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Slow economy boosts car-share business

 
If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em.     

That 's exactly what car rental company Avis will do: it will buy Zipcar Inc for about $500 million and will become the No.1 player in the fast-growing U.S. car-sharing market.

Car sharing allows customers to rent cars at an hourly or daily rate and park in convenient reserved spots.

"We see car sharing as highly complementary to traditional car rental, with rapid growth potential and representing a scalable opportunity for us as a combined company. The total market is projected to reach $10 billion over the next several years," Avis Chief Executive Ronald Nelson said on a conference call with analysts.

Zipcar, founded more than 10 years ago, made $4 million last year. It controls about 75 percent of the $400 million car-sharing industry in the United States.  Zipcar's business is at least five times larger than Hertz's and Enterprise's car-sharing businesses. It has more than 760,000 members, or Zipsters, with a presence in 20 cities in the United States, Canada and Europe.

The deal will position Avis as the market leader in car-sharing services in the United States.

Zipcar will operate as a unit of Avis and Scott Griffith will remain the unit's chief.

Citigroup is advising Avis while Morgan Stanley is advising Zipcar on the transaction.

edited from Atlantic Wire and Reuters

ArcelorMittal to sell stake in Canadian unit

(Reuters) - ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steelmaker, will sell a 15 percent stake in one of its Canadian iron ore operations, raising $1.1 billion to help pay off debt at a time of sluggish demand.

The group, which makes about 6-7 percent of the world's steel, will sell the stake in ArcelorMittal Mines Canada to a consortium including South Korean steelmaker POSCO and Taiwan-listed China Steel.

ArcelorMittal Mines Canada operates two large open-pit mines in the province of Quebec, where it also owns the Port-Cartier industrial complex that includes a pellet plant, storage areas and port facilities for shipping.

ArcelorMittal also owns the huge Mary River iron ore project in Canada's arctic, in which it sold a 20 percent stake to joint venture partner Nunavut last month.

As part of the deal announced on Wednesday POSCO, China Steel and ArcelorMittal Mines Canada will enter into long-term iron ore supply agreements.

ArcelorMittal needs the funds to help compensate a slump in Europe, where demand is estimated to have fallen about 8 percent in 2012 and 29 percent since the start of the financial crisis in 2007.

ArcelorMittal is one of Canada's top exporters of iron ore to steel markets around the world and its operations account for about 40 percent of Canada's iron ore output.

The transaction is subject to approval from the Taiwanese government, and is expected to close in two installments in the first and second quarters of 2013.

Goldman Sachs and RBC Capital Markets are advising ArcelorMittal on the deal, while Morgan Stanley is advising the POSCO consortium.

edited from Reuters

So you find certain words annoying? Whatever

"You know" 
"Whatever" 
"Like"
 "just sayin'"

When it comes to the most annoying words or phrases used in conversation, those four top the list in 2012, according to the annual Marist Poll.

"Whatever" headed the list, cited by 32 percent of adults, and next came "like," which 21 percent didn't like.

Runners-up included "Twitterverse" and "gotcha'."

The results mirrored last year's survey when "whatever" topped the annoying words list for a third straight year. But "seriously," named by 7 percent last year, dropped off the list entirely - really.

Marist questioned 1,246 adults in a U.S. nationwide, telephone survey.

Results showed differences by age and regions, with people younger than 45 or in the Northeast especially annoyed by "like" while "you know" offended more of the 45-and-over set.

Men and women gave similar responses overall, but whites were twice as likely as non-whites to find "you know" irritating. And people under 45 were more than twice as likely as those over 45 to be put off by "just sayin' "

from Reuters