RETAIL

RETAIL

Home Depot Closing 15 Stores

The Home Depot said it plans to close 15 underperforming U.S. stores, affecting 1,300 employees. It is the first time the home improvement retailer has closed a flagship store for performance reasons.

The Atlanta-based company, which operates 2,258 locations in the United States and overseas, said the affected stores will be shuttered within the next two months. The stores to be closed consist of three in Wisconsin, two in Ohio, two in New Jersey, two in Indiana and one each in Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, New York and Vermont.

A company spokesman said some employees will be relocated, while others could lose their jobs.

TECHNOLOGY

Balmer Stands Firm on Yahoo Bid

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer told employees that the software maker would still walk away from its bid for Yahoo if the price was too high.

"I know exactly what I think Yahoo is worth to me, exactly," Ballmer said in a meeting with employees, according to remarks provided to Bloomberg by a company spokesman. "I won't go a dime above, and I will go to what I think it's worth if that gets the deal done."

Yahoo has repeatedly rejected Microsoft's $44.6 billion offer as too low, and it let an April 26 deadline pass without agreeing to a takeover. Microsoft would use a Yahoo acquisition to step up competition with Google, the leader in the online advertising market.

Microsoft may make a friendly deal with Yahoo, start a proxy fight for Yahoo's board or abandon the bid, Ballmer said. The company will make an announcement in "very short order," he said.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

FCC Caps Rural Phone Subsidy

Federal regulators agreed to temporarily cap a growing subsidy program that paid nearly $1.2 billion last year to cellphone companies that do business in rural areas.

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 along party lines to limit payments to wireless carriers from the Universal Service Fund, which is supported by a tax on the phone bills of most Americans. The cap will remain in place until the commission passes a comprehensive reform package, which is in the works.

The move is bad news for rural cellular carriers who rely on such payments for a substantial part of their revenue, but it benefits big telephone companies, such as Verizon Communications and AT&T, whose customers are the largest contributors to the fund.

LEGAL

More Bias Claims at Bloomberg

A federal agency says 58 women are claiming discrimination by the financial services news company founded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission revealed the increase from three plaintiffs to 58 plaintiffs in Manhattan federal court.

In a lawsuit filed in September, the EEOC said Bloomberg L.P. engaged in a pattern of demoting women, diminishing their duties and excluding them from job opportunities after they disclosed they were pregnant.

EEOC senior trial attorney Raechel Adams predicts the number will increase further as the agency continues to talk with women who have gone on maternity leave since 2002.

EARNINGS

Eastman Kodak said its first-quarter loss narrowed to $114 million, from $175 million in the comparable period last year, as it battled for a bigger slice of the digital photography market after a drastic, four-year restructuring. Sales rose less than 1 percent, to $2.093 billion, from $2.080 billion. The company's results missed Wall Street expectations, and its stock price fell more than 3 percent.

Sun Microsystems swung to a loss in its fiscal third quarter, surprising investors who were expecting a healthy profit from the server and software maker. The company said it lost $34 million in the three months ended March 30, compared with a profit of $67 million during the year-ago period. Sales fell slightly to $3.27 billion. The company forecast flat revenue for the fourth quarter and revealed plans to cut between 1,500 and 2,500 jobs as it tries to snap out of a sudden financial funk.

Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, said its first-quarter profit dropped 12.5 percent to $732 million from $837 million in the corresponding period last year. Revenue rose 14 percent, to $8.39 billion, from $7.39 billion.

Tyco International said second-quarter profit tumbled 67 percent, to $280 million from the $835 million it earned in the 2007 quarter before it split into three companies last June. Despite the breakup, revenue climbed 8 percent, to $4.87 billion.

Compiled from reports by Washington Post staff writers, the Associated Press and Bloomberg News.