The online networking site, which more than a year began ago letting companies create their own profiles, last week expanded features within Company Pages that allow businesses to build and sustain their own followings in the professional community.
“It’s some pretty good intelligence,” said Ryan Roslansky, who heads LinkedIn’s Content Products. “It really helps members to have deeper insight and richer business intelligence on these companies.”
Not unlike the microblogging site Twitter, LinkedIn’s Company Pages update individuals about specific businesses of interest. But the depth of content is richer, said Roslansky, noting that posts include company news, employee moves, videos and white papers, among other information. These status updates appear in a follower’s news feed.
“When people are on LinkedIn they’re really in the mode of… how do they become more professional, productive and successful in what they’re doing?” he said. “And in that context we want to give the companies the ability to disseminate information to members.”
Individuals can also get alerts when a company posts job listings, an enhancement that aids in individuals’ career advancement, Roslansky said, noting there are nearly 5 million LinkedIn members employed by small businesses. Businesses pay for that feature but other features in Company Pages are free.
* Clinton stressing economic diplomacy as U.S. lags* Clinton renews complaints on China currency policyBy Patrick WorsnipNEW YORK, Oct 14 (Reuters) - The United States should learn
from emerging powers such as India and Brazil and make its
economic interests central to its foreign policy to remain a
global leader, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on
Friday.”We have to position ourselves to lead in a world where
security is shaped in boardrooms and on trading floors — as
well as on battlefields,” Clinton told the Economic Club of New
York.Her speech, billed as a major address, sought to outline
the Obama administration’s increasing focus on economic issues
as the United States heads into the 2012 election season
hobbled by huge budget deficits and stubbornly high
unemployment.She also renewed Washington’s complaints about the high
level of China’s currency and defended America’s right to
“assert ourselves.” A bill approved by the U.S. Senate this
week would seek to force Beijing to raise the yuan’s value.Clinton said the United States must end its “culture of
political brinksmanship” that many say has paralyzed
Washington, and get its own economic house in order while
facing new challenges as the global economy changes.”I know there are some who believe that America, after
taking our lumps in recent years, should turn inward. But you
can’t call ‘time out’ in the global economy. Our competitors
aren’t taking a time out, and neither can we,” she said.Clinton said the United States must learn to use its
foreign policy to strengthen its domestic economy as it fights
unfair trade barriers and a new breed of foreign state-owned or
state-supported enterprises which act at the behest of foreign
governments.”Emerging powers like India and Brazil put economics at the
center of their foreign policies. … One of the first
questions they ask is, ‘how will this affect our economic
growth?’” Clinton said. Brazil, Russia, India and China
comprise the BRIC group of emerging economies.”We need to be asking the same question, not because the
answer will dictate every one of our foreign policy choices —
it will not, but it must be a significant part of that
equation.”EMERGING CHALLENGESClinton said U.S. global leadership would depend on
sustained U.S. economic power, which would depend in part on
aggressively challenging foreign trade barriers.”When governments impose a so-called ‘tollbooth’ that
forces unfair terms on companies just to enter or expand in a
new market, we push back,” Clinton said.She said the United States must also devise strategies to
compete with foreign state-backed companies that often operate
in secrecy, without the transparency and accountability that
comes with shareholders and boards of directors.”We … see hybrid companies masquerading as commercial
actors, but actually controlled by states and acting with
strategic consequences,” Clinton said. “The way states deploy
their cash, companies and natural resources, especially in
global markets, is of critical concern to us.”Clinton has increasingly stressed economic diplomacy,
highlighting issues such as energy security, job creation and a
“level playing field” on trade to counter what Washington
believes are unfair advantages that have helped China and some
other emerging economies grow so fast.Clinton’s message was clearly aimed in part at the
challenge from Beijing, which U.S. officials have accused of
using regulatory measures and an artificially low exchange rate
to rack up some $3.2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves.She charged that China was trying to give its companies a
“leg-up,” called for a new set of global rules and said the
United States needed to be “assertive in securing the win-win
economic relationship we can and should have with China.”Clinton denied that such an approach would lead to
1930s-style protectionism but, in response to a question, gave
no definitive view on this week’s Democratic-backed Senate
bill, which is opposed by House of Representatives speaker John
Boehner, a Republican.”Look, if you’re China you’re going to do what advantages
China. Why should that surprise anybody?,” she said. “But we’re
America, and we need to take care of what’s going to put us on
the strongest position.”
* Voting due to start around 1030 GMT, result due after 1200
GMTBy Gavin JonesROME, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi is expected to scrape through a vote of confidence on
Friday, despite the scandals, economic stagnation and intense
pressure from financial markets plaguing him and his
administration.Berlusconi was forced to call the vote, to be held in the
Chamber of Deputies early afternoon, after his divided
centre-right government suffered a major embarrassment when it
failed to pass a routine budget provision on Tuesday.He is seen surviving for now, just as he has survived many
such votes, because squabbling factions in his coalition are
still not ready to replace him.”If a group of deputies inside his People of Freedom party
had a precise strategy then probably Berlusconi’s days would be
numbered, but we are not there yet,” political commentator
Sergio Romano told Reuters.Voting is scheduled to start at around 1030 GMT, with the
result expected after 1200 GMT.Analysts say even if the 75-year-old premier wins, it will
be a matter of months only before a new crisis hits, and the
country is likely to hold elections next spring, a year early.”It’s very probable that Berlusconi will win confidence in
parliament today,” said Massimo Franco in newspaper Corriere
della Sera.”But the anxiety and fatigue of the ruling majority does not
point to any revival. If anything, it increases the sense of a
government limping towards the terminus, hoping to make it to
the end of the year without being forced to stop earlier.”Berlusconi told parliament on Thursday the fall of his
government would be “a victory for those who want to see (Italy)
fall into decline, catastrophe and the kind of speculation we
have seen for months in Europe and Italy”.Many analysts see the opposite as true, and see Berlusconi’s
ineffectiveness in the face of crisis bringing either snap
elections or an unelected government of technical experts, which
they say would be preferable to the current malaise.Nicholas Spiro, head of debt consultancy firm Spiro
Sovereign Strategy, said a “Berlusconi premium” had been built
into Italy’s borrowing costs.His political demise “could trigger a favourable
re-assessment of Italy in the minds of international investors,
particularly if a non-partisan technocratic cabinet took
office”, Spiro said.DISSENTERSSeveral newspaper editorials on Friday highlighted the lack
of new ideas in Berlusconi’s speech to parliament, describing
him as paralysed by a fear of aggravating tensions in his
coalition.”Not one new thought was expressed. Absolutely nothing. A
complete vacuum,” said Luca Ricolfi in La Stampa daily.
“Berlusconi has by now become a factor that is immobilising and
freezing Italian politics.”A number of centre-right deputies were absent from Tuesday’s
vote, infuriating Berlusconi and feeding suspicions that some
stayed away to raise their bargaining power in the coalition.On Thursday, Berlusconi described the episode as an
“accident” and insisted the centre-right bloc was united.He is facing internal challenges from a number of ministers,
most notably from Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti, who are
unhappy with his leadership and the damage his personal and
legal woes have done to Italy’s reputation.The prime minister is on trial in four separate cases,
accused of fraud, corruption and paying for sex with a minor.President Giorgio Napolitano entered the fray this week,
expressing deep concern about the viability of government and
demanding a “credible response” to Italy’s acute problems.A Reuters survey of about 20 analysts said on Thursday that
Italy was already in recession, would barely muster any growth
in 2012 and would miss the government’s fiscal deficit targets.Its sovereign debt has been downgraded in the past month by
Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch, and since early August it
has relied on the European Central Bank to buy its bonds to
prevent yields rising to unsustainable levels.
* Eurogroup’s Juncker says troika report on Greek aid by
mid-next week* Juncker says hopes sixth tranche for Greece will be
approvedBy Martin Santa and John O’DonnellBRATISLAVA/BRUSSELS, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Slovakia finally
ratified new powers for the euro zone’s rescue fund on Thursday,
the last country to do so, clearing the way for a bolder effort
to arrest Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, which threatens global
financial stability.The vote came 10 days before a European Union summit called
to approve a “comprehensive strategy” to fight the crisis,
expected to include action to reduce Greece’s debt burden, a
plan to strengthen European banks and measures to stop contagion
spreading to larger euro zone economies.The Slovak parliament approved the plan to bolster the
European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) after voting to
hold early general election as demanded by the opposition. A
junior partner in the ruling coalition brought the four-party
centre-right government down on Tuesday by abstaining in a
confidence motion linked to increased powers for the EFSF.Weeks of haggling over the EFSF in Slovakia and over
Finnish demands for collateral on loans to Greece unsettled
financial markets and highlighted the fragility of a euro zone
decision-making system that requires unanimous agreement.Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the Eurogroup euro zone
finance ministers, said he hoped Greece would be granted the
money it needs and was expecting a report supporting that from
the troika: the European Central Bank, International Monetary
Fund and the EU.”We’ll be given the troika report by mid-next week… I
don’t know all the elements of content of the reports that will
be given by the troika, but I’m really optimistic that we’ll
decide to have the sixth tranche being launched,” he said after
a meeting in Brussels with Greek Prime Minister George
Papandreou and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.The United States, Japan, non-euro Britain and other major
powers have voiced impatience with Europe’s sluggish crisis
management and appealed for more decisive action to avert danger
to global economic recovery.In another potential boost for the euro zone, sources
preparing for a G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Paris said
most of the BRICS emerging economies favour bolstering the IMF’s
capital base to contribute to a financial rescue for Greece.”We have said this before and have conveyed this again, that
if emerging economies and the BRICS are called upon to
contribute, we can do it via the International Monetary Fund,”
one of the sources said. “India is open to it, China and Brazil
are also okay with the idea as well.”Russia and South Africa are the other BRICS countries.Under an emerging plan due to be approved at the Oct. 23 EU
summit, banks could be given up to six months to strengthen
their capital, allowing them time to raise funds privately in
the hope of averting another damaging credit crunch.EU officials said weak banks may get this time to bolster
their balance sheets and shore up investor confidence after a
rapid health check is concluded.”A three- to six-month deadline is being considered,” said
one EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, saying that
banks were being encouraged to tap private investors or sell
assets rather than turn to governments. “No decision has been
taken.”The timing leaves questions about how soon banks might need
to take writedowns on Greece and withstand the possible fallout
from a Greek default.Athens is trapped in a deep recession and fighting to
control a public debt expected to reach 162 percent of gross
domestic product this year, which many economists predict will
end in default.RELIEFThe Slovak decision was a huge relief for policymakers keen
to start using the 440 billion euro ($600 billion)fund’s new
scope to buy government bonds, recapitalise banks and give
precautionary loans to states at risk of being shut out of
capital markets.”The EFSF provides us with a stronger, more flexible tool to
defend the financial stability of the euro area,” European
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council
President Herman Van Rompuy said in a joint statement.The European Central Bank has so far borne the brunt of
financial firefighting, buying 163 billion euros in peripheral
sovereign bonds to try to stabilise markets and bring down the
borrowing costs of Italy and Spain, the third and fourth largest
economies in the euro area.Outgoing ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet has made clear
the bank is keen to shed that burden once the enhanced rescue
fund is fully operational, although EU officials say ECB support
will still be needed in the capital markets.”After the successful completion of all political approval
procedures, the EFSF and its Board will finalise quickly all
necessary guidelines and procedures to be able to use the new
instruments in the near future,” Klaus Regling, the chief
executive of the fund said in a statement.The EFSF said that any decision to leverage the fund would
not endanger its triple-A credit rating, based largely on
Germany, France and other AAA-rated euro zone sovereigns.Christophe Frankel, its chief financial officer, said: “Any
decision to use EFSF’s capacity more efficiently will not lead
to an increase in guarantee commitments from the Member States
and there will therefore be no consequence on the EFSF’s triple
A credit rating.”EU officials said the most promising option for leveraging
the fund would be to use it to insure the first 20 percent of
losses on euro zone sovereign bonds to enhance security for
investors buying Italian or Spanish bonds.Juncker repeated on Thursday that private sector holders of
Greek bonds may have to accept bigger losses than the 21 percent
agreed in July.EU officials say private bondholders are likely to face
losses of up to 50 percent on the value of their holdings in a
renegotiation of a “voluntary” agreement on private sector
participation in a second Greek bailout package.Germany and other north European creditor states want banks,
insurers, pension funds and wealth management funds to
contribute more than the 50 billion euros envisaged in the July
21 deal to make Greece’s debt more sustainable, they say.The EFSF’s Regling said Italy and Spain had the capacity to
raise their own financing on the markets. He also voiced
confidence that Ireland, one of three euro zone states under
EU/IMF bailout programmes, would be able to return to debt
markets in 2013.
Research In Motion, in a hastily announced conference call on Wednesday, vowed to eventually deliver all delayed email and instant messages to customers in five continents affected by the outage.It later told some of its corporate clients that it may not clear the huge backlog of messages until Thursday morning on the U.S. East Coast.The outage - and RIM’s sluggish communications with its customers - have fanned rising dissatisfaction with its co-chief executives, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie.Critics have called for a shake-up, saying the top managers have let the company fall too far behind Apple and other rivals in a rapidly changing market.”The board clearly needs to take decisive action now - they need to draw a line in the sand,” said Richard Levick, who runs a consultancy that specializes in crisis management.”RIM needs to change its DNA entirely - they need to start thinking like a startup again, instead of a former market leader,” he said.Though RIM’s stock dropped modestly on Wednesday, its shares have already tumbled more than 50 percent this year on a series of profit warnings and product missteps - a sharp reversal of fortune for a company that once dominated the smartphone market.This week’s disruption - the worst since an outage swept North America two years ago - may have damaged RIM’s once-sterling reputation for secure and reliable message delivery - perhaps its No. 1 selling feature.RIM is unique among handset makers, as it compresses and encrypts data before pushing it to BlackBerry devices via carrier networks. Apple and others rely on the carrier networks to handle all routing and delivery of content.Even before this week’s disruptions, many companies had started to balk at paying a premium to be locked into RIM’s service. Some are now allowing employees to use alternative smartphones, particularly Apple’s iPhone, for corporate mail, and the outage could accelerate the trend.”One possibility could be that it encourages client companies to look more at other options such as allowing users to connect their own devices to the corporate server and save themselves the cost of buying everyone a BlackBerry,” said Richard Windsor, global technology specialist at Nomura.DLA Piper, a law firm with 4,200 attorneys worldwide, is a prime example. It is accelerating discussions about switching to iPhones and Android devices, Don Jaycox, its chief information officer, said on Wednesday.”This has brought it to the front-burner,” Jaycox said. “It will cause more people to opt for other choices.”UNIQUE SYSTEMThe corporate defections are making a big software transition even more crucial to RIM. The company is getting ready to shift its line of BlackBerry smartphones to the new central operating system first used in the poorly received PlayBook tablet.Without a successful shift, RIM may never regain market share lost to the iPhone and devices powered by Google’s Android, analysts say.”It’s a blow upon a bruise. It comes at a bad time,” Nomura’s Windsor said, referring to Wednesday’s service disruption.While corporate customers were weighing their options, BlackBerry users were venting their frustration at the company and what they said was its failure to keep its customers informed.”Totally appalled at the lack of communication from RIM,” wrote Lynn Murdoch on RIM’s BlackBerry Facebook page. “Love my Berry, but furious at the fact that no one can actually give a time frame of how long its going to take to fix. Utterly disappointed!”“I’m right at the edge where I might be saying goodbye to my BlackBerry,” said Tony Vitali, a BlackBerry user in New York. “The device freezes twice a day. … It’s a very frustrating device.”BAD TIMINGFrom a marketing standpoint, the timing of the service glitch could hardly have been worse for RIM.Apple on Wednesday launched an major upgrade to its iOS operating system that includes iMessage, an instant messaging service for users of Apple’s iPhones, iPads and some iPods. It is a direct competitor to RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM.The RIM service, which allows BlackBerry users to send free text messages to other BlackBerry users, has made the devices a popular choice with young consumers. That has partially compensated for its losses in the corporate market in North America and Western Europe.On Wednesday RIM’s shares closed down 3.46 percent at C$24.27 on the Toronto Stock Exchange and down 2.17 percent at $23.88 on the Nasdaq.
