U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez called Microsoft Corp. an example of a small company that used entrepreneurship to grow into one of the world’s leading technology giants during a tour of the company’s Redmond campus on Thursday to promote President Bush’s competitiveness initiative. Gutierrez visited Microsoft’s mock home of the future. There, he got a glimpse of technologies such as a kitchen counter that flashes recipes based on ingredients sitting on it, and mirrors that tell what clothes match a shirt being held up.
Delta pilots warn on severance deal
The union for Delta Air Lines Inc. pilots warned Thursday that court approval of as much as $14 million in severance payouts to officers and directors terminated because of the company’s reorganization could hurt efforts to reach an agreement on further pilot concessions. The Air Line Pilots Association said the Atlanta-based airline’s Feb. 8 bankruptcy court request for the severance plan would be bad for employee morale and would threaten the company’s reorganization if approved. The union said the nation’s third-largest airline is “tone deaf” to the effects that a severance program for a select group of executives would have on the remainder of the work force.
Software sales pay off for Intuit
Intuit Inc. said Thursday that its earnings in the latest quarter rose 26 percent on strong sales of its QuickBooks small business accounting software and its TurboTax tax preparation products. The Mountain View-based software maker also boosted its guidance range for full-year earnings, citing the “strength of first-half performance.” Still, Intuit’s 2006 outlook fell short of analysts’ expectations. The company’s shares dropped 4 percent in after-hours trading.
Chrysler made only profit of Big Three
DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group was the only U.S. automaker with a profitable North American business in 2005, but executives said Thursday that the division faces increasing costs and competition and will seek benefit cuts from its hourly and salaried workers. Chrysler reported a profit of $1.8 billion for the year in the U.S., up 6 percent from the year before. The company said Thursday it plans to distribute profit-sharing checks averaging $650 to its hourly employees.
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