Boston (EON) - Facebook has agreed to a plan which will force them to better police pornography as well as predators on their massive social networking site and rival to MySpace.
Facebook has made the move in an attempt to satisfy the demands of New York State prosecutors. They accused Facebook of falsely advertising itself as a safe online environment.
Facebook has agreed to immediately post more strict and sterner warnings in regards to how dangerous it can be for children to use their social networking site. They are also going to be far more prominent in the way in which they respond to complaints from users in regards to sexual messages.
The settlement made between New York attorney general Andrew M. Cuomo and Facebook has these changed etched into the deal.
The settlement according to Mr. Cuomom will serve a “new model” for Facebook where law enforcement and internet companies work as one to protect children from predators and pornography on the internet.
He stated that “Any site where you are attracting young people, you must assume you are simultaneously attracting those who would prey on young people. Whether you are a shoe company or you’re an internet company, consumer protection laws apply.”
Facebook will also hire an independent company to track the responses it makes to complaints from users.
boston (EON) - A campain accross the United States is underway to stop credit card companies from tempting college students with plastic, according to media reports Friday.
Organizers say companies are snagging desperate students with high interest rates.
The California Public Interest Research Group wants to eliminate what it calls unfair credit card marketing.
Cal-PIRG admits students may need credit cards, but still want colleges to take a more protective stance.
Even with small incomes and big bills, college students find credit cards attractive.
Local college student Monique Johnson has her share of messy credit card bills, and recalls being hooked on campus. (more…)
Boston (EON) - Gary D. Forsee, the chairman and chief executive of Sprint Nextel has resigned as of Monday following reports that the company’s board was going to replace him this coming December.
Gary D. Forsee made the right move to resign while he still could. Spring is the third-largest wireless carrier behind Verizon and AT&T currently according to the chief financial officer Paul Saleh of Spring.
Saleh has been named the acting chief executive until a permanent successor was found.
The resignation of Forsee is the latest in a series of resignations from many high-level executives within Sprint. Back in August 2006 the chief operating officer Len J. Lauer resigned, and Tom M. Donahue who was the executive chairman resigned last October.
According to the company the board is looking outside of Sprint for a candidate to take over the role of Forsee. Before joining Sprint Nextel Saleh was the vice president and CFO of Walt Disney International.
Boston (EON) - The United Automobile Workers union has set a deadline to reach a new four-year contract with Chrysler for Wednesday with a strike looming.
The deadline is an effort to keep the talks from dragging on for too long as the union wanted a deadline in place to try and get the new four-year contract done and over with. The same was done with General Motors last month which resulted in the union walking out for two days before striking a deal on September 26th.
People close to the talks as of late Sunday night stated that once Wednesday comes the union could strike the company of Chrysler or they could extend the contract hour to hour until a deal is reached.
Talks have picked up quite a bit as of last Friday and went all through the weekend and into the Monday holiday of Columbus Day.
There was no specific time set for the deadline on Wednesday. Chrysler has yet to speak about the progress of the talks. The contract with General Motors though ended with a health care trust, as well as a voluntary employee benefits association going into effect. It would also take liability for health care benefits for current and retired workers totaling $55 billion for General Motors. The current Chrysler contract has them at $18 billion, way below that of GM.
New York - Bear Stearns Cos. (BSC) said it will cut 310 jobs by combining its two mortgage-origination businesses, becoming the second Wall Street investment bank in two days to announce such layoffs amid industrywide retrenchment.
Bear Stearns noted its mortgage-origination business has cut some 40% of its work force since the beginning of the year. The company, which with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH) is a leader in making and securitizing home loans, had already fired dozens of people in its subprime-mortgage unit.
Chief Financial Officer
Samuel Molinaro said last month that further cuts were likely at Bear Stearns. (more…)
Boston (EON) - The Walt Disney cell phone service geared towards children is coming to an end as they have announced that they are dropping the Disney Mobile idea after not even two years.
The Disney Mobile service has been up and running for a little over 15 months now but will be coming to a close. Disney has stated that they are going to try and find a new partnership to offer their wireless services and content.
Steve Wadsworth, Walt Disney Internet Group President, stated that the the “model has proven. as we’ve seen with other companies thsi past year, to be a difficult proposition in the hyper-competitive U.S. mobile phone market.”
This comes after the Disney ESPN brand also pulled its Mobile ESPN venture last year as well. The Disney Mobile service launched in June 2006 as a mobile virtual network. It worked over the Sprint Nextel network.
The Family Center which the phone offered allows parents to put restrictions on the phones which would keep kids from using them too much. It would also have GPS functionality so that parents could kepe track of their kids.
Disney is looking to continue to offer those features with major U.S. carriers and will likely sign on with a big name to do so.
Disney Mobile stated it would continue to support service for customers through December 31st and will reimburse eligible customers if they see fit.
Boston (EON) - EchoStar Communications has announced that it is buying Sling Media for $380 million.
The move will give Sling Media, which is privately held, access to 13.6 million of DISH satellite TV network customers. It will also have access to the EchoStar line of digital video recorders.
Charles Ergen, the chief executive of EchoStar stated that “This combination paves the way for the development of a host of new innovative products and services for our subscribers, new digital media consumers and strategic partners.”
Sling Media sells devices which transmit television shows from a consumer’s TV to a remote computer in another location, or even a cell phone.
It is possible that EchoStar will put Sling Media under the DISH brand or turn it into a separate unit.
Ergen and EchoStar were actually early investors in Sling Media so it is possible that this was in the works for quite some time.
Toronto - Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove says by the end of the week, up to 100-thousand Canadian workers could be out of work as a result of the G-M strike south of the border.
That includes workers in the auto and auto parts industries. and Hargrove says the impact will be felt mostly in Ontario and Quebec.
He says it’s difficult to estimate how long the dispute will last — but he says there are very difficult problems to resolve.
He says G-M seems to be saying to U-A-W members that they have to pay for problems caused by unfair trade that’s costing the company market share. (more…)
Washington - Mattel Inc announced a third recall of Chinese manufactured toys, affecting more than a half million toys in the United States alone, the company said.
The company, the largest toymaker in the world, said the move was a voluntary recall of 11 toys which came after implementation of a “strengthened” system of checks.
The recall was triggered by “impermissible levels of lead” in paint used on specific pet and furniture items in 8 Barbie brand toys and 3 Fisher-Price brand toys.
None of the popular Barbie dolls were included in the recall.
In August, Mattel recalled more than 18 million Chinese-made toys worldwide because of small magnets that could detach and be swallowed by children.
New York - Internet service provider Earthlink announced 900 job cuts and the closure of four offices Tuesday as part of a restructuring effort aimed at aligning costs with sales.
The Atlanta-based company currently employs about 1,900 people. Earthlink also said it would also stop costly marketing programmes aimed at attracting new subscribers and would focus instead on maximizing the earnings from its existing customers.
More cuts could be announced before the year’s end, said Rolla P. Huff, Earthlink’s president and chief executive. As part of the plan, EarthLink also said it will repurchase 200 million dollars of its stock.
The company said the restructuring would cost some 65 million dollars and it lowered its third-quarter guidance, calling for a net loss of about 76 cents a share on sales of between 290 million and 300 million dollars.
“While we see this as an important first step in unlocking the underlying value that we believe is in our company, we are only eight weeks into the process of repositioning EarthLink for the future,” said Huff. “These changes get our cost structure in line, but there is much more to do.”
Earthlink was a leading provider of dial-up internet access but has struggled to keep growth on track as the internet matures and subscribers switch to broadband.
In efforts to diversify, Earthlink has become one of the leading players in so-called Muni-Fi projects, building tax-supported WiFi networks for cities. But the funding of these programmes has stirred political debate and undercut ongoing expansion plans. Cellphone service Helio, an Earthlink joint venture with Korea’s SK Telecom, has also failed to yield profits despite an investment of over 200 million dollars.