Florida man sentenced to 10 years in "hackerazzi" case

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Florida man who pleaded guilty to hacking into the email accounts of celebrities to gain access to nude photos and private information was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a federal judge in Los Angeles on Monday.
Former office clerk Christopher Chaney, 36, said before the trial that he hacked into the accounts of film star Scarlett Johansson and other celebrities because he was addicted to spying on their personal lives.
Prosecutors said Chaney illegally gained access to email accounts of more than 50 people in the entertainment industry, including Johansson, actress Mila Kunis, and singers Christina Aguilera and Renee Olstead from November 2010 to October 2011.
Chaney, who was initially charged with 28 counts related to hacking, struck a plea deal with prosecutors in March to nine felony counts, including wiretapping and unauthorized access to protected computers.
"I don't know what else to say except I'm sorry," Chaney said during his sentencing. "This will never happen again."
Chaney was ordered to pay $66,179 in restitution to victims.
Prosecutors recommended a 71-month prison for Chaney, who faced a maximum sentence of 60 years.
TEARFUL JOHANSSON
Prosecutors said Chaney leaked some of the private photos to two celebrity gossip websites and a hacker.
Johansson said the photos, which show her topless, were taken for her then-husband, actor Ryan Reynolds.
In a video statement shown in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, a tearful Johansson said she was "truly humiliated and embarrassed" when the photos appeared online, asking Judge S. James Otero to come down hard on Chaney.
Prosecutors said Chaney also stalked two unnamed Florida women online, one since 1999 when she was 13 years old.
Chaney, a native of Jacksonville, Florida, was arrested in October 2011 after an 11-month FBI investigation dubbed "Operation Hackerazzi" and he continued hacking after investigators initially seized his personal computers.
Shortly after his arrest, Chaney told a Florida television station that his hacking of celebrity email accounts started as curiosity and later he became "addicted."
"I was almost relieved months ago when they came in and took my computer ... because I didn't know how to stop," he said.

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Massachusetts fines Morgan Stanley over Facebook IPO

BOSTON (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley , the lead underwriter for Facebook Inc's initial public offering, will pay a $5 million fine to Massachusetts for violating securities laws governing how investment research can be distributed.
Massachusetts' top securities regulator, William Galvin, charged on Monday that a top Morgan Stanley banker had improperly coached Facebook on how to disclose sensitive financial information selectively, perpetuating what he calls "an unlevel playing field" between Wall Street and Main Street.
Morgan Stanley has faced criticism since Facebook went public in May for revealing revised earnings and revenue forecasts to select clients before the media company's $16 billion initial public offering.
This is the first time a case stemming from Morgan Stanley's handling of the Facebook offering has been settled.
Facebook had privately told Wall Street research analysts about softer forecasts because of less robust mobile revenues. A top Morgan Stanley banker coached Facebook executives on how to get the message out, Galvin said.
A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman said on Monday the company is "pleased to have reached a settlement" and that it is "committed to robust compliance with both the letter and the spirit of all applicable regulations and laws." The company neither admitted nor denied any wrongdoing.
Galvin, who has been aggressive in policing how research is distributed on Wall Street ever since investment banks reached a global settlement in 2003, said the bank violated that settlement. He fined Citigroup $2 million over similar charges in late October.
"The conduct at Morgan Stanley was more egregious," he said in an interview explaining the amount of the fine. "With it we will get their attention and begin to take steps in restoring some confidence for retail investors to invest."
Galvin also said that his months-long investigation into the Facebook IPO is far from over and that he continues to review the other banks involved. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan also acted as underwriters. The underwriting fee for all underwriters was reported to be $176 million at the time, or 1.1 percent of the proceeds.
As lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley took in $68 million in fees from the IPO, according to a Thomson Reuters estimate.
Massachusetts did not name the Morgan Stanley banker in its documents but personal information detailed in the matter suggest it is Michael Grimes, a top technology banker who was instrumental in the Facebook IPO.
The report says the unnamed banker joined Morgan Stanley in 1995 and became a managing director in 1998, dates that correlate with Grimes' career at the firm. It also says the banker works in Morgan Stanley's Menlo Park, California, office, where Grimes also works.
Grimes did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and was not accused of any wrongdoing by name.
The state said the banker helped a Facebook executive release new information and then guided the executive on how to speak with Wall Street analysts about it. The banker, Galvin said, rehearsed with Facebook's Treasurer and wrote the bulk of the script Facebook's Treasurer used when calling the research analysts.
A number of Wall Street analysts cut their growth estimates for Facebook in the days before the IPO after the company filed an amended prospectus.
Facebook's treasurer then quickly called a number for Wall Street analysts providing even more information.
The banker "was not allowed to call research analysts himself, so he did everything he could to ensure research analysts received new revenue numbers which they then provided to institutional investors," Galvin said.
Galvin's consent order also says that the banker spoke with company lawyers and then to Facebook's chief financial officer about how to prove an update "without creating the appearance of not providing the underlying trend information to all investors."
The banker and all others involved with the matter at Morgan Stanley are still employed by the company, a person familiar with the matter said.
Retail investors were not given any similar information, Galvin said, saying this case illustrates how institutional investors often have an edge over retail investors.

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Google filing error shocks investors, exposes process

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co handles thousands of securities filings a year for corporate clients in a routine process that is invisible to most investors. On Thursday Google and its shareholders found out just what happens when that process goes wrong.
Google issued a statement blaming Donnelley, its filing agent, after the Internet search company's quarterly results were released by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission hours ahead of schedule.
Earnings were far less than analysts expected and Google shares immediately plunged as much as 10.5 percent, knocking $26 billion off its market capitalization - the equivalent, as it happens, of about 13 R.R. Donnelleys.
It was quickly obvious that a mistake had been made -- the second paragraph of the filing said "PENDING LARRY QUOTE" instead of an actual quote from Google CEO Larry Page -- but it was not clear why.
Within minutes, though, an unknown prankster set up a "PendingLarry" Twitter feed to hypothesize what the missing quote might be. Among the highlights: "Man, our privacy was WAY violated today."
Donnelley shares lost more than 5 percent after Google started pointing the finger, though they recovered later in the day. The company did not respond to a call for comment, but issued a statement to CNBC in which it said it was investigating the circumstances of the release.
Best known as a provider of printing services, Donnelley is also the top SEC filing agent in the country, handling more than 75,000 submissions this year as of mid-October, according to SECInfo.com.
Filing agents like Donnelley take paper documents and convert them for submission to the SEC in the appropriate format. The company also owns the filing portal EDGAR Online.
WHO GOOFED?
It is far from the first time a company's earnings have somehow gotten out early.
In late 2010 and early 2011, inadvertent releases - usually by a misplaced release on a website - plagued companies like Walt Disney Co (NYS:DIS) and Microsoft Corp (NSQ:MSFT).
The common thread in all of those cases is that investors who are not in the right place at the right time to see the news may suffer for it.
"Some who didn't get a chance to sell will try to, and others will be looking for bargains. I'm sure a lot of Google owners were caught off guard," said Randy Frederick, managing director of active trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.
After the first question of "who goofed?" was sorted out Thursday afternoon, the second one being asked by investors was "can we sue?"
"Everyone is trying to figure out if there's any legal issue with respect to R.R. Donnelley. Google is halted, Donnelley is down big-time on the news since they're allegedly not supposed to have released the information," said Michael Matousek, senior trader at U.S. Global Investors in San Antonio.
But one plaintiffs lawyer who sues companies on behalf of investors said shareholders would not have a claim against either Google or R.R. Donnelley because the earnings disclosure was likely a mistake.
"There's no fraudulent intent here," said Reed Kathrein with Hagens Berman.
R.R. Donnelley may not be entirely off the hook with Google, however. The company could have a negligence claim to recover any additional costs it incurred in responding to the incident, Kathrein said.
Any potential damages against R.R. Donnelley could be limited, though, by the contract between the two companies.
Late Thursday, Google filed an amended press release with the missing quote and a confirmation that the figures in the original were accurate.
R.R. Donnelley shares were up 2 cents at $10.87 in late trading. Google was down 8.1 percent to $693.94 after trading resumed.

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Who Owns America’s Debt?

As the U.S. continues to rack up more than $1 trillion of new debt every year, Americans are beginning to worry about who we owe this money to and how much power our creditors have over us.
According to Barry P. Bosworth, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, our two biggest foreign creditors are Japan and China.
Although it may seem as though our debt to these countries renders us a puppet on strings, Bosworth says this fear is overblown. The U.S. market is very important to China's economy, so China would be loathe to do anything that might exacerbate tensions or disrupt trade between the two countries. And the same can be said for Japan. China owns $1.15 trillion of U.S. government debt -- more than any other country -- but U.S. taxpayers actually owe less money to China compared to recent years. China holds 10% of U.S. Treasuries, down from 12% two years ago.
Related: China's Slow Growth 'Marks An End of an Era' But No Hard Landing
And what about all the anti-China rhetoric that we hear about on the campaign trail?
Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney has been promising the country that he will declare China a "currency manipulator" on the first day of his presidency--and then enact tariffs as necessary until he forces China to level the trading playing field. Is that something that Romney is actually likely to do if he gets elected?
No, says Bosworth.
Tough talk with respect to China has become standard rhetoric for any presidential challenger. If and when Romney becomes president, his position will likely mellow.
Bosworth also says that the problem with the U.S.-China trade relationship is not, as is commonly believed, that China doesn't play fair. China has actually addressed lots of its unfair practices over the past decade, Bosworth says, while the U.S. is still pursuing the same old self-destructive habits. Until we stop consuming so much and start producing more, Bosworth says, we're in no position to demand anything.

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Earnings from McDonald's, Microsoft sink stocks

NEW YORK (AP) -- Poor earnings reports from three companies in the Dow Jones industrial average — Microsoft, General Electric and McDonalds — sent indexes down sharply Friday, marking a sour end to an otherwise strong week in the stock market.
McDonald's led a broad drop in the Dow, falling 3 percent. The Dow was down 151 points at 13,397 shortly after noon.
"I'm concerned about corporate earnings, but I'm not alarmed yet," said Doug Cote, chief market strategist at ING Investment Management in New York.
Cote cautions that it's still early in reporting season, but what's worrying is that companies have reported an overall drop in earnings so far. "And once you get one quarter of negative earnings, it's a precursor," he said. "It's the cockroach theory: if you find one, there's probably many more."
The Standard & Poor's 500 sank 17 points to 1,440 and the Nasdaq composite dropped 52 points to 3,020. All 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 fell, led by materials and technology stocks.
McDonald's profit sank as a strong dollar hurt international results, which account for two-thirds of its business. The fast-food giant's stock lost $3.51 to $89.35.
Microsoft's income fell 22 percent as PC sales took a dive and as troubles in Europe took their toll. Its stock lost 67 cents to $28.82.
General Electric, another economic bellwether, fell 3 percent. The company reported stronger profits early Friday but its revenue missed Wall Street's expectations. Orders for new equipment and services sank, mainly because wind turbine orders have fallen because a key U.S. federal subsidy for wind power expires at the end of the year.
GE's stock lost 60 cents to $22.21.
Analysts currently expect companies in the S&P 500 to post their worst earnings results since the third quarter of 2009, according to S&P Capital IQ. Banks and consumer discretionary companies are projected to report the best growth. Analysts expect companies dealing in metals and other materials to report the worst results, followed by energy companies.
But it's technology companies like IBM, Intel and Google whose weak results have grabbed the most attention so far.
Weak earnings from Google and a rise in claims for unemployment benefits helped pull the stock market lower Thursday. That snapped a four-day run of gains for the Dow. Google fell again Friday, giving up $14.14 to $680.86.
The Dow is still up 0.6 percent for the week. The S&P 500 up is up 0.8 percent.
In other Friday trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped to 1.77 percent from 1.83 percent late Thursday.
Among other stocks making big moves, Chipotle Mexican Grill plunged 14 percent after the burrito chain forecast that revenue growth would slow sharply next year. The stock had been a favorite among investors thanks to super-fast growth in recent years. The stock fell $41.32 to $244.61.

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McDonald's Canada Reveals How They Make Famous Fries

McDonald's Canada is at it again, demystifying their french fry recipe "from the farm to all the way to the fryer."
In their new behind-the-scenes video, Scott Gibson, manager of the company's supply chain, takes customer questions on their world-famous fries.
Gibson addresses the first question asking whether or not the potatoes used by the fast food restaurant are real. Standing in the middle of the Levesque farm with farmer Angelo Levesque, the two discuss how the potatoes are harvested and sorted at the farm. Then they are then brought to McCain, the company's fries supplier, to be prepped before heading to stores.
SLIDESHOW: Fast Food Ads vs. Reality: How Do They Size Up?
Mario Dupuis, production manager at McCain, describes how they prepare the fries by washing the potatoes to remove the rocks and the dirt and put them through a "peeling system."
Afterwards, they are cut and blanched "to remove the natural sugars from the strips, this will prevent some variation in the color once we cook the product," said McCain.
Next they are washed in a textural solution to give it the "nice even coat we see in the restaurants," said McCain, adding they also use an ingredient on the strips to prevent the fries from greying or oxidizing. Afterwards, they are then dried and fried for 45 to 60 seconds. Finally, they are frozen, packaged and shipped to stores.
Once in stores, the fries are deep-fried in 100 percent vegetable oil. They are salted with about 1 tablespoon of salt per four orders of medium fries. For those concerned about salt intake, Gibson suggests that customers can order their fries without the salt.

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Apple’s New iPad Mini Is Pricey but That Won’t Deter Fans: TechCrunch’s John Biggs

It's officially here: The iPad mini, the subject of endless speculation and rumors over the past year, made its debut Tuesday at the California Theater in San Jose, Calif. The iPad mini starts at $329 and hits store shelves Nov. 2. Pre-sales begin Oct. 26. It boasts a 7.9-inch display, weighs 0.68 pounds and is 7.2mm thick. The design closely resembles the iPod Touch and comes in both black and white.
Related: Get Ready for a Big Week in Tech: Apple & Facebook Earnings, Mini iPad, Windows 8 & More
As is the case with all Apple products, there is an option to pay up for more hardware. Here are the price points:
$329 for 16GB
$429 for 32GB
$529 for 64GB
In mid-November Apple will roll out the Wi-fi and 4G mini for $459 for 16GB, $559 for 32GB, and $659 for 64GB.
The iPad mini screen measures 1,024x768, the same resolution as the iPad 2. It also includes a dual-core A5 processor, a front-facing FaceTime HD camera, Apple's "Lightning" connector and a 5-megapixel back camera. A fully charged iPad mini will get 10 hours of battery life.
Apple (AAPL) stock was trading nearly two percent lower after the iPad mini presentation.
Related: Why Apple's Stock is Dropping
John Biggs, East Coast editor of TechCrunch, says the Apple event lacked the shock and awe of previous product announcements.
"Everybody was expecting an iPad mini and we got an iPad mini," he says in an interview with The Daily Ticker. "To see an iPad mini pop up is no huge surprise."
Biggs says the new mini may be pricey but it would not deter Apple devotees and tech "dorks" from adding to their Apple collections. The smaller screen will attract consumers who use tablet devices for reading -- "it's Apple's e-reader" -- Biggs says, and the new mini is not likely to cut into sales of the larger iPad versions, which still feature bigger screens and a higher resolution display.
The starting price for the iPad mini is $130 more than the Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7 — Apple's two main competitors in the e-reader space. Most Apple insiders and analysts were expecting a lower entry point for the mini, says CNET's Brian Tong, and consumer sticker shock could drag down sales expectations. The mini's price would have been even higher if Apple made it with a retina display, he adds.
"It will sell well but won't break records," Tong says. "It will sell because it's Apple. Never underestimate the Apple consumer."
Microsoft will unveil its first tablet device, Surface, next week.
Related: Microsoft Launches Its Own Tablet--and Admits Apple Was Right
Biggs says the Surface's size and user-face are more conducive to typing, an important feature for some consumers. The tablet market may be expanding but there's still only one winner, according to Biggs — Apple. "You're getting the premium product," he says.

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Top Realtor in Gainesville VA, Linton Hall Realtors, Launches Interactive Web Experience

A top performing realtor in Gainesville, VA - Linton Hall Realtors - is pleased to announce the launch of an interactive live chat system to aid their website visitors, who are looking to buy or sell homes in the Gainesville, VA area. The addition of the interactive service will allow for expanded real estate client service in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Gainesville, VA (PRWEB) December 20, 2012
Linton Hall Realtors, one of the highest producing realtors in Gainesville, VA, is pleased to announce the launch of an interactive system to allow real time communications with website visitors. The system will be used to help prospective home buyers search the Gainesville, VA home listings on Linton Hall Realtor's company website. By offering a live chat solution, Linton Hall Realtors expects to help sellers get information they need about listing a home, aid home buyers in finding the right home in the right area, and lead to greater levels of client satisfaction.
Finding homes for sale in Gainesville, VA can be a daunting task. From the Piedmont community in the north down the entire length of Linton Hall Road neighborhoods and communities are springing up. Even as new developments are emerging, some of the older areas are now 15 years old or more. This makes for an area where many families are upgrading and moving within the same community. This is when sellers frequently begin looking for a local agent representative.
Listing a home includes many dynamics. Listing price, marketing the home, and even staging and curb appeal are all important considerations. By implementing the live chat system on the website, people selling their home in Gainesville, VA will be able to interact with a real estate professional right at the moment they begin looking for information. "By providing this type of real time information, we can make the home selling process much easier," said Ashley Leigh, founder of Linton Hall Realtors. "The live chat feature allows us to get critical information to home sellers quickly and easily," he added. Indeed, with programs like the Guaranteed Sale Program, the Move Up to Savings program and even specialized help with short sales, there is a huge quantity of information.
Although there is so much to learn and investigate when selling your home, most sellers conduct extensive research when they are planning to buy new home. Searching for new homes in Gainesville VA is often the more exciting part of the process. That's another reason why Linton Hall Realtors implemented the live chat website feature. "The first thing a buyer/seller does is start searching for their new house. By providing them information when they first begin their search, we can make the entire process work better and smoother," Leigh said. Questions about are schools, planned expansion; home builders and community amenities are all popular questions.
When a user comes to LintonHallRealtors.com, they typically start browsing for a new home and then examining all the program information available to sellers. This process usually continues for weeks or months. When an agent is right there, available for quick questions or even more detailed phone consultations, the home buyer/seller gets exactly the information he or she needs, right at the moment in time it is needed. This leads to an overall improved client experience. "By providing excellent information with real-time technology, we can begin our work with them much earlier in the sales cycle and create a better overall client experience," said Leigh.
About Linton Hall Realtors:

Linton Hall Realtors pledge is to provide unsurpassed real estate service. Linton Hall Realtors has been named the #1 selling broker of the year by the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors three times and has billions in real estate transactions to its name. The company has passed the $2 billion in transaction mark and continues to help clients list and buy homes in Gainesville, VA and the surrounding area. For more information visit us at: http://www.lintonhallrealtors.com.

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Mission Impossible?: Can Tom Cruise Launch a Box-Office Franchise with 'Jack Reacher'?

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Paramount hopes it's launching a franchise with "Jack Reacher," the Tom Cruise action thriller that hits theaters Friday.
It will be tricky in a crowded holiday marketplace, and Cruise isn't the box-office bonanza he once was. But one need only look back to last year's "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" to see how it might work. That film opened to $12 million on December 16 and went on to make $209 million and nearly $700 million worldwide for Paramount.
"Jack Reacher" will be in about 3,200 theaters, and it will have plenty of competition. Universal's Judd Apatow comedy "This Is 40" opens wide Friday, and Paramount's ‘Guilt Trip" and Disney's 3D re-release of "Monsters Inc." opened Wednesday.
A slew of limited releases, led by Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty," along with this year's winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes "Amour," and tsunami survival tale "The Impossible" are also competing for moviegoers' attention, along with a number of holdover hits.
No movie, though, will come close to catching reigning box-office champ "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," which remains in more than 4,000 theaters. Peter Jackson's latest Middle-earth epic will take in north of $40 million, industry analysts say, with "Jack Reacher" and "This Is 40" battling for second with less than half of that.
Warner Bros.' "Hobbit" has rolled to $106 million in the U.S. since opening to $85 million last weekend. Its international total - $188 million as of Thursday - is even bigger.
In "Jack Reacher," Cruise plays an ex-military investigator; the film is based on bestselling author Lee Child's novel "One Shot" and written for the screen and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. It's from David Ellison's Paramount-based Skydance Productions and was produced for about $60 million by Cruise, Don Granger, Paula Wagner and Gary Levinsohn.
Robert Duvall and Richard Jenkins co-star in the PG-13 crime thriller, which has a 53 percent positive rating at Movie Review Intelligence.
No is expecting "Jack Reacher" to match "MI:4" at the box office. The Reacher novels have a following, but nowhere near that of the "Mission Impossible" franchise. Cruise's recent box-office record has been uneven, and the film's Facebook and Twitter activity is not particularly strong.
"Jack Reacher" could wind up playing more like Cruise's "Knight and Day," which opened to $20 million and went on to make $76 million for Fox in 2010, or "Valkyrie," which did $83 million in 2008 after opening to $21 million. Cruise was critically lauded for his foray earlier this year as an aging rock icon in the musical "Rock of Ages," but that was one of the year's bigger box-office duds.
"Jack Reacher" should play strongly with action fans, but Cruise's personal problems could limit its broader appeal.
"I can't imagine his divorce from Katie Holmes and the custody battle hasn't hurt him some with women," BoxOffice.com vice president and chief analyst Phil Contrino told TheWrap Thursday. "Actions fans will come out, but going beyond that demographic is going to be tough for him."
On the other hand, Universal says that it tracking suggests "This Is 40" will do quite well with women -- and women over 25 in particular.
"This Is 40," is, as the marketing campaign points out, a "sort of sequel" to Apatow's "Knocked Up," which opened to $30 million and went on to make nearly $150 million five years ago. Like "This Is 40," that one was written and directed by Apatow and starred Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann.
"40" is the fourth film Apatow has directed, all for Universal ("Funny People" and "40-Year-Old Virgin" are the other two). The ensemble cast also features Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, Megan Fox, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Chris O'Dowd, Jason Segel, Melissa McCarthy and Lena Dunham.
It's R-rated and has a 62 percent positive rating at Movie Review Intelligence. The production budget was $35 million.
"This looks like the strongest comedy of the season," Jeff Bock, senior analyst at Exhibitor Relations told TheWrap, "but it's still a bit of a wild card. It's going to connect with the New York and L.A. crowds; the key will be whether the Heartland audiences embrace it or see it as a little too hip. It will take time to tell, because of the season."
Films released at this time of year tend to open lower because the marketplace is so crowded - by Friday, 11 new films will have hit opened this week - and the fact that many potential moviegoers are districted by shopping and other holiday preps. On the other hand, they often show lasting power and make up what they don't take in on the weekend with stronger showings on the weekdays.
"Things could well come in lower than people are expecting across the board this weekend," Bock said, "but look for many of these movies to make it up over the holidays."
Summit will be looking for that kind of slow build on "The Impossible," the English-language film from Spain based on a true story about a family's fight to survive the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts, who received a Best Actress nomination from SAG recently, star.
Summit is releasing it Friday in 15 theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Toronto. The plan is to go nationwide early next year.
"The Impossible" already has taken in $52 million in Spain, the home of the real-life couple upon whom the story is based as well as director Juan Antonio Bayona ("The Orphanage") and screenwriter Sergio Sanchez.
Other limited rollouts set for Friday include Paramount's 3D concert film "Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away," in 800 theaters; "On the Road," IFC Films' adaptation of the Jack Kerouac's beat generation novel, in four theaters; and "Not Fade Away," the Paramount Vantage tale of a group of 1960 New Jersey friends launching a rock band, written and directed by "Sopranos" creator David Chase, in three locations.
Sony's "Zero Dark Thirty," about the manhunt for Osama bin Laden, got off to a terrific start Wednesday. It racked up $124,848 from five theaters in its first day of release. That's an average of $24,969, making it one of the biggest limited mid-week openings in history.

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ReferralBuzz Announces Partnership with TruliaTwin Cities’ Referral Service for Home Remodeling Experts and Their Customers Partners with Leading Online Real Estate Market

Twin Cities’ referral service for home remodeling experts and their customers partners with leading online real estate marketplace.

Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) December 21, 2012
Starting in January 2013, ReferralBuzz Inc., in Minneapolis, will be the exclusive partner in the 7 county Twin Cities metro and St Cloud, MN, Madison, WI, Cedar Rapids, IA for the new "Find a Pro - Home Improvement" feature on Trulia. Trulia is a leading online marketplace for home buyers, sellers, renters, and real estate professionals. ReferralBuzz will be the first home improvement recommendation resource on the Trulia website.
Founded in 2011, ReferralBuzz gives consumers a free, easy way to find great service providers - including providers who’ve earned recommendations from social media, neighbors, and friends. ReferralBuzz also gives home remodeling experts the tools they need to market their services and increase referrals using the power of social media.
With unique info on areas people want to live that can’t be found anywhere else, Trulia provides the inside scoop on properties, places, and real estate professionals. Prospective home buyers, sellers, and renters can learn about agents, neighborhoods, schools, crime, commute times, and even ask the local community questions. Meanwhile, real estate professionals use Trulia to connect with millions of transaction-ready buyers and sellers each month via Trulia’s hyper-local advertising services, social recommendations, and top-rated mobile real estate apps.
"The partnership with Trulia will provide a huge benefit to our customers through greater exposure,” says ReferralBuzz Founder Lisa Schneegans. “We will be able to feed information onto the "find a pro" section of Trulia's website from the ReferralBuzz website and provide the inside scoop to homeowners, buyers and sellers on local home improvement service providers."
For ReferralBuzz Service Providers, the partnership with Trulia means:

Service Provider’s ReferralBuzz profile will be seen by hundreds of thousands of consumers interested in home improvement in your service area.
Service Providers ReferralBuzz subscription will include a Trulia "Find A Pro" listing that will be automatically be uploaded from your ReferralBuzz profile.
Referral Buzz Service Providers will be able to participate in Trulia Voices "Ask an Expert"
ReferralBuzz will have the exclusive banner ad on the new Trulia mobile app for our metro area. Subsequently giving the service provider’s profile an opportunity to be seen by thousands of people.
How It Works for Homeowners

To get started, homeowners simply sign on at http://www.referralbuzz.com. Homeowners can view exclusive deals, request estimates and get ideas for their own projects from other customers’ pictures and feedback. Homeowners can sign in through Facebook and see which providers their “Friends” have used and recommend.
How It Works For Service Providers

ReferralBuzz provides a set of very easy to use tools for service providers to help them enhance their business. Automated tools include:
Social Referrals-Get customer referrals through their social networks, the “word of mouth” in the digital age.
Customer Feedback-After a job is completed ReferralBuzz makes the request for feedback automatically.
Stay In Touch Email-This in-touch e-mail system turns great customers into repeat customers and helps customers keep you in mind.
Facebook Posting-Automatically post your projects, photos and specials on your own Facebook page.
Digital Portfolio-Keep your visual assets at your fingertips. Photos sell your service better than any sales pitch. Email your presentation to the prospect, right from your IPad.
Project Communication-Communication during a project is often the key to keeping a job on track. ReferalBuzz makes that easy. And, once the project is done, an automated sequence of feedback requests, social referrals and emails begins. Clients feel well taken care of, long after you’ve left the job site.

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