Archive for April, 2010

Fortune 500 2010 Ranking Fortune Magazines

Friday, April 16th, 2010

The companies in this year’s 500 list slashed costs so fast and so deeply especially labor that even in a feeble recovery, their earnings soared.

The long-awaited recovery is now under way, but it’s a slow, painful slog that’s short on trust and confidence and long on a drumbeat of numbers that mostly shift from dreadful to less depressing. Twenty-seven months after the recession began, unemployment is stuck at 9.7%. Housing starts are dragging near half-century lows. Consumers are finally spending again, but they’re still too fearful about their jobs and homes to crowd malls and auto lots with the buoyant abandon that heralds a full-rigged revival, the kind Americans are used to.

Amazingly, as consumers struggle, U.S. corporations are staging a nearly unprecedented comeback that’s largely escaping notice. The gargantuan, dispiriting job cuts that seem to dominate the news have also been the spur for an epic resurgence in profits. For 2009, the Fortune 500 lifted earnings 335%, to $391 billion, a $301 billion jump that’s the second largest in the list’s 56-year history, approaching the increase in the robust recovery of 2003. For last year the 500 raised their return on sales from less than 1% to 4%. That’s close to the list’s 4.7% historical average.

Hence, the 500’s profits virtually returned to normal after years of extremes — bubbles in 2006 and 2007, collapse in 2008 — despite a feeble overall recovery that’s far from normal. This year’s list — reminder: the Fortune 500 ranks U.S. companies by revenue — is packed with changes that reflect and spotlight the trends reshaping corporate America. The homebuilders that occupied 14 places in 2007 and three last year, including Centex and Pulte, have all disappeared, casualties of shrinking sales. No fewer than nine newcomers from recession-resistant health care joined in 2009, among them drugmakers Genzyme (sales: $4.5 billion) and Allergan ($4.5 billion). (more…)

10 Things You Need To Know About The iPad Before You Buy

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

You’ve seen the television commercials and the product reviews.

But maybe, like many gadget lovers, you’re still debating whether you really need this new touch-screen computer from Apple.

To help you make sense of the hype, here are answers to 10 common questions about the iPad, Apple’s much-anticipated “slate” computer, which goes on sale Saturday.

Is there anything else you’d like to know? If so, please post in the comments section below and we’ll do our best to answer your questions.

1. How is the iPad different from a laptop?

The word “laptop” is getting somewhat brushed aside for a truckload of new, confusing categories.

The Apple iPad falls into the slate (some people say tablet) category of portable personal computers, because, unlike a laptop, it doesn’t have a hardware keyboard.

Another key difference: To type and to navigate through files and photos on the iPad, you touch its screen in the same way you operate an iPhone or iPod Touch. That’s possible on some laptop models, but not many. (more…)