Business briefs 6/28/06

$17 billion deal struck in Adelphia bankruptcy

NEW YORK -- A bankruptcy judge on Tuesday granted Adelphia Communications Corp. permission to sell its assets to Time Warner Corp. and Comcast Corp. in an estimated $17 billion deal. Judge Robert Gerber of the Southern District of New York said he would approve an order to be submitted later Tuesday to detach the asset sale from the rest of Adelphia's bankruptcy process, allowing it to be executed without the approval of an overall restructuring plan. Adelphia sought the separation to bypass creditor disputes that have slowed the company in its filing of its plan.

Nike reports 5 percent drop in fourth-quarter

BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Athletic footwear and apparel designer Nike Inc. reported a 5 percent drop in fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday, as charges related to the Converse arbitration ruling and tighter margins offset an 8 percent increase in revenue. Net income declined to $332.8 million, or $1.27 per share, from $349.5 million, or $1.30 per share, last year. Excluding a 12-cent charge for the Converse arbitration ruling, earnings would have been $1.39 per share. Revenue increased 8 percent to $4.01 billion from $3.72 billion for the same period last year.

GM using incentives to clear 2007 inventory

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. predicted Tuesday that U.S. sales overall will decline this year and said it will briefly bring back some incentives to clear inventory as the 2007 model year approaches. GM will offer zero percent financing for up to six years on most Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac and GMC models during a sale that begins Thursday and ends July 5.The automaker announced last June that it would let customers pay the employee price for vehicles, and it was followed in July by Ford and Chrysler, pushing sales to record numbers. Those records won't be topped, so sales this year are likely to drop a bit from 2005, said Paul Ballew, GM's executive director of global market and industry analysis. Higher interest rates and fuel prices also will keep sales lower than last year, he said.

-- From wire reports

GM's U.S. market share has fallen from 32 percent a decade ago to less than 25 percent, while Asian competitors such as Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. have made gains.

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By The Associated Press

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 120.54, or 1.09 percent, to 10,924.74. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 11.36, or 0.91 percent, to 1,239.20, and the Nasdaq composite index lost 33.42, or 1.57 percent, to 2,100.25.

Light sweet crude for August delivery rose 12 cents to settle at $71.92 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, where gasoline futures settled almost 2 cents higher at $2.1985 a gallon.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures declined by 2.02 cents to settle at $1.9587 a gallon, while natural gas futures climbed 13.8 cents to finish at $6.107 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Brent crude futures on the ICE Futures exchange climbed 54 cents to $71.27 a barrel.