June 12 Biz Minute

Television stations across the country began cutting their analog signals today, marking the final signoff for a 60-year-old technology and likely stranding more than few million unprepared homes without TV service. The FCC put 4,000 operators on standby and volunteer groups and local government agencies were helping elderly people set up digital converter boxes that keep older TVs functioning. Cessna Aircraft the nation's largest builder of corporate jets, announced today it is laying off another 1,300 workers, raising the number of jobs eliminated to half of its work force since November, as the recession has depressed demand for its planes. Cessna said the cutbacks will affect all its facilities.
U.S. consumer confidence rose to a nine-month high in June, a survey showed today, but inflation gauges showed worrisome signs of price increases that could slow any recovery from the longest recession since the Great Depression. June's consumer confidence reading failed to surpass the level reached last September, when the spectacular failure of Lehman Brothers sent the world economy into a tailspin.
Microsoft said yesterday that it would remove its Internet Explorer browser — and not include any alternatives — in the Windows 7 software it will sell in Europe. The company is trying to avoid new EU fines after being earlier charged with unfairly using its operating system monopoly to squeeze into other software markets. But the European Commission said it preferred to see consumers offered a choice of browser, "not that Windows would be supplied without a browser at all."
BlackRock Inc, the fund manager famed for buying assets on the cheap, has snapped up Barclays Global Investors for $13.5 billion in a deal creating the world's largest money manager. The combined company, to be called BlackRock Global Investors, will have roughly $2.8 trillion of assets under management.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• FCC
• anolog
• digital
• Cessna
• consumer
• microsoft
• European Union
• BlackRock