Bill O'Reilly didn't give Piers Morgan the time of day -- until he had to.
That, at least, was the story told by the CNN host when he appeared on Howard Stern's SiriusXM show on Wednesday morning.
Morgan recounted that when he first joined the cable news network, he approached the Fox News personality to appear on his talk show. The O'Reilly Factor host apparently didn't show a flicker of recognition for Morgan and quickly declined the offer.
STORY: Piers Morgan Talks Gun Control and Jeff Zucker
"I've just joined CNN, you may have seen the promos? Nothing," Morgan remembered of the incident, later adding: "What a dick."
But then Morgan said that shortly after the conversation, O'Reilly approached him. The Fox News host asked if his daughter and her friend could take a picture with him because she was a fan of America's Got Talent, which the CNN personality previously hosted.
O'Reilly was "simmering with volcanic lava" at the time, Morgan said.
The CNN host appeared on Stern's radio program during the press tour for his new book, Shooting Straight.
In his book, Morgan notes that he similarly invited News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch to appear on his show. He was told there would be a "zero in a hundred" chance of that happening.
Apple is cutting back production of its lower-cost iPhone 5C for the fourth quarter, according to sources close to the two Taiwanese companies that assemble the device. The news gives ammunition to analysts who questioned the company’s pricing strategy for the new addition to the iPhone line.
The colorful, plastic encased iPhone 5C debuted in September along with the high-end iPhone 5S, which costs $100 more and comes with the fastest mass market smartphone chips to date, along with a fingerprint sensor.
STORY: Apple iPhones Go on Sale in China, Posthaste
Apple told its Taiwanese assemblers Pegatron Corp. and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. that it would be cutting shipments of the iPhone 5C in the fourth quarter, sources told the Wall Street Journal.
Pegatron, which the Journal says assembles two thirds of Apple’s iPhone 5Cs, was told orders would be cut by less than 20 percent. Hon Hai, which assembles the rest of Apple’s 5Cs, was told its orders would be reduced by a third.
Prior to Apple’s iPhone release event in September, investors had been anticipating, and arguing for, the company to release a lower cost model – with pricetag around $350 --to compete in developing markets, such as China, where the company has been losing market share, because many consumers don’t have the disposable income for its “affordable luxury” class products. The iPhone 5C was the company’s answer to this demand, but analysts were disappointed by the $550-plus price point for the device.
Consumer demand for the gold version of the 5S, however, has outstripped expectations, leading Apple to increase orders for that model.
Photo by Mike Theiler/Reuters
American Airlines is announcing its quarterly earning results on Thursday. Most likely, they’ll post another quarter of profits following success in recent quarters in turning around the bankrupt company. Ordinarily, that would be cause for celebration. There’s more to life than quarterly profits, of course, but workers and managers at established businesses normally like the idea of profitability—except at American Airlines, where good financial results may do more harm than good.
That’s because American is trying to put itself out of business by merging with US Airways. But the Justice Department doesn’t want to let it, arguing that the merger will reduce competition and harm consumers. American’s strongest counterargument would be to show that it’s not viable as an independent company—an argument that strong quarterly earning results would badly undercut.
Rumblings of a merger began almost as soon as American filed for bankruptcy protection in November 2011. The aviation industry had, for quite some time, been in a cycle of consolidation. America West purchased the old US Airways and adopted its brand. Delta absorbed Northwest. United swallowed Continental. Southwest gobbled AirTran. Time and again, airlines managed to reduce excess costs and improve profitability by growing larger in scale. A bigger airline can serve the same population as two smaller airlines with fewer total flights and somewhat less extensive hub operations, and strengthen its financial position.
American’s CEO and a few other top executives stood to reap a huge payday if they managed to emerge from bankruptcy and only later discuss mergers, but American’s workforce preferred to merge as soon as possible. US Airways—considerably smaller than United, Delta, or Southwest but cash-rich enough to swallow American—was the logical partner. And so American’s unions did something a bit unusual and began preemptively negotiating hypothetical labor agreements with US Airways executives. Post-merger integration of separate collective bargaining agreements has frequently been a problem with airline tie-ups, and bankrupt companies generally want concessions from unions. Labor’s willingness to get these issues straightened out in advance of a merger became a major inducement to merge. Then labor started pressing American’s creditors.
Soon enough, the creditors and US Airways management reached a deal. The plan was to form a new airline that, in deference to American’s larger size, would retain American Airlines’ name and branding. Top management would be current US Airways executives, but the new airline would belong to the American’s OneWorld alliance (with British Airways and Cathay Pacific) rather than US Airways’ Star Alliance (with Lufthansa and Air China).
Politically speaking, it looked like a done deal. Here was an iconic American company that, in principle, could have vanished from the Earth—its airplanes and landing slots auctioned off to pay old debts—and cost the country thousands of jobs. Instead, a new owner was riding to the rescue with the support of the workforce at the troubled firm. What could be better?
But the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division felt otherwise, and filed an injunction to stop the merger.
US Airways and American, it turns out, made the exact same mistake as AT&T and T-Mobile when they tried to merge. A deal with union backing sounds nice, and in purely political terms it is nice. But the Antitrust Division genuinely makes these calls on the merits, and as far as antitrust analysis goes, labor support is actually a huge red flag.
Regulators generally assume that when companies merge, they do so for some kind of sound, profit-increasing business reason. This assumption may actually be wrong. CEOs of larger firms get paid more than smaller ones, but firms that announce acquisitions normally see their share price drop. It’s at least possible that many mergers represent foolish empire-building on the part of executives that has nothing to do with business. But regulators start with the assumption that managers know what they’re doing. And from a competition perspective, the benign answer to the question “Why will this merger help you make money?” is “Combining the companies will let me lay off lots of now-redundant workers.” If workers are excited about a merger, then that means higher profit margins are probably coming in the form of higher prices—which generally means reduced competition.
There’s little doubt that this merger would reduce competition, removing an option on over 1,600 connecting routes around the country. That’s going to mean higher prices for customers, reversing a decades-long trend toward more competition.
When the merger was first announced, my view was that the public should accept it as inevitable. Competition and low prices are great, but you can’t have so much competition that the companies all go out of business. One case for blocking the AT&T/T-Mobile merger was that there were clearly other merger partners available, such as Sprint and Metro PCS; the AT&T angle was the most lucrative one for T-Mobile’s owners, but the worst one for consumers. American is different. Merging with US Airways would reduce competition, but merging with United or Delta or Southwest would be much worse. And the company was, after all, bankrupt and clearly not likely to survive.
That’s certainly the strongest legal argument the company can present at the trial starting in November. But the past two quarters worth of profits have cast doubt on the veracity of the American-was-doomed-anyway argument. Another good earning result this week would further undermine the case and strengthen the Justice Department’s view that American should be forced to stay independent. Strong profits would be good news for travelers, but bad news for the company itself.
NEW YORK (AP) — Elton John has honored Hillary Rodham Clinton for her work to help those affected by HIV/AIDS at an annual event for his foundation.
Clinton was excited as she accepted the first founders award from the Elton John AIDS Foundation Tuesday night in New York City. The former secretary of state told the crowd at Cipriani's restaurant that "we still have so far to go" when it comes to helping those affected by HIV/AIDS.
Billy Joel, Alec Baldwin and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo also attended the black tie event. Recent Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Heart performed a dozen songs.
John's foundation is celebrating its 20th year. The pop icon says he will continue to be "stubborn" when it comes to finding ways to help those affected by AIDS.
ROME, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Italy's soccer players will be banned from using Twitter and other social media at the World Cup in Brazil next year, coach Cesare Prandelli said on Tuesday.
"New...rules will come into force, and they will be more stringent," Prandelli told RAI Sport. "We are looking at banning the use of social networks for players... The restriction will definitely be in force for the World Cup training camp."
The ban comes after maverick AC Milan and Italy striker Mario Balotelli ran into a storm when he used his Twitter feed to distance himself from a suggestion by the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper that he should see himself as a role model in the fight against the Mafia.
Balotelli's tweet prompted a leading anti-Mafia campaigner, Rosaria Capacchione, to label the player an "imbecile", while Italian soccer federation (FIGC) president Giancarlo Abete sympathised with him for always being "in the eye of the cyclone".
Italy, who play Armenia in Naples later on Tuesday, have already qualified for the World Cup. (Reporting by Terry Daley; Editing by Clare Fallon)
Pandora’s share price took a big hit when Apple launched its new iTunes Radio service, but Pandora still has the upper hand. So says Pandora chief financial officer Mike Herring, who recently told CNET during an interview that while Apple might have hype and reach on its side, Pandora is still the superior streaming radio service. Herring acknowledged that Apple and some other streaming music providers are threats to Pandora’s business that should be taken seriously, but he is also confident that Pandora is “better than anybody else” when it comes to streaming radio services such as iTunes Radio.
“It’s not that [iTunes Radio] isn’t a threat to Pandora. Don’t get us wrong, we take them very seriously and do see them as a credible threat,” Herring said in the interview. “Keep in mind there have been lots of credible threats over the years, from startups to Microsoft to Google, to Apple and Twitter this year. We absolutely see iTunes as a competitive option out there, but we think we are a great service that does this better than anybody else.”
The executive continued, “The most recent entrants have all been large, well-funded companies that have agendas outside a really awesome music experience. They have other reasons, selling cell phones or downloads. We sell downloads, but the priority isn’t to sell as many downloads as possible. It’s emblematic of the difference.”
Apple might have the upper hand when it comes to reach since iTunes Radio is integrated into iOS 7, which was installed on more than 200 million devices after less than a week of availability, but Pandora is clearly doing something right — Pandora is currently the No.3 app on the App Store’s top grossing chart.
More from BGR: iOS 7 takes a beating in extensive user experience review
This article was originally published on BGR.com
