Google puts best face forward

Google Inc. executives provided investment analysts with a bright outlook Thursday in a display of confidence that appeared aimed at defusing growth concerns raised by the search engine leader’s chief financial officer earlier this week.

In his opening remarks, Google CEO Eric Schmidt assured the roomful of analysts that he sees “tremendous headroom” to develop better advertising formulas, in turn generating more of the commissions that account for most of the company’s profits.

Schmidt underscored his optimism at one point by saying Google someday might generate $100 billion in annual revenue as it expands into a variety of new advertising channels, including television, radio and publishing. The 7-year-old company’s revenue totaled $6.1 billion last year.

The upbeat presentations at Google’s Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, contrasted with the cautious commentary of CFO George Reyes during a question-and-answer session at a Tuesday investor conference in New York.

•Ford Motor Co. expects to spend $1 billion before taxes this year on restructuring in North America and Europe, according to the company’s annual report.

The No. 2 U.S. automaker also said it doesn’t expect to make a profit in 2006 as it continues to struggle with declining U.S. market share and rising costs. The report was filed late Wednesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ford said the $1 billion charge includes $250 million to cut hourly workers in North America and $250 million to write off assets at North American plants. The rest will be used for job cuts in Europe and at former Visteon Corp. facilities that were spun back to Ford last year.

•Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, said Thursday it would raise its annual dividend by 11.7 percent to 67 cents per share, an increase that will give shareholders $2.7 billion in dividend income in the current fiscal year.

Wal-Mart said it would pay the new dividend in four quarterly installments of 16.75 cents per share, starting in April.

•Boeing Co. said in a regulatory filing Thursday that all members of its board of directors must be elected annually instead of every three years.

In changes to the company’s bylaws, the board voted at its meeting last Sunday to immediately adopt the new practice. As a result, all current directors will stand for election at this year’s annual shareholders’ meeting on May 1.