AUTOMOTIVES

GM OFFERS BUYOUTS OF AS MUCH AS $140,000 General Motors Corporation offered a one-time buyout of up to $140,000 to a third of its union members and reached an agreement with its biggest supplier to entice thousands more workers to retire, helping avoid a strike that would cripple the automaker.

The buyouts and retirement incentives for about 141,000 employees at GM, the world’s largest automaker, and Delphi, the largest U.S. auto-parts maker, mark the biggest steps yet as the companies try to cut costs. GM lost $10.6 billion last year and Delphi went bankrupt as buyers flocked to models from Toyota Motor Corporation, which has lower costs and non-union labor in America.

– Bloomberg News

WALL STREET

MORGAN STANLEY EARNINGS RISE 17% Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest trader on Wall Street, said first-quarter earnings rose 17% as revenue from buying and selling stocks, bonds and commodities overcame a decline in the firm’s brokerage unit.

Net income in the three months ended February 28 climbed to $1.64 billion, or $1.54 a share, from $1.4 billion, or $1.29, a year earlier, Morgan Stanley said in a statement yesterday.The profit, Morgan Stanley’s second-best ever, exceeded the highest analyst estimate.

Revenue climbed 24% to $8.48 billion, buoyed by oil, electricity, and gas trading, and Morgan Stanley’s traditional strengths in equity and debt.The New Yorkbased firm failed to match Goldman Sachs Group, Lehman Brothers Holdings, and Bear Stearns, which reported record earnings, and Chief Executive Officer John Mack said in the statement that “we see substantial opportunities to further improve our performance.”

– Bloomberg News

ADVERTISING

INTERPUBLIC REPORTS A NET LOSS Interpublic Group swung to a net loss in the fourth quarter, from a profit a year earlier, as the ad-holding company continues to struggle with client losses and accounting problems.

The parent of ad agencies such as McCann Worldgroup and Foote Cone & Belding reported a fourth-quarter loss of $22.9 million, or 8 cents a share, compared with net income of $130.3 million, or 22 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Revenue fell 3.6% to about $1.9 billion. Interpublic has been afflicted in recent years by both accounting problems, which has sparked a long-running Securities and Exchange Commission probe, and an operational slump.

– Dow Jones Newswires

HEDGE FUNDS

FOUNDER OF HEDGE FUND FIRM SAYS RETURNS WILL WORSEN David Shaw, founder of the world’s largest hedge fund firm, said investment returns probably will worsen because of all the money pouring into the industry.

“There’s an enormous amount of capital now chasing a smaller amount of investment opportunities, so it’s made it easier for people to go into business but harder to make a profit once you’re there,” Mr. Shaw, 54, said in an interview at a conference at Stanford University.

“It’s a much more difficult environment” than when New York-based D.E. Shaw & Co. was started in 1988, he said.

– Bloomberg News

COMPENSATION

AMERICAN EXPRESS GIVES CHENAULT A 10% RAISE American Express Company, the no. 4 American credit-card issuer, gave Chief Executive Officer Ken Chenault a 10% raise last year as profit climbed by a fifth. Compensation for the 54-year-old CEO totaled $23.6 million, the New York-based company said yesterday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. His pay included a restricted stock award that the company valued at $9.24 million, up from a $3.03 million award in 2004.

– Bloomberg News