Free Republic

It is a trend in the consumer electronics business — manufacturers rise to become industry leaders only to be outshone by the competition as high-priced gadgets quickly become commodities. Based on recent earning reports of the biggest electronics makers, 24/7 Wall St. set out to identity the once high-flying brands that are now losing money. A review of the biggest losers demonstrates how little consumers care about prior successes. Although these companies were the industry darlings once, today consumers may not even remember their names. Companies such as Nintendo, Research In Motion, Sony and Nokia dominated their markets for a...

24/7 Wall St. has created a new list of brands that will disappear, which includes Sears (NASDAQ:SHLD), Sony Pictures (NYSE:SNE), American Apparel (NYSE:APP), Nokia (NYSE:NOK), Saab, A&W All-American Foods Restaurants, Soap Opera Digest, Sony Ericsson, MySpace (NYSE:NWS.A), and Kellogg’s Corn Pops. (NYSE:K).Each year, 24/7 Wall St. regularly compiles a list of brands that are going to disappear in the near-term. Last year’s list proved to be prescient in many instances, predicting the demise of T-Mobile among others. In late May, AT&T (NYSE:T) and Deutsch Telekom announced that AT&T would buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion. The deal would add 34...

Iran has banned “Zionist companies” in an amendment signed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Army Radio reported on Wednesday. The blacklist is made up of supposedly “Jewish-owned” American companies like IBM, Intel and Coca-Cola. The boycott comes as a reaction to American and UN sanctions against Iran. The amendment was added to a new law passed in reaction to the Gaza flotilla incident, titled “The Palestinian Support Law,” in which Teheran seeks to support Palestinians while isolating Israel, Army Radio reported. The Iranian Foreign Ministry is responsible for making sure the boycott is carried out. Ahmadinejad also announced that he planned...

As the recession deepens, economic forces continue to drive consolidation in the retail industry, debt comes due and increasingly discerning consumers buckle down on discretionary spending, an analysis by 24/7 Wall Street predicts that a number of well-known brands are likely to disappear before the end of 2010. To determine which brands are most likely at risk, 24/7 Wall Street examined 100 large brands it believes are in trouble and, for each, looked at public financial records, sales information, analyses from industry experts, the competitive landscape in each’s industry and the likelihood that a brand could be sold off in...

"Countries are ranked across 30 distinct categories providing a rich perspective on strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. The rankings speak to qualities that compel consideration and assets that shape country reputations, perceptions and experiences. New categories to this year's rankings include best country brand for "Standard of Living," "Political Freedom" and "Advanced Technology." World's strongest brands: 1. AUS 2. CAN 3. USA 4. ITA 5. SWI/CHE 6. FRA 7. NZL 8. GBR 9. JPN 10. SWE

More brands added to pet food recall STREETSVILLE, Ontario, March 19 (UPI) -- Pet food manufacturer Menu Foods of Streetsville, Ontario, has added seven brands to its list of potentially dangerous pet foods. The manufacturer issued a recall "cuts and gravy"-style cat and dog food brands including Americas Choice, Iams and President's Choice sold at stores across North America after it was revealed that the foods may contribute to kidney failure and death in cats and dogs, ABC News reported Monday. At least 10 pet deaths have been linked to the recalled foods. "It's very possible other companies will have...

SHANGHAI - When executives at Shanghai Automotive Industry failed in their bid to buy the celebrated Rover brand name for a line of cars they are rolling out this month, they quickly switched to Plan B: Call the new autos Roewe, instead. Roewe, which Shanghai Automotive suggests should be pronounced ''roe-wee,'' is the latest in a series of Chinese brands that bear a striking resemblance to foreign trade names. In some cases, names are drawing ire from multinational companies. Branding is in its infancy in China. Few Chinese companies have experience developing international brands -- something that has become a...

Parents of the five Virginia Tech wrestlers who plan to follow former coach Tom Brands to Iowa say Tech athletic director Jim Weaver's decision to deny their sons immediate transfer releases flies in the face of a promise he made during the recruiting process. Brent Metcalf, Joe Slaton, Dan LeClere, Jay Borschel and T.H. Leet -- all of whom redshirted as freshmen last season -- plan to enroll at Iowa but will lose a year of NCAA eligibility unless Virginia Tech releases them from their scholarship obligations. The fathers of Iowa natives Slaton, LeClere and Borschel said Weaver promised to...

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's hardline leadership branded the United States a "decaying power," brushing off Washington's call for strong UN Security Council action to stop the Islamic regime's controversial nuclear drive. The tough rhetoric came after the regime also dismissed a personal appeal from UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei to freeze uranium enrichment and calm suspicions it is seeking the atomic bomb. "The enemy should know Iran is not comparable to any country in the world. Now we are much more powerful than before," senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Janati told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran. "The United States...

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria's legal system and its insufficient zeal in investigating alleged crimes committed under Hitler's Third Reich make it a "paradise for Nazi war criminals," a top Nazi hunter said on Wednesday. Frustrated at slow progress in finding suspected war criminals in Austria and bringing them to court, Simon Wiesenthal Center director Efraim Zuroff came to Vienna for talks with ministers aimed at accelerating the process. "The law in this country does more to protect Nazis than to bring them to justice," Zuroff told reporters after talks with Austria's ministers for justice and the interior. "There is a...

New research from the University of Alberta reveals just how self-conscious and easily influenced consumers can be. Through a series of carefully controlled experiments at a campus bookstore, researchers learned that consumers will, in every case studied, spend more money to buy a brand name item when someone they don't know is standing near them at the time they choose their purchase. Consumers also tend to spend more money when a group of people is standing near them but are more inclined to buy cheaper items when no one is near.

It's no startling insight to point out that presidential candidates sell themselves as if they were breakfast cereal or laundry detergent. So it was perhaps inevitable that this would be taken a step further by studying consumers ... er, voters ... along these same lines. Accordingly, a new survey asked respondents to define the candidates in terms of popular advertising brands. Bush supporters, for example, think Mr. Bush is Bud Light and Mr. Kerry is Heineken. Kerry backers see Mr. Bush as IBM and Mr. Kerry as Dell. The study, conducted jointly by WPP Group's Landor branding consultancy and Penn,...

Some cigarette brands are likely to be far more addictive than others, new research warns. For the first time, scientists have measured the amount of super-addictive "freebase" nicotine different cigarettes deliver to the smoker. Like crack cocaine, freebase nicotine vaporises and passes rapidly through the lungs into the bloodstream. Because it reaches the brain so quickly it is thought to be more addictive than normal nicotine, which stays in the form of sooty smoke particles. Until now it has not been known how much freebase nicotine various types of cigarette contain. The new research, from a team at Oregon Health...