Archive for the ‘Industry News’ Category

Here is to a successful and prosperous 2009 from the entire Vcorp Services team!

With the the year coming to a close, there has been a flurry of settlements coming from the legal community.

This past week, Acacia Research Corporation announced that its Hospital Systems Corporation subsidiary resolved litigation with Philips Electronics North America Corporation pending before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

The litigation related to a portfolio of patents that apply to medical picture archiving and communication system (PACS) technology.

Canadian infrastructure is in crisis. In a special five part series – Rebuilding Canada – Canwest News Service explored the critical infrastructure issues facing cities.  The series takes an in-depth look at the realities and the dollars behind Canada’s infrastructure crisis including:

• A study by economic forecasting firm Informetrica estimates that every one billion dollars invested in infrastructure would create the equivalent of 11,000 jobs, including 5,500 in the construction sector.
• The Canadian Federation of Municipalities estimates that our cities need $123 billion to bring essential public infrastructure up to acceptable levels; and another $115 billion to meet the needs of a growing population.
• Canada’s social infrastructure (pools, libraries, arts centres, community halls) is estimated to be in need of a $40.2 billion dollar boost to maintain and grow to meet the needs of an expanding population.
• The average Canadian produced more than 1,000 kilograms of garbage in 2006 and we’re running out of places to put it. A number of Canadian provinces have major projects in place to convert and compost that waste into renewable resources.
• Transit initiatives in six of Canada’s largest cities will transform the way commuters move between work and home. Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa and Montreal all have billion dollar projects planned.

If you are like me and believe that proper organization is a prerequisite to success, then you will be happy to hear that the State of New Jersey may be establishing a court segment focused specifically on business cases.  A Bill was introduced on December 10th that would make this possible.

This business court would cover the following types of cases:

• Business Contract Law
• The Uniform Commercial Code
• Banking
• Insurance
• Commodities
• Securities
• Corporations
• Non-profits
• Partnerships
• Limited liability entities
• Trusts
• Competition among businesses
• Reorganizations
• Dispositions of businesses
• Business combinations
• Shareholder, partner and member disputes
• Intellectual property matters
• Non-competes
• Employment agreements

Considering that this court would have judges knowledgeable regarding all forms of corporate disputes, this could prove to be a successful model for the rest of the country to follow.  New Jersey already has a court designated for tax law, setting up a Business Court was the next logical step for the legislature to establish.  From all reports this bill should pass with little resistance.

If you are in the real estate industry, you know how difficult it can be to supply relevant and timely information to clients can be.  That is why I am a strong proponent of real estate specific search engines.  And one in particular even allows other web properties to partner with them, which is especially beneficial. Trulia announced the momentum of its Trulia Publisher Platform (TPP), a hosted technology solution that gives Web publishers the ability, completely free of charge, to create co-branded online real estate sections powered by Trulia’s search technology. With TPP, publishers can offer their audiences the ability to find and research homes nationwide using Trulia’s innovative search technology, award-winning user interface and useful online tools like local real estate guides, heat maps and sales comparable information.

TPP is profitable for partners from day one because the platform is offered for free and allows partners to monetize the experience through their own display advertising. And because Trulia hosts the TPP site co-brand, implementation is turn-key and publishers always have immediate access to Trulia’s latest functionality and features.

“As newspapers, magazines and Web publishers continue to evolve their business models, the Trulia Publisher Platform is an excellent alternative to their web site’s home search needs,” said Pete Flint, co-founder and CEO of Trulia. “Because of the easy integration, best-in-class technology and favorable economics for the publishers, we’ve been able to power real estate search for over 100 websites in less than a year.”

“The Trulia Publisher Platform allows us to leverage Trulia’s technology to integrate real estate search functionality seamlessly throughout our site,” said Jennifer Simonds, VP of Audience and Business Development at U.S. News & World Report. “We can then focus on content creation and ultimately deliver a greatly enhanced product that appeals to both our visitors and advertisers.”

It’s no easy feat to come to America at the age of 10, grow up in modest circumstances and become a real estate millionaire by the age of 30.

But Moe Vahnish did it. Fresh out of college, he studied every real estate investing course he could get his hands on, applied for every credit card that you could think of, and maxed out handfuls of cards to purchase his first condo. A little over a decade later, he owns millions of dollars in properties and buys and sells dozens of them a year.

Now, this American success story has written a highly readable and practical guide that can teach just about anyone how he or she can do it, too.

More than just theory, The Road to Real Estate Wealth walks readers through a dozen complete actual real estate transactions, allowing the reader to follow Mr. Vahnish as he searches for, selects, finances, renovates and sells properties at great profit. No previous knowledge is needed, but even veteran investors will find a world of new knowledge in this exciting book.

Members of the Neighborhood Market Association strongly opposed the $4.4 billion dollar tax plan introduced in the Legislature this past month that would dramatically increase the cost of alcohol products.  The proposed tax hike on spirits, wine and beer will have detrimental impacts on local hospitality business, leading to loss of sales and potentially eliminating over 20,000 jobs statewide in the process. Furthermore, the projected loss in sales would reduce grocery, convenience and package store sales by nearly $470 million and restaurant and tavern sales by around $540 million. In total, retail sales are projected to decline by over $1 billion.

“With slumping sales and declining revenues, our businesses just can’t take another hit,” said Auday Peter Arabo, President of the Neighborhood Market Association. “Alcohol is already one of the highest taxed consumer good – Californians should not be forced to pay more for products they enjoy responsibly.”

Representing over 2,000 independent family-owned retailers throughout California, who employ over 21,000 workers and provide over $2.5 Billion in gross receipts to the State of California annually. The Neighborhood Market Association is dedicated to empowering independent retailers in the food and alcohol beverage industry throughout California, Nevada and Arizona.

Despite a faltering economy, commercial building owners are continuing to allocate funds and resources to green their portfolios. According to the “2008 Green Survey: Existing Buildings,” the second annual national survey of the commercial real estate sector, more than 80 percent of respondents have allocated funds to green initiatives this year. In addition, 45 percent said that their sustainability investment will increase in 2009. Findings of the study, sponsored jointly by Incisive Media’s Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com, the Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA) and the U.S, Green Building Council, was released today at Greenbuild 2008, the annual conference and expo. Complete survey results appear in the November issue of Real Estate Forum magazine, online at GlobeSt.com and in the January/February 2009 issue of The BOMA Magazine.

Other findings included the following:

• Energy conservation is the most widely implemented green program in respondent properties, followed by recycling, water conservation and ENERGY STAR product programs.
• 60 percent of those polled offer educational programs to assist tenants in implementing green programs, up from 49.4 percent last year.
• Almost 70 percent of survey participants have implemented some type of benchmarking system to monitor energy usage and efficiency, while 80 percent say that their efficiency efforts have helped defray rising energy costs.
• Almost 65 percent of respondents feel that their green investments have generated a positive ROI, up from 60.8 percent in 2007.

An independent study conducted by the Threewide Corporation, revealed that the real estate search engine, Trulia has topped their charts as a real estate lead generator as well as visitors sent to listing broker and agent sites through the Threewide ListHub service.  Threewide’s ListHub works in concert with MLS’s various franchises and brokerages as well as core real estate technologies to bring real estate companies a single dashboard for controlling their online marketing strategy. Threewide analyzed the traffic sent to clients from their syndication feeds to get results for this study.

The study analyzed approximately 600,000 listings sent from MLSs and brokers to 17 of the largest real estate sites including Yahoo! Real Estate, Frontdoor, Zillow and Cyberhomes to name a few. Below are some highlights from the survey findings:

• Trulia generated the most leads in this period with almost 12,500 - over 30% of all client leads generated through the 17 real estate sites
• The second closest company had just over 15% of all leads and the 3^rd just over 12%, with the top 5 making up almost 80% of all leads sent to brokers and agents
• Trulia had the highest percentage of visitors sent to ListHub’s broker and agent clients with over 35% of all home buyers/sellers sent to ListHub clients
• Over 8,000 listings received at least 1 lead from a consumer coming directly from Trulia, with the nearest company sending traffic resulting in leads for a little over 3,600 listings

“Trulia has delivered an incredible number of potential homebuyers to our broker/agent customers because they are consistently among the top consumer traffic generators in the ListHub network,” said Mark Wise, COO and Co-Founder of Threewide. “As a result of this traffic, we are also seeing more and more MLSs sending all of their listings to Trulia helping their broker/agent customers sell their listings in today’s market. We are very excited to see all of our customers realizing the importance of working with Trulia within the ListHub Network.”

According to the findings of a recent consumer sentiment study, performed by L.E.K. Consulting, show that consumers are planning dramatic shifts in their personal spending through the end of the year and into 2009. These anticipated shifts in spending vary by category, but the changes appear to be more lasting than in previous downturns.

L.E.K.’s research confirms that people:

• feel their personal financial situation has worsened dramatically,
• are determined to get their financial house back in order, and
• have made specific plans to alter their buying habits to achieve that goal.

Personal Savings vs. Personal Consumption

Until the recent disruptions, consumers believed that they were accumulating wealth in real estate and the stock market—and this persuaded them to save very little and spend a lot. As a result, over the past six decades, personal savings declined significantly, while personal consumption rates continued to increase.

This consumer research suggests strongly that at least in the near term, both of these trend lines will reverse direction, perhaps dramatically. An end to “easy credit” will certainly have an impact, but there appears to be an even broader psychological shift at work. Savings will increase and consumption will decline commensurately.

“This trend represents a startling reversal, with huge implications for the economy,” said Andrew Rees, L.E.K. Vice President and co-author of the study. “If consumers do indeed move the savings rate back to the average over the past 20 years—around 7 percent—that will take between $115 billion and $120 billion out of the consumer economy on a quarterly basis.” He added, “In the short term, our research suggests they’ll probably do more than that. For instance, if they save at a rate of 10 percent, which has historic precedent, it could take as much as $200 billion out of the economy each quarter. The implications for the retail industry are enormous.”

To put that number in perspective, the entire consumer-stimulus tax package enacted last spring totalled less than $150 billion.

Discretionary vs. Non-Discretionary Expenditures across Retail Categories

The study findings further revealed how consumers rated various categories of expenditures from “least discretionary” to “most discretionary.” Staple goods such as groceries, household cleaning supplies, and health products were rated least discretionary, while items such as jewelry, sporting equipment, and home décor accessories were rated most discretionary.

In analyzing these consumer choices, Dan McKone, L.E.K. Vice President, and co-author of the study noted, “Not too many surprises here for most retailers and brand managers. But digging down deeper, our research reveals a host of interesting choices that consumers are now making about their purchases. For example, although “Cosmetics” and “Intimates” rank fairly close together—that is, on the lower end of the discretionary-spending scale—it turns out that consumers intend to cut their spending on cosmetics by less than 10 percent, but are prepared to cut their spending on intimates by between 10 and 20 percent: i.e., twice as much. Therefore, consumers may define cosmetics as “discretionary,” but they’re not yet prepared to give them up.”

Implications for the Retail and Consumer Products Sectors

Ultimately, some retailers and brand managers are simply hoping for the best—i.e., adopting short-term tactical measures and praying for a quick recovery. But all indications are that this recession will be longer and deeper than those in recent memory. And as we all know too well, consumer confidence drives the retail and consumer products sectors—and consumer confidence has fallen to levels not seen in decades.

To help retailers and consumer products players successfully manage through the downturn and be positioned for growth in 2009, Rees and McKone recommend the following:

• Quickly recognize the current slow down in consumer spending is likely to be sustained
• Ensure cost cuts and capacity are consistent with these new revenue realities
• Look for opportunities to enhance strategic position relative to competitors
• Explore incremental opportunities in adjacent segments