| BEAR EARNS BITE
Bear Stearns' breathtaking drop in earnings yesterday was a stark reminder of the risks associated with being a traditional and narrowly focused investment bank. Reporting earnings of $171 million for its third quarter, Bear saw a 61 percent drop in net income from the prior quarter, missing the consensus of analyst estimates by 35 percent. The primary culprit was the utter collapse of the firm's mortgage- and asset-backed bond franchise - long one of its key revenue engines - and the reason behind an 88 percent decline in bond sales and trading revenues. While many Wall Street brokers have been hurt in the bond collapse, Bear is said to have up to 30 percent of its revenue pegged to mortgage-backed underwriting and trading, according to Sanford C. Bernstein's Brad Hintz.
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As unsettled as the Blackhawks have been as a franchise for the better part of the last decade, there are more questions ahead after the death Wednesday of longtime owner and president Bill Wirtz of cancer at 77. With Wirtz in failing health for several years, this was a day the organization knew was coming but had a difficult time grasping nonetheless. There was no word from the team Wednesday about possible successors to Wirtz, though everything points in the direction of sons Peter and Rocky Wirtz taking over the controls of the hockey portion of the family empire. Peter is a Hawks vice president, overseeing off-ice operations and promotions. Oldest son Rocky has dabbled in hockey in the past, and it's not out of the question that his role in the restructuring of the team could become larger.
(AFX UK Focus) 2007-09-28 13:29 GMT: Domino's Pizza says no evidence to support widespread staff abuse claims
LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Domino's Pizza UK & IRL PLC said there is no evidence to suggest a widespread problem at its franchises following new allegations on BBC's Newsnight of staff abuse. The BBC reported allegations from workers at Wolverhampton and Warrington franchises that they were subject to illegal deductions from their salaries. One Hungarian worker claimed to have earned negative pay because of deductions made to his salary to cover the cost of buying and insuring a car he was using to deliver pizzas. Another English former employee alleged his employer had deducted 100 stg from each of the employees with access to the safe after 400 stg went missing on Christmas Eve, 2006. The money was later refunded after complaints were made. Domino's said: "The suggestion that these unproven allegations are representative of working life at Domino's Pizza is completely untrue." It added that in spite of the Union's intensive efforts to lobby employees, and the high level of awareness around a small number of grievances, there is no evidence to suggest a widespread problem.
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