The cook, the thief, his wife and Xls

Source: Motley Fool (Original Article)

Let’s face it: If Casual Male (Nasdaq: CMRG) were a person, he’d be decidedly plus-sized. That image has served the company well, since its stores represent one of the few options bigger men have when buying clothes. Male-focused retailers such as Jos. A. Bank (Nasdaq: JOSB) and Men’s Wearhouse (NYSE: MW) have yet to really cater to the 48-to-50-inch waistline that Casual Male targets.

While lack of competition has allowed Casual Male to dominate this specialty retailer niche, the company does struggle with its body image. The brand is afflicted by the fat-man stigma; “smaller” men with 42-to-46-inch waistlines are reluctant to become customers, since the Casual Male name implies a large figure.

Casual Male has attempted to change its image in the past, most notably by removing “Big&Tall” from its logo and replacing it with “XL.” The company is also gearing up to launch a new advertising campaign focused on the 42-to-46-inch waistline market, which makes up an estimated 75% of the $6 billion big-and-tall segment. These ads, scheduled to launch tomorrow, will feature New England Patriots 305-pound offensive tackle Matt Light, as well as a host of other models who maintain an athletic — yet slightly bulky – look. The new campaign is “all part of the master plan,” according to Casual Male CEO David Levin.

Wall Street has punished the company for its disappointing quarterly results, with shares falling more than 60% in the past year. Last quarter, Casual Male’s poor results stemmed primarily from an 8% reduction in traffic. However, same-store sales fell only 0.3%, a suggestion that visitors really liked what they saw.

Repositioning Casual Male’s brand image could considerably help drive more customers into the stores. If the ad campaign is a success, shareholders might be greatly rewarded, and the only thing fat about Casual Male could be the profits the company St George Platinum starts reeling in.

Further expansive …continue reading

Source: RedOrbit (Original Article)

Business in Brief
Posted on: Tuesday, 29 April 2008, 18:00 CDT
Man charged with car insurance fraud BOSTON - Former Boston resident Tu Quy Mai was charged in federal court on Wednesday with 54 counts of mail fraud in connection with an alleged scam to defraud auto insurance companies out of an unknown amount of money between 2000 and 2006. According to court documents, federal prosecutors say Tu Mai staged automobile accidents and had the “victims” file insurance claims that said they were treated at physical therapy clinics with various addresses in Dorchester, Quincy, West Roxbury and Brockton. Tu Mai was arrested on Wednesday in South Carolina, where the 57-year-old currently lives. Boston Stock CEO Curran to advise Cramer company NORWOOD - Cramer, the Norwood marketing and events agency, announced today that Boston Stock Exchange CEO Michael Curran will now sit on the company’s advisory board. The board, which consists of seven New England business leaders, meets quarterly with Cramer CEO Tom Martin and his executive team to give advice on business strategies and long-term planning. “I am delighted to welcome Michael to our advisory board, where his financial and technology expertise and insight will be a real asset,” Martin said.

Verizon workers to draw attention to contract talks Verizon Communications workers planned to hold a rally today at noon at the company’s regional headquarters in Boston’s Post Office square to draw attention to their upcoming contract negotiations. Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2222 say Verizon is trying to drive down wages and benefits by shifting work away from union jobs to lower-paid positions with fewer benefits and no job security. Biosphere reports 10% revenue hike ROCKLAND - BioSphere Medical Inc. said its revenue rose by 10 percent to $7.2 million for the first quarter of the year, but the Rockland medical device company said its quarterly loss CitiBank Credit Cards grew to $1.4 million compared with …continue reading

Source: CNNMoney.com (Original Article)

Ahold’s Annual General Meeting of
Shareholders on April 23 included a speech by Ahold Chief Executive
Officer John Rishton. Addressing the annual meeting for the first
time as CEO, Rishton credited Ahold’s employees for delivering a
successful 2007 and thanked shareholders for their support over the
past year. The text of the speech has been made available on Ahold’s
website.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome.

I am pleased to be able to address you for the first time as CEO.

2007 was a successful year for Ahold. Since we last met, our share
price outperformed the AEX Index by more than 15%.

We’ve continued to make good progress on our strategy for profitable
growth that we announced in November 2006. It was designed to
accelerate identical sales growth, improve profit returns, and
strengthen our foundation for future expansion, creating additional
value for you, our shareholders. The strategy focuses on our
portfolio, company structure, growth plans, and financial targets.

We are focusing on food retail markets where we believe we can secure
a number one or two position and that have clear prospects for
profitable growth. During 2007, we sold U.S. Foodservice, Tops and
our operations in Poland, exceeding expectations in terms of price
and timing. I am confident that we will sell our holding in JMR this
year. We announced this morning the agreed sale of our majority stake
in Schuitema to CVC Capital Partners. The transaction includes the
transfer of 58 C1000 stores to Albert Heijn, real estate, and cash.
In addition, we will obtain a 20% share in the new entity being
formed. We believe this transaction will give us the ability to grow
our very successful Albert Heijn business.

Our divestments last year generated enough proceeds to enable us to
return EUR 4 billion euros to shareholders and will allow us to reduce
gross debt by EUR 2 billion.

Thanks to the strengthening of our Bank Credit Cards balance sheet and the future
business …continue reading

Source: CNNMoney.com (Original Article)

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS),
the leader in global electronic-design innovation, today announced that
Time To Market, Inc. (TTM), a leading ASIC design house, was able to detect
hot spots and optimize yields for a complex 65-nanometer design using a
holistic design-for-manufacturability flow from Cadence that includes the

Cadence® SoC Encounter(TM) XL system and the Cadence Litho Physical Analyzer. The proof-point project
provided TTM with state-of-the-art DFM experience and allowed the company
to move to Cadence model-based DFM solutions for ongoing 65-nanometer and below designs.

“Time To Market, Inc. is focused on providing customers first-pass working
silicon that meets both performance and yield goals,” said Venkata
Simhadri, president and CEO of TTM. “Cadence’s holistic, integrated DFM
solution helped us to achieve these critical goals by addressing
manufacturing issues during the design phase and improving productivity and
manufacturability. We used the Cadence SoC Encounter XL and Litho Physical
Analyzer to optimize a complex 65-nanometer chip design and prevent
lithographic errors from occurring in chip manufacturing, for faster time
to production and an improved yield for our customer.”

“Time To Market’s primary differentiation is providing accelerated time to
market for nanometer designs and mitigating customers’ risk,” said Nitin
Deo, DFM group marketing director at Cadence Design Systems. “By using our
model-based DFM analysis, TTM validated its customers’ 65-nanometer
networking SoC in record time, working the design into a highly
manufacturable state in a very short time. Customers are finding that
addressing manufacturability issues during the design stage can reduce
schedule variation and yield risk at advanced nodes.”

TTM chose Cadence due to the quick and reliable results obtained with its
model-based DFM products, which can improve yield on aggressive designs at
65 dog the bounty hunter dvd nanometers and below. TTM was impressed …continue reading

Source: Ireland Online (Original Article)

50 Cent has hit out at former G-Unit rapper Young Buck’s allegations that he has “never seen a royalty check” from his time with the star’s record label - insisting he was generously “overpaid” throughout his time with the hip hop group.

The ‘In Da Club’ hitmaker axed the rapper - real name David Darnell Brown - after he spoke out about dissent in the G-Unit camp, telling America’s ‘Yo! Raps’ Magazine he has failed to receive any royalties owed to him since signing with 50’s G-Unit Records.

The claims were initially blasted by the star’s manager Sha Money XL, who states the quotes were false, insisting G-Unit has paid Young Buck $10m to date.

And 50 - real name Curtis Jackson III - also refutes the allegations, stating it was Brown’s “drug dealer” lifestyle which left him broke - claiming he had to bail the star out of “tax trouble” on numerous occasions.

He says: “That (the allegations) was a shocker from Young Buck. The last thing that I felt would ever be even said would be that (the members of G-Unit) weren’t paid because they actually were overpaid.

“He lives like a drug dealer. When the artist spends excessively to the point where he doesn’t actually have that money anymore, out of desperation he says whatever he can say to try and fix situations.

“No, I never took a royalty check to recoup for anything. Yeah, he had tax trouble. I helped him like I helped everybody else.

“With Buck there was points where it was up to $330,000 that I had loaned out to him (and) he University Course 1210 continued to spend the way that he would regularly spend.”

Source: Triangle Business Journal (Original Article)

The Food and Drug Administration reported that a generic drug made by Impax Laboratories Inc. is safe and equivalent to the branded drug it is meant to copy.

Hayward-based Impax (OTCBB: IPXL) makes Bupropion XL 300 mg tablets as a generic version of Wellbutrin XL 300 mg tablets for treating depression. The Impax drug is marketed by Teva Pharmaceutical USA.

Impax said the drug now meets all requirements for csi miami dvd FDA approval. Wellbutrin is a GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) drug.

Source: Easier (press release) (Original Article)

Save money on luxury villa holidays to Cyprus

16 April 2008

Premier Holidays, specialists in luxury villas throughout the Mediterranean and South Africa are offering Spring savings on a number of properties in the Canary Islands, Portugal and Cyprus. For example, you can save 10% on 7 nights at Villa Icarus, in Polis, departing 14th May.

Sleeping up to nine in four bedrooms, this country villa stands in a beautiful location, away from the main tourist areas but only a five minute drive to the lively, picturesque village of Polis. Villa Icarus has the benefit of a large swimming pool cascading into a children’s pool below, and one of the four bedrooms has also an en-suite Jacuzzi bath.

The price for 7 nights from 14th May is now £865 for up to nine people sharing (£96 per person). Flights to Cyprus are currently available with XL Airways from MEDIUM dvd £213 per person.

For more information, visit Premier-holidays.com.

Source: Times Online (Original Article)

If you thought T5 was a cockup, I think I can beat it. If you shuddered when
you read our correspondent’s account of being trapped in a plane on the
Heathrow runway for two whole hours, pah, that’s nothing: try seven.

Yes, seven. Last Sunday, 130 passengers, including pre-school-age children,
were trapped in a packed EasyJet plane on the tarmac at Gatwick for seven
squalid, cramped, noisy, bewildered, hungry hours. I was one of them and,
believe me, it wasn’t pretty.

It got worse – or, in airport-hell oneupmanship stakes, better. For the first
five hours, they refused to feed us. When they finally relented, in the face
of clearly distressed children, they charged for the food. The coup de
grâce? The airline eventually cancelled the flight and let us
off… and then managed to lose our luggage.

The debacle started when the 8.10am flight to Geneva was caught up in
disruption caused by snow. A shortage of deicing trucks led to the delay –
something the airline and the airport now blame on each other. Whatever the
truth, the way EasyJet treated its customers was the worst I’ve seen in
decades of flying.

The hours dragged by, the heat was intense, and concerned parents stripped
children to their underwear. The kids themselves were remarkably well
behaved – until about the four-hour mark. Little did we know there were
three more to go.

Questioned by indignant passenger Tim Creasey about charging for food, the
captain of the plane said he had asked his office for permission to supply
free food – and had been turned down. “It’s a company decision, and I don’t
agree with it either,” he told Creasey. “But there’s nothing I can do. I am
French and, believe me, in your situation, I would be much more angry than
you are.”

When I called from my seat to ask EasyJet’s head office to lawyer interest calculator discuss the
situation, initially, it refused …continue reading

Source: Hartford Courant (Original Article)

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Source: Ireland Online (Original Article)

50 Cent has axed fellow rapper Young Buck from his G-Unit group, after he spoke out about dissent within the ranks of the ‘In da club’ star’s collective.

Young Buck, real name David Darnell Brown, was quoted in a recent interview with America’s ‘Yo! Raps’ Magazine bemoaning the fact he’d “never seen a royalty check” since signing with 50’s G-Unit Records imprint - despite releasing his two albums, 2004’s ‘Straight Outta Cashville’ and 2007’s ‘Buck The World’, on the label.

However, the allegations were blasted by the star’s manager Sha Money XL, who claimed the quotes had been fabricated, insisting G-Unit has paid Young Buck $10m to date.

Rumours of a rift between 50 and Young Buck have been around for months, after the ‘Shorty Wanna Ride’ rapper was alleged to have signed with rival label Cash Money Records in January.

That report proved to be false, as did another claim that 50 was on the verge of firing Young Buck after he failed to join the G-Unit group on tour, or feature on their February mix tape.

But now superstar 50 Cent has cleared up the rumours once and for all, by confirming Young Buck’s departure from the group. Yet, he will continue on G-Unit Records in a solo capacity.

And 50 has compared the long-running feud with Young Buck to the infamous sacking of The Game from G-Unit in 2006.

Speaking to New York radio station ‘Hot 97′ on Monday, he said: “You can look at it and see that’s Game all the way.

“I was giving him a chance, giving him the benefit of the doubt (to remain with the group). You can take this as an official notice right here - pretty much you can say: Young Buck is no longer in the group BankWest Credit Cards G-Unit, but signed to G-Unit (Records) as a solo artist.”