Salesforce.com Unveils the Next Chapter in the Customer Service Revolution with Service Cloud 2 – Leading Market Momentum and New Defining Technologies, including the Industry’s First Knowledge-as-a-Service
SAN FRANCISCO, CA UNITED STATES
8,000 companies have already standardized on the Service Cloud including Extra Space Storage, NJ TRANSIT and Plantronics
Product innovations include Salesforce Knowledge, the world’s first Knowledge-as-a-Service; Salesforce Answers, crowd-sourced community knowledge; and the general availability of Salesforce for Twitter
For the first time, companies can amaze their customers with an integrated customer service experience that leverages their own agents as well as real-time conversations happening throughout the cloud
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the enterprise cloud computing company, today announced the next chapter in the customer service revolution with Service Cloud 2. The Service Cloud, announced in January of this year, is the next generation solution for customer service – it exponentially increases the quality of service, while lowering the cost, by leveraging the expertise of the community. Since its introduction, the Service Cloud has led market momentum with 8,000 customers and received a number of industry accolades. The Service Cloud will also deliver entirely new product innovations for the customer service industry by introducing the world’s first knowledge base designed for cloud computing – Salesforce Knowledge; an entirely new way to look at customer communities and discussion forums – Salesforce Answers; and Salesforce for Twitter, which allows companies to monitor and join the customer service conversations taking place on Twitter. The customer service application market represents a major opportunity for salesforce.com, which according to IDC will be worth $4.2 billion by 2012(1).
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Service Cloud 2 – Customer Success and Market Momentum for the New Customer Service Standard
* Eight thousand companies, including Extra Space Storage, NJ TRANSIT and Plantronics, have standardized on the Service Cloud for their customer service operations – representing a 175% growth in business year over year. * Companies using the Service Cloud have seen a 28% increase in customer satisfaction, 25% increase in call deflection, 30% increase in first call resolution, 37% rise in service and support productivity and a 26% increase in customer retention, according to a recent third party survey. * Salesforce.com was placed in the leaders quadrant of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Service Support Contacts(2). * Since January of 2009, the Service Cloud has won the 2009 TMCnet CRM Excellence Award, Network Products Guide 2009 Innovation Award, CRM Magazine Service Leader Rising Star Award, and the IP Contact Center Technology Pioneer Award for Best IP Contact Center Service. The Service Cloud was also named to KMWorld’s list of Top 100 Companies in knowledge management.
Salesforce Knowledge – The World’s First Knowledge-as-a-Service
A year after salesforce.com acquired Instranet, salesforce.com will offer the world’s first Knowledge-as-a-Service, the first ever multi-tenant knowledge base designed for cloud computing. The core Service Cloud knowledge base built on Force.com will deliver:
* Rapid Deployment: Companies will be able to deploy their knowledge base in a matter of days and extend the technology to mobile devices and public websites. Companies will be able to deploy Salesforce Knowledge without having to install and manage hardware or software. * Immediate Results: Customer service agents will be able to find the right answer, the first time, ensuring that companies amaze and delight their customers with a truly integrated customer service experience. * Google Accessible: Companies will be able to utilize the latest Force.com capabilities, including Force.com Sites, to expose knowledge articles out to the Internet so that customers can find information on the public Internet and through search engines such as Google. * Simple Customizations: Users will be able to quickly and easily deploy changes and customizations to the knowledge base to fit a company’s dynamic and evolving needs. * Automated Upgrades: Product enhancements will be automatically released three times a year. Customers will no longer have to worry whether their applications will continue to work with other hardware and software after an upgrade. * Secure and Trusted: Companies will be able to leverage all the benefits of the proven security, reliability and scalability of salesforce.com’s trusted global infrastructure.
Salesforce Answers – Crowd-Sourced Knowledge
For years, customer service centers have been limited to knowledge articles produced by company employees, and have not benefited from the explosion of consumer wisdom that exists across the Web. Today, online communities and social websites hold a wealth of knowledge and facilitate conversations around uncommon problems, new product use cases, best practices and much more.
Utilizing the Service Cloud, Salesforce Answers will deliver a unique online experience that helps companies leverage the expertise in the cloud to bring the right answer to their customers. Salesforce Answers will enable companies to:
* Start the Conversation: Create a complete, customizable website that facilitates question/answer style conversations between customers. Encourage the community to ask, rate and answer questions and issues posted to the site. * Crowd-Sourced Knowledge: Filter the appropriate knowledge created on Salesforce Answers directly into the Service Cloud’s knowledge base, ensuring that customers, agents and partners will all have access to the best knowledge available. * Leverage Facebook: Companies will be able to set up a Salesforce Answers community directly on a Facebook company fan page, allowing the company to harness knowledge from the 250+ million Facebook members. * Create Dynamic Customer Communities: In combination with Service Cloud features like Salesforce Ideas, companies will be able to create dynamic, interactive customer communities.
Salesforce for Twitter – Join Real-Time Conversations on Twitter
Twitter provides a free platform for users to answer the question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less and broadcast the answer to a broader community. These “tweets” can cover any topic area, including specific companies, brands and products. In today’s Web-driven world where there is an expectation of real-time interaction, Salesforce for Twitter and the Service Cloud give companies an easy way to join the real-time customer service conversations happening on Twitter by enabling them to:
* Search Twitter in Real-time: Search through the millions of tweets happening on Twitter every minute to find the most relevant customer service conversations. * Monitor Service Issues on Twitter: After identifying an appropriate tweet, a company can capture and monitor a service conversation in the Service Cloud and track the conversation. * Join Twitter Conversations: Salesforce for Twitter empowers enterprises to be active participants on Twitter by enabling them to engage in Twitter conversations, right from within the Service Cloud. * Establish a Twitter Support Channel: Customers can tweet their customer service issues and instantly create a case within the Service Cloud. Once the case is created, companies can leverage internal business processes to route cases to the most effective service representatives. * Deliver Real-time Knowledge: Salesforce for Twitter facilitates the delivery of expert knowledge back into the Twitter community by posting tweets directly from the Service Cloud’s knowledge base.
Comments on the News:
* “With Service Cloud 2, salesforce.com is doing for customer service what we did for sales: proving that the cloud is a better way. The customer service market is being held back by traditional technology. With two-thirds of customer service interactions moving to the cloud and the popularity of social networks, it is high time for a change. I am excited by the momentum we are seeing in the customer service market and believe it is the next billion-dollar opportunity for salesforce.com,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com. * “We’ve seen more and more businesses use Twitter to make smart, meaningful and timely connections with their audience. We are excited to work with salesforce.com as they help businesses join the millions of conversations happening every minute on the web,” said Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter. * “The Service Cloud’s knowledge base will give companies access to the best answers for a situation culled from Twitter’s 45 million users and Facebook’s 250 million users. The Service Cloud makes an important advance on social networking by helping enterprises harness the power of real-time conversations and crowd-sourced knowledge to benefit their companies,” said Denis Pombriant, Beagle Research. * “Salesforce Knowledge and the Service Cloud will definitely help our company increase agent productivity and customer satisfaction, an incredible testament to the power of cloud computing,” said Kimberly Jansen, Misys Banking Systems. * “Comcast-Spectacor is now a leader in leveraging cloud computing to enhance our relationships with the Flyers and 76ers season ticket holders because of salesforce.com. The Service Cloud and Salesforce for Twitter have enabled us to connect directly with our customers on Twitter and integrate these real-time conversations with our customer service strategy,” said Mark DiMaurizio, Comcast-Spectacor.
Pricing and Availability
* Salesforce Knowledge will be priced at $50 per agent, per month for salesforce.com customers and is currently scheduled to be available in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010. * Salesforce Answers is currently in pilot and is currently scheduled to be available in the first quarter of fiscal year 2011. * Salesforce for Twitter is available today at no additional charge on the Force.com AppExchange for Professional, Enterprise and Unlimited Edition customers.
Supporting Resources
* For more information, please visit http://www.salesforce.com/servicecloud2 * Follow salesforce.com on Twitter @salesforcenews
About the Magic Quadrant
The Gartner Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2009 by Gartner, Inc., and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
About salesforce.com
Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company. The company’s portfolio of Salesforce CRM applications, available athttp://www.salesforce.com/products/, has revolutionized the ways that companies collaborate and communicate with their customers across sales, marketing and service. The company’s Force.com platform http://www.salesforce.com/platform/) enables customers, partners and developers to quickly build powerful business applications to run every part of the enterprise in the cloud. Based on salesforce.com’s real-time, multi-tenant architecture, Salesforce CRM and Force.com offer the fastest path to customer success with cloud computing.
As of July 31, 2009, salesforce.com manages customer information for approximately 63,200 customers including Allianz Commercial, Dell, Dow Jones Newswires, Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE, and SunTrust Banks. Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “CRM”. For more information please visithttp://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.
Copyright (c) 2009 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce and the “no software” logo are registered trademarks of salesforce.com, inc., and salesforce.com owns other registered and unregistered trademarks. Other names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
(1) from: “Worldwide CRM Apps Forecast 2008-2012.” Dec. 2008.
(2) Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Service Contact Centers, by Michael Maoz, April 2009
SOURCE salesforce.com
Panama: Offering Enticing Incentives to Foreign Investors
The Panamanian government recently passed laws allowing Caribbean property to be titled and offers enticing incentives to foreign investors. Emerald Monkey Eco-Luxe Resort & Residences offers investors the opportunity to take full advantage of these incentives.
BOCAS DEL TORO, Panama, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ — A Panamanian resort that offers an eco-luxe sustainable lifestyle is attracting an affluent retirement market with a striking mix of luxurious amenities teamed with enticing government incentives for foreign investors. Emerald Monkey Eco-Luxe Resort & Residences is located in the lush tropical Archipelagos of Bocas del Toro and is privately owned and fully titled.
According to the CEO of Emerald Monkey Eco-Luxe Resort & Residences, Kimberly DeLape, “Interest in the development is soaring in light of new laws that protect investments in the Caribbean. The natural beauty of the tropics that surrounds our development, combined with easy access to the U.S., and so many financial incentives, makes Emerald Monkey one of the most sought-after destinations for retirement or second home choices.”
Currently under construction, The Emerald Monkey development is designed and marketed as an elegant and private lifestyle that is located in a “hurricane-free” zone of the Caribbean. Handcrafted island villas in the timeless Balinese tradition enhance an eco-luxe sustainable lifestyle and amenities for owners boast five-star standards. Villas start at the mid $500’s to over $2.5 Million. Fractional sales are available. Infrastructure is underway and the resort is scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Energized by the expansion of the Panama Canal (a $5 billion project), the government of Panama requires no special authorizations, permits or prior registrations for foreign investors. Specific investment incentives include:
* No property tax for 20 years * Panamanian residency available for buyers of homes costing $250,000 or more * Foreign investors are protected from changes in tax, customs, municipal and labor rules for a period of 10 years
Additionally, Emerald Monkey Eco-Luxe Resort & Residences will be investigating the opportunity to provide our investors/owners with title insurance. Title insurance protects the investor and guarantees the investment on the land and the improvements upon the land should any claim be made on the land/property by a third party at any stage of the development.
Also, another exciting opportunity is the Pensionado Program outlined below:
* 10-50% discounts on many necessity and entertainment costs, including 50% off home closing costs * Applicants must be over the age of 18 years old * Have a residence in Panama * Guaranteed pension income of $1,000/month (plus an additional amount per dependent)
Purchasing a whole or fractional ownership in Emerald Monkey Eco-Luxe Resort & Residences enables U.S. residents easy and quick access to their property. Panama has direct flights from New York, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Newark, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Orlando, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Madrid, Amsterdam and major cities in the Caribbean. Panama offers a sophisticated business district, high-speed Internet connections, an American-style infrastructure and the U.S. dollar as the legal tender.
Word of Panama’s newfound popularity is spreading throughout the media, according to DeLape. Conde Nast Traveler selected Panama as one of the six best places for a second home in the Americas and Panama also received the highest rating for tourist safety by prestigious Pinkerton Global Intelligence. Panama has also been featured as one of the world’s newest “hot spots” for investment options. While other publications such as Fortune and International Living magazines have also ranked Panama among the top five places for retirement, it is the colorful history and profound beauty that is attracting prospects to Emerald Monkey.
For additional information regarding Emerald Monkey Eco-Luxe Resort & Residences, please visit us at www.emeraldmonkey.com.
Be Cool to Be Successful in Raising Funds from Co-Workers
Survey finds that, if they can eat it or get a discount with it, they’ll buy it
TROY, Mich., Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ — A new survey on fundraising etiquette and effective techniques suggests that, if you want your officemates to buy more cookies and coupon books, cool it!
The July, 2009, survey, sponsored by Entertainment Publications (http://Entertainment.com), found that office workers who go cube to cube selling items or who try to raise funds for themselves will not be very successful. Those who take the casual approach, however, will win both friends and dollars.
“It’s clear from the results of our survey that fundraisers who leave products or catalogs out in common areas — like a company kitchen or break room — win more donors than those who ask office workers directly for their support,” said Amy King, vice president of marketing services for Entertainment Publications.
Among the survey respondents, 42 percent said they prefer to consider fundraising items that are left in a common area. Nearly a third (31 percent) indicated they disliked cube-to-cube sales, and 27 percent did not want to see a child coming to the office to raise funds.
The survey, conducted via Zoomerang among office workers age 25 or over, produced the following advice:
Do’s:
* Put fundraising materials in open spaces * Post how the money raised will help the cause for which you are seeking support * Accept both cash and checks for payment
Don’t:
* Expect co-workers to donate to help you lose weight or look/feel better * Use high-pressure tactics, such as going cube to cube or bringing your child into the office * Assume the majority of your co-workers will be purchasing items to support your fundraiser
The top-three fundraising items favored by respondents, cited by a total of 60 percent of respondents, were candy bars, cookies and coupon books. They said they liked to receive something in return for their donation, such as food or discount coupons, but they said they donated primarily because they wanted to do something “good” through monetary donations rather than through activities that placed demands on their personal time. Some 40 percent indicated they would rather help support a cause in this “hands-off” way.
Even though one-to-one “pressure” techniques seemed to fall flat among those surveyed, co-worker relationships motivated almost 25 percent of fundraising products that were purchased. The most popular motivator was the ability to help children, cited by 32 percent of respondents.
“People don’t like feeling pressured by fundraisers,” King remarked, “and sometimes they don’t buy a fundraising item simply because they don’t want it, they don’t have money with them or they don’t see the value in their donation. Fundraisers need to give co-workers time to discover the value in an item and ways that they could use it.”
Over the past 47 years, schools, religious groups and charitable organizations have discovered similar methods that work as they have sold Entertainment books containing highly prized discount coupons.
“Entertainment memberships, including access to coupons online at Entertainment.com, align perfectly with office-worker preferences,” King noted. “A sample book can be left in a common area for colleagues to browse and evaluate. The coupons found in the Entertainment book can help save consumers thousands of dollars a year while also helping community groups, schools and charities raise millions of dollars each year.”
To find an Entertainment book near you, contact your local schools or visit http://www.entertainment.com.
*Standard rules and restrictions apply to all listed offers. See your local Entertainment book for offer rules and conditions.
About Entertainment Publications, LLC
Entertainment Publications, LLC, http://www.entertainment.com, is the leading provider of the most recognized and sought-after customer discounts and promotions products in the communities Entertainment serves. Founded nearly 50 years ago in Detroit and originally available exclusively through fundraisers. Now consumers can purchase through fundraisers, directly or through retail partners and allocate a portion of the product sales to charity. The Entertainment membership book, online member sites like entertainment.com, Entertainment business network, Sally Foster(R) giftwrap and gift products and a line of cookie doughs and other gourmet edibles. Annually, Entertainment Publications generates over $6.5 billion in revenue for its over 53,000 local and national business partners representing 175,000 merchant locations throughout North America. Each year, the company raises more than $70 million for the charities it serves. Entertainment Publications is a privately held company, acquired in June 2008 by MH Equity Investors, a subsidiary of MHE Private Equity Fund, LLC.
Follow us on Twitter @Entbooksavings: http://ow.ly/iAD4
SOURCE Entertainment Publications, LLC
Gold Prices Topping $1,000/Oz, Add Up to a Major Business Increase at Cash for Gold USA
SHARON, Mass., Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ — Cash for Gold USA reported a big increase in business this week as a result of the major surge in the spot price for gold, silver and platinum. At mid-day today, gold exceeded $1,000/oz, its highest price since March, 2008. At the same time, silver reached a 13-month high as a weaker dollar and inflationary concerns increased the appeal of precious metals.
According to Norman Schneider, president, “Sellers have really reacted to this week’s unique opportunity to sell their broken and unwanted precious metal jewelry for top dollar. Our customer base has increased so fast lately that the Cash for Gold USA staff has been working overtime just to keep up with the incoming property.”
Schneider added, “Gold has only reached the $1,000 level three times since COMEX began keeping records. And by mid-morning today, the market was there again. This bodes well for both Cash for Gold USA and our customers.”
Cash for Gold USA is one of the nation’s premier buyers and refiners of precious metals. The company pays sellers the highest prices available anywhere and offers a 24-hour turnaround from receipt of a seller’s property to payment. Cash for Gold USA was recently named to the prestigious Inc 500 list of the best websites during 2009 by INC Magazine. The company also operates two analogous websites: Cash for Silver USA and Cash for Diamonds USA.
Schneider also stated, “We have always believed that the record gold prices throughout 2009 had not yet reached the top as the current recessionary economy and the value of our dollar are still uncertain and fluctuating. The current peak in prices proves that we were correct in this prediction. Right now, sellers have a unique opportunity to get the highest-possible cash payment so far this year for their unwanted gold, silver and platinum property. We anticipate that our business will continue to rise as long as financial markets remain uncertain.”
USAID Supports Top-Reformers in Newly Released Doing Business 2010 Report
WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — On September 8th, 2009 the World Bank Group released Doing Business 2010: Reforming through Difficult Times. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is honored to have partnered with eight of the top-ten countries highlighted for reforms to make it easier for entrepreneurs to start and expand their businesses. USAID programs provided technical support to Rwanda, Kyrgyz Republic, Macedonia, Moldova, Colombia, Tajikistan, Egypt, and Liberia.
USAID partnered with the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan to implement a dozen reforms over the past year to improve the business environment. This assistance to the Kyrgyz Republic improved its ranking from 90th in 2007 to 41st. Activities included the government’s 100 Days of Reform program that led to improvements in seven of the ten areas in the report. USAID assisted Tajikistan with reforms to streamline business registration, construction permits, and property registration as well as the introduction of a credit bureau, and improved investor protections and insolvency procedures.
USAID partnered with Colombia to reduce the time to start a business, increase consumer access to their credit histories, reduce the time required to import/export goods, and improve investor protections. Colombia improved its rank from 79th in 2007 to 37th and is now the top-performing country in Latin America. Since 2006, the time to register a business and export goods has been cut in half, and the time to obtain a construction license and register property reduced by two-thirds.
USAID partnered with Egypt on reforms that reduced the capital required for new business registrations, made it faster to obtain required construction permits, and created specialized commercial courts to reduce the time required to resolve disputes. These reforms build on a history of USAID assistance in Egypt that since 2006 have reduced the time to register a business from 34 days to 7, reduced the time to register property by more than a hundred days, and cut in half the time to export/import goods.
USAID partnered with Macedonia on streamlining the operations of a one-stop shop for business registration, introduction of time limits for property registration as well as a number of other reforms highlighted in the report. Since 2007, the business registration process has been cut from 18 days to 4, property registration from 98 days to 58, and the time to export from 32 days to 12.
USAID partnered with Moldova to simplify procedures for business registration. Time to register a business fell from 30 days to 10 days from 2007 to 2010.
USAID partnered with Liberia in improving the customs clearance processes at the port in Monrovia through the establishment of a one-stop shop that cut several days from the time to import/export goods.
In Rwanda, USAID projects reduced the time to export goods and improved access to credit. Reforms that will be reflected in the 2011 report include the establishment of a private credit bureau.
USAID is proud to have partnered with the Doing Business project since the initial publication of the report in 2004. USAID is currently supporting economic reformers in more than 50 developing country governments. USAID awards hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts and grants annually with the objective of improving the business environment in developing countries.
For more information about the Doing Business report series, please visit: www.doingbusiness.org
Public Information: 202-712-4810
SOURCE USAID
First Live Domain Name Auction in Turkey
New Turkish extension is growing rapidly
ISTANBUL, Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ — Dot TK, the innovative domain name registry of .TK domain names with offices in London, Amsterdam and Istanbul today announced the first live domain name auction in Turkey.
This auction will be held at the Swissotel in Istanbul on September 9th 2009 at 14h00 GMT and will be live broadcasted to bidders worldwide on www.nic.tk.
Dot TK is well-known by Internet users globally because of the distribution of free domain names. However, Dot TK has another business model and approach in the country of Turkey. Dot TK does not provide free domain names there, but only paid domain name registrations. It acts as the national Turkish extension. Registration of .TK domains take place at Dot TK’s website and through hundreds of Turkish hosting providers that partner with the .TK registry.
Only one year after its launch in Istanbul Dot TK has registered more Turkish domain names within the .TK domain zone than there are .TR domains. “.TR is the official top level domain in Turkey,” says Joost Zuurbier, CEO of Dot TK. “To get a .TR domain you have to wait at least two weeks, send copies of your tax forms and pay at least 15 US dollars. Dot TK domains are cheap, as cheap as 3 US dollars per year. Our domains are easy to register and are available immediately. All these factors contribute to the decision that the Turkish people choose .TK domains over .TR ones.”
At the auction on 09/09/2009 a total of 212 lots are auctioned. These lots do exist either out of one domain or exist out of multiple domains. Only generic domain names are auctioned. These include domains like FUTBOL.TK and POKER.TK. Using generic domains in a company’s marketing strategy is new in Turkey. Thanks to generic domains Turkish websites will see more search engine traffic and therefore more visitors. Turkey is now ready to invest in its Internet real-estate.
Dot TK is a joint venture of the Government of Tokelau, its communication company Teletok and BV Dot TK, a privately held company. More information about Dot TK can be found at http://www.nic.tk.
Dot TK
Overture Films and Paramount Vantage Set Release of New Film by Michael Moore
Oscar-winning filmmaker to explore ‘the wonders of capitalism’
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., May 21 /PRNewswire/ — Overture Films and Paramount Vantage have announced that Oscar-winner Michael Moore’s new documentary feature will be released domestically on October 2, 2009. The as-yet-untitled film will explore the root causes of the global economic meltdown and take a comical look at the corporate and political shenanigans that culminated in what Moore has described as “the biggest robbery in the history of this country” – the massive transfer of U.S. taxpayer money to private financial institutions.
On this, the 20-year anniversary of his masterpiece Roger & Me, Moore returns to the issue that began his career: the disastrous impact that corporate dominance and out-of-control profit motives have on the lives of Americans and citizens of the world. But this time the culprit is much bigger than General Motors, and the crime scene far wider than Flint, Michigan.
Says Moore: “The wealthy, at some point, decided they didn’t have enough wealth. They wanted more — a lot more. So they systematically set about to fleece the American people out of their hard-earned money. Now, why would they do this? That is what I seek to discover in this movie.”
Moore’s new documentary, his first since 2007’s widely-praised Sicko, was first announced by Overture and Paramount Vantage International in May 2008 at the Cannes Film Festival and production began shortly afterward.
Chris McGurk and Danny Rosett, Overture’s CEO and COO respectively, previously worked with Moore when they oversaw the release of Bowling for Columbine at MGM/United Artists.
“Everyone can relate to this subject matter and all have been affected,” said McGurk and Rosett. “We think there should be plenty of people interested in hearing Michael’s take on how exactly we got here and what we can do to move forward.”
John Lesher, President of Paramount Film Group, added, “Michael is a master at capturing the most timely and critical issues shaping our world today. His unique, thought-provoking method of filmmaking is sure to bring dynamic insights into the state of the global economy that will have mass appeal to audiences worldwide.”
The release date is a year and a day after the United States Senate voted to hand Wall Street a $700 billion bailout.
Moore has made three of the top six highest-grossing documentaries of all time including Cannes Palme d’Or winner Fahrenheit 9/11, 2008 Academy Award(R) nominee Sicko, and Bowling for Columbine, the Academy Award(R) winner for Best Documentary in 2003. His debut film was 1989’s groundbreaking Roger and Me. Moore also created the Emmy-winning TV show, “TV Nation,” and the Emmy-nominated show, “The Awful Truth,” both of which featured his trademark style of presenting serious documentaries in humorous and engaging ways.
ABOUT OVERTURE FILMS
Overture Films (www.overturefilms.net) develops, produces, acquires, and distributes feature length, theatrical motion pictures worldwide. The studio is a wholly owned unit of Starz Media, a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation attributed to the Liberty Capital Group. Its affiliated companies, Anchor Bay Entertainment and Starz Entertainment, make the films available domestically to viewers via home video, premium television, Internet and other outlets.
About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. The company’s labels include Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studio Group, and Worldwide Television Distribution.
SOURCE Overture Films
GM Bondholders Unite Invites Individual GM Bondholders to Fight for Their Legal Rights
SAN DIEGO, May 30 /PRNewswire/ — Regardless of the outcome of the General Motors and the government’s “offer” to GM bondholders, GM Bondholders Unite (www.gmbondholdersunite.com) says that its members are more committed than ever to stand up for their legal rights. Bondholders are not asking for a handout or a bailout; GM’s bondholders just want a fair and equitable deal.
With few details and extremely limited public information necessary for making an informed decision, GM bondholders were given an arbitrary deadline of 5 PM (EDT) today to make an extraordinarily important financial decision: whether to accept or reject the exchange offer.
Individual investors helped build GM and this country. However individual investors have been systematically excluded from the negotiating table in the restructuring of one of America’s storied icons.
As announced yesterday, Thomas E. Lauria, Esq., the attorney who represented the rights of dissident bondholder in the Chrysler Chapter 11 filing, has agreed to work with GM Bondholders Unite in representing the thousands of individual GM bondholders who have been systematically excluded from the negotiating table.
Mr. Lauria heads the financial restructuring and insolvency group at White & Case, one of the nation’s top law firms. He has led efforts to restructure more than $100 billion of debt in some of the largest and most complex restructurings in history.
Thousands of small bondholders — many of them retirees — rely on their investments to meet day-to-day expenses and could face economic ruin.
We encourage all individual GM bondholders to join us in giving voice to their legitimate claims by visiting our web page at www.gmbondholdersunite.com and signing up.
GM Bondholders Unite is a group of small and large holders of General Motors debt determined to protect its members’ legal rights. It is a non-partisan, non-ideological coalition of investors fearful that current proposals will wipe out the hard-earned savings of tens of thousands of people who made what they thought were conservative investments in a storied American brand.
For more information, go to: www.gmbondholdersunite.com
SOURCE GM Bondholders Unite
The Latest GM ‘Offer’ Discriminates Against Individual Bondholders, Says GM Bondholders Unite (GMBHU)
SAN DIEGO, May 28 /PRNewswire/ — “The latest GM ‘offer’ sends a chilling message to all individual bondholders, not just those, like us, holding GM bonds: contracts in America are no longer worth the paper they are written on,” said GM Bondholders Unite (www.gmbondholdersunite.com), a grassroots organization representing individual GM bondholders across the country.
The “offer” to individual GM bond investors is ridiculously lopsided because it arbitrarily favors other groups, at the expense of the legal rights, under the U.S. Constitution, of hundreds of thousands of individual GM bond investors.
Bonds are popular “conservative” investments because of the protections outlined in their covenants, which show where bondholders stand in the event of a restructuring or bankruptcy. In return for this security — as outlined in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and protected by the U.S. Constitution — bond investors agree to receive a lower rate of return than they would have otherwise.
The biggest buyers of bonds — individually, or through mutual funds and pensions — are the elderly, the retired and families saving to buy a house or send their kids to college. The latest “offer” tramples upon the rights of all of these people.
We aren’t asking for a bailout or a handout, just a fair deal. So we have no plans to back down.
What’s more, the long-term implications of this “offer” are far greater than the life savings, retirement funds and quality of life we are already likely to lose. By choosing who gets paid more and who gets paid less, instead of adhering to bond covenants and the bankruptcy code, our leaders have chosen the arbitrary rule of man over the established rule of law, a dangerously slippery slope.
We invite all GM bondholders to speak up and be heard by posting a webcam video of how you feel about this end-run around your rights and the law to www.youtube.com with “GMBHU” in the subject line. Send the link (URL) to your video to gm.bondholders.unite@gmail.com, so that we can post your rant to our page (www.gmbondholdersunite.com) and ensure that those responsible for this travesty know exactly how you feel.
www.gmbondholdersunite.com
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/GMBondholdersUnite
Media Inquiries: gm.bondholders.unite@gmail.com
Leading Professionals Gather at Annual Life Spring Meeting Hosted by Society of Actuaries
SCHAUMBURG, Ill., May 26 /PRNewswire/ — With record declines, financial bailouts and equity volatility reaching new highs, it is not surprising that there is a nationwide loss of confidence in the economy. Actuaries and other professionals convened May 18th and 19th in Denver to address making an impact on the financial future and throughout the global markets during a recession.
Sponsored by the Society of Actuaries (SOA), the 2009 Life Spring Meeting’s highlights included sessions on recovering and moving forward during a weak economy, thriving in a chaotic economy, gearing up for prosperity and learning about current industry studies, financial models and new regulatory developments.
“Today’s economic challenges present opportunities for actuaries to position themselves as experts in managing risk with the unique ability to offer real-world solutions to complex problems,” explained Juliet Sandrowicz, chairperson of the Life Spring Meeting and Fellow of the Society of Actuaries.
Additional conference highlights included general sessions, concurrent session tracks, an exhibit area for meeting attendees and networking with fellow practitioners.
The SOA is an educational, research and professional organization dedicated to serving the public and its 20,000 members. The SOA’s vision is for actuaries to be recognized as the leading professionals in the modeling and management of financial risk. The SOA’s mission is to advance actuarial knowledge and to enhance the ability of actuaries to provide expert advice and relevant solutions for financial, business and societal problems involving uncertain future events.
To learn more, visit the SOA’s Web site at www.soa.org.
SOURCE Society of Actuaries
