LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Our general principles are that we want consumers to be able to easily determine the
full price of their air transportation before they travel.”
Robert Rivkin,
general counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation Article, 1D
Google profit jumps; stock will split
NEW YORK - Google Inc. reported a 61 percent increase in its net income for the first three months of the year and announced plans to split its stock 2-for-1 to preserve its leadership’s control over the company in the long term.
The online search leader said Thursday that it wants to issue a new class of stock to shareholders, but the new shares won’t have any voting power. Under the plan, all current stockholders would get one share of the new Class C stock for each share they now own.
Google said the split is something investors have been asking for. In addition, employees given Google stock in the future will get the nonvoting stock, allowing voting power to remain with existing shareholders. The same will hold true for stock-based acquisitions that Google makes.
The new stock plan came as Google said it earned $2.89 billion, or $8.75 per share, in the first quarter. That’s up from $1.8 billion, or $5.51 per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, Google earned $10.08 per share, higher than the $9.66 that analysts polled by FactSet had expected.
Total revenue was $10.65 billion, up 24 percent from $8.58 billion. The report was released after the stock markets closed.
86.2% of flights on time in February
NEW YORK - Mild winter weather helped U.S. airlines improve their on-time rates in February, the government said Thursday, and the rate of lost or damaged bags reached a 24-year low.
The nation’s largest airlines operated 86.2 percent of their flights on time during the month. That compares with the stormy February in 2011, when 74.5 percent of flights were on time.
Virgin America was most likely to get passengers to their destinations on time, with 91.7 percent of its flights arriving within 15 minutes of the scheduled time. AirTran and Hawaiian operated 91.2 percent of their flights ontime, tying for second place.
Frontier Airlines, ExpressJet and United had the worst on-time rates in February. Frontier was hit with a winter storm at its Denver hub that led to delays and canceled flights.
The highest cancellation rates were on regional carriers SkyWest, ExpressJet and American Eagle. JetBlue, Hawaiian and Delta were least likely to cancel flights in February.
The rate of lost or damaged bags reached its lowest point since the Department of Transportation started keeping records in 1988, at just less than three incidents for every 1,000 passengers.
The Department of Transportation also said Thursday that there were no tarmac delays of more than three hours for any U.S. flights operated by domestic or international carriers.
30-year mortgage rate dips to 3.88%
WASHINGTON - The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage dropped near its all-time low this week.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan fell to 3.88 percent from 3.98 percent. That’s just above the rate of 3.87 percent reached in February, the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.
The 15-year mortgage, a popular option for refinancing, fell to a fresh low of 3.11 percent from 3.21 percent last week. The previous record of 3.13 percent was hit last month.
To calculate the average rates, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., surveys lenders across the country Monday through Wednesday of each week.
The average rates don’t include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.
The average fee for the 30-year and 15-year fixed loans was unchanged at 0.7 point.
For the five-year adjustable loan, the average rate fell to 2.85 percent from 2.86 percent, and the average fee fell to 0.7 from 0.8 point.
Agency retreats from card-fee cap
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration’s consumer financial watchdog agency is backing off a plan to limit upfront fees on credit cards.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau acknowledged Thursday that its proposal would increase costs for cardholders and allow banks to charge more in fees.
Banks aren’t allowed to charge fees totaling more than 25 percent of a person’s credit limit in the first year that the account exists. But there’s no limit to the fees they can charge before the card is activated.
Under a rule proposed last year, those upfront fees would have counted toward the 25 percent cap. But the bureau is retreating from that idea after a court prevented it from taking effect.
The consumer agency’s new rule would let banks charge whatever fees they want up front. The 25 percent cap would apply only to fees charged after the card is issued.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was set up after the financial crisis to protect consumers from loans and cards with hidden fees or other traps.
The bureau decided to weaken the rule after a federal court in South Dakota issued an injunction preventing it from taking effect. A bank had filed a lawsuit claiming the Federal Reserve overstepped with its original proposal.
KFC Thailand: Sorry for quake posting
BANGKOK - KFC Thailand apologized Thursday after being criticized for a Facebook message that urged people to rush home during Wednesday’s tsunami scare and order a bucket of KFC chicken.
As people were being urged to evacuate from beach areas, the company posted this message: “Let’s hurry home and follow the earthquake news. And don’t forget to order your favorite KFC menu.”
It prompted hundreds of angry comments on a variety of Thai Web boards that denounced the company as insensitive and selfish.
By Thursday the message was removed and replaced by one that asked for forgiveness.
Wednesday’s earthquakes in Indonesia revived memories of the 2004 Asian tsunami that claimed 230,000 lives, including more than 8,000 people in Thailand.
Business, Pages 26 on 04/13/2012