NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors willing to bet on Twitter Inc will have to overlook mounting losses and slowing user growth - and have faith that the eight-year-old Internet messaging company can transform a household name into advertising dollars.
Fund managers who were optimistic about Twitter's financial prospects shrugged off its latest $65 million quarterly loss as standard for startups chasing growth, pointing instead to revenue growth that more than doubled.
But others warned of the risks of investing in a company with a management that has yet to prove it can generate a profit.
"It's worth having exposure to a name like Twitter, although you have to take a conceptual leap of faith with regard to valuation, and say it's a unique franchise that isn't likely to go away," said Karl Mills, president and chief investment officer for private investment adviser firm Jurika, Mills & Keifer in San Francisco.
"Like Twitter, Amazon was in investment mode for a long time. They still are, so that doesn't worry me."
Twitter's latest IPO filings showed its net loss in the September quarter tripled to almost as much as it lost in all of 2012.
As Twitter races toward the year's most highly anticipated tech offering, memories of Facebook Inc's disappointing 2012 debut threaten the eight-year-old online messaging service's own splashy coming-out party.
Like Facebook, Twitter enjoys strong brand recognition, which typically translates to outsized retail investor interest. That was one of the reasons Facebook was able to raise its IPO price to $38 a share, from an initial range of $24 to $35 a share. That gave the company a valuation of about $100 billion, or about 99 times its 2011 earnings.
Facebook shares promptly plummeted on their first day of trade. They didn't regain their IPO valuation until more than a year later, in August of 2013.
Twitter, which is expected to go public in November, has yet to determine pricing, but investors say it might come under pressure from financial backers to go high. Analysts expect the company to seek a valuation of at least $10 billion.
Unlike Twitter, however, Facebook and professional social network LinkedIn Corp both were profitable when they debuted. Twitter's still cloudy outlook makes some investors nervous.
"I want something to be generating income. If they can't make the transition from capturing market share to generating income, they're going to run out of money eventually," said Brian Frank, portfolio manager for Frank Capital Partners in New York. "But at the same time, if they stop investing in growth, they're going to lose users and risk people not staying engaged with the brand."
"The Twitter IPO could mean the top of the social media peak," he added.
PEAKED?
Financial advisers are managing clients' expectations.
"I am telling clients to give it some time at the IPO and see how it does first," said Alan Haft, a financial adviser with California-based Kelly Haft Financial. "If they are gamblers and want to make a few bucks out of the gate, fine, but if they are investors they should hold off."
The potential demand from retail investors remains unclear. But several investment advisers interviewed by Reuters said they had already received calls from interested clients - though not on the level seen when Facebook became one of the first of the social media giants to go public.
Nancy Caton, managing director of Carson Wealth Management Group's San Francisco Bay office, was surprised about how little interest clients have shown in investing in Twitter, given the frenzy she saw around Facebook.
"With Facebook, it was crazy…we were flooded with calls," she said. "Maybe they learned a lesson."
But Twitter does not have the same presence among Caton's clients, who are mostly in their 60s, she said. "A lot of grandparents are on Facebook, that's how they get pictures of their grandkids," she said. "But I might have one client that uses Twitter."
Still, Twitter has no shortage of believers, including SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst Robert Peck, the first to slap a "buy rating" on the stock and who on Wednesday echoed his previous optimism about the company.
Twitter's fledgling advertising model is centered around the "promoted tweet" and massive marketing campaigns built around television-viewing. The promoted-tweet tactic has since been replicated by rivals like Facebook.
Its more nascent second-screen approach has also won favor among media and entertainment executives because they encourage audience interaction on mobile devices and open a new channel for advertising as well.
"Twitter has a mobile strategy, and it seems like they're ahead of Facebook in mobile," said Dan Veru, chief investment officer at Palisade Capital Management LLC in New Jersey, with $4.5 billion of assets under management.
In fact, says one Silicon Valley investor, growing losses may just be good business.
"Increasing losses is not a problem if the unit economics are sound. With profitable unit economics, it is financially irresponsible NOT to run losses, assuming you have access to capital," said David Cowan at Bessemer Venture Partners, whose investments include LinkedIn Corp. "Having said that, I have not examined Twitter's financials to assess the unit economics."
(Additional reporting by Sarah McBride in San Francisco; Editing by Ken Wills)
Van Halen (L to R): Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen and Wolfgang Van Halen
When famous people marry, their spouses often take on a famous last name. That benefit can even survive divorce. But can it be used as a commercial asset?
Witness a new lawsuit by ELVH Inc., which is the intellectual property holding company of the world-famous rock band Van Halen. The group was eponymously named after its family members -- guitarist Eddie Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen (bassist Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie's son, came into the fold in 2006, replacing Michael Anthony).
In 1984, Alex married Kelly Carter. Twelve years later, he divorced Kelly Van Halen. Now, nearly two decades after the divorce papers were finalized, ELVH is taking Kelly Van Halen to a California federal court over her use of her name in trade. Specifically, Alex Van Halen's ex-wife has named her construction and interior design company after herself, which the plaintiff asserts is a trademark infringement.
Way back in 1891, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, "A man's name is his own property, and he has the same right to its use and enjoyment as he has to that of any other species of property. If such use be a reasonable, honest, and fair exercise of such right, he is no more liable for the incidental damage he may do a rival in trade than he would be for injury to his neighbor's property by the smoke issuing from his chimney, or for the fall of his neighbor's house by reason of necessary excavations upon his own land."
The question here is whether senior family name users like Eddie and Alex can permanently enjoin junior family name users like Kelly from using "Van Halen" in a commercial enterprise. The outcome might depend on whether it can be shown that Kelly had intent to trade upon the goodwill or reputation of the famous band's moniker.
In the lawsuit, Kelly is said to have filed two trademark applications on "Kelly Van Halen" for products like chairs, children's blankets, bathing suits, building construction, interior design services and more.
The band is opposing the trademarks on the ground that the mark -- her real name -- is "confusingly similar to Plaintiff's VAN HALEN Marks in sound, appearance and commercial impression."
It's also asserted that goods in the apparel and fashion space "are either identical or closely related to the goods sold by Plaintiff," and that Kelly Van Halen is diluting Van Halen, passing off Van Halen and committing unfair competition for Van Halen.
ELVH is represented by the law firm of KinsellaWeitzman.
This month's glitch-filled rollout of the health insurance marketplaces created by federal law is a business opportunity for brokers and agents, but regulators warn that it also opened the door for those who would seek to line their pockets by misleading consumers.
New Hampshire's insurance commissioner sent a cease-and-desist letter last week to an Arizona company he accused of building a website to mislead health care shoppers into thinking it was the official marketplace. The site was taken down Friday.
Regulators in Washington state and Pennsylvania also have told agents to change websites that seemed likely to convince consumers they were connecting to government-run sites. Connecticut's insurance department warned agents and brokers this summer that it will take action against agents who mislead consumers or design sites to replicate the state-run exchange.
An organization run by the top insurance regulators in each state recently issued an alert on the potential for scams related to the marketplaces. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners advised consumers that bogus sites have been spotted and warned people to beware of unsolicited calls by people claiming they need personal information to help them enroll in insurance.
Not all insurance agents are licensed to sell insurance on the exchanges, and buying a policy from one of them could leave consumers without the tax subsidies that make the health insurance affordable. Consumers who seek an insurance professional's help are urged to make sure they know who they're dealing with.
"We all need to be on the lookout right now. We don't want consumers to get confused," said Jessica Waltman of the National Association of Health Underwriters, a trade association representing agents and brokers.
Susan Johnson, the Northwest regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said while some brokers are passionate about helping, others are seeking to take advantage.
In one such case, a state-licensed broker in suburban Seattle bought the domain name washingtonhealthplanfinder.org and built a website with fewer computer glitches than the state's new health insurance marketplace, wahealthplanfinder.org. The brokerage's site told customers: "Welcome to the Exchange!" in big print until the state insurance commissioner asked for changes to avoid confusion.
"You don't want to go to the wrong portal," Johnson said.
The insurance broker, Jeff Lindstrom, said he thought he was being creative when he bought 40-50 domain names to bring in new customers. He said he is not trying to confuse the public. Lindstrom's toll free phone number was also very close to the official call center number, said Stephanie Marquis, a spokeswoman for Washington's insurance commissioner.
In New Hampshire, newhampshirehealthexchange.com offered free price quotes on insurance, but it wasn't affiliated with the state or the federal government, which is running New Hampshire's official online market. The site was taken down days after the state sent a cease-and-desist letter.
"It put itself forward as offering health insurance through the exchange, and consumers are naturally misled by that into thinking it's the government site," said Deputy Insurance Commissioner Alex Feldvebel.
The insurance department took action after getting a complaint from a small business owner who called a phone number on the misleading site.
"He called and ended up talkng to someone who said, 'Unless you make a choice today, the price is going to go up,'" Feldvebel said.
A man who answered the phone declined to comment at the company identified as running the site, Arizona-based Steffen Financial.
In Pennsylvania, a consumer law group this summer tipped off regulators about a licensed broker's website that featured a logo mimicking the state seal and telling visitors: "Welcome to the Pennsylvania Health Exchange!" The broker took down PAhealthexchange.com a day after the state insurance department's enforcement bureau called.
The top online search result using the terms "texas health insurance exchange online" is for Texas Health Insurance Exchange, which sells unsubsidized insurance policies. The broker who owns the website is Scott Thiltgen, a state-licensed insurance agent in Cedar Park, Texas. He said he's also marketing on his Facebook page, Texas Health Insurance Marketplace.
Thiltgen said he's not out to confuse consumers.
"It's basically there to have someone they can talk to that knows about the exchange," he said.
He said he's earned the federal certification needed to sell subsidized policies on exchanges, and plans to start once the federal marketplace sorts out its glitches.
"Right now I've got a list of people that are ready to sign up for subsidized exchange plans, but can't," Thiltgen said.
While regulators have warned consumers, they don't have any reports of people being cheated. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners and state agencies in Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina report no complaints since the marketplaces launched on Oct. 1.
Those with industry experience warn whenever there's money and confusion, consumers should be alert. Fraudsters saw opportunities when Medicaid Part D prescription drug insurance plans hit the market a decade ago, said Waltman, of the agents and brokers trade association.
"I think that we have to be concerned that this has happened a variety of times in the past," Waltman said.
The first line of defense is checking whether a broker or agent is licensed by the state insurance department where they operate. Usually that can be done online.
The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services doesn't have a similar option to check whether an agent has completed training necessary to work for consumers on a federally run exchange. The federal agency recommends consumers ask agents to provide a copy of the certificate showing they've completed training.
Some states that operate their own exchanges plan to identify marketplace-certified brokers, but that has not yet happened in all states, leaving a temporary gap for consumers. More than 2,600 state-licensed brokers cleared to work on New York's exchange were expected to be listed on its website soon, the state's health department said.
Still, spreading the word that subsidized health insurance is available and explaining how consumers should buy it leaves a legitimate role for brokers, Waltman said. Brokers earn commissions paid by insurance companies and not consumers.
Some brokers are under pressure to add customers because the commissions they earn on each policy are shrinking as the law rolls out.
Boise, Idaho, insurance agent Tom Shores estimates he'll need to pick up 3,000 new customers to offset commissions cut to about $9 per policy each month. Shores estimates a quarter of his brokerage's 4,000 existing health insurance customers also might learn they're eligible for Medicaid, the government insurance for low-income people, once they enter their financial data into the exchange system.
"The only way we're going to make money is to get more people," Shores said late last month.
The two largest companies on South Carolina's exchange are paying commissions of about $28 per policy per month for the first year, dropping to $14 a month after that, said John Adair, a broker in Greer, S.C.
"The law is complicated and making any sort of insurance purchase can be complicated — which plan to choose, deductibles, co-insurance, co-pays, network of providers," said Adair, who built a website and licensed his business in states nationwide to capture new customers. "With what we're seeing with the federal exchange, and some of the glitches, the agents themselves are very much in high demand."
____
Emery Dalesio can be reached at http://twitter.com/emerydalesio
____
Contributing to this story were Associated Press writers Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Donna Gordon Blankinship in Seattle; and Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn.; John Miller in Boise, Idaho; and Michael Virtanen in Albany, N.Y.,
TORONTO (AP) — A European Union trade spokesman said Wednesday the EU hopes to conclude a free trade deal with Canada in the "coming days."
"Discussions are indeed continuing at the highest level between the EU and Canada towards a comprehensive free trade deal (CETA) — with the hope to conclude the negotiations in the coming days," EU Trade spokesman John Clancy told The Associated Press in an email.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper also said Wednesday his country will "soon" complete negotiations. Harper posted the remark on his Twitter account ahead of a speech in Parliament on Wednesday evening that sets forth the government's agenda. The prime minister's office confirmed the remarks are authentic. Harper has long said a deal was close, but an official in his office says further progress has been made.
Harper has said that a free trade deal between his country and the European Union could help the EU establish a beachhead as they embark on separate free trade talks with the U.S.
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who visited Harper in Ottawa in March, agreed that a successful Canada-EU pact could have a positive influence on a future deal with the U.S. If a U.S.-EU trade deal is reached, it could be the world's largest free trade pact.
Canada's prime minister hopes to ink a deal in an attempt to diversify Canada's trade. The U.S. is Canada's largest trading partner.
Canada's finance minister has said despite Europe's struggles, Canada remains very interested because the EU is still the largest market in the world in terms of the size of its middle class.
The Canada-EU deal would make it easier for Canadian companies to invest in, and sell to, the 17-member EU with its 500 million consumers.
____
Associated Press reporter Juergen Baetz in Brussels contributed to this report.
Overexpressed protein the culprit in certain thyroid cancers
Public release date: 14-Oct-2013 [
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Contact: Alex Lyda alex.lyda@utsouthwestern.edu 214-648-3404 UT Southwestern Medical Center
Link suggested between nervous system, cancer
DALLAS Oct. 14, 2013 A specific protein once thought to exist only in the brain may play a crucial role in a deadly form of thyroid cancer, as well as other cancers, and provide a fresh target for researchers seeking ways to stop its progression, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report today in Cancer Cell.
The scientists found that over-activation of a certain protein in hormone-secreting cells helps fuel medullary thyroid cancer cells in mice as well as in human cells, making the protein a potentially good target for therapies to inhibit the growth of these cancer cells.
The discovery by the multidisciplinary team at UT Southwestern has implications for neuroendocrine cancers that arise in organs farther removed from the brain, including the lung and the pancreas.
Although rare, medullary thyroid cancer is often fatal.
"Once or twice a month, patients come to UT Southwestern, often complaining of soreness or a swollen throat," says Dr. Fiemu Nwariaku, Professor of Surgery and a co-author on the paper. "When the diagnosis is a rare and incurable form of thyroid cancer called medullary thyroid carcinoma, it is always distressing for the patient and for me because we currently have no real therapies that truly extend life in these unfortunate cases."
The only effective treatment is complete surgical removal of the thyroid, and frequently, tissues around the area of the tumor. Unfortunately, like cervical cancer, medullary thyroid cancer often is not diagnosed until it already has spread to other parts of the body.
More than 20 years ago, mutations in a gene were found to cause about 25 percent of these cancers. Genetic sequencing and screening has become an important diagnostic and prognostic tool for those families that share such mutations. But the causes for the remaining 75 percent of patients with this dangerous cancer have remained unknown and a source of frustration for endocrinologists and surgeons such as Dr. Nwariaku, Associate Dean of Global Health.
While Dr. Nwariaku and his colleagues work to treat these patients, a laboratory in UT Southwestern's Department of Psychiatry run by Dr. James Bibb, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology and Neurotherapeutics, was studying molecular mechanisms of brain disorders. In studying Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, Dr. Bibb and his colleagues made a transgenic mouse model of brain injury by overexpressing the Cdk5 protein that they thought was only in the brain.
As the team tracked the developing neurological problems, however, they noted that the mice became sick for reasons that were not at first apparent. The puzzle was solved when they discovered that all of the mice had developed the same thyroid cancer that Dr. Nwariaku treats.
Dr. Bibb and Dr. Nwariaku teamed up and launched a study of both human and mouse thyroid cancer cells. They discovered that Cdk5 was present in specific cells of the thyroid called C cells, and that the protein could escape normal cellular control and cause the cancer in both humans and mice.
Now, with the help of other UT Southwestern scientists, Dr. Bibb and Dr. Nwariaku, both members of the Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center, are making important progress in their efforts to develop new treatments for this and other more common forms of endocrine cancers. One promising example is the use of high-throughput screening for compounds that block the Cdk5 protein pathway, the researchers said.
"There are currently two FDA-approved drugs for treating neuroendocrine cancers, but neither of them blocks this specific pathway one this study has shown to be a crucial vulnerability in the cancer, if appropriately targeted," Dr. Bibb said. "We were surprised, but encouraged, by the finding because they link the human nervous system to disease processes that include the toughest of all foes, cancer."
Other researchers participating in the study included Dr. James Richardson, Professor of Pathology, Molecular Biology, and Plastic Surgery, who first recognized the disease in the mouse, and Dr. Xiankai Sun, Associate Professor of Radiology, who was able to track the development of the mouse tumors using advanced in vivo imaging. The work also includes an international collaboration of scientists and physicians who contributed insight and rare samples for the investigation. The research is being funded by the American Cancer Society.
"This research is ongoing, and we are now identifying precisely how Cdk5 causes the growth and spread of these forms of cancer with the goal of discovering new drugs, which we can test in our animal model," Dr. Bibb said. "We want to work together to translate our laboratory bench-derived insight into treatments that help cancer patients. We also think we will learn more about brain injury by studying this cancer."
###
Visit UT Southwestern's Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center to learn more about cancer research, screening, and therapy at UT Southwestern, including highly individualized treatments at the region's only National Cancer Institute-designated center.
About UT Southwestern Medical Center UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution's faculty has many distinguished members, including five who have been awarded Nobel Prizes since 1985. Numbering more than 2,700, the faculty is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide medical care in 40 specialties to nearly 90,000 hospitalized patients and oversee more than 1.9 million outpatient visits a year.
This news release is available on our home page at utsouthwestern.edu/home/news/index.html
To automatically receive news releases from UT Southwestern via email, subscribe at utsouthwestern.edu/receivenews
Dr. Nwariaku holds the Malcolm O. Perry, M.D. Professorship in Surgery.
Dr. Sun holds the Dr. Jack Krohmer Professorship in Radiation Physics.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Overexpressed protein the culprit in certain thyroid cancers
Public release date: 14-Oct-2013 [
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Alex Lyda alex.lyda@utsouthwestern.edu 214-648-3404 UT Southwestern Medical Center
Link suggested between nervous system, cancer
DALLAS Oct. 14, 2013 A specific protein once thought to exist only in the brain may play a crucial role in a deadly form of thyroid cancer, as well as other cancers, and provide a fresh target for researchers seeking ways to stop its progression, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report today in Cancer Cell.
The scientists found that over-activation of a certain protein in hormone-secreting cells helps fuel medullary thyroid cancer cells in mice as well as in human cells, making the protein a potentially good target for therapies to inhibit the growth of these cancer cells.
The discovery by the multidisciplinary team at UT Southwestern has implications for neuroendocrine cancers that arise in organs farther removed from the brain, including the lung and the pancreas.
Although rare, medullary thyroid cancer is often fatal.
"Once or twice a month, patients come to UT Southwestern, often complaining of soreness or a swollen throat," says Dr. Fiemu Nwariaku, Professor of Surgery and a co-author on the paper. "When the diagnosis is a rare and incurable form of thyroid cancer called medullary thyroid carcinoma, it is always distressing for the patient and for me because we currently have no real therapies that truly extend life in these unfortunate cases."
The only effective treatment is complete surgical removal of the thyroid, and frequently, tissues around the area of the tumor. Unfortunately, like cervical cancer, medullary thyroid cancer often is not diagnosed until it already has spread to other parts of the body.
More than 20 years ago, mutations in a gene were found to cause about 25 percent of these cancers. Genetic sequencing and screening has become an important diagnostic and prognostic tool for those families that share such mutations. But the causes for the remaining 75 percent of patients with this dangerous cancer have remained unknown and a source of frustration for endocrinologists and surgeons such as Dr. Nwariaku, Associate Dean of Global Health.
While Dr. Nwariaku and his colleagues work to treat these patients, a laboratory in UT Southwestern's Department of Psychiatry run by Dr. James Bibb, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology and Neurotherapeutics, was studying molecular mechanisms of brain disorders. In studying Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, Dr. Bibb and his colleagues made a transgenic mouse model of brain injury by overexpressing the Cdk5 protein that they thought was only in the brain.
As the team tracked the developing neurological problems, however, they noted that the mice became sick for reasons that were not at first apparent. The puzzle was solved when they discovered that all of the mice had developed the same thyroid cancer that Dr. Nwariaku treats.
Dr. Bibb and Dr. Nwariaku teamed up and launched a study of both human and mouse thyroid cancer cells. They discovered that Cdk5 was present in specific cells of the thyroid called C cells, and that the protein could escape normal cellular control and cause the cancer in both humans and mice.
Now, with the help of other UT Southwestern scientists, Dr. Bibb and Dr. Nwariaku, both members of the Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center, are making important progress in their efforts to develop new treatments for this and other more common forms of endocrine cancers. One promising example is the use of high-throughput screening for compounds that block the Cdk5 protein pathway, the researchers said.
"There are currently two FDA-approved drugs for treating neuroendocrine cancers, but neither of them blocks this specific pathway one this study has shown to be a crucial vulnerability in the cancer, if appropriately targeted," Dr. Bibb said. "We were surprised, but encouraged, by the finding because they link the human nervous system to disease processes that include the toughest of all foes, cancer."
Other researchers participating in the study included Dr. James Richardson, Professor of Pathology, Molecular Biology, and Plastic Surgery, who first recognized the disease in the mouse, and Dr. Xiankai Sun, Associate Professor of Radiology, who was able to track the development of the mouse tumors using advanced in vivo imaging. The work also includes an international collaboration of scientists and physicians who contributed insight and rare samples for the investigation. The research is being funded by the American Cancer Society.
"This research is ongoing, and we are now identifying precisely how Cdk5 causes the growth and spread of these forms of cancer with the goal of discovering new drugs, which we can test in our animal model," Dr. Bibb said. "We want to work together to translate our laboratory bench-derived insight into treatments that help cancer patients. We also think we will learn more about brain injury by studying this cancer."
###
Visit UT Southwestern's Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center to learn more about cancer research, screening, and therapy at UT Southwestern, including highly individualized treatments at the region's only National Cancer Institute-designated center.
About UT Southwestern Medical Center UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution's faculty has many distinguished members, including five who have been awarded Nobel Prizes since 1985. Numbering more than 2,700, the faculty is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide medical care in 40 specialties to nearly 90,000 hospitalized patients and oversee more than 1.9 million outpatient visits a year.
This news release is available on our home page at utsouthwestern.edu/home/news/index.html
To automatically receive news releases from UT Southwestern via email, subscribe at utsouthwestern.edu/receivenews
Dr. Nwariaku holds the Malcolm O. Perry, M.D. Professorship in Surgery.
Dr. Sun holds the Dr. Jack Krohmer Professorship in Radiation Physics.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New open access journal and book series with Korean partners in engineering and nanotechnology to be added
Springer is expanding its activities in South Korea by signing new agreements with the renowned Korea Nano Technology Research Society (KoNTRS) for a new open access journal and KAIST Press for a new book series.
Starting in January 2014, Springer and the Korea Nano Technology Research Society will partner to publish the new open access journal Nano Convergence. International and interdisciplinary in scope, the peer-reviewed journal will offer express review and publication as well as open access, enabling all research results to be freely read online. Nano Convergence will include papers on all aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology, covering basic nanoscience as well as applications of nanotechnology and their converging technological areas.
Dr. Sang Hee Suh, President of the Korea Nanotechnology Research Society (KoNTRS), said: "Nanotechnology and nanoscience will enable next-generation devices to be integrated with each other and other existing technologies. Therefore, convergence based on nanotechnology and nanoscience will become a key technical issue for the future. Nano Convergence will provide immediate, worldwide, and barrier-free access to the full text of research papers. Springer is the best publisher to satisfy our requirements."
Springer is also expanding its book portfolio in Korea. Under the title KAIST Research Series, Springer and KAIST Press will co-publish about ten books a year from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea's first graduate school specializing in science and engineering education and research. The first books will be available in 2014.
Mr. Si Kyoung Roh, Publishing Manager at KAIST Press, said: "Under the proposed agreement with Springer, KAIST's outstanding research achievements will be widely disseminated among researchers abroad. The agreement is also expected to provide significant momentum for KAIST researchers to publish their research results with a global publisher, contributing to building an international network. In particular, the agreement offers students an opportunity to publish their research with the support of Springer."
Mark de Jongh, Senior Publishing Editor and coordinator of the Springer publishing program in Korea, said, "We are very enthusiastic about our growing activities in journal and book publishing in South Korea. This country is seen as one of the leaders in cutting-edge developments. The new book series and open access journal will be a valuable addition to Springer's impressive Korean publishing program." Springer currently co-publishes 43 Korean society journals and 50 new book titles from Korean authors per year.
###
The Korea Nano Technology Research Society (KoNTRS) is the leading organization of Korean nanotechnology researchers. It was established in 2004 and is financially supported by the Korean Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.
Established by the government in 1971, KAIST is committed to becoming one of the world's leading universities specializing in science and technology with a vision to create knowledge for human society. KAIST Press publishes and disseminates KAIST's outstanding research achievements and produces books to popularize science and technology.
Springer Science+Business Media is a leading global scientific, technical and medical publisher, providing researchers in academia, scientific institutions and corporate R&D departments with quality content via innovative information products and services. Springer is also a trusted local-language publisher in Europe especially in Germany and the Netherlands primarily for physicians and professionals working in healthcare and road safety education. Springer published roughly 2,200 English-language journals and more than 8,000 new books in 2012, and the group is home to the world's largest STM eBook collection, as well as the most comprehensive portfolio of open access journals. In 2012, Springer Science+Business Media S.A. generated sales of approximately EUR 981 million. The group employs more than 7,000 individuals across the globe.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Springer expands its publishing portfolio in Korea
New open access journal and book series with Korean partners in engineering and nanotechnology to be added
Springer is expanding its activities in South Korea by signing new agreements with the renowned Korea Nano Technology Research Society (KoNTRS) for a new open access journal and KAIST Press for a new book series.
Starting in January 2014, Springer and the Korea Nano Technology Research Society will partner to publish the new open access journal Nano Convergence. International and interdisciplinary in scope, the peer-reviewed journal will offer express review and publication as well as open access, enabling all research results to be freely read online. Nano Convergence will include papers on all aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology, covering basic nanoscience as well as applications of nanotechnology and their converging technological areas.
Dr. Sang Hee Suh, President of the Korea Nanotechnology Research Society (KoNTRS), said: "Nanotechnology and nanoscience will enable next-generation devices to be integrated with each other and other existing technologies. Therefore, convergence based on nanotechnology and nanoscience will become a key technical issue for the future. Nano Convergence will provide immediate, worldwide, and barrier-free access to the full text of research papers. Springer is the best publisher to satisfy our requirements."
Springer is also expanding its book portfolio in Korea. Under the title KAIST Research Series, Springer and KAIST Press will co-publish about ten books a year from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea's first graduate school specializing in science and engineering education and research. The first books will be available in 2014.
Mr. Si Kyoung Roh, Publishing Manager at KAIST Press, said: "Under the proposed agreement with Springer, KAIST's outstanding research achievements will be widely disseminated among researchers abroad. The agreement is also expected to provide significant momentum for KAIST researchers to publish their research results with a global publisher, contributing to building an international network. In particular, the agreement offers students an opportunity to publish their research with the support of Springer."
Mark de Jongh, Senior Publishing Editor and coordinator of the Springer publishing program in Korea, said, "We are very enthusiastic about our growing activities in journal and book publishing in South Korea. This country is seen as one of the leaders in cutting-edge developments. The new book series and open access journal will be a valuable addition to Springer's impressive Korean publishing program." Springer currently co-publishes 43 Korean society journals and 50 new book titles from Korean authors per year.
###
The Korea Nano Technology Research Society (KoNTRS) is the leading organization of Korean nanotechnology researchers. It was established in 2004 and is financially supported by the Korean Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.
Established by the government in 1971, KAIST is committed to becoming one of the world's leading universities specializing in science and technology with a vision to create knowledge for human society. KAIST Press publishes and disseminates KAIST's outstanding research achievements and produces books to popularize science and technology.
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DALLAS (Reuters) - Jury deliberations begin on Wednesday to decide whether Dallas Mavericks basketball team owner Mark Cuban engaged in insider trading when he sold his stake in an Internet search firm in June, 2004.
Cuban, 55, estimated by Forbes magazine to have a net worth of $2.5 billion, is accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of trading on non-public information when he sold his 600,000 shares - worth $7.9 million - and avoided a $750,000 loss in Internet search company Mamma.com Inc.
Cuban, who rose to prominence before the dot-com crash by selling his company, Broadcast.com, in 1999 to Yahoo Inc for $5.7 billion, has said he did nothing wrong when he sold his 6.3 percent stake in Mamma.com.
Prosecutors argued on Tuesday that Cuban sold his stake soon after learning from Mamma.com Chief Executive Guy Faure that the Montreal-based company was planning a private placement that would dilute his holdings in the company.
Mamma.com shares dropped 9.3 percent on the morning after the offering was announced. By that time, Cuban had already sold his shares.
The SEC is seeking to recoup Cuban's gains and impose fines if the jury rules against Cuban in the civil trial in federal court in Dallas.
"Mr. Cuban knew about information that other investors didn't and he sold before losing a dime," SEC lawyer Jan Folena said in her closing statement.
In addition to his ownership of a professional basketball team, flamboyant billionaire Cuban is one of the stars of the popular television show "Shark Tank" which features financiers including Cuban analyzing and deciding whether to invest in new products presented by entrepreneurs.
Cuban testified during the two-week trial that there were many reasons for selling his shares, including the private placement and Mamma.com's possible association with the late Irving Kott, who Cuban suspected of being a stock swindler.
Cuban's defense lawyers said in closing arguments that investors had been approached to participate in the private placement well before Cuban learned of the deal. This shopping of the deal to potential investors meant that it was already public and there could be no insider trading on the information.
Defense lawyer Thomas Melsheimer likened the situation to students supposedly cheating on a test.
"This is not the case of Mr. Cuban getting the answers before the test. It's like the teacher passing out the answers long before the test," Melsheimer said.
The SEC brought the civil lawsuit against Cuban in November 2008. A judge dismissed the suit in 2009 but an appeals court revived the case the following year. The jury consists of nine members.
The case is SEC v. Cuban, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, No. 08-02050.
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