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URL: http://www.nytimes.com SUBJECT: US DOLLAR (90%); SMALL BUSINESS (90%); TRADE SHOWS (89%); ECONOMIC NEWS (89%); CURRENCIES (89%); INTEREST RATES (89%); RECESSION (78%); EXPORT TRADE (78%); EXCHANGE RATES (78%); IMPORT TRADE (78%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (77%); INDUSTRIAL PURCHASING (76%); EURO (76%); WEALTHY PEOPLE (70%); INVESTOR RELATIONS (50%); COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS (74%); BUSINESS EDUCATION (90%); CREDIT CRISIS (70%) ORGANIZATION: UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA (56%) GEOGRAPHIC: LONDON, ENGLAND (73%) NEW YORK, USA (92%); PENNSYLVANIA, USA (79%) EUROPE (95%); UNITED STATES (94%); LATIN AMERICA (79%); ENGLAND (73%); UNITED KINGDOM (73%) LOAD-DATE: January 31, 2008 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Lynn Morgan is a founder of MBS Value Partners, an investor relations consulting firm that has attracted foreign clients. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ROB BENNETT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company 1122 of 1231 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final Zhang Hanzhi, Mao's Tutor, Dies at 72 BYLINE: By DAVID BARBOZA SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Foreign Desk; Pg. 14 LENGTH: 673 words DATELINE: SHANGHAI Zhang Hanzhi, a former Chinese diplomat who once served as Mao's English tutor and who also interpreted for President Nixon during his historic trip to China in 1972, died on Saturday. She was 72. Ms. Zhang's death was reported in the state-controlled media, and her daughter, Hong Huang, a media entrepreneur in Beijing, posted a notice of the death on her popular blog. A funeral is planned for Friday, at Babaoshan, the Beijing cemetery for the Communist Party's elite. Ms. Zhang, who was reared by a family with close ties to Mao, was selected by him to become a diplomat. She was a member of the Chinese delegation that traveled to New York in 1971, when Beijing took back its seat at the United Nations. Two years later, she married the head of China's United Nations delegation, Qiao Guanhua, who served as the country's foreign minister from 1974 to 1976 and helped open the country to the West. The two traveled together for high-level meetings with United States officials, including George Bush, while he was United Nations ambassador and chief of the United States Liaison Office, as well as Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. Ms. Zhang later wrote a best-selling memoir and became something of a celebrity in Beijing. Two years ago, she even played a small role in a movie alongside her daughter, Ms. Hong, herself a celebrity. Zhang Hanzhi was born in 1935 to a Shanghai businessman and a shopkeeper who, after a dispute over who would raise the child, allowed her to be adopted by Zhang Shizhao, a lawyer and scholar who at one time was the country's minister of education. Among her adoptive father's close friends was Yang Changji, who was both Mao's college professor in Hunan Province and the father of his second wife, Yang Kaihui. In 1918, Zhang Shizhao helped persuade Yang Changji to move to Beijing to teach. Mao followed soon after and found work at the library at Beijing University, where he began organizing revolutionary activities. A student group Mao led even got financial support from the Zhang family. Zhang Hanzhi, a graduate of Beijing Foreign Studies University, said her own friendship with Mao began in 1963, when, at his 70th birthday, Mao greeted her and, learning that she knew English, asked that she serve as his private tutor. She was 28, and not sure whether he meant it. A few days later, his office called. ''The chairman wanted the lessons to start the following day!'' she recalled in an essay published in Time magazine in 1999. ''I was dumbfounded. I was to teach the great leader whom over a billion people worshiped as their god.'' The tutoring, which involved informal talks about the outside world as well as English instruction, ended after a few months; in the early years of the Cultural Revolution, there was little contact with Mao, she said, except a few letters. But in 1970, Mao summoned her again and asked her to join the diplomatic service. Soon after, she was working in the Foreign Ministry and interpreting for Prime Minister Zhou Enlai during Mr. Kissinger's secret trip to China in 1971 and for Nixon during his 1972 visit, when the two countries re-established diplomatic ties and signed the Shanghai Communique, outlining bilateral relations. Her first marriage, to Hong Junyan, a professor at Beijing University, ended in divorce in the 1970s. She then married Qiao Guanhua. After Mao's death, Ms. Zhang and Mr. Qiao were put under house arrest as part of a purge of people suspected of being close to Mao's fourth wife, Jiang Qing, and the Gang of Four, a group blamed for manipulating Mao and creating havoc during the Cultural Revolution. Ms. Zhang, who said her family had been victims during the Cultural Revolution, recalled in a 1999 interview with The New York Times that the guards had left hints about what she should do: scissors, then a rope. ''But not for a moment did I ever think of killing myself,'' she said. ''I knew how to survive.'' She and her husband were released in 1980. Qiao Guanhua died in 1983 at the age of 70.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company 1123 of 1231 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final New Rules to Help Smaller Companies Raise Funds BYLINE: By BRENT BOWERS SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; IN THE HUNT; Pg. 2 LENGTH: 837 words Federal regulators are about to ease rules that have made it difficult for small and medium-size publicly traded companies to raise money. The changes, experts say, are well timed, given the tightening credit market. The revisions in the Securities and Exchange Commission's Rule 144, which governs the sale of so-called restricted securities, affect companies with annual revenues of less than $700 million, and take effect on Feb. 15. Restricted securities are shares or bonds sold in private placements, usually at a discount of about 10 percent from the market price; the securities cannot be registered immediately with the S.E.C. Under current rules, investors must wait one year to sell, and then usually only in stages of a specified number each quarter for the year after that. Under the changes, which were approved by the commission on Nov. 15 and are retroactive, the investors must wait only six months to sell the securities, and can part with them all at once. ''The changes will likely make private placements by smaller publicly traded companies much more attractive to investors,'' said David Danovitch, a partner at the Manhattan law firm of Gersten Savage who specializes in securities laws. ''When the credit markets tighten, people run to the equity markets, and now it should be easier for companies that are starved for cash to tap into them.'' Two years ago, Mr. Danovitch said, the S.E.C. relaxed the rules governing registration statements filed by publicly traded companies with a market capitalization of $700 million or more to give them better access to the capital markets. Now, he said, it is extending the benefits to smaller companies. Investors will also gain a greater degree of liquidity and thus a better chance of making a profit. ''Smaller businesses are a critical part of our nation's economy,'' the chairman of the S.E.C., Christopher Cox, said in November in announcing the unanimous vote to make the amendments. He added that the new rules would ''make it more efficient for companies of all sizes to access the private markets.'' One entrepreneur who is delighted with the changes is Ian Warwick, chief executive of the Aftersoft Group, a $28 million maker of software for car repair shops, car parts distributors and other car-related businesses. Aftersoft originated in Britain but entered the American market in the early 1990s and is now seeking to expand. It is No. 1 in Britain, with 68 percent of the automotive software aftermarket, as it is called, and is hoping to achieve the same status in the United States within two years. It now holds a 12 percent share. Mr. Warwick said his company's software could be used in other industries as well. ''We could expand to the lumber industry, the plumbing industry -- the possibilities are endless,'' he said. ''We have a very aggressive growth plan.'' To achieve his ambitions, though, Mr. Warwick, 48, needs to raise money. ''We spent the better part of last year raising funds,'' he said. ''It would have been a much quicker and more efficient process if the new rules had been in effect.'' He said he expected to go back into the market late next year. Before doing a private placement, he says, he wants to get Aftersoft's stock price up to $2, from about 30 cents a share today. If he succeeds in increasing the stock price, he will seek to raise equity to do a spate of acquisitions, perhaps shooting for as much as $100 million if he decides to make a takeover bid for his major competitor, a company called Activant Solutions Inc. The global effect of the looser S.E.C. standards is anybody's guess at this early stage. Brian Overstreet, president of Sagient Research Systems in San Diego, said its PlacementTracker service found that the number of deals involving private investment in public equity stabilized last year at 1,378, compared with 1,343 in 2006. The funds raised, however, surged to $81.5 billion from $28.3 billion. He attributed about $40 billion of the increase to a frenzy of transactions by big investment banks in the last four months of 2007, aimed at resolving their subprime woes. Even taking that factor out the equation, though, he said, an increase to $41 billion from $28 billion was significant. He cautioned, however, that most of those deals were made under different and more investor-friendly terms than those of Rule 144, and thus were not a barometer of future 144 activity. Still, he said, the changes approved by the S.E.C. were bound to prompt more small companies to turn to the rule. People are just starting to price deals under the new regulations, according to Mr. Danovitch of Gersten Savage. And while the change will make it easier for small-capitalization companies to gain access to the capital markets on more favorable terms, it is not clear yet how much more money will flow to them. ''I'd say the companies that will benefit the most from the changes are those with a market cap of less than $100 million,'' Mr. Danovitch said. URL: http://www.nytimes.com SUBJECT: PRIVATE PLACEMENTS (90%); SECURITIES LAW (90%); AGENCY RULEMAKING (90%); US FEDERAL GOVERNMENT (79%); AUTOMOTIVE SERVICES (78%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (78%); SMALL BUSINESS (78%); BANKING & FINANCE AGENCIES (78%); BANKING & FINANCE REGULATION (78%); MARKET CAPITALIZATION (77%); COMPANY PROFITS (77%); US SECURITIES ACT OF 1933 (77%); APPROVALS (73%); BANKING & FINANCE (73%); SOFTWARE MAKERS (60%); MOTOR VEHICLES & PARTS WHOLESALERS (60%); AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR & MAINTENANCE SHOPS (60%); COMPUTER SOFTWARE (84%) ORGANIZATION: SECURITIES & EXCHANGE COMMISSION (84%) PERSON: CHRISTOPHER COX (53%) GEOGRAPHIC: NEW YORK, NY, USA (70%) NEW YORK, USA (70%) UNITED STATES (92%) LOAD-DATE: January 30, 2008 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Ian Warwick, chief of the Aftersoft Group, said the revised rules would give him options to expand his software company. (PHOTOGRAPH BY BRADLEY C. BOWER/THE NEW YORK TIMES) PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company 1124 of 1231 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final Village Wants to Keep Its Fields as They Are BYLINE: By CHARLES V. BAGLI SECTION: Section B; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1 LENGTH: 1242 words Mellora Ansbro plays soccer for the Gotham girls' team on the huge green fields within Pier 40, where city noises and river winds seem as remote as the Holland America Line ships that once pulled up alongside. On Sunday she was among the hundreds of ballplayers, teenagers, parents and elected officials from Greenwich Village who rallied at the two-story, 800-foot-square pier at the foot of West Houston Street to block a proposal to build what opponents call ''Las Vegas on the Hudson.'' The plan, by the Related Companies, includes a $600 million entertainment complex anchored by a permanent home for Cirque du Soleil and the Tribeca Film Festival, which are expected to draw a total of 2.7 million visitors a year to the area. Rather than eliminate the fields, Related proposes to move them to the roof of the pier, shore up its crumbling pilings and provide at least $5 million a year in rent. Opponents fear that the visitors who would flock to the site would disrupt the neighborhood and diminish the feel of the playing fields as a local resource. ''We love Pier 40,'' said Mellora, 14. ''We need the fields,'' added her mother, Bonnie Ansbro. ''It builds a sense of community. We don't want these kids to travel all over the city to play.'' A group of Internet entrepreneurs, lawyers and business executives whose children play soccer and baseball on the fields have formed the Pier 40 Partnership and have developed a counterproposal for a nonprofit group, modeled on the Central Park Conservancy, to rehabilitate the pier, preserve the playing fields and pay rent. They promise to raise $30 million in private donations to preserve Pier 40, which is part of the five-mile-long Hudson River Park. ''Keep the park a park,'' said Rich Caccappolo, president of the partnership, whose members include Craig Balsam, a founder of Razor & Tie Entertainment; Chris McGinnis, a real estate developer; and Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist. ''It's not a circus, a performing arts center, or a huge destination that'll draw 1,000 cars.'' Some executives who favor Related's plan say the community group, which they refer to as the Merry Band of Millionaires, has offered an impractical proposal that cannot raise the money necessary to fix the pier. The Hudson River Park Trust, a joint city and state organization whose board was appointed by the mayor and governor to oversee and own the park, is scheduled to vote on the Related proposal on Thursday, as well as a second plan from another private developer that is given little chance of success. The partnership plan is not formally under consideration. Although there is widespread opposition to the Related plan, it is unclear whether the park trust will make a final decision that day. To avoid a deadlock, some officials are hoping for a compromise between Related, the community and the partnership. Diana Taylor, chairwoman of the park trust, contends that a decision must be made soon because the pier needs repair, which could cost $280 million. ''Any developer has to work with the community and the realities of the financial markets,'' Ms. Taylor said. ''We all want open space, but we need to figure out some way to pay for it.'' Pier 40 is at the heart of a battle over big development as well as a debate about the role of private developers and public property in an era of diminishing resources, when politicians are reluctant to raise taxes for amenities like parks. Related's supporters say theirs is the only viable way to raise the money necessary to preserve the pier and the playing fields. ''Our plan offers over 50 percent more sports activity on far superior, modern fields, plus a wide range of community, cultural and arts amenities,'' said Joanna Rose, a spokeswoman for Related. ''It also ensures a reliable source of income for the entire Hudson River Park.'' Opponents like State Senator Thomas K. Duane and Assemblywoman Deborah J. Glick, who represent the area, say ''a mega-entertainment destination'' that enriches a private developer in a public park is the wrong course to follow. ''Those venues already exist in Manhattan,'' Ms. Glick said. ''What we don't have is park space.'' Under 1998 legislation, Pier 40 is one of three spots along Hudson River Park, which stretches from the Battery to 59th Street, where commercial development is allowed to generate revenue for park maintenance. Pier 40 was built in 1964 for the Holland America Line, but it did not last long as a cargo pier. An electrified system that protected the pilings from rust was shut down during the fiscal crisis in the 1970s. Today, 40 percent of the piles are estimated to be crumbling, and the building needs a new roof. The pier's interior courtyard was used as a truck terminal before it was converted several years ago to playing fields. Still, parking on the first and second levels of the building, as well as the roof, generates about $6 million a year, or 40 percent of the park's operating revenue. The Hudson River Park Trust solicited proposals to redevelop the pier in 2003, but a viable plan failed to emerge. It tried again in 2006, which brought the present proposal from Related and that of the second developer, CampGroup, which would create private camps and recreational facilities. In response to criticism, Related recently trimmed the size of its entertainment complex to about one million square feet, added nine basketball courts and more community space and offered a museum instead of an 1,800-seat music hall. Its plans call for a farmers' market and a 1.5-acre open space on the south side of the pier. Related says it needs a lease as long as the 49-year arrangement given to the Chelsea Piers sports complex, which is also within the park. The park legislation allows only 30-year leases. The partnership, which raised $120,000 for a feasibility study by Hamilton, Rabinovitz & Alschuler, a development consultant, proposes retaining the fields and creating rental space for artists, galleries and a school. The New School and New York University have expressed interest. A nonprofit organization would not need the kind of return on investment sought by private companies, typically 15 percent, and could borrow money at lower interest rates, the partnership maintains. Under the partnership proposal, a nonprofit entity would issue tax-free bonds, which would be repaid from the rental and parking revenue. But given the recent difficulty in financing new garages at Yankee Stadium, Related and some park trust executives say the partnership is being overly optimistic about the stability of that revenue source. Without a compromise, the development effort could come to a standstill. Assemblywoman Glick and Senator Duane have vowed to block any changes to the 1998 park legislation that would enable the trust to give Related the 49-year lease it seeks. Gary L. Ginsberg, an executive vice president of the News Corporation and a participant in the partnership, said the group was not a bunch of ''doe-eyed, anti-development individuals'' from the Village. ''We all recognize that the pier needs to be rehabilitated in a major way,'' he said. ''Related's plan would maintain the same acreage of ball fields, but transform the piers into an entertainment complex. It would be like putting Central Park's ball fields on stilts over retail stores and theaters. We want the pier to be consistent with the surrounding park.'' URL: http://www.nytimes.com SUBJECT: REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT (89%); PARKS & PLAYGROUNDS (78%); CITY GOVERNMENT (78%); VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS (78%); MAYORS (77%); CHILDREN (77%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (75%); WEALTHY PEOPLE (75%); PERFORMING ARTS CENTERS (75%); ATHLETES (73%); ARTS FESTIVALS & EXHIBITIONS (73%); BOARD CHANGES (72%); NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS (71%); FESTIVALS (70%); FILM (69%); VENTURE CAPITAL (69%); INTERNET & WWW (67%); BASEBALL (78%) GEOGRAPHIC: NEW YORK, NY, USA (90%) NEW YORK, USA (90%) UNITED STATES (90%) LOAD-DATE: January 30, 2008 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: The playing fields within Pier 40, at Houston Street. The site ''builds a sense of community,'' one resident says.(PHOTOGRAPH BY HIROKO MASUIKE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)(pg. B1) PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company 1125 of 1231 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final TV Showman, Once Exiled, Returns With Video Site BYLINE: By BROOKS BARNES SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 3 LENGTH: 934 words DATELINE: LOS ANGELES One of Big Media's most controversial executives is back after a period of quasi-forced retirement. Stephen Chao -- who was fired from a top position at the News Corporation after, in separate incidents, hiring a male stripper to disrobe at a company meeting and nearly drowning Rupert Murdoch's dog at a party -- plans to announce on Wednesday the formation of a Web video company that he hopes to build into an educational alternative to YouTube. The site, WonderHowTo.com, aggregates how-to videos, from the mundane (like ''how to tie a tie'' and ''how to market your lawn care business in the winter'') to the strange (''how to do Criss Angel's vanishing toothpick trick'') and the off-color (''how to train your cat to use the toilet'' and beyond). Mr. Chao says the business melds his two primary interests: a fascination with the bizarre -- he worked as a National Enquirer reporter after graduating from Harvard -- and the media frontier. ''I'm a video freak and I love turning over rocks and finding stuff,'' he said in a telephone interview. ''What I started to notice is that there is a lot of how-to information out there that is fabulous but kind of hard to find. We set out to make it easy.'' Mr. Chao's resume includes high-profile stints at the News Corporation, where he helped create ''America's Most Wanted'' and ''Cops'' for Fox. He has also logged time at various media companies run by Barry Diller. But Mr. Chao, 52 years old, is perhaps best known for one of corporate America's most spectacular flame-outs. In 1992, Mr. Murdoch fired Mr. Chao, considered a gifted but quirky executive, after he engaged a man to remove all of his clothes during a speech being delivered at a company management retreat. The purpose was to drive home a point about decency, but Mr. Murdoch, seated in the audience next to Dick Cheney (then the secretary of defense), was not amused. Now, after spending the better part of the last decade doing consulting work and surfing near his home in Santa Monica, Calif., Mr. Chao has returned to reinvent himself as an Internet entrepreneur. He and his partners, which include E. W. Scripps, have already cataloged nearly 100,000 videos. Scripps' television properties include HGTV, the Food Network, the DIY Network and the Fine Living Network. In addition to contributing instructional segments from its vast archives, Scripps will handle advertising sales for the new company. Scripps said it would aim at niche markets like glass-blowing or leatherwork that correspond to the site's video categories. General Catalyst Partners, a Massachusetts venture capital firm with about $1 billion under management, is the primary investor in WonderHowTo.com. Michael Goedecke co-founded the company with Mr. Chao and will serve as chief of product and technology. So far, the number of videos on the site is tiny compared with YouTube, but Mr. Chao says that his business model will try to sidestep legal problems. YouTube, which is owned by Google, has been sued for copyright infringement by big media companies; YouTube says that it works hard to keep copyrighted material off its site. Mr. Chao said he would avoid the piracy sinkhole by linking to videos around the Web rather than being the host of the videos, as YouTube does. ''Because I happen to come from television, I happen to believe that YouTube is guilty of copyright infringement,'' he said. ''I don't want to have anything to do with that.'' The how-to field is considered one of the most promising areas in Internet video. New companies like Video Jug have popped up to mine the niche, while more entrenched players like Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia see it as a potential bonanza. Ms. Stewart's company, for instance, has been experimenting with ways to exploit its trove of instructional clips about the domestic arts, most recently introducing a video-on-demand service. Ms. Stewart's company is also testing something it calls the Marthapedia. ''The idea is to create a one-stop-shop place to go for any information about how to do anything,'' Susan Lyne, the chief executive of Martha Stewart Living, said in her most recent conference call with analysts. ''Literally millions and millions of pieces of information.'' How big is the how-to market? Mr. Chao said his research showed that instructional video just for topics like fitness, dancing, languages, auto repair and gardening generated $800 million to $1 billion annually. Mr. Chao is an expert at getting attention, but it will be difficult to top some of his previous stunts. Once, during a party at Mr. Murdoch's home, Mr. Chao nearly drowned his host's purebred puppy after throwing it in a swimming pool to see if it could swim. Mr. Chao then had to jump into the pool, while in a business suit, to save it. After parting ways with Fox, Mr. Chao spent six weeks working at a McDonald's in Redondo Beach, Calif. He went on to head programming for USA Networks, where he helped develop the popular series ''Monk.'' But a fiery relationship with Mr. Diller, the head of the network, overshadowed that experience. The two executives had a hard time living down an incident when both were at Fox in which Mr. Diller hurled a videocassette at Mr. Chao with such intensity that it created a hole in the wall. Mr. Chao framed that section of the wall. He left USA Networks in 2001 and, aside from introducing several cable networks in Latin America, he has largely spent his time with his family in Santa Monica. What made him want to return to the public eye? ''You can't spend all your life surfing,'' he said. Directory: ~hesterj -> Entrepreneur Entrepreneur -> Byline: By richard siklos section: Section C; Column 5; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 1 Length Download 3.51 Mb. Share with your friends:
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