The only funds you need in your portfolio now

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

A lot of people have the mistaken impression that to successfully invest for retirement you've got to assemble a portfolio of at least a half dozen or more mutual funds or ETFs.

That's nonsense.

The number of funds you own isn't nearly as important as the types of securities your funds own. And if you choose funds that hold a broad range of stocks and bonds and work in synch with each other, you can put together a well-diversified portfolio with two or three funds, or in some cases, just one.

Of course, some advisers will suggest that you're missing out unless you spread your money among all manner of exotic investments (which they're more than happy to sell you). But the more complicated your portfolio is, the more expensive and more prone to blow-ups it's likely to be -- which also increases the odds that it will generate subpar returns.

Related: Get your portfolio ready for 2015 and beyond

Which is why I suggest that as you review your investment strategy for the New Year and beyond, you consider a streamlined approach that allows you to get by with lower fees and fewer funds.

How few? Below you'll find my recommendations for three simple but effective diversified retirement portfolios consisting of three funds or less.

THE THREE-FUND DIVERSIFIED PORTFOLIO

To create this portfolio, simply invest in the following three funds (or their ETF equivalents): a total U.S. stock market fund, a total international stock market fund and a total U.S bond market fund.

Do that, and you'll gain exposure to virtually every type of publicly traded stock in the world (large and small, growth and value, domestic and foreign, all industries and sectors), as well as the entire U.S. investment-grade taxable bond market (short- to long-term maturities, corporates, Treasuries and mortgage-backed issues).

You can buy such funds and ETFs directly from any number of investment firms, including biggies like Fidelity, Schwab and Vanguard, all of which sell their own funds and ETFs or those of other firms, such as iShares, or both. If you're working with an adviser, he or she can buy these funds on your behalf.

Related: The best way to invest for retirement income

The annual fee you'll pay will vary depending on which firm's funds or ETFs you choose. (If you go with ETFs, you may also incur a brokerage charge, although several firms are currently waiving commissions and transaction fees on at least some ETFs.)

But you should easily be able to assemble a portfolio for an annual fee of 0.20%, or $20 per $10,000 invested, if not less. If you invest through an adviser, he or she will charge a separate fee.

THE TWO-FUND DIVERSIFIED PORTFOLIO

This portfolio is identical to the one above, except for one difference: it skips the total international stock fund.

Some pros may argue that jettisoning foreign stocks makes no sense, especially since we live in such a global world. But others, including Vanguard founder and low-fee zealot Jack Bogle, argue that you can get along fine without international shares.

I'm agnostic on this issue. Diversifying internationally should typically make your portfolio a bit less volatile since foreign markets don't always move in synch with U.S. stocks. But holding foreign shares isn't likely to offer shelter during major meltdowns, as virtually all markets move together in times of extreme duress.

If for whatever reason you're antsy about owning foreign shares or you just like to keep it simple by sticking to domestic equities, I don't think going with a USA-all-the-way portfolio is going to interfere with you achieving your goals.

THE ONE-FUND DIVERSIFIED PORTFOLIO

If you really don't want to be bothered putting together a portfolio, then a target-date retirement fund may be the solution. You choose a fund with a target year that roughly corresponds to the year you plan to retire (2015, 2020, 2025, whatever) and you get a ready-made mix of domestic and foreign stock and bond funds suitable for someone your age.

What's more, the fund automatically follows a "glide path," shifting into bonds each year and becoming more conservative as you approach and enter retirement.

You may end up paying a slightly higher annual fee for this portfolio-in-a-fund than you would by putting together the two- or three-fund portfolio option above. But you should easily be able to keep your annual expenses below 1% a year. And if you go for an all-index-fund target fund like Vanguard's, you'll pay less than 0.20% annually.

Related: Ditch the "Number" and find a realistic retirement savings goal

If you go with the two- or three-fund portfolio, you'll also have to decide how to divvy up your money between stocks and bonds. That's largely a matter of balancing your appetite for risk (which you can determine by completing a risk tolerance questionnaire) against the size returns you'll need to build an adequate nest egg or, if you're already retired, assure that your savings will sustain you throughout retirement. By plugging different blends of stocks and bonds (as well as different spending rates) into this retirement income calculator, you can get a good sense of which mix is right for you.

Since stocks and bonds typically don't deliver identical returns from year to year, you may have to rebalance your two- or three-fund portfolio to restore it to the right mix. Every few years or so, you may also want to reassess your risk tolerance and goals, just to make sure you're still okay with whatever stocks-bonds mix you originally set.

But aside from this sort of routine maintenance, you really don't need to do much with any of these portfolios. Just sit back and reap the benefits of the broad diversification each has to offer.

Walter Updegrave is the editor of RealDealRetirement.com. If you have a question on retirement or investing that you would like Walter to answer online, send it to him at walter@realdealretirement.com.

More from RealDealRetirement.com

What Scrooge (yes, Scrooge!) can teach you about retirement planning

3 key lessons investors can take from 2014

How smart an investor are you? Try this quiz

First Published: December 30, 2014: 5:31 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Millions of homeowners could refinance and save big

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Nearly one in five homeowners who are behind on their mortgage payments have loans with interest rates of 8% and higher -- nearly double today's rates of around 4%, according to nonprofit community development group NeighborWorks America.

The government recently launched a campaign to convince those most at risk to take the leap. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, nearly 770,000 homeowners are eligible for cheaper loans through its Home Affordable Refinance Program. Refinancing through that program could save homeowners an average of $200 a month, or $2,400 a year, the agency said.

Even homeowners who aren't struggling to make payments could benefit. Overall, there are 7.4 million mortgage borrowers in the U.S. with rates of 4.5% or higher who could qualify for -- and benefit from -- refinancing their mortgages, according to Black Knight Financial Services, a mortgage analytics company.

Quiz: How much do you know about mortgages?

So why haven't homeowners acted?

It's a combination of procrastination and fear, according to study from the University of Chicago and Brigham Young University.

"Deciding to refinance is a complex decision," said University of Chicago professor Benjamin Keys, one of the authors of the study.

Related: 10 hottest housing markets for 2025

Many borrowers have heard horror stories from friends and neighbors who refinanced in the past, sometimes into predatory loans, he said.

Some borrowers who tried to refinance found the process "time consuming and confusing," said Jeanne Fekade-Sellassie, a senior vice president for NeighborWorks. "Others don't believe they qualify."

For borrowers who manage to make their payments, status quo seems to be working, so why risk change?

And then there are distressed borrowers who have been in and out of default for years, meeting with harried foreclosure counselors, dealing with unsympathetic lenders, compiling paperwork over and over. All of this to save homes that may be worth a lot less than the amount the borrowers owe.

Related: Best cities for millennial home buyers

Still, no matter how difficult the process, the savings can be worth the headache.

At 4%, borrowers who have a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with a $200,000 balance would save more than $300 a month, compared with someone who has the same loan at a 6.5% rate. For those who are currently paying 8%, the savings comes to more than $500 a month.

Keys said the huge savings from refinancing may sound too good to be true to some. But the savings are real.

"It's a real shame if people miss out on the opportunity," he said.

First Published: December 30, 2014: 5:26 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Crippling hack forced Sony to use old BlackBerrys

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Executives also used the tried-and-true tactic for relaying messages: a phone tree.

CEO Michael Lynton told the Wall Street Journal Tuesday that it took him more than a day to fully understand the severity of the attack.

It was crippling.

Hackers stole troves of data, leaking movies and internal documents exposing private company memos, along with employees' salaries, Social Security numbers and health information.

Plus, the company's entire computer system was down during the week of Thanksgiving. Here's some of the ways workers coped, a Sony spokesman told CNNMoney:

• Execs set up a phone tree, so they could update each other about the hack. One person would relay the message to the next person on the "tree."

• Employees used personal cellphones, Gmail accounts and notepads.

• Paychecks were cut manually.

• Old BlackBerrys, which operate on a different server, were revived to send emails.

The FBI has presented evidence that North Korea was behind the hack. It came just before Sony was about to release "The Interview," a comedy about a plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

But some security experts hackers and people familiar with Sony's computer networks aren't so sure it was North Korea that pulled it off.

Related: What we know about the Sony hack

First Published: December 30, 2014: 8:34 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Why is United Airlines suing a 22-year-old?

22-year-old Aktarer Zaman founded Skiplagged.com last year.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

United Airlines (UAL) and Orbitz (OWW) filed a civil lawsuit last month against 22-year-old Aktarer Zaman, who founded the website Skiplagged.com last year.

The site helps travelers find cheap flights by using a strategy called "hidden city" ticketing.

The idea is that you buy an airline ticket that has a layover at your actual destination. Say you want to fly from New York to San Francisco -- you actually book a flight from New York to Lake Tahoe with a layover in San Francisco and get off there, without bothering to take the last leg of the flight.

Related: Airlines get $1 billion from baggage fees

This travel strategy only works if you book a one-way flight with no checked bags (they would have landed in Lake Tahoe).

It's not like these tickets are the cheapest all the time, but they often are.

In the lawsuit, United and Orbitz call Skiplagged "unfair competition" and allege that it is promoting "strictly prohibited" travel. They want to recoup $75,000 in lost revenue from Zaman.

Zaman said he knew a lawsuit was inevitable but he points out that there's nothing illegal about his web site.

He also said he has made no profit via the website and that all he's done is help travelers get the best prices by exposing an "inefficiency" in airline prices that insiders have known about for decades.

"[Hidden city ticketing] have been around for a while, it just hasn't been very accessible to consumers," Zaman told CNNMoney.

Related: 6 products to keep the skies friendly

Indeed, "hidden city," ticketing is no secret among frequent fliers, said Michael Boyd, President of Boyd Group International, an aviation consulting firm in Evergreen, Co. Boyd worked as an American Airline (AAL)ticket agent 30 years ago, and says he was trained at the airline to help customers find "hidden city" fares.

"I don't think it's illegal what he's doing," Boyd said. But lawsuits are expensive and it could end up costing the young entrepreneur who has irked the two billion dollar corporations.

Airlines usually offer cheaper fares for some destinations that are not regional hubs, Boyd said. Many of these flights are routed through more popular destinations. But if a lot of people take advantage of that discrepancy it could hurt the airlines, which is why they want to shut him down.

Related: 10 vacation experiences of a lifetime

Born in Bangladesh, Zaman grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science at age 20 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He lives in Manhattan and works at a technology start-up that he declined to name.

Zaman said Skiplagged is just a "side project."

Zaman and United declined to discuss the lawsuit. Orbitz said in a statement that it is obligated to uphold airline fare rules.

Other travel experts say that the airlines may not achieve much if Zaman's site is shut down, especially in a world where information is becoming more readily available.

"If [Skiplagged is] shut down, undoubtedly there will be other people to come along to scrape fares and make them available," said Robert Mann, president of R.W. Mann & Company, an airline consulting firm in Port Washington, N.Y.

First Published: December 29, 2014: 4:39 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Newsweek finds Christianity again with its latest cover

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

But religious-themed cover stories have long been a hallmark of the publication, and Jesus, in particular, has been a recurring figure.

Before the turn of the century, the magazine explored "2000 Years of Jesus."

When Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" was at the center of the national conversation in 2004, former editor Jon Meacham asked, "Who Killed Jesus?"

Around Christmas time that year, Newsweek's cover story analyzed the "birth of Jesus."

During the Easter season in 2005, Meacham, no stranger to divinity studies, penned a cover story titled, "How Jesus Became Christ: From Resurrection to the Rise."

Jesus continued His familiar place on Newsweek's covers under the leadership of former editor-in-chief Tina Brown, appearing on three covers in 2012 alone.

One of them, by the blogger Andrew Sullivan urged readers to "Forget The Church" and "Follow Jesus" in a cover story that featured an indelible shot of the Messiah dressed as a twenty-something - or "Hipster Jesus" as the Atlantic Wire described it.

Newsweek's cover archives only go back to the beginning of 2013, but the prevalence of the Jesus-centric covers has been preserved by other outlets, including the now-shuttered Atlantic Wire.

Rival magazine TIME has earned a similar reputation, with many past covers years closely paralleling Newsweek's. But like Newsweek, Time ran only one cover story on Christian themes in 2014: an April issue featuring an interview with Pastor Barbara Brown Taylor.

Other Christian figures show up on newsstands, too. The Virgin Mary has appeared on Newsweek's cover multiple times, and Mary Magdalene actually made the cover in 2003 and again in 2006, each story piggybacking on the blockbuster novel-turned-blockbuster movie "The Da Vinci Code."

What's united many of Newsweek's covers is the perception that they're motivated not by news value, but by magazine sales.

Pastor Rick Warren was one of many to accuse Newsweek's editors of cynical intentions when he took aim at Sullivan's piece in 2012. "I think it's disingenuous that magazines like 'Newsweek' know that their circulation goes up at Christmas and Easter if they put a spiritual issue on the cover, but it's always bait and switch," Warren told CNN's Jake Tapper, then with ABC News.

Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute, offered a similar explanation.

"The short answer is that those articles typically get a good response and they sell very well," Edmonds told CNNMoney on Monday.

And while he said those covers aren't necessarily the most "newsy," Edmonds did say that the stories often tackle issues typically untouched by mainstream newspapers and television outlets.

Newsweek's latest cover story, by Kurt Eichenwald and published online the day before Christmas Eve, continues that tradition. It is headlined "The Bible: So Misunderstood it's a Sin," and calls out"God's frauds, cafeteria Christians who pick and choose which Bible verses they heed with less care than they exercise in selecting side orders for lunch."

Critics have contended that Eichenwald was out of his depth. RedState editor-in-chief Erick Erickson, who enrolled in seminary earlier this year, said that Eichenwald "displays staggering ignorance to attack Christianity."

Michael B. Dougherty, a senior correspondent for The Week, engaged in an extended back-and-forth on Twitter with Eichenwald on Christmas Day.

Eichenwald's polemic was bound to spur a dialogue (if not controversy) and, like previous Newsweek stories of that ilk, that appears to be the point. But Newsweek editor-in-chief James Impoco disputes the notion that the latest cover resembles previous issues.

"Seems you can't have it both ways -- accusing us of pandering for sales and stirring controversy," Impoco told CNNMoney in an email on Monday. "It's plain silly to put Kurt's examination of The Bible in the same category as a 90s style newsweekly Jesus cover. We were very aware of the cliche. In case you haven't noticed, The Bible is news."

First Published: December 29, 2014: 5:23 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Wealthy Russians aren't buying U.S. homes anymore

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Deep-pocketed Russian buyers have been disappearing since last spring when international sanctions were imposed on Russia.

Over the past few years, Russian buyers have been responsible for some of the flashiest purchases in New York, according to Gabby Warshawer, research director for CityRealty, a website specializing in New York City sales.

Among them: the record breaking $88 million purchase of a Central Park West condo by Ekaterina Rybolovlev, the daughter of billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev; composer, Igor Krutoy's $48 million purchase of a duplex in the Plaza Hotel and the $38 million purchase of an apartment in Time Warner Center by businessman, Andrei Vavilov.

"This year, we haven't seen any of those chart-topping sales," said Warshawer.

Related: New York's most expensive rental costs $500,000 a month

Russian buyers were driving the ultra-high-end market in Florida as well, according to Danny Hertzberg, a Coldwell Banker agent with The Jills Group in Miami Beach.

The most expensive sale in Miami's history was a home that sold for $47 million in 2012 to an unidentified Russian buyer. But even that paled in comparison to the $95 million sale of Donald Trump's Palm Beach palace in 2010 to Dmitry Rybolovlev, the father of Ekaterina, the woman who bought that $88 million condo on Central Park West.

Donald Trump's Maison de l'Amitie in Palm Beach, Fla. sold to Dmitry Rybolovlev in a record-breaking deal.

Last spring, however, all of those deep-pocketed Russians seemed to disappear, said Hertzberg.

"It felt like it changed almost overnight," he said.

Related: 10 least affordable rental markets

The big drop off occurred right after the Russian government tightened its currency restrictions, making it difficult for Russian nationals to move large sums of money out of the country. It's now even getting to be a challenge for some to transfer the small amounts of cash they need to pay real estate taxes and maintenance costs, Hertzberg said.

It's difficult to know just how much of an impact the pullout of Russian buyers will have on markets like New York, said Warshawer. Not only do fair housing laws make it almost impossible to accurately track a buyer's nationality, but the buyer's identity may also be concealed since many of the most expensive properties get bought and sold through middle men and limited liability companies.

However, New York appraiser Jonathan Miller, of Miller Samuel, isn't too concerned.

Related: New York's multi-million dollar condo sales keep soaring

"I kept hearing about Russians dominating New York's high-end market but they never really did," he said. "They just had the highest profiles."

But Hertzberg notes, the Russian buyers play another role, too. Like many other foreign clients, they were much more bullish on the U.S. real estate market during the housing bust than Americans were.

"Russians were willing to go well beyond what others would pay for trophy properties," said Hertzberg.

He thinks the rich Russian buyers will come back quickly if they can find a way to extract their wealth from the mother country.

"I hear from some Russian clients that the decline of the ruble has made them even more eager to buy here," he said.

First Published: December 29, 2014: 5:53 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

'The Interview': $15 million, 2 million streams

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Sony Pictures said Sunday that the scandalous Seth Rogen comedy was "rented or purchased online more than 2 million times" between Wednesday, when it was released, and Saturday.

The totals do not include Sunday, when Rogen and others held a live-tweet session to further promote online streams of the movie.

"Total consumer spending through Saturday for The Interview online is over $15 million," Sony said in a statement. Earlier, studio executives would only say that rental numbers were strong.

That's far more than the movie made in theaters -- despite sold out showings in a patchwork of theaters across the country. Through Sunday, "The Interview" is expected to make about $2.8 million at the 331 independently-owned theaters that have been showing it since Christmas Day.

This is about in line with industry expectations. Had it opened in the 2,000 to 3,000 theaters it was originally scheduled to be in, the movie would have made far more. But security fears scuttled that release two weeks ago and led to a hybrid in-theater and at-home release plan.

That's how Sony (SNE) un-canceled the movie last week, with the help of independent theaters and online stores like Google (GOOG)'s YouTube. (Some of the big theater chains would have considered showing the movie, but they objected to online distribution while the movie was in theaters.)

To put the sales figures so far in context, the movie's budget was about $44 million, and that does not include any of the marketing costs.

In other words, Sony still has a long way to recoup its costs. But it determined that announcing the online sales figures would bolster its decision to release the movie online and would generate further interest in renting.

Sony did not break out how many of the two million were rentals and how many were sales. It's also not clear exactly what kind of deals Sony cut with its online partners, but most of the revenue will likely go to the studio.

A source with knowledge of the arrangement said most of the digital sales were made through Google's YouTube and Google Play.

The results may be a glimpse of Hollywood's future. Studios aren't going to abandon theaters en masse -- far from it. Studios and theater chains generally have a mutually beneficial relationship.

But analysts say that digital distribution will gradually, almost inevitably, become more important to the studios over time.

Related: Watching 'The Interview' online was absurdly amusing

In addition to YouTube and Google Play, the movie was initially available through Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30)'s Xbox video store and a dedicated Sony web site.

At 1 p.m. Sunday, it was also made available through Apple's iTunes store, a development first reported by Re/code. Rental through iTunes costs $5.99, the same price as through the other sites.

The addition of Apple (AAPL, Tech30) is noteworthy because an earlier distribution deal between Apple and Sony fell apart last week.

"The Interview" is still not available through Sony's PlayStation video store. The PlayStation Network has been plagued by an apparently unrelated outage in recent days.

Related: You won't get hacked by streaming 'The Interview' online

And to encourage more rentals of the movie, Rogen, his co-star James Franco and co-director Evan Goldberg held the live-tweet session Sunday afternoon. It was a twist on the notion of "social TV."

One Twitter executive dubbed the social networking site "the world's biggest movie theater." The site has been promoting the live-tweeting session extensively.

In a statement about the weekend box office numbers, Rogen said, "The fact that people actually left their houses when they had the option of staying home is amazing."

Related: What we know about the Sony Pictures hack

First Published: December 28, 2014: 2:37 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

AirAsia CEO takes to Twitter fast in wake of tragedy

Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia.

(CNNMoney)

"This is my worse nightmare," CEO Tony Fernandes posted on Twitter as a search and rescue operation was underway. "My only thought(s) are with the (passengers) and my crew. We put our hope in the SAR operation and thank the Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysian governments," he wrote, referring to the search-and-rescue effort in the Java Sea along well-trafficked shipping routes.

That was one of a dozen tweets Fernandes sent or retweeted in the first 12 hours after Flight 8501 lost contact with air traffic controllers. The Airbus A320-200 was headed to Singapore from Indonesia with 162 on board, the airline said.

The posts were retweeted tens of thousands of times. Meanwhile, hashtags like "#AirAsia" and "#QZ8501," the flight's aviation code name, trended worldwide.

The CEO's messages were aimed at families of the passengers, his staff and the public.

"I as your group ceo will be there through these hard times. We will go through this terrible ordeal together and I will try to see as many of you," Fernandes wrote.

"Our priority is looking after all the next of Kin for my staff and (passengers). We will do whatever we can. We continue to pass information (as) it comes."

He called his team "all stars" and urged them to "be strong, continue to be the best. Pray hard. Continue to do your best for all our guests. See u all soon."

"I am touched by the massive show of support especially from my fellow airlines. This is my worse nightmare. But there is no stopping," he wrote.

The airline's official social media account responded, too. It posted regular updates to Twitter and Facebook. AirAsia changed its logo on social media from red to grey.

Fernandes has been with the company since its earliest days. In 2001, he and several partners bought an unprofitable air travel company -- it owned just two planes -- and turned it around, according to his company biography.

AirAsia's approach was in contrast to the way Malaysia Airlines handled the disappearance of its Flight 370 earlier this year. Malaysia Airlines was criticized by the passengers' families, who said they were given little information, and that some of what they were told was false.

Both companies are based in Malaysia.

--CNN's Yousuf Basil contributed to this report

First Published: December 28, 2014: 11:53 AM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

AirAsia shares slide after plane vanishes

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

Company shares were off by more than 10% in the opening minutes of trading in Malaysia.

The search for the missing plane, which lost contact with air traffic controllers early Sunday morning, has resumed in the shallow waters of the Java Sea between the islands of Belitung and Borneo.

CEO Tony Fernandes addressed the crisis on Twitter, saying the low-cost airline will do whatever it can to help.

"This is my worse nightmare," Fernandes said. "My only thought(s) are with the (passengers) and my crew. We put our hope in the SAR operation and thank the Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysian governments," he wrote, referring to the search-and-rescue effort.

Related: AirAsia CEO takes to Twitter fast in wake of tragedy

Led by the outspoken Fernandes, AirAsia pioneered the low-cost airline model in Asia, delivering rapid growth as it undercut bloated legacy carriers in the region. The airline offers few free perks, and saves money by encouraging passengers to check themselves in.

Fernandes has been with the company since its earliest days. In 2001, the former music executive and several partners bought the unprofitable air travel business -- it owned just two planes -- for 1 Malaysian ringgit, or around U.S. $0.25.

The airline is strongest in Southeast Asia, where it has built a huge network of routes between Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. AirAsia is frequently named the best low-cost airline by industry group Skytrax, an distinction it won again in 2014.

The carrier's workhorse aircraft is the Airbus A320, a narrow-body model that is ideal for short and medium-range routes between Asia's regional airports. The missing plane is an Airbus A320-200, a variation that offers an extended flight range.

The airline boasted a clean safety record until the disappearance of Flight 8501, which departed from the Indonesian city of Surabaya. The missing aircraft was operated by AirAsia's affiliate in Indonesia.

Related: Search resumes for missing AirAsia Flight

First Published: December 28, 2014: 9:18 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

For moviegoers, 'patriotic duty' to see 'The Interview'

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Ever since the movie studio was crippled by a cyberattack on Nov. 24, it has been on the defensive. Last week, after hackers objecting to the content of "The Interview" threatened American moviegoers, Sony (SNE) canceled the movie's Christmas day release in 3,000 theaters from coast to coast.

But now the scandalous Seth Rogen comedy has been resurrected. Yesterday it went on sale on the Internet. Today it's coming out in 331 independently owned movie theaters, some of which have already reported sell-out crowds -- perhaps the best Christmas gift Sony could have wished for.

Rogen showed up at a midnight screening in Los Angeles to celebrate the movie's unlikely release. "If it wasn't for theaters like this and people like you, this wouldn't be" happening, Rogen said, adding an expletive for good measure.

Related: Sony Streams 'The Interview' online

A few hours later, the movie opened at the Cinema Village theater in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Some of the film's fans waiting in line said "The Interview" wasn't just holiday entertainment, but a "patriotic duty" in defense of freedom of expression.

"It is a celebration of the constitution. It's very important to show that any idea can be expressed," said Willie Jasso, who was first in line.

The comedy, which has received mixed reviews, is about an assassination plot against the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. It is widely believed that the cyberattack was partly related to North Korea's fury over the movie, which the country has called an "act of war" by the United States. Hackers invoked 9/11 in a Dec. 16 message warning Americans to stay away from theaters playing the movie.

But on Thursday morning the mood at Cinema Village was festive rather than fearful.

"It did not seem like a credible threat anyone could carry out, and now it's even less likely," said Mark Rosenzweig, another patron at the theater.

The FBI and local law enforcement have worked with movie theaters on steps to ensure security at screenings of the movie.

Top-selling movie rental on YouTube

While some movie buffs lined up on Christmas morning, many others shrugged off the release -- and that's a point that a spokesman for President Obama made in a statement on Wednesday.

"People can now make their own choices about the film, and that's how it should be," White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz said.

So now the question becomes: how many people will really pay to see "The Interview?"

It's too soon to know how many tickets have been sold. And a Sony spokesman reaffirmed on Thursday morning that the company will not be releasing any immediate data about the number of online rentals.

The movie is available for a $5.99 rental through YouTube, Google (GOOGL, Tech30) Play, Microsoft's (MSFT, Tech30) Xbox video store, and a special web site set up by a startup called Kernel.

The sites do not provide video view counts for movie rentals, but on Thursday morning "The Interview" was listed as the No. 1 seller on YouTube and Google Play.

Related: Watching 'The Interview' online: absurdly amusing

Kernel said there was "tremendous demand" shortly after the 1 p.m. ET release on Wednesday.

"Tremendous" is the same word that Charles Roark, the owner of the Hollywood Cinema in Martinsville, Va., used to describe anticipation for "The Interview."

"We are one of only two theaters in Virginia to get the movie, and the phones have been ringing off the hook for advanced sales, as well as customers flooding the doors," he said, calling sales "more brisk than nearly any previous movie we've ever shown."

'Essential' for this movie to come out

The simultaneous physical and digital release plan was stitched together in recent days. It came over the objections of some of the big movie theater chain owners, which are reluctant to have movies rented on the Internet while they're still on big screens.

A spokesman for the National Association of Theater Owners declined to comment.

One of the chain owners' concerns is pirating, and sure enough, "The Interview" started to show up on illegal file-sharing websites by Wednesday night. The New York Times reported that a Chinese-subtitled version has the title translated as "Assassinate Kim Jon-un."

The smaller theaters that agreed to show the movie Thursday were aware of the digital distribution plan ahead of time.

Steve Mason, a co-owner of the Cinémas Palme d'Or in Palm Desert, Calif., said he had been requesting to show "The Interview" ever since the big movie chains backed away from plans to release it last week.

His cinema now has two showings of the movie on Thursday evening.

"Independent theaters are fearless. We are in it for the love of film," Mason said in an email to CNNMoney. "We would never back down from showing this movie or any other one."

Michael Lynton, the Sony Pictures CEO, sounded similarly confident in a video message to staff on Wednesday that was obtained by CNN.

"It was essential for our studio to distribute this movie, especially given the assault on our business and on our staff," Lynton said.

"This film represents our commitment to our filmmakers and free speech," he added. "While we couldn't have predicted the road this movie traveled to get to this moment, I am proud our fight was not for nothing, and that cybercriminals were not able to silence us."

Lynton also emphasized that "we continue to seek other partners and platforms to further expand the release."

Those other partners could be the big chains, or they could be digital distributors like Netflix (NFLX, Tech30).

A Sony spokesman declined to comment Thursday on reports that Netflix might stream the movie to its subscribers in the coming weeks or months.

--CNN's Pamela Brown and Rosa Flores contributed reporting.

First Published: December 25, 2014: 12:09 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Watching 'The Interview' online: absurdly amusing

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Sony Pictures created an unprecedented event on Wednesday by releasing the controversial comedy on the Internet ahead of its Christmas arrival in theaters.

Partly out of patriotic duty, partly out of fan-boy curiosity, I rented the movie on YouTube for $5.99 right after it came online at 1 p.m. ET.

Truth be told, I was a bit hesitant to hand over my credit card, given the cyber-attack against Sony and persistent threats from hackers. (There was no real reason to worry, however.)

Renting the movie was a snap -- YouTube made "The Interview" easy to find, and moments after I paid, a receipt was sent to me via email.

Fifteen minutes in, the movie was streaming without any incident. There was no choppiness, no sluggishness, and it felt just like watching a movie on Netflix or HBO.

As for the experience itself, I've never seen anything like it.

The 1 p.m. release had the feel of a communal event, with other reporters live-tweeting and live-blogging the whole thing -- an instance of the "social TV" phenomenon applied to film.

"BuzzFeed newsroom at a standstill, transfixed, watching 'The Interview,'" BuzzFeedBiz deputy editor Tom Gara tweeted, tongue at least partly in cheek. "This is our moon landing."

Knowing that some of the cast and crew members were also participating also added a whole new level to the viewing.

"Take a picture of yourself watching it and I'll "LIKE IT," one of the film's stars James Franco tweeted during the early afternoon.

Truth be told, it was hard to separate "The Interview" the movie from the hacking news and freedom of expression issues surrounding it.

Would I have cared about the movie at all, were it not for the cyber-attack, the hackers' threats, the resulting cancellation last week, and then its resurrection this week?

Maybe not.

In the end, "The Interview" turned out to be what it was originally intended to be: a so-so gross-out comedy by Rogen and Franco.

However, the absurdity of the moment, along with the feel of a new viewing experience coming together, made it something quite memorable.

First Published: December 24, 2014: 4:13 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Google fights Marriott's plan to block Wi-Fi hotspots

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Marriott (MAR) and the hotel lobby American Hospitality & Lodging Association asked the FCC this summer to allow hotels to deploy equipment that prevents people from turning their phones into Wi-Fi hotspots.

In order to avoid pricey hotel Wi-Fi charges, many guests opt to use their data allotment from their cell phone provider, connecting their laptops to the Internet via their smartphones.

At Marriott connection rates start at $14.95 per day. For $19.95, guests get "enhanced high speed Internet" which includes video chatting, downloading large files and streaming video.

In its petition to the FCC, Marriott and the hotel lobby argued that guests can use their smartphones or Mi-Fi devices to launch an attack against a hotel's Wi-Fi network or threaten other guests' privacy (by stealing their credit card data or other personal information). They also said that those gadgets can interfere with the hotel's Wi-Fi, slowing down speeds for other customers.

"If a hotel is powerless to address such activities to ensure the security and reliability of its Wi-Fi network on its premises, both the hotel and its guests would suffer," Marriott said in its filing.

Related: 5 ways to make your Wi-Fi faster

Most of the 21 responses to Marriott's request basically boil down to this: The hotel industry simply wants to keep charging people exorbitant rates for Wi-Fi.

"If a customer arrives at a hotel with her own Mi-Fi device and the hotel interferes with the customer's connection to that personal hotspot, the hotel can effectively force the customer to purchase the hotel's Wi-Fi services to gain access, even though the customer has already paid her mobile operator for personal hotspot capability," said Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) in a filing to the FCC opposing Marriott's request.

Google (GOOGL, Tech30) agreed. In its filing the search giant said blocking access to personal Wi-Fi hotspots "would undermine the public interest."

The wireless industry lobby and other wireless providers have also asked the FCC not to accept Marriott's request.

Related: Netflix speeds jumped 51% this year

Related: Verizon is killing off 3G

First Published: December 25, 2014: 8:37 AM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

10 least affordable rental markets

A Bronx tale: Rents are high, while incomes are low

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Tenants in the northern-most borough of New York City can expect to pay almost 68% of their income toward rent, with the 2015 fair market rent being $1,904 a month.

Buying a home is more affordable than renting in the majority of U.S. housing markets, according to a recent report from RealtyTrac.

Purchasing a median-priced home was more affordable than renting a three-bedroom home in 68% of the 473 counties analyzed by RealtyTrac. On average, renters are expected to spend 27% of their median household income on payments to landlords next year. Meanwhile, becoming a homeowner will require an average of 25% of income to cover the mortgage.

Historically-low interest rates have helped maintain home affordability despite the recent rise in home prices. But if rates tick up just a little higher, Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, said affordability could shift to favor more renters.

New York's multimillion dollar home sales keep soaring

But there are some markets where residents really don't have any good housing options: both renting and buying are costly. In the least affordable rental markets, residents can expect to contribute 42% of their median household income on average to cover rent, the report stated. Buyers in the same markets can expect to dole out 44% of their income buying a median-priced home.

The average rent of the top 25 least affordable counties is $1,686 a month, $462 higher than the national average. Counties where rents were least affordable also include Philadelphia, Miami, San Francisco, Baltimore and Los Angeles.

New York City's most expensive rental costs $500,000 a month

And it looks like millennials are catching another tough break from the housing market. Counties making the list of least affordable rental markets have experienced strong millennial migration in the last six years compared to the national average.

Here are RealtyTrac's top 10 least affordable rental markets in the U.S., based on how much of the average median income goes toward rent in the county:

Location	Percent of Median Income to Rent
Bronx, NY	67.57%
Baltimore City, MD	49.64%
Philadelphia, PA	47.40%
Brooklyn, NY	47.33%
Miami-Dade, FL	45.51%
Broward, FL	42.76%
Norfolk City, VA	42.69%
San Francisco, CA	42.65%
Humboldt, CA	41.99%
Los Angeles, CA	41.95%

Source: RealtyTrac

First Published: December 24, 2014: 2:40 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

JetBlue offers to fly police to NYPD funeral

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The New York-based airline is also working with its partners to have family members of one of the slain officers, Wenjian Liu, flown in from overseas.

Liu and a second NYPD officer, Rafael Ramos, were sitting in their patrol car when they were shot and killed by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, a Georgia man with a long criminal record.

Ramos's funeral is being held on Dec. 27, whereas Liu's funeral hasn't been scheduled, pending the arrival of relatives from China.

JetBlue said in a statement that its flights are available "to law enforcement agencies across our route network who wish to send representatives to New York to support their brethren ... We are accepting up to two officers from each department (space permitting)."

A spokeswoman said JetBlue has provided similar support in the past, but did not immediately provide any details.

The gesture was a positive one at a time when tensions have been running high nationwide in the wake of two recent incidents involving the death of unarmed black men at the hands of police in Missouri and New York.

The NYPD's 25th Precinct in Manhattan thanked JetBlue on Twitter for "offering free flights to NYC for any police officer in America who wants to attend Officer Ramos' funeral on Saturday."

First Published: December 24, 2014: 2:48 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Watching 'The Interview' online: absurdly amusing

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Sony Pictures created an unprecedented event on Wednesday by releasing the controversial comedy on the Internet ahead of its Christmas arrival in theaters.

Partly out of patriotic duty, partly out of fan-boy curiosity, I rented the movie on YouTube for $5.99 right after it came online at 1 p.m. ET.

Truth be told, I was a bit hesitant to hand over my credit card, given the cyber-attack against Sony and persistent threats from hackers. (There was no real reason to worry, however.)

Renting the movie was a snap -- YouTube made "The Interview" easy to find, and moments after i paid, a receipt was sent to me via email.

Fifteen minutes in, the movie was streaming without any incident. There was no choppiness, no sluggishness, and it felt just like watching a movie on Netflix or HBO.

As for the experience itself, I've never seen anything like it.

The 1 p.m. release had the feel of a communal event, with other reporters live-tweeting and live-blogging the whole thing -- an instance of the "social TV" phenomenon applied to film.

"BuzzFeed newsroom at a standstill, transfixed, watching 'The Interview,'" BuzzFeedBiz deputy editor Tom Gara tweeted, tongue at least partly in cheek. "This is our moon landing."

Knowing that some of the cast and crew members were also participating also added a whole new level to the viewing.

"Take a picture of yourself watching it and I'll "LIKE IT," one of the film's stars James Franco tweeted during the early afternoon.

Truth be told, it was hard to separate "The Interview" the movie from the hacking news and freedom of expression issues surrounding it.

Would I have cared about the movie at all, were it not for the cyber-attack, the hackers' threats, the resulting cancellation last week, and then its resurrection this week?

Maybe not.

In the end, "The Interview" turned out to be what it was originally intended to be: a so-so gross-out comedy by Rogen and Franco.

However, the absurdity of the moment, along with the feel of a new viewing experience coming together, made it something quite memorable.

First Published: December 24, 2014: 4:13 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Russia debt closer to junk status

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The ratings agency said Tuesday the move "stems from what we view as a rapid deterioration of Russia's monetary flexibility and the impact of the weakening economy on its financial system."

The ratings agency currently rates Russia's debt at one notch above junk status and a downgrade would nudge Russia over.

S&P said that there is a 50% likelihood that Russia will be downgraded in the next 90 days.

Russia's economy has been pushed to the brink of recession by falling oil prices -- half of the government's revenue comes from oil and gas exports.

The nation's currency has plunged to all-time lows, raising concerns that it is headed for a full-blown financial crisis. The Russian central bank has hiked interest rates five times this year in an attempt to prop up the ruble.

Russians have been rushing to withdraw rubles and convert them into dollars, worried about the devaluation and the soaring price of imported goods.

The rates Russian banks lend to each other have more than doubled in the past month -- overnight lending rates now stand at 25% -- indicating just how serious the funding crisis has become.

Russia's central bank said Monday it would provide an emergency loan of 30 billion rubles ($545 million) to keep a struggling bank afloat and protect customers' deposits while it engineers a longer term bailout involving a bigger Russian bank.

The ruble gained ground Monday, after bouncing off a record low against the dollar last week as Russia drained billions more from reserves to buy its currency, and announced a series of measures aimed at shoring up the banking industry.

They include a plan to pump one trillion rubles ($16 billion) into Russian banks next year, and new deposit insurance that guarantees savings up to 1.4 million rubles ($23,200).

Related: GM halts deliveries to Russia

Related: iPhone prices soar in Russia

First Published: December 23, 2014: 1:54 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Everybody rallied to pay off this family's $200,000 in debt

The Mason family (pictured here with their grandkids) has received an outpouring of support since a CNNMoney story in July about their $200,000 in student loan debt.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Steve and Darnelle Mason were stuck with $200,000 in student loan debt when their daughter, Lisa, died of liver failure five years ago at age 27.

Like a lot of parents, they had co-signed Lisa's loans for nursing school. But because the money had been borrowed from a private lender, instead of the federal government, they had no way out.

CNNMoney profiled the Masons in July, and the family says the attention sparked an outpouring of help, for them and their three grandchildren who they took in after their daughter passed away.

Now those bills are about to be wiped out completely.

Here's what has happened since July:

-- The Masons have received $41,000 through a campaign on GoFundMe.

-- Two of their student loan providers have forgiven more than $60,000 in outstanding debt.

This left them with about $100,000 in debt. Then, a lawsuit over their daughter's death settled, and their lawyer said he has decided to waive $100,000 in legal fees to help the family pay off the rest.

Money leftover from the settlement will go directly to the Masons' grandkids, ages 9, 12 and 14.

"The tremendous emotional cost [of losing Lisa] was compounded by a sudden and colossal financial debt," said family attorney David Fine. "Offering a portion of our fee to the Masons provides a small amount of comfort and security to a wonderful family."

Just as touching for the Masons was all the non-financial support.

-- A local orthodontist has offered to give free braces to the Masons' grandkids.

-- People countrywide have sent the Masons more than 150,000 messages of support, as well as gifts for their grandchildren -- including a care package with $750 worth of toys.

-- Elizabeth Warren highlighted the family's story at a Senate Banking Committee hearing in July.

-- More than 210,000 people have signed the family's Change.org petition urging lawmakers to require private student loan debt to be forgiven when the primary borrower dies.

-- The family says a nonprofit wants to help build a college fund for their three grandchildren.

For Steve and Darnelle, who live in East Highland, California, the support has been life-changing. They both work for a church, and on their salaries they struggled to pay down the debt -- especially now that they are supporting three children.

"We are just overwhelmed at the response," Darnelle said. "We can only hope that this wave [that the story] began will turn into a tsunami for all those other families that suffer as we do."

First Published: December 23, 2014: 4:35 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Where you can watch 'The Interview'

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Sony Pictures announced on Tuesday the controversial Seth Rogen comedy will run "in a number of theaters on Christmas Day."

Here's a list of the locations that have signed up. (Forgive the incompleteness -- we'll continue to update this list on Wednesday!)

Related: Sony plans limited release

This list will be updated as additional theaters announce showtimes. If you know of another theater showing the movie, or your theater will show the movie, let us know: gregory.wallace@CNN.com.

Here's where you can watch the movie starting on Christmas Day:

Alabama:

-- The Edge 12 (Irondale)

Arizona:

-- Harkins Valley Art (Tempe)

-- The Loft Cinema (Tucson)

California:

-- Los Feliz 3 Cinemas (Los Angeles)

-- Cinefamily (Los Angeles)

-- Cinémas Palme d'Or (Palm Desert, CA)

-- Foothill Cinema Stadium 10 (Azusa)

-- Santa Paula 7 (Santa Paula)

-- Perris 10 (Perris)

-- Agoura Hills Stadium 8 (Agoura Hills)

-- Sterling 6 (San Bernardino)

-- Granada Hills 9 (Granada Hills)

-- East Hills Mall (Bakersfield)

-- Commerce 14 (City of Commerce)

-- Van Nuys Plant 16 (Van Nuys)

-- Fontana 8 (Fontana)

-- Janss Marketplace 9 (Thousand Oaks)

-- University Village 10 (Riverside)

-- Westminster 10 (Westminster)

-- Palladio 16 Cinemas (Folsom)

Colorado:

-- Alamo Drafthouse Littleton (Littleton)

Florida:

-- The Sun Ray Cinema (Jacksonville)

-- Prado Stadium 12 (Bonita Springs)

-- Edison Park 8 (Fort Myers)

Georgia:

-- Plaza Atlanta Theatre (Atlanta)

Indiana:

-- Georgetown 14 Cinemas (Indianapolis)

Kentucky:

-- Maiden Alley Cinema (Paducah)

Michigan:

-- Alamo Drafthouse Kalamazoo (Kalamazoo)

-- Michigan Theater (Ann Arbor)

Minnesota:

-- St. Anthony Main Theatre (Minneapolis)

Missouri:

-- Alamo Drafthouse Kansas City (Kansas City)

-- MX Movies (St. Louis, Missouri)

New York:

-- Alamo Drafthouse NYC (Yonkers)

-- Flix Stadium 10 (Lancaster)

-- Auburn Movieplex 10 (Auburn)

-- Canandaigua Theaters 10 (Canandaigua)

North Dakota:

-- Fargo Theater (Fargo)

Ohio:

-- Grandview Theatre (Columbus)

-- Tower City Cinema (Cleveland)

Oklahoma:

-- RiverWalk Movies (Jenks)

Oregon:

-- Living Room Theaters (Portland)

Pennsylvania:

-- Southside Works Cinema (Pittsburgh)

South Carolina:

-- Terrace Theater (Charleston)

-- Nickelodeon Theater (Columbia)

Tennessee:

-- The Belcourt (Nashville)

-- The Franklin Theatre (Franklin)

Texas:

-- Alamo Drafthouse Dallas-Fort Worth (Richardson)

-- Alamo Drafthouse Lakeline (Austin)

-- Alamo Drafthouse Lubbock (Lubbock)

-- Alamo Drafthouse Mason Park (Katy)

-- Alamo Drafthouse New Braunfels (New Braunfels)

-- Alamo Drafthouse Park North (San Antonio)

-- Alamo Drafthouse Ritz (Austin)

-- Alamo Drafthouse Slaughter (Austin)

-- Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar (Austin)

-- Alamo Drafthouse Vintage Park (Houston)

-- Alamo Drafthouse Westlakes (San Antonio)

Wisconsin:

-- Grand Cinema Theatres (New London, WI)

Virginia:

-- Alamo Drafthouse DC (Ashburn)

-- Hollywood Cinema (Martinsville)

Here's where the movie starts showing next week:

-- Laemmle's NoHo 7 (North Hollywood, CA)

-- Movieland Cinemas (Coram, NY)

-- The Fox Theatre (Dallas, OR)

The movie will likely open in additional theaters beyond the ones that are known at this time.

--CNN's Brian Stelter, Molly Shiels, Lorenza Brascia and Stephanie Gallman contributed to this report.

First Published: December 23, 2014: 4:14 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

IRS to auction remainder of Darryl Strawberry's Mets salary

Strawberry took home four World Series titles over his 17-year Major League Baseball career.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The Internal Revenue Service is putting outfielder Darryl Strawberry's retirement annuity on the auction block next month.

The annuity, seized by the IRS because Strawberry owed back taxes, was part of a contract he signed in 1985, back when he was slugging home runs for the New York Mets.

The annuity will be worth about $1.3 million, to be paid out over nearly 19 years, when it goes up for sale on January 20, according to court documents.

The starting bid is $550,000.

The IRS filed a lien against Strawberry because he owes the IRS back taxes from 1989, 1990, 2003 and 2004. A court document from 2012 said he owed the IRS nearly $543,000.

Related: $325 million deal may be riskiest contract in sports

The auction was authorized by a court, which will divide the money between the IRS and other parties.

The IRS will get to exchange two decades worth of monthly installments for an immediate lump sum that would settle Strawberry's outstanding tax debt.

Strawberry signed with the Mets in 1993 and over the course of his 17-year Major League Baseball career, took home four World Series titles. He was named an All-Star for eight consecutive seasons and had 335 career home runs. But he was plagued by a cocaine addiction and other troubles.

The auction is set to take place in Illinois, but bids will also be accepted by mail.

Related: Three lessons investors can learn from Derek Jeter

Related: Standing room only tickets go for $800

First Published: December 22, 2014: 4:02 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Israeli bank helped U.S. account holders avoid taxes

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

As part of a settlement reached on Monday with the U.S. Department of Justice, Bank Leumi Group will pay $270 million in fines. It's the first time an Israeli bank has admitted to this type of criminal activity.

The bank put its clients' money into accounts in tax haven countries such as Switzerland and Luxembourg and helped its clients create false tax returns over a 10-year period, the Justice Department said.

"IRS will not tolerate the use of offshore accounts to illegally escape paying taxes and we will continue to focus on this priority area," said Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen.

Leumi is one of the largest banks in Israel. It has offices in New York, Florida, Illinois and California.

A spokesperson for the bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

First Published: December 22, 2014: 4:59 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

A peek into North Korea's Internet

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

For most North Koreans, it's nonexistent. There are only 1,024 known IP addresses in the entire country. The Internet is typically reserved for government officials, a few foreign ambassadors and outside assistance groups, according to a North Korean defector-turned-journalist.

By comparison, the United States has 1.5 billion IP addresses.

It's important to note that it's not one IP address per device, so there could be thousands of devices hooked up to the Internet in North Korea. Still, it still has one of the smallest Internet presences in the world.

All sorts of devices are hooked up to the Internet there, however. There are a few Sony PlayStations and XBoxes, and some of those ubiquitous voice-over-IP office phones, too. Researchers have even spotted a MacBook -- one single Macbook -- connected to the world-facing Internet.

Companies like Apple (AAPL, Tech30), Sony (SNE) and Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) aren't permitted to sell to North Korea, so these devices are probably bought by third parties, said HP security research director Ted Ross.

Still despite these details, little is known about all the devices in North Korea connected to the Internet. The country is notoriously secretive and isolated. What we know is that Internet access there is small and tightly controlled.

Some clues are offered by security researchers at HP (HPQ, Tech30). Others come from an anonymous person who claims to have mapped some of North Korea's computer network and provided unique data to prove it.

Nearly all of the country's Internet traffic is routed through China. Firms that monitor that traffic say it is comparable to only about 1,000 high-speed homes in the United States.

All of it went offline Monday in a mysterious blackout. Matthew Prince, president of CloudFlare, which monitors Internet traffic worldwide, said three scenarios are likely.

Either the North Korean government pulled the plug (like Syria did in 2012). Or its main Chinese telecom provider turned it off. Or a few computer-savvy misfits overloaded North Korea's tiny Internet "tube" with garbage traffic, a relatively simple tactic known as a Distributed Denial of Service attack.

"It's as if North Korea got erased from the global map of the Internet," Prince said.

Whereas the real Internet is reserved for a select and trusted few, everyone else in North Korea gets access to a national, walled-off intranet, a "pseudo Internet," available for public use called Kwangmyong.

That tiny network has maybe 5,500 websites at most, so users only see what the North Korean government wants them to see.

And yes, they get their own computer operating system. It's called Red Star.

Related: North Korea's attack should scare every company

Related: Sony doesn't know how but says 'The Interview' will be shown

Related: BitTorrent to release 'The Interview'?

First Published: December 22, 2014: 7:45 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Sony doesn't know how but says 'The Interview' will be shown

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

But that's not so, says an attorney for Sony Pictures.

"Sony only delayed this," attorney David Boies said on Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

He was speaking of Sony (SNE)'s decision to cancel the Christmas Day release by pulling the movie from theaters. That followed decisions by the country's largest theater chains to not show the movie, because of an online post threatening a "bitter fate" to anyone who sees the controversial comedy, which depicts an assassination attempt on North Korean Kim Jong-Un.

The theater owners were concerned the audience for other films would stay home on Christmas, when Americans turn out to theaters in droves. But Sony is under all sorts of pressure to get the movie out somehow.

"Sony has been fighting to get this picture distributed. It will be distributed," Boies said. "How it's going to be distributed, I don't think anybody knows quite yet, but it's going to be distributed."

Related: A defiant Sony scrambles to find a way out for 'The Interview'

That was very different from the studio's simple message last Wednesday: "Sony Pictures has no further release plans for the film."

On Sunday, Sony representatives declined to elaborate on Boies' remarks.

But Sony did refute a New York Post report that the company plans to release the film for free on Crackle, the online video site it owns.

"No decisions have been made," said a company spokesman. "Sony is still exploring options for distribution."

Crackle makes money through ads but not through subscriptions or rental transactions, thereby limiting its revenue potential and its appeal to Sony. (After all, "The Interview" cost a reported $44 million to make, and Sony would like to recoup at least some of those costs.)

But the company's statement does not rule out Crackle altogether, it just indicates that there is no firm plan in place yet.

In a CNN interview on Friday, Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton said the studio had not "given in" to pressure from hackers and was still considering ways to distribute the movie.

Besides Crackle, possible options include a release in willing theaters, distribution through a cable video-on-demand service or an online streaming release, on a service like Netflix (NFLX, Tech30), Google (GOOG)'s YouTube or Hulu.

Netflix, YouTube and the theater owner association declined to comment over the weekend.

Related: Steve Carell project canceled because of the Sony breach

The pressure on Sony is piling up.

President Obama on Friday said "I think they made a mistake" by pulling the movie. And on Saturday the Republican National Committee urged theater owners to show the film.

On CNN's "Reliable Sources" on Sunday, famed defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz said he thought Sony had moved too slowly to stand up for the First Amendment.

"What they should have said on Day One is, 'We may have to cancel the theatrical release, but let me tell you, North Korea, more people will see this film because of what you did than anything that would have happened, had you not done this,'" Dershowitz said.

Andrew Wallenstein, a co-editor in chief of Variety, said that "Sony wants to strike while the iron is hot" and release the film in some fashion.

"There's a lot of controversy generating publicity," he said. "They spent a lot of marketing money. I think they want to make it happen soon."

But doing so could expose Sony and its partners to further cyber-attacks.

A message last week purporting to be from the hackers said Sony's decision to not release the film was "very wise," and warned the company not to release the film in the future.

At the same time, Sony Pictures has other big problems to deal with. The massive hack exposed a trove of business secrets. The company is still trying to recover from the intrusions into its computer systems, and on Saturday some corporate email accounts were still crippled.

--CNN's Carma Hassan contributed to this report.

First Published: December 21, 2014: 10:28 AM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tom Brokaw says his cancer is in remission

Tom Brokaw was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

"A year ago my future was more uncertain than I cared to acknowledge but now I face the New Year with very encouraging news," he wrote in a letter NBC News said was distributed to staff. "The cancer is in remission and I will shortly go on a drug maintenance regimen to keep it there."

Brokaw, 74, said in February he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, which involves cancer cells overtaking healthy, disease-fighting cells in bone marrow. NBC said at the time doctors were "optimistic about the outcome of the treatment he is receiving."

He is now retired from anchoring "NBC Nightly News," his primary role at the network from 1982 to 2004. He is now a special correspondent at NBC and his work includes chronicling the "greatest generation" of Americans, who grew up in the Great Depression and fought World War II.

Last month, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. President Obama said the nation "trusted him to tell us what we needed to know and to ask the questions that needed asking. I know, because I've been on the receiving end of some of those questions."

In the Sunday announcement, Brokaw reflected on attending a ceremony with about 30 veterans commemorating the WWII Battle of the Bulge.

"I flew home reflecting again on how lucky we are that generation gave us the lives we have today -- how my last year was a challenge but I was meeting it in world class hospitals with brilliant physicians, not in a foxhole in the Ardennes," he wrote.

He signed the note "T Bone."

Related: Brian Williams renews contract with NBC for five more years

First Published: December 21, 2014: 12:58 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Meet the world's No. 1 dealer in Guinness art

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

He has bought hundreds of paintings, once lost to obscurity in a London archive, that were original renderings of iconic Guinness posters displayed in pubs and college dorm rooms.

The paintings are by the English artist John Gilroy, who died in 1985.

Gilroy worked for S.H. Benson, an advertising agency that held the Guinness account from 1929 until the late 1960s. Gilroy designed thousands of posters for the beer giant's ad campaigns.

Lloyd, the antique dealer, came upon his Guinness obsession somewhat accidentally.

Nearly five years ago, he was at an antique show in Florida when he stumbled on a few of the original Guinness paintings.

Lloyd bought what the dealer had on hand but was thirsty for more. He went to London to see the rest of the paintings -- and wasted no time snapping them up.

"I bought them from a very astute business man," said Lloyd, declining to elaborate. "They were not on the market."

The paintings had apparently spent some 40 years stored away in a London building that had housed the offices of the S.H. Benson agency.

Lloyd won't say exactly how many he bought, but he said he has sold a couple hundred and has about 125 left.

The paintings are all single originals -- there are no copies.

Related: There's a black market for beer. And it's bad for drinkers

"The genius of Gilroy was the empathy the public had with his drawings," writes David Hughes, an ex-Guinness brewer and author of "Gilroy was good for Guinness."

Gilroy was in fact very good for Guinness. But in 1969, a change in leadership at Guinness meant S.H. Benson and Gilroy were out. And so were the paintings.

There is some speculation about who might have had them for 40 years. Hughes suspects it was Jacob Rothschild, a British banker who bought the building that housed S.H. Benson for years.

Today, Lloyd is cashing in on the paintings. He sells them for $9,500 to $40,000 each at local antique fairs and out of his shop in Manhattan.

Lloyd declined to say what his collection is worth. But Hughes, the author, suspects Lloyd could have close to $2 million worth of Guinness paintings.

Among his customers: Rory Guinness, related to the founder of Guinness, who bought a number of paintings for his personal collection.

Related: Beer 101 - Big changes are brewing

Related: How to vacation like an aristocrat

First Published: December 21, 2014: 4:55 PM ET

12.08 | 1 komentar | Read More

Republicans to theaters: Don't be 'bullied,' show Sony's 'The Interview'

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

In a letter obtained first by CNN, RNC chairman Reince Priebus encouraged the CEOs of 10 major theater chains to show the controversial comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco.

"I want to speak clearly on behalf of the Republican Party: I urge you to show the movie," he wrote to the CEOs.

"As a sign of my commitment, if you agree to show this movie, I will send a note to the Republican Party's millions of donors and supporters urging them to buy a ticket -- not to support one movie or Hollywood, but to show North Korea we cannot be bullied into giving up our freedom," he added.

The letter continued, "Like many Americans, I'm deeply concerned that we would allow a foreign regime to dictate the movies we can and cannot watch."

The RNC petition underscored the increasingly political nature of the fracas surrounding the film and the devastating cyberattack that was directed at Sony Pictures one month before its scheduled release.

This weekend the embattled movie studio is in active discussions with potential distribution partners, figuring out if there's a way forward for the film that provoked the attack, an FBI investigation and a presidential critique of the company.

Sony representatives declined to comment on the RNC letter.

A spokesman for the association that represents theater owners did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

When debating whether to screen "The Interview" -- if Sony were to reverse its decision -- the owners have to consider a complicated set of factors, including customers' concerns about security, commitments to screen other films, and overall revenue potential.

President Obama calls out Sony: The letter comes one day after President Obama publicly chastised Sony for canceling the movie. Sony "made a mistake," the president said at an afternoon news conference.

Obama's comment led Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton to tell CNN's Fareed Zakaria that the president -- and others -- were "mistaken" about what had happened.

"We do not own movie theaters," Lynton said. "We cannot determine whether or not a movie will be played in movie theaters."

Lynton indicated that it was the theater owners that backed away from the film following a Tuesday threat from hackers that invoked 9/11.

Sony then canceled the film's Christmas release. But it is now seeking help to distribute the film in theaters or online.

Issue 'goes far beyond politics': The letter marks a strange bedfellows moment in the controversy over the movie, as the RNC itself acknowledged.

"As you know, the Republican Party and Hollywood have at times been at odds," the letter states. "But we can all agree that the current situation regarding the release of 'The Interview' goes far beyond politics. It is about freedom and free enterprise."

It also suggested to the theater owners and Sony (SNE) that "a share of the profits be donated to the USO or the Yellow Ribbon Fund."

The letter contributed to a feeling of national unity with regard to freedom of expression. Similar sentiments have been heard on television, in newspaper op-eds and on social media.

But at the same time, the letter did include a political shot across the aisle, accusing Obama of sending "mixed messages on this issue."

An RNC spokesman said "mixed messages" referred to the contrast between the president's comments in an ABC interview on Wednesday -- when he passed on an opportunity to criticize Sony -- and Friday, when he did.

However, the ABC interview was taped before Sony pulled the film from Christmas release.

Online reactions to the letter varied on Saturday night: While some people decried it as a publicity stunt, others said it was a necessary statement that might increase public pressure on Sony and the theater owners."

First Published: December 20, 2014: 6:00 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Last-minute Christmas shopping guide

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

You've already missed the deadline for free shipping from Amazon (AMZN, Tech30), for example. (It was Friday.)

But the online store says gifts ordered as late as Tuesday can still be under the tree on Thursday if you pay for one-day delivery. Some customers in major cities can even place orders by 10 a.m. on Christmas Eve and receive same-day delivery.

Hitting the stores: If you want to do your last-minute shopping the old fashioned way, expect stores to be crowded and lines to be long this weekend.

Many stores like Target (TGT) and J.C. Penney (JCP) will be open for extended hours.

Toys 'R' Us and Kohl's (KSS) will be remain open all hours until Christmas eve.

Shopping online: And you can also shop online at these same stores.

Walmart's (WMT) free shipping deadline passed (last Wednesday), but "rush shipping" is available through Monday for a fee. And if the item is in stock at a nearby store, orders for in-store pickup can be placed even on Christmas Eve.

There's still time for free shipping through Best Buy (BBY). It says orders over $35 placed by 11:30 a.m. ET on Monday qualify for free delivery by Christmas. It also offers free in-store pickup.

The deadline at Kohl's and Target is Saturday. Sears' and Macy's is Monday.

Last call at the Post Office: If you already have a gift you have to mail, that clock is ticking, too. The U.S. Postal Service will accept packages through Tuesday for Priority Mail Express. You can save a few bucks -- and time in line -- by dropping off the package by Saturday and using First Class Mail (for Christmas cards) or Priority Mail (for packages).

The deadline for Thursday delivery from UPS (UPS) and FedEx (FDX) is Tuesday.

Related: Toys 'R' Us extends hours for last-minute shoppers

Related: Mall Santa 101

First Published: December 20, 2014: 7:21 AM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

A defiant Sony scrambles to find a way out for 'The Interview'

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

This weekend the embattled movie studio is in active discussions with potential distribution partners, figuring out if there's a way forward for the film that provoked a crippling cyberattack, an FBI investigation and a presidential critique of the company.

Netflix (NFLX, Tech30), YouTube and major movie theater owners are not commenting.

But CNN's Fareed Zakaria, who interviewed Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton on Friday, said later on CNN that he came away with the sense that "Sony intends to release this movie in some form, relatively soon. I don't think we're talking about six months from now. This movie will be seen."

What was just a lousy comedy a few short days ago is now a symbol of two essential American values -- freedom of expression and freedom from fear.

On Tuesday, the hackers that previously stole terabytes of data from Sony's servers explicitly targeted the Christmas release of "The Interview" by issuing a message that invoked 9/11. They warned Americans not to venture to movie theaters playing the film.

Sony then signaled that movie theater owners could back out of plans to screen the film if necessary -- and they did just that, like a series of falling dominoes.

The owners were concerned that families would forgo holiday season trips to the movies due to safety concerns and hurt every big Christmas film release, not just "The Interview."

So on Wednesday, with virtually nowhere to show the film, Sony canceled the Christmas release. (Lynton told Zakaria that the studio tried and failed to find a digital distributor, so it ruled out an immediate online release, too.)

Backlash to the decision was ferocious.

On Friday, President Obama echoed the feelings of many in Hollywood when he said Sony had made a mistake: "We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States."

Obama also openly worried about the possibility of producers and distributors "engaging in self-censorship because they don't want to offend the sensibilities of somebody whose sensibilities probably need to be offended."

Related: Sony exec fires back at President Obama

Speaking to Zakaria shortly after the president weighed in, Lynton said he essentially agreed with the president -- but that Sony (SNE) couldn't go it alone.

"We don't have that direct interface with the American public," Lynton said. "So we need to go through an intermediary to do that."

Theoretical distributors include theater chains like AMC and Regal, if they're willing to reverse their prior decision; cable video-on-demand operators like Comcast (CCV) and Time Warner Cable (TWC); subscription streaming sites like Netflix and Amazon (AMZN, Tech30); and movie rental services like iTunes by Apple (AAPL, Tech30).

Sony Pictures has a video streaming site of its own, Crackle, but it's free for users and doesn't have the capability to charge customers to watch a movie. Charging for "The Interview" would help Sony recoup some of the movie's $44 million budget.

One of the studio's sibling divisions, Sony Computer Entertainment, has another route to consumers: the PlayStation Store, which lets owners of the video game console rent or buy movies via the Internet. The company has declined to comment on whether it might choose to release "The Interview" there.

Of course, Sony -- and any company that helps it release the film in the future -- has to consider the risk of further intrusions by the hackers and further leaks of the stolen data they already have.

In a threatening message to executives on Thursday night, an anonymous hacker said Sony was "very wise" to cancel the film and claimed they would "ensure the security of your data unless you make additional trouble."

Releasing the film in some form would presumably be considered "additional trouble."

Related: Hackers send a new message

But among all the emotions that are spilling forth from Sony's leaders -- anger, fear, frustration -- a new one has emerged: defiance.

Lynton told Zakaria that "we're trying to weigh the options as to how we can get this" released.

Disappointment inside the studio about the lack of support from other major Hollywood players is beginning to subside.

After weeks of almost nothing but silence, The Motion Picture Association of America spoke out forcefully on Friday, following the FBI's statement that North Korea was behind the late November cyberattack.

Lynton, who was in New York on Friday night, awoke on Saturday morning to a front-page New York Times column that expressed "disgust" at the "readiness of theater owners and Sony to cave in to far-fetched threats."

But there was also this call by the New York Daily News editorial board: "Patriotism demands: Show the movie and show it now."

Meantime, the studio released another movie on Friday -- the highly-anticipated "Annie." It had leaked onto illegal film-sharing web sites after the cyberattack, but it is still expected to earn tens of millions of dollars.

"It's a rare bit of good news for Sony," The Hollywood Reporter said, for a studio that needs some.

Related: N. Korea blasts 'childish attempt to frame us'

First Published: December 20, 2014: 9:16 AM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Reporter behind story of $72 million teen trader stays at NY Mag

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Jessica Pressler was slated to join the Bloomberg News investigative unit, but got caught up in controversy this past week following a story she wrote about a New York City high school student who said he'd made $72 million trading stocks. (Spoiler alert: He hadn't.)

New York Magazine's editor-in-chief Adam Moss told his staff Friday in an announcement that reporter Jessica Pressler would be staying at the magazine.

"Can't say that we expected things to turn out this way, but we feel very lucky to be keeping [Pressler] on, and look forward to publishing more of her with pride," Moss wrote in the memo, which was first published by Capital New York. New York Magazine confirmed the authenticity of the memo to CNNMoney.

Pressler's profile of Stuyvesant High School senior Mohammed Islam stirred up controversy and plenty of doubters from the start.

A front page piece about the story by the New York Post and a flurry of Facebook (FB, Tech30) shares later, the improbable tale unraveled quickly. Islam told the New York Observer on Monday that he never actually made any money at all. As the criticism mounted, Pressler defended her reporting.

"I still think the piece is skeptical enough," Pressler told CNNMoney Monday. "The story says, 'This is a rumor and draw your own conclusions.'"

People began to wonder whether Pressler would move to her new job as early as Tuesday, when blogger Jim Romenesko published an email he sent to Bloomberg questioning the company's plans to hire her. A Bloomberg spokesperson declined to comment to Romenesko at the time, and Bloomberg again declined to comment Friday to CNNMoney.

Pressler seems to be taking it all in stride, tweeting Friday, "Good news is I'm staying @NYMag. Bad news is I lost a shoe at holiday party; not the worst thing this week but annoying so if you see it lmk."

First Published: December 19, 2014: 6:41 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Colbert Report' says goodbye with record ratings

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

On Thursday, 2.5 million viewers watched as Stephen Colbert ended his very popular satirical news show, "The Colbert Report."

This made the finale the most-watched episode in the show's history.

And that number may even grow considering that "The Report" was shown at 11:30 at night, and many viewers may watch the sendoff days later thanks to their DVRs.

After nine years, Colbert said goodbye to his patriotic pundit persona in grand fashion.

First by killing his guest, The Grim Reaper AKA Grimmy, and then riding off into the night with Santa Claus, Abraham Lincoln and Jeopardy's Alex Trebek.

However, Colbert wasn't the only one who said goodbye to the character.

In a nearly five-minute sing along to "We'll Meet Again," Colbert was joined by a stage full of people singing Colbert's persona off into the sunset.

This included the Daily Show's Jon Stewart, musician Randy Newman, ESPN's Keith Olbermann, actor Bryan Cranston, NBC's Tom Brokaw, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, "Star Wars" director George Lucas, CNN's Christiane Amanpour, and even Sesame Street's Cookie Monster.

Colbert will be taking over the CBS "Late Show" from David Letterman sometime in 2015. The show will be owned by the network.

As for Comedy Central, it will fill Colbert's slot with the new "The Nightly Show starring Larry Wilmore" starting on January 19.

First Published: December 19, 2014: 6:19 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

How has middle class Christmas changed?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

CNNMoney wants to know what was under your Christmas tree 30 years ago (Think: Trivial Pursuit, Cabbage Patch dolls, Transformers) and what are you wrapping this year (Think: iPhones, Fitbits and PlayStation)?

Do you, your kids or grandkids expect more expensive presents nowadays? Is it more than you gave or received 30 years ago?

Tell us about it.

First Published: December 19, 2014: 7:40 PM ET

12.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Uber agrees to temporarily suspend service in Portland

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The company said it would stop picking up customers there for three months after the city sued, asking a judge to order Uber to stop operating until it is in compliance with safety, health and consumer protection rules.

But Uber fully expects to be back. In fact, this could be good news for Uber fans in the long-run.

The city has agreed to update its laws, creating a new regulatory framework for companies like Uber that tend to fall somewhere between a taxi and a ridesharing service. People use it by requesting a driver with a smartphone app.

Related: Uber's global ambitions hit roadblocks

Uber, which operates in 60 cities across 21 countries, has run into problems because its drivers do not always meet the city's regulations for taxi and car services.

Last week, for example, a judge in Spain temporarily blocked Uber because the Madrid taxi service said it was unfair to competition and not properly licensed.

The mayor's office said it will set up a task force and present its findings at the April 9 council hearing. If new regulations are not available by then, the city will allow Uber to operate while it continues to work on the new regulatory framework.

Uber will stop picking up customers in Portland on Dec. 21, but said it will still operate in other parts of the metro area, including Beaverton, Gresham, Hillsboro and Tigard.

First Published: December 18, 2014: 7:13 PM ET

12.09 | 0 komentar | Read More

Avon fined for bribing Chinese officials with Gucci bags

Avon has been fined $135 million by the SEC for allegedly paying bribes to Chinese government officials.

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

The SEC alleged that Avon's subsidiary in China doled out $8 million in bribes -- cash, gifts, entertainment, and travel -- to Chinese officials in charge of new regulations to sell directly to consumers. The watchdog also said the company falsely recorded the bribes as employee business expenses or vendor payments.

The luxury bribes, which included Louis Vuitton goods and box tickets to the China Open, helped Avon (AVP) win one of the first direct-selling business licenses in China in March 2006, according to a SEC statement.

Avon was able to "gain an edge over their competitors, and the company reaped substantial financial benefits as a result," said the SEC's Scott W. Friestad.

The SEC said Avon violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by failing to put in place a system to detect and prevent bribery.

Related: World's most corrupt industries

Avon isn't the only company to have fallen under SEC investigation for FCPA violations. A number of major U.S. banks, including JPMorgan (JPM), are currently being scrutinized for their hiring practices in China.

Western firms operating in China have also gotten in trouble with the Chinese government for alleged corruption and bribery. Major drug companies, such as GlaxoSmithKline (GLAXF), have been netted in government probes and forced to pay big fines.

Avon has agreed to have a corporate compliance monitor for at least 18 months as part of the settlement with the SEC and Justice Department, according to a company statement.

The New York-based company brings in $10 billion in annual revenue and has 6 million sales representatives globally, according to the company website.

Read next: Half of China's wealthy plan to leave

First Published: December 18, 2014: 11:35 PM ET

12.09 | 0 komentar | Read More

Russia crisis hurts these brands the most

LONDON (CNNMoney)

A currency crisis and plunging oil prices have slammed the economy and damaged consumer confidence. If oil prices fail to recover, Russian GDP is expected to shrink by almost 5% next year.

That's bad news for plenty of Western companies with heavy exposure to Russia.

The currency collapse has driven up prices for Russians. Some shoppers have been rushing to buy before prices go any higher, but ultimately, spending on many Western consumer brands will slow.

And the wild swings in the ruble have already prompted companies such as IKEA, GM (GM) and Apple (AAPL, Tech30) to suspend some business in Russia.

Related: Putin blames the West for Russia's misery

Here are the Western brands taking the biggest hit from the Russian crisis:

Ford

It's been a tough year for automakers in Russia. Car sales are down about 12% so far this year, according to the Association of European Businesses. Ford (F) has been one of the hardest hit. Its sales slumped 40% in the first 11 months of the year, according to the AEB.

The U.S. automaker was forced to cut about 950 jobs at its Russia joint venture in April.

Volkswagen

It's a similar story for the German car giant. Volkswagen (VLKAF) halted production at its plant in the Russian city of Kaluga for 10 days in September, blaming the souring economy.

The group's main VW car brand saw Russian sales fall 20% between January and November, compared to the same period in 2013, AEB data shows.

Carlsberg

The Danish beer maker has issued two profit warnings this year due to slowing Russian demand. Beer market volumes fell by as much as 7% in the first six months of 2014, the brewer said, hit by the uncertain environment, weak growth and bad weather.

Carlsberg (CABGY) is heavily dependent on sales in Russia, where it is the biggest brewer supplying local brands such as Baltika. Its shares are down more than 20% this year.

Adidas

Sluggish consumer spending has forced the German sportswear maker to shut stores and scale back expansion plans in Russia.

Adidas (ADDDF) is one of the biggest retail brands in the country with 1,100 stores. Chief Executive Herbert Hainer said last month that weak consumer sentiment and the falling ruble was hurting its business.

BP

Crumbling oil prices and sanctions have dealt a double blow to oil majors in Russia. BP (BCONQ) owns a large stake in Rosneft, Russia's biggest oil company,

Rosneft has lost access to U.S. and European sources of finance, as well as technology and services to develop deep water, Arctic or shale oil deposits. It blamed an 86% fall in third quarter profit on the falling ruble and lower prices for Russian Urals crude.

BP shares are trading down 17% this year.

Related: Russia has cash to prevent economic collapse

ExxonMobil

ExxonMobil (XOM) made an Arctic oil discovery with Rosneft earlier this year. But the firm can't push ahead with the project until sanctions imposed over the Ukraine crisis are lifted.

Total

The French energy giant has also had growth plans clipped by the West's trade war with Russia. The firm shelved plans for a shale exploration venture with Russia's Lukoil due to the sanctions.

McDonald's

Earlier this year, Russian officials forced the fast food giant to close 12 restaurants because of sanitary violations. The move was widely believed to be politically motivated.

All restaurants have now reopened but McDonald's (MCD) said "very weak results" in Russia worked to drive European sales lower in November.

Danone

French food conglomerate Danone (DANOY) is a big player in Russia. The market represents 11% of the group's annual turnover and was the top ranking country by sales in 2013.

Rising prices are a growing worry for the company in Russia. The company said operating margins fell sharply in the first half of this year due to higher milk prices.

Siemens

Russia is also a major market for the German engineering titan, and sales are suffering. Siemens' (SIEGY)revenue from the country dropped about 14% in fiscal 2014, compared with the previous year.

European banks

An escalation of Russia's financial woes could create headaches for Western banks. European lenders are most exposed to the country, according to the Bank for International Settlements.

European banks had $155.9 billion in outstanding loans to Russia at the end of June. That's about 1% of total European bank lending. French banks have lent the most at $47.8 billion, followed by Italy with $27.7 billion. U.S. banks have lent a relatively modest $26.1 billion.

Among the major banks tied up in Russia are France's Societé Generale (SCGLY) and Italy's UniCredit (UNCFF).

Related: Western banks lend billions to Russia

First Published: December 18, 2014: 8:56 PM ET

12.09 | 0 komentar | Read More