Net income of $1.38 billion translated to $1.33 per share, beating the $1.29 predicted by analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue jumped 10 percent to $6.82 billion, slightly above expectations of $6.81 billion.

CEO Jim Skinner said the Oak Brook-based company, the world’s largest burger chain, plans to open 1,300 new restaurants in the coming year, to add to the current roster of 33,100-plus locations around the world.

Skinner also said McDonald’s would continue to set aside money for renovating restaurants. The renovations have helped attract new customers but have also needled some franchisees who had to pay some of the cost.

Many famous Steve Jobs moments involve him speaking before enraptured audiences. One of my most vivid Jobs memories is of the time I saw him standing quietly at the back of one.

I was attending the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference in Boston in 1989, and was trapped in a throng on the show floor watching one of Pixar’s short cartoons. (The company hadn’t started making feature-length ones, and wasn’t yet a cherished icon of American entertainment.) The person next to me happened to be Jobs, who had bought George Lucas’s graphics division in 1985 and bootstrapped it into independent existence as Pixar.

I’m not sure if anyone else noticed him watching the movie and observing the crowd they were too busy being entertained.

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Try to lower your interest rate. Negotiate with your bank. One other way is to convert your credit card debt into a personal loan debt. It will definitely be lesser than the credit card interest rate. Calculate your net worth and see if any of your investments could help you prepay a part of your loans.

Akash was an IT employee who was well settled in his career. With a take home that more than met his needs, Akash decided to invest in his future. Let us see how he managed his finances. He applied for a car loan and a home loan.

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Even with the systematic approach of organizational change management there are certain risks involved, that need to be considered for organizations to successfully implement change management. This article aims to highlight the typical risks associated with change management and how to work around them for a successful change implementation. Change management is a discipline that lays down a set of processes and tools for dealing with change. The management and leadership of today’s organizations are faced with an increasing pace of change. Read more…

The move marks a low point in the world’s biggest trade dispute, largely centered on European aid for the Airbus A350 aircraft. But an end to the battle over aircraft subsides could be some time away and a negotiated settlement may still be most likely outcome.

The EU has its own case against U.S. support for Boeing and resolving that will be part of the final mix.

But U.S. officials exploited a tactical advantage derived from the fact the WTO has already issued a final ruling in the U.S. case against Airbus subsidies while the EU case against Boeing subsidies is still pending.

“The WTO clearly found that every single grant of launch aid to Airbus , for every single aircraft that company produced, was a WTO -inconsistent subsidy that caused unfair adverse effects to U.S.

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For once, the instant critical analysis of an Apple product announcement was muted, not ecstatic. The new iPhone was faster than its predecessor, and included a better camera. You could get it with double the storage. But the case design hadn’t changed a bit, and most of the changes involved subtle refinements. People expected something eye-poppingly new; Apple delivered a phone that didn’t tamper too much with a proven success.

The iPhone in question? Nope, not the iPhone 4S that Apple unveiled in Cupertino last week. I’m thinking of the iPhone 3GS, which the company announced back in June of 2009. Much of the punditoracy declared it to be a disappointment. (Here’s one example.

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Try and pay the down payment from your own money, savings or by liquidating some assets. Opting for a personal loan can be a costly affair, as interest rates are very high. If you dont have enough savings or assets to pay up the money, then its wise to wait and build assets and savings that can come handy for the downpayment, when the time is right.

Down payment generally amounts to 10-20% of the total cost of the home, as banks generally fund only about 80- 85% of the loan amount. This is to make sure the buyer has some stake in maintaining the property.

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