Yahoo seeking up to $500 million for small business unit

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yahoo (YHOO.O) hopes to get up to $500 million for a unit that hosts websites for small companies, after putting it on the market for several months, two people familiar with the matter said.

Yahoo has received interest from corporate buyers and private equity firms, one of the sources familiar with the situation said. It is unclear if any party has made an offer.

But some potential corporate buyers who have looked at the asset in recent months have decided not to bid because they think the price is too high, a second source said.

"Yahoo's price expectations are higher than what buyers were willing to pay," this person said, adding that Yahoo was seeking $350 million to $500 million. "People would like to own this asset, but not at the asking price."

As part of its strategy to shed assets that are no longer core to its brand, Yahoo put the unit called Yahoo Small Business up for sale about six months ago, along with HotJobs, its online job classified site, the sources said.

Last week, Yahoo sold its stake in China's top e-commerce company Alibaba.com for $150 million.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the sale process has not been made public. A Yahoo spokeswoman said the company does not comment on rumors or speculation.

The small business division provides domains, email, Web hosting and other merchant services to customers. Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo, which posted $7.2 billion in revenue last year, does not break out the unit's performance.

Twitter Strategies for Marketing Your Business

-“Brevity is the soul of wit,” wrote William Shakespeare. And it also appears to be the heart of the microblogging phenomenon, Twitter. Microblogging as a marketing strategy is bound to thrive, and sooner or later you’ll find it’s just smart business to communicate with your customers 140 characters at a time.
“Twitter is a great way to position yourself as an expert and go-to source in a particular field,” says Julio Ojeda-Zapata, author of Twitter Means Business: How Microblogging Can Help or Hurt Your Company. Ojeda-Zapata says people have found jobs, hired staff, promoted books, and been written about by major media outlets by blogging on the popular site. And while most business owners have heard of Twitter, relatively few are taking advantage of its power to promote their businesses.

The irony is that while blatant self-promotion and marketing on Twitter can be a recipe for failure, there are other uses that make it a back-end marketing and public relations bonanza. Here are three Twitter strategies every company should consider.

1. Search and respond: To see what your customers are saying about you, follow the advice of Tim O’Reilly, author of The Twitter Book, and search for your name, your company name, your Twitter name, and your brand or product. A few useful search engines include Twitter Search, TweetGrid, and Monitter.

2. Educate customers and be an expert: Natural Food Exchange in Reading, Massachusetts, is an independent, natural food store featuring the largest gluten-free stock of supplies in the state. Lisa Kalner Williams says the company uses Twitter as a way to distinguish it in the whole/natural food marketplace by tweeting useful information about celiac disease, a condition where a gluten-free diet has produced positive changes in those afflicted. Occasionally the company will do promotional tweets that mention gluten-free products available in the store.

3. Engage in conversations with customers: Of all the misconceptions that business owners have about Twitter, the biggest one is thinking of Twitter in terms of a monologue rather than a dialogue. “Old-school, one-way marketing is at best quaint and at worst annoying in this two-way world of social media,” according to Steve Mulder, director of emerging interactions at Molecular, part of Isobar, a global network of digital marketing companies.

Palo Alto: business tax foes step up campaign

Foes of a business tax ballot measure in Palo Alto are stepping up their campaign with a new "fact sheet" calling the proposal unfair.

"Measure A will create a business license tax in Palo Alto written by the city to benefit large corporations and will unfairly burden our city's small businesses," says the document, paid for by the committee Small Business Against Taxes.

The measure would charge multi-billion-dollar corporations a lower rate per employee than small businesses, it goes on. For instance, manufacturing firms would pay $34 per employee while professional service businesses would pay $95 per employee. And the city's largest corporations will pay lower rates than medium-sized businesses, it says, because of a cap on the size of the tax.

The line of attack is in keeping with the official ballot argument against the tax, which also focuses on the disparity in tax rates between large and small businesses. Both documents have the endorsement of the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce.

The Palo Alto City Council put the tax on the Nov. 3 ballot in hopes of raising $3 million annually for the city's general fund. If approved, businesses would pay between $75 and $30,000 per year based on their line of work and number of employees, with the majority paying $200 or less. The first payments would be due in 2011.

The official ballot argument in favor of the tax says it would benefit the city's libraries, parks and schools and help
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pay for new infrastructure. It notes that Palo Alto is one of only two cities that do not have a business license tax.

A rebuttal to the argument against the tax combats the claim that the tax rates are skewed. "The tax is more than fair. It will reach lawyers, accountants, venture capitalists and other service providers who don't pay sales tax. They will pay $95 per employee, as compared to restaurants and retail outlets that will pay only $40 per employee."

Many California cities have flat fees for business licenses, while some have employee-based taxes like the one proposed in Palo Alto. Of the two models, Palo Alto's actually charges big corporations far more while charging the smallest companies less.

The tax will go into effect if more than half of the city's voters support it.

European business, consumer confidence up again

LONDON — Official data shows business and consumer confidence in the 16-nation euro zone has increased again in August.

Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency, said Friday its measure of business sentiment rose to -2.21 points in August from -2.70 points the previous month. Improvements were particularly strong for production expectations and orders booked.

The figure is still weak, however — "even when compared to the previous historical lows of 1993" — suggesting that industrial production remains subdued, Eurostat said.

The wider Economic Sentiment Indicator showed that its measure of consumer confidence also improved in August, to -22 points from -23 points in July.

For the 27-nation European Union, consumer confidence likewise improved marginally, to -20 from -21.

Australia to Open Auto Finance Fund - Sydney

SYDNEY -- Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said Friday the government will activate from Sept 1. a special fund to provide liquidity for auto dealer financiers encountering difficulties due to the global credit crisis

The government announced last December it would create the special purpose vehicle worth up to 2 billion Australian dollars ($1.66 billion) with the support of country's big four banks -- Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank Ltd., Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. and Westpac Banking Corp.


The government in June lowered the estimated size of the vehicle to around A$550 million, following a better-than-expected functioning of the market and the ability of dealers to secure funds through remaining lenders.

Like in the U.S., scarce credit has hammered Australia's A$7.7 billion auto sector in recent times.

The Australian government decided to establish the auto fund following plans by GE Money, a unit of General Electric Co., and GMAC, to exit the local market, leaving an estimated A$2 billion hole in funding lines to auto dealers. Swan said Friday the so-called OzCar program has helped ensure their orderly withdrawal.

"However, it will still be necessary to activate OzCar so that the remaining GE and GMAC dealerships will have more time to secure ongoing financing," Mr. Swan said in a statement.

"The activation of OzCar will also provide Ford Credit Australia with access to the liquidity required to continue to support its dealerships -- most of which are in regional areas."

Legislation enabling the fund was passed by lawmakers in June.

The fund is backed by the government's AAA sovereign guarantee but the government won't contribute direct funding.

Holden, the Australian unit of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. currently manufacture cars in Australia.

Source: WSJ.com

Domestic trade finance business doing well

PETALING JAYA: Some 80% to 90% of the world’s trade relies on trade finance, and there is little doubt the trade finance market will experience difficult times which will contribute to the global economic malaise.

However, the trade finance business in Malaysia is still doing well.
Chuang Boon Kheng ... ‘We believe our country’s exporters are unlikely to suffer any trade finance shortage.’

According to Harm Bots, Royal Bank of Scotland Bhd’s senior vice-president, country head, global transaction services, the bank has been expanding its trade finance business.

“There is a greater need for companies to open trade lines. We have been expanding our corporate business. On the other hand, the risk profile of most companies has increased,” he told StarBizWeek.

He said access to trade and supply chain financing had become more challenging with the onset of the credit crisis, especially in the emerging markets of Asia, due to a tighter credit environment.

“While it is tougher for banks to give out financing these days, big companies are also taking the cue and spreading their wings to work with a panel of banks,” he said.

Bots said the World Trade Organisation had estimated that there was a trade financing gap of US$49bil globally, “which means there is a shortfall of funds that are required but not available from banks.”

“Right now financing from banks is not as readily available. The pool of liquidity is smaller,” he said, adding that the pricing of trade finance instruments had also risen, reflecting higher funding costs, increased capital constraints and greater counter-party risks.

He said the types of trade finance products in demand had also changed as a result of the changing financial and business landscape.

“We are seeing a shift from open account trading, which was popular when the risk of trading account defaulting was considered small, to documentary trading using conventional trade finance products – such as letters of credit, bills of exchange and guarantees – to mitigate risk.

“Open account trading represents about 70% of the market and will always play a key part but, in the short term, letters of credit are becoming an increasingly popular way to mitigate risk,” he said.

In an atmosphere of constant uncertainty and volatility there was a growing need for financial service providers to take account of the end-to-end trade cycle to keep trade flowing, he added.

The International Chamber of Commerce had observed, based on global surveys, that about 70% of documents presented under letters of credit were discrepant on first presentation, he said.

“This is consistent with our own experience in Asia and Europe where we found about 70% to 80% of the documents being discrepant,” Bots said.

In this challenging, risky environment, it was crucial to manage risk and documentation, he said. “It is crucial for exporters to understand how to conduct trade and ensure that when you ship to stressed markets you get your money back.”

ABN Amro Bank N.V. executive director, regional head, business development Abraham Chacko said it was prevalent in volatile markets for suppliers to weasel out of their contract by looking for loopholes in documentation.

He said the UCP 600 was a set of rules used globally in documentary trade and detailed knowledge of this subject was key for exporters to manage risk and working capital efficiency.

“The UCP remains the most successful set of private rules for trade ever developed,” he said.

OCBC Bank (M) Bhd head of global trade finance Chuang Boon Kheng said the general exports demand continued to be weak but the bank was seeing early signs of improvement as seen in the trends of export letters of credit flows at the end of the second quarter.

“Given the resilience of the domestic banking system and existing trading relationships, we believe our country’s exporters are unlikely to suffer any trade finance shortage induced by the ongoing crisis,” she said.

The current financial crisis had had a visible impact on several fronts, such as the overall decrease in transaction value and volume, she said, but the capacity of banks to provide trade finance continued to be strong, as often reiterated by Bank Negara.

She said based on the bank’s experience, about 50% of letter of credit document submissions tended to be discrepant and this could have an impact on discrepant bills, including delays in payment, which may result in loss of interest, withholding of payment and exploitation of the discrepancies in an attempt to avoid payment or obtain discounts in the event of falling prices on the world market or currency fluctuations.

HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd director trade and supply chain Lawrence Yong said the bank’s trade finance business was faring well, mainly due to its ability to leverage on the group’s strength in both import and export trade financing.

“Additionally, there is an increasing focus on more value-added transactions, especially in cross-border trade financing,” he said.

In such challenging times, there is increasing demand for risk mitigation products. HSBC has the strength and expertise in designing financial structures to cover all parties involved in the supply chain.

Yong said based on prevailing statistics, on a general basis for the banking industry worldwide, the percentage of documentary mistakes/discrepancies could be quite high.

“Discrepant documents in trade transactions can delay/affect the collection of payments. It is, therefore, important that the documents are compliant and free from mistakes,” he said.
Source: TheStar

U.S. business: welcomes Obama export control review

U.S. high-technology exporters on Friday welcomed President Barack Obama's decision to undertake a comprehensive review of U.S. export controls rooted in Cold War fears of the former Soviet Union.

"The economic and security challenges our country faces continue to grow more complex, and we must have a modern export control system that protects U.S. technology while allowing us to cooperate and trade with our close allies and partners," Marion Blakey, president of the Aerospace Industries Association, said in statement.

Many U.S. companies are frustrated by licensing and procedures that limit export sales of commercial high-tech goods that also have military applications. They complain countries such as China can easily buy some of the technology on the open market from other suppliers.

Beijing also has pressed Washington to loosen restrictions, arguing that would help close the U.S. trade deficit with China, which reached a record $268 billion last year.

"The U.S. has one of the most robust export control systems in the world," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Thursday. "But it is rooted in the Cold War era of over 50 years ago and must be updated to address the threats we face today and the changing economic and technological landscape."

That statement accompanied Obama's decision to extend the Commerce Department's emergency authority to continue administering export controls for another year.

The 1979 Export Administration Act expired in 2001 and since then Congress has been unable to agree on reforms to replace the highly technical piece of legislation.

"Export control reviews are frequently announced, occasionally begun, and never completed. The really good news will be when it is finished," Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, said in a statement.

Representative Howard Berman, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, has already begun a congressional review of U.S. export controls and plans to introduce reform legislation early next year.

Commercial real estate deals off, prices up !

Commercial real estate sales in metro Denver dropped 68 percent to $1.68 billion for the 12 months ended June 30, from the same period last year, according to a recent report by LoopNet Inc.

Though overall sales volume was down period over period, selling prices per square foot in some property categories actually increased, often countering the national trend.

Metro-area office buildings, for example, sold for an average of $194 per foot during the recent 12-month period, compared to $165 a foot for the prior period. Per-square-foot selling prices nationwide, on the other hand, dropped during those periods — to $227 from $251.

Average selling prices for industrial buildings such as warehouses and distribution centers also rose — to $72 per square foot in the 12 months through June from $63 a foot for the previous 12-month period. Similar prices nationwide dropped in those periods, to $68 from $73.

LoopNet, an online commercial property listing service, included sales of office, industrial, retail and apartment properties of more than $2.5 million in its Denver-area data.

Here’s what local sales performance looked like, comparing the 12-month periods, by building type.

Office properties:

• $677 million in total sales volume, compared to $2.42 billion in sales for the prior-year period.

• Downtown Denver’s total sales volume ($469 million) topped suburban sales ($208 million).

• Leading buyers of office buildings included Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (NYSE: JLL), HRPT Properties Trust (NYSE: HRP) and GDA Real Estate Services LLC.

• Leading sellers included Broadreach Capital Partners LLC, Transwestern Investment Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Company (NYSE: JPM).

• Top lenders for office deals included Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), Wachovia Corp. and FirstBank of South Jeffco.

• Biggest sales were the World Trade Center ($157.8 million/$206 per square foot), Seventeenth Street Plaza ($134.3 million/$201 psf) and Regency Plaza ($55.5 million/$179 psf).

Industrial properties:

• $261 million in total sales volume, down from $694 million period over period.

• Biggest sales included 345 Inverness Drive South ($25.7 million/$145 psf) and ProLogis Park 70/Building 8 ($19.3 million/$54 psf).

• Top buyers of industrial properties included Hines Interests LP, TA Associates Realty and JMDH Real Estate LLC.

• Major sellers included SVN Equities LLC, First Industrial Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: FR) and Denver-based ProLogis (NYSE: PLD).

Treasury announces energy tax credits

The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Department of Energy today announced more than $2 billion in tax credits for energy manufacturers available through the stimulus.

The 30 percent tax credit will be provided to qualifying manufacturers of wind, solar, geothermal energy equipment, fuel cells, microturbines, batteries, electric cars and electric grids that support renewable energy transmission, plus energy conservation technologies and carbon sequestration equipment.
“This program will help encourage innovation in design of clean energy technologies,” said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

The Bay Area is home to many cleantech companies including those that manufacture renewable energy equipment, batteries and electric cars.