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TwitterWith a clear cut shrink-to-focus strategy in mind, Chevron Corp., America’s second largest multinational energy corporation, is planning to sell a U.K. oil refinery, cut 2,000 jobs as well as shed assets in the Caribbean and Central America in order to make up for losses from its fuel-making business. It is also contemplating further job reductions in 2011, along with asking for bids for some assets in Europe, including the Pembroke Refinery in the U.K. It may also reduce operations at a refinery in Hawaii, which reportedly lost $613 million during the last three months of 2009. The company said the cuts come as a part of its plans to boost earnings by lowering costs, exiting unprofitable markets, and streamlining its business.
Posts Tagged ‘Europe’
Worries Over Greek Crisis, EU to Discuss Solution
Posted by Amita Kalra on February 11th, 2010
With soaring debts, a dipping economy, and an incredibly bloated public sector- Greece is clearly in big trouble. Will it succumb? Besides, it’s not just Greece, the problem is also that the stench is permeating. And Fast.
European leaders, who now face the noose, in the form of their credibility as a union and the Euro as a common currency, today agreed on a political statement to deal with the imminent crisis. Though the details will be worked out by the finance ministers on Monday, the countries of The Euro Zone are planning the financing of loans to Greece.
Posted in Europe, North America 
Tags: Economic Crisis, eu, Euro, Europe, european leaders, finance ministers, financial help, greece, greek government, international monetary fund, portugal, spain 
2 Comments »Amazon Removes All Macmillan Books
Posted by Amita Kalra on January 30th, 2010
In a pricing dispute that had been brewing for over an year now, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) has removed all books from Macmillan, one of the largest publishers in the United States. The publisher’s books can only be purchased from third parties now.
People in the industry on condition of anonymity claim that Amazon was expressing strong resentment by this (hopefully) temporary removal of books. Macmillan’s imprints include popular books such as ‘A Long Way Gone’ by Ishmael Beah, ‘Wolf Hall’ by Hillary Mantel and ‘Finger Lickin’ Fifteen’ by Janet Evanovich.
Posted in Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, South America Tags: Amazon, Europe, iBookstore, iPad, Macmillan, North America, Pricing Dispute, United States No Comments »Now Honda pulls a Toyota, Recalls 646000 Compact Cars Worldwide
Posted by Prabhjot Singh on January 29th, 2010
Hot on the heels of the disappointing news from Toyota (TM) to recall 4.6 million cars worldwide, comes a similar news from the Honda Motor Co. (HMC), who are recalling 646,000 cars over safety concerns. The recall includes all Fit, City and Jazz models made in 2007 and 2008. The Toyota fiasco already has the car’s owners fuming and now they will be joined in the ranks by Honda owners. The news comes as a double blow for the Japanese automotive market.
Posted in Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, South America Tags: Asia, Europe, Ford, Honda, North America, Toyota No Comments »Toyota pushes the brake pedal
Posted by Amita Kalra on January 27th, 2010
In an unexpected turn of events, the world’s largest automaker, Toyota Motor Corporation, halted the sales of its 8 of its most popular models, including Camry, Corolla and the RAV4. Though it had been experiencing fractures in the form of high product recall in the market, this move seems to have broken the backbone of the company that built its customer base based on its core competence – unmatched quality for the customer. Toyota also said it will stop producing the affected vehicles at several North American plants for one week starting Feb. 1.
The models being recalled include 2009-2010 RAV4, 2009-2010 Corolla, 2009-2010 Matrix, 2005-2010 Avalon, 2007-2010 Camry, 2010 Highlander, 2007-2010 Tundra, 2008-2010 Sequoia.
Posted in Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, South America Tags: Akio Toyoda, Asia, Business, customer loss, dropping revenue, Europe, Katsuaki Watanabe, loss in revenue, market share, news, North America, recall, revenue loss, Stocks, stop production, Toyota, Toyota Motors Corp., Toyota Recall, Toyota stop production, Toyota vehicle recall, United States, unmatched quality, US 5 Comments »Dell Gets Ace(r)d
Posted by Prabhjot Singh on October 14th, 2009
The winds of change are picking up in the global PC market and the only one caught at the wrong end of the draft seems to be Dell Inc. After being displaced from its perch on the top in 2006 by HP, its now Acer’s turn to zip by and push them to third place in the global PC market as per two separate reports by Gartner and IDC.
Posted in Asia Pacific, North America Tags: Acer, Apple, Dell, Europe, forecasts, HP, Lenovo, North America, results, Stock Market, third quarter, Toshiba, United States No Comments »