IN BRIEF

NEW YORK

Time Warner expects $25 billion charge

Media company Time Warner Inc. said Wednesday that it expects a fourth-quarter charge of $25 billion to write down the value of its cable, publishing and AOL assets, leading to a loss for the year.

New York-based Time Warner said its results, particularly for its AOL and publishing unit's advertising operations, have been pressured by economic conditions that are more difficult than it initially anticipated.

Time Warner's cable television arm Time Warner Cable Inc. will account for $15 billion of the charge, with the remaining $10 billion related to its publishing and AOL divisions, spokesman Edward Adler said, declining to give further specifics.

The charge will lead to an operating loss for the fourth quarter. Time Warner also expects a full-year loss, down from a previous outlook for a profit between $1.04 and $1.07 per share.

HOPKINTON, Mass.

EMC says it will beat Street expectations

Data storage company EMC says it expects fourth-quarter earnings to beat Wall Street expectations on growing sales.

However, the Hopkinton, Mass.-based company announced it will lay off 2,400 workers, or about 7 percent of its staff, consolidate facilities and reduce costs to boost its competitiveness.

EMC, the world's largest maker of external disk storage devices, said the restructuring will reduce expenses by $350 million in 2009 by streamlining back-office operations and cutting layers of management. The job cuts represent about 7 percent of the company's work force.

For the quarter ended in December, EMC said it expects to report adjusted earnings of 23 cents or 24 cents per share, excluding charges associated with the job cuts.

Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who typically exclude one-time items from their projections, were expecting 23 cents per share, on average.

Bank of America sells stake in China lender

Bank of America Corp. sold $2.8 billion of China Construction Bank Corp. shares to boost capital and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing is raising as much as $524 million in Bank of China Ltd. stock sales.

Bank of America offered 5.62 billion shares in China's second-largest lender at HK$3.92 apiece, a sales document obtained by Bloomberg News shows. Li's Magnitico Holdings Ltd. is selling 2 billion shares in Beijing-based Bank of China at HK$1.98 to HK$2.03 each, according to a separate sales document.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D.

Oil prices fall on news of energy reserves

Energy prices plunged across the board Wednesday, giving up a week of gains with unexpectedly large U.S. crude reserves suggesting demand for energy has eroded even further.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery tumbled 12 percent, or $5.95, to settle at $42.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the report was released.

The Energy Information Administration said inventories of commercial crude oil inventories rose 6.7 million barrels, well beyond the 1.5 million-barrel build expected by analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

SAN FRANCISCO

Intel says it will miss revenue projection

Even after sharply reducing its outlook for the fourth quarter, Intel Corp. said Wednesday that it would miss its revenue projection by about $500 million, a sign that PC makers and buyers are being more tightfisted than it seemed only two months ago.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel, the world's largest chip maker, now says revenue was $8.2 billion for the last three months of 2008, a 23 percent decline from the year-ago period.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting $8.7 billion, which was at the low end of the range Intel provided in November of $8.7 billion to $9.3 billion.

Intel is scheduled to provide more detail when it releases full fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 15.

UNION, N.J.

Bed Bath & Beyond profits fall 36 percent

Home decor chain Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. said Wednesday that its third-quarter earnings fell more than 36 percent as revenue and same-store sales slipped on a continued pullback in consumer spending.

The company said given current economic trends, it expects fourth-quarter earnings will fall below analyst estimates.

For the quarter ending Nov. 29, the company earned $87.7 million, or 34 cents per share. That's down from a year-ago profit of $138.2 million, or 52 cents per share.

Sales fell 0.7 percent to $1.78 billion from $1.79 billion.

Microsoft-Yahoo talks not back, source says

Microsoft Corp. isn't holding talks to finance a new bid for Yahoo Inc., a person familiar with Microsoft's plans said, responding to a blog report.

The TechCrunch site said Wednesday that an investment group led by Silicon Valley executives and bankers is putting together a bid for Yahoo that would be funded largely by Microsoft. The software company would also acquire Yahoo's Internet-search business under the deal, the blog said.

The report revived speculation that Microsoft would make another play for Yahoo, following a failed takeover attempt last year. Microsoft isn't discussing such a plan, said the person, who declined to be identified because the information is confidential.

Frank Shaw, a spokesman for Microsoft, didn't return a call seeking comment. Brad Williams, a spokesman for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo, said the company doesn't comment on rumors.

SAN FRANCISCO

Temporary workers sent away by Google

Google Inc. has jettisoned a substantial number of temporary workers in a recent austerity drive spurred by the recession, although the Internet search leader still intends to spend billions of dollars during the next two years on product research, development and acquisitions.

The spending plans were outlined in a regulatory filing that also provided clues about the magnitude of a recent payroll purge targeting Google's legion of contractors and other workers who aren't considered full-time or part-time employees.

The filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission was submitted Dec. 15, but it was made on paper, leaving it unavailable through Web services that track reports to the agency. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the records this week.

NEW YORK

Treasury prices decline as traders grow wary

Treasury prices fell Wednesday despite a decent note auction, as investors grew more hesitant about pouring money into government debt.

The 10-year note fell 0.34 points to 110.88, and its yield fell to 2.49 percent from 2.50 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond fell 0.78 points to 128.16, and its yield rose to 3.04 percent from 3.01 percent.