$299 iPhone: the dream, the advertisement originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 16 Feb 2007 17:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Consumer Products Safety Commission has levied a fine which may bode well for The Home Depot, Inc.'s (NYSE:HD) sales of Charmglow grills this coming summer. It has been reported that Nexgrill Industries has agreed to settle a claim that they allegedly failed to inform officials of a potentially dangerous gas grill defect in a timely manner. The CPSC has provisionally accepted Nexgrills agreement to pay a $300,000 fine in the matter.

Nexgrill had received reports of gas grill fires, including reports of minor injuries, and allegedly failed to report the possible defect to the CPSC for 10 months. The news release states that Nexgrill had sufficient reason to believe they were dealing with a product defect. Finally, in June of 2006, Nexgrill did announce a recall of about 16,000 of the potentially offending grills. The possible defect exists in the placement of a fuel hose which may be situated too close to the heat source and thereby may potentially separate from the burner unit and create a fire hazard.

Nexgrill has made available a retrofit heat shield which eliminates the potential hazard. You may contact them regarding this corrective measure at this web address: http://nexgrill0025.serorder.com/. With this now behind them, both companies have the coming summer to look forward to.

A civil penalty and recall may spark some sales for Home Depot originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 14 Jan 2007 16:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When your own people start sharing your dirty laundry with the press, you know you've got a management problem. It happens in politics and business. Just as Bush insiders are airing his dirty laundry so is a Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) insider. I don't know what you can do about the Bush leaks but I think you ought to sell Yahoo shares and if you don't own them stay away.

Sunday's Washington Post higlighted how Bush administration insiders have spilled the beans on their dissatisfaction with his management of Iraq and its impact on the recent elections. This betrayal from inside reveals the fragility of Bush's once-vaunted message discipline. And it's a sign that these insiders sense Bush's loss of power and are using it to their own advantage.

What does this have to do with Yahoo? A strategy memo by Brad Garlinghouse, a Yahoo senior vice president, was leaked to last Saturday's Wall Street Journal. Just as in Washington, leaking at Yahoo is a tipoff that Yahoo has a serious management problem. Based on my experience working in public companies, if such a memo were leaked to the press by just about anyone, that person would be fired so fast it would make your head spin. Not only did Garlinghouse's memo contain confidential information, but by highlighting Yahoo's internal weaknesses his leaked memo could help Yahoo's competitors.

Continue reading Leaks: a problem Bush and Semel share

Leaks: a problem Bush and Semel share originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 20 Nov 2006 00:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The sun is setting on Yahoo! and management is pointing figures.

A memo from one of the companies senior vices presidents claims that the company has spread its efforts too thin, like peanut butter on bread. The memo, which has lead to the formation of a group to suggest changes at the huge internet firm, called for a large reduction in staff at Yahoo! along with extensive managment changes.

Yahoo! remains one of the largest Internet sites in unique visitors, according to ComScore, but Google Inc.(NASDAQ:GOOG) has been gaining on its older rival for several years.

The details of the memo might be debated, but the overarching theme is almost certainly correct. While Internet portals like AOL, MSN, and Yahoo! have lost popularity and revenue growth, sites that are more focused on doing a few things well -- from Google to MySpace to YouTube -- have flourished.

While Google's shares have run from a 52-week low of just over $331 to $499, Yahoo!'s have slumped from $43.66 to just under $27. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)has done a poor job keeping up with major trends on the internet, from building large community sites to having a major presence in video.

Yahoo! is now exhibiting the kind of management issues that often occur at flagging companies. With long-time executives at odds about the big web operation's future, things are likely to get much worse before they get better.

Investors have to wonder what happened to Yahoo!'s CEO. Someone must be driving the bus.

Douglas McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

The blame game hits Yahoo! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 19 Nov 2006 21:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.