Yahoo! to Acquire Tumblr | Business Wire
“Per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business. David Karp will remain CEO. The product, service and brand will continue to be defined and developed separately with the same Tumblr irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators.
With more than 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 signups every day, Tumblr is one of the fastest-growing media networks in the world. Tumblr sees 900 posts per second (!) and 24 billion minutes spent on site each month. On mobile, more than half of Tumblr’s users are using the mobile app and do an average of 7 sessions per day. Its tremendous popularity and engagement among creators, curators and audiences of all ages brings a significant new community of users to the Yahoo! network. The combination of Tumblr+Yahoo! is expected to grow Yahoo!’s audience by 50 percent to more than a billion monthly visitors, and to grow traffic by approximately 20 percent.”
Marissa Mayer’s Tumblr • I’m delighted to announce that we’ve reached an…
“I’m delighted to announce that we’ve reached an agreement to acquire Tumblr!
We promise not to screw it up. Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO. The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve. Yahoo! will help Tumblr get even better, faster.”
Google Hangouts upgrade removes ability to host Google Voice calls on your computer | The Verge
“Essentially, the new Hangouts removes the option to host a Google Voice call on your computer, something that many users find convenient and necessary in their day to day workflow.”
BAML: Profit Margins, 2014 EPS – Business Insider
“”There are several reasons why margins should remain structurally higher than the historical average,” writes Suzuki. “Importantly, roughly two-thirds of the improvement in net margins can be attributed to changes below the operating line, specifically interest expense and taxes.”
Here’s Suzuki’s breakdown of how margins got to be so fat.”
Empty shops hit record high, retail study shows | Business | The Guardian
“One in eight shops lay vacant in April, according to the British Retail Consortium, the highest since July 2011”
The media in Argentina: Clarín call | The Economist
“The government claims that Clarín enjoys monopoly power. But Ms Fernández’s critics say she wants to silence criticism of the government. A recent report on a Grupo Clarín television channel that implicated Ms Fernández’s late husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner, in a money-laundering scheme seems to have intensified her ire. Blocked in the courts, the government has reached for other weapons.”
“Richard Branson and Martin Sorrell among signatories to a letter to ‘The Independent’ that takes aim at Eurosceptics”
Swedish Firms Squeezed as Krona Strengthens – WSJ.com
“VADERSTAD, Sweden—This cozy village got a visit in March from Sweden’s prime minister, who praised farm-machinery company Vaderstad-Verken AB as one of the country’s “successful export companies.”
But Fredrik Reinfeldt got a stern complaint from Christina Stark, an executive at the family-run company, which has been in business for half a century. She told the prime minister that the strong Swedish krona is battering the bottom line, while rivals especially in Germany benefit from the comparatively weaker euro.
Because Sweden isn’t a member of the euro zone, it has avoided much of the economic mess that spread across Europe. The Nordic country is a popular destination for investors throughout the world, pushing the krona higher.
That is bad for profits at Swedish companies because the money they make from products sold elsewhere is worth less when converted back into Swedish kronor.”
Average London house price rockets past £500,000 | Money | The Guardian
“New figures showing that the average asking price for a home in London has risen to more than £500,000 for the first time could add to fears of a new house price bubble being fuelled by cheap mortgages and government schemes to boost the market.
According to the Rightmove property website, the average price of a house coming on to the market in the capital jumped by £16,000, or 3.3%, in a month to a record £509,000, while the London borough of Camden has joined Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea in an “elite club” where the average price-tag is more than £1m.”
Junk Stocks Spur Broadest Equity Advance Since 1995 – Bloomberg
“The most-indebted U.S. companies are rallying more than any time in almost four years compared with the rest of the stock market amid the broadest rally since at least 1995.
Federal Reserve interest rates near zero and the expanding economy are allowing Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies with the lowest working capital, smallest earnings and highest debt ratios to reduce borrowing costs and avoid default. The stocks surged 27 percent this year, almost double the gains for businesses with the most cash and least borrowing, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.”
Greece Isn’t Turning the Corner – Bloomberg
“It is undeniable that there are signs of hope coming out of Greece today, where there were none six months ago. There is always the chance that Greece can fake it until it makes it, capitalizing on these small pieces of good news to instil confidence in investors and households, until a real recovery takes hold. Undermining the confidence fairies, however, are economic fundamentals that indicate the recent euphoria is a bit overdone.”
ekathimerini.com | Greek vs Irish unions, 20-0
“There may have been no general strikes in Ireland, but the stakes are high as the government and unions negotiate a new round of austerity for public sector workers. The troika of creditors wants a further 300 million euros in cuts, which the government is threatening to impose if it does not achieve them through negotiations. They have no choice, because, as in Greece, the troika is looking over their shoulder. The chairman of the Congress of Trade Unions has commented that it’s easy to start something but not so easy to finish it. “There are people on both sides who would love a general strike, to clear up the air, but consensus is that it’s best to negotiate their way out of the crisis,” the Irish journalist said.”
Analysis: At margins of shale oil boom, a tempered euphoria | Reuters
“News from two of the country’s less developed shale plays in Colorado and Ohio last week offer a reality check for the wave of euphoria that has washed across the industry. The stumbles mark a break from the past few years, when nearly every new project was an overnight success and output grew and grew.”
Don’t Cry for Me, Euro Zone – WSJ.com
“Unemployment in Spain is at 27%. Young people are fleeing Portugal and Ireland. One-in-four Greeks say they have difficulty paying for food.
Despite the Depression-era conditions, however, Europe has no crash plan to get people back to work. Under the German-engineered strategy to escape the euro crisis, struggling southern European members must continue to cut public spending, lower wages and grind down prices until they’re competitive again. At current rates, it could take a decade or more to complete the process, according to studies by Goldman Sachs.
All the pain being endured raises the question: Is there a breaking point at which Europeans simply say, “Enough”?”
The EU Waiting Game Is Over For Cameron – WSJ.com
“How big a risk of Brexit depends largely on Prime Minister David Cameron. Referendums are always risky because they are often decided on extraneous factors such as the popularity of the government rather than the merits of the question. As things stand, 46% of voters say they would vote out, versus 36% who would vote to stay in, according to the latest poll by MORI. To the extent Mr. Cameron has a strategy, it is to delay the vote until 2017, buying him time to negotiate sufficient changes to the terms of Britain’s membership to reconcile his party and the country to support staying in.”