ticker

Once upon a time, retailers measured success by the number of people walking by in the mall, how many entered the store, the percentage they spent, and basket size. Now, a world of zeroes and ones has changed their perspective entirely. Social media is expected to be the star during the coming holiday season, with retailers pushing Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter content to get in front of consumers and affect either online or in-store purchases. Smaller Christmas budgets are expected, so the fight is on to garner as large a share as possible of a shrinking pie.

Of course, nobody would come out and say, "Social media is nonsense, and I'm not getting anything for my investment." So, when the likes of Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), JCPenney (NYSE: JCP), and Target (NYSE: TGT) say that social media is connecting them with their customers and leading to more effective campaigns and product launches, do take it with a grain of salt. What can't be ignored, however, is that they're committing more resources to social media marketing, even though it's still far too soon to tell if it will be effective.

Will shrimp's eyes help create a better DVD? The answer is yes. Researchers at the University of Bristol, England, who are studying the shrimp's eye have found a way to create a better DVD.

How is this possible? Scientists discovered that the Mantis shrimp, found off the coast of Australia, can see in 12 primary colors, four times that of humans. The shrimp's eye can detect different kinds of light polarization which is the direction of oscillation in light waves.

I recently had a chance to talk to Mike Alfred. Back in 2003, he became an independent registered investment advisor. But over time, he realized there was a big void -- that is, in terms of useful information on the 401(k) market.

Could this be a big opportunity? Well, he wanted to find out. So, he helped to start a new online web service for 401(k)s: BrightScope. In fact, the company recently raised $2 million in capital from Steelpoint Capital Partners.

Evan Williams has a knack for creating the "next big thing." Back in the late 1990s, he developed the prototype for blogging, which became Blogger.com. Williams sold it to Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) in 2004.

A few years later, Williams struck gold again: he started Twitter.

And, it looks like this one is going to be a mega blockbuster. According to a report in Techcrunch, it appears that Twitter is raising $50 million -- at a whopping $1 billion valuation. The company's last round came in February, at a valuation of $250 million.

The World Bank Group's financing for renewable and efficient energy projects increased 24% in the last fiscal year. Reaching $3.3 billion, the bank's clean technology investments have reached their highest level ever.

At the Bonn International Renewable Energies Conference in 2004, the World Bank committed to increase its contribution to cleantech investments by $1.9 billion through 2009. Not only did last fiscal year's result more than double the five-year commitment, the World Bank's support surged by $7 billion.

Since launching in September 2007, Mint.com has become a dominant player in the online personal finance space. In fact, the company has raised $14 million in venture capital from DAG Ventures, The Founder's Fund, Benchmark Capital, Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital, and Sherpalo. It was preemptive round; that is, Mint.com didn't seek out the money. Nice, huh?

So, to get the latest, I had a chance to talk to Mint.com's founder and CEO, Aaron Patzer. He said that the site is attracting 100,000 new registered users per month. In all, the user base is over 1.4 million (even President Obama's CTO, Aneesh Chopra, is an avid member). What's more, Mint.com is currently tracking over $175 billion in transactions and $47 billion in assets.

Enterprise software may not be sexy but it can nonetheless be highly profitable -- despite the economic environment. If you want an example of this, check out JDA Software Group (NASDAQ: JDAS), which develops supply chain management solutions.

In Q2, the company reported an 8% increase in revenues to $99.5 million. In fact, new software sales came to $27.6 million, which was a record.

In Washington, it looks like health care will undergo a transformative change, with trillions of dollars at stake. This highlights the critical fact that the American population is aging – which means that health care demand will likely continue to ramp up.

No doubt, there will be financial winners. One area is likely to be elder care.

In fact, this week one of the players in the space -- Addus HomeCare Corporation – has filed to go public. The company provides personal care and assistance in the home. These include: assistance with bathing, grooming, medication reminders, speech/physical therapy and skilled nursing services. Addus provides its services on a short-term basis (the average length is 54 days).

From 2007 to 2008, revenues increased 21.5% to $236.3 million, with adjusted EBITDA of $17.2 million. However, there is significant customer concentration. For example, The Illinois Department on Aging accounted for 31.6% of revenues. What's more, the heavy reliance on government programs is certainly a big risk factor.

Yet, the fact remains that homecare represents a big growth opportunity. And it looks like Addus is well positioned to capitalize on the trend.

The lead underwriters on the public offering include Jefferies & Company (NYSE: JEF) and Robert W. Baird & Co. You can also check out the prospectus at the SEC's website.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook, You can reach him at his personal blog.

Nuance Communications (Nasdaq: NUAN), which is a leader in speech recognition software, has built its business through an aggressive M&A strategy (the company's technology will be deployed on about a billion mobile phones this year).

And, this week the company has struck another deal: the acquisition of Jott (the price was not disclosed).

The company has a cool service, which converts speech into text -- and then emails the message.

But, in reality, policy is coalescing and here is one trend that's likely to be a feature of the new economy: economic expansion through investment and increased exports, and not through consumption.

Over the past couple weeks, the shares of CardioNet (NASDAQ: BEAT) have plunged from $17 to $5.84. The problems started with a grim earnings report.

Unfortunately, today we got some more bad news: Highmark Medicare Services has lowered the reimbursement rate for CardioNet's services. On the news, the stock price is down by a third.

CardioNet develops sophisticated technologies to monitor heart rhythms using mobile devices. The upshot is that physicians can better diagnose and treat patients.

While CardioNet's devices are tremendously helpful, they come at a premium cost. However, in light of the recession and impending health care reforms, the outlook does look cloudy for the company. In fact, based on the recent change in reimbursements, CardioNet has withdrawn its 2009 earnings outlook.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and the founder of BizEquity, a free online business valuation tool for small businesses. You can reach him at his personal blog.