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Google briefly overtakes IBM in market value

By wire services
Published December 20, 2005

Google Inc., the Internet search company founded seven years ago by two college friends, briefly surpassed International Business Machines Corp., which was founded in 1911 with roots dating to 1880, in market value Monday on reports of a deal to take a stake in AOL.

Google surged to $131.9-billion when its shares rose 3.7 percent to $446.21 on the news, topping IBM's market cap of $131-billion. Google shares closed down 1.3 percent. At day's end, IBM was worth $130.7-billion and Google had fallen to $125.5-billion.

Google's shares have more than doubled since Jan. 1 on analysts' expectations that profit will rise four-fold to $1.62-billion this year. IBM shares have declined 15 percent on estimates of 11 percent profit growth and a 4 percent sales drop. A stake in AOL would help Google, the world's most-used search engine, fend off competition from Microsoft Corp.'s MSN search.

Hershey sours on new book's use of candy images

The distinctive chocolate bar on the dust jacket of a new book about the founder of the Hershey Co. violates its trademark, the candymaker said in a federal lawsuit.

The company wants an injunction to prevent publisher Simon & Schuster Inc. from using Hershey-owned images to market Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire and Utopian Dreams, which is coming out next month.

Hershey spokeswoman Stephanie Moritz said Monday the company is concerned that consumers may think it "authorized, sponsored or approved" the book. It wants to prevent Simon & Schuster from distributing the dust jacket.

The jacket also depicts a Hershey's Kiss, a subtitle in a font similar to the paper wrapper inside a Kiss, and two older Hershey advertising images.

Simon & Schuster filed a document Monday opposing Hershey's request for an injunction and restraining order, saying the Hershey symbols on the cover are "artistically relevant" to the book's subject and not expressly misleading.

--Information from the Associated Press and Bloomberg News was used in this report.

[Last modified December 20, 2005, 01:50:22]