BUSINESS BRIEFS
Venture capital funding sluggish for U.S. startups
Advertiser News Services
Reflecting the shaky economy and financial markets, venture capital funding for U.S. startups stayed flat in the second quarter with $7.4 billion going to 990 deals, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Even with the market turmoil, PricewaterhouseCoopers global managing partner Tracy Lefteroff says the pace of venture investing should hit $30 billion by the end of 2008, nearing the $31 billion from last year. While early funding for startups dipped in the second quarter, venture firms remain committed to late-stage startups and a long-term investment outlook, Lefteroff says.
Venture capitalists such as Fred Craves, founder of Bay City Capital in San Francisco, say that the funding of innovative software, clean-tech and Internet startups continues to rise.
Software, the top sector last quarter, received $1.3 billion in venture funding for 219 deals.
GM CUTS BACK ON MOTORSPORTS ADS
DETROIT — General Motors is pulling back from what had been a sacred cow in auto marketing: motorsports.
GM says it will cut back motorsports advertising, putting in jeopardy its sponsorships of teams, tracks and all the ancillary marketing that goes with racing.
Expected among the biggest losers is NASCAR-related spending of an estimated $120 million to $140 million a year.
EMERGENCY ORDER CALLED INTO EFFECT
NEW YORK — An emergency order by Wall Street regulators to combat "bear raids" on vulnerable financial stocks launched by traders that profit when stocks go down goes into effect today.
But the rule's main intent — to help stem quick, steep stock declines that create financial panic — actually kicked in right after the Securities and Exchange Commission announced investor protections Tuesday night.
Wall Street pros credit the ruling, which makes it harder to engage in a trading technique known as "naked" short selling, with helping fuel a 534-point three-day rally on the Dow Jones industrials and a 21 percent gain for the S&P 500 financial sector.
The SEC crackdown targets short sellers, who make money by selling borrowed shares with the hope of buying them back at lower prices. A naked short sale occurs when the trader does the trade without borrowing the shares, which can intensify the downward pressure on a stock.
SCHOOL CLOTHES A LOW PRIORITY
Students with holes in your jeans or packs be warned: Better learn how to sew before school starts.
New back-to-school duds and supplies will be at the bottom of many family shopping lists this fall, with 71 percent saying they will spend less on back-to-school items this year than last, according to a national survey due out today from Deloitte, the consulting giant. It gets uglier. Some 83 percent of those surveyed said they will cut back on clothes spending. Nearly half say they will spend less on shoes, and about one in three will spend less on backpacks, according to the online survey of 5,035 adults conducted July 11 to 14.
FDA RECONSIDERS CHINESE SEAFOOD
The Food and Drug Administration may loosen restrictions imposed last year on Chinese seafood processors following recent inspections of some firms in that country, a senior FDA official says.
The FDA restricted imports of five types of Chinese-raised fish 13 months ago, saying many contained chemicals the U.S. doesn't allow for health reasons, such as long-term cancer risks.
Since then, China's government and seafood producers have stepped up testing and safety controls and the percentage of shipments testing positive for the drugs has dropped from 25 percent to less than 6 percent, says Don Kraemer, deputy director of the FDA's Office of Food Safety.
FDA inspectors in China this month audited 13 seafood processors. They checked for good food-safety controls and the quality of inspections done by the Chinese government. Within weeks, the FDA expects to decide whether to free any of the plants from the import restrictions.
