Archive for the ‘Be’ Category
Investors, take heart: Warren Buffett sees investment opportunities in the U.S. stock and bond markets, and believes widespread financial turmoil from the credit crunch is behind us.
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| All eyes were on Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb. |
Speaking to reporters Sunday, a day after Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s annual fan-fest for shareholders at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb., both Mr. Buffett, 77 years old, and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, 84, criticized regulators, politicians and accountants for lax oversight of financial institutions that are at the center of the subprime-mortgage crisis, and, according to Mr. Munger, were guilty of “deep conflicts of interest.”
“The regulators and the accountants have failed us terribly,” Mr. Munger said, adding that mark-to-market accounting rules are necessary but can obscure other problems within a company.
This year at Mr. Buffett’s annual gathering for shareholders — often called “Woodstock for Capitalists” — 31,000 Buffett enthusiasts were serenaded by Fruit of the Loom minstrels, enjoyed samples of Berkshire portfolio companies such as Dilly Bars and watched artist Michael Israel speed-paint a Buffett portrait with Benjamin Moore paints.
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Mr. Buffett credited the Federal Reserve for helping to avert a more-widespread crisis on Wall Street by orchestrating a bailout of Bear Stearns Cos. that “prevented, in my opinion, the contagion where you’re going to have runs on investment banks.”
Bank losses “aren’t over by a long shot, but a lot of it has already been recognized,” he said, adding that the depth of the housing crisis, unemployment and other economic factors would help determine how long the write-downs continue.
“The idea of financial panic — that has been pretty much taken care of,” he said.
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Steve Ballmer doesn’t think customers are exactly screaming to keep Windows XP.
The final days for Microsoft XP are fast approaching, according to Microsoft
A hot debate is raging over what Microsoft should do with Windows XP. Windows Vista is simply not viable for low-end PCs that are a mainstay of the consumer home computing market. Windows XP was originally scheduled to be discontinued in January 2008. In preparation for this phase out, most retail computers were to be loaded with Vista.
However, the lawsuits and negative feedback that ensued from underperforming computers struggling with Vista, led Microsoft to reconsider and offer XP “downgrades”. It also gave XP a stay of execution until June 2008, sixth months after the planned date.
June 2008 is fast approaching and now Microsoft is faced with the dilemma of whether to officially retire the OS or further extend its career. In Belgium on Thursday, Steve Ballmer spoke to reporters about the OS’s fate. He indicated that while customer demand could extend the life of the OS, currently he did not see customers demanding it, and he felt that unless something changes, XP would be headed the way of the dinosaur.
He stated, “XP will hit an end-of-life. We have announced one. If customer feedback varies we can always wake up smarter but right now we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments.”
All retail sales and licensing, under the current plan, will end June 30. Ballmer said that despite difficulties, most retail computers today are being sold with Vista, and most customers prefer Vista.
However, some customers portray a different story. They say that they were unable to buy XP in stores. Further, they say that in order to get XP they had to buy their computers as small businesses. It is indeed true that XP is virtually nonexistent at large retailers such as Best Buy and Circuit City.
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