Defense budget worries Boeing
Boeing Co. CEO James McNerney said Tuesday he was concerned about the absence of new orders for the company’s C-17 military transport plane in the proposed Defense Department budget for fiscal 2007.
Overall, however, McNerney said the company’s other major military contracting programs are “well-supported” by a budget that would increase U.S. defense spending by 6.9 percent.
Boeing and other defense contractors fared better than analysts expected in the budget unveiled Monday, which calls for $439 billion in Defense Department spending. No major program cuts were announced, and speculated reductions to defense growth rates did not occur.
A big sore spot for Chicago-based Boeing, nonetheless, is the lack of additional C-17 orders beyond the 180 already on the books. The last of those planes is due to roll off the assembly line sometime in 2008.
Financier Carl Icahn proposed Tuesday that Time Warner Inc. be broken up into four separate companies, saying the media conglomerate had been poorly managed and focused excessively on the short term.
Icahn presented the results of a study he had commissioned from Lazard Ltd., a boutique investment bank, to analysts and reporters at a news conference in midtown Manhattan.
The report concludes that decisions by Time Warner’s board have cost shareholders more than $40 billion over the past several years.
Europe’s “patchwork of regulation and taxes” is limiting online auction company eBay Inc.’s growth across the 25-nation European Union, eBay’s CEO said Tuesday.
Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay, told reporters the fragmented system of 25 different national taxes made it difficult for users to sell across borders. “If you’re a big company, you can cope with all the regulation,” she said before a meeting with EU Taxation Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs. Most eBay users are small businesses.
Pfizer Inc. said Tuesday it is exploring various options for its nearly $4 billion over-the-counter drug unit, including selling or spinning off the business which includes Listerine mouth wash, Visine eye drops and Lubriderm skin lotion.
Pfizer said it will discuss its alternatives for the consumer business, which include retaining it, when it meets with analysts and investors on Friday to provide earnings guidance and a business overview. Last April, Pfizer told Wall Street it would have double-digit earnings growth this year but rescinded the guidance six months later.