Retailers report higher December sales

In this Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012, photo, a holiday shopper walks past a large Christmas tree at Fashion Island shopping center in Newport Beach, Calif. A last-minute surge in spending helped many major U.S. retailers report better-than-expected sales in December, a relief for stores that make up to 40 percent of annual revenue during the holiday period. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

In this Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012, photo, a holiday shopper walks past a large Christmas tree at Fashion Island shopping center in Newport Beach, Calif. A last-minute surge in spending helped many major U.S. retailers report better-than-expected sales in December, a relief for stores that make up to 40 percent of annual revenue during the holiday period. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

In this Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012 photo, a shopper carries a bag at the Dolphin Mall in Miami. A last-minute surge in spending helped many major U.S. retailers report better-than-expected sales in December, a relief for stores that make up to 40 percent of annual revenue during the holiday period. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A last-minute surge in spending may have saved Christmas for stores.

Major retailers such as Costco and Nordstrom on Thursday reported better-than-expected revenue in December. That comes as a relief for stores that can make up to 40 percent of their annual revenue during the winter holiday shopping period that runs from November through the end of December.

Consumers had a lot to worry about this holiday, including cleanup after Superstorm Sandy and the possibility of the U.S. economy falling off the "fiscal cliff," triggering a massive budget cuts and tax increases that would mean much less money in Americans' pockets. But after spending cautiously during most of the season, they loosened their purse strings in the final shopping days.

"I wouldn't be doing cartwheels that it was particularly great or strong holiday season, but it could have been worse given the headwinds," said Ken Perkins, president of RetailMetrics, a research firm. "The government and Mother Nature were not as cooperative as retailers would have liked. But it was definitely not as bad as feared."

Twenty retailers reported that revenue at stores open at least a year ? a figure that indicates a retailers' health ? rose an average of 4.5 percent in December compared with the year-ago period, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. That's on the high end of the expected range of 4 percent to 4.5 percent.

Only a small group of chain stores representing about 13 percent of the $2.4 trillion U.S. retail industry report monthly revenue. The list excludes Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer. But the data still offers a snap shot of consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of all economic activity.

Overall, the combined November and December sales figure rose 2.7 percent, slightly shy of the 3 percent rise the ICSC had predicted.

The numbers provide a brighter picture than mid-December sales reports, which painted the season as the worse since 2008. It winded up being a season of fits and starts, with healthy spending during certain periods followed by stretches of tepid growth.

Nordstrom had a particularly strong December, with revenue at stores open at least a year up 8.6 percent, more than double the 3.4 percent analysts expected. The Seattle-based department store operator said sales were particularly strong in the last week of the season, as shoppers got a full weekend before Christmas, which fell on a Tuesday.

The late surge might have been driven by a last minute increase in markdowns by retailers, said Chris Donnelley, global managing director of Accenture's retail practice.

"The retailers that we work with put more things at 30 percent to 40 percent off on the last weekend before Christmas than they wanted to," Donnelley said. "The volume of product on promotion was a lot higher than anticipated."

Last-minute promotions may have spurred sales, but unplanned discounts can eat into margins, which hurts profits. As a result, several retailers cut their fourth-quarter guidance due to promotions.

Kohl's, for example, said its December revenue at stores open at least a year increased 3.4 percent, beating Wall Street predictions. But the retailer added that the growth came from heavy discounts, particularly unplanned ones late in the holiday season, and it cut its profit outlook for the current quarter and full year.

Cato Corp. and Macy's also cut their guidance for the quarter. And Barnes & Noble had a particularly gloomy holiday with revenue in stores open at least one year down 8.2 percent during the nine-week holiday period ending Dec. 29. The company's Nook e-readers sales fell short of expectations and said it planned to review its strategy for the device.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-03-Retail%20Sales/id-3b6a4ac86e8c48cf876944a365e4d96d

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Sony Is Also Working On A Secret Plan To Blow ... - Business Insider

Getty Images / Kevork Djansezian

Sony boss Kazuo Hirai

Is anyone in the technology industry not working on a plan to disrupt the traditional cable model?

The latest entrant is Sony, which is apparently trying to figure out how to build a virtual cable network that is distributed through the Internet.

Andrew Wallenstein at Variety says Sony has been quietly working to reach deals with content companies. It sounds like it's not working out very well so far.

Sony would need to pay a lot of money for the content, and a lot of money for the infrastructure to deliver the content.

Sony is not a company like Apple, Microsoft, or even Intel. It has failed to deliver hit products for a while now and it's in serious trouble. Taking on a high-risk project like disrupting the cable industry doesn't make a lot of sense. Then again, we're not sure what Sony's good at anymore, so maybe it needs to throw a hail-mary and hope for the best.

Unlike Intel, which was exploring offering users channels on per-channel basis, Sony is only interested in delivering packages of content, much like how we already get cable. It's hard to see how Sony would be able to lower the price of cable for consumers, and thus hard to see how this thing wouldn't wind up dead on arrival.?

And, while we're on the topic, as a consumer, you may have your fingers crossed that Sony or Intel or anyone is going to do something to blow up the traditional cable business. Here's why even if it happens, you'll be screwed.

The cable companies control the pipes. They deliver your TV and they deliver your Internet. If you stop paying for TV, they will just jack up your Internet bill. And so, any savings you might get from Sony would ultimately be wiped out.

If you really want to pray for the death of cable, then you need to pray for something like Google Fiber, which is a nicer version of the cable companies.

Don't Miss: Steve Jobs Explains Why The TV Industry Is Busted

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/sony-virtual-cable-business-2013-1

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APNewsBreak: Mom: Boy didn't steal plane in crash

JASPER, Ala. (AP) ? A teen pilot killed along with two friends in an Alabama plane crash had his own key to the aircraft and had flown it many times, his mother said Wednesday, denying authorities' assertion that the plane had been taken without permission.

Sherrie Smith said her 17-year-old son Jordan Smith was the one flying the plane that went down in the Alabama woods Tuesday night, killing the him and two other male teens. The Federal Aviation Administration said the Piper PA 30 crashed less than a mile from the Walker County Airport in Jasper, which is northwest of Birmingham.

Smith says the owner of the plane had let her son fly it many other times and had given her son his own key.

"He had used the plane many times before," she said.

She said her son was a high school junior who fell in love with flying at an early age and was one test short of earning his private pilot's license.

Her son had left the house around 6 p.m. to meet some friends at another airport in the area, and she said she last spoke to him by cell phone about four hours later. One of her son's friends called later about reports of a plane crash, and she tried to reach Jordan again but couldn't.

Walker County sheriff's Chief Deputy James Painter said earlier Wednesday that authorities believed the three teenagers took off in the plane without permission.

"We don't know for sure but we think it was some teenagers who stole the plane and were sort of joyriding it," Painter told The Associated Press. "They got it in and took off and didn't go very far."

Authorities hadn't confirmed the names of the other two who were killed by late Wednesday.

The plane had departed from the small airport around 10:30 p.m. in overcast skies and a low cloud ceiling, airport manager Edwin Banks said.

"It was a student pilot flying an airplane without permission, an airplane that he was not qualified to fly at night," Banks said.

The teenage pilot had flown a single-engine airplane in the past "and he got in a double-engine at night in bad weather with a couple of his buddies," Banks said.

The Piper PA 30 is also called a Piper Twin Comanche. It is a low-wing plane with two propellers and can seat four to six, depending on the model.

The planes were built from 1963 until 1972, and were popular with flight schools because of their fuel efficiency and relatively inexpensive price tags, according to the International Comanche Society, an enthusiasts' group.

___

Associated Press writers Jeff Martin and Phillip Lucas in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-02-New%20Year's%20Plane%20Crash/id-542930d154f7405ca4c2a5158b866f15

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West Ham beats Norwich 2-1 in Premier League

Associated Press Sports

updated 3:34 p.m. ET Jan. 1, 2013

LONDON (AP) -West Ham beat Norwich 2-1 at Upton Park on Tuesday, handing the Canaries their fourth consecutive Premier League defeat.

The home side relied on first-half goals from Mark Noble and Joey O'Brien to secure the victory. Russell Martin scored a late consolation for Norwich.

Noble opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the third minute after referee Mark Clattenburg awarded West Ham a soft penalty when Ryan Bennett held on to Winston Reid.

In the 26th Noble became the architect, wriggling his way into the Norwich box. His cross was cleared, but fell to O'Brien who smashed the ball into the net.

Martin scored on a volley in the 90th but West Ham held on for the win.

The win moves West Ham ahead of Norwich into 11th place in the standings with 26 points. Norwich drops to 12th, one point behind.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/50338115/ns/sports-soccer/

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Stampede after fireworks kills 61 in Ivory Coast

Injured children receive treatment in a hospital after they were involved in a stamped in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. At least 61 people were killed early Tuesday in a stampede following a New Year's fireworks display in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's commercial center, said officials. The death toll is expected to rise, according to rescue workers. The majority of those killed were young people between eight and 15 years old who were trampled after the fireworks festivities in Abidjan's Plateau district, at about 1 a.m. Tuesday, said Col. Issa Sako, of the fire department rescue team. (AP Photo/Emanuel Ekra)

Injured children receive treatment in a hospital after they were involved in a stamped in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. At least 61 people were killed early Tuesday in a stampede following a New Year's fireworks display in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's commercial center, said officials. The death toll is expected to rise, according to rescue workers. The majority of those killed were young people between eight and 15 years old who were trampled after the fireworks festivities in Abidjan's Plateau district, at about 1 a.m. Tuesday, said Col. Issa Sako, of the fire department rescue team. (AP Photo/Emanuel Ekra)

Ivory Coast First Lady Dominique Ouattara, center left, speaks with a person injured in a stampede as they are treated at a hospital in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Tuesday, Jan. 1 2013. At least 61 people were killed early Tuesday in a stampede following a New Year's fireworks display in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's commercial center, said officials. The death toll is expected to rise, according to rescue workers. (AP Photo/Emanuel Ekra)

Injured people are seen at a hospital with their family members standing with them, after they were involved in a stampeded in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. At least 61 people were killed early Tuesday in a stampede following a New Year's fireworks display in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's commercial center, said officials. The death toll is expected to rise, according to rescue workers. The majority of those killed were young people between eight and 15 years old who were trampled after the fireworks festivities in Abidjan's Plateau district, at about 1 a.m. Tuesday, said Col. Issa Sako, of the fire department rescue team. (AP Photo/Emanuel Ekra)

An Ivory Coast troop stands next to the belongings of people involved in a deadly stampede in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Tuesday, Jan. 1 2013. At least 61 people were killed early Tuesday in a stampede following a New Year's fireworks display in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's commercial center, said officials. The death toll is expected to rise, according to rescue workers. (AP Photo/Emanuel Ekra)

The belongings of people that were involved in a stampe lies on the ground in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Tuesday, Jan 1 2013. At least 61 people were killed early Tuesday in a stampede following a New Year's fireworks display in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's commercial center, said officials. The death toll is expected to rise, according to rescue workers. The majority of those killed were young people between eight and 15 years old who were trampled after the fireworks festivities in Abidjan's Plateau district, at about 1 a.m. Tuesday, said Col. Issa Sako, of the fire department rescue team. (AP Photo/Emanuel Ekra)

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) ? A crowd stampeded after leaving a New Year's fireworks show early Tuesday in Ivory Coast's main city, killing 61 people ? many of them children and teenagers ? and injuring more than 200, rescue workers said.

Thousands had gathered at the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium in Abidjan's Plateau district to see the fireworks. It was only the second New Year's Eve fireworks display since peace returned to this West African nation after a bloody upheaval over presidential elections put the nation on the brink of civil war and turned this city into a battle zone.

With 2013 showing greater promise, people were in the mood to celebrate on New Year's Eve. Families brought children and they watched the rockets burst in the nighttime sky. But only an hour into the new year, as the crowds poured onto the Boulevard de la Republic after the show, something caused a stampede, said Col. Issa Sako of the fire department rescue team. How so many deaths occurred on the broad boulevard and how the tragedy started is likely to be the subject of an investigation.

Many of the younger ones in the crowd went down, trampled underfoot. Most of those killed were between 8 and 15 years old

"The flood of people leaving the stadium became a stampede which led to the deaths of more than 60 and injured more than 200," Sako told Ivory Coast state TV.

Desperate parents went to the city morgue, the hospital and to the stadium to try to find missing children. Mamadou Sanogo was searching for his 9-year-old son, Sayed.

"I have just seen all the bodies, but I cannot find my son," said a tearful Sanogo. "I don't know what to do."

State TV showed a woman sobbing in the back of an ambulance; another was bent over on the side of the street, apparently in pain; and another, barely conscious and wearing only a bra on her upper body, was hoisted by rescuers. There were also scenes of small children being treated in a hospital. One boy grimaced in pain and a girl with colored braids in her hair lay under a blanket with one hand bandaged. The death toll could rise, officials said.

After the sun came up, soldiers were patrolling the site that was littered with victims' clothes, shoes, torn sandals and other belongings. President Alassane Ouattara and his wife Dominique visited some of the injured in the hospital. Mrs. Ouattara leaned over one child who was on a bed in a crowded hospital ward and tried to console the youngster. The president pledged that the government would pay for their treatment, his office said.

The government organized the fireworks to celebrate Ivory Coast's peace, after several months of political violence in early 2011 following disputed elections.

This is not Ivory Coast's first stadium tragedy. In 2009, 22 people died and over 130 were injured in a stampede at a World Cup qualifying match at the Houphouet Boigny Stadium, prompting FIFA, soccer's global governing body, to impose a fine of tens of thousands of dollars on Ivory Coast's soccer federation. The stadium, which officially holds 35,000, was overcrowded at the time of the disaster.

A year later, two people were killed and 30 wounded in a stampede at a municipal stadium during a reggae concert in Bouake, the country's second-largest city. The concert was organized in the city, held by rebels at the time, to promote peace and reconciliation.

Ivory Coast is the world's largest cocoa producer, growing more than 37 percent of the world's annual crop of cocoa beans, which are used to make chocolate.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-01-Ivory%20Coast-Stampede/id-22159e9b6ca944289981980572ac4c44

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Editorial: Media 'release windows' are increasingly archaic, futile and hostile

Last week's Downton Abbey broadcast debacle, while not representative of the world's most acute problems, unnervingly illustrated one of the many ways that media companies fail to understand markets, technology and day-to-day consumer realities. The hit show ended its third season on December 25th with an extreme plot development. The season was broadcast only to its British audience, while American viewers were waiting until 2013 to clap their eyes on the latest round of shows. Problem was, of course, that the entire non-UK audience had the whole third season spoiled by instant social buzz and UK-generated web reviews of the final dramatic denouement.

If technology does nothing else, it destroys boundaries of all sorts -- between countries, time zones, populations, affiliations and cultural circumstances. Media companies that distribute their products as if those borders still held sway seem increasingly clueless and hostile to their ever more empowered audiences.

Continue reading Editorial: Media 'release windows' are increasingly archaic, futile and hostile

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Unified Communications for Businesses ? Benefits & Advantages ...

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The importance of communication in business cannot be under emphasized. They give life and blood to business, especially in a modern world where traveling and meeting people for business is not always practical. A sound communication system in place within and outside the organization ensures smooth flow of work, and generally enhances productivity of individuals. The world of communications has undergone sea changes after the advent of the Internet. Businesses these days don?t depend on any single means for communication.

Communication technologies have proliferated both in reach and innovation and the more important ones are email, telephony, video conferencing, radio broadcasting, TV broadcasting, social media and more. However, the one that is developing by leaps is the TCP/IP protocol; the same technology that we use on the Internet for sending and receiving email. TCP/IP technologies have now been expanded for use in the television industry as well. As we can see, some communication methods are one way, meaning that there is a broadcast and recipients who receive the broadcast. In this type of communication there is no way one can interact with the broadcaster.

Some other forms of communication allow interactivity, like email, internet telephony, and video conferencing, and chat for example. Each means of communication has its own protocol and technologies behind it. Even a few years back, communication used to take place within a particular technology. Cross technology communication was not really a practical proposition at that time. However, the advent of unified communication has changed all that. So, what is unified communication? In its simplest form, it means, using different technologies over a common protocol like TCP/IP to interact with each other.

By using unified communication, it should be possible to initiate a voice conversation when you are in the chat process or vice versa. The other possibilities are commencing a chat process during a video conferencing and sending mail during a telephone conversation. With unified communication setups it should even be possible to access email through handheld devices, watch a movie and request particular shows and even play games. Having a unified communication in place is all advantage, especially for businesses. The principal benefit is it saves money and time. More important, the services are reliable and the channels for communication are multitude.

Here are the main benefits and advantages of unified communication.

1. Gives mobility to executives, who cannot otherwise afford the luxury of traveling. Traveling around is not only an expensive business expenditure, but also the number one time guzzler.
2. Saves lots of money and is eco friendly. Imagine what it would be like meeting people and having face to face conversations with customers without video conferencing? You did probably spend lots of money and time. Savings are actually profits for the enterprise, remember.
3. Job allocation within the enterprises becomes easier and that too without the need to meet and spend time. That means greater control for executives. Reports and project progress reports can be accessed instantly and decisions can be conveyed in fractions of seconds. Timely actions result in substantial savings in the form of project overruns.
4. Unified communication is scalable. That is to say you can add more resources as the needs of the enterprise increases, often with just a small expenditure on hardware.

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This is a guest post is brought to you by Samantha Kirk, a writer for AT&T U Verse. Samantha provides up to date content and information for AT&T

Source: http://www.theteachingbox.com/unified-communications-for-businesses-benefits-advantages/

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