Biz Buzz
Long Island
Verint to acquire Comverse
Verint Systems Inc., an intelligence and technology firm in Melville, said Monday it would acquire its majority shareholder, Comverse Technology Inc. Through the acquisition, Verint will become a more independent public company without majority ownership interests, Verint chief executive Dan Bodner said in a news release. Verint's business focuses on analyzing large amounts of information gathered from surveillance video, telephone calls and other sources to determine potential security issues. Comverse, once based in Woodbury and now with headquarters in Manhattan, spun off one of its software technology units into another public company and redistributed most of its other assets except for its Verint ownership. Verint will acquire Comverse for 27.5 million Verint shares -- equal to the majority ownership that Comverse held -- with the possibility of another $25 million worth of Verint stock.
-- Lisa Du
NATION
Auto bailout cost higher
The U.S. Treasury Department has said the auto industry bailout will cost taxpayers $3.4 billion more than previously thought. Estimates now peg the 2009 bailout at $25.1 billion, according to a report sent to Congress on Friday. That is up from the last quarterly estimate of $21.7 billion. Since the $80 billion bailout of the auto industry, Detroit's big automakers have moved from crisis to profit. GM and Chrysler were put through government-funded bankruptcies that cut costs and debt. The government has recouped about half of what was extended in grants and loans to GM, Chrysler and related companies. Some of the money was repaid in cash, while the rest was tied up in equity shares held by the government. Republicans have long complained that the bailout was at least partly aimed at salvaging union jobs in Michigan and Ohio.
-- Reuters
Mercedes recalls mats in ML
Mercedes-Benz is recalling all-season rubber floor mats sold as accessories in 2012 and 2013 ML-Class sport utility vehicles in the United States because they could cause the gas pedal to get stuck and increase the risk of a crash, federal regulators said. Unaffected are regular floor mats that come standard. Mercedes said 8,675 of the floor mats have been sold in the United States, according to documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Until replacements are available, Mercedes is advising ML-Class owners to remove the floor mats. Mercedes said replacements are planned.
-- Reuters
Google cuts jobs at Motorola
Google Inc. is cutting about 4,000 jobs at its Motorola Mobility cellphone business and will close or consolidate about one-third of its 90 locations, the Mountain View, Calif., company said Monday. The reductions represent about 20 percent of Motorola Mobility's 20,000 employees, and 7 percent of Google's overall workforce. Two-third of the cuts will be outside of the United States, Google said. The cuts come three months after Google bought the once-dominant cellphone maker for $12.5 billion.
-- AP
Pentagon beefs up on meat
The Pentagon is looking to increase its meat purchases to take advantage of lower prices and to help ranchers struggling with drought. Under orders from President Barack Obama, the Defense Department may buy more beef, pork and lamb to fill its chow halls around the world. America's service members already devour 94 million pounds of beef, 64 million pounds of pork and 500,000 pounds of lamb each year. The worst drought in decades is devastating the nation's pastures and grain feed fields, spiking their prices. As a result, ranchers are selling more livestock, driving the prices down for now.
-- AP
