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Yahoo Personal Finance Launches

Yahoo announced that the company is launching Yahoo Personal Finance to bring more information to users with more new, rich content tools.

http://finance.yahoo.com/personal-finance.

“We hope that Yahoo Personal Finance will be the leading destination for investment information,” said Peggy White, general manager of Yahoo Finance, New York. “Currently, Yahoo Finance is filled with quotes and it is data-centric and there are no offers for consumers to manage other aspects of their financial lives.”

Yahoo Personal Finance consists of how to-guides, calculators, expert opinions, top stories and investment information.

The Web site is uses content providers including Kiplinger, Smart Money, The Wall Street Journal and Motley Fool.

The nine resource centers are: Banking and budgeting, career and work, college and education, family and more, investing, loans, real estate, retirement, and taxes.

Is Google A Mutual Fund?

An interesting article from Dustin Woodward about Google almost becoming a mutual fund:

How Google Almost Became a Mutual Fund
In 2006, Google almost became a mutual fund. To a fund investor, the king of search hardly seems like anything that resembles a mutual fund. And for those who follow Google (GOOG), getting used to Google being labeled media company is hard enough--but a mutual fund? How can this be?
Why Was Google Almost Regulated as a Mutual Fund?
The answer is simple. Google has too much in cash reserves. With almost $10 billion in cash, Google broke the 40% mark, which subjects them to the Investment Company Act of 1940.

The Act regulates companies that are engaged in the business of investing in or trading securities, or have over 40% of its total non-controlling assets in other investments.

Companies that meet either of those requirements are labeled as "investment companies" (more commonly known as "mutual funds").
Most companies do not hold such a significant amount of cash. It's really not an efficient way to run a company. Google's earning about four percent a year on their $10 billion. At that rate, the $10 billion would become a little over $12 billion in five years, but at a more respectable eight percent return, Google's cash would turn into $14.7 billion.