BUSINESS BRIEFS
New-home sales at 13-year low
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Sales of new homes fell in February for the fourth straight month, pushing activity down to a 13-year low. While the rate of decline has slowed, the worst slump in more than two decades has not run its course, analysts said.
The 1.8 percent drop sent the annual sales rate down to 590,000 units in February, the Commerce Department reported yesterday. That was the slowest pace since February 1994 and down 57.5 percent from the sales peak of 1.389 million units in July 2005.
The median price of a home sold last month dropped to $244,100, 2.7 percent less than the level of a year ago. The median sales price is the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less.
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP HAS WEB VERSION
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Adobe's Photoshop is the premier photo software offline. Now the company is hoping to make a splash online as well.
Adobe plans to unveil today a slimmed-down, online version of its marquee image-editing software. Targeted at mainstream consumers, the free service, dubbed Photoshop Express, allows users to upload, store, edit and share digital photos through a browser, without installing any software on their computer.
The company thinks the service will appeal to consumers who want to tweak their photos, but don't want to spend $100 or more on desktop software, such as the company's own Photoshop Elements.
PLANT SUGARS NEXT GAS ALTERNATIVE
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Royal Dutch Shell PLC said yesterday it has formed a 5-year partnership with U.S.-based Virent Energy Systems Inc. to use plant sugars to produce a fuel closely resembling gasoline.
Shell said the pact signals that the companies want to bring the product toward large-scale production quickly after testing. However, they declined to give firm deadlines for development, or release details of how much money they're investing in the project.
Shell, Europe's largest oil company, reported $8.47 billion of earnings on sales of $107 billion in the fourth quarter.
Virent, based in Madison, Wis., has received $10 million in U.S. government aid and $40 million in venture capital backing.
