NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The recession has finally caught up with the lucrative concert touring industry. The industry trade magazine and website Pollstar says gross revenue for the top 100 tours in North America in the first six months of 2010 is down nearly $200 million from last year. That’s a 17 percent drop in an industry that seemed impervious to the weakening economy just a few years ago. The total haul of $965.5 million was the lowest for the first half of the year since 2005 when gross revenue was $730.9 million. Ticket sales also were off. The top 100 acts sold an average of 6,951 tickets per show, down about 9 percent from 7,639 during the same period in 2009. Declining ticket sales have been evident in the number of cancellations this year for usually bankable stars. Major acts such as The Eagles, Christina Aguilera, Rihanna and the Lilith Fair have canceled or curtailed tours, but Pollstar editor in chief Gary Bongiovanni said others – including Lady GaGa, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and Muse – aren’t having problems moving tickets. To compensate, promoters have been offering discounted tickets, which some say has created more problems for the industry. The top-grossing show this year was Coachella. The California festival drew 225,000 fans who paid more than $21.7 million for tickets. Bon Jovi has the top North American tour in the first half of 2010 with $52.8 million in grosses. James Taylor and Carole King are next at $41 million and Swift is third with $34.2 million. The tours of Paul McCartney ($31.6 million) and George Strait ($29.8 million) round out the top five. AC/DC rules ticket sales worldwide with 1.8 million. No other act has reached 1 million. The band has grossed $177.5 million. Bongiovanni says the recession appears to be hitting larger shows the hardest, with club-level acts still seeing respectable ticket sales. — Online: http://www.pollstar.com ? 2010 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use .
July 9, 2010 | Posted in
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WASHINGTON (AP) – A wave of census layoffs cut the nation’s payrolls in June for the first time in six months, while private employers added a modest number of jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 9.5 percent, its lowest level in almost a year. Employers cut 125,000 jobs last month, the most since last October, the Labor Department said Friday. The loss was driven by the end of 225,000 temporary census jobs. Businesses added a net total of 83,000 workers, an improvement from May. But that’s also below March and April totals. The nation has 7.9 million fewer private payroll jobs than it did when the recession began. Analysts expected private payrolls to rise by about 110,000, according to Thomson Reuters. The report indicates that businesses are still reluctant to hire as the economy slowly recovers form the worst recession since the 1930s. The unemployment rate fell as 652,000 people gave up on their job searches and left the labor force. People who are no longer looking for work aren’t counted as unemployed. All told, 14.6 million people were looking for work in June. Counting those who have given up their job searches and those who are working part time but would prefer full-time work, the underemployment rate edged down to 16.5 percent from 16.6 percent in May.
July 2, 2010 | Posted in
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WINDERMERE, Fla. (AP) — The brochure promises a “monument to unparalleled success.” The 90,000-square-foot home for sale outside Orlando has 23 bathrooms, 13 bedrooms, 10 kitchens and three pools. All that and more for $75 million “as is.” The catch? It’s not finished. Nicknamed “Versailles” by owner and timeshare tycoon David Siegel, the mansion hit the market recently as the largest home for sale in the United States. Construction was halted last year to save money in a recession that proved particularly hard on Siegel’s industry. The home also has a 20-car garage, a bowling alley, an indoor-roller rink, a movie theater, a video arcade, a fitness center, a baseball field and two tennis courts. But the mansion’s interior has no carpet, tile or interior walls. ? 2010 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use .
June 22, 2010 | Posted in
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NEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Opera survived a brutal fiscal year in 2009, losing tens of millions of dollars on Wall Street while expenses kept climbing, according to tax returns filed this week. The company finished the year with its net worth down substantially and sizable debts looming in coming years. In financial statements, filed on Monday, the opera house listed net assets of $236 million, down from $380 million a year earlier. Like many major arts organizations, the Met has been struggling to maintain artistic quality and innovation while riding an economic roller coaster. “Since the costs of running the world’s biggest opera house have always been greater than its earned revenues, the Met has regularly faced enormous financial challenges throughout its history,” General Manager Peter Gelb told The Associated Press. In the first year of the recession, 2008, a company counting on good investment returns didn’t get them. The Met wound up scrambling for operating money just as lavish new productions were being staged under the new leadership of Gelb, who became general manager in 2006. Despite the gloomy financial picture, the company spent more in its 2009 fiscal year than it had a year earlier. Salaries rose by more than $6 million. Meanwhile, the opera’s investment portfolios dropped in value. The organization’s financial statements listed $40.8 million in losses, after expenses and dividends, in fiscal 2009 compared to a $14.3 million loss a year earlier. The opera’s pension fund lost $20 million in investments. The financial filings also appear to show a drop in donor support, although Met spokesman Peter Clark said that, overall, gifts have increased in recent years, including a 5 percent increase through the current season. Contributions and grants were listed as falling to $105 million, from $164 million. Met officials have taken steps in the past half-year to trim expenses and boost revenue. Stagehands who had been due a 2.5 percent salary raise in June delayed it until the 2010-11 season. And to help cover operating costs on a short-term basis, the opera was forced to dip into its endowment. It asked several donors to ease restrictions on how their gifts could be spent, freeing up $22 million. A gift of $30 million from philanthropist Ann Ziff was announced in March, with most of the money available this year and the rest over the next four years. The gift from Ziff, whose husband was the publishing executive William Ziff and whose mother was the soprano Harriet Henders, is the largest in the institution’s history. Early in 2009, Gelb replaced four planned major revivals for the 2009-10 season with productions of standard repertory less expensive to rehearse and stage. Some financial pressures still loom for the organization, including a $35 million back loan due to be repaid in 2011 and a $57 million pension plan deficit. Gelb said the Met has attracted larger audiences worldwide with productions such as Rossini’s “Armida,” starring soprano Renee Fleming, and Verdi’s “Attila,” with costumes by designer Miuccia Prada, which helped boost attendance to 88 percent of paid capacity last season, up about 10 percent over the average of the previous few years. High-definition movie theater broadcasts, which the Met spent $4.5 million developing, are now also earning a modest profit. “The Met has managed through difficult times in the past,” Gelb said. “Now, by increasing the public’s interest in opera with our recent artistic successes and public initiatives, we are confident that we will thrive in the future, as well.” ? 2010 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use .
June 17, 2010 | Posted in
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NEW YORK (AP) — IBM Corp. said Wednesday it expects to earn at least $20 per share in 2015, excluding some acquisition and pension-related costs – a forecast that reflects the growing importance of IBM’s hugely profitable software division and “growth markets” outside the U.S. where demand for technology is surging. The forecast would mean a growth rate for the company’s earnings per share of about 12 percent each year over the next five years. IBM is expecting earnings of $11.20 per share this year, or $11.35 excluding items. It also assumes that revenue will grow an average of five percent each year over the next five years, in constant currency. That was apparently encouraging to investors because some analysts have expressed concerns about IBM’s ability to boost its revenue in a meaningful way going forward, considering how large the company has become. IBM demonstrated in the downturn that it’s skilled in wringing more profits from its businesses even when they’re hurting. Last year, IBM’s total revenue fell 8 percent to $95.8 billion, a decline that would have been 5 percent were it not for currency fluctuations. After the forecast was given at an investor meeting Wednesday, IBM shares jumped 4.6 percent, or $5.79, to close the regular trading session at $132.68. IBM, which is based in Armonk, N.Y., has been benefited from healthier corporate spending on technology as the recession wanes. Its first-quarter net income climbed 13 percent from the year before to $2.6 billion. Revenue rose 5 percent at $22.9 billion. — On the Web: http://www.ibm.com/investor/events/investor0510/index.phtml
May 12, 2010 | Posted in
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NEW YORK (AP) — The number of cell phones sold worldwide rose 22 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, as both the economic recovery and an appetite for smart phones drove a rebound in sales, according to research firm IDC. Research in Motion Ltd., the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry smart phones, broke into the top five of the world’s largest phone makers for the first time. Manufacturers shipped 295 million phones in the quarter, IDC said. The report is based on publicly reported figures from the major phone manufacturers. Although growth from last year’s first quarter was strong, the comparison was with a very weak period, when the recession shrank sales. The recovery for the rest of the year won’t look as strong, said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst at IDC. For all of 2010, the firm expects an 11 percent increase over 2009. Nokia Corp. kept its place as the world’s largest maker of phones, followed by Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. However, Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola Inc. dropped out of the top five and was replaced by RIM, which was tied with Sony Ericsson for fourth place. Motorola has seen a multiyear drop in phone shipments continue and has been trying to turn its fortunes around by focusing on smart phones. Just under the top five lurks Apple Inc., which had higher sales than Motorola for the first time in the first quarter. If iPhone sales keep growing at their current pace, Apple may well become one of the world’s top five manufacturers later this year.
April 30, 2010 | Posted in
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NEW YORK (AP) — IBM Corp. is increasing its dividend payout by 18 percent and buying back more of its stock, offering more signals of confidence in the technology industry’s rebound. The company said Tuesday at its annual shareholders meeting, held this year in Milwaukee, that it is raising the quarterly dividend payout to 65 cents per share. It had been 55 cents a share for the past four quarters. IBM has developed a habit of announcing dividend increases at its shareholder meetings. The per-share payout has more than tripled since 2006. Investors appeared to have seen this increase coming. IBM shares slipped 89 cents to $129.84 in midday trading amid a broader market decline. IBM, which is based in Armonk, N.Y., also said its board has authorized the use of $8 billion for buying back its stock. The company now has $10 billion available for that purpose. IBM has bought back more than $100 billion of its stock since 1995. The company says it still has plenty left over to invest in its businesses. “This company, as a result of the investments made over the past eight years, has become very profitable with substantial cash flow,” IBM’s Jesse Greene, vice president for financial management, said in an interview. “We have the cash to make investments for the future and return cash to our investors.” Greene noted that IBM, which brought in more than $95 billion in revenue in 2009, continued to put its usual $6 billion a year into research and development even during the recession. IBM’s decision to return more cash to shareholders provides another sign of confidence from the technology sector as it rebounds from the recession. Last week IBM increased its profit forecast for 2010 to $11.20 per share. Other positive signs have come this month from tech bellwethers such as Intel Corp., which reported a 44 percent jump in revenue for the first quarter.
April 27, 2010 | Posted in
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HELSINKI (AP) — Nokia Corp.’s first-quarter net profit surged to euro349 million ($467 million) from euro122 million a year earlier, with strong growth in smart phone sales and 3 percent growth in total revenue, the company said Thursday. But its share price plunged 14 percent to euro9.66 ($12.92) in Helsinki as markets had expected a better performance and a more upbeat forecast. The world’s top mobile phone maker reported net sales of euro9.5 billion in the January to March period compared with euro9.3 billion a year earlier, when sales plunged 27 percent in the middle of a recession. CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo warned of strong competition from rivals. “We continue to face tough competition with respect to the high end of our mobile device portfolio, as well as challenging market conditions on the infrastructure side,” Kallasvuo said. Nokia’s networks operations – Nokia Siemens Networks – continued to perform poorly, with sales falling nine percent in the quarter to euro2.7 billion. The Finland-based company said handset sales grew 8 percent in the period, to euro6.7 billion, compared to 2009, but said it expects very little or no increase in the second quarter. Nokia maintained its forecast that the mobile industry will grow by some 10 percent this year as it emerges from the global downturn but again repeated its prediction that its own market share will not grow. Its share in the period was 33 percent, up from 32 percent a year ago, but down from 35 percent in the last quarter of last year. Nokia’s smart phone sales showed greatest growth, of 42 percent in Latin America and 30 percent in China, but continued to fall – by 27 percent – in the troubled North American market ruled by strong rivals RIM’s Blackberry and iPhone. Despite an increase in first-quarter sales of smart phones compared to 2009, Nokia’s sales in the sector fell 19 percent compared to the last quarter of 2009. Sales dropped 31 percent in Europe in the period. Neil Mawston, from Strategy Analytics said that although Nokia’s volume sales were “quite good and slightly above the average, the real downside was the value.” He also warned of stiff competition. “There are signs that competition is increasing, not just in the high end but also at the low end, so Nokia is caught in a pincer movement with the Asians at the low end and the Americans at the high end,” Mawston said. Nokia said it sold 108 million handsets in the quarter, up 16 percent on 2009, with smart phone sales surging 57 percent to 21.5 million units. Nokia conceded that it has been hit by flight restrictions in Europe caused by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud over the region but said that “the impact on our business is not quantifiable at this stage.” However, it added that it is was taking measures “to mitigate the impact … including adjusting our logistics operation to help ensure component availability and product deliveries to customers.” It gave no details. Nokia has been the top handset maker since 1998 and has gradually expanded to include online services, such as downloads of music, games, maps and the fast transfer of photos and video in a global online market it estimates will reach euro100 billion by 2010 with 300 million active users of its services. In January, Nokia began providing free navigation services for users of its smart phones and hopes to double the number of GPS navigation users to 50 million worldwide, giving it an added edge over rivals. Kallasvuo described the response to the navigation service as “tremendous,” saying that since the launch 10 million Nokia users have downloaded the offering. Nokia, based in Espoo near Helsinki, employs some 126,000 people worldwide. —- On the Net: Nokia: http://www.nokia.com .
April 22, 2010 | Posted in
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google Inc.’s first-quarter profit rose 37 percent as more people clicked on higher-priced Internet ads powered by the company’s search engine, but investors possibly worried about Google’s rising expenditures sent its stock down sharply. Google shares fell $17.95, 3 percent, to $577.35 in after-hours trading. Before the earnings release they closed at $595.30, up 1.1 percent on the day. Even so, the results released Thursday are the latest indication that the online advertising and technology sectors are bouncing back from the recession more quickly than many other parts of the economy. The company earned nearly $2 billion, or $6.06 per share in the quarter. Revenue climbed 23 percent to $6.78 billion. That marked Google’s greatest revenue growth since the third quarter of 2008. If not for expenses covering employee stock compensation, Google said it would have earned $6.76 per share. That figure exceeded the average estimate of $6.60 per share among analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. After subtracting commissions paid to advertising partners, Google’s revenue stood at $5.06 billion. That was about $90 million above analyst estimates. The strong performance evidently wasn’t enough to satisfy investors hoping for a better showing. Google added nearly 800 employees in the first quarter to end March with 20,621 workers. The increase in payroll, coupled with a pledge by management to spend heavily in developing new products, may have raised worries about rising expenses trimming profit margins later this year.
April 15, 2010 | Posted in
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Major link between New York and Boston shut down due to flooding By WINK News By Associated Press Story Created: Apr 1, 2010 at 5:17 AM EDT Story Updated: Apr 1, 2010 at 10:58 AM EDT WEST WARWICK, R.I. (AP) – Officials hope that a section of Interstate 95 closed by flood waters in Rhode Island can be reopened later today. The highway is the primary link between New York and Boston. Days of torrential rain in New England have ended but meteorologists say some rivers won’t return to their banks until the weekend. The worst of the flooding has been in Rhode Island. It’s seen its worst flooding in 200 years. High water has forced evacuations, isolated communities, overwhelmed sewer systems and forced evacuations. Officials fear some businesses already weakened by the recession will be condemned because of flood damage. Flooding has also damaged bridges in the region. It’s feared a 200-foot bridge in Coventry, R.I. may collapse because its abutments washed out. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is set to tour the damage on Friday. President Barack Obama has already declared most of Rhode Island a disaster area. Previous article Assisted suicide group “Final Exit Network” heads to court Next article April Fools: Not a good idea during the recession?
April 1, 2010 | Posted in
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