Business news in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“This is a major victory for TiVo, who will now focus on their legal efforts on potentially larger infringement claims against Google, Cisco and Time Warner Cable.”

Kevin Stadtler, principal of Stadtler Capital Management LLC Article, 1D

Agency backing Entergy’s grid plan

The Mississippi Public Utilities Staff has agreed to support Entergy Mississippi’s plans to join a Midwest transmission coordinator, Entergy Mississippi said Friday.

The Public Utilities Staff is an agency of state government in Mississippi but is separate from the Mississippi Public Service Commission.

Entergy Corp. and its subsidiary utilities, including Entergy Arkansas, have sought approval to join Carmel, Ind.-based Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, which coordinates the electricity grid in 13 Midwestern states.

Entergy Mississippi has gained support of several electric companies and agencies in the state for its proposal to join Midwest, Entergy Mississippi said. Hearings before the Mississippi Public Service Commission set for this month were waived and the commission will make a decision in the matter based on the written testimony, Entergy Mississippi said.

The Mississippi commission has not approved Entergy Mississippi’s move to Midwest, but the settlement with the Public Utilities Staff increases the prospects for approval, said David Cruthirds, a Houston regulatory lawyer in his “The Cruthirds Report” online newsletter.

The Arkansas Public Service Commission has not made a decision on whether Entergy Arkansas should join Midwest.

  • David Smith

Rates inch up at Treasury auction

WASHINGTON - Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills rose in Monday’s auction, with rates on three month bills climbing to the highest level since February.

The Treasury Department auctioned $32 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.110 percent, up from 0.105 percent last week. Another $28 billion in six month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.140 percent, up from 0.130 percent last week.

The three-month rate was the highest since three month bills averaged 0.115 percent on Feb. 27. The six month rate was the highest since these bills averaged 0.145 percent on Aug. 20.

The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,997.22, while a six-month bill sold for $9,992.92.

That would equal an annualized rate of 0.112 percent for the three-month bills and 0.142 percent for the six-month bills.

Separately, the Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable-rate mortgages, was unchanged at 0.18 last week, the same as the previous week.

  • The Associated Press

Apple sells 5 million iPhone 5s

NEW YORK - Apple Inc. said Monday that it had sold more than 5 million units of the iPhone 5 in the three days since its launch, fewer than analysts had expected.

Apple shares closed down $9.30, or 1.3 percent, at $690.79 in Monday trading. The shares are still close to their all-time high of $705.07, hit Friday as the phone went on sale in the U.S., Germany, France, Japan and five other countries.

The sales tally is a record for any phone, but it beats last year’s iPhone 4S launch by only a small margin. Apple said then that it sold 4 million phones in the first three days.

Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White expected Apple to sell 6 million to 6.5 million of the iPhone 5 in the first three days. He said the shortfall was largely because of limited supply. White said the phone was sold out at 80 to 85 percent of the U.S. Apple stores he and his team contacted Sunday evening, and the ones that were still available were mostly models for the Sprint wireless system.

Online delivery times have stretched to three to four weeks.

The phone will go on sale in 22 more countries Friday and in more than 100 countries by the end of the year.

  • The Associated Press

Demand quadruples builder’s profits

Lennar Corp., the third largest U.S. home builder by revenue, said Monday that fiscal third-quarter profit more than quadrupled as demand for new houses climbed.

Net income for the three months ended Aug. 31 rose to $87.1 million, or 40 cents a share, from $20.7 million, or 11 cents, a year earlier, the Miami-based company said in a statement. The average estimate of 19 analysts in a Bloomberg survey was for earnings of 28 cents a share.

Purchases of new homes in the United States have begun to rebound as low mortgage rates help lure buyers amid a tight supply of existing properties.

Revenue for the third quarter climbed to $1.1 billion from $820.2 million a year earlier. New orders rose 44 percent to 4,198 homes. Contract backlog, an indication of future sales, increased 79 percent to 4,513 homes. The average sales price of homes delivered jumped to $258,000 from $247,000 a year earlier.

  • Bloomberg News

Voice buyout excludes classified site

DENVER - The Village Voice is being sold, along with all of its affiliated free arts weeklies, but the deal excludes the online classified site Backpage.com, whose listings have drawn fire for promoting the illegal sex trade.

The buyout is being led by Scott Tobias, the chief operating officer of Village Voice Media Holdings LLC. Tobias will become the new organization’s chief executive.

He said he has lined up private financing to buy almost all of the Phoenix company’s assets, which include LA Weekly and SF Weekly, from the current owners, Jim Larkin and Michael Lacey.

Larkin and Lacey will keep ownership of Backpage.com. Terms were not disclosed Monday.

The purchase is being made by Voice Media Group, a new holding company based in Denver. The deal includes all 13 weeklies and their websites, the national sales arm and events such as LA Weekly’s Detour and New York’s Siren music festivals.

The deal also includes Westword in Denver; New Times in Phoenix, Miami and Broward, Fla.; Houston Press; Observer in Dallas; Riverfront Times in St. Louis; City Pages in Minneapolis and OC Weekly in southern California.

  • The Associated Press

Business, Pages 22 on 09/25/2012

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