Moto X Trapped Between Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy
courtesy of SamsungThe new Motorola Moto X, made by the division of Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), may be the best smartphone ever made — the best in the universe. But in the great sea of…
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Douglas A. McIntyre
AT&T Wins J.D. Power Crown for Customer Care
Wikimedia CommonsSome consumers make purchase decisions based on independent research. AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) needs to hope that is so. AT&T is the winner of the recently completed “J.D. Power 2013 U.S. Wireless Customer Care…
Toyota Posts Spectacular Results Following Ford and GM Earnings
courtesy of Toyota Motor Corp.General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) each posted earnings above Wall Street expectations last week. The numbers were another sign the car industry, so badly…
Martha Stewart Stock Should Collapse with Negative J.C. Penney Ruling
ThinkstockShares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (NYSE: MSO) have fallen 65% in five years, as the company has lost money each of those years. Most of that drop has been because the public…
Want to Be a Business Leader? Don’t Let “Mommy Math” Do You In
Back in the late seventies, as an intern in the financial services industry, I was one of the few women in meetings with top management, economists, and strategists . . . and I was…
Can O.J. Simpson Get His Sponsors Back, as A-Rod Loses His?
Courtesy Volkswagen AGIn the 1970s, the Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) commercials were all over television. Arnold Palmer and O.J. Simpson would slide into a new rental car and drive off, satisfied, into…
J.C. Penney Collapse: Did Same-Store Sales Plunge Again?
courtesy J.C. Penney Co. Inc.J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) denied plausible rumors that CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) has cut off credit to small vendors of the retailer. The conjecture may be supported by a sharp drop in…
Top 10 Consumer Complaints for 2012
ThinkstockVery little in the Consumer Federation of America’s (CFA) “Nation’s Top Ten Consumer Complaints” was unexpected. The results of the survey show how hard it may be to operate in some of the businesses in which customers expect…
China PMI Modest, Much of EU Rebounds
ThinkstockChina’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) figure for July was weak, or modest, depending on the source, but certainly no cause for optimism about a sharp slowing of the world’s largest economy. After adjusting for…
Sony Posts Impressive Profit, but Loeb Not Satisfied
courtesy of Sony Corp.Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) posted a profit, but the figure is not likely to satisfy raider Daniel Loeb, who wants the company to break out its studio operations. Sales and operating…
Jobs Surge in New York, Dallas and Houston
ThinkstockThe number of people employed in New York City, Dallas and Houston rose sharply in June, compared to a year ago, based on total number of people employed. Among all U.S. cities, these three…
Microsoft Surface Tablets Lost Money
courtesy of MicrosoftAccording to Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), its Surface tablet business lost money in the past fiscal year. One clue that the product was in trouble was the disclosure that Microsoft wrote down…
NEC Exits Mobile Handset Business
ThinkstockNEC has decided not to join HTC, BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ: BBRY), Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) and smaller rivals in the uphill battle against Samsung and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). It will leave the mobile…
Boeing Beacon Inspection Could Permanently Damage Company Image
Courtesy Boeing Co.Boeing Co.’s (NYSE: BA) 787 Dreamliner problems just got much, much worse. Safety questions about the Dreamliner have spread to several other Boeing models. The news will do more damage to its…
Dan Loeb Presses Sony over Studio, as Sale Options Increase
courtesy of Sony Corp.Hedge fund manager Dan Loeb continued his battle to increase Sony Corp.’s (NYSE: S) shareholder value as he pressed the Japanese company over management of its studio. The pressure has become…
Chrysler Revenue Rises 7% as It Stuggles with Larger Rivals
Courtesy Chrysler Group LLCChrysler posted modest results. While the numbers showed some progress, they also indicate that the company is not a viable competitor to its much larger rivals. The company announced that its preliminary…
As Sprint Announces Earnings, Does Softbank Have Regrets?
courtesy of Sprint Corp.Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) released earnings that were not only poor, but show that, despite some progress with subscriber additions, it is still bleeding on the bottom line. Softbank already may regret…
Time Warner Cable Keeps CBS on the Air
Wikimedia CommonsThe battle of the wills, and money, continued during the night as Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) nearly took CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) off the air by blacking out its programs on…
German Consumer Mood Improves — GfK
ThinkstockThe mood of Germans, the PMI and business outlook of companies, and the gross domestic product (GDP) continue to defy the balance of Europe, and even the very modest improvements of similar indices in…
Why Brickyard 400 Winner Newman Is Only $423,033 Richer
ThinkstockRyan Newman won only $423,033 for his victory at the Brickyard 400. That would seem to be a low number since it is considered the second major race on the NASCAR circuit, behind the…