Intel raises dividend again despite market tech worries

Intel Corp. is confident enough in the stability of its moneymaking skills to raise its dividend by 15 percent, even as Wall Street braces for a bumpy ride for the technology industry.

The chipmaker’s announcement Friday comes on the heels of a downcast description of the technology market by Cisco Systems Inc. Many investors are worried that other technology companies are in line for a beating in the next several quarters and that the problems will spread to other industries.

Intel’s dividend increase, the fourth since the recession started in late 2007, is less a reflection of the company’s optimism about the market than a reminder of its unique advantages in the computing industry. It also underscores the fact that many large companies have been sitting on piles of cash for the past three years and have been pouring some of the money back into their dividends to appease skittish shareholders.

 

Exclusive brands help push Penney profit up for quarter

J.C. Penney reported Friday that its earnings rose 63 percent in the third quarter, as the department-store chain says it saw strong reception to new exclusive brands such as Liz Claiborne and MNG by Mango.

But the company’s gross profit margin slipped as the chain had to aggressively discount, sending shares down more than 3 percent.

The company also offered a solid profit outlook for the holiday quarter, though it acknowledged it will be heavily competitive. The company is pushing free shipping on orders of $69 and other come-ons. Like everyone else, Penney aims to steal customers from rivals at a time when overall spending still remains sluggish.

 

Newsweek plans to merge with Internet’s Daily Beast

Newsweek, a 77-year-old magazine that once helped set the national news agenda, is linking its future with a startup website just two years in the making.

Three months after agreeing to buy the money-losing weekly for $1, audio equipment magnate Sidney Harman has completed on-again, off-again negotiations to merge it with The Daily Beast.

It is not just a marriage between old and new media. Harman will also be getting magazine veteran Tina Brown as editor-in-chief of Newsweek. Brown, who was a co-founder of The Daily Beast, had led both Vanity Fair and The New Yorker before deciding to give Web publishing a try.

 

Rolls-Royce gets reprieve, but jet questions remain

Rolls-Royce Group PLC edged back from the brink Friday as investors accepted its assurances that a problem with its engines for the world’s largest airliner, the Airbus A380, was isolated and being repaired.

But the crisis appears far from over for the world’s second-largest civil aircraft engine maker. An Airbus executive suggested that Rolls-Royce knew about the problem before the midair disintegration of a Trent 900 engine last week.

And there are no answers yet on how much the incident will cost Rolls-Royce, particularly if the company is forced to pay compensation to affected airlines and undergo an overhaul of the faulty engine series.

 

– From news service reports