Thursday, May 29, 2008

Hydrox - Redux

Food - Back by popular Demand

1902 - Jacob Leander Loose, Joseph Schull Loose, John A. Wiles formed Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company in Kansas City, MO; 1908 - introduced Hydrox cookie (four years before Nabisco introduced Oreo cookies; name combined water's atomic elements--hydrogen and oxygen); April 15, 1913 - registered "Hydrox" trademark first used January 1, 1910 (biscuits, cakes, cookies); 1998 - sales of $16 million vs. $374 million for Oreos; 2003- Hydrox discontinued.

2008 - More than 1,300 phone inquiries, an online petition with more than 1,000 signatures and Internet chat sites created demand for the deceased product. Kellogg responded to consumers. It will reintroduce the cookie in August, for a limited time.

The cookie's future depends on customers.



Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Biotech 2007 - Record Year

Biotechnology


May 2008 - Ernst & Young's 2007 annual financial report on biotech industry cited:

1) financing from all sources topped $21.3 billion for U.S. biotech companies; $5.5 billion contributed by venture capital firms beat record set in 2000 (Human Genome Project);

2) of 386 publicly traded U.S. biotechnology companies, 49% have more than two years of cash on hand (27% of those) have more than five years of cash;

3) total potential value of mergers, acquisitions drug development alliances was nearly $60 billion in United States, surpassed levels in all prior years;

4) number of approvals for new drugs dropped to lowest level in two decades (FDA faced resource constraints, lawmakers pressed for more-stringent safety reviews);

5) market capitalization of San Francisco Bay Area's 77 public companies was $148.6 billion (40% of total market value of U.S. biotech companies) on revenue of $22.1 billion (34% of U.S. total for the sector); Boston area's 62 public companies had market capitalization of $65.1 billion (17.6% of U.S. biotech market capitalization).

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Business History Trivia

Business History Question


Hibbing
, MN is the birthplace of what two famous business names?

Saturday, May 10, 2008

"73 Biggest Brains in Business"

Executives

May 2008 - "Condé Nast Portfolio talked to scores of C.E.O.'s, economists, and power players, identified 29 of capitalism's headliners, 44 others making a difference":

1) upstarts: Anne Wojcicki and Linda Avey - Co-founders of 23andMe (biotech); Jacqueline Novogratz - C.E.O. of Acumen Fund; Lee Scott - C.E.O. of Wal-Mart; Max Levchin - C.E.O. of Slide.com;

2) game changers: Rupert Murdoch - Chairman and C.E.O. of News Corp.; Lloyd Blankfein -
C.E.O. of Goldman Sachs; Paul Buchheit - Co-founder of FriendFeed; Ratan Tata - Chairman of Tata Group; Jamie Dimon - C.E.O. of J.P. Morgan Chase; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala - Managing director of World Bank; Jeff Immelt - C.E.O. of General Electric;

3) connectors: Jonelle Procope - C.E.O. of Apollo Theater Foundation; Bob Barnett - Partner, Williams & Connolly; Larry Page and Sergey Brin - Co-founders of Google; Muhammad Yunus - Founder, Grameen Bank; Julian Robertson - Philanthropist, Retired (Tiger Management Group);

4) rebels: Danny Hillis - Co-founder of Applied Minds; Marc Jacobs - Co-founder of Marc Jacobs International; Steven Spielberg - Co-founder of Dreamworks SKG.



Opinions of: Rick Wagoner (CEO - GM), Sallie Krawcheck (CEO - Citgroup Wealth Management), Marc Benoff (CEO - Salesforce.com)

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Consumer Price Index (1913 - )

U. S. Economic History


1913 - Bureau of Labor Statistics began calculating the Consumer Price Index (CPI) - measure of average change over time in prices paid by urban consumers for market basket of consumer goods and services; 2008 - 84,000 prices in about 200 categories measured:

CPI-U 1913-2004; Source: U.S. Department Of Labor




Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Gaming - Las Vegas Black Jack

Gaming

May 2008 - Gambling revenue (down about 4% for January, February; 58% of revenue for Las Vegas Strip resorts in 1990, 41% of revenue in 2007 - source: Deutsche Bank), hotel occupancy down (down 1.5% for January, February); resorts are slashing room rates (average daily room rates 3.8% below 2007), offering coupons or free nights, casino operators are firing hundreds of workers, stock prices have plummeted since October; credit is drying up for hotel, condominium projects planned before slowdown arrived; people are spending less in Las Vegas; huge inventory of new casinos, hotels due for completion in next few years (40,000 new rooms planned by 2012); foreigners = 13% of visitors; 2007 - average foreign visitor spent $1,200 for purposes other than gambling (up from $1,159 in 2006) vs. average spending of $701 for all visitors in 2007, down from $750 in 2006 (source: Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority).


Sunday, May 4, 2008

Health Care Costs

Health Care

May 2008 - 158 million people covered by employer health insurance; since recession of 2001 - employee’s average cost of annual health care premium for family coverage has nearly doubled (to $3,300, up from $1,800), incomes have not kept up; portion of average American household’s income that goes toward health care has risen about 12%, approaching 20% of average household’s spending (source: Deloitte).

Friday, May 2, 2008

Presidents - Disapproval of American Public

American Presidents


May 1, 2008 - CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey (poll conducted by telephone from Monday through Wednesday among 1,008 adult Americans, sampling error is plus or minus 3% points) indicates that 71% of the American public disapprove of how Bush is handling his job as president. No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup Poll; first time that any president's disapproval rating has cracked the 70% mark. He is more unpopular than Richard Nixon was just before he resigned from the presidency in August 1974 (disapproval rating of 66%). Support for the war in Iraq has never been lower - 30% of those questioned favored the war, 68% opposed it. Bush's approval rating (28%) remained better than all-time lows set by Harry Truman (22%) and Richard Nixon (24%), but even those two presidents never got a disapproval rating in the 70s; previous all-time record in CNN or Gallup polling was set by Truman, 67% disapproval in January 1952.