BUSINESS BRIEFS
Consumers hold back on spending; incomes up 0.2%
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Commerce Department reported yesterday that consumer spending barely budged in April, rising a tiny 0.2 percent, and income growth was just as weak, increasing a similar 0.2 percent.
The growth in incomes, restrained by four straight months of job losses, would have been just 0.1 percent had it not been for the first wave of economic stimulus payments the government started sending out April 28.
The 0.2 percent rise in personal incomes in April was the weakest gain since a similar 0.2 percent rise in January.
CVS EXECUTIVES WIN ACQUITTAL
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Two former CVS executives were acquitted yesterday of bribing a Rhode Island state senator for legislative favors, dealing a blow to the federal government's probe into corruption in the Statehouse.
A jury deliberated for about 90 minutes before finding John R. Kramer and Carlos Ortiz not guilty of 23 counts of bribery, mail fraud and conspiracy.
Prosecutors accused the former vice presidents at the Woonsocket-based pharmacy chain of paying former state Sen. John Celona to influence legislation on the company's behalf, then giving him a sham $1,000-a-month consulting contract.
AMAZON EXPANDS BOOKS ONLINE
LOS ANGELES — Amazon .com said yesterday that publisher Simon & Schuster Inc. will make 5,000 more books available for the Amazon Kindle wireless reader, bumping to 125,000 the number of titles users can download and read.
The announcement came ahead of an address by Chief Executive Jeff Bezos at the BookExpo America convention in Los Angeles.
Bezos has said Kindle e-books now account for 6 percent of sales among the 125,000 titles available on the site in both electronic and print formats. The company did elaborate on that figure.
EASTMAN KODAK TO RAISE PRICES
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Imaging products company Eastman Kodak said yesterday it will raise prices on a "select range of consumable products" across its business lines by as much as 20 percent.
The company said the worldwide price increases are due to soaring prices of raw materials such as silver and aluminum, as well as the rising cost of petroleum.
Spokesman Christopher Veronda said the price increases will affect a wide range of products, including film, paper and printing plates.
FORD MULLS FUTURE OF TRUCK PLANTS
WAYNE, Mich. — A top Ford Motor Co. executive says the company has no current plan to close any more plants despite a dramatic drop in demand for pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.
But Joe Hinrichs, global vice president of manufacturing, also told reporters yesterday in Wayne, Mich., that it makes no sense to have five factories making trucks on one shift each.
Hinrichs says the company's long-term choices are to either add production to the plants or close some of them.
YAHOO SHARES PURCHASE CLEARED
WASHINGTON — Federal antitrust regulators have cleared activist billionaire investor Carl Icahn's purchase of another $1.5 billion of shares of Internet company Yahoo Inc.
Icahn launched a proxy fight last month to remove Yahoo's board of directors after the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company rejected Microsoft Corp.'s last takeover bid of $47.5 billion bid. He has called Yahoo's actions "irrational" and nominated an alternate slate of 10 directors, including himself.
To gain leverage in the fight, Icahn has spent more than $1 billion to buy 59 million Yahoo shares and options to give him a 4.3 percent stake in the company.
