Letters: The Financial Future of Veterinarians

The Financial Future of Veterinarians To the Editor: “The Vet Debt Trap” (Feb. 24), about the veterinary student debt crisis, hit the nail on the head. It should be required reading for all prospective veterinary students, regardless of age, to temper their passionate pursuit of the profession with a sobering dose of financial realism before they commit. I am a 28-year...

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Bits Blog: Judge Slashes Jury Award in Apple-Samsung Case

A federal judge on Friday significantly lessened the blow from Apple’s legal victory in a patent case against Samsung, lopping more than 40 percent off the damages a jury awarded Apple last year.In her review of the jury’s decisions, which originally awarded Apple more than $1 billion for patent violations by Samsung in its mobile products, Judge Lucy Koh of the United States District Court in San...

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Groupon Says It Ousted Chief Executive

CHICAGO (AP) — Struggling online deals pioneer Groupon said Thursday that it ousted founder and CEO Andrew Mason amid worries that people are tiring of the myriad of online restaurant, spa and Botox deals that Groupon built its business on. Shares jumped following Thursday's announcement, which had been anticipated for months. Executive Chairman Eric Lefkofsky and Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis...

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Penney Reports Loss for Fourth Quarter

NEW YORK (AP) — J.C. Penney is reporting massive losses and plunging sales for its fiscal fourth-quarter as the department store chain's plan to scale back most coupons and sales events has continued to turn off shoppers. The results mark a full year of massive losses under CEO Ron Johnson, who took on the role in November 2011 to overhaul every aspect of Penney's business. The company,...

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DealBook: Wall Street Pay Rises, for Those Who Still Have a Job

It’s nice work – if you can get it.Wall Street has cut thousands of jobs over the last year or so. On Tuesday, JPMorgan Chase, one of the country’s biggest banks, announced that it was eliminating 4,000 more jobs through layoffs and attrition, adding its name to a string of large banks that continue to cut jobs to reduce expenses.The good news? For the employees who remain, pay is up, according to...

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Media Decoder Blog: Online Piracy Alert System to Begin This Week

The Copyright Alert System, a program of escalating warnings and prods against people suspected of online copyright infringement, is finally going into effect this week, more than a year and a half after the plan was announced as part of an agreement between the entertainment industry and five major Internet service providers.The Center for Copyright Information, the organization created to administer...

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Major Banks Aid in Payday Loans Banned by States

Major banks have quickly become behind-the-scenes allies of Internet-based payday lenders that offer short-term loans with interest rates sometimes exceeding 500 percent. With 15 states banning payday loans, a growing number of the lenders have set up online operations in more hospitable states or far-flung locales like Belize, Malta and the West Indies to more easily evade statewide caps...

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The Haggler: Telemarketer’s Tactics and Regulators’ Response Elicit Complaints

LAST month, the Haggler was sitting at home when the phone rang. “This is your second and final notice,” intoned the stern voice of a robocaller. This vaguely threatening opener segued quickly into a lilting spiel about credit cards and consolidation. Something about an offer to lower rates? It was hard to tell, but when the Haggler heard he could press 1 for more information, naturally,...

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DealBook: Judge Sides With Einhorn and Halts an Apple Shareholder Vote

4:24 p.m. | Updated A federal judge on Friday ordered Apple to halt collecting shareholder votes on a contentious proposal to change some of its corporate charter, handing a victory to the hedge fund manager David Einhorn.The ruling issued Friday touches on a fairly narrow legal point. But it signals a clear win by Mr. Einhorn, who has taken up a fight with Apple over using some of its $137 billion...

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H.P. Reports Decline in Revenue and Profit

SAN FRANCISCO — Battling a declining demand for personal computers, Hewlett-Packard, the world’s largest maker of PCs, reported lower quarterly earnings on Thursday. The earnings were significantly higher than analysts had expected, however. “The turnaround is starting to gain traction as a result of the actions we took in 2012 to lay the foundation of H.P.’s future,” Meg Whitman,...

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Boeing to Propose Battery Fixes to F.A.A.

A top Boeing executive plans to meet with the head of the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday to propose fixes for the battery problems that have grounded its innovative 787 jets, industry and government officials said Wednesday. They said the company feels confident that it has narrowed down the possible ways that the new lithium-ion batteries could fail, increasing the chances that...

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DealBook: In the Year of the Snake, Challenges for the Chinese Economy

China is back to work after a weeklong holiday to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Most business shut for the entire week and the scale of human migration was awesome. This year, the Chinese made 440 million trips during the lunar holiday.Chinese people spend a lot of money during this period, shoot off a lot of fireworks and increasingly travel overseas. Retail sales in the period were $86 billion,...

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The Media Equation: In Omaha Manhole Fire Photo, Logging Off in Search of Some Clues

Stephanie SandsThis image, which was taken after an underground fire cut power in half of downtown Omaha, captivated the Web last month. When photographs of spontaneous events miraculously appear on the Web, it generally prompts two responses: wonder and skepticism. Matt Miller/Omaha World-HeraldMatthew Hansen, a columnist at The Omaha World-Herald, showed how to follow a trail. ...

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Obama’s Keystone Pipeline Decision Risks New Problems, Either Way

WASHINGTON — President Obama faces a knotty decision in whether to approve the much-delayed Keystone oil pipeline: a choice between alienating environmental advocates who overwhelmingly supported his candidacy or causing a deep and perhaps lasting rift with Canada. Canada, the United States’ most important trading partner and a close ally on Iran and Afghanistan, is counting on the pipeline...

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The Boss: Bert Quintana of Sitel, on Making Career Choices

I WAS born in Cuba, and I was 2 when my parents brought me to the United States in 1962 with my baby brother, Jorge. Bert Quintana is the president and C.E.O. of Sitel, a call center and telemarketing company based in Nashville. AGE 52 NAME OF HIS BOAT Sea GemFAVORITE SPORT Golf SPORTS HERO Don Shula, former Miami Dolphins coach We passed through the...

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DealBook: SAC Investors Ask to Withdraw $1.7 Billion

Clients of SAC Capital Advisors have asked to withdraw $1.7 billion from the giant hedge fund amid an intensifying insider trading investigation involving the fund, according to people briefed on the matter.That amount represents slightly more than a quarter of the $6 billion that SAC manages for clients, and is the largest amount ever withdrawn from the fund. Clients had to inform SAC by Thursday...

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Cardinal Health Buys AssuraMed for $2 Billion

Cardinal Health, the second-largest distributor of prescription drugs, announced on Thursday that it was buying a large medical supplier in a $2 billion deal aimed at expanding the business into the growing area of home health care. The medical supplier, the privately held AssuraMed, supplies products for home use to aid treatment of diabetes, wounds, incontinence and other conditions. It...

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Cisco Tops Expectations With Rise in Profit of 44%

SAN FRANCISCO — Cisco Systems reported surprisingly strong results for its second quarter despite concerns about weak demand in some areas. Cisco, the San Jose, Calif., networking giant, said that net income in the second quarter rose 44 percent to $3.1 billion, or 59 cents a share, from the year-ago quarter. The company said revenue climbed 5 percent, to $12.1 billion. Excluding...

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DealBook: Big Investors Strengthen Opposition to Dell's Sale

12:29 p.m. | Updated One of the country’s biggest mutual fund managers signaled its opposition to Dell‘s proposed $24.4 billion sale on Tuesday, as another investor disclosed a major step in a campaign to fight the deal.T. Rowe Price said in a statement that it was opposed to the $13.65-a-share takeover bid being offered by the company’s founder, Michael S. Dell, and the investment firm Silver Lake....

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How to Cope With Time Zone Changes and Jet Lag When Flying

Ilona De March, who lives in Amsterdam and travels frequently to Atlanta, has a strict rule when she flies across time zones: no alcohol. A business traveler for 20 years, Ms. De March, a president at BCD Travel, knows the intricacies of long-haul flying — what works and what doesn’t. When she arrives, she has another guideline. “I don’t lie down because then I would fall asleep,”...

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