Business Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
MONEY MANAGEMENT
UBS LIKES AMERICAN STOCKS, SHUNS JAPANESE
UBS AG, the world’s biggest money manager, is betting against the crowd. The Zurich-based company is pessimistic about Japanese stocks because they are expensive given the outlook for economic growth and corporate profits. The American equity market offers better prospects, according to Jose Antonio Blanco, chief investment officer for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at UBS Global Asset Management.
– Bloomberg News
OIL
ONCE-POWERFUL YUKOS FACES DEMISE
Yukos Oil Company, once Russia’s largest oil company, faces the liquidation of its assets as bankruptcy hearings started yesterday in Moscow, more than two years after the arrest of the company’s chief executive officer. Yukos has been fighting for survival since 2003, when President Putin’s government jailed then-CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and started filing tax claims that now total more than $30 billion. Shares in the company have dropped 95% since Mr. Khodorkovsky’s arrest.
– Bloomberg News
INTERNET
VERIZON’S SUPERPAGES AGREES TO RESELL ADVERTISING ON GOOGLE
Verizon Communications’s Superpages.com agreed last week to resell advertising on Google’s search engine to small businesses that buy ads in its print and online directories.
– Dow Jones Newswires
FACEBOOK.COMSEEKS BUYOUT OFFERS FOR $2 BILLION
The group that founded Facebook.com, a Web site where students post profiles and socialize, has turned down a $750 million offer and hopes to net $2 billion in a sale, Business Week reported.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
WALL STREET
CITIGROUP’S FITZMAURICE TO RETIRE
Citigroup’s Chris Fitzmaurice, who helped Salomon Brothers recover from its 1991 Treasury trading scandal and rose to run the U.S. government bond desk, is retiring after 22 years with the bank and its predecessors.
– Bloomberg News
AUTOMOBILES
GM STARTS FIRING EMPLOYEES AT 30 U.S. LOCATIONS
General Motors Corporation, struggling after $10.6 billion in losses last year, started firing hundreds of its salaried employees yesterday at about 30 locations in America, part of a North American restructuring plan. Job cuts will occur throughout the year and are part of GM’s plan to reduce its salaried and contract workforce in America by about 7% in 2006, a GM spokesman, Robert Herta, said.
– Bloomberg News
