Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs announced Wednesday after the close he is taking a medical leave of absence until the end of June. COO Tim Cook will be taking over Jobs' day-to-day operations, but Jobs said he'll still be involved in strategic decisions. When shares resumed trading in after-hours, they were down some 8%. Only last week Jobs said he suffers from a hormone imbalance that caused him to lose weight, but that he will remain CEO during his recovery. This has been quite the reversal that he says is due to his problems being "more complex" than originally thought.
This morning, also, Bloomberg reports that Jobs "could be facing surgery to remove his pancreas," according to doctors.
Apart from Jobs illness, though, Gartner has released a preliminary report on U.S. and worldwide PC shipment, which places Apple in fourth place in U.S market share at 8.0% in the fourth quarter, down from 9.5% in the third quarter of 2008.
RBC Capital Mkts downgraded AAPL from Sector Perfrom to Underperform. Oppenheimer lowered its target price from $135 to $120.
AAPL shares were down 7% in premarket trading.
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) may be needing (and getting) more money from the federal government, according to The Wall Street Journal. Apparently, the bank is struggling to digest its Merril Lynch acquisition, whose losses were much greater than expected. This is the second round of bailout money the bank may be getting after it received $15 billion and Merrill got $10 billion already. The size of this bailout round is not yet known. BAC shares dropped more than 5% after hours, reaching their lowest level since 1991. By buying two distressed companies (Countrywide Financial the other) is it now overreached? BAC shares were down 5.8% in premarket trading.
Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) said it will cut 4,000 more jobs in 2009, in addition to 3,000 it announced in December. The move will save the mobile handset maker $700 million a year. It also guided Q4 lower on increasing mobile device unit losses. MOT was upgraded by JPMorgan but downgraded by Barclays Capital. MOT shares were up nearly 2% in premarket trading.
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) said it is closing three engineering offices and cutting 100 recruiters from its work force. Yes, the recession hit even the search giant.
Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) is settling the Zyprexa suit for $1.42 billion. The drugmaker is pleading guilty to a charge that it illegally marketed anti-psychotic drug for off-label use. This will also end the criminal investigation as Lilly will plead guilty to a misdemeanor violation for promoting Zyprexa as a dementia treatment. It will pay $800 million to settle civil suits and $615 million to resolve the criminal probe. The amount is in-line with what the company has expected to pay. LLY shares were 2.8% higher in premarket trading.
Seagate Technology (NYSE: STX) said Wednesday it would cut about 6% of its worldwide workforce, or about 2,950 workers, and lower the salaries of its top officers by as much as 25%.
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Genentech (NYSE: DNA) both report results after the close today.
Closing Bell: Dubai sends jitters throughout the market (S, BBY)
Heinz looking good after the second quarter?
Why isn't Bank of America updating its shareholders on CEO situation?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-15-2009 @ 8:28AM
Beltway Greg said...
I hope he's wrong but I spoke to a friend who has knowledge of the situation and he said that Steve isn't going to be able to return.
1-15-2009 @ 9:19AM
Beltway Greg said...
Dump SKF at the open today.