Nokia seeks $1 billion from bonds to help drive fightback

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Mobile phone maker Nokia plans to raise 750 million euros ($980 million) by issuing bonds that can be converted into shares, seeking a cheap way to bolster its fragile finances as it battles to claw back market share lost to Apple and Samsung.

Once the world's biggest mobile phone maker, the Finnish firm has fallen far behind Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy phones in the lucrative smartphone market, and is pinning its hopes for recovery on new models that go on sale next month.

With its cash reserves falling and its credit ratings cut to junk over the past year, analysts have said Nokia needs to show a turnaround in the next several months if it is to survive.

Its shares fell over 7 percent to around 2 euros in Tuesday afternoon trade as investors worried the eventual conversion of the new bonds into stock would reduce earnings per share.

But analysts said the choice of convertible bonds - which normally pay lower interest rates than normal bonds because they offer investors the chance of making money when they are converted into shares - was a smart one.

"It is a rather cheap way to get extra financing," said Evli analyst Mikko Ervasti. "They need buffers (and) their 2014 bond also requires financing."

Nokia's net cash fell to 3.6 billion euros in September from 4.2 billion in June. It also finished the third quarter with 3.8 billion euros in interest-bearing liabilities, with 1.75 billion in bonds and loans maturing in 2014.

Additionally, the company owns half of network equipment venture Nokia Siemens Networks, which finished the quarter with 1.4 billion euros in liabilities.

The convertible bonds will be due in 2017 and will pay a coupon between 4.25 percent and 5.00 percent. The initial price for conversion into ordinary shares is expected to be 28-33 percent above the average price of Nokia shares between the launch and pricing of the offering.

PINNING HOPES ON LUMIA

Nokia's fortunes hinge on its top-of-the-range Lumia 820 and 920 models, which run on Microsoft's new Windows Phone 8 software. The phones, which come in vivid colors and have high-resolution cameras, will hit the stores in November.

On Tuesday, the group unveiled the lower price Lumia 510, which is an update of the Lumia 610 but does not use the newest version of Windows software. The 510 has a larger screen and will be sold for around $199, excluding taxes and subsidies.

ING analysts welcomed the convertible bonds plan as reducing uncertainty around Nokia's short-term debt maturities and bolstering its capital.

"It also shows that the company is taking the question marks around its credit quality seriously and is willing to take the steps necessary to improve this," they said in a research note.

Nokia's five-year credit default swaps were trading around 2.8 percent tighter in earlier trading, meaning lower costs of insuring the company against default.

The final terms of the convertible bonds, including the conversion price and maximum number of shares which may be issued upon conversion, will be announced later in the day. Trading in the bonds are due to start around October 26.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citi and Deutsche are the joint bookrunners.

(Additional reporting by Jussi Rosendahl and Tarmo Virki in Helsinki and Josephine Cox in London; Editing by Mark Potter)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nokia-seeks-1-billion-bonds-help-power-fightback-093924937--finance.html

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Reliance Blinks at Funding $40 million "Crossbones" With NBC

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Indian media giant Reliance has teamed up with NBC to finance one of the broadcast network's new shows, a 10-episode pirate adventure series titled "Crossbones," but is backing off its $40 million production cost, an individual close to the project has told TheWrap.

Through its newly-formed independent studio Georgeville Television, Reliance agreed to finance three-quarters, or $30 million, of "Crossbones," a tale of pirates from 18th century England based on Colin Woodard's "The Republic of Pirates," according to three individuals close to the project. NBC agreed to finance the remaining $10 million.

But Reliance, whose other Hollywood investments have offered mixed to weak returns, has been rethinking its financial commitment and is seeking to reduce it by nearly half, one of those individuals said.

"Everybody agreed on a $40 million budget. And everyone agreed it was (split) 10 and 30," said the individual. "They are renegotiating. The question is where will it end."

Georgeville CEO Marc Rosen declined to comment for this story. NBC also declined to comment, as did producer Walter Parkes. One executive close to the negotiations said the discussions were still ongoing and at a delicate stage. An NBC executive said the deal was complete, and Reliance had not changed its role.

The show storyline follows an undercover assassin sent to a pirate state led by Blackbeard, the infamous pirate. According to NBC, It is expected to start shooting in Puerto Rico next spring. It does not yet have an air date.

NBC chief Bob Greenblatt worked with outside financiers when he was at Showtime for series including "The Tudors" and "Spartacus," and while the practice is common in film, it is unusual for broadcast television.

Reliance has loomed large on the entertainment landscape for the past few years, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in DreamWorks to uncertain profits and placing millions into talent deals by CAA that have not yielded any films.

Reliance agreed to give DreamWorks an additional $200 million in April, but the new deal calls for the studio to make fewer films.

Reliance also bought a majority stake in IM Global, a foreign sales company that has recently moved into movie production. Its most recent release, "Dredd," a 3D remake of the 1995 Sylvester Stallone movie, was a box office flop, costing $50 million to produce and so far taking in $23 million worldwide including $13 million domestically.

Georgeville Television launched in May with support form Motion Picture Capital, a London-based company backed by Reliance.

Georgeville, run by former Heyday Films executive Marc Rosen, is the studio behind "Crossbones," a show thought up by "Luther" creator Neil Cross and produced by Parkes and Laurie MacDonald.

While Georgeville is still involved and has an offer out for the lead role, its financial commitment remains a matter of disagreement.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/reliance-blinks-funding-40-million-crossbones-nbc-220024920.html

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Rob's Guest Appearance on ACT LOCAL Marketing with Kalynn ...

Rob Kissner, President of The Digital Arts Experience, on ACT LOCAL Marketing with Kalynn Amadio. Each week, ACT LOCAL Marketing for Small Business will guide small business entrepreneurs through building a bridge between traditional direct local marketing channels and the more complex world of digital marketing for small business. Listeners get a clear understanding of how to grow their existing business with social media, video, mobile technology and more, without breaking the bank.

If you?ve worried about how to ?nd the ideal customer or how to reach a different demographic, you?re not alone. If business just isn?t as good as it used to be or the competition seems to have the upper hand, it?s not too late to make some changes to your current local marketing. Let Kalynn help your business and your community by sharing the techniques and resources she uses with her personal clients to effectively market any local business online.
Busy entrepreneurs listen to ACT LOCAL for more ideas, more understanding and more knowledge about WHY and HOW harnessing the Internet gives them the power to bring their business to the next level.

ACT LOCAL host, Kalynn Amadio is a social media, Internet, mobile, local SEO and video marketing Ninja! She is Principal of?ikalynn.com, a digital marketing firm that works exclusively marketing for business at the local level. A real 3rd degree black belt, speaker, seminar leader, engineer and Internet marketing entrepreneur, Kalynn helps business owners maximize online marketing efforts. She is passionate about helping local businesses thrive in this ever-changing world of the Internet, social media, video and mobile technology. ?An entertaining, humorous and engaging host, she packs her shows with not only the WHY but the HOW to use cutting edge technology to best advantage.

To reach Kalynn, follow her on any of her social media outlets: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube. Her personal blog shares insights about local marketing and building the bridge between traditional direct marketing and the new frontiers of online, digital marketing. Or sign up to get her free corporate newsletter, Kick It!, and turn your local marketing for small business into a sales dynamo.

Tags: act local marketing, audio engineering, digital literacy, kalynn amadio, radio, rob kissner, SEO, The DAE, the digital arts experience, twitter, westchester, white plains

Source: http://thedaexperience.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/robs-guest-appearance-on-act-local-marketing-with-kalynn-amadio/

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E-waste spending on the verge of a boom - Recycling increasingly ...

The market for e-waste recycling is set to hit $44.3 billion by the end of the decade, more than four times its current size.

Despite global economic troubles, hardware production continue to grow, meaning more and more products are consigned to the trash heap.?Such e-waste creates a headache for vendors and manufacturers, posing health risks in equipment dumping grounds, as well as being an environmental hazard.

Hardware disposal also means writing off valuable metals found in components. These mountains of disused hard drives, processors and other components which have been thrown away are potentially worth large amounts of money when materials such as iron, steel, copper, and zinc are extracted from them. ??

Many computer components also include amounts of precious metals such as a gold, silver and platinum. According to the United Nations Environment Program, one metric tonne of e-waste contains more gold than 17 metric tonnes of gold ore. Such retrieval is potentially dangerous, however, as hazardous material such as lead, mercury and arsenic gets burnt in the retrieval process.?

According to analysts at GBI Research, the market for reusing and recycling these materials is growing as tech products continue to be churned out, rendering old products obsolete within a smaller timeframe. This is in part due to the tougher legislation being put in place by the likes of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive, which aims to ensure e-waste is not continually dumped on the doorstep of developing countries without a second thought.

Analysts claim this will mean that, by 2020, the cash generated by managing hardware disposal, reusing and recycling will also grow. ?According to GBI, e-waste spending should hit $44.3 billion by 2020, up from $11.8 billion last year.

This should lead to improvements on the current situation - whereby computers made by big name brands are turning up on the rubbish dumps around the world despite vendors touting their green credentials.

This is also creating problems for those who are binning their unwanted products, and unwittingly opening themselves up for identity theft.

Source: http://news.techeye.net/hardware/e-waste-spending-on-the-verge-of-a-boom

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Romney Opens Stunning Seven-Point Lead In Gallup Poll (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/256535910?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Top Five Myths Of Genetically Modified Seeds, Busted

Having just stepped into the shouting match over patents on genetically engineered crops, there are a few small things that I, too, would like to get off my chest.

I say small things. I'm not talking about today's big hot issues: Whether genetically modified organisms ? GMOs ? should be labeled, or cause cancer in rats, or might improve the lives of poor farmers in Africa; none of that.

This is about something simple: Seeds of GMOs. Various myths have grown up around these seeds. Like most myths, they are inspired by reality. But they've wandered off into the world of fiction.

Central Illinois corn and soybean farmer Gary Niemeyer readies his genetically modified seed corn for spring planting at his farm near Auburn, Ill.

Seth Perlman/AP i

Central Illinois corn and soybean farmer Gary Niemeyer readies his genetically modified seed corn for spring planting at his farm near Auburn, Ill.

Seth Perlman/AP

Myth 1: Seeds from GMOs are sterile.

No, they'll germinate and grow just like any other plant. This idea presumably has its roots in a real genetic modification (dubbed the Terminator Gene by anti-biotech activists) that can make a plant produce sterile seeds. Monsanto owns the patent on this technique, but has promised not to use it.

Now, biotech companies ? and Monsanto in particular ? do seem to wish that this idea were true. They do their best to keep farmers from replanting the offspring from GMOs. But they do this because, in fact, those seeds will multiply.

Myth 2: Monsanto will sue you for growing their patented GMOs if traces of those GMOs entered your fields through wind-blown pollen.

This is the idea that I see most often. A group of organic farmers, in fact, recently sued Monsanto, asserting that GMOs might contaminate their crops and then Monsanto might accuse them of patent infringement. The farmers couldn't cite a single instance in which this had happened, though, and the judge dismissed the case.

The idea, however, is inspired by a real-world event. Back in 1999, Monsanto sued a Canadian canola farmer, Percy Schmeiser, for growing the company's Roundup-tolerant canola without paying any royalty or "technology fee." Schmeiser had never bought seeds from Monsanto, so those canola plants clearly came from somewhere else. But where?

Canola pollen can move for miles, carried by insects or the wind. Schmeiser testified that this must have been the cause, or GMO canola might have blown into his field from a passing truck. Monsanto said that this was implausible, because their tests showed that about 95 percent of Schmeiser's canola contained Monsanto's Roundup resistance gene, and it's impossible to get such high levels through stray pollen or scattered seeds. However, there's lots of confusion about these tests. Other samples, tested by other people, showed lower concentrations of Roundup resistance ? but still over 50 percent of the crop.

Schmeiser had an explanation. As an experiment, he'd actually sprayed Roundup on about three acres of the field that was closest to a neighbor's Roundup Ready canola. Many plants survived the spraying, showing that they contained Monsanto's resistance gene ? and when Schmeiser's hired hand harvested the field, months later, he kept seed from that part of the field and used it for planting the next year.

This convinced the judge that Schmeiser intentionally planted Roundup Ready canola. Schmeiser appealed. The Canadian Supreme Court ruled that Schmeiser had violated Monsanto's patent, but had obtained no benefit by doing so, so he didn't owe Monsanto any money. (For more details on all this, you can read the judge's decision. Schmeiser's site contains other documents.)

So why is this a myth? It's certainly true that Monsanto has been going after farmers whom the company suspects of using GMO seeds without paying royalties. And there are plenty of cases ? including Schmeiser's ? in which the company has overreached, engaged in raw intimidation, and made accusations that turned out not to be backed up by evidence.

But as far as I can tell, Monsanto has never sued anybody over trace amounts of GMOs that were introduced into fields simply through cross-pollination. (The company asserts, in fact, that it will pay to remove any of its GMOs from fields where they don't belong.) If you know of any case where this actually happened, please let me know.

Myth 3: Any contamination with GMOs makes organic food non-organic.

The organic rules prohibit the "use" of genetic modification in organic agriculture. But if pollen blows from genetically modified corn into your organic cornfield and pollinates a few kernels, you aren't "using" it ? at least according to the USDA's interpretation of those rules. In fact, a lot of the organic corn that's fed to organically raised chickens or pigs, does contain some level of GMOs.

That said, organic producers typically do try to minimize the presence of GMOs, because their customers don't want them. It's usually not too hard to keep contamination to a very low level. But there are crops ? specifically canola and corn ? in which it's extremely difficult to eliminate it entirely.

Myth 4: Before Monsanto got in the way, farmers typically saved their seeds and re-used them.

By the time Monsanto got into the seed business, most farmers in the U.S. and Europe were already relying on seed that they bought every year from older seed companies. This is especially true of corn farmers, who've been growing almost exclusively commercial hybrids for more than half a century. (If you re-plant seeds from hybrids, you get a mixture of inferior varieties.) But even soybean and cotton farmers who don't grow hybrids were moving in that direction.

This shift started with the rise of commercial seed companies, not the advent of genetic engineering. But Monsanto and GMOs certainly accelerated the trend drastically.

Myth 5: Most seeds these days are genetically modified.

Actually, surprisingly few are. Here's the full list of food crops for which you can find GMO varieties: Corn, soybeans, cotton (for oil), canola (also a source of oil), squash, and papaya. You could also include sugar beets, which aren't eaten directly, but refined into sugar. There's also GMO alfalfa, but that goes to feed animals, not for sprouts that people eat. That leaves quite a lot of your garden untouched.

GMO versions of tomatoes, potatoes, and rice have been created and approved by government regulators, but they aren't commercially available.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/10/18/163034053/top-five-myths-of-genetically-modified-seeds-busted?ft=1&f=1007

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We Could Have Talked All Night | Interactivity Foundation

It was Tuesday, October 16, 2012.? The evening was charged with excitement as the first guests arrived a full half hour early.? There were seven seating arrangements ready to receive the seven facilitators and their guests for a policy discussion of Jeff Prudhomme?s Helping America Talk.? This was an important night in that the debate that would follow the discussions was sure to cement for one of the presidential candidates a lead in the race for the seat.? As the facilitators arrived and marked their areas with paper table stands with their name and the number 1-7 that had been assigned to them, the seriousness of this evening was part of the conversation.? Soon each seating area was filled; facilitators were busy discussing the possibilities.

At my table all six participants enthusiastically answered my opening questions: Don?t we talk already? And how do we improve it?? I was somewhat surprised with the responses and made a decision that far more information would come out if I would allow the ideas to flow freely instead of limiting the conversation to the possibilities most of the way through our time together. ?Everyone felt that we do talk and talk plenty, but that most of the talk might be considered to be not as productive as it could be.? When asked to expand upon that, the response was that the talk does not often result in action items.? Talk centers most often on money, sports, and sex.? Policy charged discussions generally were not talked about at great length.? The reason that was given is that people do not feel comfortable enough to talk freely about policy issues.? Everyone felt that it is important to create settings where people feel more comfortable.? They suggested that forums need to be provided so that people can feel more comfortable and have more exposure to talking.

Then the discussion became even more interesting.? One participant said that we need to reevaluate how we socialize.? We were reminded of years past when families would get together on a Friday or other weekend night.? Every family would bring over to one person?s home a dish of food.? There were usually adult drinks and card games and children running around and playing together.? The wives would play cards or talk to each other about their week, their children, or their interests.? They commented that today everyone is on a cellphones and texting.? We need to have more family potluck dinners even when there are often not resources to take the family out to dinner and practice communicating.? It is important for children to see adults discussing ideas.? That way it becomes a part of a young person?s life expectations.

On the other hand we all should begin to learn how technology can help us communicate.? Two examples were given as letting their children know when they want a voice talk and that one participant?s eighty-four year old mother is the ?queen of texting?.? Everyone thought that we have allowed children to get away from the art of communication and that possibly games such as checkers, chess, and games of thought might be helpful in stimulating conversations.

Then we talked about possibility D., Money Talks: Let the Free Market Determine Access to Public Discourse, saying that mass communication does not have the sway it use to have.? Bloggers are getting information out.? Money does not rule communication.? There is no such thing that there is a free market.? There are ways that people can control information without moods or attitudes that skew outcomes.? On possibility E., Quality In, Quality Out: Quality Control for Public Discourse, participants discussed eminent domain and the idea that in Washington, DC owning a home does not mean that you own the land and how it caused a mass migration of African Americans to Maryland all because of the myth.? The point was that underserved people and everyone else need greater access to communication.? So, putting broadband into neighborhoods is a good idea.? Everyone felt that Wiki Leaks was good but was used as a smoke screen.? Digital literacy training is necessary, but how does one know if information is creditable.? The idea was mentioned of how to reach the underserved by putting billboards containing facts and information in rural areas.? One participant mentioned Jay Leno Show?s segment, Jay Walking, that highlights and magnifies how much average citizens do not get information, or at least they do not retain it.

The debate was fifteen minutes from starting and the group had not finished sharing ideas, but we ended anyway.? The brief, plenary session that tied our time discussing talking more to produce wider access to ideas was a perfect segue to the debate.? Everyone was engaged.? Periodic applause and some impassioned phrases peppered the room as nearly sixty people who had talked for two hours were looking at our President and a challenger talk about issues.

Source: http://www.interactivityfoundation.org/discussion-blog/we-could-have-talked-all-night/

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