Business

• Big Oil big on dividends and buybacks

  Giant oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips are set to report what will probably be another round of eye-popping quarterly profits. Which raises the question: Just where is all that money going?

• 3,000 test BGE 'smart meters'

  More than 3,000 utility customers in Baltimore and Westminster are participating in a test of advanced electric meters that could save them money and reduce energy usage during times of peak demand, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. said yesterday.

• Push begun to keep Starbucks

  Now that Starbucks Corp. has disclosed the 600 locations it wants to shutter, a phenomenon is taking hold: the Save Our Starbucks campaign.

• Catching spirit of enterprise

  Forget working at the mall, life-guarding or filing paperwork. For 30 Baltimore students, their summer job is about finding their entrepreneurial spirit.

• Eileen Ambrose: New tool for those debating retiring

  Retirement planning has always been more art than science.

• PSA Insurance buys Alliance Benefit unit

  PSA Insurance & Financial Services, based in Hunt Valley, said yesterday it acquired the Baltimore office of Alliance Benefit Group Mid-Atlantic (ABG), a provider of employee retirement programs. PSA, which offers businesses property and casualty insurance, employee benefits, and retirement plan services, will incorporate ABG's 20 Baltimore employees and its business of offering retirement planning for large companies of up to $50 million in retirement plan assets. PSA's latest move to increase its business, which brings its staff to 180 employees, will allow PSA to serve companies with traditional pension funds. Last year, PSA acquired RSM McGladrey Insurance Services, a leader in employee benefits, and formed Construction Risk Management, which serves the construction industry.

• Wachovia quitting wholesale mortgages

  Wachovia Corp. said yesterday that it is leaving the wholesale mortgage lending business. Beginning July 25, the company will no longer offer mortgages through brokers, joining other lenders making similar moves to leave the troubled sector. Rival Bank of America got out of the business several months ago. Wachovia didn't disclose how many jobs will be cut as a result of the change. More details are expected today when the bank releases its second-quarter earnings. Shares of Wachovia dropped more than 5 percent in after-hours trading after the announcement.

• Back to Earth to save money

  Give up worldly goods and help save the Earth.

• Ford expands buyout offers in Mich., Ohio

  Ford Motor Co. is giving hourly workers at 17 facilities another round of buyout and early retirement offers in a continuing effort to match production with slumping sales. The automaker said yesterday that the buyout offers begin July 28 at facilities in Michigan and Ohio, including plants that have temporarily shut down or eliminated shifts.

• BankAtlantic sues analyst

  BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc. said it sued Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. analyst Richard Bove over a report called "Who is Next?" alleging the study defamed the bank by saying it might fail. BankAtlantic accused Bove and the firm of defamation and negligence in Florida court, according to a statement yesterday.

• Brocade to acquire Foundry Networks

  Brocade Communications Systems Inc. said yesterday that it was paying $3 billion in cash and stock to acquire Foundry Networks Inc., a deal designed to challenge Cisco Systems Inc. Foundry makes routers and switches used to direct Internet traffic.

• Midwest Airlines is ending BWI service in September

  Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines, scrambling to avoid bankruptcy, will drop service to Baltimore and 10 other cities in September as it cuts more than a quarter of its daily schedule.

• Rates fall for Treasury bills

  Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities fell in yesterday's auction, with rates on three-month bills dropping to their lowest level since late April.

• N.Y. pushes Comcast on child-porn access

  New York's attorney general notified Comcast Corp. yesterday that the state would take legal action if the company - the nation's second-largest Internet service provider - doesn't agree to eliminate access to child pornography. Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo wants major Internet access providers to agree on steps to remove certain news groups that contain child pornography and purge their servers of Web sites that contain child porn. New York has already reached such agreements with AT&T Inc., AOL, Verizon Communications Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. Cuomo was concerned that the agreement Comcast has signed so far would not require the most thorough reporting to law enforcement.

• Airline finance chiefs expect drop in profit

  Airlines expect further deterioration in profits and more job cuts over the next 12 months amid near-record fuel costs and slowing growth in demand, an industry survey of chief financial officers found. About 70 percent of respondents said profitability will decrease, up from 61 percent in April, the International Air Transport Association, which represents about 230 airlines, said. For the first time in the survey, the percentage of executives expecting a decline in employment was greater than the share foreseeing an increase.

• Apple shops almost out of iPhones

  Apple Inc.'s iPhone 3G was sold out at almost all the company's U.S. retail outlets 10 days after Chief Executive Officer Steven P. Jobs put the faster, cheaper upgrade of the mobile handset on the shelves. Out of Apple's 188 shops, only three had phones available yesterday, according to a tally posted Sunday on Apple's Web site.

• Bank of America earnings down 44%

  Bank of America Corp. has become the latest in a string of big banks whose second-quarter earnings, while hurting from the impact of the credit crisis, still beat Wall Street expectations.

• American Airlines, Google settle lawsuit

  American Airlines has dropped its lawsuit against Google Inc. over its search engine directing some users to advertisements for the airline's competitors. American sued the search giant last year seeking unspecified damages for trademark infringement. Last week, a federal district court judge in Fort Worth dismissed the lawsuit. Each side agreed to pay its own legal fees, and American recovered nothing from Google, according to an order signed by Judge John McBryde. American was upset that when Google users entered search terms such as AAdvantage, the trademark name of its frequent-flier program, the results included Web sites that had no connection to American.

• Netflix closes documentaries unit

  Netflix Inc. is shutting down a division that invested in low-budget films and documentaries, saying the Red Envelope Entertainment unit competed with its main suppliers, Hollywood studios.

• Texas Instruments profit declines 4%

  Texas Instruments Inc. said yesterday that its fiscal first-quarter profit fell 4 percent to $588 million from $614 million in the corresponding period a year ago. Earnings per share rose to 44 cents from 42 cents because of share repurchases. Sales fell 2 percent to $3.35 billion.

• Hasbro profit rises to $37.5 million

  Hasbro Inc. said yesterday that second-quarter profit rose, helped by demand for products related to movies including Iron Man and Star Wars. The company said profit rose to $37.5 million, or 25 cents per share, from $4.8 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding a one-time year-ago expense related to repurchasing some warrants, net income fell 9 percent.

• Volkswagen sales up 5.8% in 6 months

  Volkswagen AG said yesterday that it achieved record global sales in the first half of the year, delivering 3.27 million vehicles, a 5.8 percent increase over the corresponding period last year.

• American Express profit tumbles 38%

  American Express Co. said yesterday that second-quarter profit tumbled 38 percent to $653 million, or 56 cents per share, compared with $1.06 billion, or 88 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Revenue rose 8 percent to $7.48 billion from $6.94 billion in the second quarter of last year.

• More economic squeeze called likely in 2nd half

  Factories laying off workers, stocks tumbling and shoppers ditching their credit cards forced the economy to contract in June, a trend likely to continue in the second half of 2008, a private business group said yesterday.

• Yahoo and Icahn find compromise

  Yahoo Inc. and Carl C. Icahn announced yesterday that they had settled their dispute over the makeup of the company's board, striking a compromise that will give the dissident investor and his allies three of the board's 11 seats.

• Dow off 29 in profit-taking after last week's big gains

  Wall Street turned in a mixed performance yesterday as investors watched the price of oil regain ground and decided to cash in some of their gains from the stock market's big rally last week.

• Apple profit jumps 31% to $1.1 billion

  Apple reported yesterday a 38 percent jump in revenue and a 31 percent gain in profit in its fiscal third quarter. For the quarter that ended June 30, Apple said it had revenue of $7.5 billion, compared with $5.4 billion in the corresponding quarter last year. Profit was $1.1 billion, or $1.19 a share, compared with $818 million, or 92 cents, last year. Apple said it shipped 2.5 million Macintosh computers, up 41 percent from a year earlier. And the company saw a 12 percent jump in iPod sales, selling 11 million in the quarter. It sold 717,000 iPhones in the quarter, compared with 270,000 during the year-earlier period, which ended only two days after the iPhone first went on sale.

• Nerves likely to cost you more than Fannie or Freddie

  Edward in Brockton, Mass., got scared enough by the news headlines a week ago that he did the unthinkable.

• Layaway plan is teaching tool

  Sometimes, being old school can be cool.

• Dan Thanh Dang: Questions on paying T-Mobile

  THE Q:

• EU offers to cut farm tariffs sharply

  Facing the possibility of another trade talks collapse, the European Union said yesterday that it would be willing to slash its farm tariffs by an average of 60 percent as part of a new global commerce pact - a deeper cut than it has ever offered.

• Roche makes bid for Genentech

  Biotechnology pioneer Genentech Inc. considered Roche Holdings' $43.7 billion offer for its remaining shares yesterday as investors made clear their feelings that the Swiss pharmaceutical giant should pay considerably more.