NATIONAL BRIEFS

Martha McKay and The Associated Press
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
12-08-2004

NATIONAL BRIEFS
Martha McKay and The Associated Press
Date: 12-08-2004, Wednesday
Section: BUSINESS
Edtion: All Editions.=.Two Star B. Two Star P. One Star B
Column: NATIONAL BRIEFS

Cablevision enlists 250,000 users for Internet-based phone service

NEW YORK - Cablevision, the largest cable provider in northern New Jersey, said Tuesday that it has signed up more than a quarter million Internet-based phone customers.

The cable company said it's adding an average of 1,000 new Internet-based telephone customers a day in the New York metropolitan area, which includes 1 million customers in New Jersey. The company said recently that it was freezing its $34.95 per month price for unlimited local and long-distance service for 2005.

- Martha McKay

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Nation's 3rd-quarter productivity at lowest rate in almost 2 years

WASHINGTON - The productivity of America's workers grew at a 1.8 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the slowest pace in nearly two years, the government reported Tuesday.

The deceleration in this vital economic indicator, however, raised some hope that employers who have squeezed so much efficiencies out of their existing work forces may seek to boost hiring as a way to meet customer demand.

The Labor Department's latest snapshot of productivity - the amount an employee produces for every hour of work - showed that efficiency gains were slightly weaker than the 1.9 percent growth rate first estimated for the July-to-September quarter. The new figure, based on more complete data, marked a slowing from the 3.9 percent productivity pace logged in the second quarter.

- The Associated Press

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Hewlett-Packard board of directors set against breaking up company

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Hewlett-Packard Co.'s board of directors considered on three separate occasions whether to break up the company, but each time directors unanimously concluded it would be best to keep HP together, HP chief executive and Chairman Carly Fiorina said on Tuesday.

Fiorina, who spoke at a twice yearly financial analyst meeting in Boston, did not say when directors at the Palo Alto, Calif.-based computer giant debated a breakup.

Her remarks came in response to a question by Merrill Lynch technology analyst Steven Milunovich, who asked whether breaking up the company would provide greater returns to shareholders.

HP's current business operations encompass laptops and servers, business consulting services, and printers and ink - by far the company's most lucrative division. Wall Street analysts have speculated in recent months that spinning off the printing division could be a windfall for stock owners and senior executives on both sides of the company.

But Fiorina said the company would incur "real costs" if it broke up, and the complicated process could drag on for years.

Chief Financial Officer Bob Wayman also speculated Tuesday that a breakup could create "diseconomies" of scale - the opposite goal of large corporations, which often acquire complementary companies and rivals to spread out marketing, personnel and other fixed costs.

- The Associated Press

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