Business briefs: Apple Watch now in stores
From Beijing to Paris to San Francisco, the Apple Watch made its debut Friday. Customers were invited to try them on in stores and order them online.
The watch is Apple’s first new product category since the iPad came out five years ago. Analysts are waiting to see how well the watch will sell beyond devoted Apple fans. Apple has a better chance at succeeding than any other smartwatch maker so far, yet it will likely take time before sales reach the kind of numbers that Apple gets for iPhones and iPads.
Watch prices start at $349, but can go as high as $17,000. People can try the watch on in Apple stores, but for now, all orders are being handled online. Shipments begin April 24.
Netflix paid CEO $11.1 million
SAN FRANCISCO – Netflix boosted CEO Reed Hastings’ pay by 43 percent to $11.1 million last year as the Internet video service raised its prices and still added the most subscribers in its history.
The compensation package disclosed in a Friday regulatory filing included stock options valued at $8.1 million. Those options could end up being worth more or less depending on how Netflix Inc.’s stock fares during the next few years.
Hastings also received a $3 million salary.
Netflix raised its monthly rates by $1 for new U.S. subscribers in May while keeping them at $8 per month for existing customers.
Bird flu hits four more farms
MINNEAPOLIS – The lethal bird flu that’s been spreading through the Minnesota turkey industry has hit four more farms, bringing the number to 13, animal health regulators said Friday.
An outbreak was confirmed at a fourth farm in Stearns County, while the flu also surfaced in Cottonwood, Lyon and Watonwan counties. Together, the four farms have 189,000 birds, which would bring the total number of affected turkeys to 872,000.
Sprint settles overcharging case with feds
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Sprint Corp. has agreed to pay $15.5 million to settle charges it had “defrauded federal law enforcement agencies when recovering its costs of carrying out court-ordered wiretaps, pen registers and trap devices,” according to the U.S. attorney in San Francisco.
A statement from the U.S. attorney’s office said that between 2007 and 2010, Sprint had included in its bill to federal agencies “the costs of making certain upgrades to its system” in addition to its costs for the intercept charges.
It said federal law required telecommunications companies like Sprint to upgrade their systems to handle law enforcement requests, but the law forbid them from passing along those costs.
Alaska Airlines tops on-time list again
Alaska Airlines continued its winning ways this week with a new report from the federal Department of Transportation naming the Sea-Tac-based carrier tops in on-time performance in February.
The airline also registered the fewest customer complaints, just eight, filed with the DOT that same month.
Alaska has consistently been the most punctual of U.S. airlines during the past several years.
The federal report said 85.1 percent of Alaska’s flights arrived on time in February. That compares with the average of all domestic airlines of 72.8 percent on-time arrivals. An on-time arrival, according to the federal government, is one that arrives within 15 minutes of its scheduled time.
The lowest result for on-time arrivals among mainline carriers was Denver’s Frontier Airlines, whose flights arrived 58.8 percent on time in February.