TIAA-CREF dumps Coke over social responsibility
TIAA-CREF, the largest U.S. retirement fund, sold $52.4 million in Coca-Cola Co. stock because the soft-drink maker no longer meets an index’s criteria for socially responsible companies.
Coca-Cola was dropped from a social index compiled by Boston-based KLD Research & Analytics Inc., prompting the sale of 1.2 million Coca-Cola shares this month, TIAA-CREF spokeswoman Stephanie Cohen Glass said Tuesday in an interview.
The index screens companies in which TIAA-CREF’s Social Choice Equity Fund invests, Glass said. Coca-Cola, the world’s biggest soft-drink maker, was the Social Choice fund’s ninth-largest holding, according to Bloomberg data.
KLD on June 30 dropped Coca-Cola from its Broad Market Social Index of socially responsible companies, citing labor and human- rights issues, environmental impact and lack of company leadership on efforts to reduce obesity, said Karin Chamberlain, manager of KLD Indexes, in an interview.
“KLD is the screening mechanism that we follow. They have their own review, their own analysts, their own discussions with the companies,” Glass said. “We make investments based on KLD’s findings.”
FORT WORTH, Texas
Offshore gambling difficult to control
One day after federal officials announced indictments of operators of an offshore Internet gambling site, there were signs of how difficult it will be to prosecute the case.
A federal judge on Monday issued an order barring BetOn Sports PLC from taking bets by U.S. residents. But Tuesday, the site appeared to be operating normally, offering bets on Major League Baseball and season-opening college football games.
DENVER
Bioscience expo will feature state CEOs
BioWest 2006, the Rocky Mountain Region’s annual bioscience conference and expo, will host a panel discussion with chief executives from five of Colorado’s growing public bioscience companies.
The panel, “Investor Forum: Highlighting Colorado’s Mature Bioscience Companies,” will include Allos Therapeutics Inc. president and CEO Paul Berns, Encision Inc.’s John Serino, Pharmion Corp.’s Patrick Mahaffy, Myogen’s William Freytag and Replidyne’s Ken Collins.
BioWest 2006 will take place Aug. 23-24 at the Colorado Convention Center. The CEO panel will be held on the 24th at 3:45 p.m.
SUNNYVALE, Calif.
Yahoo earnings meet analyst expectations
Yahoo Inc. met expectations with a second-quarter profit of $164 million but dashed hopes that the shift to online advertising would generate even faster growth by the Internet powerhouse.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based owner of the world’s most trafficked website said it earned 11 cents per share in the three months ended June 30. That represented a 78 percent drop from the second quarter of 2005, when Yahoo earned $754.7 million, or 51 cents per share.
NEW YORK
Parking in New York? Think $500 a month
A parking space in Midtown Manhattan cost more than $500 a month for the first time in June, driven by a rise in office occupancies, according to a study by Colliers International.
WASHINGTON
U.S. airlines boast 5 percent less staff
U.S. airlines had 5 percent fewer workers in May compared with a year ago, the 17th straight month of declines, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
At United Airlines, the largest carrier in Denver, full-time- equivalent employee count declined to about 54,000 in May, down from 55,000 a year earlier and 79,000 in May 2002. Denver-based Frontier Airlines’ FTE employee count increased to about 4,400 in May, up from about 4,100 a year earlier and 2,600 in May 2002.
ARMONK, N.Y.
IBM profit rises 11% for second quarter
International Business Machines Corp.’s second-quarter profit rose nearly 11 percent, slightly exceeding analysts’ forecasts despite another period of lackluster revenue growth. Executives acknowledged weakness in IBM’s two biggest divisions, services and hardware.
From April through June, IBM earned $2.02 billion, or $1.30 per share, on revenue of $21.9 billion, the company said Tuesday. In the same period last year, IBM posted earnings of $1.83 billion, or $1.12 per share, with revenue of $22.3 billion.
COLUMBUS, Ohio
Kinder Morgan seeks federal pipeline OK
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP of Houston and San Diego-based Sempra Energy have begun a federal approval process for the $4 billion, 1,663-mile Rockies Express Pipeline that would bring natural gas from the Rocky Mountains to the Midwest and East by 2009.
Private property owners in the path of the pipeline will be paid a one-time fee for use of their land.
Homes or other structures cannot be located within 25 feet of the underground pipeline, which will carry about 1.8 billion cubic feet of gas every day from northern Colorado.
SEATTLE
Microsoft, Nortel reach four-year deal
Microsoft Corp. and Nortel Networks Corp. have struck a four-year deal to develop and sell products that make it easier for businesspeople to locate and communicate with one another.
The wide-ranging alliance announced Tuesday marks the latest step in Microsoft’s ambitious plan to find success in the communications-technology business, as the market for its Windows operating system and Office software slows.
WASHINGTON
Feds propose banking rules on identity theft
Federal banking regulators on Tuesday proposed rules requiring financial institutions and creditors to set up prevention programs in a continuing effort to crack down on identity theft.
The rules outline procedures for detecting activities that could indicate identity theft and include ways to handle address changes that are followed closely by requests for replacement credit cards.
NEW YORK
Wall Street Journal to add Page 1 ad
Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said it will begin selling a single advertisement on its flagship newspaper’s front page.
Starting in the third quarter, a “jewel box” will be available for an ad in the lower right-hand corner of the paper’s opening page, New York-based Dow Jones said Tuesday in a statement.
