IN BRIEF
Shuffle Master needs week to close deal
Shuffle Master will need until the end of the week to complete a buyout of the table games division operated by casino equipment rival Progressive Gaming International Corp.
The companies jointly announced the extension late Friday.
Shuffle Master, which owns several table game titles including Three Card Poker and Let It Ride, announced in July it would buy Progressive’s table game division, which includes Caribbean Stud. No purchase price was given but gaming analysts had speculated the deal could be worth between $40 million and $50 million to Progressive.
ATLANTA
Home Depot planning to buy back shares
The Home Depot said Tuesday it expects to repurchase 289.6 million of its shares for $10.7 billion as a result of a tender offer, a little less than halfway towards its goal of buying back $22.5 billion in stock.
Preliminary results of the tender offer that ended Friday indicated the nation’s biggest home improvement store chain expected to repurchase the shares at $37 per share, using about $8 billion in net proceeds from its sale of HD Supply and $2.7 billion in cash, spokeswoman Paula Drake said.
Drake said the final results will be released next week.
Yahoo shares surge on takeover speculation
Yahoo shares rose the most since May after it was named a “top pick” by Bear Stearns & Co., which said shares of the most-visited U.S. Web site may rise on speculation it will be acquired by companies such as Microsoft Corp.
Microsoft, the world’s biggest software company, may be willing to offer as much as $40 a share, 76 percent above Yahoo’s last closing price on Aug. 31, based on acquisition prices for other technology companies, analyst Robert Peck wrote in a note.
“Yahoo remains an attractive acquisition candidate for either traditional media companies seeking to deepen their exposure to the Internet or from technology companies like Microsoft,” the New York-based analyst wrote.
Yahoo gained $1.24, or 5.46 percent, to $23.97 after earlier rising as much as 7.8 percent.
NEW YORK
Hopes for rate cut rise; stock gauges rise, too
Wall Street extended its rebound from the big summer slump Tuesday after dips in manufacturing growth and construction spending raised investors’ hopes for an interest rate cut.
The market also got a boost as investors bought technology stocks viewed as bargains after being battered during last month’s sell-off.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 91.12, or 0.68 percent, to 13,448.86. The blue-chip index is about 4 percent below its July 19 record close of 14,000.41, but about 4.7 percent above its summer closing low of 12,845.78 reached Aug. 16.
Broader stock indicators also advanced. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 15.43, or 1.05 percent, to 1,489.42, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq composite index surged 33.88, or 1.30 percent, to 2,630.24.
CLEVELAND
Teller machine makers target cell-phone users
Diebold and NCR Corp., long key players and staunch competitors in the automated teller machines market, are both devising strategies for communicating with an ATM by cell phone or personal digital assistant.
The Ohio-based companies are banking that a generation comfortable with increasingly versatile communications devices will be interested in technology that helps them find an ATM or avoid waiting in a long line to complete a transaction.
Over the past two years, Diebold has won five U.S. patents for applications that enable mobile devices to interact directly with bank ATMs.
Bob Tramontano, NCR vice president for self-service, said the company has been developing technology for linking hand-held communications devices with ATMs since 2001. NCR already uses such technology in Denmark and Singapore.
COLUMBUS, Ohio
Slotlike games get reprieve in Ohio
A pair of bar games that are similar to slot machines will be allowed to operate in Ohio for at least two more weeks under a judge’s order.
The reprieve last week by Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Michael Holbrook is the second legal defeat in a week for Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, who has joined Gov. Ted Strickland in trying to use executive power to stop the games from entering the state.
But operators argue the Tic Tac Fruit and Nudge Master machines abide by Ohio’s gambling law because they require more skill than luck.
Dann’s office was fighting to enforce a recent order by Strickland against wagering devices that pay out any cash or prizes worth more than $10.
SAN FRANCISCO
Apple buoyed by forecasts of sales
Apple shares climbed more than 4 percent Tuesday due to anticipation over what is expected to be revamped versions of the company’s iPod music players, as well as a slate of new estimates showing strong sales of its iPhone and Macintosh computers.
Apple rose $5.68 a share to close at $144.16.The stock is up almost 14 percent since Aug. 28, when the company sent out invitations to the media for a “special event” to be held today in San Francisco.
The invitations, saying “The Beat Goes On” and featuring a silhouette of a man dancing with an iPod in his ears, have fueled speculation that Apple will unveil new iPods, possibly including a device that incorporates the iPhone’s touch-screen technology.
WASHINGTON
Interest rates decline in Treasury auction
Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills fell in Tuesday’s auction to the lowest levels in two weeks.
The Treasury Department auctioned $22 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 4.35 percent, down from 4.6 percent last week. Another $17 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 4.38 percent, down from 4.59 percent last week.
The normal Monday Treasury auction took place on Tuesday this week because of the Labor Day holiday.
NEW YORK
Treasury prices drop; investors chase stocks
Treasury prices fell Tuesday after investors, feeling more confident about rising stock prices, switched money out of bonds and back into equities.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note closed down 0.28 points at 101.47 with a yield of 4.56 percent, up from 4.53 percent at Friday’s close. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The 30-year long bond ended down 0.31 at 102.34 with a 4.84 percent yield, up from 4.83 percent on Friday.
