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Talk of the day

By TIMES WIRES
Published April 18, 2007

Nestle thinks light, even with its containers

One of the nation's biggest sellers of bottled water, Nestle Waters North America, has introduced a bottle that weighs 15 percent less than those sold today, an effort that will reduce waste, emissions and the cost of raw materials. Nestle Waters North America has started selling certain brands in a 12.5-gram bottle, which the company took two years to create and will help it save 65-million pounds of plastic resin a year. The company sells brands such as Poland Spring, Arrowhead, Deer Park, Ozarka, Perrier and S. Pellegrino. The new bottle is now being sold under the Ozarka and Arrowhead brands and will roll out under other brands throughout this year. Most people buy bottled water by the case, which contains 24 half-liter bottles.

Google lets clients choose ad prices

Google Inc., the most popular Internet search engine, introduced a feature that lets clients specify the average price they are willing to pay for advertising. The change gives clients more control over ad campaigns by letting buyers set an average price they would pay when Web searchers click on their links, rather than only picking a maximum price for every ad, Google said Tuesday. The feature is designed to make Google's advertising program easier to use by reducing the need for customers to constantly monitor ad campaigns. The function, released worldwide Tuesday, also lets advertisers more easily bid the amount they think sales leads are worth.

Huge Vegas resort a secret no longer

Privately held casino resort developer Fontainebleau Resorts LLC on Monday announced plans for a $2.8-billion gambling resort on the Las Vegas Strip. Fontainebleau said it planned to open the 3,889-room Fontainebleau-Las Vegas by late 2009. The property will mix condo-hotel units, suites and hotel rooms with a 100,000-square foot casino, nightclubs, a spa and convention space. The company, majority owned by Turnberry Associates principal Jeffrey Soffer, quietly broke ground on the 24.5-acre site north of the Riviera hotel-casino in February and had kept its plans secret until Monday.

Analyst dials up iPhone forecast

Apple Inc. had its 12-month share-price forecast boosted 23 percent to $145 at American Technology Research, which said iPhone sales may surge as rebates of up to $150 are offered for the combined mobile phone and iPod device. AT&T Inc., which will be the first company to provide iPhone service when it goes on sale in June, might offer rebates of $50 to $150 to help lower the price of the device, analyst Shaw Wu wrote in a note. Apple also might participate in a revenue-sharing agreement in which it would collect a monthly fee and be paid a "bounty" for each phone customer it signs up at its retail stores, Wu wrote. "This is arguably the biggest opportunity that they're going to embark on in the company's history. We're talking about a billion-unit opportunity," Wu said.

[Last modified April 18, 2007, 02:52:53]