Category: Business

Macau to overtake Las Vegas by 2007

Macau to overtake Las Vegas by 2007
With more than 20 billion dollars worth of investment committed to some 25 new hotels and casinos in the next five years the southern Chinese territory is expected to emerge as a world-class tourism destination, according to analysts Globalysis.

“We believe that Macaus (revenue) will surpass that experienced on the Las Vegas Strip in 2006, signalling Macaus success as a global casino gaming destination,” it said in a statement. Continue reading “Macau to overtake Las Vegas by 2007”

Stingy Stones avoid tax on £240m fortune

Stingy Stones avoid tax on £240m fortune | the Daily Mail
The Rolling Stones have paid just 1.6 per cent tax on their earnings of £242million over the past 20 years, it has emerged.

Documents published in Holland show that Sir Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts and Keith Richards used offshore trusts and companies to ensure tax breaks.

Of the fortune they have accumulated since 1986 for royalties, they have paid just £3.9 million in taxes.

Watts is said to be worth £ 80million, and as main songwriters, Richards is worth £185million while Sir Mick’s fortune is as much as £205million. Continue reading “Stingy Stones avoid tax on £240m fortune”

The Fortunate 50

SI.com – The Fortunate 50
Why is this man smiling? When it comes to the money game, no one even comes close to Tiger Woods, who has a jaw-dropping $97.6 million in earnings.

But the average wealth of the 50 actually fell by $500,000 since last year’s list. The reason? Endorsers are taking fewer chances on athletes and increasingly turning to Hollywood celebrities (No. 2 Phil Mickelson and No. 4 Kobe Bryant are the only others on this list to have a noticeable increase in corporate income). For a list of the top 20-earning foreign athletes, click here.

No Ordinary Counterfeit

No Ordinary Counterfeit – New York Times

We had an earlier post on this in March

In Oct. 2, 2004, the container ship Ever Unique, sailing under a Panamanian flag from Yantai, China, berthed in the Port of Newark. Beneath cardboard boxes containing plastic toys, they found counterfeit $100 bills worth more than $300,000, secreted in false-bottomed compartments.

The counterfeits were nearly flawless. They featured the same high-tech color-shifting ink as genuine American bills and were printed on paper with the same precise composition of fibers. The engraved images were, if anything, finer than those produced by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Only when subjected to sophisticated forensic analysis could the bills be confirmed as imitations. Continue reading “No Ordinary Counterfeit”

Marriott Hotels Ban Smoking In Rooms

Marriott Hotels Ban Smoking In Rooms
Two decades ago, about half the company’s rooms were set aside for smokers, but demand has steadily dropped, with only 5 percent of customers now requesting smoking rooms. At the same time, complaints about cigarette odor have increased, and company officials have struggled to address the issue.

Marriott, which will enforce its ban by charging violators $200 to $300, follows that of the Westin Hotels & Resorts chain, which late last year announced it was making all 77 of its properties smoke-free

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More

The Week Magazine

The total volume of low popularity items exceeds the volume of high popularity items.

For the past century, business owners have followed a simple rule of thumb: Focus all resources on the best customers, the best workers, and the best-selling products because the top 20 percent in each category will be responsible for 80 percent of revenue. But the so-called 80/20 rule is going the way of wooden shoes and rotary telephones, says Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson.

Continue reading “The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More”

Unintended URLs

We had to re-register a company URL from merchantsexport.com, because it got so many search hits, from people seraching for “sex”, that id crashed the server. Here is a popular list, currently circulating around the web, of others, who have not chosen to change their registered URL.

1. A site called ‘Who Represents‘ where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is
www.whorepresents.com

Continue reading “Unintended URLs”

Global warming could devastate U.S. wineries

USATODAY.com – Report: Global warming could devastate U.S. wineries
Areas suitable for growing premium wine grapes could be reduced by 50% — and possibly as much as 81% — by the end of this century, according to a study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The paper indicates increasing weather problems for grapes in such areas as California’s Napa and Sonoma valleys. The main problem: An increase in the frequency of extremely hot days.

A thousand years ago when Viking explorers arrived on the coasts of eastern Canada and New England they named the region Vinland, a designation that has perplexed many historians since grapes are uncommon there now. The weather was warmer then, however.

In Medieval times there were vineyards in England that were later knocked out by a colder period known as the Little Ice Age. Now, wine grapes are being grown in England again.

Sales of Organic Beers Start to Hop

Sales of Organic Beers Start to Hop – Forbes.com
Organic beer is made the same way as any beer, but under U.S. Department of Agriculture standards at least 95 percent of its ingredients – usually barley and hops – are grown without the use of chemicals and pesticides.

Organic beer sales increased 40 percent in 2005, tying it with organic coffee as the fastest-growing organic beverage, the Organic Trade Association says. By comparison, overall U.S. beer sales fell slightly last year.

Cracking the Cream Cheese Code

Wired 14.06: Schmear Campaign
Kraft, which has been perfecting its Philadelphia-brand cheese for more than 75 years, closely guards its manufacturing secrets, keeping them in a vault in Chicago. What it knows, it isn’t sharing. The company controls nearly 70 percent of the $800 million market.

At the moment, Schreiber Foods is in the best position to challenge Kraft’s dominance. Schreiber is the world’s largest privately held cheese company, generating more than $3 billion in annual revenue. It jumped into the cream cheese business only four years ago but moved aggressively, buying manufacturers that supply private-label super-market brands. Schreiber is now the number two producer, controlling an estimated 25 percent of the market. Continue reading “Cracking the Cream Cheese Code”