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BUSINeSS

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Exxon to Make Big Investment in Biofuels The oil giant Exxon Mobil, whose chief executive once mocked alternative energy by referring to ethanol as “moonshine,” is about to venture into biofuels. On Tuesday Exxon plans to announce an investment of $600 million in producing liquid transportation fuels from algae — organisms in water including pond scum and seaweed. The biofuel effort involves a partnership with Synthetic Genomics, a biotechnology company founded by the genomics pioneer J. Craig Venter. The agreement could plug a major gap in the strategy of Exxon, the world’s largest and richest publicly traded oil company, which has been criticized by environmental groups for dismissing concerns about global warming in the past and its reluctance to develop renewable fuels. Despite the widely publicized “moonshine” remark a few years ago by Exxon’s chairman and

chief executive, Rex W. Tillerson, the company has spent several years exploring various fuel alternatives, according to one of its top research officials. “We literally looked at every option we could think of, with several key parameters in mind,” said Emil Jacobs, vice president for research and development at Exxon’s research and engineering unit. “Scale was the first. For transportation fuels, if you can’t see whether you can scale a technology up, then you have to question whether you need to be involved at all.” He added, “I am not going to sugar coat this — this is not going to be easy.” Any large-scale commercial plants to produce algae-based fuels are at least 5 to 10 years away, Jacobs said. Exxon’s sincerity and commitment will almost certainly be questioned by its most galvanized environmentalist critics, especially when compared with the

company’s super-profits from petroleum in recent years. “Research is great but we need to see new products in the market,” Kert Davies, the research director at Greenpeace, said before the deal was made public. If it proves a bona fide effort, Exxon’s move into biofuels, long the preserve of venture capital firms and biotech start-ups, could provide a big push to the Obama administration’s policy of encouraging more renewable energy. Currently, about 9 percent of the nation’s liquid fuel supply comes from biofuels — most of it cornbased ethanol. And by 2022, Congress has mandated that biofuel levels reach 36 billion gallons. According to Exxon, algae could yield more than 2,000 gallons of fuel per acre of production each year, compared with 650 gallons for palm trees and 450 gallons for sugar canes. Corn yields just 250 gallons per acre a year. JAD MOUAWAD

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In brIef Ponzi Scheme Plea HOUSTON — James R. Davis, the right-hand man of R. Allen Stanford, the Texas financier charged in a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, pleaded not guilty on Monday in his first appearance in federal court. The plea was part of an agreement with prosecutors who must first obtain statements from investors who say they were victims of the scheme. Once the prosecution has the statements, Davis is expected to plead guilty. (NYT)

Sale of Magazine With business publications suffering from scarce advertising, McGraw-Hill has hired Evercore Partners to sell BusinessWeek, a person briefed on the plans said on Monday, but analysts questioned how much interest there would be. (NYT)

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BuSIneSS

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Many Find Fault With New Light Bulbs SAN FRANCISCO — It sounds like such a simple thing to do: buy some new light bulbs, screw them in, save the planet. But a lot of people these days are finding the new compact fluorescent bulbs anything but simple. Consumers who are trying them say they sometimes fail to work, or wear out early. Take the case of Karen Zuercher and her husband, in San Francisco. Inspired by watching the movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” they decided to swap out nearly every incandescent bulb in their home for energy-saving compact fluorescents. Instead of having a satisfying green moment, they wound up coping with a mess. “Here’s my sad collection of bulbs that didn’t work,” Zuercher said as she pulled out a cardboard box containing defunct bulbs. One of the 16 Feit Electric bulbs the Zuerchers bought at Costco did not work at all, they said, and

three others died within hours. The bulbs were supposed to burn for 10,000 hours. Irritation seems to be rising as more consumers try compact fluorescent bulbs, which now occupy 11 percent of the nation’s eligible sockets, with 330 million bulbs sold every year. Consumers are posting vociferous complaints on the Internet after trying the bulbs and finding them lacking. Bulb makers and promoters say the overall quality of today’s compact fluorescents is high. But they also concede that it is difficult to prevent some problem bulbs from slipping through. Experts say the quality problems are compounded by poor package instructions. Using the bulbs incorrectly — by screwing low-end bulbs into fixtures where heat is prone to build up, for example, can greatly shorten their lives. Some experts blame the government for the quality prob-

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lems, saying an intensive federal push to lower the price backfired by encouraging manufacturers to use cheap components. “In the pursuit of the holy grail, we stepped on the consumer,” said Michael Siminovitch, director of a lighting center at the University of California, Davis. Compact fluorescents once cost as much as $30 apiece. Now they go for as little as $1 — still more than regular bulbs, but each compact fluorescent is supposed to last 10 times longer. Much of the credit for that sharp cost decline goes to the Energy Department. The agency asked manufacturers in 1998 to create cheaper models and then helped find large-volume buyers, like universities and utilities. That jump-started a mass market and eventually led to sales of discounted bulbs at retailers like Costco, Wal-Mart Stores and Home Depot. LEORABROYDOVESTEL

in Brief Consumer Spending Consumer spending edged up for a second consecutive month in February, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.2 percent, according to a government report on Friday. While the inflation-adjusted figure was down slightly, the report was taken as good news. Americans’ wages and salaries declined 0.2 percent last month, offsetting a 0.2 percent gain in January, the government said. (NYT)

Mileage Standards WASHINGTON — The federal government on Friday imposed an increase in mileage standards for passenger cars and raised the floor for sport utility vehicles and pickups beginning with model year 2011 vehicles. (Reuters)

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Monday, april 13, 2009

in brieF

Thai Protesters Flout State of Emergency BANGKOK — Thousands of antigovernment protesters defied a state of emergency on Sunday, gathering in large crowds here a day after they forced the cancellation of a 16-nation Asian summit meeting. The protesters attacked a car carrying Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand as he left the Interior Ministry after announcing the emergency decree, which banned gatherings of more than five people in Bangkok and its suburbs. ‘‘I believe the people have seen what happened to me,’’ Abhisit said on television shortly afterward. ‘‘They have seen that the protesters were trying to hurt me and smash the car.’’ The largest crowd gathered at the prime minister’s office, where demonstrations have gone on for days calling for the dissolution of the government. Protesters erected barricades, including parked vehicles, in case the mili-

tary moved against them. Troops were seen at various points in the city, but by nightfall they had taken no action against the demonstrators. It was unclear how a ban on gatherings could be enforced without the participation of the security forces. The demonstrators, known as “red shirts,” support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed in a coup in 2006 and is now abroad facing an arrest warrant for corruption if he returns to Thailand. In a telephone message to his followers on Sunday evening, Thaksin called for a revolution and urged soldiers to turn against the government and join the protesters. “Now that they have tanks on the streets, it is time for the people to come out in revolution,” he said. “I will closely monitor the situation. If there is any violence I will return to Thailand immediately.” Thaksin has been making nightly broadcasts to supporters

in recent days, apparently from Dubai. Speaking to the crowd at Government House, the prime minister’s office, a protest leader, Jakrapob Penkair, said a state of emergency was “a declaration of war against the people of Thailand.” He added: “They will try to disperse the crowds, but we will remain at Government House. We will start a people’s war.” In a speech to the nation, Abhisit said that arrest warrants were being prepared for leaders of the demonstrations and that he was determined to restore order. “In the current situation, what I have to do is bring peace to the country, bring back governance and have a process of political reform,” Abhisit said. “The government will try every way to prevent further damage. I ask the people to support the government in order to restore order in the country.”  SETHMYDANSand THOMAS FULLER

‘Pause’ in Sri Lanka To Protect Civilians NEW DELHI — Having rebuffed international appeals to protect civilians trapped in a war zone in its northeast, the Sri Lankan government on Sunday ordered a two-day “pause” in fighting. An estimated 100,000 ethnic Tamils are trapped in a deadly and shrinking wedge of land in northeastern Sri Lanka, where the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers, fighting for an ethnic homeland for 25 years, have effectively held them hostage as a civilian shield. Human Rights Watch estimates that 3,000 people have been killed since January alone, making the area what the group calls “one of the most dangerous places in the world.” (NYT)

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BuSIneSS

Monday, april 13, 2009

Delivering Local News Without Newspapers If your local newspaper shuts down, what will take the place of its coverage? Perhaps a package of information about your neighborhood, or even your block, assembled by a computer. A number of Web start-up companies are creating so-called hyperlocal news sites that let people zoom in on what is happening closest to them, often without involving traditional journalists. The sites, like EveryBlock, Outside.in, Placeblogger and Patch, collect links to articles and blogs and often supplement them with data from local governments and other sources. They might let a visitor know about an arrest a block away, the sale of a home down the street and reviews of nearby restaurants. Internet companies have been trying to develop such sites for more than a decade, in part as a way to lure local advertisers to the Web. But the notion of customized news has taken on greater urgen-

cy as some newspapers, like The Rocky Mountain News and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, have stopped printing. EveryBlock, a six-person startup in an office building in Chicago, is stitching together this hyperlocal future one city at a time. Backed by a $1.1 million grant from the Knight Foundation, it has created sites for 11 American cities, including New York, Seattle, Chicago and San Francisco. It fills those sites with links to news articles and posts from local bloggers, along with data feeds from city governments, with crime reports, restaurant inspections, and notices of road construction and film shoots. Adrian Holovaty, the company’s founder, said: “We have a very liberal definition of what is news. We think it’s something that happens in your neighborhood.” Holovaty, 28, worked on technology at The Washington Post before creating EveryBlock two years ago.

In some ways the environment is right for these start-ups. In the last several years, neighborhood blogs have sprouted across the country, providing the sites with free, ready-made content they can link to. So far, hyperlocal sites have had only limited success selling ads. Some have shouldered the cost of fielding a sales force to reach mom-and-pop businesses that may know nothing about online advertising. One problem is that the number of readers for each neighborhoodfocused news page is inherently small. “When you slice further and further down, you get smaller and smaller audiences,” said Greg Sterling, an analyst who has followed the hyperlocal market for a decade. “Advertisers want that kind of targeting, but they also want to reach more people, so there’s a paradox.” CLAIRECAINMILLER and BRAD STONE

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Magazines Ponder Raising Prices Subscribers paid, on average, 58 cents for each issue of Time magazine last year. This is the Time magazine that sends foreign correspondents into Zimbabwe, assigns photographers to the war in Afghanistan, and fact-checks and edits every word before issues are printed. And that is before its costs for ink, paper and postage. Time is in good company — most big magazines’ subscriptions are sold on average for little more than a dollar an issue. But now, as they consider the decline in advertising, some publishers are wondering whether they can raise their prices without losing subscribers. “We’re realizing that the product is undervalued,” said Michael A. Clinton, the chief marketing officer of Hearst Magazines, which raised the cover prices on more than half of its magazines last year and plans to raise subscription prices this year. (NYT)

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InternatIonal

Sunday, July 12, 2009

in brief

Obama Gives Frank Message to Rapt Africa CAPE COAST, Ghana — President Obama traveled in his father’s often-troubled home continent on Saturday as a potent symbol of a new political era but also as a messenger with a toughlove theme: American aid must be matched by Africa’s responsibility for its own problems. “We must start from the simple premise that Africa’s future is up to Africans,” Obama said in an address to Parliament in the capital, Accra, that was televised across the continent. While citing Africa’s sometimes “tragic past” and acknowledging the ravages of colonialism, he said, “It is easy to point fingers and to pin the blame for these problems on others. “But the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants,” he said. He delivered a strong and at

times even stern message in words that, had they come from any of his predecessors, might not have been received the same way. Instead, it was cast by the White House as hard truths from a loving cousin who could say what no one else could. “No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers,” he said. “No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the port authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end.” “Africa doesn’t need strongmen,” he added. “It needs strong institutions.” The sight of the first black president of the United States, the son

of a onetime Kenyan goat herder, electrified this small coastal nation and much of the region. Cheering crowds lined streets to catch a glimpse. Billboards with his picture dotted the city. His name and campaign theme became the refrains of songs played in his honor. Accompanied by his wife and two daughters, Obama arrived here after high-powered summit meetings in Russia and Italy. He visited a women’s clinic to highlight American help in combating infant and maternal mortality and later flew by helicopter to Cape Coast Castle, a notorious slave port. As he inspected the dungeons and passed through the Door of No Return where slaves were taken as they were herded on ships, he explained to his younger daughter, Sasha, 8, what she was seeing. Obama, rarely one to display emotion, seemed especially sober. PETER BAKER

Indonesia Shooting JAKARTA, Indonesia — An Australian working for the Freeport mining company in Indonesia’s restive Papua Province was shot and killed Saturday, the police and company officials said. The shooting happened near the Grasberg site, one of the world’s largest open-pit mines, where two Americans were killed in an ambush in 2002. Papua, a poor and militarized province on Indonesia’s easternmost tip, is home to separatist rebels who denounce the mining operation as a symbol of the Jakarta administration. Attacks in recent months have left several people dead. The national police spokesman, Nanan Sukarna, identified the victim as Drew Grant, 29, a mining technician, according to Agence France-Presse. (AP)

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BuSIneSS

Monday, July 13, 2009

In Blog Reviews, a Sponsor May Be Lurking Colleen Padilla, a 33-year-old mother of two who lives in suburban Philadelphia, has reviewed nearly 1,500 products, including baby clothes, microwaveable dinners and the Nintendo Wii, on her Web site, Classymommy.com. Her site attracts 60,000 unique visitors every month, and Padilla attracts something else: free items from companies eager to promote their products to her readers. Marketing companies are keen to get their products into the hands of so-called influencers who have loyal online followings because the opinions of such consumers help products stand out amid the clutter, particularly in social media. “It really is a valuable thing for marketers,” Padilla said. “It’s a real mom with a real voice.” Padilla typically acknowledges in each review which products were sent to her by companies and which items she bought herself. But unlike postings in most

journalism outlets or independent review sites, most companies can be assured that there won’t be a negative review: if she doesn’t like a product, she simply won’t post anything about it. The proliferation of paid sponsorships online has not been without controversy. Some in the online world deride the actions as kickbacks. Others also question the legitimacy of bloggers’ opinions, even when the commercial relationships are clearly outlined to readers. And the Federal Trade Commission is taking a hard look at such practices and may soon require online media to comply with disclosure rules under its truth-inadvertising guidelines, perhaps by early fall. “Consumers have a right to know when they’re being pitched a product,” said Richard Cleland, an assistant director at the commission. Yet in many ways, the hyper-

commercialism of the Web is changing faster than consumers and regulators can keep up with. Product placements are landing on so-called status updates on Facebook, companies are sponsoring messages on Twitter and bloggers are defining their own rules of what constitutes independent work versus advertising. Katja Presnal, who created the Skimbaco Lifestyle and Skimbaco Home blog, recently wrote about e.l.f. cosmetics after meeting its chief marketing officer at a conference. The company has since provided her with products for events she has hosted and has asked her to provide testimonials for an online video, all of which she did free. “There is this misconception that bloggers write product reviews to get free stuff,” said Presnal, who lives in upstate New York. “I don’t blog about a product if I don’t really like it.” PRADNYA JOSHI

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HBO Sees Hope In ‘True Blood’ The slump at HBO is apparently over. In “True Blood,” the pay cable giant has its first hit since “Rome.” In the three episodes measured so far this season, its second, “True Blood” has amassed viewer totals that any network would be excited to own: 12.1 million, 10 million and 10.3 million. By most evaluations, “True Blood” is different from HBO’s previous hits. Whereas “The Sopranos” and “The Wire” were dramatically and ethically complex, the artistic aspirations of “True Blood” seem on the surface less ambitious, as the show’s creator, Alan Ball, conceded. “When I first pitched it, I said it’s popcorn television,” Ball said. “It has a lot going on beneath the surface, and I love the layers because I love to write layered stories. But I love the popcorn part of ‘True Blood.’ It’s just really great fun.” BILL CARTER

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