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Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

Cablevision sees $54 million profit

NEW YORK - Stronger cable earnings led Cablevision Systems Corp. to a profit of $54.1 million for the fourth quarter after a year-ago loss that reflected charges related to an abandoned satellite TV venture.

The earnings reported Monday were equivalent to 19 cents per share for the three months ended Dec. 31 and contrasted with a loss in the year-ago period of $305.8 million, or $1.06 per share, which included a $166.3 million charge associated with the closure of Voom, a high-definition TV business.

Revenues rose 12.5 percent, to $1.49 billion from $1.32 billion a year ago, on big gains in its cable TV business as the company signed up more customers for premium services such as digital video, high-speed Internet and digital phone service.

Cablevision's shares rose $1.26, or 5 percent, to close at $26.46 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Cablevision, which is based on Long Island and has about 3 million cable subscribers around the New York area, has been one of the most successful of the cable providers in expanding premium services.

Earnings from its core cable TV business rose 38.6 percent on a 16.1 percent gain in revenues. The number of high-speed Internet customers rose 5.9 percent in the quarter, digital phone customers rose 21.6 percent, and basic-video customers edged up 0.6 percent.

The company also reported other favorable indicators watched closely by investors: Its average revenue per subscriber rose 3.9 percent, to $100.46, while the amount of ``churn,'' or subscriber turnover, decreased to 1.8 percent in basic video from 2.1 percent in the same quarter last year. Churn in digital video and Internet customers also declined.

DirecTV approves buyback of shares

EL SEGUNDO - DirecTV Group Inc., the nation's largest direct broadcast satellite provider, said Monday that it agreed to buy back 100 million of its shares from General Motors Corp.'s pension funds.

DirecTV said it agreed to buy the shares at $15.50 per share in cash, representing a 1 percent discount from the company's Friday closing price of $15.68.

DirecTV expects to close the deal Friday. After the deal closes, General Motors' pension funds will hold 115 million shares of DirecTV, or less than 10 percent of DirecTV's outstanding stock.

Yahoo Inc. sues 7 former workers

SAN JOSE - Yahoo Inc. sued seven former employees Monday, alleging that the workers stole trade secrets as they defected to MForma Group Inc., which provides entertainment and information tailored for wireless phones.

Yahoo's suit in Santa Clara County Superior Court alleges San Francisco-based MForma illegally raided its work force as part of a plot to swipe technology developed by Yahoo, which runs the Internet's most visited Web site.

New-home sales slowest in a year

WASHINGTON - The slowdown in the nation's long housing boom, which has been anticipated for at least two years, seems to have finally arrived.

Sales of new homes came in at the slowest pace in a year in January, and the backlog of unsold homes rose to an all-time high, the Commerce Department reported Monday.

Making those developments even more dramatic was the fact that they occurred during an exceptionally mild January - the warmest in more than 100 years.

The Commerce Department reported that sales of new single-family homes dropped by 5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.233 million units last month.

T-bill rates climb to five-year high

WASHINGTON - Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills rose in Monday's auction to the highest levels since early 2001.

The Treasury Department auctioned $21 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 4.510 percent, up from 4.450 percent last week. An additional $19 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 4.580 percent, up from 4.545 percent last week.

Separately, the Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable-rate mortgages, rose to 4.72 percent last week from 4.70 percent the previous week.