Daily Dispatch: Samsung, Home Depot, GE Money, and U.S. Industrials
By
Andrew Hines
June 15th, 2007 @ 7:49 am
| Permalink
Categories: General
Tags: Home Depot Inc., General Electric Co., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., eBay Inc., Flash Memory, Andrew Hines
- Samsung Electronics today unveiled a new flash memory production line at its Texas plant and revealed plans to invest another $3.5 billion in flash memory chip production there. The announcement marks the first time the leading memory chip-maker has released details on production capacities. Analysts say Samsung’s heightened investment in flash memory is a smart move to get away from low growth and lower margin DRAM chips.
- Home Depot will receive separate offers of about $10 billion for its contractor-supplies division from two private equity groups, according to a Bloomberg report. The HD Supply unit currently accounts for about 13 percent of total revenues. Analysts view the possible sale as a sign that Home Depot sees more opportunity in retail.
- GE’s consumer-lending unit, GE money, today said it will expand its partnership with eBay to offer an eBay Mastercard later this month. For every $1 of purchases, both on eBay and offline, consumers will receive one “reward point,” redeemable for shipping discounts or eBay vouchers. The development is part of eBay’s design for PayPal’s growing role in the e-commerce market, expected to exceed $300 billion in the U.S. alone by 2010.
- U.S. Industrial output showed zero growth in May, with declining output from utilities an automotive industries. The high-tech industry showed a 0.3 percent rise last month after growing 0.8 percent in April. Economists had been expecting production to rise 0.1 percent last month. Year-over-year growth in industrial output, however, is still up by 1.6 percent.
