LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The Boeing bashers, who have been vocal into the quarter, will be disappointed.”
Rob Stallard,
an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, talking about the financial report released by Boeing Co. on Wednesday Article, 1D130 to lose jobs as Budgetext closes
Budgetext, a Fayetteville-based textbook business, is closing, putting an estimated 130 employees out of work in the area.
The company sells new and used books and teaching materials to school districts and colleges worldwide.
Park Anders, Budgetext chief executive officer and son of founder Sterling Anders, said Wednesday that the decision to close was difficult, but technological and financial factors played a part.
His father founded the business in 1968 as a college bookstore on Dickson Street.
The company’s employees are spread across warehouse operations, sales and management. Anders declined to disclose salaries.
“They are the ones that built the business,” Anders said.
It will take a few months for all aspects of the business to be closed down, he said.
BP wins permit for new Gulf oil well
BP PLC on Wednesday won its first U.S. permit to drill a new oil well in the Gulf of Mexico’s deep waters, clearing the way for the company to resume exploration after a record offshore spill last year.
BP will drill in 6,034 feet of water in the Kaskida prospect, 246 miles south of Lafayette, La., according to a statement from the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. The London-based company’s exploration plan for the site was approved Friday.
BP’s third-quarter earnings, adjusted for one-time items and changes in inventory, declined 3.6 percent to $5.3 billion as last year’s suspension of drilling after the spill caused Gulf of Mexico output to drop.
Groups again aim to halt Turk plant
The Sierra Club, the National Audubon Society and Audubon Arkansas have filed a petition with the Arkansas Public Service Commission seeking to stop construction of the $2.1 billion John W. Turk Jr. coal-fired plant in Hempstead County.
Southwestern Electric Power Co. owns about 72 percent of the plant. The Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. is a minority owner and continues to fund the construction.
SWEPCO received permission from the commission to build the plant in 2007, but the Arkansas Supreme Court overruled that last year. SWEPCO then received an exemption to operate the 600-megawatt electric generating plant as a “merchant” power plant so it could sell electricity to other utilities wholesale and to customers outside Arkansas, thereby avoiding the need for state approval for the plant.
The environmental groups argue that Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc. didn’t apply for the exemption, so the construction has continued illegally. The plant is about 75 percent complete.
John Bethel, executive director of the commission’s general staff, said the staff is examining the complaint to see how to respond to it. One concern is whether the commission has jurisdiction, Bethel said.
Doug White, a spokesman for Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, said the organization has met all of the necessary statutory and regulatory requirements for participating in the project, contrary to the allegations in the filing.
Sam’s donating to YMCAs in state
Sam’s Club said Wednesday that it is giving more than $370,000 in Arkansas for a YMCA program intended to improve the health of the nation by increasing healthy eating and physical activity.
The money is part of a $1.4 million from Sam’s Club to YMCA of the USA that will be spread among six states.
Five YMCAs in Arkansas will help lead the program: YMCA of Metropolitan Little Rock; YMCA of Northwest Arkansas in Bentonville; YMCA of Hot Springs; Jonesboro YMCA and YMCA of Warren and Bradley County.
State electric co-op names new CEO
Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. and Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc. have selected Duane Highley as president and chief executive officer of Little Rock-based Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas, beginning Nov. 14.
Highley succeeds Gary Voigt, who led both organizations since 1996.
A 28-year veteran in the utility industry, Highley has served as director of power production at Associated Electric Cooperative in Springfield, Mo.
Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp., a power generation and transmission cooperative, provides wholesale electricity to 17 electric distribution cooperatives in Arkansas, serving about 500,000 members. It owns 2,977 megawatts of generation capacity and has 250 employees.
Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc. provides utility services to cooperatives and utilities in a five-state region.
GM to upgrade Indiana pickup plant
DETROIT - General Motors said Wednesday that it will invest about $275 million at its Fort Wayne, Ind., plant to prepare it to build the next generation of Chevrolet and GMC full-sized pickups.
GM said the investment will add or keep 150 jobs, but a spokesman said she doesn’t know how many new jobs will be created.
The Fort Wayne plant now has 3,400 employees who work three shifts per day building the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups.
The new trucks are expected for the 2013 model year, but GM hasn’t said when they’ll be sold.
GM said in May that it would invest $2 billion at 17 plants in eight states. The Fort Wayne investment is the last announcement of the $2 billion.
Apple war darkens Amazon forecast
Amazon.com Inc.’s escalating competition with of Apple Inc. squeezed Amazon’s profit forecast for this quarter, prompting investors to erase as much as $11 billion from the company’s market value.
Amazon’s operations could lose $200 million in the fourth quarter as costs mount, the Seattle-based company said Tuesday. Shares fell $28.75, or 12.7 percent, to close at $198.40.
The company is taking on Apple in the market for tablet computers and sales of digital songs, books and movies. To gain an edge in tablets, Amazon is selling its new Kindle Fire device for as low as $199 - less than half the price of Apple’s cheapest iPad. At that price, the company will lose $10 per device, research firm IHS Inc. estimates.
Last quarter’s profit also disappointed analysts, missing estimates by 42 percent - the biggest negative surprise of any technology business in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
Business, Pages 26 on 10/27/2011