Amazon Hits Strategic Tipping Point in North America

On October 22, 2009

Amazon Hits Strategic Tipping Point in North America

Amazon announced its relentlessly strong results today, with year-over-year Q3 sales up 28 percent, free cash flow doubling, and operating income up 62 percent. Get past the headline news and into the numbers, and you see an even more interesting story: Amazon quickly continues its march away from being a "media" company and to one with a far more diverse set of revenue streams and business interests.


On October 22, 2009

Pfizer’s Viagra Shows Signs of Flagging: Sales Down 6%

Pfizer's Viagra recorded a 6 percent sales decline, to $466 million worldwide. It wasn't just foreign currency headwinds: The decline was 14 percent in international sales and 1 percent in the U.S. Until now, Viagra has been an almost unstoppable growth machine for Pfizer. The company regularly put the price up -- sometimes twice a year -- and netted more dollars per quarter as a result.


On October 22, 2009

Royal Caribbean’s Central Park in Oasis of the Seas

  Royal Caribbean International plans to use more than 12,000 plants to create Central Park -- a large green space in the center of its behemoth cruise ship, the Oasis of the Seas. The $1.5 billion, 220,000-ton ship will travel from Finland to Florida in November. Around Nov. 11, the ship will have coffee and pineapple plants, as well as 56 adult trees, placed in the ship's Central Park. The park will be about the size of a football field, and feature more than 12,000 plants in all. The 2,700-stateroom Oasis of the Seas is scheduled to make its maiden voyage on December 5 to the Caribbean. The Oasis of the Seas almost was lost earlier this year when Royal Caribbean's financing...


On October 22, 2009

MySpace, Facebook, Google, Music Labels Bow to Inevitable

It's difficult to look at what seems to be a big opportunity -- selling music over the web at the big social networking and search sites -- and see anything other than success. And big is what comes to mind when MySpace, Facebook, and Google all work with major music labels to let consumers purchase music where they're most accustomed to be online, and not having to go to a store (read that as Apple or Amazon) to get what they want. But these are not chances grasped with foresight. They are the worried grasping of companies that, for differing reasons, all have their backs against the wall.
On October 22, 2009

Hook an Online Audience the John McCain Way

It's not really a secret that we all are suckers for lists and rankings. McCain (or perhaps his "ghost tweeter") recognizes this trick. Recently, the GOP leader has started to send out his top ten pork barrel projects via Twitter each day.
On October 22, 2009

PeopleMaps: Leveraging Those Followers and Friends

Preparing to interview one of the founders of a company called 7 Degrees, Inc., about their business app  PeopleMaps, and testing out their product before hand, like always, I was surprised when the site's registration process prompted me to allow it to import all of my social networking and email contacts lists. Suddenly, I felt that awful sensation in the pit of my stomach that usually is the sign that I'm about to repeat some awful mistake from my past, so I stopped dead in my tracks. A moment later, I recovered the relevant bad memory. An email message had arrived from a colleague working on a similar book project to one of mine, with the subject line "So-and-so has...
On October 22, 2009

KNOC-Harvest Energy Deal: Prospects for Canadian Oil Sands Rise With Crude Prices

Canadian oil sands lingered in the industry's version of purgatory earlier this year -- handicapped by a combination of low crude prices and high operating costs. That dim view is brightening, however, as foreign oil companies -- encouraged by crude prices above $75 a barrel and falling costs -- are starting to buy up oil sands assets. The acquisition and investment floodgates may not be wide open. But the deals are beginning to trickle in. State-run Korea National Oil Corp. agreed Wednesday to buy Calgary-based Harvest Energy Trust for up to $3.9 billion, which includes $2.1 billion of debt. The bid represents a 37 percent premium over Harvest's closing share price Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The latter part of 2009 has seen a number of oil sands deals. Suncor Energy completed its merger...
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