United stock falls, but tops expectations
United Airlines’ new stock fell 10 percent from its initial valuation Thursday but the value remained more than double what the carrier had forecast, marking a successful debut on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
On the company’s first full day out of bankruptcy since December 2002, its new shares declined $4.11 to a close of $35.89 from the $40 price established in preliminary trading earlier this week. Volume was fairly heavy, with nearly 3.7 million shares traded.
Global microchip sales jumped 6.8 percent last year to hit a record $227.5 billion on strong demand for consumer electronics and continued strength in personal computers, the Semiconductor Industry Association said Thursday.
Consumer gadgets such as cell phones, digital cameras, digital TVs and digital music players were the principal driver of chip demand. The PC segment, which has the single largest appetite for chips, remained strong, with unit shipments up 17 percent in the fourth quarter.
Northwest Airlines wants to replace 30 percent of flight attendants on its international flights with non-U.S. flight attendants, roughly 800 people, to cut costs so that it can emerge from bankruptcy, a company executive testified in a New York bankruptcy court Thursday.
Northwest, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, seeks to save $1.4 billion in wage and benefit costs. Thursday was the seventh day of hearings devoted to the airline’s request to toss out collective bargaining agreements with the unions.
General Motors Corp. awarded billions of dollars in information technology contracts to Electronic Data Systems Corp., IBM Corp. and other companies Thursday in what EDS described as the largest commercial contract bidding process in the history of the tech industry.
GM said it plans to spend approximately $15 billion on information technology over the next five years. About half that amount was awarded Thursday in five-year contracts, for everything from vehicle design systems to manufacturing support to global supply chain management.
Mittal Steel Co. will shut down the sheet mill at its West Virginia operation, eliminating about 40 jobs in addition to the more than 800 cuts announced last fall.
General Manager Brian James said Thursday that job cuts will not exceed 50 and that the Weirton, W.Va., mill is no longer accepting orders for galvanized steel, or steel that is coated with a layer of zinc.
The mill will be shut down within three months, he said.