Yahoo to add podcast tool as rival to Apple, Google
Yahoo Inc., operator of the most-visited Internet site, started testing a feature Monday that allows Web searches for recorded radio shows, music and news broadcasts to meet rising demand for so-called “podcasts.” The Yahoo service competes with Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes music-downloading service.
Apple offers more than 15,000 free podcasts for its iPod digital music player and other devices.
An estimated 4.5 million people regularly download podcasts, which are created by news outlets such as National Public Radio as well as by individuals. The search service is part of Yahoo chief executive Terry Semel’s strategy to compete with rival search engine Google Inc. by adding content that keeps visitors on its pages longer.
“Podcasting is a key part” of Yahoo’s strategy to compete with Google, said Marc Freedman, an analyst with Plano, Texas-based consulting firm the Diffusion Group.
The U.S. podcast audience may more than double to 11.4 million by next year, according to a study from the Diffusion Group.
FORT COLLINS
Advanced Energy settles patent dispute
Advanced Energy Industries, a Fort Collins-based high-tech manufacturer, has agreed to pay $3 million to a Massachusetts company to settle a patent infringement dispute.
Advanced Energy said in a regulatory filing Friday that it reached the agreement with Wil mington, Mass.-based MKS Instruments Inc. and its subsidiary, Applied Science and Technology Inc., barring it from making or selling four plasma generators whose patents MKS had disputed.
RIFLE
Drill rig’s breakdowns frustrating for Antero
One of the companies drilling for natural gas in western Colorado says it is having a hard time with an Italian drilling rig touted for its quieter operation and smaller size.
Antero Resources started to drill the first of two wells with the rig near Rifle in August.
“We’ve been very disappointed in how often the rig breaks down,” said vice president Terry Dobkins. “We like the size and the operation of the rig and when it does work, it’s great.”
NEW YORK
Gold rallying toward highest price since ’88
Gold may extend its longest rally of the year, topping the highest prices since 1988, as investors stock up on bullion as a hedge against accelerating inflation, a Bloomberg survey showed.
Twenty-nine of the 47 traders, analysts and investors surveyed Thursday and Friday from Sydney, Australia, to New York recommended investors buy gold, which rose 30 cents to $478 Monday on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold has risen more than 8 percent during the past six weeks.
SAN ANTONIO
Clear Channel offers free, paid downloads
Clear Channel Communications Inc. is putting free recordings of programming from dozens of its stations on the Internet for downloading. Through its program syndication unit, it is also selling subscriptions to listeners who want to download archived talk shows from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and others.
“If we take your best pieces of programming, brand them and put them out there, we’re going to grow our audience,” Evan Harrison, Clear Channel’s head of online music and radio, told the Wall Street Journal.
DENVER
Ex-city finance chief gets Union Station slot
The committee overseeing redevelopment of Denver’s historic Union Station is expected today to name Liz Orr as the administrator overseeing the selection of the project’s lead developer.
The ex-Denver finance chief and director of special projects for former Mayor Wellington Webb was picked over Diana Royce Smith, president and owner of the Boulder management consultancy Royce Arbour Inc.
PUEBLO
Boeing sells building to L.B. Foster Co.
Boeing has sold a surplus building in Pueblo to L.B. Foster Co. The building, sold Sept. 16, was part of Delta launch vehicle assembly facilities Boeing transferred to Decatur, Ala., in 2004.
The building has 52,000 square feet of usable space, including 25 percent office and 75 percent manufacturing and warehouse.
DENVER
Excellence awards for 2005 announced
Colorado Performance Excellence, a statewide nonprofit dedicated to creating a culture of excellence in Colorado, announced its award recipients for 2005.
The Timberline award for excellence in deployment went to VA Health Administration Center in Denver.
The Foothills Award for excellence in approaches went to:
Lexis Nexis, Colorado Springs.
Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital, Aurora.
Orchard Elementary School in Grand Junction.
Taylor Elementary School in Palisade.
Banner Health North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley.
INDIANAPOLIS
Bloggers likely not shielded as journalists
Bloggers would “probably not” be considered journalists under the proposed federal shield law, the bill’s co-sponsor, Sen. Richard Lugar, R.-Ind., told the Inter American Press Association Monday, according to article published by Editor & Publisher.
The debate is not closed on how to define a journalist under the proposed law, Lugar emphasized. The proposed law would keep journalists from having to disclose confidential sources.
WASHINGTON
Watergate building sold for $86.5 million
The Watergate Office Building, the site of the failed 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters that led to President Nixon’s resignation, was sold by Trizec Properties Inc. for $86.5 million to an unidentified buyer.
The 11-story building in Washington’s West End area has 200,000 square feet of office space and 61,000 square feet of retail space, Chicago-based Trizec said Monday in a statement.
PITTSBURGH
Alcoa’s third-quarter profits up 2.1 percent
Alcoa Inc., the world’s biggest aluminum maker, said third- quarter profit rose 2.1 percent from a year earlier, when the company incurred expenses related to a strike and the sale of a packaging business.
Profit in Alcoa’s main aluminum businesses fell on higher costs for raw materials.
Net income rose to $289 million, or 33 cents a share, from $283 million, or 32 cents, a year earlier, Pittsburgh-based Alcoa said Monday in a statement.
