Microsoft became the latest company to offer blogging to the masses with the introduction of a blog service. MSN Spaces allows users without highly technical skills to set up Web journals. The service is aimed at people who want to share vacation pictures, text journals or a list of favorite songs. It is free to anyone with a Hotmail e-mail or MSN Messenger account, both of which also are free. MSN Spaces will be supported by banner ads.
New Lobbyist for Rivals of Fannie Mae
Edward Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, will turn his attention to lobbying for stricter control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when he leaves his post Jan. 18. Michael House, director of a coalition of the mortgage financing giants' rivals, said Gillespie will work on behalf of his group, FM Policy Focus, when Gillespie returns to the lobbying firm he helped found, Quinn, Gillespie & Associates. FM Policy Focus, already a client of Quinn Gillespie, is funded by mortgage finance companies, including Wells Fargo and General Electric. Gillespie declined to comment.
Intel increased its fourth-quarter sales forecasts on higher-than-expected demand for laptop and desktop personal computers. Shares rose 5.5 percent on the news. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker said sales for the period are expected to be $9.3 billion to $9.5 billion, up from an October estimate of $8.6 billion to $9.2 billion.
(Paul Sakuma-AP)
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Initial U.S. unemployment claims rose more than expected last week, an increase that may be overstated because of difficulties adjusting data for the Thanksgiving holiday. States received 349,000 new applications, an increase of 25,000, the Labor Department said. The number of people continuing to collect state unemployment benefits fell to 2.723 million, the lowest since April 2001. Applications averaged 336,500 last month.
Interest on fixed-rate mortgages rose this week to its highest since early October, according to the weekly Freddie Mac survey. Fixed rates on 30-year mortgages averaged 5.81 percent, up from 5.72 percent last week. Fixed rates on 15-year mortgages averaged 5.23 percent, up from 5.15 percent. One-year adjustable-rate mortgages, however, fell to an average 4.19 percent from last week's 4.27 percent.
A flight attendants union mailed strike authorization ballots to 21,000 United Airlines flight attendants, seeking approval for nationwide walkouts if United or US Airways break their labor contracts in bankruptcy. The board of the Association of Flight Attendants authorized a strike last month if collective bargaining contracts are canceled by either carrier. The union said it intends to carry out intermittent work stoppages on flights without advance notice if the contracts are terminated.
American Airlines is offering workers who have been with the company at least five years incentives to quit or retire early. Pilots and flight attendants are excluded. Among the options are extended travel benefits and severance pay. The most generous options are for those who volunteer to quit or retire in place of someone who would have been laid off.
EADS, the parent company of Airbus, has proposed splitting a contract to supply aerial refueling tankers to the U.S. Air Force with Boeing Co., according to the European company's chief executive for North America. The Pentagon said last month it would open the award to new bidders after Congress withdrew an earlier proposal for 100 planes worth $23 billion to Boeing.
Gambro Healthcare U.S., which operates renal-dialysis clinics, has agreed to pay $350 million to settle charges that it defrauded Medicare, U.S. Attorney James Martin said. Martin said the fraud included Gambro paying kickbacks to physicians for referrals, Gambro's setting up a sham company to feed inflated billings to Medicare, and falsifying billing statements. In a statement, Gambro said that during the government-scrutinized period, dating to 1991, "the quality of care that Gambro provides to its patients was never in question."
A federal judge ruled that a lawsuit accusing Citigroup of imposing hidden fees on overseas purchases by credit cardholders should be tried as a class action. U.S. District Judge William Pauley said cardholders in New York who made overseas purchases may sue as a group if they had not agreed previously to submit their claims to arbitration. Citigroup said 98.5 percent of its cardholders chose arbitration.
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services reaffirmed its credit ratings on Electronic Data Systems debt and said it had removed the technology-outsourcing company from its credit watch list. S&P said it is keeping a negative outlook on the company, which has struggled to overcome money-losing contracts and other problems. The agency rates EDS senior unsecured debt at one level above junk status.
A federal judge has dismissed civil claims against a former president and former sales executive of Qwest Communications International, as well as some allegations lodged against the company and former key officers in a investors lawsuit accusing the company of fraud and misleading investors. U.S. District Judge Robert E. Blackburn left intact allegations that Arthur Andersen's audit of Qwest's 1999 network capacity accounting was misleading. Still pending are claims that Qwest failed to properly disclose $222 million worth of asset depreciation and a change in its pension rate and improperly recognized revenue from some additional fiber-optic capacity deals in 1999.
Viacom is buying a CBS affiliate station in Sacramento for $285 million from Hunt Valley, Md.-based Sinclair Broadcast Group. The purchase gives Viacom two stations in the nation's 19th-largest television market. The other is a UPN affiliate. Sinclair said it is selling stations in markets where it has been unable to buy more than one.
Cendant agreed to buy Ebookers, Europe's largest Web travel agency, for $404.3 million in cash. Cendant said EBookers founder and chief executive Dinesh Dhamija will resign after the purchase closes. Cendant is acquiring online travel companies to help sell its hotel rooms and car rentals as more consumers book trips through the Internet. The company purchased Orbitz for $1.25 billion last month.
Ford Motor plans to expand sales of its gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle beyond California, Michigan and the Northeast to the entire country in January. The company began building the hybrid Escape sport-utility vehicle in August and plans to produce about 4,000 this year. Production will expand to 20,000 annually starting in 2005, Ford said.
