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Business Briefs: CP purchase offer is last effort for railroad

FILE - In this May 23, 2012 file photo, surveyors work next to Canadian Pacific Rail trains which are parked on the train tracks in Toronto. Canadian Pacific is increasing its offer to buy Norfolk Southern railroad by adding an additional payment that would vary depending on the stock price of the new company. Canadian Pacific CEO Hunter Harrison said Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2015 that his company remains committed to the deal despite Norfolk Southern's opposition. He wants shareholders of the Norfolk, Virginia, railroad to decide whether to pursue it. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette) MANDATORY CREDIT FILE - In this May 23, 2012 file photo, surveyors work next to Canadian Pacific Rail trains which are parked on the train tracks in Toronto. Canadian Pacific is increasing its offer to buy Norfolk Southern railroad by adding an additional payment that would vary depending on the stock price of the new company. Canadian Pacific CEO Hunter Harrison said Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2015 that his company remains committed to the deal despite Norfolk Southern's opposition. He wants shareholders of the Norfolk, Virginia, railroad to decide whether to pursue it. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette) MANDATORY CREDIT

By Wire reports March 10, 2016 3 min read

CP purchase offer is last effort for railroad

Canadian Pacific’s appeal to Norfolk Southern shareholders and regulators likely represents the railroad’s last effort to acquire its rival.

CP Chief Executive Hunter Harrison said Wednesday that he still hopes Norfolk Southern executives will sit down and discuss a possible merger, so they can attempt to resolve their differences. Since November, Norfolk Southern has sternly rejected several offers worth roughly $30 billion.

Canadian Pacific has asked federal regulators to approve the proposed structure of the deal to address some of the concerns voiced by Norfolk Southern.

Harrison says he still believes merging the two railroads would produce significant benefits, but he doesn’t plan to attempt a hostile takeover.

Norfolk Southern shareholders will vote this spring on whether the two railroads should even discuss a merger.

United faces battle over board seats

Fed up with poor performance at United Continental Holdings, two investment firms want to shake up the airline’s board of directors and give a prominent role to an ex-CEO credited with saving Continental Airlines more than a decade ago.

In a surprise move Tuesday morning, Altimeter Capital Management and PAR Capital Management made a public pitch to add six of their own nominees to the board. The two investment firms own a combined 7 percent stake of United Continental Holdings Inc.

Brad Gerstner, CEO of Altimeter Capital, said in a statement that investors are “greatly disappointed with United’s poor performance and bad decisions over the last several years.” The firms’ announcement comes one day after United increased its existing board by three members to 15, a move Gerstner called “a cynical attempt to preserve power by this entrenched board.”

FILE – This Aug. 20, 2012, file photo, shows a Chevron sign in Miami. Chevron Corp. reports financial earnings on Friday, Jan. 29, 2016. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

Chevron cuts spending by nearly 40 percent

Chevron is cutting its spending budget by nearly 40 percent for 2017 and 2018 as it deals with plunging oil prices, a bigger cut in spending than it previously expected.

The oil and gas company said that it expects to spend between $17 billion and $22 billion on drilling and other projects in 2017 and 2018, lower than the $20 billion to $24 billion range the company had expected in October. The company has a spending budget of $26.6 billion this year, down 24 percent from the year before.

Wholesale stockpiles up but sales drop in January

U.S. wholesale businesses increased their stockpiles by the largest amount in five months, but their sales fell for the sixth time in the past seven months.

The Commerce Department says inventories held by wholesale businesses rose 0.3 percent in January, the biggest increase since August.

Sales at the wholesale level dropped a sharp 1.3 percent. That the biggest setback since a similar fall in November and the sixth time that sales have been down in the past seven months.

U.S. businesses have struggled over the past year with spreading weakness overseas and a rising value of the dollar, which makes American products less competitive on foreign markets. Economists are hoping that this weakness can be overcome by solid gains in domestic demand. Consumer spending is expected to accelerate this quarter.