A Week of Market Fluctuations for Pandora

Pandora Media is in the middle of a fight with the music industry groups over its royalty rates. Today, for example, it announced that it had joined a new coalition of other technology and broadcasting companies to lobby for changes, along with Clear Channel Communications, the Digital Music Association and the Consumer Electronics Association.

But the biggest factor on Pandora's health this week seemed to be Apple, which for more than a month has been rumored to be working on a competing Internet radio service. Even Apple's silence can cause vertiginous ripples in Pandora's stock price.

On Tuesday, Pandora's stock, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, rose more than 8 percent after Apple made no mention of a radio service in its announcement of the iPad Mini. But late Thursday afternoon its shares plunged after Bloomberg News, citing anonymous sources, reported that Apple was planning to introduce the service in the first quarter of 2013.

The shares fell as much as 20 percent this afternoon before trading was briefly halted twice through a volatility trading pause, a safeguard that kicks in automatically when a stock drops 10 percent or more within a five-minute period, a spokeswoman for the stock exchange said. Pandora ended the day at $8.20, down 11.73 percent for the day, but it gained in after-hours trading.

Apple is believed to be planning a feature for its phones and other devices that, like Pandora, would create streams of music customized to a user's taste. This free service would be supported by advertising, and Apple would pay music companies a share of those ad revenues, two people briefed on the company's plans said on Thursday.

As a protection in case initial ad sales are low, Apple has also offered to pay the music firms a licensing fee upfront, said these people, who were not authorized to discuss private discussions.

Licensing negotiations can take months, even for a behemoth like Apple. But Apple has told music executives that it wants to introduce the service in early 2013, perhaps around the Grammy Awards, which next year are on Feb. 10.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

Pandora does not negotiate its royalty rates directly with record labels but instead uses statutory rates set by a panel of federal judges. Last month, Pandora helped to introduce a bill in Congress that would change that process, potentially lowering its rate. But that bill has met heavy opposition from record labels, artist groups and labor unions, which accuse Pandora of trying to game the royalty system in its favor.

Ben Sisario writes about the music industry. Follow @sisario on Twitter.

Making Sure Beneficiaries Get Life Insurance Money

This week, the American International Group became the latest insurance company to settle an inquiry by a group of state insurance regulators into the handling of death benefits, the payments to a beneficiary when the holder of a life insurance policy dies.

A.I.G agreed to pay $11 million to resolve the multistate investigation, joining several other insurers that had already settled, including Nationwide Financial Services, MetLife and Prudential Financial.

The companies have agreed to check their lists of policyholders regularly against the Social Security Administration's “death master file” database and to make “more robust” efforts to locate beneficiaries, according to insurance officials in Pennsylvania, one of the lead states in negotiating the agreement with A.I.G.

Traditionally, insurance companies have required beneficiaries to file claims to receive benefits from life insurance policies. That has meant that claims sometimes are never fi led - perhaps because policy documents were lost, or because beneficiaries did not know a policy existed. But state insurance regulators, for the past two years, have been looking into the practices of large insurers and urging them to proactively identify policies that may be due for a payout.

State regulators have charged that insurers used the Social Security Administration's list of recently deceased people to stop making annuity payments to dead customers, but, at the same time, did not use the list to check whether any life insurance policyholders had died.

In a statement, Pennsylvania authorities said A.I.G. had agreed to use the death master file “on a uniform basis” to find dead policyholders and pay beneficiaries.

The A.I.G. settlement and several others were negotiated with a multistate task force created by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

A.I.G. denied any wrongdoing, but agreed to pay the $11 million to resolve disputes with the regulators. In a statement, A.I.G. said it was “taking enhanced measures to, among other things, routinely match policyholder records” with the death master file.

Rosanne Placey, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania insurance commissioner, said that the agreement was an important step, but that the best way to avoid problems with life insurance claims is for policyholders to discuss policies with their beneficiaries. Often, the department gets calls seeking help from people who say they think a deceased parent had a life insurance policy, but they are not sure - and don't know how to find it.

“We always tell consumers to inform their beneficiaries of the policies,” she said. A policyholder should keep copies of a policy at an off-site location - such as in a safe deposit box, or with a lawyer or financial adviser - and make sure the beneficiaries know where the documents are kept and how to get access to them.

The American Council of Life Insurers also has tips for finding missing policies.

Have you had to track down a missing life insurance policy after a parent or other relative died? How did you do it?

Pearson and Bertelsmann in Talks to Combine Random House and Penguin

Rainer Jensen/DPA, via Agence France-Presse - Getty Images Thomas Rabe, the chief executive of Bertelsmann, has promised to transform the company.

1:07 p.m. | Updated PARIS - Pearson, the British media conglomerate, said Thursday that it was in talks to combine its Penguin publishing house with Random House, owned by Bertelsmann of Germany.

The deal, if completed, would bring together two of biggest book publishers in the world, uniting Penguin and its iconic orange logo with the owner of Crown Publishing and Knopf Doubleday. The combination would create a division with greater scale that could compete in a rapidly evolving e-book market. Traditional publishing houses have increasingly come under pressure, especially in the e-book category, from online retailers like Amazon and Apple.

Financial details of the discussions, which are said to be taking place in New York, were not immediately available, though Bertelsmann would end up controlling more than 50 percent of the combined companies, according to a person briefed on the discussions who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Bertelsmann, which is based in Güttersloh, Germany, declined to comment. Pearson said in its statement that there was no certainty that the talks would lead to a deal.

A big question hanging over any combination of Random House and Penguin would be antitrust issues. Together, Penguin and Random House would control more than 20 percent of the United States book market, for example. In Europe, regulators have demanded significant divestitures as a condition for approval of another recent acquisition in the cultural sector, the purchase of EMI by the French media company Vivendi, which owns Universal Music.

The discussions were first reported by The Financial Times.

David Godwin, a leading literary agent in London, said he thought a merger could be an ”uneasy mix” because of the way the companies are structured. At Random House, the different imprints share some functions, like publicity and printing, while Penguin imprints are more autonomous.

He also questioned whether a new owner would be able to generate significant savings or other benefits from an acquisition or a merger with another publishing house.

”It's not clear why Pearson would sell,” Mr. Godwin said. ”I cannot imagine anyone managing that outfit better than they do now.”

But analysts say Thomas Rabe, the chief executive of Bertelsmann, is under pressure to make a deal because some of the company's existing bus inesses are slowing, with no clear plans for growth in the digital era. Mr. Rabe took over about a year ago from Hartmut Ostrowski, who was seen as more of a caretaker, and immediately announced plans to transform Bertelsmann.

Among other things, he changed the company's legal structure to permit a possible initial public offering of stock, which could raise funds for an acquisition. But one of Mr. Rabe's targets, EMI, eluded him.

Buying Penguin would be a big move, though not necessarily the most forward-looking one, given that book publishing, over all, is stagnant or in decline.

”If you're Bertelsmann, would you want to invest in such a slow-growth business?” asked Ian Whittaker, an analyst at Liberum Capital.

Questions over strategy have also surrounded Pearson, in the wake of news this month that Marjorie Scardino, the chief executive, planned to step down at the end of the year. Pearson has been building up its educational publishing busines s, prompting speculation over two other units, Penguin and The Financial Times, and whether Pearson would eventually sell them.

Meanwhile, questions hang over several other Bertelsmann businesses, including RTL, the biggest commercial television broadcaster in Europe. There, a respected chief executive, Gerhard Zeiler, resigned shortly after Mr. Rabe was appointed to head the parent company.

There have also been reports that Bertelsmann was interested in making a bid for Springer Science and Business, a big professional and trade publisher that Bertelsmann already owned once before, from 1999 to 2003.

Bertelsmann has a history of getting in and out of businesses. In 2008 it sold its share of the Sony BMG music company to its Japanese partner. But Bertelsmann later decided to get back into music in a smaller way, starting a music publishing venture with the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.

Zillow to List Foreclosure Properties Not Yet Put on Sale

T. Lynne Pixley for The New York TimesA potential buyer inspects a foreclosed home in Atlanta.

Zillow.com is adding a new sort of property to its real estate Web site: homes that are bank-owned or are in the foreclosure process but aren't officially listed for sale.

Having access to an inventory of “presale” properties - those that are pending foreclosure or that have already been foreclosed on - may make it easier to get a jump on properties potential buyers are interested in, said Amy Bohutinsky, Zillow's chief marketing officer.

Even as the housing market has rebounded, many buyers remain reluctant to put their homes on the market, creating inventory shortages in so me housing markets. But millions of homes are about to come on the market for various reasons, Ms. Bohutinsky said, either because the owner has fallen behind on mortgage payments and has been served with a foreclosure notice  or the bank has foreclosed but hasn't put the property on the market yet.

Zillow has gleaned such information on about 1.8 million properties from public records, and is making it available free - unlike sites for investors, which have traditionally charged a fee. The inventory includes more than 1.5 million properties where the lender has started foreclosure proceedings or an auction has been scheduled, and 250,000 foreclosed properties that aren't yet listed for sale.

“The opportunity this represents for buyers is, they could make an offer to the owners or to the bank to buy the home,” she said. “Or they could set up alerts to see when it does come on the market.”

Even if you're not interested i n making an offer on a foreclosed property, Ms. Bohutinsky said, it can help to decide on an offer for a home that is listed for sale. If you know that several homes nearby are in foreclosure, you can adjust your offer price accordingly.

Buying homes in foreclosure has traditionally been the realm of investors who are prepared to handle a potentially daunting, complex process. Banks don't necessarily want to sell to buyers who need a mortgage, but prefer investors who can pay cash. Ron Lieber, the paper's Your Money columnist, has written in detail about the challenges of buying a bank-owned home. Proceedings can sometimes be adversarial, since the previous owner usually didn't want to part with the home.

To address that problem, Zillow can also put consumers in touch with local agents who specialize in foreclosures. (The agents pay Zillow a fee to be listed on the site.) The site has also added a foreclosure primer.

“It's important for the buyer to work with an agent who knows what they're doing,”she said.

Would you consider making an offer on a foreclosed property? Why or why not?

Sulzberger Expresses Support for Mark Thompson, Incoming Chief Executive

Mark Thompson, the incoming chief executive of The New York Times Company, who has been under scrutiny this week in connection with a burgeoning scandal at the BBC, received enthusiastic support Thursday from Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the chairman of the company and publisher of The New York Times.

In a letter to the Times staff to discuss third-quarter financial results, Mr. Sulzberger said he and the board of directors believed Mr. Thompson possessed “high ethical standards and is the ideal person to lead our Company.”

It was the first public comment by Mr. Sulzberger about Mr. Thompson's status since it was revealed that a BBC investigation into sexual abuse by one of the BBC's former television stars was canceled while Mr. Thompson was director general of the British broadcaster. Mr. Thompson has said he did not know about the investigative segment, had no role in canceling it, and had not heard any of the suspicions about the television host, Jimmy Savil e. Parliament and the British police are looking into claims that there were as many as 200 victims of abuse by Mr. Savile, who died last year.

In his letter, Mr. Sulzberger sought to ease growing concern within the Times about the future role of Mr. Thompson, who is scheduled to start on Nov. 12. Saying he wanted “to address a topic that has been on many people's minds,” Mr. Sulzberger said that Mr. Thompson had provided a detailed account of the BBC situation and that he was satisfied Mr. Thompson “played no role in the cancellation of the segment.”

“We are all looking forward to that day when he takes the helm,” Mr. Sulzberger wrote, adding that The Times has been and would continue to pursue the Savile story aggressively and objectively.

The Breakfast Meeting: BBC Scandal Deepens, and Obama Explains Trump Feud

Questions about the BBC's handing of sexual abuse accusations against one of its former TV hosts, Jimmy Savile, are multiplying to include the extent of pedophile behavior in other parts of the BBC and to suggestions of networks of abuse at hospitals associated with Mr. Savile's charities, Alan Cowell reports.

• After Parliament heard this week from the head of the BBC, George Entwistle, about how it was responding to the accusations, the focus there shifted to the man who preceded Mr. Entwistle as general director, Mark Thompson, the incoming chief executive and president of The New York Times Company, Matt Purdy and Christine Haughney report.
• Mr. Thompson, who ran the BBC from 2004 to last month, was not in charge during the years when Mr. Savile is now said to have engaged in widespread pedophilia, but he was in charge when an investigation of Mr. Savile by the BBC program “Newsnight” was canceled. Mr. Thompson has said he knew nothing about the “ Newsnight” investigation while it was under way, had no role in canceling it and also had heard none of the suspicions about Mr. Savile. He has agreed to answer questions from Parliament and by the independent investigators examining the events at the BBC.

The online game company Zynga managed to impress investors by beating its own low forecasts for third-quarter revenue, and rose in after-hours trading on Wednesday, David Streitfeld reports. The stock is down 75 percent from its initial public offering price in December. The company may be a victim of an ever-more-fickle public. One analyst commented about a new game Zynga introduced in July, The Ville, that is already lagging: “The decay curve, the half-life, is shortening. It's staggering how fast some of these games have fallen off.”

Shares of IAC/InterActiveCorp, Barry Diller's online media company, fell as much as 14 percent after what appeared to be a misinterpretation of the company's guidanc e for 2013, The Associated Press reported. A statement saying it expected to report an operating loss for its “media and other” segment was mistakenly described by FactSet as an operating loss for the whole company; trading was briefly halted by Nasdaq, and FactSet issued a correction, but shares still ended the day more than 8 percent down.

Appearing on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno on NBC, President Obama commented on the spectacle created by another NBC personality, Donald Trump, who on Wednesday said he would contribute $5 million to the president's favorite charity if Mr. Obama released his college and passport records, Helene Cooper reported. The president told Mr. Leno that the dispute began when he and Mr. Trump were growing up in Kenya: “We had constant run-ins on the soccer field. He wasn't very good and resented it. When we finally moved to America I thought it would be over.”

Noam Cohen edits and writes for the Med ia Decoder blog. Follow @noamcohen on Twitter.

Four More Climb Aboard the Coca-Cola-Will.i.am Ekocycle

Four additional brands are joining the Coca-Cola Company and the musician Will.i.am in an environmental initiative called Ekocycle, which seeks to develop creative ways of recycling plastic beverage bottles.

The brands are Case-Mate, a line of cases for smartphones; Levi's jeans, sold by Levi Strauss & Company; MCM, the high-end handbags, luggage and leather goods; and RVCA, the line of apparel like board shorts for action sports.

The four brands join the two that were in on the start of Ekocycle back in July: the Beats by Dr. Dre line of headphones and New Era caps.

The four additional brands were announced at an event in Manhattan on Wednesday night that was designed to be ecologically correct. For instance, in place of gift bags, a donation was made to Keep New York City Beautiful, an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful.

“For us, this is Coca-Cola putting the consumer at the center of the recycling movement and taking the recycling movement eve n further,” Bea Perez, vice president and chief sustainability officer at the Coca-Cola Company, said in an interview before the event.

The concept is to “make it easy for consumers to be part of the movement by taking actions they would anyway,” Ms. Perez said, like shopping and buying products.

Ekocycle is among numerous efforts to create new uses for recycled materials as a way to encourage consumers to recycle, manufacturers to buy those materials and municipalities to begin or expand recycling programs.

The Coca-Cola Company has long encouraged consumers to recycle the bottles and cans in which it sells sodas and other beverages. There have, for instance, been advertising campaigns devoted to the subject.

Ekocycle, however, is meant to demonstrate to consumers that recycling is not some abstract process but rather has practical, tangible aspects.

The company's added attention to recycling is also “part of reaching that younger gener ation,” Ms. Perez said, that cares about the environment.

That dovetails with “a core goal of Coca-Cola,” she added, which is “to recruit teens.”

Ekocycle was featured in a speech made on Oct. 12 at the 2012 annual conference of the Association of National Marketers by Alison E. Lewis, senior vice president of marketing for North America at the Coca-Cola Company.

Ms. Lewis described Ekocycle as part of efforts to refresh the Coca-Cola brand that began in 2005.

To promote the four additional brands joining Ekocycle, Ms. Perez said, there will be commercials on networks like BET and NBA TV; content in social media like Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter; and search engine marketing on Bing, Google and Yahoo.

Thursday Reading: Tracking the Family with GPS Devices

A variety of consumer-focused articles appears daily in The New York Times and on our blogs. Each weekday morning, we gather them together here so you can quickly scan the news that could hit you in your wallet.

• Seeking the “waitress mom” swing vote. (National)
• New laws add debate to breast cancer screenings. (National)
• Gender gap in pay starts early, study finds. (National)
• Whooping cough vaccine urged for pregnant women. (National)
• Tips for smarter, more efficient Web searches. (Business)
• Unveiling the bag of tricks inside your smart phone. (Business)
• Under a Picasso, another Picasso. (Arts)
• Tracking the family with GPS devices. (Home)
• Record number of booster seats get highest rating. (Wheels)
• Consumers increase use of smartphones in car shopping. (Wheels)
• Make a costume sound as scary as it looks. (Gadgetwise)
• Recent spinal shots may pose greatest meningitis ri sk. (Well)
• An unspoken risk of vaginal birth. (Motherlode)
• Hard decisions in the intensive care unit. (The New Old Age)
• Ask about applying to college early. (The Choice)
• Ask about pension plans. (Booming)
• A cruise with tee times in Ireland and Scotland. (In Transit)

Times Company Posts a Profit but Revenue Slips

The New York Times Company reported third-quarter net income of $2.28 million on Thursday, a decline of more than 85 percent from the period a year earlier, when the company posted a large gain on the sale of investments and took a charge for paying down its debt ahead of schedule.

The net income is equal to about 2 cents a share, compared with net income of $15.7 million, or 10 cents a share, in the third quarter of 2011. Total revenue declined 0.6 percent, to $449 million, dragged down by continuing weakness in advertising revenue, which fell 8.9 percent, to $182.6 million, from $200.5 million.

Print advertising at the company's newspapers, which include The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The International Herald Tribune, shrank 10.9 percent, and digital advertising across the company fell 2.2 percent.

But overall revenue was buoyed by the continued growth of paid subscriptions for the digital editions, helping increase circulation revenue by 7.4 percent, to $234.9 million, from $218.6 million.

The number of paid subscribers to the Web site, e-reader and other digital editions of The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune reached about 566,000, an 11 percent increase from the second quarter, the company said. The Boston Globe and BostonGlobe.com also grew, by 13 percent, to about 26,000 subscribers.

“While our results for the third quarter reflect continued pressure on advertising revenues, total circulation revenues rose, led by the ongoing expansion of our digital subscription base,” Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the chairman and chief executive of the Times Company, said in a statement. “Digital subscriptions have remained robust.”

Operating costs grew a modest 2.3 percent. Operating profit declined 59.6 percent, to $8.5 million, from $21 million.

In the last year, The Times has become a smaller company, selling off its regional newspaper group in December and its stake in the regional sports network NESN in July. In the fourth quarter, the company expects to register the pretax profit from two other transactions - the $300 million sale of the About Group and the $167 million sale of the company's interest in the job search Web site Indeed.com.

“The after-tax proceeds from these transactions further strengthened our solid liquidity position,” Mr. Sulzberger said.

The company listed debt and lease obligations of $776.9 million and cash and short-term investments totaling $614 million.