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A24
BUSINESSFriday 24 April 2015
Report: Comcast plans to drop $45B Time Warner Cable bid
TALI ARBEL
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Com-
cast is abandoning its
$45.2 billion purchase of
Time Warner Cable, ac-
cording to media reports.
Bloomberg News and The
New York Times both said
Thursday that the cable
company is planning to
drop the bid after push-
back from regulators. They
both cited unidentified
Wall Street inches up; Nasdaq sets record high
KEN SWEET
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Fifteen
years, one month and thir-
teen days.
That’s how long it took the
Nasdaq composite index
to close above the record
it set at the apex of the
dot-com bubble.
The Nasdaq rose 20.89
points, or 0.4 percent, to
5,056.06, above the record
of 5,048.62 it set on March
10, 2000. In many ways, the
crossing of that threshold
is purely ceremonial and
psychological.
The index, while still weight-
ed with technology and In-
ternet companies, has not
been defined by the like of
Pets.com, Geocities or We-
bVan for a decade and a
half.
Apple, a company that
was teetering on the edge
in 2000, is now the big-
gest and most profitable
company on the planet
and makes up a signifi-
cant piece of the Nasdaq.
Google, which didn’t ex-
ist as a public company in
2000, also makes up a no-
table percentage of the
Google posts mixed 1Q results amid threats to company
MICHAEL LIEDTKE
AP Technology Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) —
Google has been look-
ing more vulnerable as a
technological upheaval
nibbles at its dominance in
Internet search, while the
company also deals with a
potentially massive regula-
tory headache in Europe.
But those threats haven’t
done much to undercut
Google’s power or profits
yet.

people with knowledge of roof. That would give the Capital IQ Tuna Amobi. Another charge is that
the matter. resulting behemoth un- One concern, for exam- Comcast hasn’t stuck to
Comcast may make an precedented power over ple, is that the company conditions imposed on it
announcement as soon as what Americans watch could undermine the when it bought NBCUni-
Friday, Bloomberg said. and download. streaming video industry versal. The company says
Comcast and Time War- That has had competitors, by requiring onerous pay- it has, except for one cir-
ner Cable declined to consumer groups, and ments from new online- cumstance when the FCC
comment. Senators lining up to op- only video providers for found it wasn’t promoting
Combining the No. 1 and pose the deal. connecting to its network. a stand-alone Internet ser-
No. 2 U.S. cable compa- “This is one of those deals Dish, the satellite TV com- vice. Comcast says it fixed
nies would put nearly 30 where the opponents of pany behind the new Web that.
percent of TV and about the merger have been video service Sling TV, and Pushback against the
55 percent of broadband one of the most vocal I Netflix are opposed to the merger has picked up in
subscribers under one can remember,” said S&P deal. the last couple weeks.q
index. market on Thursday. strong U.S. dollar has been strong. Caterpillar fell 8
And the Standard & Poor’s The Dow Jones industrial av- having a negative impact cents to $84.79.
500, which most fund man- erage rose 20.42 points, 0.1 on U.S. companies that rely “The results have been
agers use as a benchmark percent, to 18,058.69. The a lot on overseas sales. pretty consistent this earn-
for the overall stock mar- S&P 500 rose 4.97 points, or 3M, General Motors, Proct- ings season. If you’re an
ket, recovered from its dot- 0.2 percent, 2,112.93. The er & Gamble and Caterpil- export-heavy company,
lar all reported their earn- your results have suffered
Market data is displayed on the screens at the Nasdaq ings on Thursday and all from a strong dollar,” said
said the strong U.S. dollar Randy Frederick, man-
MarketSite in New York, Thursday, April 23, 2015. The Nasdaq hurt them. aging director of trading
P&G, which makes Tide de- and derivatives for Charles
composite has closed at a record high for the first time since tergent and Gillette razors, Schwab.
said its profits were down Benchmark U.S. crude oil
the dot-com bubble of 2000. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) roughly 7 percent and rose $1.58, or 2.8 percent,
sales were down 8 percent to close at $57.74 a barrel
com peak in 2007. S&P 500 is about four points from a year earlier. The in New York. The advance
company blamed a strong helped lift energy stocks,
“It’s a major psychological below the record high it set U.S. dollar, which makes its which gained 1 percent.
products more expensive Brent crude rose $2.12 to
barrier, but in the end, it’s March 2. when sold abroad. P&G close at $64.85 a barrel in
fell $1.48, or 2 percent, to London. Oil has been re-
just a number,” said Scott The Nasdaq’s close was a $80.95. covering slowly from low
Another consumer prod- levels it hit in March, which
Wren, senior global equity side attraction for many ucts company, 3M, also investors have taken as a
reported lower profits due sign that prices are start-
strategist at Wells Fargo professional investors, to the dollar. The maker of ing to stabilize after a
Post-Its and Scotch Tape year of declines. In other
Advisors. who have been focused fell $5.01, or 3 percent, to trading of energy futures
$159.66. on the New York Mercan-
The Nasdaq’s advance on companies that have While Caterpillar reported tile Exchange, wholesale
a better-than-expected gasoline rose 7.1 cents to
was part of a broader been reporting their quar- profit for last quarter, the $1.997 a gallon, heating oil
construction equipment gained 5.3 cents to $1.924
move higher by the stock terly earnings and how the maker said it may face big- a gallon and natural gas
ger issues later this year as fell 7.5 cents to $2.531 per
long as the dollar remains 1,000 cubic feet.q

Google’s first-quarter earn- sions, totaled $13.9 billion that depressed overseas while helping make peo-
ings rose 4 percent to $3.6 — about $100 million be- revenue and Google’s ple’s lives better, too.
billion as the company’s low analysts’ predictions. penchant for spending Even as Google sows new
Internet-leading advertis- It marked the sixth consec- heavily on far-flung proj- fields, the company finds
ing network lifted revenue utive quarter that Google’s ects such as driverless cars, itself trying to adapt to an
by 14 percent to $17.3 bil- earnings have fallen below medical research and In- era of smartphones that
lion from the same time the analysts’ targets that ternet-beaming balloons is changing the way that
last year. If not for em- shape investors’ expecta- that may take years to pay people find information
ployee stock compensa- tions. Google’s stock nev- off, if ever. Google CEO and peruse digital con-
tion, Google said it would ertheless surged $14.54, or Larry Page believes invest- tent. Millions of different
have earned $6.57 per nearly 3 percent, to $572 in ing in risky projects that he mobile applications have
share, four cents below the extended trading. calls “moonshots” will pro- enabled people to go di-
estimates among analysts The earnings miss stemmed duce breakthroughs that rectly to the digital content
polled by FactSet. Rev- from several factors, in- turn into the company’s that they want, instead of
enue, minus ad commis- cluding a stronger dollar next big moneymaker searching on Google.q