Behind Your Business

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has ended its decade-long arrangement with the U.S. Department of Commerce. The move gained applause from the European Commission, which had called for ICANN to consider a system run by the private sector.

On Wednesday, the day ICANN's contract with the Department of Commerce was to expire, ICANN announced an "Affirmation of Commitments." It's a commitment for all the parties involved to have a continued relationship with the U.S. government and to conduct periodic reviews of the organization, its accountability, and its transparency.

In the past, those reviews were submitted to the U.S. government under the Joint Partner Agreement. Under the new relationship, reviews will be developed by an international committee chosen by the chairman of ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee. The committee represents 100 nations around the world, the CEO of ICANN, and in some cases ICANN's chairman.

"So what it really means is, we're going global," said ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom. "All the reviews and all the work done will be submitted for public comment to the world. And the United States, just like every other country, will be a recipient of that information through the publication of result."

Private and Public Support

Viviane Reding of the European Union Commission for Information Society and Media asked ICANN in May not to renew its deal with the U.S. government.

"Internet users worldwide can now anticipate that ICANN's decision on domain names and addresses will be more independent and more accountable, taking into account everyone's interests," Reding said. "If effectively and transparently implemented, this reform can find broad acceptance among civil society, business and governments alike."

Private businesses and organizations, including VeriSign, Google and NetChoice, are also applauding the decision.

"VeriSign commends the Internet Corporation on Assigned Names and Numbers and the Department of Commerce the 10 years...

AP - A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Wednesday:

"The deeper the slump, the zippier the recovery," Jim Grant declared in a recent WSJ op-ed, stunning many on Wall Street as the longtime bear joined the growing crowd forecasting a V-shaped recovery.But the optimists are wrong, says David Levy,

Amid declining revenues, Microsoft is slashing the salaries and incentives for its top executives, including CEO Steve Ballmer, for fiscal year 2009. The decision came after Microsoft reported its first-ever drop in annual revenue.

The was part of Microsoft's proxy statement filed late Monday. In it, Microsoft revealed that the fiscal year ending in June posted a three percent sales decline, with revenues totaling $58.4 billion. The company also said it reduced expenses by $3 billion compared to its original fiscal 2009 plan.

Although Microsoft's compensation committee thinks Ballmer is underpaid, the software giant nonetheless cut his salary from $1.35 million to $1.28 million. Ballmer still holds 4.8 percent of the company's common shares. Only Chairman Bill Gates owns more among company officers.

"Steve has such a large stock position in the company. He is clearly tied to the company's future in any case. Given the company's stock performance, I've often wondered if he's isn't losing more money in any given year than he's made when the stocks are down," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. "A number of times that's probably been the case, especially over this last year when the market collapsed."

Walking in HP's Shoes

Ballmer isn't alone. Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd reduced his own base salary by 20 percent earlier this year. HP also cut executive pay by 10 to 15 percent across the board, while most employees took a five percent pay cut. Executive pay cuts should be a more common practice, Enderle said.

"It's more often the case that a CEO will go in for a raise wanting credit for the cuts they've made. That tends to distance the CEO from the employees and makes it even tougher for the company to recover," Enderle said. "It tends to work out much better when you have a CEO...

A salesman's training manual will tell you that most people buy based on emotion and then justify their purchase with logical reasons afterward. This is the basis for impulse buying but it underpins so many other reasons we buy stuff and this emotional basis for buying 99% of the "stuff" we run our lives with is something retailers and salespeople understand only too well... which is why they take such great advantage of it!