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Drop In Oil Production Hurts Shell Profit (NYSE:RDS.A)
European oil giant Royal Dutch Shell announced a profit decline of 45 percent in the first quarter, compared with a year earlier, as a drop in the company’s production of oil hurt its profits. Shell reportedly earned $4.5 billion... More of this article »
Walmart Makes Deal To Sell Auto Insurance (NYSE:WMT)
Retail giant Walmart has announced a deal to partner with AutoInsurance.com to sell insurance policies to consumers. The partnership would allow customers to comparison shop for auto insurance on AutoInsurance.com’s website, comparing... More of this article »
Profit Triples For Facebook In First Quarter (NASDAQ:FB)
For the first quarter of its fiscal year, Facebook reported that its net income nearly tripled and revenue grew 72 percent. For the quarter, Facebook reported revenue of $2.5 billion. This was an increase from the $1.46 billion reported... More of this article »
IBM Reports Drop In Revenue And Profit
In the first quarter, IBM reported that its profit fell and its revenue declined for the eighth consecutive quarter. Revenue for the quarter was $22.5 billion, below the average estimate of Wall Street analysts of $22.9 billion. This... More of this article »
Google Fails To Meet Expectations In First Quarter
In the first quarter, Google reported earnings and revenue that were well short of analysts’ expectations. Earnings per share missed by 12 cents and revenue came in $100 million short of what was expected. For the quarter that ended... More of this article »
Credit Card Practices Earn Bank of America $772 Million Penalty (NYSE:BAC)
Federal regulators ordered Bank of America to pay roughly $772 million in refunds and fines to settle charges of using deceptive marketing and billing practices involving credit card products sold by the bank. The misleading practices... More of this article »
Comcast Says Proposed Merger With Time Warner Cable Wouldn’t Stifle Competition (NASDAQ:CMCSA)
The announced merger between Comcast and Time Warner has been met with skepticism and fears that competition in the industries they serve would be substantially reduced. An array of consumer-advocacy groups, members of Congress and... More of this article »
Fire TV Unveiled By Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Amazon has begun selling a device that allows consumers to watch Amazon’s extensive video library as well as play a wide array of games on their television sets. At a Manhattan news conference held to announce the device, Peter Larsen,... More of this article »
General Motors Announces Recruitment Of Crisis Experts (NYSE:GM)
G.M. chief executive Mary T. Barra was visibly shaken at the end of the second bruising day of testimony on General Motors’ ignition switch recall. Surrounded by a cadre of company officials, Ms. Barra was hustled out the door and... More of this article »
BlackBerry Turns Its Sights On Security Products (NASDAQ:BBRY)
John S. Chen, president and chief executive of BlackBerry, is turning his attention to a future in which the troubled company’s once-popular smartphones will play a much less important role. BlackBerry’s focus will shift toward... More of this article »
Inquiry Into Microsoft Software Leak Raises Questions About Privacy Protections (NASDAQ:MSFT)
For months, the big technology companies have denied knowing anything about the government spying on people who use their Internet services. However, a recently filed legal case has highlighted the amount of power these companies have... More of this article »
Microsoft’s Xbox One Price Reduced Again (NASDAQ:MSFT)
A bundle of Microsoft’s Xbox One and Titanfall, a high-profile science fiction shooter game, is being offered at Walmart and Best Buy for $450. This is a $50 price cut from the combined price of the separate items. Consumers may... More of this article »
JPMorgan Commodities Unit To Be Sold For $3.5 Billion (NYSE:JPM)
JPMorgan Chase has agreed to sell its physical commodities trading unit to Swiss trading firm Mercuria Energy Group for $3.5 billion in cash. Buying the JPMorgan business will give the Swiss firm to physical oil and gas assets across... More of this article »
$1.2 Billion Settlement Reached In Toyota Inquiry (NYSE:TM)
A deal has been reached between Toyota and the Justice Department for $1.2 billion to settle a four-year criminal investigation into whether the company misled investigators and the public about a sudden-acceleration defect. The reported... More of this article »
SeaWorld’s Earnings Beat Expectations (NYSE:SEAS)
Even though SeaWorld has been embroiled in controversy since the documentary “Blackfish” was released, the company still managed to beat analysts’ expectations for its fourth quarter results. SeaWorld reported a loss of 13 cents... More of this article »
Lowe’s Reports Increase In Fourth Quarter Earnings (NYSE: LOW)
Lowe’s Companies, Inc. reported a 6.3 percent increase in earnings over the same period a year ago. Net earnings of $306 million, or $0.29 per share were reported for the quarter ended January 31, 2014. Net earnings for the fiscal... More of this article »
Winter Storms Take A Bite From FedEx Profits (NYSE:FDX)
Severe winter conditions hurt FedEx Corp’s quarterly earnings and revenue for the third quarter of its fiscal year. FedEx said operating income decreased by about $125 million in the third quarter as the unusual weather across the... More of this article »
Yahoo Webcam Images Intercepted By British Spies (NASDAQ:YHOO)
It was a success that even James Bond would be proud of. According to accounts of documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, a British intelligence agency collected video webcam images from millions of Yahoo users undetected. These users... More of this article »
Toyota Sees Success With Rapid Turnaround (NYSE:TM)
No car company can claim to have had a bigger comeback since the recession than Toyota. Chief executive Akio Toyoda has worked tirelessly to streamline Toyota’s global organization chart and increase the company’s emphasis on newer... More of this article »
Anti-Fraud Technology On Fast Track At Target (NYSE:TGT)
At a recently held Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, a top executive of Target announced that the company would be accelerating its plans to adopt a technology that has been found to reduce potential for credit card fraud. The technology... More of this article »
IBM Spending Big On Cloud Computing In 2014 (NYSE:IBM)
IBM has announced plans to spend heavily on cloud computing during the coming year. To increase the number and quality of computing centers it has worldwide, IBM is moving rapidly on its plans to spend $1.2 billion this year on its... More of this article »
T-Mobile Offers To Cover Termination Fees (NYSE:PCS)
T-Mobile US has announced its plan to cover the termination fees for individuals, as well as up to five lines per family, for consumers who switch from their current carrier to T-Mobile. In announcing the plan, John Legere, T-Mobile’s... More of this article »
Google’s Smart Decisions Lead To Rising Revenue and Profit, Despite Mobile Results (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Google has slowly started to become a mobile company but is wrestling with how to make as much money with mobile advertising as it has with the ads that appear on desktop computers. While the smart decisions made by the company has... More of this article »
Danish Government In Disarray After Goldman Deal (NYSE:GS)
Denmark recently gave global financial giant Goldman Sachs permission to buy a stake in its state utility service. The move was not met with celebration. The Socialist People’s Party withdrew its ministers from the country’s governing... More of this article »
Shell Quarterly Earnings Drop 48% (NYSE:RDS.A)
Royal Dutch Shell has reported that its fourth-quarter profits would be lower than expected. The company announced that adjusted earnings would drop to $2.9 billion for the quarter. This is a 48 percent decline from the same quarter... More of this article »
IBM Selling Low-End Server Business (NYSE:IBM)
IBM has announced that it is selling its low-end server business to Lenovo of China for $2.3 billion. The server business being sold includes the x86 line and is one of the world’s largest computer server businesses, purchased at... More of this article »
Intel To Lay Off 5,000 Employees This Year (NASDAQ:INTC)
According to an anonymous company official, Intel will lay off about 5 percent of its work force, or 5,000 jobs, during 2014. The Intel official said the employment cuts were part of a larger program to shift resources to growing business... More of this article »
Microsoft Finds Move To Devices And Services Lucrative (NASDAQ:MSFT)
In the past, Microsoft made huge profits by selling software on discs to customers. Today, Microsoft is expanding its portfolio with hardware products with markedly lower margins. The company has transformed from a software factory... More of this article »
Bayer Names Different Culprit In Mass Bee Die-offs (OTCMKTS:BAYRY)
The European Union has linked a type of pesticide that Bayer produces to the large-scale die-offs of honeybee populations in Western Europe and North America. The pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, were banned in Europe this year... More of this article »
JPMorgan And Federal Authorities Reach Settlement In Madoff Case (NYSE:JPM)
JPMorgan Chase has reached a settlement with federal authorities to resolve allegations that the bank missed its chance to warn federal authorities about the Ponzi scheme of Bernard L. Madoff. JPMorgan was Mr. Madoff’s primary bank... More of this article »
Samsung To Report Bigger Decline In Earnings Than Expected For Year End (LON:BC94)
Samsung Electronics reported that earnings in the last quarter of 2013 were lower than in the previous three-month period as well as lower than the same period a year ago. The company released a prediction that operating income would... More of this article »
GlaxoSmithKline Ending Drug Promotion Payments (NYSE:GSK)
After being criticized for years for the practice, GlaxoSmithKline has announced the end of its program to pay doctors to promote its products. Pharmaceutical companies have paid doctors to speak on their behalf for decades. Doctors... More of this article »
General Motors Plans Midwestern Factory Upgrades At Cost Of $1.3 Billion (NYSE:GM)
General Motors has announced plans to invest $1.3 billion into projects to upgrade five of its factories in the Midwest. The money will be spent on upgrades to facilities in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. The planned projects include... More of this article »
BlackBerry Loss Deepens To $4.4 Billion (NASDAQ:BBRY)
BlackBerry announced a $4.4 billion loss and a 56 percent drop in revenue when reporting results for the latest quarter. The latest reported numbers included a $2.7 billion write-down mainly related to the BlackBerry 10 line of phones.... More of this article »
Nokia Seeking Remedies For India Tax Problems (NYSE:NOK)
Nokia’s tax issues in India are complicating its planned sale of its handset business to Microsoft. In hopes of resolving a months-long standoff with local officials, Nokia recently sent a proposal to settle its tax debts to... More of this article »
Credit Theft Affects Millions Of Target Customers (NYSE:TGT)
Criminal hackers have stolen credit card information records for 40 million Target store customers. Hackers stole customer names, credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates and three-digit security codes for 40 million customers... More of this article »
American Express Eases Rules Regarding Merchant Charges (NYSE:AXP)
American Express has announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with a group of small and midsize businesses that had filed a class-action lawsuit against the company. American Express agreed that merchants can charge its... More of this article »
Verizon Shareholders Express Concerns Over Release Of User Data (NYSE:VZ)
A proposed shareholder resolution for Verizon Communications would require the company to provide more information about the user data that is shared with the government. AT&T and Verizon have come under scrutiny over the past... More of this article »
Government Watchdog Reveals Google’s Fuel Discounts For Private Aircraft
According to NASA’s Office of the Inspector General, Google executives received an unfair and inappropriate government discount on jet fuel purchased for personal flights on their nine private aircraft. H211, a company that manages... More of this article »
Walmart Facing Allegations Of Illegal Punishments (NYSE:WMT)
The National Labor Relations Board has found that Walmart illegally disciplined and fired employees over strikes and protests. The inquiry also found evidence that a Walmart spokesman unlawfully threatened employees who were considering... More of this article »
Some Google Barge Details Revealed (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Google’s released details about their new floating barges have resulted in more questions than answers. Google has described their barge as being an “interactive space where people can learn about new technology.” However,... More of this article »
Hewlett-Packard Beats Earnings Expectations (NYSE:HPQ)
For the fourth quarter, Hewlett-Packard reported earnings that were better than expected. For the quarter, H.P. reported net income of $1.41 billion, or 73 cents a share. This was compared with a loss of $6.85 billion, or $3.49 a share,... More of this article »
Chevron Multibillion-Dollar Suit Now Targets Lawyer (NYSE:CVX)
American lawyer, Steven R. Donziger, has found himself in the crosshairs of an effort by Chevron to discredit him. Chevron has said that a pollution case judgment against the company in Ecuador was rigged by Donziger, making the claim... More of this article »
Privacy Case Settlement To Cost Google $17 Million (NASDAQ:GOOG)
To settle a wide-reaching privacy case over tracking consumers online without their knowledge, Google has agreed to pay $17 million to 37 states and the District of Columbia. While the fine levied is only a fraction of the billions... More of this article »
Tesla Faces Inquiry From Safety Agency Over Fires (NASDAQ:TSLA)
The Tesla Motors electric Model S sedan is now in the crosshairs of a federal safety investigation, according to an announcement from the company. Regulators are examining the high-end vehicle to determine the cause of two battery... More of this article »
Anger At Amazon Rising In Europe (NASDAQ:AMZN)
The attitude towards Amazon in Europe has cooled considerably in recent years. The company is facing difficulties in several European countries. There is continuing labor strife in Germany and France is putting restrictions on the... More of this article »
Samsung – Apple Patent Case Heads To Jury (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Last year, Samsung Electronics lost an important patent battle with Apple that subjected the company to the possibility of paying millions of dollars to Apple in restitution. Now, the case heads to a jury that will determine how much... More of this article »
Chevron Finalizes 50 Year Deal With Ukraine (NYSE:CVX)
Chevron has announced that the company has signed a 50-year agreement with the Ukrainian government to develop oil and gas in the western areas of the country. The announcement disclosed that Chevron is planning to spend $350 million... More of this article »