LOCAL BUSINESS
Streetsboro company acquired
Ametek Inc. (NYSE: AME) of Berwyn, Pa., announced it acquired Micro-Poise Measurement Systems, a testing company for the tire industry, from American Industrial Partners, a private equity firm, for about $170 million in cash.
Micro-Poise is headquartered in Streetsboro, and has additional manufacturing operations in Troy, Mich., Beijing, China, and Lubeck, Germany. It has estimated 2012 sales of about $125 million.
Smucker sets dividend
Orrville food company J.M. Smucker announced a dividend of 52 cents a share, payable Dec. 3 to shareholders of record Nov. 16.
WALL STREET
Dow Jones drops 25 points
Steep losses stopped Wednesday as the stock market turned calm, a day after one of its biggest sell-offs of the year. Indexes ended with slight losses after the Federal Reserve said the U.S. economy still needs support.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 25.19 points at 13,077.34, a day after one of its worst drops this year.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 4.36 points to close at 1,408.75 while the Nasdaq composite index fell 8.76 points to 2,991.70.
RETAIL
Target divests finance unit
Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second-largest bank, agreed to buy the $5.9 billion U.S. credit-card portfolio of Target Corp.
The portfolio will be sold for an amount equal to the gross value of the outstanding receivables at the time of closing, Minneapolis-based Target said.
Target will record pretax gains of about $150 million in the third quarter, and additional pretax gains of $350 million to $450 million when the deal is completed, the company said.
MANUFACTURING
Dow Chemical cuts 2,400 jobs
The Dow Chemical Co. will eliminate about 2,400 jobs and close roughly 20 manufacturing facilities as part of a restructuring plan aimed at coping with slowing economic growth in Europe and elsewhere. The manufacturing giant said the job cuts amount to 5 percent of the company’s work force worldwide.
Ford to close European plants
Ford will shut two European assembly plants, one in England and one in Belgium, its first car-factory closings in the region in a decade, and cut almost 4,900 jobs to stem losses that the company predicts will exceed $1 billion in 2012.
REAL ESTATE
Fractional rise in home prices
Home prices in the U.S. rose 0.7 percent in August from the prior month, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said. The agency posted the data on its website.
The previously reported 0.2 percent increase in July was revised downward to a 0.1 percent increase. For the 12 months ending in August, U.S. prices rose 4.7 percent.
EARNINGS
Facebook has mobile ads
Facebook finally has proof that it can make money from mobile advertising.
As part of its third-quarter results, the world’s biggest social media company disclosed for the first time that some 14 percent of its ad revenue came from mobile advertising. It started showing ads to users who access Facebook from their phones and tablet computers about six months ago.
Facebook Inc. posted a loss of $59 million, or 2 cents per share, in the July-September period. That’s down from earnings of $227 million, or 10 cents per share, a year ago, when Facebook was privately held. Revenue rose 32 percent to $1.26 billion from $954 million.
AT&T quarterly income flat
AT&T’s quarterly results were largely flat compared with a year ago. Net income was $3.64 billion, or 63 cents per share, nearly unchanged from $3.62 billion, or 61 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts expected earnings of 60 cents per share. Revenue was also essentially flat from last year, at $31.46 billion. Analysts expected $31.57 billion. Comparisons with last year were affected by the sale of AT&T’s phone book business in May. The unit was profitable but shrinking, so AT&T sold a controlling stake to a private equity firm for $950 million. When subtracting the phone book business from last year’s results, AT&T’s earnings rose about 2 percent in the latest quarter, as customers kept shifting from regular phones to smart phones with expensive service plans.
Compiled from staff and wire reports