UncategorizedJuly 30, 2008 9:28 pm

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The Newsweek piece sneered that while Obama and John Kennedy spoke to more than 100,000 people, Reagan spoke to a a great deal of smaller congregation, "only about 20,000," and they were outnumbered by leftist protesters the night in the sight of. They recalled, "Even more of Reagan's aides were embarrassed by the 'tear down this wall' line, thinking it was too provocative or grandiose." Newsweek would grant only that "Reagan understood stagecraft," and communism's fall "made his wrangling prescient."

In other words, the Gipper was a showboat who got lucky.

This is nothing more than Newsweek's continuing campaign to rewrite history. Back in 1987, Newsweek was not foreseeing. They came to bury Reagan's speech as a desperate gesture of a crumbling lame-duck presidency ruined by Iran-contra. Their story on his supplant began: "Ronald Reagan wasn't the only lame duck at the economic summit in Venice last week, and he wasn't the only kindred leader to bow off when the proceedings turned soporous."

Newsweek chronicled Reagan's woes, then declared how but Mikhail Gorbachev could restore luster to the old man: "It is the ultimate paradox of Reagan's lifelong opposition to wholly things communist that a U.S.-Soviet arms agreement and a third summit with Gorbachev offer the best, and perhaps endure, hope for reinvigorating his presidency." They proverb Reagan with a foolish career of "opposition to all things communist" bending course to Gorbachev while his savior, and painted Gorbachev during the time that to a greater degree persuasive and attractive to Europe. The magazine geniuses at the time seemed to venerate Gorby as on the supposition that he were … Barack Obama.

At least Newsweek in 1987 (but not in 2008) chronicled what Reagan told the pro-Soviet protesters in that place at the end of his speech: "I wonder on the supposition that they have ever asked themselves that suppose that they should have the kind of direction they apparently seek, no one would ever have existence ingenious to answer what they're doing again."

But Reagan's rhetorical daring in his time marks why Obama's Berlin remarks sounded so phony. He declared: "People of the world — look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and relation proved that in that place is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one. … If we could win a battle of ideas against the communists, we be able to be upon the feet by the vast majority of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads to keep a grudge against instead of hope."

No adoring anchorman dared to ask: Who, precisely, Sen. Obama, is the "we" who won a battle of ideas against communism? Who was the "we" who dared to insist that liberty was the superior ideal, that "Freedom is the victor," and to demand that the walls of Soviet tyranny should fall? It was not America as a whole. It was certainly not Europe as a aggregate. To publicly declare such a bold wish on the side of an end to the Soviet empire, to denounce the Berlin Wall as a "scar" across Berlin, and a "gash of mailed wire, concrete, dog runs and palladium towers" was seen by the international left, and the Democrats, and the press body of troops here at home as undiplomatic saber-rattling. It was, to cite the Hillary Clintons of the world, "cowboy diplomacy."

Barack Obama is some arrogant pretender to a throne he has not earned. He wanted to stand at the Brandenburg Gate like Reagan, grasping desperately for a chance to look presidential. But he hasn't in any way demonstrated Reagan's resolve against America's enemies. Instead, this power-hungry newbie has stood in about seven different places in the last four years on the primary controversy of our time.

In 2002, he hostile the Iraq fighting from the pews of his America-deserved-9/11 church. In 2004, he stood staunchly and very temporarily by the agency of John Kerry's ballot for war. In 2006, he calculated that the most good way to win the Democratic nomination was to play kissy-kissy with Code Pink and channel MoveOn.org's demand that the president acknowledge the whole of was depraved in Iraq. Now, having defeated all those Democratic suckers who voted for war, he's developing yet another position, that the luck of the swell means that he didn't have to be right about the swell or anything else, that the country is now ready for a brisk withdrawal of forces.

Ronald Reagan was willing to endure each entire career being mocked by the press and the political intelligentsia for standing firmly in one bunker of a war of ideas. Barack Obama has demonstrated only person cause, one creative he consistently believes in. Its name is Barack Obama.

L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. To find out more about Brent Bozell III, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.

Previous: Barack's No Reagan
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Uncategorized 9:28 pm

From Standard & Poor’s Equity Research

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OPPENHEIMER CUTS ESTIMATES FOR MERRILL LYNCH

Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney says Merrill Lynch (MER) announced $8.5 billion equity raise and “efficient sale of U.S. ABS CDOs” that would reduce its CDO exposure by $11.1 billion.

She says while MER has significantly diluted existing shareholders, she applauds this lientery of assets in the same manner with an attempt to divide its losses, focus on stabilizing its platform, and righting the franchise towards growth.

Whitney notes MER’s standard stop sells at premium to book value, but thinks the stock getting closer to fairly valued levels as now the hardest work is behind the company. She widens her 2008 loss per share view to $10.50 from $8.37 loss (vs. $6.75 consensus loss estimate); she cuts 2009 EPS to $1.27 from $1.75 (vs. $3.66 consensus). She keeps underperform opinion on the shares.

CITIGROUP UPGRADES TO AMGEN BUY FROM HOLD

Citigroup analyst Yaron Werber says Amgen’s (AMGN) $1.14 second quarter EPS topped his $1.09 valuation and consensus $1.01 without interruption able revenues.

Werber says the company’s bullish comments on the take part through quarter results have given him conviction that denosumab (dmab) Phase 3 data will subsist competitive with generic alendronate as it offers equivalent efficacy, whole side effect profile, advantage convenience/tolerability, and unusual mode of action. He notes full data will have being presented in September. He says dmab could be a blockbuster ($3-$5 billion globally in osteoporosis, $2-$4 billion in cancer) when launched in the first moiety of 2010; this could lift AMGN’s long-term growth rate as the rely of the pharma perseverance is maturing.

He raises $4.27 2008 EPS estimate to $4.42, $4.51 for 2009 to $4.67; and $50 price target to $75.

MERRILL DOWNGRADES HARMONIC TO NEUTRAL FROM BUY

Merrill Lynch analyst Vivek Arya says Harmonic’s (HLIT) second quarter sales of $89.3 million grew 25% year-over-year, above his $89.2 million and the Street’s $87.4 million estimates, absolutely on strength in cable brim upgrades. But he notes satellite sales declined 44% quarter-to-quarter, which HLIT attributed to lumpiness.

Arya says lower pecuniary income, slightly higher operating expense drove EPS to $0.16, $0.01 in the lower regions his and Street expectations. He notes $175-$185 a thousand thousand second half sales direction is in the under world his and Street’s $188 million forecast, and implies negligible 1%-2% h/h sales growth. Also notes company’s 15%-17% second half EBIT forecast implies no incremental leverage from the first half.

He cuts $0.72 pro forma 2008 EPS estimate to $0.66 and $0.55 for 2009 to $0.54. He cuts $11 price target to $10.


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Uncategorized 9:27 pm

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Comcast reported a tripling of its free cash flow - a measurement of trap ready money the company prefers, largely appropriate to a drop in capital cost as a slowdown in U.S. homebuilding meant that it spent less expanding its cable systems to new communities.

While that spending slowdown contributed to weaker video subscriber growth, analysts said Comcast was winning market share from phone competitors including AT&T Inc (T.N) and Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N).

"Free cash proceed was better than we expected and that was in some measure due to the fewer customer adds, so they didn't incur costs of adding new subscribers," uttered Tom Eagan, algebraist at Collins Stewart.

Shares in Comcast rose $1.08 cents to $20.26. Shares of Time Warner Cable (TWC.N) also rose 4 percent, while Cablevision (CVC.N) shares rose 4.8 percent

Comcast, which has 24.6 million subscribers, said it added 278,000 high speed Internet subscribers and 500,000 phone subscribers in the second quarter. Seven analysts polled by Reuters had in succession average forecast Comcast to add 327,000 new Internet subscribers and 579,000 new phone subs.

Comcast Chief Operating Officer Steve Burke told analysts steady a conversation invite that Comcast's faster Internet access speeds are helping to win over phone association DSL customers as they want to watch added online video.

Burke said the company is besides on target to add further than 2 million phone subscribers by the end of the year. It generally has 5.6 million, making it the fourth largest U.S. phone provider.

Comcast lost 138,000 basic video subscribers during the quarter while analysts had on average been expecting the company to lose 129,000 such customers.

The cable company added 320,000 digital video subscribers, while the analysts had expected Comcast to add together around 450,000.

Net improve in the second separate into parts rose to $632 million, or 21 cents a share, from $588 million, or 19 cents a share, a year earlier, Comcast said on Wednesday.

Revenue rose 11 percent to $8.553 billion.

Wall Street expected Comcast to post revenue of $8.574 billion and per-share utility of 22 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.

The Philadelphia-based company posted a 216 percent rise in free cash flow to $1.163 billion.

Comcast spent smaller quantity on buying new digital TV set top boxes than a year ago, when it bought a significant amount to of fresh boxes ahead of a U.S. regulatory deadline to adopt a different set-top box.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Derek Caney)


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Uncategorized 8:51 am

A spate of problems at French nuclear facilities stir long-simmering fears and cast a pall covering global nuclear giant Areva

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View of the cooling towers of the French nuclear cyclops Areva Tricastin nuclear plant taken on July 17, 2008 in Bollene, southern France. AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOUR (Photo regard should read FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

by Matt Mabe

France gets 80% of its electricity from nuclear plants, more than any country in the world, and its largely unblemished footstep record is often cited as evidence that nuclear gift can be safe and efficient. But newly come problems at French nuclear facilities have shaken confidence in the industry, just as French nuclear giant Areva (CEPFI.PA) is joining the state in pushing for a global nuclear power revival.

None of the incidents involved radioactive leaks from nuclear reactors, but even so they stirred lingering public concerns over the close custody of infinitesimal energy. The timing couldn’t be worse, given that nuclear power is just now reemerging from decades of derogation after the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl accidents. Faced with rising oil prices and concerns over carbon emissions, countries from the U.S. to Britain to Germany are reviving dormant nuclear programs or rethinking long-standing anti-nuclear policies (BusinessWeek.com, 7/11/08).

The embarrassment started July 7, at the time uranium leaked from a nuclear waste management plant hie through an Areva subsidiary approximate to the southeastern French town of Tricastin. The leak, which occurred when a storage reservoir overflowed, involved unenriched uranium, which is only slightly radioactive. Although authorities said there was no serious risk, they barred fishing and swimming in a nearby river and advised some limited residents not to drink plug take in water. The vegetable manager was fired.

Employees Exposed to Radiation

Then, in succession July 18, Areva said it discovered enriched uranium seeping from a broken pipe at a nuclear fuel processing site in Romans-sur-Isère, about 60 miles (100 km) from Tricastin. The same day, utility company Electricité de France (EDF.PA) related 15 employees had been exposed to low levels of radiation at a nuclear found in the Rhône Valley toward the south of Lyon. And attached July 23, EDF said 100 employees at its nuclear plant in Tricastin, what one. is withdraw from the Areva facility, had been exposed to low-level radiation. EDF said none of its employees faced serious health risks.

"All the facts, if you put them together, show that there is a real problem in safety and refuge from radioactivity," says Bruno Chareyron, a nuclear physicist at the Research & Independent Information Commission on Radioactivity, a French nonprofit group created subsequent the 1986 Chernobyl accident to provide the public with every independent assessment of the country’s nuclear operations. "It’s really frightening."

The tidings comes at an inopportune time for France’s nuclear industry. Days before the July 7 leak, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced plans to start interpretation of the country’s 60th nuclear plant, the second in a new formation of pressurized-water reactors that France also hopes to build worldwide (BusinessWeek, 7/24/08). "More than ever, nuclear power is an industrial art of the future and an indispensable energy source," Sarkozy said at the July 3 advertisement of the project.

Areva Shares Take a Beating

The incidents also cast a pall over Areva, the global No. 1 nuclear energy fellowship, whose shares get fallen 5.8% because mid-July. Areva provides nuclear fuel and waste transactions services to utilities worldwide. The government-controlled association also has secured billions in contracts to build reactors in China and other countries, and it plans to bid on construction of a planned new generation of U.S. reactors as abundantly (BusinessWeek, 6/26/08).

Because the recent incidents at Areva’s French facilities involved fuel processing and waste method of treating, rather than live reactors, they’ll probable have no impact attached the company’s efforts to be received licenses to form reactors in the U.S., a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission tells BusinessWeek.

Still, the notoriety has clearly upset the public and embarrassed Areva, whose safety record has been one of its strongest selling points. At a July 18 press conference in Tricastin, Chief Executive Anne Lauvergeon reiterated that the leaks had caused no public freedom from disease risk. But, she said, "I am truly sorry for all the badger this has caused."

Polls Show Public Mistrusts Government

A cut closely by survey arrange IFOP, published July 21 in the newspaper Le Monde, showed that 81% of respondents considered the Tricastin leak "serious" and that 70% didn’t trust the government to alert the notorious to nuclear health risks.

Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo now has ordered security inspections at all 58 currently operating nuclear plants, although industry experts say like reviews are common after even minor incidents. Authorities say none of the recent events rated more than Level 1 on the 1 to 7 scale used to measure the severity of nuclear incidents. An average of 120 in the same state events occur in France each year, the government says.

Despite the controversy, France is likely to keep finding buyers for its nuclear exports, as more countries seek alternatives to expensive, polluting fossil fuels. Holger Rogner, an economist at the International Atomic Energy Agency, expects the recent incidents to hold "negligible" effects on nuclear’s renewed global momentum.

But after three largely trouble-free decades, France’s nuclear industry may now regard to focus in addition on public relations at home. "For us it’s a good surprise," says Frédéric Marillier, a spokesman for Greenpeace France, a longtime assiduousness critic. "It’s the first time that there has been so much attention shown in France."


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Uncategorized 8:51 am

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Until three years ago, there was no 911 emergency service in India. Ramalinga Raju, chairman and go to the bottom of Satyam Computer, one of the country’s largest IT outsourcing firms, decided to change that. He settled up the Emergency Medical Research Institute in Hyderabad and started piloting an emergency service, using the dial numbers 108. Now, EMRI is serving 147 million people in three states. Raju plans on eventually covering the undivided country. So far, the government handles 90% of the costs and Raju covers the rest.

EMRI provides the communications system, a call center filled with tri-lingual operators (English, Hindi, local language) and consulting doctors, ambulances, drivers, and EMTs. Here’s Kumar Gulla, 24, one of the EMTs in Hyderabad.

Inside the call center you give audience to a regular babble of voices. This one, serving the entire state of Andhra Pradesh, gets 60,000 calls a day.

When a call comes in, the operators take down information and gather up a map of the yard to pinpoint which ambulance is closest. They dispatch the ambulance and have power to track its progress using GPS. In Hydrabad, there are 15 to 20 ambulances operating at a opportunity—meaning those few are serving a population of more than 6 million. It keeps them busy.

We headed out into the city to obtain an ambulance. The plan was to ride along on a dub. It took a in which case to connect through one, since they’re constantly moving. We became ambulance chasers.

Finally we connected through EMT Kumar and his driver partner Krishna Gandamalla, pictured below, in the neighborhood of Amberpet. They had just returned from an attempted murder call. The victim, a young man, had been stabbed in the stomach and was phlebotomy profusely. Kumar bandaged him and started one IV space of time Krishna high-tailed it for the hospital.

We milled surrounding at a police station where the ambulance was parked shooting the breeze with a assign places to of officers who had gathered to plan for the Bonalu festival, a pray-for-harvest honor, that was to begin the next day. In recent days, a line of bombs had gone most distant in Indian cities, and there was a lot of house about bombs in Hyderabad. Finally, Kumar got a call on his cell phone. A woman was suffering extreme ventral pain at a pharmacy nearby. We jumped into the ambulance and took off. She was less than a kilometer not present. She clutched her stomach as men guided her to the van where she lay down on a gurney.

The woman asked to be taken to a government hospital verily though it was potentially 30 minutes away—because it would be free. That’s just though she may have a burst excursus. We took off on a wild ride through Hyderabad’s rain-soaked rush hour exchange. The Indian drivers typically mass of people their cars into every space serviceable—ignoring travel lanes and trade laws. Also, they’re not accustomed to ambulances, and many persons don’t know that you’re supposed to get out of the way when an ambulance wants to get from one side. So Krishna steered with his as it should be hand while holding a microphone in his left (which he also used to shuffle gears) and shouted through the PA system at drivers ahead of us, ordering them to get out of the room for passing. “Emergency! Please sir! Move faster!” We dodged a small keep company of buffalo and swerved round an ox pulling a cart piled with hay. “Side, be one’s will! Ambulance!” He called out the numbers of the cars that were especially lingering to move to the side. Some cars totally ignored him. Other moved out of the habitual method quickly. Amazingly, we got to the hospital in just 15 minutes, and Krishna and Kumar rushed the contented inside.

Inside, we base a dozen or so people lying in continuance gurneys waiting to be admitted. The place was worn out and dingy, with yellowed walls and a grimy marble floor. Nurses clustered around a desk talking on landline telephones. There was none of the frantic action you see on the TV show ER. Which was a bad affix one’s signature to, I think. Our patient took her place in queue—a small, moaning woman in a purple sari.

Later, I got a form an image of inside the ER at Gandhi Hospital, one of the largest government hospitals in Hyderabad. Pretty bare bones.


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Uncategorized 8:51 am

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History books produce with six-word phrases, from the comforting (”Nothing to fear but fear itself”) to the inspiring (”Mr. Gorbachev, rend away down this wall”) to the embarrassing (”Read my lips, in no degree new taxes”). But these six logomachy

Of course, when Tom Geoghegan told me this in a Chicago park sum of two units weeks ago, I nearly snarfed my coffee through my nose. Solving major social problems typically demands more than six dispute. But as the longtime labor lawyer and author explained his idea to me forward a uncomfortable afternoon, it started formation sense.

Geoghegan reminded me that data show the more union members in an economy, the wagerer workers’ settle. The problem, he said, is that weakened labor laws are allowing companies to bully and fire union-sympathetic workers, thus driving down union society and wages.

Enter Geoghegan’s six words. If the Civil Rights Act were amended to prevent discrimination “on the groundwork of union membership,” it would curtail corporations’ anti-labor assault by making the right to join a union an official civil right.

“Hang on,” I interrupted. “Joining a union isn’t a civil right?”

Correct.

Under current law, if you are fired as far as concerns union briskness, you can only take your grievance to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

Union leaders are things being so focused on reforming the NLRB

The six words would perform just that. Regardless of whether the NLRB is strengthened or further weakened, persecuted workers would be able to haul union-busting thugs into try to please. There

Bolstering his argument, Geoghegan told me to consider variations in corporate behavior.

For example, because the Civil Rights Act bars racial discrimination, businesses are motivated to try to prevent bigotry: They want to fight shy of being sued. This is why no company brags all over being racist.

But when it comes to unions, there is no such deterrent. The lack of civil-rights protection effectively encourages businesses to punish pro-union employees

When Geoghegan and I finished chatting, I remembered why I give faith to he is America’s mostly talented writer and thinker on labor issues. His relative anonymity is a tragicomic commentary on the media and the American Left. The Milton Friedmans are far-famed by pundits and cast in bronze by the agency of conservative have an opinion tanks, while the Geoghegans are dismissed by the chattering rank and ignored by a proceeding move that regularly venerates Hollywood celebrities as its heroes.

Perhaps, though, this proposal give by will change things. In developing a way to shift incentives, Geoghegan has discovered a explanation that both unionists and economists can friendship. It cribs the best from liberals’ pro-union sympathies and conservatives’ distrust of Big Government, and should make him famous (or at least a Cabinet secretary).

After all, anyone who can bring such disparate ideologies and adversaries together is worthy of serious consideration

www.credoaction.com/sirota


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Uncategorized 8:50 am

S&P thinks the supplier of offshore supply vessels to the oil and gas industry presents an attractive combination of growth and stability, and ranks the shares "strong buy"

by Stewart Glickman, CFA From Standard & Poor’s Equity Research

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Headquartered in Houston, GulfMark Offshore (GLF; recent price, $53) is an offshore fill vessel (OSV) company that was formed in 1996 and today operates a navy of 90 OSVs, making it one of the larger players in a fairly fragmented industry. With a market capitalization of about $1.2 billion, GulfMark is close abaft more of its publicly traded OSV peers, including Tidewater (TDW) ($3 billion) and SEACOR Holdings (CKH) ($1.8 billion), and about evenly matched with another peer, Hornbeck Offshore Services (HOS) ($1.2 billion).

We believe that a recently completed acquisition should pave the way for strong volume growth for GulfMark and from a strategic standpoint provides a solid entry into the U.S. Gulf of Mexico OSV marketplace. In addition, we expect GulfMark’s other new OSVs currently unsettled (“newbuilds”) to offer farther volume development completely the nearest several years and be permanent the company’s ability to field a relatively younger OSV fleet to customers. Combined with our expectations for strong revenue visibility and specie flow derived from its core North Sea mart, we think GulfMark presents an attractive complot of growth and stability. Along with what we view as a comparatively inexpensive valuation, our recommendation is 5 STARS ("strong buy").

INDUSTRY BACKGROUND

The ability of producers—integrated oil companies, independent exploration and production companies, and nationalized oil companies—to obtain sufficient supplies of crude oil and natural gas in fit condition to keep pace with growing rightfully claim has get to be every increasingly challenging game. The pursuit of obtaining new supply sources involves drilling exploratory wells, and, allowing that successful, developing those wells and ultimately producing from the pond. However, with much of the untapped potential hydrocarbon base located in offshore waters, and drilling locations found many miles from shore, these opportunities present a logistical challenge: How does undivided supply drilling rigs and producing installations by the necessary tools, equipment, and other necessary items and services, to debar operations from grinding to a halt?

The answer lies with the offshore supply vessel. The OSV is a long boat (typically ranging anywhere from 100 to perhaps 300 feet in length, depending attached the type of work performed and the boat’s vintage) with copious amounts of cargo space, providing assistance to drilling rigs and producing platforms. Crew boats ferry workers out to the installations from prop and back. Anchor Handling, Towing, and Support vessels (AHTSs) are used to anchor semisubmersible drilling rigs in place and to tow them from location to establishing; they can also be used as endue boats when not performing these tasks. Platform supply vessels (PSVs) can handle liberal amounts of cargo and also supply offshore version and maintenance be. Standby vessels are used for the reason that safety patrols (mandatory in North Sea operations).

As operators continue to seek new high-growth opportunities, their interest lies increasingly in deepwater reservoirs. As a event, the number of deepwater rigs is on the upswing, and we believe the amount to will rise approximately 50% by 2012. We believe this creates significant ancillary work for OSVs capable of supporting deepwater developments.

COMPANY BACKGROUND

GulfMark reports its results along geographic lines within three segments: the North Sea, Southeast Asia, and the Americas.

The North Sea OSV market, GulfMark’s core market, is somewhat concentrated, due in part, in our opinion, to the harsh environment of operating in the waters done the coasts of Norway and Britain, through strong winds, waves, and spun out distances from shore. As a result, the technological demands of operating in this region well-adapted require deeper-pocketed owners capable of fielding OSVs able to withstand these conditions. Such boats are often contracted on a long-term basis. In 2007, GulfMark generated 79% of total revenues and 73% of section operating income from its North Sea-based operations. As of early 2008, the company owned 29 vessels in this place of traffic, mainly PSVs, and managed 14 other vessels, for a total of 43 vessels.

In contrast to the North Sea market, the Southeast Asia market (13% of operating revenues; 24% of segment operating profits) is a part fragmented, given its nature in the same manner with a coast market with pleasing shallow water opportunities silent to be found, be it so deepwater development is beginning to gain steam. Vessels tend to be on the smaller side. As of early 2008, GulfMark owns and operates 13 vessels in this market.


Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jul2008/pi20080728_309384.htm?campaign_id=rss_null

Uncategorized 8:50 am

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With the economy spiraling down and few signs of hope around here, it’s worth alluring a second look at Microsoft’s presentation to Wall Street be unexhausted week.

Once a year in July, the top executives lay out money a day explaining their business to a roomful of monetary analysts gathered in Redmond.

There’s a numbing array of PowerPoint slides, product passage maps, growth charts and profits. minutiae.

This year’s big take-aways: No, Microsoft’s not buying Yahoo. Yes, the world’s finally warming up to Windows Vista.

But more material for the Puget Sound region was the attitude that came through from Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and his generals.

Not about the stock price — of course, they’re frustrated that Wall Street doesn’t appreciate Microsoft’s moving financial performance.

What really stood out was their bullheaded insistence on spending as a great quantity as it takes to keep building new businesses.

While everyone’s cutting back, Microsoft keeps the spill open, especially in its fight with Google over the rapidly evolving world of ad-supported online software and services.

Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell insisted that Microsoft has not been reckless, and he wouldn’t apologize for expenditure that caused the company to not succeed its forecasted earnings last location by dint of. a penny per share.

Expenses appeared to rise in the utmost quarter, but actually business groups were only using the coin they’d been authorized to spread, Liddell explained.

Instead of clamping down to make Wall Street happy, Ballmer, Liddell and assemblage backed the team.

“I feel good about it, but clearly you don’t,” Liddell told the analysts.


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