday, ARNA shares had added another
7% to $5.89. This stock could see more quick gains if it can get
above $6.00 and hold that level. The 52-week high in ARNA is
$7.01.

Demand Media (NYSE:

DMD

)

– A bullish earnings report in the month of May has sent Demand
Media shares on a tear. The stock’s chart looks like it could be
set for higher prices and shares have jumped better than 34% over
the last month. Year-to-date, DMD has added 43%, but the stock is
actually still down roughly 30% over the last year. At current
levels, the company has a market-cap of $792 million. On Monday,
DMD shares have added 3% to $9.47.

Logitech International (NASDAQ:
LOGI

)

– This stock is surging again on Monday and was trading up better
than 5% to $11.22 on heavy volume. The company develops and
markets hardware and software products for digital navigation,
music, video entertainment, gaming, social networking, and audio
and video communication over the Internet. Over the last month,
LOGI shares have added more than 42% and the chart continues to
look promising. At current levels, the company has a market-cap
of $1.94 billion.

Lifeway Foods (NASDAQ:
LWAY

)

– This stock has been catalyzed by a strong earnings report
earlier in May. The stock is now up more than 18% over the last
month and is trading at $10.12. The 52-week high in the name is
at $11.90. Year-to-date, shares have added a little less than 5%
and over the last year the stock is down 0.70%. At current
levels, LWAY is yielding 0.69%.

PRGX Global (NASDAQ:
PRGX

)

– This stock has a very nice chart and has recently broken out of
a consolidation range. Over the last month, shares have added
more than 17%. Year-to-date, PRGX is up a little more than 24%.
At current levels, the company has a market cap of $185 million.
The next important level in the stock may be at its 52-week high
which is $7.90. On Monday, PRGX has lost 0.14% and is trading at
$7.38.

Repros Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:
RPRX

)

– This company announced last week that it had held a meeting
with the Division of Reproductive and Urologic Products to agree
upon the registration requirements for the Company’s Androxal
oral therapy for the treatment of secondary hypogonadism. The
news sent the stock skyrocketing and shares are starting out
strong on Monday where the stock has traded up 5.27% to $7.79.
RPRX has now gained more than 78% this month alone and is up
around 61% in 2012. The small-cap name has a market cap of $115
million.

(c) 2012 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment
advice. All rights reserved.

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21 May 2012
Last updated at 06:20 ET

Google is looking to increase its trove of patents with the purchase of Motorola

Chinese regulators have approved Google’s $12.5bn (£7.9bn) purchase of US phone maker Motorola Mobility, the final hurdle for the deal to go through.

Chinese authorities said Google must keep its mobile software, Android, free for other device makers for up to five years.

The acquisition would be Google’s biggest ever.

It has already won clearance from US and European regulators.

Google’s purchase of Motorola Mobility allows it to move into the manufacturing of phones and tablet computers for the first time.

It also gives Google access to more than 17,000 of the company’s valuable patents, which will help it defend itself and Android phone manufacturers in patent disputes.

Patent monitoring

Google said the Chinese government cleared the deal on Saturday.

“Our stand since we agreed to acquire Motorola has not changed and we look forward to closing the deal,” the company said.

The same deal has already been approved in the US and EU. Both agreed the acquisition would not raise competition issues – but each noted they would monitor the “strategic” use of patents.

The European Commission took longer than expected to rule on the merger, requesting more information in January before making its decision in February.

Its concern focused on whether Google would favour Motorola Mobility over handset manufacturers like HTC or Samsung – which also use Google’s Android system.

However, the commission ruled: “It is unlikely that Google would restrict the use of Android solely to Motorola, a minor player in the European Economic Area.”

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18140940#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa