Strong sales of delivered office products to corporate customers at home and overseas helped Staples post a 1.5 percent increase in first-quarter profit and rebound modestly from small profit declines the previous two quarters. But the slow U.S. economy continued to hurt the world's largest office products supplier, which reported its fourth consecutive quarter of declining sales at established U.S. and Canadian stores, which rely heavily on individual consumers.
Net income rose to $212.3 million, or 30 cents per share, up from $209.1 million, or 29 cents per share, a year earlier. Sales rose 6 percent to $4.88 billion.
Associated Press
Local bank reports lower income for quarter
San Diego National Bank reported net income of $5.79 million for the first quarter, down 25 percent from the same quarter last year. The bank said earnings declined because of the downturn in the San Diego economy, as well as the bank's continued branch expansion efforts. New branches opened in Poway, Temecula and Mission Hills in the past six months.
Assets grew to $2.73 billion, an increase of 10 percent from a year earlier.
Deposits were $2.07 billion, a 6 percent decrease from a year earlier. Loans totaled $2.14 billion, an 12 percent increase from a year ago.
Merck is punished over Vioxx television ads
Merck & Co. has agreed to pay $58 million as part of a multistate settlement of allegations that its ads for the once-popular painkiller Vioxx deceptively played down the health risks. The agreement calls for Merck to submit all new TV commercials for its drugs to the Food and Drug Administration for review before they can be aired.
Another provision of the settlement bars the company from “ghost-writing,” a practice in which academic scientists were allegedly paid to take credit for positive research articles prepared by company-hired medical writers.
Vioxx was taken off the market in 2004 after research showed it doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Associated Press
Target's profit falls, while Wal-Mart's grows
Target Corp. said first-quarter profit fell for the third straight quarter as consumers stung by record gasoline and food prices cut back on purchases of clothing and home furnishings.
Net income for the discount retailer dropped to $602 million, or 74 cents a share, from $651 million, or 75 cents, a year earlier. Revenue advanced 5.4 percent to $14.8 billion. Sales at stores open at least a year posted a quarterly decrease for the first quarter in five years, dropping 0.7 percent.
Profit at rival Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, rose 6.9 percent in the first quarter.
Bloomberg News
Etc.
Qualcomm Chairman Irwin Jacobs has been elected chairman of the National Academy of Engineering, a National Academy of Sciences-related organization. The two academies advise the federal government on science and technology issues. Jacobs has been a member of the academy since 1982, three years before he co-founded Qualcomm. He is a former professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California San Diego. Before Qualcomm, he co-founded San Diego engineering company Linkabit. He succeeds Intel Chairman Craig Barrett.
Share price of Saks dropped the most in two months after the luxury retailer reported first-quarter profit that missed some analysts' estimates. Saks dropped 93 cents to $13.20. The shares have lost more than a third of their value this year. Net income rose to $18.3 million, or 13 cents a share, compared with $11 million, or 7 cents, a year earlier.
CEO Stephen Sadove said during a conference call that the retailer expects the “challenging macroeconomic environment” to continue for the rest of 2008.
Bloomberg News
News Corp. named Wall Street Journal publisher Robert Thomson as the newspaper's managing editor, putting Chairman Rupert Murdoch's stamp on the newspaper. Thomson's appointment was approved by a special committee created to oversee the newspaper's editorial integrity. Murdoch is remaking The Wall Street Journal to include more political and arts coverage and compete with The New York Times. He brought in Thomson, 47, from the Times of London to be publisher of The Journal in December, shortly after taking control of Dow Jones in a $5.2 billion acquisition.
Bloomberg News
