Actual finance blog

Olympus Corp. said Thursday it is postponing an earnings announcement set for next week amid an accounting scandal that has wiped out about four-fifths of its stock price and tarnished Japan’s corporate image.

The Japanese camera and medical equipment maker said in a statement Thursday that it cannot submit its earnings report for the April-September period on Nov. 14 as planned due to an ongoing review by a company-appointed investigation panel.

In response, the Tokyo Stock Exchange placed Olympus stock on supervisory status, warning that it could be removed from the stock exchange if it fails to release its earnings within a month, or by Dec. 14.

Olympus has been battered by a scandal over a $687 million payment for financial advice and expensive acquisitions of companies unrelated to its mainstay businesses.

On Tuesday, the company said top executives used the payment and acquisitions to hide massive losses, reversing denials of any wrongdoing. Its British CEO Michael Woodford first raised the concerns last month, calling for Olympus executives to resign _ and was then promptly fired by the board.

Olympus said it will do its “utmost” to submit the earnings report by Dec. 14, and said it was cooperating with the “strict and thorough investigation” being conducted by the independent committee. Results of the probe are expected in early December.

“We deeply apologize for causing trouble to our shareholders, investors, customers and anyone else who are affected by the matter,” Olympus said online pay day loans.

The company’s shares have plunged to 484 yen Thursday from 2,482 yen on Oct. 13, the day before Woodford’s dismissal.

Olympus dismissed Executive Vice President Hisashi Mori on Tuesday, saying he was involved in the cover-up along with Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, who abruptly resigned as chairman last month in an attempt to placate angry shareholders.

Shuichi Takayama, who took over as president in late October, has said he can not disclose the size of the losses or any other detail because all data had been handed over to the independent panel.

The Tokyo-based company had denied wrongdoing over the $687 million payment to the Wall Street financial adviser as part of a $2 billion purchase of U.K.-based Gyrus Group Plc. The payment represented more than a third of the acquisition price. Fees for advisers are normally 1 to 2 percent of the deal value.

Business groups and analysts have said the scandal reflects weaknesses in Japan’s corporate governance including too few independent directors on company boards.

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ATHENS—Greece’s prime minister launched efforts to form a coalition government to run the country for the next four months, arguing Saturday the move is vital to securing a mammoth new debt deal and demonstrating commitment to remaining in the eurozone.

George Papandreou won an early morning confidence vote in the Socialist-led parliament on a pledge that he was willing to step aside and form a cross-party caretaker government. But it remains unclear whether the main opposition conservatives and other parties will take part in the talks and drop a demand for an immediate general election.

Hours after winning the vote, Papandreou met with President Karolos Papoulias.

“Cooperation is necessary to guarantee — for Greece and for our partners — that we can honor our commitments,” Papandreou said at the start of Saturday’s hourlong meeting.

“I am concerned that a lack of cooperation could trouble how our partners see our will and desire to remain in the central core of the European Union and the euro,” he said.

Papandreou, midway through his four-year term, was forced into the move by his austerity-weary Socialist party after he abandoned a disastrous proposal to hold a referendum on a new European debt deal. The idea was quickly scrapped this week after throwing world markets into renewed turmoil and drawing an angry reaction from European leaders.

Frustrated with Greece’s protracted political disagreements, the country’s creditors have threatened to withhold the next critical 8 billion euros ($11 billion U.S.) loan installment until the new debt deal is formally approved in Greece.

Greece is surviving on a 110 billion euros ($150 billion U.S.) rescue-loan program from eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund no fax cash advances. It is currently finalizing a second mammoth deal: to receive an additional 130 billion euros ($179 billion U.S.) in loans and bank support, with banks agreeing to cancel 50 percent of their Greek debt.

“My immediate aim is to do everything I can to create a broad cooperation government … I am not tied to my post,” Papandreou said.

“Cooperation is required for the country. We must not go to elections at this moment because it would have catastrophic consequences for the Greek economy and the livelihoods of Greek citizens,” he said. “The (new debt) agreement is very significant and will relieve much of the burden on the Greek citizen.”

Socialist party officials insisted any new government would need until late February to secure the second deal, warning that a snap poll could scuttle it. They insisted Saturday that Papandreou’s offer to step aside was sincere, and called on Antonis Samaras, leader of the conservative New Democracy party, to urgently reconsider his party’s position.

“If Mr. Samaras were willing to back a new government, the prime minister would resign today,” Yiannis Magriotis, a deputy public works minister, told private Skai television.

Prominent political analyst Ilias Nicolacopoulos argued it would be difficult for Samaras to avoid the coalition talks altogether — even if he remains reluctant to share power with Papandreou.

“There will be a tough game of poker — all of last week was a poker game — to determine what type of government can be formed,” he told AP television.

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It’s the plane that is supposed to change the experience of flying.

No more stuffy noses, dry throats or severe fatigue. Larger windows to provide a stronger connection to the world outside. And mood lighting that can either ease jet lag or turn the plane into a nightclub at 40,000 feet.

And for the most part, Boeing’s 787 succeeds. Flying it is more enjoyable. But it’s still flying. Just because the plane is new doesn’t mean the food will taste better or you won’t be stuck in front of a kicking kid.

There has been plenty of hype surrounding the 787, a long-range plane marketed as The Dreamliner that carried its first passengers Wednesday on a four-hour flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong. It has been called “revolutionary” and “a game-changer.”

And, indeed, a sleek design makes the plane stand out the moment you step on board. A higher ceiling _ at least the perception of one _ reduces claustrophobia. And natural light pours in, creating a welcoming feeling.

Maybe that 10-hour flight won’t be so bad after all. Maybe.

The biggest benefit should come from features that fight jet lag. Those couldn’t really be experienced by the 240 reporters and aviation enthusiasts who made the relatively short inaugural flight.

They include a doubling of the humidity, to 16 percent, and bringing the cabin’s pressure closer to what it feels like on the ground. Planes are normally pressurized to 8,000 feet, higher than any point on the East Coast. Air inside the 787 is made to feel the equivalent of 6,000, slightly higher than Denver. The pressure and humidity changes should lead to fewer headaches and leave passengers with more energy after long trips.

The short flight also didn’t provide for a test of the full impact of LED lights that slowly change color, another feature designed to fight fatigue. The impact was felt when the cabin lit up in a funky rainbow display, turning the plane into something out of “Saturday Night Fever.” Add some loud music and it’s not too hard to imagine a bachelor or bachelorette party at 40,000 feet.

The lighting concept is being rolled out on other aircraft, including new models of the narrow-body 737. European aircraft maker Airbus also offers something similar on new A320s.

Another feature a passenger should notice on the 787 is the windows. The plane’s strong carbon-fiber frame, which allows for the humidity and pressure improvements, enables windows 30 percent larger than those on traditional aluminum-body planes small personal loans.

Just don’t expect window shades. Boeing replaced them with an electronic tinting feature. Click a button below the window and it slowly starts to darken. The window never becomes completely blacked out _ you can still see out _ but enough light is blocked to make sleeping possible. Not that anybody was trying to sleep during the boisterous inaugural flight. At the very least, you can picture little kids playing with the windows for hours.

Boeing also tackles the problem of crowded overhead bins. Getting bags into the bins, and opening and closing them when they are heavy and full, was easier than on any other plane.

The plane’s manufacturer says they are the largest bins on any plane, with enough room for one carry-on bag per passenger. While the bins are much larger, the only way that seemed feasible was with identically rectangular bags stacked in optimal order.

The plane is also supposed to be much quieter, both for passengers inside and people on the ground. Engines with a wave pattern in the metal lower the roar, although Boeing won’t say by how much.

And a lighter plane allows for more padding to protect passengers from noise and vibration. Wednesday’s flight seemed quieter, but a handheld sound meter registered noise levels similar to Boeing’s 777. (Maybe those soothing lights were playing tricks on the mind.)

The most-promising feature of the 787 will come on later models: a turbulence-dampening system. Accelerometers in the plane’s nose will register a sudden drop and sent a signal through fiber-optic cables to the wings. What would have been a 9-foot drop is cut to 3. No other plane has this technology.

Airlines have already purchased almost 800 of the original 787 because of promised fuel savings and the ability to open up new routes. Japan’s All Nippon Airways is the first to fly it. United Continental will be the first in the U.S. sometime late next year.

There are some features that Boeing can’t control. Individual airlines determine how much legroom passengers get. They also pick between a roomy eight-across seating arrangement or a more cramped nine-across layout.

All Nippon has eight seats in each row and installed a double armrest for the middle seats, providing a few extra inches of personal space.

And in the end, isn’t that all we want?

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Congress has given the U.S. patent system its first major overhaul since the age of the transistor radio by passing legislation designed to spur innovation and provide a sorely needed boost to the job market.

Senate passage Thursday of the America Invents Act, which sends it to President Barack Obama for his signature, is the first significant change in patent law since 1952. It took years to accomplish, with the final vote coming a little more than an hour before Obama appeared before a joint session of Congress to pitch his plan for promoting jobs growth.

“Today you passed reform that will speed up the outdated patent process so that entrepreneurs can turn a new idea into a new business as quickly as possible,” Obama said in his speech. “That’s the kind of action we need.”

The vote was 89-9, a rare example recently of Democrats and Republicans, and the House and Senate, working together for a common cause. Despite the emphasis from both parties this year on finding work for the unemployed, political divisions have resulted in almost no concrete jobs legislation.

The bill, said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., “is an opportunity to show the American people that Democrats and Republicans can come together to enact meaningful legislation for the American people.”

Leahy’s partner on the bill, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said it was the most important change to patent law since the Patent Act of 1836 and hailed it as “one of the most significant jobs creation bills enacted by Congress this year.”

The legislation is aimed at streamlining the patent process, reducing costly legal battles and giving the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office the money it needs to process patent applications in a timely fashion.

It wasn’t easy. Congress has debated a patent bill every year over the past six years and, before final passage, the Senate had to defeat three proposed amendments that would have forced the bill to return to the House, with increased prospects of another deadlock. The Senate was voting on a version already passed by the House.

The measure would switch the United States from the “first-to-invent” system to the “first-inventor-to-file” system for patent applications. That change would put the U.S. in line with other industrialized countries.

The proposal has met resistance from some small-scale and independent inventors who say it will put them at a disadvantage with big corporations. Their concerns were voiced by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who said, “This is not a patent reform bill. This is a big corporation patent giveaway that tramples on the rights of small inventors.”

Supporters say it will add certainty to a system now riddled by costly lawsuits. With rivals having to rely on their own secret documents to prove they were the first inventor, it becomes difficult to “gain a clear picture of whether a patent is valid without years of litigation” and millions of dollars of discovery and other legal costs, said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

The bill ensures that the patent office has the money to expedite the application process. It now takes an average of three years to get a patent approved. The agency has a backlog of 1.2 million pending patents. More than 700,000 have yet to be reviewed.

Since 1992, the agency has lost nearly $1 billion because what it receives from Congress is less than what it collects in fees.

The bill gives assurance the agency will have access to more money but maintains congressional controls. Senators defeated an amendment by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., that would have given the agency more leeway to set fees and keep all the fees it collects.

The legislation also takes steps to reduce harassing litigation, and improve patent quality by enabling third parties to submit information that may be relevant to the granting of a patent.

It encourages U.S. manufacturing by allowing producers to continue to use a manufacturing process in this country even if another inventor later patents the idea.

While small-scale inventors are divided on the legislation, it has the backing of associations representing corporations such as Caterpillar Inc. and General Electric, as well as high-tech companies including Apple and Google, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Association of American Universities.

IBM Senior Vice President Robert C. Weber, in a statement, praised “our elected officials for producing a bipartisan, common-sense bill that will significantly improve the U.S. patent system.”

IBM has been the top U.S. patent recipient for the past 18 years.

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Activist investor Carl Icahn made an unusual offer to buy Clorox Co. this week, presenting himself almost as a disinterested bidder and encouraging the company to try to find a better offer.

The billionaire hedge fund manager sent a letter to Clorox CEO Don Knauss on Thursday offering to pay $76.50 per share in cash, according to a regulatory filing Friday. That’s a 12 percent premium to Thursday’s closing price.

Clorox shares leapt Friday on the news. However, Icahn seemed more interested in drumming up another buyer, such as Procter & Gamble Co. or Colgate-Palmolive Co., than actually buying Clorox himself.

In his letter to Knauss, Icahn said that his firm wore “two hats” both as a potential buyer of Clorox and as its biggest shareholder. He said shareholders would benefit the most if Clorox were sold to another consumer products company that could take advantage of “significant inherent synergies.”

He suggested that Procter & Gamble, Colgate and Kimberly-Clark Corp., which are headquartered in the U.S., might be interested. So might Unilever PLC, Reckitt Benckiser and Henkel AG, he said. He expressed confidence that Clorox would find “numerous superior bids” if it shopped itself around.

If no other bidders stepped forward, Icahn wrote, then “our fellow stockholders” should have the opportunity to vote on the Icahn bid.

Icahn became Clorox’s biggest shareholder in December, spending nearly $800 million to buy a 9.4 percent stake. He has already made money on the investment: Shares have risen more than 8 percent since he made his investment, not including Friday’s gains.

Clorox was formed 98 years ago in Oakland, Calif., by five entrepreneurs selling what became the company’s namesake bleach. The company, which now is also the maker of Burt’s Bees lip balm, Glad trash bags, Brita water filters and an eclectic mix of other household products, said its board would review the offer “in due course” and couldn’t comment until then. Spokesman Dan Staublin said the board is “committed to acting in the best interests of our company and our shareholders.”

Despite its stock performance, Clorox has faced challenges, with year-over-year revenue declining for the past three quarters free credit score online. Of 14 analysts surveyed by FactSet, only two listed it as a buy.

Like its peers, Clorox is facing higher prices for materials it needs to make and transport its products, and it also has to persuade customers to keep buying as they get squeezed by higher gas and grocery prices.

Icahn is known for buying and shaking up struggling companies, with mixed success. His other holdings at the end of the first quarter included the drug maker Biogen Idec Inc., movie studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., Motorola Solutions Inc. and power producer Dynegy Inc., according to a May 16 regulatory filing.

Icahn valued his offer at $12.6 billion. That includes paying about $8.9 billion for the shares he doesn’t own, and putting up the shares he does own, which are valued at nearly $1 billion. He would also take on Clorox’s debt.

Icahn told Clorox that if it accepts the deal by July 29 and then he fails to close it, he will pay Clorox $100 million for its “time and effort.” He also said he would not ask for a breakup fee if Clorox sold itself to another bidder.

Citigroup Inc. analyst Wendy Nicholson said Icahn appears to be offering a fair price. She and Weeden & Co. analyst Javier Escalante said they thought it unlikely that any other consumer products companies would want to buy Clorox.

It is already a well-run company, so it’s not clear what a new management team could do, they said. Knauss, the CEO since fall 2006 and a veteran of the Coca-Cola Co., has increased net income to about $603 million during last fiscal year, up from $443 million for the year ended June 30, 2006.

More importantly, Clorox has failed to tap the fast-growing emerging markets as well as its rivals have, and it’s unlikely that other companies would be interested in saddling themselves with more exposure to saturated U.S. markets.

Anyone who did buy Clorox would likely sell it for parts, getting rid of as many as half of its units, such as cat litter or charcoal, Escalante said.

Clorox shares closed Friday up 9 percent to $74.55.

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Tanks for storing radioactive water were on their way Saturday to the crippled nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan where reactor cores melted after the massive earthquake and tsunami.

The new tanks should help prevent further environmental damage in the evacuated area around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant by providing a secure place to store the contaminated water being used to cool the reactors as workers continue their battle to bring them under control.

Radioactive water has been leaking from the plant since it was struck by the March 11 disasters, with tons having already flushed into the sea and more continuing to pool across the complex.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that operates the plant, has said radioactive water could start overflowing from temporary storage areas on June 20, or possibly sooner if there is heavy rainfall.

Two of the 370 tanks were due to arrive Saturday from a manufacturer in nearby Tochigi prefecture (state), TEPCO said. Two hundred of them can store 100 tons, and 170 can store 120 tons.

The tanks will continue arriving through August, and will store a total of 40,000 tons of radioactive water.

Workers have been fighting to get the plant under control since the tsunami knocked out power, destroyed backup generators and halted the crucial cooling systems for the reactors, causing the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. Several explosions have scattered radioactive debris around the plant, and reactors are puffing radiation into the air.

TEPCO also said robots with cameras that entered Unit 1 _ one of the three reactors whose cores have melted _ found Friday that steam was spewing from the floor. Nationally televised news Saturday showed blurry video of steady smoke curling up from an opening in the reactor floor.

The radioactive fumes were suspected to be coming from the suppression pool area, which is near the reactor core.

The radiation level near the smoky area reached as high as 4,000 millisieverts per hour, much too high for any human to get near that area, and confirming the formidable obstacles Fukushima workers face in fixing the problems at the reactors.

Nuclear fuel rods are believed to have melted almost completely and sunk to the bottom of three reactor containers, although falling short of a complete meltdown, in which case the fuel would have melted entirely through the container bottoms.

In one progress update, TEPCO said workers were successful in attaching additional pressure monitors at Unit 1. The plan is to keep adding pressure-reading equipment at all three hobbled reactors. The ones already there may have been damaged by the tsunami and quake, and may not be working properly.

TEPCO has promised to bring the plant under control by January, but doubts are growing that the plan was too optimistic. The plan calls for a reprocessing system for the radioactive water by June 15, with hopes of reusing the water as coolant in the reactors.

The March earthquake and tsunami left 24,000 people dead or missing, and left tens of thousands of others living in evacuation centers _ including residents near Fukushima Dai-ichi whose homes were intact but still had to leave to avoid risks of radiation exposure.

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ST. LOUIS

John Q. Hammons

Age

Asian markets fell sharply Tuesday as traders dumped shares following steep drops on Wall Street amid concerns that political unrest in Iran and Libya could send oil prices soaring and paralyze the global economic recovery.

Oil prices rose to more than $100 a barrel, and the dollar strengthened against the yen and the euro.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average was down 2.2 percent to 10,513.37 while South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.7 percent to 1,926.02. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 1.7 percent to 23,007.29.

Investor sentiment wilted over higher fuel prices and their effect on the global economy, as unrest in oil-producing countries continued. Iran clamped down on anti-government protesters and forces loyal to Libya’s leader Moammar Gadhafi launched counterattacks against rebels expanding control over the country.

Fears that the unrest might spread to Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, is keeping many investors on the sidelines, said Matthew Lewis, head of sales trading in Sydney at CMC markets.

“The trigger, I think, is that the Libyan crisis looks like it is not going to go away as easily as it did in Egypt. Iran is showing a little bit of unrest,” he said. “There is growing concern that Saudi Arabia is in the middle of that. What would happen to oil prices if there were civil unrest in Saudi Arabia?”

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was off 0.6 percent to 4,797.80. The Australian economy grew 0.7 percent in the final quarter of 2010, according to official figures released Tuesday. That met expectations and didn’t have much impact on the market, said Lewis.

Shares in New Zealand, mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore were also lower. Indian markets are closed Wednesday for the holiday of Mahashivratri.

In Tokyo, fears of a further global slowdown weighed on exporters like major electronics and car manufacturers. Toshiba Corp. was down 2.2 percent and Sony Corp. lost 2 percent. Toyota Motor Corp. was 2.5 percent lower.

Sharp Corp. dropped 4.6 percent after Morgan Stanley cut its rating in a report that went out early Wednesday, citing concerns over its LCD panel business.

Airline shares also fell on concerns over fuel prices. Qantas Airways Ltd. dipped 2.1 percent, while Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. lost 2.3 percent. China Southern Airlines Co. Ltd. was down 4 percent and All Nippon Airways Co. Ltd. lost 2.7 percent.

The falls came after big drops in the U.S., where the Dow Jones industrial average lost 1.4 percent to 12,058.02, and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 1.6 percent to 1,306.33.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee that a sustained increase in crude prices could pose a risk to the U.S. economic recovery. Also in the U.S., the Commerce Department said the amount of new homes and offices started by builders fell in January. The annual rate was near its decade low, set in August.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was up 38 cents at $100.01 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.66 to settle at $99.63 a barrel on Tuesday.

In currencies, the dollar climbed to 81.89 yen from 81.84 yen late Monday in New York. The euro slid to $1.3754 from $1.3775.

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Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday unveiled a long-awaited new tablet device called the TouchPad, alongside two new smartphones.

The TouchPad comes with an iPad-like 9.7-inch screen, a front-facing camera and weighs 1.6 lbs. It can multitask and sync with other HP devices like smartphones and printers, and it can display Web content encoded with Abobe Flash (something iPads won’t do).

Unique features of the TouchPad include a resizeable keyboard and the high-quality "Beats" audio speakers that HP features on many of its laptops.

Slated for release this summer, the Wi-Fi-only version of the TouchPad will be unveiled first, with the 3G and 4G versions hitting the market at a later date.

HP’s new smartphones included the Veer, a credit-card sized smartphone with a pull-out keyboard, and its slightly larger cousin, the Palm Pre 3.

HP left out one key detail about the TouchPad: Its price tag. The company plans to announce pricing later.

The devices are the first fruits of HP’s $1.2 billion white knight purchase of Palm 10 months ago.

Palm went "all-in" with its then-new webOS operating system when it debuted the Palm Pre in January 2009. Despite rave reviews of the webOS platform, the Pre and its smaller sister, the Pixi, never quite caught on with consumers.

After buying Palm, HP opted to scale up webOS, saying it would eventually become a platform that goes beyond just smartphones. HP will also unveil webOS printers and PCs later on, the company said.

The OS has failed so far to attract application developers, but HP announced several new high-profile app partners, including Amazon’s Kindle app, Facebook and Fortune parent company Time Inc.

In a direct shot at Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500), HP and Time Inc. plan to make some of Time Inc.’s magazines available for sale under a subscription model. The iPad only currently allows a subscription service for one content provider: News Corp’s The Daily. Apple says it is working to expand that offering to other publishers.

Apple has thus far dominated the tablet space, selling 14.8 million iPads since its April 2010 launch.

But dozens of other tablet makers debuted their designs at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, hoping to capitalize on the excitement that surrounded the iPad. Motorola (MMI) even advertised its Xoom tablet during the Super Bowl.

DisplaySearch forecasts that there will be 55.7 million tablets sold in 2011.

Tech blog Engadget leaked photos several weeks ago of a nine-inch HP / webOS tablet codenamed "Topaz" and said a seven-inch tablet codenamed "Opal" would also be released. But HP didn’t announce anything about a smaller tablet on Wednesday.

Shares of HP (HPQ, Fortune 500) rose 1% Wednesday. 

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