Before the bell: AAPL, FDX, GM, BRCD, CAL, DELL

03 06 2008

Before the bell: AAPL, FDX, GM, BRCD, CAL, DELL

Posted by: in Latest News

Filed under: Before the bell, Deals, Law, Apple Inc (AAPL), Dell (DELL), General Motors (GM), FedEx Corp (FDX)

Before the bell: Futures mixed ahead of Bernanke (LEH, SPLS, TOL)

With the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) conference just around the corner, analysts anticipate several features from the new iPhone that’ll likely be announced during the conference. The first is of course the 3G ability, which would boost iPhone sales in Europe and quell complaints about the speed of download through the AT&T (NYSE: T) network. The second is the corporate email capability. A third feature will likely be iTunes downloads through cellular networks and the applications store. Also, some anticipate Apple to try a different business model including subsidies and multiple carriers.

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) stated it plans to change the FedEx Kinko’s name to FedEx Office and take a related charge of nearly $900 million. The company said the name change will better reflect the services that it provides at its retail centers. Perhaps FedEx is right, but Kinko’s is a well established brand and I find it hard to believe someone doesn’t know what Kinko’s is all about. FedEx also said it would raise its quarterly cash dividend by one penny, to 11 cents a share payable July 1 to shareholders of record as of June 13.

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) is expected to announce plant closures in North America on Tuesday morning, according to The Wall Street Journal. The closures might include a truck plant in Oshawa, Ont., Canada. The Canadian Auto Workers will hold a press conference later this morning.

Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BRCD) stated it has reached an agreement to settle a securities lawsuit related to a stock-options backdating scandal for $160 million. The settlement still must be approved by the court.

Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) reported May traffic rose 1.8% to 8.28 billion revenue passenger miles from 8.14 billion a year earlier. A revenue passenger mile is one paying passenger flown one mile. The airline said capacity increased 2.2% to 10.2 billion available seat miles last month from 9.98 billion in May 2007. Its load factor, measuring occupancy, fell marginally to 81.2% from 81.5%.

It’s interesting that while Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), received compensation about $2 million last year, Ronald Garriques, leader of Dell’s consumer business took home more than $33 million according to an Associated Press analysis of a regulatory filing Monday. Most of the compensation came in the form of stock allows and options that the company valued at $25.3 million on the date they were issued in February 2007.

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