AOL to Acquire Huffington Post [WSJ]
AOL Inc. disclosed early Monday morning plans to acquire online news website Huffington Post for $315 million, as part of the Internet company’s attempt to turn its business around with a strategy of becoming a top producer of news, entertainment and other digital content. Huffington Post, a news and analysis website founded in 2005, reached 25 million unique visitors in December, according to comScore. AOL says that a combination of the two sites will reach a total of 117 million unique U.S. visitors.
Airline Losses May Top $600 Million on U.S. Cancellations [Bloomberg]
Airlines may be headed for more than $600 million in weather-related losses as U.S. winter storms trigger the most flight cancellations since the government began tracking the data in 1987. Almost 20,000 flights were scrubbed last week alone as snow blanketed U.S. airports such as Chicago’s O’Hare, a hub for United Continental Holdings Inc. and American Airlines, according to researchers FlightStats and FlightAware.com. Since Nov. 1, the total is 89,884, the firms’ tallies show.
It’s Snowing. Do We Get the Day Off? [WSJ]
Caruso Caruso, a retail business in Birmingham, Mich., lacks a stormy-weather policy because it always stays open, regardless of how brutal a wrath Mother Nature dishes out, says co-owner Lennon Caruso. The shop’s 15 employees have no excuse for failing to show up for a shift, he explains, because they all live within a reasonable driving distance and roads throughout the area are generally well-plowed after snow piles up. “It’s 2011. You have a car, get to work,” Mr. Caruso says.
Packers backer Lil Wayne free from tax bill [Tax Watchdog]
Best to pay $1.13 million before enjoying that action off GB’s win.
Driving privileges could be denied Marylanders who owe state taxes [DMWT]
The governor would let the state refuse to issue or renew licenses and registrations to those who have unpaid, undisputed tax obligations. By making drivers pay up, the administration estimates it could collect an additional $40 million over the next two years.
Career Tips from Annoying Office Mates [FINS]
Apparently, you can learn something from that person who marks every email as “Urgent!”
ICAI asks Big Four audit firms not to buy out Indian cos [Economic Times]
Amid concerns of alleged ‘surrogate practices’ of ‘Big Four’ accounting firms,regulator ICAI has asked PriceWaterhouseCoopers, KPMG , Ernst & Young and Deloitte to desist from acquiring Indian audit outfits. “Worldwide, there is a talk that there should be decongestion of the accounting profession…So that’s what we have suggested them (Big Four)… instead of acquiring firms please provide work to small and medium practitioners and go in for quality control,” ICAI President Amarjit Chopra said.
New tax tab for Rev. Al [NYP]
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has vowed to clean up his fiscal house, has a new tax lien to pay. Sharpton owes $359,973 to the IRS for 2009 personal income tax, according to documents on file with the city. Public records show he owes a total of $3.7 million in city, state and federal taxes, including penalties, dating to 2002. But Sharpton’s spokeswoman, Rachel Noerdlinger, said that he had paid back “well over seven figures” as part of agreements with the state and IRS and that the liens remained on the books as “a matter of bureaucracy.”