Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/first-drive-261-mpg-volkswagen-110000361.html
How does Revenge plan to compete with Volkswagen 261mpg car????
First drive: 261 mpg Volkswagen XL1
By Paul A. Eisenstein, CNBC Contributor | CNBC – 5 hours ago.. .
It takes a bit of effort to slip in under the gullwing doors and then wedge oneself into the low-slung seat of the Volkswagen (XETRA:VOW3-DE) XL1. And it's even more difficult for my co-pilot, as the passenger seat is set slightly rearward, almost tandem-style.
The simple reality is that the windswept two-seater isn't built for comfort. The Volkswagen XL1 was designed for maximum mileage. And we're not talking something like the mere 50 to 60 mpg of today's best hybrids, nor the 100 mpg "equivalent" ratings of some of the latest battery-electric vehicles.
No, this diesel plug-in hybrid recently received a mind-boggling rating from European authorities of 261 mpg, far and away a record.
(Read more: Tesla shares slammed on price target )
Describing the XL1 as "my baby," program manager Steven Volckaert noted the project has been underway for more than a decade, with the original goal of squeezing out 100 kilometers from a single liter of fuel. For the metrically challenged, that works out to about 235 mpg.
VW revealed its first attempt in 2009, a tandem-seating concept dubbed the L1. With a somewhat more traditional interior layout-and even better mileage, the XL1 made its world debut at the Geneva Motor Show last February.
(Read more: Hottest cars at the Geneva Motor Show )
But what came as a shock was news that VW would actually put the extreme machine into production, albeit in limited numbers, a year or so from now. Specific details have yet to be worked out, including the price.
It's likely to rival that of some of the German maker's more luxurious models-but even then, the cost almost certainly won't come close to covering the actual cost of building the XL1, even if the mileage champ were to start rolling out of the factory in the same volume as more mainstream Volkswagen models like the Golf.
No surprise considering what it takes to achieve 261 mpg.
There were three key elements to the project:
•A superlight chassis and body;
•Aerodynamics on the order of the most advanced aircraft; and
•An ultraefficient powertrain.
The VW XL1 is primarily made out of CFRP, or carbon fiber-reinforced plastic, the same exotic material used in Formula One race cars and the most extreme sports cars like the Volkswagen Group's Lamborghini Veneno. There are other light materials such as magnesium wheels and ceramic brakes, and clever engineering reduced the parts count so only half the normal front cross-member is needed.
(More from The Detroit Bureau: Ford facing class-action lawsuit over infotainment systems)
The results are impressive. The monocoque, or passenger cell, weighs in at just 197 pounds, with the entire vehicle at a mere 1,753 pounds.
A variety of wind-cheating tricks also play a role, including full underbody panels and instead of conventional side-view mirrors, the XL1 uses a pair of tiny cameras that display images on LCD screens built into each door.
But the heart of this high-mileage beast is a minuscule 2-cylinder, 0.8-liter 48-horsepower diesel engine paired with a 27-hp electric motor drawing power from a 5.5 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery.
The plug-in system will deliver a nominal 32 miles in electric-only mode, though for longer drives, or under more aggressive driving conditions, the diesel will fire up.
For now, as I hit start, the diesel is idle. The only way to tell the XL1 is ready to roll is by reading the gauge cluster visible between the steering wheel. Putting the dual-clutch manual into gear the little car lurches forward, the only sound gravel crunching beneath its narrow, low-friction tires.
As we weave through traffic in Wolfsburg, VW's German home, the XL1 draws plenty of stares from pedestrians and other drivers. The car is so small it's easy to maneuver city streets and though the XL1 has no power steering-too heavy-it's so light as to be surprisingly nimble.
(More from The Detroit Bureau: Big Brother is watching-your license plate as you drive)
On local roads, there's little trouble keeping up with traffic, though the real test comes as we turn onto the A1 Autobahn heading toward Berlin.
The good news is that with the vehicle so light, its compact powertrain delivers quicker acceleration than one might expect. It's no rocket but it's quicker than some classic econoboxes that might otherwise leave you fearing for your life on the unlimited German freeways.
Of course, the diesel has finally fired up and, well, no matter how much VW ultimately charges when the XL1 goes on sale you won't confuse it with a similarly priced luxury car.
To save weight, there is almost no sound insulation so the cockpit echoes with the oil-burner's clacking. Happily, as we exit the Autobahn it quickly shuts down and our ears get a respite as we return to battery power.
We can only hope that VW planners opt to sacrifice a few pounds and a couple mpg when the two-seater goes into production. Even if it "only" delivered 255 mpg in final trim would potential buyers be disappointed? Unlikely.
In fact, a final check of the gauges as we pull back into VW headquarters shows that we've been averaging a more thirsty 1.8 liters per 100 km, a mere 138 mpg, due to spending so much of our time racing along the Autobahn under diesel power near to the XL1's top speed of 99 mph.
That said, we'd still be able to make the run from Berlin to Frankfurt-or Los Angeles to San Francisco, for that matter-on well less than three gallons of fuel.
(More from The Detroit Bureau: Who says Americans don't want battery cars?)
VW expects to produce just a couple hundred copies of the XL1, enough to log some real-world data about the various technologies the little car uses.
In the years ahead, however, we can expect to see the design influence more mainstream products as the industry struggles to meet increasing mileage and emissions standards around the world.
While 261 mpg requires some real sacrifice from driver and manufacturer alike, the Volkswagen XL1 should help engineers and designers figure out ways to deliver significantly better numbers than the typical automobile delivers today.
-By CNBC Contributor Paul A. Eisenstein. Follow him on Twitter @
How do you plan to recieve a dividend when Revenge hasnt sold anything in years????????
http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2013/07/10/sec-opens-private-funding-floodgates/
Mark Young has been trying for a year to raise money to start a real estate investment fund in California. He’s had little luck.
Big investors and venture capital firms shy away from first-time funds with less than $10 million in assets, he said, and he didn’t want to pay thousands of dollars to hire a solicitor to approach other accredited investors.
“Because I don’t have friends and family who are wealthy, I’ve been stifled,” Mr. Young said.
Not anymore. Mr. Young says he intends to advertise on social media and buy lists of accredited investors to phone directly to participate in his offering.
And he can thanks to Wednesday’s 4-1 vote by the Securities and Exchange Commission to lift an 80-year-old ban on publicizing shares in private offerings — one of the biggest methods for companies to raise capital. The new rule will take effect 60 days after the SEC publishes it in the Federal Register and companies will still have to verify that they are only selling shares to qualified investors.
Congress told the SEC to lift the ban when they passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act in April of last year. Previously, companies seeking to raise private funds have only been able to advertise to wealthy investors who have net worth of more than $1 million or annual income of at least $200,000, or qualified buyers who manage at least $100 million in securities, for the past two years. So most investors never heard about a deal until it was completed and announced.
Reuters
The headquarters of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are seen in Washington.The end of the ban will let companies advertise more broadly to the general public, by issuing press releases or tapping social networks, for example.
The market for unregistered securities (including offerings made under Rule 506 and Regulation D) is already $900 billion, dwarfing the $43 billion companies raised last year through initial public stock offerings However, SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar blasted the yes-votes by his fellow commissioners as “reckless,” and said the new rules will make it easier for more investors to get duped by potential frauds. The SEC also voted to propose additional protections for investors.
Nevertheless, R. Cromwell Coulson, president and chief executive of OTC Markets Group Inc., predicts lifting the ban will fundamentally change the way capital will be raised.
The ban could level the playing field for entrepreneurs who don’t have an easy time building relationships with angel investors and venture capitalists. He expects early advertising from companies to come in the form of press releases saying they have hired an investment bank to raise funds, and include risk warnings.
“Smaller companies are saying, ‘This is going to make it a lot easier for me,’” Mr. Coulson said.
should look into hiring a securities attorney if your money was stolen, individual sue them or class action suit for stealing shares but not certain if it can be done!!!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324694904578597691543313894.html?mod=WSJ_SmallBusiness_LEADNewsCollection
SEC Clears Way for Entrepreneurs to Tweet, Blog About Unregistered Shares
Business Owners Are Planning Marketing Blitzes After SEC Action on Unregistered Shares
Entrepreneur Coulter Lewis will soon be able to tweet such a message legally as a way to raise cash for his Woburn, Mass., firm, Quinn Popcorn LLC.
On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission lifted a decades-old ban on publicizing any share offerings that aren't registered with the SEC and are limited to accredited investors, typically wealthy individuals who can afford the financial risk of investing in a new business venture.
The agency's move satisfies a central provision in last year's Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, which aims to make it easier for smaller companies such as Quinn Popcorn to raise cash from dozens of wealthy investors who might put in, say, $20,000 apiece in exchange for a small equity stake in the startup.
Enlarge Image
Close
John Taggart for The Wall Street
Craig Sher, a co-founder of two-year-old StearClear, says he plans to target new investors by running ads in restaurants and bars.
.
As a result, some entrepreneurs with businesses ranging from ride-sharing apps to portable farms say they're planning marketing blitzes that they hope will help them reach the right target audiences of potential investors. Under consideration: putting investment offers on billboards and even printing them on T-shirts.
Such marketing helps the entrepreneurs save time and energy, they say, because they can bypass the time and legwork involved in having to network and make connections to find an investor. But the reason many of these laws were put into effect in the first place was to prevent fraud and to stop the public from losing money on what are typically risky ventures.
Mr. Lewis, the popcorn entrepreneur, says his business already has a dozen angel investors who heard about it through networking, but "finding the right people was very difficult, especially because we're in food, not in tech." He would like to raise cash using Twitter and Facebook FB -1.12%so that Quinn can expand its head count beyond the current seven employees and broaden its product line of microwave popcorn to include other products, such as stovetop kernels.
"We'd make every corner of our network aware that we're looking to raise capital," says Mr. Lewis, a former product designer who started the business with his wife, Kristy, in 2010, naming it after their son, Quinn.
"There's a million different creative ways we can reach out to new investors now," adds Nathan Derrick, 33, the founder of SupplyHog, a two-year-old Web marketplace for windows, doors and other residential-construction supplies. "When you're looking to grow a business, you just want to get out there and get all the attention you can."
Under the old restrictions—put into place in 1933 to protect investors from being scammed—all solicitation in private offerings was banned. Yet, selling registered securities for public offerings is costly and burdensome for many small firms.
Enlarge Image
Close
Coulter Lewis
Quinn Popcorn's founders, above, plan to find investors via social media.
.More
SEC Lifts Ban on Hedge Fund Ads
CFO Journal: SEC Opens Private Funding Floodgates
.
Mr. Derrick says it was difficult to promote his Chattanooga, Tenn., startup without running afoul of securities laws. "It's really, really tough to have to hold your tongue and not say what you're doing or to capitalize on the buzz you're getting," he says. With $300,000 in annual revenue, SupplyHog has 15 employees. By this time next year, Mr. Derrick hopes to have more than $10 million in revenue and at least 100 employees. "To do that, we need more growth capital," he adds.
Some entrepreneurs are wary about luring investors with ads, saying it might attract the wrong market. Others worry that easing the restrictions will result in a flood of investment offers on television, social-media sites and elsewhere. "Whoever has the slickest ads will make the most money here," says Heath Abshure, president of the North American Securities Administrators Association.
Over time, he says, fraud may erode investors' confidence in the market, making it harder for small firms to raise capital: "The SEC is aware of the dangers here," he adds, "and needs to ensure the rules include tough protections for investors."
.
The risk of fraud seems real. Consider a beef-jerky startup that had recently raised $120,000 on Kickstarter, the largest U.S. crowdfunding site, using Web videos to solicit contributions. Kickstarter pulled the plug on the campaign last month after many of the site's users grew suspicious the startup didn't exist. The cash was in the form of contributions, rather than equity, and no money changed hands before the campaign was suspended, according to a Kickstarter spokesman.
Brad McNamara, whose Boston-based startup Freight Farms converts shipping containers into portable produce gardens, says he plans to cover one side of the 40-by-9-foot containers with billboard-style ads to draw investors. He hopes to stack two containers on top of each other in New Market Square, the city's main produce hub, that ask investors to "help us fix the broken global food system."
"The possibilities are huge," Mr. McNamara adds. The company, which sells the containers for $60,000 each and has $500,000 in revenue since its launch last year, needs an additional $1 million in capital to streamline production and keep up with orders, he says.
Douglas Penman of San Francisco is eager to place ads on buses and in newspapers inviting investors to back his startup, Nukotoys Inc., a maker of children's educational trading cards that interact with mobile devices. He also wants to hire people to wear T-shirts with the message, especially window washers, because the skyscrapers they clean could have wealthy executives inside.
Mr. Penman started Nukotoys in 2010 after working for 15 years in the advertising industry. He says he raised a little more than $1 million from friends and family early on but quickly spent most of that on product development. Since then, he says, he has struggled to attract angel and venture investors to provide additional funding to expand his user base. Mr. Penman, who's seeking about $2 million, figures he would be more successful if he could openly solicit investors.
Craig Sher, a co-founder of two-year-old StearClear LLC, a designated-driver service that provides cars and drivers for people who have had too much to drink, says he plans to target new investors by running ads in restaurants and bars where most of the clientele use the service.
He says that for most startups, raising cash typically involves one-on-one meetings with venture-capital firms, a process he calls time consuming and inefficient because many of the firms demand costly terms and an assured return on investment.
His proposed campaign "can get out a clear message: 'Wouldn't you want to bring this service into your local community?'" he adds.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a Wall Street regulator funded by private-sector financial firms, is also expected to weigh in this week. It will begin to consider rules allowing so-called equity-crowdfunding websites to help entrepreneurs sell unregistered shares in their companies to any investors, regardless of their net worth, another key provision of the JOBS Act.
Bryan Pate, a triathlete who is co-founder and co-president of ElliptiGO Inc., has sold 8,000 low-impact running machines so far with an average price of $2,500, mostly to wealthy clients, he says. He wants to raise $2 million by advertising to investors on his Facebook page and in a newsletter that goes out to 20,000 people. If he can find as many as 15 investors to put in $100,000 each, "that's a huge time saver. It would be really advantageous.... Those tools are free, in my control, and they target customers who have opted in to learn about my product."
Write to Angus Loten at angus.loten@wsj.com and Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324694904578597691543313894.html?mod=WSJ_SmallBusiness_LEADNewsCollection
SEC Clears Way for Entrepreneurs to Tweet, Blog About Unregistered Shares
Business Owners Are Planning Marketing Blitzes After SEC Action on Unregistered Shares
Entrepreneur Coulter Lewis will soon be able to tweet such a message legally as a way to raise cash for his Woburn, Mass., firm, Quinn Popcorn LLC.
On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission lifted a decades-old ban on publicizing any share offerings that aren't registered with the SEC and are limited to accredited investors, typically wealthy individuals who can afford the financial risk of investing in a new business venture.
The agency's move satisfies a central provision in last year's Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, which aims to make it easier for smaller companies such as Quinn Popcorn to raise cash from dozens of wealthy investors who might put in, say, $20,000 apiece in exchange for a small equity stake in the startup.
Enlarge Image
Close
John Taggart for The Wall Street
Craig Sher, a co-founder of two-year-old StearClear, says he plans to target new investors by running ads in restaurants and bars.
.
As a result, some entrepreneurs with businesses ranging from ride-sharing apps to portable farms say they're planning marketing blitzes that they hope will help them reach the right target audiences of potential investors. Under consideration: putting investment offers on billboards and even printing them on T-shirts.
Such marketing helps the entrepreneurs save time and energy, they say, because they can bypass the time and legwork involved in having to network and make connections to find an investor. But the reason many of these laws were put into effect in the first place was to prevent fraud and to stop the public from losing money on what are typically risky ventures.
Mr. Lewis, the popcorn entrepreneur, says his business already has a dozen angel investors who heard about it through networking, but "finding the right people was very difficult, especially because we're in food, not in tech." He would like to raise cash using Twitter and Facebook FB -1.12%so that Quinn can expand its head count beyond the current seven employees and broaden its product line of microwave popcorn to include other products, such as stovetop kernels.
"We'd make every corner of our network aware that we're looking to raise capital," says Mr. Lewis, a former product designer who started the business with his wife, Kristy, in 2010, naming it after their son, Quinn.
"There's a million different creative ways we can reach out to new investors now," adds Nathan Derrick, 33, the founder of SupplyHog, a two-year-old Web marketplace for windows, doors and other residential-construction supplies. "When you're looking to grow a business, you just want to get out there and get all the attention you can."
Under the old restrictions—put into place in 1933 to protect investors from being scammed—all solicitation in private offerings was banned. Yet, selling registered securities for public offerings is costly and burdensome for many small firms.
Enlarge Image
Close
Coulter Lewis
Quinn Popcorn's founders, above, plan to find investors via social media.
.More
SEC Lifts Ban on Hedge Fund Ads
CFO Journal: SEC Opens Private Funding Floodgates
.
Mr. Derrick says it was difficult to promote his Chattanooga, Tenn., startup without running afoul of securities laws. "It's really, really tough to have to hold your tongue and not say what you're doing or to capitalize on the buzz you're getting," he says. With $300,000 in annual revenue, SupplyHog has 15 employees. By this time next year, Mr. Derrick hopes to have more than $10 million in revenue and at least 100 employees. "To do that, we need more growth capital," he adds.
Some entrepreneurs are wary about luring investors with ads, saying it might attract the wrong market. Others worry that easing the restrictions will result in a flood of investment offers on television, social-media sites and elsewhere. "Whoever has the slickest ads will make the most money here," says Heath Abshure, president of the North American Securities Administrators Association.
Over time, he says, fraud may erode investors' confidence in the market, making it harder for small firms to raise capital: "The SEC is aware of the dangers here," he adds, "and needs to ensure the rules include tough protections for investors."
.
The risk of fraud seems real. Consider a beef-jerky startup that had recently raised $120,000 on Kickstarter, the largest U.S. crowdfunding site, using Web videos to solicit contributions. Kickstarter pulled the plug on the campaign last month after many of the site's users grew suspicious the startup didn't exist. The cash was in the form of contributions, rather than equity, and no money changed hands before the campaign was suspended, according to a Kickstarter spokesman.
Brad McNamara, whose Boston-based startup Freight Farms converts shipping containers into portable produce gardens, says he plans to cover one side of the 40-by-9-foot containers with billboard-style ads to draw investors. He hopes to stack two containers on top of each other in New Market Square, the city's main produce hub, that ask investors to "help us fix the broken global food system."
"The possibilities are huge," Mr. McNamara adds. The company, which sells the containers for $60,000 each and has $500,000 in revenue since its launch last year, needs an additional $1 million in capital to streamline production and keep up with orders, he says.
Douglas Penman of San Francisco is eager to place ads on buses and in newspapers inviting investors to back his startup, Nukotoys Inc., a maker of children's educational trading cards that interact with mobile devices. He also wants to hire people to wear T-shirts with the message, especially window washers, because the skyscrapers they clean could have wealthy executives inside.
Mr. Penman started Nukotoys in 2010 after working for 15 years in the advertising industry. He says he raised a little more than $1 million from friends and family early on but quickly spent most of that on product development. Since then, he says, he has struggled to attract angel and venture investors to provide additional funding to expand his user base. Mr. Penman, who's seeking about $2 million, figures he would be more successful if he could openly solicit investors.
Craig Sher, a co-founder of two-year-old StearClear LLC, a designated-driver service that provides cars and drivers for people who have had too much to drink, says he plans to target new investors by running ads in restaurants and bars where most of the clientele use the service.
He says that for most startups, raising cash typically involves one-on-one meetings with venture-capital firms, a process he calls time consuming and inefficient because many of the firms demand costly terms and an assured return on investment.
His proposed campaign "can get out a clear message: 'Wouldn't you want to bring this service into your local community?'" he adds.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a Wall Street regulator funded by private-sector financial firms, is also expected to weigh in this week. It will begin to consider rules allowing so-called equity-crowdfunding websites to help entrepreneurs sell unregistered shares in their companies to any investors, regardless of their net worth, another key provision of the JOBS Act.
Bryan Pate, a triathlete who is co-founder and co-president of ElliptiGO Inc., has sold 8,000 low-impact running machines so far with an average price of $2,500, mostly to wealthy clients, he says. He wants to raise $2 million by advertising to investors on his Facebook page and in a newsletter that goes out to 20,000 people. If he can find as many as 15 investors to put in $100,000 each, "that's a huge time saver. It would be really advantageous.... Those tools are free, in my control, and they target customers who have opted in to learn about my product."
Write to Angus Loten at angus.loten@wsj.com and Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com
http://www.thestreet.com/story/11958479/1/the-digital-skeptic-you-could-have-a-110-mpg-vehicle-right-now.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO
The Digital Skeptic: You Could Have a 110 MPG Vehicle Right Now
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Doug Pelmear may have patented the final auto-industry solution -- a working, 400-horsepower, big-block V8 engine that really does get 110 miles per gallon.
But he's running on fumes.
"I have seen a lot of things. Was it ugly? Yeah," he told me over the phone last week. "But you learn to see what you have. And you don't cry about what you don't have."
This sober Pelmear is a faint echo of the sparkplug of an entrepreneur I met three years back. The then-successful Napoleon, Ohio, speedshop owner had combined a 19th century engine technology called the Stirling with rotating-fire cylinders and in-piston magnets to dynamically alter the horsepower and fuel consumption of traditional V-block motors.
"When you're chugging up the hill towing the boat, it's all firing along as a standard 40-horse engine getting eight miles to a gallon," he explained. But on the level highway, he says, the magnets in the cylinders nudge the heavy pistons along, keeping the engine driving with minimal fuel usage.
"The carbs shut off," he said. "Fuel consumption goes smack down to zero."
Now, was Pelmear quirky? Oh, heavens yes. He's like me, self taught. Independent. He controls his own PR, prefers 20-hour workdays in the shop to fundraising. He saved his own money to build his magic engine for a Ford(F_) Mustang II, a car he drove from Ohio to Las Vegas and back on just a couple tanks of gas.
That stunt got the attention of journos, including me. I covered it, so did CNN. He struck up relationships with local universities. I'll never forget how Tom Stuckey, then president of Northwest State Community College, confirmed to me that Pelmear's big idea was as big as they come.
"It all works," Stuckey said. "I know it sounds crazy. But it works."
Pelmear even found a start-up carmaker partner called Revenge Designs that announced it would build a massively powerful cousin of Pelmear's engines for a new generation of fuel-thrifty muscle cars. With investor dollars flowing into nutty ideas such as Instagram(FB_) or electric carmaker Tesla(TSLA_), Pelmear figured that it would be only a matter of time before he'd be doing well and doing good.
"I never did this just for the money," he has told me over and over through the years we've stayed in touch. "I just hate where the country is going. And something like this means you fill the SUV once a month or two. That would be huge. Huge!"
But Pelmear didn't figure on one thing: He -- like all of us -- was living in the early millennial digital-age crack high where information was seen as the magic answer to every problem. In the world where jazzed-up smartphone pictures branded as Instagram sell for a cool $1 billion, who is going to care about a muscle car from what looked like a shade-tree mechanic -- no matter how many miles per gallon it got?
So Pelmear did not find funding. Revenge Verde did not place orders. And his big-block 110 MPG dream sat in his garage -- the side project for much smaller, mostly family-run auto shop.
"I thought it would be the oil business that would run me down. But it's the car industry," he said. "My engine costs just a few thousand more per car to install. But nobody was going to pay for that. So nobody paid for it."
A 30% MPG gain
To Pelmear's credit, he's getting on with what remains. He's back to market with a new, streamlined idea based on his patents.
"I had to make a sellable product," he explained. He's testing the variable firing technology from his patented engine as a $1,400 aftermarket kit. "It takes a two-hour turn to put it in a vehicle. That is reasonable downtime and at a reasonable cost."
He plans to brand it as Skip-Fire and says it should net a 30% increase in mileage for those who install it, making it ideal for fleet vehicles or local delivery trucks.
"For taxis, ice cream trucks, you know, that is a lot of savings," he said.
So far, Pelmear has tested the Skipfire on 60 cars with the goal of shipping a full product in early 2014.
"You'd be shocked by the number of people I've talked to about this," he said as our latest conversation wound to an end. "My plan now is go direct to consumer and cut out all those people."
"It will take off. But it all takes longer than I expect," he said. "We live in crazy days."
HOw is that so?where is the evidence??
NO SEC regulates the financial district!
By order of Court in 12 OC- 00078 1B, Nevada’s First Judicial District on February 25, 2013, a reverse split in the amount of 42,000-1 was ordered with fractional share holdings cancelled, resulting in the reduction of record holders to 88, with an estimated 52 CEDE&CO participant holders.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/genstar-aquiline-bid-genworth-businesses-161713001.html
Genstar, Aquiline bid for Genworth businesses: sources
Reuters – Mon, Feb 11, 2013 11:52 AM ESTEmail0Share0PrintRELATED QUOTESSymbol Price Change
DBK.DE 34.58 0.62
GS 152.98 -3.64
GE 23.77 0.09
GNW 9.84 0.19
By Jessica Toonkel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private equity firms Genstar Capital and Aquiline Private Equity LLC have teamed up and are in exclusive negotiations to buy Genworth Financial Inc's (GNW) wealth management business and its San Francisco-based alternative investment business, two sources familiar with the situation said.
Genworth is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS), according to the sources, who declined to be identified because talks are confidential.
Genstar and Aquiline are working with Deutsche Bank AG (DBK.DE), said one of the sources, who estimated that the deal for both businesses would be valued at $400 million to $450 million.
A Deutsche Bank spokeswoman declined to comment, as did spokesmen with Genworth, Genstar, Aquiline and Goldman.
Genworth stock was trading up more than three percent on Monday at about $9.00 per share.
Richmond, Virginia-based Genworth Genworth, once part of conglomerate General Electric Co (GE), is offloading the businesses as it faces increased scrutiny from ratings agencies, largely due to losses in its mortgage business. Reuters first reported in October that it was selling the two businesses.
Genworth bought its turnkey assets management platform, which was called AssetMark Investment Services, in 2006 and merged it with Genworth Financial Asset Management to form Genworth Financial Wealth Management. The wealth management business has more than $20 billion in assets under management and sells its portfolios through about 6,000 third-party advisers across the country, according to the firm's website.
Genworth bought its San Francisco-based Altegris business in 2010 for $35 million plus additional performance-based payments. The firm has $3.47 billion in client assets.
This month, Genworth Financial posted fourth-quarter profit that topped Wall Street estimates, but the insurer reported a sharp drop in earnings from long-term care insurance.
Net income available to common shareholders rose to $166 million, or 34 cents per diluted share, for the quarter ended December 31, from $142 million, or 29 cents per diluted share, a year ago.
Operating earnings at the firm's long-term care insurance unit fell 75 percent to $7 million in the fourth quarter.
(Reporting by Jessica Toonkel; Editing by David Gregorio and Grant McCool)
OTC Pink Limited Information
Companies that are unwilling or unable to meet OTC Markets' Guidelines for Providing Adequate Current Information but have submitted some but not all of current information required are rated as having limited information. These are often companies with financial reporting problems, economic distress, or in bankruptcy.
genworth wealth management executive team
http://www.genworthwealth.com/our_executive_team.html
no that is genworth financial sticker symbol
Sticker symbol:GNW
Market Cap: 4.20Billion
Definition of 'Large Cap - Big Cap'
A term used by the investment community to refer to companies with a market capitalization value of more than $10 billion. Large cap is an abbreviation of the term "large market capitalization". Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying the number of a company's shares outstanding by its stock price per share.
GPS Funds I - GuideMark Large Cap Value Fund is an open-ended equity mutual fund launched and managed by AssetMark Investment Services Inc. The fund is sub-advised by Brandes Investment Partners, L.P., Davis Selected Advisers LP, and NFJ Investment Group L.P. It invests in the public equity markets across the United States. The fund primarily invests in value stocks of large-cap companies with a focus on companies with market capitalizations greater than $5 billion. It employs a fundamental analysis to create its portfolio. The fund considers factors including analysis of price/earnings ratio, dividend yield, book value, assets to liabilities ratio, management ownership, and price/cash flow ...
Detailed Description
2300 Contra Costa Boulevard
Suite 600
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523-3967
United States
Founded in 2001
Phone:
800-664-5345
Fax:
925-521-1050
www.genworthwealth.com/files/AMF_SAI_073110.pdf
http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/volkswagen-reveals-xl1-313-mpg-beetle-22nd-century-152756434.html
wow 261mpg on DIESEL I wonder how does Peter plan to deafeat volkswagen!!!!
Eleven years ago, the head of Volkswagen popped out of a capsule-shaped vehicle barely able to hold two people and announced his ambition to construct the most efficient car the world has ever seen. Today, VW revealed the production version of that car known as the XL1, which it vows will travel 261 mpg on a gallon of diesel fuel. It's an amazing engineering feat, a Beetle reborn for the 22nd century — but the world may not be ready for it.
Saving energy in an automobile usually requires running a smaller engine, cutting weight and reducing aerodynamic drag to a minimum, and in the XL1, VW pushes all three steps to their modern limits. Power comes from a two-cylinder, 0.8-liter diesel — essentially half of VW's standard 1.6-liter four-cylinder diesel plant — mounted in the rear of the XL1, linked to a 7-speed transmission, a 5.5 kWh lithium-ion battery and electric motor. The two-seat body of the XL1 has a 0.189 coefficient of drag (a Toyota Prius has a 0.25 Cd) and it weighs just 1,752 lbs., about half of a typical American midsize sedan.
That combination allows the XL1 to travel 31 miles on electricity alone, and over 310 miles on a tank of fuel, for what VW claims is a mileage rating of 261 mpg (or 313 mpg by European standards) — better than any other gas, diesel or electric-powered vehicle. That's twice as efficient as the most miserly car for sale in the United States, the Scion iQ electric — which can only travel 38 miles on a full charge.
To build the XL1, Volkswagen also had to use engineering extremes usually not found outside a racetrack. The body of the XL1 will be made from carbon fiber, although using a process VW claims will be far cheaper than those applied by supercar builders such as Ferrari and Lamborghini. The XL1 will be assembled by hand in a special section of VW's Osnabrueck factory in Germany. And to ensure the safety of the passengers in case the XL1 rolls over, the scissor doors can be blasted open with explosive bolts.
But that efficiency comes with a few sacrifices, with speed first among them. Together, the electric motor and engine produce 68 hp and 103 lb-ft of torque. VW says that's enough to launch the XL1 to 62 mph in 12.7 seconds — although it suggests not doing so. Top speed is limited to 99 mph. And the two seat interior of the XL1 has to look stylish, because there's nothing behind the seats; the XL1 will offer a limited amount of space under the hood. To save weight further, only a cutout of the windows roll down, like the old Subaru SVX.
Given the combination of exotic materials, engineering costs and low-speed, hand-built production, there's no way the XL1 will make a profit for VW. It exists only due to the will of VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech — grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, the designer of the original Beetle — who has pushed VW to refine the idea of the XL1 for more than a decade. For all that VW revealed today, it didn't announce prices, and that's the one bit of data that will determine whether the XL1 makes sense as anything other than a corporate science project.
THE HEAT IS ON!!!
DETROIT (Reuters) - Fisker Automotive has received serious offers from at least three overseas automakers willing to invest in and partner with the cash-strapped U.S. hybrid maker, which hopes to finalize a deal within weeks, people familiar with the matter said.
Potential suitors for the green-car startup include at least two Chinese automakers and one European company, two sources said. Fisker is hoping to sew up a deal by mid-March, another source said.
Fisker is looking to raise between $200 million and $300 million, and sources said it could wind up forming a strategic pact with two or more partners.
"The company has received detailed proposals from multiple parties in different continents which are now being evaluated by the company and its advisers," Fisker spokesman Roger Ormisher said in an email. He declined to comment further.
A strategic pact would give Fisker the funds to build its second model, the Atlantic plug-in hybrid. Such a deal is also important to gain favor with investors after a string of recalls and financial setbacks cast doubt on Fisker's survival.
Over the past several months, Chief Executive Tony Posawatz and other Fisker executives have met with several investors and automakers, particularly in China. Executives met with officials from several Chinese automakers, including Dongfeng Motor <600006.SS>, Geely Auto <0175.hk> and Beijing Auto (BEJINS.UL), sources said.
Officials from those companies were not immediately available to comment.
The company has also held discussions with Wanxiang Group, China's largest auto parts maker that has since purchased bankrupt U.S. lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems (AONEQ.PK), Fisker's primary battery supplier.
ATLANTIC SEDAN IS CRITICAL
The search for financial backers comes after a tough 2012 marred by the rocky and delayed introduction of Fisker's first car, the $100,000-plus Karma, A123's bankruptcy, and an election that turned the U.S. government-backed company into a political punching bag.
The Atlantic is critical toward restoring Fisker's image. The family sedan, which Fisker showcased at the New York auto show last year, is expected to start at around $55,000 and be Fisker's high-volume model.
Fisker planned to use the bulk of a $529 million line of credit from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to build the Atlantic at a Delaware factory previously owned by General Motors Co (GM).
The loan was awarded to Fisker in 2009 as part of an Obama administration program to spur advanced vehicle development.
But Fisker's plans were uprooted after the DOE decided to freeze the loan last year, citing delays in the Karma launch. Sources said Fisker is now running very low on cash.
DOE officials have been a part of Fisker's ongoing search for a partner, the sources said. The agency has expressed its desire to keep Atlantic production in Delaware, as has Fisker.
Finding a strategic partner and building the Atlantic would lay the foundation for the company to stage an initial public offering.
"Certainly, without a doubt, it is our desire to prepare the company to be a public company," Posawatz said during a speech in Detroit last year.
Fisker's strategy echoes the one followed by electric carmaker Tesla Motors (TSLA), which has partnerships with Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> and Daimler AG (DAI.DE) and went public in 2010.
(Additional reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu in Beijing; Editing by Mary Milliken and Paul Tait)
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000146113
Its not in there best interest listed to the video especially the last part from 8:02-8:27
I hope Peter or whoever is the new CEO doesnt scheme investors out of there money, look at this article ouch 50 yrs in prison for stealing investor money!!!! SEC is watching!!!!!
http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/Peregrine-Founder-to-Serve-50-Years-in-Prison-for-Fraud-Embezzlement.html
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Former Peregrine Financial founder Russell Wasendorf Sr. said before a judge gave him a 50-year prison sentence Thursday for his fraud and embezzlement scheme that he fully deserved whatever punishment she deemed because he was guilty and the court’s punishment couldn’t be worse than what he did to himself.
“I lost the love of my son and will never see my grandchildren again,” Wasendorf said as he started to cry. “I’m very, very sorry for the financial damage (I’ve caused) to creditors and employees of Peregrine ......and to the industry, community and friends and family.”
U.S. District Chief Judge Linda Reade said she would not vary from the guideline sentencing, which she had the discretion to do, because he had already benefited from a plea agreement, there are a “staggering amount of victims — 13,000, and the sentence must reflect the seriousness of the this offense. Reade also ordered Wasendorf to pay more than $215 million in victim restitution, as recommended by the government.
Wasendorf, 64, of Cedar Falls, pleaded guilty to mail fraud, embezzlement of customer funds, making false statements to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and making false statements to a futures trading association last September. Wasendorf admitted to stealing the customer funds over 20 years and to the ongoing scheme in a note he left last July after an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Authorities found him and the notes in his car parked in the Peregrine parking lot.
WATCH: Wasendorf Sentencing Press Conference
Wasendorf, dressed in an orange jumpsuit and hooded jacket, looked frail and spoke in a soft, hoarse tone. He looked down or hung his head down during most of the hearing.
Jane Kelly, Wasendorf’s attorney, said Wasendorf wasn’t going to dispute the restitution amount. She did argue for less prison time based on his cooperation with the government, regulators and authorities during this investigation. Kelly said Wasendorf can’t change what he did but asked to court to look at what he had done to help in this investigation. She said the scheme was “quite simple.” He took money from one account and used fake deposits to put money back in. He used a copier and a post office box to keep records from others. The repetitive conduct of his actions didn’t equal complex and “sophisticated means” to commit the scheme, as the government claims to increase his prison time.
Kelly said Wasendorf has done everything possible to cooperate to ensure creditors and customers get back what they are owed. He talked to agents from the moment he was conscious in the hospital after his suicide attempt. He also met with them other times whenever they requested, which helped the case proceed and got information of the assets to the receiver. Wasendorf also answered questions from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. “He didn’t have to come forward,” Kelly said. “He didn’t get a benefit but the parties benefited — FBI, CFT, the receiver and bankruptcy trustee.”
Kelly said the court should also consider what he did in the community of Cedar Falls/Waterloo for starting a business and all his charitable donations. He didn’t do this out of greed. Kelly also asked the judge to consider his age and his health as factors to impose a fair sentence to he can “hug his loved ones” someday and tell his family and friends how sorry he is.
Pastor Linda Livingston of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Marion testified earlier that Wasendorf had a tumor on the back of his neck, which wasn’t malignant, and had tumor or cyst in his pancreas, which was just discovered last weekend. She said it was of concern because his mother died of pancreatic cancer.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Deegan said this wasn’t a case where a legitimate business was ran and someone started pulling out customer funds. This business was a fraud from the beginning and operated as a mechanism to obtain customer funds. It was a “sophisticated scheme right up to the moment it stopped.” He kept a second set of books to conceal the financial situation from regulators and other company officials and employees. He phonied reports every day for the regulators. Deegan said the company should have been closed in its “infancy.” Wasendorf went to the office every day for more than 20 years to continue the fraud. Peregrine always operated at a loss and was never profitable.
Wasendorf even spent money to cover up the fact that there wasn’t any money, Deegan said. He spent money frivolously on a corporate jet, a penthouse in Chicago and homes with a swimming pool and an Italian restaurant in Cedar Falls that never made money. “He made himself appear rich so auditors and regulators wouldn’t look close enough,” Deegan said.
Deegan said what difference does it make if Wasendorf cooperated after his arrest. He said all the money was gone. He had nothing to lose. The only reason he stopped when he did was because the regulators were going to start requiring electronic verification the Friday before he attempted suicide on that Monday.
Reade said Wasendorf shouldn’t benefit further from his cooperation because he was already given less charges in the plea agreement. He was originally indicted on 31 charges. The reduced counts made his maximum sentence 50 years and because he accepted responsibility, otherwise it would have been life.
Wasendorf attempted suicide and tried to avoid legal consequences in the first place, Reade said. The regulators already had the information from the suicide note, so there was no mystery for them to solve. They had everything they needed. All the documents were at the business. “All they had to do was follow the money,” Reade said. “His cooperation may have expedited the process but it wasn’t critical to solving the case.”
Reade said his argument of contributions to the community and charitable organizations was an aggravating factor, instead of a mitigating factor. “It’s easy to be generous with others’ money,” Reade said. “The victims unwittingly funded the charities. This is also typical of white collar criminals. The contributions made him a bigshot ... a trusted community member. This lessened his guilt and boosted his own self-esteem.”
Reade said he also used his “ill gotten gains” to live a rich life style as Deegan said. She also rejected Wasendorf’s health argument. His medical condition is unknown at this point and the Bureau of Prisons has facilities to meet his needs or condition if needed.
Reade said the guidelines don’t even factor in how many victims his crime impacted. The guideline states up to 250 and there are 13,000 in this case. The guidelines also don’t factor in the impact this has had on victims’ anger and mental stress. “It’s highly unlikely they will be compensated,” Reade said.
Peregrine is in the process of bankruptcy, and an auction of assets belonging to the company and Wasendorf raised just over $1 million in December. Those funds will go to the victims and creditors.
The State of Iowa also recently claimed Wasendorf and his ex-wife Connie Wasendorf owes more than $14.1 million in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties, according to an assessment filed in November 2012 by the Iowa Department of Revenue. The Wasendorf’s allegedly underreported their taxable income by $75 million and didn’t pay $6.6 million in taxes. The information was contained in court documents involving the receiver that in the process of liquidating Wasendorf’s assets to reimburse victims.
Earlier this month, U.S. Northern District of Illinois Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer granted the receiver’s request to suspend any efforts by the state to enforce the assessment but preserves all rights the department and state have to assess and collect any lawful amounts owed by the Wasendorfs.
wow Revenge is in for some serious competiton http://autos.yahoo.com/news/diamonds-are-a-car%E2%80%99s-best-friend--middle-east%E2%80%99s-first-supercar-to-cost--3-4-million-195257614.html
Supercars are a common sight in some parts of the Middle East, but until now, that region of the world has gone without an exotic of its own. Enter the Lykan Hypersport, an ultra-exclusive ride from Dubai-based startup W Motors. The upcoming car is said to accelerate from 0-62 mph in 2.8 seconds and offer Lamborghini-rivaling style for $3.4 million, according to WardsAuto.
The Lykan Hypersport is the brainchild of Lebanese entrepreneur and designer Ralph Debbas, who began thinking up the supercar when he was an automotive design student. The wild, angular seven-figure exotic will be officially revealed to the public at the Qatar auto show, where W Motors will display a full-scale model made of carbon fiber and other lightweight materials, and built with help from specialty coachbuilder Magna Steyr Torino. The model currently lacks an interior and drivetrain, but will be powered by a midship flat-six engine from RUF, the company famous for custom Porsches. That engine is said to produce 750 hp and 738 lb-ft of torque, which could be enough to make the Lykan Hypersport’s claimed 242-mph top speed plausible. W Motors’ Performance estimates are based on computer simulations, as a running prototype has yet to be tested.
Because matching the performance of a comparatively cheap Lamborghini Aventador would give wealthy Middle Eastern customers nothing to brag about, the Lykan Hypersport will sport some serious bling. The headlights will feature diamond-encrusted LEDs, while the hood will be gold-plated – the perfect complement to the rest of the car’s lightweight construction. Inside, the supercar will receive a “holographic display” on the windshield. Whether this feature will look like the futuristic spy tech seen on the BMW i8 concept in 2011’s Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol is unknown.
wow 3.4 million for a supercar where is RVGD????????????
I have no idea what happened to assets of UPDV, but I can assure you can contact SEC and find out what's going to happen to the shares they run the security market.
DEARBORN, Mich. (WXYZ) - Ford Motor Company has announced they plan to hire 2,200 salaried workers in the United States in 2013 to “support the continued aggressive pace of new Ford product introductions.”
This hiring push will be the largest increase in new salaried workers in more than 10 years at the automaker, according to Ford.
Most of the new positions will be in product development, manufacturing and IT.
http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/ford-expected-to-hire-2200-salaried-workers-in-2013
Ford is taking over Michigan again where is RVGD????????
As a part of the automaker’s 2011 contract with the United Auto Workers, Ford has committed to create 12,000 new U.S. jobs by 2015.
These 2,200 new positions along with the more than 8,100 combined salaried and hourly jobs Ford added in the U.S. in 2012, has put the automaker well past the halfway mark on their job creation goal.
“Our One Ford plan is designed to create profitable growth, and our new hiring is a direct result of our plan working,” said Ford president of The Americas Joe Hinrichs in a statement. “As we expand our product lineup of fuel-efficient vehicles, we need more people in critical areas – such as in a range of engineering activities, vehicle production, computer software and other IT functions – to ensure we deliver the vehicles people want and value.”
Read more: http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/ford-expected-to-hire-2200-salaried-workers-in-2013#ixzz2HmFcy6N9
You can try i would give them a call and find out what is going on
SEC Toll-Free Investor Information Service:
1-800-SEC-0330
http://news.yahoo.com/insight-fiscal-cliff-bill-white-house-key-corporate-003955271--finance.html
Tax breaks for "AUTO RACING!!!!!!"
Insight: In "fiscal cliff" bill, White House was key to corporate tax breaks
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the Congress rushed last week to approve a "fiscal cliff" tax bill that raised income taxes on the wealthy, Washington lobbyists were fretting over a drama that was playing out within the negotiations: whether the bill would include about $64 billion in tax breaks for businesses.
The bill extended several tax breaks backed by both parties, including $14.3 billion in credits for research and development projects for thousands of U.S. businesses. But it also had other provisions - breaks for companies involved in wind energy, auto racing, rum, Hollywood films and much more.
In the end, the bill approved by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama included all of those things, thanks partly to the White House's interest in promoting wind and other alternative sources of energy, and in subsidizing research and development costs for companies.
It also became a lesson in how Washington's taste for dishing out favors to special interests is alive and well, despite bipartisan calls for the government to reduce the tax credits it gives businesses and individuals at a time when the nation's debt tops $16 trillion and is growing.
Some business lobbyists told Reuters they were surprised that the package of tax credits - which had been approved by the Democrat-led Senate Finance Committee in August - survived the negotiations over the tax bill. The main part of the bill extended Bush-era income tax cuts for individuals with incomes of less than $400,000 and couples who make less than $450,000.
The longer the negotiations dragged on, lobbyists for various causes had figured, the more likely the bill would focus solely on the core issues of the talks: raising income taxes on the wealthy, allowing a payroll tax cut for all Americans to expire, and extending unemployment insurance benefits.
The lobbyists' expectations also were lowered by the emergence of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, as a key negotiator in the talks.
McConnell has spoken on the Senate floor about the need to rethink Congress' approach to various tax breaks, saying that many had been "reflexively extended" for years "without any meaningful review or oversight."
His words were echoed in September by 47 House Republicans who had urged Republican Speaker John Boehner to eliminate the wind energy tax credit, which had split the Republican Party and drawn criticism from Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for president.
But in the final hours of the negotiations over the fiscal cliff bill, lobbyists pushing the additional tax breaks appear to have had a key ally: President Obama, who during his re-election campaign had touted the need to increase the nation's investment in alternative energy sources such as wind.
Tax credits for the energy industry make up a big chunk of the "add-ons" that were attached to the fiscal cliff bill - about $18.1 billion worth, of which $12.1 billion represents a dramatic expansion of write-offs for wind energy investments.
McConnell's spokesman, Don Stewart, said the White House insisted that it would a "deal breaker" if the entire package of tax credits was not in the bill. Stewart also said the White House initially wanted to make all of the tax breaks permanent, rather than extend them only through the end of this year.
"The White House ... can't deny that the only reason the (business tax breaks were) included in the final agreement is because the president insisted" they be in there, Stewart said.
White House spokesman Jay Carney on Monday said that Obama supported the overall package of tax breaks for businesses. He emphasized that the president favored the wind energy credit and tax benefits for research and development to encourage "job-creating research investments."
Carney also said that many of the tax breaks in the fiscal cliff bill had bipartisan support.
"It would strain the credulity of everyone in this room to suggest that Republicans did not support or want tax credits for business," Carney said during his daily briefing to reporters.
Some Democratic strategists said that given the rush to get a fiscal cliff bill through Congress before U.S. financial markets opened for the new year last Wednesday, it likely seemed unrealistic to pick apart the package of tax credits - known as "extenders" - that had passed the Senate Finance Committee on a bipartisan, 19-5 vote.
So the package - with its $222 million credit for the rum industry, a $78 million write-off for the owners of NASCAR auto racing tracks and tax credits for the film industry that could total $248 million, among other things - survived intact, like a holiday bonus to Washington's lobbyists.
"I reacted, like, 'Wow,' " said Rich Gold of Holland & Knight, who lobbied for tax breaks for wind energy and railroad maintenance.
He represented the Juno Beach, Florida-based company NextEra Energy as well as the Greenwich, Connecticut-based Genesee & Wyoming, a freight rail company.
"The (fiscal cliff) package had gotten so skinny," Gold said, "that I just didn't expect it to happen at the end of the day."
THE WAY WASHINGTON WORKS
Outrage over the tax breaks flowed from small-government advocates and conservative voices such as the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, which called the tax credits a "crony capitalist blowout."
Such business tax breaks are called extenders because lawmakers usually extend them all at once, adding them to other tax bills as they move through Congress. Government budget analysts project their total costs over 10 years, even though many of the breaks are extended for only one or two years at a time.
During a session in which a bitterly divided Congress had trouble passing any legislation, let alone a controversial tax bill, the fiscal cliff package was the only vehicle for such tax breaks in the final hours of the session that ended Wednesday. A new Congress, including House and Senate members just elected in November, began meeting Thursday.
Critics and supporters alike said that tucking expensive tax incentives into last-minute bills is how Washington has worked for years.
"They always do this," said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste. The difference this time was that more people were watching the high-stakes talks over the fiscal cliff bill, he said.
"Many people are being made aware of these tax breaks," Schatz said.
Republican strategist John Feehery, who favors the wind energy tax credit, said the fiscal cliff deal was never expected to reform the U.S. tax code, as some in Washington had hoped.
"This was not going to be a tax reform package. This was going to be an agreement or disagreement over whether we keep the current tax policies in place. And these extenders are, by and large, keeping current policy in place," said Feehery, who leads a group called the Red State Renewable Alliance, which touts the benefits of the wind industry in conservative states.
'CORPORATE WELFARE'?
Like Feehery and White House spokesman Carney, supporters of tax credits for wind energy and other industries argue that such incentives often boost the economy and create jobs.
Critics argue that the breaks are "corporate welfare," handed out to whoever can hire the best lobbyists or contribute the most to lawmakers' campaigns.
During the past two years, the American Wind Energy Association spent $4.5 million lobbying and gave more than $335,000 in campaign contributions to federal candidates, most of them members of Congress, according to the Senate's lobbying database and the watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics.
Fiscal conservatives aren't the only ones lobbying against such tax breaks.
Those opposing the wind energy credits include some in the nuclear power industry, which itself has received more than $100 billion in federal subsidies since the 1940s, according to the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Chicago-based Exelon Corp, the largest nuclear power operator in the United States, spent $6.4 million on lobbying during the first 10 months of 2012, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Exelon also is investing in wind energy but was a vocal voice against the tax credit approved by Congress, saying in a statement that "wind energy can and should stand on its own in competing with other clean energy alternatives."
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a member of the Senate Finance Committee who first proposed the wind energy tax credit back in 1992, said that such provisions are not a giveaway by the U.S. Treasury because they encourage investments that might not otherwise be made.
"Using the tax code to stimulate investment is altogether different than appropriating money," he said.
LAWMAKERS TORN
Even so, Grassley's vote on the fiscal cliff bill reflected how some lawmakers were torn over the legislation to prevent income tax increases on most Americans.
Last summer, Grassley joined five other Republicans and 13 Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee in voting for the package of tax credits that wound up being included in the fiscal cliff bill.
But when the Senate voted 89-8 last week to approve the bill, Grassley was among the eight senators opposing it even though it included the wind energy credits he calls crucial to a developing industry in his state.
"The big picture is what ruled as far as I was concerned," Grassley told Reuters in an interview. "The bill does nothing on the expenditure side. ... It didn't cut down on the deficit."
By contrast, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, a longtime critic of special-project spending known as "earmarks," said he reluctantly voted for the "flawed" agreement because he didn't want to see income taxes go up on all Americans.
Without action by Congress, the Bush-era tax cuts that save middle-class families about $2,000 a year would have expired at the end of 2012.
McCain's distaste for the tax credits in the bill was clear.
"It's hard to think of anything that could feed the cynicism of the American people more than larding up must-pass emergency legislation with giveaways to special interest and campaign contributors," he said in a statement.
After the Senate approved the fiscal cliff deal early on New Year's Day, it moved to the House, where some Republicans complained about the "bloated" package during a closed-door party meeting. But the objectors decided they did not have the votes to amend the bill, House Republican aides said.
The deal passed the House on a vote of 257-167, with opponents of the wind energy credit making up a good chunk of the Republicans' "no" votes. Some are vowing to return to the issue in the new congressional session.
"With taxpayers on the hook for unsustainable corporate welfare, there's no question we're going to come back to it in the new Congress," Representative Mike Pompeo, a Kansas Republican, said in an e-mail.
It probably would be best to contact the SEC to make them go after Kamel.
I hope the CEO of AGEL didnt steal money from investors look at what happening to JP Morgan now just a little lesson not to mess with US Department of Treasury!!!! wow Madoff 150 years in prison ouch!!!!!
JPMorgan Faces Sanction for Withholding Madoff Documents
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-04/jpmorgan-faces-sanction-for-refusing-to-provide-madoff-documents.html
The U.S. Treasury Department’s inspector general has threatened to punish JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) for failing to turn over documents to regulators investigating the bank’s ties to Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
Eric Thorson, inspector general of the Department of the Treasury, is seen here at a hearing on Wall Street and the Financial Crisis in Washington, D.C. on April 16, 2010. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Inspector General Eric Thorson gave the largest U.S. bank a Jan. 11 deadline to cooperate with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency probe or risk sanctions for impeding the agency’s oversight. JPMorgan, according to the Dec. 21 letter, contends the information is protected by attorney-client privilege.
Thorson’s letter didn’t spell out what documents the OCC is seeking or the focus of its investigation. Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence after confessing to the fraud that once claimed to have $65 billion in customer assets.
The previously undisclosed OCC probe adds to the lender’s troubles in Washington, where several agencies and lawmakers are investigating the bank’s loss of at least $6.2 billion on botched derivatives trades. The losses have prompted regulators including the Federal Reserve to consider tightening proposed restrictions on proprietary trading.
Jennifer Zuccarelli, a JPMorgan spokeswoman, said the bank “will of course continue to work together with our regulators” on the investigation.
Confidential Guidance
“This dispute does not go to the merits of the matter but it does raise an important issue of principle: Whether we and other banks, large and small alike, have the fundamental right long recognized in this country to communicate freely with and seek confidential guidance from their lawyers,” Zuccarelli said in an interview.
Bryan Hubbard, an OCC spokesman, declined to comment on the agency’s inquiry.
In the letter sent to JPMorgan general counsel Stephen Cutler, the inspector general -- the Treasury’s internal watchdog -- dismissed JPMorgan’s arguments on attorney-client privilege, saying the OCC “could not do its work” if banks were allowed to withhold information on that basis. The OCC, an independent bureau of Treasury, asked the IG office to review the situation, Thorson said in the letter.
Failure to produce the records “will have to be seen as a continuing purposeful impediment to the authority of the OCC,” Thorson said in the letter, and would require “further action by our office.”
Trustee’s Claims
The trustee liquidating Madoff’s firm, Irving H. Picard, sued JPMorgan in December 2010, accusing the bank of aiding Madoff’s fraud. The lawsuit, eventually demanding $19 billion, the largest of Picard’s claims, has since been dismissed. Picard has appealed the ruling.
JPMorgan “had financial reports in its possession that clearly evidenced fraud,” David J. Sheehan, lead counsel for Picard and a partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP, said in a February 2011 statement. JPMorgan was the Madoff firm’s “primary banker for more than two decades,” Sheehan said.
JPMorgan benefited from Madoff accounts while it “helped perpetuate Madoff’s fraud by ignoring the red flags, and continuing to structure products and collect fees for their own enrichment,” according to the trustee’ lawsuit.
The bank would have made $398 million in pretax profit from Madoff deposits from 1986 to 2008, conservatively assuming no reinvestment gain, according to a 2011 study by Linus Wilson, an assistant finance professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The firm declined to comment on the study at the time.
Withdrawing Investments
The trustee’s claim also accused the bank of withdrawing $276 million in its own investments in Madoff-related feeder funds about three weeks before Madoff’s Dec. 11, 2008, arrest. JPMorgan described the withdrawals as part of “an across-the- board review of its exposure to hedge funds,” according to its court filings.
In responding to Picard’s suit, the bank issued a statement in 2011 saying it “did not know about or in any way become a party to the fraud” and called it an “unfounded claim” that JPMorgan earned substantial fees from Madoff’s account. JPMorgan also objected in court when the trustee sought more freedom to use confidential Madoff documents provided by the bank.
The OCC is also investigating the trading losses in the bank’s chief investment office and is preparing an enforcement action, according to a person briefed on the situation who asked not to be named because the matter isn’t public. The cease-and- desist order would require the bank to fix internal risk controls, the person said.
FERC Dispute
In a second dispute involving demands from federal regulators for documents, a federal magistrate judge in Washington ruled in November that JPMorgan could invoke attorney-client privilege to keep private e-mails requested by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The agency had accused a JPMorgan unit of making “factual misrepresentations” and omitting material information in communications with the California Independent System Operator, which operates the state’s power grid, and in filings to the commission. The FERC suspended the unit’s electricity-trading authority for six months starting April 1.
To contact the reporters on this story: Robert Schmidt in Washington at rschmidt5@bloomberg.net; Jesse Hamilton in Washington at jhamilton33@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Maura Reynolds at mreynolds34@bloomberg.net; David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net
TOP private equity firms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_equity_firms
The following is a ranking of the largest private equity firms published in 2011. The ranking was compiled by Private Equity International, which reveals that the world's 50 largest private equity direct investment programs have raised in excess of US$325 billion since 2006.[1] A previous ranking had been published in 2007.[2]
Rank
Name of the firm
Headquarters
Capital Raised as of May 2012
(billions of USD)
1
TPG Capital
Fort Worth
$ 50.55
2
Goldman Sachs Capital Partners
New York
$ 47.22
3
The Carlyle Group
Washington DC
$ 40.54
4
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
New York
$ 40.21
5
The Blackstone Group
New York
$ 36.42
6
Apollo Management
New York
$ 33.81
7
Bain Capital
Boston
$ 29.4
8
CVC Capital Partners
London
$ 25.07
9
First Reserve Corporation
Greenwich, CT
$ 19.06
10
Hellman & Friedman
San Francisco
$ 17.20
11
Apax Partners
London
$ 16.64
12
General Atlantic
Greenwich, CT
$ 15.10
13
Warburg Pincus
New York
$ 15.00
14
Cerberus Capital Management
New York
$ 14.90
15
Advent International
Boston
$ 14.52
16
Permira
London
$ 13.67
17
Oaktree Capital Management
Los Angeles
$ 13.05
18
Terra Firma Capital Partners
London
$ 12.25
19
Providence Equity Partners
Providence, RI
$ 12.10
20
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice
New York
$ 11.40
21
Charterhouse Capital Partners
London
$ 11.27
22
Teachers' Private Capital
Toronto
$ 10.76
23
Madison Dearborn Partners
Chicago
$ 10.60
24
TA Associates
Boston
$ 10.55
25
Silver Lake Partners
Menlo Park, CA
$ 10.50
26
Lone Star Funds
Dallas
$ 10.41
27
Thomas H. Lee Partners
Boston
$ 10.10
28
Cinven
London
$ 15.07
29
Riverstone Holdings
New York
$ 9.67
30
J.C. Flowers & Co.
New York
$ 9.30
31
AXA Private Equity
Paris
$ 9.03
32
AlpInvest Partners
Amsterdam
$ 8.87
33
3i Group
London
$ 8.73
34
Nordic Capital
Stockholm
$ 8.73
35
Fortress Investment Group
New York
$ 8.68
36
EnCap Investments
Houston, TX
$ 8.47
37
Onex
Toronto
$ 8.34
38
Lindsay Goldberg
New York
$ 7.87
39
Citi Capital Advisors
New York
$ 7.80
40
Ares Management
Los Angeles
$ 10.50
41
Summit Partners
Boston, MA
$ 7.75
42
Bridgepoint Capital
London
$ 7.72
43
Marfin
Athens
$ 7.31
44
EQT Partners
Stockholm
$ 7.20
45
NGP Energy Capital Management
Dallas
$ 7.11
46
Energy Capital Partners
Short Hills, NJ
$ 6.59
47
Stone Point Capital
Greenwich, CT
$ 6.40
48
Abraaj Capital
Dubai
$ 6.20
49
Golden Gate Capital
San Francisco
$ 6.11
50
GTCR Golder Rauner
Chicago
$ 6.00
[edit] List of investment banking private equity groups
The following is a list of notable private equity firms and merchant banking and other private equity groups that currently reside within investment banking firms or have previously completed a spinout from an investment banking firm:
[defunct]
Parent bank
Private equity firm
Location
Year founded
Year independent
ABN AMRO
AAC Capital Partners
Amsterdam
-
2008
Barclays Capital
Barclays Private Equity
London
1982
-
Barings Bank
Baring Vostok Capital Partners
Baring Private Equity Asia
Moscow, Russia
Hong Kong
1994
1997
2004
2004
Bear Stearns ^
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Irving Place Capital (fka BSMB)
New York
New York
1965
1997
1976
2008
BNP Paribas
PAI Partners
Paris
1993
1998
BT Alex. Brown ^
ABS Capital
Baltimore
1990
1995
Charterhouse Bank ^
Charterhouse Capital Partners
Charterhouse Group
London
New York
1982
1973
2001
1989
CIBC World Markets
Trimaran Capital Partners
New York
1995
2001
Citigroup
Court Square Capital Partners
CVC Capital Partners
Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe
Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co.
New York
Luxembourg
New York
New York
1968
1981
1979
1995
2006
1993
1979
1995
Continental Illinois ^
Willis Stein & Partners
CIVC Partners
Chicago
Chicago
1983
1983
1995
1994
Credit Suisse / Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette
DLJ Merchant Banking
Asset Management Finance (AMF)
Avista Capital Partners
Diamond Castle Holdings
Castle Harlan
New York
New York
New York
New York
1985
1985
1985
1987
na
2005
2004
1987
Deutsche Bank
MidOcean Partners
New York
2003
2003
First Chicago Bank ^
Madison Dearborn Partners
GTCR
Chicago
Chicago
1992
1980
1992
1980
Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs Capital Partners
New York
1986
na
Hambros Bank ^
Duke Street Capital
London
1988
1998
Jefferies Group, Inc. ^
Jefferies Capital Partners
New York
1994
-
JPMorgan Chase
CCMP Capital (fka JPMorgan Partners)
One Equity Partners
New York
Chicago
1984
2001
2006
na
Lazard
Lazard Alternative Investments
New York
-
-
Lehman Brothers ^
Blackstone Group
The Cypress Group
Trilantic Capital Partners
New York
New York
New York
1985
1994
1986
1985
1994
2009
Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity
New York
1996
na
Morgan Stanley
Metalmark Capital
Morgan Stanley Capital Partners
New York
New York
1985
2004
National Westminster Bank
Bridgepoint Capital
London
1984
2000
Nomura Group
Terra Firma Capital Partners
London
1994
2002
UBS
UBS Capital
Affinity Equity Partners
Capvis
Lightyear Capital
London
Hong Kong
Zurich
New York
-
1995
1990
2000
na
2002
2003
2002
Wells Fargo
Pamlico Capital
Charlotte
1988
2010
William Blair & Company
William Blair Capital Partners
Chicago
1982
2004
^ Defunct banking institution
Quantum Announces the Launch of Fully-Integrated and Assembled Advanced Natural Gas Fuel Storage System Solutions
LAKE FOREST, Calif., Dec. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc. (QTWW), a leader in natural gas, alternative fuel systems and clean propulsion vehicle technologies, today announced the launch of pre-assembled, quality tested and fully-validated natural gas storage modules and system assemblies for quick integration on to a variety of vehicle platforms. The new integrated systems leverage Quantum's industry-leading Q-Lite™ ultra-lightweight, carbon-composite gaseous fuel storage technology and expertise in safety-critical structural design, high strength materials and topology optimization to provide intelligent lightweight systems that maximize on-board fuel storage and contribute to superior fuel economy, handling and low emission performance.
"We are pleased to provide fully-integrated and pre-assembled advanced natural gas fuel systems to our OEM and fleet customers," said Brian Olson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Quantum. "Quantum has a strong and innovative record in vehicle engineering and system integration as demonstrated by successful launches of various General Motors natural gas vehicle production platforms, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, military hybrid electric vehicles, electric vehicle prototypes for the US Postal Service, and the Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid vehicle."
Developed at Quantum's technology campus in Lake Forest, California, Quantum's advanced natural gas storage systems provide dramatic weight reduction, increased fuel storage capacity, and the capability to quickly integrate these systems. Quantum combines more than 15 years of system integration experience with strong expertise in software, calibration, fuel system integration, emission and durability testing, validation, and manufacturing capabilities.
About Quantum:
Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc. is a leader in the development and production of natural gas fuel storage and system technologies, alternative fuel vehicles, and advanced vehicle propulsion systems. Quantum's portfolio of technologies includes natural gas and hydrogen storage and metering systems, electronic and software controls, hybrid electric drive systems, and other alternative fuel technologies and solutions that enable fuel efficient, low emission natural gas and hybrid, plug-in hybrid electric and fuel cell vehicles. Quantum's powertrain engineering, system integration, vehicle manufacturing, and assembly capabilities provide fast-to-market solutions to support the production of natural gas, plug-in hybrid, hydrogen-powered hybrid, fuel cell, and specialty vehicles, as well as modular, transportable hydrogen refueling stations. Quantum's customer base includes automotive OEMs, fleets, aerospace industry, military and other governmental agencies, and other strategic alliance partners. Quantum's wholly owned subsidiary, Schneider Power Inc., and affiliate, Asola Solarpower GmbH, complement Quantum's alternative and renewable energy presence through the development and ownership of wind and solar farms, and the manufacture of high efficiency solar modules for traditional and automotive applications. Quantum is headquartered in Lake Forest, California, and has operations and affiliations in the USA, Canada, Germany and India.
Reclining on a low, dark blue sofa in a penthouse overlooking Manhattan's jagged skyline, triple-A-list actor, millionaire and eco-warrior Leonardo DiCaprio smoothes his hair and exhales deeply as he remembers his first-ever car memory. "Oh boy..." he says.
DiCaprio is studying the script for his next big Scorsese blockbuster, The Wolf of Wall Street, but has agreed to talk to TopGear - and only TopGear - about his latest real-life role as an auto-industry investor. A few weeks ago he took a financial interest in luxury car company Fisker Automotive, and we want to know why. But before we get to that, first we want to know a bit more about Leo's car history.
Related content
VideoTop Gear magazine in the Aston One-77VideoVideo: Stig vs Audi R8 V10VideoStig lap: 911 GT3
Like pretty much everyone else in the world, it starts modestly. "My father used to distribute underground comics in Los Angeles using two really beat-up station wagons," he says, remembering. "One he nicknamed the Blue Whale, because it was just a horrible used piece of junk, and the other one was called the Pus Mobile. I used to sit in the back and read comic books and graphic novels all day long while we commuted throughout Los Angeles."
When the young DiCaprio wasn't reading his dad's greaser-brand comics in the back of those knackered estate cars, he could usually be found under the hatch of his mum's silver Datsun 210. "We used to go everywhere in that car. I used to hang out in the hatchback trunk area as that was like my own little campground. I think she also had a Ford Pinto at one time, which is the eternal joke of horrible cars, right?"
Right. The energetic-sounding small Ford is remembered more for its ability to burn up its occupants than the road, thanks to a poorly positioned fuel tank. But the experience of that clearly didn't put him off the Blue Oval's products. DiCaprio's first car was a Sixties Ford Mustang fitted with the classic Windsor 351 (5.8-litre) engine. It made an instant impression.
"It was incredibly fast, and I could smoke anyone on the road," he says. "The problem was it didn't have power steering and the engine would just shut off. So there I was, 16 years old, with my learner's permit driving on the freeway, trying to manoeuvre around giant trucks and get to the side of the road with no engine and no power steering..."
The fourth time it happened, DiCaprio realised he was using up his lives far too quickly, and the car had to go. Luckily, that wasn't too hard to arrange as it transpired that the car wasn't legally his anyway. "It belonged to one of dad's friends and had just been loaned to me as part of some comic-book trade. I thought it was my car until the guy came back and took it from me. Which thankfully he did because it probably saved my life."
Despite staring death in the face a few times, the experience didn't slow DiCaprio down. He says his passengers would probably say he drives too fast, and blames his mother - "an insane driver" - who taught him. And it didn't do much to put him off classic cars, either. Two attributes, as well as his top-drawer acting chops, which made him the perfect fit for the lead role of Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann's soon to be released remake of The Great Gatsby.
But I start to have my doubts about Leo's car knowledge when he starts talking about how much fun it was powering the large, yellow Duesenberg around the Australian set of the film. Duesenberg? I don't know much about F. Scott Fitzgerald's work, but if I know one thing for sure, Jay Gatsby didn't drive a Duesenberg. His car was big and yellow, but it was also definitely a Rolls-Royce Phantom I.
Deciding not to interrupt him, I make a note to check the film credits of the new movie later and carry on. But I have to tell you now he was right. The new film does feature a Duesenberg clone in the place of the old Rolls - to the massive consternation of classic-car buffs and literary historians the world over - so I take it all back and DiCaprio's score is unblemished. Lurhmann's, however, has dropped to zero.
When he's not powering around in murderously fast, classic car clones, DiCaprio says he likes to drive himself, not be driven, wherever he may be going. And, surprisingly perhaps, he's not that choosy about what he drives when he's not at home. Instead of having one of his favourite cars shipped to him for the six-hour trip to Vermont the previous weekend, Leo rented a truck, just like anyone else would.
He also breaks the movie-star mould by not having a huge car collection at his home in LA. "I have my Fisker, obviously, and I have a Lexus hybrid, but I don't own anything else," he says. "Ever since I learned about hybrid vehicles, that's all I've really owned." He has a few motorbikes, he says, but nothing more.
The reason for this lack of extra driveway bling, is, of course, DiCaprio's desire to help the planet. Something that first stirredin him when then US vice president Al Gore invited him to the White House and gave him an environmental 101 talk. "That was the defining moment," he says. "That's when I wanted toknow more about what I can do, how I can get more involved."
From that moment in the late Nineties, DiCaprio has been on a mission to do as much environmental work as possible. From helping tigers, elephants and sharks to growing coffeefor good causes, taking part in Live Earth and working with big sustainability organisations like Global Green, he's leveraged his fame in front of the camera to bring attention and cashto the causes and companies that he believes are doing good, environmentally responsible work.
The first the general public knew about his green credentials was Leo's appearance at the Oscars at the wheel of a Toyota Prius. "I'm photographed constantly by paparazzi when I leave my home so it was just a responsible thing to do as an environmentalist. I really believe in endorsing new, progressive technologies that are trying to make a difference."
Little did he know that his appearance at the Oscars was the main reason Henrik Fisker started the company. "No... really?" he says incredulously, looking at Henrik sitting next to him. "Yeah," says Henrik. "I saw you getting out of the Prius, and I thought there's got to be a market for an environmentally friendly car which goes beyond the Prius. That was my first inspiration."
"Wow," says Leo, looking genuinely surprised and pleased. "I had no idea. That is cool." And it is. Here's an activist actor trying to get a message across, who finds out his actions are the reason for the creation of a car company he likes and respects so much he has just invested in it. It could almost be a script for a film.
So what drew DiCaprio to Fisker in the first place? "I started trying hybrids, which were fantastic. But you can say that there are lots of vehicles out there that get equal or better mileage. Then I bought two electric vehicles, which I found I never wanted to drive. I was afraid of being stranded on the Pacific Coast Highway and standing at a restaurant for six hours while my vehicle's plugged in.
"So the idea of this extended-range Fisker, which has the ability to be electric for a full day if you're not doing a road trip, but also allows you to take a spontaneous road trip if you decide to...." And the looks must have helped. "Oh yes, it's fantastic-looking. It drives like a sports car. It's amazing. It was a natural progression. I wanted to be part of the company and invest in it."
But, other than hoping to make a financial return on his investment, and have Fisker help to raise awareness of his Foundation, is there anything else he is hoping to achieve with the partnership? "I think the only thing would be to make cars that are lower in cost. And that's coming soon with the Atlantic [Fisker's upcoming smaller car]. Because you want everyone to be able to drive a vehicle like this."
With his investment and high-profile backing, DiCaprio will help move that vision closer to reality. Just don't expect him to devise a Beckham-style special edition Fisker. As great an actor as he is, being a car designer is one role Leo won't be auditioning for anytime soon. "I don't think I could be a better designer than he is," he says, pointing at Henrik. "So, for now, there are no plans."
http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/Top-Gear-meets-Leonardo-DiCaprio-2012-09-20
Awkward!!!! one startup company raises money to start car company in Detroit what happened to REVENGE?????
http://news.yahoo.com/startup-auto-company-moving-former-194540688.html
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)
Startup auto company moving into Shreveport's former GM plant plans to build 3-wheeled cars
A startup car company called Elio Motors is moving into the former General Motors plant in northwest Louisiana, where it plans to build three-wheeled vehicles with high fuel efficiency and a cheap price tag.
The deal was announced Thursday for Elio to take over part of the plant to assemble its unusual-looking, two-seat vehicle. The company said it averages 65 miles per gallon of gas and will sell for $6,800 when commercial production begins in mid-2014.
"We can't wait to begin our journey in Louisiana," Paul Elio, CEO of Elio Motors Inc., said in a statement.
The Phoenix-based company said it would hire 1,500 workers by late 2015, reviving a plant that once built pickup trucks and the commercial Hummer to now churn out tiny, fuel-efficient vehicles. The Shreveport plant would be Elio's first manufacturing location.
The plant has been closed since late August. GM had handed it over to a trust, the RACER Trust, that took over dozens of GM-owned facilities after the company declared bankruptcy.
Industrial developer Stuart Lichter is buying the entire facility in conjunction with Elio. Elio will use about a quarter of the 4-million-square-foot facility. Lichter hopes to lease other parts to more tenants, but they haven't been rounded up yet.
Details of the sale, including the purchase price, weren't provided, though Gov. Bobby Jindal's office said the capital investment would top $100 million.
To secure the deal, Louisiana offered a package of tax breaks to Elio Motors that includes a yearly payroll rebate of 13 percent for the first 10 years of plant operations. The state economic development department didn't provide an estimate of what such a payroll tax break could cost, but it could reach as much as $9 million annually if all 1,500 jobs, with salaries averaging $47,700 a year, are eligible for the rebate.
"After the loss of GM, we made a commitment to the people of northwest Louisiana that we would not only pursue possible alternative uses for the old GM facility, but we would also aggressively pursue new projects in the region that would create new job opportunities," Jindal said in a statement.
Elio Motors has been taking reservations for the egg-shaped vehicle, called the Elio. First delivery is projected for mid-2014.
The vehicle is car-like, fully enclosed with power windows, airbags and air conditioning. But because it has three wheels, it's considered a motorcycle under federal vehicle safety standards, according to Elio's website.
Lichter, president of the Los Angeles-based Industrial Realty Group, said he's putting up financing to help launch the vehicle line because he supports the concept of a fuel-efficient, gas-powered vehicle that is produced in America and that can be bought for under $7,000.
"It's a pretty spectacular concept," he said. "I just think the economic case is so compelling for a class of people, because this car will not be for everybody, obviously. To me, it creates a new model."
A similar, previous announcement of a start-up automaker for northeast Louisiana fell through a few years ago.
The much-hyped V-Vehicle Co., later known as Next Autoworks Co., proposed converting a former headlight plant in Monroe into an auto assembly facility that would build a fuel-efficient vehicle and eventually employ 1,400 workers.
But the plans hinged on hundreds of millions of dollars in federal loans that were never approved by the U.S. Department of Energy, and the project was scrapped.
Bill Callen, a spokesman for RACER Trust, said no federal money is involved in the Elio Motors project.
___
Online:
Elio Motors: www.eliomotors.com
Tax Cuts to Help America's Small Businesses Hire and Grow
• New Tax Cuts to Businesses to Support Hiring and Investment: The President is proposing three tax cuts to provide immediate incentives to hire and invest: ? Cutting the Payroll Tax in Half for the First $5 Million in Wages: This provision would cut the payroll tax in half to 3.1% for employers on the first $5 million in wages, providing broad tax relief to all businesses but targeting it to the 98 percent of firms with wages below this level.
? Temporarily Eliminating Employer Payroll Taxes on Wages for New Workers or Raises for Existing Workers: The President is proposing a full holiday on the 6.2% payroll tax firms pay for any growth in their payroll up to $50 million above the prior year, whether driven by new hires, increased wages or both. This is the kind of job creation measure that CBO has called the most effective of all tax cuts in supporting employment.
? Extending 100% Expensing into 2012: The President is proposing to extend 100 percent expensing, the largest temporary investment incentive in history, allowing all firms—large and small—to take an immediate deduction on investments in new plants and equipment.
• Helping Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses Access Capital and Grow: The President's plan includes administrative, regulatory and legislative measures—including those developed and recommended by the President's Jobs Council—to help small firms start and expand. This includes changing the way the government does business with small firms. The Administration will soon announce a plan to accelerate government payments to small contractors to help put money in their hands faster. The President is also charging his CFO and CTO to, within 90 days, stand up a one-stop, online portal for small businesses to easily access government services. As part of the President's Startup America initiative, the Administration will work with the SEC to conduct a comprehensive review of securities regulations from the perspective of these small companies to reduce the regulatory burdens on small business capital formation in ways that are consistent with investor protection, including expanding "crowdfunding" opportunities and increasing mini-offerings. Finally, the President's plan calls for Congress to pass comprehensive patent reform, increase guarantees for bonds to help small businesses compete for infrastructure projects and to remove burdensome withholding requirements that keep capital out of the hands of job creators.
Putting Workers Back on the Job
•Tax Credits and Career Readiness Efforts to Support Veterans' Hiring: The President is proposing a Returning Heroes Tax Credit of up to $5,600 for hiring unemployed veterans who have been looking for a job for more than six months, and a Wounded Warriors Tax Credit of up to $9,600 for hiring unemployed workers with service-connected disabilities who have been looking for a job for more than six months, while creating a new task force to maximize career readiness of servicemembers.
•Preventing Layoffs of Teachers, Cops and Firefighters: The President is proposing to invest $35 billion to prevent layoffs of up to 280,000 teachers, while supporting the hiring of tens of thousands more and keeping cops and firefighters on the job. These funds would help states and localities avoid and reverse layoffs now, requiring that funds be drawn down quickly. Under the President's proposal, $30 billion be directed towards educators and $5 billion would support the hiring and retention of public safety and first responder personnel.
•Modernizing Over 35,000 Schools -- From Science Labs and Internet-Ready Classrooms to Renovated Facilities: The President is proposing a $25 billion investment in school infrastructure that will modernize at least 35,000 public schools -- investments that will create jobs, while improving classrooms and upgrading our schools to meet 21st century needs. This includes a priority for rural schools and dedicated funding for Bureau of Indian Education funded schools. Funds could be used for a range of emergency repair and renovation projects, greening and energy efficiency upgrades, asbestos abatement and removal, and modernization efforts to build new science and computer labs and to upgrade technology in our schools. The President is also proposing a $5 billion investment in modernizing community colleges (including tribal colleges), bolstering their infrastructure in this time of need while ensuring their ability to serve future generations of students and communities.
•Making an Immediate Investment in Our Roads, Rails and Airports: The President's plan includes $50 billion in immediate investments for highways, transit, rail and aviation, helping to modernize an infrastructure that now receives a grade of "D" from the American Society of Civil Engineers and putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the job. The President's plan includes investments to improve our airports, support NextGen Air Traffic Modernization efforts, and resources for the TIGER and TIFIA programs, which target competitive dollars to innovative multi-modal infrastructure programs. It will also take special steps to enhance infrastructure-related job training opportunities for individuals from underrepresented groups and ensure that small businesses can compete for infrastructure contracts. The President will work administratively to speed infrastructure investment through a recently issued Presidential Memorandum developed with his Jobs Council directing departments and agencies to identify high impact, job-creating infrastructure projects that can be expedited in a transparent manner through outstanding review and permitting processes. The call for greater infrastructure investment has been joined by leaders from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka to U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue.
•Establishing a National Infrastructure Bank: The President is calling for Congress to pass a National Infrastructure Bank capitalized with $10 billion, in order to leverage private and public capital and to invest in a broad range of infrastructure projects of national and regional significance, without earmarks or traditional political influence. The Bank would be based on the model Senators Kerry and Hutchison have championed while building on legislation by Senators Rockefeller and Lautenberg and the work of long-time infrastructure bank champions like Rosa DeLauro and the input of the President's Jobs Council.
•Project Rebuild: Putting People Back to Work Rehabilitating Homes, Businesses and Communities. The President is proposing to invest $15 billion in a national effort to put construction workers on the job rehabilitating and refurbishing hundreds of thousands of vacant and foreclosed homes and businesses. Building on proven approaches to stabilizing neighborhoods with high concentrations of foreclosures, Project Rebuild will bring in expertise and capital from the private sector, focus on commercial and residential property improvements, and expand innovative property solutions like land banks. This approach will not only create construction jobs but will help reduce blight and crime and stabilize housing prices in areas hardest hit by the housing crisis.
•Expanding Access to High-Speed Wireless in a Fiscally Responsible Way: The President is calling for a deficit reducing plan to deploy high-speed wireless services to at least 98 percent of Americans, including those in more remote rural communities, while freeing up spectrum through incentive auctions, spurring innovation, and creating a nationwide, interoperable wireless network for public safety.
http://www.americanjobsact.com/helping-small-businesses.html
the ask???
Beyond the resolution of the fiscal cliff, easing of the Eurozone crisis and increasing consumer confidence, the 2012 JOBS Act is creating a better market for IPOs, says Corbin. The act allows companies to file for IPO confidentially and to pre-market their offerings before officially filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
94% of respondents said they have seen an increase in the number of confidential filings since the act passed. The JOBS Act allows a company to avoid public scrutiny and keep competitive information quiet while testing the market.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/why-austerity-may-over-europe-145559147.html
CEO might want to look at this bill
President Obama unveiled the Startup America Initiative on January 31, 2011, which over the course of a year came to recommend different reforms aimed at increasing small businesses' ability to raise capital.[1][2] In February 2011, Jason Best, Sherwood Neiss and Zak Cassady-Dorion Principals of Crowdfund Capital Advisors banded together and formed 'Startup Exemption' with the goal to lobby Washington, D.C. to update the U.S. Federal Securities Laws and make it legal for entrepreneurs to use crowdfunding to raise a limited amount of early-stage equity-based financing. With the assistance of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council (SBEC) they partook in two hearings on Capitol Hill. Their framework was the basis for the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act (H.R. 2930) introduced by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) on September 14, 2011. It proposed to greatly reduce restrictions on equity crowdfunding of for-profit businesses then present in state and federal securities laws. Various other crowdfunding pioneers such as Jessica Jackley and Dana Mauriello of ProFounder also testified in favor of a revision to federal securities laws to allow for micro-investments.[3] The resulting bill was a rare example of bipartisan cooperation, earning the strong support of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who shepherded the legislation through the House.[4] The legislation passed the United States House of Representatives (H.R. 3606) on March 8, 2012 in a strong, bipartisan vote.[5] The U.S. Senate began consideration of the bill on Tuesday, March 20, 2012[6] and passed an amended version on March 22, that went back to the House for another vote.[7] The amendment made by the Senate altered the crowd funding exception to require intermediaries in a crowd funding offering to be registered with the SEC.[8] President Obama expressed readiness to sign the JOBS Act when passed by both chambers.[9]
Once the JOBS Act was signed, the Congress instructed the Securities and Exchange Commission to draft the regulations that would cover such space, using the Dodd Frank as a precedent. The SEC has a deadline established on January 2013 to issue the regulations.[10]
[edit] Provisions of bill
The legislation, among many other things, extends the amount of time that certain new public companies have to begin compliance with certain requirements, including certain requirements that originated with the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, from two years to five years.[11][12]
The primary provisions of the House bill as amended would:
increase the number of shareholders a company may have before being required to register its common stock with the SEC and become a publicly reporting company. Currently, these requirements are generally triggered when a company's assets reach $10 million and it has 500 shareholders of record.[13][14] The House bill would alter this so that the threshold is reached only if the company has 500 “unaccredited" shareholders, or 2,000 total shareholders, including both accredited and unaccredited shareholders.[11][15]
provide a new exemption from the requirement to register public offerings with the SEC, for certain types of small offerings, subject to several conditions. This exemption would allow use of the internet "funding portals" registered with the government, the use of which in private placements is currently extremely limited by current law. One of the conditions of this exemption is a yearly aggregate limit on the amount each person may invest in offerings of this type, tiered by the person's net worth or yearly income. The limit ranges from 2% of people earning (or worth) up to $40,000, up to a cap of $10,000 for people earning (or worth) $100,000 or more. This exemption is intended to allow a form of crowd funding.[16] While there are already many types of exemptions, most exempt offerings, especially those conducted using the internet, currently are offered only to accredited investors, or limit the number of non-accredited investors who are allowed to participate, due to the legal restrictions place on private placements of securities. Additionally the Bill mandates reviews of financial statements for offerings between $100,000 and $500,000, and audits of financial statements for offerings greater than $500,000 (noting maximum offering of $1,000,000)[17]
relieve certain kinds of companies, which the bill calls “emerging growth companies,” from certain regulatory and disclosure requirements in the registration statement they originally file when they go public, and for a period of five years after that. The most significant relief provided is from obligations imposed by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and related rules and regulations. Currently, new public companies have a two-year phase-in, so this bill would extend that by an additional three years. Also, smaller public companies are also already entitled to special relief from these requirements, and the bill does not change that.[16]
lift the current ban on “general solicitation” and advertising in specific kinds of private placements of securities.[16]
raise the limit for securities offerings exempted under Regulation A from $5 million to $50 million, thereby allowing for larger fundraising efforts under this simplified regulation.[16]
raise the number of permitted shareholders in community banks from 500 to 2,000.[16]
The bill prohibits the crowdfunding of investment funds.[18]
[edit] Reception
[edit] Support
The JOBS Act had bipartisan support in Congress.[9][19] It was supported by many in the technology and startup communities, including Google,[20] Steve Case (founder of AOL), Mitch Kapor (founder of Lotus), Jim Newton (founder of TechShop), and many other investors and entrepreneurs. It is also supported by the National Venture Capital Association, which described the bill as modernizing regulations that were put in place almost 100 years before, by among other things facilitating use of online services to make investments in small companies. The "crowdfunding" provisions, which allow companies to sell securities through open platforms, were often likened to the Kickstarter online model for funding artists and designers.[21][22]
The JOBS Act is also a welcome development for nonprofit organizations which operate crowd funding platforms for microfinance loans, such as Kiva and Zidisha. These organizations have not obtained licenses as securities brokers due to high legal compliance costs. Kiva, an organization that allows individual web users to support microloans managed by intermediaries in developing countries, complies with SEC regulations by making it impossible for lenders to earn a positive financial return.[23] Zidisha, which operates an eBay-style platform that allows individual web users to transact directly with computer-literate borrowers in developing countries, does allow lenders to earn interest, but complies with SEC regulations by not guaranteeing cash payouts.[24] RocketHub testified in Congress June 26, 2012 in support of the JOBS Act and its intent to offer equity crowdfunding.[25]
[edit] Criticism
The bill was opposed by some securities regulators and consumer and investor advocates, including the AARP, the Consumer Federation of America, the Council of Institutional Investors, and others.[26] Among the complaints were that the loosening of investment protections would expose small and inexperienced investors to fraud. The Consumer Federation of America characterized an earlier version of the legislation as "the dangerous and discredited notion that the way to create jobs is to weaken regulatory protections".[27] Criminologist William K. Black had said the bill would lead to a "regulatory race to the bottom" and said it was lobbied by Wall Street to weaken the Sarbanes–Oxley Act.[28] It is also opposed by labor unions, including the AFL-CIO,[29] the AFSCME,[26] and the National Education Association.[26]
Criticisms were levied against the House version of the bill as "gutting regulations designed to safeguard investors",[30] legalizing boiler room operations,[31] "reliev[ing] businesses that are preparing to go public from some of the most important auditing regulations that Congress passed after the Enron debacle",[32] and "a terrible package of bills that would undo essential investor protections, reduce market transparency and distort the efficient allocation of capital".[33]
[edit] Current status
While the JOBS Act itself was passed on April 5, 2012, the two pieces of most importance to much of the crowdfunding and startup community will not go into place until the SEC puts into effect rules that outline how the JOBS Act will go be enforced. Despite a mandate to enact rules on Title II within 90 days of April 5, 2012, the SEC did not put out proposed rules until August 29, 2012.[34] The SEC also has a mandate to enact rules under Title III of the JOBS Act within 270 days of April 5, 2012, but are very likely to miss that deadline, some say over concerns by outgoing chairman Mary Schapiro over her legacy.[35]
President Obama unveiled the Startup America Initiative on January 31, 2011, which over the course of a year came to recommend different reforms aimed at increasing small businesses' ability to raise capital.[1][2] In February 2011, Jason Best, Sherwood Neiss and Zak Cassady-Dorion Principals of Crowdfund Capital Advisors banded together and formed 'Startup Exemption' with the goal to lobby Washington, D.C. to update the U.S. Federal Securities Laws and make it legal for entrepreneurs to use crowdfunding to raise a limited amount of early-stage equity-based financing. With the assistance of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council (SBEC) they partook in two hearings on Capitol Hill. Their framework was the basis for the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act (H.R. 2930) introduced by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) on September 14, 2011. It proposed to greatly reduce restrictions on equity crowdfunding of for-profit businesses then present in state and federal securities laws. Various other crowdfunding pioneers such as Jessica Jackley and Dana Mauriello of ProFounder also testified in favor of a revision to federal securities laws to allow for micro-investments.[3] The resulting bill was a rare example of bipartisan cooperation, earning the strong support of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who shepherded the legislation through the House.[4] The legislation passed the United States House of Representatives (H.R. 3606) on March 8, 2012 in a strong, bipartisan vote.[5] The U.S. Senate began consideration of the bill on Tuesday, March 20, 2012[6] and passed an amended version on March 22, that went back to the House for another vote.[7] The amendment made by the Senate altered the crowd funding exception to require intermediaries in a crowd funding offering to be registered with the SEC.[8] President Obama expressed readiness to sign the JOBS Act when passed by both chambers.[9]
Once the JOBS Act was signed, the Congress instructed the Securities and Exchange Commission to draft the regulations that would cover such space, using the Dodd Frank as a precedent. The SEC has a deadline established on January 2013 to issue the regulations.[10]
[edit] Provisions of bill
The legislation, among many other things, extends the amount of time that certain new public companies have to begin compliance with certain requirements, including certain requirements that originated with the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, from two years to five years.[11][12]
The primary provisions of the House bill as amended would:
increase the number of shareholders a company may have before being required to register its common stock with the SEC and become a publicly reporting company. Currently, these requirements are generally triggered when a company's assets reach $10 million and it has 500 shareholders of record.[13][14] The House bill would alter this so that the threshold is reached only if the company has 500 “unaccredited" shareholders, or 2,000 total shareholders, including both accredited and unaccredited shareholders.[11][15]
provide a new exemption from the requirement to register public offerings with the SEC, for certain types of small offerings, subject to several conditions. This exemption would allow use of the internet "funding portals" registered with the government, the use of which in private placements is currently extremely limited by current law. One of the conditions of this exemption is a yearly aggregate limit on the amount each person may invest in offerings of this type, tiered by the person's net worth or yearly income. The limit ranges from 2% of people earning (or worth) up to $40,000, up to a cap of $10,000 for people earning (or worth) $100,000 or more. This exemption is intended to allow a form of crowd funding.[16] While there are already many types of exemptions, most exempt offerings, especially those conducted using the internet, currently are offered only to accredited investors, or limit the number of non-accredited investors who are allowed to participate, due to the legal restrictions place on private placements of securities. Additionally the Bill mandates reviews of financial statements for offerings between $100,000 and $500,000, and audits of financial statements for offerings greater than $500,000 (noting maximum offering of $1,000,000)[17]
relieve certain kinds of companies, which the bill calls “emerging growth companies,” from certain regulatory and disclosure requirements in the registration statement they originally file when they go public, and for a period of five years after that. The most significant relief provided is from obligations imposed by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and related rules and regulations. Currently, new public companies have a two-year phase-in, so this bill would extend that by an additional three years. Also, smaller public companies are also already entitled to special relief from these requirements, and the bill does not change that.[16]
lift the current ban on “general solicitation” and advertising in specific kinds of private placements of securities.[16]
raise the limit for securities offerings exempted under Regulation A from $5 million to $50 million, thereby allowing for larger fundraising efforts under this simplified regulation.[16]
raise the number of permitted shareholders in community banks from 500 to 2,000.[16]
The bill prohibits the crowdfunding of investment funds.[18]
[edit] Reception
[edit] Support
The JOBS Act had bipartisan support in Congress.[9][19] It was supported by many in the technology and startup communities, including Google,[20] Steve Case (founder of AOL), Mitch Kapor (founder of Lotus), Jim Newton (founder of TechShop), and many other investors and entrepreneurs. It is also supported by the National Venture Capital Association, which described the bill as modernizing regulations that were put in place almost 100 years before, by among other things facilitating use of online services to make investments in small companies. The "crowdfunding" provisions, which allow companies to sell securities through open platforms, were often likened to the Kickstarter online model for funding artists and designers.[21][22]
The JOBS Act is also a welcome development for nonprofit organizations which operate crowd funding platforms for microfinance loans, such as Kiva and Zidisha. These organizations have not obtained licenses as securities brokers due to high legal compliance costs. Kiva, an organization that allows individual web users to support microloans managed by intermediaries in developing countries, complies with SEC regulations by making it impossible for lenders to earn a positive financial return.[23] Zidisha, which operates an eBay-style platform that allows individual web users to transact directly with computer-literate borrowers in developing countries, does allow lenders to earn interest, but complies with SEC regulations by not guaranteeing cash payouts.[24] RocketHub testified in Congress June 26, 2012 in support of the JOBS Act and its intent to offer equity crowdfunding.[25]
[edit] Criticism
The bill was opposed by some securities regulators and consumer and investor advocates, including the AARP, the Consumer Federation of America, the Council of Institutional Investors, and others.[26] Among the complaints were that the loosening of investment protections would expose small and inexperienced investors to fraud. The Consumer Federation of America characterized an earlier version of the legislation as "the dangerous and discredited notion that the way to create jobs is to weaken regulatory protections".[27] Criminologist William K. Black had said the bill would lead to a "regulatory race to the bottom" and said it was lobbied by Wall Street to weaken the Sarbanes–Oxley Act.[28] It is also opposed by labor unions, including the AFL-CIO,[29] the AFSCME,[26] and the National Education Association.[26]
Criticisms were levied against the House version of the bill as "gutting regulations designed to safeguard investors",[30] legalizing boiler room operations,[31] "reliev[ing] businesses that are preparing to go public from some of the most important auditing regulations that Congress passed after the Enron debacle",[32] and "a terrible package of bills that would undo essential investor protections, reduce market transparency and distort the efficient allocation of capital".[33]
[edit] Current status
While the JOBS Act itself was passed on April 5, 2012, the two pieces of most importance to much of the crowdfunding and startup community will not go into place until the SEC puts into effect rules that outline how the JOBS Act will go be enforced. Despite a mandate to enact rules on Title II within 90 days of April 5, 2012, the SEC did not put out proposed rules until August 29, 2012.[34] The SEC also has a mandate to enact rules under Title III of the JOBS Act within 270 days of April 5, 2012, but are very likely to miss that deadline, some say over concerns by outgoing chairman Mary Schapiro over her legacy.[35]
JOBS ACT!April 5, 2012
The ink is still drying on a piece of legislation that President Obama signed today, and the new law is good news for entrepreneurs seeking capital. Here's a rundown of what is in the law and why it matters to you and your business.
The JOBS (an acronym for Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act is a compendium of six pieces of legislation that are all aimed at increasing the ability of small businesses to access capital and generate jobs. The following breakdown of the provisions is according to information provided by the White House and an analysis of the JOBS Act written by two corporate and capital markets attorneys, David M. Lynn and Anna T. Pinedo of Morrison & Foerster, a global law firm headquartered in San Francisco, Calif.
1. It’s now easier for you to take your company public. The Reopening American Capital Markets to Emerging Growth Companies Act provision adds a new category of stock issuer to the Securities and Exchange Commission laws. The category, among other qualifications, defines an “emerging growth company” as a business with total gross revenues of less than $1 billion in its most recent fiscal year. The law provides such businesses temporary relief from certain SEC regulations, making it easier and more feasible to go public.
When does this go into effect? This provision is effective immediately and, in fact, if you have filed for IPO since December 8, 2011, you are able to apply retroactively for status as an “emerging growth company.”
Related: Want to Raise Money With Crowdfunding? Consider These Tips
2. It will be easier for you to sell your stock to private investors. The Access to Capital for Job Creators Act removes a SEC regulatory ban that says businesses cannot use advertisements to attract investors to a non-public offering. It has been very burdensome from a practical standpoint for companies of all sizes to keep their communications about a private stock sale under wraps.
When does this go into effect? The SEC has 90 days from today to amend its rules that prohibit solicitation.
3. You will have a new way of raising money by selling a piece of your company to the “crowd.” The Entrepreneur Access to Credit Act allows business owners to sell equity in their company to anyone with the cash and the interest through crowdfunding. Previously, crowdfunding was predominantly restricted to artists and business owners accepting small donations in exchange for things like tote bags and CDs. Also, the provision says that you don’t have to be an accredited investor (i.e., a really rich person) to invest in a company.
When does this go into effect? The SEC has 270 days from today to come up with a new regulatory framework allowing businesses to sell company equity on crowdfunding platforms. If you are hoping to sell pieces of your company to investors, you will have to wait until after Thanksgiving.
Related: Crowdfunding's Wild West Awaits a Stampede
4. You can raise a lot more money before having to deal with the SEC. The Small Company Capital Formation Act elevates the threshold of capital that companies can raise from the public to $50 million from $5 million in a twelve month period before they have to register with the SEC.
When does this go into effect? The SEC has to rewrite its rules. Unlike other provisions, there is not a specific deadline for the SEC to do this, according to Pinedo of Morrison Foerster.
5. You can grow twice as large as before without registering with the SEC. The Private Company Flexibility and Growth Act is expected to give small companies more time to grow by expanding the shareholder limit for registration with the SEC. As the law currently stands, companies that have 500 or more investors and total assets of more than $10 million are required to register with the SEC. Under the new law, companies have to register only when they have $10 million in total assets and either 2,000 investors or 500 non-accredited investors. (If you have investors that bought pieces of your company under the new crowdfunding law, they would be excluded from this investor count.) The company will have to register within 120 days of a company’s first fiscal year meeting the caps.
When does this go into effect? The SEC has to rewrite its rules. And like the previous provision, there is no specific deadline for the SEC to do this.
6. Your community bank will be able to grow larger. The Capital Expansion Act says that a bank or bank holding company will not have to register with the SEC until it has total assets of at least $10 billion and at least 2,000 investors, a marked increase from the previous requirement of 500 allowable shareholders. Banks will have120 days after the first fiscal year of meeting these requirements to register with the SEC. Decreasing the regulatory burden is good for small businesses, as community banks play a critical role in lending to them.
When does this go into effect? The SEC has one year from today to issue a rule to make this change.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/223290#
Everybody is investing in Michigan where is RVGD?????
Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (NYS:F) plans to invest more than $773 million on new equipment and capacity expansions across six U.S. manufacturing plants in southeast Michigan.
The plan is part of its commitment to invest $6.2 billion in U.S. plants by 2015 as part of the agreement reached in October 2011 with the United Auto Workers union, the automaker said on Thursday.
Ford said the investments will create 2,350 hourly jobs and allow it to retain another 3,240 hourly jobs. The new jobs are part of the 12,000 Ford previously said it would add or retain in the United States by 2015 under the UAW deal.
Some of the new jobs will earn entry-level wages, which start at just under $16 an hour. Traditional nonskilled UAW workers at Ford earn an average of just over $28. This year, Ford has added more than 6,500 hourly jobs and most of those were filled by people hired at the entry-level pay rate.
Over the next six months, Ford said it will upgrade stamping operations at Michigan Assembly Plant and Dearborn Stamping Plant, as well as finish work at Flat Rock Assembly Plant to build the new Fusion sedan. Some Fusion production was shifted from Mexico under the four-year pact with the UAW.
The work will include $59.4 million to expand the stamping press line at Michigan Assembly, $305 million for plant modernization and new equipment at Dearborn Stamping, and $161 million for new equipment in Flat Rock.
The investments also will include $86 million at Sterling Axle Plant, $87.7 million at Van Dyke Transmission and $74.7 million at Livonia Transmission, all for new equipment.
(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore and Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Daniel Magnowski and Maureen Bavdek)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ford-invest-773-million-across-133752184.html
not certain you have to contact them
http://naias.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=27789
wow everybody will be at the autoshow but peter mmmmmmmmm I guess he didnt have time to bring unfinished cars!!!
Monday, January 14, 2013
6:00 am
Media Credential Office Opens / Oakland Concourse
6:30 am
Main Show Floor and Michigan Hall Opens
6:30-6:55 am
Johnson Controls / D2-15
7:00-7:25 am
VDA-German Association of the Automotive Industry / W2-60
Schaeffler Group immediately following / W2-60
7:15-7:40 am
NAIAS 2013 Welcome Ceremony / Atrium Stage
North American Car and Truck of the Year Awards / Atrium Stage
8:00-8:25 am
Jeep
8:35-9:00 am
Chevrolet
9:10-9:35 am
Lincoln / Lincoln stand
9:45-10:10 am
Infiniti
10:20-10:45 am
Mercedes-Benz and smart
10:55-11:20 am
Volkswagen
11:30-11:55 am
BMW
12:05-12:30 pm
Audi
12:40-1:05 pm
Bentley
1:15-1:40 pm
MINI
1:50-2:15 pm
Honda
2:25-2:50 pm
Toyota / Toyota stand
3:00-3:25 pm
Hyundai
3:35-4:00 pm
Maserati
4:10-4:35 pm
Via Motors / Main Show Floor
4:45-5:10 pm
Panasonic Automotive / M2-30
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
6:00 am
Media Credential Office Opens / Oakland Concourse
6:30 am
Main Show Floor and Michigan Hall Opens
7:00-7:25 am
ZF Group / Main Show Floor
7:35-8:00 am
DENSO / Main Show Floor
8:10-8:35 am
Nissan
8:50-9:15 am
Ford / Joe Louis Arena
9:30-9:55 am
Lexus / Riverview Ballroom
10:05-10:30 am
Cadillac
10:40-11:05 am
Acura
11:15-11:40 am
Kia
11:50 am-12:15 pm
Tesla
12:25-12:50 pm
Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. / Concourse
1:00-1:25 pm
Shelby American / Michigan Hall
1:35-2:00 pm
VLP / Concourse
2:10-2:35 pm
PPG / M3-31
2:45-3:10 pm
Continental / Atrium Stage
3:20-3:45 pm
The One Show's Top 10 Automobile Commercials / Atrium Stage
3:55-4:35 pm
EyesOn Design Awards & Catalyst Award / Atrium Stage
4:45-5:15 pm
EyesOn Design Awards Designer Judges' Panel / Atrium Stage
5:15-7:00 pm
NAIAS Appreciation Reception / Atrium
too bad HTOG no longer trading they have been blocked by SEC,they just pass the shale gas exploration by the energy department!!!!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/energy-department-panel-to-endorse-shale-gas-exploration/2011/08/10/gIQAXqbh7I_story.html
they just pass Energy Department panel to endorse shale gas exploration
Ralph Wilson/AP - Workers move a section of well casing into place at a Chesapeake Energy natural gas well site near Burlington, Pa., in Bradford County on April 23, 2010.
Text Size Print E-mail Reprints
By Juliet Eilperin,
Aug 11, 2011 04:08 AM EDT
The Washington Post Published: August 11, 2011
A key Energy Department advisory panel will issue a qualified endorsement of shale gas exploration Thursday, saying that hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” can continue safely as long as companies disclose more about their practices and monitor their environmental impact.
The committee’s report could ease the way for greater domestic gas exploration, even as it calls for new standards to limit harmful air emissions that bring to the surface gas buried deep in shale formations. But the report is largely silent on the most contentious issue surrounding shale gas exploration: who should regulate it, and whether regulators should apply to it laws such as the Safe Drinking Water Act.
15
Comments
Weigh In Corrections? Recommend Tweet Personal Post
More on this Story
Pawlenty gets Iowans fired up ahead of debate
Returning to Iowa, Romney avoids past mistakes
New Balance distances itself from donation to PAC
Palin to visit Iowa State Fair this week on bus tour
View all Items in this Story
Get the latest from PostPolitics
Wis. GOP’s stand could reverberate elsewhere
Energy panel to endorse shale gas exploration
Can Ron Paul win it all in Iowa?
Read more on PostPolitics.com
The Rick Perry that Texans know
House members travel to Israel
S&P lobbies government while downgrading credit
Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping massive amounts of fluid — a mixture of water and chemicals — underground, which cracks the shale and drives the gas to the surface. With major deposits in several regions of the country, including the Northeast and the Midwest, firms are tapping into the resource at an unprecedented rate.
Shale gas accounted for less than 2 percent of total U.S. natural-gas production in 2001; it is now close to 30 percent, and the Energy Information Administration projects that it will amount to 45 percent of domestic production by 2035.
As drilling activity has moved closer to residential areas — and as some researchers have found unusually high methane concentrations in nearby drinking water — local activists have called for a stop to further drilling. But industry officials, many politicians and some environmentalists have argued that the country must exploit a domestic energy source that does not release as much carbon dioxide as other fossil fuels when burned.
John Deutch, a chemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who chaired the advisory panel, said in an interview that the group offered “a different approach” to overseeing fracking. “You measure, you disclose what you measure, and you use these measurements to improve the way you operate in the field and reduce your environmental impact,” he said.
Said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund and another panel member: “If the recommendations are adopted, shale gas resources in the United States will be tapped in a way that avoids some of the environmental problems that have cropped up so far, and minimizes and recognizes others.” He added: “There is now a path for industry to act, and regulators to act, to avert the looming impasse over shale gas development.”
The group’s recommendations will go to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, whose department does not regulate natural-gas production. But its advice, which covers potential actions by regulators and industry, could carry political weight because President Obama asked Chu to establish the advisory group.
On Wednesday, the Environmental Working Group released a letter signed by 28 scientists objecting to the panel, noting that six of its members had connections to industry and that Deutch serves on the board of the natural-gas firm Cheniere Energy and was paid more than $1.4 million by that company and Schlumberger. between 2006 and 2009. Deutch said he fully disclosed his background before Chu selected him.
The panel’s report calls for full disclosure of the chemicals used in fracturing liquids, along with “adoption of rigorous emission standards for both new and existing sources for methane, air toxics, ozone-forming pollutants and other major airborne contaminants,” although it does not specify whether state or federal regulators should impose those rules.
The Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates air and water quality, is conducting its own study of fracking’s effect on the environment and public health. EPA spokeswoman Betsaida Alcantara said that the agency is reviewing the panel’s recommendations and that it will issue an initial report of its findings in 2012.
Recommend Tweet Personal Post
More on this Story
Pawlenty gets Iowans fired up ahead of debate
Returning to Iowa, Romney avoids past mistakes
New Balance distances itself from donation to PAC
Palin to visit Iowa State Fair this week on bus tour
View all Items in this Story
Get the latest from PostPolitics
Wis. GOP’s stand could reverberate elsewhere
Energy panel to endorse shale gas exploration
Can Ron Paul win it all in Iowa?
Read more on PostPolitics.com
The Rick Perry that Texans know
House members travel to Israel
S&P lobbies government while downgrading credit
The advisory panel emphasizes enhanced monitoring of fracking activities, including establishing a baseline for local water quality, studying the extent to which methane could migrate from drilling sites to nearby wells, and public disclosure of air pollution emissions from shale gas operations.
The report also stresses the importance of the industry adopting “best practices,” a technique that offshore oil and gas operators have used for years, to ensure safe shale gas extraction. Shell, for example, issued principles in June aimed at setting a standard that the firms could follow, although it does not disclose all the elements in fracking fluid because suppliers say that doing so would disclose trade secrets.
Although some of the group’s recommendations would go further than rules that states have adopted for fracking — Texas, for instance, requires firms to disclose some but not all chemicals in fracking fluid — several of its proposals fall in line with what state and industry officials are already doing.
Industry experts such as Howard L. Boigon, a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells who represents the oil and gas industry, said the report covers areas where operators “have either been giving ground or are moving toward.”
The Independent Petroleum Association of America said that “the report stands in stark contrast to the strident, hysterical demands for moratoria on hydraulic fracturing.”
But groups such as Friends of the Earth — which joined 67 other organizations in asking Obama on Monday to impose a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing — questioned why the panel would issue a report when the EPA was in the midst of a multi-year study.
“We’re talking about this 90-day rush to judgment that’s just inappropriate,” said Damon Moglen, who directs climate and energy policy for Friends of the Earth.
Staff writer Steven Mufson contributed to this report.