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For weeks, there have been signs that the public was not buying new PCs over the holidays in the numbers many had hoped. Now add to them new figures from IDC, one of the best-known scorekeepers for the market, showing that worldwide PC shipments declined 6.4 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier.
That decline was worse than the 4.4 percent drop that IDC had previously forecast for the fourth quarter. It was also a sign that the biggest thing to happen to the PC business in years — Microsoft’s release of the Windows 8 operating system and the millions of dollars that went into promoting it — did not rescue an industry that suffered a nasty sales slump for most of last year.
Collectively, PC companies shipped 89.8 million computers over the fourth quarter, compared to 95.9 million a year earlier.
The challenges of the PC business lately have been well documented, all factors causing the soft holiday sales, including the inclination of people to buy tablets like the iPad instead of laptops.
But the PC market also appeared to be hurt by a mismatch between the touch capabilities in Windows 8 that Microsoft advertised so heavily and the types of PCs on most store shelves, many of which did not have touch screens. Loren Loverde, an analyst at IDC, said in an interview that Microsoft and its hardware partners needed to introduce newer PC designs that could more fully exploit Windows 8.
“It would really behoove the PC industry to get out there and deliver a consistent message,” he said.
IDC does not include sales of tablet computers in its PC shipment numbers, even devices like Surface, the first version of which runs a variation of Windows 8 called Windows RT. But sales of Surface and other Windows tablets were estimated to be modest enough over the holidays that they probably would not have made a significant change in the numbers of the PC business had IDC included them, according to Mr. Loverde. IDC has not yet released its estimates for tablet sales over the holidays.
Another research firm, Canalys, painted a bleaker outlook for the PC market with a report released earlier in the day. “The launch of Windows 8 did not reinvigorate the market in 2012, and is expected to have a negative effect as we move into 2013,” said Tom Evans, a Canalys analyst, said in the report. “Windows 8 is so different to previous versions that most consumers will be put off by the thought of having to learn a new OS.”
Unlike other research firms, Canalys includes tablets in its estimates of PC market shipments. As more people buy tablets made by Apple and devices running various flavors of Google’s Android operating system, Canalys estimated that the share of PCs running Windows and Intel chips would fall to 65 percent in 2013 from 72 percent last year.
Microsoft and Intel will suffer further, with the Wintel PC market share expected to decline to 65 percent in 2013, from 72 percent in 2012.
Dr. Anne Furey Schultz examined a patient who was experiencing flu-like symptoms at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Because the vaccine is grown in chicken eggs, manufacturers recommend that the roughly 2 percent of all children who have egg allergies not get them.
But flu hospitalizes 21,000 young children a year, said Dr. James L. Sublett, chair of the public relations committee of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
Because only trace amounts of egg protein remain in the vaccine, “we now know administration is safe,” he said. “'The benefits of the flu vaccination far outweigh the risks.”
Even children who have gone into anaphylactic shock from eating eggs should get flu shots, but from an allergist trained to handle emergencies, the association recommended.
The rival American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology says on its Web site that children whose only reaction to eating eggs is hives can have flu shots in a pediatrician’s office with a 30-minute observation period afterward, while children with more serious reactions like breathing difficulty or lightheadness should get them from an allergist, again with an observation period.
Thomas Skinner, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said his agency’s position was that people who have had a reaction to eggs should consult a doctor to discuss how severe it was and the benefits of vaccination.
About 70 percent of all children allergic to eggs outgrow the allergy by age 16, Dr. Sublett said.
Dr. Anne Furey Schultz examined a patient who was experiencing flu-like symptoms at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Because the vaccine is grown in chicken eggs, manufacturers recommend that the roughly 2 percent of all children who have egg allergies not get them.
But flu hospitalizes 21,000 young children a year, said Dr. James L. Sublett, chair of the public relations committee of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
Because only trace amounts of egg protein remain in the vaccine, “we now know administration is safe,” he said. “'The benefits of the flu vaccination far outweigh the risks.”
Even children who have gone into anaphylactic shock from eating eggs should get flu shots, but from an allergist trained to handle emergencies, the association recommended.
The rival American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology says on its Web site that children whose only reaction to eating eggs is hives can have flu shots in a pediatrician’s office with a 30-minute observation period afterward, while children with more serious reactions like breathing difficulty or lightheadness should get them from an allergist, again with an observation period.
Thomas Skinner, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said his agency’s position was that people who have had a reaction to eggs should consult a doctor to discuss how severe it was and the benefits of vaccination.
About 70 percent of all children allergic to eggs outgrow the allergy by age 16, Dr. Sublett said.
8:46 a.m. | Updated
Wells Fargo reported $5.1 billion in profit for the fourth quarter on Friday, a 24 percent increase, driven by the bank’s lucrative mortgage business.
Seizing on low-interest rates that have spurred a flurry of refinancing activity, the bank again notched record profits. For the last 12 quarters, profits at the bank have increased.
In this latest quarter, Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, reported earnings of 91 cents a share, which exceeded analysts’ expectations. Ahead of the report, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated that the bank would report earnings of 89 a share.
Wells Fargo, unlike many of its rivals, has been able to steadily increase its revenue. The first bank to release fourth-quarter earnings, Wells Fargo reported $21.95 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter, up 7 percent from a year earlier.
Much of the revenue gains stemmed from the bank’s consumer lending business, as borrowers jumped on record low interest rates to refinance their mortgages. Wells Fargo, which dominates the market as the nation’s largest mortgage lender, notched $125 billion in mortgage originations, up from $120 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011. Refinancing applications accounted for nearly 75 percent of that total.
The big profit in the group came from the extra money that Wells Fargo makes bundling the mortgages into bonds and selling them to the government. In the fourth quarter, the bank reported $2.8 billion of so-called net gains on its mortgages activities, up 51 percent from the previous year.
The question is whether those gains are sustainable. Refinancing activity shows signs of tapering off. And the housing recovery is far from robust, which means it may be tough to make new mortgages.
Investors seemed to look beyond the strong profits to the potential challenges. Shares of the Wells Fargo were down modestly on Friday, as the bank reported a drop in its net interest margin.
Under the tenure of its chief executive, John G. Stumpf, Wells Fargo has aggressively expanded into the mortgage market, a strategy that might help the bank surpass its rivals in profits, notably JPMorgan Chase.
Wells Fargo’s net interest margin, a closely watched profit metric that measures the difference between the interest the bank collects and the interest it pays on its own borrowings, was down slightly to 3.56 percent, from 3.89 percent a year earlier.
Profit in the community banking division, which spans Wells Fargo’s retail branches and mortgage business, increased 14 percent to $2.9 billion.
The bank successfully courted more cash from depositors, adding $72 billion in total core checking and savings deposits than a year earlier.
“The company’s underlying results were driven by solid loan growth, improved credit quality, and continued success in improving efficiency,” Wells Fargo’s chief financial officer, Tim Sloan, said in a statement.
The bank has benefited from sweeping federal stimulus initiatives that have buoyed the mortgage business. The Treasury Department has helped spur Americans to refinance their mortgages.
Wells Fargo is the reigning titan in the mortgage industry, generating roughly a third of all the mortgages across the United States. Mortgage originations continued to climb, up 4 percent to $125 billion.
Adding to its mortgage-related profit, Wells Fargo reported a $926 million profit from its servicing business, in which the bank collects payments from homeowners. That’s up roughly 6 percent from a year earlier.
Alongside the consumer loan business, Wells Fargo had gains in its wealth management business, a particular focus for the bank to defray the impact of federal regulations that dragged down profits elsewhere.
Still, Wells Fargo’s profit from residential mortgages could wane this year if the Federal Reserve halts its extensive bond buying spree.
Working to move beyond the mortgage crisis woes that have dogged the bank, Wells Fargo has been brokering deals with federal regulators. Wells Fargo was one of 10 banks that signed onto an $8.5 billion settlement this week with the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve over claims that shoddy foreclosure practices may have led to the wrongful eviction of homeowners.
The sweeping federal pact ends a deeply flawed review of millions of loans in foreclosure that was mandated by federal regulators in 2011. The review, which was ended this week, began in November 2011 amid mounting public fury that bank employees were churning through hundreds of foreclosure filings without reviewing them for accuracy.
In addition to the settlement, the bank set aside $1.2 billion to prevent foreclosures.
MOSCOW — It is called a zorb, an outsize inflatable ball in which people strap themselves, then bounce down a ski slope and, presumably, have a good time doing so. But when a zorb veered off a ski run high in Russia’s Caucasus Mountains earlier this month, there was little anyone could do but watch as the two men inside careened along a jagged ridge and then plunged over a precipice.
The ball tumbled down the mountain at the Dombai ski resort for almost a mile, slamming into rocks as it picked up speed, rescue workers said on Wednesday in a televised statement. One of the men, Denis Burakov, 27, injured his spinal cord and died on the way to a hospital. The other, Vladimir Shcherbakov, 33, suffered a concussion and deep cuts to his arms and face.
The accident on Jan. 3, which a friend of the men filmed on a cellphone and then uploaded to the Internet on Tuesday, has generated concern over unlicensed attractions on Russia’s loosely regulated ski slopes.
The man who harnessed Mr. Burakov and Mr. Shcherbakov into the zorb told the police that they were his first customers, and that he was not licensed to offer rides, having bought the ball two years ago for his own use. On Thursday the police arrested the man, Ravil Chekunov, 25, who said he had charged Mr. Burakov and Mr. Shcherbakov about $10 for the ride.
Russia’s minister of emergency situations called Wednesday for tighter safety precautions at skiing facilities, after a rash of winter sports injuries. Russian television reported this week that 10 people had been seriously injured on a single ski slope in Kolomna, a city 50 miles southeast of Moscow. A woman who descended on a sled broke her spine after she ran into rocks at the bottom.
Russian leaders, notably President Vladimir V. Putin, have tried for years to build interest in downhill skiing in Russia. The country has invested billions of dollars in ski resorts in the Caucasus, and in particular in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, which will host the Winter Olympics in 2014.
Mr. Putin mingled with stunned vacationers at a resort near Sochi during the winter break, and the culture minister, Vladimir R. Medinsky, lavishly praised the local ski conditions on Twitter.
But an investigation into the accident at the Dombai ski resort, less than 100 miles east of Sochi, found 50 unlicensed attractions and guides operating on the mountain, the newspaper Izvestia reported.
A Moscow-based businessman, Montay Imanov, told Izvestia that the zorb that carried the two men was stolen from him at gunpoint in 2009, when he traveled to the region intending to open a zorbing business.
“They didn’t cordon the track off from the gorge,” he said. “It’s just a nightmare. They needed to put six rows of nets there.”
What happens if two people work on the same file at the same time in a shared Dropbox folder? Does one copy of the file overwrite the other?
If two people are editing the same file at the same time, Dropbox saves both versions of the file in the shared folder. The service does not merge the two different files, but adds the words “conflicted copy” to the file name of the second version so it is obvious that two different copies of the same file now exist.
The file name of the second copy also lists the date that the conflict occurred between the two versions of the file. The computer name or name of the person who was working on the file is appended to the name as well, making it somewhat easier to identify the collaborator and ensure that everyone’s changes are incorporated into one final version of the document.
As influenza cases surge around the country, health officials say they are trying to stem a shortage of treatments for children.
Pharmacies around the country have reported dwindling supplies of liquid Tamiflu, a prescription flu medicine that can ease symptoms if taken within 48 hours of their onset. The drug is available in capsules for adults and a liquid suspension for children and infants.
“There are intermittent shortages of the liquid version (but not the capsule version) due to the supplier’s challenges to meet the current demand,” Carolyn Castel, a spokeswomen for CVS Caremark, said in an e-mail.
Pharmacies around the country are experiencing shortages of the liquid suspension “due to recent increased demand,” Sarah Clark-Lynn, a spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration, said on Thursday.
Ms. Clark-Lynn said the F.D.A. was working with the company that markets Tamiflu, Genentech, to increase supplies. The agency is also letting pharmacists know that in emergencies they can compound the adult Tamiflu capsules to make liquid versions for children.
A similar shortage of Tamiflu has hit Canada, which has also been gripped by widespread flu outbreaks, prompting the government there to tap into a national stockpile of the drug.
“That really unexpected increase in demand — far above other influenza seasons — has really depleted the usual stocks which in any other season would have been more than sufficient,” Dr. Barbara Raymond, director of pandemic preparedness for the Public Health Agency of Canada, told The Ottawa Citizen.
As influenza cases surge around the country, health officials say they are trying to stem a shortage of treatments for children.
Pharmacies around the country have reported dwindling supplies of liquid Tamiflu, a prescription flu medicine that can ease symptoms if taken within 48 hours of their onset. The drug is available in capsules for adults and a liquid suspension for children and infants.
“There are intermittent shortages of the liquid version (but not the capsule version) due to the supplier’s challenges to meet the current demand,” Carolyn Castel, a spokeswomen for CVS Caremark, said in an e-mail.
Pharmacies around the country are experiencing shortages of the liquid suspension “due to recent increased demand,” Sarah Clark-Lynn, a spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration, said on Thursday.
Ms. Clark-Lynn said the F.D.A. was working with the company that markets Tamiflu, Genentech, to increase supplies. The agency is also letting pharmacists know that in emergencies they can compound the adult Tamiflu capsules to make liquid versions for children.
A similar shortage of Tamiflu has hit Canada, which has also been gripped by widespread flu outbreaks, prompting the government there to tap into a national stockpile of the drug.
“That really unexpected increase in demand — far above other influenza seasons — has really depleted the usual stocks which in any other season would have been more than sufficient,” Dr. Barbara Raymond, director of pandemic preparedness for the Public Health Agency of Canada, told The Ottawa Citizen.
At a time when bankruptcy auctions are filled with sad tales of beleaguered brands, snagging a well-known name for pennies on the dollar can seem like a sure bet for ambitious investors.
Yet, as Stephen F. Heese and Stephen M. Julius describe, buying the rights to a name and restarting operations requires years of dedication.
The two, who were classmates at Harvard Business School in the 1980s, manage their own capital at Stellican, an investment firm. Their goal: to seek out so-called heritage brands — those remembered for their high quality and authenticity — and rebuild a company. One project is the revival of Chris-Craft, once the largest pleasure boat manufacturer in the United States.
The notion of buying and resurrecting a beloved brand can be appealing across product categories, as reflected by the current bidding dance for Hostess or the woefully long ordeal of Saab, which was sold to Chinese and Japanese investors last year.
Chris-Craft, which Stellican now operates, was known for its meticulous design and use of wood and chrome. Its boats were widely sought after and associated with the many celebrities and public figures who owned them, including Katharine Hepburn, Frank Sinatra and Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. That image made it appealing to Stellican’s principals.
Yet, while nostalgia can be a powerful marketing tool, business school case studies are filled with would-be white knights that needed more than money to succeed. For example, Excelsior Henderson, a motorcycle maker twice rescued from bankruptcy, ultimately failed. Yet, Triumph Motorcycles was revived in 1984 and has operated since.
“Brands are not like tech start-ups where there is a template — X number of years to prototype, X number of years to harvest,” said Nancy F. Koehn, a Harvard Business School marketing professor. “A big piece of it is art; there’s an alchemy to it.”
The death and rebirth of Chris-Craft played out over decades. The company was founded by Christopher Columbus Smith, who built his first vessel in 1874 and soon developed a reputation as a master. The Smith family sold Chris-Craft in 1960, around the time fiberglass began displacing wood as the material of choice for boats.
By 1968, Chris-Craft had been sold to the media mogul Herb Siegel. It stopped making wood boats, and expanded beyond powerboats, adding sailboats and houseboats to its offerings. Market share and profits declined.
Enter Stellican. Mr. Julius, with assistance from Mr. Heese, had previously resuscitated Riva, a premium Italian boat maker, in 1998. He sold it to the Italian yacht company Ferretti Group in 2000.
Before joining forces for the Riva deal, Mr. Julius and Mr. Heese took different paths after Harvard. Mr. Julius started his career with the Boston Consulting Group and eventually moved to London. Mr. Heese, a certified public accountant by training, headed to what was then Price Waterhouse and later to the Erico International Corporation, a privately held manufacturer of electrical and mechanical hardware.
In 1991, Mr. Julius formed Stellican as an advisory and investment vehicle for his family’s assets. In 1998, while living in Italy, he called Mr. Heese, who was in the United States, to ask if he could help set up distribution in the United States for Riva. Mr. Heese officially joined Stellican in 2001, and the partners began work on the Chris-Craft deal.
Although the two would not discuss their firm’s financial returns, they say they expect internal return rates higher than 35 percent on their investments.
Stellican owns no more than two companies at once, and typically has an investment ceiling of $10 million. “We put all our eggs in one or two baskets,” Mr. Julius said.
Chris-Craft’s path to revival was tortuous. In 1981, the Chris-Craft boatyard was bought by G. Dale Murray, but Mr. Siegel retained rights to the Chris-Craft name.
Mr. Murray’s company went bankrupt in 1988, and was bought by the Outboard Marine Corporation, which sold several brands of boats as well as outboard engines, before going bankrupt in 2001. After Mr. Heese read about the bankruptcy, he contacted Mr. Julius.
Stellican acquired the assets of Chris-Craft (finished and unfinished boats) and the trademark for the name in separate transactions. The complicated process of acquiring the assets included a 12-hour, 20-way auction held in a conference room at the Chicago office of the law firm Skadden, Arps, Meagher, Slate & Flom.
Four hundred industry players gathered, all competing for the Chris-Craft assets. Mr. Julius, bidding on behalf of Stellican, lost out to the owner of Genmar Industries, Irwin Jacobs, who had teamed up with Bombardier to buy all of Outboard Marine’s assets for $95 million.
As he left the room, Mr. Julius told Mr. Jacobs to call him if he ever wanted to sell Chris-Craft. That call came just days later. In March 2001, Stellican bought the Chris-Craft assets from Genmar for $5 million.
Acquiring the Chris-Craft name, which was still owned by Mr. Siegel, was next. But Mr. Siegel refused to sell the name rights to Stellican. So, when Mr. Julius learned Mr. Siegel was in the process of selling his media company, Chris-Craft Industries, to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, he approached Mr. Murdoch directly.
They reached a deal that enabled Stellican to buy the brand for $5 million.
Restarting operations was a bit more daunting. During the decades when Chris-Craft languished, its products had become middle market, Mr. Julius said. Scrapping the old product line was Stellican’s first order of business.
“It was always, ‘I remember,’ followed by a smile and a positive memory,” he said. Chris-Craft evoked the innocence and promise of post-World War II America — and Henry Fonda piloting a 1950s model in “On Golden Pond.” Building products that fulfilled that promise became their mantra, Mr. Heese said.
Restoring Chris-Craft also required rebuilding its dealer network. Mr. Julius said that dealers were initially skeptical that the type of customer he described — one obsessed with beauty and performance, not price — existed. The company makes 20- to 36-foot boats whose prices range from about $50,000 to $550,000.
He had to sell his products to dealers and feel comfortable they could sell them to customers.
Cost control also remained important, a role falling to Mr. Heese, who signs every check as chief executive. “We’re very hard-nosed when it comes to investing our own money,” he said.
Chris-Craft continues to bolster its dealer network worldwide. In June, the company plans to release a line of Chris-Craft branded sports apparel for a wider market. The company just signed a deal with IMG, which will serve as its licensing agent for watches, sunglasses and toys.
After starting at zero, Chris-Craft sales were $32 million in 2012. Its high was $60 million in 2008.
In between, Stellican bought Indian Motorcycles in 2006, turned it around, and sold it to Polaris Industries in 2011.
The partners acknowledge that their efforts may not have worked at a traditional private equity firm, most of which seek companies with positive cash flows.
Product innovation separates the winners from the losers when it comes to brand revivals, said Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University. “Brands lose value because they get fat, dumb and happy,” he said.
Although Stellican has received attractive offers for Chris-Craft, it plans to hold onto it for now. Mr. Heese said he was in no hurry to begin chasing deals again, a process he described as “gut-wrenching.”
“When you’re buying a company that’s in bankruptcy, you’re sitting across from people who screwed up,” Mr. Heese said. “They’re not dumb — they just got one thing wrong,” he said.
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