Money Blog » Corporate

Wal-Mart plans half-a-million jobs

Alex — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 20:43:15 +0000

Talk about being aggressive while sounding novel at the same time – Wal-Mart claims that the company is planning to create 500,000 jobs worldwide as part of its business plan for the next five years.

“We need to recruit the best talent and identify the best talent in our ranks,” CEO Mike Duke said.

The retail giant unveiled its plan in its annual shareholder meeting at Arkansas amidst a star-studded affair.

Other moves include a share repurchase plan in an effort to repurchase $15 billion of its shares.

While this sounds like the right direction for companies to help out in the job crisis that still plagues the recovery, this announcement sounds like there’s a catch – those jobs will be worldwide, not necessarily local.

Wal-Mart’s international division accounts for one-fourth of its revenue.

Source: CNN Money

Top 15 companies who lost employees

Alex — Mon, 17 May 2010 01:03:03 +0000

We love lists and as far as anything money and finance goes, it’s Fortune who’s got the best lists out there. They compiled the biggest companies who lost the most employees thanks to the economic downturn. Here’s the list.

1. Citigroup: 57,700 jobs lost
2. Time Warner: 56,000
3. Starbucks: 34,000
4. Alcoa: 28,000
5. General Motors: 26,000
6. Berkshire Hathaway: 24,083
7. American International Group: 20,000
8. AT&T: 19,940
9. Caterpillar: 19,074
10. General Electric: 304,000
11. YRC Worldwide: 19,000
12. UPS: 18,000
13. Hewlett-Packard: 17,000
14. United Technologies: 16,400
15. Sprint-Nextel: 16,202

The jobs lost figures account for the total lost to job cuts and attrition. Now only if the job market would finally bounce back.

JPMorgan Chase posts $3.3 billion profit

Alex — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:17:48 +0000

Recovery? Maybe. Financial services giant JPMorgan Chase reported a $3.3 billion profit – a 55% jump from a year back. Analysts credit the bank’s Wall Street efforts and the improvement of the economy as the reason for the positive results.

The bank is the first of the Big Four banks to report their first-quarter results. The bank earned 63 cents a share thanks to investment banking and trading activities. The unit was responsible for $2.5 billion of the take.

Problems still hounded the bank’s other units, particularly loans and housing. However, numbers revealed that delinquencies on mortgage, auto and student loans dropped in the first quarter.

“There is a clear and broad-based improvement in economic factors in the U.S. and around the world,” said JPMorgan’s chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon.

Lego profits from Star Wars

Alex — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:15:16 +0000

I always liked Legos. One of my childhood frustrations is that my parents never bought me enough of these little bricks. In the world of Playstations and Xboxes, it’s still nice to see “traditional” toymakers still make a profit.

In the case of Lego, it’s about marketing and looking for ways to capitalize on hype. Their cash cow – the Star Wars franchise and their Lego City line.

Both produc lines helped Lego see a growth in their 2009 profits. Pre-tax profits rose a huge 55.9% from the previous year or an equivalent of $530 million.

Lego has also farmed out its production internationally with plants in Mexico, Czech Republic and Hungary. Not bad for a firm that started out in a carpenter’s workshop.

Source: CNN

Asset-based lending spikes

Alex — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:41:57 +0000

Asset-based lending’s basically putting up collateral for loans. For many business owners today, it has become a viable option to inject fresh capital into their business.

Credit-worthiness has become an issue for many small businesses today and with the state of the economy, many just don’t have the time and track record to negotiate with banks for fresh credit. Asset-based lending becomes a viable course of action to which they resort.

Commercial Finance Association said that asset-based lending (mortgages excluded) swelled by 8.3%. The 2009 data are still being gathered but initial findings indicate a jump in lending in general.

The thing is, these collaterals can range from equipment to future earnings. The rates are often higher than more traditional credit.

More lenders are also keen on getting into asset-based lending. With credit-worthiness and track record not really offering serious guarantees that loans will be paid, collaterals offer tangible means for them to recoup whatever they dole out.