Yahoo Inc. has released a rosy outlook for the next two years, hoping to give investors a better understanding of why the slumping Internet pioneer isn’t willing to sell to Microsoft Corp. for less than $45 billion. Analysts interpreted the company’s unscheduled disclosure Tuesday as a sign that Yahoo’s attempts to find an alternative deal to Microsoft’s 6½-week-old offer aren’t bearing fruit. The Sunnyvale-based company has been exploring alliances with Google Inc., News Corp.’s MySpace.com and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL.
Interest cools for airline deals
Airlines executives say worries about recession, high fuel prices and tighter credit seem to have cooled the merger fever that gripped the industry a few weeks ago. Executives from Continental Airlines Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. said Tuesday that they’re not working on any obvious deals, but they didn’t rule out anything. Comments made by the chief financial officers at a JPMorgan conference in New York came a day after pilots at Delta Air Lines Inc. created fresh doubt about a possible Delta hookup with Northwest Airlines Corp. Union leaders at Delta said talks on merging work forces with another carrier had failed.
Visa offers nation’s biggest IPO
Visa Inc. raised $17.9 billion late Tuesday to complete the largest initial public offering in U.S. history and help prop up the wobbly financial services industry. The world’s largest processor of credit and debit cards sold 406 million shares at $44 apiece to easily eclipse the previous U.S. record IPO of $10.6 billion set by AT&T Wireless eight years ago. The IPO price topped the range of $37 to $42 per share that Visa set three weeks ago just before its executives began meeting to drum up interest. If investment bankers exercise an option on another 40.6 million shares, Visa’s IPO will end up raising $19.7 billion before expenses. Visa shares, trading on under the “V” ticker symbol, are scheduled to begin trading today.
Small companies need insurance
The National Federation of Independent Business is famous for saying no. It pressed to repeal the death tax (better known as the estate tax) and once pushed to end the entire tax code. It also helped lead the charge against President Bill Clinton’s health-care proposal 15 years ago. Under new management, it is taking a very different tack. The leading small-business lobby last week launched a multimillion-dollar campaign to convince Washington decision makers that, with health costs out of control, they should pass an overhaul of the health-care system. “Small businesses have reached a breaking point,” said Todd Stottlemyer, the new president of the NFIB.
Prices up again thanks to energy
Wholesale prices rose again in February as another hefty increase in energy costs offset falling food prices. Outside of food and energy, prices shot up at the fastest pace in 15 months. In another sign of troubles in housing, construction of new homes fell by a larger-than-expected 0.6 percent in February to an annual rate of 1.065 million units.
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