Moving and Storage Business News

The News Review:

- Paris Hilton suing to shut down website
- Siafu Software Enters the IP SAN Storage Market with Rapid Momentum…
- Fergie Pushing Candie’s In New Ad Campaign – News Story | Music,…
- Colbert takes a holiday
- Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Arts & Entertainmen…
- Contractor blamed for slow Katrina recovery
- Peak International Reports Third Quarter Financial Results.
- PROFILE – MALAYSIA’S RETAIL INDUSTRY (JAN 2007).

Paris Hilton suing to shut down website
RTE.ie – Jan 31, 2007
‘The Simple Life’ star filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Los Angeles on Monday, according to reports. The lawsuit claims that some of her personal belongings were taken from storage after a moving company failed to pay a bill and then displayed on the Internet, with people being asked to pay a fee to see the pictures. Advertisement
Hilton’s lawyers said in the lawsuit: “This action seeks to enjoin perhaps one of the most single egregious and reprehensible invasions of privacy ever committed against an individual. ”
According to reports, the items that were displayed on the website were put into storage by Paris Hilton and her sister Nicky after they moved house, with a moving company supposed to handle the rent. Hilton said in a declaration with the lawsuit: “I was appalled to learn that people are exploiting my and my sisters’ private personal belongings for commercial gain.

Siafu Software Enters the IP SAN Storage Market with Rapid Momentum…
Free with registration – Business Wire – AccessMyLibrary.com – Jan 31, 2007
Company Successfully Launches A New Series Of Cost-Effective IP SAN Appliances Rapidly Expands Its Product Line With New Tape Compression and Encryption Appliances Builds Strong Customer and VAR Adoption POWAY, Calif. — Siafu Software, a leader in easy-to-install, easy-to-manage encrypted iSCSI solutions for affordable IP storage, today announced that it has exceeded its aggressive corporate goals for 2006, including rapid product delivery and strong VAR and customer adoption. After shipping its first Siafu Swarm Series iSCSI-based IP storage appliance just under six months ago, Siafu Software has authorized multiple.

Fergie Pushing Candie’s In New Ad Campaign – News Story | Music,…
MTV.com – Jan 31, 2007
com, seeking to shut down the subscription-based site — which features personal photos, videos, diaries and other Hilton belongings once housed at a storage facility — The Associated Press reports. The site launched last week, and its creators claim they obtained Paris’ personal effects through an auction initiated after Hilton neglected to pay her storage fees. According to the suit, Hilton was “shocked and surprised” to learn her belongings — including a passport, medical records, financial statements and other legal documents displayed on the site — were sold at a public auction, maintaining that the moving company she hired two years ago was supposed to pay the storage fees. Hilton’s publicist Elliot Mintz told AP that his client would like the site closed and “all of these items returned to her.

Colbert takes a holiday
San Diego Union Tribune – Jan 31, 2007
97 access to Hilton's passport, medical records and other legal documents. In her lawsuit, Hilton said she put her possessions in storage two years ago when she and her sister, Nicky, moved out of a house that had been burglarized. The 25-year-old heiress said a moving company was supposed to pay the storage fees and was “shocked and surprised” to learn her belongings were sold at a public auction. The lawsuit alleges defendants Nabil and Nabila Haniss paid $2,775 for the contents of the storage unit and later sold the items for $10 million to entrepreneur Bardia Persa, who created the site ParisExposed.

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Arts & Entertainmen…
Dallas Morning News – Jan 31, 2007
Contributors: Billboard. com, Associated Press Paris, again Remember that Web site devoted to displaying the junk Paris Hilton allegedly left behind in a storage unit? She’s filed a federal lawsuit to shut the site down. She says she put her stuff in storage two years ago when she and her sister, Nicky, moved out of a house that had been burglarized and that a moving company was supposed to pay the storage fees. "I was appalled to learn that people are exploiting my and my sisters’ private personal belongings for commercial gain," she said court papers. Brandy sued for $50m The parents of a woman killed in a freeway crash involving Brandy sued the actress-singer for $50 million Tuesday in Los Angeles. The wrongful-death lawsuit claims Brandy (Brandy Norwood) was driving recklessly when her vehicle struck the car driven by Awatef Aboudihaj. Her publicist had no comment on the suit.

Contractor blamed for slow Katrina recovery
Houston Chronicle – Jan 31, 2007
— Nearly eight months after it was hired by the state, a consulting company in charge of dispensing billions in federal aid to people whose homes were damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has received 103,000 applications but handed out fewer than 400 grants. And now the company is getting much of the blame for the overall slow recovery of New Orleans and the rest of the Louisiana Gulf Coast. Frustrated homeowners are bitterly criticizing Fairfax, Va. -based ICF International, and state lawmakers are demanding Gov. Kathleen Blanco fire the company. But ICF is defending its handling of the aid program, saying it is a task of unprecedented proportions… Samuels said he is contesting ICF’s first offer, made Jan. 4, because it was one-third of what he expected and based on inaccurate damage figures. Other homeowners have complained about incorrect paperwork, a labyrinthine bureaucracy, unreturned phone calls, low-ball assessments of their homes’ value and the damage done, stingy grant offers and a slow-moving process overall. ICF has finished only 391 applications.

Peak International Reports Third Quarter Financial Results.
Free with registration – PR Newswire – AccessMyLibrary.com – Jan 31, 2007
29 per share on a basic and diluted basis, for the same period of fiscal 2006. Results for the quarter continued to be impacted by the rationalization of inventory of two of the Company’s major customers as they progressed through the integration of their recent merger. In last year’s third quarter, prior to the merger, both of the companies were sizable customers for Peak International. Gross profit margin for the quarter was 13. 2% in the same quarter last year. This decrease was mainly attributable to the reduction in revenues, which resulted in a greater proportion of fixed manufacturing overheads that was absorbed into the cost of goods sold.

PROFILE – MALAYSIA’S RETAIL INDUSTRY (JAN 2007).
Free with registration – AsiaPulse News – AccessMyLibrary.com – Jan 31, 2007
5 per cent on-year growth in the first six months of 2006. If tourists’ spending patterns remained consistent, the outlook of the retail industry may be “better” in 2007 with the expected sharp rise in tourist arrivals, he said. Market research company TNS Worldpanel general manager Michael Hawkins said the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) segment alone grew by 4 per cent in 2006, with hypermarket sales accounting for about 18 per cent of the total sales of the FMCG industry. A recent survey by Jones Lang LaSalle confirms that Malaysia’s strong retail growth has been partly fuelled by the setting up of new outlets by.