Business news in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY “It is truly a complex mission to start a car production process which has been still for two and a half years.” Mattias Bergman, National Electric Vehicle Sweden acting president Article, 1D

Treasury delays weekly T-bill auction

The Treasury Department on Monday delayed the weekly auction of three-month and six-month Treasury bills because of an error that occurred while testing its auction system.

The auction scheduled for Monday will now take place today. Officials said that the delay was caused by an error that occurred during a systems test, impairing their ability to take bids.

Joyce Harris, a spokesman for the Bureau of Public Debt, said that it was extremely rare for the government to postpone a regularly scheduled auction of Treasury debt.

NLR Innovation Hub gets $251,000 grant

The Delta Regional Authority on Monday announced a $251,105 grant for the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub in North Little Rock.

The money will go toward facilities and operations at the Innovation Hub, which is a nonprofit organization that promotes entrepreneurship, according to a news release.

The award will help speed up the opening of the Argenta Innovation Center by funding facility renovations and program development, the news release states.

The $2.5 million center is the first stage of the Innovation Hub. The center will eventually offer education, training and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Fast-food strikes planned for 100 cities

NEW YORK - Fast-food workers in about 100 cities will walk off the job this Thursday, organizers said, which would mark the largest effort yet in their push for higher pay.

The actions are intended to build on a campaign that began about a year ago to call attention to the difficulties of living on the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, or about $15,000 a year.

The protests are part of a movement by labor unions, Democrats and other worker-advocacy groups to raise pay in low-wage sectors. Last month, President Barack Obama said he would back a Senate measure to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10.

Protesters are calling for $15 an hour, although many see the figure as a rallying point rather than a near-term possibility.

It’s not clear how large the turnout will be at any given location, or whether the walkouts will be enough to disrupt operations. Similar actions this summer had varying results, with some restaurants unable to serve customers and others unaffected.

  • The Associated Press

BlackBerry CEO: Company’s still alive

BlackBerry Ltd.’s new chief executive officer urged customers to stick with the company because it remains committed to technology that helps corporate clients manage mobile devices, including those made by competitors.

BlackBerry’s device-management business caters to iPhone and Android-based smartphone users and is no more expensive than rival firms, contrary to what competitors say, Chief Executive Officer John Chen said in a letter to clients. The company’s customer base is growing for such services, he said in the letter, which was posted Monday on the company’s “Inside BlackBerry” blog.

“We are very much alive, thank you,” said Chen, who took over as CEO of the Canadian smartphone maker last month. “We understand the realities of the enterprise mobility market better than anyone, and we’re in the game for the long term.”

Chen is seeking to reassure large business customers that the company will be there for them amid speculation that it might be broken up, with smartphone sales sliding and losses mounting. His hiring was announced Nov. 4 after the company canceled plans to be bought by a group led by Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. and taken private.

BlackBerry shares rose 8 cents, or 1.3 percent, to close Monday at $6.41. Through last week, the stock had dropped 47 percent this year.

Drugmaker to cut jobs in restructuring

NEW YORK - Forest Laboratories announced Monday that it plans to cut jobs as part of a plan to trim $500 million in costs over the next two years and will buy back at least $400 million in company stock to increase shareholder returns.

The drugmaker also agreed to pay $240 million for the U.S. marketing rights to Saphris, a Merck & Co. drug used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar mania.

The moves come less than three months after former Bausch & Lomb leader Brenton Saunders replaced longtime Chief Executive Officer Howard Solomon at the helm of the drugmaker. Shares of Forest Laboratories Inc.

rose $5.01, or 9.8 percent, to $56.32 Monday.

The New York company stated most of the spending cuts will be made by the end of March 2016. Forest said $110 million in savings will come from job cuts, but did not say how many positions would be cut. It had 5,800 employees as of March 31. The company did state it won’t make cuts to staff responsible for filing for approval of important late-stage drugs.

  • Bloomberg NewsJury selection starts in BP worker’s trial

NEW ORLEANS - Jury selection is underway in the Justice Department’s case against a former BP engineer charged with deleting text messages and voice mails about the company’s response to its huge 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dozens of potential jurors filled a New Orleans courtroom on Monday for the start of Kurt Mix’s federal trial.

Mix is charged with two counts of obstruction of justice. Prosecutors claim he deliberately deleted strings of text messages to and from a supervisor and a BP contractor to hamper a grand jury’s investigation of the spill.

The 52-year-old resident of Katy, Texas, is one of four current or former BP employees charged with crimes related to the nation’s worst offshore oil spill. His case is the first to be tried.

  • The Associated Press

Business, Pages 26 on 12/03/2013

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