Because data is becoming the new raw material of business--an economic input almost as fundamental as capital and labor.
In one tidy compound, owned by a family named Jiang, bags of dirty medical waste are the raw material of a business that nets $5,000 a year.
Much of the growth came from a 3.2 percent monthly gain in consumer products and a 2 percent gain in production of materials, while production of business equipment and construction supplies each fell.
The conference's "Startup Alley" sounds like an alt-folk band from Nashville, but it is the snazzy title for the typical conference rat-run of company stands with multifarious screens, tasteful publicity materials and stacks of business cards.
In parallel, Trinity's Manchester-based division, MEN Media, will begin publishing four pages of business material from next week in the Manchester Evening News and in the company's weekly paid-for and free titles.
On top of this, the two have agreed to except the hacking from the terms of "business material adverse effects" that might affect the deal now closing.
"We see no signs yet of material business weakness that would dramatically alter the company's cash-flow story," Mr. Bardan said.
Over the last decade, the vast majority of material business information was created electronically, lives electronically and never dies electronically.
Hoover's Inc., a publisher of business reference materials, agreed today to buy the closely held Powerize.com Inc. for $17.1 million in cash and stock to add a research Web site with 600,000 users.
Alan Monks of JP Morgan said: "We do not think firms have entered a phase of material job shedding, as business surveys of confidence and intentions do not support this view".
