January 11, 2010
Even as federal officials move to rein in the nation’s biggest banks, one chunk of giant Citigroup Inc. keeps expanding — with the help of the U.S. government. Citigroup’s Global Transaction Services unit, or GTS, zaps more than $3 trillion around the world each day for hundreds of corporations and dozens of governments and agencies, including the Federal Reserve. It converts currencies for the Fed, processes all passport applications for the U.S. government and handles U.S. military payments to Iraqi contractors.
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January 6, 2010
By Connie Guglielmo Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) — Hewlett-Packard Co. , the world’s largest personal-computer maker, introduced updated notebook and desktop PC models, including the company’s first netbook with a touch-screen display. The Mini 5102, starting at $399, is a scaled-down notebook with a 10.1-inch screen that supports the company’s TouchSmart multitouch software, Hewlett-Packard said today in a statement. It will be available later this month. Hewlett-Packard , which took the No. 1 spot in the PC market from Dell Inc. in 2006, has widened its lead every quarter since then, attracting customers with thinner and faster portable computers. PCs accounted for 30 percent of Hewlett-Packard’s sales last quarter. Notebooks and netbooks — stripped-down laptops that typically sell for less than $400 — were the biggest moneymakers. The company also updated its other Mini netbooks, with prices starting at $299, and added a new version of the HP TouchSmart, a $949 portable device. It can convert from a regular notebook to a pen-controlled slate computer by swiveling the screen. The TouchSmart TM2 will be available Jan. 17. Hewlett-Packard, based in Palo Alto, California, fell 16 cents to $52.51 at 9:32 a.m. on the New York Stock Exchange . The shares gained 42 percent last year. To contact the reporter on this story: Connie Guglielmo in San Francisco at cguglielmo1@bloomberg.net
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