LONDON (Reuters) - Posting pictures of yourself plastered at a party and talking trash online with your Facebook friends may be more stress than it's worth now that your boss and mom want to see it all.
A survey from Edinburgh Business School released on Monday showed Facebook users are anxious that all those self-published sins may be coming home to roost with more than half of employers claiming to have used Facebook to weed out job candidates.
'Facebook used to be like a great party for all your friends where you can dance, drink and flirt,' said Ben Marder, author of the report and fellow in marketing at the Business School.
'But now with your Mom, Dad and boss there, the party becomes an anxious event full of potential social landmines.'
On average, people are Facebook friends with seven different social circles, the report found, with real friends known to the user offline the most common.
More than four-fifths of users add extended family on Facebook, a similar number add siblings. Less than 70 percent are connected to friends of friends while more than 60 percent added their colleagues online, despite the anxiety this may cause.
Facebook has settings to control the information seen by different types of friends, but only one third use them, the report said.
'I'm not worried at all because all the really messy pics - me, drunken or worse - I detag straight away,' said Chris from London, aged 30.
People were more commonly friends with former boyfriends or girlfriends than with current ones, the report also found.
(Reporting By Dasha Afanasieva, editing by Paul Casciato)
This news article is brought to you by GIRLS TEACH DATING - where latest news are our top priority.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Facebook not so fun with a click from boss or mum
LONDON (Reuters) - Posting pictures of yourself plastered at a party and talking trash online with your Facebook friends may be more stress than it's worth now that your boss and mum want to see it all.
A survey from Edinburgh Business School released on Monday showed Facebook users are anxious that all those self-published sins may be coming home to roost with more than half of employers claiming to have used Facebook to weed out job candidates.
'Facebook used to be like a great party for all your friends where you can dance, drink and flirt,' said Ben Marder, author of the report and fellow in marketing at the Business School.
'But now with your Mum, Dad and boss there, the party becomes an anxious event full of potential social landmines.'
On average, people are Facebook friends with seven different social circles, the report found, with real friends known to the user offline the most common.
More than four-fifths of users add extended family on Facebook, a similar number add siblings. Less than 70 percent are connected to friends of friends while more than 60 percent added their colleagues online, despite the anxiety this may cause.
Facebook has settings to control the information seen by different types of friends, but only one third use them, the report said.
'I'm not worried at all because all the really messy pics - me, drunken or worse - I detag straight away,' said Chris from London, aged 30.
People were more commonly friends with former boyfriends or girlfriends than with current ones, the report also found.
(Reporting By Dasha Afanasieva, editing by Paul Casciato)
This news article is brought to you by GLOBAL WEATHER NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
A survey from Edinburgh Business School released on Monday showed Facebook users are anxious that all those self-published sins may be coming home to roost with more than half of employers claiming to have used Facebook to weed out job candidates.
'Facebook used to be like a great party for all your friends where you can dance, drink and flirt,' said Ben Marder, author of the report and fellow in marketing at the Business School.
'But now with your Mum, Dad and boss there, the party becomes an anxious event full of potential social landmines.'
On average, people are Facebook friends with seven different social circles, the report found, with real friends known to the user offline the most common.
More than four-fifths of users add extended family on Facebook, a similar number add siblings. Less than 70 percent are connected to friends of friends while more than 60 percent added their colleagues online, despite the anxiety this may cause.
Facebook has settings to control the information seen by different types of friends, but only one third use them, the report said.
'I'm not worried at all because all the really messy pics - me, drunken or worse - I detag straight away,' said Chris from London, aged 30.
People were more commonly friends with former boyfriends or girlfriends than with current ones, the report also found.
(Reporting By Dasha Afanasieva, editing by Paul Casciato)
This news article is brought to you by GLOBAL WEATHER NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Apple seeks to add more products to Samsung patent lawsuit
(Reuters) - Apple Inc has asked a federal court to add six more products to its patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Co, including the Samsung Galaxy Note II, in the latest in move in an ongoing legal war between the two companies.
The case is one of two patent infringement lawsuits pending in the U.S. District Court in San Jose by Apple against Samsung. An earlier lawsuit by Apple that related to different patents resulted in a $1.05 billion jury verdict against Samsung on August 24.
Apple is also seeking to add the Samsung Galaxy S III, running the new Android 'Jelly Bean' operating system, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 Wifi, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, the Samsung Rugby Pro, and the Samsung Galaxy S III Mini, to its lawsuit, according to a court filing on Friday.
'Apple has acted quickly and diligently to determine that these newly-released products do infringe many of the same claims already asserted by Apple,' the company said in the filing.
Samsung representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Apple filed the second lawsuit in February, alleging that various Samsung smartphone and tablet products including the Galaxy Nexus infringed eight of its patents.
Samsung denied infringement and filed a cross-complaint alleging that Apple's iPhone and iPad infringed eight of its patents.
A U.S. judge on November 15 allowed Samsung to pursue claims the iPhone5 also infringes its patents.
The case is Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. et al, No. 12-cv-00630.
(Reporting By John McCrank; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)
This article is brought to you by COMPUTERS.
The case is one of two patent infringement lawsuits pending in the U.S. District Court in San Jose by Apple against Samsung. An earlier lawsuit by Apple that related to different patents resulted in a $1.05 billion jury verdict against Samsung on August 24.
Apple is also seeking to add the Samsung Galaxy S III, running the new Android 'Jelly Bean' operating system, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 Wifi, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, the Samsung Rugby Pro, and the Samsung Galaxy S III Mini, to its lawsuit, according to a court filing on Friday.
'Apple has acted quickly and diligently to determine that these newly-released products do infringe many of the same claims already asserted by Apple,' the company said in the filing.
Samsung representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Apple filed the second lawsuit in February, alleging that various Samsung smartphone and tablet products including the Galaxy Nexus infringed eight of its patents.
Samsung denied infringement and filed a cross-complaint alleging that Apple's iPhone and iPad infringed eight of its patents.
A U.S. judge on November 15 allowed Samsung to pursue claims the iPhone5 also infringes its patents.
The case is Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. et al, No. 12-cv-00630.
(Reporting By John McCrank; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)
This article is brought to you by COMPUTERS.
Prankster Replicates Facebook Users' Profile Photos, Then Friends Targets [PICS]
1.
Image courtesy of Imgur, casinoroycasinoroyClick here to view this gallery.[More from Mashable: This App Curates Gifts From Startups for Your Trendy Friends]Everyone has a knack for something. Reddit user CasinoRoy's talent is creeping out strangers on Facebook, and perfectly replicating their profile photos.
[More from Mashable: Facebook to Slow Down After Move to HTTPS [VIDEO]]
The prankster searches for Facebook users with his name, and then recreates their profile photos by imitating their wardrobe and facial expression. When it's all done, he sends the subject a friend request.
In total, CasinoRoy found eight people on Facebook with his name. He recently shared his hilarious project to Reddit, which garnered 20,000 views in four hours. The joker revealed on Reddit that only one person accepted his friend request. The relationship was short-lived. 'He seemed genuinely creeped out and de-friended me shortly after,' he wrote.
What would you do if you found a perfect replica of your Facebook profile picture? Tell us in the comments below.
Image courtesy of Imgur, casinoroycasinoroy
This story originally published on Mashable here.
This news article is brought to you by SEXUAL HEALTH NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Professor finds profiling in ads for personal data website
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Dr. Latisha Smith, an expert in decompression sicknesses afflicting deep sea divers, has cleared criminal background checks throughout her medical career. Yet someone searching the Web for the Washington State physician might well come across an Internet ad suggesting she may have an arrest record.
'Latisha Smith, arrested?' reads one such advertisement.
Another says: 'Latisha Smith Truth... Check Latisha Smith's Arrests.'
Instantcheckmate.com, which labels itself the 'Internet's leading authority on background checks,' placed both ads. A statistical analysis of the company's advertising has found it has disproportionately used ad copy including the word 'arrested' for black-identifying names, even when a person has no arrest record.
Latanya Sweeney is a Harvard University professor of government with a doctorate in computer science. After learning that her own name had popped up in an 'arrested?' ad when a colleague was searching for one of her academic publications, she ran more than 120,000 searches for names primarily given to either black or white children, testing ads delivered for 2,400 real names 50 times each. (The author of this story is a Harvard University fellow collaborating with Professor Sweeney on a book about the business of personal data.)
Ebony Jefferson, for example, often turns up an instantcheckmate.com ad reading: 'Ebony Jefferson, arrested?' but an ad triggered by a search for Emily Jefferson would read: 'We found Emily Jefferson.' Searches for randomly chosen black-identifying names such as Deshawn Williams, Latisha Smith or Latanya Smith often produced the 'arrested?' headline or ad text with the word 'arrest,' whereas other less ethnic-sounding first names matched with the same surnames typically did not.
'As an African-American, I'm used to profiling like that,' said Dr. Smith. 'I think it's horrendous that they get away with it.'
Instantcheckmate.com declined to comment. The company's founder and managing partner, Kristian Kibak, did not respond to repeated emails and phone calls over a period of several months, and other employees referred calls to management. Company officials also declined to comment when visited twice at their call center in Las Vegas. Former employees said they had signed nondisclosure agreements that barred them from speaking openly about Instant Checkmate.
Instantcheckmate.com is one of many data brokers that use and sell data for a variety of purposes. The field is attracting growing attention, both from government and consumers concerned about possible abuse. Rapid advances in technology have opened up all sorts of opportunities for commercialization of data.
Anyone can set up shop and sell arrest records as long as they stay clear of U.S. legal limitations such as using the information to determine creditworthiness, insurance or job suitability.
Companies that compete with instantcheckmate.com include intelius.com and mylife.com. An examination of Internet advertising starting last March as well as Sweeney's study did not find any rival companies advertising background searches on individual names along racial lines.
WHO CAN BE TRUSTED?
In its own marketing, Instantcheckmate.com sums up its mission like this: 'Parents will no longer need to wonder about whether their neighbors, friends, home day care providers, a former spouse's new love interest or preschool providers can be trusted to care for their children responsibly.'
According to preliminary findings of Professor Sweeney's research, searches of names assigned primarily to black babies, such as Tyrone, Darnell, Ebony and Latisha, generated 'arrest' in the instantcheckmate.com ad copy between 75 percent and 96 percent of the time. Names assigned at birth primarily to whites, such as Geoffrey, Brett, Kristen and Anne, led to more neutral copy, with the word 'arrest' appearing between zero and 9 percent of the time.
A few names fell outside of these patterns: Brad, a name predominantly given to white babies, produced an ad with the word 'arrest' 62 percent to 65 percent of the time. Sweeney found that ads appear regardless of whether the name has an arrest record attached to it.
Blacks make up about 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for 28 percent of the arrests listed on the FBI's most recent annual crime statistics.
Internet advertising based on millions of name pairs has only existed in recent years, so targeting ads along racial lines raises new legal questions. Experts say the Federal Trade Commission, which this year assessed an $800,000 penalty against personal data site Spokeo.com for different reasons (related to the use of data for job-vetting purposes), would be the institution best placed to review Instant Checkmate's practices.
The FTC enforces regulations against unfair or deceptive business practices. A deceptive claim that would be more likely to get people to purchase a product than they would otherwise would be a typical reason the FTC might act against a company, said one FTC official who did not want to be identified. For example, authorities could take action against a firm that makes misleading claims suggesting a product such as records exist when they do not.
'It's disturbing,' Julie Brill, an FTC commissioner, said of Instant Checkmate's advertising. 'I don't know if it's illegal ... It's something that we'd need to study to see if any enforcement action is needed.'
Instant Checkmate's Kibak, who is in his late 20s, works out of a San Diego office near the Pacific Ocean. The son of a California biology professor, he did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails seeking comment about his business.
'We would consider the answers to most of your questions trade secrets and therefore would not be comfortable disclosing that information,' Joey Rocco, Kibak's partner according to the firm's Nevada state registration, said in an email.
Instant Checkmate LLC maintains its official corporate headquarters at an address in an industrial zone across the highway from the Las Vegas strip. At the back of a long parking lot, the company shares a warehouse building with an auto repair shop. At one end, a large roll-up garage-style door opens to the company's call center. Workers face a gray cinder-block wall, their backs to the entrance. Staff declined to answer questions.
DATA FIRMS PROLIFERATE
Professor Sweeney's analysis found that some instantcheckmate.com ads hint at arrest records when the firm's database has no record of any arrest for that name, as is the case with her own name. In other cases, such as that of Latisha Smith, the company does have arrest records for some people by that name, although not for the doctor of hypobaric medicine in Washington State.
Laura Beatty, an Internet Marketing Inc expert in helping companies achieve prominent placement in Web searches, said instantcheckmate.com appeared to choose its ads based on combinations of thousands of different first and last names and then segment them based on the first names.
'There does look like there is some definite profiling going on here,' she said. 'In the searches that I looked at, it seemed like the more Midwestern- and WASP-sounding the name was, the less likely it was to have either any advertisement at all or to have something that was more geared around the arrest or criminal background.'
Internet firms selling criminal records and personal data to the public have proliferated in recent years, as low-cost computing enables even modest operations to maintain large databases on millions of Americans. Such sites sell access to users for a one-time fee - $29.95 in the case of instantcheckmate.com - or via monthly subscription plans.
Instant Checkmate, first registered in Nevada in 2010, said in a recent press release posted online that the firm had attracted more than 570,000 customers since its start and counted more than 200,000 subscribers.
According to alexa.com, an Amazon.Com Inc site analyzing website traffic, instantcheckmate.com has ranged roughly between the 500th and 600th most visited U.S. site in recent weeks, making it an increasingly major player in this area.
The company is able to target its ads on an individual name basis through a program called Google AdWords. Instantcheckmate.com and others companies like it use Google AdWords to bid to place small text advertisements alongside search results on major websites triggered by the names in their data base. Such ads typically cost a company far less than a dollar, sometimes just a few pennies, each time they're clicked.
Google says it does not control what names appear in AdWords. 'Advertisers select all of their keywords, and ads are triggered when someone searches for that name. We don't have any role in the advertiser's selection of unique proper names,' said a Google spokesman.
Some in Congress have raised concerns about developments in the use of personal data. In October, Senator John Rockefeller IV, a Democrat from West Virginia and chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, opened a probe into leading data brokers. 'Collecting, storing and selling information about Americans raises all types of questions that require careful scrutiny,' he said.
(Adam Tanner is a Reuters correspondent currently on a 2012-13 fellowship at Harvard University's Department of Government.)
(Editing by Claudia Parsons and Prudence Crowther)
This news article is brought to you by CELEBRITY GOSSIP NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
'Latisha Smith, arrested?' reads one such advertisement.
Another says: 'Latisha Smith Truth... Check Latisha Smith's Arrests.'
Instantcheckmate.com, which labels itself the 'Internet's leading authority on background checks,' placed both ads. A statistical analysis of the company's advertising has found it has disproportionately used ad copy including the word 'arrested' for black-identifying names, even when a person has no arrest record.
Latanya Sweeney is a Harvard University professor of government with a doctorate in computer science. After learning that her own name had popped up in an 'arrested?' ad when a colleague was searching for one of her academic publications, she ran more than 120,000 searches for names primarily given to either black or white children, testing ads delivered for 2,400 real names 50 times each. (The author of this story is a Harvard University fellow collaborating with Professor Sweeney on a book about the business of personal data.)
Ebony Jefferson, for example, often turns up an instantcheckmate.com ad reading: 'Ebony Jefferson, arrested?' but an ad triggered by a search for Emily Jefferson would read: 'We found Emily Jefferson.' Searches for randomly chosen black-identifying names such as Deshawn Williams, Latisha Smith or Latanya Smith often produced the 'arrested?' headline or ad text with the word 'arrest,' whereas other less ethnic-sounding first names matched with the same surnames typically did not.
'As an African-American, I'm used to profiling like that,' said Dr. Smith. 'I think it's horrendous that they get away with it.'
Instantcheckmate.com declined to comment. The company's founder and managing partner, Kristian Kibak, did not respond to repeated emails and phone calls over a period of several months, and other employees referred calls to management. Company officials also declined to comment when visited twice at their call center in Las Vegas. Former employees said they had signed nondisclosure agreements that barred them from speaking openly about Instant Checkmate.
Instantcheckmate.com is one of many data brokers that use and sell data for a variety of purposes. The field is attracting growing attention, both from government and consumers concerned about possible abuse. Rapid advances in technology have opened up all sorts of opportunities for commercialization of data.
Anyone can set up shop and sell arrest records as long as they stay clear of U.S. legal limitations such as using the information to determine creditworthiness, insurance or job suitability.
Companies that compete with instantcheckmate.com include intelius.com and mylife.com. An examination of Internet advertising starting last March as well as Sweeney's study did not find any rival companies advertising background searches on individual names along racial lines.
WHO CAN BE TRUSTED?
In its own marketing, Instantcheckmate.com sums up its mission like this: 'Parents will no longer need to wonder about whether their neighbors, friends, home day care providers, a former spouse's new love interest or preschool providers can be trusted to care for their children responsibly.'
According to preliminary findings of Professor Sweeney's research, searches of names assigned primarily to black babies, such as Tyrone, Darnell, Ebony and Latisha, generated 'arrest' in the instantcheckmate.com ad copy between 75 percent and 96 percent of the time. Names assigned at birth primarily to whites, such as Geoffrey, Brett, Kristen and Anne, led to more neutral copy, with the word 'arrest' appearing between zero and 9 percent of the time.
A few names fell outside of these patterns: Brad, a name predominantly given to white babies, produced an ad with the word 'arrest' 62 percent to 65 percent of the time. Sweeney found that ads appear regardless of whether the name has an arrest record attached to it.
Blacks make up about 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for 28 percent of the arrests listed on the FBI's most recent annual crime statistics.
Internet advertising based on millions of name pairs has only existed in recent years, so targeting ads along racial lines raises new legal questions. Experts say the Federal Trade Commission, which this year assessed an $800,000 penalty against personal data site Spokeo.com for different reasons (related to the use of data for job-vetting purposes), would be the institution best placed to review Instant Checkmate's practices.
The FTC enforces regulations against unfair or deceptive business practices. A deceptive claim that would be more likely to get people to purchase a product than they would otherwise would be a typical reason the FTC might act against a company, said one FTC official who did not want to be identified. For example, authorities could take action against a firm that makes misleading claims suggesting a product such as records exist when they do not.
'It's disturbing,' Julie Brill, an FTC commissioner, said of Instant Checkmate's advertising. 'I don't know if it's illegal ... It's something that we'd need to study to see if any enforcement action is needed.'
Instant Checkmate's Kibak, who is in his late 20s, works out of a San Diego office near the Pacific Ocean. The son of a California biology professor, he did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails seeking comment about his business.
'We would consider the answers to most of your questions trade secrets and therefore would not be comfortable disclosing that information,' Joey Rocco, Kibak's partner according to the firm's Nevada state registration, said in an email.
Instant Checkmate LLC maintains its official corporate headquarters at an address in an industrial zone across the highway from the Las Vegas strip. At the back of a long parking lot, the company shares a warehouse building with an auto repair shop. At one end, a large roll-up garage-style door opens to the company's call center. Workers face a gray cinder-block wall, their backs to the entrance. Staff declined to answer questions.
DATA FIRMS PROLIFERATE
Professor Sweeney's analysis found that some instantcheckmate.com ads hint at arrest records when the firm's database has no record of any arrest for that name, as is the case with her own name. In other cases, such as that of Latisha Smith, the company does have arrest records for some people by that name, although not for the doctor of hypobaric medicine in Washington State.
Laura Beatty, an Internet Marketing Inc expert in helping companies achieve prominent placement in Web searches, said instantcheckmate.com appeared to choose its ads based on combinations of thousands of different first and last names and then segment them based on the first names.
'There does look like there is some definite profiling going on here,' she said. 'In the searches that I looked at, it seemed like the more Midwestern- and WASP-sounding the name was, the less likely it was to have either any advertisement at all or to have something that was more geared around the arrest or criminal background.'
Internet firms selling criminal records and personal data to the public have proliferated in recent years, as low-cost computing enables even modest operations to maintain large databases on millions of Americans. Such sites sell access to users for a one-time fee - $29.95 in the case of instantcheckmate.com - or via monthly subscription plans.
Instant Checkmate, first registered in Nevada in 2010, said in a recent press release posted online that the firm had attracted more than 570,000 customers since its start and counted more than 200,000 subscribers.
According to alexa.com, an Amazon.Com Inc site analyzing website traffic, instantcheckmate.com has ranged roughly between the 500th and 600th most visited U.S. site in recent weeks, making it an increasingly major player in this area.
The company is able to target its ads on an individual name basis through a program called Google AdWords. Instantcheckmate.com and others companies like it use Google AdWords to bid to place small text advertisements alongside search results on major websites triggered by the names in their data base. Such ads typically cost a company far less than a dollar, sometimes just a few pennies, each time they're clicked.
Google says it does not control what names appear in AdWords. 'Advertisers select all of their keywords, and ads are triggered when someone searches for that name. We don't have any role in the advertiser's selection of unique proper names,' said a Google spokesman.
Some in Congress have raised concerns about developments in the use of personal data. In October, Senator John Rockefeller IV, a Democrat from West Virginia and chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, opened a probe into leading data brokers. 'Collecting, storing and selling information about Americans raises all types of questions that require careful scrutiny,' he said.
(Adam Tanner is a Reuters correspondent currently on a 2012-13 fellowship at Harvard University's Department of Government.)
(Editing by Claudia Parsons and Prudence Crowther)
This news article is brought to you by CELEBRITY GOSSIP NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
10 Tantalizing Recipes for Your Turkey Leftovers
This pot pie recipe uses not just the leftover turkey, but also the stuffing, vegetables, mashed potatoes, gravy and even the cranberry sauce.
Click here to view this gallery.[More from Mashable: Thanksgiving Was Instagram's Busiest Day Yet]
No matter how much you stuff yourself on Turkey Day, it's an irrefutable fact that there will always be leftover turkey after Thanksgiving. It's what you do with it that counts. Rather than endless rounds of dry sandwiches, why not get creative in the kitchen this holiday season? We have found 10 delicious and creative YouTube video recipes that will take your leftover bird and turn it into a standalone meal to relish.
[More from Mashable: 5 Fascinating Facts We Learned From Reddit This Week]
SEE ALSO: 9 Cooking Gadgets for Your Geeky Kitchen
If you're looking for inspiration to help make the most of your leftovers, take a look though the video gallery above. In the comments below, please share with us any other turkey recipes you've tried and tested.
Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, Kimberly Vardeman
This story originally published on Mashable here.
This article is brought to you by BUY A USED COMPUTER.
Click here to view this gallery.[More from Mashable: Thanksgiving Was Instagram's Busiest Day Yet]
No matter how much you stuff yourself on Turkey Day, it's an irrefutable fact that there will always be leftover turkey after Thanksgiving. It's what you do with it that counts. Rather than endless rounds of dry sandwiches, why not get creative in the kitchen this holiday season? We have found 10 delicious and creative YouTube video recipes that will take your leftover bird and turn it into a standalone meal to relish.
[More from Mashable: 5 Fascinating Facts We Learned From Reddit This Week]
If you're looking for inspiration to help make the most of your leftovers, take a look though the video gallery above. In the comments below, please share with us any other turkey recipes you've tried and tested.
Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, Kimberly Vardeman
This story originally published on Mashable here.
This article is brought to you by BUY A USED COMPUTER.
Friday, November 23, 2012
Sony at greater risk than Panasonic in electronics downturn: Fitch
TOKYO (Reuters) - Panasonic Corp has a better chance than rival Sony Corp of surviving Japan's consumer electronics slump because of its unglamorous but stable appliance business of washing machines and fridges, credit rating agency Fitch said Friday.
Fitch cut Panasonic's rating by two notches to BB and Sony three notches to BB minus on Thursday, the first time one of the three major ratings agencies have put the creditworthiness of either company into junk-bond territory.
Rival agencies Moody's and S&P rate both of Japan's consumer electronic giants at the same level, just above junk status. Moody's last cut its rating on Panasonic on Tuesday.
Panasonic 'has the advantage of a relatively stable consumer appliance business that is still generating positive margins', Matt Jamieson, Fitch's head of Asia-Pacific, said in a conference call on Friday to explain its ratings downgrades.
But at Sony, he added, 'most of their electronic business are loss making, they appear to be overstretched.'
Japan's TV industry has been bested by cheaper, more innovative models from Samsung Electronics and other foreign rivals, while tablets and smartphones built by Apple Inc have become the dominant consumer electronics devices.
Investors are focusing on the fate of Sony and Panasonic after another struggling Japanese consumer electronics firm, Sharp Corp, maker of the Aquos TV, secured a $4.6 billion bail-out by banks including Mizuho Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
Sony and Panasonic have chosen divergent survival paths.
Panasonic, maker of the Viera TV, is looking to expand its businesses in appliances, solar panels, lithium batteries and automotive components. Appliances amount to around only 6 percent of the company's sales, but they generate margins of more than 6 percent and make up a big chunk of operating profit.
Sony, creator of the Walkman, is doubling down on consumer gadgets in a bid to regain ground from Samsung and Apple in mobile devices while bolstering digital cameras and gaming.
The latest downgrades will curtail the ability of both Japanese companies to raise money in credit markets to help fund restructurings of their business portfolios.
For now, however, that impact is limited, given the support Panasonic and Sony are receiving from their banks.
In October, Panasonic, which expects to lose $10 billion in the year to March 31, secured $7.6 billion of loan commitments from banks including Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ, a financing backstop it says will help it avoid having to seek capital in credit markets.
Sony, which has forecast a full-year profit of $1.63 billion helped by the sale of a chemicals business to a Japanese state bank, announced plans to raise $1.9 billion through a convertible bond before the latest rating downgrade.
Thomson Reuters' Starmine structural model, which evaluates market views of credit risk, debt levels and changes in asset values gives Panasonic and Sony an implied rating of BB minus. Sharp's implied rating is three notches lower at B minus.
Standard & Poor's rates Panasonic and Sony at BBB, the second lowest of the investment grade, while Moody's Investors Service has them on Baa3, the lowest of its high-grade category. Moody's has a negative outlook for both firms while S&P sees a stable outlook for Panasonic and a negative one for Sony.
Stock markets in Japan were closed on Friday for a national holiday.
(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Mark Bendeich)
This news article is brought to you by CELEBRITY MUSIC NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Fitch cut Panasonic's rating by two notches to BB and Sony three notches to BB minus on Thursday, the first time one of the three major ratings agencies have put the creditworthiness of either company into junk-bond territory.
Rival agencies Moody's and S&P rate both of Japan's consumer electronic giants at the same level, just above junk status. Moody's last cut its rating on Panasonic on Tuesday.
Panasonic 'has the advantage of a relatively stable consumer appliance business that is still generating positive margins', Matt Jamieson, Fitch's head of Asia-Pacific, said in a conference call on Friday to explain its ratings downgrades.
But at Sony, he added, 'most of their electronic business are loss making, they appear to be overstretched.'
Japan's TV industry has been bested by cheaper, more innovative models from Samsung Electronics and other foreign rivals, while tablets and smartphones built by Apple Inc have become the dominant consumer electronics devices.
Investors are focusing on the fate of Sony and Panasonic after another struggling Japanese consumer electronics firm, Sharp Corp, maker of the Aquos TV, secured a $4.6 billion bail-out by banks including Mizuho Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
Sony and Panasonic have chosen divergent survival paths.
Panasonic, maker of the Viera TV, is looking to expand its businesses in appliances, solar panels, lithium batteries and automotive components. Appliances amount to around only 6 percent of the company's sales, but they generate margins of more than 6 percent and make up a big chunk of operating profit.
Sony, creator of the Walkman, is doubling down on consumer gadgets in a bid to regain ground from Samsung and Apple in mobile devices while bolstering digital cameras and gaming.
The latest downgrades will curtail the ability of both Japanese companies to raise money in credit markets to help fund restructurings of their business portfolios.
For now, however, that impact is limited, given the support Panasonic and Sony are receiving from their banks.
In October, Panasonic, which expects to lose $10 billion in the year to March 31, secured $7.6 billion of loan commitments from banks including Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ, a financing backstop it says will help it avoid having to seek capital in credit markets.
Sony, which has forecast a full-year profit of $1.63 billion helped by the sale of a chemicals business to a Japanese state bank, announced plans to raise $1.9 billion through a convertible bond before the latest rating downgrade.
Thomson Reuters' Starmine structural model, which evaluates market views of credit risk, debt levels and changes in asset values gives Panasonic and Sony an implied rating of BB minus. Sharp's implied rating is three notches lower at B minus.
Standard & Poor's rates Panasonic and Sony at BBB, the second lowest of the investment grade, while Moody's Investors Service has them on Baa3, the lowest of its high-grade category. Moody's has a negative outlook for both firms while S&P sees a stable outlook for Panasonic and a negative one for Sony.
Stock markets in Japan were closed on Friday for a national holiday.
(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Mark Bendeich)
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