Business fun facts!

Bill Gates is worth more than the GDP of countries like Slovakia, Qatar, Libya, Luxembourg, Sri Lanka, and many more.

If Bill Gates was a country, its GDP would rank close to 60^th out of 180 countries in the world.

Bears return on the uncertain economic future . For the month of January 2008, the growth in the service businesses declined. This news raised the fear among investors that the US economy is going into recession. The bad housing loan problem also continued to keep the investors jittery. The S&P500 dropped 64 points or -4.6%, the DOW dropped 561 points or -4.4% and the NASDAQ dropped 109 points or -4.5% for the week ending February 8^th, 2008. . The US Services and Manufacturing business expansion (growth) or contraction (decline) is tracked by the Institute of Supply Management (ISM). For the month of January, 2008, the ISM Service business index dropped sharply from 54.4 in December, 2007 to 41.9 in January, 2008. The index number above 50 indicates that the businesses are growing and a number below 50 indicates that the businesses are cutting down expansion. It is good news when businesses grow or expand, because businesses hire more people to make more goods and services. On the other hand, when businesses shrink, it means fewer jobs and more lay-offs, which is a bad sign for the economy.

What is Mergers and Acquisition (M&A)? . Acquisition happens when one company buys another company. . Acquisition is not very different than buying or trading a baseball card that you really want. For example, Jane wants to buy a special baseball card. Let us say, Jane knows that John has that card and he would be interested in selling it. To acquire John’s card, Jane would have to make an offer (or in other words bid). If John agrees to sell his card to Jane then Jane successfully acquired John’s card in a friendly manner. . What if, Jane really wants John’s card, however, John is unwilling to sell to Jane? Jane could get unfriendly and put pressure on John to sell. The acquisition experts call it a “hostile” takeover. . Let us take an example of Microsoft (Ticker MSFT) and Yahoo (Ticker Yhoo). This past week, Microsoft (the buyer) made an offer (also called bid or tender) to buy (or acquire) Yahoo for $45 billion (or $31 per share). Now Yahoo’s shareholders (the owner) will have to decide, if they should consider Microsoft’s offer to sell at $31 per share. If most of Yahoo’s shareholders sell their shares to Microsoft, then Microsoft will be successful in buying (or acquiring) Yahoo. . On the other hand, if Yahoo’s shareholders decide to reject Microsoft’s offer and if Microsoft still wants to buy Yahoo, then Microsoft will have to find other ways to give incentive to Yahoo shareholders, such as, increase its offer. This could go on for some time until both parties agree or Microsoft backs down.	. . .
What is a merger? . Merger is simply when two companies join together to form one company. In this case, one company continues to operate the two merged company as one and the other company disappears. For example, Travelers and Citibank merged to form Citigroup. In this case, Citigroup continued to exist but the name Travelers disappeared.
Learn more about... What is Credit History? Why is it important to have a good credit history? Volume 12. What is Economy, Business, Workers, Goods, Services, Stock, DOW, S&P500, and NASDAQ in Volume 16. Does it pay to study hard? Volume 17. What is Currency and Foreign Currency Exchange rate? Volume 14. What is stronger or weaker currency? Volume 20. What does the dollar slide mean? Volume 32. How does money grow in a bank? Volume 21. What is Fed Funds rate and Discount rate? Volume 22 What does the interest rate cut mean for you? Volume 23. How to read stock information? Volume 25. What is "Black Monday"...Crash of 87"? Volume 31. Who are CEO, CFO, Shareholders, and the Board of Directors? What is SOX? Volume 33 How did year 2007 do? Volume 39.

Feb 4-8, 2008

Weekly Stock Market

Bear Market-Stocks down!

Index

Change

Last

DOW

Down 561

12,182

S&P500

Down 64

1,331

NASDAQ

Down 109

2,305

**Foreign Exchange Rate**

**$1 is equal to**
Currency	Change	Last
Euro (€)	+0.01	0.69
Yen (¥)	+0.69	107.35
Pound (£)	+0.01	0.51
Yuan ()	+0.01	7.20
Rupee (Rs.)	+0.48	39.61
Canadian (C$)	+0.00	1.00

**Your Favorite Stocks**
Company	Bought one stock in Jan-08	This week stock is?	Your gain or loss?
	$31.84	$32.12	+$0.28
	$51.57	$49.18	-$2.39
	$58.10	$55.64	-$2.46

We use multiple information resources, such as, websites, companies, stock exchanges, newspapers, text books, and others.