Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Thursday, April 27, 2000

GTE earnings rise 10 percent in quarter

IRVING, Texas -- GTE Corp., a local telephone company that is being acquired by Bell Atlantic Corp. for $88.3 billion, said first-quarter profit rose 10 percent on higher sales of data and wireless services.

Profit from operations increased to $796 million, or 82 cents a share, from $723 million, or 74 cents, a year earlier. The results matched Wall Street's expectations. Sales rose 9.8 percent to $6.1 billion from $5.56 billion. GTE, the parent of Hawaiian Tel, sold more wireless phones and sped up installations of fast digital subscriber line Internet connections. Sales from the company's U.S. wireless operations jumped 30 percent, while sales of data services at its Genuity unit rose 53 percent.

Xerox, Microsoft form joint venture

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Xerox Corp. and Microsoft Corp. formed a joint venture to sell software that protects copyrighted information such as books, movies and music from being duplicated once it's sent over the Internet. Xerox will have a majority stake in the company, to be called ContentGuard Inc., after a Xerox product that can limit the number of times a document can be downloaded and printed. Further terms weren't disclosed.

The move is part of Xerox Chief Executive Richard Thoman's effort to make better use of technology developed by the world's largest copier maker in Internet and electronic-commerce ventures. Microsoft, the largest software company, has been forming alliances to help develop software beyond Windows, its operating system that runs the majority of personal computers.

Mortgage rates fall to 8.13 percent

MCLEAN, Va. -- The average interest rate on a 30-year home mortgage fell to 8.13 percent this week from 8.16 percent last week, according to mortgage broker Freddie Mac. The average rate on a one-year adjustable mortgage rose to 6.77 percent this week from 6.76 percent last week. The average 15-year mortgage rate fell to 7.79 percent from 7.82 percent.