The iPhone Goes to School
Oklahoma Christian University’s decision to provide an iPhone and a Macbook laptop to every fulltime student continues to earn national publicity for the Oklahoma City school. The latest publication to spotlight OC — and three other universities doing the same thing this year — was the New York Times, which published a feature on the iPhone program in Friday’s paper.
With a headline “Welcome Freshman, Have an iPod,” the Times article discusses some of the reasons schools are choosing to provide their students with iPhones and includes some criticism of the program. Professors fear that the iPhone will distract students during class and discourage participation. An excerpt:
“While schools emphasize its usefulness — online research in class and instant polling of students, for example — a big part of the attraction is, undoubtedly, that the iPhone is cool and a hit with students. Basking in the aura of a cutting-edge product could just help a university foster a cutting-edge reputation.
“Apple stands to win as well, hooking more young consumers with decades of technology purchases ahead of them. The lone losers, some fear, could be professors.
“Students already have laptops and cellphones, of course, but the newest devices can take class distractions to a new level. They practically beg a user to ignore the long-suffering professor struggling to pass on accumulated wisdom from the front of the room — a prospect that teachers find galling and students view as, well, inevitable.”
In addition to Oklahoma Christian, schools providing laptops to the students include the University of Maryland, Abilene Christian University and Freed-Hardeman University. As is OC, both ACU and Freed-Hardeman are affiliated with the Churches of Christ.
Jim Stafford
Business Reporter
This smells of rotten tomatoes
Do you remember the old Andy Griffith episode where the two tough-guy characters opened up an illegal vegetable stand on the outskirts of Mayberry and Barney was sent out to deal with them?
It took some back-door help from Andy, but eventually the rogue vegetable stand was shut down and Mayberry’s lone grocery store was saved from the competition.
Well, the vegetable-selling rogues are at it again. This time it’s in Clayton, Calif., where two sisters — ages 11 and 3 — have been shut down by the city for opening up a Saturday morning produce stand on a street corner in their neighborhood.
The city sent police officers out to shut down the illegal stand, and when the parents of 11-year-old Katie and 3-year-old Sabrina Lewis protested the mayor got involved.
“They may start out with a little card-table and selling a couple of things, but then who is to say what else they have,” said Clayton Mayor Gregg Manning. “Is all the produce made there, do they make it themselves? Are they going to have eggs and chickens for sale next.”
All we can say is that come Girl Scout cookie-selling season, the girls in Clayton, Calif., better tread carefully. Barney will be waiting.
Business Reporter
CEO safety costs
Chesapeake Energy Chariman Aubrey McClendon gets a mention in this article about security for high-profile CEOs from Forbes.com.
America’s largest corporations are paying millions of dollars a year to protect their C-level talent, particularly the CEO. That personal security, as described in compensation reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, includes everything from computerized home systems to use of company aircraft domestically and internationally, both for business and personal matters. The cost incurred by companies falls under the perquisite, or “perk,” category.
The story notes that some companies, seeking safety for their leaders, require them to fly on private jets for all corporate and some personal travel. Chesapeake last year spent $600,000 on McClendon’s private flights.
Click here to see McClendon’s 2007 compensation report. You’ll have to scroll down one screen to see the section on personal aircraft use, but I’m betting you’ll check out those salary, bonus and stock award categories before you hit “page down.”
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Apple Computer’s Ken Burns effect — the backstory
If you own an Apple computer, you’ve seen the Ken Burns effect, which pans, zooms and tilts still photographs in the same way the famous filmmaker does in his documentaries such as “Baseball,” and “The War.”
Here, Ken Burns reveals how his name was branded by Apple. It’s a good yarn.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
SEC filing fun
As a financial reporter, I spend some of my time poring over regulatory filings from public companies. Those filings contain a wealth of information, which often is written in a peculiar and occasionally impenetrable form of legalese.
That’s why this spoofed form 8-K that I found on a Yahoo Finance message board gave me a chuckle. I’m changing the company name to protect, well, myself, I guess.
ACME CORPORATION ANNOUNCES NO MATERIAL NEWS
MEDFORD, Okla.—AUGUST 21, 2008 — ACME Corporation (NASDAQ: XYZ) today announced absolutely nothing.
The Board of Directors has not authorized anything be done, a 0% increase over last year’s similar lack of activity.
“Despite a very difficult retail environment, characterized by increasing gasoline and food prices, we have very little to say,” stated CEO and Chairman Wile E. Coyote.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Best money blogs
PC Magazine recently listed its nominees for the 100 top undiscovered Web sites. It was a pretty solid list. Among the honored were several that had a business or investing bent.
Jott.com is a Web site that I recently have begun using. You can call Jott on your cell phone and your voice messages will be translated to text and sent to a Google calendar, a blog or online to-do list. I can vouch for this one — it works.
Stockhouse.com is a social network and informational site for investors.
Pageonce.com, which bills itself as “your personal Internet assistant,” allows you keep track of all your online investment and banking accounts (and other types of online sites) in a single spot.
Billshrink.com is a free service that recommends the cheapest cell phone plan.
Glassdoor.com collects and displays anonymous employer reviews and salaries, although you must submit a review before you can access others.
Cyberhomes.com offers suggestions for finding the right home in the right neighborhood.
PC Magazine earlier wrote about 15 Web sites designed to help consumers manage and save their money.
I’d love to hear from readers about Web sites they visit related to business, work or investing.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
The sky’s the limit
We made a little skyscraper news in Oklahoma City. Now that we’re on the world stage for big buildings, what could be next?
Think BIG!
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Trailblazer Capital: Watch the Video
I sat down with David Matthews of Dallas-based Trailblazer Capital for a short video interview today. David’s an Oklahoma City native and recent opened a branch of his venture capital company here in town.
Jim Stafford
Business Reporter
Oklahoma’s Grow Your Own Success Stories
All right class, get out a clean sheet of paper and a No. 2 pencil. Pop quiz time.
First question: What does a Tulsa-based drilling and exploration company have in common with an acoustics and drywall company in Moore, or an Oklahoma City-based gun range and sales business?
Time’s up! Got a clue?
They are all members of the 2008 Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest growing businesses. In fact, 40 Oklahoma firms were on the list this year, beginning with No.91 ranked Latshaw Drilling & Exploration of Tulsa, which had average three-year growth of 2,045 percent.
Here is the complete list of Oklahoma companies on the Inc. 5000:
91 Latshaw Drilling & Exploration, Tulsa, 2,045 %
203 Computer System Designers, Oklahoma City, 1,223 %
455 Select Engineering, Tulsa 696.5 %
633 TMA Systems, Tulsa, 523.5 %
1054 Maestro Services, Oklahoma City, 354.9 %
1063 InterWorks, Stillwater, 352.4 %
1200 Just Between Friends Franchise Systems, Broken Arrow, 314.6 %
1202 Trinity Restoration, Tulsa, 314.4 %
1252 Perimeter Technology, Oklahoma City, 302.4 %
1451 Northwest Crane Service, Woodward, 260.6 %
1469 Element Fusion, Oklahoma City, 257.8 %
1484 Weather Decision Technologies, Norman, 255.1 %
1605 Paycom, Oklahoma City, 236.3 %
1749 Northwest Logistics, Woodward, 215.6 %
1903 Oracle Packaging, Tulsa, 196.1 %
2085 brass brick homes, Oklahoma City, 177.2 %
2110 Miko Group, Norman, 175.3 %
2217 Long Wave, Oklahoma City, 166.2 %
2330 H&H Gun Range Shooting Sports Outlet, Oklahoma City, 158.8 %
2340 GDH Consulting, Tulsa, 157.4 %
2414 Oklahoma Forge, Tulsa, 153.0 %
2545 J & K Dozers, Pocasset, 144.0 %
2637 Smart Lines, Oklahoma City, 138.6 %
2768 Totally Tickets, Norman, 131.2 %
3250 K&B Machining, Claremore, 104.3 %
3350 Mark Westby & Associates, Tulsa, 99.8 %
3437 Challenger Services, Tulsa, 96.4 %
3487 Brown Aviation Tool Supply, Oklahoma City, 94.2 %
3535 Baldwin Acoustics and Drywall, Moore, 94.2 %
3776 Mobile Cardiac Imaging, Tulsa, 91.8 %
3962 Regal Car Sales and Credit, Tulsa, 74.5 %
4023 Robyn, Oklahoma City, 72.2 %
4065 Valir Health, Oklahoma City, 70.7 %
4136 Bridgelogix , Tulsa, 67.7 %
4335 Express Employment Professionals, Oklahoma City, 61.8 %
4429 Busey Group, Oklahoma City, 57.9 %
4434 HostBridge Technology, Stillwater, 57.8 %
4783 Oklahoma Breast Care Center, Oklahoma City, 47.0 %
4875 IMAX, Tulsa, 44.6 %
4877 Impressions Printing, Oklahoma City, 44.6 %
Jim Stafford
Business Reporter
Foreign companies grow profits, taxes
Welcome to America! Here’s your bill.
The Internal Revenue Service this week released a report (link to .pdf file) showing major growth in U.S. companies owned by foreigners. The report also showed that those foreign-controlled domestic corporations, as the IRS refers to them, are paying a growing share of corporate taxes.
There were 61,820 domestic corporations controlled by a foreign person for Tax Year 2005, the agency said. Those foreign-controlled domestic corporations accounted for just 1.1 percent of all U.S. corporations. However, those corporations generated $3.5 trillion of total receipts with $9.2 trillion of total assets, accounting for 13.7 percent of the receipts and 13.9 percent of the assets reported on all U.S. corporation income tax returns.
Other tidbits in the latest Statistics of Income Bulletin (all following links to .pdf files):
– Foreign corporations controlled by U.S. multinational corporations: For tax year 2004, these controlled foreign corporations held $9.2 trillion in assets and reported $3.8 trillion in receipts.
– Corporations that claimed the foreign tax credit on their U.S. tax returns: For tax year 2004, corporations claimed foreign tax credits worth $56.6 billion, representing an all-time high and a 13.2 percent increase over the previous high amount in 2003. Use of this credit reduced their U.S. tax on worldwide income by 30.2 percent, from $187.5 billion to $130.9 billion.
– Growth trends in the number of partnership and sole proprietorship returns: While the number of partnership returns filed between 2002 and 2005 increased by 23 percent, the number of sole proprietorship returns increased by 1.9 percent.
– Federal gift tax returns filed for gifts given in 2005: Americans reported $38.5 billion in cash and other asset transfers. Almost 3 percent of gift tax returns were taxable with $1.7 billion in reported tax liability.
– Use of business credit for research activities: Corporations claimed almost $6.4 billion in these credits for tax year 2005, and corporations in the manufacturing industries claimed more than 70 percent of this amount.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
