Business briefs: Boeing executive gets $3 million stock bonus
Published 8:04 pm Friday, February 26, 2010
The Boeing Co. has given its president of commercial airplanes a stock incentive worth roughly $3 million. Boeing’s Jim Albaugh was awarded 50,000 shares of Boeing common stock as of Feb. 22, according to a regulatory filing released Friday. The incentive was awarded “in recognition of Mr. Albaugh’s performance and as a retention vehicle,” according to the Securities Exchange Commission document. Boeing paid out the stock as part of its 2003 incentive stock plan. Albaugh took over for Scott Carson as president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes last year. He previously had served as the president of Boeing’s defense division.
Economy sluggish as growth stalls
The recovery is losing steam. The economy is now likely expanding at just half the brisk 5.9 percent pace at which the government on Friday estimated it grew last quarter. Business spending will make up for some of a slowdown in consumer spending — but not likely enough to reduce the jobless rate much. All that adds up to a long slog ahead for an economy trying to get back on firm footing after the worst recession since the 1930s. The economy continues to grow, but it won’t feel like much of a recovery this year amid high unemployment, record-high home foreclosures and tight credit. Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group, called the year-end growth spurt “a one-hit wonder.”
Western home sales show 3 percent gain
Home sales inched about 3 percent higher in the Western region of the country last month, as homebuyers set out to take advantage of temporary government tax incentives and lock in still-low mortgage interest rates. The modest annual increase benefited from an easy comparison to January 2009 sales, which imploded in the wake of the U.S. financial crisis. Nationally, sales rose 7 percent from January last year, without adjusting for seasonal factors, the National Association of Realtors said Friday. The median price was flat at $164,700. In the West, the median price fell by nearly 6 percent to $203,400.Home sales surged across the 13-state region for much of last year, powered largely by sales of bank-owned properties.
Pepsi closes deal to buy big bottlers
PepsiCo closed the deal to buy its two biggest bottlers Friday — a move that’s expected to shake up the beverage industry. The $7.8 billion buyout of Pepsi Bottling Group and PepsiAmericas will allow the nation’s second-largest drink maker to try out more new products and get them to market sooner. That will let the maker of Pepsi soft drinks and Tropicana juices better respond to a changing market and keep up with shoppers who are switching to juices and teas or buying fewer drinks altogether. The deal is also a way for PepsiCo to save money on distribution. It estimates pretax savings of $400 million by 2012 from the buyouts, though analysts expect higher.
From Herald news services
