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Upcoming Events . Department of Accounting and Business Law Golf Outing and Awards Banquet, September 4, 2008, please contact Dianna Brandenburg for details, 507-389-2965; College

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Business administration degree overview including program objectives for students in DeVry’s business administration program.

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Discover business finance solutions for your company at the Business.com Money Channel. Read our Money Insider news blog for the latest buzz on financial products and services

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The Capital Times - your progressive news source for local, thought and sports Mike DeVries/The Capital Times. A well-rounded University Square — almost

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Virginia Business - Intelligence for and about Virginia’s business
Virginia Business Magazine - Business trends, profiles and industry information for the Virginia business community.

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H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship | Florida
H. Wayne Huizenga school of business and entrepreneurship, part of the Nova Southeastern University, offers undergraduate, graduate and doctorate programs in business, bookkeeping

Business | Dallas Business, Texas Business, Fort Worth Business
Read Dallas business news and Fort Worth business news at the Star-Telegram. What’s up for fall air travel: not fares, at least not right now. It’s typically a time for deals

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Watermen ply the waters of the Chesapeake Bay in search of blue crabs off of Buckroe Beach in Hampton. (Adrin Snider, Daily Press)

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Provides news, information and events about the college’s schools, majors and departments. Visitors can also learn about giving to the college, student organizations, the new

Business - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Business Drug store thefts a billion-dollar business. When law enforcement officials raided a Sunrise warehouse in 2005, they found millions of dollars worth of stolen Crest

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Missouri Business Development Program
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Business Banking, Small Business Banking, Account, Insurance
Business Banking from Lloyds TSB, specialist small business banking services including bank accounts, loans, business cards and business insurance services, banking services for

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Houston Business Directory, Online Business Directory for Houston
Business directory for Houston, offering online advertising, web design, marketing and promotion for Houston area businesses

Business.Utah.gov - Utah.gov
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Business, financial, personal finance news - CNNMoney.com
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DC.Gov’s Business Resource Center provides information about and links to numerous resources for doing business in DC, including city services, incentives, licenses, permits

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University of Missouri Extension’s business development program brings together Missouri’s business resources into one simple to access network. Site provides access to skilled

South Florida-Broward County, Palm Beach County and Miami business
Business and financial news from South Florida, Broward County, Palm Beach County, Miami Dade. Get latest news on investing, personal finances, small business, corporate

wcbstv.com - Business
Jury Awards Mattel $100M In Barbie-Bratz Lawsuit Source: MGA Entertainment A federal jury awarded Mattel Inc. $100 million in damages Tuesday after a serious girl fight

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Filed under: Deals, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Marketing and advertising

Sheldon suggested the other day that Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) should split off its web search and services arm so that it could fit superior with a possible Yahoo, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) combination. Instead of pleasing that notion, Microsoft still has some cash to spend to ensure, for now at least, it still has a growing presence in the internet search and e-commerce arena.

To that end, the company announced this morning that it will spend $486 million to purchase Greenfield Online, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRVY) as it swiped an earlier takeover offer from the Quadrangle Group with its $15.50 per share offer. Microsoft’s offer of $17.50 per share is a 10% premium over Greenfield’s closing price this past Monday, when the offer was received without Greenfield knowing the origin. That is, until today.

Microsoft wants control of www.ciao.com, one of Europe’s leading price comparison shopping search engines. Does Microsoft really think owning a leading consumer review and price shopping search engine will bolster its Microsoft Live platform? Since it couldn’t compete in the U.S. against Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), perhaps Microsoft is turning to international buys as a second competitive act. Greenfield also has an “internet survey solutions” division that Microsoft will sell to an undisclosed buyer.

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Filed under: Analyst reports, Deals, AT and T (T), Sprint Nextel Corp (S)

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) seems to be on the mend from a perception standpoint. CEO Dan Hesse is still running TV advertisements with his direct email address and a personal message to potential Sprint subscribers. The cellular carrier has a refined, electric image and has a decent competitor to Apple, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone. Is it still in bad financial shape? That answer would be yes, as it continues to lose customers every single quarter.

While a Sprint/T-Mobile partnership was rumored this summer, the technology used between the two companies is incompatible. From a layman’s perspective, it’s precisely the problem that doomed the Sprint acquisition of Nextel. To this day, the brands still operate independently in many ways. That’s been a death knell for the company, while more massive competitor AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) perfectly merged its network with the now-gone Cingular over a few years. Still, would T-Mobile really want to team up with Sprint? Only if Sprint jettisons the Nextel brand and network sometime in 2008.

Analyst Christopher Larsen with Credit Suisse makes a decent argument for Sprint and Nextel parting ways as soon as possible, citing the recent $3 billion fund raiser Sprint announced. Could an impending corporate divorce be in the works? Sprint has already written off tens of billions in the bungled Nextel merger, but it could raise over $7.5 billion by selling Nextel.

Still, with the third- and fourth-largest wireless players (Sprint and T-Mobile, respectively) ripe for consolidation, combining two very different networks superior work if there’s even a hint of a future combination between the two. But right now, that may be the only choice: Verizon Wireless and AT&T are kicking butt in the wireless market in the U.S.

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Filed under: Business, World wide web, Web services, web 2.0

New web apps often make a lot of claims that just don’t hold up under testing. When I decided to put Quarkbase.com through the paces, I fully expected to be underwhelmed. After all, their motto is “Everything About A Website.”

Holy information overload Batman, this one really surprised me.

Pick a domain and hit search, then give Quarkbase a opportunity to dig up its research. They say to wait about 30 seconds, though my successful searches worked more swiftly. I did get a few failure notices because of high traffic, but I understand why. Quarkbase finds so much information about your website that it’s mindblowing.

What does it find? The domain owner, registrar, creation date, primary language, similar sites (*yawn* so far), traffic rank, blog rank, countries in which it’s popular, description and “official” contact info, people involved, incoming links, and more. Unlike the “similar pages” Google search returns, the Quarkbase suggestions were pretty much right on the money.

But wait, there’s more. It’ll track down numbers on Digg, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Technorati, Reddit, Delicious, and Yahoo Answers. Quarkbase even knows how many times the site have made Digg’s front page. It also generates a list of the most popular recent page and five popular pages of all time based on these stats.

Quarkbase is an incredibly informative tool and undeniably useful for anyone working the internet.

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Business Banking, Small Business Banking, Account, Insurance
Business Banking from Lloyds TSB, specialist small business banking services including bank accounts, loans, business cards and business insurance services, banking services for

business legal definition of business. business synonyms by the Free
business n. any activity or enterprise entered into for profit. It does not mean it is a company, a corporation, partnership, or have any such formal organization, but it can range

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About Us | Business.gov
Learn how Business.gov helps small businesses start and manage their operations while complying with business laws and government regulations.

Chicago Business News, Analysis & Articles | lists, rankings
Offers daily local business news, plus links to public records and local and national business-oriented sites. Features personalized email alerts, business calendar submissions

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Business Information and Business News - Forbes.com
Business News - Financial markets coverage with personal finance advice, tools, and investing tips from Forbes and affiliated publications.

Business Cell Phones, Business Mobile Phone Plans, and Wireless
Increase productivity for your Business by using Sprint Wireless Business Solutions. Get Business Cell Phones, Mobile Phone Plans, and access to self-service account management

State of Illinois Business Portal
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Business Credit
Business Credit - Business credit builds your business. All entrepreneurs should have solid business credit to meet their growth needs. Learn the benefits of corporate credit and

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Filed under: Before the bell, Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Deals, Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Pfizer (PFE), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), ConocoPhillips (COP), Mattel, Inc (MAT), AMR Corp (AMR), Lilly (Eli) (LLY), Analyst initiations, Economic data, Oil, Housing

U.S. stock futures were lower this morning on fear Tropical Storm Gustav’s path may pose a threat to refinery activity along the Gulf of Mexico coastline and some would have to close down. Indeed, oil prices rose to above $117 a barrel Wednesday. Also in focus today is the upcoming durable goods order to be reported before the opening bell. Meanwhile, the FDIC is considering borrowing funds from the Treasury, amid an expected wave of bank failures. Nine banks have failed so far this year, and the number of troubled U.S. banks rose 30% to 117 in the second quarter.
[Update: Futures turned positive after durable goods unexpectedly gained.]

Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE), which stocks jumped massive Tuesday, both had several ratings cut by Standard & Poor’s. Still, both stocks seem to continue their climb in premarket with Fannie shares up 7.5% and Freddie’s up 10%. At least two analysts, from Citigroup and Goldman stated Tuesday the situation isn’t as bad as it may seem.

From financials to toys: A federal jury awarded Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT) $100 million in damages on Tuesday in a federal copyright lawsuit against MGA Entertainment Inc., the maker of the saucy Bratz dolls.

Moving to pharmaceuticals, Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN) and Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) shares are down 10% and 1% respectively in premarket trading after four more patients taking their Byetta diabetes medication have died. Baird downgraded Amylin from Buy to Neutral and cut its price target from $37 to $27. Soleil downgraded AMLN from Hold to Sell.

Meanwhile, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) said that early results from a Phase III study show the companies’ blood-clot-drug candidate apixaban did not meet its primary goals.

In Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) news, The Guardian reports that “A TV ad for Apple’s iPhone has been banned by the UK’s advertising watchdog for misleading consumers after it over-hyped the internet abilities of the smart phone.” Since the iPhone does not support Flash or Java, claims that “all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone” are deemed misleading.
And if you missed it Tuesday, iPhone 3Gs now outnumber first generation iPhones.

A recent comScore data release show Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was the top display advertiser in June 2008, which was due in huge part to its promotional campaign for Windows Live Search and other such promotions.

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Filed under: Deals, Electronic Arts (ERTS)

Shares of Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO) are up about 3% today after the company disclosed that it has entered into a confidentiality agreement with Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS), in a sign that a deal might get done after all. Last week, Electronic Arts let its tender offer expire but said that it would listen to a confidential presentation on the company’s operations.

In an 8-K filed with the SEC yesterday, Electronic Arts disclosed the confidentiality agreement and added that its terms prohibit the company from commenting publicly on the negotiations until a deal is reached or discussions are terminated.

It’s hard to know what to make of this. By getting Electronic Arts to sign a confidentiality agreement, Take-Two has put an end to the tit-for-tat soap opera aspect of this takeover battle. Whether they’re serious about getting a deal done remains to be seen. Given Take-Two’s track record of filibustering and questionable governance, I’m skeptical. At this point, investors should be evaluating shares of Take-Two Interactive based on its prospects as a stand-alone business, not the chances of a deal that Take-Two’s board has demonstrated a lack of enthusiasm about.

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Filed under: Deals, Merrill Lynch (MER), Lehman Br Holdings (LEH)

Temasek Holdings is one of Singapore’s sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), managing $130 billion. Over the past few years, the fund has been diversifying into emerging markets as well as developed economies.

In fact, Temasek was one of the early investors in some major U.S. financial institutions. It has invested $5 billion in Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) back in December.

While Temasek hasn’t tracked well, SWFs focus on the long term. Temasek still appears to be bullish on U.S. financial services companies as the portfolio concentration is a whopping 40%. And there are even rumors that Temasek may invest in Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH).

According to its annual report, Tamasek reported a $12.8 billion net profit for the past year as of the end of March. Keep in mind that the fund has engaged in a variety of asset sales.

Going forward, Tamasek is glum on its forecast, though. Basically, the fund thinks that the credit crunch will last another two years - which is certainly depressing.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar On the internet Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

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