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Work on Wal-Mart distribution center delayed

Posted on: Saturday, 28 June 2003, 06:00 CDT

Groundbreaking for a new Wal-Mart distribution center south of Bartlesville may be delayed two months to a year, officials said.

Company and local officials had planned to break ground for the trucking center in January, but the Bartlesville City Council on Monday approved a revised memorandum of understanding that pushes the date back a minimum of two months.

If Wal-Mart is delayed in constructing the center until January 2005, the company will reimburse the city for all costs incurred by the municipality for the project, including purchase of the 173- acre site and expenses to extend sewer and water systems to the center.

The distribution center is proposed to be built six miles south of Bartlesville along U.S. 75.

"It's a very positive thing, and I think they fully intend to build their building in 2004. It's just that this gives them more time to synchronize everything," Mayor Ted Lockin said.

"They are very excited about coming to Bartlesville, and they have made that clear. However, we are just one facility they are constructing, and they have projects nationwide."

The $60 million, 900,000-square-foot distribution center initially will employ 400 people, with plans calling for an additional 700 workers within three years.

The facility will bring 700 trucks to the area daily.

GM plant in OC on target to open Monday

General Motors plans to resume rolling sport utility vehicles off the assembly line Monday at its tornado-damaged plant in Oklahoma City.

The plant has been shut down since May 8, when a twister toppled two cooling towers, plowed through the power station and shredded much of the paint shop into scraps of metal.

Contractors have used giant stadium lights to work around-the- clock in a race to rebuild the plant, which makes GMC Envoy XLs and Chevrolet TrailBlazer EXTs.

Body shop and paint shop autoworkers returned to the plant this week, spokeswoman Kathy Oden said Tuesday. The remainder of the work force, including general assembly employees, will return to work Monday, she said.

GM is holding a barbecue Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the work of hundreds of contractors who put the plant back together in record time, Oden said.

In the days after the twister, GM officials thought the plant might not reopen until September.

General Motors hasn't released an estimate of storm damage to the 4 million-square-foot plant, but a corporate lobbyist put the figure at between $60 million and $100 million. The company has business insurance to cover lost production and damage.

GM cut production forecasts by 20,000 for the second quarter because of the Oklahoma City plant, which accounts for less than 3 percent of GM's North American production of 110,000 vehicles per week.

Most of the plant's nearly 3,000 employees have been off work since the tornado. General assembly workers returned for one week at the end of May to finish about 500 SUVS stranded on the assembly line.

AMD slashes second-quarter sales forecast

Blaming lower sales in Asia on the SARS outbreak, chip-maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on Tuesday slashed its second-quarter revenue forecast by $100 million.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD now expects sales for the period to be $615 million, down from an earlier estimate of $715 million.

The maker of Athlon, Duron and Opteron microprocessors has been struggling for more than a year as a result of rollout delays and stiff competition from its much-larger rival, Intel Corp.

"The anticipated global sales improvement in the month of June did not materialize as we had anticipated," said Robert Rivet, AMD's chief financial officer. He said sales from chips used in PCs and cell phones were down significantly in Asia because of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Analysts expect AMD to lose 28 cents per share on sales of $723 million in the second quarter. AMD will report its full second quarter results on July 16.

In the first quarter, the company lost $146 million, or 42 cents per share, compared with a loss of $9.2 million, or 3 cents a share, in the same period last year.

In April, AMD launched its Opteron processors, which can handle data in 64-bit chunks, twice the size of today's standard 32-bit processors. It plans to launch a version of the chip, dubbed Athlon 64, for desktop computers later this year.

Xeta signs agreement with Nortel Networks

Xeta Technologies Inc. on Tuesday announced a partnership with Nortel Networks Corp. that will add more jobs to its work force.

The "premium partner" agreement gives the company full access to all of Nortel's products and support programs, said Jack Ingram, chairman, chief executive officer and president of Broken Arrow- based Xeta.

"This partnership, in complement with our Avaya partnership, is consistent with, and greatly enhances, the fulfillment of our vision to become the nation's premier provider of converged communications solutions," Ingram said.

The company plans to add between five and 10 employees as a result of the agreement, he said. At least half of the new employees will be at its Broken Arrow headquarters. Currently, Xeta employs 280 people, 150 at its headquarters.

Sony Ericsson to cut CDMA phone production, jobs

Cell phone maker Sony Ericsson said Tuesday it will stop producing CDMA cell phones for the North American market and will cut 500 jobs in research and development departments in Germany and the United States.

The company, a joint venture between Sweden's LM Ericsson and Japan's Sony Corp., said it will shift focus to new development of phones that use GSM, or global system for mobile communications, covering 70 percent of the world's wireless users.

CDMA, or code division multiple access, is the dominant wireless standard in the United States, Japan, South Korea and China. In the United States, Sony Ericsson has lost market share to Motorola and Samsung.

"Today's announcement ensures the continued growth and development of Sony Ericsson. The actions reflect our strong forward momentum as we intensify our business focus and work to achieve profitability," said Katsumi Ihara, president of Sony Ericsson.

London-based Sony Ericsson has steadily lost money since it was established in 2001.

In the first quarter of this year, the joint venture lost $114.1 million, compared with a slight profit for the same period last year. The company isn't publicly traded.

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