Business in brief May 3

| New Mexican wire services

5/2/2008 - 5/3/08

Pueblo of Pojoaque and Hilton Hotels have named Duff Taylor as executive director of gambling operations at Buffalo Thunder Casino in Pojoaque, set for completion in August.

Taylor is a 30-year veteran of the casino industry who formerly opened the Fiesta Casino and Hotel in North Las Vegas, Nev., and Hyatt's Grand Victoria Casino and Hotel in Rising Sun, Ind. He previously oversaw projects at MGM Grand and Four Queens in Nevada and managed operations for Howard Johnson and Co., River Palms Resort Casino in Laughlin, Nev., and Crystal Palace Casino in Nassau, Bahamas.

Pojoaque Peublo's plans for Buffalo Thunder Casino include 1,200 slot machines, 22 table games, a 10-table poker room and an electronic bingo operation in an 80,000-square-foot gambling area. Resort plans include 390 rooms, 66,000 square feet of meeting and event space, a 16,000-square-foot spa and exercise facility, two swimming pools, a 12,700-square-foot retail promenade and several restaurants including chef Mark Miller's Red Sage restaurant.

The resort complex also includes Hilton's already-open 81-room Homewood Suites and the 36-hole Towa Golf Resort, where 18 holes are already open.


SAN RAMON, Calif. — Astounding profits in the oil industry are becoming as routine as the anguished looks of motorists filling up their gas tanks.

Chevron Corp. put yet another exclamation point on the oil patch's long run of prosperity Friday with a first-quarter profit of $5.17 billion, or $2.48 per share. That was up 10 percent from net income of $4.72 billion, or $2.18 per share, last year.

The performance exceeded the lofty expectations of analysts, helping lift Chevron shares 38 cents to $95.32.

It was the second-highest quarterly profit in the company's 129-year history and marked the most money that it has ever made during the January-March period. That puts the No. 2 U.S. oil company on track for its fifth straight year of record earnings.

About the only downside to the quarter was that Chevron earned relatively little from gasoline sales because it couldn't raise its prices fast enough to recover its own rising costs for oil. Like its peers, Chevron doesn't produce enough oil on its own to feed its refineries, forcing it to buy some on the open market.


SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft Corp. reportedly dangled a higher takeover bid in front of Yahoo Inc. on Friday, hoping to reach a friendly deal after weeks of saber rattling.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker upped its offer "by several dollars" per share, according to a New York Times report that cited unnamed sources.

Representatives from Microsoft and Yahoo declined to comment on the negotiations, which were confirmed by a person familiar with the talks. The person didn't want to be identified because of the talks are still confidential.

Yahoo began pressing for a higher offer shortly after Microsoft made its unsolicited bid in February, which was originally valued at $44.6 billion, or $31 per share.

That offer, which was made half in cash and half in stock, is currently valued at $42.3 billion, or $29.40 per share, because Microsoft shares have declined.


WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve announced Friday that it will expand a series of efforts to deal with the global credit crisis, in coordination with European central banks.

The Fed said it was boosting the amount of emergency reserves it supplies to U.S. banks to $150 billion in May, from the $100 billion it supplied in April. The Fed took this action and several other moves to boost credit in coordination with the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank.

The latest moves are part of a series of actions the Fed has made since the credit crisis struck in August.

The efforts are designed to increase reserves so that banks don't become hesitant about lending to consumers and businesses, which would make the current economic slowdown even more severe.