Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Wednesday, January 22, 1997
Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Wednesday, January 22, 1997
VeriFone Inc. had a fourth-quarter profit of $10.3 million, up 12.1 percent from $9.2 million in the previous fourth quarter and equal to 42 cents a share compared with 37 cents a year earlier. VeriFone reports
12% earnings boostRevenues for the quarter ending Dec. 31 were $123.7 million, up 13.2 percent from $109.3 million in the 1995 quarter. For all of 1996, VeriFone had a $39.3 million profit, up 20.8 percent from 1995, on revenues of $472.5 million, up 22.1 percent.
Redwood City, Calif.-based VeriFone, which supplies payment verification systems such as credit card readers, was founded in Hawaii and has research facilities in the state.
NEW YORK - AT&T Corp. today reported a fourth-quarter profit that reversed a loss from a year earlier, but its results were held back by unpaid telephone bills and fell short of Wall Street expectations. Unpaid bills hurt AT&T’s
bottom lineAT&T said increased fraud, delinquencies and bankruptcies cost the company $200 million. The nation's biggest long-distance phone service provider earned $1.62 billion, or $1 per share, on revenues of $13.24 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31. A year earlier, the company lost $2.68 billion, or $1.67 per share, on revenues of $12.89 billion. Long-distance revenues rose 3 percent to $11.54 billion.
AT&T's trouble with collecting phone bills is one result of increased industry competition for customers, spurred by government deregulation. A flood of new AT&T rivals has made it easy for deadbeats to just use another company.
WASHINGTON - Housing starts jumped 8.8 percent in 1996 to the highest level in eight years despite a plunge of 12.2 percent in December. U.S. housing starts
rose 8.8% in 1996The December level was the lowest in 18 months.
The Commerce Department said today that builders began 1.47 million homes and apartments last year, up from 1.35 million in 1995 and the most since 1.49 million in 1988. All regions posted healthy gains - 11.2 percent in the Northeast, 10.6 percent in the Midwest, 7.5 percent in the South and 8.8 percent in the West.
LOS ANGELES - Microsoft Corp. said today it agreed with Jim Henson Production Inc. to develop interactive programming featuring the Muppets for Microsoft's online network, MSN. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Microsoft links up with
the MuppetsMicrosoft, of Redmond, Wash., said the three-year development plan calls for two joint projects in the first year of the agreement, three the second and four the third year. The companies expect the first shows to debut this summer.
MSN offers information, entertainment and communications on the Internet.
Jim Henson Productions, of Los Angeles, is an independent production company.
