Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/207949455?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Sunday, March 4, 2012
Profitable and Prosperous Business Even in Recession ? Top 7 Tips ...
In 14 years of working with SMEs around North West England in the capacity of an Advertising and Marketing Consultant one thing that really stood out to me was the number of business owners who had no goals, no real plan, some had never even given a second thought to what their business would look like in the future. It may be rude but a wake up call can sometimes be helpful so I will tell you that some of our people used to refer to many of them as the self-employed unemployable. However, over the years I found that anyone, with a little guidance and a bit more organisation can certainly do better, and many can go from mediocre to highly successful with just a few well thought out changes.
So lets get started. Lets have an out of the business experience. Be honest and look at your own business objectively but from someone else?s perspective. Perhaps someone who might be evaluating the business with a view to buying it. One of the best ways to riches can be to start a business and then build it up to the point where it is a desirable asset to a prospective business owner. Lets examine your business. Be dead honest, after all no-one else needs to know the answers but it might change your life if we can hit on only one or two points that can together make a huge difference. Do ten things one percent better and you will have an exponential improvement far in excess of 10%.
Tip 1 Define your business goals.
Someone once said, and I can?t remember who, ?What will it look like when it?s done?? Well another good question might be ?When will it be done?? Now if you are just pottering along owning your own job this article is probably not for you, but if you are building something that you can leave to your children or sell as a going concern to produce money for retirement then those two questions are really important.
A deadline and a result has to be the place to start. Maybe it could be purely time based, say 5 years or 10 years from now or maybe it would suit you better if it was event based, when I am 50 or 65 or when my daughter is 21. It doesn?t matter but that time is important and then the time line between now and then can be broken into manageable steps. What will it look like, maybe in terms of turnover, or better still, in terms of profitability? What other things are important to me when I get there? It may be that you can run the business from your laptop and only call in on a Friday afternoon to see how much money you have made. Money is not the only measure but it is a good measure and one that any prospective buyer will look at first and last.
When you put your heart and soul and years of your life into something it will have a certain softer benefits. There will be things about your business that may mean a lot to you and your family and carry great sentimental value but they will mean nothing to a buyer. Sorry but that?s just the way it is. That aside, think it through, where do I want the business to be at the chosen date. Then take a good long look at where it is now. What would be the various ways that you could there and then, with what you have or what you can quickly get your hands on in the way of finance, resource, technology, education, what is the best way for you right now?
Tip 2 Cash flow is King
A huge percentage of small businesses cease trading in the first year of business because they are under capitalized. Having the money to pay your suppliers, to pay the VAT when its due, to pay the wages if you have employees is as important to your business as the blood traveling through your veins carrying oxygen to your muscles. When the cash runs out the business is dead. Now that doesn?t mean that you can?t use your overdraft or a good line of credit but the front page of the Daily Mail on Feb 16th 2010 says that 60% of UK firms applying for bank loans during 2009 were refused.
Assuming you could get the loans you asked for, credit interest has to be serviced and when all the income goes to paying bills, taxes and bank interest it is really hard to figure out who you are actually working for. I have often heard the complaint from customers that they didn?t know if they were working for the taxman, the bank or the advertising directories. They usually agreed that it was Thursday afternoon or Friday morning when they actually started working for themselves. I know they were joking but there?s many a true word spoken in jest.
If your work is divided between business to business and domestic customers, ask yourself which ones pay quicker? Even if the commercial job looks more lucrative, think about how long they will take to pay. I am not going to name names but I know of some really big companies who are household names taking so long to pay their smaller suppliers and hauliers that the small companies have folded whilst waiting for their money. Getting a job is one thing, getting paid is something else again. Never be so desperate for work that you put manpower and stock on the job without getting written assurances of when and how you will be paid.
Tip 3 Get new customers.
Every business likes it?s loyal customers but every customer was new once. Without a fresh supply of customers the very least you will do is stand still but with people moving, businesses winding up and people retiring and dieing in reality it doesn?t take long to start going backwards.
The old advertising methods may still have some value but are definitely not as reliable as they once were. Once almost everyone would pick up the Yellow Pages for anything from a signal box to a book on fly fishing but now it might be more for the emergencies in life. Ask yourself what you do when you need a service or a product, I know I am on the internet so much more these days I can?t even tell you where the directory is. I am 53 so its not just the teens and twenties that are surfing for what they need.
There are ways to generate inquiries on the internet that don?t cost much money but there is no free lunch. You will have to learn your craft and it will mean spending time getting an education. Having said that though, suppose you wrote an article like this one but about your particular business it might take a couple of hours to write and publish but it could be working for you, helping and educating your prospective customers, for years to come. Pay for an advert in tonight?s newspaper and you will need to pay again tomorrow.
One way or another you need new customers and the cheapest way to get them has to be the best way provided the quality is right. On that subject, please take this little piece of advice, don?t work for anyone you don?t want to work for, you are not obliged and you did not go into business to work for people you don?t like. You?re not desperate, so work with people who will appreciate you and gladly pay your rates.
Tip 4 Increase your value to the customers you already have.
If you look after them, they will look after you. Its so much easier to use a supplier or service you have used before and have come to trust than it is to look for a new one. Relationships have always been important and they are becoming more so as we live further apart in our virtual worlds. The best customer is a returning customer and the next best customer is a referral. Word of mouth advertising is more powerful than anything else.
Think about what other products are closely related to your core product that you could supply to your existing customers. I know a business that was selling vitamins at ?15-?40 a month for years when suddenly the bright idea came of selling the same customers massage therapy beds and chairs at between ?4K and ?6K. You have to sell a lot of vitamins to produce the cash flow that one of them chairs brings in but it also works the other way round, a customer who spends ?6k on a chair might add to the monthly income of that company for years to come. Take that idea and think about how you can apply it to your business.
Tip 5 Control the overheads
Every business has its costs. Premises, Wages, Insurance, Taxation, Utilities, Advertising, Transport etc. In these times it is prudent to look at all these areas more often just to see if it might be possible to tighten the belt here and there. But do be sensible. If your advertising program is bringing in much needed extra business it might be possible to revamp it and get more business but don?t make changes here just to save money. Better to let the cleaner go and sweep up yourself than cut off the lifeblood of the business.
Do you need that particular car though and would a different premises help the cash flow. Can you have home based workers or can modern technology replace wages or could outsourcing get the job done just as well and save the business thousands. I know loyalty to staff is important and many business owners are taking a lot of the load themselves to support their workers but that can only go on for so long and the business must survive for the benefit of the owners and the majority. Could you use less rooms used to save heating, lighting etc and if you have the ability to do that maybe you could sublet the extra space to another business that might ideally complement yours. That would not simply save money but would provide another source of income.
Tip 6 The Mastermind Group
Surround yourself with other business people and create an environment of encouragement and support. I will say that again in a different way. Do not tolerate other business people who come and sit in your premises and drink your coffee and drone on about the state of the economy, the inefficiency of the government, the way things used to be etc. etc. Fortunes that last are made in tough economic times, its when the going gets tough the tough get going. Sympathy is not helpful when you are looking for solutions because it tends to focus on the problem. Whatever the situation looks like now your focus needs to be on how you want it to be. You can lift others and they can lift you. A good idea that worked for someone else might be easy to adapt into your own business. What looks like a hopeless situation to one person might just spark an idea in another that will change things for everyone. Everyone thinks that their business is unique and that their particular problems are special but that is really not the case.
How about sharing technology. Sharing education. There is a lot to learn for instance about the new ways to create business online. It?s a minefield to the uninitiated. How about sharing a new media worker between 2 or more businesses and developing internet solutions that can work for everyone. How it all works can take up a lot of your time and energy when really all you want is the end product. How about setting up affiliate alliances between carefully matched firms. How about selling leads on when you have too many instead of just turning work away. Join a lead swapping breakfast club or the local Chamber and always keep an open mind. It only takes a little sideways thinking to fit somebody else?s good idea into our business. You will have heard it before but try to think outside of the box.
Tip 7 Only Believe
If your business can?t be the best in your industry, in your locality then why bother. Most people are not willing to put in the effort. They are not willing to do whatever it takes to be the best. If you will commit just to do all the basics right you will automatically be in the top 10%. Follow the rest of the tips above. Read everything you can regarding your industry and the important ideas that surround it, for example marketing, closing sales, customer service etc. be willing to risk trying some of the ideas you get as a result and you will be the best. I believe you want to be the best or you would have not read this far, and if you really want to, I believe you will.
So many Small Business Owners live in their own bubble working so hard in the business they forget to do work on actually making the business work better. So to come full full circle, how about deciding now to take a full day out say once a quarter, gather everyone concerned together, just to have an out of the business experience to brainstorm the way forward.
I have been in sales and marketing for 32 years. Have worked at some of the best known names in the corporate world and have a successful track record at each of them. Today I specialize in helping other businesses to generate leads and sales inquiries. We can be hands on or simply introduce them into a community of like minded entrepreneurs where they will learn new skills and become master marketers for themselves. Go to [http://www.abundantsalesleads.com/?site=Corporate]
Author: Rob Channings
:
Source: http://makingmoneypoint.com/2012/03/profitable-and-prosperous-business-even-in-recession-top-7-tips/
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Saturday, March 3, 2012
Fannie Mae Reports Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2011 Results ...
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(Image Credit: Eric Miller)
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Friday, March 2, 2012
Small Businesses: Are You Getting Social Media Wrong ...
The infographic sites a Zoomerang survey over over 1,000 small businesses.? Surprisingly, while 12 percent of the small businesses surveyed employ someone full-time to manage their social media and 8 percent employ someone part-time, a whopping 74 percent of small businesses employ no one to handle their social media marketing.
In addition, many small businesses are clueless about which social networking sites they should be focusing their attention on and what actions they should be taking on those sites.? Intuit helps, with statistics that show just how powerful Facebook is as a social networking tool for businesses, as well as a run-down of the most effective Facebook tactics to reach customers.
Check out the infographic below to see whether your social media strategy matches up with the most effective tactics below.? According to the infographic, is your small business getting social media right or wrong?
Source: http://socialtimes.com/small-businesses-social-media-infographic_b90628
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What American auto insurance companies have cheap rates?
Choosing a good auto insurance company is not easy. If you want to find a reliable insurer that handles claims fairly, you need to do proper research and compare multiple car insurance quotes. Each company uses different criteria to assign risk and calculate insurance rates. Before you purchase a car insurance policy, check out the company?s ratings and ask for recommendations. Internet discussion boards are full of people ready to share their experiences and help you find the best car insurance provider. Enter your ZIP code into our FREE auto insurance comparison tool to see affordable and reliable rates now.
Shopping online is the best way to find a well established auto insurance company.
If you purchase car insurance through an unlicensed company, you are very likely to find that you have no coverage in the event of a claim. Contact automobile mechanics and body shop workers. They should be able to tell you which insurance providers are best at handling claims and cutting costs. Compare at least three car insurance quotes to choose the most reliable auto insurance company that provides extensive coverage at affordable rates.
Esurance
Established in 1999, Esurance offers auto insurance coverage to nearly 90 percent of the population. The company operates in 30 states and has approximately 509,000 customers. Its main competitors are Geico and Progressive. Esurance provides health, life, auto, homeowners, and motorcycle insurance. It also offers coverage for mobile homes, boats, and travel trailers. Business customers can purchase commercial auto insurance at affordable rates.
Drivers who buy car insurance from this company can save up to 28 percent on their policies. They can compare free auto insurance quotes, file claims, and monitor repairs online. If you don?t know how much coverage you need, you can use the Coverage Counselor.
Esurance specializes in collision, comprehensive, and liability coverage. You can also purchase rental car reimbursement and medical payments insurance. Customers who qualify for multi-car discounts, claim-free discounts, and good driver discounts can save hundreds of dollars on auto insurance.
Safe Auto
Safe Auto features competitively priced car insurance policies designed to meet your unique needs. Founded in 1993, the company operates in 16 states and has more than 1,100 employees. Customers can obtain free auto insurance quotes through the company?s website in as little as 10 minutes.
This auto insurance provider offers multiple payment options and flexible policies. Because there is no middleman, Safe Auto offers lower rates than other insurers. Customers who insure their cars with Safe Auto can manage their policies and pay their insurance bills online using a checking account or credit card. The company offers standard car insurance policies that meet your state?s minimum coverage requirements. Drivers can purchase liability, collision, and comprehensive coverage.
Mercury Insurance Group
Mercury Insurance Group has been in business since 1962. The company offers comprehensive coverage options ranging from condo and homeowners insurance to personal car insurance and business insurance. Every policy includes personalized service and expert advice.
If you are planning to buy car insurance from Mercury, you should know that the company offers liability, collision, and comprehensive insurance. Additional protection includes medical payments coverage, rental car coverage, and roadside assistance.
Customers can lower their rates by installing anti-theft devices to their cars. Those who maintain a good driving record or insure multiple cars with Mercury are eligible for special discounts.
Country Financial
Founded in 1925, Country Financial serves more than one million households throughout the United States. The company has grown exponentially since its founding. In 2011, this leading auto insurance provider ranked 624 on the Fortune 1000 list. The company is rated ?A+? (Superior) by A.M. Best. Country Financial specializes in personal and commercial insurance, annuities, mutual funds, investments, and business retirement services.
The company provides customized auto insurance coverage that fits your budget. In addition to standard car insurance policies, Country Financial offers vehicle rental/trip interruption coverage, safety glass coverage, and emergency roadside assistance.
Teen drivers who qualify for a good student discount can save over 25 percent on auto insurance. Engaged couples and newly licensed drivers who complete a state-approved motor vehicle defensive driving course get cheap auto insurance rates.
Auto-Owners Insurance Group
Auto-Owners Insurance Group is recognized for exceptional financial strength and stability. The company has been offering affordable insurance products and services since 1916. This leading insurance provider has more than 37,000 independent agents in 26 states.
The company specializes in life insurance, long term care insurance, business insurance, and car insurance. Customers can purchase coverage for recreational vehicles, trucks, utility trailers, motor homes, antique cars, and personal automobiles. Most policies include extra protection such as full glass coverage, pet medical coverage, and loan gap coverage. Policyholders who use the online services from Auto-Owners are eligible for special discounts.
Erie Insurance Group
Erie is one of the fastest growing insurance companies in the nation. Established in 1925, Erie Insurance Group operates in 11 states and has more than four million policies in force. This multi-line insurance company is rated ?A+? (Superior) by A.M. Best for financial stability and performance.
Its line of products and services includes auto, homeowners, and life insurance. Customers can also opt or boat insurance, identity recovery coverage, and personal umbrella coverage.
The company offers flexible car insurance policies with extra features that go above and beyond standard coverage. With Erie, you will get maximum coverage at the lowest possible cost. Unmarried drivers under 21 may qualify for additional savings. Erie also offers car safety equipment discounts, multi-car discounts, and first accident forgiveness.
Shopping around is the key to finding cheap car insurance. Enter your ZIP code into our FREE auto insurance comparison tool to see free quotes now! You don?t have to spend hours filling out countless forms or talking to insurance agents to get the information you need. With a few mouse clicks, customers can compare hundreds of car insurance quotes and find a well established company that suits their needs.
Source: http://www.autoinsurance.org/what-american-auto-insurance-companies-have-cheap-rates/
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Thursday, March 1, 2012
Ocean acidification rate may be unprecedented, study says
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Public release date: 1-Mar-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Kim Martineau
kmartine@ldeo.columbia.edu
646-717-0134
The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Few parallels in 300-million-year geologic record
The world's oceans may be turning acidic faster today from human carbon emissions than they did during four major extinctions in the last 300 million years, when natural pulses of carbon sent global temperatures soaring, says a new study in Science. The study is the first of its kind to survey the geologic record for evidence of ocean acidification over this vast time period.
"What we're doing today really stands out," said lead author Brbel Hnisch, a paleoceanographer at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "We know that life during past ocean acidification events was not wiped outnew species evolved to replace those that died off. But if industrial carbon emissions continue at the current pace, we may lose organisms we care aboutcoral reefs, oysters, salmon."
The oceans act like a sponge to draw down excess carbon dioxide from the air; the gas reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid, which over time is neutralized by fossil carbonate shells on the seafloor. But if CO2 goes into the oceans too quickly, it can deplete the carbonate ions that corals, mollusks and some plankton need for reef and shell-building.
That is what is happening now. In a review of hundreds of paleoceanographic studies, a team of researchers from five countries found evidence for only one period in the last 300 million years when the oceans changed even remotely as fast as today: the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM, some 56 million years ago. In the early 1990s, scientists extracting sediments from the seafloor off Antarctica found a layer of mud from this period wedged between thick deposits of white plankton fossils. In a span of about 5,000 years, they estimated, a mysterious surge of carbon doubled atmospheric concentrations, pushed average global temperatures up by about 6 degrees C, and dramatically changed the ecological landscape.
The result: carbonate plankton shells littering the seafloor dissolved, leaving the brown layer of mud. As many as half of all species of benthic foraminifers, a group of single-celled organisms that live at the ocean bottom, went extinct, suggesting that organisms higher in the food chain may have also disappeared, said study co-author Ellen Thomas, a paleoceanographer at Yale University who was on that pivotal Antarctic cruise. "It's really unusual that you lose more than 5 to 10 percent of species over less than 20,000 years," she said. "It's usually on the order of a few percent over a million years." During this time, scientists estimate, ocean pHa measure of acidity--may have fallen as much as 0.45 units. (As pH falls, acidity rises.)
In the last hundred years, atmospheric CO2 has risen about 30 percent, to 393 parts per million, and ocean pH has fallen by 0.1 unit, to 8.1--an acidification rate at least 10 times faster than 56 million years ago, says Hnisch. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that pH may fall another 0.3 units by the end of the century, to 7.8, raising the possibility that we may soon see ocean changes similar to those observed during the PETM.
More catastrophic events have shaken earth before, but perhaps not as quickly. The study finds two other times of potential ocean acidification: the extinctions triggered by massive volcanism at the end of the Permian and Triassic eras, about 252 million and 201 million years ago respectively. But the authors caution that the timing and chemical changes of these events is less certain. Because most ocean sediments older than 180 million years have been recycled back into the deep earth, scientists have fewer records to work with.
During the end of the Permian, about 252 million years ago, massive volcanic eruptions in present-day Russia led to a rise in atmospheric carbon, and the extinction of 96 percent of marine life. Scientists have found evidence for ocean dead zones and the survival of organisms able to withstand carbonate-poor seawater and high blood-carbon levels, but so far they have been unable to reconstruct changes in ocean pH or carbonate.
At the end of the Triassic, about 201 million years ago, a second burst of mass volcanism doubled atmospheric carbon. Coral reefs collapsed and many sea creatures vanished. Noting that tropical species fared the worst, some scientists question if global warming rather than ocean acidification was the main killer at this time.
The effects of ocean acidification today are overshadowed for now by other problems, ranging from sewage pollution and hotter summer temperatures that threaten corals with disease and bleaching. However, scientists trying to isolate the effects of acidic water in the lab have shown that lower pH levels can harm a range of marine life, from reef and shell-building organisms to the tiny snails favored by salmon. In a recent study, scientists from Stony Brook University found that the larvae of bay scallops and hard clams grow best at pre-industrial pH levels, while their shells corrode at the levels projected for 2100. Off the U.S. Pacific Northwest, the death of oyster larvae has recently been linked to the upwelling of acidic water there.
In parts of the ocean acidified by underwater volcanoes venting carbon dioxide, scientists have seen alarming signs of what the oceans could be like by 2100. In a 2011 study of coral reefs off Papua New Guinea, scientists writing in the journal Nature Climate Change found that when pH dropped to 7.8, reef diversity declined by as much as 40 percent. Other studies have found that clownfish larvae raised in the lab lose their ability to sniff out predators and find their way home when pH drops below 7.8.
"It's not a problem that can be quickly reversed," said Christopher Langdon, a biological oceanographer at the University of Miami who co-authored the study on Papua New Guinea reefs. "Once a species goes extinct it's gone forever. We're playing a very dangerous game."
It may take decades before ocean acidification's effect on marine life shows itself. Until then, the past is a good way to foresee the future, says Richard Feely, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who was not involved in the study. "These studies give you a sense of the timing involved in past ocean acidification eventsthey did not happen quickly," he said. "The decisions we make over the next few decades could have significant implications on a geologic timescale."
###
The study was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 1-Mar-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Kim Martineau
kmartine@ldeo.columbia.edu
646-717-0134
The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Few parallels in 300-million-year geologic record
The world's oceans may be turning acidic faster today from human carbon emissions than they did during four major extinctions in the last 300 million years, when natural pulses of carbon sent global temperatures soaring, says a new study in Science. The study is the first of its kind to survey the geologic record for evidence of ocean acidification over this vast time period.
"What we're doing today really stands out," said lead author Brbel Hnisch, a paleoceanographer at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "We know that life during past ocean acidification events was not wiped outnew species evolved to replace those that died off. But if industrial carbon emissions continue at the current pace, we may lose organisms we care aboutcoral reefs, oysters, salmon."
The oceans act like a sponge to draw down excess carbon dioxide from the air; the gas reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid, which over time is neutralized by fossil carbonate shells on the seafloor. But if CO2 goes into the oceans too quickly, it can deplete the carbonate ions that corals, mollusks and some plankton need for reef and shell-building.
That is what is happening now. In a review of hundreds of paleoceanographic studies, a team of researchers from five countries found evidence for only one period in the last 300 million years when the oceans changed even remotely as fast as today: the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM, some 56 million years ago. In the early 1990s, scientists extracting sediments from the seafloor off Antarctica found a layer of mud from this period wedged between thick deposits of white plankton fossils. In a span of about 5,000 years, they estimated, a mysterious surge of carbon doubled atmospheric concentrations, pushed average global temperatures up by about 6 degrees C, and dramatically changed the ecological landscape.
The result: carbonate plankton shells littering the seafloor dissolved, leaving the brown layer of mud. As many as half of all species of benthic foraminifers, a group of single-celled organisms that live at the ocean bottom, went extinct, suggesting that organisms higher in the food chain may have also disappeared, said study co-author Ellen Thomas, a paleoceanographer at Yale University who was on that pivotal Antarctic cruise. "It's really unusual that you lose more than 5 to 10 percent of species over less than 20,000 years," she said. "It's usually on the order of a few percent over a million years." During this time, scientists estimate, ocean pHa measure of acidity--may have fallen as much as 0.45 units. (As pH falls, acidity rises.)
In the last hundred years, atmospheric CO2 has risen about 30 percent, to 393 parts per million, and ocean pH has fallen by 0.1 unit, to 8.1--an acidification rate at least 10 times faster than 56 million years ago, says Hnisch. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that pH may fall another 0.3 units by the end of the century, to 7.8, raising the possibility that we may soon see ocean changes similar to those observed during the PETM.
More catastrophic events have shaken earth before, but perhaps not as quickly. The study finds two other times of potential ocean acidification: the extinctions triggered by massive volcanism at the end of the Permian and Triassic eras, about 252 million and 201 million years ago respectively. But the authors caution that the timing and chemical changes of these events is less certain. Because most ocean sediments older than 180 million years have been recycled back into the deep earth, scientists have fewer records to work with.
During the end of the Permian, about 252 million years ago, massive volcanic eruptions in present-day Russia led to a rise in atmospheric carbon, and the extinction of 96 percent of marine life. Scientists have found evidence for ocean dead zones and the survival of organisms able to withstand carbonate-poor seawater and high blood-carbon levels, but so far they have been unable to reconstruct changes in ocean pH or carbonate.
At the end of the Triassic, about 201 million years ago, a second burst of mass volcanism doubled atmospheric carbon. Coral reefs collapsed and many sea creatures vanished. Noting that tropical species fared the worst, some scientists question if global warming rather than ocean acidification was the main killer at this time.
The effects of ocean acidification today are overshadowed for now by other problems, ranging from sewage pollution and hotter summer temperatures that threaten corals with disease and bleaching. However, scientists trying to isolate the effects of acidic water in the lab have shown that lower pH levels can harm a range of marine life, from reef and shell-building organisms to the tiny snails favored by salmon. In a recent study, scientists from Stony Brook University found that the larvae of bay scallops and hard clams grow best at pre-industrial pH levels, while their shells corrode at the levels projected for 2100. Off the U.S. Pacific Northwest, the death of oyster larvae has recently been linked to the upwelling of acidic water there.
In parts of the ocean acidified by underwater volcanoes venting carbon dioxide, scientists have seen alarming signs of what the oceans could be like by 2100. In a 2011 study of coral reefs off Papua New Guinea, scientists writing in the journal Nature Climate Change found that when pH dropped to 7.8, reef diversity declined by as much as 40 percent. Other studies have found that clownfish larvae raised in the lab lose their ability to sniff out predators and find their way home when pH drops below 7.8.
"It's not a problem that can be quickly reversed," said Christopher Langdon, a biological oceanographer at the University of Miami who co-authored the study on Papua New Guinea reefs. "Once a species goes extinct it's gone forever. We're playing a very dangerous game."
It may take decades before ocean acidification's effect on marine life shows itself. Until then, the past is a good way to foresee the future, says Richard Feely, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who was not involved in the study. "These studies give you a sense of the timing involved in past ocean acidification eventsthey did not happen quickly," he said. "The decisions we make over the next few decades could have significant implications on a geologic timescale."
###
The study was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/teia-oar022912.php
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Micron Biggest Winner as Elpida Bankruptcy Sidelines Rival: Tech ...
February 28, 2012, 10:54 AM EST
By Ian King
Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) ? Micron Technology Inc. will probably emerge as the top winner from the bankruptcy of Elpida Memory Inc., whose filing yesterday sidelines the last Japanese maker of computer memory chips and gives rivals the chance to scoop up factories on the cheap.
Elpida filed for Japan?s biggest bankruptcy in two years after chip prices plunged and it failed to win a second government bailout. The elimination of a top maker of dynamic random access memory would give the rest of the industry more control over production, helping to ease the price swings that have left Micron unprofitable for six of the past 10 years.
Elpida?s creditors will look for ways to recoup losses through the sale of such assets as a plant in Hiroshima valued at $1 billion by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. For potential buyers such as Micron, that price tag would be about a fifth of the cost of building a new equivalent facility. That would fit with Micron?s strategy of trying to buy up capacity cheaply, rather than making acquisitions that outstrip the company?s $1.9 billion in cash and compel it to take on debt.
?Micron is clearly the winner,? said Dan Berenbaum, a New York-based analyst at MKM Partners LP. ?Now it?s a question of how much does Micron pay for the assets.?
Micron shares jumped 7.7 percent yesterday amid speculation that the company, the fourth-largest DRAM maker, might seek to acquire some of Elpida?s plants. Dan Francisco, a spokesman for Boise, Idaho-based Micron, declined to comment.
Elpida has facilities that are responsible for about 18 percent of DRAM industry output, making it the No. 3 supplier. A push to take the plants offline or use them for other kinds of chips would help ease oversupply and stem industrywide losses.
Falling Demand
The computer-memory industry has been grappling with a decline in demand, brought on by a global consumer shift to smartphones and tablet computers, which need less memory and typically use a different type of chip.
Elpida?s troubles were exacerbated by DRAM prices falling below the cost of production. Industry sales last year dropped 26 percent to $29.2 billion, according to an estimate by Gartner Inc. That followed a 72 percent surge in 2010.
The Japanese chipmaker was the product of a 1999 merger between the memory businesses of NEC Corp. and Hitachi Ltd., which exited the industry.
?Ten-Foot Pole?
If Micron makes a bid for some DRAM facilities, Elpida?s creditors will get an offer that?s ?tough to swallow,? because the U.S. company knows it?s not likely to face any competition, said Hans Mosesmann, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates Inc.
?Nobody else is going to touch DRAM with a ten-foot pole,? said Mosesmann, who has a ?strong buy? rating on Micron shares. ?Micron is very practical. They don?t want all of Elpida.?
Earlier this month, Micron?s management told Mosesmann and other analysts the company is monitoring events in Japan to see if there are opportunities. Executives declined to comment on whether Elpida is one of them and what the company might do.
?It just doesn?t feel like there?s going to be any fresh capital put into the DRAM business,? Micron President Mark Adams said in an interview on Feb. 9. ?If we?re right, then the industry is mature enough that consolidation could make a lot of sense.?
Elpida has total debt of about $4 billion and has reported five straight quarters of losses. Micron, which has been making acquisitions and driving industry consolidation for more than 10 years, has about $1.95 billion of debt, approximately equal to its cash reserves. The company has a target range for its debt- to-capital ratio of 20 percent to 25 percent. Its current cash plus market capital of $8.4 billion give it a debt-to-capital ratio of about 18 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Debt Guidelines
If Micron stays within those guidelines ? giving it the latitude to borrow about another $500 million ? it?s not going to have enough leeway to buy its Japanese rival, said Daniel Amir, a San Francisco-based analyst at Lazard Capital Markets LLC.
?They probably won?t just buy out Elpida,? Amir said. ?They are not willing to break the bank. It?s not like they?re going to spend $2 billion.?
Samsung Electronics Co., which dominates the memory-chip business and is the only consistently profitable company in the industry, has said it will concentrate on running its own business, making it an unlikely bidder for Elpida?s assets.
?Samsung is not going to come to their rescue,? said Raymond James?s Mosesmann.
Profit Struggle
Excluding Samsung ? which is also the world?s second- largest maker of mobile phones and the biggest maker of liquid crystal displays ? DRAM makers have struggled to make money.
Matching supply with demand poses a constant challenge in the market for DRAM for personal computers, where plants take years to come online and can?t be shut down cheaply. With factories costing billions of dollars to build, companies such as Elpida have found themselves facing debts they have trouble repaying.
In six of the past 10 years, industry companies have spent more cash than their operations have generated. Even including Samsung, whose share price has more than tripled, memory makers as a group have lost 40 percent of their market value since October 2002.
If output from Elpida?s plants is slowed down or halted, all of its rivals will benefit as supply gets closer to demand and prices stabilize, according to Shawn Webster, an analyst at Macquarie Capital USA Inc.
?Any time a competitor is in distress, it?s a positive for everybody else,? said Webster. ?If you pull supply offline, that could help everybody in the DRAM industry.?
Micron CEO
Earlier this month, Micron lost longtime Chief Executive Officer Steve Appleton, who died in a plane crash. Mosesmann and other analysts speculated that his death might slow any possible negotiations for industry consolidation, because Appleton had been the driving force behind previous transactions.
Micron, which got its start with an investment from local potato magnate J.R. Simplot, became one of the largest makers of computer memory when it bought the memory operations of Texas Instruments Inc. in 1998. Since then, it has acquired plants from Toshiba Corp., bought control of a Japanese joint venture, and formed partnerships with Taiwan?s Nanya Technology Corp. and Intel Corp. to secure access to more production.
In 2008, as Germany?s Qimonda AG headed for bankruptcy and sought investments, Micron bought out its interest in Inotera Memories Inc. Qimonda subsequently went out of business, and its chipmaking equipment was sold off.
Micron has also walked away from opportunities. In April 2002, it abandoned a transaction under which it would have acquired the memory operations of South Korea?s Hynix Semiconductor Inc., the second-largest DRAM maker, after the companies couldn?t agree on terms.
?In No Rush?
One way that Micron might consider a purchase of Elpida would be if it could get cheap financing for a transaction from Elpida?s creditors, which are facing the dilemma of knowing that restructuring the company?s debt wouldn?t be enough to make it competitive again, according to Betsy Van Hees, a San Francisco- based analyst at Wedbush Securities. Elpida needs more money to invest in making its production more efficient, she said.
When asked on Feb. 10 whether he would take Micron?s debt level above 25 percent of its capital to make an acquisition that would consolidate the industry, Chief Executive Officer Mark Durcan told analysts he was going to be ?very careful about putting the company in a position where we?re not confident we can deal with any additional debt.?
Still, he would consider taking the debt ratio higher if there was a good enough opportunity, he said.
?If they can get the current creditors to finance the deal at a very low interest rate, then it might make sense,? said Van Hees. Unless that happens, ?they are in no rush to do anything.?
?With assistance from Naoko Fujimura in Tokyo and Heather Perlberg in New York. Editors: Jillian Ward, Nick Turner
To contact the reporters on this story: Ian King in San Francisco at ianking@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net.
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