Business briefs

Thursday, Jan. 20, 2000 | 11:09 a.m.

Computer maker beats expectations

IBM's stock price soared this morning after the big computer maker reported a fourth-quarter profit that easily beat Wall Street forecasts, as lower expenses helped offset the impact of slower computer sales to corporations.

IBM reported that its profit tumbled 11 percent largely because corporate customers had delayed purchases of its powerful network and database servers due to uncertainty over the Y2K bug.

International Business Machines Corp., based in Armonk, N.Y., said its profit in the three months ended Dec. 31 fell to $2.09 billion, or $1.12 a share, beating the $1.06 a share forecast by analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial. That was down from a profit of $2.35 billion, or $1.24 a share, in the year-ago quarter.

AOL profit more than doubles

With subscriptions and advertising sales growing briskly, America Online handily beat Wall Street's expectations in its most recent quarter, reporting a profit of $271 million Wednesday, up from $115 million a year earlier.

The Dulles, Va., company, which is buying Time Warner, earned 10 cents a share. That beat the 8 cents analysts had forecast.

Despite competitors' aggressive promotion of free and low-cost Internet services, America Online added 2.1 million subscribers in the quarter, meaning its various services totaled more than 24 million subscribers. At the same time, advertising sales grew 79 percent from a year earlier and telecommunication costs declined.

iMac sales power computer maker's profit

Shares of Apple Computer jumped 10 percent today after the company posted its ninth straight quarterly profit, driven by strong holiday sales of its curvy and colorful iMacs and iBooks.

Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple reported Wednesday that net income for the three months ended Jan. 1, its first fiscal quarter, rose to $183 million, or $1.03 a share. In the same period a year ago, Apple earned $152 million, or 95 cents a share.

Excluding a one-time gain of $101 million from an investment and $6 million for restructuring costs, Apple earned $178 million, or $1 a share.

Apple's operating profit easily topped Wall Street forecasts of 90 cents a share, according to a survey of analysts by First Call/Thomson Financial.

Manufacturer posts surprisingly high profit

Benefiting from heavy cost-cutting, Seattle-based Boeing Co. said Wednesday that its fourth-quarter profit jumped 42 percent, far outpacing most Wall Street estimates.

Boeing, the world's largest plane maker, reported fourth-quarter profit of $662 million, or 74 cents a diluted share. In the quarter a year earlier, the company earned $465 million, or 48 cents a diluted share.

Analysts had realized that Boeing's operations were improving in recent months, but few expected the company to post such a robust performance in the fourth quarter. Analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial had expected Boeing to earn 68 cents a share, 6 cents below the actual total.

Automaker's profit falls 32 percent, but still beats expectations

General Motors Corp.'s earnings fell 32 percent to $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter due to a slowdown in truck production and losses at its Hughes electronics unit.

Despite the decline, the results beat Wall Street expectations.

The world's largest automaker earned $1.86 a share, compared to $1.77 billion, or $2.48 a share last year, when the company reported record quarterly earnings while recovering from a strike.

Revenues totaled $46.3 billion compared to $44.6 billion in 1998.

Health firm paying $486 million to settle government's fraud charges

Fresenius Medical Care AG, the nation's largest provider of kidney dialysis services, said Wednesday that it would pay $486 million to settle federal civil and criminal fraud charges involving Medicare and other government programs.

Government officials said both the civil settlement of $385 million and $101 million in criminal fines were the largest in a five-year anti-fraud campaign involving blood-testing laboratories and other heath care companies.

The campaign has returned more than $2 billion to the Medicare Trust Fund since 1995, said June Gibbs Brown, inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Fresenius, based in Bad Homburg, Germany, provides blood cleansing services for more than 60,000 Americans with kidney problems. The charges involved disputed payments by government programs, not the quality of patient care.