Business in brief

AUTOMOTIVE

Judge doesn’t say when he’ll rule on GM plan

The judge in the General Motors bankruptcy case adjourned a three-day hearing without indicating when he will rule on the company’s plan to sell its good assets to a new company.

U.S. Judge Robert Gerber asked GM’s attorneys to submit a proposed order that would be entered if the sale were to be approved. They said they would do so by tonight or Saturday. Gerber is expected to rule after that.

A lawyer for GM warned the court that the only alternative to GM’s plan would be a liquidation that would have “horrific” consequences for everyone involved.

Attorney Harvey Miller said the government is committed to cutting off funding to GM if the sale is not approved by July 10.

Michael Richman, an attorney for a trio of bondholders opposed to GM’s plan, told Gerber to “call the government’s bluff” and require GM to restructure under Chapter 11 instead of approving the sale of its assets.

Ford sales lead Canada for first time in 50 years

Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. has claimed the top spot in Canadian vehicle sales in June for the first time in 50 years, the company said Thursday.

Ford Canada said it sold 27,408 vehicles in June, a 25 percent increase over a year ago.

The increase came in a month when General Motors sought bankruptcy protection in the U.S. and Chrysler Canada dealers were short of vehicles because its North American plants were shut as it also went through a bankruptcy protection process.

Ford sold more than 5,000 units ahead of perennial market leader General Motors, whose sales were 31 percent below where they were a year ago.

Toyota Canada sales dropped 17 percent and Honda Canada’s fell 17 percent.

AVIATION

Computer glitch snags United flights at O’Hare

A computer problem temporarily disrupted United Airlines flights at O’Hare International Airport Thursday, causing long delays and lines for travelers headed out for the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

The outage affected all of United’s computers at the airport and caused some cancellations, said spokeswoman Robin Urbanski.

The problem started shortly after 5 a.m. and at one point, the airline instituted a “ground stop,” keeping flights bound for O’Hare grounded if they hadn’t taken off yet, said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory.

She said the glitch affected the boarding pass system and computers that tell pilots the number of passengers on board and weight of the plane, which affect how much fuel a jet carries.

The ground stop order was lifted shortly before 8 a.m., when the airline began resolving its computer issues, she said.

ENERGY

Oil rig count rises for third week in a row

The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the United States rose by 11 this week to 928, the third consecutive week for an uptick.

Of the rigs, 688 were exploring for natural gas and 229 for oil, Houston-based Baker Hughes Inc. reported Thursday. Eleven were listed as miscellaneous.

A year ago, the rig count stood at 1,921. The number of active rigs has increased by 52 in the past few weeks, but the U.S. count is still down 54 percent since the end of August as weak energy demand has hampered oilfield activity.

Oil prices decline for fifth day in a row

Oil prices tumbled to their lowest level in a month Thursday after the release of woeful job numbers in Europe and the U.S.

Benchmark crude for August delivery fell $2.58, nearly 4 percent, to settle at $66.73 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Crude hit an eight-month high in midday trading Tuesday, but prices have fallen at the close for five straight days now.

Retail gas prices have been slipping since Father’s Day. They lost less than a penny overnight to a new national average of $2.629 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Pump prices are 10.4 cents more per gallon than a month ago. At this time last year, gasoline cost $4.09 per gallon.

HEALTH CARE

Johnson & Johnson buys 18.4% stake in Elan

Johnson & Johnson said Thursday it will take an 18.4 percent stake in Ireland-based drug developer Elan Corp. with a $1 billion investment.

Johnson & Johnson also is acquiring Elan Corp.’s stake in its Alzheimer’s disease treatment partnership with Wyeth, and rolling it into a new Johnson & Johnson company that will be 49.9 percent owned by Elan. The partnership develops drugs intended to engage the patient’s immune system to fight the brain-destroying disease.

Johnson & Johnson is buying 107.3 million newly issued American Depositary Receipts at $9.32 each, a 33 percent premium from Wednesday’s closing price.

Elan’s Alzheimer’s program has four drug candidates in clinical or preclinical testing. Johnson & Johnson will gain all rights to drugs developed by the program, and it plans to commit up to $5.

MANUFACTURING

Factory orders increase for second month in row

Orders to U.S. factories jumped in May by the largest amount in nearly a year, another sign that the nosedive in manufacturing is nearing an end.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that total orders rose 1.2 percent in May, better than the 0.8 percent increase economists had expected. The April performance was revised slightly lower to a gain of 0.5 percent, down from 0.7 percent.

The May increase was the best showing since a 2.1 percent rise last June. The back-to-back increases in April and May were the first consecutive gains in nearly a year.

MEDIA

TV stations get help after switch over to digital

The government is helping two dozen TV stations that became difficult to receive by antenna when they switched to new frequencies as part of the digital TV transition, the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday.

Most of the stations, in cities including Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Dallas, moved their digital broadcasts from the UHF band to the VHF band on June 12. The VHF band was previously used only for analog broadcasts and was largely untried for digital broadcasts. While UHF can be received well with small indoor antennas, the best VHF antennas are large rooftop units. Many antennas sold as “digital” ones receive UHF only.

The FCC has sent engineers to some of the affected cities, and has granted temporary permission to some stations to increase the strength of their signals as it seeks a long-term solution, said Robert Ratcliffe, acting chief of the FCC’s media bureau.

MINING

W.Va. mine ordered to hire union workers

A federal appeals court in Richmond has upheld a decision requiring a Massey Energy subsidiary to hire union miners at a West Virginia mine.

Wednesday’s ruling by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals affirms a 2008 decision requiring Mammoth Coal to offer jobs to 85 miners. The union miners lost their jobs when Mammoth purchased the Kanawha County mine out of bankruptcy in 2004.

A National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge ruled in late 2007 that Massey had violated the National Labor Relations Act by refusing to hire the miners affiliated with the United Mine Workers.

Massey spokesman Jeff Gillenwater says the company offered jobs to all 85 miners last year, but only nine accepted. He says seven still work for the company.

RETAIL

Hershey to close its online gift service

The nation’s second-largest candy maker, Hershey Co., is closing its online Hershey Gifts service July 31.

Spokesman Kirk Saville says the company is looking into other e-commerce options, including strategic partnerships and licensing agreements.

He would not say how much revenue the service brings in or whether it is losing money.

About 12 Hershey’s Gifts employees will lose their jobs, and Saville says the company is working to find them jobs inside the Hershey, Pa.-based company.

TECHNOLOGY

Customers can record as Dish, TiVo continue fight

Dish satellite TV customers can continue using their digital video recorders while a court battle continues with TiVo Inc. over a patent, the companies said Thursday.

A federal appeals court Wednesday granted Dish Network Corp. and EchoStar Corp. a stay on a contempt order that would have forced them to disable Dish DVRs.

A judge in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Texas last month found Dish and EchoStar to be in contempt of a permanent injunction on TiVo’s DVR Time Warp technology, which lets viewers pause, rewind and fast-forward live shows.

Dish had lost a 2004 patent infringement case brought by TiVo, and while the case was on appeal it sent modified software to customers’ DVRs. But TiVo said the workaround software still infringed on its patent and asked the court for the injunction.

TOBACCO

Tobacco makers banned from U.N. meeting

A U.N.-backed meeting on tobacco smuggling has barred cigarette companies from attending for fear they will try to influence delegates, participants said Thursday.

More than 130 countries agreed late Wednesday to expel the tobacco industry from the rest of the weeklong meeting of parties to the 2005 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which the U.S. has signed but yet to ratify.

Governments are considering a range of measures to crack down on contraband cigarettes, including a ban on Internet sales and a crackdown on smuggling through duty-free zones.

Philip Morris International, whose representatives sat in on meetings earlier in the week, said it was “disappointed” by the decision.