Applied Materials to cut 1,800 as profit, orders fall

Applied Materials Inc., the largest maker of chip production machinery, reported a 45 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit and said it will cut 1,800 jobs as orders slump. The job reductions amount to 12 percent of the workforce, the Santa Clara, Calif., company said. Orders, a key indicator of future sales, may fall more than 30 percent in the current period from last quarter, chief financial officer George Davis said. Applied Materials has an operation in Chelmsford. Its customers have cut back on equipment purchases for more than a year. (Bloomberg)

Anheuser-Busch Cos. shareholders approved InBev NV's $52 billion takeover offer, agreeing to create the world's largest brewer and hand over its controlling share of the US beer market to the Belgian company. Investors, who met in Secaucus, N.J., voted 96 percent of the shares cast in favor of selling the St. Louis brewer for $70 per share. Holders of Leuven, Belgium-based InBev agreed to the purchase on Sept. 29. The combination will put InBev's Beck's lager and Leffe Belgian ales together with Anheuser-Busch's Bud Light, Budweiser, and Michelob brands. (Bloomberg)

Morgan Stanley said it plans to fire 10 percent of its institutional securities staff and 9 percent of the firm's asset-management group as the economy contracts and client demand wanes. The cuts are in addition to 4,440 reductions disclosed earlier this year, finance chief Colm Kelleher said. Morgan Stanley, which has 46,383 workers, and larger rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are downsizing after opting to convert from securities firms to deposit-taking banks following the bankruptcy of rival Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September. Morgan Stanley's announcement means more than 155,000 jobs have been eliminated by the financial industry worldwide since the middle of last year. (Bloomberg)

New York Stock Exchange regulators sanctioned an ex-Morgan Stanley broker for unauthorized trades involving medical malpractice settlements paying for the care of injured children. The trades helped make Charles Winitch a top performer at the firm. NYSE regulators barred Winitch from working at a member firm for five years after investigators found he and a colleague made unsuitable trades in the accounts of children who received the settlements. The transactions generated about $537,000 in commissions for the firm from 2004 to 2005. (Bloomberg News)

Two former executives for a failed health care plan were sentenced to prison for participating in a scheme to hide its financial troubles. Barry Scheur, 57, of Newton, who owned The Oath for Louisiana health maintenance organization, got 20 months in prison. Robert McMillan, 59, of Texas, the HMO's former chief financial officer, got 13 months. In May, a jury convicted them of fraud and conspiracy. Prosecutors said they inflated The Oath's net worth and ability to pay claims. The Oath insured more than 80,000 people; it had a $45 million deficit when it was shut down in 2002. "They fraudulently cooked the books," said US District Judge Eldon Fallon.

The Bush administration issued a final regulation aimed at banning Internet gambling, drawing criticism from Democrats, who said it would burden financial companies. The rule from the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve requires those companies to establish procedures to prevent payments in connection with unlawful Internet gambling. The law sought to curb online gambling by prohibiting financial institutions from accepting payments from credit cards, checks, or electronic fund transfers to settle online wagers. Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, had said the rule would "burden the financial services industry at a time of economic crisis." (AP)

Microsoft Corp. plans a Windows Live update in coming weeks that will add social networking features to the software maker's instant messaging program, Hotmail e-mail service, and other sites. This positions the software maker as a competitor to News Corp.'s MySpace, Facebook, and other popular online hangouts. Microsoft claims hundreds of millions of Web e-mail and instant messenger users but is seen as a laggard when it comes to understanding the Internet. (AP)