WSJ By The Numbers - Top 10 for Oct.26
MySpace,
ByeSpace?: Both MySpace and Facebook lost visitors in September,
according to Nielsen/NetRatings. The number of unique U.S. visitors at
MySpace fell 4% to 47.2 million from 49.2 million in August, and the
number of visitors to Facebook fell 12% to 7.8 million.
Traffic to MySpace was up 3.1% in the most recent quarter ended in September, compared with a 45% jump in the same 3-month period a year ago, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Facebook's traffic fell 1.7% in that period, compared with 11% growth a year ago.
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Fed Again Leaves Rates Unchanged: The Federal Reserve held short-term interest rates steady at 5.25% for its third consecutive meeting as it continued to bet on a moderation of both inflation and economic growth. The economic growth, under the weight of falling home and automobile sales, began to slow, to an estimated annual rate of about 2% in the third quarter. Online lender Quicken Loans Inc.'s pipeline of mortgage applications has grown 20% to 25% since rates began to ease in late June. |
2% GDP Growth |
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New Voting Systems Face Midterm Exam: The Help America Vote Act gave the states $3.8 billion to replace punch-card and mechanical-lever voting machines, and to set up statewide voter lists to resolve election-day questions over who could vote and where. As a result, some 88 million potential voters will be casting ballots on unfamiliar machines, according to Election Center, an association of election officials. |
$3.8B Voting Systems |
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European Companies Predict Solid Economy: European Central Bank staff see growth in the 12-country euro zone slowing to around 2.1% next year from around 2.5% this year. But more-pessimistic forecasters still predict a slowdown to as low as 1.5% growth, with Germany accounting for much of the drop. |
2.1% EU GDP |
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Wal-Mart Hires New Ad Agency To Tailor Pitches: Mal-Mart spent about $580 million on U.S. ads in 2005, according to TNS Media Intelligence, an ad-tracking firm. |
$580M Ads |
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China Enters Mobile-TV Fray: Qualcomm has launched a proprietary mobile-TV service called MediaFLO in the U.S. In Europe and Asia, an industry group that includes Nokia has been touting a standard called DVB-H. More than 50 million DVB-H phones are expected to be sold globally by 2010, according to estimates from Research firm Informa. |
50M DVB-H |
| According to some estimates, at least $50 billion in auto-parts businesses in North America are currently for sale. Hedge funds now control about $1.1 trillion in assets and an estimated $1 trillion more is committed to private-equity funds and venture-capital firms. It adds up to more than enough money to acquire huge chunks of the distressed North American auto-supply industry at current values. | $50B Auto-Parts |
| Growing Funds Fuel Buyout Boom: Blackstone Group has decided to increase the size of the world's largest private-equity fund to $20 billion. Fifteen out of the top 20 buyouts on record have been announced in the past 18 months, and private-equity firms this year have accounted for 17% of all major mergers and acquisitions. So far this year, about $159 billion has been secured for new buyout funds world-wide, according to Thomson Financial. The firms have spent $421 billion on buying companies this year, up from $253 billion in all of 2005. Over the past decade, private-equity funds have average investment returns of 17% a year, Thomson Financial data show, though the biggest funds generally do much better. | $159B PE Fund Raising |
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Home Prices Keep Sliding; Buyers Sit Tight: The National Association of Realtors yesterday reported the biggest drop in home prices since the trade group began compiling price data in 1968, as the median price for home sales completed in September was $220,000, down 2.2% from a year earlier. In addition to being the largest price drops in at least 38 years, the back-to-back declines are the first time median home prices have fallen since 1995. |
$220k Median Home |
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WSJ By The Numbers - Metrics 2.0 |
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