Regan Kaczon blog

Barclays to cut 1,000 UK retail banking jobs

LONDON (Reuters) – British bank Barclays Plc (BARC.L) is to cut about 1,000 UK jobs as it stops offering financial planning advice in its branches.

The bank said on Wednesday it was consulting with the Unite trade union about ending the service, which is due to occur on February 18 and affect about 1,000 staff across Britain.

The bank plans to focus its investment service offering online. It said providing advice through branches was becoming less commercially viable, and that decline was likely to continue.

Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, said the bank's management should "hang their heads in shame" at the cuts.

"This news once again confirms that contrary to what the Conservative government claims the private sector will not fill the gap left by the slashing of jobs in our public services," MacGregor said in a statement.

(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Louise Heavens)

Arsenal aim for league boost after cup disappointment

LONDON (AFP) – Arsenal hope to return to winning ways in the Premier League when they travel to London rivals West Ham on Saturday after two disappointing cup outings.

The Gunners surprisingly lost 1-0 at Championship side Ipswich Town on Wednesday in the first leg of the semi-final of the League Cup.

And the previous Saturday had seen them held 1-1 at the Emirates Stadium in the FA Cup third round by another second division club, Leeds United.

Arsenal are still well placed in the race for the Premier League title, although they are four points behind leaders Manchester United -- the last team to beat them in league action.

Champions Chelsea and Birmingham were beaten over the festive period and these results, together with draws against Wigan and Manchester City, added up to a satisfying points haul for Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere.

"Overall I thought we had a good Christmas period," the 18-year-old said. "We got eight points from four games and we're close to Manchester United so it's been a successful period.

"We need to learn to see out games a bit more. We've had some disappointing results when we've been leading and teams have come back to draw or beat us."

Arsenal were not at all impressive against Ipswich, however, and defender Johan Djourou called for an instant improvement at Upton Park.

"We have to pick ourselves up because we have a very important game against West Ham on Saturday," the Switzerland international said. "We are disappointed, but we have to bounce back straight away."

One man who is certain to be the centre of attention is West Ham captain Matthew Upson, who has been linked with a return to Arsenal.

The England centre-back, who played in last year's World Cup, will become a free agent at the end of the season, hence the possibility of the Hammers cashing in now but Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has so far declined to offer any indication that a deal is close to fruition.

Avram Grant's side are fighting to stay in the Premier League and know that, although they are currently bottom, one victory could potentially take them above six relegation rivals.

West Ham, who are also vying to reach the League Cup final and beat Birmingham 2-1 at Upton Park on Tuesday in their semi-final first leg, have been linked with former Arsenal and England defender Sol Campbell, currently at Newcastle.

One man definitely signed by the Hammers is left-back Wayne Bridge, who has arrived on loan from Manchester City in time for a testing debut.

Grant's position has been the focus of speculation ever since he succeeded Gianfranco Zola in pre-season, with out-of-work managers Martin O'Neill and Sam Allardyce having been touted as successors.

But West Ham midfielder Scott Parker was adamant the players were still keen to make a success of the Grant regime "We're definitely playing for our manager," he said.

"If you believed everything that you hear about West Ham in the press then you'd be rather a stressed man. He seems relaxed, that's his demeanour.

The spirit is high. As much as the gaffer (manager) is fighting, we're all fighting as well.

"We're all in the same corner, we're all trying to do the best for ourselves, the manager and the club. The manager has tons and tons of experience, he's doing a good job."

HOW TO: Make a Successful Marketing Video for the Web

is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, public speaker and author of . The content for this post was sourced from the Young Entrepreneur Council, a group of successful Gen Y business owners. You can submit your questions to this group on .

In today'scrazed society, video is more accessible and easier to create than ever. One 30-second video has the potential to create a customer for life, or -- conversely -- a hater that will plague you with negative comments and bad word-of-mouth. This is why small businesses must learn to properly utilize videos to market their services on the web. These same videos can also be used in offline and online branding, sales, marketing and PR strategies. A great video will pay off ten-fold.

Sure, not every web video you shoot on yourwill end up being the next , but a few hundred -- or even a few thousand -- views can lead to some serious moola for your business. I asked a panel of successful Gen Y entrepreneurs how small businesses can improve their web video marketing efforts and what they can do to make their videos sing.Here are their responses.

1. Be Real and Get Real"I can't stress this enough: when you sell or market your business, be real with people. Most customers out there want to know who they can trust and how your business/product can help them. So in your web videos, make sure [you] don't do the same old boring marketing videos that push things on people because nine times out of ten they hit 'stop.' Let them see the real side of your business."

- , founder of

2. TubeMogul Is The Answer!"You cannot improve what you cannot measure! Use TubeMogul video analytics to track your online video viewership trends and statistics on video sites like YouTube and get rich metrics from your own video player. Use these findings, and number of views and trends, etc., to improve your videos, tags, length, and all other elements and efforts of video marketing."

- , founder of

3. Keep it Simple"Nobody wants to watch long videos, so keep it short, simple and to the point. I follow the two-minute rule. You should come up with a similar rule for yourself. If you have to create a longer video, consider dividing it into parts that make it easier for your viewers to digest. There's a website calledthat is really good for this."

- , co-founder of

4. Have Fun With It!"The best web videos are ones that incorporate comedy. People like to share videos with their networks that are funny, inspiring or thought provoking. The standard 'sales/ promotional' videos will not become viral. Follow ' motto that 'No one cares about your marketing except you,' and try to create funny content that other people will want to share with their colleagues."

- , founder of

5. Use YouTube"Instead of separating yourself from the crowd, jump on the YouTube bandwagon. Distributing your unique info at an existing online gathering place increases its power."

- , founder of

6. Keep It Short and Simple"For better or worse, we live in a world of sound bites. Often I see companies try to pack too much information into one video. If you have a lot of information to convey, try posting a couple of different videos so that the viewer can select the content most important to them. In addition, take the extra time to make the videos look really good. It is worth the investment!"

, founder of

7. Be You"Stop trying to be someone else. Just be you. Once you're able to do that, then you can speak from your heart. And people will relate to that. And that's the key."

- , founder of

8. Know Your Audience"The question should be 'does your audience care about or consume video online,' before you worry about how to make it more effective. Once you know it fits your audience, I think it is just like another medium. Give your audience the information they want via the channel they want and it will be effective."

- , CEO of

More Business Resources from Mashable:- - - - -

Image courtesy of ,

Two U.S. banks reveal TARP repayment plans

NEW YORK/CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) – Two regional U.S. banks plan to repay their government bailout loans, a sign of health that could put pressure on other lenders to shed government aid.

Huntington Bancshares (HBAN.O) said it was issuing stock and bonds to help repay $1.4 billion it received under the U.S. Government's Troubled Asset Relief Program in November 2008.

First Horizon National Corp (FHN.N) said it is selling debt and equity to pay off $867 million of TARP aid.

Huntington's shares fell after the news because the bank will sell so much equity to repay the government, analysts said. First Horizon's shares rose as investors cheered its move to shed government support.

Analysts said these repayment plans could be the first of another wave of TARP repayments, and suggest that the U.S. banking system is continuing to heal after the 2008 crisis.

Banks that have yet to repay the government should think about doing it soon, said Jeff Davis, bank analyst at boutique bank Guggenheim Partners.

"If you're a bank that does wait now, the market might be left to assume there are deeper problems," Davis said.

The offerings from Huntington and First Horizon come one year after the largest U.S. banks -- including Citigroup Inc (C.N), Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) -- raised tens of billions of dollars to repay their government bailout aid. The first wave of banks to repay TARP came in the summer of 2009, and included Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N).

BIG, BUT NOT TOO BIG

Despite the latest round of offerings from smaller lenders, the largest U.S. regional banks may still be months away from buying back the government's temporary investment.

Regional banks SunTrust Banks Inc (STI.N), Regions Financial Corp (RF.N), Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB.O) and KeyCorp are the four largest U.S. lenders that have yet to repay TARP.

The four banks were part of a larger group of the 19 biggest banks that underwent U.S. government stress testing in Spring 2009.

Huntington, with $53 billion in assets, and First Horizon, with $25 billion, fell well below that threshold.

Now, the Federal Reserve is retesting all of the "stress test" banks before allowing them to repay TARP, raise their dividends or repurchase shares.

Results are not expected until first quarter 2011, leaving a window for smaller banks to repay TARP.

Atlanta-based SunTrust has $5 billion outstanding under the program. Birmingham, Alabama-based Regions has $3.5 billion.

Cleveland, Ohio-based KeyCorp has $2.5 billion in government aid, while Cincinnati, Ohio-based Fifth Third received $3.4 billion.

DILUTION

Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington Bancshares said it would raise $920 million in common stock and offer $300 million in debt to repay TARP. Analysts said the move could result in the bank boosting its outstanding shares by 19 percent.

Huntington shares closed down 2.7 percent at $6.66 on Nasdaq on Monday. Later in the evening, Goldman Sachs announced Huntington's offering of over 146 million shares was priced at $6.30 per share.

Memphis, Tennessee-based First Horizon National Corp said it would raise $250 million through a common stock offering and issue $400 million in debt to pay off its TARP obligation.

First Horizon shares closed 3.7 percent higher at $10.92 on the New York Stock Exchange.

In recent weeks, bank stocks have surged.

Huntington's price has increased 19 percent in the fourth quarter alone, and is up 87 percent for the year.

Standard and Poor's cut its recommendation to "hold" from "buy" after the stock offering was announced, but noted the TARP payoff would be a positive move for the company.

"Two quarters from now, could (Huntington) have waited and gotten a better deal? Probably," said Morgan Keegan & Co analyst Bob Patten. "But the stock has performed well, and this gets them out from under the government and back into being a buyer for small, troubled Midwestern banks."

Both offerings remain subject to regulatory approval.

(Reporting by Maria Aspan and Steve James in New York, Joe Rauch in Charlotte, N.C., and Brenton Cordeiro in Bangalore. Editing by Jarshad Kakkrakandy, Dave Zimmerman, Matthew Lewis, Robert MacMillan and Richard Chang)

BrightCom Breaks Telepresence Price Point, Introduces New Desktop HD Video

BrightCom announces the new ClearView Desktop/PC HD Video Conferencing solution offering onboard H.264 video encoding, 720p video quality and beating Cisco and LifeSize in price.

Huntington Beach, CA (PRWEB) November 17, 2010

BrightCom, the performance leader in integrated telepresence and video conferencing, announced today the new ClearView Desktop/PC HD Video Conferencing solution. This solution provides built-in H.264 technology for onboard video encoding and 720p clarity for immersive face to face communication. Suited for the home, office and desktop, BrightCom has announced this offering with a price point of under $500.00 making it significantly more cost effective than Cisco’s Umi and LifeSize’s Passport solutions.

According to Bob McCandless, CEO of BrightCom, “ClearView Desktop/PC HD is approximately $100 less than Cisco’s Umi, and $2,000 less that LifeSize’s Passport making it an ideal choice for businesses wanting to implement a video desktop solution for large numbers of employees in their corporate or home offices.”

ClearView Desktop/PC HD Video Conferencing is a USB 2.0 based fixed camera. Its H.264 onboard video encoding minimizes the stress of video processing from the PC. HD video encoding is beyond the processing power of most PC’s deployed today and instead of replacing every PC for newer models with higher processing power, businesses can easily deploy this solution for high quality video communication. ClearView Desktop/PC HD Video Conferencing also provides built-in audio functionalities including an array microphone and an acoustic echo cancellation system.

“Additionally,” continued Mr. McCandless, “this offering allows users the ability to communicate with more people and to interactively collaborate on critical materials. These features are lacking in both the Cisco Umi and LifeSize Passport offerings.”

Integration into BrightCom’s wide range of telepresence and video conferencing solutions and the Visual Collaboration System (VCS) can easily add up to 16 multiway conferencing with an unlimited number of participants. This standards based interoperability allows it to connect to Cisco, LifeSize and Polycom video conferencing systems and also adds Skype integration.

The VCS, a processor based, single network appliance with a client/server environment, also allows for added security with enterprise directory integration and a full set of multimedia data collaboration and web conferencing functions including data sharing, remote control of participants’ PCs or laptops and cooperative markup on electronic whiteboards, images, video and documents.

About BrightCom – BrightCom specializes in creating flexible and affordable video and telepresence conferencing solutions. With unique integrated data and video conferencing solutions, BrightCom offers a wide range of options with Lumina Telepresence and ClearView Video Conferencing to connect people and content from home offices, mobile devices, desktops or conference rooms. To learn more about BrightCom’s quality telepresence and video conferencing with in-depth collaboration features but without a costly investment on bandwidth upgrades, call 877-483-9737 or visit .

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Victoria SauerBrightcom877-483-9737Email Information