Sears looks to Web sites, new strategy for growth

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — The chairman of Sears Holdings Corp. said Monday that the retailer is working to change how customers interact with it in stores and online. Speaking at an annual shareholder's meeting at Sears' suburban Chicago headquarters, financier Edward Lampert said the company was upgrading its Web sites, selection and interactivity to help the company emerge stronger than ever from the recession, particularly as competitors slash prices in an effort to sell merchandise.

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Sears looks to Web for future growth

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — The chairman of Sears Holdings Corp. said Monday that the retailer is working to change how customers interact with it in stores and online.

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Cablevision has fastest Internet speeds for cable

Cablevision Systems Corp. is set to unveil Tuesday the fastest Internet speeds available from any cable or phone company. Starting May 11, the Bethpage, N.Y.-based cable operator will offer speeds of up to 101 megabits per second downstream throughout its service area, and 15 Mbps upstream. Cablevision has three million subscribers in the New York metro area.

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McClatchy 1Q loss widens amid advertising meltdown

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The McClatchy Co.'s losses widened in the first quarter amid an advertising meltdown that is increasing pressure on the publisher to meet commitments to lenders. The report released Thursday was far worse than analysts had anticipated, raising questions about whether the owner of The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee and 28 other daily newspapers will be able to generate enough cash to keep its lenders happy through the rest of the year.

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Morgan Stanley, Ford, Yahoo, AirTran big movers

NEW YORK — Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market:

NYSE

Morgan Stanley, down $2.21 at $22.44

The investment bank's $578 million loss disappointed investors and stood in contrast to other big banks' better-than-expected results.

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MUMBAI - Indian IT firms received another jolt Thursday when Canada-based Nortel Networks, one of North America's largest telecom equipment firm and an important client for outsourcing firms here, filed for bankruptcy.

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MUMBAI - India's outsourcing firms were jolted Thursday after Canada-based Nortel Networks, one of North America's largest telecom equipment firms and a key client for many IT firms in this country, filed for bankruptcy.

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SAN FRANCISCO - Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, who did not turn up to deliver the keynote address at the Mac World Expo 2009 Tuesday for the first time in 11 years, said he stayed away from the event due to ailing health caused by a 'hormone imbalance', but added that he would continue in the top job.

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Jason Calcanis has a simple solution for America's woes. To summarize his eminently readable article in his own words: Full article (884 words) »

You all know now that Google News crawled an obscure reprint of an article from 2002 when United Airlines was on the brink of bankruptcy. United Airlines has since recovered but due to a missing dateline, Google News ran the story as today's news. The story was rapidly picked up by other news aggregators and eventually headlined as a news flash on Bloomberg. This triggered automated trading programs to dump UAL, cratering the stock from $12 to $3 and evaporating 1.14 billion dollars (nearly United's total market cap yesterday) in shareholder wealth. The stock recovered within the day to $10 and is now trading at $9.62, a market cap of $300M less than before Google ran the story.

This story highlights the unhealthy importance of Google on world economy. Google's action (intentional or not) can be directly attributed to over 300 million dollar loss by United and a loss of face. Should Google be sued for this mistake? Full article (331 words) »