Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Friday, March 12, 1999
Oracle issues earnings warning
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Disappointed investors sent Oracle Corp.'s stock swiftly down today after the nation's top database software maker reported lower than expected third-quarter revenue growth and warned that earnings may be hurt in the near term.Late yesterday, Oracle reported earnings of 20 cents a share for the period ending Feb. 28. The results were above the 19 cents a share predicted by analysts polled by First Call Corp. and the 14 cents of a year earlier, adjusted for a stock split. Revenue rose 19 percent to $2.08 billion.
But the growth rate for the Redwood City, Calif.-based company was well below the 27 percent increases posted in the year-ago period and the second quarter.
Microsoft planning to restructure
REDMOND, Wash. -- Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, said it will soon announce a reorganization that's expected to create four groups based on customer service instead of the current three divisions based on technology.Chief Operating Officer Bob Herbold told shareholders in a meeting today that an announcement "will be coming in the near future. Microsoft is very good at reorganizing." The reorganization, which could come as early as next week, reflects Microsoft's efforts to intensify its focus on customers following a sweeping review of operations by President Steve Ballmer.
The four groups will be consumers; enterprises or corporate customers; software developers; and so-called knowledge workers, including telecommuters and home workers, analysts said.
Nike's factory proposal converts one critic
BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Nike Inc. is being praised by a once-vocal critic for its pledge to reveal the locations of its overseas factories and allow independent monitors to inspect them if the shoe giant's competitors agree to do the same."It's a very big deal, a big breakthrough," said Medea Benjamin, spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based labor rights group Global Exchange.
The group today also praised Nike for improving conditions at a Vietnam factory, although it said some concerns remain.
Japan's economy falls for 5th straight quarter
TOKYO -- Dampening hopes of a quick recovery, Japan's economy shrank for the fifth straight quarter in the final months of last year, the government said today.The announcement of the 0.8 percent drop in gross domestic product in the October-December quarter came as a government panel approved a $62.5 billion bailout package for Japan's debt-plagued banks. The Financial Reconstruction Commission, which oversees the cleanup of the banking industry, gave a green light to release the funds, the Dow Jones News Service reported. The money will go to some of the world's largest lenders, such as Sumitomo Bank and Industrial Bank of Japan Ltd. The measure is the cornerstone of a government plan to pull the country out of its worst recession since World War II.
U.S. producer prices dropped in February
WASHINGTON -- Falling prices for vegetables, heating oil and new cars in February helped produce the sharpest decline in more than a year in prices charged by factories, refineries and food processing plants.The Labor Department's Producer Price Index for finished goods fell a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent last month, the most in 13 months, largely reversing an unusually large 0.5 percent increase the month before, the department said today. Analysts had attributed the January gain, and a 0.4 percent increase in December, to a variety of special factors and February's bigger-than-expected drop reinforced their view that inflation pressures in the production process can scarcely be found.
In other news . . .
HOUSTON -- Compaq Computer Corp., the No. 1 personal computer maker, will have trouble meeting first-quarter profit estimates because of sluggish sales, industry analysts say.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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