Business Briefing
Chevron to cut retail operations
Chevron Corp. will pull its name from about 1,100 service stations in Eastern states, the company said.
It’s the latest major oil company to cut back on retail operations where profit margins can be razor thin. BP, Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips have stepped away from the retail side in varying degrees over the last 18 months.
Chevron said it would withdraw from motor fuels operations in Washington, D.C., and 12 states from Indiana to South Carolina by the middle of 2010.
The company, based in San Ramon, Calif., ships about 2.3 million gallons of gasoline a day to those areas.
THE ECONOMY
Factory orders up 0.6% in October
Orders to U.S. factories unexpectedly rose in October, the sixth gain in the last seven months. It was further evidence that the manufacturing sector is beginning to recover, which will help support the overall economy.
The increase was 0.6%, the Commerce Department said. Economists had expected a flat reading.
A jump in demand for commercial aircraft and petroleum products led the gain.
Orders for durable goods, items expected to last three years, rose 0.6%, unchanged from a preliminary estimate last week. Orders for nondurable goods rose 1.6%.
INTERNET
Apple said to be in talks for Lala
Apple Inc., maker of the iPod player and iTunes music software, is in talks to acquire online music service Lala, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The terms of the deal weren’t known. The people declined to be identified because talks were still in progress. Investors in Palo Alto-based Lala include Warner Music Group Corp., Bain Capital Ventures and Ignition Partners.
The Lala service lets users listen free to any song on its site once. Customers can then opt to buy the track for 10 cents and listen to it on the Web. The service differs from iTunes in that the music is stored on servers via so-called cloud computing.
FOOD
Kraft takes bid to Cadbury investors
Kraft Foods Inc. took its $16.3-billion hostile takeover offer for Cadbury straight to shareholders of the British candy company.
But by putting the offer directly in shareholders’ hands, Kraft starts the clock on regulatory deadlines to get the majority support it needs and may flush out rival bids.
FINANCIAL CRISIS
AmTrust Bank of Ohio is seized
Regulators shut down Ohio’s AmTrust Bank and five other banks, bringing to 130 the number of U.S. banks to be brought down so far in 2009 by recession and mountains of bad debt.
AmTrust was the fourth-largest bank to fail this year, with about $12 billion in assets and $8 billion in deposits. The Cleveland-based bank’s failure is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund an estimated $2 billion.
Also seized by regulators Friday were three banks in Georgia, one in Illinois and one in Virginia.
PUBLISHING
N.Y. Times short of buyout goal
New York Times Co.’s namesake newspaper will probably fall short of the 100 newsroom buyouts it is seeking and will have to fire employees to cut costs, Executive Editor Bill Keller said.
-- times wire reports
