Sara Lee to Sell Businesses, Names CEO
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Sara Lee Corp., whose profits have been  hurt by higher costs for cotton and coffee, on Thursday said it  would exit the apparel business and sell off other lines in  order to concentrate on more profitable businesses like baked  goods and packaged meats.
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Meg Whitman will soon step down as chief executive of eBay Inc., the online auction company that went from wobbly startup to multibillion-dollar household name in her 10-year tenure
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(InfoWorld) - Verizon Wireless Inc. President Denny Strigl has been promoted to president and chief operating officer of parent company Verizon Communications Inc., the company announced Tuesday. The chief operating officer position at Verizon Communications is a new one, and Strigl will report to Verizon Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ivan Seidenberg beginning Jan. 1, the company said. Strigl will have responsibility for all of Verizon's network-based businesses, Verizon Wireless, Verizon Telecom and Verizon Business as well as Verizon Services Operations, which provides financial, real estate and other services to the company. Verizon Vice Chairman and President Lawrence Babbio Jr. announced Dec. 11 that he planned to retire by the end of the first quarter of 2007. Lowell McAdam, currently executive vice president and chief operating officer at Verizon Wireless, will take over as president and chief executive officer of Verizon Wireless. Independent telecom analyst Jeff Kagan called the Strigl promotion a "good move." Under Strigl, Verizon Wireless has offered excellent products and posted strong financial results, Kagan said in an e-mail. "Moving forward, the wireless business will continue to be a stand-alone provider of wireless services, but it will increasingly offer services as part of a larger bundle," Kagan added. "Verizon is growing and changing quickly as the industry does, focusing more on broadband and wireless services for growth." Separately, Verizon Communications named John Stratton, currently vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless, to the newly created position of executive vice president and chief marketing officer, responsible for the marketing of all Verizon's business units. Shaygan Kheradpir, currently chief information officer for Verizon Telecom, has been named to the newly created position of executive vice president and chief information officer, responsible for the information technology initiatives of all Verizon's business units. McAdam, Stratton and Kheradpir will report to Strigl, effective Jan. 1. The revised management structure will allow Verizon to focus more effectively on opportunities to grow and strengthen the business, the company said in a press release. As chief operating officer, Strigl will provide a single point of accountability for all business units. Babbio will continue to report to Seidenberg, and he will help with the management transition.
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Meg Whitman confirmed yesterday she will soon step down as chief executive of eBay, the online auction company that went from wobbly start-up to multibillion-dollar household name in her 10-year tenure.
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(InfoWorld) - SonyÂ is reshuffling responsibilities in its key electronics group, allowing the head of the division to play a bigger role in Sony's research and development actvities. The company, which is still investigating the cause of laptop PC fires caused byÂ faulty Lithium Ion batteriesÂ it produced, will shift day-to-day control of all its major consumer and industrial products to Katsumi Ihara, Sony said on Monday. Ihara currently heads Sony's TV and video business. His new responsibilities will include Sony's Vaio computers, digital still cameras, digital video cameras, and Walkman audio products. Sony's semiconductor and component business will be put under the day-to-day control of Yutaka Nakagawa, who currently heads the digital imaging and audio business. Nakagawa will also be promoted from executive vice president to executive deputy president. Putting the running of the product and component businesses under Ihara and Nakagawa will mean that Ryoji Chubachi, president and CEO of the electronics business, will be free to take direct control of Sony's research and development activities.
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Longtime EBay CEO Meg Whitman is expected to announce her retirement sometime in the next few weeks.
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Sprint Nextel Corp  on Tuesday named the head of Embarq Corp , its fixed-line spin-off, as its chief executive, hoping the telecom industry veteran can turn the No. 3 U.S. mobile service provider around.
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Ellyn A. McColgan will take over from James P. Gorman, the former Merrill Lynch executive who currently heads the retail unit.
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Sara Lee Corp.  posted a quarterly loss on Wednesday, hurt by charges to account for the lower value of some assets.
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Stocks to watch Tuesday: SARA LEE CORP. :
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The second-largest radio company in the U.S. based on station count has agreed to sell the company to a group of investors that includes the broadcasterâs chief executive.
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(InfoWorld) - The head of BenQ Corp. retained his chairmanship but will lose his CEO titles at some companies in the BenQ Group, amid a management reshuffle announced just weeks before his insider stock trading case begins in Taiwan. K.Y. Lee, the long-standing chairman of the company and head of the BenQ Group, lost his CEO title at LCD (liquid crystal display) panel maker AU Optronics Corp., and at BenQ Corp., an official confirmed Monday. The announcement comes less than a year after BenQ racked up over US$1 billion in losses in a high-risk attempt to build a global name in the mobile phone business. The company opened BenQ Mobile GmbH & Co. OHG in October 2005 after taking on Siemens AG's mobile phone unit. But a year later, BenQ called it quits amid stiff competition and heavy losses. Since then, its management has faced blame for betting the company on what turned out to be a losing strategy. Financially, the company posted losses in every quarter after the handset unit acquisition, and its bottom line continues to bleed. The company's dwindling financials, fears that German creditors might go after the parent after the collapse of BenQ Mobile, and the sell-off of BenQ assets to shore up its balance sheet has sent its share price down nearly 29 percent so far this year to close at NT$12.45 (US$0.38) Friday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Just when it seemed BenQ's troubles couldn't get any worse, Taiwanese prosecutors raided BenQ Corp.'s offices and hauled away three executives for questioning over alleged insider stock trading related to when it revealed losses incurred by BenQ Mobile. That was in March, and in all, five executives have been formally charged. The current management reshuffle, and the announcement of a new name for BenQ Corp., comes just weeks before court proceedings are set to begin on the insider stock trading case at the Taoyuan District Court in Taiwan. Officials said procedural meetings are slated to begin July 12. BenQ has denied any wrongdoing on the part of its executives. The company name change is part of a broader reorganization. The BenQ Corp. name and all businesses related to its brand are being spun off, while the manufacturing operations will continue to operate under a new name, Qisda Corp. It's a common strategy in Taiwan. Companies that make products on behalf of overseas customers as well as under their own name brands separate the contract manufacturing operations from the name brand business in order to avoid any conflict of interest with customers. The reorganization is expected to be final by Sep. 1, 2007. K.Y. Lee will be chairman of Qisda, BenQ, and AU Optronics once the change is finished, but he will not hold the CEO title at any of the companies. Hsiung Hui, an executive vice president at AU Optronics, will become the new president of Qisda, while Conway Lee will become the president of BenQ. The CEO title will not be used at either company, a BenQ representative said. At AU Optronics, H.B. Chen will take over the CEO title, and L.J. Chen will take on dual roles of president and COO (Chief Operating Officer).
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CHICAGO  â The Sara Lee Corporation posted a quarterly profit on Wednesday, in contrast to a loss a year earlier, as the weaker dollar, new products and increased spending on marketing helped sales.
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By Julian Walker, Richmond Times-Dispatch  Dec. 19--By next month, Chesterfield officials expect to have in place a sales agreement between the county and the firm that plans to redevelop Cloverleaf Mall.   Thomas E.
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EBay CEO Meg Whitman is planning to step down from the company she has led for the past 10 years, The Wall Street Journal said Tuesday.Whitman has been delegating more tasks to deputies over the last few months and is expected to decide on her retirement in the coming weeks, the newspaper said quoting &quot;people familiar with the matter.&quot; John Donahue, who leads the company&#39;s auction business, is the leading candidate to succeed her, according to the newspaper.EBay, which also operates the PayPal payment system and Skype Internet telephony service, is due to report earnings for the fourth quarter Wednesday. The quarter includes the traditionally strong year-end holiday period and estimates see eBay reporting earnings per share of $0.38.The company reported a net profit of $1.1 billion in 2006 on the back of $6 billion in revenue. For 2007 eBay expects revenue to jump to $7.6 billion.
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Marshall Field&#39;s department stores will soon have both a new president and a chairman to replace the former leader who reaped a big profit from selling her stock.
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Media & professional: Chrysalis to sell radio division to investment firm chaired by former ITV chief executive.