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Verizon Wireless has announced the purchase of 122 wireless spectrum licenses from SpectrumCo, LLC, a joint venture comprised of Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks. The licenses cover 259 million Americans and the deal is worth about $3.6 billion. Verizon says the acquisition of this AWS spectrum will be put towards further expansion of its 4G LTE network, which currently uses the 700MHz band. The AWS bands will supplement coverage in densely populated areas. The purchase will have to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission before it can be completed.

source: Verizon Wireless

Blog: On Campus

Student life, college news, and campus quirks, brought to you by State Journal reporter Deborah Ziff. Follow her On Campus blog for higher education news.

Follow @DeborahZiff

DETROIT (Nov. 28, 1 pm ET) — Delphi Automotive plans to earmark as much as 70 percent of its $8 billion annual purchasing budget for 100 key suppliers, up from about 40 percent today.

Sidney Johnson, Delphis purchasing chief, says the companys top leadership is spending time with these key suppliers to build relationships and share expansion plans.

In an interview, Johnson also discussed disaster planning after Japans earthquake, volatile raw material prices and the need for dual suppliers of key products.

Here are highlights of Johnsons interview with Special Correspondent David Sedgwick.

Q: A year ago you said 500 or 600 vendors account for most of Delphis purchasing budget. Do you plan to give them a bigger share of Delphis purchasing budget?

Johnson: Yes, thats the idea. The 600 suppliers are what we call our castle. They account for 80 to 85 percent of our current expenditures. Well try to get that up to 90 percent.

Q: How many of them would be considered key suppliers?

Johnson: Within that group [of 600 vendors], there is a core group of 100 key suppliers. Right now that core group gets 40 to 45 percent of Delphis annual expenditure. Well target them for 60 to 70 percent of our expenditures.

Q: That is obviously a lure. Do you offer them anything else?

Johnson: Access. We offer them access to our decision makers. When one of our presidents is traveling in a particular region, hell have dinner with their top leadership. Theyll talk about where they are headed in the future, and where they want that supplier to be.

Q: How large is Delphis annual purchasing budget?

Johnson: Direct purchases [of components] will be $8 billion. Indirect purchases [of services] will be $1.5 billion. Logistics will cost about $500 million.

Q: In the wake of the March 11 earthquake in Japan — and the recent flooding in Thailand — is Delphi reviewing its disaster plan?

Johnson: We have a staff that manages events that take place around the world. This team exists year-round; its not something we put together [after the earthquake]. When crises come up, the team manages logistics, inventory, production, working with our customers, understanding our constraints.

Q: Toyota has said it will rely on dual suppliers to buy key components. Is Delphi doing likewise?

Johnson: We call that dual manufacturing; thats not new. As you move up to more valuable components, you want to understand the likelihood that something can go wrong.

Q: Do you do that with all your suppliers?

Johnson: No, just with the key ones. You do some type of risk management depending on the difficulty of recovery. There are some things that I would never dual source, because the parts are not specialized.

Q: So if your suppliers fastener factory gets flooded, you would just run down to Ace Hardware and buy more fasteners.

Johnson: Yeah.

Q: Can you give me an example of a key product that requires you to line up dual suppliers?

Johnson: Wed do it for raw materials like plastic resin. Its a critical piece of our business. Resin goes into a lot of our products, and there is a lot of volatility in that market.

Q: So raw materials are actually the key potential bottleneck for Delphi?

Johnson: Yeah, maybe your supplier has a fire or a flood. When you lose a critical raw material with a long lead time, youve got a problem.

Q: How is Delphi coping with the price of raw materials like copper, aluminum and plastic resin?

Johnson: It was nice to see copper go down from $4.75 a pound to $3.25. Now its going back up a bit. Copper is extremely volatile. But like any publicly traded metal, you can escalate and de-escalate the price throughout the value chain.

Q: So you index the price of copper — that is, accept price changes from suppliers when the cost of the material rises and falls?

Johnson: Copper and aluminum.

Q: How about plastic resins? The price of oil has flattened a bit, so that has moderated resin prices, right?

Johnson: Oil prices have been pretty stable of late. But theres no price index for plastic resins. Everybody knows what a barrel of oil costs. But oil is just one factor of resin production. There are a ton of other factors that impact resin. For example, natural gas is a huge component of resin manufacturing.

Q: What do you do about it?

Johnson: Thats a good question. You look at alternate raw materials. Maybe theres a lower-cost resin that will meet your performance specs.

Q: How do you handle suppliers that come to you and complain that the price of resin has doubled?

Johnson: If its truly a hardship for a supplier, and they are a strategic supplier and you have the right relationship, you help them out and hope that they return the favor. These [price adjustments] are one-offs.

Q: So its a matter of come in and well talk.

Johnson: Absolutely. Resins are difficult to manage.

ITHACA, N.Y., Nov 29, 2011 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) –
The CBORD Group, Inc., the leading provider of food and nutrition management, cashless card, and access control solutions to healthcare facilities and colleges and universities, announced today the signing of a new three-year national agreement with Premier Purchasing Partners. The agreement, effective January 1, 2012, offers Premier’s member and affiliate facilities the most comprehensive software solutions available for food service management, cashless card systems, and campus security.

Under the agreement, Premier members and affiliates enjoy special pricing on CBORD(R)’s market-leading applications. CBORD solutions benefit Premier members through increased revenues, reduced expenses, and improved patient and customer satisfaction.

“For the past 11 years, Premier and CBORD have been strong partners. We’re pleased to once again be chosen as a Premier Business Partner based on our shared desire to bring proven value to all Premier Members,” said Tim Tighe, CBORD’s President and CEO.

About Premier Healthcare Alliance

A Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Recipient Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals and 77,000-plus other healthcare sites using the power of collaboration to lead the transformation to high quality, cost-effective care. Owned by hospitals, health systems, and other providers, Premier maintains the nation’s most comprehensive repository of clinical, financial, and outcomes information and operates a leading healthcare purchasing network.

About The CBORD Group, Inc.

The CBORD Group serves healthcare facilities, colleges and universities, corporations, senior living facilities, supermarkets, and a host of other market segments. CBORD’s products are used in campus ID card privilege control, access control, integrated security, housing services, food service, catering, nutrition services, online ordering, and other institution-wide activities. Founded in 1975, The CBORD Group serves more than 6,000 clients in the U.S., Canada, Europe, South Africa, the Middle East, New Zealand, and Australia. To learn more about CBORD, visit
www.cbord.com .

The CBORD Group, Inc. operates as a unit of Roper Industries, Inc.

/quotes/zigman/237451/quotes/nls/rop ROP
+0.28%

. Roper Industries is a market-driven, diversified growth company and is a constituent of the Fortune 1000, the Russell 1000, and the S&P 500 indices. Roper provides engineered products and solutions for global niche markets, including water, energy, radio frequency, and research/medical applications.

This news release was distributed by GlobeNewswire,
www.globenewswire.com

SOURCE: The CBORD Group, Inc.

CONTACT: Tanya Vanasse
Marketing Manager, Healthcare and Senior Living
Email: tgv@cbord.com
The CBORD Group, Inc.
61 Brown Road
Ithaca, NY, 14850
607.257.2410
FAX 607.257.1902

(C) Copyright 2010 GlobeNewswire, Inc. All rights reserved.

/quotes/zigman/237451/quotes/nls/rop

Add ROP to portfolio

ROP

Roper Industries Inc.

$
82.83

+0.23
+0.28%

Volume: 480,457
Nov. 29, 2011 4:03p

NATCHEZ — Natchezians have been faithful to local children — seeing to it that they have a memorable Christmas — since the 1990s.

Caroline Ferguson McDonough, organizer of the Children’s Christmas Tree Fund, said she hopes this year will be no different.

McDonough is the great-great granddaughter of James Lambert, former publisher of The Natchez Democrat, who started the fund. She said carrying out the work her family started is a blessing.

“For as long as I can remember, my cousins and I participated in the Children’s Christmas Tree Fund by bagging candy and toys,” she said. “I took it over about six or seven years ago. It’s very rewarding.”

With the donations, McDonough said she purchases toys for children ages 1-10, and divides them up into age groups.

“We normally take cash,” McDonough said. “But we will take (new) gifts too. The donations can be any amount — from $5 to whatever.”

McDonough said names of needy children are submitted by Catholic Charities, and she goes to work buying toys, food and candy for the children.

The Santa Claus Committee, comprised of local business people, oversees the annual gift endeavor.

McDonough said she hopes some Natchez residents will get on board for the first time this year, and that she is thankful to community members who have contributed in the past.

Donations may be sent to: Christmas Tree Fund, PO Box 1082, Natchez, MS 39121 or to The Natchez Democrat, PO Box 1447, Natchez, MS 39121.

Donations may also be dropped off at The Democrat’s 503 N. Canal St. office.

YahooSports.com: Yahoo Sports carries a number of Golden Gopher college basketball apparel items. They had both #24 and #50 Golden Gopher replica basketball jerseys in assorted sizes. They were priced at $50 and $59.95. They also carried Russell Minnesota Golden Gopher maroon tee-shirts for $15.95. Golden Gopher Cardinal replica shorts were priced at $44.95 and Nike reversible performance shorts sold for $31.99.:

GopherSports.com: This official online sports store for Golden Gopher basketball as well as other Gopher sports, Gophers Sports carries a wide variety of sporting goods items. Their assortment included tee-shirts in various styles for the Gopher basketball fan, sweatshirts, hats and jerseys. They also had an autograph basketball for $40, which would make a very nice gift, collegiate glass basketball glass ornaments, Gopher mugs etc.

CollegeBasketballStore.com: Minnesota Golden Gopher basketball shorts, maroon basketball tee-shirts, reversible basketball shorts and a number of basketball ornaments depicting Minnesota Golden Gopher basketball were all available amp; priced reasonably at the College Basketball Store.

Any of these online stores would be good for purchasing your college basketball gear, I feel. Most have shipping in 3 to 5 business days. I suggest giving one of them a try the next time youre looking for college basketball gear.

*Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

Second-generation Apple TV users will no longer be limited to streaming rented TV shows from iTunes or purchased TV shows from their computers thanks to a software update released on Monday. The update, which is already showing up for the latest version of the Apple TV, allows users to stream their purchased TV shows directly from Apple just like they would a rented show, with streaming access to shows purchased in the past as well.

The original Apple TV allowed users to purchase TV shows and movies from iTunes directly from the device, with a backup copy being downloaded to the users iTunes account on his or her computer. The second-generation Apple TV, however, could only access TV shows and movies that are available to rent on iTunesusers could still purchase nonrentable TV shows on their computers and stream them to the Apple TV, but those shows werent directly available to the Apple TV itself.

Mondays software update changes all that, mashing together the feature set of the old and new Apple TVs. Now, the Apple TV can both rent and purchase shows from iTunes, effectively expanding the library that is available to those who browse through iTunes from the couch. Shows that are not available to rent, such as The Wire, now show up in searches and you can purchase them directly from the device. During our brief tests, it didnt appear as if the shows downloaded to the device as they did with the first-generation Apple TV, howeverinstead, they appear to be streamed like any rented show.

But where do the backup files go? When we bought a TV season from the second-gen Apple TV while writing this post, the files didnt seem to want to download to iTunes on our computers either. Its possible that this could be a launch-day glitchwe did run into some iTunes Store is currently not available errors during our testingbut its also possible that Apple has halted this practice due to iCloud.

The iCloud link is evident in the other major feature the Apple TV gained on Monday. Users can now navigate to a menu item from the Apple TVs main screen that allows them to see all shows purchased in the past, even if they werent purchased from this device, with a little cloud logo next to each item. So for example, I had originally bought The Wire season 2 from my old Apple TV before the hard drive died (the backups never downloaded then either), and I had written the entire purchase off until today. Now, my second-gen Apple TV shows that entire season under the Purchased menu, allowing me to finally catch up on Omars antics.