500強今日要聞：谷歌和蘋果手機的定位跟蹤，PG&E首席執行官退休以及美泰敗訴貝茲案
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????智能手機可能暴露你的行蹤。蘋果(Apple)和谷歌(Google)生產的手機會把手機定位信息傳回到公司。這些信息對于正在努力增強手機定位能力的蘋果和谷歌而言具有很大價值，它們希望基于定位功能提供更多服務。安全專家和政府官員們對此表示擔憂。[《華爾街日報》(Wall Street Journal)] ????PG&E首席執行官退休。公用事業公司PG&E的首席執行官彼得?達彼將于4月底離職。過去一年PG&E面臨的重大問題包括導致8人死亡的舊金山郊區管道爆炸事件，以及安裝“智能”氣表導致的用戶不滿等。[《華爾街日報》] ????貝茲案判決。美泰(Mattel)在圍繞芭比之后最受歡迎的塑料娃娃貝茲的一場近十年訴訟案中落敗。加利福尼亞州圣安娜的一家法庭判定，MGA Entertainment并未竊取商業秘密，美泰提起的貝茲知識產權主張也不成立。[CNNMoney] ????求發展，而不是求生存。花旗集團(Citigroup)首席執行官潘偉迪告訴股東，公司不會囿于原有形象，滿足于勉強渡過金融危機。這可能是一個困難的轉變——目前花旗集團的營收仍在萎縮，而投資者認為該公司應出售更多問題資產。[路透社] ????其他銀行的轉變。摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)繼2011年一季度利潤下降后，表示將進行重組。該公司不得不承擔與三菱UFJ (Mitsubishi UFJ)金融集團合資企業的6.55億美元虧損。[《華爾街日報》] ????化工行業的重要消息。陶氏化學(Dow Chemical)宣布將增產乙烯和丙烯，以充分利用美國頁巖氣田天然氣凝析液產量增加的大好機會。這些化工品能用于生產泳池膠膜、連褲襪和尿不濕。[路透社] |
????YOUR SMARTPHONE TRACKS YOU, probably. Phones made by Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) send location data from the devices back to the companies. That information is valuable to Apple and Google since they're trying to build the capability to offer users more location-based services. Security experts and government officials are concerned. [Wall Street Journal] ????PG&E CEO RETIRES Peter Darbee, the Chief Executive Officer of utility company PG&E will leave at the end of April. PG&E (PCG) faced major problems in the past year including a pipeline explosion in a San Francisco suburb that killed eight people and a backlash against its rollout of "smart" meters. [Wall Street Journal] ????BRATZ CASE SETTLED Mattel (MAT) lost a nearly decade-long battle over the rights to Bratz, the most popular plastic dolls to hit the market since Barbie. A court in Santa Ana, California ruled that MGA Entertainment did not steal trade secrets, nor did Mattel have a valid copyright claim on the Bratz franchise. [CNNMoney] ????THRIVE NOT SURVIVE Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit told shareholders that his company will move beyond its image of the bank that barely scraped through the financial crisis. That may be a tough makeover--Citigroup's (C) revenue is still shrinking, and investors say it needs to shed more of its troubled assets. [Reuters] ????IN OTHER BANK MAKEOVERS Morgan Stanley (MS) said it's going to restructure itself, following a drop in profit for the first quarter of 2011. The company had to absorb $655 million in losses from its joint venture with Mitsubishi UFJ financial group. [Wall Street Journal] ????CHEMICAL PUSH Dow Chemical (DOW) announced that it was going to make more ethylene and propylene so that it can profit from the increasing amount of natural gas liquids being produced from shale fields in the United States. The chemicals can be used to make products including swimming pool liners, pantyhose and diapers. [Reuters] |
