Bailout payback will take years, GM CEO says
Published 9:36 pm Thursday, September 16, 2010
It will take a couple of years for taxpayers to get back the billions they spent bailing out General Motors, but the company has a goal of returning the money, GM’s new CEO said Thursday. CEO Daniel Akerson told reporters that the government won’t be repaid with the company’s initial public stock offering, which could happen later this year, but couldn’t answer more specific questions about the sale. Akerson, GM’s fourth CEO in less than two years, also indicated that management will be stable in the future, saying he doesn’t expect to make any changes. “I like the team that’s on the field,” he said.
Microsoft phone adds Netflix app
Microsoft Corp. is still marching toward a holiday release for the next generation of its smart phones. The software maker isn’t giving an exact date for the arrival of the first batch of Windows Phone 7 devices, but Microsoft said Thursday it has finalized the software tools programmers will use to build Windows Phone 7 applications. Apple Inc.’s iPhone and smart phones running Google Inc.’s Android software are successful in large part because of the thousands of add-on “apps” available. Microsoft demonstrated several early apps, among them one from Netflix Inc. that gives subscribers access to the company’s streaming movie library.
Jobless claims ease for third week
The economy may have a long way to go, but at least two big threats are fading. Economists are less worried that the U.S. will experience another round of mass layoffs and its first bout of deflation since the 1930s after the release of two government reports Thursday. The third drop in jobless claims in four weeks and a mild uptick in wholesale prices in August add to evidence that a second recession is unlikely. Concerns about another downturn intensified last month when jobless claims spiked past the half-million mark. Wholesale prices, meanwhile, fell in early summer for three straight months. But those trends have, for now, reversed themselves, leaving an economy that is still growing, but at a slow pace.
Tech spending boosts Oracle profits
Oracle Corp.’s net income swelled 20 percent in the latest quarter as the world’s biggest maker of database software prospered from freer technology spending by corporations. Oracle’s results, reported Thursday, came as the company finds itself in a starring role in Silicon Valley’s latest soap opera, this one involving Mark Hurd, the ousted chief of Hewlett-Packard Co. Oracle has scooped Hurd up to help sharpen its attack on its longtime partner HP. Hurd’s hiring keys up the drama between Oracle and HP at a time when Oracle is muscling into HP’s turf by selling computer servers. That’s a business Oracle picked up with the $7.3 billion purchase earlier this year of Sun Microsystems, a struggling server maker and fallen idol of the tech world.
From Herald news services
