Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 40

D2 Austin American-Statesman BUSINESS Friday, April 21, 2006 CENTRAL TEXAS DIGEST STORE: Leander hopes H-E-B draws retailers We've seen great growth in Leander, and it's a natural progression as we travel up the road from our Cedar Park store. We know a lot of people commute into that Leslie Lockett H.E. Butt Grocery Co. spokeswoman "We've seen great growth in Leander, and it's a natural progression as we travel up the road from our Cedar Park store," Lockett said. "We know a lot of people commute into that store, and we are looking forward to serving them in their home town." The big Plus stores, which have a wider variety of merchandise than H-E-B's traditional stores, are part of the grocer's strategy for maintaining its dominance in Central Texas, where it has about 55 percent of the grocery-market sector.

The Round Rock H-E-B sells electronics, tools and casual furniture and has an in-store health clinic. break-even to 5 cents per share, with revenue between $46 million to $50 million. TELEVISION Austins KNVA will become CW network Austin's KNVA, currently home to the WB network, will switch to the new CW on Sept. 5 when the WB and UPN merge. CW stands for corporate partners CBS and Warner' Bros.

The fledgling network is expected to include successful programs geared toward viewers ages 18 to 34 from both disappearing networks, including "Smackdown," "Veronica Mars" and "America's Next Top Model." "We are very happy to have finalized an agreement for KNVA with the CW network," general manager Carlos Fernandez said in an e-mail. KNVA, which launched in 1994 as an independent, became a WB affiliate the following year. It is owned by a company called 54 Broadcasters, of which KEYE anchor Ron Oliveira is a partner. Compiled from staff reports Continued from Dl has been preparing the site for construction by importing fill to level the site; a growing mound of dirt is about 50 feet tall and several hundred feet around. Leander officials think the chain will spur much-needed retail growth.

"The flood of retail is going to come," said Mayor John Cowman. "It's very exciting. It does open up a gate that says Leander is open for business and ready to receive business." Leslie Lockett, a spokesperson for the H.E. Butt Grocery said the company hopes to open the store in early 2007. It has purchased about 140 acres for the store and related retail.

TECH: Dell's Continued from Dl next month. Dell follows a fiscal calendar that lags the traditional calendar by a month, so the PC shipment results might not track Dell's financials directly. "The likelihood of Dell hitting the high end of its 6 percent to 9 percent (revenue growth) target, which many investors, ourselves included, initially thought was an easy target to beat, is now much lower," Goldman Sachs analyst Laura Conigliaro said in a research note to clients Thursday. Conigliaro estimated that because PC prices are constantly falling, a 10 percent boost in computer shipments translates into just 1.7 percent growth in revenue. Dell declined to comment.

Dell's worldwide and U.S. market share slipped slightly while rival Hewlett-Packard Co. gained ground. Dell remains No. 1, with 16.5 percent of worldwide shipments, compared with 14.9 percent for H-P.

Roger Kay, a longtime PC SOFTWARE Vignette revenue up 3 from year earlier Austin software-maker Vignette Corp. said first-quarter revenue rose 3 percent from a year earlier to $46.9 million. The company said its profit was $1.4 million, or 5 cents a share. That's down from $2.7 million, or 9 cents per share, a year earlier, when results were helped by a $2.2 million restructuring credit. Vignette said excluding special noncash charges, it made $3.7 million, or 12 cents per share.

Analysts expected a profit of 12 cents per share, excluding charges, on revenue of $47.1 million, according to Thomson First Call. Vignette said it reduced general and administrative costs 13 percent during the quarter, but sales and marketing expenses climbed 9.5 percent. Vignette received orders from customers such as J.P. Morgan Chase, UBS and the U.S. Department of Transportation during the quarter.

The company said it expects second-quarter results, including charges, to range from TEXAS AIRLINES Southwest revenue is up; Continental's, too DALLAS Southwest Airlines Co. and Continental Airlines Inc. said first-quarter revenue jumped by double-digit amounts as passenger traffic and fares rose. Southwest earned $61 million, or 7 cents per share, in the quarter. That compared to a profit of $59 million, or 7 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 21 percent to $2.02 billion. Continental reported a first-quarter loss of $66 million, or 76 cents per share, compared with a loss of $186 million, or $2.79 per share, a year ago. Revenue jumped 17.6 new balance shop Women's: BlueGray 2A, 0 Men's: GrayOrange 2E, 4E mm Mr No. 2 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is far back at about 20 percent but is an aggressive competitor with its supercenters, which sell groceries.

In the past several months, H-E-B has put under contract or purchased land in Hutto, Kyle and Round Rock for possible stores. The Kyle store is slated to be about 147,000 square feet, but H-E-B hasn't said whether any of those stores will be Plus formats or traditional stores. The company is opening a store May 10 in the Escarpment Village retail center in Southwest Austin's Circle neighborhood. mtaboadastatesman.com, 249-7053; kmortonstatesman.com; 445-3641 results due a big thrust in market share in Ql and then falls back gently in the remainder of the year. "This is a total break in that pattern," he said.

Dell is being squeezed by products and geography. It gets more than half its overall revenue from personal computers. And Dell's biggest market is the United States, where PC sales are growing more slowly than other parts of the world. "The U.S. share loss is consistent with our view the company is losing share in its established markets, which we consider an ominous trend," analyst Cindy Shaw of Moors Cabot wrote in a note to clients Thursday.

Kay, however, said some of Dell's pain is related to Intel which is launching a new line of PC and server chips in the second half of the year to better compete with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Dell, unlike H-P, uses only Intel chips. Intel reported disappointing first-quarter results Wednesday, indicating that 1 The Dow got a boost Thursday from GM, which posted its sixth consecutive quarterly loss, but strong sales of its new full-size SUVs and cost-cutting efforts pushed the results above Wall Street estimates. GM's first-quarter net loss narrowed to $323 million, or 57 cents a share, from $1.25 billion, or $2.22, a year earlier and its stock jumped $2.07, or 10 percent, to $22.64 on the news. Merck, the No.

4 U.S. drug maker, gained 60 cents to close at $35 on Thursday. The company STOCKS: People are looking to buy, next month some technology buyers are delaying purchases until its new chips come out. "Dell will catch a disproportionate amount of influenza from Intel because of their total reliance oh it," Kay said. "H-P people I've talked to are gleeful about the fact that Dell doesn't have AMD processors right now.

"It has looked pretty bad for Dell as AMD has gained steam, and Dell has no commitment to them. If Intel proves to be resilient in the back half of the year, then Dell will start looking smarter as the year goes on. It may be that we are seeing the worst of it right now." Earlier this year, Dell canceled its annual meeting with Wall Street analysts that's normally held in April, saying it would have more news to report later. Since then, it has bought high-end PC maker Alienware and restored basic warranty coverage on personal computers to one year from as short as 90 days. trader says said first-quarter profit rose 11 percent to $1.52 billion on sales of the Zocor cholesterol drug, the Singulair allergy pill and vaccines.

"The message this week is pretty simple: People are looking for an excuse to buy stocks rather than sell stocks," said Ryan Larson, equity trader at Voyageur Asset Management, a subsidiary of RBC Dain Rauscher. "A year ago, $70 oil would have been the death of us; today, the market is able to digest it and look for positives." 32-year-old dentist Yang Sen agreed. "Chinese really care about whether they are perceived to have money, so you have to buy the best quality," he said. Yang also exemplifies another factor driving China's luxury sales: Although most older Chinese learned to save against future problems during the political tumult of the mid-20th cen-tury, today's younger generation is more free Spending. Yang owns a $3,000 Cartier watch and Prada clothing and spends about 30 percent of his $20,000 annual salary on luxuries.

"The future looks good, so I should enjoy myself," he explained. csimonscoxnews.com lst-quarter Veil tends to make a big thrust in market share in Ql and then falls back gently in the remainder of the year. This is a total break in that pattern Roger Kay President of Endpoint Technologies Associates a tech-consulting firm analyst, said the results are surprising. "Dell is a more commercially oriented company, and its best quarter tends to be Ql," said Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates a tech-consulting firm in Way-land, Mass. "Dell tends to make the close of regular trading, sent the stock sharply higher in after-hours trading.

The company said it earned $592.3 million, or $1.95 a share, during the first three months of the year. Google's revenue, excluding ad commissions, exceeded the average analyst estimate by $90 million. The strong showing provides another lift for Google's stock, which has surged by more than 20 percent since its addition to the Standard Poor's 500 index was announced a month ago. venture into the country. High-end automakers also are cashing in.

British automaker Bentley Motors sold 28 cars in Beijing last year. Chinese own five of the seven Mulliner 728 limousines costing at least the company has sold worldwide. Dutch car builder Spyker has sold two $650,000 sports cars since opening its first China showroom last September, sales manager Qi Peng said. The growth in luxury buying has tracked China's economic rise. During the past 25 years, China's GDP has expanded at an average annual rate of about 9 percent, the fastest sustained growth for a large economy.

In coastal cities, growth has been even faster. While the average Shanghai resident had less than $1,000 in disposable Continued from Dl rose 41 percent as sales of its iPod players continued to soar and Macintosh computer shipments increased by 4 percent. The market may also get a boost today from Google Inc. Its first-quarter profit rose 60 percent, soaring past analyst estimates as the company's Internet-leading search engine solidified its position as the Web's most popular advertising vehicle. The earnings, reported after 'M i'A'i 4 im 1 jj i 111 1 UF ws I LUXURY: Extra income is part of China's boom DIGEST percent, to $2.95 billion.

COMMUNICATIONS FCC investigating radio corporations SAN ANTONIO The Federal Communications Commission is stepping up its investigation into suspected payola practices at Clear Channel Communications Inc. and three other large radio corporations after attempts to reach settlements stalled. The FCC said it wants more information about accusations that programmers received gifts, cash and other items in exchange for playing certain songs without publicly disclosing the deals. Compiled from wire reports Why Walltech? Guaranteed satisfaction. Walltech stands behind all its furniture.

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imr 151 lnoinr l.idlUCLIIIC FREE PHONE 5 1 1 4 1 income in 1995, last year the figure had climbed to $2,300, according to Chinese government figures. For luxury brands, the distribution of China's riches is more important. While hundreds of millions of Chinese get by on a few hundred dollars a year, less than half of 1 percent of China's 1.3 billion people own more than 60 percent of the nation's wealth, the Boston Consulting Group said in a recent report. Luxury sales also are spurred by a traditional connection between visible wealth and social position. "In a nation that has a long tradition of valuing consumers takeluxuryproducts as a symbol of their high social status," French said.

Shopping at a Cartier franchise in downtown Beijing, For help on using Stock Quote Hotline enter 7860 Continued from Dl a year and is growing by roughly 10 percent annually. The desire to tap into this growth has lured brands best associated with European capitals to cities largely unheard of in the West. Louis Vuitton opened a franchise in China's east-coast city of Qingdao last year. Cartier plans to expand from 12 China franchises now to 30 by 2009, manager Daniel Chang said. Italian jeweler Bulgari, which has three China outlets, plans to open a new store in Guangzhou, China's southern boomtown, by the end of the month.

Luxury retailer Saks Fifth Avenue said Tuesday that it will open a story in Shanghai in 2008, becoming one of the first American department stores to The Chart shows characters and the phone button numbers to press. (For most letters the first digit is the number of the phone button containing the character. The second digit indicates that the letter is the first, second or third letter on that button.) 'tit llfllrltr PerW Rate Record Payibk) Period Rate Record Payable Vivid IUJ Panhandle RoyaltyCo .04 5-26 6-9 Loglstec Corp .0688 6-30 7-14 People's Bank(CT) .25 5-1 5-15 MFBCorp .135 5-2 5-16 Transmontaigne Prt .43 4-28 5-9 Maximuslnc .10 5-15 5-31 PerkKj Rate Record Payable Washington Mutual 0 .51 4-28 5-15 Merchants Bnchsrslnc .28 5-4 5-18 INITIAL Meridian Bioscience .115 5-1 5-8 THURSDAY DIVIDENDS DECLARED China Life InsCo .2495 5-15 NASB Financial .225 5-5 5-26 IRREGULAR OMITTED OceanFirst Financial JO 4-28 5-12 Akzo Nobel NVz 1.1139 4-26 TEL Offshore Trust OfficeMax Inc .15 7-1 7-15 Arbor Realty TV ,72 5-1 5-15' SPECIAL Old National Bncp Jl 6-1 6-15 China PetroliChem 1.1216 6-9 UBS AG 2.5157 4-19 4-24 Peabody Energy .06 5-4 -25 Petrochina Co Ltd 2.247 4-25 6-19 REGULAR Regions Fncl Cp .35 5-1 5-15 Telebrasz .1441 4-27 7-6 Alltel Corp J85 6-9 7-3 Renaissance Learning .05 5-12 6-1 Telefonica SA 2 .9208 5-11 5-18 AmSouthCorp J6 6-16 7-3 Rurban Financial Cp .05 5-5 5-19 y- pay date unannounced. Astoria Fncl Cp Jl 5-15 6-1 Schulumberger Ltd .125 6-7 7-7 I-approx. amount per AOS or ADR.

BNP ResidentialProps .26 5-1 5-15 Smith Intl Inc .08 6-15 7-4 STOCK Blair Corp 0 .30 5-19 6-15 Stanley Furniture .08 5-12 6-5 Barnes Group 5-30 6-9 Brookline Bancorp .085 4-28 5-15 Texas Industries fj .075 5-5 5-26 x- 2 fori split Canadian National .1625 6-9 6-30 Trustmark Corp .21 6-1 6-15 Fst Natl Bestirs SC 6pc 5-1 5-15 Central Bncp Inc .18 5-5 5-19 United Bancorp .13 4-26 6-20 Fulton Financial 5pc Coca-Cola Co 31 6-15 7-1 West Bancorporation .16 5-2 5-16 5-19 6-8 Consolidated Edison 75 5-15 6-15 Weyerhaeuser Co .50 5-5 5-30 MacatawaBank 5pc 5-12 5-30 Dow Jones 4 Co .25 5-1 6-1 MUTUAL FUNDSETFs MacatawaBank 6-9 6-29 Dow Jones 4 Co .25 5-1 6-1 Colonial Hilnc Mun .035 4-28 5-12 x-3 for 2 split Fidelity Natmtle 6-15 6-27 Colonial Intrndt HI .026 4-28 5-12 Sun BancorpiNJ) 5pc 5-8 5-18 First Indiana Cp 20 6-6 6-15 Colonial Mun Inc .029 4-28 5-12 INCREASED F.N.B. Corp (PA) J35 5-17 6-15 Consumers Waterheater .0983 4-28 5-12 Barnes Group .25 5-30 6-9 Great Pee DeeBncp .16 5-1 5-12 DiversVield Inco .0604 4-28 5-12 Chittenden Corp JO 4-28 5-12 Harbor FL Bncshrs J75 5-1 5-19 lazard GlobRetnSlnco .1042 5-12 5-23 Mellon Fin'l 22 4-28 5-15 Idacorplnc JO 5-5 5-30 Lazard .1167 5-12 5-23 ONEOKInc JO 5-1 5-15 Lennox Intl Inc .11 5-19 6-2 Mullen Grp Inc .15 4-30 5-15 PPG Industries .48 5-10 6-12 LogistecCorpA .0625 6-30 7-14 g-payable in Canadian funds. I I I I HOW TO CONTACT US Austin Infiniti HW. 113 2222 II Send information to businessstatesman.com, fax to 445-3971 or mail to Business Desk, Austin American-Statesman, P.O. Box 670, Austin, TX 78767 Kathy Warbelow, executive business editor, 445-3662, kwarbelowstatesman.com John Ptetz, technology news, 445-3601, jpletzstatesman.com Denise Becker, development and real estate news, 445-3931, dbeckerstatesman.com $379 tot 24 mo IFS Ium 12K mlyr.

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