Maker of BlackBerry to ax 2,000 jobsResearch In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, said Monday that it plans to cut 2,000 jobs, or about a tenth of its workforce, as sales slow amid market share losses to Apple Inc.'s iPhone. The reductions, across all functions, will leave Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM with about 17,000 employees. The company is losing market share in the U.S. to the iPhone and handsets running Google Inc.'s Android software, in part because it hasn't introduced a major new BlackBerry model since August. RIM fell $1.24, or 4.4 percent, to close at $26.67.
U.S. Steel swings to a profitU.S. Steel Corp., the largest U.S. steelmaker by volume, reported its first profit in 10 quarters as prices for its flat-rolled products rose. Net income was $222 million, or $1.33 a share, compared with a loss of $25 million, or 17 cents, a year earlier, the Pittsburgh-based company said Monday. Sales gained 9.4 percent to $5.12 billion from $4.68 billion, missing the $5.39 billion average of nine analysts' estimates in the survey. The company said its average realized price for flat-rolled steel rose 15 percent to $803 a net ton from a year earlier.
Corporate earnings are beating estimatesU.S. second-quarter corporate earnings are outstripping estimates as companies from Apple Inc. to Coca-Cola Co. boost sales with new products and benefit from a weaker dollar, surprising analysts who predicted a bigger drag from the economy. Earnings per share jumped 19 percent from a year earlier for the 122 companies in the S&P 500 index that reported second-quarter results as of July 22, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That beat the 13 percent average growth estimate that analysts held at the start of the month.
Deutsche Bank to get joint chief execsGermany's Deutsche Bank on Monday resolved a leadership crisis, saying that Anshu Jain, head of its investment bank, and Jurgen Fitschen, head of the German unit, will share chief executive duties starting next year. Josef Ackermann, 63, who has been chief executive since 2002, will become chairman of the supervisory board if shareholders approve, the bank said.
FDIC plays ball with 'Too big to fail'"Too big to fail" is something to be feared and loathed in Washington -- except on the softball field. The phrase, which typically refers to big banks whose collapse would endanger the financial system, doubles as the team name for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s softball team. The banking regulators have posted a meager two wins this season, putting them near the bottom of the Congressional Softball League.
GE X-ray unit will move to BeijingGeneral Electric Co.'s health-care unit, the world's biggest maker of medical-imaging machines, is moving the headquarters of its 115-year-old X-ray business from Waukesha, Wis., to Beijing to tap growth in China. "A handful" of top managers will move to the Chinese capital and there won't be any job cuts, Anne LeGrand, vice president and general manager of X-ray for GE Healthcare, said.
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