Pfizer came under pressure from some on Wall Street to sell its consumer unit last year, but is expanding it instead.
WSJ: Vitamins Become Growing Business for Consumer-Product Companies
Rob Aulebach, a senior vice president in Bank of America's consumer unit, says customers just aren't coming to the branch as often as they used to.
WSJ: After Years of Growth, Banks Are Pruning Their Branches
But the conglomerate also includes a forestry arm (which may be the first unit to go), a consumer products unit that produces Nike shoes under license, a subsidiary that mines coal and a plantation that produces and exports palm oil.
It has decided to divest its office and consumer products unit and focus on its core businesses.
It is also mulling a sale of Nationpoint , its direct-to-consumer mortgage unit.
"We're redefining what cost-conscious Kenyans can expect from a smartphone, " said Peter Arina, general manager, Safaricom' s Consumer Business Unit.
ENGADGET: Safaricom announces the Yolo, Africa's first Intel-powered smartphone
Merrill announced last week it was selling the lion's share of its consumer finance unit, Merrill Lynch Capital, to GE Capital, the financial unit of General Electric.
Novartis' consumer health unit includes over-the-counter medications such as Benefiber, Excedrin and Theraflu, along with CIBA Vision's contact lenses and eye care products and Animal Health's companion and agricultural animal care products.
Merrill announced last week it was selling the lion's share of its consumer finance unit, Merrill Lynch Capital, to GE Capital, the financial unit of General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people ).
Instead of waiting for the divisions to develop the brand, Hampton has done it himself--convincing the consumer products unit to come out with hand puppets and getting Buena Vista's help in securing Baby Einstein videos prime positions at Wal-Mart.
The lender is also seeking buyers for its Japanese consumer-banking unit, Bloomberg News reported.
To make matters worse, health insurers are reluctant to share data about costs, says Bobbi Coluni, who leads Thomson Reuters's consumer-health unit.
ECONOMIST: Companies try to make health-care costs transparent
The consumer-protection unit of the state attorney general's office received just two complaints about locksmiths in more than a decade one in 2006, the year before the law took effect, and one in 2008, the year after, according to Tom Bates, who runs the division.
But it has lots of weak businesses as well, including its declining consumer long-distance unit and its failed mobile-telecoms arm.
The US bank revealed plans to reduce headcount by 3, 000-4, 000 at its consumer and community banking unit, in a presentation.
"Consumers are taking increasing personal responsibility for their own health and wellness, " according to Paul Sturman, president of Pfizer's consumer health-care unit.
WSJ: Vitamins Become Growing Business for Consumer-Product Companies
This long span, made possible by the MIB High system's unique modular approach, allows developers to retain the stable vehicle processor within the RCC unit, and provides the flexibility to incorporate future consumer-demanded features to the MMX unit.
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Another reason for Hutchison to worry: Chu will soon be expanding its offering of consumer electronics beyond computers - a direct challenge to another Hutchison unit, Fortress, which sells consumer electronics.
He has sold, besides the Marion Merrell Dow pharmaceutical unit, a consumer-products division (Saran Wrap, Ziploc bags) to S.C.
The company will cut as many as 19, 000 jobs in the consumer businesses, principally in a unit that deals with home loans, while hiring about 15, 000 across its businesses in the U.S. and overseas.
Specifically, CSX saw revenue per unit for the food and consumer segment (within agricultural) and for the automotive segment (within industrial) grow by 10% and 12% respectively, while coal revenues per it expanded by 19% while intermodal grew15%.
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Both of these trends will contribute to slowing unit volume among a price conscious consumer market.
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We do indeed see that ratio of unit-labor-costs to consumer prices fell particularly fast during the last recession.
Besides the Marion Merrell Dow pharmaceutical unit, he has sold a consumer-products division (Saran Wrap, Ziploc bags), to S.C.
Company opened banking unit and is expanding overseas to counter weak consumer spending at home.
Unit sales of passenger cars, the ultimate consumer purchase, are up by 9 percent year to date in 2012, with luxury cars posting even faster growth.
The media-modeling tool was kicked into high gear two years ago when Chad Jacoby, senior manager of Nissan's Business Intelligence Unit, used years of Nissan's consumer research to build a computer model comparing the relationship of each phase of their "purchase funnel"--from awareness to purchase consideration to a transaction--to the phase before it.
What really matters for jobs and competitiveness is not consumer price inflation, but the rate of change of unit labor costs. (Unit labor costs are wage rates adjusted for changes in productivity.) A recent study from the Boston Consulting Group suggests that Chinese unit labor costs will grow at about 8.5 percent per year over the next five years.
On top of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Obama announced a special Financial Crimes Unit.
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