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Johnson & Johnson boosts 3Q profit 30 percent

October 14, 2008 at 7:28 pm (genral)
Tags: health care

Health-care giant Johnson & Johnson says its third-quarter profit jumped 30 percent due to higher sales of consumer products and medical devices and a large restructuring charge a year ago.

The maker of health care products and prescription drugs says it had net income of $3.31 billion, or $1.17 per share, up from $2.55 billion, or 88 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Johnson & Johnson says revenue climbed 6.3 percent, to $15.9 billion from $14.97 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting earnings per share of $1.11 and revenues of $15.69 billion.

The higher consumer and medical device sales, mainly overseas, overcame flat

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PepsiCo to cut 3,300 jobs on lower earnings

October 14, 2008 at 5:31 pm (genral)

PepsiCo Inc. says it plans to eliminate 3,300 positions globally, as it reports a 9.5 percent drop in third-quarter profit.

The company said it expects to generate a pretax savings of more than $1.2 billion over the next three years with $350 million to $400 million in 2009, designed to reinvigorate lagging sales of its soft drinks business in the U.S. Pepsi expects to report 2008 earnings per share of $3.67 to $3.68, compared with prior guidance of $3.72.

The company reported a net income of $1.58 billion, or 99 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with $1.74 billion, or $1.06 per share, a year earlier, on sales of $11.2 billion in the most recent period, compared with $10.17 billion a year ago.

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Jet, Kingfisher announce alliance

October 14, 2008 at 9:00 am (genral)

India’s leading private carriers Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines on Monday announced an alliance to overcome financial woes as the aviation industry continues to bleed due to high fuel costs.

“Both the partners recognise economic realities and benefits of the alliance. It is a meeting of both mind and heart,” Vijay Mallya told reporters in Mumbai after emerging from a meeting with Jet Airways chief Naresh Goyal.

He said both Kingfisher and Jet had a common approach.

While the two leaders did not elaborate on the nature of the alliance, Naresh Goyal said: There is no equity involved in the partnership.”

The whole industry has been in trouble for the last four to six years and nobody is able to cover their costs. Cost is going up everyday, he added.

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Rajni fans issued notice over political party

October 13, 2008 at 10:22 pm (cine news)

A showcause notice has been issued on behalf of Tamil superstar Rajnikanth to a section of his fans in Coimbatore who had recently floated a political party without obtaining prior permission from him.

The notice, seeking explanation, has been sent by the All India Rajnikanth Fans Association president Sathyanarayana, according to sources.

The sources said the notice carried a strong message from the actor that necessary disciplinary action would be taken against the fans if they failed to give a suitable explanation within 15 days.

Announcing the party’s name as Desiya Dravidar Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, the new outfit’s leader Rajni Babu last week released the party flag in red, white and black — featuring Rajnikanth’s face on a shining star.

According to Rajni Babu, who is a councillor in Madukkarai in Coimbatore, the party had been launched only to put pressure on their hero to enter politics.

“We had neither informed Rajnikanth nor got his permission to launch the outfit,” he had reasoned.

However, another section of fans in the textile city protested the move of starting a political party and urged the actor to remove them from the fans association.

Meanwhile, Coimbatore district president of Rajnikanth Fans Association Singai C Ulaganathan had expelled some of the members for floating a political party in the name of the actor.

Condemning the fans’ move, he said everything was done under the leadership of one Abu, who was expelled from the fans association a couple of years ago.

The issue of notice comes a day after Rajni’s fans from various districts held a meeting in Chennai and threatened to launch an indefinite fast till the actor acceded to their demand of forming a political party.

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IBM invests in business partners’ training

October 13, 2008 at 12:02 pm (genral, IT)

IBM, which expects to unveil better-than-expected quarterly figures, has announced it will spend some of its cash on incentives to encourage some of its largest partners to invest more in training and other areas.

the company introduced a scheme to help its business partners who are cooperating on its New Enterprise Data Center strategy. The scheme involves incentives for IBM partners to improve their knowledge in three specific areas: virtualization and consolidation; energy efficiency; and business resiliency.

And Mike Bernard, general business and channels marketing leader at IBM, told ZDNet.co.uk that there is also a fourth area under consideration, but not yet announced: information infrastructure.

“Skills in those areas are what’s most needed,” Bernard said. “From that the clients will benefit as well as the partners.”

There are two levels of incentive for training that partners can apply for: general specialty, for which they will receive $25,000, and specialty elite, for which they get $100,000.

Bernard said the scheme was open to any qualifying partner. “There is no qualification other than that they are undertaking work in the chosen areas. They do that and they qualify and they get the money for it,” he said.

According to IBM the money is there to invest not only in marketing but in business-development activities, marketing intelligence, investment, and certification training and even personnel salaries. It will also offer access to IBM Labs, use of IBM tools and more sales support, the company said.

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Tata Nano could be launched on December 28

October 13, 2008 at 11:52 am (automobile)

Market sources are now hinting at the possibilities of the launch of Tata Nano on December 28.

December 28 is the birth date of Ratan Tata and it was around the sale time when the company launched their Tata Indica car.

Tata Nano when launched would become the cheapest car in the world. It is likely to be priced between Rs. 1-1.5 lakhs.

Sources say that the company is now working on manufacturing 10,000 units for the launch. The company still faces problems with the main manufacturing plant for the Nano.

Due to shortage of manufacturing facilities, the company could just be able to offer just the base model of the Nano this yea

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Sania Mirza

January 23, 2008 at 10:38 am (Sports)

Age: 21

Country: India

Major Titles: 23 � 13 Single wins, 12 ITF Circuit. NDTV

Last 5 Australian Opens:’07-2nd round, ’06-2nd round, ’05-3rd round.

2007 Match Record: 30-19

Trivia:

The current youth icon of India, Sania was coached by her father, Imran Mirza.
She began playing tennis at the age of six, turning professional in 2003.
Sania is the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India. She has a career high ranking of 27 in singles and 18 in doubles.
Sania is famous for her stylish dresses and looks. Criticism has raised in some Islamist quarters.
She was the WTA Newcomer of the Year in 2005.
On January 26 2006, Sania was conferred with prestigious Padma Sri award. She is also an Arjuna Award winner.
Sania says if she were a guy she would be playing cricket.

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ROGER FEDERER

January 23, 2008 at 10:37 am (genral, Sports)

Age: 26

Country: Switzerland
NDTV
Major Titles: 12 � Australian Open (’04, ’06, ’07), Wimbledon (’03, ’04, ’05, ’06, ’07), U.S. Open (’04,’05, ’06, ’07)

Last 5 Australian Opens: ’07-Won Championship, ’06-W, ’05-Lost in semifinals, ’04-W, ’03-Lost in 4th round

2007 Match Record: 68-9

2007 Singles Titles: 7

Career Singles Titles: 53

Trivia:

Federer started playing tennis at the age of six.
He liked to be a professional soccer player, but choose tennis instead.
Federer currently resides in Oberwil, Switzerland.
He is dating former WTA player Miroslava Vavrinec (Mirka), whom he met at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
In October 2003, Federer launched a fragrance called RF Cosmetics.
He considers Swiss German as his first language, but conducts press conferences in three languages German, French and English fluently.
He likes to holiday in the Maldives, Dubai, and the Swiss mountains.
He has established Roger Federer Foundation in 2003.

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Bhupathi-Sania in mixed doubles semis

January 23, 2008 at 10:36 am (Sports)

An upset second round win followed by a walkover in the quarterfinals ensured Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza a berth in the last four of the mixed doubles event at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Wednesday.

The unseeded Indian team quelled the challenge of Simon Aspelin and Lisa Raymond, seeded second in the event, 6-3 2-6 10-7 before benefitting from a walkover given by seventh seeded Czechs Martin Damm and Kveta Peschke.

In the boys’ singles, Yuki Bhambri kept the Indian flag flying by advancing to the third round while curtains were drawn on Karunuday Singh’s campaign.

The eighth seeded Bhambri rallied to beat Slovakia’s Zalan Klempa 3-6 6-4 6-2 in his second round match and will take on Japanese Tadayuki Loughi in the pre-quarterfinals.

Karunuday went down fighting 6-7 (4-7) 4-6 against Tsung-Hua-Yang of Chinese Taipei in the same round.

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