Filed under: Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), Citigroup Inc. (C), Merrill Lynch (MER), Small business

Lately, the headlines have been scary. Unemployment is increasing. There are concerns from the presidential candidates. Real estate values are sagging and foreclosures are skyrocketing. And, premier companies - like Citigroup (NYSE: C) and Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) - have raised billions of dollars to deal with heavy losses.

So, if the economy is slowing down, how can your business deal with things?

Let’s take a look:

Deal with hidden costs: When looking at expense items, some might seem small. But it’s often the case that these items - in aggregate - can turn into a big deal.

According to Tom Sharples, president of Qorvus Systems: “Typical small- or medium-sized businesses that have been around for a few years can find duplicative costs: unused cell-phone contracts that continue to rack up charges, subscriptions to services associated with long-departed employees and often all sorts of legacy junk that no one even remembers ordering, but that you’re still paying for every month.”

He recommends looking at expenses for:

o. Telecom charges
o. Web hosting costs
o. Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) search marketing expenses
o. Facilities costs (utilities, janitorial services, and so on)

Establish a Credit Policy: Basically, you need to take preventative measures with customers. So before extending credit, make sure they are in good standing and up-to-date on all invoices.

“If you have signed credit applications and are authorized to pull credit reports and check with banks and vendors on someone’s payment history, now is the time to revaluate each customer’s credit and credit limits,” said Michelle Dunn, who is the author of Become the Squeaky Wheel: A Credit & Collections Guide for Everyone (Collecting Money Series) and operates a credit advisory business. “Check for things such as late or slow payments, change or loss of jobs, changes in income, change of address, and divorce. Take immediate action if a customer’s mail is returned or the phone is disconnected. Speed is critical. The longer you wait, the less chance you have of getting paid.”

Work with your vendors: As a small business, it won’t be easy to get better terms from vendors. Yet, it’s worth asking for.

Or, it may mean dealing with smaller vendors, who may be more amenable for negotiation.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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Filed under: Deals, Industry, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Dell (DELL)

Most investors do not think of tech companies as being debt-laden. Many became pubic by raising cash in IPOs over the last decade. Any debt they had was paid off with capital raised. The rest stayed on the balance sheet.

A study by Paul Kedrosky written up in Barron’s paints a very different picture for some companies. Several large corporations, including Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO), and Wipro Ltd. (NYSE: WIT), have long-term debt to equity ratios of over 2x. For some big tech names the figure is over 6x.

Under normal circumstances, this kind of data would be benign. But with the credit markets in crisis, refinancing debt on terms more favorable than firms have currently may be very difficult. Or, if the bond market gets very right, a company like Ingram Micro (NYSE: IM) could get in a real pinch.

There is another side to this. Cash-rich companies like Microsoft Corp. (NYSE: MSFT), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) may be able to shop for bargains. For them to pick up a company and pay its debt down may not be a significant problem.

More tech M&A this year? Almost certainly.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Comedian Dane Cook has responded to Jessica Alba’s branding of their movie Good Luck Chuck as “porn.”

In the February issue of Elle magazine, Alba says the comedy differed from its original screenplay, comparing the finished product to a pornographic movie.

But Cook is defending the movie, insisting the final script was completely unchanged from the version handed to Alba before she signed up.

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Someone on eBay bid $400,000 for a pair of actor Gary Coleman’s sweatpants signed by the former child star.

“This is really high,” eBay spokeswoman Karen Bard told E!

“If someone pays $400,000,” added memorabilia dealer Brian Chanes, “I would eat my hat.”

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George Clooney has been designated a United Nations Messenger of Peace, to raise awareness of the world body’s peacekeeping efforts.

(I wonder how Fabio feels about this.)

Clooney, who raises money for those suffering in Darfur and increases awareness about the crisis affecting the region, is being “recognized for focusing public attention on crucial international political and social issues,” according to a U.N. spokeswoman.

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Transcend takes the spotlight again with its 32GB 133X CompactFlash Card, making it the largest ever for a device in its class. While you drool over the specifications below, there isn’t any official word with regards to the price and availability of this 32GB monster. Serious shutterbugs will definitely be aiming to lay their hands on one of these babies though.

• High-speed 133X performance
• Dual channel flash interface
• CF Type I
• Supports IDE PIO mode 6 and Ultra DMA mode 4
• Read/write speeds up to 45MB/16MB per second
• Fully complies with the new CF 4.1 standard Hardware ECC (Error Correction Code)
• ATA interface
• Low power consumption
• Multi-platform compatibility
• RoHS Compliant
• Lifetime Warranty

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No idea why one would actually include a subwoofer inside a china vase, but here it is anyway. The BooM China Vase/iPod speaker that holds a 25-watt subwoofer that is guaranteed to surprise guests to your home as they admire this piece of decorative item. What do you think are some other common household items that would look (and do) better than the BooM China Vase/iPod speaker when it comes to stuffing down a subwoofer?

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The Mvix MX-780HD Media Center is the third generation of its kind, and this time it supports full high definition resolution thanks to HDMI output. Just as there are many roads that lead to Rome, the MX-780HD also comes with various methods for you to play media on the box - you can choose to stream it from your computer via WiFi or Ethernet, transfer it via USB or a standard MSC drive, set it up as a NDAS network drive and the traditional method of adding an internal IDE or SATA drive. Not only that, you can also tune into free Internet radio for additional music content. Below are the list of specifications :-

• Video Formats: DivX, XviD, DVD (ISO/VOB/IFO), MPEG, VCD(DAT), WMV(WMV-9), ASF(WMV-9), TP, TS, TRP
• Audio Formats: MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG, PMC, AC3, M4A, DTS decoding (down-mixing / Pass though)
• Image Formats: BMP, JPG, PNG
• Subtitle Support: SMO, SRT, SUB
• Video Out: HDMI, Composite, S-Video, Component
• Audio Out: RCA, Digital Coaxial, Optical
• TV System: NTSC, PAL, Auto
• HD Support: 720p, 1080i, 1080p
• Networking: 802.11b/g (WEP/WPA), 10/100 Ethernet, NDAS
• Internal Disk: 3.5” IDE or SATA
• USB: Slave (for connecting to computer) and Host (for additional storage)

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A bunch of researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the UK are currently working on a computerized lip-reading system which could potentially be used to fight crime when perfected. One of the main obstacles would be to come up with a precise and sufficient database of photographs as well as videos to form a reliable basis for their lip-reading software. It is hoped that sometime down the road, they will be able to construct machines that are capable of converting lip-motion videos into text automatically. In addition, the researchers have plans to extend the silent speech-recognition system to other languages.

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Filed under: Drama, Casting, Deals, Lionsgate Films, Family Films

Well, Tyler Perry has been outed as a possible roid-rager, and I’m sure it has made plenty of fans look at him just a little differently. Now, the man famous for dressing up in a housecoat has decided to take a stab at something just a little more dramatic, ’cause goodness knows, he could probably use the change. Variety reports that Jennifer Hudson is currently in talks to star in his family drama, Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys — now I know I am not the first person to comment on this, but really, does he have to put his name in the title of every single film that he makes? Perry will direct and star along with Sanaa Lathan, Kathy Bates, Alfre Woodard and Rockmond Dunbar (Prison Break). Perry also wrote the script, which is about two families who become intertwined due to relationships in love and business.

The film will mark the first time that Perry has included white actors in the major storyline of the film — but I can’t say that it is really going to matter. Let’s just say that I’m enough of a cynic to pretty much assume that any Tyler Perry film isn’t exactly going to rock my world. But it’s not like I’ve never been proven wrong about this kinds of things, so you never know. Hudson is still hard at work filming the big-screen version of Sex in The City (as Carrie’s assistant, or better known as the “sassy black female friend #1703″) as well as The Secret Life of Bees (based on the critically acclaimed coming-of-age novel by Sue Monk Kidd). The Family that Preys is set to start shooting March 2 at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta. After an Oscar and a slew of high-profile roles, is it wrong to suggest that maybe Hudson should steer clear of this particular film?

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