Business in brief: Weyerhaeuser turns profit
Weyerhaeuser Co. said Friday it swung to a profit in the fourth quarter from a year-ago loss, helped by a surge of real estate sales amid a slow housing market that hurt profits in building materials.
Weyerhaeuser said it earned $450 million, or $1.88 per share, compared with a loss of $211 million, or 86 cents per share, during the same period in 2005, which included charges to close some of its paper and lumber plants.
Excluding a number of one-time items, the Federal Way-based forest products company earned 95 cents per share in the fourth quarter, which was one week longer than the year-ago period. Revenue fell 1 percent to $5.66 billion from $5.72 billion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial forecast a profit of 75 cents per share on revenue of $5.36 billion. The estimates typically exclude one-time items.
Weyerhaeuser shares closed down 85 cents, or about 1.1 percent, at $78.14 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, after rising to a 52-week high of $79.96 earlier in the session.
New York
Realestate.com adds four cities
Realestate.com, the real estate Web site owned by Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp, has doubled its physical presence by entering four more cities, putting the company in competition with traditional brokerages in what executives say is the start of a nationwide expansion.
The company plans a formal announcement Monday on the opening of offices in Tucson, Phoenix, San Diego and Las Vegas. In early 2006, it opened offices in Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City and Denver. The company has plans to enter other markets across the country but declined to offer details about which cities and how quickly it would move.
Executives of the unit, which is a subsidiary of the IAC unit LendingTree LLC, hope the brokerages will help close more deals as the Web site drives potential buyers to the agents on the ground.
Charlotte, N.C.
Bank of America, feds reach deal
Bank of America Corp. said Friday it has entered into a “leniency agreement” with the Department of Justice related to an investigation into the municipal derivatives industry.
The Charlotte-based bank said the agreement will keep the department from bringing any criminal antitrust prosecution against the company in the matter in return for its continuing cooperation.
The bank said it was receiving the special treatment because it went to the department with information about bidding practices in the bond industry before the government began its investigation last year.