Democrats divided; McCain surges clear

John McCain claimed he was the front-runner in the contest for the Republican U.S. presidential nomination after piling up big primary wins across the country on Super Tuesday, according to CNN projections.

John McCain and wife Cindy arrive at the U.S. Senator's Super Tuesday party in Phoenix, Arizona.

But the race for the Democratic Party nomination remained wide open between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama with votes evenly split between the rival senators.
Although CNN projections showed Obama winning more states overall, Clinton claimed victory in several key states with higher delegate counts, including New York, which she represents in the Senate, and California.

Latest estimates suggest the pair could be separated by as few as 20 of the 1,678 delegates at stake on Tuesday.

Some of the biggest prizes of the primary season were up for grabs on Tuesday, including Illinois, New Jersey, Missouri and Georgia, as voters made their party choices in 24 states and the U.S. Pacific territory of American Samoa.

On the Republican side, CNN projected Arizona Senator McCain to win his home state, along with California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and Oklahoma. McCain wins big; Huckabee shines

CNN projected Republican Mitt Romney to take Alaska, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and Utah.

CNN projected Republican Mike Huckabee as winner in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and West Virginia.

In the Democratic races, CNN projections indicated wins for Clinton in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee Arkansas, where her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, was once governor, and American Samoa. Clinton takes California in tight Democratic race

Barack Obama has CNN-projected wins in his home state of Illinois, plus Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, and Utah.

More than four-fifths of the 2,025 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination and more than 1,000 of the 1,191 necessary delegates on the Republican side were at stake on Tuesday.

The delegate count is key when looking at the results. Candidates need to notch up enough delegates -- rather than voter numbers -- to secure their party's nomination. See which states are the most important »

McCain turnaround
For the Republicans, it was a day that cemented McCain's remarkable turnaround since he was written off last summer as a viable White House contender by many political commentators.
On Tuesday the four-term Arizona senator, a 71-year-old former Vietnamese prisoner of war who also ran for the Republican nomination in 2000, finally felt comfortable enough to call himself the front-runner.

"Although I've never minded the role of the underdog and have relished as much as anyone come-from-behind wins, tonight I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican Party frontrunner," McCain told reporters as results came in. "And I don't really mind it one bit."

Microsoft's Bid For Yahoo! Yahoo Soft Bid Shakes The Start-Ups

Among the scenarios that have filled the daydreams of Silicon Valley's Internet start-ups are two happy endings: being acquired by Microsoft or being acquired by Yahoo!. So when those giants threaten to merge, as Microsoft proposed Friday with its $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo!, do the hopes of innovative young firms looking for buyouts get squashed in the melee?

The dreams may, at least, be put on hold. According to Microsoft's (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) most recent quarterly Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company had about $21 billion in liquid assets--down from a peak of $60.6 billion in 2004. The layout for Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people )--which is a half cash-half equity deal--won't leave the $51 billion (annual revenue) software maker broke, but it may sate its appetite for acquisitions for a while.

A more likely reason that a YahooSoft deal could slow down further acquisitions is the red tape involved in a complex integration of bureaucracies. (See "A Messy Marriage.") If the deal closes, it could be months before Yahoo! and Microsoft sort out each other's businesses and are ready to begin integrating new ones, says Aaron Patzer, founder of online accounting start-up Mint.com.
"Right now, everything is going to be in flux," he says. Patzer says he had hoped to foster a partnership with Yahoo! Finance to distribute his free online accounting service. Since winning $50,000 in the TechCrunch 40 start-up, Patzer's Mint.com has also been an attractive buyout target, despite Patzer's claims that he intends to keep the business independent. Regardless, those kinds of deals may be on hold, he says.

"If you're a start-up, you need your own good revenue model now," he says. "If you were depending on getting acquired, combined with a looming recession, you could be in serious trouble in a year."

Patzer worries that even once the dust settles, a YahooSoft conglomerate won't be very friendly to start-ups. "Overall, I don't think it's great for the culture of the Valley. Yahoo! needs young, talented innovators, and the prospect of becoming part of a really large company like Microsoft is not very appealing to start-ups," he says. "They might want to be acquired, but they won't want to join an organization approaching 100,000 people." (Microsoft's head count is approximately 78,500 worldwide, while Yahoo! before the recently announced layoffs had 14,300.)
In recent months, both tech giants have been busy snapping up smaller companies. Microsoft paid $1.2 billion for enterprise search firm Fast Search & Transfer last month. It also bought a London-based Web geolocation company called Webmap in December and invested $250 million for a 2.5% stake in Facebook in October. Jerry Yang's takeover as Yahoo!'s chief executive had some startups predicting a new round of acquisitions. (See "Yahoo's Geek-Speaking CEO.") In September, Yahoo! bought up news aggregator Buzztracker, online ad network BlueLithium and e-mail client Zimbra.

But the merger and acquisition teams at Microsoft and Yahoo! might be "looking inward rather than outward" for the next months, says Jeff Clavier, founder of venture capital firm SoftTech VC, who has sold two Internet start-ups to AOL and one to Yahoo! in the last two years. "Figuring out an integration plan, who stays and who goes, what's important and what's redundant--it takes a long time," says Clavier. "They'll be stretched, and I have a hard time seeing how they could be looking at new talent and ideas."

Longer-term, Clavier says that integrating Yahoo! could make Microsoft a more appealing destination for young firms, partly due to the simple facts of geography. Owning Yahoo! would offer Microsoft better integration with Silicon Valley, and give start-ups an alternative to moving to Washington, he says. "The idea of buying a company, moving it to Redmond, making it part of 'the Borg' is no longer the model," he says, referring to Microsoft's unflattering corporate nickname.

In the meantime, the integration of the two companies may offer a competitive boost to start-ups living in the shadow of Microsoft and Yahoo!. Clavier points out that consolidation means layoffs, and layoffs mean talent that can be snapped up by start-ups. Scott Rafer, the former chief executive of MyBlogLog, a start-up acquired by Yahoo!, says that the YahooSoft deal means the two companies will be bogged down for months while his new firm, called Lookery, continues to innovate.

"We love this kind of stuff," he says. "The people who could actually do us some damage are going from slow to slower."

Lookery, an advertising network for ads that run on Facebook applications, is likely to find itself in direct competition with YahooSoft soon; Facebook struck a deal in August 2006 to place Microsoft ads on the site. Microsoft's latest deal, says Rafer, offers him a much-needed head start.

"We need to get big enough so that they can't just squash us like a bug," says Rafer. "The more time they spend worrying about which division gets merged with which division, the more time we have to grow."

Nikkei plunges on economy fears

Japanese investor confidence is not running highJapan's main share index has fallen sharply, hit by fears about the state of both the Japanese and US economies.

Data on Monday showing a 1.2% slowdown in the Japanese economy in the three months to 30 June, came after Friday's shock fall in US employment.

The gloomy figures caused Japan's main Nikkei 225 index to end down 2.2% or 357 points at 15,765.

Europe's share indexes were mixed in Monday afternoon trade, with London's FTSE up while Germany's Dax was down.

The FTSE 100 was up five points to 6,196, while the Dax had lost 12 points to 7,425.

'Bad news'

Japan's biggest exporters led the declines in Tokyo, as the dollar fell to a fresh 14-month low against the yen.

Sony's shares lost 6%, Canon declined 3.7%, and Toyota slid 2.4%, but analysts said falls were seen by firms in all sectors of the economy.

"Stocks are being sold across the board," said Yoshinori Nagano, chief strategist at Daiwa Asset Management.

"US employment data is bad news on fundamentals, and it's unclear how long negative market sentiment will linger."

Japan's second quarter 1.2% fall in gross domestic product, compared with a year earlier, was worse than market expectations of a 0.9% dip.

It was also the first time Japan's economy has contracted since the third quarter of last year, when it fell 0.5% in annual terms.

The Nikkei's Monday falls were mirrored elsewhere in the Far East, with Hong Kong's main Hang Seng index down 128 points to 23,854.

Raised Intel outlook boosts stock

The world's biggest chipmaker Intel says stronger-than-expected demand means it will beat its earlier forecasts for three month revenues.
Intel is seen as a gauge for the whole of the technology sector so this news may boost the rest of the Nasdaq.

Intel shares rose 2.5% to $26.11 in early trading following the news.

The company expects revenue for the three months to the end of September to be between $9.4bn (£4.6bn) and $9.8bn (£4.8bn), up from $9.0bn to $9.6bn.

Intel also says that its gross margin will be in the upper half of the previous range of "52% plus or minus a couple of points". ,

New chips

It has been a good day for chipmakers with Intel's rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) unveiling its much-hyped new server chip.

It is AMD's first "quad-core" chip, which features four processors on a single chip.

The product launch is a key part of AMD's attempts to compete with Intel, which has a market value 21 times bigger than AMD.

AMD shares rose 2% in early trading.

L&T, Siemens may float JV for airport projects

Diversified engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and the Indian arm of Germany’s Siemens AG is planning to join hands to bid for airport modernisation projects. Both companies are now discussing the possibility of floating a joint venture similar to the one formed by the Tatas and Singapore-based Changi Airport, L&T sources said.

The deal will formalise L&T and Siemens’ alliance that started with the development of Bangalore International Airport. L&T and Siemens hold 17 and 40 per cent each, respectively, in the company that is piloting the development of the greenfield international airport in Bangalore. Flying high

Flying high

Projects won by L&T• Bangalore (Rs 890 crore)• Hyderabad (Rs 1,110 crore)• New Delhi (Rs 5,400 crore)• Mumbai (Over Rs 5,000 crore) (Expected soon) Projects won by Siemens• Bangalore Airport• Indianapollis airport ($22.8 million) (baggage system contract) • Guatemala Airport (baggage handling system

The alliance is expected to be a win-win deal for both the companies. L&T is keen on a strong partner since it has bagged engineering procurement contracts for some key airport projects in the country, including New Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

“We have recently received a Rs 5,400-crore contract from the Delhi International Airport Ltd. We are expecting a similar order for the Mumbai airport as well,” L&T Chairman AM Naik said. The company is planning to bid for airport projects outside India as well.

L&T’s competitor and Hyderabad-based GMR has recently won a $2.7-billion contract to modernise the Istanbul airport. “It will be easier for L&T to bid for future projects if there is a strong partner,” company sources said.

According to sources in the aviation industry, Siemens is gung-ho about the fast-growing opportunities in airport projects in India. In addition to the modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports, the government wants to create alternate hubs in Chennai and Kolkata as well.
There are also plans to modernise 35 non-metro airports. The bidding process to set up the proposed Rs 4,235-crore Navi Mumbai airport project is also expected to take off shortly.

Daewoo plans to build world's largest floating dock

South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering on Monday said it plans to build the world's biggest floating dock to meet growing demand for large container ships.

The world's third largest shipyard intends by June 2009 to build the new dock which could produce six or seven container vessels per year, said spokesman Yoon Yo-Han.

"A final decision has not been made but we plan to build the world's largest floating dock due to a surge in orders," he told AFP.

He gave no details but Internet news provider edaily said the dock would measure 438 meters by 84 meters.

Currently the shipyard has three floating docks to build ships on land.South Korea, home to seven of the world's top 10 shipyards, has secured record orders last year and this year because of strong demand for crude carriers and offshore exploration equipment amid rising oil prices.

In the first half of this year South Korea's shipbuilding orders soared 38.2 per cent year-on-year in terms of tonnage to 11.

DF to invest more than US$1bn in water, infra works over 2yrs - Mexico

The Mexico City (DF) government will invest some 11.4bn pesos (US$1.03bn) in water and infrastructure works over the next two years, a source from the DF finance ministry confirmed to BNamericas.


The investment will have two sources: some 7.39bn pesos in money saved from the city refinancing its debt, and another 4bn pesos in bond emissions, local daily La Jornada quoted DF finance minister Mario Delgado as saying.

Debt refinancing will provide the city with 1.56bn pesos this year and another 5.83bn pesos in 2008, to be invested in works including the city's drainage system and public transport, said Delgado.

Of the 4bn pesos from the bond emissions, 32% will be set aside for works on the DF metro system, 21% for the city's Metrobús bus rapid transit system, 20% for waterworks and 27% for other works, said the finance minister.

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard defined such areas as priorities during his electoral campaign, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.

The finance ministry was charged by the mayor with finding areas where income could be generated to fund such works, and its deputy planning ministry was then given the responsibility of defining which works in these areas would have the highest social impact and overseeing them to ensure that they have the expected effects on city residents' quality of life, added the source.
The highest priority for Ebrard's government will be to improve the supply of water to the DF's eastern zone, followed by works to improve its drainage system, including its "Drenaje Profundo" rainwater drainage system, the source said.

This system was only designed for rainwater drainage, but has also been used to transport wastewater - containing chemicals such as methane-sulfuric gasses - that have caused the tunnel lining to deteriorate, previous reports indicated.

Works to improve the system include the construction of the Emisor Oriente rainwater drainage tunnel for the eastern zone of the city, the DF government previously announced on its website.
After this, improvements to the city's public transport system - namely Metrobús and the metro - are prioritized, said the finance ministry source.

Ebrard plans to install 10 new Metrobús lines by the end of his administration in 2012, and DF transport and highway department Setravi is looking to purchase 600-700 articulated and bi-articulated buses for the system, BNamericas reported previously.

In addition, construction of the new, 15km line 12 of the DF metro system will kick off in the second half of 2008, local press previously quoted Ebrard as saying.

The line will connect with a new suburban train line at the Buenavista station, as well as the new Eje 4 Sur bus line, said the mayor.