Messi propels 5,000-goal Barcelona

Supersub Lionel Messi scored twice as nine-man Barcelona, with their 5,000th Spanish league goal, came from behind to beat Racing Santander 2-1 and move 12 points clear of Real Madrid. A Nikola Zigic penalty had put Racing in front on 56 minutes before Messi changed the game, equalising just five minutes after coming on and then scoring an 81st minute winner with his weaker right foot. Messi's personal goals tally for the season is now 16 while Barcelona, unbeaten in 20 games, recorded a ninth straight league win.

"You always know that Messi is capable of creating a goal and fortunately for us he created two," Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said. "We had dominated, but without creating much going forward against a well-organised Racing side."

Valencia did their Champions League hopes the world of good with a 3-2 victory over Almeria. David Villa scored twice to notch his 16th and 17th goals of the campaign as Valencia moved a point behind third-placed Sevilla and three points ahead of Villarreal, who slipped in a 3-0 defeat at Deportivo La Coruna.

Sevilla, who defeated Valencia to reach the Kings Cup semi-final in midweek, suffered a 1-0 defeat at Sporting Gijon in Sunday's late match.

The home side overcame an early red card to Mate Bilic, and then a missed penalty mid-way through the first half, to claim all three points thanks to a goal after 16 minutes from Diego Castro.

Barcelona are the favourites for the cup after defeating Espanyol to reach the semi-finals and looked off the pace in the first half against Racing. Racing had the first opening after 11 minutes with Jonathan Pereira's shot hitting the post. In the 56th minute, Racing won a penalty when Rafael Marquez committed a silly foul on Perreira and Zigic cooly converted the penalty.

CHRIS GRANGER

Senior Vice President, Team Marketing & Business Operations
National Basketball Association

As Senior Vice President, Team Marketing & Business Operations, Granger is responsible for advising NBA, WNBA, and NBA Development League teams on all aspects of business operations including ticket sales, sponsorship development, customer retention, and marketing.

Granger also takes a lead role in developing industry-renowned workshops and training sessions for the league’s teams, overseeing the creation and delivery of over twenty workshops each year. Prior to running the Team Marketing & Business Operations function, Granger managed the league’s in-house consulting team. These consultants work directly with the teams to help drive revenue, share best practices, and develop talent at the franchise level.

From an operational standpoint, Granger has taken leadership positions in the relocation of the New Orleans Hornets to Oklahoma City post-Katrina; the premium sales efforts for the 2007 FIBA Tournament of the Americas in Las Vegas; and in the daily staff operations of multiple NBA All-Star Jam Sessions, the league's premier interactive fan event.

Prior to joining the NBA in June 1999, Granger held leadership positions within the Walt Disney World Company, mainly on the resort side of the business, where he managed the front desk, concierge, guest service, and bell services staffs of various Disney properties, including Disney's flagship resort, the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.

Granger received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and his M.B.A. from Yale. He also spent a year abroad at the prestigious London School of Economics & Political Science.

An Indiana native, Chris now lives in Bronxville, New York with his wife, Jennifer and daughters, Zoe and Megan.

Hitachi to cut up to 7,000 jobs

Hitachi is to cut up to 7,000 jobs, as it warned it expects to make an annual loss of 700bn yen ($7.8bn; £5.5bn) because of a big fall in global sales.

Hitachi said the job cuts would be made globally across its car equipment and electronics divisions.

The Japanese electronics and engineering group had previously predicted it would make a net profit of 15bn yen in the year to 31 March 2009.

Hitachi is the latest Japanese firm to be hit by the global economic slowdown.

'Quick slowdown'

Japanese exporters have been hurt by the strong value of the yen, which recently soared to a 13-year high against the dollar.

Hitachi said it was aiming to achieve 200bn yen of cost cutting.

"Revenue for the 2009 financial year is expected to fall greatly due to the quick slowdown of demand for automobiles, semiconductors and industrial machinery," it said.

The firm also said it would reduce the number of its subsidiaries to 700 from 910 by March 2010.

Obama slams Wall Street bonuses

President Barack Obama says that multi-billion dollar bonuses taken by Wall Street bankers are "shameful" while taxpayers bail out their industry.

The president said their actions "were the height of irresponsibility".

He said his administration would tell bankers they needed to show some discipline and restraint.

Mr Obama was responding to reports that employees at financial companies in New York collected an estimated $18.4bn (£12.9bn) in bonuses last year.

"It is shameful, and part of what we are going to need is for the folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility," he added.

"The American people understand that we have got a big hole we have got to dig ourselves out of but they don't like the idea that people are digging a bigger hole."

Earlier this week, US bank Citigroup cancelled an order for a new corporate jet after President Obama questioned the wisdom of the purchase.

The White House asked whether buying the jet was the "best use of money at this point" for a bank that took $45bn (£31.6bn) of public money last autumn.

Amazon profits from festive sales

Profit at online retailer Amazon rose 9% in the final three months of last year, as the company enjoyed a robust holiday shopping season.

It said net profit totalled $225m in the fourth quarter, up from $207m a year ago.

Unlike many retailers, Amazon has not yet been hit hard by the cutback in spending by many consumers.

Amazon said it would continue to offer low prices and free shipping deals to lure budget-conscious shoppers.

Revenue increased 18% to $6.7bn, beating analysts estimates and Amazon it expected sales to rise in the first three months of 2009.

AMAZON 2008 UK BESTSELLERS Mamma Mia! (DVD) The Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling (Books) The Dark Knight (DVD) Nintendo Wii Console (Video games) Mario Kart with Wii Wheel (Video games) Source: Amazon

"It looks like they took a lot of market share and made substantial gains," said Jeffrey Lindsay of Sanford C Bernstein.

"The good thing is that Amazon hasn't had to discount to the extent that people feared to achieve this."

Chief executive Jeff Bezos said Kindle, the electronic-reading device it introduced in 2007 to encourage book, magazine and newspaper downloads, had boosted sales.

Once a bookseller, Amazon now sells products in more than three dozen categories ranging from hairdryers to jewellery.

In the UK, it launched a music download site last year.

Big slump in Japan factory output

Japan's industrial output declined 9.6% in December - the biggest contraction since records began - as exports slumped due to the global downturn.

Japan's Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano said the situation was unprecedented and that the drop in factory output "was likely to continue".

The unemployment rate also rose in December to 4.4%, a three-year high.

Official figures showed that 2.7 million people in Japan were without work, 400,000 more than a year ago.

'Bold steps'

Japan's economy slipped into its first recession in seven years in the third quarter of last year.

We must watch if a worsening of the economy pushes Japan into a deflationary spiral Tatsushi Shikano, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Hitachi cutting 7,000 jobs

Exports have dropped as worldwide demand for Japanese products, such as cars and electrical equipment, has fallen sharply.

Prime Minister Taro Aso has told parliament he will take bold steps to ensure Japan is the first country to emerge from the global crisis.

The slump in industrial output knocked confidence among Japanese investors, and the country's main Nikkei index ended Friday down 3% or 257 points at 7,994.

Deflation fears

Official data also showed a big drop in the rate of inflation, increasing the likelihood of deflation.

Honda is just one of a growing number of Japanese firms to see falling sales

Japan's annual core consumer inflation slowed to 0.2% in December from 1% in November.

Economists fear falling prices will deter consumers from making major purchases, ultimately worsening the recession.

The Bank of Japan has already warned that deflation will be a risk until 2011 and has cut interest rates to just above zero.

"Weakness in the overall economy will persist in January-March, and the degree of worsening depends much on how exports turn out," said Tatsushi Shikano, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.

"It is already a consensus view that core consumer inflation will turn negative soon, but we must watch if a worsening of the economy pushes Japan into a deflationary spiral even though the Bank of Japan sees no signs of that happening right now."

Big losses

The gloomy official economic data came as three more Japanese companies reported poor financial figures.

Honda, the country's second-largest carmaker, said profit plunged 89% in the third quarter as global sales slowed sharply.

The company made a net profit of 20.24bn yen ($226m; £158m) in the three months to the end of December, compared with 200bn yen a year earlier.

Meanwhile, electronics and engineering group Hitachi warned that it now expects to make a loss of 700bn yen for the financial year to 31 March.

All Nippon Airways, the country's second-largest carrier, said it expects to report its first annual loss in six years.

Their reports came a day after both Sony and Toshiba warned that they would make an annual loss, while Nintendo cut its profit forecast.

Top 10: Obama takes charge, Ballmer lays it on the line

January 24, 2009, 08:51 PM — IDG News Service —

Barack Obama became the 44th, and first African-American, president of the U.S. on an Inauguration Day that captured the world's attention and provided a flurry of technology-related headlines. The post-inaugural buzz ended quickly, though, with dismal economic news being rife (again) this week. On a happier note, Apple did well with its quarterly financials and celebrated the 25th birthday of the Mac.

1. The Obama Administration tech watch: Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th U.S. president Tuesday, with Inauguration Day coverage blanketing the Web, including sites that typically do not have much to do with political news. There were any number of tech-related stories pegged to the big day, including how mobile-phone networks and the Internet held up. A tech-savvy president -- Obama publicly declared he was not going to give up his BlackBerry despite security issues -- will undoubtedly mean more emphasis on tech policy and legislation.

2. Ballmer provides grim outlook as economy 'resets': Leave it to Steve Ballmer to cut to the chase -- the economic recession will drag out for a year or two, leading to a "reset" of the economy from which there will not be a "bounce" that leads to the previous levels of prosperity. He delivered his grim assessment, which he did tinge with some notes of optimism about IT in general and Microsoft specifically, on the heels of news that his company's quarterly net income took a dive and that 5,000 employees are being laid off. Microsoft wasn't the only bearer of lousy financial news this week, as noted in number six.

3. Heartland data breach could be bigger than TJX's and Heartland breach raises questions about PCI standard's effectiveness: Heartland Payment Systems, which provides credit- and debit-card processing services, disclosed a massive data breach that could rival that of TJX, though specific numbers were unclear. However, Heartland processes 100 million card transactions per month, so analysts suspect that the breach was huge. (The TJX breach compromised more than 45 million cards.) The Heartland breach has led to renewed concerns that the Payment Card Industry data security standard required by Visa and MasterCard is not up to the task of ensuring data safety.

4. Microsoft to deliver first IE8 release candidate Monday: The first release candidate of Internet Explorer 8 will be out Monday, according to sources who know what Microsoft is up to with its next browser version. A release candidate, in Microsoft parlance, is software with all the features set to go and code that is stable. It also means that a final release of the software is imminent.

5. Wall Street beat: Recession whacks IT earnings: Besides Microsoft, Nokia, Sony, Advanced Micro Devices and Ericsson all reported grim quarterly earnings. We'll leave the details to those with the fortitude to click the link.

6. Apple reports record profit for first quarter and Google Q4 earnings plummet, revenue up 18 percent: We don't usually go on about financial results in Top 10, but this week is an exception, with the need to temper the bad news with a couple of positive nuggets. First, Apple defied the recession with record revenue and profit in its first quarter. Then, Google said that although its profit took a nosedive due to one-time investment write-downs, its revenue was up nearly 20 percent for the fourth quarter compared to the same period a year ago.

7. Craig Barrett to retire from Intel: Intel Chairman Craig Barrett will retire in May after 35 years with the company. In recent years he had eased away from day-to-day operations to focus on getting technology to emerging countries.

8. PewTube? Vatican to preach via YouTube and Pope praises potential of new technologies: The Vatican's YouTube channel is up and running, providing video of Pope Benedict XVI's activities as well as other links about the Catholic Church. The pope kicked things off with a speech praising new communications technologies for the good they can do, but warning about the possible pitfalls if they are misused.

9. 25 years of the Mac: Mac fans celebrated the 25th anniversary of their beloved Apple computers and Macworld offered a tribute along with a nice package of stories looking at the last quarter-century of Apple's business, including the best and the worst. Some advice on what the company should do soon and in the future is also mixed in.

10. Bull castration, snake eaters, opium and a whorehouse: the life of storage guru Dave Hitz: Dave Hitz, the founder and executive vice president of storage company NetApp, published a memoir called "How to Castrate a Bull: Unexpected Lessons on Risk, Growth, and Success in Business." He worked on a cattle ranch when he was in college, so the title is more literal than at first might be realized. We haven't read the book yet, but there was no way we could leave a headline like that out of Top 10.