Google vs Baidu: Which company will win China?

The Chinese company dominates online searches in its home market, but Google's ambitions go well beyond Googling.

At first glance one might readily declare "game over" in the China online search war. Beijing-based Baidu (BIDU) dominates: According to Jennifer Li, Baidu's chief financial officer, Baidu's market share for search in China was about 77% in the third quarter, up from 75.6% in the second quarter.

Google (GOOG), she says, lost share in China, dropping to 17% in the third quarter, from about 19% in the second quarter.  Read more

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Fannie and Freddie’s End Run

Expect dismal fourth-quarter numbers for Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), as the Treasury moves to pacify the markets by lifting their total credit facilities beyond $400 billion. With that move, largely ignored in the holiday rush, the White House deftly avoids a nasty, negative headline criticizing the two biggest basket cases in the markets, publicly traded companies who got the biggest total bailouts of all because they are hostage to the Congress’s every housing desire. Read more

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Tantular the Brains, Bank Century the Mode

VIVAnews - Even though it is the products of PT Antaboga Deltasekuritas Indonesia that are being questioned, the Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency (Bapepam-LK) and customers who invested in the products claim that the actual fraud occurred at Bank Century.  All transactions of PT Antaboga Deltasekuritas Indonesia investment products were done at Bank Century. None of the customers actually went to Antaboga.  Read more

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The lessons we can all learn from Bernard Madoff

Just over a year ago, the clients of Bernard L Madoff Securities received statements which suggested that they had a staggering $64.8bn invested in the sophisticated investment strategy run by Mr Madoff.

Then, on December 11 last year, Bernie Madoff was arrested and it was all exposed as an enormous fraud, probably the largest securities fraud the world has ever known, and the value of those investments was written down to zero.  Read more

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Bernie Madoff, the $19 Billion Con, Makes New Friends Behind Bars

BUTNER, N.C. - Bernard L. Madoff's life of country clubs and luxury homes ended when federal agents arrested him at his Manhattan penthouse apartment exactly one year ago. But he is adjusting to his new life behind rows of gleaming silver razor wire in this small Southern town.

Inmate No. 61727-054 shares an unlocked cell at the medium-security prison at Butner Federal Correctional Complex with a younger man named Frank. He wears khaki prison garb and has been spotted walking on an outdoor track. He plays bocce, chess and checkers. He scrubs pots and pans in the prison kitchen.  Read more

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