by Vanessa O'Connell and Miguel Bustill, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal
Consumers are generally cautious heading into the critical holiday shopping season, with preseason trends suggesting that electronics sales may be solid while sales of apparel, particularly women’s styles, could get pummeled.
Spurred by the release of a hot videogame and earlier-than-usual promotions on televisions, U.S. shoppers spent 6.1 percent more on electronics in the first half of November the month, through Nov. 14, than a year ago.
by Russell Adams, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
The Web consulting firm Blue State Digital helped the Obama campaign raise some $500 million online, catapulting a relative political novice into the Oval Office.
Its next challenge: Help fashion bible Vogue magazine cash in on its far-reaching influence at a time when advertising dollars are bleeding out of print.
by Pui-Wing Tam, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Norwest Venture Partners on Wednesday announced that it had closed a new venture-capital fund sized at $1.2 billion. That’s nearly double the size of the Silicon Valley venture firm’s last fund in 2006, which closed at $650 million.
The new fund is unusual in this day and age amid a tough fundraising environment brought on by the recession.
by Lauren Goode, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Efforts to reform the U.S. health-care and bank lending systems are likely to lead to an increase in information-technology spending, said one potential beneficiary, Sudhakar Ram, chairman of IT firm Mastek.
Overhauling the country’s IT systems could cost as much as $250 billion to $300 billion over five to seven years, he said in an interview.
by Jon Gray, Contributor, Laid Off and Looking, The Wall Street Journal
My productivity lapses don’t come from Facebook. My problem is a combination of world news sites and Twitter. Using RescueTime, an online time management tool, I’ve named two productivity goals for myself. One goal sets my unproductive time at less than 90 minutes per day. The other sets my highly productive time at greater than five hours per day.
by Geoffrey A. Fowler and Jessica E. Vascellaro, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal
EBay Inc.’s PayPal plans to unveil a new system that makes it easier for software developers to integrate the online payments system right into their programs–as the company takes new steps to protect its turf.
With the new open software, called Paypal X, users won’t have to type their username and password into a separate PayPal Web site in order to complete a payment.
by Miriam Jordan, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
A coveted visa program that feeds skilled workers to top-tier U.S. technology companies and universities is on track to leave thousands of spots unfilled for the first time since 2003, a sign of how the weak economy has eroded employment even among highly trained professionals.
by Marisa Taylor, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
The success of private-sale sites like Gilt Groupe, which holds daily members-only sales of off-season luxury items, have led to imitators hoping to emulate the success of a business model that’s catching on with recession-strapped consumers.
Private-sale sites let shoppers experience the cachet of owning luxury items without paying full price.
by Justin Scheck and Nick Wingfield, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal
Cash-strapped consumers have been slow to buy personal computers in the recession. But with the launch of Microsoft Corp.’s new Windows 7 operating system Thursday, PC makers are aiming to reverse that trend–and then some.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
There was a telling bit of news on the continued travails of the U.S. consumer today from a small Texas retail chain called Conn’s. (In general, I would say calling a retailer “Conn’s” is not something I would recommend. But I digress.)
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Comments by Advanced Micro Devices yesterday apparently have triggered worries on the Street that the PC manufacturers, in their zealous optimism about the prospects for Microsoft Windows 7, may have built too many PCs.
As I noted last night, AMD said on its post-earnings conference call with the Street that it expects a less-than-seasonal sequential increase in Q4 revenues, due in part to the “the big build we’ve seen of PCs in anticipation of the Win 7 launch.”
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