Softbank to buy 70 percent of Sprint for $20.1B

Softbank Corp. President Masayoshi Son, left, and Sprint Nextel Corp. Chief Executive Dan Hesse shake hands during their joint press conference in Tokyo Monday, Oct. 15, 2012. Tokyo-based mobile carrier Softbank has reached a deal with Sprint to acquire 70 percent of the U.S. wireless company for $20.1 billion in the largest ever foreign acquisition by a Japanese company. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Softbank Corp. President Masayoshi Son, left, and Sprint Nextel Corp. Chief Executive Dan Hesse shake hands during their joint press conference in Tokyo Monday, Oct. 15, 2012. Tokyo-based mobile carrier Softbank has reached a deal with Sprint to acquire 70 percent of the U.S. wireless company for $20.1 billion in the largest ever foreign acquisition by a Japanese company. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Photographers and TV camea crew gather around Softbank Corp. President Masayoshi Son, left, and Sprint Nextel Corp. Chief Executive Dan Hesse shaking hands during their joint press conference in Tokyo Monday, Oct. 15, 2012. Tokyo-based mobile carrier Softbank has reached a deal with Sprint to acquire 70 percent of the U.S. wireless company for $20.1 billion in the largest ever foreign acquisition by a Japanese company. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Softbank Corp. President Masayoshi Son, left, and Sprint Nextel Corp. Chief Executive Dan Hesse shake hands during their joint press conference in Tokyo Monday, Oct. 15, 2012. Tokyo-based mobile carrier Softbank has reached a deal with Sprint to acquire 70 percent of the U.S. wireless company for $20.1 billion in the largest ever foreign acquisition by a Japanese company. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Softbank Corp. President Masayoshi Son speaks during a joint press conference with Sprint Nextel Corp. Chief Executive Dan Hesse in Tokyo Monday, Oct. 15, 2012. Tokyo-based mobile carrier Softbank has reached a deal with Sprint to acquire 70 percent of the U.S. wireless company for $20.1 billion in the largest ever foreign acquisition by a Japanese company. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Sprint, the No. 3 cellphone company in the U.S., is selling a controlling stake to Japan's Softbank for $20.1 billion.

The deal, announced Monday in Tokyo, positions Sprint Nextel Corp. as a stronger competitor to U.S. market leaders Verizon Wireless and AT&T, but it doesn't solve all of the company's underlying problems.

Sprint, which is based in Overland Park, Kan. has been limping along since 2005, when it bought Nextel. The merger quickly turned sour, saddling Sprint with the cost of running two incompatible networks while customers fled.

Softbank Corp., a holding company with investments in Internet and telecom businesses, made its own venture into the wireless world in 2005, with the acquisition of Vodafone Japan. It turned that business around, giving President Masayoshi Son the confidence that he can make Sprint a profitable company again after five straight years of losses.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has laid the groundwork for a turnaround ? the company's reputation for customer service has improved during his tenure. But his efforts haven't had an immediate impact on profitability. On its own, the company would have a hard road ahead, as it pays for both a network revamp and $15.5 billion in iPhones from Apple.

Under the deal, Sprint shareholders can turn in 55 percent of their shares to Softbank in exchange for $7.30 per share. Sprint shares were up just 3 cents at $5.76 in morning trading Monday, suggesting that investors had accurately pegged the value of the transaction last week, when they sent the stock up 14 percent based on reports of talks between Softbank and Sprint.

Softbank's is paying $12.1 billion for the 55-percent stake. It's buying an additional $8 billion worth of shares from the company, for a total stake of 70 percent. That investment will dilute the value of existing shares, and is the reason Sprint's stock didn't trade higher on Monday.

"This is a transformative transaction for Sprint that creates immediate value for our stockholders, while providing an opportunity to participate in the future growth of a stronger, better capitalized Sprint going forward," Hesse said.

Analysts were more reserved in their judgment.

"While we believe it will take far more than capital for Sprint Nextel to effectively compete with Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility, we believe the deal announced today, without question, strengthens Sprint's position in the long-run," said Christopher King at Stifel Nicolaus.

Kevin Smithen at Macquarie Capital said the deal doesn't improve Sprint's access to space on the airwaves, which is critical to improving its wireless data network, nor does it provide a path to improving its profitability. A merger with T-Mobile USA, the No. 4 carrier, might still be needed to deal with those problems, he said.

T-Mobile USA has its own plan: two weeks ago, it struck a deal to buy MetroPCS Communications Inc., the No. 5 carrier in the U.S.

Analysts also speculated that Softbank could buy out Clearwire Corp.'s shareholders and combine the company with Sprint. The Bellevue, Wash., company operates a wireless broadband network, but its network upgrades have been hamstrung by a lack of funds. Sprint already owns 48 percent of the company and resells access to its network as "Sprint 4G." The speculation sent Clearwire's stock up 11 percent on Monday. It has doubled since Wednesday.

Softbank shares fell 5.3 percent on the news, as Japanese investors worried that the company is making a huge gamble. The shares have fallen by a third over a week. Standard & Poor's had placed Softbank on "credit watch negative," meaning its credit rating could be downgraded.

The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies. It still needs approval from Sprint shareholders and U.S. regulators. Softbank said the transaction is expected to be completed by the middle of next year.

Analysts say buying a foreign cellphone company makes little sense in terms of operational synergies. There's little opportunity to improve service by combining networks or saving money by combining operations.

But Son said the U.S. and Japanese markets have much in common now that smartphones are all-important in both countries, and the two companies could benefit and learn from each other. By joining forces, Sprint and Softbank will become one of the world's top smartphone carriers, gaining greater bargaining power with the manufacturers of the gadgets and network equipment suppliers.

Softbank was the first carrier to offer the iPhone in Japan. The iPhone has been such a hit in there that it has shaped Softbank's brand image and helped it lure customers away from its two bigger rivals.

Son said Sprint and Softbank can work together to develop new technology for faster data networks. Softbank recently bought smaller Japanese rival eAccess, largely to gain access to the latest fourth-generation, or "4G" networks.

Son likes to take chances in a culture that doesn't always reward risk. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, he was only 16 when he ventured alone to the U.S.

"I am happy to be able to tell you today of my big comeback to the U.S.," he said. "This is going to be an even bigger challenge."

Son has made no secret that he has been looking abroad for new growth as the Japanese mobile market has been stagnant for years. Softbank has been an exception in racking up strong profit despite such stagnation, largely due to the popularity of the iPhone.

The deal is the largest foreign acquisition ever by a Japanese company, and illustrates how the strong yen, which is usually seen as a negative for export-reliant Japan Inc., has boosted the overseas purchasing power of Japanese corporations as a stagnant domestic market pushes them to look abroad for growth.

Before Monday's deal, the biggest overseas acquisition by a Japanese company was Japan Tobacco Inc.'s purchase of Gallaher Group of Great Britain in 2007 for about $19 billion.

The combination of Softbank and Sprint will tie with AT&T for world's No. 3 mobile company by revenue after China Mobile and Verizon, according to Softbank.

The deal leaves three of the four national U.S. wireless companies with complete or substantial foreign ownership. Vodafone Group PLC of Britain owns 45 percent of No. 1 Verizon Wireless, and Deutsche Telekom AG of Germany owns T-Mobile USA outright.

___

Associated Press Business Writer Yuri Kageyama contributed from Tokyo. Kageyama on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/yurikageyama . Svensson on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/petersvensson.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-10-15-Sprint-Softbank/id-6d29387e6aaf4676b20b0cba36f2c299

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Yoga for Cancer | Deborah Shemesh

Yoga is a ancient Sanskrit word that means union, yoking, or oneness. ?A diagnosis of cancer is a sign that somewhere in your body there is a disconnect. ?In most cases a cell or cells randomly split from their original domain ?and began to travel elsewhere in the body creating a new domain, a tumor or tumors that can and will if left untreated invade other body parts. After time a the full blown disease or diagnosis with cancer manifests and can be seen with the visible eye. ?I ask myself, as a cancer patient and someone who is healed from a cancer prognosis, what happened? How did I get the disease, and how did I heal from disease?

I believe that trauma or sadness, grief, shame or some ?other kind of emotional trigger caused the cancer cells to release from it?s core healthy tissue and began to multiply; ?feeding from other cells creating bigger and bigger colonies of invasive or useless tissue called cancer.?Mysteriously, our blood then begins to nourish these tumors, and cancer patients have to undergo surgery to take the cancer tumors out of our body and be on the hunt for other area?s of activity in the body?s system though tests, blood draws, scans, and more. Doctor?s try to bombard the body with anti-agents like chemo and radiation to ?kill? off any residual invader cells. ?A diagnosis with cancer is traumatic on the physical, spiritual and emotional body that the only resolve, at least for me, ?was to go into deep states of silence, hoping to hear what my body was trying to say it needed.

If you think back to being a baby, your body is unable to speak when there is distress, so it cry?s out for more nourishment, more rest, a change. ?When a baby has it?s needs met, it is bubbly, happy, free, curious, playful, and at ease. This is the state that can bring you back to homeostasis. Yoga takes you to a place that is holy and healed.?Yoga is an ancient tool that can take you back to your childlike qualities. ?Yoga encourages you to wiggle, listen, and explore the messages of your body.

I found yoga back in 1972 when I was cancer free and I stumbled upon Hatha yoga at the local Health Club. ?Though it was Westernized and focused mostly on the asana?s or poses, I enjoyed the stillness in the motion, I loved learning how to breathe into a pose without forcing or struggling. Yoga is completely different than aerobic exercises which I also love and recommend, however, yoga is a tool that cancer patients can use that will restore connectivity between mind, body and spirit.

When I practiced yoga I felt a deep connection to my spirit, and a sense of peace. I learned how this ancient practice helped me quiet the mind and I noticed that my body became more flexible. I couldn?t explain the freedom that I felt practicing yoga, but yoga seemed to help me release all anxiety, as I released a need to compete with other?s. It was at The Beverly Hills Health Club, on little Santa Monica Boulevard where I first experienced the nourishing benefits my body received through the consistent practice of yoga. ?At the health club there were no yoga guru?s, just a few teachers who could break down the asanas. In truth I had only my spirit and body to pay attention to. ?In yoga I experienced freedom and was encouraged to receive the nourishment of breath.

I remember that I loved yoga so much, that I would go home and sit in front of a long slim mirror assuming asana positions. Since yoga classes were only offered several times a week I enjoyed the practice of personal yoga in my apartment and used yoga in my modeling career to assume poses for photographers. ? I loved how my body turned and twisted while at the same time relaxed into poses that I only saw in the few yoga books available in the early 70?s. At the health club there were no mirrors when we were instructed on asanas or poses. Sitting in front of the mirror usually naked or draped in fabrics, ?I watched my body and noticed that by shifting my weight a little bit, ?I could not only see but feel, my body become more balanced and flexible. ?I loved yoga so much that after learning a few breathing techniques I was forever hooked and wove those asana and pranayamas into my daily life of working as a model. I practiced various types of yoga, and other forms of gentle movement for years as able.

After my diagnosis of cancer in 1980, I continued to practice yoga in the privacy of my own home. ?I truly believe that the practice of yoga can heal the body of toxics, while restoring the connectivity to spirit. ?Spirit has the potential to give you a deeper perspective of yourself as you embrace the fact that you are more than just a body. Yoga takes you to beyond the boundaries of the mind. The mind is always analyzing, and comparing, the spirit ignites growth, flexibility and restores a sense of well being.

Yoga for cancer patients is my prescription to restore health in the body/mind. ?In yoga all parts of your being are reconnected, and the healthy cells become healthier while opening all blockages in the body. ?In yoga you can express yourself more freely and all the walls of separation are torn down. Through meditative yoga, I believe cancer cell growth can be halted allowing the healthy cells to perform their functions more easily and effortlessly. ?Have the desire to be one with the body, allow your breath to nourish you, and trust that your body knows how to heal itself from a diagnosis of cancer. ?Yoga can create an open space not only in the body but in the mind, and the memory of wholeness returns. ?Yoga is also about surrendering, returning home to spirit. ?Wherever you are in your disease, take time to practice yoga ? yoga is the tool that may restore the memory of health and wholeness.

Yoga is the tool that quiets the mind, and awakens your sense perceptions. ?Allow your body to heal, practice yoga wherever you are and you just may enhance the possibility of your recovery. ? You have no choice after a diagnosis with cancer, except to go within and listen to the messages of your body. Accept and observe your body, do not judge it. ?Observe your body as it transcends and transforms into a more peaceful self through the practices of yoga. ?Don?t be attached to statistics and believe your body knows how to heal itself. Yoga is the tool that distracts you and clears the chatter of your mind and takes you into higher states of healing, all you have to do is let go and learn to be in your spirit.

From peace there is wholeness,

Deborah Shemesh

Source: http://www.deborahshemesh.com/yoga-for-cancer/

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Everything you need to know about presidential debate history

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama's clash this week will be just the latest in a long tradition of presidential showdowns

When were the first debates held?
The seven encounters between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858 are widely considered to be the first "presidential" debates ? even though they took place two years before the men were actually running for president. The modern tradition of televised presidential head-to-heads began in 1960, when John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon debated live on air before an audience of 74 million viewers. Since then, presidential debates have become a quadrennial staple of the political calendar, and are consistently the most-watched campaign events. The ability to perform well in the debates has become a key qualification for the nomination, said political analyst Larry Sabato. "When parties are considering their candidates, they ask, 'Who would look better on TV? Who comes across better? Who can debate better?'" he said. "This has been taken into the calculus."

How did the Nixon-Kennedy debate come about?
Locked in a dead heat, each of the candidates believed he would benefit from the increased exposure of a televised face-off. Nixon was sure he'd excel, having successfully debated Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev on TV in Moscow the year before. He was badly mistaken. The TV cameras loved Kennedy's good looks and dynamic manner, but were cruel to Nixon, revealing his heavy 5 o'clock shadow, sweaty upper lip, and pasty pallor. It didn't help that the Republican, who was recovering from an illness at the time, wore powder makeup that melted under the studio lights. Upon seeing Nixon on television, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley reportedly said, "My God, they've embalmed him before he even died." Radio listeners declared Nixon the winner, but the television images damned him. "The mushrooming TV audience saw [Nixon] as a truthless used-car salesman," wrote Hunter S. Thompson, "and they voted accordingly." Kennedy won the election by just 119,000 votes out of 69 million cast. It would be 16 years before another televised presidential debate was held.?

Why the long gap?
Many assume that Nixon's disastrous experience made presidential candidates wary of squaring off on TV, but the truth is more complicated. To clear the way for the 1960 debate, television executives had persuaded Congress to suspend the Federal Communications Commission's rule on equal broadcasting time for all candidates, so Kennedy and Nixon could debate without the presence of fringe candidates like Rutherford L. Decker of the Prohibition Party. But Congress refused to grant that exemption again. Broadcasters got around the FCC rule in 1976 by treating the debate as a sponsored news event rather than a public service. The League of Women Voters agreed to act as sponsor that year ? and would do so again in 1980 and 1984 ? after Gerald Ford challenged Jimmy Carter to a series of debates. The Republican president, 30 points behind in the race, felt it might help him catch up, but he may well have regretted that impulse later on.?

Why is that?
The first 1976 debate was hampered by technical difficulties that left both candidates stuck onstage, mute, for 27 minutes while the feed was repaired. But Ford's truly disastrous moment came in the second debate, when in answer to a question, he said, "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe" ? at a time when between 10 and 15 Soviet divisions were based in Poland alone. "This was a very serious mistake that he made," said Carter, in 1989, "and I don't know if the election didn't turn on it."

Did Ford's remark really matter?
The media had a field day with it, but a gaffe by his running mate, Bob Dole, in the vice presidential debate a few weeks later may have had even more impact. Dole characterized World War I, World War II, and the wars in Korea and Vietnam as "Democrat wars." In the wake of that overstep, "I had to try to keep a straight face," recalled his opponent, Walter Mondale. "I think they blew the election right there." But each debate season produces a line that is remembered as a gaffe, whether it's President Carter's admission in 1980 that he let his 13-year-old daughter guide his feelings on nuclear disarmament, or Michael Dukakis's emotionless response in 1988 when asked whether he would support the death penalty for the perpetrator if his wife were raped and murdered. ("No, I don't," he said.) Such mistakes are often credited as turning points in the race ? though rarely by the people that made them. "I have to tell you, and maybe I'm just still missing it," Dukakis said, many years later. "I didn't think it was that bad."?

Do debates decide elections?
Only rarely. A Gallup study from 2008 found that a good debate performance generally gives a candidate a temporary bump, but no more. The exceptions, Gallup found, were in 1960 and in 2000, when Al Gore's repeated sighs of exasperation caused him to lose ground to George W. Bush. But even if the debates' impact on the race is negligible, many feel they have an insidious impact on politics in general. "If we test presidential candidates by their talents on TV quiz performances," historian Daniel Boorstin predicted in 1962, "we will of course choose presidents for precisely these qualifications."

Making the rules
The League of Women Voters was charged with setting the format for the three presidential debates from 1976 to 1984, but often found itself buffeted by candidates' demands. In 1980, Jimmy Carter refused to attend a debate alongside third-party challenger John Anderson, effectively squeezing him out so he could debate Ronald Reagan one-on-one. In 1987, the two parties established the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which has set the ground rules ever since. The CPD has resisted the whims of candidates to change the form, venue, and time of debates. But it has been criticized for shutting out smaller political parties, and for softening the debate format to favor speechifying over actual confrontation. "No cross-questions or cross-answers, no rebuttals, no follow-up questions," said civil rights lawyer Connie Rice. "That's not a debate, that's a news conference."

SEE MORE: #Malarkey, @LaughingJoeBiden, and other VP debate-inspired memes

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/everything-know-presidential-debate-history-092000659--election.html

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LET FURY HAVE THE HOUR | Newsnet 14

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In his feature directorial debut, author and visual artist Antonino D?Ambrosio spins a lively social history that chronicles how a generation of artists, thinkers, and activists channeled their creativity into an organized response and resistance to the reactionary politics that increasingly defined American culture in the 1980s. This idea of art as political statement came to be known as ?creative response,? and, through insightful and energetic interviews with more than 50 influential creative voices, D?Ambrosio traces the movement from its earliest inklings in the Reagan-Thatcher era through three decades of social and political change.

An exuberant mixed media collage that incorporates graphic art, music, animation, and spoken word, LET FURY HAVE THE HOUR is a distinctive perspective on an era in time, retelling the history of modern America through the voices of the artists that interpreted and influenced it through their work, including Shepard Fairey, Eve Ensler, Wayne Kramer, Edwidge Danticat, John Sayles, Chuck D, Tom Morello, Lewis Black, and dozens more. D?Ambrosio?s stylish and inspirational film pays due homage to the parallel creative history of late 20th-century America in the words and work of the artists themselves.

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Farther-reaching U.S. sanctions needed for Iran: Senate aide

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Senator Mark Kirk, who last year co-authored a package of U.S. sanctions on Iran's banking and oil sectors, is working on new legislation that would further tighten the economic noose on Tehran, an aide to the lawmaker said Monday.

Kirk and other U.S. lawmakers are pushing to expand sanctions aimed at cutting off revenues they believe Iran is using to advance its nuclear program.

Undermined by sanctions, Iran's currency lost about a third of its value in 10 days, sparking civil unrest last week.

Kirk is working on legislation that could be offered as an amendment to an annual defense policy bill that the Senate and House of Representatives must finalize after the November 6 presidential election.

The bill would seek to ban all international banks, whether private or government-owned, from conducting transactions with any Iranian bank that is in any way connected to the Central Bank of Iran, an aide to Kirk told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Currently, only oil-related transactions with the central bank are covered.

The bill would seek to blacklist Iran's entire energy sector, and ban insurance or reinsurance services to Iran, making more transactions and services subject to sanctions, the aide said.

The only exceptions would be for food and humanitarian aide, and oil exports that are allowed under current sanctions law.

"As the Iranian regime continues to defy the U.N. Security Council and refuses to halt its uranium enrichment activities, Senator Kirk is committed to building a bipartisan coalition to impose farther-reaching sanctions on the Islamic Republic," the aide said.

The United States has long barred American firms from doing business with Iran. In December, the government adopted measures authored by Kirk and Democratic U.S. Senator Robert Menendez that force international buyers of Iranian oil to cut their purchases.

Last week, Menendez said in an interview that he was working on a bill to impose new penalties on foreign banks that handle any significant transactions with Iran's central bank.

Menendez said he is also looking at ways to freeze an estimated 30 percent of Iran's foreign currency reserves held in banks outside the country.

In the U.S. House, Howard Berman, the top Democrat on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, is working on measures similar to the Menendez proposal, an aide said last week.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Saturday that the international community will impose more economic sanctions on Iran if the country does not resolve concerns over its nuclear program.

"The United States will continue to work with the other countries in the international community to see if additional steps need to be taken," Panetta said.

Western nations believe Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons, while Tehran has insisted its program is for civilian purposes.

(Editing by Warren Strobel and Doina Chiacu)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/farther-reaching-u-sanctions-needed-iran-senate-aide-151018749.html

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