The Fund Manager John Neff: 'I always did ask the hard questions.'. (A Life in Governance).
"AS A YOUNG SECURITIES ANALYST, I was limited in my knowledge of boards and how to analyze the quality of the directors. Boards were certainly more of an old boys-type club in those days. What I did find surprising was that you actually had brokerage guys on boards who...

BRIEFLY.
Byline: The Register-Guard Economic Forecast event set to get under way Wednesday Looking for something special to brighten a gloomy January day? Try the Economic Forecast 2004 event at the Hilton Eugene & Conference Center on Wednesday from 2 p.m. to...

Swisscom Doubles Net Profit.
Swiss telecoms operator Swisscom AG has posted a very healthy set of results for 2003, and has decided to pay out billion of dollars in dividends to its shareholders. The operator reported net profit up 90.4% at CHF 1.57bn ($1.23bn) for 2003, compared with CHF 824m ($647m)...

Bank plans to buy back shares.
Byline: ED RUSSO The Register-Guard With money to invest and seeing opportunity in its own stock, Pacific Continental Corp. on Monday announced that it will buy back up to 3.9 percent of its outstanding shares. Chief Executive J. Bruce Riddle said the Eugene-based bank has...

PeopleSoft News Good for Investors, Bad for Staff, Oracle.
PeopleSoft Inc yesterday revealed the impact of its acquisition of JD Edwards & Co, raising its financial guidance, announcing a $350m share buyback, and saying it intends to lay off up to 1,000 workers to cut costs. The news, which came during an analysts' day meeting at...

Givaudan will buy back 10% of own shares. (Financial News).
* Givaudan AG, Geneva, Switzerland, said it plans to buy back 10%, of its own shares, citing a lack of acquisition prospects as the reason. Givaudan's board of directors plans to start a new share buy-back program of up to 800,000 registered shares, or 10% of the...

Check Point Revenue Shows Signs of Stabilizing.
There are signs coming from firewall and VPN software-maker Check Point Software Technologies Ltd that the gradual decline in its revenues could be easing, with third-quarter numbers suggesting that sales are beginning to stabilize. Revenue of $106.3m for the period was in line with earlier company guidance...

NTT DoCoMo Hopes to Trim Debt.
NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's largest mobile carrier, is looking to improve its financial health by reducing its JPY 1,300bn ($11.1bn) debt burden. This follows its recent share buyback scheme, which closed earlier this week. However, the mobile operator could face problems from its lenders, according to the...

BT Plans More Cost Reductions as Revenue Slips.
BT Group Plc plans to cut costs by a further 1bn pounds ($1.6bn) over the next three years as increased efficiency is the only way to increase profits with revenue on the slide. For the second quarter to September 30, it posted net income up 18.6% at 382m pounds...

Vodafone to Spend $4.2bn on Share Buyback.
The world's largest mobile operator Vodafone Group Plc has announced a 20% rise in its interim dividend, as well as the intention to spend $4.24bn on a share repurchase program. For the six months to September 30, Vodafone reported a net loss of 4.25bn pounds ($7.22bn), compared...