Finance to Fashion: William McQuillan

It is pretty safe to say that not everyone in the world of finance started out there.  Just like there are people in other industries who started out elsewhere as well.  People change and merge interests and philosophies and that puts them in the position to carry on into new jobs and roles.  One unique story is the one of William McQuillan the co-founder and CEO of Osmoda.

Google Renews with Firefox

Today, Google made an unpredicted move and renewed its contract with Firefox for another three years.  The deal will reportedly be worth $300 million per year, and will keep Google as the default search engine in the No. 2 most used Web browser.  This has reasonably baffled more than a few analysts, who expected Google not to renew the deal for several reasons, the obvious one being the existence of Google’s Chrome browser which it no doubt seeks to push past Firefox and closer to overtaking Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.  Nevermind that over the past weekend, Google Chrome actually had the coveted No. 1 position as the most popular browser on PCs, if only for a single day.  

Underwear Sales are Up

Does that mean the economy is really recovering?

Just ask any person who has some knowledge about business, finance, and the economy and you will find that the economy is, in fact, cyclical.  Yes, that means that it does go in cycles.  There are great years, good years, not-so-good years, and awful years that the economy and people have to face.  Of course no one likes to face those not-so-good and awful years because it is not ideal at all.  Honestly I cannot think of a single person who likes to cut back on things due to the fact that the economy is suffering.

This does not just go for individuals either, but businesses struggle and face difficult times too.  Some businesses are forced to shut up shop and close down after many, many successful years.  There are others that can certainly push through, but it is not an easy road to take.  

Is a Crisis Among Us?

Everyday I go to a job and work around eight hours.  Then I go home just to wake up the next day and do it all again.  Now I am certainly not complaining.  I love my job and I love the fact that I have a job, but working everyday is not necessarily something I want to do.  I need to work.  Why?  Well, why do you work?  I have to live.  I have bills.  Living is not cheap and it costs money.  Some people’s lives cost more.  I have some school loans and debt that I am trying to pay off so I might have to work more to pay more.  

Zynga’s IPO

In a statement on Zynga’s blog on it’s IPO day in December 2011: “Today’s a proud day here at Zynga. It’s a time to reflect on our mission to connect the world through games and bring play to everyone, everywhere. With reflection in mind, we dug deep to find a few amazing stats that power our games,” a company spokesman said.  The company is celebrating raising close to $1 billion during its initial public offering, which makes it the largest IPO from an Internet company since Google.  That’s historic.

Apple Shares Dive on Siri Outage

On a day when its shares were at an all-time high and Apple was being downgraded by one analyst for the first time in more than six months, news that Siri, Apple’s AI driven voice software on its new iPhone 4s, was malfunctioning came as a dreaded bit of information– especially on the heels of RIM’s embarrassing Blackberry service outage last week.

Many reports and social networking status updates report that users are having trouble getting the Siri voice-activated personal assistant to work.

“Some users began having problems on Friday, the day the iPhone 4S went on sale, according to CNet, with many saying that the app was not connecting to process voice commands. The software requires the use of a Wi-Fi or 3G network to access the Apple servers that power the app’s answers.”

History of Currency

Currency is an economic term that refers to any generally accepted medium of exchange or trade. These are most often the coins and bank notes of the world’s governments, which account for the physical aspects of a country’s money supply. The other dimension of a nation’s money supply is made up of bank deposits.  The ownership of this deposit money can be transferred by means of checks or debit cards as well as other forms of money transfer. Deposits and currency are money by definition, since both are acceptable as a means of payment. Currency trading is as old as the world, and has an intriguing history of evolution.

Effective Online Marketing

A large part of the success of you business finance management lies with the degree of warmth with which your website is received by its intended audience.  That’s right:  decisions are made about your company on a daily basis, and about 73% of them are based on the first impressions they get when they arrive at your company website.  Be it for good or for ill, your website says the first, and often most important, things about your company and its abilities regardless of what field you are in.  Good business financial planning begins with good website design and excellent content on the site.

Finance and Bulk Herbal Incense

Bulk herbal incense is often mentioned as being called “herbal smoke”, or at other times “legal smoke.” In 2004 in Europe, the substance was first developed and sold under the brand name Spice Gold, then later as another packaged substance known widely as K2. Later, many other brand names emerged as more and more varieties of these products found there way to market. Currently advertised as legal alternatives to marijuana, many users find the experience to be comparable in most ways to using weed.

In the United States the sales of these “herbal incense products” went through the roof in 2009. The products are currently very popular and often sell on the open market for much higher prices per gram than real cannabis. It has been available nearly everywhere in head shops and convenience stores nationwide. Internet sales continue to be a popular way to obtain them.

Pundit’s Corner: Why is the World Surprised?

Today, the LA Times reports that Facebook’s growth is slowing in both the United States and in Canada.  People are talking about this.  A lot.  And I have to ask the question everyone really wants to ask, but no one has the nerve to enunciate:  ”Why do people find this surprising — or interesting — in any way?”  It only stands to reason that there are a limited number of people in the United States and Canada who are eligible to sign up for Facebook accounts.  Sooner or later, they will all have either signed up, or completely ditched the Facebook experience altogether.  Is that okay with everyone?

“Most of the new users continue to come from countries that are relatively late in adopting Facebook, as has been the trend for the past year,” Eric Eldon, a marketing researcher, said.