Canadian Tire will expand their demographics in sporting good sales through the purchase of Forzani’s.

Updated: Mon May. 09 2011 17:16:25
ctvcalgary.ca

The Forzani Group has been bought by another Canadian retail giant for almost $800 million in a friendly, all-cash deal. Canadian Tire will spend over $771 million to acquire the Calgary-based company.

Forzani’s operates some of the best known sporting goods retailers in the country.

The deal will see Canadian Tire take control of Forzani Group Ltd. which includes Sport Check, Athlete’s World, Nevada Bob’s Golf, and other retailers.

The Forzani Group started as the Forzani’s Locker Room in 1974 with one small store in Calgary.

The brainchild of John Forzani, he says the idea for the store started because the Stampeders couldn’t get proper footwear.

Within twenty years the group became the largest sporting retailer in the country.

By ANUPREETA DAS And NICK WINGFIELD

Microsoft Corp. is close to a deal to buy Internet phone company Skype Technologies SA for more than $7 billion, and a deal could be announced as early as Tuesday, people familiar with the matter said.

Negotiations were wrapping up Monday evening, and a deal could still fall apart, the people cautioned. Representatives for Microsoft and Skype declined to comment.

A deal represents Microsoft’s most aggressive move yet to play in the increasingly-converged worlds of communication, information and entertainment. Skype connects more than 663 million users around the world via Internet-based telephony and video, making it a key technology platform for a new generation of Web-savvy consumers. During 2010, those users made 207 billion minutes of voice and voice video calls over Skype.

Buying Skype would give Microsoft a recognized brand name on the Internet at a time when it is struggling to get more traction in the consumer market. The company has invested heavily in marketing and improving the technology of its Bing search engine. While it has made some market share gains over the past year, Google Inc. still dominates the search market with more than 65% of U.S. searches going through its site.

At a value over $7 billion, the Skype deal would rank at or near the top of the biggest acquisitions in the 36-year history of Microsoft, a company that traditionally has shied away from large deals. In 2007, Microsoft paid approximately $6 billion to acquire online advertising firm aQuantive Inc. Many current and former Microsoft executives believe Microsoft significantly overpaid for that deal. But they are also relieved that Microsoft gave up on an unsolicited $48 billion offer for Yahoo Inc. nearly three years ago. Yahoo is valued at half that sum today.

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, though, sees the Internet as an essential battleground for Microsoft, a company that still makes the vast bulk of its profits from Windows and Office software systems. Investors have become increasingly concerned about Microsoft’s ability to squeeze continued growth out of those businesses, as rival technologies from Apple, Google and others put more pressure on profits.

The Microsoft division behind the company’s hugely lucrative Office suite of applications also makes a product, known as Lync, which ties together email, instant messaging and voice communications into a single application. Skype could strengthen that offering.

The deal shows how far Skype has come since it was launched in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, two men who had created a file-sharing technology called Kazaa that became widely associated with music piracy. While Skype was initially popular with techies, it increasingly worked its way into the mainstream by offering free or cheap phone calls which were especially appealing to international callers.

When EBay purchased the company in 2005 for $2.6 billion in cash and stock, Skype was regarded as something of an experiment, in which EBay’s buyers and sellers would use the service to communicate about potential transactions.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576313932659388852.html#ixzz1LudAc8xT

Illustration by Thomas Fuchs

America has a way of elevating its heroes beyond the realm of mere mortals. This has not been an issue on Wall Street, where heroes do not exist. Warren Buffett has been the glaring exception. An Omahan who was not of Wall Street so much as above it and who spoke in cracker-barrel English derived more from Twain than from J. P. Morgan, he fulfilled (I once wrote) America’s secular myth. He was the man from the Plains whose virtue offered an antidote to the corrupt Northeast and to Wall Street in particular. It is a measure of his reputation that a radio interviewer asked me whether Buffett had, until late, behaved in a “near perfect” manner. No flesh and blood, examined up close, can meet such a standard. As the saying goes, “No man is a hero to his valet.” The David Sokol affair, in which an executive of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway was caught in a serious ethical trespass, and in which Buffett failed to deliver a rebuke, has shown us a bit of the great man’s undergarments. The question for the 40,000 shareholders converging on Omaha for Saturday’s annual meeting (a.k.a. Buffett’s “capitalist Woodstock”) is whether the Sokol business tells us anything new, and perhaps dispiriting, about Buffett.

When I was writing a biography on Buffett, in the early ’90s, the trait that most distinguished him was his searing independence. Buffett was a brilliant, socially responsible investor, who engaged with the world only on his terms. He refused to be co-opted or recruited, whether with regard to stocks, philanthropy, or politics. His aloofness often caused associates to suffer disappointment. He zealously protected his time and his money; even his children suffered from the billionaire’s reserve. In a not atypical incident, he could barely lower his newspaper to listen to his teenage daughter’s tearful rendition of how she crashed his car. Friends described how Warren had rebuffed their requests for even small donations, and to causes with which the liberal billionaire sympathized. More fundamentally, associates yearned for a closer emotional connection.

Read the full Article at >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> A Newsweek Site

An Afghan girl walks past Kabul Bank’s main office in Afghanistan’s capital in March. The Alokozay Group, based in Dubai, sees ‘great potential’ in the country’s banking sector.(Musadeq Sadeq / AP)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Alokozay Group, a Dubai-based conglomerate, is seeking approval to buy a bank in Afghanistan as authorities there try to restore confidence in the scandal-tainted financial industry.

The CEO of Alokozay’s Afghan operations said in an interview Sunday the family company sees “great potential” in the nation’s banking sector despite nearly a decade of war and the near collapse of the country’s largest private lender amid corruption problems last year.

“We want to bring in professionals and set up a bank that’s basically recognized worldwide,” Jalil Alokozay told The Associated Press. “If someone comes in and has a proper plan and empowers the professionals, then there are lots of opportunities here in Afghanistan.”

Read the full article:>>>>>> Dubai-based suitor eyes bank in Afghanistan – Business – TheChronicleHerald.ca.

That was the experience of Lesley Armstrong, founder and head of Armstrong Textiles, who has worked on several large-scale projects over the years. One time when the Dartmouth company was exhibiting at the Interior Design Show in Toronto, the architect for the 32-storey Telus building approached Armstrong about creating draperies.

“When a multimillion-dollar highrise is planned, it often takes several years before final details get discussed,” she says. “So you just go about your daily work and try to keep in touch.”

And keeping the machinery oiled is a good idea, Armstrong says.

“Often, when you get the call to proceed with the job, time can be tight, so you have to get in gear pretty quickly. If you have to work long days and seven days a week, that’s what you have to do to get the job done.”

Cultivating big projects key to entrepreneurial success – Business – TheChronicleHerald.ca.

CIO — Social networking websites are fast becoming a staple of corporate recruiting. Depending on which studies you read, anywhere from 39 to 65 percent of companies use social networking websites to identify and screen potential candidates for open positions.

Sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Ning have made it easier and cheaper for recruiters and hiring managers to access a vast and receptive talent pool, says Jessica Miller-Merrell, an HR consultant who specializes in social media. She notes that there are 600 million active users on Facebook alone who spend between six and 12 hours each month on the site.

Social Networks: A New Hotbed for Hiring Discrimination Claims CIO.com.

Offshore Banking and Tax Havens Have Become Heart of Global Economy.

Top 10 Most Practical Blogs for Entrepreneurs.

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Delegates from Canada’s 101 local real estate boards Sunday ratified a deal worked out by the federal Competition Bureau and the real-estate industry.

It would allow consumers to choose what services they want from their agent when selling their homes, and to pay for only those services.

The deal was reached after months of negotiations between the competition watchdog and the Canadian Real Estate Association that represents some 100,000 realtors.

The bureau chief was quick to praise the ratification.

"I am pleased that CREA members have voted in favour of this agreement," said commissioner Melanie Aitken.

"For Canadian homeowners, it ensures that they will have the freedom to choose which services they want from a real-estate agent and to pay for only those services."

Read the Full Article

Snow Recruit-

Atlantic Canada’s Newest

Professional Recruiting Company

Halifax, Nova Scotia, February 22, 2010 – Starting today it became a whole lot easier for companies and professionals in Atlantic Canada looking for the right fit. Snow Recruit, named after the two principals, Bruce Snow and Carole Léveillé-Snow, have formed the region’s newest, and freshest, professional recruiting company.

“What makes us different is quite simple”, says Newfoundland and Labrador native Bruce Snow, “It’s all about the fit. I have worked in this business for a long time in Atlantic Canada and I know this place is too small to not to make sure that both sides are thrilled with the process and the outcome”.

For over 13 years, Bruce has been dedicated to the success of Atlantic Canadian organizations by recruiting key members of their leadership teams and other high-impact professionals. Based on Bruce’s recruitment expertise, he has also been called upon as a consultant and trusted advisor to numerous clients facing complex challenges with their recruitment processes. Whether the need is associated with large-scale projects or day-to-day operations, Bruce has a track record for developing innovative solutions to recruitment challenges.

Bruce earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from Saint Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Bruce is passionate about giving back to the community and supports numerous local, provincial and national charities. Bruce is also leading the Recruitment and Selection Committee for the 2011 Canada Games, which is responsible for recruiting approximately 5,000 games-time volunteers in more than 60 different roles.

A native of northern New Brunswick, and an alumnus of Université de Moncton, Carole Léveillé-Snow is fluently bilingual in French and English. Carole is a member of La Chambre de Commerce Francophone de Halifax, the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, the Human Resources Association of Nova Scotia (HRANS), as well as the Human Resources Association of New Brunswick (HRANB).

“Having traveled extensively throughout Atlantic Canada during my career I have a good appreciation for the unique challenges faced by organizations in various parts of this region”, explains Carole. “I read somewhere that great communicating takes equal parts good speaking and good listening, let’s just say that we’ll make a great team because I’m a great listener,” jokes Carole about the husband and wife team.

“We are very excited about our new venture”, says Bruce. “We know there is a market for a boutique firm equally committed to the needs of the employer and the candidate. I know it sounds a bit cliché, but it’s not a win-win if it’s not the right fit!”.

For more information about Snow Recruit, please visit www.snowrecruit.com.

Snow Recruit is a boutique search firm specializing in finding the perfect fit. Based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, we match mid- to senior-level professionals with industry-leading employer throughout Atlantic Canada.

Media Contact:

Bruce Snow

902.407.9494 | bruce@snowrecruit.com

Snow Recruit, Bruce Snow, Les Muise