Reasons To Start A Home Based Business

Many workers counting on pensions that aren't there - MarketWatch

2006-04-04T13:46:00.000-07:00

This article from Market Watch shines a light on why we should all have a home based business. Face it, if you're in a lower income bracket, you aren't going to be able to save 25% of your income and even if you did, would that be enough to live the comfortable life you deserve after years of hard work? I don't think so.

The best way to put away some cash is to increase your income and barring getting a second or third job, working from home is the best way to increase your income.

Many workers counting on pensions that aren't there - MarketWatch

RETIREMENT LIVING
The land of pension fantasies
New survey finds 61% of workers expect a pension
By Andrea Coombes, MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:01 AM ET Apr 4, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Corporate America has changed the retirement-plan landscape but a good portion of workers don't seem to realize that yet.
Sixty-one percent of workers say they expect to receive a traditional pension when they retire, despite the fact that just 40% of those surveyed say they or their spouses have such a plan, according to the 16th annual Retirement Confidence Survey, of 1,252 U.S. adults 25 and older.
The Employee Benefit Research Institute, a nonprofit research firm, produced the report with Mathew Greenwald & Associates, a survey-research firm.
Plus, there's plenty of evidence that many employers who still offer traditional pension plans are moving away from them, often freezing new employees out of such plans or, in the case of companies filing bankruptcy, turning them over to the federal government's Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.
"I'm sure anyone who's read the paper lately would know that the likelihood [of receiving a traditional pension] is going down very rapidly," said Jack VanDerhei, an EBRI fellow and co-author of the report. Read the full report.
If workers think "that's going to be a major component of their retirement income, I think they're likely to be sadly mistaken."
Confident to a fault?
Overall, workers continue to demonstrate a confidence about retirement that seems to ignore financial facts.
About 65% of current workers say they and their spouse have less than $50,000 in retirement savings (not including their primary residence or the value of a traditional pension plan).
Yet 68% of people are somewhat or very confident that they'll have enough money to live on in retirement.
In fact, of the 24% of workers who are very confident about doing just fine in retirement, 22% are not saving for retirement now, 39% have less than $50,000 saved, and 37% have not yet calculated how much they'll need in retirement.
Still, older workers are likelier than younger ones to have a heftier amount saved up: 26% of workers 55 and older have saved $250,000 or more (not including primary residence or defined-benefit plan) compared with 5% of workers 25 to 34 who have saved that much.
Nine percent of those 35 to 44 have saved $250,000 or more, as have 16% of those 45 to 54.
Seventy-three percent of workers 25 to 34 have saved less than $25,000. The same goes for 49% of those 35 to 44, 43% of those 45 to 54 and 43% of those 55 and older.
Set my plan on autopilot
A majority of those surveyed are eager for their employers to take back some of the responsibility and choices that have been shifted to workers' shoulders in recent years, as companies have moved from traditional pension plans, also called defined-benefit plans, to defined-contribution plans such as 401(k)s.
Sixty-nine percent of the workers surveyed would like employers to automatically enroll employees in retirement-savings plans, 65% think firms should automatically increase workers' contributions when workers get a pay hike and 59% would like to see companies automatically investing workers' contributions.
"The trend from defined-benefit to defined-contribution plans has not come because employees have wanted to take on that risk. It's because employers have wanted to get rid of that risk," VanDerhei said.
Rate of change is glacier-like
In many ways, this year's findings are similar to previous year's findings. About the same portion of respondents -- 70% this year, 69% last year, 67% in 2002 -- said they or their spouse has saved at all for retirement.
Still, that portion has risen over the past decade: In 1996, just 60% said they had saved for retirement. (That number was 74% in 2000, before the bursting of the Internet bubble.)
"It's kind of like watching a glacier move," VanDerhei said.
VanDerhei says the retirement situation is dire for many Americans, particularly those in the lowest income brackets.
"There's absolutely no chance for a sizable portion of future retirees to have sufficient retirement income unless they start saving at least 25% of their compensation a year," he said, citing this survey and other EBRI research.
"As we know, there's no chance, especially for people in the lower-income quartiles to do that." End of Story

Ford to slash jobs, close factories

2006-01-24T16:42:00.000-08:00

Hopefully the numbers I reported a while back are included in these 30,000.

Ford to slash jobs, close factories: "Monday January 23, 2:59 PM EST

Monday January 23, 2:59 PM EST

By Poornima Gupta

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. (F) on Monday said it would slash up to 30,000 jobs and shed more than a quarter of its production capacity as it moves to cut costs and stem market share losses, building on a surprising 19 percent gain in fourth-quarter earnings.

Ford's bonds rose and its shares gained 6 percent after quarterly results topped Wall Street expectations on strength at its finance arm and a narrower loss in the crucial North American market.

Ford, which has faced a deepening financial crisis and struggled with a junk bond rating on its debt, said it would shut 14 manufacturing sites, including seven assembly plants, and cut between 25,000 to 30,000 jobs from plant payrolls by 2012.

The announcement follows a similar announcement from Ford's larger rival, General Motors Corp. (GM), which said in November it would cut 30,000 manufacturing jobs and close a dozen plants. Both automakers are struggling with high pension and health care costs and increased Japanese competition.

Ford said its restructuring, which will idle plants in St. Louis, Atlanta, Michigan, Ohio and Canada, would reduce 26 percent of its production capacity by the end of 2008.

Ford also said it would cut material costs by $6 billion in five years, vowing to streamline parts purchasing, even as it rolls out more fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles and small cars to respond to consumer concern over high gas prices.

"We must reduce capacity in North America," Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Ford said. "From now on our products will be designed and built to satisfy customers, not just fill a factory."

Ford projected that its market share would stabilize or improve in 2006, but suspended its practice of providing full-year financial forecasts, saying it wanted to focus investors and staff on its longer-term turnaround effort.

It forecast that its North American operations, which lost $143 million during the fourth quarter, would be profitable again by 2008.

'A STEP FORWARD' OR 'EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING'?

Analysts were encouraged by Ford's improved fourth-quarter earnings, but more cautious about its restructuring plans, dubbed the "Way Forward."

Brian Johnson, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein, called Ford's announcement "a step forward," but said it still left key questions unanswered for investors.

"A lot of people on the Street are looking for more details, not just financial guidance," he said. "Can they defend market share? Can they get early retirements to match the pace of plant closings?"

Another analyst said Ford might have to cut even deeper if it fails to turn around its loss of market share, which slipped to 17 percent as of end-2005.

"With them losing market share the way they have been, they are most certainly going to lose more, so this just will not be enough," said Argus Research analyst Kevin Tynan.

Union leaders, who must negotiate a new contract with the car maker in 2007, called Ford's restructuring "extremely disappointing."

"Certainly today's announcement will only make the 2007 negotiations all the more difficult and all the more important," UAW president Ron Gettelfinger said in a statement.

For the fourth-quarter, losses at Ford's auto operations shrank to $12 million, before taxes and excluding special charges, from $470 million a year ago, while its finance arm contributed a profit of $737 million versus $859 million.

Ford earned 26 cents per share, excluding special items, soundly beating the average analyst expectation of 1 cent a share.

UBS auto analyst Robert Hinchcliffe called that result "much stronger than expected," saying better North American performance and improved results in Europe for the automaker's luxury division had made the difference.

Ford ended 2005 with a market share of 17.4 percent, excluding its luxury brands, the lowest level since the late 1920s.

Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford said total fourth-quarter revenue rose to $47.56 billion from $44.92 billion a year earlier. Automotive revenues jumped to $41.82 billion from $38.87 billion.

Ford reported a pretax gain of $1.08 billion on the sale of Hertz in the fourth-quarter, which was completed in December. The unit was sold to an investor group in a deal valued at about $15 billion, including the assumption of debt.

The company said it would invest $7 billion in plants and equipment in 2006 and end the year with over $20 billion in cash in its core automotive operations.

Shares of Ford rose 48 cents to $8.38 on the New York Stock Exchange, down from earlier high of $8.59. Ford's 7.45-percent bond due 2031 rose 1 cent to 71 cents on the dollar, according to MarketAxess.

(Writing by Kevin Krolicki in Los Angeles, additional reporting by Jui Chakravorty in Detroit)

©2005 Reuters Limited.

Alcoa stopping defined benefit plan for most new hires

2006-01-16T14:40:00.000-08:00

I've been reading Rich Dad Prophecy and even though I'm only a few chapters in I can tell it isn't a feel good book when it comes to ERISA and 401k plans.
If you're planning on retiring, you really should read that book. Seems that a major flaw is that with these plans, you HAVE to withdraw money at 70 1/2 years of age and with all the people withdrawing from the stock market at the same time, it will take a dive.
Alcoa stopping defined benefit plan for most new hires

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Alcoa Inc. (AA) said on Monday it will eliminate its defined benefit pension plan for most new U.S. salaried employees, effective March 1, 2006.

The world's biggest aluminum producer said that in its place, the company will offer a 401(k) defined contribution plan for new hires. The changes will not affect current Alcoa employees or retirees, who will continue to participate in their current defined benefit pension and defined contribution savings plans.

Brian's Blog

2006-01-12T11:47:00.000-08:00

In addition to this Blog, I also have a personal blog at Powerful Intentions. If you want to see what I write about there, feel free to visit.
Brian's Blog

Namaste,
Brian

Is Your Boss Killing You?

2006-01-10T14:03:00.000-08:00

Just one more reason to start a home based business .

A Guide to Office Survival - All Business - Yahoo! Finance

Is Your Boss Killing You?

By Drew Armstrong
Fast Company

New research suggests that employees who see their bosses as unfair may be at significantly greater risk for heart disease. Here's how to fight back.

If you've ever felt your heart skip a beat after being screamed at by your boss, it may be more than just your imagination.

A study of 6,000 British male office workers over a four-year period, published recently in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that employees who felt their supervisors treated them fairly had a 30 percent lower risk of heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in the industrialized world. Put another way, caustic, abrasive, and overbearing bosses just might be taking years off their employees' lives.

Sure, we all feel on-the-job stress at one point or another, but even the most harried among us rarely address it as a potentially serious health problem. A recent study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, however, found that high stress levels or depression because of work run parallel to traditional risk factors like high cholesterol and smoking. For cardiologists, who don't typically get mixed up in psychology, the study points to growing evidence that the head can have a lot to do with the heart. Consider a "killer boss" right at the top of the list of causes.

But not all hope is lost. According to doctors and other stress experts, lowering your health risks is as much about managing the rigors of your job as it is being blessed with a fair-and-just boss. You can't change your boss's stripes, but you can learn to handle the pressure and anxiety he or she induces.

Recognizing the problem, some hospitals have already developed programs to help people in high-stress jobs lead healthier lives. For example, the University of Michigan's Cardiovascular Executive Health Program works with executives to address diet, exercise -- and stress reduction. "A lot of executives have lifestyles that are conducive to developing heart disease," says Dr. Melvyn Rubenfire, director of preventative cardiology at Michigan. "They have high stress, they're traveling a lot, they're eating on the road."

The Michigan program conducts a thorough physical examination and makes recommendations about fitness and nutrition, but Rubenfire also places high importance on dealing with stress in the workplace. And even with all the sophisticated tests the program runs, some of the recommendations it makes on stress reduction are remarkably simple -- applicable to managers and employees alike. "You get them to understand that you can relax just by closing your eyes," Rubenfire says. "The program helps them understand" that they don't need trips to a spa or a mountaintop resort to relax.

Rubenfire advises patients to employ simple techniques, like looking at pictures of their families, visualizing a beautiful vacation spot, or even trying to imagine a problematic situation as comical rather than stressful. "What we try to teach people is to recognize [stressful situations] before they happen," he says. "They don't wait until the crisis, but because they know what it means to be relaxed, they can feel the subtle changes before they get to too high a level of stress."

Rubenfire is not surprised by the study's findings on reduced risk of heart disease for workers who felt they had fair bosses. "It's not that justice at work is the key, it's how that interacts with job satisfaction," he says. "It's important in making you happy at work." With Americans continuing to work some of the longest hours in the industrialized world, too many unhappy hours can take a toll.

Psychologist and executive coach Michael H. Kahn has studied the way workers manage stress and how it affects the way they do their jobs. He says he sees many companies -- and employees -- failing to understand that managing stress every day leads to a happier, healthier, more productive working environment. Managers would do well to take note. When companies don’t find ways for workers to reduce the small stresses of the workplace as they occur, he says, productivity falls.

And most of us don't really know how to keep this buildup from boiling over. "People work, work, work, and then on the weekends or once a month, they do something to relieve their stress," Kahn says. Workers are better off building small, five-minute breaks into their day, and learning how to anticipate and react to stressful situations.

"Even though it adds time on to the work day, you're going back with better energies," Kahn adds. "Think of what happens at a sporting event -- they take time outs, they have quarters, halves. All of that allows the players to take a mental and physical break so that when they come back, they're reenergized. But if you look at what goes on in business, it's rare."

In part because of domineering bosses, many workers have come to feel like they need to stay at their desks, instead of stepping away for a few minutes to refocus. Kahn says this leads workers to “keep trying to override those messages that you need to take a break. As the day progresses, it takes more energy to override those messages, and productivity goes down.”

So, the next time the big cheese calls you in for that meeting you’ve been dreading, or when worrying about tomorrow’s deadline is keeping you from finishing today’s project, slip in five extra minutes to step back, take a deep breath, and relax. Your heart -- and very likely your employer -- will end up thanking you.

Bloomberg.com: Top Worldwide

2006-01-06T12:10:00.000-08:00

I don't understand. As a previous post shows, we lost almost a million jobs (964,232) and this story shows that a portion of them were replaced by lower paying jobs (3.6% lower household income) so I'm confused about the strength of the economy.
Maybe I need to take an economics course to figure out how wages can go down, we can lose that many jobs and still have a healthy ecomony.
I still believe that the best way to weather these things is to build a home business and not worry about being laid off. It's hard to be scared of losing a job you aren't that interested in if you have a business that is sending a check every month.

Namaste,
Brian Baldwin

Bloomberg.com: Top Worldwide

Bush Says Tax Cuts Must Be Permanent to Ensure Growth (Update1)

Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said the strength of the U.S. economy demonstrated the need for Congress to make his tax cuts permanent.

``There are a lot of people in Washington who don't believe in tax cuts,'' Bush said in a speech at the Economic Club of Chicago. ``The United States Congress must make the tax cuts permanent.''

Bush and other administrations fanned out across the U.S. today to take credit for an economy he said has a ``full head of steam'' and a jobless rate of 4.9 percent. Democrats assert Bush is out of touch with the middle class, which is struggling with higher prices for medicine, college tuition and home heating costs, amid stagnant or declining wages.

``Bush has his eye on the big picture, claiming credit for the economy,'' said Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta. ``This is Ronald Reagan politics: Cut taxes, get the economy back.''

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said in a statement yesterday that his party would work to increase the minimum wage, push for lower costs prescription drugs through government negotiations and offer more home heating aid. ``Democrats are concentrating on other parts of the economy that aren't doing very good,'' Black said.

Household Income

Average household income, after inflation, has fallen 3.6 percent to $44,389 today from $46,058 when Bush took office, Census Bureau figures show.

``Unfortunately, the record they're touting is not the reality for most Americans,'' Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, said in a statement yesterday. ``Life is getting tougher for the average American, not better.''

The Bush administration maintains that the tax cuts during the past five years helped the economy emerge from a 2001 recession and contributed to 10 consecutive quarters of growth that exceeded a 3 percent annual rate.

``The president and I have no intention of letting the big spenders in the Washington take a bigger share of your paycheck,'' Vice President Dick Cheney said after touring a Harley-Davidson motorcycle plant in Kansas City. ``Our job now is to maintain the momentum of this economy, and to keep the confidence level high.''

Bush also laid out a 2006 agenda that included controlling health care costs and expanding global trade.

The president said the U.S. would push for a conclusion of world trade talks, with a goal ``to see that this world trades more fairly, and more freely.''

Yield Curve

While the administration points to the economic improvements, some economists and investors say bond yields herald an economic slowdown later this year or early next. Yields on 10-year Treasury notes ended 2005 below those of two-year notes for the first time since December 2000. Such an inversion in the yield curve has preceded the past four recessions.

``That's a horse with a track record we would rather not go against,'' David Rosenberg, chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York, told clients this week.

U.S. employers added 108,000 workers in December, less than the 200,000 median forecast by 62 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Today's Labor Department report also showed the jobless rate fell 0.1 percent to 4.9 percent.

At stake for Bush and his allies are the mid-term elections in Congress, where all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for grabs and one-third of the U.S. Senate. Republicans now control both chambers.

Gasoline Prices

Average retail gasoline prices that peaked at $3.07 cents a gallon on Sept. 5 after Hurricane Katrina have fallen to $2.23 a gallon, Energy Department figures show.

With falling gasoline prices, Bush's handling of the economy has improved, though it's still below 50 percent. An ABC News/Washington Post poll taken Dec. 15-18 showed 47 percent of those surveyed approved of his stewardship, the highest since June, and up from 36 percent in a Nov. 2 Post/ABC survey. The telephone poll of 1,003 adults had an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

After the economic shock from the Sept. 11 attacks, the ``real story of the last few years is the incredible resilience of our economy,'' Cheney said.

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow visited the New York Stock Exchange and did three television interviews today to hail the economy. ``The fundamental news here is a good story, a wonderful story,'' Snow said in an interview. Snow predicted the unemployment rate would continue to drop. ``It is already lower than the average in the '70s, '80s and '90s, but I'm confident we can continue to make progress.''

In addition to Bush, Cheney and Snow, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and about 20 other officials from the Treasury, Labor, Energy and Commerce departments were scheduled to talk about the economy in speeches or meetings in 19 different states, according to a White House schedule.

`Under the Surface'

``Democrats are predictably trying to draw attention to things under the surface'' that the economy isn't quite so rosy, said Charles Gabriel, a senior political analyst at Prudential Equity Group in Washington. Still, ``inflation is controllable and energy prices are peaking,'' he said.

Cheney and Bush will maintain their argument for spending restraint, as the administration prepares for the State of the Union address on Jan. 31 and a budget message on Feb. 6.

The federal budget deficit was $319 billion in fiscal 2005, down from $412 billion the previous year. Bush took office in 2001 with a budget surplus of $236 billion. The administration's goal is a deficit of no more than $260 billion by 2009. The official budget numbers don't include spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have been funded through ``emergency spending'' measures totaling $326 billion since September 2001.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Brendan Murray in Chicago at  brmurray@bloomberg.net
Holly Rosenkrantz in Kansas City  hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 6, 2006 13:32 EST

Economic Report: U.S. planned layoffs rise 22% in November - Automobiles - Manufacturing - Bond Market - Economy

2005-12-07T14:03:00.000-08:00

I'm not including these numbers in the total at the top since there is no way to know how many were already reported but it's easy to see that I wasn't even close to finding them all. The article goes on to say what sectors added jobs but the retail sector added 8500 which we all know doesn't pay as well as many of the jobs that were lost.

If I could stress anything; it's to make it a new years resolution to have a plan B and start a home based business. Start it in your spare time and maybe by the time your number is called, you can say it doesn't bother you.

Namaste,
Brian

Economic Report: U.S. planned layoffs rise 22% in November - Automobiles - Manufacturing - Bond Market - Economy

Layoffs rise 22% in Nov., Challenger says
By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch
Last Update: 10:06 AM ET Dec. 7, 2005

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Led by sharp cuts in the automotive industry, planned job reductions by major U.S. corporations increased 22% in November to 99,279, according to a monthly tally released Wednesday by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Planned layoffs have increased three months in a row.

Layoffs were down 5% from November 2004's 104,530.

So far in 2005, corporations have announced 964,232 job cuts, up 3.6% from the year-to-date total a year ago. Layoffs are likely to surpass 1 million for the fifth straight year. In 2004, 1.04 million job reductions were announced.

More than 10% of the job cuts this year have come from the struggling automotive sector, which has announced 105,886 cuts this year, including 16,870 in November.

"Downsizing in the auto industry is expected to continue well into the new year, as companies try to bring production capacity in line with the reality of the market," said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of the outplacement firm.

The Challenger tally doesn't include published report on Wednesday that Ford Motor Co. (F:
Ford Motor Company
News, chart, profile
Last: 8.20+0.09+1.11%
4:15pm 12/07/2005

More F
F8.20, +0.09, +1.1%) will increase its planned reductions from 20,000 to 30,000. The new restructuring plan is to be approved by the board of directors on Wednesday and Thursday, the Detroit News reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. See full story.

Government and nonprofits groups announced 14,195 job reductions in November, Challenger said. Transportation, pharmaceutical, industrial goods and telecommunications also had large numbers of layoffs in November.

The Challenger data cover only a small portion of job losses in the United States each month. Layoffs at small companies are not included, for instance. In the most recent government data, 1.77 million layoffs and discharges were reported in September.

The layoffs can be accomplished immediately or over time. Some jobs are cut through voluntary means, such as quitting or retiring.

"There clearly are areas of the economy that are struggling to find a foothold but, for the most part, the economy is very strong," Challenger said.

In November, U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 215,000, the 30th consecutive month of job growth, the Labor Department reported last week.
See full story.

Merck to cut 7,000 jobs, slash costs

2005-12-05T15:08:00.000-08:00

Each time I see stories like this I wonder where those job gains are coming from. Are they really equal jobs or just a bunch of minimum wage jobs in a fast food place. I mean I've found 123,150 lost jobs and I'm not even looking that hard. I could probably double it if I use Google Alerts or spent some time looking.

Namaste,
Brian

iWon Money & Investing

Monday November 28, 2:42 PM EST

By Edward Tobin and Ransdell Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merck & Co. Inc. on Monday said it will cut 7,000 jobs and close five plants to save up to $4 billion in costs by 2010, but shares fell on disappointment at the scope of the measures and their limited ability to help earnings next year.

Merck said its profit next year will fall at least 4.4 percent, hurt by the mid-year patent expiration in the United States on its Zocor cholesterol fighter.

Shares of Merck were down over 4 percent in afternoon trading.

Zocor had third-quarter U.S. sales of $770 million, but they are expected to tumble once generic forms of the drug become available, hurting overall company profit margins.

Still, Merck said the first steps of its restructuring would help restore current profit margins by 2008.

Merck said it expects the initial phase of the cost- reduction program to yield cumulative pretax savings of $3.5 billion to $4 billion from 2006 through 2010.

The company's new chief executive officer, Richard Clark, gave fewer details about the restructuring on a conference call than some analysts wanted, including whether most of the job cuts would come from its manufacturing work force or the research staff.

Deutsche Bank analyst Barbara Ryan said the cost savings were somewhat less impressive than the $4 billion-a-year in savings Pfizer Inc. hopes to achieve by 2008 to revive its own sluggish earnings.

By contrast, she speculated that Merck, which is half Pfizer's size, could attain annual cost savings of perhaps $1.5 billion by 2010 through the initiatives.

"The restructuring is not heroic by any stretch of the imagination," Ryan said.

Asked about the negative Wall Street reaction to his initiatives, Clark said: "I can tell you that reducing the work force by 11 percent, removing $4 billion of ongoing costs from the system and coming up with a new business model to me seems pretty competitive."

Clark declined to predict when Merck would again post its traditional robust annual earnings growth, which has ranged in the high-single-digit and double-digit percentage range.

Tony Butler, an analyst with Lehman Brothers, said he expects the restructuring to be followed by broader Merck initiatives, including a possible narrowing of the company's research focus from dozens of diseases to perhaps as few as 12.

Merck, which has already struggled with patent expirations of other key drugs and ongoing litigation over the withdrawal last year of its Vioxx pain medicine, said the job cuts would reduce its work force 11 percent globally by 2008.

The moves are among the first by Clark, who took the helm of the Whitehouse Station, New Jersey-based company in May and pledged to increase cost-cutting efforts at Merck.

"It certainly looks like Clark is willing to make tough decisions," said A.G. Edwards analyst Albert Rauch. "I think eliminating 11 percent of the company is a big, major step for them. It will be really hard to maintain the corporate culture with so many positions being eliminated."

Merck saw $25 billion in market capitalization wiped away last year when it withdrew Vioxx from the market after determining long-term use of the drug increased the risk of heart attack and stroke.

The withdrawal of $2.5 billion-a-year Vioxx sparked thousands of lawsuits, increasing company costs at a time when Merck was facing stiff competition for its key medicines from cheaper generics.

About $2 billion of cost savings from the restructuring will result from a new supply strategy at its manufacturing division.

Merck sees about half of its planned job cuts in the United States and said it will also close one basic research site and two preclinical development sites by the end of 2008, subject to compliance with legal obligations.

The pretax costs of the restructuring are expected to be $350 million to $400 million in 2005 and $800 million to $1 billion in 2006.

The company forecast full-year 2005 earnings per share in a range of $2.47 to $2.51 excluding charges, and net earnings of between $2.04 and $2.10.

For 2006, Merck forecast a profit per share of $2.28 to $2.36, including about a 7 cent-per-share impact from stock option expensing but excluding restructuring charges. On a net basis, it sees a profit per share of $1.98 to $2.12.

Before the announcement, analysts, on average, were expecting the company to earn $2.50 per share in 2005 and $2.38 per share in 2006, excluding special items, according to Reuters Estimates.

Shares of Merck fell $1.39 to $29.59 on the New York Stock Exchange.

?2005 Reuters Limited.

Ford to cut 4,000 jobs in North America

2005-11-20T01:02:00.000-08:00

These are 4,000 in addition to the 2750 that were reported before. That's 6,750 total.
Every time I read about job cuts I wonder how many of these people have a plan B.

Namaste,
Brian

iWon Money & Investing
By Poornima Gupta

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. (F), facing a deepening financial crisis, said on Friday it plans to eliminate 4,000 salaried jobs, or 10 percent of its North American white-collar work force, as part of a larger restructuring plan.

A majority of the job cuts -- announced to employees in an e-mail distributed by Mark Fields, president of Ford's Americas business -- will be made in the first quarter of 2006, spokesman Oscar Suris said.

The cuts will come through attrition, layoffs and the elimination of some agency and contract positions, Suris said.

They will be in addition to the 2,750 job losses already announced by the automaker this year,

Ford lost $284 million in the third quarter and its automotive division is in the red. Its North American vehicle operations have lost more than $1.4 billion before taxes so far this year.

The company's shares have dropped more than 40 percent since the end of 2004. They hit $7.57 per share on Thursday, the lowest in more than two years, before rebounding to $8.41 per share on Friday.

Ford Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Ford Jr. said last month that the automaker will announce its long-awaited restructuring plan -- dubbed "Way Forward" -- in January.

He also warned that the plan would include "significant plant closings" to help slash costs in North America.

Fields and his team are expected to present Bill Ford with the restructuring plan in December.

Ford, like cross-town rival General Motors Corp. (GM), has seen its margins squeezed by intense competition in the U.S. market and by a dramatic slowdown in sales of cash cows such as mid-size and large SUVs due to high gasoline prices.

The two companies are also facing higher costs and a cut in their credit ratings to high-yield, or "junk," status.

Ford has taken a number of steps this year to strengthen its balance sheet, including the sale its Hertz Corp. rental car unit.

It also agreed to bailout former parts subsidiary Visteon Corp. (VC) and announced that it intends to increase the production of hybrid vehicles tenfold to 250,000 annually.

�2005 Reuters Limited.

GM prepares to wield job ax

2005-11-18T13:40:00.000-08:00

This is just a follow up of a story I blogged in June but they're saying 25,000 isn't enough.
I do want to point out a good thing that's in this article that may be coming to an end.
GM will also have to shed its old habit of keeping furloughed workers on the payroll and typically cutting factory jobs only by retiring workers after 30 years of services, analysts say.
I have to say that GM has in the past done a great service to their workers and it's refreshing to know that they valued their people that much.

Namaste,
Brian

iWon Money & Investing

Friday November 18, 2:45 PM EST

By Jui Chakravorty

DETROIT (Reuters) - As General Motors Corp. (GM) prepares to announce much-awaited job cuts and U.S. assembly plant closings, analysts wonder if the cuts will be aggressive enough to convince people of a possible turnaround at the ailing auto giant.

The world's largest automaker, which has lost nearly $4 billion this year, has said it will provide details by the end of 2005 about its previously announced plan to cut at least 25,000 manufacturing jobs as part of a broader restructuring plan.

"Announcing the plan alone will not be enough," Standard & Poor's equity analyst Efraim Levy said on Friday. "If the plan is not concrete, not enough, or not realizable, Wall Street could take it negatively."

Chief Executive Richard Wagoner has committed to a series of plant closings and the elimination of nearly a quarter of GM's U.S. factory work force through 2008.

"They need to lose a lot more jobs through 2008. The 25,000 number is the natural attrition rate, and they need to go beyond the ordinary to accomplish any change. They need more, a lot more," Levy said.

GM has been grappling with high health-care and commodities costs, loss of U.S. market share to foreign rivals, and slumping sales of large sport utility vehicles which used to be its profit center, but have now lost popularity due to high gasoline prices.

To make matters worse, GM's main parts supplier -- bankrupt Delphi Corp. (DPHIQ) -- is battling with its unions and will ask the court to void its labor contracts if a deal is not reached by mid-December. A strike at Delphi could shut down some GM and Delphi plants and could force the automaker to burn through billions of dollars a week, analysts have said.

A work stoppage could also cripple GM, Delphi's largest customer, as it prepares to roll out its GMT-900 truck series, a crucial component of its recovery plan.

PRESSURE MOUNTS

Wagoner in June said the proposed cuts would save the automaker $2.5 billion a year. But analysts worry about expenses associated with the cost cuts, and some estimates predict that early retirement and employee relocation costs could total up to $2 billion.

As investors await the changes, the Detroit News on Friday reported GM plans to make the announcement as early as next week.

"We have said that we will make announcements by the end of the year and that's what we will be doing," GM spokesman Stefan Weinmann said. "And we won't provide any more specifics."

Wagoner has said he plans to cut manufacturing capacity to match demand by 2008. Some experts believe The Lansing Craft Center, where GM builds the Chevrolet SSR, will likely be shut down because the convertible sport pickup has not been selling very well and GM has idled the plant for several months this year.

At least two other plants likely to be shut down are the Doraville, Georgia, plant, which builds GM's minivans, and an SUV plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, analysts said.

The new plant closings will add to three assembly plants that GM has already closed or stopped production at this year: a car plant in Lansing, Michigan, an SUV plant in Linden, New Jersey, and a van plant in Baltimore.

GM will also have to shed its old habit of keeping furloughed workers on the payroll and typically cutting factory jobs only by retiring workers after 30 years of services, analysts say.

Analysts also worry that GM's proposed sale of a 51-percent stake in its finance arm will reduce pressure to undergo a major restructuring, as the sale could bring in as much as $15 billion.

Still, GM shares rose 96 cents, or 4.3 percent, to $23.60 in Friday trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

©2005 Reuters Limited.

Wal-Mart memo proposes cost cuts: report

2005-10-26T07:16:00.000-07:00

No job cuts in this post that are spelled out but very good reasons to start a home based business.
Speaking of Wal-Mart, I ran across The Wal-Mart movie that's coming out next month and it doesn't look like a good thing for Wal-Mart. As a matter of fact it looks bad for Wal-Mart. Maybe they should use Googles corporate philosophy and do no evil.

Namaste,
Brian
iWon Money & Investing

Wednesday October 26, 5:15 AM EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An internal memo sent to the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) board proposes numerous ways to hold down health care and benefits costs with less harm to the retailer's reputation, including hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from seeking jobs, the New York Times said on Wednesday.

The paper said the draft memo to Wal-Mart's board was obtained from Wal-Mart Watch, a pressure group allied with labor unions that says Wal-Mart's pay and benefits are too low.

The paper said in the memorandum Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits, also recommends reducing 401(k) pension contributions and wooing younger, and presumably healthier, workers by offering education benefits.

The memo is quoted as expressing concern that workers with seven years' seniority earn more than workers with one year's seniority, but are no more productive, said the paper, which posted the memo on its Web site (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/business/26walmart.ready.html ). To discourage unhealthy job applicants, the paper said, Chambers suggests Wal-Mart arrange for "all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering),"

The memo also proposed that employees pay more for their spouses' health insurance, called for cutting the company's 401(k) contributions to 3 percent of wages from 4 percent and for cutting company-paid life insurance policies.

The memo acknowledged that Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, had to walk a fine line in restraining benefits because critics attacked it for being stingy on wages and health coverage. Chambers in the memo acknowledged 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid.

Wal-Mart executives said the memo was part of an effort to rein in benefit costs, which have soared by 15 percent a year on average since 2002. Like much of corporate America, Wal-Mart has been squeezed by soaring health costs, the paper said.

The proposed plan, if approved, would save the company more than $1 billion a year by 2011, the paper said.

In an interview, Ms. Chambers said she was focusing not on cutting costs, but on serving employees better by giving them more choices on their benefits. Chambers also said that she made her recommendations after surveying employees about how they felt about the benefits plan.

One proposal would reduce the amount of time, from two years to one, that part-time employees would have to wait before qualifying for health insurance. Another would put health clinics in stores, in part to reduce expensive employee visits to emergency rooms.

Wal-Mart's benefit costs jumped to $4.2 billion last year, from $2.8 billion three years earlier. Last year Wal-Mart earned $10.5 billion on sales of $285 billion.

Under fire because less than 45 percent of its workers receive company health insurance, Wal-Mart announced a new plan on Monday that seeks to increase participation by allowing some employees to pay just $11 a month in premiums.

Â©2005 Reuters Limited.

Ford plans "significant" plant closures

2005-10-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

While this article doesn't give projected numbers of job losses, it's pretty simple to know that you can't close plants and not cut jobs.

As always, I'll post any followup I find and add it to the total at the top of the page.

Namaste,
Brian

iWon Money & Investing

Thursday October 20, 10:36 AM EDT

By Poornima Gupta

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. (F) on Thursday said it swung to a loss in the third quarter as sales of sport utility vehicles declined, and Chief Executive Bill Ford Jr. warned of "significant plant closings" to help slash costs in North America.

The quarterly loss, the first for Ford since the fourth quarter of 2003, follows a protracted decline in the company's U.S. market share and deepening financial woes. U.S. sales of Ford vehicles are down 1.3 percent so far this year despite a massive discount program that helped clear inventory of unsold vehicles.

Ford and cross-town rival General Motors Corp. (GM), which reported a $1.6 billion quarterly loss earlier this week, have seen their margins squeezed by intense competition in the U.S. market and by a dramatic slowdown in sales of mid-size and large SUVs, their former cash cows, due to high gasoline prices.

The companies are also struggling with higher costs and a cut in their credit ratings to high-yield, or "junk," status this year.

Bill Ford said on a conference call that Ford, the No. 2 U.S. automaker, was delaying until January a long-awaited restructuring announcement for its North American vehicle operations, which have lost more than $1.4 billion before taxes so far this year.

"That plan will include significant plant closings where facilities don't fit our strategy moving forward," he said.

JP Morgan analyst Himanshu Patel said that while there were no major surprises in the third quarter report, the lack of specific restructuring news was disappointing.

"While fundamentals are admittedly weak, given the stock's weak recent performance, we are reluctant to get incrementally bearish, particularly ahead of a potential restructuring announcement," Patel said in a note to subscribers.

"That said, we continue to favor GM over Ford due to the former's more favorable 2006 product cycle, and its more aggressive restructuring approach."

AUTOS MIRED IN THE RED

Ford reported a third-quarter net loss of $284 million, or 15 cents per share, compared with a profit of $266 million, or 15 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding special charges, the company lost $191 million, or 10 cents a share, a penny worse than the average forecast of analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.

Despite the net loss, Ford remains in the black for the year as a whole, while GM has lost about $3.8 billion through the first nine months of the year. Earlier this week, GM announced a deal with the United Auto Workers union to slash the company's multibillion-dollar health-care costs and said it was exploring the possible sale of a big stake in its finance arm.

Bill Ford said Ford is in talks with the UAW regarding health-care costs and expects the UAW to agree to a deal for Ford similar to one at GM.

Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford said third-quarter revenue rose to $40.86 billion from $39.1 billion a year earlier.

For the year, the automaker, which cut its fourth-quarter production target by 2.4 percent to 810,000 vehicles, said it expects earnings to be at the lower end of its forecast range of $1 to $1.25 per share.

Its auto operations posted a loss of $1.3 billion before taxes and excluding special charges, while its finance arm contributed net profit of $577 million. In North America, Ford lost $1.2 billion during the quarter, before taxes and excluding special items.

The company blamed lower dealer inventories, unfavorable vehicle mix, lower pricing, and higher warranty and material costs for the loss in North America, which is Ford's largest revenue-generating unit.

Ford's luxury brands, grouped under the Premier Automotive Group, narrowed their pretax loss to $108 million from $171 million a year earlier.

Ford Chief Financial Officer Don Leclair said the group would miss its full-year profit target of $300 million to $600 million.

Ford shares were down 10 cents, or 1 percent, to $8.37 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

As of Wednesday, the shares were down more than 40 percent for the year, compared with a 1.3 percent decline in the S&P 500 index . The shares currently trade at about 7.7 times estimated 2006 earnings, well below the average multiple of 16 for components of the S&P 500 index.

©2005 Reuters Limited.

AOL cuts 700 jobs

2005-10-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

Compared to previous posts on this blog, 700 jobs seems like nothing, but to those 700 people, I'll bet they seem like the world.

Namaste,
Brian

AOL cuts 700 jobs

Wednesday October 19, 11:37 AM EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc.'s AOL Internet division this week laid off more than 700 employees, the company said on Wednesday.

AOL, which is currently being courted by Microsoft (MSFT), Google Inc. (GOOG), Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) and Yahoo (YHOO) for a possible investment and joint venture, shut down its Orlando, Florida, call center, and trimmed jobs in other areas, including the division's corporate headquarters in Dulles, Virginia.

�2005 Reuters Limited.

Big Lots to close some of its stores -- Page 1 -- TimesUnion.com

2005-10-08T15:17:00.000-07:00

Since they haven't said how many jobs will be lost, this isn't included in the number above. As soon as they announce it, I'll update the number.
I will give them credit that they are going to try to relocate people to other stores but I also don't like how unfeeling the last line is.
"We want to ensure that each new store provides the return we're looking for," Cooper said.
I'm sure he could have phrased it better.

Big Lots to close some of its stores -- Page 1 -- TimesUnion.com

Big Lots to close some of its stores
Midwest will see bulk of closures; no details on Capital Region locations

Bloomberg News
First published: Friday, October 7, 2005

Big Lots Inc., the largest U.S. retailer of discontinued and overstocked goods, plans to close as many as 170 stores by the end of January, including a batch of money-losing stores in rural areas.

The company expects to pare the number of stores to 1,400 from 1,536 now. Big Lots, which operates in 47 states and employs 45,000 people, said in a statement Thursday that most of the closings will be in Ohio, Michigan and Illinois, areas where it said sales were weaker.

In the Capital Region, Big Lots operates stores at Troy Plaza on Hoosick Street in Troy, on Columbia Turnpike in Rensselaer, on Central Avenue in Colonie and on Route 30 in Amsterdam.

A manager at the Colonie store said he had heard nothing about possible closings and referred a reporter to the company's headquarters.

The closings will cost about $39 million, or 35 cents a share, Chief Financial Officer Joe Cooper said in an interview. No job cuts were announced. Big Lots, based in Columbus, Ohio, will try to move workers to other stores before announcing any workforce plans, Cooper said.

Big Lots shares had their biggest gain since May, rising 82 cents, or 7.7 percent, to $11.43 as of 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They had dropped 13 percent in 2005 before Thursday.

The company didn't specify when it would record the costs, and two subsequent calls to Cooper weren't returned.

The company had a net loss of $13.8 million, or 12 cents a share, in its 2006 fiscal second quarter ended in July, and a net loss of $32.1 million, or 29 cents, in the year-ago third quarter.

Big Lots is expected to have a fiscal third-quarter loss of 21 cents a share, the average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Eighty-five locations to be shut are closeout stores accounting for about 4 percent of sales in that business, the company said. It didn't say whether stores have already been closed.

"We want to ensure that each new store provides the return we're looking for," Cooper said.

DaimlerChrysler cuts 8,500 Mercedes jobs

2005-09-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

Another 8500 jobs to be cut. It's not just the US that's losing jobs. How many jobs can be cut before there's no more jobs to cut?
The good thing to come out of this is that due to the union agreement, these cuts will be voluntary and will include a separation package unlike most cuts. Still, I wonder how many of these people have a Plan B.

Namaste,
Brian

iWon Money & Investing

DaimlerChrysler cuts 8,500 Mercedes jobs

Wednesday September 28, 11:55 AM EDT

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - DaimlerChrysler on Wednesday offered staff at its premium Mercedes Car Group division voluntary redundancy packages that aim to cut 8,500 jobs in Germany over 12 months.

The world's fifth-biggest carmaker said the move would cost 950 million euros, to be offset by extraordinary income and efficiency gains.

It reiterated its forecast for a slight rise in 2005 operating profit excluding charges to restructure its Smart minicar business.

The Mercedes division employed around 105,000 staff at the end of last year, of which some 94,000 were in Germany.

"These headcount reductions are indispensable. They will contribute to significant improvements in the competitiveness of Mercedes-Benz through an increase in productivity," it said in a statement. "The measures will also contribute to the sustained safeguarding of production (in) Germany."

DaimlerChrysler and its works council struck a deal last year that guaranteed no worker at its German plants would be laid off through the end of 2011 in exchange for labor concessions that will generate 500 million euros in annual savings from 2007.

The jobs move underscores German carmakers' attempts to cut manufacturing costs and boost profitability while paying the highest labor costs in the global auto industry.

Volkswagen on Tuesday struck a deal with staff to make a new compact sport utility vehicle at its main German plant in Wolfsburg -- securing some 1,000 jobs -- in exchange for pay rates below what VW workers normally earn.

Dieter Zetsche, who left U.S. arm Chrysler this month to run Mercedes, has stuck to the division's previous goal of doubling its operating margin to 7 percent by 2007, a target set by his predecessor who quit last month.

Mercedes profits have collapsed this year due to model changeovers, the strong euro, hefty losses at minicar brand Smart and spending to fix quality problems at crown jewel Mercedes-Benz.

ÃÂ©2005 Reuters Limited.

Sony to cut 10,000 jobs

2005-09-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

Another 10,000 jobs gone. Every time I see an article like this I wonder how many had a plan B.
If your company cut this many jobs, how many of your coworkers have a plan B? Do you?
iWon Money & Investing

Thursday September 22, 8:36 AM EDT

By Nathan Layne

TOKYO (Reuters) - Struggling electronics and entertainment conglomerate Sony Corp. said on Thursday it would cut about 7 percent of its global work force, sell more than $1 billion in assets and post a loss this year.

With a restructuring plan that failed to excite some analysts, Sony hopes to reverse its fading fortunes and catch up with rivals such as Matsushita Electric Industrial and Sharp Corp. in flat TVs and Apple Computer (AAPL) and its popular iPod player in the portable music industry.

The inventor of the Trinitron TV and Walkman cassette player said it would book 210 billion yen in restructuring charges in the two business years through March 2007 as it closes plants and slashes 10,000 jobs.

Mizuho Securities analyst Koichi Hariya said there was little surprise in the company's latest turnaround strategy, potentially putting a lid on Sony shares.

"These are pretty moderate plans," he said. "Sony's shares gained in the run-up to today's announcement and feelings of disappointment may emerge. There could have been some investors who had expected more drastic measures from the new foreign

Sony estimates the restructuring will produce cost savings of 200 billion yen by the end of the business year to March 2008, when it aims to achieve an annual group operating profit margin of 5 percent and more than 8 trillion yen in revenues.

That would be similar to Matsushita's 5 percent profit margin target for 2006/07, up from 3.5 percent last year. Matsushita recently finished a major restructuring and its earnings are improving, helped by robust sales of appliances and plasma TVs.

"Sony and its peers all face tremendous pressure in the marketplace, but we have a sense of urgency and we have a sense of purpose. We can and will compete vigorously," Howard Stringer, Sony's new chief executive, told a news conference.

To help boost efficiency, Sony abolished the company system that Stringer said was preventing different business units from communicating freely and working together for common goals. This caused overlap and missed opportunities in the market.

The electronics group will be reorganized to place centralized decision-making under Ryoji Chubachi, who became president and electronics CEO in a management reshuffle in June.

"We are going to achieve our goals by breaking down the existing silo walls and eliminating the highly decentralized structure we've maintained in the past," said Welsh-born Stringer, a former journalist and the first non-Japanese at the helm of a major Japanese electronics company.

Sony said it now expected to post a group operating loss of 20 billion yen in the current business year to March due to an increase in restructuring charges. Sony's previous estimate was for an operating profit of 30 billion yen.

RIGHT DIRECTION

Sony unveiled plans to sell real estate, stocks and non-core assets worth 120 billion yen by 2007/08, vowed to reduce the number of product models by one-fifth and close 11 of its 65 global factories.

Sony said it would postpone the planned listing of its financial unit until the 2007/08 business year or beyond. It had originally eyed a listing in 2006.

It said it would continue restructuring its loss-making TV unit by closing production lines for traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) sets and shifting resources to fast-growing liquid crystal display (LCD) and rear-projection TVs.

Sony plans to bring the TV unit back to profitability in the second-half of 2006/07 through various cost-cutting measures such as procuring more parts for rear-projection TVs from China and concentrating its design operations for LCD models in Japan.

The firm has been investing aggressively in chips and other core parts such as LCD panels to achieve a vertically integrated production structure, which it believed was key to differentiating its products from low-cost rivals.

It plans to invest 340 billion yen on semiconductors over the two business years to March 2008. That compares with an estimated 500 billion yen over the three years through next March.

The company also unveiled plans to establish a display group to further its development efforts on organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, a promising next-generation flat panel that could one day replace LCDs in some applications.

Stringer said Sony would cultivate revenue growth by focusing on expanding its presence in high-definition camcorders, DVD recorders and TVs. Another key product will be the PlayStation 3, its next-generation game console due in early 2006, he said.

Stringer also talked to the packed news conference about the potential for the cell chip, a high-powered microprocessor jointly developed with Toshiba Corp and IBM (IBM) that it hopes will be used in a wide range of audio-visual products.

But investors have heard a similar story before.

Sony has already cut 20,000 jobs and significantly lowered fixed costs under a previous three-year restructuring plan that was scheduled to end in the current business year.

Instead of boosting profitability, Sony has watched its earnings dwindle under the plan, hit by sliding demand and prices for aging product lines such as CRT TVs and CD Walkmans in which it has relatively high market shares.

Yet Jun Nishizaki, chief portfolio manager at Nissay Asset Management, said Sony seemed to be on the right track this time.

"I think Sony is heading to the right direction," he said. "But whether it is attractive enough to buy or not is a question to be answered a bit later when things get clearer."

Before the announcement, shares in Sony closed down 2.2 percent at 3,940 yen after touching a three-month intraday high this week. The Tokyo stock market's electric machinery index <.IELEC.T> was down 1.45 percent.

(Additional reporting by Eriko Amaha, Kunihiko Kichise, Kiyoshi Takenaka and Risa Maeda)

©2005 Reuters Limited.

Agilent to Sell Unit for $2.66B, Cut Jobs

2005-08-15T06:30:00.000-07:00

Another 1300 jobs gone.

iWon News

Aug 15, 9:03 AM (ET)

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) - Agilent Technologies Inc. (A) on Monday said it will sell its chip unit to two buyout firms for $2.66 billion, as well as sell and spin off other assets and cut 1,300 jobs as part of a restructuring program.

The Palo Alto-based maker of electronic test and measurement products plans to use proceeds from the deals for a $4 billion share repurchase program.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Silver Lake Partners said their purchase of Agilent's chip business will create the largest privately held independent semiconductor company in the world. The companies said they are equal partners in the deal.

As part of the restructuring, Agilent, also said it agreed to sell its 47 percent stake in San Jose, Calif.-based lighting company Lumileds to Royal Philips Electronics for $950 million plus $50 million in debt and spin off its SOC and memory test businesses. The deal will give Amsterdam-based Philips a controlling stake of 96.5 percent of Lumileds altogether, while Lumileds employees will own the remaining 3.5 percent.

Lumileds had sales of $324 million and operating profit of $83 million over the last 12 months, Philips said.

Agilent said the divestitures and other actions will enhance its focus on measurement operations while creating value for shareholders.

The company said it will use the cash proceeds for a $4 billion share repurchase program, and it will call its $1.15 billion convertible debt. The repurchase will begin immediately, while the call is expected to cut its outstanding shares by 36 million.

The company said it plans to cut its global infrastructure costs by $450 million and eliminate about 1,300 in related jobs through the divestiture and spin-off, as well as attrition and a work force reduction. Agilent did not disclose in a press release how many of the jobs would be eliminated through direct cuts.

Agilent said it expects the restructuring to be mostly completed by the middle of fiscal 2006, while the divestitures are expected to close by Oct. 31, subject to regulatory approval and other closing conditions. The company said it anticipates about $200 million in restructuring costs to be largely offset by proceeds of its asset sales.

Agilent also said fiscal third-quarter earnings rose to $104 million, or 21 cents per share, from $100 million, or 20 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding charges, tax benefits and other items, the company earned $142 million, or 28 cents per share, down from $154 million, or 30 cents per share, last year.

Revenue fell 10 percent to $1.69 billion from $1.89 billion last year, just below its expectations of $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion.

Analysts expected the company to earn 26 cents per share on revenue of $1.74 billion.

Agilent said it still expects fiscal fourth-quarter operating earnings of 33 cents to 38 cents per share, excluding items, on revenue of $1.79 billion to $1.89 billion. Analysts expect a fourth-quarter profit of 34 cents per share on $1.85 billion in revenue.

Kodak posts net loss, sets more job cuts

2005-07-20T06:26:00.000-07:00

iWon Money & Investing

Kodak posts net loss, sets more job cuts

Wednesday July 20, 9:14 AM EDT

By Franklin Paul

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) on Wednesday posted a quarterly net loss, hurt by restructuring costs, and said it would cut up to 10,000 more jobs as it tries to adjust to a faster-than-expected decline in film sales by speeding its move into digital products.

Excluding one-time items, Kodak posted a profit that was sharply below Wall Street estimates, and its shares fell 10.4 percent.

"Clearly, operations are on a downward slide at Kodak," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management, which has $800 million in assets under management.

"In traditional film, not only is the market in decline, but they face very aggressive price competition. Also, the digital camera (market) is not growing like it had been," Ghriskey added.

The world's top maker of photographic film posted a second-quarter net loss of $146 million, or 51 cents a share, compared with a net profit of $136 million, or 46 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose to $3.69 billion from $3.46 billion last year, although sales of traditional film-based products and services fell 15 percent to $1.843 billion.

Excluding costs related to restructuring and other one-time items, Rochester, New York-based Kodak had a profit of 53 cents a share.

On that basis, analysts had forecast a profit of 79 cents a share, on revenue of $3.65 billion.

Shares of Kodak fell $2.99 to $25.75 in pre-market trade on the Inet electronic network, down from a close of $28.74 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

FILM SALES OFF SHARPLY

Kodak Chief Executive Antonio Perez, who assumed the position in June, said sales of traditional film and related services are declining faster than expected. U.S. consumer film industry volumes sold at stores fell by about 25 percent in the quarter compared with the prior year.

Sales of rolls of film and processing services remain important because Kodak is using the cash they generate to fund its switch to digital products such as cameras, docks and commercial printing.

"Our disappointing start in the first half of this year makes it clear that I need to make some changes, and make them now," Perez said in a statement.

Kodak, which in January 2004 had said it would cut its worldwide work force by up to 15,000 jobs, said it now plans to cut the work force by a total of 22,500 to 25,000 jobs.

Kodak at the end of 2004 had a worldwide work force of 54,800, down from 64,000 at the end of 2003.

The increased cuts will include about 7,000 manufacturing jobs and will result in total charges of $2.7 billion to $3 billion, up from expected charges of $1.3 billion to $1.7 billion announced originally, the company said.

Kodak said it also plans to trim its traditional manufacturing assets, including plants, factories and other equipment, to about $1 billion, compared with $2.9 billion in January 2004. The company, which has been closing factories since its restructuring began, did not detail if more plants would be closed.

Perez said the new cuts would save the company about $800 million on an annual basis.

At the same time, Kodak says its digital efforts are succeeding. Second-quarter digital product sales increased 43 percent to $1.84 billion, and digital revenue in June exceeded traditional film revenue on a monthly basis for the first time.

Shares of Kodak closed at $28.75 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. Although the stock has bounced back in recent weeks, it is still down about 10 percent this year, and is underperforming the Standard and Poor's 500 index by about 13 percent so far this year.

©2005 Reuters Limited.

Hewlett-Packard to Cut 14,500 Jobs

2005-07-19T05:30:00.000-07:00

iWon News

Hewlett-Packard to Cut 14,500 Jobs

Jul 19, 7:34 AM (ET)

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) - Personal-computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. on Tuesday said it will cut 14,500 jobs, about 10 percent of its full-time staff, as part of a restructuring plan designed to save $1.9 billion annually and boost business performance.

The job cuts will occur over the next six quarters, the Palo Alto-based company said.

Most of the job cuts will come in support functions - such as information technology, human resources and finance - and the rest will be made inside business units.

The company said job cuts in sales positions will be minimal, and there will be little change to the headcount in research and development.

HP said it will offer a voluntary retirement program to longer-serving employees based in the United States.

The company also said that as of January 2006, it will freeze the pension and retiree medical-program benefits of current employees who do not meet defined criteria based on age and years of company service. Instead, HP plans to boost its matching contribution to most employees' 401(k) plans to 6 percent from 4 percent.

The company said these changes won't affect benefits currently received by retirees or eligible employees who are longer-serving and close to retirement age. Existing employees will retain benefits they have already earned.

Beginning in fiscal 2007, HP expects to save about $1.9 billion a year from the restructuring, made up of $1.6 billion in labor costs and $300 million in benefits savings. In fiscal 2006, HP expects savings of between $900 million and $1.05 billion from the restructuring.

The company said about half the savings will be used to "offset market forces" or be reinvested in the business to strengthen HP's competitiveness. The remainder is anticipated to add to operating profit.

HP plans to record pretax restructuring charges of about $1.1 billion over the next six quarters, beginning in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2005. This excludes a previously announced $100 million restructuring charge to be taken in the third quarter.

HP also plans to dissolve its Customer Solutions Group, which is responsible for sales to small and medium-size businesses and public-sector customers. It will merge the sales function directly into three individual business units - Technology Solutions Group, Imaging and Printing Group and Personal Systems Group.

Following the dissolution of CSG, Michael J. Winkler, 60, will retire as executive vice president of CSG, after nearly 10 years at HP and Compaq.

Winn-Dixie to cut 22,000 jobs

2005-06-21T17:17:00.000-07:00

These stories continue to disturb me. Here's 22000 more people that are out of work. Every time I see a story like this, I wonder how many children will go hungry and how many people had an alternative income source.

iWon Money & Investing

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Bankrupt grocery store operator Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. (WNDXQ) on Tuesday said it would sell or close 326 stores and cut 22,000 jobs, about 28 percent of its work force, as it tries to improve profits.

Winn-Dixie currently operates 901 stores in nine states and 12 in the Bahamas.

After the changes are made the company will operate about 587 stores in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Mississippi, and the Bahamas.

The company expects to have about $7.5 billion in annual revenue after disposing of the stores, down 25 percent from its current $10 billion, the company said.

Winn-Dixie also plans to cut personnel at headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida, and sell its dairy plants, its pizza plant in Montgomery, Alabama, and its beverage plant in Fitzgerald, Georgia.

The company also will be exiting 3 of its 10 distributing centers located in Atlanta, Charlotte and Greenville, South Carolina.

The company cut its labor force by 10 percent in 2004.

Winn-Dixie said it is looking for buyers for the stores, distribution centers and manufacturing plants that it will no longer operate. Stores that cannot be sold will be closed, it said.

Company representatives could not be reached for comment, but a recorded statement for investors stated that today's announcement was part of a company-wide "reorganization to focus resources on markets where (the company) has the strongest presence."

The company, founded in 1925, filed for bankruptcy in February after it dominated markets across the U.S. South and in the Bahamas. It lost market share to rivals such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) and Publix Super Markets.

Heirs of company founder William Davis own about one third of Winn-Dixie shares.

The company's stock last traded at about $1.12.

©2005 Reuters Limited.

Programming Jobs Losing Luster in U.S.

2005-06-19T08:29:00.000-07:00

iWon News

Jun 19, 7:21 AM (ET)

By RACHEL KONRAD

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - As an eager freshman in the fall of 2001, Andrew Mo's career trajectory seemed preordained: He'd learn C++ and Java languages while earning a computer science degree at Stanford University, then land a Silicon Valley technology job.

The 22-year-old Shanghai native graduated this month with a major in computer science and a minor in economics. But he no longer plans to write code for a living, or even work at a tech company.

Mo begins work in the fall as a management consultant with The Boston Consulting Group, helping to lead projects at multinational companies. Consulting, he says, will insulate him from the offshore outsourcing that's sending thousands of once-desirable computer programming jobs overseas.

More important, Mo believes his consulting gig is more lucrative, rewarding and imaginative than a traditional tech job. He characterized his summer programming internships as "too focused or localized, even meaningless."

"A consulting job injects you into companies at a higher level," he said. "You don't feel like you're doing basic stuff."

Mo's decision to reboot his nascent career reflects a subtle but potentially significant industry shift. As tens of thousands of engineering jobs migrate to developing countries, many new entrants into the U.S. work force see info tech jobs as monotonous, uncreative and easily farmed out - the equivalent of 1980s manufacturing jobs.

The research firm Gartner Inc. (IT) predicts that up to 15 percent of tech workers will drop out of the profession by 2010, not including those who retire or die. Most will leave because they can't get jobs or can get more money or job satisfaction elsewhere. Within the same period, worldwide demand for technology developers - a job category ranging from programmers people who maintain everything from mainframes to employee laptops - is forecast to shrink by 30 percent.

Gartner researchers say most people affiliated with corporate information technology departments will assume "business-facing" roles, focused not so much on gadgets and algorithms but corporate strategy, personnel and financial analysis.

"If you're only interested in deep coding and you want to remain in your cubicle all day, there are a shrinking number of jobs for you," said Diane Morello, Gartner vice president of research. "Employers are starting to want versatilists - people who have deep experience with enterprise-wide applications and can parlay it into some larger cross-company projects out there."

Career experts say the decline of traditional tech jobs for U.S. workers isn't likely to reverse anytime soon.

The U.S. software industry lost 16 percent of its jobs from March 2001 to March 2004, the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute found. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that information technology industries laid off more than 7,000 American workers in the first quarter of 2005.

"Obviously the past four or five years have been really rough for tech job seekers, and that's not going to change - there are absolutely no signs that there's a huge boom about to happen where techies will get big salary hikes or there will be lots of new positions opening for them," said Allan Hoffman, the tech job expert at career site Monster.com.

Not everyone from the class of 2005 thinks programming is passe, and companies are always eager to hire Americans who can write great code - the type of work that, in recent years, produced innovations including file-sharing software at Napster and search engine tech at Google.

But even the most dedicated techies are entering the profession with less zeal than their predecessors.

The erosion of "deep code" and other technology jobs in the next decade is creating a high-stakes game of musical chairs for geeks, Silicon Valley recruiters say.

Dimming career prospects have been particularly ego-bruising for people who entered the profession during the late '90s, when employers doled out multiple job offers, generous starting salaries, and starting bonuses including stock options and Porsches.

"The current situation is getting back to the '70s and '80s, where IT workers were the basement cubicle geeks and they weren't very well off," said Matthew Moran, author of the six-month-old book "Information Technology Career Builder's Toolkit: A Complete Guide to Building Your Information Technology Career in Any Economy."

"They were making an honest living but weren't anything more than middle-class people just getting by," Moran said.

Thousands of U.S. companies have opened branches or hired contractors in India, China and Russia, transforming a cost-saving trick into a long-term business strategy. Offshoring may be a main factor in eroding enthusiasm for engineering careers among American students, creating a vast supply of low-wage labor in eastern Europe and Asia and driving down worldwide wages.

The average computer programmer in India costs roughly $20 per hour in wages and benefits, compared to $65 per hour for an American with a comparable degree and experience, according to the consulting firm Cap Gemini Ernst & Young.

According to the most recent data from the National Science Foundation, 1.2 million of the world's 2.8 million university degrees in science and engineering in 2000 were earned by Asian students in Asian universities, with only 400,000 granted in the United States.

U.S. graduates probably shouldn't think of computer programming or chemical engineering as long-term careers but it's "not all gloom and doom," said Albert C. Gray, executive director of the National Society of Professional Engineers.

He says prospects are good for aeronautic, civil and biomedical engineers, the people who design and build artificial organs, life support devices and machines to nurture premature infants.

"In this country, we need to train our engineers to be at the leading edge," Gray said. "That's the only place there's still going to be engineering work here."

At Stanford, career experts are urging engineering and science majors to get internships and jobs outside of their comfort zones - in marketing, finance, sales and even consulting.

They suggest students develop foreign language skills to land jobs as cross-cultural project managers - the person who coordinates software development between work teams in Silicon Valley and the emerging tech hub of Bangalore, India, for example.

Stanford listed 268 job postings in its computer science jobs database in the spring quarter - roughly double the number from last year.

But that doesn't necessarily indicate a plethora of traditional tech jobs. About half of the new postings would prefer applicants who speak at least two languages and many were for management-track positions, said Beverley Principal, assistant director of employment services at Stanford.

"When they're first hired at the entry level, just out of school, people can't always become a manager or team leader," Principal said. "But many employers see these people moving into management roles within two years. They need to know how to step into these roles quickly."

GM Plans to Cut 25,000 U.S. Jobs by 2008

2005-06-07T17:36:00.000-07:00

GM Plans to Cut 25,000 U.S. Jobs by 2008

Jun 7, 7:16 PM (ET)

By JOHN PORRETTO

(AP) Richard Wagoner, chairman and CEO of General Motors, speaks at the Annual Meeting of Stockholders...
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WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - General Motors Corp. (GM) plans to close plants and eliminate 25,000 manufacturing jobs in the United States by 2008 in an attempt to restore profitability at the world's largest automaker, its chairman said Tuesday as he fended off calls for his resignation.

Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner told shareholders at GM's 97th annual meeting in Delaware that the capacity and job cuts should generate annual savings of roughly $2.5 billion. About one out of six jobs in the United States will be eliminated.

The United Auto Workers union responded that GM's ability to make the cuts will depend on worker attrition rates and its contract negotiations with the union. GM's UAW contract expires in 2007.

"The UAW is not convinced that GM can simply shrink its way out of its current problems. What's needed is an intense focus on rebuilding GM's U.S. market share, and the way to get there is by offering the right product mix of vehicles with world-class design and quality," said UAW Vice President Richard Shoemaker, who directs negotiations with GM.

Wagoner revealed the cutbacks as he laid out a strategy to invigorate GM's North American operations, its biggest and most troubled, amid lackluster sales of its highly profitable trucks and sport utility vehicles, which have been hurt by high fuel prices.

GM posted a $1.1 billion loss in the first quarter and its U.S. market share has fallen to 25.4 percent from 27 percent a year ago, as customers increasingly are choosing models from Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY) and other Asian automakers.

The cuts would be on top of earlier reductions that pared GM's U.S. workforce from 177,000 hourly and salaried employees at the end of 2000 to 150,000 at the end of last year, according to figures provided by GM.

"Let me say up front that our absolute top priority is to get our largest business unit back to profitability as soon as possible," said Wagoner, who added that with $20 billion in cash and short-term investments, GM is in no danger of going out of business anytime soon.

"But if we don't fundamentally get at these structural issues - whether it's gee-whiz, exciting products, or the right distribution, or a solid cost structure in every element of business - the risk of continually being weakened over time is real," he said.

(AP) Traffic lines up to leave the General Motors Corp. Lansing Grand River assembly plant following the...
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Wagoner wouldn't say which plants are in danger of being closed, but David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., said the most likely targets are several older plants. Those include facilities in Janesville, Wis.; Doraville, Ga.; Oklahoma City and Pontiac, Mich., he said. The Janesville plant was built in 1919 and the Doraville plant was built in 1947. The other two plants were built in the 1970s.

Cole said GM probably won't close plants that have recently undergone costly renovations, such as the plant in Lordstown, Ohio, that recently got $1 billion worth of upgrades.

Disgruntled shareholders, who saw the value of their shares fall to a 10-year low in April, gave Wagoner an earful on Tuesday.

"This company is sick," said James Dollinger, a Buick salesman from Flint, Mich., who angrily told Wagoner he should resign.

Fellow shareholder John Lauve compared the GM leadership to officers aboard the Titanic as it headed for an iceberg. "The Titanic sank because the directors ignored the warnings," said Lauve, who criticized everything from gas gauges in GM vehicles to the company's health-care cards. "We need to excel at the basics."

(AP) Graphic provides background on General Motors North American operations. (AP Graphic)
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Fending off such criticism, Wagoner outlined four priorities: increasing spending on new cars and trucks; clarifying the role of each of GM's eight brands; intensifying efforts to reduce costs and improve quality; and continuing to search for ways to reduce skyrocketing health-care expenses.

He noted that health-care expenses add $1,500 to the cost of each GM vehicle. This puts GM at a "significant disadvantage versus foreign-based competitors," Wagoner said, echoing comments made by the Standard and Poor's and Fitch ratings services after both reduced the company's bond rating to "junk" status last month.

Wagoner described as intense the status of ongoing negotiations with the United Auto Workers and other unions on ways to significantly reduce GM's health-care costs. GM's health-care tab for its 1.1 million current and former workers and their families is more than $5 billion a year and rising.

"We have not reached an agreement at this time, and to be honest, I'm not 100 percent that we will," said Wagoner, the CEO since 2000 and chairman since 2003.

To date, the UAW has indicated it won't reopen its contract, which expires in 2007, and agree to pick up a larger share of soaring health-care costs. Messages left Tuesday with the UAW were not returned.

(AP) Robert Lutz, vice chairman, Global Product Development of General Motors, listens as GM Chairman...
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Wagoner said another part of the company's strategy is to make GM's eight brands more distinct from each other. Chevrolet and Cadillac will continue to have full vehicle lineups, he said, but the company's other six brands - GMC, Pontiac, Buick, Saturn, Saab and Hummer - will be more tightly focused on niche markets.

"In some cases, such as Pontiac and Buick, it will mean fewer but stronger entries in the future," Wagoner said.

Wagoner said the company also plans to put less emphasis on incentives and focus more effort on selling GM vehicles in top markets like New York, Miami and Los Angeles.

General Motors shares rose 31 cents, or 1 percent, to close at $30.73 on the New York Stock Exchange.

That is near the $31 a share offer made by billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian for 28 million GM shares. Kerkorian's offer expired Tuesday; a spokeswoman for Kerkorian's investment firm, Tracinda Corp., said the results would be announced Wednesday.

(AP) General Motors stockholder Evelyn Davis expresses displeasure with the leadership at GM during the...
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Wagoner said it was vital for the company to cut costs by improving efficiency at its manufacturing plants. He said plant closings and idlings in recent months will reduce assembly capacity in North America from 6 million vehicles in 2002 to 5 million by the end of this year.

According to the Harbour Report, an annual productivity survey released last week, GM's 30 North American plants operated at an average of 85 percent of their capacity in 2004, compared to an average of 107 percent for Toyota's six North American plants.

GM already shut a factory in Linden, N.J., in April and a factory in Baltimore in May, affecting about 2,000 employees.

---

AP Auto Writer Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit and Delaware correspondent Randall Chase contributed to this report.

---

On the Net,

General Motors Corp.: http://www.gm.com

Visteon to cut plants, workers in deal with Ford

2005-05-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

Visteon to cut plants, workers in deal with Ford

Wednesday May 25, 2:33 PM EDT

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co.(F) said on Wednesday it would spend up to $1.15 billion to bail out auto parts supplier Visteon Corp.(VC), allowing its former subsidiary to slash costs by unloading unprofitable plants and 17,400 highly paid employees.

Shares of Visteon, which was spun off from Ford in 2000 but has struggled to post profits, rose 13.7 percent.

The agreement would transform Visteon into a company with annual revenues of $11.4 billion, down from $18.7 billion in 2004, with Ford accounting for about 50 percent of its revenue, down from about 70 percent currently.

Ford, which continues to lose vital U.S. market share and is battling rising costs and the impact of a debt ratings downgrade to junk status, will take over 24 plants in the United States and Mexico take back the 17,400 workers employed by Visteon under a lease agreement.

"For Visteon, it's a clear positive. It provides them with the support necessary to restructure their businesses," Fitch Ratings managing director Mark Oline said.

For Ford, however, the agreement was seen negatively. The No. 2 U.S. automaker said the agreement would result in operating losses for the 2005 fourth quarter of $125 million and of $200 million to $300 million for the 2006 full year, on top of special charges.

"I would say this is not a good thing, clearly," Ford Chief Financial Officer Don Leclair told reporters and analysts in a conference call. "It's a tough situation that we're in."

Leclair said there was no way the automaker could have foreseen the current problems facing the parts industry and Ford when it spun off Visteon in 2000.

"It's a change in plans, clearly, but that's something that's required because of the change in circumstances," Leclair said.

Ford is doing in now what it should have done years before to prepare Visteon for its initial public offering, Merrill Lynch analyst John Casesa said in a note to clients.

"The deal at this stage clearly looks very positive for (Visteon) and negative for Ford," he added.

Credit rating agencies Standard & Poor's and Fitch said their ratings on Ford were not affected by the proposal. Fitch revised its outlook on Visteon to positive from negative and said it may raise its rating on Visteon, saying that if the agreement is approved Visteon "would have a dramatically improved operating profile and capital structure."

VISTEON TO DOWNSIZE

Visteon said it would transfer 20 plants in the United States and four in Mexico to an entity to be owned by Ford. Ford expects eventually to sell most of the plants, which mainly produce powertrain, chassis and glass products.

The 17,400 workers, whom Visteon leases from Ford to work at many of its plants at much higher wages than its own employees, would be returned to the automaker.

The automaker said it plans to sell most of the plants eventually and to buy out about 5,000 of the union workers.

The United Auto Workers union has already recommended that its members accept the agreement, which is expected to close by the end of September.

Visteon expects a net gain of from $450 million to $650 million depending on the assets that are transferred.

Visteon, which had a net loss in 2004 of $1.5 billion, said more restructuring will be needed over the next several years.

Shares of Visteon rose 84 cents to $7.11 near midday on the New York Stock Exchange, after earlier hitting a 5-month high of $8.20. Shares of Ford were down 3 cents at $9.95.

Ford expects special charges of $450 million to $650 million in 2005 and from $300 million to $500 million in 2005 through 2009. It expects annual material savings of $600 million to $700 million by the end of the decade.

Ford will also relieve Visteon of its $2 billion liability for retiree health-care and life insurance benefits under a Ford-UAW agreement.

Ford will provide a secured $250 million loan to Visteon to repay debt due on Aug. 1 and will pay up to $550 million of Visteon's restructuring costs. The loan will be repaid when the deal closes.

Ford will also receive warrants to buy up to 25 million shares of Visteon stock at $6.90 per share.

The memorandum is subject to approval by the UAW and regulators. A final agreement is expected to be signed by Aug. 1, Visteon said.

The UAW has scheduled a vote by its members on the proposal, starting on May 31.

©2005 Reuters Limited.

First Post In A New Blog

2005-05-18T21:59:00.000-07:00

This is the first post. I'll be posting bad news from corporate news stories. It should be easy to find plenty of stories since I've noticed quite a few stories lately.