Business Briefly
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Orbitz Inc. made a roller-coaster debut as a publicly traded company Wednesday – its shares initially surging 18 percent before finishing the day below their initial public offering price in heavy volume that underscored investors’ revived interest in IPOs. The four-year-old Internet travel company, backed by the five biggest U.S. airlines, raised nearly $100 million from the IPO as it takes aim at its two larger competitors in the growing business: Expedia and Travelocity. The company’s stock, priced at $26 per share late Tuesday, began trading at midday on the Nasdaq Stock Market and jumped quickly to $30.75 before tumbling to close at $24.98, down 4 percent.
A day after announcing its new chairman and CEO, Motorola Inc. proceeded Wednesday with plans to spin off its semiconductor unit as a publicly traded firm. The company filed its registration statement for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the temporary name SPS Spinco Inc. It said a final name will be chosen before the IPO and up to $2 billion of stock could be sold. The chip unit, or Semiconductor Products Sector, is Motorola’s second-largest division behind cell phones.
The FedEx Corp.’s second-quarter profits fell 63 percent from last year due to higher than expected costs of an early retirement and voluntary severance program. The results missed Wall Street expectations and company shares fell more than 3 percent. The package delivery company on Wednesday reported profits of $91 million, or 30 cents per share, for the quarter that ended Nov. 30, down from $245 million, or 81 cents a share, for the same period last year. Excluding costs of the employee reductions, which began in August, FedEx earnings totaled $266 million, or 87 cents per share. That fell short of the 90 cents forecast by analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.
Intel Corp. plans to develop a chip that could lead to slimmer and cheaper rear-projection TVs. The move would fall in line with the computer industry’s growing attraction to the consumer electronics market, where digital television sales are soaring and profit margins are still healthy but thinning as competition increases. A spokesman for Intel, the leading maker of computer microprocessors, would not comment Wednesday, citing company policy to not discuss unannounced technology developments. But news of the tech giant’s plans, which are expected to be disclosed next month, is creating a stir among industry analysts.
From Herald news services
