| Auction sites bite back on touts
Internet auction sites have been criticised by concert promoters, who view them as enemy number one in the fight against ticket touts. Here two such sites - eBay and viagogo - defend their position. The scene is familiar to music lovers up and down the land. You hammer the telephone, open numerous windows on the internet, but you still fail to get your hands on a ticket for your favourite band. .
AdWords Introduces Preferred Cost Bidding
AdWords introduced a new bidding option called "preferred cost bidding," an alternative to setting a maximum cost-per-click (CPC). In essence, for the advertiser with less time and/or fewer resources, the option puts AdWords management on Google's shoulders. Marketing Pilgrim's Andy Beal compares it to a mutual fund model, and Efficient Frontier's latest "marketplace" approach. The advertiser sets the ROI and pricing goals and lets Google do the rest. Instead of setting the maximum CPC or CPM (cost-per-impression), advertisers set the "preferred" CPC or CPM bid, representing the average price a marketer is willing to pay. "For example," writes Vivian at InsideAdwords, "suppose you want to pay an average CPC of $0.50. Currently, you need to regularly monitor and adjust your maximum CPC bids to keep your costs at or around $0.50 per click.
Iran invites new reactor bids
Iran has said it will seek bids for two new nuclear power plants and will partly run them on home-produced fuel, despite Western criticism of its nuclear programme. Ahmad Fayazbakhsh, of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, said they would be built at Bushehr, the southwestern city where a Russian contractor is building Iran's first atomic plant. Fayazbakhsh said the power plants would each have capacity for 1,000 to 1,600 megawatts. The West says Iran's civilian nuclear programme is a smokescreen for atomic weapon ambitions, a charge Tehran denies. "There are already contacts with Russian and European firms. It is expected that construction would take between nine and 11 years," Fayazbakhsh said. The cost of the new power plants, which will be built alongside the existing facility in Bushehr, will be between $1.4 and $1.7bn, he said. "Because we have the capability to produce nuclear fuel inside the country, in the long term, part of the fuel for the reactors will be provided by Iran and the rest will be imported," he told a news conference. A Western diplomat said the tender announcement appeared to be aimed at justifying Iran's statement on Monday it had expanded its nuclear fuel programme in defiance of a UN demand to halt uranium enrichment, a process which can be used to make bombs.
PTA raises $19400 at auction for school
Logan-Rogersville PTA reported that its annual fundraiser auction Saturday netted more than $19,400 after expenses. All proceeds will go to the school. Chairwoman Sheila Bohannon commended high school National Honor Society members who helped people get purchases to their vehicles. .
BP and Shell submit bids for UAE sour gas project
DUBAI: Oil majors BP and Royal Dutch Shell have submitted bids for a sour gas project in the United Arab Emirates that could have a price tag as high as $10bn.
The UAE holds the world's fifth largest gas reserves, and needs to develop them to meet soaring domestic demand.
It and neighbouring Gulf countries are facing rising energy needs as their populations grow and economies expand, fuelled by record oil revenues.
“We have made a submission," a BP company spokesman said yesterday. Bids for the project were due in to state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) yesterday.
A Shell company source also confirmed that it made a bid.
Industry sources said that France's Total and US Occidental Petroleum had also submitted bids.
Adnoc invited bids from several other companies including BG Group, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and Japan Oil Development Co.
|
