Today in the Fortune 500: JPMorgan in talks with Twitter, Google changes search rankings and Comcast CEO isn't scared of online video
February 28, 2011: 9:34 AM ET
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The Fortune 500 comes out just once a year, but the companies on it make headlines every day. Here then are today's highlights of news and happenings coming from the biggest names in business.
By Shelley DuBois, reporter
JPMORGAN COULD INVEST IN TWITTER The bank is thinking about putting some of the money from its $1.2 billion digital growth fund into the microblogging site, which would give JPMorgan (JPM) a minority stake in Twitter. The investment, should it happen, would value Twitter at about $4 billion. [Wall Street Journal]
GOOGLE EXERTS ITS POWER over search, after evaluating if certain sites offered enough useful information to warrant their rankings, and dropping the ones that didn't. The ranking changes seriously affected several online companies, whose revenue can vary drastically based on how they turn up in Google (GOOG) search. [Wall Street Journal]
VIDEO ON THE INTERNET IS OUR FRIEND says Comcast (CMCSA) CEO Brian Roberts in an interview. That's despite the fact that online competitors are cutting in on Comcast's share of viewers' video consumption. But Roberts insists that internet videos keep Comcast in the broadband business, which is doing well. [Wall Street Journal]
GOLDMAN TO PAY BACK BUFFETT Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) CEO Warren Buffett said in his annual letter that Goldman Sachs (GS) would probably get approval from the Federal Reserve to pay back the $5 billion that Buffett invested in the bank during the crisis. Goldman has been on the hook for paying Berkshire Hathaway 10% interest on the $5 billion, which is why Buffett also wrote that in his letter that, "the redemptions are nevertheless unwelcome. After they occur, our earning power will be significantly reduced." [Bloomberg Businessweek]
WE'RE GOING TO MEXICO maybe, 3M (MMM) CEO George Buckley warned, expressing his frustration with President Obama's efforts to repair relations with big companies, which Buckley still views as inexcusably anti-business. Buckley said that if the U.S. didn't get more business friendly in a hurry, especially regarding the difficulty of obtaining visas for foreign workers, then shifting operations to Canada or Mexico could seem more and more attractive. [Financial Times]
NO THREAT OF IRREPARABLE HARM to Kraft (KFT), now that its partnership with Starbucks (SBUX) is coming to a tortured end. A federal appeals court ruled that despite Kraft's claims to the contrary, Starbucks taking control of the distribution of its branded packaged coffee--an operation formally controlled by Kraft--won't cause any problems that Kraft can't repair. [Wall Street Journal]
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Today in the Fortune 500: Google executive released by Egyptian government, Pepsi and Best Buy score on Superbowl ads and what's next for BP's ex-CEO Tony Hayward
The Fortune 500 comes out just once a year, but the companies on it make headlines every day. Here then are today's highlights of news and happenings coming from the biggest names in business.
By Shelley DuBois, reporter
EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT RELEASES GOOGLE EXEC who was arrested during the conflict in Egypt, likely for his major role in anti-government online activism. Protest organizers viewed the man, named Wael Ghonim, as a MORE
Feb 7, 2011 8:43 AM ETPosted in: BP, Coca-Cola, Egypt, Fortune 500, Goldman Sachs, Google, Groupon, Middle East, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Hayward, Twitter, Yahoo -
Today in the Fortune 500: BP's long road ahead to better safety, delays on Intel's Sandy Bridge and Google joins forces with Twitter to enable tweets from Egypt.
The Fortune 500 comes out just once a year, but the companies on it make headlines every day. Here then are today's highlights of news and happenings coming from the biggest names in business.
By Shelley DuBois, reporter
BP'S CORPORATE CULTURE OF SAFETY or the lack thereof has been under intense scrutiny ever since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf. But looking into BP's behavior in Alaska's MORE
Feb 1, 2011 7:43 AM ET -
Today in the Fortune 500: Pfizer's overseas challenge, big agribusiness moves on Mexican corn and Nike strides towards sustainability.
The Fortune 500 comes out just once a year, but the companies on it make headlines every day. Here then are today's highlights of news and happenings coming from the biggest names in business.
By Shelley DuBois, reporter
TOMORROW, THE WORLD Pfizer appointed a new head of emerging markets in its quest to push more of its products to the corners of the globe. The job MORE
Dec 10, 2010 8:24 AM ETPosted in: Bloomberg Businessweek, Business, Fortune 500, Hewlett-Packard, HPQ, Monsanto, PFE, Pfizer, SuperValu, SVU, Twitter -
The promised brand: How to get there
Prove your worth. In 2008, as director of communications at a community college, Sarah Evans met with her boss regularly to show what her online presence was yielding: postings that were reprinted, the number of student questions receiving prompt answers. "People were doubtful about getting into the social-media space, where they couldn't control the message," says Evans, who now runs Sevans Strategy, a Chicago new-media consulting firm.
Watch your language. Remember MORE
Jul 30, 2010 3:00 AM ET -
Case study No. 3: Branding, not bragging
Marvin Smith, talent sourcer, Microsoft
Marvin Smith, a talent sourcer in Microsoft's entertainment devices division, is an expert on incorporating Web 2.0 tech and social communities into the recruiting process. He's also a major voice at recruiting-industry conventions, in trade groups, and on blogs. Yet until recently Smith, 60, didn't have a personal brand portal—otherwise known as a blog. "I wasn't sure what voice I wanted to put forth," he says, MORE
Jul 30, 2010 3:00 AM ET -
Case study No. 2: The brand rehabber
Nick Goss, former corporate strategist, BMC Software
Nick Goss had an identity, all right, but it wasn't a positive one. "I was the annoying Englishman who says, 'This isn't going to work,' " he says. Goss, 50, started in 2003 as a corporate strategist in a division of BMC Software. At meetings he realized that his opinions were either ignored or greeted with skepticism; "The questioning got into incredible minutiae," MORE
Jul 30, 2010 3:00 AM ET -
Case study No. 5: Be sensitive to changing priorities
Mike Demler, former senior staff product manager, Synopsys
Three years ago Mike Demler was a senior staff product marketing manager at Synopsys, a $1.3 billion maker of tools used to produce integrated circuits. When the company asked if anyone wanted to blog, Demler enthusiastically volunteered. The now 55-year-old had earned his MBA a year earlier, and decided that for his career and the company's strategy "it was critical for me MORE
Jul 30, 2010 3:00 AM ET -
Case study No.1: Don't Be Overeager
Mark Pannell, former operations manager, Home Depot
Let's get this straight: Simply having a Twitter personality does not make you a good employee. As folks like Tila Tequila have demonstrated, just because you can use social-networking tools doesn't mean you should. It can be fatal. That's what Mark Pannell, 35, a veteran operations manager at a Home Depot store in Toledo, says happened in the summer of 2009. After a MORE
Jul 30, 2010 3:00 AM ET
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