Cisco’s (Nasdaq: CSCO) announcement that it will sell its manufacturing facility in Mexico is “worrying,” according to Frost and Sullivan consultant Marcelo Ruiz.

Cisco announced the agreement on July 18 with Taiwanese electronics producer Foxconn technology group to sell the plant, located in Ciudad Juбrez in northern Mexico.

“This is a worrying announcement because we were used to Cisco’s positive results, in terms of growth, acquisitions and transactions and the offering of new services,” Ruiz told BNamericas.

The Mexican facility, acquired by Cisco in 2006, manufactures video and telecommunications equipment. It has more than 5,000 employees.

Cisco’s plan to reduce costs includes a 9% reduction in its workforce.

According to the company, around 6,500 employees would leave Cisco as part of the reduction plan for US$1bn in annual operating expense, announced in May.

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If you see a building under construction, it’s most likely an apartment complex.
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Homeownership goes in and out of favor, UCLA professor Stuart Gabriel said, and now it’s in decline.

“The pendulum swings back and forth a bit,” Gabriel said. “Homeownership is not dead, it’s just in a period of adjustment.”

Least popular are homes in remote “exurbs” far from cities, he said. With gasoline prices at sustained highs, many people want to be closer to their jobs in urban centers where the most affordable housing is often apartments.

Demographics and generational trends are also working in favor of apartments. Many renters in their 20s and 30s are delaying marriage and childbearing … and cherish the mobility to move where their careers take them. Read more…

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The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has launched an investigation into websites that charge for services which are available from the government for free.

The consumer watchdog will probe unscrupulous companies that charge customers for advice on government benefits, booking driving tests and applying for European Health Insurance Cards (EHICs) – all of which are provided for free from government departments.

The OFT closed down four sites offering EHICs last year.

The companies that charge for these services pay for sponsored links in search engine results which means they can appear above government entries, making unwitting consumers believe they are clicking through to official sites.

Some even register “.org” domain names to give the illusion of officialdom.

Cavendish Elithorn, senior director of the OFT’s Goods and Consumer Group, said: “It is important that companies are clear about the service they are offering, and do not trick people into paying for something that they can get for free or much cheaper on government websites. We will b

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Chile’s council of ministers for sustainability will start reviewing on July 21 the appeals to the approval granted to local company Minera Isla Riesco’s US$180mn Mina Invierno coal project, a source from the environment ministry (MMA) told BNamericas.

The council is led by environment minister Marнa Ignacia Benнtez and also includes the agriculture, finance, health, economy, development and reconstruction, energy and mining, public works, housing, transport and communications, and planning ministers.

The southern region XII evaluating committee unanimously approved the project on February 15.

Environmental and local community groups submitted four appeals before the council, highlighting the negative impact the project could have on wildlife, forestry and tourism on Isla Riesco, the country’s fourth largest island. <

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Insurance broker conglomerate Brasil Insurance has continued its aggressive M&A strategy with the sixth deal of this year through the purchase of Belo Horizonte-based Fazon Corretora de Seguros for 36.1mn reais (US$22.8mn), the conglomerate said in a filing with securities regulator CVM.

Brasil Insurance’s acquisition of Fazon will make the company the 33rd brokerage under the group’s wing. Fazon Corretora operates in the health, life, car and private pension segments, and wrote 55mn reais in premiums last year. The takeover also marks the conglomerate’s first entry into the Minas Gerais state.

According to the filing, Brasil Insurance will pay 15mn reais for a 99.99% stake in Fazon. It will then pay the remaining 21.1mn reais in three annual installments, based on an earn-out structure that depends on Fazon’s future earnings, with 50% of the payment made in cash and 50% in Brasil Insurance’s stock.

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