DETROIT - The global automotive supplier industry starts the New Year with difficult prospects. Although revenue and operating results in 2009 were not as bad as initially feared, a significant market recovery is not foreseen for 2010. Most surveyed suppliers expect the global market in 2010 maintain the levels of 2009 with positive developments only
DETROIT - The Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE has chosen the state of Michigan to host an intense multi-stage competition that aims to pit some of the world's most fuel efficient vehicles against one another in a quest to win their share of a $10 million prize purse. Fifty-one super efficient cars from 41 teams
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ca. - Google no longer intends to censor search results in China, and if the Chinese government balks, it may take its servers and go home. The stunning change in Google's policy toward doing business in China, which was always a complicated dance, came after Google discovered that it and other businesses were
NEW YORK - IT spending worldwide will reboot in 2010, rising 8.1 percent after last year's 8.9 percent freefall, Forrester Research predicts in a report released Tuesday. Businesses and governments are expected to spend $1.6 trillion on information technology throughout 2010, Forrester predicts, CNET News.Com reported. In the U.S. alone, IT spending is likely to
LANSING - Both of the state's two largest utilities have now been ordered to repay customers for excessive rates they had self-implemented with the completion of a rate case Monday for Detroit Edison. Edison will have to refund $62.6 million plus interest, meaning about a 1.3 percent rate cut for customers, the Public Service Commission
LANSING - It looks like the nation started pulling itself out of the recession sometime around the third quarter of last year, but it won't be until the same time in 2011 that Michigan can expect to see modest job growth, economists said Monday during the Revenue Estimating Conference. By the time Michigan recovers, 11
LANSING ? Michigan could yet see rules requiring businesses to implement ergonomics programs. True to her word, Gov. Jennifer Granholm is disregarding language in the Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth 2009-10 budget prohibiting spending on the rules. And true to their history, business groups continue efforts to block them. Doug Kalinowski with the
LANSING - Election-year politics, including having two legislative leaders seeking statewide office, is creating a time crunch for Business Leaders for Michigan to get its Michigan Turnaround Plan into law, the head of the group said Friday. Doug Rothwell, president and CEO of the group formerly known as Detroit Renaissance, said part of the organization's
DETROIT - GM chairman Ed Whitacre predicted the company will return to profitability this year. Of course, he didn't attach any numbers to that prediction, nor did we learn if he's talking about an operating profit, a pre-tax profit, or, the one that really counts in my book, a net profit. Even so, the profit
LAS VEGAS - Ford Motor is making its vehicles an Internet application platform by giving drivers access to streaming media and other smartphone applications. During a keynote on Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show, Ford CEO Alan Mulally plans to show off the latest high-tech touches to the interior of Ford vehicles, including a redesigned