Singer sewing change

Paul Singer appears to have changed his tune on Argentina.

After a decade of aggressively pursuing $1.44 billion he claims the country owes him and a group of bondholders, including successfully pressing Ghana to seize a locally docked Argentine naval vessel to help pay down the debt, the billionaire New York hedge fund mogul is sounding like Bobby McFerrin in “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”

Singer’s Elliott Management now feels Argentina will do the right thing, according to recent court filings.

It’s quite a change from last fall’s legal arguments, in which Singer urged a federal judge to hurry up and force Buenos Aires to put some of the monies owed into escrow, citing the country’s president’s plot to avoid the debt payment.

Such a move would have put Argentina into default.

Now there’s nothing but love and trust. Well, at least trust.

“It is hard to believe that Argentina will needlessly trigger yet another default and cause the acceleration of tens of billions of dollars in principal repayment obligations” to a second, rival group of bondholders, Elliott’s lawyer, Ted Olson, told a federal appeals court, according to a filing late Friday.

Elliott and Argentina have been sparring in court for almost a decade over defaulted debt Elliott purchased at a steep discount. The $21 billion hedge fund demands to be paid in full, with interest. About 92 percent of the bondholders entered an exchange offer and accepted a 70 percent haircut.

A dozen of these rival, so-called exchange bondholders, including such names as BlackRock, Alliance Bernstein, Gramercy and Perry Capital, have asked the appeals court to throw out a lower court ruling that would force Argentina to pay the Elliott group each time it makes a payment to them.

The rivals have argued they won’t get their money if that happens because Argentina President Cristina Kirchner has vowed the country will never pay so-called “holdout creditors” who refused to go along with two separate debt restructurings in recent years.

Kirchner’s comments led to speculation the country was devising a way to pay the other bondholders outside of the US, which would create a technical default. Elliott repeated those speculations in several briefs recently.

Singer’s change of tune comes after an appeals court temporarily overturned part of the lower court ruling ordering the escrow payment.

An appeals court hearing is scheduled for Feb. 27.

mcelarier@nypost.com

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Miami Lakes company growing its brand of skin care products

For decades, Vivant Skin Care has formulated creams, serums, cleansers and tonics to treat such dermatological conditions as acne, aging and hyperpigmentation.

Family owned and linked to Dr. James E. Fulton, who co-developed the anti-aging formula Retin-A, the company built its reputation with medically tested therapies aimed at improving skin.

Now, like a complexion that has undergone the metamorphosis of time, Vivant is altering its manufacturing and sales structure and adding products, emerging from the economic downturn with a new plan for the future.

“Now we’re stabilized and looking forward to growth,” said Fulton’s daughter, Chief Executive, Kelly Fulton-Kendrick.

Founded in 1990, Vivant produces a line of 30 skin care products, all formulated in-house, and priced from $15 to $100. The products target both females and males, ages 13 and up.

“Our target market is people who have serious skin care problems and need solutions,” Fulton-Kendrick said. “Vitamin A is the best for affecting change in the skin.”

The clinical skin care products, packaged simply in white bottles and amber glass containers, have remained the company’s mainstay, as the business has transformed.

In mid-2011, Vivant decided to adjust its sales structure, to sell, for the first time, to online retailers like DermStore.com, SkinCareRX.com and amazon.com, as well as to make its products available on its own website, vivantskincare.com. It was a major change in course after more than 20 years of having its products sold only at spas and doctors’ offices.

“So now, we’re a mix of wholesale to skin care professionals and Internet retailers, and we’re selling directly to consumers through our own website,” Fulton-Kendrick said.

Mike Nelson, marketing manager at SkinCareRx.com, said Vivant, which it has sold since November, has “done very well for a new brand to our site,” surpassing some brands that have been on its site for over a year. He declined to provide figures.

SkinCareRX took on only 5 percent of the brands that approached it last year, he said, and had undertaken a rigorous review of Vivant.

“They have a good loyalty base and get great reviews,” Nelson said.

Along with changes in its sales system, in January 2012, Vivant moved from Medley to Miami Lakes, doubling its space to 11,000 square feet to accommodate manufacturing, which it brought in house to reduce costs. It had outsourced manufacturing to a lab in Costa Mesa, Calif., that it had previously owned and later sold.

Inside its warehouse space in a commercial business complex, a small staff handles manufacturing, shipping and packaging. All orders are taken by customer service and fulfilled onsite. A room used as an educational center allows vendors and aestheticians to learn about the products.

Martina Echeveria, international trade specialist at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Miami U.S. Export Assistance Center, who is helping Vivant get a distributor in the Dominican Republic, said she recently nominated the company for a South Florida Manufacturer of the Year award. The awards are given by the South Florida Manufacturers Association.

“Their products are good and 100 percent U.S. made,” she said.

At Vivant’s offices, a lab area is used by Dr. Fulton for research and development. He also maintains a practice at Flores Dermatology in South Miami.

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Miami city manager will be out recovering from knee surgery in early February

Who is going to fill in for Miami City Manager Johnny Martinez while he is recovering from knee surgery in early February?

The honors will go to Assistant City Manager Luis Cabrera, according to a Friday afternoon memo from Mayor Tomás Regalado.

Under the city charter, the mayor is responsible for appointing an acting city manager. But the commission has the power to override Regalado’s pick.

“Anyone who is up in that chair needs to be ratified by this commission,” Commissioner Frank Carollo said at a meeting Thursday.

That could present a challenge. There are no commission meetings between now and Martinez’s surgery.

At Thursday’s meeting, Martinez said he had spoken to Regalado, and recommended rotating the job among Cabrera, Assistant City Manager Alice Bravo and Chief Financial Officer Janice Larned.

Regalado wasn’t in the commission chambers during the discussion.

Carollo, using the language in the city charter. raised questions about Regalado naming “a qualified officer” to the post.

“This is the city of Miami,” Carollo said, referencing criticism that high-level employees have been hired without meeting the minimum qualifications for the job.

City Attorney Julie O. Bru said commissioners could convene a special meeting if they had any qualms.

It wasn’t clear if any planned to raise objections.

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Google reportedly ‘actively exploring’ the smartwatch market

In October, Google (GOOG) was granted a patent for a smartwatch with a flip-up display, however it was assumed that the concept, like most patents, would never move beyond the drawing board. A new report from Business Insider claims that the company is now “actively exploring” the idea of producing its own smartwatch and is even looking into ways it could market such a device. Information is slim and it is unclear what size the device would be or if it would even run the company’s Android operating system. Business Insider cautioned that the project is still in a “very early stage” and “it remains to be seen if Google will actually end up bringing a smart watch to market.” As the Pebble has shown, however, there is clearly a market for smartwatches.

[More from BGR: Unlocking your smartphone will be illegal starting next week]

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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Exclusive PIC: 2013 SAG Awards Seating Chart GigaPan Photo

Where the stars will be sitting at this year’s SAGs?

You don't have to wait until Sunday to see which celebs will be seated together! ET has your first look at the 2013 SAG Awards seating chart.

Pics: The 10 Best SAG Awards Dresses of All Time

Explore our exclusive interactive GigaPan (high-res panoramic photo) below!

Related: Pick The Winners with ET's SAG Awards Ballot!

Don't miss the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, airing Sunday, January 27 at 8pm on TNT and TBS.

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Dress up, dudes

Young men starting their first jobs and veterans who’ve recently been promoted or switched to working in an office with a different dress code could all use some style guidance, particularly if their attire is supposed to fall under the nebulous “business-casual” category.

Trunk Club will help sartorially challenged guys get the high-end clothes they need without having to go shopping.

After you sign up online, a stylist will contact you to provide a consultation. In addition to basic information about your body type and hair and eye color, you can tell your stylist what situations you need clothes for (e.g., a new job, important meetings with clients) and what types of clothes you want.

You can also negotiate a budget for the clothes that will be shipped to you.

A trunk of roughly 10 items, along with a hand-written note about why the enclosed clothes were chosen, will be sent to you for free.

You have 10 days to try on your prospective duds, and you can return any items that you don’t want, also for free, courtesy of a prepaid FedEx return label. You only have to pay for the clothes you keep, and the price tags are on all of the items.

You can then talk to your stylist about subsequent trunks whenever you need some new gear.

Although Trunk Club focuses on business-casual attire, if you need some suits, they can provide those, too.

A typical trunk will have roughly $1,500 worth of merchandise, and customers usually keep about a third of that, so your first shipment of clothes will likely end up costing you $500. The pricing for individual items is similar to that of upscale department stores.

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Economist: Euro crisis could erupt again this year

DAVOS, Switzerland --
Is the euro crisis over? A leading U.S. economist says not by a long shot.

Even as the head of the European Central Bank talked Friday of “positive contagion” in the markets and predicted an economic recovery for the recession-hit eurozone later this year, economist Barry Eichengreen warned that the debt crisis that has shaken Europe to its core could easily erupt again this year unless European leaders move faster to solve their problems.

While European governments and markets have been breathing easier in recent months after years of turmoil, it’s no time for complacency, said Eichengreen, a professor at the University of California - Berkeley who has chronicled the Great Depression and explored the consequences of a breakup of the euro currency.

“Nothing has been resolved in the eurozone, where markets have swung from undue pessimism to undue optimism,” Eichengreen told The Associated Press in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, an annual gathering of corporate and government leaders. “They said all the right things last year … and they’ve been backtracking ever since.”

He urged eurozone leaders follow up on its proposals to steady its banking system and keep failed banks from adding to government debt through expensive bailouts.

European leaders in Davos this week are seeking to reassure investors and corporate leaders that the continent is on the mend after its punishing debt crises.

European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi on Friday forecast a recovery in the eurozone economy in the second half of the year, and spoke of “a new restored sense of relative tranquility” and “positive contagion on the financial markets.”

But he acknowledged “we don’t see this being transmitted into the real economy yet.”

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Appeals court again upholds power of Miami’s Civilian Investigative Panel

An appeals court has struck down a police officer’s challenge to the validity of Miami’s Civilian Investigative Panel — the second time the panel has withstood a legal challenge from police officers in the past five years.

Police Lt. Freddy D’Agastino and the Fraternal Order of Police filed a lawsuit arguing that the civilian panel, which reviews citizen complaints against officers and makes recommendations to the police chief, had no legal authority to investigate officers.

But in a ruling on Wednesday, the Third District Court of Appeal found that the panel neither conflicts with state or local law, nor intrudes on the police department’s power to discipline its officers. The CIP does not have the authority to discipline officers, though it does have the power to subpoena records and witnesses in its own investigations.

The appeals court also upheld the panel’s authority in 2008, when then-Police Chief John Timoney sought to prevent the panel from investigating him.

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Apple’s China dilemma: market share or cachet?

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Apple Inc’s third straight disappointing quarter signals an urgent need for the global technology leader to drum up new revenue – and China may provide the answer.

Now more than ever, analysts say, Apple needs to get it right in the world’s most populous country, where it ranks only sixth in annual smartphone sales and Samsung Electronics remains the runaway leader.

Apple’s best plan of attack remains securing a deal with the country’s top mobile carrier by far, China Mobile Ltd. It also needs to push the development of more localized apps and extend installment financing to bring its pricey smartphones within the reach of an urban populace with an average annual income of just $ 3,500.

But it should resist the temptation to just put out a cheaper iPhone, some analysts say. Introducing a long-rumored lower-cost version of the gadget could backfire by diluting Apple’s premium brand – one of its most valuable assets.

“If you think of Apple, it’s like a bright star in the galaxy, shining so brightly and everyone is looking at it. But it might have dimmed a bit as other stars such as Samsung have popped up,” said TZ Wong, an analyst at research firm IDC.

“I don’t think it’s in Apple’s interest to further dim its star power by stepping into the low-end segment.”

With Apple’s product pipeline guarded with the same zeal accorded state secrets, some analysts are focusing instead on what the world’s largest technology company needs to do to finally become a major player in the world’s No. 2 economy.

While iPhone sales leapt 60 percent last quarter, investors worry that, in the longer term, the company may be pricing itself out of a golden opportunity while Samsung and local rivals from Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to ZTE blanket the market with cheaper phones that rival the iPhone in quality and usability.

A deal with China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile phone carrier with more than 700 million users, will prove instrumental but analysts say that may not happen until the issuance of 4G wireless licenses, which could take place later this year or even in 2014.

“The competitive landscape has definitely cranked up a few notches from a year ago. So there is more urgency for Apple to explore its ways to grow,” IDC’s Wong said.

CEO Tim Cook has made it no secret that China is an area of intense focus for the iPad and iPhone maker, especially given the still-low penetration across the country of smartphones and tablets. Apple has said it will continue to expand its retail network there, and in January, Cook flew to Beijing for at least the second time in a year, to meet with pivotal carrier China Mobile.

A STAR IS DIMMED

On Wednesday, Apple missed revenue forecasts for the third straight quarter after iPhone sales came in below expectations, fanning fears that its dominance of consumer electronics is slipping.

Apple’s revenue in China, including neighboring Hong Kong and Taiwan, totaled $ 7.3 billion in the December quarter, up 60 percent from a year earlier.

But there are signs that Apple’s vaunted cachet in the world’s most populous nation is waning.

Recent product launches for the mini-iPad and the iPhone 5 have drawn a relatively subdued response from Chinese consumers, in stark contrast to the fist-fights and egg-hurling at its Beijing store a year ago when sales of the iPhone 4S were delayed.

Since the iPhone 5 went on sale in mid-December, transactions have fallen by half, according to the Taobao Index, the consumer research data website of Internet giant Alibaba Group.

The iPhone is also losing out as consumers opt for bigger screens to watch Chinese soap operas while travelling on trains, or affordable smartphones in the sub-1,000 yuan ($ 160) category made by local vendors.

“When I started using a bigger screen, there was no turning back for me. Small screens don’t work anymore,” said a business executive surnamed Wen, as he swiped the screen on his Samsung Galaxy Note during lunch in Beijing.

Around half of the more than 60 million smartphones shipped in China in the third quarter last year had screens that were bigger than 4 inches, based on IDC’s latest figures. The iPhone 5 comes with a 4-inch screen, while the Galaxy Note II’s screen is 5.5 inches.

Also, local vendors such as Coolpad smartphone maker Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific (Shenzhen) Co Ltd, which offers cheaper alternatives, and Meizu Technology Co Ltd, known for its minimalist designs, have seen its legion of fans grow.

Price is a key factor, especially in the Chinese market where around 80 percent of the more than one billion mobile phone users are still on 2G networks.

On the online Taobao website, Coolpads and low-end models made by Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corp are selling at below 1,000 yuan, a sweet spot for many consumers switching from basic phones to smartphones.

Apple has moved to address that, partnering with China Merchants Bank to offer financing and installment options so that buyers can pay with the bank’s credit card when they shop online, media reports said.

Finally, expanding the number of applications customized for China will help grow Apple’s market share but that might need tighter collaboration with Chinese companies, such as Baidu Inc and Tencent Holdings Ltd.

“Consumers will definitely welcome closer cooperation between Apple and Chinese tech firms to customize the iPhone for the use of apps such as Tencent’s WeChat,” said Frederick Wong, executive director of Avant Capital Management (Hong Kong) Ltd, a fund that invests in Apple-related options.

(Editing by Edwin Chan and Richard Chang)

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Burt Reynolds Hospitalized with Flu

Burt Reynolds is recuperating in a Florida intensive care unit after being hospitalized for dehydration and severe symptoms relating to the flu.

A representative for the 76-year-old actor tells CNN that, as of Friday afternoon, Reynolds is "doing better" after being admitted to the ICU.

Related: Burt Reynolds Undergoes Open Heart Surgery

"We expect, as soon as he gets more fluids, he will be back in a regular room," says rep Erik Kritzer.

When asked, Kritzer declined to say which hospital facility Reynolds is currently recovering in.

The actor has suffered other bouts of ill health in recent years. In 2010, Reynolds underwent a quintuple heart bypass one year after entering rehab to end a reliance on prescription drug habit acquired after back surgery.

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