Moving and Storage Business News

The News Review:

- Apple’s new Mac Pro is a speed demon
- MOVERS & SHAKERS
- Novell to Announce New, Expanded Partnerships
- Ampal-American Israel Corporation Reports 2007 Fourth Quarter and…
- Pharma retailers shifting to organised sector

Apple’s new Mac Pro is a speed demon
Reseller News – Mar 17, 2008
The bays resemble those in the Xserve, so adding or swapping drives is simple. Just pull out the drive cart, attach a hard drive to it with four screws, and slide the combo back into the machine — no messing with cables. While not new to the Mac Pro line, it’s a setup that makes adding and moving storage media from one Mac Pro to another surprisingly quick. I can think of more than a few graphics shops that could use that feature at crunch time, when transferring big projects via FireWire won’t cut it. Similarly, swapping out the graphics card or accessing the PCI Express expansion slots is almost too easy, as if Apple removed half the fun of getting into computers. Keeping with that trend, accessing the Mac Pro’s eight FB-DIMM slots, located on memory riser cards, is also very, very easy. Speed sellsWhen a colleague of mine heard that I was testing this particular configuration, he posed a question: "Given the price difference, is it worth purchasing Apple’s Pro lines when the consumer lines seem plenty fast enough?"I do a lot of digital video work, so I decided the best way to find out the answer was to actually try to get some work done.

MOVERS & SHAKERS
MetroWest Daily News – Mar 17, 2008
Prior to joining Cabot, Brady was a research chemist with Sterling Drug Co. Brady earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and business from the University of Scranton and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. * * *Humboldt Storage and Moving of Canton recently announced that Frank Desiderio of Shrewsbury has joined the team as global national account executive. Desiderio is responsible for building and maintaining a portfolio of clients including identifying prospects, managing the entire sales cycle and ultimately managing customer relationships. Humboldt is Greater Boston’s oldest moving company and largest United Van Lines agent. ___________________________________________________The Movers & Shakers feature appears Mondays. Deadline is one week prior to desired publication date…
* * *Humboldt Storage and Moving of Canton recently announced that Frank Desiderio of Shrewsbury has joined the team as global national account executive. Desiderio is responsible for building and maintaining a portfolio of clients including identifying prospects, managing the entire sales cycle and ultimately managing customer relationships. Humboldt is Greater Boston’s oldest moving company and largest United Van Lines agent. ___________________________________________________The Movers & Shakers feature appears Mondays. Deadline is one week prior to desired publication date. Movers & Shakers includes local news about personnel promotions and appointments, chamber of commerce events, corporate community service work, ribbon cuttings, individual and company awards, anniversaries. Color photos for the print version may be submitted by e-mail in JPEG format.

Novell to Announce New, Expanded Partnerships
eWeek – Mar 17, 2008
SALTLAKECITYNovellwill use its annual BrainShare conference here March 17 to announce new andexpanded partnerships as well as to show off some of the features andfunctionality of its upcoming SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11. Novell officials told eWEEK that several new partnerships will be announcedduring the opening keynotes, including a major new deal that will see SLED (SUSELinux Enterprise Desktop) 10 preloaded on some hardware from a major vendor. SLED 10 recently started shipping on Dell and…
Wehave to build our credibility around that and then expand from there, he said. Hovsepian is optimistic that some of those customers ditching Lotus Noteswill come his way, so thats why were chasing this very aggressively. "The company is also doing well on other fronts, he said, with NovellGroupWise posting a 7 percent rise in invoicing last year and its Linuxrevenue growing 69 percent year-on-year to bypass the $100 million markfor the first time, which Hovsepian said is moving in the right direction. But that pales in comparison to Red Hats Linux business, which generatesrevenue of about $125 million a quarter. Hovsepian said the company is working hard at changing that differential,starting with large.

Ampal-American Israel Corporation Reports 2007 Fourth Quarter and…
Earthtimes – Mar 17, 2008
Technical commissioning on the EMG pipeline commenced, with gas beginning to flow and we anticipate that the gas will flow commercially in the second quarter. ” He continued, “Our results for the fourth quarter reflect the successful execution of our strategy to focus on acquisitions in energy and related sectors as well as opportunistic investments that provide us access to cash flow. We have begun to realize the benefits of Gadot, a chemical storage and shipping company in which we acquired a 65. 7% on a fully diluted basis) ownership stake on December 3, 2007. In the first month of our ownership, Gadot has made a significant contribution to both our top and bottom line. We expect that going forward, Gadot will continue to be a substantial contributor to our results…
In the first month of our ownership, Gadot has made a significant contribution to both our top and bottom line. We expect that going forward, Gadot will continue to be a substantial contributor to our results. “The Ethanol project in Colombia is moving forward, as the necessary resources to begin operations in the region are being developed and acquired. We are also working on securing the permits needed to advance our wind energy projects in Greece. We are exploring wind energy opportunities in other parts of the world as well, and expect to advance these efforts as 2008 progresses. ” Mr. Maiman concluded, “Throughout 2008, we plan to focus on adding to our portfolio of investments through strategic acquisitions and partnerships that are profitable and which provide us with access to significant free cash flow.

Pharma retailers shifting to organised sector
Pakistan Dawn – Mar 17, 2008
For instance, it is not uncommon to come across petroleum jelly products marketed under brands like Vasiline or Veselin at pharmacies in most non-metro cities in India; when a consumers asks for Vaseline, the international brand, the retailer will inevitably pass off the duplicate which is packaged almost like the original. Likewise, toothpastes with names like Colgette or College with the familiar Colgate colours are also passed off to consumers in less sophisticated markets by retailers. While many of the multinationals and Indian fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturers launch crackdowns on the sale of such bogus products, it is difficult to sustain the campaigns, as it works out to be prohibitively expensive. Passing off fake petroleum jellies or toothpastes may appear to be a harmless activity, but selling counterfeit medicines is a serious offence that can endanger the lives of patients. Unfortunately, in many smaller cities and villages across India, it is not uncommon to come across such products. Most local food and drugs administration bodies and the police also ignore the marketing of such fake drugs, till such time a disaster occurs, when there is a temporary crackdown. But the hefty commissions that the drug manufacturer from the unorganised sector offers the retailer tempt many to stock such medicines and sell it to less affluent and illiterate consumers…
By next year, it will be having 1,500 pharmaceutical retailing outlets across India. International pharma retailer Medicine Shoppe has already started operations and has set up a chain of 100 speciality stores. The company is part of the $75 billion international healthcare major Cardinal Health Inc. Medicine Shoppe India plans to operate over 700 outlets within two years in India. Other new entrants to pharma retailing include Guardian Pharmacy, LifeKen, 98. 4 degrees, Care & Cure, Planet Health and MedPlus. Many of the new entrants offer a wide range of healthcare related services, including medical insurance policies, diagnostic services, clinical laboratories and collection centres.