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By Times Staff Writer
Published December 5, 2007

Google, AOL deliver message of competition

Google Inc., bolstering its e-mail program to compete with Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., is incorporating AOL's instant-messaging technology into Gmail to let customers chat with their friends using either system. The new feature lets Gmail users click a box and sign into their AOL accounts, Google said. Contacts from Gmail and AOL will be combined in the same list. Google, owner of the world's most popular Internet search engine, is competing for customers and advertisers with Microsoft's Hotmail and Yahoo Mail, two other free e-mail services. The companies have added storage space and features to their mail programs this year.

CEOs see reasons to feel optimistic

Confidence among U.S. chief executive officers rose in the fourth quarter from a four-year low on optimism that sales will improve, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Business Roundtable in Washington. The group's economic outlook index rose to 79.5 from 77.4 in the third quarter, which was the lowest since the same period in 2003. A reading greater than 50 signals optimism. Seven in 10 executives predict sales will increase in the next six months, the most since the first three months of the year. Most executives projected their business won't suffer substantial effects from the recent drop in stock prices or jump in borrowing costs caused by concern about subprime mortgages. Energy and health care were the top cost pressures, with about one-third of executives citing each issue. The concern over energy doubled from last year, when 16 percent named it as their main cost pressure.

GM steering way to Russian partner

General Motors Corp. is bidding for a stake in Russia's largest carmaker, OAO AvtoVaz, as part of an effort to expand its presence in that rapidly growing market, GM spokesman Marc Kempe said. He wouldn't say how large a stake GM is seeking or how much it is willing to pay. Kempe said there is no time line for the bid. With its exploding oil wealth, Russia rapidly is becoming a major market for GM, which had a 6.6 percent share of the Russian market in 2006, up from 4.6 percent the year before. GM sold 132,600 Chevrolets, Cadillacs and Hummers in Russia in 2006 through 354 dealerships, up from just 78 dealerships in 2005.

Starbucks brews hope in Rwanda

At Starbucks' shareholders meeting in March, Rwandan President Paul Kagame made a special appearance to tell investors how devoted the company is to the welfare of coffee farmers. He also said he'd love for Starbucks to open a coffee shop in his country. Instead, Rwanda is getting a coffee-farmer support center, Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz told Kagame over the weekend during a tour of coffee-growing countries in East Africa, where the company has promised to buy more coffee. The center will help farmers improve their coffee quality and growing practices so that Starbucks will buy more of their beans. Starbucks pays more for coffee than farmers can get on the open market. Starbucks hopes to open the center in Rwanda during 2008, after the one in Ethiopia it announced recently. Officials are not sure how many people will work at either center.

[Last modified December 5, 2007, 01:07:40]