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BUSINESS A25
Saturday 29 April 2017

Exxon’s 1Q profit more than doubles on higher oil prices

IRVING, Texas (AP) — Exxon ter of 2014, when the price Shares of Exxon Mobil Corp. spending while bringing on- increased U.S. drilling and
more than doubled its prof- of oil was just beginning a rose 76 cents to $82.02 in line projects that were years questions about how long
it in the first quarter as ris- plunge that took it below Friday morning trading, but in the making and are now OPEC will maintain its cuts.
ing crude prices magnified $30 a barrel. are still down 10 percent for contributing revenue.A Last month Exxon’s new
the cost cuts made by the Analysts surveyed by Zacks the year. barrel of U.S. crude was CEO Darren Woods said
company as energy prices Investment Research ex- The story was similar at trading for around $49 Fri- that the company would
tumbled. pected 85 cents per share. Exxon rival Chevron, which day. That’s half of what it increase production and
The Irving, Texas, com- Exxon does not adjust its posted a profit of $2.7 bil- sold for in June 2014, but has a mix of projects to
pany earned $4.01 billion, reported results based on lion, reversing a year-ago an improvement from last handle any level of oil and
or 95 cents per share, for one-time events such as as- loss of $725 million. While year’s first quarter when the gas prices. Woods rose to
the three month period, set sales. Exxon’s revenue Exxon cut capital spending price briefly dipped below Exxon’s top job in Janu-
up from $1.81 billion, or 43 surged to $63.29 billion from by 19 percent in the quar- $30. An OPEC agreement ary after his predecessor,
cents per share, a year $48.71 billion, but fell short ter, Chevron reduced cap- to cut production helped Rex Tillerson, was named
earlier. It’s the first year- of the $64.35 billion that an- ital spending by an even boost oil above $50, but secretary of state by then-
over-year profit gain for alysts polled by Zacks were sharper 30 percent. Both the price has fallen this President-elect Donald
Exxon since the third quar- calling for. companies have slashed month on concerns about Trump.q

Apple ceases iPhone payments to Qualcomm, escalating feud

Lisa Gao compares a new jet black iPhone 7, right, with her iPhone 6 at the Apple Store in Chi- pute represents a major its Cupertino, California-
cago. Qualcomm says Apple’s refusal to pay royalties related to technology used in smartphones blow for Qualcomm, which based Apple, the world’s
will take a big bite out of its profit and revenue. Representatives for the Cupertino, California- depends on licensing fees most valuable company.
based iPhone did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday, April 28, 2017. for a large portion of its rev- “We will continue vigor-
enue. ously to defend our busi-
(AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato) Apple’s decision to with- ness model, and pursue our
hold royalties will cost Qual- right to protect and receive
MICHAEL LIEDTKE royalties owed to mobile ent feud that has turned comm up to $500 million in fair value for our techno-
AP Technology Writer chip maker Qualcomm for the former business part- the current quarter alone, logical contributions to the
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — some of the features in the ners into bitter adversaries. based on revised revenue industry,” said Don Rosen-
Apple is refusing to pay any iPhone, escalating a pat- The latest twist in the dis- estimates that Qualcomm berg, Qualcomm’s general
released Friday. counsel.
“This is getting ugly, the Apple concedes it and its
level of hostility just went suppliers owe Qualcomm
up another notch,” said some licensing fees on
technology analyst Patrick iPhone sales.
Moorhead of Moor Insights But Apple believes Qual-
and Strategy. comm has been abusing
As retaliation, Qualcomm its power in the mobile chip
could seek a court order market to charge for royal-
halting iPhone sales until ties on features that aren’t
Apple pays the royalties covered by its patents.
that Qualcomm contends Qualcomm, in turn, has ac-
it’s owed, Moorhead said. cused Apple of breaking
Qualcomm hasn’t threat- contracts in an attempt
ened to go to that extreme to lower its licensing fees
yet, but its top lawyer made and also interfering in deals
it clear on Friday that the negotiated with iPhone
San Diego company is gird- suppliers.q
ing for a fierce fight with

GM motoring as profit jumps 34% on truck sales

TOM KRISHER Analysts say GM makes “All of our facilities, full-size
AP Auto Writer $10,000 or more on each SUVs and the three truck
DETROIT (AP) — People big SUV and pickup as plants, are running full-on,
are buying more SUVs and people load them out with three shifts, to meet de-
trucks and paying Gener- options. mand,” Chief Financial Of-
al Motors handsomely for The average Tahoe, for in- ficer Chuck Stevens said.
them, pushing the com- stance, sold for more than GM’s earnings and rev-
pany’s first-quarter net in- $58,000 in the past quar- enue soundly beat Wall
come up 34 percent to a ter, up slightly from a year street expectations. Earn-
record $2.6 billion. ago, according to Kelley ings of $1.70 per share shat-
U.S. sales of large truck- Blue Book. Top-line versions tered the $1.47 predicted
based SUVs such as the with leather seating, sun- by analysts polled by Fact-
Chevrolet Tahoe rose near- roof and advanced safety Set. Revenue was up 11
ly 15 percent for the quar- electronics, sell for more percent to $41.2 billion, ex-
ter to almost 54,000. Pickup than $65,000. That helped ceeding estimates of $40.6
truck and van sales were drive up GM’s average billion.
up 1 percent to 238,000, vehicle sale price to over Despite the strong perfor-
and sales of smaller SUVs $34,000, beating the indus- mance, GM shares rose less
rose 16 percent to nearly try average by $3,000, the than 1 percent to $34.71 in
219,000, according to GM. company said. Friday afternoon trading. q