Moving and Storage Business News

The News Review:

- POST OF THE DAY The Essential REIT
- McLean Students Sue Anti-Cheating Service
- HP Digital Entertainment Center Coming to a Halt
- Businessnewsnow.us: Tuesday Midday Report: ARKN, ETLY, VTSS, WBTO,…

POST OF THE DAY The Essential REIT
Motley Fool – Mar 28, 2007
A few smaller sectors, such as healthcare and self-storage, fell behind, but not by much; if they move as fast as Sammy chasing a tennis ball, they can make up lots of lost ground. But a few large sectors stand out, including retail and lodging, on the upside, and apartments, on the downside. Retail, as a group, was the clear stand-out, scoring a very impressive total return of 9. 8%, while lodging did almost as well, generating an average total return of 7…
For the S&P 500 stocks, it’s about 15x. Green Street Advisors, the pre-eminent REIT research house, has, for a substantial period of time, been troubled by this conundrum, and continues to believe that REIT stocks, while probably fairly priced relative to commercial real estate, are expensive relative to S&P stocks. This contention has been pressed for some time; yet, as in that old Charles Atlas comic book advertisement, the scrawny REITs have continued to kick sand in the faces of their larger S&P brothers. This might just mean, of course, that REIT stocks have been mispriced for a few years – but it may also signify that something has changed with respect to investors’ collective perceptions of REIT stocks (and, of course, the commercial real estate whose values drive REIT stock pricing). Why might this be? And is it logical? Should we expect that hoary investment principle, “reversion to the mean,” to exert its power upon REIT prices relative to S&P 500 stocks? My legal background, together with my temperament, have taught me to see all sides of every issue and to seek humility in all prognostication endeavors.

McLean Students Sue Anti-Cheating Service
Washington Post – Mar 28, 2007
It doesnt get more simple than that. This company does not have exclusive rights to the property of the students unless granted express permission by those students. It doesnt get more simple than that…
Really, their service should be pretty cheap to run. All they need is a very basic database structure, and a bunch of data space and processing power. Wouldnt it be more fair if this company paid the students at least a nominal fee for each paper? Students could opt not to have their papers stored, or could license the paper to Turnitin for storage. I bet most would take the fee, even if it were fairly small. Really, their service should be pretty cheap to run. All they need is a very basic database structure, and a bunch of data space and processing power.

HP Digital Entertainment Center Coming to a Halt
PC World – Mar 28, 2007
The product, more expensive than PCs running Microsoft Corp. ‘s Media Center OS and designed to look more at home in a living room than a typical PC, was pitched to specialty retailers selling custom installations for high-end home theaters, she said. The company will now stop development of the line, although it will sell and support the remaining units in the marketplace…
We’re moving to a scenario where the TV itself can be attached to the home network, the MediaSmart TV,” Kinley said. As recently as September, HP had launched two DEC models, saying the z565 and z560 could serve as high-definition digital video recorders as well as managing music collections and creating digital photo slide shows. The machines run Microsoft Corp. ‘s new Windows Vista Premium OS, offering up to 800G bytes of hard-disk capacity and Intel Corp. ‘s dual-core processors and Viiv entertainment bundle.

Businessnewsnow.us: Tuesday Midday Report: ARKN, ETLY, VTSS, WBTO,…
Free with registration – Europe Intelligence Wire – AccessMyLibrary.com – Mar 28, 2007
” According to Arlona’s announcement today, this is the third year Auto Dealer Monthly has recognized the most highly regarded vendors, suppliers and finance companies in the retail automotive industry as voted on by dealers and dealership personnel. The Auto Dealer Monthly survey provided dealers and their employees the ability to offer their collective selection of the top providers to the retail auto industry. Overall, 40 companies, all chosen by dealers and dealership personnel, were named winners in 19 distinctive categories of products and services, with nearly 3,500 votes cast per category. Ratings were gathered on the performance of the product or service, as well as the customer support and service from the provider, and the overall value compared to cost to the dealership.