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A new AOL Inc. 10-K filing with the SEC today revealed the company is warning shareholders it expects lower than expected advertising revenue in 2010 from its online web properties.
AOL confirmed via the filing that total advertising revenue in Q1 2010 will be lower than Q1 2009.
The company attributed the decline in advertising revenue in both 2008 and 2009 as a direct casualty of the global financial crisis.
The Obama administration today unveiled a proposal to create new economic incentives that are aimed at assisting middle class Americans during this difficult economic time.
President Obama is proposing to double tax credits, force the creation of IRAs (these are workplace retirement savings vehicles) in firms for employees, and to limit student educational loan payments at 10-percent of total annual gross income, additional tax-cuts for families that are overseeing the care of elderly relatives, among other initiatives.
The Bank of Canada today gave an updated outlook to Canada’s economy for 2011.
The top bank implied interest rates would remain close to zero post Q2 2010 despite the economy slowly growing in 2009.
The bank noted despite marginal growth in 2009, stimulus capital is still necessary to maintain the current growth. The top bank estimated Canada’s economy was operating at about 97-percent of full employment in Q4 2009.
Citigroup has posted its Q4 2009 earnings, reporting a massive $7.6-billion loss ($0.33 per share) in the quarter. Compared to Q4 2008, Citigroup reported a $17.3-billion loss ($3.40 per share).
For the fiscal year ended 2009, Citigroup posted a $1.6-billion loss.
Citigroup generated $5.4-billion in total revenue for the quarter, or $15-5-billion excluding direct charges incurred from repayments to the U.S. Treasury’s TARP program.
The U.S. Treasury currently owns 27-percent of Citigroup.
Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit said today in a statement that the bank had made “enormous progress in 2009,”
United Parcel Service (UPS) Inc. today announced specific plans as part of its cost-cutting initiative that is set to take effect this April. UPS also increased its forecast of expected earnings for Q4 2009, and said it expects to now beat analyst expectations of $0.63 per share. The company is now expecting EPS to be in the range of $0.73-$0.75, significantly up from analyst expectations of $0.58-$0.65 per share for Q4 2009.
The company announced today it would cut up to 1,800 jobs as part of a broader cost-cutting restructuring plan.
The company confirmed today the job-cuts would come from management and administrative roles at the firm across the United States.
We’ve seen a lot of things happen in 2009, some things were expected, some were not, some were shocking, and some were simply never seen or heard of before.
From the biggest Ponzi scheme ever seen in U.S. history, to the global financial credit crisis, to historic health care reform championed by the first black President of the United States.
A lot has happened in 2009, and we’ve compiled it all up for you with the top 8 topics of the entire year.
1. The Global Financial Crisis
With the near collapse of the global credit market, and unprecedented actions being taken by global leaders to stave off a global economic meltdown, the financial crisis was plastered in the media almost every day and even became a primary presidential voting issue, thereby making it the story of 2009. With billions provided in emergency bailout loans to financial intermediaries, Wall Street was still paying millions in bonuses with outstanding government loans, while millions of Americans faced forclosurer and high unemployment rates. The Obama administration later moved to block $165-million in AIG bonuses alone and later blocked bonuses from being paid while the financial intermediaries had outstanding government debt. Warren Buffet’s company Berkshire Hathaway even reported its biggest loss ever (only its second loss in its history). There were also opportunities for firms to act on, such as Disney who acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4B. Despite households losing significant amounts of money primairly from their positions in risky equity positions, some did profit (though not for too long)…Bearnie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison following a conviction for operating the biggest Ponzi scheme ever seen in U.S. history that saw $50 billion defrauded from investors.
GM Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre (left)
Breaking now: General Motors just said that it has made payments to both the U.S. Treasury and Canadian federal and Ontario provincial governments to start paying down the emergency government loans made by the respective countries.
GM confirmed today the company returned $192 million to Canada, and $1 billion the U.S. Treasury. Aggregately, GM still owes both nations $5.77 billion.
The Canadian government firstly committed $2.8 billion in emergency loans to the Canadian auto sector, a proportional amount based on Canada’s 20-percent North American auto sector market share.
President Obama today just wrapped up a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington urging the federal government to do more to help smaller businesses to help create jobs.
Obama’s new proposal aims at investing $50 billion for infrastructure, the removal of capital-gains taxes on new investments for up to a year, more investments in clean energy, and likely most importantly, a tax break for small businesses. The main hope, besides getting firms to increase capital spending, is to get small businesses to hire more people as U.S. unemployment remains above 10-percent.
The U.S. second-largest bank, the Bank of America, has posted poor Q3 (July to Sept) 2009 earnings, posting a massive $2.2 billion (a loss of $0.26 per share) loss in the quarter.
Revenue was up 33-percent in Q3 to $26.04 billion, but the increased losses stemming from an increasing number of people defaulting on their mortgage and credit loans resulted in those two units losing more than $1 billion in the period.
President Obama just finished delivering a speech from NY’s Federal Hall, a day before the anniversary of the collapse of Goldman Sachs.
Obama urged Congress to pass a sweeping bill by the end of this year to help ensure firms don’t make irresponsible trades or make irresponsible lending decisions.
Obama said, “I did not run for president to intervene in financial markets,” but gave a stern warning that, “Those on Wall Street cannot resume taking risks without regard for consequences, and expect that next time, American taxpayers will be there to break their fall.”
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