GM restates losses for 2005
General Motors Corp. late Thursday revised its reported loss for 2005 to $10.6 billion, or $18.69 a share, a steeper loss than the $8.6 billion, or $15.13 a share, it reported in January.
The automaker said it now expects a 2005 North American restructuring charge of $1.7 billion, up from the $1.3 billion it previously reported.
GM also expects to increase the charge for its contingent exposure relating to Delphi’s Chapter 11 filing to $3.6 billion from the previous estimate of $2.3 billion.
GM said it will delay filing its form 10-K for 2005, but that it plans to file in the next two weeks.
GM shares gained 3.4 percent, or 72 cents, to close at $22.22 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, before it released news of the restatement.
Washington
Lockheed to build FBI computers
Lockheed Martin Corp. will build a new computer system for the FBI in an effort to put to rest the bureau’s multimillion-dollar troubles with technology.
The Sentinel system, the replacement for a failed computerized case management project, is expected to cost $425 million and be finished in late 2009, the FBI’s chief information officer said Thursday at a news conference.
Within a year, agents and analysts are supposed to be able to use a secure Internet site to gain access to some of the FBI’s 92 computer databases, Zalmai Azmi said.
When complete, Sentinel is expected to replace the bureau’s paper-based reporting system with an instantaneous and paperless way for agents and analysts to manage all types of investigations.
Kansas City, Mo.
H&R Block had loss of clients
H&R Block Inc. said Thursday it saw fewer tax clients in February but still posted a slight increase in revenue.
The nation’s largest tax preparer said 5.9 million customers came into H&R Block offices last month, down 5.1 percent from the same period a year ago. The number was offset, however, by a 27.4 percent jump in customers doing their taxes online or with the company’s TaxCut software.
New Haven, Conn.
Winchester factory closing
The historic Winchester rifle factory that produced “The Gun that Won the West” will close at the end of the month after a two-month search for a buyer proved fruitless, the mayor of New Haven, Conn., said Thursday.
Mayor John DeStefano said that city and union leaders scrambled to find a buyer in January after the Herstal Group, a Belgian manufacturer, said it would close the U.S. Repeating Arms plant.
“It’s going to go dark,” DeStefano said.
DeStefano said negotiations over the plant’s future continue. Earlier this month, DeStefano offered to buy the plant for $1 and promised to excuse $17 million in taxes and contract penalties that city attorneys say Herstal will owe New Haven and the labor union when the plant closes.