Cascade Financial Corp. will ask shareholders to increase the company’s common stock from 25 million shares to 65 million shares at an annual meeting in June. The move is recommended by Cascade’s board of directors as a way to bolster capital in the wake of economic recession. “Given the current market price of our common stock, the company needs additional authorized shares in order to be able to pursue the full range and extent of capital-raising opportunities that the board may ultimately determine to be in the best interests of the company and its shareholders,” bank officials said in a statement to shareholders Thursday. The bank needs to free up capital, anticipating that state and federal regulators could soon issue harsher operating restrictions in the form of a consent order.
Opposition to United, Continental marriage
The chairman of the House Transportation committee is asking the Justice Department to block the planned combination of United Airlines and Continental. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., says the United-Continental deal will move the country toward having an airline system dominated by three mega-carriers. The deal would make United the world’s largest airline. In 2008, Oberstar opposed the purchase of Minnesota-based Northwest Airlines by Delta Air Lines. Antitrust regulators approved it anyway. The deal needs approval from antitrust regulators and shareholders. The companies are hoping to close it by the end of the year.
USPS volume, income still shrinking
The Postal Service said Thursday that it had a net loss of $1.9 billion as of March 31, halfway through its fiscal year. The declines in mail caused by the recession and the movement of letters and bills to the Internet has had a staggering impact on the agency, which posted a $3.8 billion loss last year. Postal officials have sought congressional approval to drop mail deliveries on Saturday. The post office said that for the three months that ended on March 31, total mail volume was 3.3 percent less than the same period last year. Even with a one-time boost of $180 million from census mail, revenue at $16.7 billion was still 1.4 percent less than the same three-month period a year ago.
Cable companies post strong 1Q earnings
Cable and satellite TV companies reported strong first-quarter earnings Thursday in part because of price increases, while growth in Internet and phone services offset the cable companies’ struggles to lure or keep TV subscribers. DirecTV, the nation’s largest satellite TV company, added 100,000 video customers. The cable companies managed to increase their earnings, however, by getting more video subscribers to take pricier digital cable packages. Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. showed similar patterns last week.
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