Citigroup Inc. says it's heading back toward sustained profitability after two years that saw the bank lose billions of dollars and be bailed out by the government. CEO Vikram Pandit said Thursday that Citigroup has overhauled its operations, shed money-losing businesses in the U.S. and shifted its focus overseas.
2010-03-09 Cisco says new router 12 times faster than rivals'
Cisco Systems Inc. announced Tuesday that it is upgrading one of its biggest pieces of networking hardware, a router that's used to power the most trafficked parts of the Internet backbone.
Routers play an important role as the Internet's traffic cops, shunting packets of data to their destinations. Those placed at the Internet's backbone -- the main arteries for traffic -- need the most capacity given the amount of data passing through. These machines are known as core routers, and Cisco competes in this market with Juniper Networks Inc., which has updated its products more recently than Cisco.
2010-03-08 Toyota disputes critic who blames electronics
Toyota, dogged by millions of recalls and claims that it still has not fixed its safety problems, took its strongest step yet Monday to silence critics who blame faulty electronics for runaway cars and trucks.
Toyota assembled a group of experts to refute studies by an Illinois professor who revved Toyota engines simply by short-circuiting the wiring. Toyota's experts say the experiments were done under conditions that would never happen on the road.
2010-03-07 STIMULUS WATCH: Less stimulus for minority firms
Hispanic and black businesses are receiving a disproportionately small number of federal stimulus contracts, creating a rising chorus of demands for the Obama administration to be more inclusive and more closely track who receives government-financed work.
Latinos and blacks have faced obstacles to winning government contracts long before the stimulus. They own 6.8 and 5.2 percent of all businesses, respectively, according to census figures. Yet Latino-owned business have received only 1.7 percent of $46 billion in federal stimulus contracts recorded in U.S. government data, and black-owned businesses have received just 1.1 percent.
2010-03-06 GM to pay Girsky $5M after getting promotion
General Motors Co. reports it's paying Stephen J. Girsky, newly named vice chairman of corporate strategy and business development, $5 million in a package that includes salary and stock.
GM said in a regulatory filing Friday that Girsky, a longtime Wall Street auto analyst named to the automaker's board of directors last July, will receive a $500,000 annual salary and $4.5 million in stock over time.
2010-03-02 Buyouts lift stocks to highest level since Jan.
Major stock indexes rose to their highest levels in more than a month Monday after corporate buyouts raised hopes about the economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 79 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 index, the basis of many mutual funds, erased its losses for the year. The Nasdaq composite index also turned positive for 2010 after a Japanese drugmaker said it was pursuing OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. and SanDisk Corp. raised its revenue forecast.
2010-03-02 Toyota's pain is rivals' sales gain in February
Toyota's pain is its rivals' gain.
The auto industry reported higher U.S. sales in February and scooped up customers from the Japanese automaker, which has been struggling with a massive safety recalls.
Toyota Motor Corp. said its U.S. sales fell 9 percent last month, making it the only automaker to sell fewer cars and trucks in February. Ford, GM, Nissan and Honda all reported double-digit sales growth last month compared with a year earlier, at the depth of the recession. The gains may have been even higher without the blizzards that slowed traffic to showrooms.