| Spinoffs click with Malone
Barry Diller's decision to spin New York-based IAC/Interactive Corp. into five separate entities last week has the potential to create new opportunities and add shareholder value for Liberty Media Corp. The Douglas County-based company applauded Diller's move last week. Liberty owns about 24 percent of IAC common stock, representing an approximate 55 percent "super-voting" interest. However, Diller, the IAC chairman and CEO, has the authority to vote Liberty's shares, based on a long-standing agreement. "I think it goes a long way toward resolving what's been a longtime mild disagreement between Mr. Diller and myself about the appropriate use of leverage in each of these businesses," said Liberty chairman John Malone in a conference call with analysts Friday. "I think it's terrific for us.
Local View: Cut council a break on Hy-Vee
It is distressing to see the LJS position itself as the handmaiden of business interests in its patronizing editorial of Jan. 16, "On Hy-Vee, council members crossed line." I expect better from a community newspaper.For the record: businesses need customers in order to achieve their primary goal of private profit; neighborhoods need access to basic services in order to thrive and remain vital; government needs access to tools for planning in order to create a stable environment which benefits all members of the broader community whether they are individuals, families or entities; elected officials have an obligation both to represent the interests of those who elect them and to juggle the myriad interests of individuals, businesses and the state for the common welfare.The City Council was doing its job — not performing "stunts," as alleged in the LJS editorial — when it attempted to call Hy-Vee to task for rigidly applying a contract codicil to the detriment of the University Place neighborhood.
Kodak's picture not so rosy beneath the headlines
This Perez guy may have a future as general manager of the Minnesota Twins! Furthermore, the bottom line got a nice bump from a tremendous drop in the provision for income taxes to $17 million from $126 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. Ultimately, Kodak's old film businesses will go to nothing and its digital businesses, including the growing ink-jet printer effort, will keep growing. But the old biz was highly profitable — it showed a 15% profit margin in the quarter for 2006 and 9% in 2007. The new biz is much less cushy - with a fourth quarter margin of 4% the past two years. Kodak's commercial graphics business likewise shows a 3% margin in the fourth quarter. And just stop and think about it for a minute: Kodak is growing in markets that are ultra-competitive, require lots of R&D spending to stay current and offer cut-throat margins.
Longtime DQ in Cobb closes after 5 decades
Dale and Bogey Stoner took the Waffle House closing a few years back as a sign. The Smyrna eatery was a stone's throw from the family's Dairy Queen on South Cobb Drive. "Things have got to be bad if a Waffle House closes," Dale Stoner said. .
Chinese snow storms strand 200,000 at station in new year exodus
Driving sleet, freezing temperatures and a blanket of snow across southern China have paralysed trains and aircraft, stranding tens of millions of people trying to get home for the biggest holiday in the Chinese calendar. The worst weather in 50 years pummelled swaths of central, southern and eastern China as migrant workers and students, business travellers and officials assigned to provincial postings battled for tickets to join their families for the lunar new year holiday. The human tide strains public transport every year even though the authorities pull dozens of extra trains into service and lay on additional flights to try to cope. With new year's day falling on February 7 this year, the bad weather has swept China just as the number of travellers is reaching its peak.
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