National Association of Women in Construction Plan
Conference
National Association of Women in Construction Plan Conference
Morgan Hill – The National Association of Women in Construction will be conducting its Annual Planning Conference Oct. 21 at the Ramada in Morgan Hill. The group’s core purpose is to enhance the success of women in the construction industry.
Registration for Saturday’s event is $85 with lunch included. A tour of Peterson Caterpillar is available for Friday afternoon. Details: Lindamar Mirassou, 778-3933.
Apple Fourth Quarter Profit Rises 27 Percent
San Jose – Apple Computer Inc. said Wednesday its fiscal fourth-quarter profit rose 27 percent, well past analyst expectations, boosted by sizzling sales of its iPod music players and Macintosh computers.
Apple earned $546 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30, or 62 cents per share. That compared with net income of $430 million, 50 cents per share, in the same period last year.
Revenue for the quarter totaled $4.84 billion, a 32 percent jump from $3.68 billion last year.
The average estimate by analysts was for earnings of 51 cents per share on sales of $4.66 billion, according to Thomson Financial.
Apple’s iPod-iTunes juggernaut has helped the company reap record profits in recent years, but some of the earnings might be eroded when Apple later restates some quarterly earnings due to earlier mishandling of stock options accounting.
The modified results could lead to a “significant adjustment,” Apple stated Wednesday.
CEO Steve Jobs apologized to shareholders and employees in early October after an internal probe uncovered irregularities in past stock option grants and raised “serious concerns” about two former officers. At the same time, the probe found no misconduct by the current management team.
AMD Earns 27 Cents Per Share in
Third Quarter
San Jose – Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the No. 2 computer chip maker behind Intel Corp., on Wednesday reported a 77 percent jump in earnings from last year. AMD benefited from record sales of mobile processors and the spin-off of its unprofitable flash memory business.
Sunnyvale-based AMD said after the market closed that net income for the quarter ended Oct. 1 was $134 million, or 27 cents per share, compared with $76 million, or 18 cents a share, in the same period last year.
Revenue was $1.33 billion, down from $1.52 billion last year. But AMD’s profit last year was depressed by the company’s unprofitable flash memory business, which was spun off in late 2005.
Excluding that business, AMD would have registered $1.01 billion in sales in the third quarter of last year, translating to a 32 percent sales increase this year.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting AMD to report, on average, earnings of 24 cents per share on $1.31 billion in revenue.
Blue Cross Agrees to Settle Patients’ Suits
Los Angeles – The state’s largest health insurer has agreed to settle claims it illegally dropped patients from their coverage plans after they got sick, according to a published report.
Several patients sued Blue Cross of California earlier this year claiming the company failed to pay their medical bills and canceled their coverage after authorizing treatment. The plaintiffs said they were left with hefty hospital bills, some exceeding $100,000.
The dollar amounts of the settlements remained confidential, but attorney William Shernoff, who represents many of the plaintiffs, said his clients wouldn’t have to worry about their medical bills ever again.
In exchange for the money, the patients said they’d drop allegations Blue Cross ended their coverage to avoid paying for treatment.
State law prohibits retroactive cancellations unless there is evidence that the person receiving treatment lied or failed to disclose a preexisting condition.
EBay Reports Profits Up 10 Percent
San Francisco – EBay Inc. reported Wednesday that third-quarter profit increased 10 percent from the same period last year, beating Wall Street’s moderate expectations and encouraging executives to raise earnings forecasts for the full year.
The San Jose-based online auction company earned $280.9 million, or 20 cents per share, for the three months ended Sept. 30, compared to $254.97 million, or 18 cents per share in the year-ago period.
Revenue for the third quarter totaled $1.45 billion, up 31 percent from last year’s $1.11 billion and at the high end of what Wall Street traders had expected.
