Briefly: Business news
Intel delays sale of new Pentium 4
San Jose, Calif. In the latest misstep for the world’s largest chip maker, Intel Corp. said a faster version of its flagship Pentium 4 microprocessor will not be available by the end of the year as previously promised.
The Santa Clara-based company told PC makers this week that the 4-gigahertz chip will not ship until the first quarter of 2005. Currently, the fastest model runs at 3.6 gigahertz.
It’s been a rough year for Intel products, even though profits nearly doubled in the second quarter, and it’s on track to set record sales in the current quarter.
Its current Pentium 4, unveiled in February, has been criticized for not raising the performance bar over previous processors.
In May, it canceled the next-generation Pentium 4 so that it could focus on more promising technologies. In June, a manufacturing glitch forced a small recall of chipsets that handle communications between the processor and the rest of the system.
In July, it said design problems would delay the release of mobile computer chipset dubbed Alviso until next year. And it said better-than-expected performance in manufacturing of Pentium 4s resulted in an inventory buildup.
Shares of Intel rose 14 cents to close at $24.38 Friday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Idaho bank’s earnings 52 cents per share
Coeur d’Alene Idaho Independent Bank reported second quarter earnings of $1.3 million, or 52 cents per share, on Friday – figures that were virtually unchanged from the second quarter of 2003.
For the first six months of the year, IIB reported net income of $2.42 million, up slightly from $2.41 million during the first half of 2003.
IIB Chairman Jack Gustavel said he was pleased with the bank’s performance, given recent declines in the volume of residential real estate financing. The bank’s income related to real estate loan production dropped by $1 million during the first six months of the year, compared to the same period last year, but the bank’s net income remained roughly the same, Gustavel said.
Oil firm expected to pay tax bill
Moscow Russia expects the country’s largest oil company, Yukos, to pay its crushing back taxes bill within a month, a Justice Ministry official said Friday in an apparent indication that Yukos’ feared collapse isn’t imminent.
Yukos’ tax troubles – it owes $3.4 billion for the year 2000 alone – alarmed world oil markets this week as the company warned it could be forced to halt production and exports in early August.
The company says the bill could drive it into bankruptcy, and many analysts suspect the government aims to dismantle the company and sell the pieces into Kremlin-friendly hands.
But Andrei Belyakov, head of the Russian bailiffs’ service, was quoted as saying by the news agency Interfax that Yukos has paid 20 percent of the debt and “the remaining part st be paid off within the period of a month.”
Belyakov said after a meeting with Yukos vice president Frank Rieger that the company had expressed the desire to pay the remainder as soon as possible. But assets that Yukos could sell to raise money are frozen under a court order, and it was unclear how the company could pay the sum; Yukos has said it does not have enough ready cash to meet the bill.
Port of Portland sets shipping records
Portland The Port of Portland said Friday it broke records for total volume, containers and grain exports for the most recent fiscal year.
The port shipped nearly 12.4 million tons of cargo through its terminals during the 2003-04 fiscal year ending June 30, an 8.2 percent increase over the previous fiscal year.
The largest volume increase was for bulk grains, with nearly 3.6 million tons exported, up 24.6 percent. Port officials said strong demand from China for wheat and barley boosted the volume.
The port also broke its record for container movements, up 8.4 percent to 326,244 20-foot equivalent units.
Target Corp. selling Mervyn’s subsidiary
Minneapolis Target Corp. announced Thursday it is selling its Mervyn’s business unit and retail stores to an investment consortium for roughly $1.65 billion in cash.
Under terms of the agreement, Target will sell its Mervyn’s retail subsidiary, including 257 Mervyn’s stores and four distribution centers, to an investment consortium, which includes Sun Capital Partners, Inc.; Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.; and Lubert-Adler/Klaff and Partners, L.P.
In addition, Target will sell Mervyn’s credit card receivables, totaling approximately $475 million, to GE Consumer Finance, a unit of General Electric Co.
Mervyn’s, a middle-market department store with 257 stores in 13 states, will continue to operate as an independent company from its headquarters in Hayward, Calif.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval. Target said the sale is expected to result in an estimated gain of about $270 million pretax, or about 18 cents per share, in the third quarter.
The sale was announced after the stock market closed Thursday. Target shares closed at $44.33, up 30 cents or 68 percent, on the New York Stock Exchange.