NEWS
By Phil Rosenthal and Michael Oneal | April 1, 2007
CHICAGO -- Unable to reach a verdict Friday, Tribune Co.'s independent directors planned to resume deliberations yesterday on whether to accept Chicago billionaire Sam Zell's $33-per-share proposal for the media company or a rival 11th-hour offer from Los Angeles billionaires Eli Broad and Ron Burkle worth $34 a share, sources said. A meeting of the full Tribune board is scheduled for today, when a final decision could be voted on. Tribune owns The Sun, as well as the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune.
BUSINESS
By Allison Connolly | June 28, 2007
While the rising cost of pepper is nothing to sneeze at, McCormick & Co. said earnings for the second half of the year should be higher than previously forecast after reporting better-than-expected second-quarter results yesterday. The Sparks-based spice maker said new products such as low-sodium Zatarain's rice dishes and expanded advertising in Europe and Asia should buoy sales in the third and fourth quarters, which are typically the company's strongest. McCormick should also benefit from a favorable currency exchange rate.
BUSINESS
By Kristine Henry | April 28, 1999
EASTON -- Black & Decker Corp.'s chairman said yesterday that he removed a top executive as a pre-emptive strike, fearing that the president of the power tools division would quit and leave the Towson-based company in a vulnerable position.Black & Decker shares fell about 8 percent Thursday, the day after Joseph Galli's departure as president of the Worldwide Power Tools and Accessories Group was announced. Yesterday, shares closed at $54.0625, up 6.25 cents.Galli was replaced by Paul F. McBride, 43, who worked at General Electric for 21 years, most recently as president of its global silicone products business.
BUSINESS
By BLOOMBERG NEWS | April 27, 1999
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- First Union Corp., the sixth-largest U.S. bank, agreed yesterday to buy Chicago-based Everen Capital Corp. for $1.1 billion in stock, its second acquisition of a securities firm in a year.Everen shareholders will get 0.555 First Union share for each of their shares. Everen shares yesterday rose $4.3125 to $28.4375; First Union fell $1.25 to $53.75.First Union, based in Charlotte, said the acquisition will form the sixth-largest U.S. brokerage firm, with assets of $147 billion and 3 million customers.
BUSINESS
By Shanon D. Murray | January 19, 1999
Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s earnings fell in the fourth quarter of 1998, the company said yesterday, attributing the decline in part to unseasonably warm weather and cost increases.BGE generated earnings of $13.2 million, or 9 cents per share, in the period that ended Dec. 31, compared with $18.3 million, or 12 cents a share, in the corresponding period of 1997.BGE's revenue in the quarter totaled $790.4 million, down 2.7 percent from a year earlier.The company also attributed its fourth-quarter results partially to an "accounting technicality" that recorded a full year of assets depreciation in the fourth quarter, said Kevin Miller, BGE's director of financial planning.
BUSINESS
By William Patalon III | January 27, 1999
Black & Decker Corp. shares fell $4.25 each, or about 7 percent, to close at $53.625 yesterday after the Towson-based toolmaker posted fourth-quarter and year-end earnings that met forecasts, but cautioned that sales growth could slow this year.Black & Decker said net income in the quarter that ended Dec. 31 was $91.6 million, or $1.03 per diluted share, compared with $97 million, or $1 per share, in the same period the year before. Excluding several one-time items and before restructuring expenses of 8 cents a share, the company earned $98.1 million, or $1.10 per share.
BUSINESS
By Shanon D. Murray | July 28, 1999
Allegheny Energy Inc. yesterday reported second-quarter earnings of $64.5 million, or 55 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $211.6 million, or $1.73 a share, in the second quarter of 1998.Included in the 1998 numbers was a charge of $265.4 million associated with the Hagerstown-based utility's restructuring order in Pennsylvania.Nearly half of the company's 1.4 million customers are in Pennsylvania, the only state in the company's five-state service area with a deregulated electricity industry.
BUSINESS
By Sean Somerville | November 12, 1999
Mid Atlantic Medical Services Inc., the Rockville-based managed care insurer, posted third-quarter profit of $7.12 million, or 17 cents per share -- a vast improvement over the comparable period last year and 2 cents higher than analysts' earnings per share expectations.In the third quarter of 1998, the company reported a loss of $6.74 million, or 15 cents per share -- a loss attributed to the settlement of an audit by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Without that one-time event, MAMSI would have had net income of $3.98 million, or 9 cents a share.
BUSINESS
By Shanon D. Murray | June 2, 1999
Rite Aid Corp. of Camp Hill, Pa., said yesterday it restated earnings for fiscal year 1999 and two prior years after federal regulators reviewed the third-largest U.S. drugstore chain's accounting practices related to a spate of acquisitions. Fiscal 1999 earnings were lowered by 9 percent, 1998 earnings were cut by 3.3 percent and 1997 earnings were raised slightly.The review by the Securities and Exchange Commission -- which began after Rite Aid filed documents with the agency in December for a $650 million debt offering -- sparked the restated earnings for 1997 and 1998.
BUSINESS
By BLOOMBERG NEWS | December 10, 1999
NEW YORK -- In his annual reports to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders, Chairman Warren Buffett shows a table that pits his investment record against the Standard & Poor's 500 index, the benchmark for most money managers.This year, the reading will look like an aberration. For the first time since 1980, Buffett, widely labeled as one of the world's shrewdest investors, won't beat the market.Buffett compares the annual percentage increases in Berkshire Hathaway's book value -- and there have been nothing but gains starting with 1965 -- with gains and losses in the S&P 500. Berkshire's book value, or net worth, includes its earnings over the years, the market value of its stocks and bonds and adjustments for acquisitions.