Yahoo online videos mimic popular YouTube services
San Francisco – Yahoo Inc. is reprogramming its online video service so it’s more like YouTube.com, an Internet upstart that has amassed a large audience during the past year with a free Web service that encourages people to post and share homemade clips.
Under the changes unveiled Wednesday, Yahoo will store homemade videos on its own site for the first time as it attempts to build a platform for people to browse and rate the clips. The videos will be separated into categories, including a section devoted to the most- watched selections.
Those features mirror YouTube, which has become the Web’s most popular video channel since a pair of twenty-something technology whizzes started the San Mateo, Calif.-based company a year ago.
Now, Internet heavyweights such as Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo are trying to chip away at YouTube’s early lead as the rapidly growing number of high-speed Internet connections make it easier to transfer and watch online videos.
WASHINGTON
Panel gets $6.6 million for Frontier warrants
The Air Transportation Stabilization Board announced Wednesday that it sold its warrants to buy stock in Denver- based Frontier Airlines, yielding $6.6 million in net proceeds to the government.
The ATSB got 3,450,551 warrants in connection with its $63 million loan guarantee to Frontier after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Seven institutional investors bought the warrants at auction for $2.03 each. Frontier repaid its $70 million bank loan in 2003.
BROOMFIELD
Level 3 completes purchase of ICG
Level 3 Communications said Wednesday it had completed the purchase of ICG Communications in Colorado for close to 26 million shares of stock and about $45 million in cash.
Both companies are fiber-optic-network service providers. It is unclear how the purchase will affect workers.
AVON
Vail Resorts unit wins Grand Teton contract
Vail Resorts Inc. announced Wednesday that its subsidiary, Grand Teton Lodge Co., has been selected by the National Park Service to continue as the concessionaire in Grand Teton National Park. The 15-year contract is expected to begin Jan. 1.
Grand Teton Lodge Co., which has held the concession contract for the past 54 years, operates the Jackson Lake Lodge, the Jenny Lake Lodge, Colter Bay Village and Jackson Hole Golf & Tennis Club.
COLORADO SPRINGS
Lockheed upgrades U.S. air-battle system
Lockheed Martin has completed its latest upgrades to the Theater Battle Management Core Systems, the military’s joint air- battle management system, at the Falconer Air Force Air Operations Center.
The upgrade enables fighters to fully support the command and control process for air operations via a Web browser without being at the Operations Center.
EVERGREEN
GrandLuxe purchases rail-tour operations
GrandLuxe Holdings LLC announced Wednesday it has purchased the GrandLuxe Rail Journeys from Portland, Ore.-based Oregon Rail Holdings.
GrandLuxe offers six- to nine- night tours through the Western U.S., Canada and Mexico. The 2007 tour schedule will be released next month. The purchase price was not disclosed. All operations have been consolidated in Evergreen.
PITTSBURGH
Alcoa, union reach tentative agreement
Alcoa Inc. and the United Steelworkers reached a tentative agreement on a four-year contract late Wednesday, avoiding a strike by 9,000 workers at 15 of the aluminum company’s U.S. plants, an Alcoa spokesman said.
The deal averts what would have been the union’s first strike since 1986 at the world’s largest aluminum company.
NEW YORK
Newspaper ad buys set four-year low
Advertising spending in local U.S. newspapers dropped 6.1 percent in the first quarter, the biggest decline for the industry in more than four years, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
Advertisers spent $5.55 billion on local publications, down from $5.91 billion in the first quarter of last year, the New York- based market researcher said Wednesday.
WASHINGTON
GE e-files tax return in milestone for IRS
General Electric Co. filed its 24,000-page tax return electronically this month, a milestone in the Internal Revenue Service’s effort to wean corporations away from filing paper tax returns.
This is the first year large corporations – those with assets greater than $50 million – are required to file their tax returns electronically. The requirement, announced by the IRS 17 months ago, was met with strong criticism from the corporate community, which cited complex software and technology hurdles.
HOUSTON
Kinder Morgan sells Wyo. energy facilities
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP announced Wednesday it has sold its Powder River gathering system and the Painter Unit fractionation facility in Wyoming to Momentum Energy Group LLC for about $43 million in cash.
The parties also executed a long-term processing agreement at KMP’s Douglas processing plant.
DETROIT
Ford sets no-interest, free-gas promotion
Ford Motor Co. will offer no- interest financing on almost all models, as well as up to $1,000 to pay for fuel, as the automaker tries to halt a U.S. sales slide amid near-record gasoline prices.
The “Drive on Us” offer starts today and runs through July, spokesman Jim Cain said Wednesday. Customers get a prepaid MasterCard debit card to purchase the fuel.
HOUSTON
Jury splits on guilt of 2 ex-Enron unit execs
Jurors on Wednesday rendered a split verdict in the retrial of two former executives from Enron Corp.’s defunct broadband unit, convicting one while acquitting the other.
Former broadband-unit finance chief Kevin Howard was convicted of five counts of fraud, conspiracy and falsifying records. Former in-house accountant Michael Krautz was acquitted of the same charges, concluding a month-long retrial after their original case ended with a hung jury last year.
