Exclusive: Google Ventures beefs up fund size to $300 million a year

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google will increase the cash it allocates to its venture-capital arm to up to $300 million a year from $200 million, catapulting Google Ventures into the top echelon of corporate venture-capital funds.

Access to that sizeable checkbook means Google Ventures will be able to invest in more later-stage financing rounds, which tend to be in the tens of millions of dollars or more per investor.

It puts the firm on the same footing as more established corporate venture funds such as Intel's Intel Capital, which typically invests $300-$500 million a year.

"It puts a lot more wood behind the arrow if we need it," said Bill Maris, managing partner of Google Ventures.

Part of the rationale behind the increase is that Google Ventures is a relatively young firm, founded in 2009. Some of the companies it backed two or three years ago are now at later stages, potentially requiring larger cash infusions to grow further.

Google Ventures has taken an eclectic approach, investing in a broad spectrum of companies ranging from medicine to clean power to coupon companies.

Every year, it typically funds 40-50 "seed-stage" deals where it invests $250,000 or less in a company, and perhaps around 15 deals where it invests up to $10 million, Maris said. It aims to complete one or two deals annually in the $20-$50 million range, Maris said.

LACKING SUPERSTARS

Some of its investments include Nest, a smart-thermostat company; Foundation Medicine, which applies genomic analysis to cancer care; Relay Rides, a carsharing service; and smart-grid company Silver Spring Networks. Last year, its portfolio company HomeAway raised $216 million in an initial public offering.

Still, Google Ventures lacks superstar companies such as microblogging service Twitter or online bulletin-board company Pinterest. The firm's recent hiring of high-profile entrepreneur Kevin Rose as a partner could help attract higher-profile deals.

Soon it could have even more cash to play around with. "Larry has repeatedly asked me: 'What do you think you could do with a billion a year?'" said Maris, referring to Google chief executive Larry Page.

(Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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UK PM warns of witch-hunt against gays in pedophile scandal

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron warned on Thursday that speculation about the identity of an unidentified member of his ruling Conservative party accused of sexually abusing children could turn into a witch-hunt against gay people.

Cameron, who leads a troubled two-party coalition, ordered an investigation this week after a victim of child sexual abuse in Wales said a prominent Conservative political figure had abused him during the 1970s.

The claims, which follow the unmasking of late BBC star presenter Jimmy Savile as one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders, have stoked concern that a powerful pedophile ring may have operated in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s.

“I have heard all sorts of names bandied around and what then tends to happen is of course that everyone then sits around and speculates about people, some of whom are alive, some of whom are dead,” Cameron said during an ITV television interview.

“It is very important that anyone who has got any information about any pedophile no matter how high up in the country go to the police,” he said.

Britain’s interior minister warned lawmakers this week that if they named suspected child abusers in parliament they risked jeopardizing future trials.

MPs benefit from “parliamentary privilege” – meaning they can speak inside parliament freely without fear of legal action on a host of legally sensitive issues that might otherwise attract lawsuits.

Reports of child abuse have provoked fevered speculation on the Internet about the identity of the Conservative figure from the era of Margaret Thatcher, prime minister from 1979 to 1990.

When the ITV interviewer passed Cameron a piece of paper with the names of people identified on the Internet as being alleged child abusers, Cameron said:

“There is a danger if we are not careful that this could turn into a sort of witch-hunt particularly against people who are gay.”

“I am worried about the sort of thing you are doing right now – giving me a list of names you have taken off the Internet,” Cameron said.

The BBC aired a program last week in which Steven Messham, one of hundreds of victims of sexual abuse at children’s care homes in Wales over two decades, said he had been sexually abused by a prominent Conservative political figure.

However, the BBC reporter said he could not name the figure because there was “simply not enough evidence to name names”.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Well: The Presidential Health Quiz

Whether it’s George Washington’s teeth or Bill Clinton’s former hamburger habit, Americans have always been fascinated by the health of the president and presidential candidates.

With help from the Web site DoctorZebra, which has compiled an exhaustive list of the medical history of American presidents, we’ve created an Election Day quiz to test your knowledge of presidential fitness and health.

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McDonald's sales drop, first time since 2003

McDonald's Corp. reported its first decline in monthly U.S. same store sales in nine years Thursday, as the chain began to suffer problems plaguing the rest of the fast food industry for several years.

Sales at restaurants open more than a year declined 2.2 percent. Same store sales also declined in Europe, 2.2 percent, and the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region, 2.4 percent.

The chain cited lower demand and greater competition for the lower sales. While hamburger competitors Burger King and Wendy’s were walloped by the onset of the recession, both  have changed hands in recent years and launched new menu items that better compete with McDonald’s including expanded breakfast offerings, improved coffee options and more innovative salads.

"Though October's sales results reflect the pervasive challenges of today's global marketplace, I am confident that our strategies and the adjustments we are making in response to the current business headwinds will build sales momentum and drive sustained, profitable growth," McDonald's CEO Don Thompson said. 

Although the decline is historic for the world's largest restaurant chain, which has been on a roll since the beginning of its historic turnaround in 2003, it was not unexpected. Analysts have been tempering expectations and downgrading the stock for months.

To rev up sales, McDonald's has been working to emphasize value in markets around the world.

In the U.S., for example, McDonald's is stepping up advertising for its Dollar Menu after its attempt to market an "Extra Value Menu" for slightly higher prices fell flat. But the company said Thursday that the efforts were offset by "modest consumer demand" and competition.

In particular, McDonald's is facing stiffer competition from longtime rivals Burger King and Wendy's, which are both in the midst of reviving their brands with new ad campaigns and improved menus. Taco Bell, owned by Yum Brands Inc., is also enjoying growth with the help of new offerings such as it Doritos Locos Tacos and higher-end Cantina Bell bowls and burritos.

Stock slipped 0.99 percent in pre-market trades, to $86 in early trading. McDonald's hit an all-time high of $101.74 in February.

Baird analyst David Tarantino maintained an outperform rating on McDonald's, saying in a research note that, "We are cautiously optimistic that better trends can emerge as McDonald's gets past a wall of challenging comparisons in upcoming months."

Tarrantino added that though results "could remain soft" through early 2013, "we see opportunity for better performance to emerge in 2013 as a whole," because of emphasis on value offerings, lower ingredient costs, and reduced currency impact.

eyork@tribune.com | Twitter: @emilyyork

- Reuters contributed to this report

MCD Net Income Quarterly data by YCharts

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Obama wins but 'fiscal cliff' looms

President Barack Obama faces a new urgent task now that he has a second term, working with a status-quo Congress to address an impending financial crisis that economists say could send the country back into recession.

"You made your voice heard," Obama said in his acceptance speech, signaling that he believes the bulk of the country is behind his policies. It's a sticking point for House Republicans, sure to balk at that.

The same voters who gave Obama four more years in office also elected a divided Congress, sticking with the dynamic that has made it so hard for the president to advance his agenda. Democrats retained control of the Senate; Republicans kept their House majority.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, spoke of a dual mandate. "If there is a mandate, it is a mandate for both parties to find common ground and take steps together to help our economy grow and create jobs," he said.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had a more harsh assessment.

"The voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the president's first term," McConnell said. "They have simply given him more time to finish the job they asked him to do together" with a balanced Congress.

Obama's more narrow victory was nothing like the jubilant celebration in 2008, when his hope-and-change election as the nation's first black president captivated the world. This time, Obama ground it out with a stay-the-course pitch that essentially boiled down to a plea for more time to make things right and a hope that Congress will be more accommodating than in the past.

Even his victory party was more subdued. His campaign said Wednesday that 20,000 people came to hear his speech in downtown Chicago, compared with 200,000 four years ago.

The most pressing challenges immediately ahead for the 44th president are all too familiar: an economy still baby-stepping its way toward full health; 23 million people out of work or in search of better jobs; civil war in Syria; a menacing standoff over Iran's nuclear program.

Sharp differences with Republicans in Congress on taxes, spending, deficit reduction, immigration and more await. While Republicans control the House, Democrats have at least 53 votes in the Senate and Republicans 45. One newly elected independent isn't saying which party he'll side with, and North Dakota's race was not yet called.

Obama's list of promises to keep includes many holdovers he was unable to deliver on in his first term, such as rolling back tax cuts for upper-income people, overhauling immigration policy and reducing federal deficits. Six in 10 voters said in exit polls that taxes should be increased, and nearly half of voters said taxes should be increased on incomes over $250,000, as Obama has called for.

"It's very clear from the exit polling that a majority of Americans recognize that we need to share responsibility for reducing the deficit," Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, told CNN. "That means asking higher-income earners to contribute more to reducing the deficit."

But Sara Taylor Fagen, who served as political director in President George W. Bush's second term, warned the current White House to pay heed to the closely divided electorate, a lesson her party learned after 2004. With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Obama had 50 percent to 48 percent for Romney.

"It'll be interesting if the Obama team misinterprets the size of their victory," Fagen said. "I think if you look back at history, we pushed Social Security and the Congress wasn't ready for that and wasn't going to do it. And had President Bush gone after immigration, we may be sitting in a very different position as a party."

Obama predicted in the waning days of the campaign that his victory would motivate Republicans to make a deal on immigration policy next year to make up for having "so alienated the fastest-growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community."

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour agreed that a lesson of 2012 is for his Republican Party to change the party's approach on immigration.

"Republicans say, 'We don't want to reward people for breaking the law,'" Barbour told CBS. "The way we need to look at it is, how are we going to grow the American economy and where does our immigration policy fit into that?"

Even before Obama gets to his second inaugural on Jan. 20, he must deal with the threatened "fiscal cliff." A combination of automatic tax increases and steep across-the-board spending cuts are set to take effect in January if Washington doesn't quickly reach a budget deal. Experts have warned that the economy could tip back into recession without an agreement.

Newly elected Democrats signaled they want compromise to avoid the fiscal cliff.

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Apple's shares slide 4 percent to five-month low

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“Dad’s Army” star Clive Dunn dies aged 92

LONDON (Reuters) – British actor Clive Dunn, best known as a bumbling old butcher in the popular World War Two sitcom “Dad’s Army”, has died, his agent said on Wednesday.

Dunn passed away on Tuesday, Peter Charlesworth said, adding that he believed the actor died in Portugal where he has lived for many years. He was 92.

As Lance-Corporal Jones in Dad’s Army – a hit television series in the 1960s and 1970s about a group of local volunteer members of the Home Guard – Dunn was famous for catchphrases such as “Don’t panic!” and “They don’t like it up ‘em.”

He also had a No. 1 hit song with “Grandad” in 1971, which he performed several times on TV music show “Top of the Pops”.

Dunn was born in London in 1920 and enrolled in an acting academy after leaving school.

He played several small roles in films in the 1930s before serving in the army in World War Two, ending up in prisoner-of-war and labor camps for four years.

After the war he worked in music halls before enjoying success as Jones in Dad’s Army.

Underlining his ability to play characters far older than his real age, he followed Dad’s Army with a five-year run in children’s comedy series “Grandad” as an elderly caretaker.

According to the BBC, he is survived by his wife Priscilla Morgan and two daughters, Jessica and Polly.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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The Doctor’s World: Doctors Chased Clues to Identify Meningitis Outbreak

The e-mail Dr. Marion A. Kainer received on Sept. 18 suggested an investigation of a case of fungal meningitis and stroke in a man whose immune system was normal and whose only risk for the infection was a spinal injection of a steroid.

“Alarm bells went off” because of its rarity, Dr. Kainer, an epidemiologist at the Tennessee health department, said in an interview.

She immediately began what became a national investigation that has now identified 409 cases, including 30 deaths, from a fungus so unusual that it is not in medical textbooks. The fungus was transmitted through injections of a contaminated steroid drug prepared by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass.

Dr. Kainer’s investigation led Tennessee to take extraordinary measures to track down 1,009 people at risk of the fungal infection. The state is credited as the driving force in discovering one of the most shocking outbreaks in the annals of American medicine.

The discovery came in large part because of Dr. Kainer’s diligence and expertise in infectious diseases, neurology and public health. It came, too, from the clinical acumen of Dr. April C. Pettit, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University who sent the e-mail to the health department.

The still-evolving findings also illustrate the strengths of the government’s response to a public health crisis.

Dr. Kainer, like other physicians in hospitals and clinics, often detect the initial cases. But usually only health departments and other government agencies have the ability and authority to track down additional cases to document disease outbreaks and warn those at risk. It is work that private groups seldom can do, in part for lack of funds and the authority to examine patient records.

The national surveillance system for outbreaks of infectious and other communicable diseases relies on reports that physicians are required to send to local and state health departments and that are then relayed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the federal agency in Atlanta, epidemiologists identify outbreaks by studying trends.

At the same time, the fungal meningitis cases have exposed weaknesses in government. A dispute surrounds the Food and Drug Administration’s failure to act earlier to prevent the outbreak. The federal agency has been attacked for failing to use its authority to protect the public from the dangerous practice of large-scale drug compounding that led to the outbreak. But the agency, whose top officials have remained relatively silent, says Congress has not given it the clear authority needed to have taken action.

Dr. Kainer’s investigation progressed in steps similar to peeling the layers of an onion.

Within two days of receiving Dr. Pettit’s e-mail, Dr. Kainer learned that the steroid had come from the New England Compounding Center.

“That got me very concerned,” Dr. Kainer said, because she had taken part in epidemiologic investigations involving different infections linked to compounding centers. Inquiries determined that the New England center had received no reports of infections linked to its steroid, and the C.D.C. knew of no additional recent cases of fungal meningitis and stroke.

An inspection by Dr. Kainer’s staff and from the clinic that administered the injection showed no obvious source of local fungal contamination, like recent construction or water leaks.

Then Dr. Kainer learned of three additional suspect cases of meningitis and stroke linked to the clinic. But fungi had not yet been identified in those patients’ spinal fluid. Also, her team could find no correlations in factors like time of day or week when the patients received the injections. One patient had a particular kind of stroke known as posterior circulation, which attracted Dr. Kainer’s attention because she had learned in neurology that fungal infections can cause such strokes.

“What didn’t make sense was that two patients appeared to be improving without antifungal treatment, and that didn’t fit the clinical picture,” Dr. Kainer said.

So she and her team took additional steps. One was to issue a statewide alert to identify similar cases; none were reported.

“We tell doctors and health workers we would rather have 15 false alarms than miss one case,” Dr. Kainer said.

Then she learned that the two patients who had been improving had taken a turn for the worse.

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U.S. Cellular exiting Chicago market

Note: Job cut numbers are updated to correct confusion over numbers supplied by U.S. Cellular.

Chicago-based wireless carrier U.S. Cellular said Wednesday that it is selling its Chicago, St. Louis and central Illinois markets, along with three others in the Midwest, to subsidiaries of Sprint Nextel Corp. for $480 million.

The deal, which requires regulatory approval and is expected to close in mid-2013, will transfer PCS spectrum and about 585,000 customers -- just under 10 percent of U.S. Cellular's subscribers -- to Sprint. The markets account for about 11 percent of U.S. Cellular's service revenues.

As part of the transition, about 640 local jobs -- 160 of them in Chicago proper -- will be eliminated over time. Overall losses in the affected markets will number about 980 positions, with approximately 850 of those related to retail stores. U.S. Cellular will be closing its stores in the geographies it's exiting; engineering and business support jobs in areas such as finance and marketing will also be eliminated.

U.S. Cellular, which employed about 8,400 at the end of September, will retain its Chicago headquarters along with 860 jobs there. In the greater Chicago area, the company will have about 1,400 employees after the transition.

The Sprint deal "positions us, I believe, very strongly for the future, and we're going to continue to be headquartered here in Chicago," President and Chief Executive Mary Dillon told the Tribune. "We've been here since 1985."

On a morning conference call, Dillon described the move as getting "stronger by initially getting smaller" and said the decision was "not taken lightly," given the effect on the company's employees.

In the markets that U.S. Cellular is selling to Sprint, "we aren't reaching the rate of profitable customer growth and return on investment we need to operate effectively," Dillon said on a conference call.

In the affected markets, postpaid churn -- a wireless industry figure that measures defections among customers who are on contracts -- was roughly double that of the carrier's other geographies, Dillon said, indicating a "disproportionate share of subscriber losses." She added that because the company entered those markets later than its rivals, it had difficulty gaining share and incurred financial losses. Penetration in the affected markets was 3.9 percent versus a rate of 16.2 percent in other areas, Dillon said.

U.S. Cellular does not offer 4G service in Chicago, lagging rivals such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless. In an interview with the Tribune, Dillon acknowledged that launching 4G service requires a step-up in technology investment that did not make sense in markets where penetration is low.

While the company is now getting out of Chicago and other markets, "this move does allow us to get to the next generation of technology in our remaining markets faster," Dillon told the Tribune. The company expects 58 percent of its customers to be covered by 4G LTE by year-end, with the roll-out continuing into next year.

In Illinois, the carrier will continue to service markets including Joliet and Rockford after the Sprint deal closes. After it exits the affected markets, the company will have more than 5.2 million customers in 23 states.

Locally, U.S. Cellular will be transitioning a Bolingbrook customer call center to an existing vendor partner Jan. 1, with that company retaining most of the jobs and employees, Dillon said.

On a conference call with financial analysts, the company said the Sprint deal does not change naming rights on the home field for the White Sox, U.S. Cellular Field.

"We have a long-term relationship with the White Sox," said David Kimbell, chief marketing officer at U.S. Cellular. "Even after this transaction, we're going to have 1,400 associates in Chicago so that relationship (with the White Sox) is not part of that deal and will not be changing."

A U.S. Cellular "consumer experience" center at the ballpark will be staying in place, according to the company. The company operates 116 retail stores in the Chicago area, but the U.S. Cellular Field location is not included in that total because no products are sold there.

Dillon emphasized that the carrier will continue to provide the same level of customer service during the transition period and that its subscribers will experience "no immediate change." The company has created a website, www.uscellularinfo.com, that explains the transaction to consumers.

For now, neither U.S. Cellular nor Sprint are offering details on what the transition will look like for affected customers. Dillon said the company will be keeping an eye on its subscriber base to prevent defections and "making sure our customers are very aware there is no change or impact on them for many months."

Stores will remain open and consumers are encouraged to continue upgrading their devices and redeeming reward points through U.S. Cellular's loyalty program, Dillon said. In addition, she said the company will remain "very competitive and aggressive around the holiday period" when it comes to marketing, even in areas that are being sold to Sprint.

The deal with Sprint does not include U.S. Cellular's network equipment, such as the towers and other infrastructure it has in affected markets. The Chicago-based carrier will keep running its network during a transition period, after which Sprint will notify U.S. Cellular as to when it should shut down those operations.

Also on Wednesday, U.S. Cellular said its third-quarter net income dropped 43 percent, as the company subsidized sales of new smartphones.

U.S. Cellular earned $35.5 million, or 42 cents per share, down from $62.1 million, or 73 cents per share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue rose 3 percent to $1.14 billion.

Sprint shares were down 1.8 percent to $5.63 in morning trade. U.S. Cellular Corp. shares were dropping 7.4 percent, to $36.15.

wawong@tribune.com | Twitter @VelocityWong

-- The Associated Press contributed.

USM data by YCharts

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Three firemen hurt fighting Oak Lawn blaze

A firefighter looks in a basement window at the scene of a house fire in Oak Lawn. (Alex Garcia, Chicago Tribune / November 6, 2012)

Staff report

12:16 p.m. CST, November 6, 2012

Three firefighters were injured while battling a house fire this morning in southwest suburban Oak Lawn.

All have been released from Advocate Christ Hospital late this morning after being treated for the minor injuries, according to Village Manager Larry Deetjen.

One suffered smoke inhalation, another's face was burned, while the third injured his back or leg, according to Deetjen. They are all men.

One occupant was able to escape and was out of the house by the time police arrived, according to Kaufmann.

Deetjen said the building was "well engulfed" when firefighters got there and searched the building. When they found no one inside, they extinguished the fire but the men were injured in the process.

The home was rendered unlivable and sustained "extensive"damages. The American Red Cross and the Salvation Army will be assisting, he said.

Deetjen said the cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Police and fire department investigators remain on the scene and 99^th Street is closed down in both directions from Cicero to 51^st avenues, said Kaufmann.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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