Business in brief: Ford to rebrand car with Taurus name
Ford Motor Co. might hope resurrecting the once-mighty Taurus name will help reverse lackluster sales and a lack of desirable cars.
Ford will rename its slow-selling Five Hundred model the Taurus, a name Ford previously had used for a car that became the nation’s top-seller, two company officials said Tuesday.
The officials spoke to the Associated Press on the condition they not be identified by name because the official announcement had not yet been made. The announcement is expected to be made today at the Chicago Auto Show.
The Dearborn-based automaker ceased production of the Taurus in October after 21 years and sales of nearly 7 million, perplexing many industry analysts and former Ford executives who said the brand name had great value.
Washington
SEC investigating bank insider leaks
The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining possible leaks from major Wall Street investment houses of inside information on large trades to valued clients in a preliminary yet broad inquiry, an SEC official confirmed Tuesday.
The examination by SEC inspectors seeks to determine whether the illegal use of confidential information, such as large stock trades by mutual funds, is widespread among Wall Street investment banks’ clients such as hedge funds. Inside knowledge of planned large purchases or sales of stock could provide an advance indicator of the stock’s direction that wouldn’t be available to most market participants.
Moscow, Idaho
EnTempo gets grant for low-energy work
EnTempo Corp. has received a $100,000 small business innovation grant to develop software that crams more power into computing chips.
EnTempo’s goal is to create low-cost, energy-efficient software that could be used in embedded computers – “the one that runs my iPod, my rice cooker or my stereo,” said Greg Donohoe, the company’s co-founder.
Donohoe and the other founder, David Buehler, are research faculty at the University of Idaho. They started EnTempo last year to create commercial applications for research work they were doing for NASA. Spacecraft rely on computer chips and software that carry out complex calculations on low energy.
Many gadgets have similar needs. “You can’t afford to put a Pentium chip into your cell phone because the battery would only last 10 minutes,” Donohoe said.
The $100,000 grant will allow the two partners to refine their concept. After six months, they can apply for a second phase grant of $600,000 to $700,000 that would cover a two-year span.