| By David Evans | Wednesday, July 30th 2014, 14:20 GMT |
Citroen drivers Kris Meeke and Mads Ostberg will have the next three rounds of the World Rally Championship to stake their claim on a DS3 WRC for next season
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Jonathan Noble | Wednesday, July 30th 2014, 15:13 GMT |
Niki Lauda insists that Formula 1 does not need former team boss Flavio Briatore to help find ways to make itself more popular
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| Wednesday, July 30th 2014, 15:45 GMT |
The second round of the inaugural Formula E season has been postponed by five weeks, with the race in Putrajaya in Malaysia now taking place on November 22
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Kevin Turner | Tuesday, July 29th 2014, 16:15 GMT |
British Touring Car squad BMR will run four Volkswagen Passats for the rest of the season
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Ben Anderson | Tuesday, July 29th 2014, 15:20 GMT |
Kimi Raikkonen reckons his performance in the Hungarian Grand Prix shows there is "light at the end of the tunnel" following his difficult start to his Formula 1 season
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Jonathan Noble | Tuesday, July 29th 2014, 16:06 GMT |
The Caterham Formula 1 team says it is taking legal action against former staff for what it claims are "damaging" accusations made against the outfit
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Kevin Turner | Monday, July 28th 2014, 15:57 GMT |
British Touring Car Championship frontrunner Jason Plato believes he can still win the 2014 title despite currently lying 49 points behind leader Colin Turkington
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Ben Anderson | Monday, July 28th 2014, 16:29 GMT |
The Ferrari Formula 1 team must not get over-excited about Fernando Alonso's second place in Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix, according to team principal Marco Mattiacci
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Mark Glendenning | Monday, July 28th 2014, 17:06 GMT |
NASCAR has confiscated parts from the Joe Gibbs Toyota that carried Denny Hamlin to third in last weekend's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis to investigate a possible technical breach
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Ben Anderson and Glenn Freeman | Sunday, July 27th 2014, 18:00 GMT |
Fernando Alonso says that finishing second in the Hungarian Grand Prix feels like a win, even though Ferrari's tyre strategy gamble did not ultimately pay off
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Ben Anderson and Jonathan Noble | Sunday, July 27th 2014, 18:43 GMT |
Lewis Hamilton was right to ignore team orders to let Nico Rosberg through in the Hungarian Grand Prix, according to Mercedes Formula 1 chief Niki Lauda
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| Sunday, July 27th 2014, 20:15 GMT |
Jeff Gordon took an emphatic victory in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, grabbing the advantage at the final restart to cement his place atop the NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Gary Watkins | Saturday, July 26th 2014, 20:02 GMT |
The Spa 24 Hours was red-flagged shortly before one-quarter distance with the #3 WRT Audi leading the race in the hands of Christopher Mies
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Charles Bradley | Saturday, July 26th 2014, 18:50 GMT |
Two post-race penalties have totally rearranged the outcome of Saturday's GP2 race, with both of Racing Engineering's drivers affected
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| Saturday, July 26th 2014, 19:17 GMT |
Kevin Harvick dominated qualifying for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, taking his fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup pole position of the 2014 season
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
El Pollo Loco (LOCO), the California-based restaurant chain specializing in Mexican-style grilled chicken, went public Friday and shares surged more than 60% to finish above $24 in the first day of trading.
El Pollo Loco -- which trades under the symbol "LOCO" -- priced its initial public offering at $15 per share late Thursday, the high end of the expected range. The company raised $107 million from the sale of 7.1 million shares of common stock.
Based in California, El Pollo Loco has 401 company-owned and franchise locations in five U.S. states, including Texas and Arizona. But the vast majority of its restaurants are in the Golden State.
The first El Pollo Loco was opened in 1980 on Alvarado Street in Los Angeles, and the chain still has a huge presence in the city. Last year, it generated 80% of its revenue from the greater L.A. area.
El Pollo Loco says it's well positioned to benefit from increasing demand for healthier food (its chicken is grilled, not fried) and the growing Hispanic population in the United States.
The company believes it has the potential to operate 2,300 locations in the United States, but it has had limited success expanding beyond its home markets.
Despite steadily improving sales, El Pollo Loco has lost more than $54 million over the past three years. The company is backed by two private equity firms, which collectively own more than 70% of its stock. It plans to use the proceeds of its IPO to pay down its $288 million in debt.
El Pollo Loco competes with other fast casual restaurants that specialize in chicken, such as Yum! Brand's (YUM) KFC and Chick-fil-A. But its main competitor is Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG), which dominates the market for quick-serve Mexican food.
It's been a good year for companies to go public, but some restaurant chains have struggled to maintain their initial post-IPO pops.
Shares of sandwich shop Potbelly (PBPB), which more than doubled when they went public last October, are now trading below their offering price. Noodles & Co. (NDLS) soared after it went public just over a year ago, but the stock down more than 40% from its most recent high.
More recently, Zoe's Kitchen (ZOES), a Mediterranean style restaurant chain with 111 locations, debuted in April. The stock jumped nearly 64% on its first day of trading. It soared even higher in June, but has since dropped.
First Published: July 25, 2014: 10:48 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Shares tanked 80% Friday -- their first day of trading following a suspension by the Securities and Exchange Commission two weeks ago. The SEC cited "concerns regarding the accuracy and adequacy of information in the marketplace and potentially manipulative transactions in CYNK's common stock."
The company grabbed headlines earlier this month when its meteoric rise from a mere six cents per share to $21 gave it a market value of $5 billion, which is more than well-known brands such as Domino's Pizza (DPZ) and GameStop (GME).
Cynk shares were back to around $2.50 in late morning trading.
Because the stock is traded "over-the-counter," it doesn't have the kind of transparency associated with those that list on an official exchange such as the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq.
Related: Trader turns $1,500 to $1 million in 3 years
The SEC declined comment Friday on the resumption of Cynk trading.
But Cynk's main problem is that it is unclear if the company is worth anything at all.
In its latest financial report with the SEC from November, Cynk Technology lists no revenue or assets. It also reported a $1.5 million loss for 2013.
Related: Tax season unleashes cyberscams
Billing itself as a "social marketplace," the company's web site (theintrobiz.com) features pictures of famous people and claims to allow users to "buy and sell the ability to socially connect to individuals such as celebrities, business owners, and talented IT professionals."
For example, $50 will allegedly get you the contact information for Angelina Jolie, which "usually includes email and phone numbers to the artist's talent agent, publicist, legal representative," according to the site.
In other words, it's probably not the next hottest thing in Silicon Valley. Or Wall Street.
First Published: July 25, 2014: 11:31 AM ET
Despite many laws in place to protect pregnant women at work, there still is a lot of discrimination in the office. NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
In the last fiscal year, government agencies received 5,370 charges alleging pregnancy discrimination in the workplace.
The most common complaint? Employers fired them because they became pregnant.
It's been illegal to discriminate against pregnant women in the workplace since the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed in 1978. Apparently, a lot of employers still don't understand that, so last week, a government agency decided to issue a reminder.
For the first time in 30 years, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued new guidance on how to interpret the PDA and other laws protecting pregnant women on the job. Here's what you need to know.
1. An employer cannot fire a woman because she's pregnant:
Sometimes, employers try to disguise the discrimination behind good intentions. They explain they're worried about safety, for example. In other cases, the discrimination is more blatant. Either way, it's illegal.
Take this example from a wings restaurant chain in the Houston-area. The company had a written policy to lay off female workers after the third month of their pregnancies. A federal investigation showed the company laid off eight pregnant employees. A manager told investigators that keeping pregnant employees at work any longer would "be irresponsible in respect to her child's safety."
But companies cannot fire employees for this reason. Exceptions are rare, even when a job entails being exposed to toxic chemicals or lifting heavy objects. Courts have ruled that decisions about the safety of the woman and fetus are up to the employee and her doctor, not her boss.
2. A company cannot refuse to hire a woman because she's pregnant -- or because she may become pregnant in the future:
Peggy Mastroianni, Associate Legal Counsel in the EEOC, said this is very common, especially with workers applying for low wage jobs.
This problem occurs even at companies that rely on pregnant women as their customers.
A Philadelphia-based franchise of clothes retailer Motherhood Maternity paid $375,000 to settle a pregnancy discrimination and retaliation suit in 2007, after the company allegedly refused to hire three qualified female applicants because they were pregnant.
It's also illegal to not hire a woman because she may become pregnant in the future.
"There is still a stigma against hiring younger women for some jobs, where an employer wants to know somebody is going to be on a job for years without interruption," said Vicki Shabo, vice president at the National Partnership for Women & Families.
3. New mothers have the right to pump breast milk at work in a safe place. A company cannot fire or discriminate against a woman because she's lactating:
You can thank Obamacare for this protection.
The Affordable Care Act requires employers provide reasonable breaks to new mothers to pump breast milk for up to one year after a child's birth. Employers are also required to provide a safe and private place other than a bathroom, to do so.
But there is an exception for small companies. If a company with fewer than 50 employees can prove that offering breaks or a private space would cause "undue hardship" to the company, it may not have to offer this accommodation to their employees.
4. In some cases, pregnancy-related conditions may entitle women to special accommodations:
A normal pregnancy without complications is not considered a disability under federal law, and it does not entitle a worker to special treatment.
That said, women who have complications or temporary impairments related to their pregnancy, must be treated the same as other workers with medical impairments.
If a company has a policy in place that, for example, offers a light-duty assignment for a few months to a worker who injured his back, the company is also expected to provide "reasonable accommodations" to a pregnant woman who requires light-duty due to her pregnancy.
Stay-at-home moms are on the rise
Other examples of reasonable accommodations may include letting a worker sit on a stool rather than stand during her shift, changing her work schedule if she has severe morning sickness, or allowing her to keep a water bottle at her work station.
The worker usually needs to provide a doctor's note, establishing there's a medical condition that may temporarily limit her work capabilities. In the case of a pregnancy, common impairments include severe morning sickness, back pain, high blood pressure, gestational diabetes and complications that require bed rest.
There are some exceptions, but again, to avoid providing an accommodation, an employer has to prove that doing so would cause "undue hardship" to the company.
5. An employer cannot force you to take time off or change jobs, if you're still able to do your job:
Sometimes an employer thinks they're acting in the best interest of the employee -- or protecting itself from liabilities -- when it decides to reassign a pregnant woman or new parent to a less strenuous job.
Employers cannot base employment decisions on assumptions about pregnant women's capabilities and health concerns.
For example, a boss cannot prevent a pregnant worker from traveling on business trips, because he's concerned about her health. A company cannot deny a pregnant woman a promotion, assuming once she returns to work after childbirth, she will be less committed to her job. Employers also cannot reassign workers to less desirable jobs, even temporarily, due to concerns about a pregnancy.
Equal pay: 5 things you need to know
This also applies to mothers returning to the workforce after their child is born.
"Women may not be given the same opportunities after they come back from leave, because there is an assumption that they may want to take it easy because they have young children at home. That can still be viewed as discrimination," said Tracy Billows, a partner at Seyfarth Shaw, specializing in labor and employment law.
6. Non-medical leave must be equally available to both women and men:
Maternity leave is granted strictly to women, but if a company also has a policy in place for non-medical leave for purposes like bonding with children, male employees are entitled to the same amount of leave as women.
As for getting paid during that leave, the United States is the only developed country that does not mandate some sort of paid maternity leave. While the Family and Medical Leave Act does require some employers to offer up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to female and male employees for the birth and care of a newborn child, about 42% of American workers are not covered by this law.
7. You can't be harassed based on pregnancy, childbirth or related conditions:
Sexual harassment is illegal in the workplace. While one-off remarks about a pregnancy won't usually rise to the level of harassment, repeated insults or comments that create a hostile or offensive work environment are illegal.
8. You cannot be fired for having an abortion or considering having an abortion:
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act protects women from being discriminated against because they either had an abortion or considered having an abortion.
Faced with discrimination? Here's what to do:
Discrimination can be hard to prove, but keeping records that help piece together the discussions you had with your employer and actions taken against you, will help your case. To prove discrimination, you may also have to demonstrate that you were treated differently than other workers who had similar qualifications and performance records.
Women take on manufacturing
You can begin the process by arranging an appointment with an EEOC counselor in your region.
Of all the pregnancy discrimination complaints received by the EEOC, about 1 in 4 are settled in the worker's favor. The other 75% of cases are dismissed for a variety of reasons, including lack of evidence, improper jurisdiction or employers settling privately with the worker.
A 25% success rate may not sound like much, but it's high for discrimination cases. Pregnancy discrimination charges are more likely to end in the worker's favor than other discrimination charges filed with the EEOC, including complaints about race, religion, disability or age-related discrimination in the workplace.
First Published: July 25, 2014: 11:47 AM ET
Rideshare app Lyft, known for the pink mustaches on car grills, will launch in New York on Friday NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
After two weeks of sparring with New York City taxi regulators, rideshare app Lyft can start serving the five boroughs -- provided its drivers go through city licensing.
Lyft, known for the fuzzy pink mustaches on drivers' car grills, connects users with drivers, many of whom drive their own cars rather than a dispatcher's taxi. (The company said it will use smaller, dashboard mustaches in New York, as opposed to a big 'stache mounted on the front bumper.)
New York City's taxi regulator, the Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC), has said it has the right to regulate so-called rideshare apps like Lyft. The commission sought a temporary restraining order against the app as recently as July 11, when Lyft planned to launch in Brooklyn, because it had not secured licenses.
Related story: 24 hours with Lyft CEO Logan Green
Today's agreement suggests that the commission might be accepting technology with the potential to upend how it does business.
As part of the new agreement, Lyft drivers will meet a host of requirements. They'll submit to annual drug testing, attend a state-certified driving course every three years and get fingerprinted.
Around the country, regulators have shown skepticism -- and outright hostility -- to transportation apps like Uber and Lyft, which help users get taxis using their smartphones. They have laid down fines and court orders. Friday's agreement seemed to signal recognition in the highly regulated New York market that the apps are here to stay.
Commission chair Meera Joshi said in a statement that working with Lyft has helped regulators gain insight into the apps and how they serve passengers.
"As long as we ensure that public safety and consumer protection is at the forefront of these efforts, the city will benefit," said Joshi.
That's a far cry from the battle that Lyft's competitor Uber fought. It launched in New York in May 2011, according to its website, but it wrangled with the commission for two years before it was officially recognized.
First Published: July 25, 2014: 5:02 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
The rumored deal -- the companies won't confirm it -- sent the companies' stocks soaring Friday as the chatter gathered steam.
The companies don't charge for publishing these listings of homes for sale, but they do charge real estate agents fees to appear on their listing pages.
Should the two sites merge, they could have the leverage to charge more, said Steve Murray, editor at Real Trends a real estate communications and consulting company.
Already, some agent teams spend $20,000 a month with Zillow, Trulia, or both, said Murray.
For now, the agents are generally satisfied with the fees because the exposure generates so much business. Zillow and Trulia together attract 130 million visitors a month.
The ultimate fear: Zillow and Trulia could make brokers irrelevant.
Zillow, for instance, has its own home value algorithm called Zestimates. Trulia offers extensive rankings on crime, public transit and schools.
"Combined, [Zillow and Trulia] could further erode the leadership of the National Association of Realtors," said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a New York based appraisal firm.
Related: 10 mansions for under $1 million
Related: Best places for vacation home deals
First Published: July 25, 2014: 6:31 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
A weekly collection of design, data and interactive links.
Design/Data viz
Open India | Creating an experience that highlights progress and obstacles facing India
The Nostalgia Machine | Select a year and travel back in time
You Are Here | A study of place by MIT MediaLab
Responsive Logos | An exploration into scalable logos for the modern web
Framed* | A revolutionary platform for digital art
Little Box Challenge | A competition to build a smaller power inverter with a $1,000,000 prize
Code
Generative Typography | Create generative typography using this Processing tutorial
PrepBootstrap | Bootstrap themes, templates, and other widgets with code examples
See last week's links
Have a nice weekend!
@dubly and @talyellin
First Published: Jul 25, 2014 11:20 AM ET
These products are the same in all but their names. So why do 26% of Americans buy the one that costs more? NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Nine times out of 10, pharmacists and doctors will buy the generic version of aspirin, rather than a brand-name like Bayer. Likewise, professional chefs prefer store-brand sugar, salt and baking powder instead of brand name ingredients.
In short, the most informed consumers usually buy generic products, claims a new paper by economists from Tilburg University in the Netherlands and the University of Chicago.
Their research estimates Americans are wasting about $44 billion a year on name brands, when they could be buying the exact same products if they switched to cheaper store brands. Store brand products cost on average about half the price of national brands.
Take that bottle of aspirin for example. A 100-tablet package of 325 mg Bayer Aspirin costs $6.29 on CVS.com. The CVS version? Just $2.27 when it's regularly priced, and $1.14 when it's on sale.
They both have the same dosage, directions and active ingredient. But about a quarter of sales on headache remedy drugs in the U.S. go to brand-name products. So why then are some consumers paying so much for Bayer?
Related: Investors go LOCO for grilled chicken stock
The paper suggests ads are more likely to mislead all but the most knowledgeable consumers. College-educated shoppers, for example, are less likely to get duped into buying the more expensive brand-name than the broader public. Meanwhile, the experts -- like pharmacists and physicians -- are the least likely of all to buy the brand name drug.
Whereas the average household buys brand-name pain killers like Bayer, Advil and Tylenol 26% of the time, pharmacists buy brand names only 9% of the time.
A similar trend turns up at grocery stores.
Related: Introducing the $7.76 Big Mac
Whereas the average consumer pays for brand-name salt, sugar and baking powder 40% of the time, the most informed foodies -- professional chefs -- only buy these brands 20% of the time,
The study used Nielsen data tracking 77 million shopping trips by about 125,000 households. In addition to aspirin and baking supplies, it also tracked groceries like milk and eggs, soda, and cereal, and other healthcare products like cold remedies, bandages and contact lens solution.
Contact lens solution was the only healthcare product where the smartest consumers perceive "true quality differences," the study said.
First Published: July 25, 2014: 11:38 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
He was at the helm of Bear Stearns for 15 years, until 1993, and was chairman when the brokerage firm went under in 2008.
Greenberg spent decades at the brokerage firm, seeing the company grow into an industry powerhouse and through its collapse, which fueled the financial crisis that led to the Great Recession.
"In many respects, he epitomized the American dream, rising from a clerk to the corner office during his 65 years with the firm," said JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon and Mary Erdoes, head of asset management, in an email sent Friday to employees.
JPMorgan (JPM) bought Bear Stearns for $10 a share after the firm's collapse.
Greenberg was known to answer his own phone and was always at work. In a 2010 interview with CNN, he said he never missed a day of work after fighting a bout of colon cancer at age 31 -- even when he contracted malaria on a trip to Africa in 1968.
Greenberg also served as a trustee at the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Public Library, and New York University.
First Published: July 25, 2014: 2:05 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
But in a parody from Funny or Die, the Disney character (played by Kristin Bell) is quitting her job because that's all the Banks family will pay her.
She struggles to make ends meet while making $7.25, the federal minimum wage, pleading for a $3 raise.
"In every job that must be done, you must be paid in more than fun," she sings, a play on an original Mary Poppins song.
Related: LA hotel workers could get highest minimum wage in the U.S.
Plenty of people in the real world agree. 71% of people surveyed by CNNMoney favor an unspecified hike in the federal minimum wage. Meanwhile, 36% said it should be increased to $10.10 an hour, which is what Senate Democrats and President Obama have proposed.
A number of states and major cities aren't waiting for Congress to act and are passing minimum wage increases on their own. This year, five states and Washington D.C. passed legislation to gradually increase their wages to $10.10 or higher; other states passed smaller increases. In June, the Seattle city council approved an eventual increase to $15 an hour, making it the nation's highest so far.
But critics contend that a higher minimum wage will hurt jobs and consumers. A report released by the Congressional Budget Office in April said that a federal hike to $10.10 would lift 900,000 people out of poverty, but also cut 500,000 jobs.
First Published: July 25, 2014: 4:32 PM ET
Quant trader Elie Galam at the Panorama Partners' New York City office. He is not a Wolf of Wall Street. NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
But guess what? They are rapidly being replaced by "quants" -- soft-spoken super nerds armed with high-tech software to help them beat the market.
Elie Galam is one of them.
Every day, the 30-year old runs 35,000 different trading strategies through software he designed to find a handful of trading ideas with a high statistical probability of making him money.
"It's like seismic imaging," said the Parisian-born Galam, comparing his investing approach to the process used to find pockets of oil.
"I want to have a high degree of confidence that when I drill, I'm going to find oil."
So how did a Harvard math Ph.D dropout end up working on Wall Street?
Not your basic multiplication tables: From an early age, Galam was obsessed with math. After high school, he studied at the École Centrale Paris, a prestigious French engineering university. After that, came Harvard, where he enrolled in an applied mathematics doctoral program. Galam jokes that life at Harvard was like Matt Damon's character in the film Good Will Hunting.
Related: Graduate student loans are ballooning
In one class, he built a computer algorithm that successfully identified the writer of an article based on programmed characteristics such as style and voice. It was the kind of work that would lay the foundation for his career in finance.
'The Street' was calling: Soon enough, Wall Street recruiters began knocking on Galam's door. Money, prestige and the chance to work on cutting edge quantitative finance systems all appealed to him. So he cut his Ph.D program short after one year and settled for a master's degree instead. At the age of 22, he accepted a job at Blue Mountain Capital, a credit trading hedge fund in New York.
When he got there, he surprisingly felt right at home.
"The firm had a lot of smart people, it wasn't a stereotypical Wolf of Wall Street firm," Galam said. "I wasn't the only quant guy there."
It's all about the data: After a few years, his entrepreneurial spirit kicked in, and Galam went into business with James Greenberg, a veteran Wall Street dealmaker. The duo went on to launch Panorama Partners in late 2011.
At the core of their strategy: a quantitative software program built from scratch by Galam that uses historical data and analysis to predict price movements in various assets.
"We get as much data as we can, we shock it, test it, do back tests, historical analysis," Galam explains. "That's where I come in, where the science comes in."
Related: The unglamorous life of hedge fund startups
But Greenberg insists that Galam isn't your average Wall Street quant, and that he possesses the rare combination of computer skills along with raw trading instinct.
"He has a rigid approach to math but he also has creativity," Greenberg says.
Quant invasion: Galam is constantly looking to grow his firm, and to do that he needs more quants that think like him. Potential hires don't need to know much about finance, but they should be top notch when it comes to applied mathematics. Complex brain teasers are standard interview questions.
Galam's employees often come from Russia, China, and his native France. He keeps in close contact with his old math professors in Paris, and calls them frequently to ask about promising talent in the classroom.
"Who's the best guy? I want him," is what he tells them.
First Published: July 26, 2014: 11:23 AM ET
| Saturday, July 26th 2014, 01:16 GMT |
Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa took victory for Action Express in an eventful United SportsCar Championship race at Indianapolis
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| Friday, July 25th 2014, 17:56 GMT |
M-Sport has unveiled the facelifted version of the Ford Fiesta RS WRC that will make its World Rally Championship debut on Rally Finland next week
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Gary Watkins | Friday, July 25th 2014, 18:38 GMT |
The British GT championship is set to have live TV coverage for every round next season
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| Thursday, July 24th 2014, 22:13 GMT |
Briton Leon Camier will stand in for Nicky Hayden on the Aspar Honda for the next two MotoGP rounds as the 2006 world champion recovers from wrist surgery
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Mark Glendenning | Thursday, July 24th 2014, 20:01 GMT |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan and AJ Foyt Racing have been penalised for technical infractions following last weekend's IndyCar double-header in Toronto.
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| Thursday, July 24th 2014, 21:52 GMT |
Ryan Dalziel came out on top in the battle for pole position at the Indianapolis round of the United SportsCar Championship
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| Wednesday, July 23rd 2014, 19:49 GMT |
Former Formula 1 driver Nelson Piquet Jr will return to the wheel of a single-seater when he makes his debut with a Formula E car tomorrow.
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Jonathan Noble | Wednesday, July 23rd 2014, 14:55 GMT |
Red Bull says there is no point in it stopping development of this year's Formula 1 car in favour of focusing on its 2015 design.
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Jonathan Noble | Wednesday, July 23rd 2014, 20:38 GMT |
Mexico will return to the Formula 1 calendar next season after a 23-year absence, organisers said on Wednesday.
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Mark Glendenning | Tuesday, July 22nd 2014, 15:59 GMT |
NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France says that he is sceptical about the potential effectiveness of the newly-formed Race Teams Alliance
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| Tuesday, July 22nd 2014, 14:32 GMT |
Former Formula 1 driver Jerome d'Ambrosio has completed Dragon Racing's line-up for the inaugural Formula E season
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Jonathan Noble | Tuesday, July 22nd 2014, 15:16 GMT |
McLaren racing director Eric Boullier says Felipe Massa was wrong to blame Kevin Magnussen for their German Grand Prix collision, because the FIA's report proves the Dane was totally innocent
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Hal Ridge | Monday, July 21st 2014, 15:02 GMT |
Hyundai World Rally Championship driver Thierry Neuville plans to contest a round of the World Rallycross Championship, potentially before the end of the 2014 season
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Jonathan Noble | Monday, July 21st 2014, 16:29 GMT |
Mercedes Formula 1 drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg did run with Brembo brake material in the German Grand Prix, AUTOSPORT can reveal
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| Monday, July 21st 2014, 15:20 GMT |
Formula E has unveiled the track layout it will use for the fourth round of its inaugural season in Buenos Aires, Argentina
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Ben Anderson | Sunday, July 20th 2014, 17:50 GMT |
Nico Rosberg thinks Mercedes still has work to do to fix the brakes on its Formula 1 car, after struggling to manage his own during the German Grand Prix
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Jonathan Noble | Sunday, July 20th 2014, 18:09 GMT |
Lewis Hamilton feared for the safety of the Formula 1 marshals at the German Grand Prix when a safety car was not brought out for Adrian Sutil's spun Sauber
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Mark Glendenning | Sunday, July 20th 2014, 22:17 GMT |
Mike Conway cashed in on an early change from wet tyres to slicks to win the second race of the IndyCar double-header in Toronto, his second victory of the season
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Mark Glendenning | Saturday, July 19th 2014, 22:41 GMT |
IndyCar was forced to cancel the opening race of this weekend's double-header in Toronto due to bad weather
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Edd Straw | Saturday, July 19th 2014, 19:49 GMT |
Pastor Maldonado will continue as a Lotus Formula 1 driver in 2015, team principal Gerard Lopez has confirmed
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Mark Glendenning | Saturday, July 19th 2014, 23:32 GMT |
IndyCar says that it would have been "crazy" to attempt to race in Toronto on Saturday afternoon due to the risk presented by the treacherous conditions
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
"Sorry can't buy Trib group or LA Times -- cross-ownership laws from another age still in place," Murdoch tweeted late Thursday night.
Murdoch was referring to Federal Communications Commission rules that limit how many newspapers and broadcast television stations a single company can own.
But the Twitter message confirms that Murdoch has thought about pursuing Tribune, and particularly the Los Angeles Times.
Last year, when Tribune (TRBAA) was actively considering a sale, The New York Times reported that Murdoch was "weighing whether a bid would be worth the headache and regulatory battles."
Tribune later decided not to sell its eight papers immediately, but to spin them off into a new company, Tribune Publishing, instead. The split is expected to take effect in August.
After that point, a buyer might be able to acquire the new company -- which also owns the Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun.
The journalism institute Poynter said earlier this month that a new rumor about Murdoch's interest in Tribune was making the rounds, and that "various circumstances would make such a deal logical for both buyer and seller."
Anything can happen down the road, of course, and Murdoch's tweet might have been a way to blow off some steam about government regulation.
Of Murdoch's two companies, News Corp (NWSA). would be the one interested in more newspapers. It already owns Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones and the New York Post.
21st Century Fox (FOXA), the home to Murdoch's movie studio and cable and TV programming networks, is the one that made a bid for Time Warner (TWX).
There have been no new reports about overtures from Fox to Time Warner since Wednesday's confirmation from both companies that Time Warner had rejected the bid Fox proposed in June.
Related: Why Murdoch wants Time Warner
The original bid was worth about $86 per share. Time Warner indicated in a statement on Wednesday that Fox could never pull together a compelling offer (both in terms of value and the right mix of cash and stock), but that has not stopped Wall Street from speculating on a magic number that could rekindle talks.
Janney Capital Markets analyst Tony Wible, who wrote about a potential tie-up of Fox and Time Warner last month, said Thursday that he expects a $100 per share offer from Murdoch.
"Simply put, Fox has the capacity to pay more but would likely target a mix of stock and cash," he wrote in a report.
And even though Murdoch did not tweet directly about Time Warner, he did seem to hint that the deal may have been a reason why he hadn't tweeted since July 8 before writing a trio of tweets from Australia yesterday.
"Sorry, I have been busy lately with many preoccupations!" he wrote.
CNN's Cristina Alesci contributed to this report.
First Published: July 18, 2014: 4:01 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
The social media giant announced Thursday that it's testing a new Buy button feature with "a few" small and medium-sized businesses across the country.
The button is available on the mobile and desktop version of Facebook and lets customers purchase products directly from businesses. Businesses partnering with Facebook on this test can embed the button on their Page posts or in Facebook ads.
Just how few are we talking? Right now, very. A Facebook spokesman said the exact number can be counted using one hand. They declined to identify the specific businesses but the picture included in the announcement showed that one is a watch company, Modify Watches, in San Francisco.
Though the test is small for now, if successful, it could be a major win for small businesses.
Facebook launched my startup
Facebook said there are 30 million active small business pages worldwide.
"This represents a tremendous opportunity for savvy small businesses to generate sales in real time," said Brian Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter Group. "This is an opportunity for innovation."
It's not the first time Facebook has tested ecommerce ideas. In 2012, the company tried out Facebook Gifts, which ended less than a year later.
This particular trial comes after conversations with business owners and marketers about their business challenges. A lot of small businesses are sharp when it comes to mobile and digital (almost 19 million small business owners manage their page via mobile, according to Facebook) but many don't have the ecommerce platform to sell their products. This option is specifically designed to solve that problem.
When a customer clicks the Buy button, they'll be prompted to make a transaction, all without leaving the page. Processing is handled by a third party, so information isn't shared directly with Facebook (unless a user chooses to store their credentials on the site) or with the merchant. The third party will only share information pertinent to fulfillment (i.e. shipping address).
Yes, Americans want bacon with that
Right now, the feature is completely free for businesses, and Facebook has no plans to monetize it at the moment. The intention is twofold: See how people react to seeing it on the social media site, and how successful retailers are in driving ecommerce business.
"This could be so incredibly successful if businesses think about it as a new opportunity," said Solis.
First Published: July 18, 2014: 4:02 PM ET
Remember this from early June? Netflix and Verizon are still feuding over who's to blame for slow streaming speeds. NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Level 3 (LVLT), a firm Netflix (NFLX, Tech30) and others pay to deliver traffic to Internet service providers, joined the fray Thursday, accusing Verizon of refusing to upgrade its infrastructure to boost lagging streaming speeds.
Netflix has been complaining for months that some big broadband companies are allowing streaming speeds to slow down in order to compel Netflix to pay them for a faster connection. Netflix reached paid connection deals earlier this year with Comcast (CMCSA) and Verizon (VZ, Tech30). But it said it did so "reluctantly," arguing that the Internet providers were abusing their market power to extract tolls.
The battle came to a head in early June when some Netflix subscribers on Verizon's network were seeing a message pop up on their screens about slow video speeds.
This was happening just before Netflix was set to debut season 2 of its widely popular and Emmy-nominated series "Orange is the New Black."
The broadband providers counter that Netflix is generating ever-increasing amounts of data consumption on their networks without helping to pay for the infrastructure upgrades necessary to deliver that content. They also argue that Netflix could route its traffic more efficiently to avoid congestion, but that it refuses to do so because it doesn't want to increase its costs.
Related: Netflix stock at all-time high thanks to original shows
In a blog post Thursday, Level 3 vice president Mark Taylor said the cost for Verizon of reducing the congestion at connection points "is absolutely trivial."
"Could it be that Verizon wants to extract a pound of flesh from its competitors, using the monopoly it has over the only connection to its end-users?" Taylor wrote.
A Verizon spokesman said Friday that the company was planning a response to Level 3. Netflix said Level 3 "is highlighting the same purposeful congestion by internet service providers that we have been discussing for months."
The dispute has drawn the interest of the Federal Communications Commission, which said last month that it planned to gather information on the issue to determine "precisely what is happening" and "whether consumers are being harmed."
Figuring out those questions isn't easy because none of the companies involved are telling the full story, said Dan Rayburn, a streaming media expert with Frost & Sullivan.
"This whole back-and-forth is getting really tiresome because none of them are showing all the pieces of information -- they're just showing what's in their favor," Rayburn said. He called on the firms to be transparent about the expenses involved in the various business arrangements being debated.
Netflix and Verizon have been criticizing each other despite the fact that the two companies reached an agreement in April in which Netflix will pay to boost streaming speeds by connecting directly to Verizon's network. This connection apparently isn't yet being used for all the traffic Netflix sends to Verizon, however.
Other big tech companies like Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) and Apple (AAPL, Tech30) have similar agreements with Verizon.
First Published: July 18, 2014: 2:44 PM ET
The Forbes family sold a majority stake in its business media group but Steve Forbes will remain as chairman and editor in chief. NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Terms were not disclosed. But a source familiar with the deal said that it values the company at $475 million.
The Forbes family, which has owned the company since its founding in 1917, will continue to "retain a significant ownership stake."
The buyer is Hong Kong-based investor group Integrated Whale Media Investments. It's composed of international investors, including Singapore-based Wayne Hsieh, co-founder of a leading PC vendor.
Exiting from the company will be Elevation Partners, an investment group that has held a minority stake for the last eight years. Its investors include rock star Bono.
Steve Forbes, the third generation of his family to run the magazine after founder B.C. Forbes and longtime editor Malcolm Forbes, will remain as chairman and editor in chief. Mike Perlis, who in 2010 became the first person outside the Forbes family to run day-to-day operations, will remain as president and CEO.
Forbes Media announced it was looking for a buyer last November.
With a circulation of 931,558, Forbes is the No. 3 U.S. business publication, behind Time Inc.'s (TIME) Money magazine and Bloomberg Businessweek. It is particularly well known for its lists such as the world's richest people. Forbes Media also has an online presence in Forbes.com, and a majority stake in the Real Clear group of Web sites, such as Real Clear Politics.
Like other print media, the flagship magazine has been struggling with a shift of readers and advertisers to online sources. Ad revenue for 2013 was down 5%, while ad pages fell 10%, both worse than magazine industry average.
The industry changes have led to a number of sales and spin-offs of traditional print media recently.
Time Inc., the nation's largest magazine publisher, was spun off by media conglomerate Time Warner, (TWX) the owner of CNN and CNNMoney, earlier this year. News Corp. (NWSA), owner of The Wall Street Journal, was spun off from 21st Century Fox (FOXA) a year ago.
First Published: July 18, 2014: 1:02 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
"'I don't feel safe. I got sexual harassment, I got work retaliation," Shi says she told Yahoo's human resources department in April. In an interview with CNNMoney, Shi says she was told to stay at home while the company investigated the claims.
Shi said she suffered depression while waiting for the investigation to be conducted. "It was the hardest time I went through," she said. "After a month, I finally went to my family doctor. I told her I have depression. I cannot go out -- basically I locked myself up in the room."
In a counter suit, the woman Shi is accusing, Maria Zhang, says the allegations against her are completely false, calling them "inhumane." Yahoo issued a statement backing the executive and promising to "fight vigorously" to clear Zhang's name.
Shi said she grew frustrated when Yahoo found the sexual harassment claims unsubstantiated.
"They occasionally called me, asked me how I'm doing," she recalls. "Each time they just told me they've done complete investigations and they did not find anything."
Shi says she wrote the company a list of points to investigate ranging from sexual harassment to work harassment.
The defamation suit filed by Zhang said there was no evidence to support Shi's claim of a sexual relationship with Zhang.
As a result of the alleged incidents, the software engineer, who has worked at both AOL and Microsoft, says she can't bring herself to open her computer.
"I don't want to open any software I was using to write software because it makes me -- I don't know -- think about what happened to me," she told CNNMoney.
Originally from Beijing, Shi studied in the United States, becoming a software engineer for AOL and then landing a job a Microsoft for five years. She left Microsoft to work at Zhang's startup, which was later sold to Yahoo.
"The most important thing is to clarify the truth, to let people know what happened to me," Shi says. "And to—to make this kind of thing no longer happen to people like me."
First Published: July 18, 2014: 9:57 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Today, taxi app company Uber will serve up ice cream on demand to customers in 144 cities across the globe.
It's as simple as ordering an Uber driver. Hit the request button for the "Ice Cream" option on the app and wait for the nearest ice cream truck or luxury Uber Ice Cream-branded car to drive up.
Uber partnered with everyone from local ice cream and gelato vendors using their own trucks, to the mega wholesale warehouse chain Costco (COST), for the day-long delivery of frozen sweets.
Related: Uber: From taxis to deliveries on demand
Prices, ice cream selection and hours of operation vary depending on location. In Atlanta, $25 will get you five sweet treats from a local vendor or pre-packaged ice cream pops. Free Uber swag-bags are also being given out, including beach balls and sunglasses.
In New Delhi, two Haagen-Dazs Belgian Chocolate and Strawberry sundaes will be delivered curbside for 700 rupees, and drivers in Paris are serving up Ben & Jerry's. And there's no need to have cash on hand -- the ice cream is charged to your Uber account.
It's not the first time Uber has delivered ice cream to customers. The company has also been experimenting with on-demand deliveries of everything from kittens on National Cat Day, to Christmas trees and flowers. In New York City, Uber even offered free halftime show delivery ahead of the 2014 Super Bowl, including a six-piece band and team of six cheerleaders.
Related: Uber CEO: 'Our growth is unprecedented'
And for those more quotidian deliveries, the company is testing a new bike and pedestrian courier service in New York called Uber Rush.
But Uber's rising dominance has been protested by taxi drivers around the world. Some investors have also wondered if the company's recent round of financing, which values the company at more than $18 billion, is a sign of another tech bubble. Uber is worth more than profitable brand-name companies like Whole Foods (WFM), Harley-Davidson (HOG), Nordstrom (JWN) and Mattel (MAT).
First Published: July 18, 2014: 11:06 AM ET
U.S. sanctions ban Russian imports of AK-47s, invented by the recently deceased Mikhail Kalashnikov (pictured here,) creating a booming market for AKs already in the U.S. NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Among the companies sanctioned this week was Kalashnikov Concern, the maker of the automatic weapon.
"We sell some of the Kalashnikov Concern stuff and that has been selling fast," said Robert Keller, manager of K-Var Corp., a Las Vegas-based online gun distributor.
Keller said his company has been sold out of the guns since the sanctions went into effect. On K-Var's web site, AK-47s are listed as "out of stock."
The Obama administration issued sanctions against Russian companies in response to Russia's role in a separatist movement in Ukraine. An increasingly violent civil war between Ukraine's government and the separatists resulted in tragedy Thursday, when a Malaysian Airlines passenger plane was shot down, killing 298 people.
According to the Treasury Department, Kalashnikov Concern is banned from importing its guns -- including the AK-47 and more advanced AK-74 -- into the United States. But, in a statement posted on its Web site, Treasury said Americans are allowed to own, buy and sell the guns, so long as they were already in the U.S. prior to the sanctions.
Keller said he is scrambling to acquire more Kalashnikov guns from U.S. distributors. He also said he still selling many weapons similar to the AK-47, such as the SAM7 brand of Bulgarian-made rifles.
Kalashnikov Concern could not be reached for comment
AK-47 stands for Avtomat Kalashnikov-47, a reference to the full automatic action of the military models, the name of inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov, and the year of its unveiling, 1947, according to "The Gun," a book by C.L. Chivers.
First Published: July 18, 2014: 12:29 PM ET
Benjamin Lawsky, New York state's Superintendent of Financial Services, faces a tough task. He has proposed rules to regulate Bitcoin ... but he doesn't want to kill the virtual currency. NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Benjamin Lawsky, who leads the state's Department of Financial Services, unveiled a set of draft rules for "BitLicenses" on Thursday. They apply for all virtual currencies.
If they stick, Bitcoin will be one step closer to a legitimate form of money -- and a giant leap away from the shady, semi-anonymous, free-for-all that currently defines the independent digital currency.
Related: What is Bitcoin?
As part of the proposed new rules, Bitcoin trading businesses must pass background checks, know all their customers, be open to regulator inspection at any time and keep 100% of account reserves on hand.
"We have sought to strike an appropriate balance that helps protect consumers and root out illegal activity -- without stifling beneficial innovation," Lawsky said in a statement. "Setting up common sense rules of the road is vital to the long-term future of the virtual currency industry, as well as the safety and soundness of customer assets."
The rules don't clamp down on average users who spend this computerized money online or at tech-savvy bars and barbershops. Instead, they're strict requirements on the bank-like businesses that buy, sell and store bitcoins. You can read the full proposal here.
Bitcoin exchanges must now keep detailed records on all their customers. It's an attempt to clamp down on black market uses for Bitcoin, such as money laundering and buying illegal goods.
Currently, the backbone of the Bitcoin system logs all transactions, but it only lists peoples' anonymous digital wallets. By forcing exchanges to log everyone who acquires a Bitcoin, the system is suddenly traceable to actual people.
The tough part? Actually acquiring a BitLicense to operate.
Financial regulators will carefully screen anyone running a virtual currency business. Regulators will check their criminal background, professional qualifications and judge whether they're fit to manage money. If anything goes sour, regulators can yank a license.
Related: 'I lost money with Mt.Gox'
It's right in line with what Lawsky told CNNMoney in an interview in April. He explained then that his biggest fear is a repeat of what happened in Tokyo, when the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, Mt.Gox, went bankrupt and lost close to $400 million in users' accounts.
"What I would never want to see is... that there was something we missed and an exchange collapsed," Lawsky said at the time. "We're going to work very hard on our blind spots so we put protections in place -- that may seem overly conservative to some -- to make sure we don't have a collapse."
But as Lawsky said then, he doesn't want rules "so burdensome or unwieldy that the technology can't develop."
The rules also show Lawsky understands how Bitcoin works. Exchanges must secure exactly the number of bitcoins they owe customers. That means no modern banking fractional reserve of funds -- a central tenet of the Bitcoin philosophy.
The public has 45 days to comment on the proposed rules. The question now is whether the Bitcoin community will embrace it.
Related: Where is Bitcoin legal?
Nick Spanos is the cofounder of the NYC Bitcoin Center, which serves as a community meeting place where people can learn about it and do in-person trades. It also aims to be the New York Stock Exchange of bitcoins.
Spanos welcomes regulation but said younger entrepreneurs in his circles think the rules are too costly and will crush them.
"I just saw the gleam in their eye get put out last night," he said. "They're chasing away business from New York. They can just go to New Jersey."
Then again, Spanos said the rules serve to give the Bitcoin space much-needed accountability.
"If you're going to take people's money and hold it as a third party, you should be scrutinized," Spanos said.
Jose Pagliery is also the author of Bitcoin - And the Future of Money, available in bookstores on Sept. 1 (Triumph Books, Chicago).
First Published: July 18, 2014: 10:44 AM ET
Fidelity says the stock market helped lift retirement balances to a record high. NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
The average balance in a Fidelity Individual Retirement Account (IRA) rose 15% on an annual basis in the second quarter to $92,600 -- an all-time high.
In the same period, the average balance in a Fidelity 401(k) account also set a record, up nearly 13% annually to $91,000.
The mutual fund giant credited 77% of the gains to a surging stock market, and 23% to employee and employer contributions.
Fidelity said the balance for employees who have been in a workplace 401(k) for 10 years rose 15% a year over the past decade to $246,200.
But even that balance is probably not enough to retire on. Fidelity recommends saving eight times your yearly salary.
Even more sobering, a 2013 study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that nearly half of all workers had less than $10,000 saved.
First Published: July 18, 2014: 3:22 PM ET
Coach has hired Stuart Vevers to try to revive a brand that has been around since 1941. NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
The British designer was hired last year to revive the Coach brand, a comeback that may be even harder to pull off than Martha Stewart's.
Coach (COH) stock is down almost 40% this year. The bad weather that kept many American shoppers out of stores this winter only exacerbated the company's problems. The brand is stale.
Known for its leather handbags, Coach doesn't have a clear identity anymore.
The company, founded in 1941, really hit its stride in the 1990s under the dynamic duo of CEO Lew Frankfort and head designer Reed Krakoff. They popularized the concept of "luxury for the masses."
They found the sweet spot in the retail market where customers wanted a bit of brand cache but at a cost that was a lot less than Prada (PRDSF) and Gucci had to offer.
The company went public in 2000 (as a spin-off of food company Sara Lee no less) and the stock rose steadily for a few years with the introduction of products like the "Hampton bag." Wall Street pushed for growth, and Coach responded by opening a lot of outlet stores, which diluted the luxury brand notion.
It also didn't help that competition increased from Michael Kors (KORS), Kate Spade (KATE)and Tory Burch, among others.
Coach's turnaround plan: Enter Vevers. The company is aiming for the higher-end consumer again now that Vevers is Executive Creative Director.
He has the track record. He was named Accessory Designer of the Year by the British Fashion Council several years ago and has worked at other brands trying to reinvent themselves -- such as Calvin Klein and Mulberry.
Thanks to Vevers, Coach held its first New York Fashion Week show earlier this year, garnering largely positive reviews.
But Wall Street is not convinced that the runway success will lead to higher sales just yet.
Related: Coach is going out of fashion among investors
"Some of his designs will be in full-price stores in the fall. You're not going to see it in the outlet channel until probably 2015, which is the majority of sales" says Evan Staples, a senior analyst at Nuveen Asset Management. He argues any turnaround will be a long time coming.
"Only if you're a very risky value investor would you be stepping in here," he says.
It's also not clear if this is even the right direction for Coach.
"Can Stuart Vevers put good product on the floor? I don't know," says Paul Lejuez, who covers retail stocks for Wells Fargo Securities. "The more important question is even if the product looks good, does it matter? Will people buy it?"
Coach is in the process of closing some stores. After the latest round, it will have about 250 full-price stores and 200 outlet stores in North America, Lejuez says. That makes it difficult to re-cast the brand as a more up-scale "luxury-lifestyle" brand when its discount stores are still everywhere.
Related: The 1% is spending: Luxury stocks soar
Buying opportunity? Robert Drbul, an analyst who covers the retail sector for Nomura, is more bullish. He has a "buy" rating on the stock, which currently trades around $34, a big drop from 2012 when it traded around $75. Drbul has a target price of $45.
"The company has a track record of brand re-invention and a strong team," Drbul says. "Coach clearly remains committed to their dividend, so from the investor standpoint, they are paid to wait and hold their shares." Coach's dividend yields nearly 4%.
Drbul also points out that many luxury and pseudo-luxury brands are fighting for traction in Europe and Asia. Bringing on a British designer with many European ties could also give Coach an edge internationally.
But the biggest "buying opportunity" may be for consumers. Many retailers are increasing discounts as they try to clear inventory after a slow winter and spring. Coach is also motivated to make room on its shelves for Vevers' designs.
So even if you aren't interested in the stock, Coach's current predicament is a good chance to pick up a nice handbag or pair of shoes at a cheap price.
First Published: July 19, 2014: 9:19 AM ET
| Friday, July 18th 2014, 17:45 GMT |
World Rally Championship star Ott Tanak dominated day one of his home round of the European Rally Championship in Estonia
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Charles Bradley | Friday, July 18th 2014, 18:28 GMT |
Three drivers have been given three-place grid penalties for impeding in qualifying for the first GP2 race at Hockenheim on Saturday
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Mark Glendenning | Friday, July 18th 2014, 19:14 GMT |
Simon Pagenaud was fastest in a disrupted second IndyCar practice session on the streets of Toronto on Friday
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| Thursday, July 17th 2014, 21:07 GMT |
Nicky Hayden has undergone further wrist surgery to try to tackle his long-standing injury during MotoGP's summer break.
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Jonathan Noble | Thursday, July 17th 2014, 17:45 GMT |
Formula 1 teams have all removed their FRIC suspension systems for the German Grand Prix, ending fears that the weekend could be overshadowed by protests
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Jonathan Noble | Wednesday, July 16th 2014, 15:51 GMT |
Formula 1 chiefs are pushing to change the penalty system for unsafe releases from pitstops, AUTOSPORT can reveal, after complaints from drivers that it is unfair.
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Mark Glendenning | Wednesday, July 16th 2014, 15:40 GMT |
Tony Kanaan says that he now feels fully integrated with Chip Ganassi Racing and is confident that the team is on the verge of a turnaround after a disappointing start to the season
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| Wednesday, July 16th 2014, 17:43 GMT |
Honda's preparations for the 2015 MotoGP season gained momentum on Wednesday as Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa sampled a prototype of next year's bike at Brno.
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Ben Anderson | Tuesday, July 15th 2014, 14:58 GMT |
The Williams Formula 1 team must work hard to maintain its recent form because the strength of the midfield pack means it could easily slip back, according to performance chief Rob Smedley
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Marcus Simmons | Tuesday, July 15th 2014, 14:09 GMT |
British teams Fortec Motorsport and Double R Racing are both set to change their driver line-ups for the next round of the Formula 3 European Championship at the Red Bull Ring
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Peter Mills | Tuesday, July 15th 2014, 16:12 GMT |
Lada announced that it will unveil a concept of its 2015 Vesta World Touring Car Championship racer at the Moscow International Motorshow in August
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Glenn Freeman | Monday, July 14th 2014, 15:47 GMT |
Renault has given its long-term support to its 'World Series' racing package, securing the future of its headlining Formula Renault 3.5 category for multiple years.
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Gary Watkins | Monday, July 14th 2014, 18:25 GMT |
Steven Richards and Shane van Gisbergen have joined a growing contingent of V8 Supercars stars racing in this month's Spa 24 Hours
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Jonathan Noble | Monday, July 14th 2014, 19:01 GMT |
McLaren has become the first Formula 1 team to confirm intentions to remove its FRIC suspension system for the German Grand Prix
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| Sunday, July 13th 2014, 21:05 GMT |
Gustavo Yacaman and Olivier Pla won the United SportsCar Championship race at Mosport Park in a dominant lights-to-flag victory
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Hal Ridge | Sunday, July 13th 2014, 14:29 GMT |
Toomas Heikkinen became the sixth consecutive different winner in the World Rallycross Championship this season, coming out on top of a dramatic final at Mettet in Belgium
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| Sunday, July 13th 2014, 20:47 GMT |
Brad Keselowski dominated the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire on Sunday, despite the late scare of a green-white-chequered finish, to record his third win of 2014 and his second victory in three races
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Andrew van Leeuwen | Saturday, July 12th 2014, 15:55 GMT |
Maxime Martin secured his first ever DTM pole position at Moscow Raceway
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By David Evans | Saturday, July 12th 2014, 21:16 GMT |
Robert Kubica has scored his first win in a World Rally Car - dominating the Rally del Casentino in Italy on Saturday
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| Saturday, July 12th 2014, 22:25 GMT |
Gustavo Yacaman qualified on pole for the United SportsCar Championship race at Canadian Motorsport Park in the Prototype class
You have viewed over 20 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
On Friday, an investment group offered to buy the Crumbs cupcake business as part of its bankruptcy filing.
The new venture is looking at Crumbs' business strategy, and said it will consider reopening some locations that were closed or opening new ones. Crumbs CEO Edward M. Slezak said the financing from the deal will enable it to pursue a franchise model.
The deal is subject to approval by the bankruptcy court.
The joint venture was created by Marcus Lemonis LLC and Fischer Enterprises, L.L.C. Lemonis is the host of the CNBC show, "The Profit."
Fischer has investments in other food brands, including Dippin' Dots ice cream.
Crumbs (CRMB) closed all of its stores Monday, and has been struggling for some time. It began closing outlets in 2013 amid steep losses. At the end of the first quarter this year, it had 65 locations in 12 states.
Crumbs launched with a store on Manhattan's Upper West Side in 2003, and had 65 stores in 12 states and DC at the end of first quarter of this year.
The stock, which traded for more than $10 in 2011, closed Friday at $0.65 a share.
Related: 6 endangered brands
First Published: July 11, 2014: 11:35 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
A weekly collection of design, data and interactive links.
Design/Data viz
Super Pixel Quest | Use the arrows to navigate through the story
Shadow Transit | Map of NYC's dollar van
Visualizng Algorithms | Using d3.js to visualize and explain algorithms
Nike | Nike's World Cup Typography
SmartyPins | Google Maps trivia game
Play Magnus | Test your chess skills against the World Champion
Find Guidelines | The fastest way to find brand asset
Photo/Video
Vershleif | Using an edge sander to capture objects frame by frame
San Francisco Tunnels | Deep look at the SF tunnel system
Photo Contest | 2014 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest, Part I
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First Published: Jul 11, 2013: 12:40 PM ET
These billionaires are calling on Congress to pass an immigration overhaul. WASHINGTON (CNNMoney)
In a New York Times editorial Friday, big Republican donor and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson joined forces with Berkshire Hathway (BRKA) CEO Warren Buffett, a friend of President Obama's, and Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) founder Bill Gates.
"It's time for the House to draft and pass a bill that reflects both our country's humanity and its self-interest," they wrote, citing immigrants' purchasing power, unique abilities, and financial resources, as reasons for why it would be good for the country.
They wrote that the House should not throw up its hands on immigration, just because outgoing Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his Republican primary to a tea party enthusiast who campaigned against immigration.
"They are telling us that immigration reform — long overdue — is now hopeless. Americans deserve better than this," according to the editorial.
Related: Business wants immigration reform because they can't find workers
The article is the latest salvo from big business leaders to keep the pressure on lawmakers to overhaul the nation's immigration laws.
That's because U.S. businesses have a lot at stake. Hotels, restaurants, builders and farmers say they're all facing labor shortages due to the current outdated immigration system. The tech industry wants lawmakers to make it easier for the nation's best and brightest immigrant graduates to stay in the United States.
"You don't have to agree on everything in order to cooperate on matters," they said, offering their co-written op-ed as an example. "It's time that this brand of thinking finds its way to Washington."
Sheldon is CEO of Las Vegas' Sands (LVS) and he and his wife Miriam are among the biggest donors to Republican candidates. During the 2012 election cycle, the couple and their companies spent $93 million on Republican and conservative efforts, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Warren Buffett is chummy with Democrats and has given more than $200,000 to President Obama and the Democratic National Committee over the years. He also is a regular at the White House. President Obama named a millionaire tax provision after him called the Buffett Rule -- the rule was never enacted.
Bill Gates has given to both parties and has thrown his name behind some high-profile national policy efforts, including raising taxes for the 1% and supporting gay marriage.
They exhorted members of Congress to pass a "well-designed immigration bill," ending the piece by saying it would lift the country's spirits and stimulate the economy and that lawmakers should not forget the people who voted them in.
"It's time for 535 of America's citizens to remember what they owe to the 318 million who employ them," they said.
First Published: July 11, 2014: 10:26 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
The mysterious social network captured the attention of the finance world (and eventually regulators) by soaring an incredible 25,000%.
The stock went from trading at 6 cents a share to as high as $21.95 on Thursday. The Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading Friday due to concerns about the "accuracy and adequacy" of marketplace information as well as "potentially manipulative transactions" in the stock.
Here are three takeaways from this episode:
1 If it looks too good to be true... The suspicious case of Cynk Technology (CYNK) should serve as a reminder to investors of the dangers of playing in the shadowy and illiquid over-the-counter markets.
In its latest financial report with the SEC from November, Cynk Technology lists no revenue or assets. It also reported a $1.5 million loss for 2013.
Stocks like Cynk don't have the same transparency as ones listed on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq, and it is much harder to buy and sell shares. These are markets for highly sophisticated traders and risk takers, especially because there can be volatile swings, sometimes for legitimate reasons.
"It's not like grandma and grandpa were buying or selling this stock," said Charles Whitehead, a professor at Cornell Law School.
2 Was the SEC too slow to act? It took a blog post from ZeroHedge and subsequent media attention before regulators halted trading in Cynk on Friday.
That suggests there is no price trigger (such as a 20,000% surge) where the Securities and Exchange Commission gets alerted to suspicious trading activity, at least in over the counter (OTC) markets. The SEC declined to comment.
Related: Stocks in a Friday funk
The fact that the SEC wasn't on the case earlier could be due to the nature of the OTC markets, where stocks that don't trade on exchanges like the Nasdaq change hands. These stocks are not subject to the strict reporting standards that companies like Apple (AAPL, Tech30) must adhere to.
It's also worth noting that the SEC faces a higher bar for taking action in cases where there is no false press release or similar overt action.
3. Was this another short-selling disaster? One theory is that Cynk's stock was driven up by a market manipulation scheme where a small group of insiders draw the attention of short sellers, who borrow and then sell shares in the hopes they can buy them back later at a cheaper price. The difference between selling high and buying low would represent their profit.
Related: 4 reasons to keep calm about Portugal's bank crisis
Because only a limited amount of shares are available, access is controlled by insiders who can then artificially pump up the stock price. Short sellers are essentially "squeezed" -- they now need to buy shares but at a much higher price, perhaps from one of the insiders.
Such an operation could also violate securities laws.
"If you're a short seller, don't short stocks that are as illiquid as this one was, held by a small group of guys who can manipulate price -- unless you're prepared for the consequences," said Whitehead.
First Published: July 11, 2014: 2:27 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Some upscale hotels are offering creative packages where guests can bask in the glow of the paparazzi, spend a weekend like a famed secret agent, or recreate the experience of a heroine in a romantic comedy.
At Row NYC, for example, guests can pay $2,500 for a taste of the glamorous world of a celebrity. The hotel's Paparazzi Project package includes one night's stay at the hotel's penthouse suite (named and inspired by famed photographer Ron Galella); hair and make-up done by a team led by a celebrity stylist; and a personal paparazzo to shoot the experience.
The paparazzo, from agency Getty Images, can catalog the guest's celebrity transformation, follow the guest through the hotel, and snap photos of them around Times Square.
"Everyone sees you're being treated like [a celebrity]," said Elizabeth Wilson, a 23-year-old from Kansas City who received the package as a graduation gift from her parents.
Related: How to vacation like an aristocrat
Those looking for a little more mystery can head to Scotland for a James Bond escape.
Over the course of a $2,100 weekend, guests at the Isle of Eriska Hotel, Spa & Island can drive an Aston Martin through the Scottish Highlands to Glencoe, where scenes of Skyfall were shot, and learn how to make the ultimate martini -- shaken not stirred.
They can also ride a speedboat like 007 and tour locations where scenes from The Spy Who Loved Me, From Russia With Love, and other Bond classics were filmed.
Related: 10 vacation experiences of a lifetime
Meanwhile, the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills offers a chance to step into the role that made Julia Roberts a household name.
The hotel's package, starting at $15,000, gives guests the opportunity to be Pretty Woman for a day. Highlights include a stay in the same suite as Roberts' character and a styling trip with a personal shopper along Rodeo Drive for two hours.
For those willing to spend upwards of $100,000, the ultimate package includes a picnic, musical serenade, and special guest appearance by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck.
First Published: July 11, 2014: 3:26 PM ET
