Women's Microsoft suit dealt setback
Microsoft Corp. women engineers who claim discrimination in pay and promotions won't be allowed to pursue their lawsuit as a class action, in a major blow to the leading case against the male-dominated tech industry.
U.S. District Judge James Robart issued a sealed order Monday denying class certification, without elaborating. The Seattle judge said the ruling won't be made be public until both sides tell him what needs to be redacted, or kept private.
The denial deals a near-death blow to the lawsuit filed by three women on behalf of a proposed class of more than 8,630 high-level technical specialists. Class-action status would have given the women more leverage in pursuing their claims at trial or seeking a settlement. An appeal is likely.
Robart said at a June 11 hearing that the lawsuit had a "fatal" flaw in trying to prove that a uniform Microsoft corporate policy or action adversely affected women, a requirement for class actions.
-- Bloomberg News
U.S. new-home sales climb 6.7% in May
WASHINGTON -- Sales of new U.S. homes jumped 6.7 percent in May, with purchases in the South accounting for all of the monthly gains.
The Commerce Department said Monday that new homes sold last month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 689,000, up from 646,000 in April. The South reported monthly sales growth of 17.9 percent, while sales were flat in the Midwest and fell in the Northeast and West.
For the first five months of this year, new-home sales have risen 8.8 percent as a solid job market and shortage of existing homes on the market have increased demand. In a sign that buyers are eagerly seeking out properties among a diminished inventory, there was a 17.4 percent surge last month in the sale of homes before construction begins.
"With fewer buying options among existing homes, homebuyer demand is shifting towards new builds," said Ben Ayers, senior economist at the insurance company Nationwide.
Buyers are also facing additional pressures as home values are generally rising faster than incomes and average 30-year mortgage rates have risen to 4.57 percent from 3.90 percent a year ago. Both of these factors are increasing the monthly costs for repaying home loans.
-- The Associated Press
Advent buys GE gas-engine unit for $3.2B
General Electric Co. agreed to sell its industrial gas-engine business to Advent International for $3.25 billion, bolstering Chief Executive Officer John Flannery's plan to shed assets and reshape the struggling manufacturer.
The private-equity firm will acquire GE's Jenbacher and Waukesha engine brands and manufacturing sites in Austria, the U.S. and Canada, the companies said in a statement Monday. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
The sale of Distributed Power furthers Flannery's pledge to narrow GE's focus as he seeks to stem one of the deepest slides in the company's 126-year history. The CEO, who's also revamping the leadership and cutting costs, agreed last month to unload GE's locomotive division as part of an effort to sell $20 billion of assets.
Distributed Power, part of the GE division that also builds gas turbines and electrical equipment, produces heavy-duty engines that generate power and heat for industrial facilities. The business, which has about 3,000 employees, posted sales of $1.3 billion last year.
The on-site turbines also are used on college campuses as a way to keep buildings running when the grid goes dark. Increasingly, small gas turbines are seen as the backbone of microgrids that are reshaping the way communities get power because they can back up supplies from solar panels or battery systems.
-- Bloomberg News
Instagram's estimated worth tops $100B
Facebook Inc.'s Instagram is estimated to be worth more than $100 billion, if it were a stand-alone company, marking a 100-fold return for the app that was purchased in 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence.
The photo-sharing platform, which reached 1 billion monthly active users earlier this month, will likely help nudge Instagram revenue past $10 billion over the next 12 months, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jitendra Waral wrote in a report Monday. Instagram is attracting new users faster than Facebook's main site and is on track to exceed 2 billion users within the next five years, Waral said. While the social network already has surpassed that milestone, Instagram's audience is younger than its parent, making it more attractive to advertisers. And unlike Facebook, Instagram is still growing in the U.S.
Instagram could account for about 16 percent of Facebook's revenue over the next year, up from 10.6 percent last year, according to eMarketer data cited by Bloomberg Intelligence. The unit announced the addition of Instagram television, or IGTV, last week as an attempt to catalyze future growth. Most of Instagram's 2018 revenue growth will still likely come from its newsfeed ads, as the TV platform is still developing, Waral said.
-- Bloomberg News
General strike paralyzes Buenos Aires
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- A strike led by Argentina's largest union confederation has shut down much of the country's capital -- freezing public transportation, airlines, ports, schools, banks and government offices.
The General Labor Confederation is staging the 24-hour walkout to protest the economic austerity policies of President Mauricio Macri.
There has been widespread discontent over continuing high inflation, sharp rises in utility bills, layoffs of public workers and a cap on pay raises.
Many are also angry over the government's decision to seek credits from the International Monetary Fund, which many blame for part economic crises.
The Transportation Ministry says more than 70,000 airline passengers have been affected by the strike.
-- The Associated Press
Business on 06/26/2018