1.
Ticker symbol
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A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. A stock symbol may consist of letters, numbers or a combination of both, ticker symbol refers to the symbols that were printed on the ticker tape of a ticker tape machine. Stock symbols are unique identifiers assigned to each security traded on a particular market, for example, AAPL is for Apple Inc. OODH is for Orion DHC, Inc. and HD is for Home Depot, a stock symbol can consist of letters, numbers, or a combination of both, and is a way to uniquely identify that stock. The symbols were kept as short as possible to reduce the number of characters that had to be printed on the ticker tape, the allocation of symbols and formatting convention is specific to each stock exchange. In the US, for example, stock tickers are typically between 1 and 4 letters and represent the name where possible. In Europe, most exchanges use three-letter codes, for example Dutch consumer goods company Unilever traded on the Amsterdam Euronext exchange has the symbol UNA, while in Asia, numbers are often used as stock tickers to avoid issues for international investors when using non-Latin scripts. For example, the bank HSBCs stock traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has the ticker symbol 0005, symbols sometimes change to reflect mergers. Prior to the 1999 merger with Mobil Oil, Exxon used a spelling of the company XON as its ticker symbol. The symbol of the firm after the merger was XOM, symbols are sometimes reused, in the US the single-letter symbols are particularly sought after as vanity symbols. For example, since Mar 2008 Visa Inc. has used the symbol V that had previously used by Vivendi which had delisted. To fully qualify a stock, both the ticker and the exchange or country of listing needs to be known, on many systems both must be specified to uniquely identify the security. This is often done by appending the location or exchange code to the ticker, although stock tickers identify a security, they are exchange dependent, generally limited to stocks and can change. These limitations have led to the development of other codes in financial markets to identify securities for settlement purposes, the most prevalent of these is the International Securities Identifying Number. An ISIN uniquely identifies a security and its structure is defined in ISO6166, Securities for which ISINs are issued include bonds, commercial paper, stocks, and warrants. The ISIN identifies the security, not the exchange on which it trades, for instance, Daimler AG stock trades on twenty-two different stock exchanges worldwide, and is priced in five different currencies, it has the same ISIN on each, though not the same ticker symbol. ISIN cannot specify a particular trade in this case, and another identifier, following the introduction of the Sequence trading platform in 1996, EPICs were renamed Tradable Instrument Display Mnemonics, but they are still widely referred to as EPICs. Stocks can also be identified using their SEDOL number or their ISIN, in the United States, modern letter-only ticker symbols were developed by Standard & Poors to bring a national standard to investing
2.
NASDAQ
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The Nasdaq Stock Market is an American stock exchange. It is the second-largest exchange in the world by market capitalization, the exchange platform is owned by Nasdaq, Inc. which also owns the Nasdaq Nordic and Nasdaq Baltic stock market network and several other US stock and options exchanges. When it was founded, NASDAQ stood for the acronym of National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, NASDAQ was founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers, which divested itself of NASDAQ in a series of sales in 2000 and 2001. The Nasdaq Stock Market is owned and operated by Nasdaq, Inc. the stocks of which were listed on its own stock exchange marketing July 2,2002, when the Nasdaq Stock Market began trading on February 8,1971, it was the worlds first electronic stock market. At first, it was merely a system and did not provide a way to perform electronic trades. The Nasdaq Stock Market helped lower the spread but was unpopular among brokerages which made much of their money on the spread. As late as 1987, the NASDAQ exchange was still referred to as OTC in media. Over the years, the Nasdaq Stock Market became more of a market by adding trade and volume reporting. The Nasdaq Stock Market attracted new companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Oracle and Dell. Its main index is the NASDAQ Composite, which has published since its inception. In 1992, the Nasdaq Stock Market joined with the London Stock Exchange to form the first intercontinental linkage of securities markets, the National Association of Securities Dealers spun off the Nasdaq Stock Market in 2000 to form a publicly traded company. In 2006, the status of the Nasdaq Stock Market was changed from a market to a licensed national securities exchange. In 2007, Nasdaq merged with OMX, an exchange operator in the Nordic countries, expanded its global footprint. NASDAQ OMX could be looking to acquire the American exchanges cash equities business, at the time, NYSE Euronext’s market value was $9.75 billion. Nasdaq was valued at $5.78 billion, while ICE was valued at $9.45 billion. Late in the month, Nasdaq was reported to be considering asking either ICE or the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to join in what would probably have to be, if it proceeded, an $11–12 billion counterbid. The European Association of Securities Dealers Automatic Quotation System was founded as a European equivalent to the Nasdaq Stock Market and it was purchased by NASDAQ in 2001 and became NASDAQ Europe. Operations were shut down, however, as a result of the burst of the dot-com bubble, in 2007, NASDAQ Europe was revived as Equiduct, and is currently operating under Börse Berlin
3.
Russell 2000 Index
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The Russell 2000 Index is a small-cap stock market index of the bottom 2,000 stocks in the Russell 3000 Index. The index is maintained by FTSE Russell, a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group, the Russell 2000 is by far the most common benchmark for mutual funds that identify themselves as small-cap, while the S&P500 index is used primarily for large capitalization stocks. It is the most widely quoted measure of the performance of the small-cap to mid-cap company shares. The index represents approximately 8% of the market capitalization of the Russell 3000 Index. As of 28 February 2017, the average market capitalization for a company in the index is around $2.2 billion. The market cap of the largest company in the index is almost $13.2 billion and its first trades above the 1,000 level occurred May 21–22,2013. Similar small-cap indices include the S&P600 from Standard & Poors, the ticker symbol on most systems is ^RUT. Many fund companies offer mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that attempt to replicate the performance of the Russell 2000 and their results will be affected by stock selection, trading expenses, and market impact of reacting to changes in the constituent companies of the index. Note that it is not possible to invest directly in an index, Russell Investments Russell 3000 Index Russell 1000 Index S&P600 iShares Russell 2000 Russell 2000 Index Fact Sheet Russell US Indexes Russell Investment Group Yahoo. Finance page for ^RUT Bloomberg page for RTY, IND
4.
Boston
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Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Boston is also the seat of Suffolk County, although the county government was disbanded on July 1,1999. The city proper covers 48 square miles with a population of 667,137 in 2015, making it the largest city in New England. Alternately, as a Combined Statistical Area, this wider commuting region is home to some 8.1 million people, One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon U. S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education, through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the original peninsula. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing over 20 million visitors per year, Bostons many firsts include the United States first public school, Boston Latin School, first subway system, the Tremont Street Subway, and first public park, Boston Common. Bostons economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, the city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States as it has undergone gentrification, though it remains high on world livability rankings. Bostons early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the renaming on September 7,1630 was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest of fresh water. Their settlement was limited to the Shawmut Peninsula, at that time surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River. The peninsula is thought to have been inhabited as early as 5000 BC, in 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colonys first governor John Winthrop led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, a key founding document of the city. Puritan ethics and their focus on education influenced its early history, over the next 130 years, the city participated in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their Indian allies in North America. Boston was the largest town in British America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid-18th century, Bostons harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Bostons merchants had found alternatives for their investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the economy, and the citys industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. Boston remained one of the nations largest manufacturing centers until the early 20th century, a network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a network of railroads furthered the regions industry. Boston was a port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies
5.
Raincoast Books
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Raincoast Books is a Canadian book distribution and wholesale company. Today, Raincoast has over 90 employees and three divisions, Raincoast Distribution, Publishers Group Canada, and BookExpress, Raincoast Distribution provides Canadian representation to general trade and gift publishers from the United States and Canada. Companies distributed by Raincoast include Chronicle Books, Drawn & Quarterly, Hay House, Lonely Planet, Moleskine, Raincoast was awarded Book Distributor of the Year by the Canada Booksellers Association in 2004,2005, and 2006. AMACOM Beginning Press Berrett-Koehler Publishers Bilingual Books, Inc, based in Toronto, Ontario, PGC distributes independently owned book publishing houses including Grove Atlantic, New World Library and Egmont Books in Canada. BookExpress is a wholesale division supplying Canadian bookstores and retailers, BookExpress carries bestselling books from publishers including Random House Canada, Penguin Books Canada, HarperCollins Canada, H. B. Fenn, Andrews McMeel, Scholastic Canada, Diamond Book Distribution, between 1995 and 2008, Raincoast Books was also a Canadian book publisher. The Raincoast publishing program produced a range of fiction and non-fiction titles for both adults and children. Authors who published work with Raincoast included Anne Fleming, Alison Pick, Colin McAdam, Nick Bantock, George Bowering, Paul William Roberts, Naim Kattan, Roy Miki, Amanda K. Hale, and Bill Gaston. As a publisher, the company was noted for using large amounts of recycled paper in its books, on January 7,2008, Raincoast announced that it would cease to publish new books due to the rise in the Canadian dollar. Raincoast also ceased to be the Canadian publisher of J. K, rowlings Harry Potter books in 2010
6.
Thomas Nelson (publisher)
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Thomas Nelson is a publishing firm that began in West Bow, Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1798 as the namesake of its founder. It is a subsidiary of HarperCollins, the unit of News Corp. Their most successful title to date is Heaven Is for Real, in Canada, the Nelson imprint is used for educational publishing. In the United Kingdom, it was a publisher until the late 20th Century and is now part of another educational imprint. The company gained its ‘Sons’ when William and Thomas Jr. entered their father’s business in 1835 and 1839, Thomas Sr. died in 1861 and is buried in the extreme NW corner of Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh. William concentrated his talents on the side, while Thomas Jr. devoted his to editing. Their Hope Park Works in Edinburgh burned down in 1878 and the city council allowed temporary accommodation on the Meadows, in appreciation, the company funded the stone pillars at the east end of Melville Drive. William Nelson died in 1887 and Thomas Jr. died in 1892 and they were succeeded by George Brown, Thomas’s nephew, who directed the company until Thomas III and Ian, Thomas Jr. s sons, were able to join him and John Buchan as partners. Buchan, employed by the firm until 1929, dedicated his novel The Thirty Nine Steps to Thomas III in 1914, Ian Nelson took over as head of the family firm after Thomas Nelson IIIs death in action in 1917 during the First World War. By the early century, Thomas Nelson had become a secular concern in the United Kingdom. The First World War led to the rundown of Nelson, through the denial of foreign markets, the loss of manpower, and the general exigencies of wartime. Much of the effort expended during the period represented merely an attempt to reverse that decline, particularly in expanding the education list. Ian Nelson remained head of the firm until his death in 1958, Ian Nelson’s successor, his son Ronnie Nelson, seemed less interested in the successful management of the family firm than previous generations. In 1962, Thomas Nelson and Sons was absorbed into the Thomson Organisation in an effort to sustain its academic, the printing division of Nelsons was sold to the Edinburgh company Morrison and Gibb in 1968. Until 1968, according to the curators of a Senate House Library exhibition and it was the first publisher for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Thomson owned the company from 1960 until 2000 and that year, it was acquired by Wolters Kluwer, who merged Nelson with its existing publishing arm, Stanley Thornes, to form Nelson Thornes. The American branch of Thomas Nelson was set up in 1854 in New York and, by the 1870s and it held the copyright for the American Standard Version of the Bible from 1901 until 1928, when it transferred the copyright to the International Council of Religious Education. In the 1930s, the made a deal with this Council to publish the Revised Standard Version
7.
John Joseph Adams
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John Joseph Adams is an American science fiction and fantasy editor, critic, and publisher. He has been called The reigning king of the world by Barnes & Noble. com. He is a finalist for the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor, Short Form and he worked as Assistant Editor at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction from May 2001 to December 2009. In January 2010 he left F&SF to edit Lightspeed Magazine, a science fiction magazine which launched June 1,2010. In March 2011 he took charge of its magazine, Fantasy Magazine. On June 7,2012, Adams and Creeping Hemlock Press successfully closed a $7,500 Kickstarter campaign at $9,740 for funding Nightmare Magazine first issue released October 2012, Adams serves as co-publisher and editor-in-chief. com. Since January 2010 Adams and science fiction author David Barr Kirtley have produced and hosted Geeks Guide to the Galaxy, in November 2011 Adams purchased Lightspeed and Fantasy Magazine from Sean Wallace of Prime Books. With the January 2012 issue, the first published under Adamss ownership, the Fantasy Magazine staff was also absorbed into Lightspeed. John Joseph Adams, Official Site John Joseph Adams at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
8.
Financial District, Boston
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The Financial District of Boston is located in the downtown area near Government Center and Chinatown. Like many areas within Boston, the Financial District has no official definition and it is roughly bounded by Atlantic Avenue, State Street, and Devonshire Street. Parts of the Financial District are in various USPS postal ZIP Codes, including 02108,02109,02110, the area includes Post Office Square, the Exchange Place and International Place complexes, and the landmark Custom House Tower, and borders Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall. C. Dewey Square, One Financial Center, and the plaza and towers housing the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston are located near South Station, adjacent to and just south of the area defined above. Also part of the Financial District are 33 Arch Street, One Federal Street, the First National Bank Building,100 Summer Street, there has been some recent development and construction in the area. Russia Wharf was recently completed along the Fort Channel and rises up to 395 feet and 32 stories, construction of South Station Tower was scheduled to begin in 2009 but has been put on hold. If completed the tower would rise to 621 feet and 41 stories, One Franklin Street has recently been reworked by developers and construction on a 600 ft tower will begin in the near future. Other towers in the such as the Aquarium Garage Development. Financial District, Boston travel guide from Wikivoyage
9.
Textbook
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A textbook or coursebook is a manual of instruction in any branch of study. Textbooks are produced according to the demands of educational institutions, schoolbooks are textbooks and other books used in schools. Although most textbooks arent only published in printed format, many are now available as online electronic books, the ancient Greeks wrote texts intended for education. The modern textbook has its roots in the standardization made possible by the printing press, Johannes Gutenberg himself may have printed editions of Ars Minor, a schoolbook on Latin grammar by Aelius Donatus. Early textbooks were used by tutors and teachers, who used the books as instructional aids, the Greek philosopher Plato lamented the loss of knowledge because the media of transmission were changing. Before the invention of the Greek alphabet 2,500 years ago, knowledge and stories were recited aloud, the new technology of writing meant stories no longer needed to be memorized, a development Socrates feared would weaken the Greeks mental capacities for memorizing and retelling. The next revolution for books came with the 15th-century invention of printing with changeable type, the invention is attributed to German metalsmith Johannes Gutenberg, who cast type in molds using a melted metal alloy and constructed a wooden-screw printing press to transfer the image onto paper. Gutenbergs invention made mass production of texts possible for the first time, compulsory education and the subsequent growth of schooling in Europe led to the printing of many standardized texts for children. Textbooks have become the primary teaching instrument for most children since the 19th century, two textbooks of historical significance in United States schooling were the 18th century New England Primer and the 19th century McGuffey Readers. Technological advances change the way people interact with textbooks, online and digital materials are making it increasingly easy for students to access materials other than the traditional print textbook. Students now have access to electronic and PDF books, online tutoring systems, an example of an electronically published book, or e-book, is Principles of Biology from Nature Publishing. Most notably, a number of authors are foregoing commercial publishers. The textbook market does not operate in the manner as most consumer markets. First, the end consumers do not select the product, therefore, price is removed from the purchasing decision, giving the producer disproportionate market power to set prices high. This fundamental difference in the market is often cited as the reason that prices are out of control. The term broken market first appeared in the economist James Kochs analysis of the commissioned by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance. This situation is exacerbated by the lack of competition in the textbook market, consolidation in the past few decades has reduced the number of major textbook companies from around 30 to just a handful. Consequently, there is less competition than there used to be, Students seek relief from rising prices through the purchase of used copies of textbooks, which tend to be less expensive
10.
Reference work
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A reference work is a book or periodical to which one can refer for information. The information is intended to be found quickly when needed, Reference works are usually referred to for particular pieces of information, rather than read beginning to end. The writing style used in works is informative, the authors avoid use of the first person. Many reference works are compiled by a team of contributors whose work is coordinated by one or more editors rather than by an individual author, indices are commonly provided in many types of reference work. Updated editions are published as needed, in some cases annually. Reference works include dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedias, almanacs, bibliographies, many reference works are available in electronic form and can be obtained as application software, CD-ROMs, DVDs, or online through the Internet. A reference work is useful to its users if they attribute some degree of trust, in comparison, a reference book or reference-only book in a library is one that may only be used in the library and may not be borrowed from the library. Many such books are works, which are, usually, used briefly or photocopied from. Keeping them in the library assures that they always be available for use on demand. Some reference-only books are too valuable to permit borrowers to take them out, reference-only items may be shelved in a reference collection located separately from circulating items. Some libraries consist entirely, or to an extent, of books which may not be borrowed. An electronic resource is a piece of information that is stored electronically, general American Reference Books Annual, ARBA. Littleton, Col. Libraries Unlimited, 1970- Bergenholtz, H. Nielsen, S. Tarp, S. Lexicography at a Crossroads, Dictionaries and Encyclopedias Today, printed Reference Material London, Library Association Katz, W. A. Introduction to Reference Work, 3rd ed.2 vols, new York, McGraw-Hill Nielsen, Sandro The Effect of Lexicographical Information Costs on Dictionary Making and Use. J. Walfords Concise Guide to Reference Material, London, Library Association ISBN 0-85365-882-X, p.19. Books of Reference for School Libraries, an annotated list, 2nd ed. London, Library Association Malclès, geneva, Droz, 1950-58 Sheehy, E. P. et al. comps. Guide to Reference Books, 9th ed. Chicago, American Library Association, Supplement,1980 Totok, W. & Weitzel, aufl. hrg. von W. Totok, K. -H. Frankfurt am Main, Klostermann Day, Alan, walford, A. J. Walfords Guide to Reference Material
11.
Harcourt (publisher)
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Harcourt was a United States publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with offices in New York City and Orlando. From 1919 to 1982, it was based in New York City, Houghton Mifflin acquired Harcourt in 2007. It incorporated the Harcourt name to form Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, as of 2012, all Harcourt books that have been re-released are under the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt name. The Harcourt Childrens Books division left the name intact on all of its books under that name as part of HMH, schools Education and Trade Publishing parts of Harcourt Education were sold by Reed Elsevier to Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group. Harcourt Assessment and Harcourt Education International were acquired by Pearson, the education and information company. The company later moved to New York City, where it became a test publisher, much of the companys success was based on the work of Arthur S. Otis. He was best known for the tests he developed for the U. S. Army. Millions of World War I draftees took Otis tests, World Book Company became the first publisher of group-administered tests measuring mental ability when it published Otiss Group Intelligence Scale in 1918. Otis became a World Book employee in 1921, by 1960, World Book had a portfolio of educational tests, including the Stanford Achievement Test, the Metropolitan Achievement Test and the Otis Mental Ability Test. Alfred Harcourt and Donald Brace were friends at Columbia College of Columbia University in New York, the two worked for Henry Holt and Company before founding their own publishing company in 1919, Harcourt, Brace & Howe, along with editor Will David Howe. After Howe left the company in 1921, the changed the name to Harcourt. The name Harcourt, Brace & World was introduced in 1931, by 1960, Harcourt Brace led the market in high school textbook publishing, but had little presence in the elementary school market. This strategic action improved the position of Harcourt Brace because World Book was an elementary textbook publisher. In 1970, the company was known as Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and that same year, the company acquired The Psychological Corporation. Under Jovanovichs leadership, the company diversified into non-publishing businesses such as insurance and it also bought several theme parks—including SeaWorld, which it acquired in 1976 for $46 million. The company divested its theme park division in 1989 for $1.1 billion, Harcourt also published mass-market paperback books with Pyramid Books, which it bought out in 1974 and renamed Jove Books. It sold this section to the Putnam Berkley Group in 1979, in 1991, General Cinema Corporation, a diversified company, acquired Harcourt Brace Jovanovich for more than $1.5 billion
12.
Cayman Islands
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The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory in the western Caribbean Sea. Its population is approximately 60,000, and its capital is George Town, the Cayman Islands are considered to be part of the geographic Western Caribbean Zone as well as the Greater Antilles. The territory is considered a major world offshore financial haven for many wealthy individuals. The Cayman Islands remained largely uninhabited until the 17th century, the first recorded permanent inhabitant of the Cayman Islands, Isaac Bodden, was born on Grand Cayman around 1661. He was the grandson of the original settler named Bodden who was one of Oliver Cromwells soldiers at the taking of Jamaica in 1655. England took formal control of the Cayman Islands, along with Jamaica, following several unsuccessful attempts at settlement, a permanent English-speaking population in the islands dates from the 1730s. With settlement, after the first royal land grant by the Governor of Jamaica in 1734, many were brought to the islands from Africa, this is evident today with the majority of native Caymanians being of African and English descent. The results of the first census taken in the islands in 1802 showed the population on Grand Cayman to be 933 with 545 of those inhabitants being enslaved, slavery was abolished in the Cayman Islands in 1833. At the time of abolition, there were over 950 Blacks of African ancestry enslaved by 116 white families of English ancestry. The islands continued to be governed as part of the Colony of Jamaica until 1962, the Cayman Islands historically have been a tax-exempt destination. On 8 February 1794, the Caymanians rescued the crews of a group of ten merchant ships, including HMS Convert, the ships had struck a reef and run aground during rough seas. Legend has it that King George III rewarded the island with a never to introduce taxes as compensation for their generosity. While this remains a legend, the story is not true. However, whatever the history, in practice the government of the Cayman Islands has always relied on indirect, the islands have never levied income tax, capital gains tax, or any wealth tax, making them a popular tax haven. On 11 September 2004 the island of Grand Cayman, which lies largely unprotected at sea level, was hit by Hurricane Ivan, an estimated 83% of the dwellings on the island were damaged including 4% requiring complete reconstruction. A reported 70% of all dwellings suffered severe damage from flooding or wind, another 26% sustained minor damage from partial roof removal, low levels of flooding, or impact with floating or wind driven hurricane debris. Power, water and communications were disrupted for months in areas as Ivan was the worst hurricane to hit the islands in 86 years. Grand Cayman began a rebuilding process and within two years its infrastructure was nearly returned to pre-hurricane status.23 years
13.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Learning Technology
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Founded in 1995, Riverdeep was principally the creation of the Irish ex-investment banker Barry OCallaghan. OCallaghan was Riverdeeps CEO and controlling shareholder, Riverdeep also acquired the companies Broderbund, The Learning Company and Edmark, and became a distributor for said companies. In October 2002, Riverdeep became an entity when their stock price plummeted below $2 in NASDAQ. On September 20,2004, Riverdeep moved its Novato office to 100 Pine Street in San Francisco, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt officially became a publicly traded company on November 14,2013, with common shares of stock listed on the NASDAQ exchange. As of 2017, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is offering the Adventure Workshop brand as an opportunity on its website. Riverdeep also helped on a game called Hamtaro, Wake Up Snoozer, on December 22,2006, it was announced that Riverdeep PLC had completed its acquisition of Houghton Mifflin. The new joint enterprise would be called the Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group, Riverdeep paid 1.75 billion in cash and assumed $1.61 billion in debt from the private investment firms Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bain Capital Partners and The Blackstone Group. Tony Lucki, a former director of Riverdeep, would remain in his position as Houghton Mifflins chief executive officer. HM Rivergroup indicated it wanted to capitalize on the convergence of print, existing investors put up $23 million of equity financing to help to meet the $3.7 billion cash requirement for the purchase. Reed took a $300 million stake in Houghton Mifflin, Inc. which left it with 11.8 per cent of the stock in the enlarged company. The combined business became known as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and a new holding company, the Riverdeep name is no longer used by HMH
14.
William Ticknor
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William Davis Ticknor I was an American publisher in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and a founder of the publishing house Ticknor and Fields. William Davis Ticknor was born on August 6,1810, on the outskirts of Lebanon, New Hampshire and his parents, William and Betsey Ticknor, were prosperous farmers. His cousin was the writer and historian George Ticknor. As a boy, Ticknor worked on the farm during the summers. In 1827 at age seventeen he left home and went to Boston and he was first employed in the brokerage house of his uncle Benjamin. When his uncle died a few later he was offered a position at the Columbian Bank. In 1832 he went into partnership with John Allen forming the house of Allen. The following year Allen withdrew and Ticknor carried on the house under the name William D. Ticknor and Company, in 1837 he published the national monthly American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge. On December 25,1832 he married Miss Emeline Staniford Holt and they had seven children together, only five survived into adulthood. Their three sons Howard Malcom, Benjamin Holt and Thomas Baldwin all graduated from Harvard and entered into their father’s firm, during the Civil War his son Benjamin Holt Ticknor enlisted in the Forty-Fifth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers and was commissioned as second lieutenant of Company G until May 1863. He was then commissioned as lieutenant in the Second Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. He was later commissioned at captain of Company E and was in command of the camp at Readville. He resigned from service shortly after his father’s death, in 1845 the imprint of the firm was changed to Ticknor, Reed and Fields after John Reed and James Thomas Fields were admitted as partners. It continued under this imprint until 1854 when John Reed withdrew, with the widely varying but well matched talents of the two partners Ticknor and Fields grew to become one of the leading publishing houses in the 19th century. Ticknor was the first American publisher to pay authors for the rights to their works beginning with a check to Tennyson in 1842. The firm also published the Atlantic Monthly, Our Young Folks, shortly after the firm was contracted for Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter Ticknor became a close friend and advisor to Hawthorne. In the spring of 1864 Hawthornes health was failing, both Ticknor and Sophia Hawthorne insisted on a restorative health trip. During their trip, Ticknors health suddenly failed and he caught what he assumed was a cold before leaving Boston and Hawthorne later wrote home that his friend had eaten bad oysters
15.
James Thomas Fields
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James Thomas Fields was an American publisher, editor, and poet. He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on December 31,1817 and named James Field and his father was a sea captain and died before Fields was three. He and his brother were raised by their mother and her siblings, their aunt Mary, at the age of 14, Fields took a job at the Old Corner Bookstore in Boston as an apprentice to publishers Carter and Hendee. In 1839, he joined William Ticknor and became partner in the publishing and bookselling firm known after 1845 as Ticknor. Ticknor oversaw the business side of the firm while Fields was its literary expert and he became known for being likable, for his ability to find creative talent, and for his ability to promote authors and win their loyalty. With this company, Fields became the publisher of leading contemporary American writers and he was also the American publisher of some of the best-known British writers of his time, some of whom he also knew intimately. The company paid royalties to these British authors, including Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray, the first collected edition of Thomas de Quinceys works was published by his firm. Sometime in 1844, Fields was engaged to Mary Willard, a woman six years younger than him. Before they could be married, she died of tuberculosis on April 17,1845 and he maintained a close friendship with her family and, on March 13,1850, married her 18-year-old sister Eliza Willard at Bostons Federal Street Church. Also sick with tuberculosis, she died on July 13,1851, grief-stricken, he left the United States for a time and traveled to Europe. In 1854, Fields married Annie Adams, who was an author herself, mrs. Fields was instrumental in helping Mr. Fields establish literary salons at their home at 37 Charles Street in Boston, where they entertained many well-known writers. One such writer was Nathaniel Hawthorne, in 1867, he performed the same role after the death of Nathaniel Parker Willis, along with Holmes, Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, and Samuel Gridley Howe. Ticknor and Fields purchased The Atlantic Monthly for $10,000 and, at a New Years Eve party in 1865, he met William Dean Howells and 10 days later offered him a position as assistant editor of the Atlantic. Howells accepted but was dismayed by Fieldss close supervision. Ticknor died in 1864, leaving Fields the senior partner for the firm, Fields was less concerned with the retail store owned by the company and wanted to focus on publishing. On November 12,1864, he sold the Old Corner Bookstore and moved Ticknor, in 1868 the business became Fields, Osgood, and Company, recognizing James R. Osgood. On New Years Day,1871, Fields announced his retirement at a gathering of friends. No longer involved with editorial duties, he devoted himself to lecturing and writing
16.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, following this work, he gave a speech entitled The American Scholar in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. considered to be Americas intellectual Declaration of Independence. Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures first and then revised them for print and his first two collections of essays, Essays, First Series and Essays, Second Series, represent the core of his thinking. They include the well-known essays Self-Reliance, The Over-Soul, Circles, The Poet, together with Nature, these essays made the decade from the mid-1830s to the mid-1840s Emersons most fertile period. Emersons nature was more philosophical than naturalistic, Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature, Emerson is one of several figures who took a more pantheist or pandeist approach by rejecting views of God as separate from the world. He remains among the linchpins of the American romantic movement, and his work has influenced the thinkers, writers. When asked to sum up his work, he said his doctrine was the infinitude of the private man. Emerson is also known as a mentor and friend of Henry David Thoreau. Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 25,1803, a son of Ruth Haskins and the Rev. William Emerson and he was named after his mothers brother Ralph and his fathers great-grandmother Rebecca Waldo. Ralph Waldo was the second of five sons who survived adulthood, the others were William, Edward, Robert Bulkeley. Three other children—Phebe, John Clarke, and Mary Caroline—died in childhood, Emerson was entirely of English ancestry, and his family had been in New England since the early colonial period. Emersons father died from cancer on May 12,1811. Emerson was raised by his mother, with the help of the women in the family. She lived with the family off and on and maintained a constant correspondence with Emerson until her death in 1863, Emersons formal schooling began at the Boston Latin School in 1812, when he was nine. In October 1817, at 14, Emerson went to Harvard College and was appointed freshman messenger for the president, requiring Emerson to fetch delinquent students and send messages to faculty. Midway through his year, Emerson began keeping a list of books he had read. He took outside jobs to cover his expenses, including as a waiter for the Junior Commons and as an occasional teacher working with his uncle Samuel in Waltham. By his senior year, Emerson decided to go by his middle name, Emerson served as Class Poet, as was custom, he presented an original poem on Harvards Class Day, a month before his official graduation on August 29,1821, when he was 18
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Nathaniel Hawthorne
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Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, to Nathaniel Hathorne and his ancestors include John Hathorne, the only judge involved in the Salem witch trials who never repented of his actions. Nathaniel later added a w to make his name Hawthorne in order to hide this relation and he entered Bowdoin College in 1821, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1824, and graduated in 1825. Hawthorne published his first work, a novel titled Fanshawe, in 1828, he tried to suppress it. He published several stories in periodicals, which he collected in 1837 as Twice-Told Tales. The next year, he engaged to Sophia Peabody. He worked at the Boston Custom House and joined Brook Farm, the couple moved to The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, later moving to Salem, the Berkshires, then to The Wayside in Concord. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, followed by a succession of other novels, a political appointment as consul took Hawthorne and family to Europe before their return to Concord in 1860. Hawthorne died on May 19,1864, and was survived by his wife, much of Hawthornes writing centers on New England, many works featuring moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically and his themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. His published works include novels, short stories, and a biography of his college friend Franklin Pierce, Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4,1804, in Salem, Massachusetts, his birthplace is preserved and open to the public. William Hathorne, the authors great-great-great-grandfather, a Puritan, was the first of the family to emigrate from England, first settling in Dorchester, Massachusetts, before moving to Salem. There he became an important member of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and held political positions including magistrate and judge. Williams son and the authors great-great-grandfather, John Hathorne, was one of the judges who oversaw the Salem witch trials. Hawthornes father, Nathaniel Hathorne, Sr. was a sea captain who died in 1808 of yellow fever in Suriname, he had been a member of the East India Marine Society. After his death, young Nathaniel, his mother, and two sisters moved in with relatives, the Mannings, in Salem, where they lived for 10 years. In 1819, he was sent back to Salem for school and soon complained of homesickness and being too far from his mother and sisters. In spite of his homesickness, for the sake of having fun, he distributed seven issues of The Spectator to his family in August, the homemade newspaper was written by hand
18.
Henry David Thoreau
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Henry David Thoreau was an American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian. Thoreaus books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes and he was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave Law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending the abolitionist John Brown. Amos Bronson Alcott and Thoreaus aunt each wrote that Thoreau is pronounced like the word thorough, Edward Waldo Emerson wrote that the name should be pronounced Thó-row, with the h sounded and stress on the first syllable. Among modern-day American speakers, it is more commonly pronounced thə-ROH—/θəˈroʊ/—with stress on the second syllable. Thoreau was a man, with a nose that he called my most prominent feature. Of his appearance and disposition, Ellery Channing wrote, His face, once seen, Henry David Thoreau was born David Henry Thoreau in Concord, Massachusetts, into the modest New England family of John Thoreau, a pencil maker, and Cynthia Dunbar. His paternal grandfather was born in Jersey and his maternal grandfather, Asa Dunbar, led Harvards 1766 student Butter Rebellion, the first recorded student protest in the American colonies. David Henry was named after his recently deceased uncle, David Thoreau. He began to call himself Henry David after he finished college and he had two older siblings, Helen and John Jr. and a younger sister, Sophia. Thoreaus birthplace still exists on Virginia Road in Concord, the house has been restored by the Thoreau Farm Trust, a nonprofit organization, and is now open to the public. He studied at Harvard College between 1833 and 1837 and he lived in Hollis Hall and took courses in rhetoric, classics, philosophy, mathematics, and science. He was a member of the Institute of 1770, according to legend, Thoreau refused to pay the five-dollar fee for a Harvard diploma. He commented, Let every sheep keep its own skin, a reference to the tradition of using sheepskin vellum for diplomas, after he graduated in 1837, he joined the faculty of the Concord public school, but he resigned after a few weeks rather than administer corporal punishment. He and his brother John then opened the Concord Academy, a school in Concord in 1838. They introduced several concepts, including nature walks and visits to local shops. The school closed when John became fatally ill from tetanus in 1842 after cutting himself while shaving, upon graduation Thoreau returned home to Concord, where he met Ralph Waldo Emerson through a mutual friend. Emerson urged Thoreau to contribute essays and poems to a periodical, The Dial. Thoreaus first essay published in The Dial was Aulus Persius Flaccus and it consisted of revised passages from his journal, which he had begun keeping at Emersons suggestion
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Henry Oscar Houghton
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Henry Oscar Houghton was an American publisher, co-founder of Houghton Mifflin, and a mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Houghton was born into a family in Sutton, Vermont. At age thirteen, he started working as an apprentice at The Burlington Free Press, after graduation from the University of Vermont, he moved to Boston to work first as a reporter, then proofreader. He then joined a small Cambridge firm, Freeman & Bolles, at age 25 he became a partner and in 1849 the company was renamed Bolles and Houghton. After Bolles left, he took on full responsibility, in 1852 Houghton moved the business to beside the Charles River, renaming it the Riverside Press. Before the Riverside Press, American books had generally been printed with ink on cheap paper. Houghton insisted on higher quality, his motto was Do it well or not at all. He became the printer for publishers Ticknor and Fields. Merriam Company to print and bind their new dictionary, in 1864 Houghton formed a partnership with Melancthon M. Hurd, a New York publisher. Hurd & Houghton was a success, and within three years the company increased its workforce from 90 to 300 employees. George Harrison Mifflin became a partner in 1872 and, when Houghton became mayor of Cambridge, in 1878, when Hurd retired, Houghton joined with James R. Osgood, formerly of Ticknor and Fields, to create Houghton, Osgood and Company. Lawson Valentine would become the partner and provide $200,000 in fresh capital. The firm was plagued by personal debts from Osgood, the firm dissolved and in 1880 Houghton and Mifflin formed Houghton, Mifflin and Company. Houghton died on August 25,1895 and he had one son and three daughters. In his 1891 will he appointed daughter Elizabeth Harris Houghton representative to nominate a patient for the bed the testator established in the Cambridge hospital
20.
Ticknor and Fields
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Ticknor and Fields was an American publishing company based in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1832 William Davis Ticknor and John Allen began a publishing business which operated out of the Old Corner Bookstore located on Washington and School Streets in Boston. The space had previously used by publishers Carter & Hendee. When Ticknor and Allen began their business, Fields joined them, a year later, Allen withdrew from the firm and Ticknor continued business under William D. Ticknor and Company. When John Reed and Fields became partners in 1845 the imprint was changed to Ticknor, Reed, Reed Retired in 1854 and the imprint became the well-known Ticknor and Fields. During these years the firm purchased and printed the Atlantic Monthly, also in 1842 Ticknor became the first American publisher to pay foreign writers for their works, beginning with a check to Tennyson. The Old Corner Bookstore had become the house and meeting place for these authors. The success of the firm was largely in part to the perfectly matched but widely varied talents of Ticknor, Ticknor gave his attention to the financial and manufacturing departments while Fields focused on literary relations and social aspects of the business. It was also during these years that Ticknor and Fields developed a relationship with the Riverside Press. In the spring of 1864, Ticknor accompanied Nathaniel Hawthorne on a trip to restore the authors health, during the trip, Ticknor became ill with pneumonia. Hawthorne wrote to Fields that our friend Ticknor is suffering under a billious attack and he had previously seemed uncomfortable, but not to an alarming degree. Ticknor died on the morning of April 10,1864, upon Ticknors sudden and unexpected death, interests in the firm were carried on by his son Howard M. Ticknor. During these years the business had outgrown the Old Corner Bookstore and Fields and he sold the Old Corner Bookstore on November 12,1864, and moved the publishing house to 124 Tremont Street. The firm also began to publish Our Young Folks edited by Howard M. Ticknor. The younger Ticknor soon retired and, in 1868, the firm was reorganized as Fields, Osgood, & Co. Benjamin Holt Ticknor, son of William Davis Ticknor, was admitted at a partner in 1870. On New Years Day,1871, Fields announced his retirement from the business at a gathering of friends. On January 2,1871, the partners bought out Fieldss share of the company for $120,000 and was renamed James R. Osgood & Co. The firm invested in heliotype printing technology, various periodicals, within a few years, the company was in financial difficulty and Osgood and B. H. Ticknor were forced to sell off various assets, including many stereotype plates
21.
Literature
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Literature, in its broadest sense, is any single body of written works. Its Latin root literatura/litteratura was used to refer to all written accounts, developments in print technology have allowed an evergrowing distribution and proliferation of written works, culminating in electronic literature. There have been attempts to define literature. Simon and Delyse Ryan begin their attempt to answer the question What is Literature, with the observation, The quest to discover a definition for literature is a road that is much travelled, though the point of arrival, if ever reached, is seldom satisfactory. Most attempted definitions are broad and vague, and they change over time. In fact, the thing that is certain about defining literature is that the definition will change. Concepts of what is literature change over time as well, definitions of literature have varied over time, it is a culturally relative definition. In Western Europe prior to the century, literature as a term indicated all books. A more restricted sense of the term emerged during the Romantic period, contemporary debates over what constitutes literature can be seen as returning to the older, more inclusive notion of what constitutes literature. Cultural studies, for instance, takes as its subject of both popular and minority genres, in addition to canonical works. The value judgment definition of literature considers it to cover exclusively those writings that possess high quality or distinction and this sort of definition is that used in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition when it classifies literature as the best expression of the best thought reduced to writing. The formalist definition is that literature foregrounds poetic effects, it is the literariness or poetic of literature that distinguishes it from ordinary speech or other kinds of writing. Etymologically, the term derives from Latin literatura/litteratura learning, a writing, grammar, originally writing formed with letters, in spite of this, the term has also been applied to spoken or sung texts. Poetry is a form of art which uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of. Possibly as a result of Aristotles influence, poetry before the century was usually less a technical designation for verse than a normative category of fictive or rhetorical art. As a form it may pre-date literacy, with the earliest works being composed within and sustained by an oral tradition, novel, a long fictional prose narrative. It was the close relation to real life that differentiated it from the chivalric romance, in most European languages the equivalent term is roman. In English, the term emerged from the Romance languages in the fifteenth century, with the meaning of news, it came to indicate something new
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Standardized test
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A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or standard, manner. Any test in which the same test is given in the manner to all test takers, is a standardized test. Standardized tests do not need to be tests, time-limited tests. The questions can be simple or complex, Standardized tests are perceived as being fairer than non-standardized tests, because everyone gets the same test and the same grading system. This is fairer and more objective than a system in some students get an easier test. The consistency also permits more reliable comparison of outcomes across all test takers, the prevalence of standardized testing in formal education has also been criticized for many reasons, however. As Amy M. Olson and Darrell Sabers argue in the article Standardized Tests, in 1960, standardized tests were defined as those in which the conditions and content were equal for all examinees therefore can be given at any times and places. For example, if examinees were given different directions for completing the test, nearly 40 years later, the Standards of Educational and Psychological Testing reflects a shift away from focus on equal content, but a continued emphasis on equal conditions. The constant testing environment and equal conditions are more emphasized in the testing community and these changes can be seen in the modern definition of standardization. “What has remained constant across the changing definitions of standardization, as Olson and Sabers explain, however, is a focus on the purpose of standardization and these exams were used to select employees for the state bureaucracy. Later, sections on military strategies, civil law, revenue and taxation, agriculture, in this form, the examinations were institutionalized for more than a millennium. Today, standardized testing remains widely used, most famously in the Gaokao system, meadows warned of the collapse of the British Empire if standardized testing was not implemented throughout the empire immediately. It is because of this, that the first European implementation of standardized testing did not occur in Europe proper and this practice of standardized testing was later adopted in the late 19th century by the British mainland. The parliamentary debates that ensued made many references to the Chinese mandarin system and it was from Britain that standardized testing spread, not only throughout the British Commonwealth, but to Europe and then America. Its spread was fueled by the Industrial Revolution, when the score depends upon the graders individual preferences, then the result an individual student receives depends upon who grades the test. More recently, standardized testing has been shaped in part, by the ease, though the process is more difficult than grading multiple-choice tests electronically, essays can also be graded by computer. In other instances, essays and other open-ended responses are graded according to a pre-determined assessment rubric by trained graders, for example, at Pearson, all essay graders have four-year university degrees, and a majority are current or former classroom teachers. Standardized testing has been a part of American education since the 1800s, for instance the College Entrance Examination Board did not began standardized testing in connection to higher education until 1900
23.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
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Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a two-volume French cookbook written by Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, both of France, and Julia Child of the United States. The book was written for the American market and published by Knopf in 1961 and 1970, Julia Childs goal was to adapt classic French cuisine for mainstream Americans. The collaboration of this cookbook proved groundbreaking and has become a standard guide for the culinary community. Mastering Volume 1 was originally published in 1961 after some early difficulties, Volume 1 was a broad survey of French flavors and techniques, and grew out of the work the three women had done for their Paris cooking school, LÉcole des trois gourmandes. Taken together, the two volumes are considered one of the most influential works in American cookbook history, Child has long been accorded near-universal respect in the cooking world, in part due to the influence of these books. Mastering the Art of French Cooking… doesnt mean it has to be fancy cooking, — Julia Child Volume 1 covers the basics of French cooking, striking as much of a balance between the complexities of haute cuisine and the practicalities of the American home cook. Some classic French baking is also included, but baking received a thorough treatment in Volume 2. Also covered is breadmaking, which Child and Beck studied under Professor Raymond Calvel at the one of Frances recognized experts on bread. Coryns illustrations in the volume were a result of Paul Childs photography. In 2002, writer Julie Powell began the Julie/Julia Project, a blog in which she recorded her ultimately successful attempt to cook all the recipes in the book in the space of an entire year. This challenge and that of Childs creation of the book in the years of her career are dramatized in the 2009 film, Julie & Julia, with Amy Adams as Julie Powell. The success of film, combined with a tied-in reissue of the 40th Anniversary edition. Upon hearing about Powells attempt, Child was reported to have been unimpressed, viewing her attempt to be a stunt, Julia Childs publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, has created a Facebook page dedicated to Julia Child. In honor of Childs 100th birthday, bloggers from across the web are celebrating by highlighting a recipe from Childs cookbook, Julia Childs original kitchen can be visited at the Smithsonian in Washington, D. C. After leaving her Massachusetts home in 2001 to return to California, Julia Child gave her kitchen to the Smithsonians National Museum of American History, First printing, August 1961 m, m 2. Second printing, October 16,1961 …5, second cookbook by Julia Child and Simone Beck is published and the original book is referred to as Volume One. Reprinted from new plates, October 197124, twenty-Fourth printing, November 1973 …34. Thirty-Fourth printing, September 1983 First Fortieth Anniversary Hardcover edition, October 16,2001 …14, eighteenth printing, February 2010 First Fortieth Anniversary Paperback edition, October 20049
24.
Alfred A. Knopf
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Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. The publisher had a reputation for a pursuit of perfection and elegant taste and it was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. The Knopf publishing house is associated with its borzoi colophon, which was designed by co-founder Blanche Knopf in 1925, Knopf was founded in 1915 by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. with a $5,000 advance from his father. The first office was located in New Yorks Candler Building, the publishing house was officially incorporated in 1918, with Alfred Knopf as president, Blanche Knopf as vice-president, and Samuel Knopf as treasurer. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, william A. Koshland joined the company in 1934, and worked with the firm for more than fifty years, rising to take the positions of President and Chairman of the Board. Blanche became President in 1957 when Alfred became Chairman of the Board, Alfred Knopf retired in 1972, becoming chairman emeritus of the firm until his death in 1984. Alfred Knopf also had a home in Purchase, New York. Beginning in 1920, Knopf also produced a chapbook, for the purpose of promoting new books, the Borzoi was published periodically over the years, the first being a hardback called the Borzoi and sometimes quarterly as the Borzoi Quarterly. In 1923 Knopf also started publishing periodicals, beginning with The American Mercury, founded by H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan, following the Good Neighbor policy, Blanche Knopf visited South America in 1942, so the firm could start producing texts from there. She was one of the first publishers to visit Europe after World War II and her trips, and those of other editors, brought in new writers from Europe, South America, and Asia. Alfred traveled to Brazil in 1961, which spurred a corresponding interest on his part in South America and their son, Alfred Pat Jr. was hired on as secretary and trade books manager after the war. In a 1957 advertisement in the Atlantic Monthly, Alfred A. Knopf published the Borzoi Credo, the credo includes a list of what Knopfs beliefs for publishing including the statement that he never published an unworthy book. Among a list of beliefs listed is the final one--I believe that magazines, movies, television, in 1960 Random House acquired Alfred A. Knopf. It is believed that the decision to sell was prompted by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr. leaving Knopf to found his own book company, Atheneum Books in 1959. While there have many notable editors at Knopf there have only been three editors-in-chief-- Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. Robert Gottlieb and Sonny Mehta. Knopf also employed literary scouts to good advantage, at least 17 Nobel Prize and 47 Pulitzer Prize winning authors have been published by Knopf, though they have also passed at times on subsequently notable books. Knopf books conclude with a page titled A Note on the Type. In addition, Knopf books date the year of the current printing on the title page
25.
Julie & Julia
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Julie & Julia is a 2009 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Nora Ephron starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, and Chris Messina. Both of these books were written and published in the time frame. The film is the first major motion picture based on a blog, in March 2008, Ephron began filming with Streep as Child and Adams as Powell. On July 30,2009, the film premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York. It received positive reviews critics, who praised Streeps performance. Streep and Adams previously starred together in Doubt, Streep and Tucci previously starred together in The Devil Wears Prada. Julie & Julia was Ephrons last film before her death in 2012, the plot highlights similarities in the womens challenges. Both women receive much support from their husbands, except when Powells husband becomes fed up with her devotion to her hobby. Although Childs book is rejected by Houghton Mifflin, it is accepted and published by Alfred A. Knopf, rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 75% based on 212 reviews, with an average score of 6. Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan commented, does it right. A consummate entertainment that echoes the rhythms and attitudes of classic Hollywood, and, in this case, it really happened. Club gave the film a C, explaining, Julie & Julia is two movies in one, that’s one more movie than it needs to be. Entertainment Weekly gave it a B+, the review by Slate was also positive. Streep has been praised for her performance as Child. Movie critic A. O. Scott of The New York Times affirmed that By now has exhausted every superlative that exists and her performance goes beyond physical imitation, though she has the rounded shoulders and the fluting voice down perfectly. Reviewer Peter Travers wrote in Rolling Stone that Streep — at her brilliant, similarly, Stephanie Zacharek of Salon concluded that Streep isnt playing Julia Child here, but something both more elusive and more truthful — shes playing our idea of Julia Child. On its opening weekend, the film opened #2 behind G. I, joe, The Rise of Cobra with $20.1 million. Julie & Julia was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 8,2009
26.
New York Stock Exchange
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The New York Stock Exchange, is an American stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York. It is by far the worlds largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its companies at US$19.3 trillion as of June 2016. The average daily trading value was approximately US$169 billion in 2013, the NYSE trading floor is located at 11 Wall Street and is composed of 21 rooms used for the facilitation of trading. A fifth trading room, located at 30 Broad Street, was closed in February 2007, the main building and the 11 Wall Street building were designated National Historic Landmarks in 1978. The NYSE is owned by Intercontinental Exchange, an American holding company that it also lists, previously, it was part of NYSE Euronext, which was formed by the NYSEs 2007 merger with Euronext. NYSE and Euronext now operate as divisions of Intercontinental Exchange, the NYSE has been the subject of several lawsuits regarding fraud or breach of duty and in 2004 was sued by its former CEO for breach of contract and defamation. The earliest recorded organization of securities trading in New York among brokers directly dealing with each other can be traced to the Buttonwood Agreement, previously securities exchange had been intermediated by the auctioneers who also conducted more mundane auctions of commodities such as wheat and tobacco. In 1817 the stockbrokers of New York operating under the Buttonwood Agreement instituted new reforms, after sending a delegation to Philadelphia to observe the organization of their board of brokers, restrictions on manipulative trading were adopted as well as formal organs of governance. Several locations were used between 1817 and 1865, when the present location was adopted, the invention of the electrical telegraph consolidated markets, and New Yorks market rose to dominance over Philadelphia after weathering some market panics better than other alternatives. The Civil War greatly stimulated speculative securities trading in New York, by 1869 membership had to be capped, and has been sporadically increased since. The latter half of the century saw rapid growth in securities trading. Securities trade in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was prone to panics. The Stock Exchange Luncheon Club was situated on the floor from 1898 until its closure in 2006. The main building, located at 18 Broad Street, between the corners of Wall Street and Exchange Place, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978, as was the 11 Wall Street building. The NYSE announced its plans to merge with Archipelago on April 21,2005, NYSEs governing board voted to merge with rival Archipelago on December 6,2005, and became a for-profit, public company. It began trading under the name NYSE Group on March 8,2006, Wall Street is the leading US money center for international financial activities and the foremost US location for the conduct of wholesale financial services. It comprises a matrix of wholesale financial sectors, financial markets, financial institutions, the principal sectors are securities industry, commercial banking, asset management, and insurance. Prior to the acquisition of NYSE Euronext by the ICE in 2013, Marsh Carter was the Chairman of the NYSE, presently, the chairman is Jeffrey Sprecher
27.
Holt McDougal
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Holt McDougal is an American publishing company, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, that specializes in textbooks for use in secondary schools. The Holt name is derived from that of U. S. publisher Henry Holt but Holt McDougal is distinct from Henry Holt and Company. Holt, Rinehart and Winston was created in March 1960 by the merger of Henry Holt and Company of New York City, Rinehart & Company of New York, descendant of Farrar & Rinehart, and the John C. The Wall Street Journal reported on March 1 that Holt stockholders had approved the merger, Henry Holt is the surviving concern, but will be known as Holt, Rinehart, Winston, Inc. From 1967 HRW was owned by CBS, in 1985 the retail publishing arm along with the Henry Holt name was acquired by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group based in Stuttgart, Germany. Holtzbrinck acquired the Macmillan name in 2001 and Henry Holt is now an imprint of Macmillan US, also in 1985 the educational publishing arm along with the Holt, Rinehart and Winston name was acquired by Harcourt. HRW was combined with McDougal Littell to form Holt McDougal, Holt McDougal publishes textbooks on mathematics, language arts, social studies, science, health, and world language. It has published books for the Weekly Reader Book Club including Sweet Pickles, Fraggle Rock. This American publishing company is based out of Dumfries, NC. Henry Holt and Company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, classroom
28.
D. C. Heath and Company
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Heath and Company was an American publishing company located at 125 Spring Street in Lexington, Massachusetts, specializing in textbooks. The company was founded in Boston by Daniel Collamore Heath in 1885, Heath and Company was owned by Raytheon from 1966 to 1995. When Raytheon exited the market, it sold the company to Houghton Mifflin. The Enduring South, Subcultural Persistence in Mass Society, by John Shelton Reed. by E. S, children and Their Helpers New American Readers For Catholic Schools by School Sisters of Notre Dame. Summers Eugenie Grandet, French Edition, by Honore de Balzac, Abridged and Edited with Introduction Notes, the Bug In The Hut and Nat The Rat, unknown authors, Modern European History - Revised Edition - by Hutton Webster Ph. D. Hints Toward A Select and Descriptive Bibliography of Education - by G Stanley Hall, beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg
29.
Carmen Sandiego
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Carmen Sandiego is an American media franchise of educational computer games and other media featuring a thieving villain of the same name created by Brøderbund. The franchises main premise follows the computer user who becomes an agent of the ACME Detective Agency, ringleader Carmen Sandiego for stealing treasures from around the world. The franchise originally focused on teaching children geography during the 1980s and the 1990s, but later branched out into history, mathematics, English, originally distributed in North America, most of the franchises computer games are later available to international audiences. With the exception of Junior Detective, all the games within the franchise are aimed at preteens, many entries in the franchise contain elements of various genres including mystery, comedy, science fiction, spy-fi, and fantasy. Carmen Sandiego games were created by Brøderbund Software co-founder Gary Carlston. The idea of the franchise was to create a game which would get kids interested in geography. The game script, graphics, and humor were created by Portwood, Elliott, an early draft version of the game was written by Portwood and Elliott and was based in England, chasing Henry VII around London collecting treasures. Another idea proposed was a based on the Time-Life series of books about great cities of the world. In the end, Carlston decided to base the game on The World Almanac, Siefkin wrote an early script for the game beside the swimming pool in Strawberry Canyon on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. Siefkin was inspired by a computer fantasy game he had played called Colossal Cave Adventure. Siefkin believed that children would learn about the world through trial and his script featured several villains, one of whom he named Carmen Sandiego. Siefkin adapted Carmens name from a Brazilian singer and actress Carmen Miranda, Siefkin left the project soon after submitting the script to become a foreign service officer, serving as a diplomat in several of the countries featured in the game. He is listed in the manual as a contributing author. Portwood and Elliott developed the game into its form, taking clues from The World Almanac and developing new game mechanics. Catherine Byrd was the first project manager at Brøderbund Software and the project manager of the game. The game was programmed by Dane Bigham, graphics and clues were by Gene Portwood and Lauren Elliott. The final name and scenario of the game out of a number of meetings between the development group. The final name was considered too long to fit on the box
30.
Mergers and acquisitions
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Mergers and acquisitions are transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations or their operating units are transferred or combined. As an aspect of management, M&A can allow enterprises to grow, shrink. An acquisition or takeover is the purchase of one business or company by company or other business entity. Specific acquisition targets can be identified through a myriad of avenues including market research, trade expos, or sent up from internal business units, such purchase may be of 100%, or nearly 100%, of the assets or ownership equity of the acquired entity. Consolidation occurs when two companies combine to form a new enterprise altogether, and neither of the previous companies remains independently, Acquisitions are divided into private and public acquisitions, depending on whether the acquiree or merging company is or is not listed on a public stock market. Some public companies rely on acquisitions as an important value creation strategy, an additional dimension or categorization consists of whether an acquisition is friendly or hostile. Achieving acquisition success has proven to be difficult, while various studies have shown that 50% of acquisitions were unsuccessful. Serial acquirers appear to be successful with M&A than companies who only make an acquisition occasionally. It is normal for M&A deal communications to take place in a so-called confidentiality bubble wherein the flow of information is restricted pursuant to confidentiality agreements. Hostile acquisitions can, and often do, ultimately become friendly and this usually requires an improvement in the terms of the offer and/or through negotiation. Acquisition usually refers to a purchase of a firm by a larger one. Sometimes, however, a firm will acquire management control of a larger and/or longer-established company. This is known as a reverse takeover, another type of acquisition is the reverse merger, a form of transaction that enables a private company to be publicly listed in a relatively short time frame. A reverse merger occurs when a privately held company buys a publicly listed company, usually one with no business. The overall net effect of M&A transactions appears to be positive, almost all studies report positive returns for the investors in the combined buyer and this implies that M&A creates economic value, presumably by transferring assets to management teams that operate them more efficiently. The buyer buys the assets of the target company, the cash the target receives from the sell-off is paid back to its shareholders by dividend or through liquidation. This type of leaves the target company as an empty shell. A buyer often structures the transaction as a purchase to cherry-pick the assets that it wants and leave out the assets
31.
Vivendi Universal
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Vivendi SA is a French multinational mass media conglomerate headquartered in Paris, France. The company has activities in music, television, film, video games, telecommunications, tickets, Vivendi is a company primarily focused on digital entertainment. It owns the French TV channel and movie producer Canal+ Group, in 2014, Vivendi decided to sell mobile companies SFR to Patrick Drahis company, Altice, and GVT to the Brazilian company Telefônica Vivo. In November 2013, it signed the agreement to sell its majority. Canal+ Group is the leading pay television group in France and it is also an international movie and television series producer and distributor with StudioCanal. In November 2013, Vivendi became the owner of Frances biggest pay-TV company. Vivendi, searching for a new games publisher property has started investing in both Ubisoft and Gameloft, as of 8 June 2016, Vivendi has acquired a controlling stake in Gameloft. In news from 11 September 2016 Yves Guillemot is set to buy an additional 3. 5% of Ubisoft shares to raise his stake to 12. 5% to attempt to block a takeover from Vivendi. Yves has been attempting to lobby other shareholders to prevent them selling their shares to Vivendi, Vivendi Village comprises a group of small companies active in digital and in live entertainment. Vivendi Ticketing comprises the ticketing businesses See Tickets in the UK, Vivendi Ticketing processes annually over 40 million tickets. The business also operates as a service provider to other Vivendi businesses notably Universal Music Group where tickets are sold for. MyBestPro provides experts counseling in different fields, watchever is a subscription video-on-demand service available in Germany. Vivendi Village also owns the Paris-based concert venue LOlympia, in 2015, Vivendi purchased an 80% stake in Dailymotion from its previous owner, Orange S. A. Vivendi announced that it increased this stake to 90% in September 2015. On 14 December 1853, a company named Compagnie Générale des Eaux was created by an imperial decree of Napoleon III. In 1854, CGE obtained a concession in order to water to the public in Lyon. In 1861, it obtained a 50-year concession with the City of Paris, CGE also supplied water to Nantes, Venice, Constantinople and Porto. For more than a century, Compagnie Générale des Eaux remained largely focused on the water sector, however, following the appointment of Guy Dejouany as CEO in 1976, CGE extended its activities into other sectors with a series of takeovers. Beginning in 1980, CGE began diversifying its operations from water into waste management, energy, transport services and it acquired the Compagnie Générale dEntreprises Automobiles, specialized in industrial vehicles, which was later divided into two branches, Connex and Onyx Environnement
32.
Private equity
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In finance, private equity is a type of equity and one of the asset classes consisting of equity securities and debt in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange. A private equity investment will generally be made by an equity firm. Bloomberg Businessweek has called private equity a rebranding of leveraged-buyout firms after the 1980s, common investment strategies in private equity include, leveraged buyouts, venture capital, growth capital, distressed investments and mezzanine capital. In a typical leveraged-buyout transaction, a private-equity firm buys majority control of an existing or mature firm and this is distinct from a venture-capital or growth-capital investment, in which the investors invest in young, growing or emerging companies, and rarely obtain majority control. Private equity is often grouped into a broader category called private capital, generally used to describe capital supporting any long-term. The strategies private equity firms may use are as follows, leveraged buyout being the most important, the companies involved in these transactions are typically mature and generate operating cash flows. Leveraged buyouts involve a financial sponsor agreeing to an acquisition without itself committing all the capital required for the acquisition, to do this, the financial sponsor will raise acquisition debt which ultimately looks to the cash flows of the acquisition target to make interest and principal payments. Acquisition debt in an LBO is often non-recourse to the sponsor and has no claim on other investments managed by the financial sponsor. Historically the debt portion of a LBO will range from 60%–90% of the purchase price, between 2000–2005 debt averaged between 59. 4% and 67. 9% of total purchase price for LBOs in the United States. A private equity fund say for example, ABC Capital II, to this it adds $2bn of equity – money from its own partners and from limited partners. With this $11bn it buys all the shares of an underperforming company and it replaces the senior management in XYZ Industrial, and they set out to streamline it. The workforce is reduced, some assets are sold off, etc, the objective is to increase the value of the company for an early sale. The stock market is experiencing a market, and XYZ Industrial is sold two years after the buy-out for $13bn, yielding a profit of $2bn. The original loan can now be paid off with interest of say $0. 5bn, the remaining profit of $1. 5bn is shared among the partners. Taxation of such gains is at capital gains rates, notes, The lenders can insure against default by syndicating the loan to spread the risk, or by buying credit default swaps or selling collateralised debt obligations from/to other institutions. Often the loan/equity is not paid off after sale but left on the books of the company for it to pay off over time and this can be advantageous since the interest is typically offsettable against the profits of the company, thus reducing, or even eliminating, tax. Most buyout deals are much smaller, the average purchase in 2013 was $89m. The target company does not have to be floated on the stockmarket, buy-out operations can go wrong and in such cases the loss is increased by leverage, just as the profit is if all goes well
33.
Thomas H. Lee Partners
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In 2012, Private Equity International ranked THL Partners 22nd of the top 300 private equity firms based on funds raised. Thomas H. Lee Partners’ team includes 21 senior partners led by Anthony DiNovi and Scott M. Sperling, the firms namesake, Thomas H. Lee, left the firm and formed Lee Equity Partners in 2006. On May 3,2006, WMG apparently rejected an offer from EMI In May 2011. The price represented $8.25 a share, a 34% premium over the average price. Thomas H. Lee Partners most recent fund has performed well, Thomas H. Refcos collapse cost investors more than $1 billion sparking multiple suits for negligence against the firm. Thomas H. Lee Partners in turn sued Refcos auditors and former executives claiming they hid the fraud which caused Refcos collapse, Thomas H. Lee Partners has since settled all claims by Refco’s brokerage customers, bankruptcy trustee and shareholders. TH Lee Putnam Ventures is a private equity firm affiliated with Thomas H. Lee Partners and Putnam Investments. TH Lee Putnam Ventures manages $1.1 billion in commitments and has invested approximately $850 million in more than 43 companies since the firms formation in 1999. Thomas H. Lee Partners website Thomas H. Lee Banks Balk at Paying for Clear Channel Deal
34.
Bain Capital
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Bain Capital is a global alternative investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. It specializes in equity, venture capital and credit products. Bain Capital invests across a range of sectors and geographic regions. As of June 2014, the firm managed more than $75 billion of capital across its various investment platforms. The firm was founded in 1984 by partners from the consulting firm Bain & Company, as of 2014, Bain Capital employs more than 900 people. In addition to the three founding partners, the team included Fraser Bullock, Robert F. White, Joshua Bekenstein, Adam Kirsch. Romney initially had the titles of president and managing partner or managing partner. He later became referred to as managing director or CEO as well and he was also the sole shareholder of the firm. At the beginning, the firm had fewer than ten employees, in the face of skepticism from potential investors, Romney and his partners spent a year raising the $37 million in funds needed to start the new operation. Bain partners put in $12 million of their own money and sourced the rest from wealthy individuals, early investors included Boston real estate mogul Mortimer Zuckerman and Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots football team. They also included members of elite Salvadoran families who fled the civil war. They and other wealthy Latin Americans invested $9 million primarily through offshore companies registered in Panama, while Bain Capital was founded by Bain executives, the firm was not an affiliate or a division of Bain & Company but rather a completely separate company. Initially, the two shared the same offices—in an office tower at Copley Place in Boston—and a similar approach to improving business operations. Bain Capital also provided an investment opportunity for partners of Bain & Company, the firm initially gave a cut of its profits to Bain & Company, but Romney later persuaded Bill Bain to give that up. The Bain Capital team was initially reluctant to invest its capital, by 1985, things were going poorly enough that Romney considered closing the operation, returning investors money back to them, and having the partners go back to their old positions. The partners saw weak spots in so many potential deals that by 1986, at first, Bain Capital focused on venture capital opportunities. One of Bains earliest and most notable venture investments was in Staples, in 1986, Bain provided $4.5 million to two supermarket executives, Leo Kahn and Thomas G. Stemberg, to open an office supply supermarket in Brighton, Massachusetts. Bain Capital eventually reaped a nearly sevenfold return on its investment, another very successful investment occurred in 1986 when $1 million was invested in medical equipment maker Calumet Coach, which eventually returned $34 million
35.
The Blackstone Group
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The Blackstone Group L. P. is an American multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services firm based in New York City. As the largest alternative investment firm in the world, Blackstone specializes in equity, credit. Blackstone was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions boutique by Peter G. Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman, over the course of two decades, Blackstone has evolved into one of the worlds largest private equity investment firms. In 2007, Blackstone completed a $4 billion initial public offering to become one of the first major private equity firms to list shares in its management company on a public exchange. Hamilton E. James is the current president, chief operating officer, as of 2011, Blackstone is the worlds fifth-largest private equity firm by committed capital, focusing primarily on leveraged buyouts of more mature companies. The firm also invests through minority investments, corporate partnerships, and industry consolidations, the firm focuses on friendly investments in large capitalization companies. Blackstones private equity business employs approximately 120 investment employees in New York City, London, Menlo Park, California, Mumbai, Hong Kong, in 2009 Blackstone purchased Busch Entertainment. In 2012, Blackstone acquired a controlling interest in Utah-based Vivint, Inc. a home automation, security, former notable investments include Universal Studios Parks, which was sold to Comcast. The real estate business has raised approximately $28 billion for a variety of vehicles, including six US-focused funds. Blackstone also raised a real estate special situations fund focusing on non-controlling debt, the special situations fund invests directly in real estate as well as private and publicly traded real estate-related securities. The purchase and subsequent profitable IPO of Southern Cross led to controversy in the UK, part of the purchase involved splitting the business into a property company, NHP, and a care home business, which Blackstone claimed would become the leading company in the elderly care market. In May 2011, Southern Cross, now independent, was almost bankrupt and it denied blame, although Blackstone was widely accused in the media for selling on the company with an unsustainable business model and crippled with an impossible sale and leaseback strategy. After the subprime mortgage crisis, Blackstone Group LP has bought more than $5.5 billion single-family homes for rent, to be sold when the prices rise. Blackstone has agreed to sell a selection of Northern California office buildings for the sum of $3.5 billion, in 1990, Blackstone created a fund of hedge funds business to manage the internal assets for Blackstone and its senior managers. Over the years, this evolved into Blackstones marketable alternative asset management segment. Among the investments included in this segment are funds of funds, mezzanine funds, senior debt vehicles, proprietary hedge funds. The combination of Blackstone and GSO created one of the largest credit platforms in the asset management business. GSO was founded in 2005 by Bennett Goodman, Tripp Smith, the GSO team had previously managed the leveraged finance businesses at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and later Credit Suisse First Boston, after the acquisition of DLJ
36.
Pearson PLC
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Pearson PLC is a British multinational publishing and education company headquartered in London. It was founded as a business in the 1840s. It shut down its activities in the 1920s and switched to publishing. It is the largest education company and the largest book publisher in the world, Pearson has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE100 Index. It has a listing on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American Depository Receipts. The company was founded by Samuel Pearson in 1844 as a building and engineering concern operating in Yorkshire under the name S. Pearson & Son. In 1880, control passed to his grandson Weetman Dickinson Pearson, an engineer, in November 1915, the firm began construction of HM Factory, Gretna, the largest cordite factory in the UK during World War I. The construction business was shut down in the 1920s, among its final projects was completion of the Sennar Dam, in Sudan, in 1925. In 1919, the firm acquired a 45% stake in the London branch of merchant bankers Lazard Brothers, Pearson continued to hold a 50% stake until 1999. In 1921, Pearson purchased a number of daily and weekly newspapers in the United Kingdom. In 1957, it bought the Financial Times and acquired a 50% stake in The Economist and it purchased the publisher Longman in 1968. The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1969 and it went on to buy paperback publisher Penguin in 1970, and in 1972, childrens imprint Ladybird Books. In 1986, Pearson invested in the British Satellite Broadcasting consortium, which, during the 1990s, Pearson acquired a number of TV production and broadcasting assets and sold most of its non-media assets, under the leadership of future U. S. Westminster Press was sold to Newsquest in 1996, Pearson acquired the education division of HarperCollins in 1996 from News Corporation and acquired book publishers Scott Foresman & Co. in 1996. In 1998 Pearson acquired Prentice Hall Textbooks/Simon & Schuster Trade Books from Viacom and merged it with its own education unit, Addison-Wesley Longman to form Pearson Education. In 2002, Pearson sold its 22% stake in RTL Group for 1.5 billion Euros, and then purchased Rough Guides, the travel publisher, and brought it under Penguin. Pearson acquired Edexcel, a provider of qualifications in the UK, in 2003, Pearson purchased a series of other testing and assessment businesses, including Knowledge Technologies in 2004, AGS in 2005, and National Evaluation Systems and Promissor in 2006. Pearson then completed the acquisition of Harcourt Assessment, merging the businesses into Pearson Assessment & Information
37.
RELX Group
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RELX Group is a multinational information and analytics company based in London, in the United Kingdom. It operates in four segments, scientific, technical and medical, risk and business analytics, legal. RELX PLC, the London Stock Exchange listed shareholding vehicle, holds 52. 9% of the shares in RELX Group, RELX NV, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange listed shareholding vehicle, holds 47. 1% of the shares in RELX Group. The shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange, Amsterdam Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange using the ticker symbols, London, REL, Amsterdam, REN, New York, RELX. The company is one of the constituents of the FTSE100 Index, Financial Times Global 500, the company operates in 40 countries and serves customers in over 180 nations. About 55 per cent of the revenues are generated from the US. In 2000, two-thirds of revenues were from print and only a percentage was digital, by 2016. RELX Group was previously known as Reed Elsevier, the company announced the change of the operating companys name to RELX Group in February 2015. Reed Elsevier came into being in 1992, following the merger of Reed International, a British trade book and magazine publisher, and Elsevier, in 1895, Albert E. Reed established a newsprint manufacturing operation at Tovil Mill near Maidstone, Kent. In 1970, Reed Group merged with the International Publishing Corporation, the company continued to grow by merging with other publishers and produced high quality trade journals as IPC Business Press Ltd and womens and other consumer magazines as IPC magazines Ltd. The original family owners, the Reeds, were Methodists and encouraged good working conditions for their staff in the print trade. In 1985 the company decided to rationalise its operations, focusing on publishing and selling off its other interests, sanderson was sold to WestPoint Pepperell, Inc. of Georgia, United States, that year, while Crown Paint and Polycell were sold to Williams Holdings in 1987. The companys paper and packaging operations were bundled together to form Reedpack. In 1880, Jacobus George Robbers started a company called NV Uitgeversmaatschappij Elsevier to publish literary classics. Robbers named the company after the old Dutch printers family Elzevir, Elsevier NV originally was based in Rotterdam but moved to Amsterdam in the late 1880s. Up to the 1930s, Elsevier remained a small family-owned publisher, after the war it launched the weekly Elsevier magazine, which turned out to be very profitable. Elsevier Press Inc. started in 1951 in Houston, Texas, USA, multiple mergers in the 1970s led to name changes, settling at Elsevier Scientific Publishers in 1979. In 1991, two years before the merger with Reed, Elsevier acquired Pergamon Press in the UK, in the past three years, the value of the groups acquisitions has averaged about £300m a year
38.
Cengage
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Cengage Learning, Inc. is an educational content, technology, and services company for the higher education, K-12, professional, and library markets worldwide. Cengage Learning has operations in more than 20 countries around the world, the company is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and has approximately 5,500 employees worldwide across 20 countries. It was headquartered at its Stamford, Connecticut, office until April 2014, Gale is Cengage Learnings library reference arm and specializes in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses. The company creates and maintains databases that are published online, in print, as e-books, Cengage Learning, formerly Thomson Learning, which owned the Wadsworth Publishing imprint, was created out of a restructuring of International Thomson Publishing. It was announced on October 25,2006, that Thomson Learning would be offered for sale by the Thomson Corporation, with an estimated value of up to US$5 billion. The company was bought by a private equity consortium consisting of Apax Partners and OMERS Capital Partners for US$7.75 billion, the global brand combined the former Cengage Learning ELT and National Geographic School Publishing imprints and sub-brands, under one unified identity. The company had acquired a large amount of debt through the course of its initial buyout and subsequent acquisitions, Cengage Learning filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 on July 2,2013. Cengage Learning emerged from bankruptcy on April 1,2014, eliminating approximately $4 billion of its funded debt, post bankruptcy, the company decided to focus on developing digital study guides and other educational supplements, as well as hard-copy text books. In January 2015 they announced expansion of their LearnLaunch Accelerator program, in November 2016, Cengage Learning rebranded as simply Cengage and rolled out a new branding scheme that highlights its student-centered approach. In addition to growth, Cengage Learning has expanded through acquisitions within the publishing industry. Notable acquisitions include, The companys product lines include, 4LTR Press, Aplia, Cengage Learning PTR, Chilton, Education To Go, Gale, Milady, MindTap, and National Geographic Learning. In 2016, based on its 2015 revenues, Publishers Weekly ranked the company at number 14 out of 57 publishers worldwide, the list includes both trade and educational publishers
39.
Great Recession
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The Great Recession was a period of general economic decline observed in world markets during the late 2000s and early 2010s. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country, in terms of overall impact, the International Monetary Fund concluded that it was the worst global recession since World War II. According to the US National Bureau of Economic Research the recession, as experienced in that country, began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, the Great Recession was related to the financial crisis of 2007–08 and U. S. subprime mortgage crisis of 2007–09. The Great Recession has resulted in the scarcity of valuable assets in the market economy, under the academic definition, the recession ended in the United States in June or July 2009. In the broader, lay sense of the word however, many use the term to refer to ongoing hardship. The Great Recession met the IMF criteria for being a recession, requiring a decline in annual real world GDP per‑capita. According to the U. S. National Bureau of Economic Research the recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, the years leading up to the crisis were characterized by an exorbitant rise in asset prices and associated boom in economic demand. Further, the U. S. shadow banking system had grown to rival the depository system yet was not subject to the regulatory oversight. US mortgage-backed securities, which had risks that were hard to assess, were marketed around the world, the emergence of sub-prime loan losses in 2007 began the crisis and exposed other risky loans and over-inflated asset prices. With loan losses mounting and the fall of Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008, the global recession that followed resulted in a sharp drop in international trade, rising unemployment and slumping commodity prices. Several economists predicted that recovery might not appear until 2011 and that the recession would be the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, Economist Paul Krugman once commented on this as seemingly the beginning of a second Great Depression. Governments and central banks responded with fiscal and monetary policies to national economies. The recession has renewed interest in Keynesian economic ideas on how to combat recessionary conditions, economists advise that the stimulus should be withdrawn as soon as the economies recover enough to chart a path to sustainable growth. Income inequality in the United States has grown from 2005 to 2012 in more than 2 out of 3 metropolitan areas, median household wealth fell 35% in the US, from $106,591 to $68,839 between 2005 and 2011. The majority report of the U. S, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, composed of six Democratic and four Republican appointees, reported its findings in January 2011. There were two Republican dissenting FCIC reports, one of them, signed by three Republican appointees, concluded that there were multiple causes. He wrote, When the bubble began to deflate in mid-2007, There are several narratives attempting to place the causes of the recession into context, with overlapping elements. Four such narratives include, There was the equivalent of a run on the shadow banking system
40.
Our Sunday Visitor
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Founded in 1912 by Father John F. Noll, the newspaper Our Sunday Visitor was the most popular Catholic newsweekly of the twentieth century. The first issue of Our Sunday Visitor, numbering 35,000 copies, was dated May 5,1912, a year later, the circulation of the paper had reached 160,000 copies, far beyond Father Nolls parish. Shortly after World War I, the circulation had grown to 500,000 copies, the initial focus of Our Sunday Visitor was to combat anti-Catholicism, help Catholics preserve their identity, teach Catholics about their faith, and combat social injustice. A column Father Noll started in 1912, called Father Smith Instructs Jackson, was collected into a popular book which sold millions of copies and is still in print. On March 30,1913, the paper offered a $10,000 reward for anyone who could prove the charges laid against the Church. No one ever claimed the reward, in the 1930s, Our Sunday Visitor focused on how Catholics could preserve their faith in a secular society. During the 1940s, Bishop Nolls newspaper took positions against birth control, divorce, during the Cold War, the paper stepped up its attacks on communism and warned Catholics away from joining communist groups. The fortieth anniversary issue of Our Sunday Visitor, published on May 4,1952, carried a headline that read, They Do Not Want God in Our Schools. In 1953, Bishop Noll was named Archbishop by Pope Pius XII, Archbishop Noll suffered a stroke in 1954 and was no longer able to edit Our Sunday Visitor. He died on July 31,1956, after Archbishop Nolls death, the paper continued to be produced, and in 1961 its circulation was more than one million. Today, Our Sunday Visitor has a publishing wing which publishes books, religious educational materials. The company expanded by purchasing Harcourt Religion in 2009, in July 2012, the Sunday Visitor was selected by the Vatican as the exclusive distributor of the North American English edition of the official Vatican newspaper, LOsservatore Romano
41.
Irish Independent
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The Irish Independent is the flagship publication of Independent News & Media and Irelands largest-selling daily newspaper. Aside from its material, the Independent also publishes a weekly supplement in the Irish language called Seachtain. It is a sister of the broadsheet Sunday Independent, since May 2012, the Irish Independent has been controlled by billionaire Denis OBrien after OBrien acquired a majority shareholding of parent company. Traditionally a broadsheet newspaper, it introduced a compact size in 2004. The Irish Independent described the 1916 Easter Rising as insane and criminal, in 1924, the traditional nationalist newspaper, the Freemans Journal, merged with the Irish Independent. Until October 1986 the papers masthead over the editorial contained the words incorporating the Freemans Journal, during the Spanish Civil War, the Irish Independents coverage was strongly pro-Franco, the paper criticized the De Valera government for not intervening on behalf of the Spanish Nationalists. In the 1970s, it was taken over by former Heinz chairman Tony OReilly, under his leadership, it became a more populist, market liberal newspaper—populist on social issues, but economically right-wing. By the mid-nineties its allegiance to Fine Gael had ended, in the 1997 general election, it endorsed Fianna Fáil under a front page editorial, entitled Its Payback Time. On 27 September 2005, a fortnight after the paper published its centenary edition and he was replaced by Gerry ORegan, who had until then been editor of the Irish Independents sister paper, the Evening Herald. The newspapers previous editor Stephen Rae was also editor of the Evening Herald and was appointed editor in September 2012. Fionnan Sheahan was appointed editor in January 2015, Denis OBrien successfully acquired a majority shareholding the newspaper parent company INM in May 2012. The New Irish Writing Page is the creative writing feature of its kind in any Irish or British newspaper. The Irish Independent, in cooperation with the Institute of Education, produces Exam Brief and this supplement is published in February, March and April each year. Excluding The Sun and the Daily Mirror, most of the content of which are produced in the United Kingdom, iNM-owned or partly owned titles have 58% of the newspaper market on Sunday. With the closure of the Evening Press, the Independents Evening Herald is now the only Irish national evening newspaper, another sister paper is the Sunday Independent. Other newspapers in the Independent News & Media group include the Irish Daily Star, the Independent News and Media Group had a major share in the Sunday Tribune, a Sunday broadsheet before its closure in 2011. The Independent News and Media Group also owns online business directory site Your Local that provides business information on approximately 100,000 Irish businesses. Circulation was 162,582 for the period January to December 2006, circulation was 149,906 for the period July to December 2009
42.
Istithmar World
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Istithmar World is an investment firm based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This company is a business owned by Dubai World, a Dubai government-owned company. Originally known as Istithmar, the company was renamed as Istithmar World in 2008, Istithmar World, which was created in 2003 as the investment arm of Dubai World specializes in private equity and alternative investment opportunities globally. An analysis of Istithmars investment portfolio which included the investment of $3.8 billion with an associated $14 billion of debt, has not performed positively, in a number of cases, Istithmar has lost control of assets or sold at a loss. As a subsidiary of Dubai World, the company has been mentioned in press reports related to the high debt levels of its parent. Since late 2009, the company has seen departures of high-profile executives. Istithmar World Capital is the equity and alternative investment arm of Istithmar World. Since inception, IWC has made over 35 investments, Istithmar World Aviation invests in fast-growing sectors of the aviation and aerospace industry, including airlines, manufacturing, engineering and financing. Istithmar World Ventures is a venture capital platform that provides promising start-ups, the Board of Istithmar is led by the Chairman, HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum. Other Board Members include Mohammad Ibrahim Al Shaibani, Abdul Rahman Saleh Al Saleh, Hamad Mubarak Bu Amim, Sa’adi Abdul Rahim Hassan Al Rais, each of the divisions had its own management teams until a re-organisation was enacted at the end of 2009 and in early 2010. Istithmar World Capital saw the departure of its co-CIOs, John Amato and Felix Herlihy, who had joined the firm in 2006, on 20 January 2010, the CEO of Istithmar World Capital, David Jackson announced that he would be leaving the firm. Andy Watson, who had been promoted from CIO of Nakheel to CIO of Istithmar became acting CEO, on 26 November 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported that Dubai World was seeking to sign a 6-month debt standstill agreement with its creditors. On 30 November 2009, Dubai World made a statement in an attempt to counter rumours, in the statement, Dubai World indicated that Istithmar would not be part of the proposed restructuring process. Instead the restructuring process would focus on several property related subsidiaries, the statement noted that the total debt subject to the proposed restructuring was circa $26 billion. Istithmar World Capital states on its website that it has deployed $3.5 billion of capital in 35 investments across the globe, in the article, Jackson indicated that Istithmar had delivered returns of approximately 10% since its foundation. According to The Times in an article on 7 February 2010, Istithmar invested a total of $3.8 billion of its own capital from its foundation, existing and historic investments include, Hyflux, a Singapore base water utility. Istithmar bought a 20% stake in July 2004 for approximately S$25 million, Istithmar sold it stake in early 2009. In January 2010, Istithmar entered into a dispute with Hyflux over the potential exercise of warrants
43.
Financial Times
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The Financial Times is an English-language international daily newspaper with a special emphasis on business and economic news. The paper, published and owned by Nikkei Inc. in Tokyo, was founded in 1888 by James Sheridan and Horatio Bottomley, and merged in 1945 with its closest rival, the Financial Times has an average daily readership of 2.2 million people worldwide. FT. com has 4.5 million registered users and over 285,000 digital subscribers, FT Chinese has more than 1.7 million registered users. The world editions of the Financial Times newspaper had an average daily circulation of 234,193 copies in January 2014. In February 2014 the combined sale of the editions of the Financial Times was 224,000 copies. In October 2013 the combined print and digital circulation of the Financial Times reached nearly 629,000 copies. In December 2016 print sales for the paper stood at 193,211, on 23 July 2015 Nikkei Inc. agreed to buy the Financial Times from Pearson for £844m. On 30 November 2015 Nikkei completed the acquisition, the FT was launched as the London Financial Guide on 10 January 1888, renaming itself the Financial Times on 13 February the same year. Describing itself as the friend of The Honest Financier, the Bona Fide Investor, the Respectable Broker, the Genuine Director, the readership was the financial community of the City of London, its only rival being the slightly older and more daring Financial News. After 57 years of rivalry the Financial Times and the Financial News were merged in 1945 by Brendan Bracken to form a single six-page newspaper, the Financial Times brought a higher circulation while the Financial News provided much of the editorial talent. The Lex column was introduced from Financial News. Pearson bought the paper in 1957, over the years the paper grew in size, readership and breadth of coverage. It established correspondents in cities around the world, reflecting early moves in the economy towards globalisation. On 1 January 1979 the first FT was printed outside the UK, since then, with increased international coverage, the FT has become a global newspaper, printed in 22 locations with five international editions to serve the UK, continental Europe, the U. S. The European edition is distributed in continental Europe and Africa and it is printed Monday to Saturday at five centres across Europe reporting on matters concerning the European Union, the Euro and European corporate affairs. In 1994 FT launched a lifestyle magazine, How To Spend It. In 2009 it launched a website for the magazine. On 13 May 1995 the Financial Times group made its first foray into the world with the launch of FT. com
44.
Paulson & Co.
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Paulson & Co. Inc. is an American investment management firm, established by its president and portfolio manager, John Paulson in 1994. Headquartered in New York with offices in London and Hong Kong and it has approximately 120 employees, and $18 billion in assets under management. The firm primarily provides its services to pooled investment vehicles, but also caters to banking or savings and it employs fundamental analysis to make its investments which may include merger arbitrage, long/short, and event-driven strategy. The firm is a partnership, the partners being John Paulson, Paulson provides services to investment vehicle pools and manages accounts for banking institutions, corporations and pension and profit sharing plans. As of December 2015 the John Paulsons hedge funds had $19 billion assets under management, compared to $18 billion in September 2013, almost 60 percent of the assets under management belong to the firms own employees — including John Paulsons — as of 2012. External investors in the Paulson funds include financial institutions, corporate and public funds, endowments, foundations. With goals of, capital preservation, above average returns, low volatility, there are approximately 50 investment professionals in the firm, including John Paulson who is the Portfolio Manager for all funds under management. Other key investment professionals include Andrew Hoine, Nikolai Petchenikov, Sheru Chowdry, Sihan Shu, Michael Waldorf, Paulson also has an external Advisory Board of well known economists that meets on a monthly basis to discuss investment themes, macroeconomic risks, and global fiscal and monetary policy. Current members of the Paulson advisory Board are Alan Greenspan, Christopher Thornberg, Edward Altman, through the various filing requirements imposed by these regulatory bodies, Paulson makes regular disclosures regarding its portfolio holdings across various jurisdictions. Paulson & Co. Inc. was established by its founder and President, John Paulson, Paulson has invested in a number of undervalued companies that are acquisition targets, aiming to increase the bid price on these companies as a large shareholder. This holding out paid off when another suitor, Conseco Inc. purchased Washington National for $410 million, the bubble continued to grow through 2005 and 2006, but by 2007 began to deflate. The deal was made in late April 2007 and several months later the bonds began to default, in total Paulson reportedly earned $15 billion on $12.5 billion of investment in 2007—a return of over 100%. In 2008, Paulsons bearish outlook on the markets continued. Paulson believed that problems would expand beyond subprime mortgages into consumer, auto, commercial and corporate credit, stressing financial institutions. Sectors include mortgage finance companies, specialty finance companies and regional, national, in September 2008, Paulson bet against four of the five biggest British banks including a £350m bet against Barclays, £292m against Royal Bank of Scotland, and £260m against Lloyds TSB. Paulson is reported to have earned a total of £280m after reducing its position in RBS in January 2009. To help protect their bets, PCI and others successfully prevented attempts to limit foreclosures, Paulson has replied that they were not involved in the marketing of any Abacus products to any third parties, and that Paulson did not sponsor or initiate Goldmans Abacus program. In April 2010, the U. S. Paulson released a statement saying that it was not the subject of this complaint, made no misrepresentations and is not the subject of any charges
