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Shakeup at Chrysler
Chrysler Group LLC is replacing two of its recently named brand CEOs, spinning off its Ram trucks as a separate brand, and asking its top designer to take on the added responsibility of CEO of the Dodge car brand.
Gone are Mike Accavitti, formerly president and CEO of the Dodge brand, and Peter Fong, who held the same titles for the Chrysler brand. Fond resigned for personal reasons and Accavitti is pursuing other interests, Chrysler said in a statement.
In their place will be Fred Diaz Jr., president and CEO of the newly created Ram brand; Ralph Gilles, who adds the title of president and CEO of Dodge cars to his current position of senior vice president for product design, and Olivier Francois takes over as president and CEO of Chrysler brand.
Insider trading appeal denied
The Supreme Court has refused to hear former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio’s appeal of his insider trading conviction.
The court said Monday it would not entertain Nacchio’s request that he either be acquitted of the charge or granted a new trial.
Prosecutors said Nacchio sold $52 million worth of stock in 2001 while knowing that Denver-based Qwest Communications International Inc. would have trouble meeting its sales goals. Nacchio began serving a six-year sentence on April 14. He contended the jury was given improper instructions about what internal information had to be disclosed publicly. He also argued that the trial judge improperly barred testimony from an expert who could have explained Nacchio’s trading patterns.
Internet ads mark decline
Newly released statistics show that Internet advertising in the U.S. fell 5 percent in the second quarter as the recession continued to crimp marketing budgets.
It was the second consecutive quarterly decline in Internet advertising, extending the medium’s first slump since the aftermath of the dot-com bust in 2002.
The $5.43 billion spent on Internet ads during the three months ending in June compared to $5.75 billion at the same time last year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Ho-hum holiday predicted
The National Retail Federation, usually bullish about holiday sales, predicts a 1 percent decline in total sales to $437.6 billion for November and December combined. The projection from the world’s largest retail trade group comes amid forecasts that U.S. retailers saw a key measure of sales drop in September for the 13th month in a row compared with a year earlier.
The NRF is less optimistic this year than several other groups offering holiday sales forecasts.