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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 12:48 p.m., Monday, October 15, 2007

Business Briefs: AOL layoffs, Mattel earnings slip

Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — Local union leaders voted overwhelmingly Monday to recommend approval of a tentative four-year agreement between the United Auto Workers and Chrysler LLC, paving the way for a vote by members, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said.

Chrysler workers would see gains of $10,235 over the life of the agreement, according to a UAW booklet of contract highlights obtained by The Associated Press. Chrysler also would contribute $10.3 billion toward the creation of a union-run trust for retiree health care. The union said it reversed a company plan to sell its parts division and a parts-trucking operation as part of the negotiations.

The booklet also said the contract provides "unprecedented product guarantees" to protect thousands of jobs and maintain a U.S. manufacturing base.

The voice vote approving the tentative agreement came after a four-hour meeting at which national bargaining committee members explained the deal to several hundred local leaders.

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NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's three largest banks said Monday they are teaming up to create a rescue fund of sorts — potentially as large as $100 billion — to help bail out troubled global credit markets.

Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., and JPMorgan Chase & Co., at the prodding of the Treasury Department, will buy distressed debt from markets roiled during the summer's financial crisis. The joint effort is the result of more than a month of talks mediated by the government.

The plan is designed to inject more confidence into the market and increase investor appetite for the short-term debt known as commercial paper. The market for commercial paper, which is crucial for companies to fund short-term borrowing needs and which has historically been considered very safe, locked up this summer.

That followed a crisis in the mortgage industry, as people defaulted on their home loans at a skyrocketing rate. It caused a widespread aversion to risk and led the Federal Reserve to pump money into the financial system, though the latest plan relies more heavily on the banks themselves.

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Medtronic Inc. is stopping distribution of wires that connect some of its defibrillators to patients' hearts after learning they may have contributed to five deaths.

Medtronic shares dropped more than 12 percent by midday Monday after the disclosure.

A defibrillator monitors a patient's heartbeat; if it senses an abnormal heart rhythm, it delivers an electronic shock to reset the heart to a normal beat. A defibrillation system consists of a device implanted near the shoulder with one or more leads connecting the device to the heart.

Medtronic said it discovered a "small chance of fractures in particular locations" on Sprint Fidelis models 6930, 6931, 6948 and 6949. The company is asking doctors to stop implanting the leads and return unused leads to Medtronic.

A fractured lead "can cause the defibrillator to deliver unnecessary shocks or not operate at all," said Daniel Schultz, director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Citigroup Inc.'s report of a 57 percent drop in third-quarter profit didn't surprise anyone. What did sound some alarms was the biggest U.S. bank's somber take on current conditions — suggesting that a hoped-for industry rebound may not come so easily.

Investors responded by sending Citigroup's stock down more than 3 percent, and analysts made it clear that shareholders' displeasure with CEO and Chairman Charles Prince is escalating.

Citigroup took mortgage-backed security losses of $1.56 billion in the third quarter, more than the bank estimated two weeks ago, because home loan delinquencies accelerated in September, CFO Gary Crittenden said. And with consumer credit continuing to deteriorate, the bank's $2.24 billion boost in loan-loss provisions was also higher than previously estimated.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks pulled back sharply Monday as news that major U.S. banks will set up a fund to help bail out the credit markets stirred concerns about bad debt and as oil prices surged to $86 per barrel for the first time. The Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 100 points.

The stock market's pullback comes not only amid concerns about debt and rising energy costs but as investors await third-quarter reports due this week from more than 80 components of the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

The concerns about banking came after Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. bank, reported that third-quarter results fell 57 percent. The company said it lost more than $3 billion in mortgage-backed security losses, leveraged debt write-downs and fixed-income trading losses.

The bank — along with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. — announced the creation of a fund used to help revive the asset-backed commercial paper market. The fund will buy assets from structured investment vehicles, also known as SIVs, which buy corporate bonds and subprime mortgage debt. The bailout was orchestrated by the Treasury Department to avoid a fire sale in the market.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Three U.S. economists, one of them a 90-year-old professor emeritus from Minnesota, will share this year's Nobel prize in economics for their work on how people's knowledge and self-interest affect their behavior in the market or in social situations such as voting and labor negotiations.

Leonid Hurwicz, who lives in south Minneapolis, is the oldest winner ever of the Nobel, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in their announcement on Monday.

His work — along with that of Eric S. Maskin and Roger B. Myerson, who both are 56 — led to a theory that plays a wide-ranging role in contemporary economics and political science, touching on areas as diverse as labor contract negotiations, auctions of government bonds, voting procedures and the structuring of insurance policies.

In its citation, the academy said that their work on "mechanism design theory" has made it possible to "distinguish situations in which markets work well from those in which they do not." This, it added, helped economists identify efficient trading mechanisms, regulatory schemes and voting procedures.

They will share a $1.5 million prize, to be awarded in December.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mattel Inc. on Monday reported a 1 percent drop in fiscal third-quarter profit, due to the impact of charges, costs and supply chain delays related to multiple product recalls by the world's biggest toy maker.

The El Segundo, Calif.-based company said net income for the quarter ended Sept. 30 slipped to $236.8 million, or 61 cents per share, from $239 million, or 62 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Latest-quarter results included charges of about $40 million related to the company's product recalls covering merchandise containing small magnets or tainted with lead paint.

Sales rose 3 percent to $1.84 billion from $1.79 billion a year ago, mainly helped by the weaker dollar.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected profit of 70 cents per share on revenue of $1.91 billion.

Mattel also warned its fourth-quarter sales could be hurt by toy recall-related issues.

Its shares fell 23 cents to $22.22 in trading Monday.

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NEW YORK (AP) — AOL is eliminating another 2,000 jobs worldwide as it tries to cut costs and make room to grow in online advertising.

The 20 percent slice from AOL's work force comes after several rounds of layoffs in recent years, including a cut of 5,000 jobs last fall. The latest cuts would give AOL more flexibility to expand ad-related businesses through acquisitions and potentially new hires, company officials said.

AOL believes it is now best at developing Web sites such as its Moviefone and MapQuest properties to attract people in some 30 countries, Falco said. Its goal, he said, is to build "the largest and most sophisticated global advertising network" for marketers to reach that online audience.