BUSINESS BRIEFS
Exxon Mobil's quarterly profit is biggest ever
Associated Press
HOUSTON — Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, reported income yesterday that shattered its own record for the biggest profit from operations by a U.S. corporation, earning $14.83 billion in the third quarter.
Yet numbers contained within the company's most recent financial report revealed production numbers that continue to sag.
The Irving, Texas-based company has reported unprecedented back-to-back quarters, the end of the most recent one coinciding with a rapid plunge in crude prices.
Exxon said net income jumped nearly 58 percent to $2.86 a share in the July-September period. That compares with $9.41 billion, or $1.70 a share, a year ago.
AMEX WILL CUT 7,000 POSITIONS
NEW YORK — In a stark acknowledgment of the tough times ahead in the credit card industry, American Express Co. said yesterday that it plans to cut 7,000 jobs, or about 10 percent of its worldwide workforce, in an effort to slash costs by $1.8 billion in 2009.
The New York-based credit card issuer — which has reported four straight quarters of profit declines as an increasing number of consumers struggle to pay off debt — said it is also suspending management-level salary increases next year and instituting a hiring freeze.
GOVERNORS SEEK AID FOR CARMAKERS
LANSING, Mich. — The governors of six states have asked the treasury secretary and Federal Reserve chairman to take "immediate action" to help troubled domestic automakers.
General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC are in talks to combine to survive, but financing is one of the biggest obstacles.
GM is lobbying the Bush administration and some members of Congress for $10 billion to $15 billion in aid to help keep the company going and possibly to make the Chrysler deal work. GM could use some of the money to shut down redundant Chrysler operations.
VERIZON-ALLTEL DEAL GETS OK
The Justice Department yesterday effectively gave Verizon Wireless the go-ahead to buy Alltel Corp. in a $28 billion deal that would create the nation's largest wireless carrier.
Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Britain's Vodafone Group PLC, already has agreed to the government's condition that it sell assets in 22 states.
The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote on the merger on Nov. 4.
MOTOROLA LOSSES RESULT IN JOB CUTS
NEW YORK — Motorola Inc. posted a hefty loss in the third quarter yesterday, citing the continued troubles of its cell-phone division. The company will postpone the planned spin-off of the unit, and cut more jobs.
The maker of communications gear said it would get rid of 3,000 jobs by April, with about 2,000 of them coming from the cell-phone unit. The company last announced 2,600 job cuts in April.
Motorola lost $397 million, or 18 cents per share, in the July-September period. It had earned $60 million, or 3 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.
Sales fell 15 percent to $7.48 billion.
SOFTWARE MAKER SUFFERS $1.7B LOSS
NEW YORK — Sun Microsystems Inc. posted a $1.7 billion loss for its latest quarter yesterday as the maker of servers and business software wrote down the value of the company because of the slow economy and a huge decline in its stock price.
Even excluding the goodwill write-down, Sun's results came in at the low end of its own forecast.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company lost $1.68 billion, or $2.24 per share, in its fiscal first quarter, which ended Sept. 28. In the same period last year, it earned $89 million, or 10 cents per share.
