April 17, 2009 at 11:07 am
With eBay planning to shed itself of Skype with an IPO, School of Management Professor N. Venkat Venkatraman, chairman of the Information Systems Department, says it’s clear that the Skype acquisition has not paid off for eBay which now has some hard decisions to make.
“Now eBay is faced with tough choices: (1) a spin-out in this market with brutally low valuations; (2) a management buy-out by the original founders in an uncertain time for private equity-based ventures; or (3) find a strategic buyer for it.
“The hottest trend now is the mobile applications marketplace and eBay may find it attractive to find a buyer who is interested in making Skype a central piece in the coming convergence in telecoms.”
Contact N. Venkat Venkatraman, 617-353-7117, venkat@bu.edu
April 16, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Law Professor Kevin Outterson, director of the Health Law Program, says big pharma giants GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer combining their HIV-drug business should be good for the companies and for patients around the globe.
"The joint venture will allow GSK and Pfizer to coordinate antiretroviral-drug research, which will both lower R&D costs and reduce competition between the companies.
"Given the global importance of this drug category, and Glaxo CEO Andrew Witty's recent comments on global access to drugs, I hope the joint venture will issue a clear statement on affordable access to ARVs across the entire world."
Contact Kevin Outterson, 617-353-3103, mko@bu.edu
April 16, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Sports journalism Professor Frank Shorr, director of the Buston University Sports Institute, says fans will miss Hall of Fame coach John Madden as he retires from the NFL broadcast booth.
"John Madden will always have a special place in the hearts of New England football fans. With his hair flowing and arms raised, what Patriot fan can forget Madden prowling the sidelines of the Oakland Raiders, especially that heartbreaking loss in 1976.
"He brought the same energy and vitality to the broadcast booth - BAM !! Raise a turkey leg to him. We'll miss the All-Madden team from now on."
Contact Frank Shorr, 617-353-5163, fshorr@bu.edu
April 16, 2009 at 10:54 am
With New York Governor Paterson introducing a same-sex marriage bill before that state's legislature, Law Professor Linda McClain, an authority on family law and policy, says New York lawmakers may be pressured by other states moving quickly on this front.
"Is this peer pressure likely to have an effect ? Now that other lawmaking bodies are considering revising their marriage laws, it may put more pressure on New York lawmakers to explain why what is seen to be a matter of fairness and basic equality in other states is not seen that way in New York."
Contact Linda McClain, 617-358-4635, lmcclain@bu.edu
April 16, 2009 at 6:00 am
Boston University School of Education's Center for the Advancement of Ethics & Character (CAEC) is hosting their Spring Institute today and tomorrow at the Hotel Commonwealth. The retreat aims to cultivate the intellectual lives of educators, inspire them to embrace a renewed sense of responsibility and dedication to the art of teaching, and instill in them a deeper understanding of how to educate for character. Contact Eileen Gessner at 617-353-3262 for ticketing information.
April 15, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Robert Bench, senior fellow at the School of Law's Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law and a former deputy Comptroller of the Currency, questions whether results should be made public of "stress tests" being run on the nation's 16 largest banks.
"The U.S. government never has disclosed the results of its safety and soundness examinations of individual banks that are open. Disclosures have occurred for banks that failed. This issue has risen during past crises, and the statutory protections of individual bank examinations have been preserved.
"During past crises, the federal banking agencies have disclosed aggregate information across a population of banks or across a populaton of assets, but not individual banking companies. It is the responsibility of the banks to disclose what they feel they need to disclose under securities laws."
Contact Robert Bench, 617-353-5428, bobbench@bu.edu
April 15, 2009 at 1:57 pm
From New Hampshire to Virginia, Thomas Kunz, biology professor and long-time expert on bats, searches for answers about White Nose Syndrome, the mysterious white fungus that continues to kill tens of thousands of bats. Like the disappearing honeybees and frogs, bats play a critical role in the balance of nature, consuming 50 to 100 percent their body weight in insects in a single night. He worries the mysterious disease may move further south.
"If this continues to spread, we are talking about extinctions. I've studied bats for 44 years. This is unprecedented in my lifetime. What are these insects going to do that aren't being eaten? They can cause serious damage to crops, gardens and forests, further upsetting both the natural and human-altered ecosystems."
Contact Thomas Kunz, 617-353-2474, kunz@bu.edu
April 15, 2009 at 9:15 am
International Relations Professor Charles Stith, director of the African Presidential Archives and Research Center and a former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania, says in a Boston Globe op-ed that the Somali pirates' incident was more than just a superb police action. It's also a wake-up call for the U.S. to forge a comprehensive diplomatic and military agenda for dealing with Africa and the region.
Contact Charles Stith, 617-353-5452, crstith@bu.edu
April 14, 2009 at 4:00 pm
School of Law Professor Tamar Frankel, an authority on securities law and legal ethics, says the SEC is in a tough spot reviewing whether bailed-out Bank of America broke the law by not disclosing to shareholders bonuses to executives at Merrill Lynch, which BofA had bought. She suggests three ways to enforce the law, which could bring fines, with a bank receiving bailout money.
"One is to impose a clear duty in such a case prospectively, for future actions. Another is to impose the responsibility not on the bank but on the decision makers, the boards and executives. The third is to remove by law any CEO that knew of the prepared bonuses and did not bring the question to the authorities for a decision."
Contact Tamar Frankel, 617-353-3773, tfrankel@bu.edu
April 14, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Law Professor Susan Akram, a Pakistan-born authority on immigration and refugee law, says it's incorrect to suggest the financial meltdown makes it impossible to justify legalizing undocumented people when citizens are facing job losses. President Obama, she says, is right to push for immigration reform now.
"Hard evidence about U.S. immigration - both legal and undocumented - suggests that the U.S. can neither afford to maintain 12 million or so persons in undocumented status, nor can it realisitically deport any significant number of them. In the current economic environment, the need for a comprehensive legalization program is more urgent than ever.
"President Obama's timing makes sense. In this economy, we cannot afford a continued policy of aggressive immigration enforcement, and we cannot afford not to legalize the undocumented."
Contact Dick Taffe, Media Relations, 617-353-4626, rtaffe@bu.edu
