Harold Maass of The Week The Best of Today's Business

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Time Warner and cable unit separate

Time Warner and its Time Warner Cable subsidiary agreed to a legal and structural separation. The complete spin-off of Time Warner Cable, the No. 2 U.S. cable TV company, will be accompanied by a one-time $10.9 billion cash dividend for shareholders, $9.25 billion of which will go to the parent company. (MarketWatch) The cable unit became a publicly traded company about a year ago, in response to shareholder demands that the unwieldy parent company simplify its operations, but Time Warner still owns 84 percent of the cable provider. (AP in Yahoo! Finance) Time Warner said it will distribute its entire stake to shareholders in a to-be-announced "tax-efficient manner." (Bloomberg)

Staples target makes its own purchase

Dutch office supply distributor Corporate Express, the target of a $2.3 billion hostile takeover bid by U.S. retailer Staples, made its own $2.7 billion deal for French competitor Lyreco SA. The Lyreco buyout would create the largest business-to-business player in Europe, North America, and Asia. (MarketWatch) Corporate Express shareholders will have to choose between the Lyreco deal and Staples' offer of 8 euros a share. (Reuters) Corporate Express shares, now at just below 8 euros, were trading below 4 euros a share before Staples' takeover offer. "Corporate Express used its higher stock price to enable this" Lyreco deal, said analyst Fernand de Boer at Petercam in Amsterdam. (Bloomberg)

HP reaps benefits of foreign demand

Hewlett-Packard reported a 16 percent rise in quarterly profits, to $2.1 billion, as strong laptop sales and international growth made up for flat desktop PC revenue and soft U.S. sales. HP now earns about 70 percent of its revenue from outside the U.S. (The San Jose Mercury News) The results were in line with the results prereleased when HP announced its $13.9 billion takeover of Electronic Data Systems. HP's shares are down about 6 percent since the EDS deal was revealed, amid concerns over how HP will make it pay off. (AP in BusinessWeek.com) "That's the question I'm getting: How do we know they're going to pull this off?" said American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu. (The New York Times, free registration)

Trading the pickup for the Vespa

With gas prices at record highs and the economy in the doldrums, sales of trucks, cars, and even motorcycles were down last quarter. Sales of motor scooters, on the other hand, rose 25 percent. Despite the increased risk of riding a 300-pound Vespa to work, the huge gas and insurance savings are creating converts, even among the truck-driving set. Kevin Quinn, who owns an appliance-installation company in California, says he now spends about $6 a day on gas for his scooter, instead of $65 to $75 for his truck. He enjoys his commute more now, too. "You see and hear a lot more on the scooter, and you tend to take the long way," Quinn says. (The Wall Street Journal)

BEST COLUMNS OF THE DAY

Negotiating the housing bust

With a glut of unsold homes, most home buyers today can save thousands of dollars "just by asking," says AnnaMaria Andriotis in SmartMoney. The key is research. Find out if there's any outstanding mortgage on a house, how long it's been on the market, and how much of a hurry the seller is in. The owner "probably won't consider" any price below the mortgage, but press for discounts if the house has been sitting unsold or the owner is in "a rush to sell." To know what a good deal is, look at the specific market -- check the county appraisal or a site like Zillow-dot-com to find comparable house prices in the area. And "if the seller won't budge" on price, look to negotiate on closing costs or other savings.

The refilled nest

More and more young adults in their 20s are "returning home to live with their parents," says Sue Shellenbarger in The Wall Street Journal. And "a surprising number" of those parents are "content about it." Studies show that this growing "failure to launch" trend is removing the "stigma" from moving back home, and that's removing the "psychological toll" on the young adults. As to what's behind the 25-year trend, the causes are "bigger than the financial causes usually blamed for it." Sure, "rising housing and commuting costs play a role," but it also turns out that "many parents enjoy having adult kids around" -- despite the inevitable, hopefully occasional, "tension for parents and kids alike."

GOOD DAY FOR: Seeing change, after a federal appeals court agreed that the U.S. paper currency systems illegally discriminates against blind people. In a 2-1 decision, the court ruled that because different denominations of paper bills are the same size, texture, and color, they are indistinguishable to the visually impaired, thus violating the Rehabilitation Act. (The Washington Post, free registration)

BAD DAY FOR: Getting away, after struggling U.S. airlines have dropped all service to almost 30 regional airports in the past year and cut flights at another 400. With the 85 percent jump in fuel costs since last year, and rising, more service cuts are expected. "You can profitably fly small airplanes only if the people on them pay very high prices," said airline consultant Robert Mann. (The New York Times, free registration)

NOTED: Bookseller Barnes & Noble is considering a bid for smaller rival Borders, The Wall Street Journal reported. Borders tentatively put itself on the market in March. (Reuters) Barnes & Noble controls about 22 percent of the U.S. retail book market, while Borders controls about 12 percent, so antitrust concerns could scuttle a potential deal. (The Wall Street Journal, paid subscription)

This column was written by Peter Weber of TheWeekDaily.com.