helped-increase

Xerox Chairman Anne Mulcahy to Retire; Chief Executive Burns to Take Title

by on March 30, 2010

By Katie Hoffmann March 30 (Bloomberg) — Xerox Corp. Chairman Anne Mulcahy will retire in May, stepping down after more than 30 years at the world’s largest maker of high-speed color printers. Mulcahy, 57, will leave May 20, the date of the annual shareholders’ meeting, Norwalk, Connecticut-based Xerox said today in a statement. Ursula Burns , who assumed Mulcahy’s duties as chief executive officer on July 1, will take on both roles. Mulcahy became CEO in 2001, charged with reversing repeated quarters of sales declines . She was named chairman the following year and helped keep the company afloat by exiting unprofitable businesses and cutting at least 20,000 jobs. Burns, 51, whose succession to CEO marked the first woman-to-woman transition in the Fortune 500, was with Mulcahy through most of her tenure, joining the company in 1980 and becoming president in 2007. Xerox was unchanged at $9.73 at 10:20 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading . The shares had climbed 15 percent this year before today. In 2000, Xerox shares plunged 80 percent as former CEO Richard Thoman led the company to exhaust its $7 billion line of credit. Mulcahy took over, stopped making personal copiers and started focusing on laser printers and color printing. The moves, along with Mulcahy’s cost-cutting, helped increase sales, and she reinstated the company’s quarterly dividend in 2007, after it was discontinued in 2001. Mulcahy started to shift the business again in the past few years — focusing more on services, such as managing companies’ documents and printing. Charity Chairman This year, Burns steered Xerox through its largest acquisition, buying Affiliated Computer Services Inc. for $6 billion. The purchase of Affiliated, which helps clients manage human resources and other tasks, will fuel sales of services as revenue from printing equipment — which accounts for more than a quarter of total sales — declines. Since retiring as CEO, Mulcahy joined the board of Johnson & Johnson and became chairman of the charity Save the Children. She is also a board member of Citigroup Inc. and the Washington Post Co. To contact the reporter on this story: Katie Hoffmann in New York at khoffmann4@bloomberg.net

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Xerox Chairman Anne Mulcahy to Retire; Chief Executive Burns to Take Title

Employer-Assisted Housing Forum Helps Bring Homeownership Within Reach

by admin on November 30, 2009

While reduced home prices and lower mortgage rates have helped increase affordability, homeownership is still out of reach for a large portion of working individuals. To help make homeownership more affordable for working families, the National Association of Realtors® partnered with the National Housing Conference to host a regional forum in Philadelphia today to raise awareness of employer-assisted housing benefits.

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Employer-Assisted Housing Forum Helps Bring Homeownership Within Reach

U.S. Mortgage Rates for 30-Year Fixed Home Loans Decline for Second Week

November 12, 2009

By Brian Louis Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) — Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed U.S. home loans fell to the lowest in five weeks, providing a boost to potential buyers and those who want to refinance. The average 30-year rate declined to 4.91 percent from 4.98 percent. The 15-year rate was 4.36 percent, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac of McLean, Virginia, said today in a statement. Falling mortgage rates, a tax credit for first-time homebuyers and signs the recession may be abating have helped increase demand for U.S. homes. Sales rose 11 percent to a two- year high in the third quarter, the National Association of Realtors said this week. “You’re probably not going to see upward pressure on mortgage rates anytime soon,” said Scott Brown , chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida. “You’re not going to see a full recovery in the housing sector until you see a recovery beginning in the labor market.” The unemployment rate in the U.S. jumped to 10.2 percent in October, the highest level since 1983. Payrolls fell by 190,000 last month, more than forecast by economists, a Labor Department report showed Nov. 7. The jobless rate rose from 9.8 percent in September. Unemployment is extending a housing recession that started with mortgage defaults on loans to subprime borrowers and has spread to prime borrowers as the economy weakened. Central Bank Plan Federal Reserve bond purchases from Fannie Mae , Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, which package home loans into securities, brought down yields on the bonds this year, allowing lenders to reduce rates on new loans while still selling the securities backed by them at a profit. The central bank pledged to buy up to $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities bonds, helping drive mortgage rates to a record low 4.78 percent in April. The central bank’s purchasing program is scheduled to end in the first quarter of next year, the Federal Open Market Committee said on Sept. 23. It reiterated those plans last week. To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Louis in Chicago at blouis1@bloomberg.net .

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