Insight: How a desperate HP suspended disbelief for Autonomy deal

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - For Leo Apotheker, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, a July 2011 meeting with Autonomy founder Mike Lynch at a chic seaside resort in France was pivotal to his effort to remake a storied technology giant.

In the nine months since taking the helm at HP, Apotheker had tried furiously to find a way to move the lumbering company away from its low-margin computer hardware business and into the lucrative corporate software and services arena. Apotheker was looking for a big, transformative acquisition, two people familiar with the situation said, and after overtures to several companies went nowhere, he set his sights on Autonomy.

After two months of negotiations on what was known at HP as "Project Tesla," Apotheker sat down with Lynch at a hotel in Deauville on the Normandy coast - and shook hands on what would become an $11.1 billion deal.

The Autonomy takeover was indeed a bombshell - but not in the way that Apotheker had hoped. When it was announced in August 2011, HP's stock plummeted amid withering criticism of the price tag. Within weeks, Apotheker was out of a job. Within months, Lynch and his new masters at HP were at war.

Inside a year, Lynch had been forced out and HP was investigating allegations of major accounting irregularities at Autonomy. That culminated in HP saying last week it was writing off more than three-quarters of the value of Autonomy, and telling U.S. and UK regulators about alleged accounting fraud.

The implosion of the Autonomy deal has raised questions about how HP and its army of lawyers, accountants and investment bankers could have overlooked warning signs and gone ahead with the acquisition.

Reuters spoke with close to a dozen people directly connected with the deal or the accounting investigation. The picture that emerges is of a company so desperate to plot a new course that it may have been far too accepting of Autonomy's published and audited accounts.

It has also cast a shadow over Lynch, widely regarded as a brilliant but difficult executive; he left HP in May and has flatly rejected the company's claims of accounting shenanigans or that HP had been deliberately deceived.

CEO'S ROCKY REIGN

Apotheker's appointment as CEO of HP in November 2010 was greeted even at the time with head-scratching - and criticism. A veteran of the German corporate software maker SAP, he had no obvious qualifications to run HP - a company with sales several times SAP's - especially given his lack of experience in the computer hardware business.

But the U.S. company was reeling from a series of boardroom imbroglios that culminated in the firing of then-CEO Mark Hurd in a sexual harassment scandal in August 2010.

Apotheker went on the acquisition trail almost immediately, even though previous HP takeovers like Compaq and Palm had not worked out well. He was given the mandate of moving HP in a new direction - software seemed logical given the decline in HP's traditional computer business - and felt the need for a transformative acquisition to do that, according to one of the sources.

He "knocked on a number of doors," according to another of the sources, looking as far and wide as the telecom software companies Comverse Technology and Amdocs, and corporate software maker Tibco Software.

It's not clear how far talks with those three progressed. According to one of the sources, HP backed off from Comverse because the company was not current with its published accounts and because of previously disclosed involvement in an options accounting scandal. HP could not agree on a price with Tibco, and Amdocs rebuffed it, saying the time wasn't right for a deal.

Spokespeople for Amdocs and Comverse declined to comment. Tibco did not respond to requests for comment.

Apotheker then set his sights on Autonomy. It was a pioneer in the up-and-coming field of "big data" - software that can separate the wheat from the chaff in huge mountains of corporate data - and could serve as a centerpiece for the new strategy.

This time, Apotheker was determined not to miss out.

He was "not being able to really have anybody dance with him at the right price," said the source with direct knowledge of the deal. "What happened is he talked to Autonomy and they got into a dialogue and he told the board that we have to do something," this person said. "It was out of frustration and desperation to a large degree."

HP began looking at Autonomy in earnest around May last year, bringing in investment bank Barclays as adviser. Boutique investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners had already been hired to look at ways of restructuring HP's businesses.

In early July of 2011 the board met to do a two-day review of the rationale behind the acquisition. During that process, the board set guidelines for the deal, including the price, and agreed on a process to do due diligence, two people familiar with the process said. It voted to enter into negotiations at the end of the two days.

DEALMAKER

Throughout the process, Apotheker remained in direct contact and consulted with HP Chairman Ray Lane, the person said, adding that Lane - a former top executive at software giant Oracle - encouraged management to proceed with the deal.

By the end of July, Apotheker and Lynch - who were previously acquainted because HP was an Autonomy customer - narrowed down financial terms at the hotel in Deauville, though didn't finalize the price.

Also present was then HP chief strategy officer Shane Robison, who has been credited by HP with being the main architect of many of HP's larger deals, including another troubled acquisition - its purchase of technology services firm EDS. Robison was pushed out of HP shortly after Apotheker left last year.

At the meeting, Apotheker presented HP's view about putting the companies together - with Robison chipping in when needed, one source said. Robison, who has not spoken publicly about Autonomy's accounting issues, did not respond to requests for comment sent to representatives at Fusion-io and Altera Corp, companies where he is a board member.

For some weeks, both sides went back and forth on the price, with Robison playing a pivotal role in pitching the deal internally, and getting it finalized. Inside HP, it was seen as Apotheker's and Robison's deal, the sources said.

In the end, uber-dealmaker Frank Quattrone, whose Qatalyst Partners was representing Autonomy, proved instrumental in securing for its shareholders the lofty price tag, according to another source familiar with the negotiations.

While the price haggling was going on, a large due diligence team numbering in the hundreds, including internal HP staff from all relevant departments like finance, poured over Autonomy's books, examined contracts, and interviewed Autonomy's top executives, sources said. External experts involved in the process included accounting firm KPMG, law firms and bankers.

Due diligence was seen being straightforward as Autonomy had been filing its accounts publicly and they had been audited. One source said the month-long process was extensive and meticulous but nothing special.

SHORT SELLER

During this time, HP posed a litany of questions to Lynch and Autonomy Chief Financial Officer Sushovan Hussain about accounting rumors surrounding the company, one of the sources knowledgeable with the deal said. But Autonomy executives provided explanations for all of them, this person said.

HP would not elaborate on the specific issues it raised. But questions about Autonomy's books had surfaced as early as 2009, when renowned short seller Jim Chanos identified Autonomy's shares as a shorting opportunity based on concerns such as how reported margins of around 50 percent did not seem to translate proportionately into cash flow.

His other concern was how it could report double-digit growth in software license revenue while rivals battled shrinking sales, according to a source familiar with his views.

Asked on CNBC last week about whether the board had discussed with Apotheker the speculation about Autonomy's books, HP's current CEO Meg Whitman said: "Not when I was on the board. What I do know is that after we announced the acquisition there were a number of blogs that came to the fore about potential issues at Autonomy. The former management team ran that to ground and came up with the conclusion that there was nothing there."

HP officials now say they were deceived.

Apotheker said last week he was "stunned and disappointed" to learn of Autonomy's alleged accounting issues. He declined to be interviewed for this story through a spokesperson.

As the deal was being considered, HP CFO Cathie Lesjak did raise questions about HP's ability to pay such a high price and whether it could integrate Autonomy well, sources said.

Lane said the board approved the deal based on the recommendation of management. "That recommendation was based on misleading audited financial statements and misrepresentations made by Autonomy's executives," he said in an email. "In hindsight, we shouldn't have done the Autonomy deal at such a high price. We were lied to and as a result, we got it wrong."

By the time the deal was agreed, though, Apotheker was already running out of time. He had wanted to sell HP's personal computer business but was unable to complete a deal. He announced a strategic review of the division - to the horror of many employees and the consternation of some of its customers.

That misstep, along with series of missed financial targets, led to Apotheker's firing in September 2011 - before the Autonomy deal had even closed. Board member Whitman - who had voted in favor of buying Autonomy - then took over as CEO. The acquisition still went ahead - and quickly went south.

BRUTAL CULTURE CLASH

The clash between HP's polite, slow-moving bureaucracy and Autonomy's in-your-face sales culture could not have been starker. Lynch also chafed at his new, subordinate position, according to the sources. He routinely shut HP management out of key decisions and - true to his company's name - resisted full integration with HP. He complained constantly about red tape.

After he was forced out in May of this year, Lynch returned to HP in June to discuss severance. But he found himself on the receiving end of a barrage of questions about Autonomy's accounting, sources briefed on the investigation told Reuters.

HP General Counsel John Schultz quizzed Lynch specifically on a range of accounting items, including at least three sales deals from a couple of years before, one of the sources said. Lynch's reply to most questions was that Deloitte, its auditor, signed off on various items, or he could not remember specifics.

"If there were no problems, he could have explained it," one of the sources said. "He simply refused to have the conversation."

But Lynch was caught unaware: Hence he did not have information about those deals at hand, said a source familiar with his version of events. Lynch's spokeswoman said that the allegations HP made last week "were not put to him in June."

The legal struggle has only just begun. HP has handed documents over to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the UK Serious Fraud Office, and the U.S. Department of Justice is also involved, a source told Reuters last week.

HP also on Tuesday threatened legal action against parties involved, though stopped short of naming targets. HP has challenged Lynch to answer questions under penalty of perjury.

"He ran this company like a small private company, he was involved in all facets of the company, he was extremely hands on," said a source close to the matter who knew the former Autonomy CEO. "For Lynch not to know about this, if it is truly happening, would be far-fetched."

(Additional reporting by Anjuli Davies in London and Soyoung Kim in New York; Editing by Edwin Chan, Jonathan Weber, Steve Orlofsky and Martin Howell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/insight-desperate-hp-suspended-disbelief-autonomy-deal-061905604--sector.html

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Bluetooth dock dongle Pear falls short of Apple certification, gets shelved

Last summer, Pear promised to make pairing iDevices via Bluetooth to an Apple-compatible speaker dock easy, but caught a trademark snag that put it on hold shortly after. The adapter seemed destined for a release under a different moniker, but it's met an impasse. According to the folks behind the hardware, the device wasn't approved under Apple's MFi (Made for iPad / iPhone / iPod) program since Cook and Co. don't bestow the seal of approval upon products that leverage the 30-pin female connector in conjunction with Bluetooth. Pear's creators note they could move ahead without Apple's blessing, but say that the development "officially kills this product" since Cupertino could put the kibosh on the operation. Despite dashed hopes for the dongle's reincarnation, its creators are pushing forward with another product -- though it's unclear if it's an iteration of the ill-fated connector -- and expect to have more details within three to four weeks.

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Tablets, Apple

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Source: PairWithPear

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/29/pear-bluetooth-dock-connector-fails-apple-approval/

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White House 'Cliff' Offer to Boehner a 'Break from Reality'

Correction: The headline on a previous version of this article misattributed the partial quote "referenced. The quote came from a Republican aide.

Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on Thursday rejected a White House plan to avert the so-called fiscal cliff at year?s end that would generate nearly $1.6 trillion in new tax revenue over the next decade and require Republicans to allow Congress to relinquish its control over the nation?s statutory borrowing limits.?

?A complete break from reality,? is how the plan, delivered to Boehner and other congressional leaders by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at their Capitol offices, was described by a congressional Republican aide familiar with what was proposed. President Obama?s liaison to Congress, Rob Nabors, also was at the meetings.

At a news conference after the meeting, Boehner revealed no specifics of the White House plan, but said generally there had been ?no substantive progress? in talks over the past two weeks. He also accused the White House and Democrats of refusing to offer specific spending cuts.

The White House and congressional leaders are trying to prevent the combination of more than $500 billion in automatic tax hikes and spending cuts from taking place at the start of January. The impact is seen as potentially further damaging the nation?s fragile economy.

According to the congressional Republican source, what Geithner did offer Boehner and other congressional leaders is a plan that would instead call for $1.6 trillion in tax hikes ? all upfront ??in exchange for $400 billion in spending cuts later. The proposal also would extend the 2-percentage-point payroll-tax cut and allow as much as $50 billion in stimulus spending on infrastructure projects.

The only entitlement changes they proposed came from the president?s budget, said the aide, who emphasized the White House offer is not just unrealistic, but unbalanced.

"They also want a permanent, unlimited debt-limit increase ? for free," the aide added. That was a reference to a request that Congress give up its authority over federal borrowing to avoid another showdown over increasing the nation?s borrowing authority. The government is expected to hit the limit as early as next month.

?No additional cuts or reforms,? the aide said of the plan, though it would also boost spending to extend unemployment benefits and delay looming cuts to Medicare payments to doctors.

In averting the fiscal cliff, the plan would prevent the $109 billion in automatic sequesteratioin spending cuts set to kick in on Jan. 2.

But the aide complained: ?There were only seven weeks between Election Day and Christmas. The White House has now completely wasted three of them. After weeks of negotiations, they just demanded all of their favorite proposals, with no sign of compromise whatsoever.?

Still, House Democrats led by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California were optimistic that a deal could be reached by year's end.

?This doesn?t have to be a cliff-hanger,? said Pelosi, during a late afternoon news conference, after she and other top House Democrats met with Geithner.

Pelosi said she was confident that Republicans will come around and ?see the light? to freeze tax rates at current levels for a majority of Americans ? the ?middle-income tax cut? that would cover net personal incomes up to $250,000 ?? but let the lowered rates on income in excess of that amount expire as part of a broader, final deal. That is what the Senate already has already passed. The added revenue gained through the expiration of the high-end tax cuts is estimated to reach at least $800 billion, she said.

?This is a big down payment that we are suggesting and it opens the road to much more,? Pelosi said. ?In terms of what we do in terms of addressing strengthening entitlements, reforming the tax code, (and) making further cuts that we can do in the next Congress.?

House Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen of Maryland echoed Pelosi, and said the optimism that Republicans might budge on their refusal to pass just the middle-class tax cut extension is based on comments from some Republicans themselves, such as Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, that tax rates should be frozen at the current levels for most of Americans in time for Christmas, and consider what to do about the 2 percent who see the rate on their excess income rise later.

Van Hollen said he thinks Boehner?s House Republican Conference is ?reading the tea leaves, they?re beginning to look into the future.? And like Cole, he said, more are recognizing that their insistence that the tax rates on portions of net incomes above the $250,000 threshold also should be frozen is an ?unsustainable position.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-cliff-offer-boehner-break-reality-212554770--politics.html

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Mixed Reports As Sports Providers Visit Rec Board

By Ron Bukley at November 30, 2012 | 12:05 am | Print

Some Royal Palm Beach youth sports are flourishing, while others are still recovering from economic challenges that had parents cutting back on participation, according to providers who spoke at the Nov. 19 meeting of the Royal Palm Beach Recreation Advisory Board.

The most positive outlook came from Mal Hasan, president of Royal Palm Beach Youth Soccer, who said the league had just completed its fall season with a record number of participants.

?Normally, we would offer a recreational and competitive program. This season, we introduced an all-star program for our rec members,? Hasan reported. ?From the under-10 through under-18 teams, we were able to put together nine all-star teams, a boys and girls team for each age group, [and] an extra girls team in the under-18 group because there was such high demand and so much talent.?

In addition to the regular recreation season, these kids met as an all-star team once or twice a week to practice. ?We decided that at some point during the season, we would send these kids off to participate in a recreation tournament somewhere else in the state,? Hasan said.

The tournament they located was in Cocoa Beach, where seven of the nine teams participated in the finals and five won the championship. ?I think that speaks volumes for the recreation program itself, and if we were able to do that pretty much in a trial run, we really look forward to the upcoming season,? he said.

The past season had 473 members in the recreational program, and 34 in the competitive program. Hasan, who also coaches the Royal Palm Beach High School boys soccer team, said the league is developing a feeder program that will help players develop their skills.

?We would like our recreation program to be the feeder system for the program as a whole, as opposed to these other clubs that go around recruiting from city to city bringing in teams from other clubs,? he explained.

Hasan anticipates the spring registration to top 500. ?I?ll be a little disappointed if that?s not the case,? he said. ?Everybody is very excited after this fall season.?

Royal Palm Beach Youth Soccer?s spring season will tentatively start with practice on Feb. 18 and the first games on March 2. It will run until the end of May.

In other soccer news, Hasan noted that the Palm Beach Soccer League has asked RPB to host the playoffs for its competitive program, which features more than 60 teams in a single-elimination tournament.

?That?s something we hope to continue to do,? he said. ?The village has been very supportive of them, plus, we would like to think down the line in possibly hosting our own tournament, which would help generate additional revenue for the village and for our program.?

In summary, Hasan said the future looks bright for soccer in Royal Palm Beach. ?We have a really neat situation here in that we have all these kids starting in this program at 4 years old,? he said. ?We have a middle school coach here at Crestwood who?s involved with our recreation program, so we start them here, we send them to somebody in middle school who?s still part of us, and from middle school they go to the high school where I am the boys? coach.?

Parks & Recreation Director Lou Recchio added that the village has been working on taking over the multipurpose fields at Seminole Palms Park. This will add the flexibility of additional field space, allowing the village to host larger sporting events.

Tedd Kenny, president of the Youth Baseball Association of Royal Palm Beach, said his program has been undergoing a transition.

Kenny has been involved in local youth baseball for about 18 years and took over as president of the program last January. ?We?re trying to build the program back up to what it used to be just a few years ago,? he said.

The league recently finished its fall season. ?Things went fairly well,? Kenny said. ?Fall is an instructional season, focusing more on the kids who are moving from a younger age group to an older age group. The spring is when we have the competitive season that leads into all-stars and travel.?

Membership is up from fall 2011, when registrants totaled 272, compared with 295 for the season just completed. The program has 210 residents and 85 non-residents. Spring registration was also up, rising to 325 from 305 a year earlier, which Kenny attributed partly to adjusting prices to be more competitive with other leagues and focusing more on fun and learning.

?At some point there had been some focus on travel ball, and not really on recreational baseball and teaching the fundamentals,? he said, adding that the league does have five travel teams, accounting for an additional 60 youth who play outside the recreational league.

Registration for 2013 is now open, and Kenny anticipates tryouts in late January with the season opening Feb. 23. He expected registration to be about 350.

Royal Palm Beach Wildcats Football League President Mike Wallace said the league plays under Pop Warner Football League rules.

?We don?t make up things as we go. A lot of the rec football programs in Palm Beach County do that,? he said, pointing out that weight divisions are standard across the nation. ?Those rules are made by Pop Warner national up in Pennsylvania.?

The enrollment numbers were down to 211 in 2012 from 265 in 2011. ?Speaking with some of the other programs in the Treasure Coast Football Conference, they all had reductions also,? Wallace said. ?They kind of chalked it up to money and finances and the economy.?

The cheer program in 2011 had 115 girls. This year it ended at 67 after starting the season with 85. The league had three cheer teams, two of which were competitive and did well. The oldest group placed second in local competition, which sent them to Orlando last month for regional competition.

Football had eight teams this past season, down from 10 the previous season.

Most of the board members are new, and the league was left with outstanding bills from the previous year, but managed to finish with a balanced budget, Wallace said.

One of the things that he likes about Pop Warner Football is that the players also have to do well in school, he said. ?You have to show your coach your report card,? Wallace said. ?We?re one of the few sports programs that do that.?

Of the 278 kids in the program the past year, 24 were scholastic All-Americans, he noted.

News Royal Palm Beach

Source: http://gotowncrier.com/2012/11/mixed-reports-as-sports-providers-update-rpb-rec-board/

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Inside Vancouver's Arts and Entertainment: The Vancouver Opera ...

Photo Credit: Tim Matheson

Ahoy! ?The Pirates of Penzance?will be at the Vancouver Opera?this Saturday! ?Packed with typical pirate tomfoolery, scheming of all sorts and plenty of wenches, this comedic show is sure to make your first (or tenth) opera experience one to remember.

For first-timers, the opera could be a little daunting. ?You might be intimidated by certain opera etiquette, but the Vancouver Opera assures that their productions have something for everyone. ?They do all they can to prepare each patron for the show.

Think the opera looks interesting but don?t know what the story is about? ?VO provides a synopsis for you to read ahead of time to get up to speed. ?Don?t know the director or any of the performers? ?VO has several videos?that will give you some background on the production and behind the scenes footage.

Really want to get into the heart of the production? ? The Vancouver Public Library and VO have teamed up for Opera Speaks, a free public forum?to talk about the issues in the operas? stories and how they relate to our everyday lives. ?If a public forum isn?t for you, VO offers free preview talks half an hour before the show where you can learn a little bit about the history of the production.

While you?re enjoying the beautiful voices of the performers you might want to know what exactly they?re singing about. ?VO has you covered with English translations projected directly above the stage in case your Italian isn?t very good.

Seems like you?re ready to head to the opera, but if you?re still wondering about directions, parking, food or attire, the VO has prepared a handy guide?that will help you know what to expect. ?Now you?re officially set!

All performances show at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. ?The Pirates of Penzance starts on Dec. 1st and runs until Dec. 9th. ?Purchase tickets online. ?Like the VO Facebook page to access promotional codes for discounted tickets and up-to-date information on the VO.

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Source: http://www.insidevancouver.ca/2012/11/29/inside-vancouvers-arts-and-entertainment-the-vancouver-opera/

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APNewsBreak: Cancer agency OK'd faulty $11M grant

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? Leaders of Texas' embattled $3 billion cancer-fighting effort approved an $11 million grant to a biomedical company even though the proposal wasn't reviewed, according to an internal audit that deepens the troubles of a state agency that has been denounced in recent months by some of the world's top scientists.

A person with knowledge of the grant's improper approval told The Associated Press on Thursday that the discovery was uncovered during internal audit of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the agency had not yet made an official announcement.

The award to Peloton Therapeutic Inc. in 2010 was among first ever handed out by the agency, and remains one of its largest taxpayer-funded grants to date. Tim Kutzkey, Peloton's acting chief executive officer, declined comment.

The cancer institute is home to the nation's second largest pot of cancer-research money, behind only the National Institutes of Health, and has awarded nearly $700 million. But it has come under intensifying scrutiny as several scientists, including two Nobel laureates, resigned in protest in recent months claiming the agency was charting a new politically-driven path that put commercial interests before science.

Pelton's application would have been presented to the agency's oversight committee by Jerry Cobbs, the agency's chief commercialization officer. Cobbs announced his resignation this month.

The person told AP that the oversight committee ? made up of appointees of Gov. Rick Perry and other elected state leaders ? approved the grant even though it was presented without an outside review of the proposal's scientific or business integrity.

The person told AP that funding to Peloton has been halted and that the company's application is undergoing a second review.

The revelation is the latest blow to CPRIT, which launched in 2009 to widespread acclaim among scientists and cancer survivors but has spent the past year unraveling. Dozens of scientists have resigned from the agency's peer review panels en masse in recent weeks, some of whom criticized the fund for "hucksterism" and "suspicion of favoritism" on their way out the door.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-cancer-agency-okd-faulty-11m-grant-232006364.html

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Obama promotes tax agenda, U.S. Congress in stand-off

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday launched a public relations push for his bid to raise taxes on wealthy Americans, but U.S. lawmakers remained deadlocked over dramatic, year-end tax increases and spending cuts known as the "fiscal cliff."

At the White House, small business leaders emerged from a one-hour meeting with Obama to voice support for his goal of extending low tax rates for the middle class beyond the end of the year, while letting rates rise for wealthier taxpayers.

The business owners urged Obama "to fight to keep the middle-class tax cuts," said Lew Prince, co-founder of Vintage Vinyl, an independent music store in St. Louis, Mo.

"What grows jobs in America is consumers spending money, and the average person needs that two or three thousand dollars a year in his pocket to help drive the economy," Prince told reporters at the White House.

Republicans want to extend low tax rates - enacted a decade ago under the administration of former Republican President George W. Bush - for all taxpayers, including households earning more than $250,000 a year.

Raising tax rates on the wealthy would discourage investment and hiring at a time of high unemployment, Republicans say.

Congressional Democrats allied with the president showed no sign of backing down from his stance on raising taxes for the wealthy. But both sides have softened on some long-held positions: Republicans have been showing a willingness to consider new revenue increases while Democrats have relaxed their hard line against new savings to the costly government-run Medicare and Medicaid healthcare programs.

With just a month left before the Bush tax cuts expire and automatic spending cuts begin to take hold, markets were anxious about predictions that falling off the "fiscal cliff" could trigger another recession.

"There remains no clarity on the ultimate status on the Bush tax cuts, which have to be resolved before you can move forward with the remainder of the fiscal cliff," said Chris Krueger, an analyst at Guggenheim Securities' Washington Research Group.

MARKETS DOWN MODESTLY

Stock prices declined modestly despite government reports that planned U.S. business spending rose again in October and that single-family home prices rose again in September.

Despite a mild sell-off in stocks, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at about 12,878, up 14 percent from a year ago.

Brian Gardner, an analyst at financial firm Keefe Bruyette & Woods, said a limited deal would likely be struck to avert the fiscal cliff, with larger fiscal issues pushed into 2013.

"Fiscal cliff headlines could have the biggest impact on the market," he said. "Over the coming weeks, we expect many headlines that will raise and then dash investors' hopes ... The next three weeks could be a bumpy ride."

Fresh from his November 6 re-election, Obama was set to hold another meeting with business executives from larger companies on Wednesday and then to travel to a toy factory in Pennsylvania on Friday to press his case on taxes.

Chief executives from Goldman Sachs, Deloitte LLP, Caterpillar Inc, Yahoo Inc, and Comcast Corp were among the group of leaders set to meet with the president, the White House said.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell ripped into Obama for planning to take his agenda on the road. "Rather than sitting down with lawmakers of both parties and working out an agreement, he's back out on the campaign trail," McConnell roared on the Senate floor.

"We already know the president is a very good campaigner. What we don't know is whether he has the leadership qualities necessary to lead his party to a bipartisan agreement."

Obama last met with congressional leaders on November 16. A follow-up session was not expected this week, but could come next week, congressional aides said.

In the interim, little progress was made over the holidays in meetings between the staffs of the White House and Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner, aides said.

LEADERS CANVAS RANKS

Ron Bonjean, a former aide to Republican leaders in the House and Senate, said leaders were still checking with their rank-and-file members to gauge what concessions they might be able to stomach. In a week or so, Bonjean said, "the level of intensity will go up" with more meetings.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said he was disappointed there has been "little progress" on a deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff" and warned that "we only have a couple weeks to get something done.

Despite frustration, Reid said he was optimistic lawmakers would avoid plunging off the "cliff," a convergence of an estimated $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts. "I'm extremely hopeful, and I do not believe that the Republicans are going to allow us to go over the cliff," he said.

While Republicans have not shifted from their opposition to tax rate increases, a few have publicly disavowed a no-new-taxes pledge to which most of them have adhered for years, putting tax revenues, if not higher rates, on the negotiating table.

Also on Tuesday, Dick Durbin, a senior Senate Democrat and close Obama ally, urged fellow liberals to consider reforming Medicare and Medicaid, signaling possible compromise in an area where Democrats have steadfastly resisted change.

"Progressives should be willing to talk about ways to ensure the long-term viability of Medicare and Medicaid" for the elderly and poor, Durbin said in excerpts from a speech.

But he added that Medicare and Medicaid should not be part of the current negotiations on averting the fiscal cliff. On that front, Durbin stood firmly with Obama, urging extension of middle-class tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro, Kim Dixon, Patricia Zengerle, Lucia Mutikani and Mark Felsenthal, with Adam Kerlin in New York. Writing by Kevin Drawbaugh. Editing by Karey Wutkowski, Jackie Frank, Vicki Allen and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-promotes-tax-agenda-u-congress-stand-off-020557101--business.html

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Eurasianet.org spreads misinformation about the Armenian church in Nakhichevan

14:47, 28 November, 2012

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian church built in the 19th century in Nakhichevan has not been merely turned into a cattle shed, but also was introduced as an "Albanian sacred place." The Chairman of a fund studying Armenian architecture Samvel Karapetyan referred to the misinformation published in Eurasianet.org website in his videoblog. As reports "Armenpress" Samvel Karapetyan stated that in the picture of the Eurasianet article is depicted St. Gevorg Church of Dashbulag village, which was entirely Armenian populated before 1918. The church was built in 1823, when "the Albanians" had left the stage 1000 years ago.

Samvel Karapetyan states: "Azerbaijan paid USD 4, 5 million to import cows from Germany and Austria, the photographer took the picture of these cows in Dashbulag, which was entirely Armenian populated before 1918. During Musafat administration the Turkish army massacred all the Armenians of the aforementioned village on their road to Baku. One can clearly see in the picture that the church became a cattle shed without doors. Under the picture there is an inscription saying that this is an Albanian church. According to Azerbaijani fabrication the Albanians are their ancestors. Hence, it becomes a monument constructed by the Turkish Christians, which is being treated as a cattle shed.

But the fact is that the church in Dashbulag was called after St. Gevorg, built in 1828. Among other things it is noteworthy that there had been records about the construction works. There is information about the aforesaid church in "the Albanian Country and its Neighbors" by Bishop Makar Barkhudaryants."

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Source: http://armenpress.am/eng/news/700858/

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When Delaying Failed Projects Is Better than Quitting

We all get frustrated with projects to the point where quitting seems like an inevitable thing. But sometimes we just need to know when to stop?not quit.

As we've mentioned before, quitting is great when you can do it quickly, and if you know when to do it you'll save yourself from wasting time. That said?sometimes it's less about quitting a project entirely, and more about knowing when to step away from it. When you're overworked or burnt out on a project, you start making mistakes, and when that happens you're increasing the chances you'll quit in the long run. Blogger rachelbythebay calls this the stupid hour:

It's the point when I've been awake for too long and anything I create is sure to be suboptimal. The late hour has drained enough out of me to where I turn stupid and my output shows this.

It's at that moment that it's often best to just go the f**k home, but sometimes its good to distance yourself even further. In an essay in the Believer, novelist Zadie Smith goes so far as to suggest you take as much time away from a project as humanly possible:

When you finish your novel, if money is not a desperate priority, if you do not need to sell it at once or be published that very second?put it in a drawer. For as long as you can manage. A year of more is ideal?but even three months will do. Step away from the vehicle. The secret to editing your work is simple: you need to become its reader instead of its writer.

Even though Smith talks about doing this with a novel, it's a piece of advice we can all use for just about anything we create. Sometimes, when you're sitting there pounding your head into a project you're only making it worse. When you delay the work, you're given the opportunity to put a fresh set of eyes on it and make it better.

Photo by Doug Waldron.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/TkC2narFHUg/why-to-delay-instead-of-quit

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Claud's top tips to stay in shape over the festive ... - Clean Health

I don?t know about you, but for me the thought of the Christmas season sends me in two directions.

On one hand I?m looking forward to having some time off, seeing some old friends I haven?t had a chance to see, sleep in and switch off.

On the other hand, I think ?crap, I know what?s going to happen. I will go to this party and then that dinner party and before you know it I will have a sneaky chub roll around my gut and butt?.

It?s a dilemma?. what to do, what to do?

http://cleanhealth.com.au/clauds-tips-stay-shape-over-festive-season/

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