On Monday December 6, 2010, 6:12 pm EST
Google opens e-book store
in challenge to Amazon
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) --
Google Inc. is making the leap from digital librarian to merchant in a
challenge to Amazon.com Inc. and its Kindle electronic reader.
The long-awaited Internet
book store, which opened Monday in the U.S., draws upon a portion of the 15
million printed books that Google has scanned into its computers during the
past six years.
About 4,000 publishers,
including CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster Inc., Random House Inc. and Pearson
PLC's Penguin Group, are also allowing Google to carry many of their recently
released books in the new store.
Ackman says he would
finance Barnes & Noble bid
NEW YORK (AP) -- Buying out
Barnes & Noble would give its much smaller rival, Borders Group, a bigger
and firmer stake in the digital world, but some analysts said combining the two
largest companies in the shrinking realm of traditional book selling could hurt
both -- perhaps irreparably.
Activist investor William
Ackman and his investment firm announced in a regulatory filing Monday that
they had offered to finance a $963 million bid by Borders for Barnes &
Noble Inc.
Both book sellers face
increasingly tough competition from much bigger merchants online and in stores,
including Amazon.com, Target Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. And both have said
they are relying for growth on electronic books and readers, a still-small
arena where another giant, Google Inc., launched its own bookstore Monday.
Read takes over a Pfizer
facing many difficulties
NEW YORK (AP) -- Pfizer
Inc. may be the world's biggest drugmaker, but new CEO Ian Read is taking
charge at a trying time for the company, and he will have to deal with a
declining share price, repeated failures of potential new products and
expirations of patents on key drugs.
Pfizer said Sunday that
Read is replacing Jeffrey Kindler, who was Pfizer's CEO for more than four
years. Read, 57, has worked at Pfizer for more than 30 years in a variety of
positions and countries.
While Kindler's exit came
as a surprise, analysts said the choice of Read indicates big changes are not
immediately in store for the company.
Democrats meet with Obama
over tax cuts deal
WASHINGTON (AP) --
President Barack Obama and Democratic lawmakers weighed a temporary cut in
Social Security taxes, eager to get a year-end agreement with Republicans to
extend expiring income tax cuts to all Americans and renew jobless benefits for
the long-term unemployed.
Officials familiar with the
discussions said the plan would reduce the payroll tax for workers from the
current 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. The proposal would replace a tax credit for
middle- and low-income workers that ends Dec. 31.
Extending that tax credit
was one of the provisions that the White House had wanted in any deal struck
with the GOP. But a cut in payroll taxes is expected to put more money in
workers pockets.
Court to look at huge
Wal-Mart sex bias lawsuit
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The
Supreme Court will consider whether to keep alive the largest job
discrimination case in U.S. history, a lawsuit against Wal-Mart that grew from
a half-dozen women to a class action that could involve billions of dollars for
more than a half million female workers.
Wal-Mart is trying to halt
the lawsuit, with the backing of many other big companies concerned about rules
for class-action cases -- those in which people with similar interests increase
their leverage by joining in a single claim.
Class actions against
discount seller Costco and the tobacco industry are among pending claims that
the high court's decision might alter.
'Operation Broken Trust'
targets financial fraud
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A
nationwide law enforcement crackdown targeting financial fraud has led to cases
against 343 criminal defendants involving $8.3 billion in estimated losses,
Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday.
"Operation Broken
Trust" is the first national effort of its kind aimed at a broad array of
investment fraud schemes. The 3 1/2-month campaign was organized by the Obama
administration's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.
The schemes that were
uncovered highlight "the pervasiveness of the threat," Shawn Henry,
the FBI's executive assistant director, told a news conference.
Eurozone says bailout funds
enough, for now
BRUSSELS (AP) -- Top
European officials insist that they have enough financial firepower to deal
with Europe's debt crisis -- but did not rule out increasing Europe's bailout
fund in the future.
Jean-Claude Juncker, who
chaired a meeting of the eurozone's 16 finance ministers, said Monday that
there wasn't any immediate need to increase the euro750 ($1 trillion) financial
backstop. The fund is for eurozone governments in danger of running out of
money.
That's despite this year's
bailouts of both Greece and Ireland, and fears that Portugal and Spain will
need a financial lifeline too.
Caution from Bernanke sends
stock indexes lower
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks
spent most of Monday in a funk brought on by cautious comments about the
economy from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Hopes for a compromise on
extending Bush-era tax cuts and unemployment benefits erased some of the
losses.
The Dow Jones industrial
average ended down 20 points, breaking a three-day winning streak from last
week. Stock indexes traded in a tight range all day and volume was light.
Stocks began the day on a
sour note after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the economic
recovery is still struggling to become "self-sustaining" without
government help.
Sprint to start phasing out
Nextel network in 2013
NEW YORK (AP) -- Sprint
Nextel Corp. said it will start phasing out the Nextel part of its network in
2013, a decision that follows near-constant subscriber losses since Sprint
bought Nextel in 2005.
The shutdown should be
complete in 2015. Sprint, the country's third-largest wireless carrier, had
said it would eventually shut down the aging Nextel network, but hadn't said
when until Monday.
Nextel's signature feature
is its fast push-to-talk function, which resembles a walkie-talkie. It once
made Nextel popular with outdoor workers such as construction crews. However,
the network doesn't support fast data transfers, making it unsuitable for smart
phones. Sprint plans to offer Nextel subscribers a push-to-talk function on the
Sprint network instead.
Gov't plans to sell 2.4B
shares of Citigroup stock
WASHINGTON (AP) (AP) -- The
government said it will sell its remaining shares of Citigroup common stock in
the latest effort to recoup costs from the $700 billion financial bailout.
The Treasury Department
said Monday that it will sell approximately 2.4 billion shares of Citigroup
Inc. common stock. The sale would begin immediately and would end when the
government determined that it had received an acceptable price for the shares.
Citigroup received $45
billion in taxpayer support in one of the largest bank rescues by the
government.
By The Associated Press
The Dow Jones industrial
average fell 19.90, or 0.2 percent, to close at 11,362.19. The index had been
down as many as 32 points earlier in the day.
Last week, strong reports
on home sales, retail spending and consumer confidence lifted the Dow 2.6
percent, its best weekly gain since hitting a 2010 high on Nov. 5. The Dow is
up 8.9 percent for the year.
The broader Standard &
Poor's 500 index lost 1.59, or 0.1 percent, to 1,223.12. The Nasdaq composite
index rose 3.46, or 0.1 percent, at 2,594.92.
Oil prices are at the
highest levels since October 2008. The two-week advance continued on Monday as
benchmark oil for January delivery rose 19 cents to settle at $88.96 a barrel
on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In other Nymex trading in
January contracts, heating oil lost 1.17 cents to settle at $2.4757 a gallon,
gasoline fell 1.04 cents to settle at $2.3417 a gallon and natural gas rose
13.9 cents to settle at $4.488 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent crude
added 3 cents to settle at $91.45 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.