Business briefs for April 11, 2002

Thursday, April 11, 2002 | 11:02 a.m.

Vons owner reports loss

PLEASANTON, Calif. -- Safeway Inc., the third largest U.S. supermarket chain, said it had a first-quarter loss because of an accounting change.

The Pleasanton, Calif.-based company, which operates as Vons in Las Vegas, had a loss of $367.9 million, or 74 cents, compared with net income of $283.9 million, or 55 cents, a year earlier, the company said. Sales rose 3.2 percent to $7.93 billion.

Excluding the effects of an accounting change, profit would have been $332.1 million, or 67 cents a share, the company said. On that basis, the company met the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call.

Internet company misses forecasts

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Yahoo! Inc. shares sank after the Internet company posted its sixth straight quarterly net loss, although executives said their turnaround plan remains on track.

Yahoo said Wednesday in the first three months of the year, it lost $53.6 million, or 9 cents per share, on $192.7 million in revenue. In the first quarter of 2001, Yahoo lost $11.5 million, or 2 cents per share, on sales of $180.2 million.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call were expecting 2 cents per share. Yahoo shares fell 43 cents, more than 2 percent, to $18.01 in extended trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market after the earnings report was released.

First quarter profits slip

FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- General Electric Co. said today its first-quarter earnings slipped as revenue was little changed from a year ago and it absorbed a non-cash charge from a required accounting change.

While earnings before the charge matched analysts' expectations, revenue fell short and its stock fell nearly 6 percent in early trading. GE stock was down $2.20, or 5.9 percent, to $35 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

GE earned $2.50 billion, or 25 cents per share, in the January-March period, down from profits of $2.57 billion, or 26 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2001.

The company incurred a non-cash charge of more than $1 billion in the first quarter related to changes in accounting for goodwill. GE took a non-cash hit of $444 million in the first quarter of 2001 for other new accounting rules.

Vegas tech firm announces merger

NetBooth Corp. of Las Vegas said Tuesday it has agreed to merge with SMO Multimedia, a publicly traded corporation based in Everson, Wash. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close sometime in the next few weeks, were not disclosed.

The two companies plan to combine their operations under the name NetBooth International.

Based in Las Vegas, NetBooth is a designer of Internet kiosks that allow users to access directories, e-mail or websites from public locations. Its clients include Park Place Entertainment Corp., Mandalay Resort Group and the U.S. Air Force. The company has 22 local employees.

SMO Multimedia designs software and kiosk systems used to replace traditional directories in sites such as shopping centers and airports, the company said.

The proposed merger would allow both companies to share products as well as design and manufacturing technologies. It is also expected to strengthen the combined company's financial footing through NetBooth's current customer and investor base and SMO's access to capital markets as a public company.