The Future is NOW for Massa!!

!!!! FELIPE MASSA !!!!



Massa: "Kimi será um grande desafio para mim"

Brasileiro mostra respeito pelo seu futuro companheiro de Ferrari
Fonte: GLOBOESPORTE.COM

MONZA, Itália - O brasileiro Felipe Massa, que renovou com a Ferrari por mais dois anos, disse nesta terça-feira que será um grande desafio para a sua carreira ter o finlandês Kimi Raikkonen, atualmente na McLaren, como seu companheiro de equipe na próxima temporada da Fórmula 1.
- O Kimi será um novo e grande desafio para mim. Acredito que faremos uma boa dupla na Ferrari. A minha relação com o Michael foi sempre boa e tenho a certeza que será o mesmo com o Kimi - disse Massa ao "Gazzetta dello Sport".

References:

"O Globo":
http://globoesporte.globo.com/ESP/Noticia/0,,AA1269821-1311,00.html

Andre's Opinion:

Felipe Massa is bringing hope back to all Brazilian F1 fans.
This great thrilling sport that was once dominated by the astonishing Ayrton Senna, now welcomes another talented Brazilian driver onto the big stage. With a 1st place finish at the Turkish Grand Prix and a hand full of other podium finishes, Massa is poised to finish in 3rd place this season and has earned a two year extension to his existing contract with the world's leading F1 force "Scuderia Ferrari". Albeit thanks to the graceful retirement of Michael Schumacher and along side the talented Kimi Raikkonen. 2007 will be a great year for the sport. With his ever growing fame Massa's "F1 racing suit" has recently attained 3,240 Euros at an auction, and all I can say is that whomever bought it is in for a profit.

Massa, Keep up the good work!!

(Note: I have been a massive F1 fan for as long as I can remember, and it is the only exception to my beliefs regarding alternative and cleaner fuels. Hypocritical maybe, but honest and contained.)

Deutsche Borse tops NYSE Group's bid for Euronext.

"Euronext faces merger vote call."

Euronext's largest shareholder said on Wednesday that it intended to force the exchange to hold a vote on a merger offer from Deutsche Borse that currently exceeds a bid from the NYSE Group which was agreed by Euronext's management in June. Chris Hohn, managing director of The Children's Investment Fund, a hedge fund with about 10 per cent of Euronext's equity, accused Jean-Francois Theodore, chief executive of the Paris-based pan-European equities and derivatives market, of a "breach of fiduciary duty" for not considering an offer which under current financial terms is more attractive to shareholders than that of the NYSE.

"We see it as a breach of fiduciary duty of the board that a valid offer should, for non-economic reasons, not be brought to shareholders," he said in a conference call on Euronext's first-half results.

Reference:

FT.com - Article written by: By Norma Cohen in London
Published: August 30 2006


https://registration.ft.com/registration/barrier?referer=http://www.ft.com/home/uk&location=http%3A//www.ft.com/cms/s/d96f9e66-37f7-11db-ae2c-0000779e2340.html

Andre's opinion:

I have been following the occurences surrounding the futures of both Euronext and Deutsche Borse for several months now, and find it very interesting the way in which things are panning out. It was my understanding that the heads of Deutsche Borse had initially passed on the opportunity of a merger with Euronext in the beginning of 2006 for reasons that directly affected their American ventures, amongst other reasons. Currently Deutsche Borse has limited trading licenses in the US commodities market and had the intention of merging with or acquiring an American based exchange; thus attaining further operational capabilities within the given market. Yet the argument for a merger between Euronext and Deutsche Borse, has always been based on the benefits brought by the fact that the two exchanges share a large number of key investors; therefore making the merger strategically suitable. Shareholders will benefit from this merger, given that Euronext considers the offer, although I sense that in light of Deutsche Borse's American market interests, this last minute attempt possibly illustrates the failure to find a suitable partner in America. Alternatively, this course of action may simply be part of a larger, long term plan.

Google becomes Myspace's advertisement provider

Recently, G o o g l e Inc. reached an agreement with News Corporation to pay at least US$ 900 million to the latter as to become an exclusive search technique and text advertisement provider of Myspace.com and other websites which are owned by News Corp. Under this three-year deal, Google will provide Myspace and Fox Interactive Media's sites with search services. Both Myspace and Fox Interactive Media are owned by News Corp. Besides, Google will exclusively provide text advertisement and keyword advertisement services to Myspace and other sites with its AdSense program. As for return, Google will pay News Corp. part of its expected advertising revenue which is worth at least US$ 900 million. The payments will start from the first quarter of 2007 and last untill the second quarter of 2010.

In June this year, News Corp. issued a notice to invite Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google to bid for advertisement provider of Myspace. This is because Web search has become the main source of many dotcoms' revenue but has not been fully used by Myspace and Fox Interactive Media's sites. So the prospective bidding result has aroused intense interests in the IT industry. Finally Google, as the winner will replace its search engine with that of Yahoo! in Myspace. During the recent nine months, Myspace's income only made up a small portion of the revenue of News Corp. but the growing Myspace will become a main force to push up revenues of News Corp. in the future with the help of a newly signed contract. News Corp. hopes to play a very important role in the digital media market. Meanwhile, Google expects to use its rich cash reserves to keep its leading position in web search market and expand itself as well. In a statement, Peter Chernin, chief operating officer of News Corp. says cooperation with Google is a reflection of his company's efforts to become an important force in the digital media market. In the mean time, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google says it is widely recognized that Myspace stays in a leading position in terms of contents providing services and combination web search with advertisement and cooperation with Myspace will help Google to accomplish its mission to make the world's information accessible and usable as well.

In December, Google beat Microsoft and Yahoo! and won a similar contract with AOL. Under this deal, Google buys 5% of AOL's shares for US$ 1 billion and AOL continues to use Google's search techniques. Other than that, Google offers US$ 300 million loan used for advertisng.

Reference:
By People's Daily Online
http://english.people.com.cn/200608/10/eng20060810_291581.html



Andre's opinion:

Meanwhile Google shows a sign of recovery in the NYSE, as it's shares enjoy a brief comeback resulting from all the positive media coverage spurred by newly acquired projects.
Google is arguably a volatile investment option, as high expectations have long thwarted the company's shares performance. Yet one look at the 52 week range can clearly illustrate where the company is heading in the long run. Furthermore this serves as an indicator to the finacial opportunities that are being and will continue to be brought by blogging and further developments within the world wide web. Lastly it's worth noting that the day's loser is Yahoo, which has lost the bid for myspace as well as having recently faced difficulties and eventually a delay on the release of it's new advertising protocol/software.

Google's share performance:

Last Trade: $375.22

Day's Range: $372.46 - $376.31

52wk Range: $273.35 - $475.11

Fleishman Hillard

Fleishman-Hillard is a one of the world's leading PR agencies that has been honored with 63 Silver Anvil awards from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) over the past 22 years; it is part of Omnicom Group Inc. , a leading global marketing and corporate communications company, and earlier this year, Fleishman-Hillard was also named the "Most Admired Public Relations Firm" in the U.S. by the influential industry newsletter The Holmes Report. That ranking was based on the combined results of three separate Holmes Report surveys — the "Agency Report Card" poll, which asked agency presidents to identify those agencies they respected most; the "Best Agencies to Work For" study, which surveyed employees of public relations firms; and a third survey of agency clients.

I have just finished a 4 month internship at FH London, as a requirement for the completion of my MBA degree, and have immensely enjoyed the experience. The people are great, much like the atmosphere created by the company's corporate culture. I have learned a great deal and have a new found interest in PR & communications. Between helping with various projects, working on the UK website, tracking media coverage, providing online research and outreach, generating press releases (of which I did 2) and even organizing a client product competition on the national press, 4 months went by in a flash. I suppose it is true to say that time goes by faster when you are having fun.

Thus I write this post to express my gratitude to the FH London team, and wish them all the best in future endeavours.

Brazilian "Obvio" electric car reaches the US market.!

Carro elétrico brasileiro chega aos EUA por US$ 45 mil

Quarta, 26 de Julho de 2006, 9h01 Fonte: INVERTIA




O primeiro carro elétrico brasileiro deve chegar aos EUA a partir do final do próximo ano. Produzido no Rio de Janeiro, o Óbvio! custará entre US$ 45 e US$ 59 mil, nas versões básica e esportiva. Além do carro elétrico, a empresa vai exportar a versão flex, que roda com álcool e gasolina, a preços entre US$ 14 e US$ 28 mil. A Zero Air Pollution (ZAP), empresa da Califórnia que produz veículos elétricos, já fez encomendas de 50 mil veículos do modelo flex e outras 10 mil do elétrico, segundo o jornal O Estado de S. Paulo. O minicarro Óbvio! tem espaço para três passageiros e pode percorrer 250 quilômetros com uma carga de cinco horas. Com meia hora de carregamento, a autonomia é de até 80 quilômetros. A linha de montagem do veículo está sendo instalada na antiga Fábrica Nacional de Motores da Fiat. As máquinas serão importadas da Alemanha e até 4 mil funcionários devem ser contratados. Ainda não há previsão de vendas do minicarro no Brasil.

Fonte: Terra
http://www.terra.com.br

Brazilian electric car targets US market. The "Obvio" is available in both electric and hybrid (ethanol/gasoline) versions, and will hopefully provide a successful alternative to the existing hybrid car industry in the USA; currently dominated by Toyota. The little "Obvio" resembles the British "Mini Cooper (now owned by BMW) to some extent, and is one more low emission alternative in the automobile industry. The hybrid fuel version range from US$ 14k to US$28, while the electric is a whopping US$45k and higher. Anyway, all the best!!!

Lindo... Rio de Janeiro !!

RIO de JANEIRO


It is my pleasure to say that I have been to this magnificant city, and will very likely live there at some point in my life. Like all cities, Rio has its ups and downs, yet what makes it stand out from the rest is the fact that it is a city of extremes. In other words, the ups are unbelievable, near paradise experiences surrounded by natural beauty; yet the downsides are severe and more real than one cares to ever know. The trick is to avoid the trouble and enjoy the pleasures, a difficult, but definately not impossible task. I have to admit, money and local ( especially) knowledge are the key factors to enjoying this beautiful city. Clubs and Bars like, Casa da Matris, Rio Scenarium, Baixo Leblon, Guanabara, Canecao, Belmonte e Botequim Informal are just some of the many places to experience. Nightlife aside, it is also crucial for travellers to visit places like Ilha Grande to capture the essence of the city and state of Rio. Ah..Rio, I'll be there soon.

This is an interesting site for tips on the Rio nightlife:
http://www.ipanema.com/rio/nite/e/nite.htm#top

No light at the end of the tunnel.

Eurotunnel close to insolvency!!!

By Robert Wright, Transport Correspondent
Published: July 13 2006 02:12 Last updated: July 13 2006 07:32


Eurotunnel looked close to being declared insolvent after key talks on the company's future broke down late on Wednesday night without agreement on a restructuring plan.

The Channel Tunnel operator had been holding talks on Wednesday and on Tuesday in Paris with two creditor groups on how to restructure its £6.18bn debt. But they reached a deadline of midnight Wednesday night without reaching agreement.

Reference
(Abstract extracted from the FT online.)

I often travel on the Eurostar, and although I find it a very pleasant experience, as well as effective (as it takes you directly into city centers vs. the distant airports), I have a handful of complaints to make. Firstly, the pricing strategy is wrong. I understand that they miscalculated the original development costs and are still over £6 billion in debt, after years in operation; yet with air fares always dropping in price, the Eurostar could not expected to maintain their fares at the levels that they have. I was often confronted with the choice between a +/- £100 fare and 50 min travel plus a trip from the airport of a +/- £100 fare and 2:45 min plus a shorter trip central train station. Eurostar have finally provided certain deals, but these efforts are "too little, too late". The most annoying aspect of the eurostar, non the less, has to be the massive difference in fare prices from France and Belgium to the UK. The majority of the times I travelled by Eurostar were when I purchased return tickets from Paris (note that I live in London). The reason being, from Paris every tuesdays and thrusdays the 20:00 train costs 35 euros one way or 70 euros return. Not only is there NO such scheme from London, but the cheapest regular fare is £79 or +/- 116 euros. Anyway, it's a shame. This massive transportation service could hardly work as a private venture, perhaps it could have a long life as burden to the British and French states as a public transport service.