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David Laux is among the few people lucky enough to have created his own job. He was part of the investment team at IBM that encouraged the company to throw more effort into grabbing a piece of the gaming industry, not knowing he would end up leading that initiative in 2003.

That choice might seem like a no-brainer, but at the time, video games were mostly for simple entertainment and Laux’s interest was primarily as a gamer. However, Laux — who leads the venture from IBM’s offices in Hazelwood — accepted the chance to lead the new venture because he believed in the potential for new and expanded uses for gaming.

His team has since helped create simulators for education with real world applications, such as training engineers to work on oil platforms. Additionally, the team develops the gaming infrastructure that has allowed for more robust playing of multiplayer games such as "EVE Online."

Laux’s passion for gaming at work bleeds into his personal life, and he spends much of his free time mountain biking, go-karting and practicing karate, interests that compliment the creativity that drives his work. However, the result of the real-world games has often been more painful than not — Laux has broken every bone in his body, except his right arm.

How is the economy affecting the games industry?

The biggest problem the games industry has right now is it can’t hire people fast enough. The industry is growing leaps and bounds — depending on whose resources you look at — some say 37 percent year to year, some 54 percent, that’s kind of the range.

It’s growing hand over fist and that’s not really capturing the total industry, because that only captures the revenue for games companies that report themselves as games companies. We’re seeing almost every consumer packaged food company that focuses on children introducing games content. And almost every entertainment-oriented media source introducing games, such as MTV games. Hasbro. Mattel. Lego — all of these companies are developing a significant amount of games technology.

Why were you interested in the job when it was presented?

What appealed to me then was probably just the excitement of games. I was a gamer. I’m (now) not as much because I travel more. But, yeah, I game quite a bit, a few hours a week (at) minimum playing games of various types. I have four kids, so I get to play four different types of games with each of them. It’s really quite a social experience for us.

… The most thrilling thing at the time probably was the games content. Now the most appealing thing is probably the social impact and the ability to use what was a game, an entrainment venue, to really drive increased intelligence by the user. It teaches lessons and people can really leverage these skills and games techniques in the real world.

It’s exciting because we really are at the turning point of this hockey stick. The industry has gone from a cottage industry to a real industry. I think we’re just at the cusp of change in the technologies that are being introduced, the acceptance of games as not this anti-social type of environment, but as a thing where there is room for my life and I can learn things from (the games) instant payday loan.

Your background is more about management and understanding clients than the nuts and bolts of technology, right?

Yeah, which shows the evolution we’ve seen the games industry go through, from a pure technology industry, really, to aligning it from a business perspective and understanding customer management.

When games just started it was truly about the technology underneath it and it appealed to the hard-core gamers that were massive consumers of technology. Today, we see that it crosses all demographics.

I understand you speak annually to students at Soldan High School about gaming. What’s the content of those talks?

It’s typically targeted at the freshmen and sophomores. … I make this presentation nationally about once a month. … Everybody sees the games industry as, ‘Oh, that’s hot. That’s sexy. That’s what I want to go into.’ Very rarely do even my own kids take into account what are the skills necessary to be successful in the industry.

So I work with the Soldan team to outline to the students what are really the necessary skills if you want to be successful in this space. Math and science are going to be core to being successful in the games industry. Very rarely do people take that into account because the games are just shooting things or building puzzles. But it’s all based upon math and science.

Sociology is a huge piece of the new social front — how do people interact? What is the right interface for people to interact? Psychiatry and psychology — what response do these flashing lights elicit from people and is it the response that we want?

Art is a very obvious skill. But I’d still say 70 to 80 percent of the industry is built around math and science. And most high school kids haven’t really taken that into account.

With all the broken bones, it seems that you’re spending a fair share of time in both the real and virtual worlds. Does that make you atypical among gamers or executives?

One of the stereotypes that is consistent is that people that play games lock themselves in a room. …(But people who play games) have a competitive spirit about them. If you look at it, they really do feed each other: active mind, active body. … You’ve got to get out and be active.

Honestly, one of the best things (about my job) is the ability to be flexible. Having four children, but at a global job, I have the ability to work, get the kids on the bus, work until the get the kids off the bus, then spend time with the family. And because it’s a global role, once the kids get to bed, I go in the office and work.

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U.S. online auctioneer eBay Inc won final approval from South Korea’s antitrust watchdog for its planned acquisition of Gmarket Inc, subject to conditions such as a commission freeze for the next three years.

The approval clears the way for eBay to emerge as a leading player in South Korea’s online shopping market by taking control of its key competitor.

Last week, eBay offered to buy South Korean online retailer Gmarket for up to $1.2 billion, a move that sets up the company for growth in Asia. A majority of Gmarket shareholders, including South Korean retailer Interpark Corp and Yahoo Inc, have agreed to the cash tender offer.

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission said in a statement on Thursday that the impact of eBay’s acquisition on the local online shopping market would be limited and could be digested over time.

Nasdaq-listed Gmarket is the biggest South Korean operator of customer-to-customer marketplaces and has more than 10 million registered users in the country online payday loan. It has competed with eBay’s South Korean unit, Internet Auction Co, and “11st,” a unit of SK Telecom, the country’s top mobile carrier.

When combined, Gmarket and the eBay unit will have a 87.5 percent share of the South Korean customer-to-customer market and 36.4 percent of the entire domestic online shopping market.

The FTC banned the companies from raising sales commissions for the next three years and asked them to limit increases in advertising and other fees to below the local inflation rate.

The regulator also ordered them to come up with measures to protect small-sized sellers in marketplaces that may suffer from higher fees and commissions without free competition.

(Reporting by Rhee So-eui; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)

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In the days when we survived by plucking the berries off the nearest bush or spearing fish, we didn’t need elaborate packaging. Food came in its own natural package, the rinds or hides of the things we ate.

But as more goods began travelling the globe, the business of bagging, boxing, stapling, and shrink-wrapping grew to be a $10 billion industry in Canada.

These days, it seems almost everything comes in a package, often one that’s difficult to open, contains too many layers, seems designed mainly to sell the product and creates a mountain of non-recyclable waste.

Even packagers acknowledge they need to take steps to reduce their environmental impact.

"The reality is there is an over-packaging problem," says Jim Downham, president and chief executive officer of the Packaging Association of Canada. "It’s a significant source of municipal solid waste."

But the answer is a lot more complex than just removing all wrappings or replacing everything with more recyclable materials, he says.

"All the government guys want to do is tax and they only think about recycling. They’re all worried about the cost of their landfill," Downham says. "I’m trying to reframe the discussion around sustainable packaging.

"This isn’t just about recycling. It’s about reducing energy consumption, reducing the use of raw materials," he says. "Sustainable packaging is a much more holistic view. We consider recycling just one of the components of it."

It’s also about staying in business.

"If a company doesn’t make money, it’s not sustainable," Downham says.

Historically, packaging served some pretty basic purposes. Manufacturers were concerned about the need to keep their products safe, secure, free from bacteria, tampering and other hazards.

Today, packaging has to meet a host of sometimes-conflicting consumer expectations, experts say.

If it’s an appearance-based product like shampoo, it has to be in a tall, thin bottle. If it’s laundry detergent, it’s okay if the box is short and fat. If it’s a prestige product, like perfume, the package is more likely to be highly differentiated from rival products.

"In fact, when you go to buy a bottle of perfume, the bottle generally costs a lot more than what’s in it," says David Soberman, a marketing professor with the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

Consumers are also predisposed to think bigger is better.

"The idea that `less is more’ is actually a very difficult concept for humans. The bigger animal gave you more meat. We’ve got a long history where size matters," says Alan Middleton, a marketing professor at York University’s Schulich Executive Education Centre.

Retailers have an impact on packaging, too. Consumers take it for granted that cereal boxes come in uniform sizes. Retailers want packages that are neat, easy to display and maximize the selling space, Middleton says.

Packagers say consumers often send mixed messages.

They want packages that are easy to open but tamper-proof. They like the idea of buying food in bulk but don’t want people sneezing on it.

Consumers are also confused by what they hear about packaging from government and environmentalists, Downham says.

They’re told to stop using plastic bottles to serve baby formula because of potentially hazardous bisphenol-A instant faxless payday loans. But when Hellman’s mayonnaise ditches its weighty glass bottle for lighter-to-ship plastic, it’s hailed as a breakthrough in reducing its carbon footprint.

But mostly consumers are very concerned about excessive waste.

Many large reputable retailers and packagers have got the message, Downham says, but repackaging takes time, careful planning and can involve major upfront costs.

Not long ago, the world’s largest retailer set out to adopt a "green" agenda. As part of that process, Wal-Mart Stores Ltd. set a goal of reducing packaging waste by 5 per cent by the year 2013.

One of its first targets was liquid laundry detergent.

The result was Sunlight Small & Mighty, which is three times more concentrated but washes the same number of loads for the same price. And it uses far less water, cardboard, plastic resin and diesel fuel. Other retailers, such as Loblaw Cos. Ltd., have also moved to more concentrated detergent.

To help suppliers achieve its goal, Wal-Mart developed a scorecard, said Karin Campbell, a spokesperson for Wal-Mart Canada Corp.

"We look at packaging in a few different ways. The weight: Are we using materials that drive up the cost because they’re so heavy? We look at how many we can fit on the truck. Can we reduce that? And we look at the individual package. Is the material sustainable, easily recyclable, or is it excessive for the minimum required for the safety and integrity of the product?"

Smart packaging is also smart business, Campbell says.

"Less packaging means savings on the supply chain, better shelf space for suppliers, the ability to carry more products in a smaller square footage," she says. "We see a very close tie between the environmental benefits and business benefits. When you’ve got smart packaging that’s recyclable or in some cases biodegradable you’re not paying as much in disposal fees. So, there are a lot of cost savings for a business committed to efficiencies."

So, why is there so much bad or excessive packaging on the market?

Why is the memory card for your digital camera sold in a blister pack four times the size of the card? Why is coffee still sold in unrecyclable, polycoated paper cups? Why are some pill bottles only half full?

The answers are as diverse as the products, experts say.

Many consumer electronics and toys are imported from manufacturers in Asia, which may be harder for retailers to influence.

Some drug companies find it more efficient to use one bottle size no matter how many pills are inside.

And sometimes it’s a question of waiting for a breakthrough, like a clay coating that keeps the paper cup dry but is recyclable.

Every packaging change creates some business risk, Soberman says.

In some cases, it’s relatively low. It’s easy to calculate the potential payback when a new process makes things cheaper and easier. A more risky proposition is using new packaging to try to grab more market share, Soberman says.

Perhaps that’s why change might have to be forced on companies.

"When government says do it, when consumers are demanding it, you have to do it. It’s not really a question of payback. It’s more a question of staying in business."

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Johnson & Johnson has decided to drop plans for now to start a separate wellness and disease-prevention unit, its chief financial officer Dominic Caruso told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

The segment “is really much more of a consumer-like business,” Caruso told the paper.

Caruso did not tell the paper whether the company still hopes wellness and disease-prevention will be a fourth business segment of the size it hoped before.

“We’ll see how big it grows,” Caruso told the paper make quick cash.

Johnson & Johnson said on Tuesday its quarterly earnings fell, hurt by generic competition for its Risperdal schizophrenia drug and the strong dollar, but lower costs enabled the company to beat Wall Street expectations.

(Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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The controversy surrounding American International Group Inc’s bonuses to employees could make the process of winding down the insurer’s financial products unit more costly for taxpayers, the Wall Street Journal cited the unit head Gerry Pasciucco as saying.

Pasciucco told the paper that the controversy “hurt morale” and “stunned people such that our wind-down has slowed down.”

“Taxpayers probably have been damaged,” Pasciucco told the Journal, adding that 20 of the unit’s 370 employees quit amid the controversy.

AIG, which has received an estimated $180 billion of U.S. government bailouts since September, prompted a nationwide outrage last month for paying $165 million of bonuses tied to the money-losing financial products unit that was the cause of its near collapse last year loan until payday.

In February, Pasciucco, a former Morgan Stanley executive, had told Reuters that he expected the financial products unit to be wound down by the end of the year.

AIG, once the world’s biggest insurer, is winding down the financial products unit after posting $42.5 billion in losses over the past year, largely as a result of bets that the unit took on toxic mortgage debt.

(Reporting by Amitha Rajan in Bangalore; Editing by Erica Billingham)

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MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. expects to report first-quarter revenues of about $214 million, the O’Fallon, Mo.-based wafer maker said today.

The estimate is in line with the company’s outlook in January, when it said first-quarter revenue could drop as much as 50 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008 free credit report and score. MEMC posted net sales of $425.7 million last quarter.

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The Empire State Building kicked off a major energy-saving retrofit Monday, and promoters hope one of the world’s most iconic skyscrapers can become an efficiency model for buildings worldwide.

From the cloud-shrouded observation deck on the building’s 80th floor, former President Bill Clinton, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others detailed $20 million in cutting-edge conservation measures they hope will cut energy use by 38% for the 1930’s-era behemoth.

They stressed the retrofits weren’t green altruism or part of a government program. Instead, they say they’re being done simply to save the building’s owners a lot of money.

"I can’t tell you how important this day is," said Clinton, who founded the Clinton Climate Initiative where the retrofit plan was hatched. "In order for the world to meet [the greenhouse gas reductions] most scientists say we should, we have to prove it’s good economics."

The retrofits are expected to save building owners $4.4 million in annual energy costs. They are part of an overall $500-plus million rehab plan for the building, which is estimated by its owners to be worth $2.2 billion.

Buildings, including offices and homes, use some 40% of all energy consumed worldwide, according to the Alliance to Save Energy. The typical house produces twice as much carbon dioxide as the typical car.

The conservation measures at the Empire State building include:

• Filling the existing windows with an energy saving gas and adding an additional plastic pane.
• Upgrading the building’s cooling system.
• Using computerized "smart" energy management technology that can adjust temperatures floor by floor.
• Provide tenants with detailed energy use in their space.
• Shut off lights in unused areas.

Much of the interior lighting is also being replaced with more efficient fluorescent bulbs. The famous spire lights, which change color throughout the year in accordance with different holidays and events, are not getting an upgrade. But engineers on the project said the spire may get ultra-efficient LED lighting when the price for that technology drops enough, perhaps by 2013 instant cash advance.

Global reach

The retrofit is being hailed as a breakthrough in energy conservation. It uses a new computer model developed by the Department of Energy to look at all aspects of the building’s energy use and run a cost benefit analysis to see what changes would provide the biggest payoff.

In addition to its fame - it was the world’s tallest building for over 40 years - it’s also an important testing ground because of its age. The building is made of granite and was completed in 1931.

"The Empire State Building was the perfect opportunity," said Ian Campbell, an executive at Johnson Controls, the company performing the retrofit. "You can teach an old building new tricks."

Campbell said once completed, the makeover should put the building among the top 10% of energy efficient buildings worldwide.

Campbell and others working on the project hope to take the skills and lessons learned at this retrofit and promote it in other similar projects worldwide.

"This need not be a rare accomplishment at all," said Raymond Quartararo, a director at Jones Lang LaSalle, a real estate consultancy that’s helping manage the retrofit. "If it can be done at the Empire State Building, it can be done in thousands of buildings around the globe."

A spokesman for CB Richard Ellis, the world’s largest commercial real estate company, said they’ve seen an increase in the number of building owners interested in doing similar retrofits.

"Owners generally recognize the need to take steps in energy efficiency," said the spokesman. "This will accelerate that interest."

There’s certainly lots of room for savings.

"Buildings are perhaps the biggest key to the climate issue," said energy efficiency guru Amory Lovins, on hand for the event. "As soon as people realize efficiency is cheaper than new power, opposition [to higher efficiency standards] will melt faster than the glaciers."  

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Revolution Money, an online payment firm backed by AOL co-founder Steve Case, said on Monday it has received funding of $42 million from a group that includes a Goldman Sachs affiliate and earlier investors Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.

Revolution Money, part of Washington-based Revolution LLC, competes with EBay Inc’s PayPal service in peer to peer money transfers, and offers a credit card.

The company will use the money to beef up its technology and help retailers promote the credit card, with a view to reaching 3 million retailers by 2011 despite tumbling U.S. retail sales, chairman Ted Leonsis told Reuters.

“We see more rapid adoption of our service as merchants fight in this economy for more margin from sales,” said Leonsis, who owns the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals.

Revolution Money estimated its RevolutionCard credit card is accepted at about 650,000 locations in the United States including those of bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc, upscale grocer Whole Foods Market Inc and department store chain Nordstrom.

Leonsis said Revolution competes with PayPal by letting users transfer funds to one another for free and with major credit card issuers, such as Visa Inc MasterCard Inc and American Express Co by offering competitive interchange fees for merchants health insurance quote.

Interchange fees are paid by merchants to a credit card company when a customer makes a purchase.

The new investment follows on a $50 million funding in 2007 from Citi, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, Case and others.

Despite attracting these investments in a difficult capital market, Leonsis said Revolution Money would not consider an initial public offering or put itself up for sale before 2011.

“Right now, we are focused on the build-out of the platform, but at some point to really scale the business, we would have to go public,” Leonsis said.

Still, Leonsis thinks the business will be large enough in two years to attract public investors or a possible acquirer.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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Leaders attending the G-20 summit in London Thursday said they were confident and hopeful of progress as they sat down to grapple with the global economic crisis.

"There is a great degree of convergence, so I am very confident about the result of the summit today," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told CNN Thursday morning.

"Important to get a good outcome," Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Twitter.

British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson told CNN there are some "strains" among the delegates, "but I hope very much that they will be ironed out and we’ll come out with agreement at the end of the day."

The leaders say they want to find ways to stabilize financial markets throughout the world and pull the world out of a deepening recession.

They sat at the table Thursday for their first plenary session with several targets in their sights, including tax havens and protectionism.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde called for a firm stand on tax havens, wrote Stephen Timms, the financial secretary to the British Treasury, from the summit.

"We have to be clear that those that want to keep shadow banking systems that are kind of underground (with) clandestine finances have to suffer sanctions, because it’s once again a problem of confidence," Barroso said. "We are for open economies and open markets, but open economies and open markets have to respect some rules classic car insurance."

Britain will push for the same regulation of banks and financial institutions that operate in a "shadow banking world," Mandelson said. He said an international body should oversee the regulation.

Leaders will also be pushing for more fiscal stimulus.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is arguing for world leaders to maintain their investments and fiscal stimuli while also giving more money to institutions like the International Monetary Fund, Mandelson said.

The IMF can then deliver those resources to poorer countries and emerging economies, he said.

"They are becoming major drivers of growth in the global economy," Mandelson said of those countries. "So we want a strong commitment, a hefty infusion of resources."

Barroso and Mandelson called for concrete commitments on the economy. French President Nicolas Sarkozy indicated this week that if the summit’s final communique fails to contain strong language and clear steps, he may even walk out of the meeting.

Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday they can accept debate and negotiation as long as firm steps are taken in the end. 

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Japanese leaders’ desire to “puff our chests out” at the Group of 20 summit may quickly run out of air when Prime Minister Taro Aso arrives at the Group of 20 summit almost empty-handed.

The country’s fourth leader in three years said before he left Tokyo for London that a new economic stimulus package won’t be ready before mid-April. Two previous efforts totaling 10 trillion yen ($101 billion) failed to arrest a worsening recession in the world’s second-biggest economy.

Aso, who pledged “to exercise leadership,” has yet to give an amount for the next aid package; Japanese industrial production fell 9.4 percent in February and economists estimate gross domestic product shrank almost 11 percent last quarter. G- 20 leaders are vying to show off their responses at today’s meeting, from China’s 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) spending plan to a joint U.S.-U.K. push for coordinated pump-priming.

“It’s almost laughable,” said Naomi Fink, Japan strategist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in Tokyo. “There are things he can be doing to support the economy and he’s not doing them. Why should we expect any difference at the G-20?”

It was future Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano who said in January that Japanese leaders needed to pay heed to “whether we’ll be able to puff our chests out and explain what we’ve done” to fix our problems at the G-20. Since then, reports have shown an unprecedented drop in exports along with the decline in industrial production, triggering the yen’s biggest quarterly loss since 2001.

Nakagawa Departure

Japan’s most public moment at global financial crisis meetings to date was in February when then-Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa appeared to be drunk during a press briefing in Rome. He resigned, leaving replacement Yosano, 70, juggling three Cabinet positions as the economy stumbles toward its deepest postwar recession.

Japan’s economy probably shrank at an annual 10.9 percent pace last quarter, according to the median estimate of 17 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. That would follow a 12.1 percent contraction in the final three months of 2008, the worst among advanced economies and the nation’s steepest since 1974.

Confidence at the biggest manufacturers fell to a record low, the Bank of Japan’s Tankan survey showed yesterday. The jobless rate climbed to a three-year high last month with fewer than six positions available for every 10 applicants.

Toyota, NEC Firings

Toyota Motor Corp. and NEC Corp. are among companies that are firing workers, increasing pressure on the government to give more assistance to the unemployed, most of whom don’t receive benefits. Aso’s initial offering to help households — a cash handout of 12,000 yen per person — was dismissed by the opposition as an attempt to win votes before an election that must be held within six months.

Political maneuvering has played a big part in Japan’s faltering response to the crisis business card design. Each of Aso’s previous stimulus plans took three months to pass through parliament, held up by a combination of his desire to avoid calling an early election and gridlock caused by the opposition’s control of the upper house.

Aso’s approval rating fell to 9.7 percent in a February survey by Tokyo-based Nippon TV, before climbing to about 20 percent after the top aide to opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa was indicted for campaign funding violations.

Personal Gaffes

Personal gaffes by Aso in the past six months include his saying doctors lack common sense, mothers need to be disciplined more than their children and referring to former British premier Tony Blair as “Tony Brown” during a keynote speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“Talking about credibility with this lot is a contradiction in terms both internationally and domestically,” said Noriko Hama, a professor of economics at Doshisha Business School in Kyoto. “Aso is making a desperate ploy for respect on the international stage after all the lost ground at home.”

Aso, 68, this week pointed to a pledge to provide a $100 billion line of credit to the International Monetary Fund as an example of Japanese leadership. He promised $22 billion in trade assistance as well as $20 billion in overseas aid to developing countries in a meeting yesterday with Indonesian President Bambang Yudhoyono in London.

“Japan does deserve some credit for being ahead of everyone else in providing aid to international institutions,” said Robert Feldman, head of Japan economic research at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo. “We haven’t seen as much leadership on global issues as we’d like.”

Debt Constraints

Japan’s ability to spend its way out of recession is constrained by a debt burden that is projected to swell to 197 percent of gross domestic product next year, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That ratio is the highest among OECD countries and almost double that of the U.S.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has recommended buying shares to bolster the stock market and purchasing securities held by banks to boost their capital. Japan’s benchmark Topix Index has tumbled 35 percent in the past year.

The next stimulus will target employment and green energy and may include lowering inheritance taxes, Aso said at a March 31 press conference.

“The government really needs to have a strong recovery package,” said Masahiro Kawai, dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute and a former Finance Ministry and World Bank official. “The U.S. is coming up with a strong fiscal package. The Europeans are somewhat reluctant but want to come up with a similar although smaller package. Japan should also.”

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