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Exxon reports largest profits in US corporate history
Houston: Exxon went on the defensive after reporting the largest profits in US corporate history. Critics immediately lashed out saying that the profits were linked to soaring prices.

For the record, Exxon reported a quarterly profit of US$10bn and revenues of more than US$100bn.

Even before the company announced its results, critics such as Hillary Clinton, junior Democratic senator for New York, and a likely candidate as the next president of the United States claimed, that "if we don't fight big oil, this country's going down".

"You just cannot convince me that they are not manipulating this market," she said. "We're not going to have the standard of living and the quality of life, and we're not going to be able to control our future." Her comments came in a speech to a group of clean energy investors and other environmental activists.

The laws of supply and demand had pushed oil prices to US$60 a barrel even before the winds of Hurricane Katrina shut down production in the Gulf of Mexico and disrupted petrol supplies across the whole country. But the subsequent jump in the price consumers were paying at the pump led to the inevitable allegations of price gouging and growing calls for a windfall tax on the oil majors' profits.

Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Conoco Phillips and Exxon have all reported such a large increase in profits this year that collectively they are expected to have made US$100bn by the end of this year.

Lord Browne of Madingley, chairman of BP, said a few months of high oil prices did not mean the world had moved to a high oil price environment and that the laws of supply and demand would move the price down to around US$40 a barrel in the medium term.

A recent poll showed nine out of 10 Americans feel they are getting gouged by big oil companies, while four out of five support a tax on the windfall profits of oil companies if the resulting revenues are devoted to alternative energy research.
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Record Q2 profit for Shell
The Hague: Royal Dutch Shell Plc said Q2 profit rose to US$9bn, a record in corporate history, because of the sale of a Dutch pipeline network and surging energy prices.

Chief executive Jeroen van der Veer said on Thursday that Shell is resuming oil output faster than expected after hurricanes in the US Gulf of Mexico shut most of the region's energy industry.

Shell was the hardest-hit oil company by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last month. The Mars offshore platform, which pumped about 5 per cent of its oil, will stay shut for at least eight more months of repairs, the company said.

Shell's Q3 net income was about twice that of General Electric Co, the world's biggest company by market value. Shell is the sixth-biggest by value. The world's five biggest oil firms may report combined net income of US$26bn for the third quarter, up 23 per cent from a year earlier, Credit Suisse First Boston said this month, equal to the economic output of Hungary.
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Sony records huge quarterly profit drop
Tokyo: Sony Corp's has declared a huge drop in profit for the July-September quarter at 28.5 billion yen (US$246mn) down 46 percent from 53.2 billion yen the same period a year ago.

Last month Sony announced a revival plan under chief executive Howard Stringer, the first foreigner to head Sony Corp.

Sales for the quarter stayed unchanged at 1.7 trillion yen (US$15bn). Sony has maintained its forecast for the full fiscal year, which runs through March, at a loss of 10 billion yen (US$86mn).

Sales were up in Sony's game unit because of healthy demand for the PlayStation Portable, or PSP, handheld machines. Rising sales of liquid-crystal display TVs and camcorders failed to offset falling sales of plasma TVs and digital cameras, as well as lower prices of LCD TVs, Sony said in a statement.
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China's mobile phone subscriber base nears 38 crore
Beijing: China's mobile subscriber base has touched 29.1 sets per 100 people, higher than that for fixed telephones, the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) said.

According to latest MII statistics, the number of mobile phone users in China has nearly touched 38 crore by the end of September, equal to 29.1 sets of mobile phones per 100 people.
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