In brief
NEW YORK
Back-to-school discounts draw shoppers; Retail sales increase
Americans proved in September they are willing to spend, as long as the price and the product are right.
Stores such as Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Limited Brands Inc. and Macys Inc. posted strong September sales figures, helped by customers lured to malls by back-to-school discounting.
The International Council of Shopping Centers' index of September retail sales rose 2.6 percent, near the low end of its forecast that ranged from 2.5 to 3 percent growth.
Standouts included teen retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, which has cut prices by 14 percent year-to-date and reaped the benefit: revenue in stores open at least one year rose 13 percent, far above the 3.6 percent rise analysts expected.
Macy's revenue rose 4.8 percent, ahead of analysts expectations of a 3.3 percent gain. J.C. Penney's revenue in stores open at least one year rose 5.1 percent, ahead of the 3.1 percent gain analysts expected.
LOS ANGELES
Countrywide co-founder avoids trial by agreeing to settlement
Countrywide Financial Corp. co-founder Angelo Mozilo has agreed to a $67.5 million settlement to avoid trial on civil fraud and insider trading charges that alleged he profited from doling out risky mortgages while misleading investors about the risks.
Two other former Countrywide executives also settled before trial next week on charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. But employment agreements that protect the men from lawsuits involving the failed lender mean Bank of America Corp., which bought Countrywide in July 2008, will pick up most of the tab.
The settlement announced Friday spares the executives the risk of a guilty verdict that could have been used against them in lawsuits by shareholders, or by prosecutors if a criminal probe into their activities leads to charges.
The agreement requires Mozilo to repay $45 million in ill-gotten profits and $22.5 million in civil penalties. Former Countrywide President David Sambol owes $5 million in profits and $520,000 in civil penalties, and former Chief Financial Officer Eric Sieracki will pay $130,000 in civil penalties.
NEW YORK
Industrial-equipment sales stall; General Electric revenue slips
General Electric's return to its roots as an industrial company continues to proceed unevenly.
The industrial and financial giant said Friday that sales of industrial equipment, everything from wind turbines to jet engines to locomotives, lagged in the third quarter.
Revenue of $35.9 billion was about $1.7 billion shy of Wall Street estimates.
Overall, GE reported net income of $2.06 billion, or 18 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, down from net income of $2.49 billion, or 23 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding the $1.1 billion in reserves added to the Japan business, GE earned 29 cents per share, 2 cents above the estimates of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
Rush to free Angry Birds version crashes site's servers
In a scenario Alfred Hitchcock probably would have appreciated, Angry Birds laid download site GetJar.com low on Friday.
The Christian Science Monitor, PC Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Rovio Mobile on Friday morning offered an Android phone version of Angry Birds, its best-selling application, for free through GetJar.com. But, the news outlets said, a rush of phone users aiming to get the app crashed GetJar's servers. PC Magazine noted that GetJar said on the microblogging site Twitter that it had 90,000 downloads "in seconds."
On Friday afternoon, PC Magazine said, the game went up for sale on the Android Market. The Apple iPhone version of the game has been downloaded more than 6 million times, PC Magazine said.
