Market Share

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- The Chrysler Group is set to announce a restructuring plan today aimed at securing its place in the crowded American car market - and within DaimlerChrysler AG. The plan is expected to include the elimination of about 11,000 blue- and white-collar jobs, along with the closing of one and possibly two assembly plants - in Delaware and Missouri - people with direct knowledge of the plan said this week. Chrysler may shut smaller plants elsewhere and announce other cost-cutting measures to meet its stated goal of reducing costs by about $1,000 a vehicle.

Like teenage drivers, technology firms can become more responsible with age. In a stock market capable of sudden and severe collisions, investors may not want to take a tech ride without a seatbelt. Only companies that exhibit some maturity can reasonably be considered alongside other, more stable investment choices. Call it conservative tech investing. Or at least more conservative than in the past because many firms are trying to become more predictable and trustworthy. They realize investors are still smarting from past disappointments.

Jos. A. Bank reported strong earnings yesterday as healthy sportswear sales helped offset a weak demand for suits across the industry. The Hampstead-based company reported a 34 percent increase in fourth-quarter net income, to $24.8 million from $18.5 million in the comparable period last year. Earnings per share were $1.36, beating analysts' projections of $1.25. Net income for the fiscal year, which ended Feb. 3, increased 21 percent, to $43.2 million from $35.3 million for the previous year.

BLOCKBUSTER INC., the No. 1 chain of video stores with about 6,500 outlets, will sell 18 percent of its shares in an initial public offering next month. The Dallas-based company has filed to sell 31 million shares to the public at $16 to $18 each while its parent, Viacom Inc., will retain 144 million shares, giving it a market capitalization of roughly $3 billion.Is Blockbuster worth that much? Is the video rental business likely to continue to grow? What are Blockbuster's prospects?Stephen TekirianInitial public offering analyst, S&P Equity Group, New YorkBlockbuster is a nice break from Internet IPOs for the more conservative investor.

NEW YORK -- As more consumers turn to the Internet to shop for everything from toys to sweaters, retailers are scrambling to keep up, with the percentage of companies selling or planning to sell online more than doubling in the past year, consulting firm Ernst & Young said yesterday.Of retailers surveyed by the firm in its second annual look at retail's emerging frontier, more than three quarters said they are working to build an electronic presence or launch World Wide Web sites, up from 34 percent a year ago.Those selling on the Web -- in what is expected to be a $13 billion market this year -- jumped to 39 percent from 12 percent.

Royal Ahold NV, the Dutch food retailer that acquired Giant Food Inc. in October, said yesterday that it plans to buy Pathmark Stores Inc. of New Jersey for $1.75 billion in cash and assumed debt as it strives to boost its growing share of the U.S. grocery market.Ahold, the nation's fourth-largest supermarket company, said it plans to pay $250 million and assume the company's debt of about $1.5 billion. Pathmark's 132 stores are mainly in metropolitan New York.Ahold said it will acquire all outstanding stock of SMG-II Holdings Corp, which controls Pathmark through its subsidiary, Supermarket General Holdings Corp.

James W. Brinkley couldn't look calmer. Dressed in a blue pinstriped suit, crisp white shirt and red silk tie, he gazes at the morning fog outside his office window on the 35th floor of the Legg Mason Inc. tower.Then he observes: There's a freight train barreling straight toward the brokerage industry, and at stake is global dominance. Will it be by U.S. brokerage houses and stock exchanges, or those run by the Japanese, Germans, British and French?"The real issue here is to increase our global market share," said Brinkley, president of Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc., the brokerage subsidiary of Legg Mason.

Extending their criminal investigation of Del. Tony E. Fulton's relationship with State House lobbyists, federal authorities have subpoenaed the lawmaker's legislative records and voting history going back to 1996, according to federal documents.The broad subpoena is part of investigators' efforts to find out if Fulton might have been helping State House lobbyists Gerard E. Evans and John R. Stierhoff generate business beginning in 1997, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Shareholders of Provident Bankshares Corp. rejected a proposal yesterday to put the Baltimore-based banking company up for auction, but investor Jerry Shearer says he's convinced that Provident can't thrive on its own, and he plans to continue pressure for a sale."

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp., the world's largest automaker, said its U.S. light-vehicle sales fell in April, declining 4 percent with both cars and trucks trailing the year-earlier month.Analysts had forecast an increase of about 0.4 percent from April 1998, when GM got a head start on rivals by raising incentives to lure buyers.Its results follow increases reported Monday by Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler AG and Toyota Motor Corp.GM shares fell $4.8125, or 5.1 percent, to $88.9375."Except for the new full-size pickup trucks, the foreign brands are eating their lunch," said Burnham Securities Inc. analyst David Healy.

In one of the most challenging times for supermarkets in many years, price played an important role in how well area grocery stores performed last year, according to an annual survey released by trade publication Food World. Giant Food gained market share in the Baltimore region for the first time in six years, appealing to shoppers with lower prices and other things such as renovated stores. Giant's share of the market increased to 27.58 percent in the 12-month period that ended March 31, from 27.48 percent the previous year, according to the publication.

Rosemary Mountain, 45, had been making the 30-minute trek from Baltimore to shop at mega-grocer Wegmans in Hunt Valley until she noticed some changes at her local Giant Food grocery. The store was brighter and the aisles wider. The selection was much better, especially the larger organic foods section, she said. And the store had new gadgets that enabled her to scan her groceries as she shopped. She thinks Wegman's prices are better, but is shopping at Giant more. "Wegmans became a bit of a drive, and Giant improved," she said.

In the current credit squeeze, if you have less than a 20 percent down payment, there's pretty much only one major source of mortgage financing available: the Federal Housing Administration, the Depression-era home loan insurance agency that still offers 3 percent down, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with consumer-friendly credit standards, even on jumbo loans in high-cost areas. But there is a potentially troublesome problem looming for FHA: New loan volume is exploding - tripling in the past 12 months alone - and Congress just handed the agency the responsibility for virtually all the government's efforts to keep economically distressed homeowners out of foreclosure by refinancing their unaffordable loans.

Shortly after Google Inc. unveiled Chrome, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said the new Web browser "represents some of the best Google can do." He encouraged everyone to try it. But not many people are. Chrome gained market share within the first 24 hours of its release Sept. 2, but since then, it has given back much of those small gains to the leaders, Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox. That's according to Vince Vizzaccaro, executive vice president of marketing and strategic alliances at Internet measurement firm Net Applications.

A hand-held scanner that enables consumers to ring up purchases as they shop and a remote deli ordering system are among the innovations that Giant Food will bring to area stores as part of its latest strategy aimed at reversing eroding sales and regaining market share. The region's largest grocery chain, which has been losing customers to new competitors, plans to announce these and other initiatives today as part of a plan to "reinvigorate our brand," Robin Michel, the grocer's general manager, said in an interview.

Giant Food managed to hang on to its position as the Baltimore area's largest grocery chain, but it continued to lose market share as competition increased, according to an annual survey by the trade publication Food World. Giant's share of the market slipped to 27.48 percent in the 12 months ended March 31, from 29.42 percent in the previous 12 months, according to the publication. Its 40 area stores brought in $1.26 billion in sales, down from $1.33 billion but still substantially more than the $738.

Towson Ford is gone. So are Baltimore's Apple Lincoln Mercury and Miller Motors Buick. The family businesses all shut down last year, after a combined 200 years of operation, along with a half-dozen other Maryland car dealerships. This month, Dulaney Lincoln Mercury of Timonium shut its doors after 60 years. For the first time in at least a decade, Maryland had a net loss of automobile sellers last year, according to the Maryland Automobile Dealers Association. Nationwide, 621 dealerships representing the big three Detroit manufacturers closed last year, according to the Automotive News Dealer Census.

After every financial crisis over the past 10 years, the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates and pumped money into the economy. Each rescue solved the problem - and created a new one. The next bomb from this chain reaction of bailouts and blowups will be credit-card debt. Hardly anybody is talking about it yet, but banks and consumers are laying the ground for a wave of credit-card defaults, bankruptcies and asset write-offs for 2009 or so. Regulators and investors have discouraged excessive mortgage lending, so banks are turning to credit cards as the next growth business.

The monthly sales reports released by the world's automakers yesterday carried a double dose of bad news for the U.S. Trouble in the housing market has spread to dealer showrooms, with worrying implications for the broader economy, and Detroit no longer is the carmaker of choice for the majority of Americans. In July, import brands grabbed a majority share of the U.S. market for the first time as sales by the Big Three nose-dived. Sales of foreign nameplates were down too, off 5 percent from July 2006, but the falloff for General Motors Corp.

WASHINGTON -- Where there's a terrorist, there's a business opportunity. If you're new to that concept, no worries. There's still plenty of money to be made in the homeland security industry. You've heard of improvised explosive devices - those nasty roadside bombs that have killed too many American sons and daughters. Well, here's worse news (or maybe good news for your investment portfolio): IEDs may be coming to America. And this means that counter-IED technology will be the newest market segment in homeland security.