Industry Analysts

Cybersecurity industry analysts expect the market to grow more than 50 percent in the next four years even as other types of defense spending are expected to flatten or decline, creating new opportunities for workers and businesses in Maryland. The analysts presented their findings last week at the CyberMaryland conference in Baltimore. Information security professionals have to wade through an overwhelming amount of digital data every day to monitor for cyber threats — an increasingly cumbersome workload that will create new opportunities for federal contractors and workers, said John Slye, a federal industry research analyst with GovWin, a market intelligence and software company.

Cybersecurity industry analysts expect the market to grow more than 50 percent in the next four years even as other types of defense spending are expected to flatten or decline, creating new opportunities for workers and businesses in Maryland. The analysts presented their findings last week at the CyberMaryland conference in Baltimore. Information security professionals have to wade through an overwhelming amount of digital data every day to monitor for cyber threats — an increasingly cumbersome workload that will create new opportunities for federal contractors and workers, said John Slye, a federal industry research analyst with GovWin, a market intelligence and software company.

NEW YORK - Drug companies and other health-care providers should brace for a hit this year as cash-strapped state governments take the ax to Medicaid funds, analysts say. State governments typically provide half of the funds for Medicaid health insurance programs for the poor, with the federal government making up the difference. But as the economic slump continues, state budgets are shrinking as tax receipts fall. Although the magnitude of Medicaid cuts will not be determined until state budgets are completed this spring, industry analysts say cuts are unavoidable, given the size of state budget shortfalls.

Constellation Energy Group and lawmakers may have resolved their legal dispute over utility rebates, but the high-stakes debate over how Maryland's energy industry will buy and sell power in the future is just getting started. Even as they voted in favor of a $2 billion settlement with the company Monday night that provides a one-time $170 rebate to consumers, key lawmakers were discussing the possibility of returning to Annapolis in a year to undo electric deregulation. The outcome of their deliberations could alter the financial landscape at a time when Baltimore-based Constellation and others are considering whether to invest billions of dollars in new power plants to help solve Maryland's projected energy shortfall.

In addition to debt that it hid in partnerships, Enron took advantage of accounting rules to count billions of dollars in loans as financial hedges instead of debt on its balance sheet, accountants and industry analysts said. The effect was to mask the company's weakening financial condition. Records held by Arthur Andersen, Enron's longtime auditor, and people close to the transactions show that Enron received $3.9 billion worth of such loans from 1992 through last year, including at least $2.5 billion in the three years before the company declared bankruptcy.

With predictions looming of the longest strike to hit the phone industry in a generation - long before competition from cell phones or e-mail - Verizon Communications Inc. and two unions representing tens of thousands of its workers remain at odds over job security issues as the clock ticks down on a contract due to expire at midnight tomorrow. About 79,000 Verizon workers from Maine to Virginia - including 7,200 in Maryland - are poised to strike if the two sides can't reach an agreement by tomorrow night, an outcome that industry analysts contend is very likely.

The state lottery chief had to go. He kept coming up with bum numbers.Always take a clown seriously. -- Old Russian proverb.It says something about our country when the President and Michael Jackson go on the air to deny wrongdoing in the same terms on the same day.We don't want the Redskins in Maryland. We want a team that can score a touchdown.This Christmas was 5.5 percent better than last year's, according to industry analysts. Way to go, Santa!Fidel finds Alina Fernandez Revuelting.

VIENNA, Austria - Iraqi and U.S. officials said yesterday that they had agreed on a $1.6 billion plan to rehabilitate Iraq's oil industry over eight months. The plan would be the first step to overhauling an industry eroded by 12 years of United Nations sanctions and the past five months of war and looting, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials and industry analysts. "The rehabilitation plan is not to increase production but to take it back to previous levels," said Shamkhi al-Faraj, head of the Iraqi Oil Ministry's economics department.

An audience of 51.1 million tuned in last night to the finale of NBC's Friends, making it the second most watched show of the year behind the Super Bowl, which was seen on CBS by about 90 million viewers. That's a big audience for the episode that ended with Ross and Rachel in each others' arms, but it set no records. The finale of M*A*S*H on CBS was seen by 105 million viewers in 1983 - the biggest audience for a final episode in network history. Cheers and Seinfeld, two far more groundbreaking sitcoms, also had larger audiences for their finales.

BILOXI, Miss. - When Hurricane Katrina washed ashore here, it tossed most of the barge-based casinos off the Gulf of Mexico and onto dry land - and raised questions about the future of the industry on the Gulf Coast. Since the first slots landed here in 1992, casino gambling has found an especially profitable home on the low-tax Gulf Coast, a region that, until Katrina, was awash in a tourist boom. Now, the rebound of casinos in hurricane country will hinge as much on politics as on weather patterns.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's effort to help borrowers in danger of defaulting on their subprime mortgages could help only a small number of those who took out such loans, industry analysts said yesterday. Though administration officials have yet to agree on crucial details with mortgage lenders and the securities industry, a similar effort in California is likely to help about 12 percent of borrowers in the state with adjustable-rate subprime loans, according to estimates by Barclays Capital.

Forgot to pay the electric bill? Want to buy a snack but don't have cash? Feel like checking that 401(k) balance? Use your cell phone. Banks and other financial institutions are increasingly adopting the cell phone as the latest channel for consumers to carry out transactions. They are working to perfect the technology to stay competitive with peers and to meet demand from consumers who want another avenue to manage their money remotely. Companies are first targeting "technology optimists," or consumers who have extreme confidence in new gizmos.

LAS VEGAS -- From the moment you step off the plane at the Las Vegas airport, you see ads from Intel and Microsoft along with signs promoting warhorse casino celebrities like Barry Manilow, Celine Dion and Art Garfunkel. This is the land of marketing-gone-wild, with promos on cabs, billboards, banners on the sides of the giant casinos and threading through the clouds as skywriting airplanes pass overhead. They all mean one thing: CES is the place to be seen. It's the annual Consumer Electronics Show, a Darwinian circus that every technology company has to attend because 140,000 of the movers and shakers of the tech world are here to do business with one another.

Under Armour Inc. reported yesterday that third-quarter profit nearly doubled and that its gross margins - a point of concern for some industry analysts - rebounded as quarterly sales surpassed $100 million for the first time. The Baltimore maker of athletic apparel raised its income forecast for the year and said that next year it expects to beat its long-term growth target of 20 percent to 25 percent. "Under Armour is a growth company," said Kevin A. Plank, chief executive officer, in opening remarks to analysts yesterday.

With just hours to go before they adjourn for the year, pressure is on legislators to find a solution to the pending 72 percent rate increases for BGE customers, promising an intense finish to this year's 90-day General Assembly session. Before the traditional confetti falls at midnight and exhausted legislators go home, the House and Senate will work through the day on an agreement to phase in rate increases for more than 1 million utility customers, starting with a 7:30 a.m. meeting today of the governor, top lawmakers and utility company executives.

Baltimore's Constellation Energy Group and Florida-based FPL Group Inc. are in the final stages of working out a merger agreement that would leave the combined company with joint headquarters in Baltimore and Florida and include an unusual power-sharing agreement between the two chief executives, according to a source familiar with the talks. Though many details remain to be worked out and no deal is assured, the working framework has Constellation chief executive Mayo A. Shattuck III taking the title of executive chairman and remaining a central figure in running the fast-growing merchant energy business that is based in Baltimore and accounts for three-quarters of Constellation's revenue.

Industry analysts said yesterday that Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.'s latest slots proposal could generate $500 million for the state's coffers, and possibly more, depending on where the devices are located. This estimate falls short of what the administration has figured slots would raise for the state and would not cover costs of the $1.3 billion public school improvement program in Maryland, known as Thornton. "Money from slots alone would not fund the Thornton commission," said Del. Sheila E. Hixson, a Montgomery County Democrat who is chairwoman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

TOKYO -- The key players in the U.S. and Japanese automobile industries will meet here Jan. 9 to work on what could emerge as a new blueprint for expanding sales of U.S. cars and car parts in Japan.Industry analysts said here yesterday that the chairmen of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. will meet with their Japanese counterparts from Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co., Honda Motor Co., Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Mazda Motor Corp.Likely to attend as observers are officials of the U.S. Commerce Department and Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry, possibly accompanied by specialists from Japan's Ministry of Transport.

Northrop Grumman Corp., which employs 9,000 in Maryland, said yesterday that it is eliminating about 400 manufacturing jobs at its Linthicum campus, where the defense contractor develops and builds radar systems and a host of electronic sensors and networks that act as the eyes and ears for the U.S. military. Northrop said it would offer about 1,000 employees a voluntary severance package including up to 50 weeks pay, depending on years of service. If fewer than 400 volunteers take the buyout, the company will institute involuntary layoffs.

BILOXI, Miss. - When Hurricane Katrina washed ashore here, it tossed most of the barge-based casinos off the Gulf of Mexico and onto dry land - and raised questions about the future of the industry on the Gulf Coast. Since the first slots landed here in 1992, casino gambling has found an especially profitable home on the low-tax Gulf Coast, a region that, until Katrina, was awash in a tourist boom. Now, the rebound of casinos in hurricane country will hinge as much on politics as on weather patterns.