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Business Today

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE UP A BIT: Consumers became a bit more optimistic toward the end of August but still felt more cautious about the U.S. economy than they did a month ago, according to a survey by the University of Michigan. The university's index of consumer sentiment for August rose to 95.9, up from its 94.0 reading in a preliminary mid month survey, but down from the 96.7 reported at the end of July. The index for consumer expectations rose to 88.2 in August from 84.7 in the mid month report, but still below the 91.2 reported for July.

HP UNVEILS iPOD VERSION: Hewlett-Packard Co. unveiled its own version of the iPod portable music player Friday, showing the fruits of a partnership it announced earlier with Apple Computer Inc. HP is now taking orders for the player, which is dubbed the "Apple iPod from HP" and is a replica of Apple's latest models of the popular 20-gigabyte and 40-gigabyte iPods. The deal, which announced in January, is a break from Apple's isolationist stance and should help it capitalize on the broad retail reach of HP.

BANKRUPTCY RATE TICKS DOWN: Personal bankruptcies appear to have broken the upward trend of recent years, slipping 0.8 percent in the 12 months ending June 30, figures released Friday show. New personal bankruptcy filings declined to 1,599,986 from 1,613,097 in period ending June 30, 2003, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Total bankruptcy filings, personal and business, edged down 0.9 percent to 1,635,725 - the first annual decline since 2000. The number of business bankruptcy filings declined for the second time since the last reporting period, the 12 months ending March 31.

YAHOO SELLS GOOGLE SHARES: Yahoo Inc. said Friday it sold $191-million in Google Inc. stock in the company's initial public offering, cashing out some of the 2.7-million shares Google gave Yahoo this month to settle two disputes. Yahoo sold 2.3-million of the Class A shares last week at $82.62 apiece. In exchange for giving Yahoo the shares Aug. 9, Google got a perpetual license to Yahoo's patent on matching online advertisements to Web search results. Yahoo also agreed to drop a dispute over warrants to purchase shares that Google granted it under a partnership signed in 2000.

HEATHROW CANCELLATIONS CONTINUE: British Airways, plagued by staff shortages and technical hitches all week, canceled more flights Friday. The airline has scrapped more than 100 flights to and from Heathrow Airport in the past five days. British Airways said passengers scheduled to fly on Friday's canceled round-trip flights to Aberdeen, Glasgow and Manchester would be accommodated on later flights. The airline said it expected smooth operating over the upcoming holiday weekend, traditionally one of the busiest times of the year.

VERISIGN SUIT DISMISSED AGAIN: U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz dismissed an antitrust complaint Friday against the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a key Internet oversight group, that was brought by VeriSign Inc., a company that controls directories for guiding Internet users worldwide. The judge had dismissed the challenge once before but allowed VeriSign time to file an amended complaint. Matz said VeriSign could not claim that ICANN's board was dominated by VeriSign competitors. His decision means the lawsuit will move from federal court to California state court.

LONGHORN WINDOWS DUE IN '06: Microsoft Corp. will drop new technology for organizing and storing data when it releases the next version of its Windows operating system, code-named Longhorn, in the second half of 2006, about five years after the release of the current version, Windows XP. With Longhorn, Microsoft plans to improve the way people find things like e-mail and documents. But in announcing the release date, the company said it would not be ready to include an even more advanced system for sorting, storing and finding data.

Royal Bank of Canada: Canada's largest bank said lower U.S. earnings and higher expenses led to a 1 percent drop in third-quarter profit, the first decline in three years. Profit from Royal Bank's U.S. operations, including RBC Centura consumer bank in Charlotte, N.C., and RBC Dain Rauscher investment bank in Minneapolis, has fallen by about a third from $101-million (Canadian) in the third quarter of 2002. For the first nine months of the year, U.S. profit is down 59 percent.