Business Pundit

Image: Dangerous Intersection We may be resorting to beans and rice for dinner, but Fido isn’t suffering. This Denver Post article points out that the pet food industry is solid as ever: …spending on pets remains robust, with total sales… Read more

Image: Apple Insider Last night, AT&T unveiled a new website for its MicroCell signal booster, a “miniature cellular tower” that uses your broadband connection to increase your wireless signal strength, notably 3G. CrunchGear has the details:… Read more

FedEx will increase shipping rates 5.9% next year to offset falling profits. The BBC reports: Its net profit for the three months to the end of August was $181m, which was down 53% from the same period last year. The company said that the… Read more

Hannah Montana meets Iron Man? You bet. The Walt Disney Co. today announced it is purchasing Marvel Entertainment–and its 5,000 characters–for $4bn in stock and cash. The AP has more: Analyst David Joyce of Miller Tabak & Co. said the… Read more

Warner Chilcott (NASDAQ: WCRX), a North Ireland-based specialty drugmaker, today acquired Proctor & Gamble’s prescription drug business for $3.1 bn. The Wall Street Journal reports: Six banks, led by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank of… Read more

From the Financial Times: US banks stand to collect a record $38.5bn in fees for customer overdrafts this year, with the bulk of the revenue coming from the most financially stretched consumers amid the deepest recession since the 1930s,… Read more

As part of a consolidation effort, the US Post Office is considering closing or scaling down up to 700 locations. The full post office closure list is here. The San Francisco Chronicle has more: Postal officials released Monday a list of… Read more

BMW today reported that its net profits are down 76% from a year ago. The BBC has more: Carmaker BMW has said it sees few signs of a lasting economic recovery after it reported profits down by three-quarters for the April to June period. Net… Read more

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Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis Virtual assistants–administrative assistants who perform tasks remotely–are emerging as a promising new career class. The Washington Post has more: The term (virtual assistants), around since the Internet… Read more

Security expert Charlie Miller is sharing the details iPhone hack today at the annual Black Hat security conference. The iPhone virus takes control of the device through SMS messages. All an attacker needs is a person’s phone number. Once… Read more

Image source Microsoft and Yahoo just signed an ambitious 10-year search advertising deal. While Yahoo welcomes the deal as an aid for survival, Microsoft has its eyes on dominating the global search market. The Guardian describes the deal’s… Read more

On Friday I asked what is the point of Twitter? And today, the tourism industry offered up an answer. A new report released by by destination marketing firm, Development Counsellors International (DCI) states that . Baltimore , Fort… Read more

AIG took a big step today towards spinning off AIU Holdings, its property-casualty arm. AIG formed a special-purpose vehicle intended to hold AIU Holdings’ equity, rebranded the company as Chartis Insurance, and hired Kristian P. Moor as… Read more