The weekly newsletter for everyone interested in barter--the world's most versatile business tool!

• PricewaterhouseCoopers reports that financial results for this year's second quarter will be the worst for the lodging industry in a decade--since the third quarter of 1991.

  In 1991, a famously bad year for hotels, the industry lost $5.7 billion. It's not expected to be as bad this time around, as the debt picture is better today. (In 1991, 11-cents of every hotelier's dollar went to pay
  debt, today it's 3.8-cents.)
  

• Airline miles, a $70 billion dollar "currency," continues to expand outward by moving into markets well beyond the airlines. For example, WebMiles Dining Program enables members to use their card at 7,500 participating restaurants nationwide...receiving 5 airline miles for each dollar spent. (Members can register up to three credit cards, details at www.webmiles.com.)
  

• Wire One Technologies is bartering for the assets of Lucent Technologies' GeoVideo Networks venture, trading 815,000 common shares and warrants for the purchase of an additional 500,000 shares.

• CMR of New York, a company that tracks ad spending (television, magazines, newspapers, and other media outlets), reports that total spending on advertising, across all media, in the U.S. fell 5.2% to $22.6 billion in the first quarter ended March 31st.

  The spending figures are an important signal to both Wall Street and Madison Avenue, as both scrutinize advertising trends which are regarded as an important measure of economic health. (Companies often slash their ad budgets when they miss their sales or profit targets.)
  

• The VC (Venture Capital) industry is bracing for what may be its worst year in nearly three decades. The marketplace is seeing investors that specialize in providing late-stage financing driving very hard bargains, as their risks have risen sharply.

  For example, the late-stage investors are insisting on senior status if the company is wound down or sold, i.e. they will get all their money back before any earlier investors see a penny.

  (Investors are also seeking the right to maintain their percentage of ownership in the company, even if they don't choose to invest in the next round.)
  

• Globalization is quietly taking place by workers from many third-world nations coming to industrialized nations, where they work and then send part of their salaries to their homelands.

  Such efforts are increasingly a powerful force in the world economy. More than $13 billion is sent out of the US alone, making America the world's largest source of remittances.
  

• Magazine sales at the newsstands are hurting...only 35% of magazines shipped by publishers are actually being sold. Magazine consultant Harrington Associates says that newsstand sales for 2000 was the worst year ever. Newsstand sales, which account for about 23% of magazine unit sales, are a crucial industry measure of a title's vitality.