Archives: Analysts Unmoved by New Wyeth CEO

You know your new CEO pick isn’t exactly sizzling when he gets outshined by an eight-cent increase in the dividend and a bulked up share-repurchase program. That’s what happened with Bernard Poussot, who Wyeth said yesterday will run the company starting Jan. 1.
The company’s stock has been hurting lately (see chart), so it’s not surprising […]

The fight over expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program is “the biggest domestic policy clash” of the Bush presidency and “will reverberate into the 2008 elections,” proclaims the front page of this morning’s Washington Post.
As expected, the Senate last night followed the House’s lead and passed a bill to expand the program to cover […]

It was a week of mixed messages at the Milan fashion shows, which were winding down Friday.
The wide pant-leg, which was prevalent at the New York fashion shows in early September, also dominated runways from Gianfranco Ferre to Max Mara. But at the same time, labels such as Gucci showed pant-legs that were narrow as […]

We often write that business technology is too hard to use. HereÂ’s a video demonstrating that. Caveats: 1) The Business Technology Blog has never used the Tornado, canÂ’t vouch for it and certainly isnÂ’t encouraging anyone to buy one; 2) WeÂ’re pretty sure that the tech guys in this video are being set up.
Watch it […]

Some Catholic churches across the country will have a distinctly legal flavor on Sunday. It’s “Red Mass,” a tradition begun in medieval times and resurrected in the U.S. in 1928. In a number of archdioceses, the annual ritual is held on the Sunday before the Supreme Court’s fall session opens to pray for justices, judges […]

Fiji’s army seized power last December, but it probably never would have grown strong enough to stage a successful coup without benefits it derived from long service in the ranks of United Nations peacekeepers, the Economist says.
When the British left the South Pacific island nation in 1970, there were about 200 people serving in Fiji’s […]

Chicago food reporter Janet Adamy provides this update on the latest Wendy’s news.
The drawn-out sale process for WendyÂ’s International is now hinging on what kind of staple financing the chainÂ’s advisers can provide in a shaky credit market.
Two groups of buyers, described in this story , as well as Triarc Cos., are prepared to participate […]

In a familiar tale of underfunded mandates and lax oversight, a report due out today will say the FDA falls short in monitoring the safety of patients in clinical trials, the New York Times reports.
The agency has 200 inspectors responsible for monitoring 350,000 testing sites. Obviously, given that load, they don’t manage to audit all […]

* Is it time to start calling Microsoft Vista “embattled?” The operating system hasn’t been getting much good press. And now Microsoft says it will let computer makers sell PCs with the old XP operating system for six more months in response to customer demand. The new deadline for computer makers to stop selling XP […]

First Data: Sandwiched between the struggles of the Harman International and Sallie Mae buyouts came a bit of good news: the banks financing the First Data deal were able to sell to investors $9.4 billion in risky bank loans. That marked the largest sale of leveraged loans since that of HCA last year and […]