IN BRIEF
Gaming Partners finds error in finance report
Gaming Partners International Corp., a gambling supplies company based in Las Vegas, said Monday it found an error in its financial report for the third quarter of 2006.
Corrected figures reduce earnings by $100,000, or a penny per share, for the quarter, but do not change the net income or earnings per share for the first nine months of the year, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Gaming Partners, which decided to file an amended quarterly report for the period, also said it will delay filing its annual report beyond the extended April 17 deadline.
ATLANTA
Coke says profits rise 14 percent in quarter
The Coca-Cola Co., the world’s largest beverage maker, said Tuesday its first-quarter profit jumped 14 percent on a double-digit rise in sales, despite continuing problems in its North America unit.
The Atlanta-based company said it earned $1.26 billion, or 54 cents a share, for the three months ended March 30, compared to a profit of $1.11 billion, or 47 cents a share, a year ago.
Excluding one-time items, Coca-Cola said it earned $1.29 billion, or 56 cents a share, in the quarter. On that basis, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting earnings of 53 cents a share.
Revenue rose 17 percent to $6.10 billion.
NEW YORK
AOL showcases interactive programs
AOL stepped up its bid to capture advertising dollars normally spent on television by showcasing five new interactive programs a month before the broadcast networks announce their fall lineups.
The online company hosted more than 500 advertising executives and media planners at a “First Look” showcase Tuesday — what Chief Executive Randy Falco described as a “coming out party for AOL” as a major online advertising platform.
AOL announced ad-supported initiatives scheduled to launch this fall or early next year: a site where users can submit photos, video and stories for use on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and three games, including a second season of reality TV master Mark Burnett’s “Gold Rush.” A fifth program, a game based on the upcoming “Shrek the Third” movie, is to launch April 26.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.
Rejected suitor, tribe settle lawsuits
A rejected suitor for the Hard Rock chain of cafes, casinos and related businesses and the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the successful buyer, announced Tuesday they have ended lawsuits that arose from the sale.
Both parties have agreed to dismiss lawsuits against the other.
The Baltimore-based development firm The Cordish Co. and an affiliate, Power Plant Entertainment, had contended that Hard Rock Cafe International Inc. management secretly negotiated with the Seminoles for seven months before plans to sell were announced in July.
DETROIT
Exec says carmakers ready for future
While acknowledging that automakers face a year in turmoil, a high-ranking Toyota executive said Tuesday that technology and innovation have the industry well-positioned for long-term growth.
Toyota North America President Jim Press, 60, was named Thursday as the first non-Japanese member of Toyota’s board amid growing fears of a political backlash for the company’s booming U.S. sales.
“There is no reinvent in Detroit,” he told a crowd of mostly industry leaders. “What Detroit needs to do is to continue to have faith in itself.
“It isn’t reinvention that is necessary. It’s to go through the process of entering a global age. And that’s going to give us some heartburn in the short term, but from a long-term perspective, we have a lifetime of success and prosperity.”
SAN FRANCISCO
Google will launch rival to PowerPoint
Google plans to launch software similar to Microsoft Corp.’s popular PowerPoint program as the two companies vie to dominate the online experience.
Google Chairman and Chief Executive Eric Schmidt described the software Tuesday at a conference for Internet entrepreneurs.
Schmidt also blasted Microsoft and AT&T, which had executives complaining over the weekend that Google may soon have an illegal monopoly in online advertising.
Google announced Friday it would pay $3.1 billion to acquire ad-management technology company DoubleClick.
Almost as soon as Google announced the cash acquisition, Microsoft and AT&T executives said the deal could violate antitrust legislation — and result in a dangerous concentration of Internet users’ personal data at Mountain View-based Google.
Google shares rose $1.47, or 0.31 percent, Tuesday to close at $472.80 on the Nasdaq National Market.
WASHINGTON
Ethanol interest said to affect refinery plans
A top Chevron Corp. executive said Tuesday the push to displace as much as a fifth of the country’s gasoline with ethanol will make it less likely the industry will build new domestic refineries.
“We’ll take all the ethanol that corn growers produce. We’ll use that enthusiastically” as a 10-percent blend with gasoline, Peter Robertson, Chevron’s vice chairman, said.
But Robertson, the No. 2 executive at the country’s second largest oil company after Exxon, said he questions whether a goal of a 20-percent reduction in gasoline use, largely by substituting ethanol, can be achieved by 2017 as President Bush has urged.
No new U.S. refinery has been built since the 1970s. And while larger refineries have been expanded, U.S. demand for gasoline consistently requires some imports.
NEW YORK
Bond prices increase after economic report
U.S. Treasury bond prices ended higher Tuesday, as an inflation report and industrial production data gave the market reason to think the Federal Reserve would be unlikely to raise rates anytime soon.
At 5 p.m. EDT, the 10-year Treasury note rose $4.06 per $1,000 in face value, or 0.41 points, from its level at 5 p.m. Monday. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, fell to 4.68 percent from 4.74 percent.
The 30-year bond rose 0.72 points. Its yield fell to 4.84 percent from 4.89 percent.
