Xerox cuts continue
Xerox Corp. took a $264 million charge in the fourth quarter to account for severance covering some 6,000 jobs it cut in the wake of its acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services, a provider of business process outsourcing services.
Xerox employed 136,500 people worldwide at year-end, including about 300 in Norwalk according to spokesman Bill McKee.
With Lawrence Zimmerman retiring as Xerox chief financial officer, the company hired as his replacement Luca Maestri, who has been CFO of Nokia Siemens Networks the past few years and before that was a longtime executive with General Motors Corp.
ACS helped boost Xerox revenue 43 percent in 2010 to $21.6 billion, including nearly $6 billion in the fourth quarter that represented a 42 percent gain.
While profits were down 6 percent in the fourth quarter to $179 million, for the year net income was up 23 percent to $637 million.
“We have ”¦ two very strong companies together now as one, and we”™re able to leverage that,” said Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, in a conference call with investment analysts. “This acquisition is doing what we thought it would do, even a little bit faster.”
Kaman remembered for pioneering work
Charles H. Kaman, who took inspiration from Igor Sikorsky to design pioneering helicopters, died Jan. 31 in Bloomfield. He was 91.
Founding Kaman Aircraft Corp. in 1945 at the age of 26, Kaman would lead the company 55 years. Kaman”™s helicopters achieved many breakthroughs, including the first gas turbine-powered helicopter, the first twin-turbine-powered helicopter, the first remotely controlled helicopter and the first all-composite rotor blade.
Born June 15, 1919, Kaman grew up in Washington, D.C., and earned a bachelor”™s degree in aeronautical engineering from Catholic University. He met Sikorsky while working in a propeller unit at Hamilton Standard, a division of United Aircraft. Kaman would go on to develop servo-flap ailerons on the edges of rotor blades that improve flight stability.
In 1949, Kaman had his pilots barnstorm the nation”™s capital in a bid to market his fledgling company”™s aircraft to the military.
In the 1960s, he formed Kaman Music to apply lessons learned in vibration and composites to designing guitars.
In 1996, he received the National Medal of Technology, and the following year received the National Aeronautic Association”™s Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy, the nation”™s premier aviation award.
Kaman also founded the Bloomfield-based Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, which breeds and trains guide dogs for the blind.
Goodrich gets laser detection contract
The U.S. Army awarded Goodrich Corp. a contract valued at up to $47 million to produce aircraft laser-warning systems at its optics plant in Danbury.
The company has produced more than 1,500 AN/AVR-2A systems since 1995, which help Black Hawk helicopters from Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. and others detect homing lasers trained on them and take countermeasures.
Praxair pays up in Spain
A tax settlement in Spain cost Praxair Inc. $255 million in the fourth quarter, but the Danbury-based industrial gases giant still cleared the quarter with a $133 million profit as sales rose 9 percent to $2.6 billion.
For all of 2010, Praxair earned $1.2 billion on sales of $10.1 billion, up 13 percent from 2009.
In a conference call with investment analysts, Praxair Chief Financial Officer Jim Sawyer said the company expects a significant boost in business due to construction in preparation for the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the 2016 summer Olympic games.
“There”™s going to be a lot of infrastructure investment going on which we will see directly in our merchant and packaged gases business, (which is) actually scattered quite wildly around Brazil specifically for the World Cup,” Sawyer said. “I”™m pretty bullish.”
Gama expands in Stratford
The United Kingdom-based charter aircraft company Gama Aviation Inc. is expanding in Stratford at 480 Lordship Blvd., where the company is leasing 15,000 square feet of office and warehouse space.
Other building tenants include FedEx and All My Sons Moving and Storage. Both Gama and the building”™s owner were represented by Angel Commercial L.L.C.
EV charging stations for Norwalk
The Norwalk Parking Authority opened what it said is the first electric vehicle charging station in a municipal parking area in Fairfield County, at the eastbound side of the South Norwalk Train Station.
A Florida company called Car Charging Group Inc. is also installing charging stations for public use at Norwalk”™s Maritime Garage and the Yankee Doodle Garage on Burnell Boulevard near Wall Street.
Diageo cited for zero-carbon fleet
Diageo achieved “carbon neutral” status in 2010 for its fleet of corporate vehicles in North America, as certified under the GoGreen program run by Emkay, an Illinois company that provides vehicle fleet management services.
Diageo, which has its North American headquarters in Norwalk, obtained the certification by increasing the fuel efficiency of its fleet of some 350 vehicles to 22 miles per gallon, up 1.5 MPG, as well as through the donation of $25,000 to carbon offsets. The company plans to replace its remaining six-cylinder vehicles this year with four-cylinder cars, which it said will help push its fuel efficiency to 25 MPG this year.
