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FISHRGAME
_____________
Feature
Stories -
062005-06
/ Week tviNews
Convergence
TOP STORIES CONVERGING INTO THE - Week of
February
6
•
• Google
Profit Soars on Strong Ad
Sales
• •
Google Inc. said profit rose nearly
eightfold as it wrung more money out of advertisers
in the fourth quarter.
• • Mountain View, Calif.-based
Google reported fourth-quarter profit of $204
million, or 71 cents a share, up from $27 million,
or 10 cents, a year earlier. Sales doubled to $1
billion.
• • The company said it had
attracted more people to its stable of websites and
was getting better at making sure they saw tempting
ads. Google's text-based ads generate revenue only
when users click on them.
• • Excluding
the money Google shared with website operators that
ran targeted ads, the company's sales were $654
million. That was $61 million more than the
consensus expectation of 19 analysts polled by
Thomson First Call and $28 million more than the
top forecast. MORE
STORY
•
•
SBC-AT&T
Deal Could Be a
Replay
• •
Regarding "Baby Bell SBC May Buy Its Onetime
Parent AT&T," Jan.
28:
• • Wouldn't the regulators who
stopped the merger of WorldCom and Sprint years ago
oppose an SBC-AT&T
merger?
• • After all, doesn't SBC own
Cingular? If Cingular buys AT&T, wouldn't that
create the same type of monopoly that the
regulators were trying to stop when they stopped
the merger between WorldCom and
Sprint?
• • AT&T already owns long
distance. Now the combined company would own one of
the biggest cellphone companies and local phone
companies as well.
•
• Court Blocks U.S. From Getting Tobacco
Money
Top cigarette makers won a resounding
legal victory when a federal appeals court barred
the Justice Department from seeking disgorgement of
$280 billion in allegedly ill-gotten gains as part
of its fraud and racketeering case against the
tobacco industry.
• • The 2-1 ruling by the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia does
not end the long-running case -- in trial since
September in U.S. District Court in Washington --
but it eliminates by far the most threatening
sanction the industry had
faced.
• • The decision sparked wide
speculation that the Justice Department might seek
a settlement rather than continue the trial and
appeal the disgorgement ruling. But a Justice
Department spokeswoman said only that the decision
was under review.
• • "We are extremely pleased that
the appellate court agreed with our long-held
belief that disgorgement is not an appropriate
remedy," said Charles A. Blixt, general counsel of
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
•
• U.S. Payroll Gain Is Lower Than Expected
• •
U.S. employers hired a net 146,000 new
workers in January, the government reported, in a
tepid showing that underwhelmed
economists.
• • Economists had been expecting
about 190,000 new jobs.
• • Still, the uptick was large
enough for President Bush to avoid becoming the
first president since Herbert Hoover to see more
people lose jobs than gain them during a term in
office.
• • The number of employed
increased by 119,000 from January 2001 to January
2005, less than one-tenth of 1% for a workforce of
133 million.
• • Payrolls fell by 1.9 million
in 2001, 563,000 in 2002 and 61,000 in
2003.
• • The nation's unemployment rate
fell to 5.2% in January, the lowest level in more
than three years. But that was because 200,000
people opted out of the labor force, possibly
because they were putting their search for
employment on hold.
•
• Fed Raises Benchmark Interest Rate to
2.5%
• •
The Federal Reserve raised its key
short-term interest rate by a quarter-point for the
sixth time since June and signaled that it remained
on a steady credit-tightening
course.
• • The Fed's policymaking Open
Market Committee said it had voted to lift its
benchmark short-term rate to 2.5% from 2.25%,
putting the rate at its highest level since October
2001.
• • The wording of the central
bank's statement after its meeting was nearly
identical to the one it issued after its last
gathering, on Dec. 14. Included was the
now-familiar reference to tightening credit "at a
pace that is likely to be measured," viewed as code
for a quarter-point rate increase at each Fed
meeting.
• • Policymakers also reiterated
that they viewed inflation as being "well
contained."
•
• Tapes Reveal Enron's Power Plant Rigging
• •
Enron Corp. traders conspired to shut down a
healthy power plant as blackouts rolled across
California in early 2001, according to
documents.
• • Enron traders and others
discussed in e-mail and phone conversations how to
profit from the state's problems. In one
transcript, a trader called it "a good plan" to
shut down a small Las Vegas power plant on Jan. 17,
2001, under the guise of "checkin' a switch on the
steam turbine."
• • The transcripts were among
testimony submitted by the Snohomish County Public
Utility District, a Seattle-area utility in a legal
battle with Enron.
• • "We're continuing to cooperate
with ongoing investigations," an Enron spokeswoman
said.
• • Also, staff of the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission recommended that Enron
return almost $1.7 billion in profit gained through
improper energy trading dating to
1997.
•
• Boeing May Sell Its Rocketdyne Business
• •
Boeing Co. is close to selling its storied
Rocketdyne rocket engine manufacturing business in
the west San Fernando Valley to United Technologies
Corp. in a deal potentially worth about $500
million, sources said.
• • The sale of Canoga Park-based
Rocketdyne, which helped pioneer space exploration
in the 1960s, has been rumored as Boeing has
struggled to turn a profit in the space launch
business. The possible sale to Hartford,
Conn.-based United Technologies was first reported
by the Wall Street
Journal.
• • Boeing has been "shopping
around" Rocketdyne for at least a year, the
industry sources said, and United Technologies is
believed to be the only suitor to have made a
serious proposal.
• • One person close to Boeing
stressed that the two sides still were working to
settle on the terms. Spokesmen for Boeing and
United Technologies declined to
comment.
•
• Marsh & McLennan to Pay $850 Million
• •
Apologizing for its "shameful" behavior,
Marsh & McLennan Cos. agreed to pay $850
million to settle charges by New York Atty. Gen.
Eliot Spitzer that it cheated clients by rigging
insurance bids and taking
kickbacks.
• • It is the largest settlement
yet with a company caught in the recent spate of
corporate scandals. The $850 million will be used
to compensate customers who were gouged by the
insurance broker's practices. Marsh also acceded to
Spitzer's demand for a written apology. "Certain
Marsh employees unlawfully deceived their
customers," the statement said, adding that "such
conduct was shameful."
• • Chief Executive Michael G.
Cherkasky said the deal would help Marsh regain its
footing, "even though it's a lot of
money."
• • "We've lived under this dark
cloud of uncertainty. Everyone has been under
suspicion," Cherkasky said in an interview. "It was
very hard for our people and our clients to live
through."
•
• Retail Sales Get Boost From Gift Cards
• •
Americans flocked to clearance sales and
cashed in gift cards in January, giving retail
sales an unexpected boost, according to the
International Council of Shopping
Centers.
• • Despite rough weather in parts
of the nation, sales at stores open at least one
year rose to $45.9 billion, up 3.6% from January
2004. The council had expected sales to rise
2.5%.
• • Some California companies
turned in surprises. Gap Inc.'s same-store sales in
January fell 7%. But teen retailer Wet Seal Inc.
logged an 8.2% sales gain. And Bebe Stores Inc.
posted a 29% jump.
• • Companies selling luxury goods
posted an 8.5% increase. Sales at Nordstrom Inc.
and Neiman Marcus rose 8.8% and 11.9%,
respectively. Discount stores rose 4.4%, with
Target Corp. logging a 9.4% increase and Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. rising 2.5% at its U.S.
stores.
•
• Blockbuster Plans Hostile Bid for Rival
• •
Video rental giant Blockbuster Inc. said it
planned to launch a $1.3-billion hostile bid for
its chief rival, Hollywood Entertainment Corp.,
hoping to scuttle a deal that Hollywood
Entertainment forged with the No. 3 chain, Movie
Gallery Inc.
• • The offer of $11.50 in cash
and $3 in stock for each share of Wilsonville,
Ore.-based Hollywood Entertainment is $1.25 a share
more than what Movie Gallery agreed to pay.
Blockbuster's first offer was $11.50 a
share.
• • Dallas-based Blockbuster also
disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission
filing that several state attorneys general were
investigating its "no more late fees" advertising
campaign. California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer isn't
among them, a spokesman for Lockyer
said.
• • Critics have called the ads
misleading because, in some cases, consumers can be
docked the full price of a DVD or pay a "restocking
fee."
• •
Disney's Profit Climbs, Surpassing Estimates
• •
Walt Disney Co. said earnings beat forecasts
with a surprisingly strong 5% increase in its
fiscal first quarter and remained on track to
deliver double-digit growth for the
year.
• • Disney earned $723 million, or
35 cents a share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31,
thanks largely to gains in its cable networks and
theme parks. That compared with $688 million, or 33
cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 1.4% to $8.67
billion. Disney easily beat the 29-cents-a-share
consensus of analysts surveyed by Thomson First
Call.
• • Operating profit at its media
division rose 36% to $467 million. Profit at parks
and resorts increased 11% to $258
million.
• • Disney's film studio unit saw
earnings fall 27% to $333 million.
///
• •
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS
CONVERGENCE
///
Center
Page / Feature
NEWS CONVERGENCE
Feature
TIMELINE: Top Stories To
Start The Week With:
•
Powell
to Resign as FCC
Chairman /
0505e
• Verizon
Relies OnWireless For
Profits /
0505d
• Is
Google Going Into theWeb Browser Business, ala
Explorer? /
0505b
• Mark
Soval of VRA TelePlay Pictures says the Yahoo Move
to Hollywood is a
must. /
0505c
Copyright
Protection / The U.S. is a party to
international treaties that prohibit copyright
renewal requirements.
• • YES90 / "Let a
Thousand Googles Bloom," LATimes Commentary, Jan 12
2005: Lawrence Lessig may be right that requiring
periodic copyright renewal would make it easier to
determine what works are protected, but he ignores
one major reason we eliminated copyright renewals
in the first
place.
• • The U.S. is a
party to international treaties that prohibit
copyright renewal requirements. We agreed to these
treaties and eliminated our copyright renewal
requirement after suffering many years of uncertain
protection of American works in foreign
countries.
• • At a time when
the export of intellectual property is a
significant portion of our economy, the U.S. needs
to exercise caution before abrogating treaties that
protect the works of its authors.
///
ByLines:
Editors Note
LARRY
PAGE
Bylines
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-----It
just goes to show you, says Troy about the TV and
Film industry -- "NOTHING IN THIS WORLD IS
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///
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