UCFC records $9.9M loss in third quarter

UCFC records $9.9M loss in third quarter

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United Community Financial Corp., the parent company of Home Savings and Loan, said Friday that the company recorded a net loss of $9.9 million for the third quarter of 2010. The results are up significantly from the third quarter of 2009, when the association reported a net loss of $867,000. The increased losses are largely due to increases in Home Savings’ provision for loan losses, the company said. The large allowance for loan losses is the result of higher level of charge-off activity and additional loan downgrades in the commercial real-estate portfolio.

Daily Beast reaches deal with Newsweek

NEW YORK

Newsweek, a 77-year-old magazine that once helped set the national news agenda, is linking its future with a startup website just two years in the making.

Three months after agreeing to buy the money-losing weekly for $1, audio- equipment magnate Sidney Harman has completed on-again, off-again negotiations to merge it with The Daily Beast.

It is not just a marriage between old and new media. Harman also will be getting magazine veteran Tina Brown as editor-in-chief of Newsweek. Brown, who was a co-founder of The Daily Beast, had led both Vanity Fair and The New Yorker before deciding to give Web publishing a try.

It will create a joint venture called The Newsweek Daily Beast Co. Harman and Barry Diller, who backs The Daily Beast through his media conglomerate, IAC/Inter- ActiveCorp., will serve as directors on the venture’s board.

Oil drops below $85 a barrel

NEW YORK

A two-week rally in oil prices stalled Friday on concerns that China would take steps to cool its economic growth.

Benchmark oil for December delivery dropped $2.93, or 3.3 percent, to settle at $84.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The drop erased nearly half of this month’s increase in the price of oil. Other commodities experienced a sell-off, as did stocks.

Report: Chinese firm to invest in GM

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SAIC Motor Corp., China’s largest automaker and a joint-venture partner with General Motors, is preparing to buy about $500 million worth of stock in the Detroit automaker, according to a newspaper website.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that SAIC is one of several foreign investors who could buy GM shares worth more than $1 billion as part of an initial public stock offering scheduled for Thursday. GM and SAIC wouldn’t comment on the report when contacted by The Associated Press.

The U.S. government, which now owns 61 percent of GM but is looking to reduce its stake to around 40 percent in the IPO, has said the company would seek foreign investment as well as investment from the U.S.

Vindicator staff/wire reports