BUSINESS BRIEFS
General Motors loses $15.5 billion in second quarter
Associated Press
DETROIT — General Motors Corp. reported a $15.5 billion second-quarter loss yesterday, the third-worst quarterly performance in its nearly 100-year history.
Through the first half of the year it used up more than $7 billion in cash, including $3.6 billion from April through June.
GM now faces the ominous task of raising revenue by selling cars rather than trucks. Even with plans to boost production of hot-selling fuel-efficient models and cut output of unpopular trucks and sport utility vehicles, the company is running short on time if it keeps burning through more than $1 billion in cash every month.
U.S. AUTO SALES TUMBLE IN JULY
DETROIT — General Motors, Ford, Toyota and other automakers said yesterday their U.S. sales fell by double digits in July as they struggled to keep up with consumers' growing demand for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Nissan Motor Co. was the only major automaker to report a gain, with truck sales up a surprising 18 percent thanks in part to the new Rogue crossover. Nissan's overall sales rose 8.5 percent.
Automakers were expecting July sales to be at their lowest level in more than a decade as sales of trucks and sport utility vehicles continued to plummet and new troubles in the auto leasing market further wrecked consumers' confidence.
CITIGROUP FACES FRAUD CHARGES
NEW YORK — New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo yesterday said he is prepared to charge Citigroup Inc. with fraudulent sales of auction-rate securities and with the destruction of key documents.
Cuomo joins the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators in examining Citigroup's sale of auction-rate securities. They believe the instruments were being aggressively marketed despite a rapid weakening in trading.
Auction-rate securities have their interest rates set at periodic auctions, depending on the submitted bids. The investments were once considered safe, but the market collapsed in February amid turmoil in the credit markets.
NO FIREWORKS AT YAHOO MEETING
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Yahoo Inc.'s board emerged largely unscathed from the Internet company's annual meeting yesterday as a subdued crowd of shareholders raised few questions about the directors' rejection of Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion takeover bid.
Some shareholders expressed displeasure by opposing the re-election of Yahoo's current directors, but the resistance wasn't as intense as last year, when three directors were rejected by more than 30 percent of the vote.
In this year's balloting, only two directors — Chairman Roy Bostock and Arthur Kern — were opposed on ballots representing at least 20 percent of Yahoo shares. Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang, who steered the Microsoft negotiations with Bostock, was approved by 85 percent of the shares cast.
COMCAST ORDERED TO CHANGE SYSTEM
WASHINGTON — A divided Federal Communications Commission has ruled that Comcast Corp. violated federal policy when it blocked Internet traffic for some subscribers and has ordered the cable giant to change the way it manages its network.
In a precedent-setting move, the FCC by a 3-2 vote yesterday enforced a policy that guarantees customers open access to the Internet.
The commission did not assess a fine, but ordered the company to stop cutting off transfers of large data files among customers who use a special type of "file-sharing" software.
Comcast says its practices are reasonable — that it has delayed traffic, not blocked it — and that the FCC's so-called network-neutrality "principles" are part of a policy statement and are not enforceable rules.
