Asia stocks broadly higher on earnings optimism; Nikkei up 1.75%

Forex Pros ? Asian stock markets posted sharp gains on Wednesday, as market sentiment was boosted by upbeat corporate earnings from Wall Street, while Japanese exporters advanced amid optimism over the U.S. economic recovery.<br /><br />During late Asian trade, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbed 0.9%, South Korea's Kospi Composite surged 2.2%, while Japan&rsquo;s Nikkei 225 Index jumped 1.75%.&nbsp; <br /><br />Official data released Tuesday showed that U.S. housing starts rose significantly more-than-expected in March, climbing by 7.2% to an annual rate of 549,000.<br /><br />Shares in many of the big name Japanese exporters advanced boosted by the outlook for export earnings. Consumer electronics giant Sony saw shares climb 1.5%, shares in Nissan gained 1.95%, while the world&rsquo;s largest automaker Toyota added 1.45%. <br /><br />Meanwhile, shares in the world&rsquo;s third largest maker of computer memory chips Elpida Memory jumped 1.9%, rival Tokyo Electron surged 4.05%, while Advantest rose 3.35% after chip manufacturing giant Intel reported better-than-expected first quarter earnings on Tuesday. <br /><br />In Hong Kong, shares in the energy sector led gains after oil prices advanced. The nation&rsquo;s largest oil and gas producer PetroChina saw shares jump 2.45%, shares in rival China Shenhua Energy rose 2.2%, while China&rsquo;s largest offshore oil producer CNOOC added 1.6%. <br /><br />Meanwhile, Australia&rsquo;s S&amp;P/ASX 200 Index rose 1.1% as resource stocks led gains after metal prices advanced. Shares in the world&rsquo;s largest mining group BHP Billiton jumped 1.15%, rival Rio Tinto saw shares gain 1.3%, while shares in gold producer Newcrest Mining surged 2.25% after gold prices rose to a record high.<br /><br />Elsewhere, LG Chem, South Korea biggest chemicals manufacturer saw shares jump 4.4% after reporting a 27% gain in first quarter profit.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br />The outlook for European equity markets, meanwhile, was upbeat. The EURO STOXX 50 futures pointed to a gain of 0.7%, France&rsquo;s CAC 40 futures indicated an increase of 0.5%, the FTSE 100 futures pointed to a rise of 0.45%, while Germany's DAX futures advanced 0.75%.<br /><br />Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish industry data on existing home sales, as well as a government report on crude oil stockpiles.<br /><br /><br />


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VC CONFESSION: "I Have Doubts Once I Think Of Women Founders Having Kids And Being Distracted From Work"

paige craig

I’m probably going to get myself in a bit of trouble here – I had a thought a couple weeks ago about a female founder that I buried away.

Normally I’m quite willing to throw my ideas out in the open as I think we learn and grow when we’re open about our ideas – the crazy ones, the politically incorrect ones – all of them.

For those of you that know me I’m sure I’ve offended or bothered all of you at least once.

If you know me well enough you probably realize my intent isn’t to hurt, but to provoke new thought and get an honest response. I like to iterate my way from crazy to sane but that path can be misinterpreted.

OK, so enough up front fluffery- you’re probably thinking “What the hell could Paige be thinking about a female founder that he wasn’t willing to just throw out there”. Honestly there’s probably a ton of things but here’s the one that’s been bothering me:

“A pregnant founder / CEO is going to fail her company”

As an angel investor, a free-wheeling free- agent in the world of entrepreneurship, I’ll normally say anything that comes into my head. But now, as the cofounder of BetterWorks I thought “maybe I should let this idea slide away – no need to piss off the world of female execs out there”. But the reality is that women in the workplace is an incredibly important topic. We’re missing out on a ton of talent out there and we need to take this seriously.

The Situation: I was contemplating an investment in this awesome crowd-sourced funding company in LA called Profounder. I love the vision: helping local brick & mortar businesses get funding from their community. The founding team, Jessica Jackley & Dana Mauriello, are incredible ladies with exactly the spirit and attitude I’m looking for in founders. We’ve talked extensively, had lunch together and I saw first hand the amazing talent & drive these two bring to the table. And then, a week later I find out Jessica is pregnant…and this dirty little thought pops in my head. I’m thinking how in the hell is this founder going to lead a team, build a company and change the world for these businesses carrying a kid around for the next few months and then caring for the kids after. I can’t say I personally know anything about it but birthing & raising kids seems like the toughest job around. And now I have a founder who has to be a CEO and a mother.

Skip straight to Jessica's response >>

Or continue reading...

The Decision: Ultimately I decided to invest, namely because I gave a commitment to invest and decided that pregnancy shouldn’t impact my decision. But what concerns me more is that I’m normally very equal-opportunity. In fact I really like working with female entrepreneurs and wish we had more of them. I have quite a few female entrepreneurs in my portfolio companies but the reality here is that I almost didn’t invest and I’m sure a ton of us decide not to invest, support, promote or work with women because of this whole “marriage / pregnancy” hurdle that most women will face in their career. I normally tell people I don’t care about your sex, race, religion, sexual preference – these things just don’t mean a bag of dogshit to me.

Yet, I almost didn’t invest so it must mean something and I’m definitely not as equal opportunity as I thought. And even though I ultimately decided to support Jessica and Dana, there are a ton of Jessica’s out there that won’t get the same treatment. And this brings me to my big question: Should I go out of my way to support female entrepreneurs? Should I give female executives, founders and others women an advantage in funding, hiring & promoting?

I talked to Jessica this weekend at Summit at Sea and told her my thoughts. I was a bit ashamed – walking up and telling an entrepreneur you’re backing that you have doubts, particularly something like this, is never an easy chat. But it is something we should do; I really love being direct and we do owe it to each other. Surprisingly Jessica wasn’t upset and I asked her if it was cool for me to write about this.

She gave me a warm yes and so here are two key points rolling around in my head right now:

  • I have doubts once I think of you getting married, having kids and being distracted from work. Right or wrong this is something I’m thinking

  • We need more women in the workplace. Look around at founders, boards and execs and you’ll all realize women are grossly under represented in the workplace

Recognizing this doubt I’m now asking myself if I should give preference to women. What do you think?

And before you answer, take the time to watch Sheryl Sandberg’s TED talk. I watched this last night as I was thinking about this topic and she brings up some great points. But the issue I have here is that Sheryl’s talk is directed at women – telling women what they should do. What I want to know is how should we as men deal with this?

Read Jessica's Response here >

 

Here's what Jessica Jackey had to say in response:

First, thanks to Paige for the honesty, humility, and desire to start a dialogue on this important issue. In addition to him airing general concerns about the dirty little thought (“A pregnant founder / CEO is going to fail her company”) that popped up in his head, I’m glad he asked the specific question he did – specifically: “…how in the hell is this founder* going to lead a team, build a company and change the world for these businesses carrying a kid around for the next few months and then caring for the kids after?”
* “this founder” would be me

I don’t blame Paige for doing his job as an investor by bringing up his concerns about my company or my plans for its future. I agree with sentiments expressed by others who have commented on this post, however, and think the it’s very unfortunate how often this line of questioning is focused on women alone. I’ve never heard someone ask the same of a Founder/CEO/Dad, worrying about a slightly different dirty little thought: “An expectant father / CEO will fail his company.” The idea that mothers are the de facto “foundation parents” to a new baby (or two) perpetuates the stereotypes and structures that make it more difficult for anyone, male or female, to balance work and family in the first place.

But let’s step back a bit. This post isn’t just about a big-picture issue, it’s also about my personal journey and ProFounder. I haven’t responded until now, not because of a lack of interest or desire to participate in this dialogue but because, frankly, I’m busy running said company. I expect to be even busier with not just one but two babies (yes, to be clear, I’m expecting twins) arriving this fall. And as all entrepreneurs know, you live and die by your ability to prioritize. You must focus on the most important, mission-critical tasks each day and night, and then share, delegate, delay or skip the rest. So, while Paige’s post was intriguing and important, it wasn’t urgent – until it came to my attention that my team was somewhat bothered by it. When they saw one of our investors questioning my abilities as a leader, they were confused and frustrated. And so I am now replying on their behalf as well as mine.

Paige and I met before I was telling anyone besides my family and my staff that I was expecting. As is typical, I announced it officially right at the standard 12-wk mark. Nearly all of my 30+ investors responded immediately with enthusiasm and congratulations, and many of them also offered to help think through post-maternity work plans, which I greatly appreciate. Paige is our most recent investor, so he missed the big official announcement a few weeks ago (I told him as soon as I saw him).

From the start, ProFounder was created to make sure anyone could be empowered to pursue their dreams through entrepreneurship. Together with my investors, we agreed on strategies and goals, key milestones, etc. I promised them our team would work its hardest to meet these goals, and we’ve been doing so ever since. I never did, and never would, promise them that I wouldn’t fall in love, get married, have a family at some pt. Why would I? Who in their right mind would actually ask this of a person? And what would it even mean to keep a promise like that?

Parenthood will be a new experience. As with any new experience, with lots of variables and forces beyond my control, it’s hard to know what will happen in the future, or exactly how I will feel when I’m in it. But, I’m comfortable with this – I am an entrepreneur – and this doesn’t mean I can’t have a carefully considered plan, informed by the advice and wisdom of other leaders I respect. I enjoy my conversations with Paige and if we’d had more time to talk live before this blog post, I’d have simply responded in answer to the “how the hell [will she make it work]…” question. I would have said that I have an incredible cofounder and an amazing, talented team. They believe in my leadership, my ability to serve them and our vision – with or without kids. I would have talked about my strong support system, including a husband who is a true partner and my greatest champion. I would have mentioned that I am fortunate enough to be able to afford full-time help if/when we need it. And I would have told him that, like most professional women in my situation, I have been thinking about this season of my life for a very long time. (Disclaimer: I’m just talking about my circumstances. This isn’t a complete or prescriptive checklist for anyone else, or a statement about what all women should have or do if they’re in a similar situation.)

There’s another aspect of this conversation about a founder of a company to have the goal of achieving balance at all when in start-up mode, and I’d like to address that too. Do I work long hours? Weekends? Of course. Pull all-nighters when needed? Sure. But working until I fall asleep on my laptop and doing nothing else on a regular basis makes me less effective. Turns out that getting at least a little sleep, exercising regularly, having healthy relationships outside of work, spending time with my family, reading a book for fun now and then, etc. makes me a better Founder/CEO.

In fact, this isn’t just how I run my life, but it’s how my cofounder Dana and I run our company. We created ProFounder with the intention of shaping a healthier – and more efficacious – culture that gives everyone on our team the opportunity to be a full person, not just a cog in a machine. We not only encourage but celebrate each other’s victories in and beyond work. At our last team retreat, we reported our proudest moments personally and professionally; on the personal side of things, every single individual shared some detail about how the most important relationships in their lives had become better since they began working at ProFounder. This model is working. Business is thriving. We are flourishing. And we’re trying to give every entrepreneur we work with through the ProFounder platform the same options for their own endeavors, starting with the chance to include investors who care about them as human beings – who are invested not just in their business but in them as people.

When my titles expand from just Founder/CEO to Founder/CEO/Mom, I may have a different kind of load to bear than that of other entrepreneurs, especially if we’re talking about ones who fit the old Silicon Valley stereotypes…[I’ll let you fill in the blank here with the obvious demographics/attitudes that come to mind]. I’ve tried forcing myself to fit more into this profile during other seasons of my life and would like to report that, shockingly, there’s really no correlation between eating take-out everyday or skipping that 30-min jog again and great entrepreneurial success. If anything, I’ve found the opposite to be true.

I have no desire to fit that old stereotype. I desire to live a life that is rich in relationships both in and outside of work. I desire to reap the many different rewards that are abundant in my job, working in this incredible start-up every day. I want to surround myself with a team, including investors, that challenges me and helps make me better. I want to live my life transparently, and if being a happy, successful Founder/CEO/Mom serves as a helpful example to anyone who wants to use me as such, great.

Mostly, I want to get back to my team and work on our business. So, a quick closing thought: what I, and my team, believe – and this is ProFounder’s mission statement verbatim – is that all entrepreneurs should have access to the resources they need to succeed through the engagement of robust, supportive communities. ProFounder exists to champion all entrepreneurs, and we have a special place in our hearts for those who don’t care to pitch their companies to the same old “usual suspects” investors – and this is a great thing for the world! Through our platform and tools, we are changing the way start-up and small business funding can be done, by engaging and empowering communities to invest. We hope these communities might think differently about what makes a great company, or a great leader. I hope we can show more and more people a path that includes sharing their entrepreneurial journey (and, the financial and social upside they will create) with people who know their story, their context, maybe even their families, and believe in them all the more because of it.

Thanks again to Paige and all for the dialogue. Now, back to work!

This post originally appeared at Good Angel.

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NASDAQ's Bittersweet Deal: What Will Happen Next?

IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) and NASDAQ OMX today unveiled their plan for presenting a ‘superior proposal’ to the NYSE Euronext board.

Translation: the two companies are not giving up in their joint bid.

NASDAQ and ICE have strengthened their initial proposal by addressing perceived regulatory risks that may arise from the transaction, gaining commitments on financing and including a breakup fee.

Despite the financial and antitrust regulation risks that loom over the proposed acquisition, NASDAQ says that it has now received ‘fully committed’ financing of $3.8 billion for the proposed $11.18 billion acquisition of NYSE Euronext from a group of leading institutions, such as Bank of America (BofA), Nordea Bank AB, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB, and UBS Investment Bank.  ICE has signed and received financing from banks such as Wells Fargo and BofA.

The balance of the financing, according to NASDAQ, would come from cash it has on hand and ‘a prudent use of leverage.’

The bid, which now includes a $350 million reverse break-up fee, results in an NYSE Euronext valuation of $42.67 per share as of April 18, 2011 – 21 percent ($2 bn) above the $35.29 offered by Deutsche Börse. 

The NYSE confirmed that it has received the proposed merger agreement and its board of directors will begin reviewing the proposal in ‘due course,’ making sure that it is ‘consistent with its fiduciary duties and its obligations under its previously announced business combination agreement with Deutsche,’ the NYSE says.    

On April 11, the NYSE  board of directors unanimously voted to reject a takeover offer from NASDAQ and ICE.

As Corporate Secretary previously reported, John Coffee, a corporate governance expert and a professor at Columbia Law School, explained, ‘Deutsche Börse doesn’t really compete with the NYSE but NASDAQ does, tooth and nail. Therefore, the NYSE board could justifiably determine that the NASDAQ offer – although financially superior – is not a superior proposal because of the regulatory problems.’

Now, Jeffrey Sprecher, chairman and chief executive officer of ICE, says, ‘Based on the feedback we have had from NYSE Euronext stockholders, we are more confident than ever that the proposed NASDAQ OMX/ICE transaction is better for them, the markets and the exchange’s customers. We trust that the NYSE Euronext board will seek to enhance the value to its stockholders by meeting with us to evaluate our superior proposal.’

NASDAQ says that the necessary actions to start the antitrust review process have been implemented and the process itself is expected to begin soon. 

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A Dummies Guide About Revolving Credit

Folks want credit to help you all of them throughout economic situations daily. Credit score can be money that you be lent for these kind of uses. You may use your credit history for a various causes. Examples incorporate: crisis conditions, establishing monthly payments for services, and generally list buying. Credit score fees should be [...]

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2011/04/19/a-dummies-guide-about-revolving-credit/

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The Shocking Success Of The New Yorker's Facebook 'Like' Campaign

barack obama new yorkerThe New Yorker hid a story by Jonathan Franzen about David Foster Wallace behind a Facebook "Like" wall.

The result: An impressive social media success story.

The magazine's Facebook page gained 17,209 likes between the posting of the story and the time they took it down on Monday morning -- about 1,200 more than the 16,000 figure reported elsewhere.

But the success goes beyond the 17,000+ Facebook likes.

The story -- or more accurately, the story about the story -- resonated in the media cycle far more than a typical New Yorker article.

Outlets from Mashable and Time's Techland to Forbes and The Atlantic wrote about the strategy. The plan itself was not new, but using an article written by Franzen about DFW was a masterstroke to appeal to the Facebook set.

Forbes' Michael Humphrey summed it up best: "As Mashable pointed out yesterday, this technique is nothing new to the music industry and even Self magazine tried it recently. But they didn’t have one of the greatest writers of this generation writing about, perhaps, the great writer of this generation. A man whose last hours before suicide were apparently spent writing notes to prepare a final book, which is out this month. So it made the news yesterday."

The result was that The New Yorker -- not exactly known for its wonderful Web practices -- received a lot of attention to the story as well as its social media efforts.

According to the magazine, as of Tuesday morning there were almost 100 million press impressions on the campaign and 3,354 tweets about the topic.

David Remnick has to "like" those figures.

For the latest media news, visit The Wire. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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Family Finance Planning ? Three Good Tips To Help You

Not many families are back on their feet after the initial blow of the economic crisis. Some people just can?t understand the first thing about finance planning. If you stay cool and collected during such time, you can survive anything. Making ends meet should not be an impossible task for anyone. So, it is time [...]

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2011/04/17/family-finance-planning-three-good-tips-to-help-you/

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Benefit of Debt Consolidation Program and its more than a few importance .

Having a debt is the most terrible case state of affairs that may ever occur to anyone. Yet this kind of state of affairs cannot avoided at times. You can also find yourself in debt while your daily source of revenue fails to cover your fundamental necessities or some unintended instances pops up. However whatever [...]

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2011/04/18/benefit-of-debt-consolidation-program-and-its-more-than-a-few-importance/

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11 Sales Definitions For Recent College Graduates Looking For A Career In Sales

Common Sales Related Definitions For The Beginner:

B2B Selling - "B2B Selling" is an acronym commonly used to describe sales people who engage in selling their product or service to another company instead of the individual consumer.

An example of B2B selling would be commercial real estate sales professionals.

B2C Selling - "B2C Selling" is an acronym common used to describe sales people who engage in selling their product or service to the individual consumer instead of someone who is buying on behalf of their business's needs.

An example of B2C selling would be retail stockbrokers who specialize in selling equity to the "Average Joe" and "Average Jane."

Email Blast - An email blast is a mass email sent out by a company to leads that typically were purchased (sometimes illegally) in the hopes of reaching thousands of potential buyers, hoping to circumvent tedious, unprofitable cold-calling sales techniques.

Sales Cycle - A sales cycle is the time it takes from the sales professional's first meeting meaning phone, email or in-person with a prospect until the service agreement is signed by the buying party.

Long sales cycles have been notoriously known for significantly damaging a company's finances and available cash flow.

Sales into the government are very lucrative for the sales professional who can effectively do so because it takes a special patience and bureaucratic savvy to get anything done.

After 7 years of successful sales employment into municipalities, base salaries excluding commission can reach well into the $115,000 range.

Warm Prospect - A warm prospect is a term that signifies a potential buyer who has familiarity with the sales representative's company as well as has shown some interest in the product or service.

If the account is not managed properly by the sales representative, a warm prospect can quickly turn cold, unresponsive and elusive to any attempted contact.

Cold Prospect - "Hi Stranger," is the basic idea behind sales to what is referred to as a cold prospect.

You don't know them, they don't know you and to make things even more difficult, they probably don't know your company and may not be in the market for your product.

For a sales representative, it takes a lot of skill, patience and hard work to see a cold prospect from initial contact to client.

Consultative Selling - Even though there are formal definitions, knowing them by the book may not prove to be advantageous as the phrase is simply used to convey to the sales applicant that the employer wants somebody who is not pushy, who is ethical, competent and solves the needs of the client.

Value Based Selling - Value based selling is a sales technique that focuses on heavily pitching any perceived value that the buyer will see or experience if he or she purchases their product.

Value Based Selling, just like the other sales tactics preaches knowing what the customer wants, a simplistic, but important theory to learn as a younger sales professional.

Aggressive Selling - There is no real formal word used too frequently in the sales arena that describes a sales approach that is intrusive, quasi unethical and pushy.

"We don't want used car salesman," is a phrase our sales and marketing staffing firm hears a lot.

In the end, they are trying to convey one of the golden rules of sales that states that nobody likes to be "sold" because nobody likes to be feel swindled regardless of the amount of the transaction.

"Chop - Shop" - A chop shop is slang in the sales world for a company that sells no real product, is full of cold-callers and is usually rampant with a lack of ethics.

A good example can be taken from the movie "Boiler Room." Brokerage and insurance houses are the most frequently tagged business institutions.

Quotas - Quota is the number of sales, usually measured by top line revenue that a sales representative is expected to meet.

Quotas are mostly done annually and, but broken down into quarters.

If a sales representative exceeds their quota, they will usually get some form of bonus.

Most American companies give a higher percentage of the sales that are brought in after the target number is met while most European and Canadian firms give out a lump sum of money that sometimes results in the commission getting capped.

Conversely, if a sales employee consistently misses his or her quota they are let go from the company. The quotas can make a sales professional wealthy or make them unemployed and, if the trend continues at their next job, unemployable.

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Do I Need a Lawyer for Credit Repair Help?

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There are all kinds of credit repair agencies advertising their services today. More consumers are being cautious about approaching some of these companies for credit repair help because if the increased warnings about fraudulent activities and high costs for services that aren't even real. Unfortunately, while many consumers will actively avoid credit repair companies, they will still turn to attorneys offering the same kind of help. While it is smart to be wary of credit repair agencies, it is just as wise to understand how credit repair lawyers work.

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