Mexican telecom billionaire Carlos Slim Helu has acquired a 6.4% in the New York Times Company, according to regulatory filings at the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

On Wednesday, Slim and his family bought 9.1 million shares of the New York Times Company for $123 million through Inmobiliara Carso which is the Slim family trust. The acquisition is expected to be a valuable addition to the $60 billion Slim portfolio which has reaped the gains of a burgeoning equity market in Mexico. Slim also owns 30% stake in America Movil, the mobile carrier which has been doing well in Mexico where it has a 60% market share.

The New York Times acquisition marks Slim’s first foray into publishing and may be the beginning of a plan to own content which he can market through his vast mobile phone network in Mexico. Last year in December, Slim entered into an agreement with Yahoo! to provide mobile web services in sixteen Latin American and Caribbean nations. However it remains to be seen how Slim’s existing portfolio integrates the New York Times which does not have any Spanish language publication.

The sale of New York Times assets comes at a time when the newspaper industry in the US is going through a rough patch. Last year the industry reported a decline of 7.9% in advertising revenue while shares of New York Times have dropped 33% this year.

A recent federal investigation has revealed that few employees of the US Interior Department handling billions of dollars in oil royalties received expensive gifts and holidays from as well as engaged in improper relationship with employees of energy companies.

Around 13 current and former officials with the Interior Department from Denver and Washington have been accused by federal investigators of transgressions which include rigging contracts, working part-time as private oil consultants and receiving bribes in the form of golf and ski outings from energy companies. One official was also charged with having sexual relationship with an employee of a company.

According to the royalty-in-kind system, instead of cash payment energy companies barter to the government a portion of gas and oil output in return for being allowed to drill on federal land. The accused officials mainly belonged to the Denver office of the Minerals Management Service which is supposed to oversee the royalty-kind payments and market the oil and gas to other energy companies. Some of the oil received as royalty by the government is also put in a Strategic Energy Reserve, which is the nation’s emergency stockpile.

The accusations against the officials of the Minerals Management Service come at a time when the Congress as well as both the presidential candidates are debating whether to allow newer federal offshore areas for oil exploration.

Lehman Brothers tried to shore up investor confidence by rushing out its third-quarter results and announcing a series of cash-raising measures which primarily included sale of property assets.

The bank revealed that it had lost $3.9 billion in the third quarter on account of the ailing property market. Most of the losses were due to additional write-downs of $5.6 billion related to commercial and residential property investments.

After releasing the third quarter reports, Chief Executive of Lehman Brothers also announced a series of measures to raise cash. These include selling off $4 billion of its UK residential mortgage portfolio to private equity firm Blackrock as well as spinning off $30 billion worth of commercial property assets into a new company. These measures were intended to reduce the bank’s exposure in an-already shaky property market.

The bank intends to save another $450 million by reducing its year-end dividends from 68 cents to 5 cents. Lehman Brothers is also on the verge of reaching a deal to sell off 55% stake in its profit-making investment management division which includes the asset manager Neuberger Berman.

Announcement of its third-quarterly report by Lehman Brothers did not do much to enthuse investors as shares of the bank fell by 7% to settle at $7.25.

A crucial aspect of climbing up the corporate ladder is effective networking. This implies building up useful contacts in your professional field as getting ahead in your career is closely linked to whom you know.

Building a professional network is a skill that takes time and patience. Merely handing over a business card to a company executive at a cocktail party is not networking. Rather it involves cultivating a relationship over time and following them up with genuine interest.

For effective networking it is essential to be visible. Attend professional or trade meetings, volunteer to prepare presentations or publications and use the variety of people you meet to develop contacts with the important people they know and who finally matter.

Be prepared. Now that you have developed a network of useful contacts, prepare to present yourself in the best light to a potential employer. Keep ready a short, snappy description of your job which sounds interesting enough to hook the interest of a company CEO.

Finally return the favor. Help co-workers and professional acquaintances to meet useful people whom you know. This will not only build up your credibility but may even lead them to introduce you to someone useful.

Retail clinics in the US are increasingly becoming a popular option for non-emergency medical care, says an independent team of researchers from RAND.

In recent times, retail clinics have come up in greater numbers at drug stores, grocery stores as well as at large stores like Wal-Mart. The research team studied data from a million and a half retail clinic visits and compared these with separate national data from 35,814 visits to primary care physicians as well as 147,784 emergency room visits.

The results of the study revealed that patients frequent retail clinics mainly for the treatment of simple ailments or vaccinations. For instance while the younger section visited the retail clinics for ear, throat and other respiratory tract infections, 74% of patients above 65 years went there to get their immunizations. People between 18 and 44 years were twice as likely to visit retail clinics than go to primary care physicians. The youngest and the oldest patients on the other hand were more likely to seek medical help at a doctor’s office or emergency room.

Payments at retail clinics were more likely to be out of pocket as compared to payment to primary care physicians even though that trend was gradually changing.

Results of the research also predicted that while the present number of such clinics stood at 450 in the next five years it would increase to 6000.

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